Blogs

Tooth decay is one of the world's most prevalent diseases and the usual dental practise for dealing with it is a rather unpleasant remedy to a problem that has progressed too far, involving drilling and filling. If caught early enough, however, there are ways in which remineralisation can be encouraged in the tooth, thereby repairing the damage.

Emmanuel Desurvire, Randy Giles and David Payne have been shortlisted, along with three other finalists, for the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize, for their work on Erbium-doped fibre amplifiers (EDFAs). The Finnish prize, worth one million euros, is awarded every two years for technological innovation leading to the improvement in quality of human life, and is open to candidates from all fields of technology, from around the world.

The simple task of measuring feet has taken a step forward into the optical future, thanks to a technology called FootSee developed by QinetiQ. The optical technique uses an infra-red LED light source to project an array of dots onto both feet simultaneously. The distorted array is recorded by 6 cameras and a software algorithm produces a 3D representation of the feet. Compared to manual techniques, this method provides more detailed information on foot shape and size (±1 mm) and in a fraction of the time.