Recent News
- Found: Another molecule needed at the origin of life
- For real: A new way to produce electricity
- New: Single molecule sensor array
- Finally(?)…artificially making blood stem cells in quantity
- Update: Chinese space station
- Looking at the strange face of antimatter
- Life on Mars, if it exists, is below the surface
- A different kind of lens for time
- Oh please, “skinput”
- Update: More Moon water
- Cutting cancer cell immortality short
- First time: Watching the unfolding story of proteins in living cells
- Newly named: Copernicum (element 112)
- Making jet fuel from biomass
- Nanobubbles are really slick
Category Archives: Impact
Protein pathway competition regulates embryo development
One thing I’ve noticed in following scientific developments for a long time is that when something unexpected is discovered it very often adds to the complexity. Here’s a recent case in point, first, I’ll let a piece of the announcement speak for itself, and then I’ll explain the context:
Until now, scientists believed these pathways operated [...]
Posted in Impact: Cell Biology Tagged cell biology, DNA, enzyme, genes, MAPK, microbiology, pathways, protein, proteomics Leave a comment
Species Loss: It is statistics but not a game
Most biologists will tell you that the Earth is losing species faster than it is replacing them. One prominent biologist, Simon Stuart, chair of the Species Survival Commission for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has said about two new reports coming out in March (2010):
“Measuring the rate at which new species [...]
Posted in Impact: Species Loss Tagged background rate, climate change, extinction, habitat loss, human encroachment, species loss Leave a comment
Climate Change: Madness in their methane?
A few years ago the whole ‘cow farts are global climate threat’ thing seemed more than a bit overblown. (Cow and other farts being mostly methane, dontcha know.) It became difficult to mention methane in connection with global warming without raising images of bovine herds worldwide in a massive chorus of postprandial flatulence. Besides, CO2 [...]
Posted in Impact: Climate Change Tagged Arctic Sea, climate change, global warming, methane, methane hydrate, peat, permafrost, Siberian shelf Leave a comment
Follow-up: Maybe Chicxulub didn’t do it
Not enough evidence. It’s one of the most important, and difficult to evaluate, criticisms in science. In his blog “In terra veritas” post 41 Angry Scientists, Bryan (a geologist) takes on the Science article The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary. He has two main complaints: The ‘panel of 41’ that [...]
Posted in Impact: Impact Event Tagged Chicxulub, Cretaceous, Deccan Traps, dinosaurs, extinction, K-Pg boundary, Signor-Lipps Leave a comment
Reading the brain for motor control – without implants
It’s been decades since neuroscience began the search for ways ‘read the brain’ so that people can move, communicate, and respond when their physical body can no longer do so. Just about every year there are advances, and announcements, of this and that device, which can interpret the brain’s neuron electrical pulses to perform something [...]
Posted in Impact: Neuroscience Tagged 3-D movement, brain sensors, cerebral control, EEG, motor control, neuroscience Leave a comment
Science panel: Chicxulub did it
Sometimes ‘the facts’ discovered by science answer questions by themselves, but much of the time facts are used for competing hypotheses. Sometimes more facts settle the issue of which hypothesis better fits the facts, but like as not, the ‘better fit’ is a matter of interpretation. If the issue at hand is important enough, scientists [...]
Posted in Impact: Impact Event Tagged asteroid, astrophysics, Chicxulub, Deccan Traps, geology, impact event, K-Pg mass extinction, paleontology, volcanism Leave a comment
Can culture change the genome?
Almost from the beginning of our knowledge of genetics, it’s been asked, “Can the way we (humans) live change our genetics?” These days this is much the same as asking if culture can change the genome. It’s actually a relatively old question.
The question got its biggest boost from one who is now a boogeyman for [...]
Posted in Impact: Genetic Modification Tagged biology, culture, DNA, EDAR, epigenetics, evolution, genes, genetic modification, genetics, genome, Lamarck, molecular biology, RNA 1 Comment
Giving Roger Ebert a voice
The Pulitzer prize-winning movie critic, Roger Ebert, lost his voice to cancer several years ago. He is one among many thousands of people a year who lose their ability to speak from disease or injury. There are some technology fixes for replacing the physical reproduction capability. (See SciTechStory: Replacing the larynx with a palatometer) However, [...]
Posted in Impact: Computer Power Tagged cancer, Ebert, Hawking, movies, Oprah, vocal chords, voice production Leave a comment
The Bloom Box fuel cell system
Normally this would be a simple news item: Bloom Energy, Inc. (California, USA) introduces a new electric power producing fuel cell device – the Bloom Box. There would be some description: The Bloom Box uses inputs of methane-type fuel (from natural gas to bio-fuels), burns them at about 1000C, and with proprietary catalytic converters produces [...]
