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Decoding Synthetic Biology

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

A new generation of scientists, called synthetic biologists, is using genetic nuts and bolts to build new functions into living things. The possibilities abound. Imagine living cells acting as memory devices, or microbes that brew biofuels, or drugs that can save lives. Biology used as a technology to manufacture something – such as a chemical, a drug, a food or a material, necessitates that the living organism be reprogrammed.
Scientists have known about DNA – the molecular blueprint of life – since 1953. In order to build from this blueprint, to modify it, scientists need to be able to make genes (the building blocks of an organism) and then assemble them to change the genetic structure and functions of the organism.
Synthetic biologists can order specific sequences that they desire, and create sequences that would have taken scientists years to create in the past, but now only take days.

Specialty Glass From Corning

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Corning has a vision of the future, a vision in which glass display panels will be as much a part of people’s lives as the bed they sleep in, or the clothes they wear.
Items on the drawing board at Corning include photovoltaic glass, LCD television glass; architectural display glass that would allow someone in a bathroom to receive and respond to email messages in the mirror, architectural surface glass that would allow people to cook food on the glass, without the need of surface burners. Refrigerator magnets would be a thing of the past, as the very surface of a refrigerator could display photos within. They are also working on handheld display glass, automotive display glass as the dashboard for cars, and large-format display glass to take the place of today’s billboards.

Samsung 3D Projection Mapping

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

On Thursday, 20th May 2010, Samsung introduced a large-scale commercial 3D-Outdoor projection at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 3D Projection mapping is done using software that is designed to allow the capture of light in a variety of ways. It uses two tools – a camera or a projector. Images are mapped onto objects using either the camera or projector. There are three ways then to create these 3d images – projecting the image using pixels, using a “catcher” that accepts the material, and using an UVMap tool.
Reference: http://www.vfxpedia.com/index.php?title=Eyeon:Manual/Fusion_6/3D/Projection_Mapping

Quietest Submarine In The World

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Conventional submarines use diesel generators to charge banks of batteries. But running on these alone uses up their power in a matter of days. To recharge, the submarine has to snorkel near the surface, where the generator’s heat and noise can easily be detected. In Germany’s latest submarine design, the diesel generator have been suspended from plastic mounts, to reduce the vibrations to the ship’s hull – although the noise is still quite loud inside the sub, and the heat signature that makes the sub easily identifiable in the water. Hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells give the U-212 its unique stealth capability. There’s no heat, there’s no sound, and the only byproduct is water. Nine fuel cells combine oxygen and hydrogen stored in tanks on the outside of the sub’s body, producing enough energy to run the massive motor for weeks, or recharge the ship’s batteries.

Supercomputing The Brain's Secrets

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

It is essential for mankind to understand the human brain, if we do want to get along in society. It is a key step in evolution. The second reason is that scientists cannot keep doing animal experiments forever. In order to understand the human brain, humans must be experimented on. The third reason is that there are 2 billion people on the planet today that are affected by mental disorder, and the drugs that are used to treat them are empirical – in other words the drugs don’t work the same with all people, and the treatments are therefore hit and miss.
The brain model as it exists today can be used to explore some fundamental questions about how the brain works. One theory of how the brain works is that the brain creates – builds – a version of the universe, and projects this version of the universe, like a bubble, all around us. This theory can now be addressed with brain simulation.

Science Of The Soul

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Is there something that survives the body? Is there something beyond the physical? Adrian Owen is one of the world’s neuroscientist, he works with people who are in vegetative states. Until recently, neuroscientists were only able to study the brains of the dead. But in the past twenty years, technological advances have allowed scientists to study the brains of the living.
Owen works at the MRC Cognition Brain Science Unit at Cambridge. He has done brain mapping studies for twenty years to understand what portions of the brain were involved in each task performed. Humans are defined by their external behaviors, but scientists such as Owens believe they can reduce an individual’s essence to his or her brain.

Bio-Inspiration

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Since the 15th century, engineers have looked to the natural world for design ideas. Studying birds inspired Leonardo Da Vinci to draw plans for a helicopter and hang glider. Perhaps the most famous modern example is Velcro, which was designed by a Swiss engineer who was inspired by the cockleburs that he pulled from his dog’s fur. Scientists attempt to extract the principles from animal life. As human technologies take on more of the characteristics of nature, nature becomes a better teacher. It’s called bio-mimicry, or as biologist Robert Full terms it, bio-inspiration – the relatively new scientific practice of studying systems and elements in nature and adapting them to solve modern human problems.
This design strategy is not as simple as it sounds. Organisms are not optimally designed, so scientists must study them to extract the general principles that make them successful.

