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Category Archives: News
Micro-endoscope: A visual probe as thin as hair
A schematic of the micro-endoscope….Credit: Joseph Kahn, Stanford University The endoscope, a thinish, flexible tube with a light and image sensor or lenses at the probe end, is an indispensable tool of medicine, especially surgery. Endoscopy, the technique of using the endoscope, is the driving force behind minimally invasive surgery, which is radically changing the [...]
Posted in News: Scientific Instruments Tagged endoscope, endoscopy, fiber-optic, Joseph Kahn, micro-endoscope, MMF, modes, photonics, random intensity light, scientific instruments Comments closed
Big Telescopes: ALMA already on the job
Some of the ALMA antenna array at Atacama….Credit: ESO Today, March 13, 2013 marks the official ‘opening’ of the world’s largest telescope, ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array). As the biggest and most complex telescope project in history, astronomers hope it will open a new chapter in the observations of the cosmos. Located near San Pedro [...]
Posted in News: Scientific Instruments Tagged ALMA, array, Atacama, cosmos, infrared, radio astronomy, radio telescope, scientific instruments, universe Leave a comment
Epigenetics ‘leaks’ into trans-generational inheritance
One of the bigger and most important ‘debates’ in biology – both now and in the past – is whether adaptations made for the environment of a single individual can be inherited by its offspring. This is not about genetic inheritance, mutation, and the reproduction of the genes in DNA. This is about epigenetics, the [...]
Posted in News: Epigenetics Tagged chromatin dynamics, demethylation, DNA, epigenetics, genetics, histones, inheritance, methylation, PGC, primordial germ cell, trans-generation Comments closed
CRE: A killer coming to a critical care facility near you
It is not pandemic, not yet, but the spread of a particular form of drug resistant bacteria is serious enough to warrant this March 6 statement from Dr. Thomas Frieden the head of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): CRE poses a triple threat. First, they’re resistant to all or nearly [...]
Posted in News: Pandemics Tagged carbapenem, CDC, CRE, drug resistance, E. coli, Enterobacteriaceae, lethal infection, pandemic, warning Comments closed
ePSC: A new type of pluripotent stem cell
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco have discovered a new type of stem cell. This does not happen every day, guaranteed. In fact, this discovery is potentially very important. Called an endogenous pluripotent stem cell (ePSC), it has much the same characteristics as embryonic stem cells, the ability to become almost any other [...]
Posted in News: Stem Cells Tagged embryonic, endogenous, ePSC, genetically stable, immortal, induced, iPSC, mortal, new stem cell, pluripotent, stem cells Comments closed
A first: wireless, broadband, rechargeable, implantable brain sensor
A little something on the mind…wireless brain sensor Credit: Fred Field, Brown University It may seem that in this age of wireless everything that sensors for the brain should have been wireless years ago. After all, if test subjects (people or animals) must be tethered to power cords and data cables, then the range of [...]
Posted in News: Body Implants Tagged Body Implants, brain sensor, cerebral cortex, implant, neuron sensor, wireless Leave a comment
Gene expression and regulation: It’s the location, baby.
Perhaps it is something like the real-estate business. What three things make a difference for selling a house? Location, location and location. Thus it may be for at least some of the crucial genes involved in the development of the human embryo. Specifically, researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Heidelberg, Germany) found that the [...]
Posted in News: DNA Decoding Tagged development, DNA, DNA folding, embryo, Fgf8, gene, genome, histones Comments closed
New lithium-ion battery: It’s a stretch
Twist, bend and stretch – and store electricity…..credit: J. Rogers, U. of Illinois In roughly the last decade, there is a substantial research track looking for ways to generate electricity for personal devices, especially those carried or worn such as watches, phones, small computers and the like. The most attractive approach is through piezoelectricity where [...]
