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About 85,000 people need kidney transplants each year, but fewer than 20,000 kidneys are available. To survive, people with chronic kidney disease must undergo dialysis for 4 hours at a time, multiple times each week. UCSF Professor of Bioengineering, Shuvo Roy, PhD, is leading a team of researchers to develop an implantable artificial kidney that could make dialysis a thing of the past.
Length: 00:02:56
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Researchers at UC Berkeley and Stanford University have developed an unmanned aerial vehicle using Kinect, Microsoft's Xbox sensor technology. The UAV flies autonomously, maps its surroundings in 3D, and avoids obstacles. The robot could one day be used in the military and aid soldiers in reconnaissance missions.
Length: 00:02:14
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MIT researchers Steve Dubowsky, Amy Bilton and Leah Kelly have created a solar-powered portable desalination system that could make clean drinking water available in countries that need it most. Using a process called reverse osmosis, the solar panel powers different pumps in the system that then force the seawater through a permeable membrane that filtrates the salt from the water. SmartPlanet shows you a time-lapse video sequence of the process.
Length: 00:01:42
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With air travel and hotel stays, business trips can be taxing on the environment. There are ways to conserve, though. SmartPlanet correspondent Sumi Das shows you some travel products that have an eco-friendly spin.
Length: 00:02:52
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When, NASA's satellite for monitoring climate change from space--ICESat-1--ceased operations in February 2010, the agency drew up a new plan: Operation Ice Bridge. The mission is to use NASA DC-8 aircraft equipped with scientific instrumentation to measure the polar ice caps. Steve Hipskind, division chief of NASA Ames Earth Sciences Division, talks about the strategy and how scientists are studying global warming from the air--until the ICESat-2 is ready to go in 2015.
Length: 00:02:02
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Meng Lean, a principal scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center, is developing a new method to purify waste water. Using the flowing motion of water and centrifugal force, a portable device uses the method, hydrodynamic separation, to split up waste particles, eliminating the need for a filtration barrier.
Length: 00:02:09
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Honda unveils its plug-in hybrid platform at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The goal is to allow for all-electric short trips and longer commutes with a 2.0-liter, i-VTEC inline 4-cylinder gasoline engine tied to a CVT, or continuously variable transmission. It has three modes: all-electric, gasoline-electric and engine direct-drive. SmartPlanet goes under the hood and shows you animation of how it works.
Length: 00:02:14
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Through a technique called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), University of California neuroscientist, Flavio Oliveira is researching how decisions are made by studying which hand a person chooses for an action. Oliveira's findings are helping scientists better understand how the brain works which could one day lead to better treatments for stroke patients.
Length: 00:02:18
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LifeGivingForce CEO Jim Chu demonstrates one of the solar-powered
water purification systems the foundation is sending to Haiti to
combat cholera and provide safe, clean and accessible water to people
there.
Length: 00:02:10
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At the
NewTeeVee
conference in San Francisco, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar talks about how the company is using data analysis and interactivity to change the way TV promos are presented to its users.
Length: 00:02:13