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- Histones: DNA packaging and much more
- Life on Mars, if it exists, is below the surface
- Report: Water shortage risk ranked by country
- On the origin of children
- Guanfacine: A possible drug to improve memory in old age
- Transformation optics: the light fantastic
- Mining Near-Earth Asteroids: The trillion dollar enticement
- Government Internet censorship on the rise
- Common diseases: Rare gene mutations are important
- Microgravity: Overlooking the weightless elephant in the room
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Category Archives: Impact
Histones: DNA packaging and much more
DNA winds around histones….Credit: Max Planck Society Most everybody knows that DNA is the carrier of the genetic code, the instructions for how life reproduces, grows, and maintains. Cell biologists have long known that DNA comes with a very complex packaging material, proteins called histones, which help the 2 meter (6 foot) strand of DNA [...]
Posted in Impact: DNA Decoding Tagged biochemistry, cell biology, DNA, epigenetics, fruit fly, gene, gene expression, histones, nucleus 1 Comment
New light on solar cycle and Earth’s climate
Occasionally a piece of news comes along to which you can point and say “Now that’s science.” Here’s one: Scientists at Imperial College London (UK) and the University of Colorado (USA), publishing in Nature [October 7, 2010: An influence of solar spectral variations on radiative forcing of climate] have examined the Sun’s radiation data for [...]
Posted in Impact: Climate Change Tagged climate change, climate model, science, solar cycle, solar radiation, visible light 1 Comment
Nobels for trend setting: Graphene and IVF
Nobel Prizes are sometimes perfunctory – lifetime achievement, arcane fields. Not this year. The Nobel committees seem to have their brains operating with a vision; they’re seeing a larger context and signaling their awareness. This year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology went to Robert Edwards the founding father of in-vitro fertilization (IVF). This is [...]
Posted in Impact: Nanotechnology Tagged Edwards, fertilization, Geim, graphene, in vitro, IVF, medicine, nanotechnology, natal biology, Nobel, Novoselov, physics, Scotch tape Leave a comment
Pulsed scanning tunneling microscope: New tool, new insights
An STM image of atoms forming a “quantum corral”….image developed for IBM. Before the week goes flipping by on the calendar, I wanted to mark one of those achievements that get scant attention but will probably have large impact. I say “probably” because even the people who developed IBM’s new pulsed scanning tunneling microscope don’t [...]
Posted in Impact: Scientific Instruments Tagged IBM, microscopy, nanotechnology, pulsed STM, scanning tunneling microscope, STM Leave a comment
Another Gliese 581 exoplanet: “Most potentially habitable yet”
The first planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581 was discovered in 2005. Since then, five more have been added. There are now three planets in this system with the tag “could be habitable.” The most recently verified is Gliese 581g, which has the distinction of sitting more or less in the middle of [...]
Posted in Impact: Exogenous Life Tagged exoplanet, Gliese 581, Gliese 581g, Goldilocks Zone, habitable zone, red dwarf, rocky planet, terminator zone Leave a comment
Species loss: 1 in 5 plants endangered
In the big picture, all types of species are lost. Extinction comes to mammals, birds, amphibians, insects, fungi and, of course, plants. Totting up the loss of plant species is difficult. There are an estimated 380,000 plant species – orders of magnitude more than most other forms of life. It’s quite likely that some plant [...]
Posted in Impact: Species Loss Tagged biological diversity, ecology, extinction, IUCN, Kew Gardens, plant species loss, Red List, threatened species Leave a comment
Groundwater depletion and ‘virtual water’
Groundwater loss in cubic liters per year…..Credit: American Geophysical Union Of the most useful water for humans, groundwater – water that flows or resides underground – comprises about 30% of the total. Another 1% is surface water. The rest is water locked in glaciers and polar ice caps. As you might expect, it’s difficult to [...]
Posted in Impact: Water Shortage Tagged desalination, fresh water, groundwater, seawater, virtual water, water conservation, water debt, water shortage Leave a comment
Putting the impact of dementia in perspective
What constitutes a major disease? Percentage of population affected, certainly. Global prevalence, yes. Severity of effects, yes. Difficulty of treatment, perhaps. I wrestled with this question in thinking about creating a category of medical research that will have great impact on human life, an Impact Area. There are so many diseases. Unless you’re a medical [...]