Posted in News: Energy Storage Tagged battery, flexible, lithium-ion, piezoelectric, stretch, wearable electronics Comments closed
Earth bacteria can survive in a least some Mars conditions
To quote from a movie (Jurassic Park), “Life finds a way.” So far, there is no sign of life on Mars. Water, yes, but not life. At least at or near the surface, Mars is a very inhospitable place for life. It is dry, so dry the Sahara is a sauna by comparison. It is [...]
Posted in News: Exogenous Life Tagged bacteria, Carnobacteria, exogenous life, extremophile, life on Mars, Mars, survival mechanisms Comments closed
Brillouin Spectroscopy: Using an old technique to get a new picture of spider webs
Science has known for a long time that spider silk is one of nature’s most fantastic materials – five times stronger than steel, flexible, stretchable to a third of its length, chemically stable. Because of these properties, scientists have studied spider silk for decades and you’d think by now there would be no secrets left. [...]
Posted in News: Synthetic Biology Tagged Brillouin scattering, Brillouin spectroscopy, fibroin, spider silk, structural analysis, synthetic biology Comments closed
Fetal DNA sequencing: Reading ma and pa’s genome
Depending on how successful interpretation of the personal genome becomes, any method that makes the process easier for collecting the DNA is progress. That’s one way of saying that the future of personal genome medicine depends on the research that finds the links between genes and disease, and how easy and inexpensive it is to [...]
Posted in News: DNA Decoding Tagged DNA, fetal genome, genetic interpretation, genome, infant, Kitzman, non-invasive, sequencing, Snyder Leave a comment
Shenzhou 9: Docking in space with taikonauts
The Long March Rocket and Shenzou 9 lift off………Credit: China National Space Administration Only a few days ago the media was celebrating the success of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, the first commercial (private) craft to dock with the International Space Station. It brought some supplies to the ISS and took waste material back. Today there might [...]
Posted in News: Space Exploration Tagged China, CNSA, docking, Jiuquan, Long March Rocket, Shenzou 9, space, taikonauts, Tiangong 1 Leave a comment
Quantum Teleportation: Step 4, 150 Kilometers
It’s a race of sorts. It’s a race to be the first research team to use quantum teleportation to transmit messages to and from orbiting satellites. The distance of this transmission will be about 500 kilometers. The latest ‘leg’ of this race was just completed by a team of European physicists and published at arXiv [...]
Posted in News: Photonics Tagged communications, messaging, photonics, photons, physics, quantum mechanics, quantum teleportation Leave a comment
Bonobo Genome: Our ever-lovin’ kin get closer
Ulindi, a bonobo to love……..credit: Michael Seres These days the genome sequencing of yet another plant, animal or insect barely raises an eyebrow, even in the scientific community. It’s important work that increasingly powerful technology and declining cost has made routine, which is a good thing. Once in a while though, a new ‘complete genome [...]
Posted in News: DNA Decoding Tagged bonobo, chimpanzee, DNA, genome, human, Prüfer, sequencing, Ulindi 1 Comment
Citrullination: Nanoparticles and arthritis
Here’s another study to add to the list of potential (or probable) problems with a world exposed to nanoparticles: Nanomedicine [12 June 2012, paywalled, Citrullination of proteins: a common post-transitional modification pathway induced by different nanoparticles in vitro and in vivo]. Translated: Many kinds of nanoparticles (billionths of a meter in size) can find their [...]
Posted in News: Nanomedicine Tagged arthritis, citrullination, citrulline, nanomedicine, nanoparticles, rheumatoid, Trinity College, Yuri Volkov 1 Comment
Pushing the efficiency envelope: Solid oxide fuel cell
Nothing illustrates the incremental nature of improving alternative energy methods better than the push to increase efficiency. Whatever the process, (chemical, solar, combustion) the more efficient the conversion of the energy source (sunlight, fuel, chemicals) into electricity, the better. With fuel cells, which convert a fuel source such as hydrogen or methane into electricity, it’s [...]