Posted in Impact: Alternative Energy Tagged alternative energy, Bloom Box, catalyst, ceramic, ethane, fuel cell, green energy, methane Leave a comment
Small RNA: New pathways for gene regulation?
Sometimes research discovers more than expected. (It could be called serendipity.) In this case, researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Berlin (Germany) were exploring the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which is a microscopic beasty that lives in the gut of about 50% of humanity. H. pylori, as it is abbreviated, has been linked to a [...]
Posted in Impact: DNA Decoding Tagged biochemistry, DNA, genetics, Helicobacter pylori, junk DNA, pathogen, RNA, sRNA, transcription Leave a comment
More ‘junk DNA’ that actually does something
This is not a screed, or it shouldn’t be. However, the next time you read something about ‘junk DNA’ – check its provenance. It’s true that for years researchers have looked at the huge tracts of genetic material that doesn’t appear to do anything vital (that is, coding for proteins) – which is about 98% [...]
Posted in Impact: DNA Decoding Tagged 9p21, coronary artery disease, DNA, genes, genetics, junk DNA, non-coding Leave a comment
Four-letter codons: A new synthetic biology playground
All life (that we know of) is built from the 4 nucleotides of DNA (Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, Thymine and in RNA Uracil instead of Thymine), which provide the code for creating 22 amino acids, which are then combined into proteins. An important part of the process is the reading of the DNA code by RNA [...]
Posted in Impact: Proteomics Tagged codons, DNA, genetics, microbiology, nucleotides, proteomics, RNA, transcription, tRNA Leave a comment
iGEM: Proselytizing for synthetic biology
What happens when genetic engineering goes viral? I’m using the word viral in its Internet sense. The New York Times has a fascinating article on the rise of synthetic biology and genetic engineering in the ranks of amateurs, mostly students, and under the guidance of an organization called iGEM. Here’s where “viral starts”…
…synthetic biologists want [...]
Posted in Impact: Synthetic Biology Tagged BioBrick, DNA, genes, genetic engineering, GM, splicing, synthetic biology Leave a comment
Quantum chemistry – a new world
Here’s the story in a nutshell:
Scientists have long known how to control the internal states of molecules, such as their rotational and vibrational energy levels. In addition, the field of quantum chemistry has existed for decades to study the effects of the quantum behavior of electrons and nuclei—constituents of molecules. But until now scientists have [...]
Posted in Impact: Quantum Physics Tagged absolute zero, chemistry, molecules, NIST, quantum chemistry, quantum mechanics, spin 1 Comment
Doubling down on climate change prediction
For many years, decades really, climatologists, meteorologists, ecologists and other scientists have labored to produce hundreds of reports, studies, books that detail their own field’s view of what’s happening to the Earth’s climate. Thousands of scientists, several decades of work, googolplexes of data, unending discussion and debate – in the end, however, a rather simple [...]
Posted in Impact: Climate Change Tagged AGW, climate, CO2, GlacierGate, IPCC, models, policy Leave a comment
Microtelecom – where few phones have gone before
It’s called synergy, combining the technology of solar cells with the technology of a low wattage cell-phone base station. It’s also called ‘microtelecom’ – a telephone network built with minimal requirements for energy, technical knowhow, and money. An example is the work of VNL in Haryana, India, which is rolling out its ambitious “WorldGSM” cellular [...]
Posted in Impact: Communications Tagged cell-phones, communications, GSM, microfinance, microtelephone, solar energy Leave a comment
Global warming may have unforeseen (and nasty) tipping points
Similar to the financial crisis of 2008, or the over-fishing of the seas, the dynamics of the global warming problem are pretty well known. What is not known are all the possible ‘tipping points,’ those events (big or small) that can push the dynamic forces into crisis, and how rapidly crises can develop. That’s the [...]
Posted in Impact: Climate Change Tagged AGW, climate change, ecology, ecosystems, global warming, tipping point Leave a comment
Pervasive Gaming
If you’re not a gamer (one who plays computer-based games), and maybe even if you are; you may not be aware of a relatively new ‘field of study’ called pervasive gaming. Don’t go off on the wrong track with “all-pervasive” gaming; this is localized. Pervasive gaming is heralded as an ‘emerging genre.’ (How’s that for [...]
Posted in Impact: Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Tagged augmented reality, game, ludic, mobile games, pervasive gaming, VR Leave a comment
Clothes that generate electric power