Showing posts with label Genetic code. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Genetic code. Show all posts

Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Latest Scientific / Anti-Aging News via KurzweilAI.net

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Yale researchers use genetic code to engineer a living protein
August 26, 2011

Yale University researchers have successfully re-engineered the protein-making machinery in bacteria, which promises to revolutionize the study and treatment of a variety of diseases. “Essentially, we have expanded the genetic code of E. coli, which allows us to synthesize special forms of proteins that can mimic natural or disease states,” said Jesse Rinehart of the Department … more…


Cryptocurrency
August 26, 2011

bitcoinThe bitcoin, a virtual medium of exchange, could be a real alternative to government-issued money — but only if it survives hoarding by speculators, says Technology Review. The system will have to overcome a major, and surprising, problem: people have come to see it primarily as a way to make money. In other words, instead of … more…


Now anyone can design and evolve 3-D printable objects interactively
August 26, 2011

3-D printed object (credit: Cornell University)Forget draft tables and complicated computer-aided design programs: You dream it. Endless Forms helps you design it. Cornell University’s new interactive website EndlessForms.com allows anyone to point, click, collaborate and create online in the evolution of printable, three-dimensional objects — without any technical knowledge and using the same principles that guide evolutionary biology.. EndlessForms.com users can … more…


IBM builds biggest data drive ever
August 26, 2011Source Link: Technology Review

A data repository almost 10 times bigger than any made before is being built by researchers at IBM’s Almaden, California, research lab. The 120 petabyte “drive” — that’s 120 million gigabytes — is made up of 200,000 conventional hard disk drives working together. The giant data container is expected to store around one trillion files … more…


Nanoscale superclusters that mirror living systems
August 25, 2011

Basic atomic forces can enable nanoparticles to assemble into superclusters that are uniform in size and share attributes with viruses (credit: T.D.Nguyen, Glotzer Group, University of Michigan)University of Michigan researchers have discovered that if you start with small nanoscale building blocks that are varied enough in size, the atomic electrostatic repulsion force and van der Waals attraction force will balance each other and limit the growth of the clusters. This equilibrium enables the formation of clusters that are uniform in size … more…


Sony: emotion-reading games possible in ten years
August 25, 2011

(Credit: iStockphoto)Sony’s executives believe that in ten years’ time, video games will have the ability to read more than just movement on the part of the player, the develop blog reports “Having a camera being able to study a player’s biometrics and movements [is possible] so perhaps you can play a detective game that decides whether … more…


Fukushima robot operator writes tell-all blog
August 25, 2011Source Link: IEEE Spectrum

Improvized industrial-strength robot vacuum cleaner (credit: S.H.)S.H., an anonymous worker at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, has written dozens of blog posts describing the ups and downs of his experience as one of the lead robot operators at the crippled facility. The posts show that, although the robots have to be strong and reliable, they also have to be nimble … more…


New building blocks for synthesis of complex molecules
August 24, 2011

Graduate student Seiko Fujii and chemistry professor Martin Burke developed a novel class of chemical “building blocks” to more efficiently synthesize complex molecules, such as the antioxidant synechoxanthin. (Credit: Becky Duffield)Chemists at the University of Illinois have developed a way of fitting chemical pieces together to more efficiently build complex molecules, beginning with a powerful and promising antioxidant. A standard synthesis technique called iterative cross-coupling (ICC) uses simple, stable chemical building blocks sequentially joined in a repetitive reaction. With more than 75 of the building blocks … more…


Decoding the mystery: how do neural synaptic vesicle pools differ?
August 24, 2011

The new model for the recycling of synaptic vesicles predicts that different synaptic vesicle pools derive from different endocytic pathways. Recycling pool vesicles appear to originate from clathrin- and adaptor protein 2 (AP2)-dependent endocytosis, and resting pool vesicles from a pathway involving the adaptor protein AP-3 (credit: UCSF)Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have found the first evidence that, despite their appearance, synaptic vesicles in two distinct pools in neurons have distinct identities and fates that are defined by the particular proteins on their surfaces. Background Electrical impulses flowing through a neuron cause it to release tiny vesicle sacs, spilling their … more…


Human gait could soon power portable electronics
August 24, 2011

Energy-HarvesterA new energy-harvesting technology that could capture the energy of human motion to power portable electronics has been developed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The “reverse electrowetting” technology that promises to reduce our dependence on batteries. It converts  mechanical energy to electrical energy using a microfluidic device consisting of thousands of liquid micro-droplets … more…


Weed sequenced. No really — weed.
August 23, 2011

(Credit: iStockphoto)DNA sequencing hit a new high with the release of the Cannabis sativa genome, says Nature News. The raw sequence, done in Amsterdam (where else?), was posted on Amazon’s EC2 public cloud computing service by a young company called Medicinal Genomics, which aims to explore the genomes of therapeutic plants. Medicinal Genomics founder Kevin McKernan … more…


UCLA Extension course in gerontology: ‘Secrets of the Oldest Old’
August 23, 2011

