Can you believe that a company filed for a patent on a living species? The J. Craig Venter Institute created the first form of synthetic or “artificial life,” a bacterium named Mycoplasma laboratorium and filed in the US to own all rights to the life-form.

The bacteria could be released in the upper atmosphere, absorbing carbon dioxide in the battle against global warming. The process could also be used to create cures for life threatening illnesses. You can use your imagination as to the big bucks that would be behind one of those applications.

Yet problems arise when you try to apply patent law that was created during the industrial era. A patent can be filed when something novel or new is introduced to a product or invention. That’s fine and dandy when you have a device like the cordless telephone, but doesn’t apply so well with nuances like man-made microorganisms.

A company could very well file for patents for a range of lifeforms, successfully blocking innovations by future scientists. Imagine, every time someone wants to use one of these bacteria in a lab they’d have to obtain the proper permission. Anything that resulted as a breakthrough could be construed to be owned by the original patent holder.

With the halt to innovation aside, there are also broad moral implications. Today it’s ownership of a bacterial strain, tomorrow it could be a more complex organism. The snowball effect could be shocking. That’s why something needs to be done now to bring these laws into modernity, before it’s too late.

Image via electricsheep.org

Organic light being used to change images and text with paper-thin technology is coming on us fast. Ever dream of changing the wallpaper in your house on a whim to any color or pattern? What about having one piece of paper that constantly updates to any book or newspaper with the convenience of being able to fold it up and put it in your pocket?

Organic light-emitting diode’s (OLED) are made by organic compounds being trapped between a plastic polymer. The flat rows and columns are placed on a flat surface by a “printing” process. The results are a matrix of pixels that can turn diffrent colors on a very thin material that uses significantly less power than other light sources.

OLED’s have been around for a while. In fact, you can buy a Sony TV that was released in 2007 made up of the technology. To give you an idea of price point, the 11′ version goes for $1,700. The big headline isn’t that the technology exists, it’s how its being formatted and how that format will be of interest to your daily life.

GE recently unveiled the first demonstration of “roll-to-roll” processed OLEDs. Manufactured in this way, they could be made for a very low cost and are so thin they can be used as newspaper or even wall paper.

After four years the GE Research Team has a working prototype that they are eager to place on the production line. They affirm that there is a lot of work ahead, but the goal is to get us all grooving and shaking with paper thin devices as soon as is possible.

The next time someone tells you to blow into a tube for ten seconds you may be surprised to learn they won’t be wearing a cop uniform. Your doctor will be in his usual all-whites at your annual checkup. That’s because a group of scientists at the NIST and the University of Colorado have developed a new breath analysis technique.

Your doctor will give you a sample to blow into. Shortly after lasers will pulse through the air sample, identifying normal breath molecules as well as trace elements that could lead to indications of disease. Markers for diseases such as asthma and cancer are apparent in some patients. For example, trace amounts of certain gazes, such as ammonia may indicate retinal failure, or diabetes.

Some potentials of the technology is that it’s inexpensive while maintaining both a non-invasive and fast method to conduct a health screen. It has a lot of work ahead of it, as it needs to prove its worth to the medical community as a valid and testable form of pre-screening for disease.

Have problems fitting in? Too apathetic? Maybe you need a kick start. Get that compassion flowing and fit into those awkward social situations. First, you’ll need a shot of a new hormone called Oxytocin. It’s your golden ticket into the cool group.

A study by Hollander and Bartz suggests that the drugs fist use could be on autistic patients. Their deficiency suggests that a boost in the naturally occurring hormone may help them bond socially. Beyond the world of autism the drug could have a huge effect on people with obsessive compulsive disorder and social phobias. Other effects include eliminating repetitive behaviors and an increased connection to external emotion.

Pregnant women experience a rush of Oxytocin when it produces contractions and stimulates milk production. Links have previously been made to the hormone creating a bond between parent and child. It’s literally a social bonding agent, creating a need to be connected to the outside world.

If you’re looking for a prescription tomorrow you may need to hold off until the hormone has been properly developed into a drug. Yet, after it’s in production we may look back on the days of Prozac and laugh at its ineffectiveness. Get prepared to get emotional.

Unmanned gliders are using only the thermal power of the sea to carry on tasks that last months. Sounds a bit like science fiction, but rest assured, it’s real.

A joint team from the University of the Virgin Islands and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution launched an underwater vehicle in December of 2007. Uninterrupted all this time, it has traversed along the Virgin Island Basin 20 times, sometimes at depths reaching 2.5 miles deep.

Unlike conventional gliders that rely on batteries and pumps, the thermal glider responds to the differentials in ocean temperature. Tubes made of wax expand into mechanical energy, causing the craft to go buoyant. Those tubes later cool at depths, starting the cycle all over again.

The team has a working prototype that will be able to propel itself with unlimited green energy. They plan to use the design for missions that will take upwards of six months. They are agile, unmanned and can be set to do tasks such as gather salinity, topography, monitor biological activity and acoustic readings.

Everyone on the team is eager to launch more of the crafts in the North Atlantic. Data from the region will shed more light on the response the ocean has had to climate change.

You may just want to keep your eye out for one on your next SCUBA trip to Bermuda. Smile and nod, just don’t try to out swim it.