Posted in Impact: Major Disease Cures Tagged aging, Alzheimer, dementia, major disease, molecular biology, neurology, neuroscience, senescence, senility Leave a comment
Peak Oil: Forbes. Maxwell. Oil. Last-nail. Coffin.
Perhaps the title on this post is over the top (pun intended). The reality of peak oil is not a secret. However, that reality is generally among the media a pro-forma taboo. For media outlets where the cognoscenti need to know, it gets mentioned. For general consumption, the mass media, not so much. Save consumers [...]
Posted in Impact: Hydrocarbon Use Tagged 2018, alternative energy, Forbes, hydrocarbon use, Maxwell, oil production, peak oil Leave a comment
Dissolving the Internet into fragments
Before it disappears into the archives, I’d like to call attention to a significant article (and cover story: The web’s new walls) in the September 2, 2010 issue of The Economist: The future of the internet: A virtual counter-revolution. Some points will be familiar to anyone following the ‘net-neutrality’ issue in the U.S. or elsewhere. [...]
Posted in Impact: Online Information Tagged balkanization, Facebook, Internet, iPad, net neutrality, online information, The Economist, Web Leave a comment
Important new tool for research: An artificial ovary
Here’s the title most commonly seen for this story: Scientists invent first artificial ovary. It’s actually true. Researchers at Brown University (Rhode Island, USA) and Woman’s and Infants Hospital (Providence, Rhode Island, USA) have made something rather startling. They have created a three-dimensional tissue structure composed of the three main types of cells found in [...]
Posted in Impact: Synthetic Biology Tagged 3-D Petri dish, agarose gel, artificial ovary, egg, oocyte, ovarian follicle, reproductive, synthetic biology Leave a comment
Halfway between robot and avatar
Telerobot physician consulting with nurse………….credit: InTouch Technologies, Inc. What’s halfway between an autonomous robot and an avatar? You’ve probably seen avatars in the movies (James Cameron’s Avatar being the prime example). No doubt you’ve also seen various kinds of (semi) autonomous robots that move about under their own power and have a kind of intelligence, [...]
Posted in Impact: Robotics Tagged AI, Avatar, drone, remote robotics, robot, robotics, ROV, teleconference, telepresence, telerobot, UAV Leave a comment
Stem cells: Myc does much more
To put it mildly, not thinking beyond assumptions can lead to surprises. This also applies to science. For many years scientists thought that the gene known as Myc (“mick”) plays a role in causing cancer – an oncogene – and that was all it did. It does play a role in cancer; Myc somehow lengthens [...]
Posted in Impact: Stem Cells Tagged cancer, cell biology, cell differentiation, GATA6, molecular biology, Myc, oncogene, pluripotent, protein, stem cell 1 Comment
A new field for medicine: Genetic risk intervention
If you’ve heard anything about personal genome testing, it’s that such tests can sometimes reveal people are carriers of genetic mutations that increase the risk of certain diseases. There are many examples with more added each year, such as the BRCA1/BRCA2 genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer. If you’re a woman whose genome has [...]
Posted in Impact: Major Disease Cures Tagged BRCA1, BRCA2, gene, genome, mastectomy, molecular biology, personal genetics, prophylactic medicine, risk intervention 1 Comment
Promised cures that stay on the horizon
In this age of hyperbole and disingenuous narrative, it’s important to have keen and skeptical appraisal. This is true even (or especially) when it comes to life-saving cures and the promises of the end to various terrible afflictions. Part of the reason for skepticism is simply to manage expectations. The people developing or marketing their [...]
Posted in Impact: Major Disease Cures Tagged Alzheimers, disease cure, drugs, genome, medical breakthrough, medical promises, miracle cure, molecular biology, Parkinsons Leave a comment
Light through a galactic lens: Good news, bad news of dark energy
The good news is that thanks to research by an international group of scientists and published in the August 20, 2010 issue of Science [Cosmological Constraints from Strong Gravitational Lensing in Clusters of Galaxies] we have a much more precise idea of the amount of dark energy in the universe and a fix on the [...]
