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This week in science: Tumor-monitoring chips; alien worlds; sweat sensors

Too busy to keep up with science news? Here's what caught my eye this week, including tumor-monitoring microchips, Earth-like planets and sweat sensors for emergency responders.
Written by Boonsri Dickinson, Contributing Editor

Too busy to keep up with science news? Here's what caught my eye this week:

  • Millions of molecules are being screened for organic solar cell material. Commercial solar cells cost 10 times more than utility-scale electricity.
  • Fifty new alien worlds have been found, including 16 Earth-like planets. “These planets will be among the best targets for future space telescopes to look for signs of life in the planet’s atmosphere by looking for chemical signatures such as evidence of oxygen,Francesco Pepe said.
  • Implanting a chip to monitor tumor growth? It may sound like science fiction, but scientists in Germany are developing a chip that keeps track of blood oxygen levels near tumors.
  • As a journalist, this is frightening news: Robot journalist will win a Pulitzer by 2016. A startup called Narrative Science is using artificial intelligence to help turn data such as sports statistics and financial reports into news articles. It costs about $10 to produce a story that has 500 words, which is so cheap it would give AOL's Patch or similar sites a run for their money.
  • Scientists figured out why the office party always end with so many sticky situations.
  • Molecules in a person's breath and sweat may soon reveal a person's whereabouts in the event they are stuck in a collapsed building.
  • IBM's Watson got a new gig: It will offer up medical advice to doctors. Guess Watson proved itself when it beat the best Jeopardy! champions in the world. For the new job, Watson will process a patient's various data points, and give doctors and nurses some treatment options to select from. Now, that's what you call data assisted help.
  • Glow-in-the-dark cats could provide insight on AIDS.

Photo via ESO

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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