Introduction to Gerontology: Secrets of the Oldest Old,” a UCLA course taught by L. Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D, will meet Tuesday evenings, Sept. 20–Dec. 6. Anyone can attend the first lecture for free, he says. Dr. Coles is a lecturer, UCLA Molecular Biology Institute, and co-founder of the Los Angeles Gerontology Research Group: physicians, scientists, … more…


How stress causes DNA damage
August 23, 2011

Schematic diagram of β2-adrenoreceptor (β2AR)-dependent regulation of DNA damage in response to prolonged secretion of catecholamines during chronic stress (credit: MR Hara et al./Nature)Working closely with a team of researchers from Duke University, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have helped identify a molecular pathway that plays a key role in stress-related damage to the genome, the entirety of an organism’s hereditary information. The new findings could explain the development of certain human disorders, … more…


New method detects emerging sunspots deep inside the sun, provides warning of dangerous solar flares
August 23, 2011

Sun SpotResearchers at Stanford University have developed a way to detect incipient sunspots as deep as 65,000 kilometers inside the sun, providing up to two days’ advance warning of a damaging solar flare. The key to the new method is using acoustic waves generated inside the sun by the turbulent motion of plasma and gases in constant … more…


Drawing superconductor circuits with x-rays
August 23, 2011

X-ray beams could one day be used to write superconducting circuits. Solid lines indicate electrical connections; semicircles indicate superconducting junctions, whose states are indicated by red arrows (credit: UCL Press Office)Researchers from the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the Physics Department of Sapienza University of Rome have discovered a technique to “draw” superconductor circuits using an X-ray beam. The research group manipulated regions of high temperature superconductivity in a material that combines oxygen, copper, and lanthanum. Illumination with X-rays causes a small-scale rearrangement of the … more…


Nanotube-based supercapacitor-battery works in extreme conditions
August 23, 2011

Nano BundlesResearchers at Rice University have created a solid-state, nanotube-based supercapacitor that promises to combine the best qualities of high-energy batteries and fast-charging capacitors in a device suitable for extreme environments. The Rice team grew an array of 15–20 nanometer bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes up to 50 microns long. The array was then transferred to a … more…


The TV that watches you
August 22, 2011Source Link: Technology Review

iStock_000013702258XSmallSoon­­­, the websites you visit while watching TV could adapt in real time to the shows being watched — automatically presenting information relevant to the show, or even tuning their ads in response to what’s on screen. Flingo, which developed the technology, known as Sync Apps, says the new set is already being mass-produced by … more…


More free online Stanford computer science courses
August 22, 2011

machine_learning_courseTwo other Stanford Computer Science courses are joining Stanford University’s “bold experiment in distributed education”: Professor Andrew Ng’s Machine Learning Course and Professor Jennifer Widom’s Introduction to Databases. More than 100,000 prospective participants have signed up for Stanford’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and a study group has formed at reddit , according to I Programmer. The Stanford … more…


Molecular biosensor can monitor stress to cells by color changes
August 22, 2011

Sensor changing color under stress (credit: Neha Kamat, University of Pennsylvania)A nanoscale sensor that indicates mechanical stress on cells by a color change has been developed by University of Pennsylvania and Duke University bioengineers and chemists. The researchers embedded light-emitting porphyrin pigment molecules in polymersomes, artificially engineered capsules that can carry a molecular payload in their hollow interiors. When a stress is put on the … more…

New Articles

Achieving substrate-independent minds: no, we cannot ‘copy’ brains
August 24, 2011 by Randal A. Koene

Neuron (credit: Wikipedia user LadyofHats, public domain)On August 18, IBM published an intriguing update of their work in the DARPA SyNAPSE program, seeking to create efficient new computing hardware that is inspired by the architecture of neurons and neuronal networks in the brain. At carboncopies.org, we strive to take this research a step further: to bring about and nurture projects that … more…

New books

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker
author Kevin Mitnick, William L. Simon

ghostinthewires Amazon | Kevin Mitnick was the most elusive computer break-in artist in history. He accessed computers and networks at the world’s biggest companies–and however fast the authorities were, Mitnick was faster, sprinting through phone switches, computer systems, and cellular networks. He spent years skipping through cyberspace, always three steps ahead and labeled unstoppable. But for … more…


Quantum Man: Richard Feynman’s Life in Science (Great Discoveries)
author Lawrence M. Krauss

quantumman Amazon | A gripping new scientific biography of the revered Nobel Prize–winning physicist (and curious character). Perhaps the greatest physicist of the second half of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman changed the way we think about quantum mechanics, the most perplexing of all physical theories. Here Lawrence M. Krauss, himself a theoretical physicist and best-selling author, … more…


The Tomorrow Project: Bestselling Authors Describe Daily Life in the Future
author Douglas Rushkoff, Ray Hammond, Scarlett Thomas

INTEL-eBook_15-04-2011-E-1 Intel | “The Tomorrow-Project” is a unique literary project which shows the important effects that contemporary research will have on our future and the relevance that this research has for each of us. Research currently being conducted by Intel in the fields of photonics, robotics, telematics, dynamic physical rendering and intelligent sensors served as the … more…



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