Posted in Impact: Cosmology Tagged Abel 1689, cosmology, dark energy, entropic universe, galactic cluster, galactic lens, heat-death, Kepler Space Telescope, thermodynamics Leave a comment
A form of muscular dystrophy depends on ‘junk’ DNA
Back in February of this year (2010) a study in Nature reported on finding a segment of human DNA, one of the areas in the so-called ‘junk genes,’ that contributed to a form of coronary artery disease. [SciTechStory: Junk DNA that actually does something] Now there is another study, in the magazine Science [A Unifying [...]
Posted in Impact: DNA Decoding Tagged chromosome 4, FSHD, gene, genetics, genome, junk DNA, muscular dystrophy, RNA, transcription Leave a comment
The advance of swarm intelligence
Swarm intelligence – where the behavior of many semi-intelligent individuals becomes intelligent in collective activity – think of ants or bees, has been an area of study for some time but on no perceivable schedule or cycle seems to appear in the popular media as a matter of considerable importance. I thought of this while [...]
Posted in Impact: Artificial Intelligence Tagged AI, ants, artificial intelligence, bees, hivemind, SI, swarm intelligence Leave a comment
New Report: The Construction Nanomaterials Revolution
Of the many ongoing technology developments, it’s arguable that nanotechnology will have the most immediate, visible, and continuing impact. Nano-this and nano-that have already sprung up in the English vocabulary like mushrooms after rain and marketing-speak has long since incorporated the benefits of NEW: With Nano-whatever. Barely a week goes by without an announcement of [...]
Posted in Impact: Nanotechnology Tagged ACS, construction, environmental impact, materials, materials science, nanoparticles, nanotechnology, toxicity Leave a comment
Stress test for computers: New sorting records
In the old days people used index cards to sort information such as names or addresses by alphabetical order. Have you ever sorted a thousand cards? Try sorting the information on 210 DVDs or 1,422 CDs – that’s how much information is contained in a terabyte (1000 gigabytes or one million megabytes). Obviously this is [...]
Posted in Impact: Computer Power Tagged algorithms, computer power, computer science, Sort Benchmark Organization, sort record, sorting, UCSD Leave a comment
Graphene oxide: Nanotechnology with an eco-friendly end
It isn’t often (like almost never) that a new technology with potential impact on the environment comes with its own natural solution. According to two papers published by scientists from Rice University (Texas, USA), this is the case with graphene oxide. Graphene, a form of carbon, can be simply described as a form of graphite [...]
Posted in Impact: Nanotechnology Tagged bacteria, carbon, ecology, environment, graphene, graphene oxide, green, nanotechnology, Shewanella Leave a comment
A new role for a key cell protein
We know from our experience, intuition, and scads of studies that the body reacts to stress – often negatively. For the most part, long term stress is harmful. There are many muscular, neurological, vascular, and digestive reactions (to name a few) that if not significantly relieved by some point, turn toward physical degeneration and disease [...]
Posted in Impact: Proteomics Tagged AMPK, DNA, histone, kinase, metformin, nucleus, p51, p53, phosphorylation, protein, proteomics Leave a comment
Physics: A smaller proton, a big challenge
The proton is one of the fundamental components of the atom. For a long time scientists have believed it to be 0.8768 femtometers in size (a femtometer is one quadrillionth of a meter). Now, it looks like they may have been wrong, the size is 0.84184 femtometers. In a way, the discrepancy is very small…as [...]
Posted in Impact: Nuclear Physics Tagged electron orbit, femtometer, laser spectroscopy, muon, nuclear physics, proton, QED, quantum physics Leave a comment
Quantum entanglement helps keep DNA together
Once in a while science produces theoretical work that has tantalizing possibilities but also raises a strong skeptical response. This is another way of saying that a theory has a certain amount of plausibility but is without experimental evidence. Such is the case with a theory proposed by Elisabeth Rieper and colleagues at the National [...]
Posted in Impact: Quantum Physics Tagged base pair, classical mechanics, DNA, double-helix, nucleotide, phonon, quantum biology, quantum entanglement, quantum mechanics, scientific method, Van der Waals forces 2 Comments
Published results: LCROSS lunar impact reveals scientific treasure