Posted in News: Alternative Energy Tagged DOE, efficiency, fuel cell, PNNL, SOFC, solid oxide, Sprenkle Leave a comment
New sequencing technique opens doors for epigenetics
What’s the difference between 5mC and 5hmC? Yes, the “h” but it is much more than that. Both are in biochemistry shorthand, which unless you’re a geneticist or biochemist you’ve probably never heard of and are not likely to remember. So let’s cut to the chase, oversimplified though it may be: As you almost certainly [...]
Posted in News: Epigenetics Tagged Balasubramanian, Booth, DNA, epigenetics, epigenome, genome, methylation 1 Comment
microDNA: A new piece of genetics puzzle
In the beginning the big discovery was the existence of DNA and RNA. Eventually more refined experiments and better equipment revealed that RNA in particular came in many forms and functions, for example, micro RNA (miRNA) for DNA regulation or piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) for transposon defense. So far there are 25-27 types of RNA. However, [...]
Posted in News: DNA Decoding Tagged DNA, eccDNA, extra-chromosomal, genome, microdeletion, microDNA, RNA, Shibata Leave a comment
Coming soon: Google’s Augmented Reality glasses
Slick, stylish and they might even be useful: Google glasses….Credit: Google Google calls it Project Glass. You may call it futuristic, fantastic or just let’s wait and see. These highly sophisticated computerized specs are intended to receive and process information from the Web and display it to one eye. It’s called augmented reality. For example, [...]
Posted in News: Virtual/Augmented Reality Tagged AR, augmented reality, glasses, Google, Google X, Project Glass 1 Comment
Personal genome disease risk analysis: New study finds important limits
As the cost of sequencing a person’s genome has sharply declined, the enthusiasm for using that genomic knowledge to predict susceptibility to gene-based illness has grown. In fact, it’s been one of the most common topics of medicine in the public media for more than a year. This includes intense debates about whether it is [...]
Posted in News: DNA Decoding Tagged disease prediction, DNA, genome, genome sequencing, Johns Hopkins, personal genome, twins study, Vogelstein Leave a comment
Energy density: Improving the lithium-ion battery
The cost and weight of batteries is the Achilles heel for electric vehicles. Today’s lithium-ion batteries used in cars such as the GM Volt are serviceable but expensive, up to 60% of the cost of the car. This has provided a major incentive for science and industry to chase large-scale battery improvement for decades. The [...]
Posted in News: Energy Storage Tagged anode, battery, carbon threads, cathode, electric car, energy density, Envia, GM, GM Volt, lithium-ion, manganese, silicon, U.S. DOE Leave a comment
Recognizing one face in a crowd of 36 million
A new camera surveillance system in preparation for the market by Hitachi Kokusai Electric (Japan) claims the ability to recognize a face from a database of 36 million in less than a second. It does this by not creating a stored image and then analyzing it, but by immediately analyzing the incoming visual stream (containing [...]
Posted in News: Sensor Technology Tagged CCTV, face recognition, Hitachi, law enforcement, sensor technology, surveillance system Leave a comment
The Planet Under Pressure conference
There’s this from the co-chair of the Planet Under Pressure conference, Dr. Lidia Brito: If you like, our presenters today are akin to doctors saying, “Look, you may not feel too sick at the moment but you’ve got high blood pressure, your cholesterol is going up, and your lifestyle is not conducive to good health.” [...]
Posted in News: Climate Change Tagged AGW, CO2 emission, global warming, greenhouse gas, permafrost, Planet Under Pressure, tipping points, UNESCO Leave a comment
Wi-fi and TV: Corkscrew signals for solving the world’s bandwidth problem
As the mega-money auctions for broadcast bandwidth demonstrate, there are a finite number of frequencies and they are almost all allocated. Put another way, the world is running out of broadcast frequencies. That also amounts to a challenge for the world’s physicists and radio engineers – How to get more signal (information) onto existing bandwidths? [...]
Posted in News: Communications Tagged 3-D, bandwidth, orbital angular momentum, polarization, Tamburini, Thidé, twisting radio waves, vorticity, Wi-Fi Leave a comment
Planck’s Universe