Tech Scrape

The company hopes a “smart pedal” will help defuse criticism. In the wake of a massive public-relations nightmare involving brake problems in its cars, Toyota is investigating two more reports this week of unintended acceleration in its vehicles. Both cases involved Priuses: one in Harrison, NY, that resulted in a crash, and the other on an interstate east of San Diego.

Two studies show that complete-genome sequencing can identify disease-causing genes. James Lupski , a physician-scientist who suffers from a neurological disorder called Charcot-Marie-Tooth, has been searching for the genetic cause of his disease for more than 25 years. Late last year, he finally found it–by sequencing his entire genome. While a number of human genome sequences have been published to date, Lupski’s research is the first to show how whole-genome sequencing can be used to identify the genetic cause of an individual’s disease.

Chemical process can recycle PET bottles at lower temperatures. A plastic bottle tossed in the recycling bin may end up being shredded and reused to make a sweater or a carpet, but it won’t be turned into another water bottle. At least not so far. Catalysts being developed by researchers at IBM and Stanford could make it cost-effective to break down polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, plastics into their constituent chemicals for reuse as bottles. The company is working to test its PET-recycling catalyst at a large scale to eventually develop it for industrial use.

1366 Technologies hopes to cut the cost of solar with cheaper manufacturing. A new manufacturing process could cut the cost of making crystalline silicon wafers for solar cells by 80 percent. The process is being developed by Lexington, MA-based 1366 Technologies , which this week showed off the first solar cells made this way. The technology is key to the company’s plan to make solar power cheaper than the electricity generated from coal within 10 years.

The fluorescent molecule targets tumors to guide surgeons and provide pre- and post-op imaging. A new molecule designed to seek out and label cancer cells could help guide surgeons to hidden pockets of disease–a technology that could one day allow for more complete tumor removal and increase a patient’s chances of survival.

Experiments in mice show that the brain’s ability to adapt might not disappear with age. Transplanting fetal neurons into the brains of young mice opens a new window on neural plasticity, or flexibility in the brain’s neural circuits. The research, published today in the journal Science , suggests that the brain’s ability to radically adapt to new situations might not be permanently lost in youth, and helps to pinpoint the factors needed to reintroduce this plasticity .

A new tool explores large sets of data–and might help organize the Web. “How do you take a big collection of things and make sense out of it?” asks Gary Flake , founder and director of Microsoft Live Labs , a division of the software giant that designs experimental Web tools. The problem is becoming more common, even for the average user, because the Web makes huge quantities of information readily available.

Its 100-kilowatt modules have been sold to Google, eBay, and Walmart. The up-to-now secretive startup Bloom Energy took the wraps off its technology this week, unveiling a fuel-cell system that the company claims can run on a variety of fuels and pay for itself in three to five years via lower energy bills.

Rodents could be an effective model for researchers looking for new hepatitis drugs. Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have engineered a mouse with a mostly human liver by injecting human liver cells, or hepatocytes, into genetically engineered mice. Researchers say the mouse/human chimera could serve as a new model for discovering drugs for viral hepatitis, a disease that has been notoriously difficult to replicate and study in the lab. The team exposed the altered mice to hepatitis B and C viruses and, after treating the rodents with conventional drugs, found that the mice responded much like human patients.

A system to detect brain chemicals may improve therapies for Parkinson’s and other disorders. Over the last decade, deep brain stimulation, in which an implanted electrode delivers targeted jolts of electricity, has given surgeons an entirely new way to treat challenging neurological diseases. More than 75,000 people have undergone the procedure for Parkinson’s and other disorders . But despite its success, scientists and surgeons know little about its actual effect on the brain or exactly why it works.