Medicine

BiFi is to biology as WiFi is to computers. It's a technology being pioneered by researchers at Stanford University and other institutions, looking at bioengineering techniques for creating complex biological communities working together to accomplish specific tasks. In a sense every organ and every system of coordinated activity within our bodies runs as a BiFi network.

The acronym CD comes up a lot in science and technology. For those who remember them CDs or compact discs represented the primary media for music recordings from the 1980s until the rise of MP3 technology. Cd also stands for circular dicrhoism, a spectroscopic measure of light absorption in proteins.

Welcome to 2013 and our first headlines posting of the year. This week's stories include:

• Mars Rover Approaches Ninth Anniversary on the Planet and is Still Ticking
• Study Correlates Climate Change with Increased Episodes of Volcanism

MobiSante has built the first smartphone-based ultrasound system designed to support diagnostic imaging anywhere there is cellphone coverage and that means virtually everywhere on the planet.

My wife many years ago worked in a dental clinic. One of her responsibilities was taking discarded dental instruments and cleaning them in a device called an autoclave. Autoclaves use high pressure steam (15 pounds per square inch) at temperatures well above boiling (121 Celsius or 250 Fahrenheit) for a period of 20 minutes to ensure that anything put in them gets sterilized for potential reuse.

I have my annual physical next week and as always it involves collecting vials of my blood for numerous tests - cholesterol, iron levels, calcium, blood sugar....you name it. What always gets me is the amount of blood taken. I'm a regular blood donor and sometimes I swear that I give more blood during my annual physical than I do when I go to a donor clinic. Of course that's not true.

If some pundits are right, 80% of doctors will find themselves replaced by machines in the 21st century. What kind of machines?

This week's five stories look at:

• New 3D Display Represents Advance in Augmented Reality;
• More Evidence that Fracking Causes Earthquakes;
• Seeding the Ocean to Sequester Carbon a Non-Starter;
• New Microscale Actuator Provides Engine for Micro Robots;

This week's five stories look at:
1.Shocking Alzheimer's Brains Helps Patients in Clinical Trial;
2. New Breast Cancer Screening Technology Wins Sanofi-Pasteur Prize;
3. Transformers - They're Real and They're Tiny;
4. Taikonauts Plan to Grow Vegetables on the Moon in Closed Ecosystems;
5. Electrochromic Windows Coming to Homes and Buildings in the Near Future.