The National Institute of General Medicine Sciences (NIGMS), an institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supporting basic research and research training, announced earlier this month that it would establish two new divisions — including one focused on biomedical technology, bioinformatics, and computational biology — as part of a reorganization that includes the dissolution of the NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) which has had a history of supporting scientific computing. According to the announcement: The new Division of Biomedical Technology, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology administers research and research training in areas that join biology with the computer sciences, engineering, mathematics and physics. It includes programs of the former […]

Ahead of an article to be published in tomorrow’s Science, IBM Research today announced the development of the world’s smallest magnetic memory bit by its Almaden research staff. At low temperatures, the magnetic storage approach requires only 12 magnetic atoms — making it at least 100 times denser than today’s hard disk drive and solid state memory chips — and is the result of antiferromagnetism. From the press release: Punctuating 30 years of nanotechnology research, scientists … have successfully demonstrated the ability to store information in as few as 12 magnetic atoms. This is significantly less than today’s disk drives, which use about one million atoms to store a single bit of information. The […]

The National Institutes’ of Health (NIH) Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) has issued a Request for Information (RFI) soliciting input into the deliberations of its newly established Working Group on Data and Informatics, which is seeking to investigate the management, integration, and analysis of large biomedical datasets. According to the announcement: The group will gather information from various sources, including internal and external data and informatics experts, and develop recommendations to present to the ACD and the NIH Director on policies regarding the management, integration, and analysis of research data and administrative data.   In its initial deliberations, the working group identified the following issues as important to consider when developing […]

Moments ago, the National Science Foundation (NSF) wrapped up an informational webinar about its new multi-disciplinary Smart Health and Wellbeing (SHB) program. Expanding on a solicitation first issued in spring 2011 by the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), the new program spans NSF’s CISE, Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) directorates — and calls for interdisciplinary proposals that address “fundamental technical and scientific issues that would support much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on wellbeing rather than disease.” In today’s webinar, NSF officials highlighted the goals and driving principles underlying the FY 2012 SHB solicitation, in the context of the two […]

Following an extensive review by a task force to determine if the merit review criteria used by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to evaluate all proposals remain appropriate, the National Science Board (NSB) yesterday released its report — National Science Foundation’s Merit Review Criteria: Review and Revisions — recommending that NSF “better define the two criteria for the benefit of the science community.” According to the press release announcing the report: The NSB task force was put in place in February 2010, with a charge to examine the two merit review criteria and their effectiveness in achieving the goals for NSF research support of science, engineering and education. Based on the task force’s […]

Last May, the X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm announced that they were joining forces to develop a competition to enhance integrated digital health. Earlier today, in his keynote at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV, Qualcomm CEO Dr. Paul E. Jacobs announced the $10 million competition — with the aim of stimulating innovation and creating a new category of consumer device that “empowers the individual to become the ‘CEO of [his or her] own health’.” According to the X PRIZE Foundation: