Images: Emerging tech's greatest hits

According to researchers at the University of Michigan, we can now engineer prototypes of all cardiovascular structures: heart muscle, tri-leaflet valves, blood vessels, cell-based cardiac pumps and tissue engineered ventricles. In fact, it's possible today to engineer the heart piece by piece.

The full story: See Bioengineered hearts are coming fast in Emerging Technology Trends blog.

Credit: U-M and Regenerative Medicine.

Researchers from Illinois and Florida are developing a networking system which will create virtual representations of real people to improve our knowledge. They will use artificial intelligence and natural language processing software to enable us to interact with these avatars.

The full story: See Our next teachers: avatar experts in Emerging Technology Trends blog.

Credit: Electronic Visualization Laboratory.

Researchers from the Center for Mass Destruction Defense at the University of Georgia have created a detailed simulation of the catastrophic impact that a nuclear attack would have on American cities. The diagram shows the thermal impact of a 550 kiloton surface nuclear detonation on New York City.

The full story: See The impact of nuclear attacks on U.S. cities in Emerging Technology Trends blog.

Credit: Center for Mass Destruction Defense .

A company named Tenebraex is helping color blind people to travel. But it's also developing goggles to help soldiers and physicians to see all colors at night, and not only the green color of current night vision systems.

The full story: See Seeing colors in the night in Emerging Technology Trends blog.

Credit: Boston Globe.

Georgia Tech researchers have designed a new space rocket that works as if it has a five-gear transmission. This space engine uses 40 percent less fuel than current ones by running on solar power while in space and by fine-tuning exhaust velocity.

The full story: See A five-gear space rocket engine in Emerging Technology Trends blog.

Credit: Mitchell Walker's team, Georgia Tech.

Computer scientists at the Washington University in Saint-Louis have built a robot that makes drip paintings like Jackson Pollock's. Who is the artist: the software designer or the robot?

The full story: See A robot that paints like Jackson Pollock in Emerging Technology Trends blog.

Credit: WUSTL.

U.S. researchers have found a way to use bacteria to steady buildings against earthquakes by turning these sandy soils into rocks.

The full story: See Bacteria to protect against quakes in Emerging Technology Trends blog.

Credit: USGS.

MIT and Harvard biologists have discovered that a single enzyme known as BluB synthesizes vitamin B12. But why do the soil microorganisms synthesize the vitamin B12 at all?

The full story: See The mystery of vitamin B12 finally solved in Emerging Technology Trends blog.

Credit: Graham Walker laboratory.