IEEE Spectrum: Biomedical

Acoustic Hyperlens Could Sharpen Ultrasound Imaging

Metamaterial-based device demonstrates focusing of sound beyond its diffraction limit

The Neuro Revolution Will Not Be Televised

But there will be images—magnetic resonance images, for example

Next-Gen Ultrasound

Micromachined transducer probes for ultrasound scanners should provide prenatal images that are even sharper than those new parents now get to see. The pictures, though, may never be as crisp as the one in this fanciful photo-illustration.

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Medical imaging borrows techniques from the microelectronics industry

Dream Jobs 09: Special Report

Building a solar-powered plane, creating stunning effects for Bollywood films, designing search-and-rescue robots--it's not just a job, it's engineering

Nano-dreadlocks

News brief

Colon Cancer Screening, The Easy Way

Fantastic Voyage

Physicians can erase the colon's contents and perform a virtual fly-through of the organ.

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Radiology researchers devise a workaround for a nasty problem

Virtual-Reality Test Reveals Hidden Concussion Damage

Virtual examination

To assess athletes' injuries, scientists measure motion and brain waves in response to virtual situations.

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A technology that can tell when athletes are ready to get back in the game

Metamaterials Breakthrough Brings Invisibility Closer

Negative refraction of visible light is a step toward invisibility

A Better Camera Pill

Wiring Diagram

Can Machines Be Conscious?

A BETTER TURING TEST

Shown this frame from the cult classic Repo Man [top], a conscious machine should be able to home in on the key elements [bottom]—a man with a gun, another man with raised arms, bottles on shelves—and conclude that it depicts a liquor-store robbery.

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Yes--and a new Turing test might prove it

The Consciousness Conundrum

Neocortical Column

of a rat, 2 millimeters high, as simulated on IBM’s Blue Gene supercomputer. The image above shows about 50 kinds of neurons; the image on the opposite page, around 100. A rat’s neocortex has 10 000 such columns; a human’s has millions.

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The wetware that gives rise to consciousness is far too complex to be replicated in a computer anytime soon

Reverse Engineering The Brain

Sliced Brains

Confocal microscopy imagery of fluorescently labeled neurons is one of the tools used to develop circuit diagrams of the fruit-fly brain.

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David Adler dreams of a Google map for the human brain

A Brainy Approach to Image Sorting

DARPA project reads the brain waves of image analysts to speed up intelligence triage

Me, My Genes, and I

From US $390 (small) to $790 (pictured size); http://www.dna11.com.

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Me, My Genes, and I

Face Facts

The big picture

Untangling a New Breast Cancer Screening Technology

A Hairy Problem

An Australian firm plans to launch a competitor to X-ray mammography. The technique finds marks of breast cancer in the X-ray diffraction pattern of a woman’s hair.

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An Australian company takes on a controversial technique to screen for breast cancer: X-raying hair

A Weaker, Cheaper MRI

HEAD SHOTS

Four slices of researcher Vadim Zotev’s head are the first medical images made with low-magnetic-field MRI.

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Magnetic fields that would barely budge a compass might find tumors faster

Three-Dimensional Medical Imaging Could Improve Doctors' Ability to Diagnose Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Laser scanners could help diagnose a birth defect that's difficult to detect

T-Rays vs. Terrorists

BAG OF TRICKS

A terahertz imager made by Picometrix, Ann Arbor, Mich., sees into a suitcase hiding a gun and a knife.

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Terahertz radiation lets security screeners find bombs and weapons wherever they're hidden