Land Warrior

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Since the beginning of time, the concept of the infantry soldier hasn’t changed. He has a weapon, armor, and a helmet. While the concept hasn’t changed, it has evolved. “Land warrior” puts state-of-the-art technology right on the soldier’s body. It is a networked computerized system worn by the soldier. Vital battlefield data is continuously transmitted to the soldier. On combat missions, soldiers are linked together. At the flick of a switch, they can talk to each other, share pictures - all see the same things at the same time, no matter where each individual is. The key components of this system are a radio link, a helmet display, GPS navigation, and a computer. The Land Warrior is envisioned to be used on the urban front line.

Artificial Intelligence: Thinking Big

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

With artificial intelligence, the intelligence lies less in the hardware and more in the software, and writing the code (algorithms) to make machines smarter. The computer algorithms really lie at the heart of making robots smart enough to carry out all the tasks that scientists – and eventually customers such as homemakers, will want them to do. Implementing these algorithms often requires that these programmers have a deep understanding both of computer science principles as well as robotic principles – how to move things around, and what different sensor readings are telling the robot about what’s out there in the world. Engineers building robots can often endow them with extra senses which people don’t have – for example a laser scanner that allows the robot to figure out what’s in front of it.

Lawrence Berkeley Microscope

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Since October 2008 in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, researchers have been able to count individual atoms, using the world’s most powerful microscope. This Department of Energy electron microscope, which cost $27 million, can view objects twice as small as the last generation of the world’s most powerful microscopes. The microscope has its own room, and its power cable is as thick as a fire hose. 300,000 volts go up into the gun and the electrons are accelerated up to nearly the speed of light. At that speed, the electrons behave like waves, with very short wave lengths. An electron microscope can make images of much smaller things than light microscopes, because electrons have much shorter wave lengths than light.

Investigating Baby Mammoth

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The body of a baby wooly mammoth, found in Siberia, was transported across four time zones. The body was maintained below freezing to prevent decay or bacterial invasion, and was also sealed in a vacuum-packed plastic bag to keep its tissues hydrated. This baby wooly mammoth is the most perfectly preserved woolly mammoth ever discovered. Scientists have named her Lyuba, and she was a 1-month-old baby that walked the tundra about 40,000 years ago. Now scientists are trying to find out not only why she died, but also everything they can about wooly mammoth morphology.
Good resolution of x-ray images is more difficult on dry tissue. In order to keep the body of the baby mammoth cold while being x-rayed, it was placed in a thin wooden capsule. The goal is to create an anatomical map of the interior of the mammoth, to enable scientists where to look in the eventual autopsy, while minimizing damage to the body. The goal is to create the mammoth’s entire body in 3-d.

Vaccine For Cocaine

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

A new vaccine to help treat cocaine addiction is ready for human trials. One of the vaccine’s creators, Dr. Bridget Martell, believes that this vaccine can potentially be used to help people curb addiction, such as for heroin and nicotine, as well.
The vaccine acts like a vaccine that fights disease, by stimulating the body to develop antibodies, which bind to the cocaine and prevent it from entering the brain. The vaccine only lasts two months, so booster shots might be needed. There are also concerns that users of cocaine, no longer feeling the effect of the cocaine, might overdose in a continued effort to get high. Much more testing is needed.

Breakthrough In Cancer Detection

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

A team of Boston scientists developed a procedure that can detect cancer just by using a blood test, rather than using invasive procedures such as mammographies or colonoscopiers. This test can spot a single cancer cell lurking among a billion healthy cells. Stray cancer cells may mean that a cancer is spreading.
If doctors can find spreading cancers early, the treatments that are available today are much more effective. Prior to this test however, most of the “big killer” cancers are found when they are at Stage 3 or Stage 4 – when it is often times too late.

Cyberwar

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Cyberwar is a conflict fought without foot soldiers, guns or missiles. Instead, attacks are launched by computer hackers, digital spy rings, information thieves – cyber armies of criminals, terrorists and some backed by nation states.
In the United States, there is a growing concern that they pose a massive threat to national security, and a conviction that the world military superpower needs to be prepared to win this war.
The worst-case scenario is an attack on a country’s network that would take down critical infrastructure – such as power grid; aircraft control system, or one of the country’s critical defense systems. Something like that would paralyze the country, cause loss of life, and cause enormous economic damage, and take a long time to restore. The US government is attacked by hackers over a billion times a day.

Concentrated Solar Power

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

When the light of the sun is reflected against a mirror and focused all on one area, it generates tremendous heat which can used to generate electricity. This is called Concentrating Solar Power, or CSP.
There are many types of CSP technologies – towers, dishes, linear mirrors and troughs. A parabolic trough is a large mirror, shaped like a giant U. These troughs are connected together in long lines, and track the sun throughout the day. The curved shape of the mirror sends most of the reflected light onto a receiver which is filled with a fluid (oil, molten salt). This super-hot liquid heats water in a heat exchanger and the water turns to steam. The steam goes to a turbine, which spins a generator, which generates electricity. Once the fluid transfers its heat, it is recycled and used over and over.