Peoples' immune systems can now be duplicated in mice

Scientists have developed a method of duplicating an individual person's unique immune system, within a mouse

Because everyone’s immune system is different, it’s impossible to predict with absolute certainty how any given person will react to a specific medication. In the not-too-distant future, however, at-risk patients may get their own custom-altered mouse, with an immune system that’s a copy of their own. Medications could be tried out on the mouse first, and if it showed no adverse reactions, then the person could receive them. If the person had an autoimmune disease, the mouse could also provide valuable insight into its treatment. A team led by Columbia University Medical Center’s Dr. Megan Sykes has recently developed a method of creating just such a “personalized immune mouse.”

Arsenal Firearms' Double Barrel Pistol shoots two bullets at once

One full payload from the AF2011-A1 can deliver in three seconds what would take a regular 9mm pistol almost ten times as long to fire, including reloading

It's been a popular design for shotguns for over a century, so why not handguns? With a design that looks like two guns were melted together, the new handgun from Arsenal Firearms is definitely a handful. Thanks to the gun's dual barrels though, the AF2011-A1 Double Barrel Pistol is capable of firing 16 rounds in a span of three seconds by shooting two bullets at the same time.

World's smallest production car gets a new lease on life

Originally manufactured in the 1960's, the world's smallest ever production car, the Peel P50 (right) and it's stablemate, the Trident (left) are getting a limited production run with updated power plants

The quest for more fuel-efficient vehicles has seen a shift from the gas-guzzling behemoths of yesteryear to smaller and smaller cars, such as the Volkswagen up! and Toyota iQ. The smallest currently in production is the Tata Nano that measures just 122 inches (309.9 cm) long and 58.9 inches (223 cm) wide. But for the world’s smallest ever production car you’d have to look back to the early 1960’s and the Peel P50, which measured just 54 inches (137 cm) long and 41 inches (104.1 cm) wide, and weighed 130 lb (59 kg). Now replicas of the P50 -and its bigger brother, the Peel Trident - are getting a limited production run and will be offered with a choice of gasoline or electric powerplants.

New Belkin devices add camera-like functionality to iPhones

Belkin's LiveAction Camera Grip provides iPhones with an ergonomic handle, and a shutter release button

Although it’s been suggested that point-and-shoot digital cameras could be made obsolete by smartphones, there’s at least one thing that’s still better about stand-alone cameras – they have an ergonomic grip (or at least, some of them do), and a good ol’ fuss-free shutter release button. Belkin’s LiveAction Camera Grip device, however, is designed to add these features to the iPhone. The company has also released the LiveAction Camera Remote, which brings the same push-button functionality to a remote-control device.

SpaceX gets astronauts to try out its Dragon crew cabin

The trial crew (from left): NASA Crew Survival Engineering Team Lead Dustin Gohmert, NASA Astronaut Tony Antonelli, NASA Astronaut Lee Archambault, SpaceX Mission Operations Engineer Laura Crabtree, SpaceX Thermal Engineer Brenda Hernandez, NASA Astronaut Rex Walheim, and NASA Astronaut Tim Kopra

With the space shuttle program now officially over, the United States needs a new reusable vehicle for getting supplies to and from the International Space Station. NASA is considering the Dragon spacecraft, designed by California-based SpaceX Exploration Technologies, to take over that role. The Dragon’s scheduled late March/early April test flight to the ISS will be unmanned, utilizing a cargo configuration of the spacecraft. Last Friday, however, SpaceX released photographs of an engineering model of of its planned seven-passenger crew cabin, complete with a crew that included real live astronauts.

Nokia 808 PureView packs a 41-megapixel camera

The Nokia 808 PureView is a new smartphone with an astounding 41-megapixel image sensor

At this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia announced the 808 PureView, a smartphone with an astounding 41-megapixel image sensor. The Nokia 808 will be the first smartphone by Nokia to include its new PureView imaging technology, which combines a high-resolution sensor with Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia-developed algorithms.

Sandwich structure enables cheaper, more efficient hydrogen fuel cells

UCF Professor Sergey Stolbov who has created cheaper, more efficient hydrogen fuel cells using a sandwich-like structure

For the predicted hydrogen economy to become a reality, fuel cells must become more efficient and cost effective. Researchers from the University of Central Florida (UCF) claim to have addressed both these problems by creating a sandwich-like structure that allows more abundant materials to be used as catalysts in hydrogen fuel cells.