I love science. I can't wait to see how many accomplishments from Alpha Centauri we'll achieve over the next few decades.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1...e-living-cellsBioengineers at Stanford University have created the first biological transistor made from genetic materials: DNA and RNA. Dubbed the “transcriptor,” this biological transistor is the final component required to build biological computers that operate inside living cells. We are now tantalizingly close to biological computers that can detect changes in a cell’s environment, store a record of that change in memory made of DNA, and then trigger some kind of response — say, commanding a cell to stop producing insulin, or to self-destruct if cancer is detected.
Stanford’s transcriptor is essentially the biological analog of the digital transistor. Where transistors control the flow of electricity, transcriptors control the flow of RNA polymerase as it travels along a strand of DNA. The transcriptors do this by using special combinations of enzymes (integrases) that control the RNA’s movement along the strand of DNA. “The choice of enzymes is important,” says Jerome Bonnet, who worked on the project. “We have been careful to select enzymes that function in bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, so that bio-computers can be engineered within a variety of organisms.”
I love science. I can't wait to see how many accomplishments from Alpha Centauri we'll achieve over the next few decades.
Science doesn't do that.
But thanks for trolling.
Computer files stored accurately on DNA in new breakthrough
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/s...akthrough.html
n a study published in the Nature journal, the researchers demonstrated they could avoid the problem by translating computer files, made up of ones and zeroes, into a form of DNA code which did not allow letters to repeat themselves.
First they converted an audio file of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, a photograph of their laboratory, a PDF file of an academic paper and a text version of all Shakespeare's sonnets into the DNA code.
The code was sent to a US lab where experts converted it into synthetic strings of DNA which resembled a tiny grain of dust.
The researchers then sequenced the synthetic DNA to retrieve the code, before converting it back into the original computer files with 99.9 per cent accuracy.
Dr Goldman said: "Because it is expensive and one of its big advantages is longevity, the potential applications will initially be in really high value information which you are determined to keep safe but you do not expect to read very often, such as government records or the Doomsday Book.
"As the price starts to come down it will start to become available to people with smaller budgets, so in ten years' time it may be [cost efficient for] something you would look at on a 50 year timescale, such as a wedding video."
superconducting wires: http://everything-pr.com/epoch-wires.../#.UjxTvD-2-7R
Highest temp for a superconducting wire -389 F
Still hugely expensive to cool it. The assumption is made that it will be made cheaper to cool through other technologies.
The fact that they have made long wire out of it is important, but the same old problem exists, the cost of cooling.
Wow...
39.26 K
That is hot for a superconductor!
Still to expensive to cool.
Edited.
I'm sure the kids having chemotherapy agree.
yes, it was much better when kids were just dying of cancer with no possible hope. Those were the days.
going bald for a few weeks or month is the LEAST of chemo's horrible side effects. pediatric chemo is known to up kids for decades. But chemo is a huge business so let the poison flow.
thread had potential...
Are you saying it isn't a life saving procedure?
doctor's don't seem to care much, but QoL should figure into each patient's and patient's family's treatment decision.
chemo fails to save lives more than it succeeds
I have yet to meet an oncologist that doesn't factor QoL in the prognosis. We all die and 'saving lives' is misleading. Chemo almost always extends lives. If youre stage 2, that doesn't mean you should just quit because chemo won't 'save' you.
http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2011/antiviral-0810Most bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics such as penicillin, discovered decades ago. However, such drugs are useless against viral infections, including influenza, the common cold, and deadly hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola.
Now, in a development that could transform how viral infections are treated, a team of researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory has designed a drug that can identify cells that have been infected by any type of virus, then kill those cells to terminate the infection.
This could be great. I hope it's true.
can cause and effect be distinguished by a statistical test?
http://arxiv.org/abs/1412.3773
new antibiotic kills MRSA in mice:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-0...y-drought.html
Heard about that on NPR.
Lot of VERY exciting going on.
Artificial Intelligence:
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30718558
There was a bit on sequencing cancer genomes, single layer graphene water filters, sulphur-lithium batteries, etc etc etc.
Wireless transmission of energy:
Researchers used microwaves to deliver 1.8 kilowatts of power—enough to run an electric kettle—through the air with pinpoint accuracy to a receiver 55 metres (170 feet) away.
While the distance was not huge, the technology could pave the way for mankind to eventually tap the vast amount of solar energy available in space and use it here on Earth, a spokesman for The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.
"This was the first time anyone has managed to send a high output of nearly two kilowatts of electric power via microwaves to a small target, using a delicate directivity control device," he said.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-03-japan-s...nergy.html#jCp
3D printing of molecules:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...-from-scratch/Say you're a medical researcher interested in a rare chemical produced in the roots of a little-known Peruvian flower. It's called ratanhine, and it's valuable because it has some fascinating anti-fungal properties that might make for great medicines. Getting your hands on the rare plant is hard, and no chemical supplier is or has ever sold it. But maybe, thanks to the work of University of Illinois chemist Martin Burke, you could print it right in the lab.
In a new study published in the journal Science today, Burke has announced the specs of a chemistry's own version of the 3D printer—a machine that can systematically synthesize thousands of different molecules (including the ratanhine molecular family) from a handful of starting chemicals. Such a machine could not only make ratanhine step-by-step, but also could custom-create a dozen other closely-related chemicals—some never even synthesized before by humans. That could allow scientists to test the medicinal properties of a whole molecular family.
there's gotta be life on enceladus.
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