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- Back to the Future: Cars with hub motors
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- Stem cell injection improves aging cells in mice
- Can culture change the genome?
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- Apple iPad: And the big deal is…?
- Enhancer RNA (eRNA): More powerful than previously thought
- Sci-Fi movie review: Splice
- Halfway between robot and avatar
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Category Archives: News
Zircons provide new reading on the atmosphere for origin of life
How can you tell what the atmosphere of Earth was like four billion years ago? The answer is simple, although technically difficult to do – read the rocks. Geologists and now astrogeologists and astrobiologists go back to the question of what the atmosphere was like during the early history of Earth because it is one [...]
Posted in News: Origin of Life Tagged atmosphere, cerium, Hadean, life origin, NASA, oxygen atmosphere, Tailby, Trail, Watson, zircon Leave a comment
New water for life: Lakes on Jupiter’s moon Europa
Europa lake formation between surface and ocean….Credit: Britney Schmidt, U.of Texas, Austin This story begins with chaotic terrain on a moon of Jupiter, Europa. Ever since the space probe Galileo zipped by this part of the solar system and recorded the most detailed pictures of the surface of Europa, astroscientists have pretty much come to [...]
Posted in News: Exogenous Life Tagged chaotic terrain, Europa, Europa lakes, Galileo, Jupiter, Moon, oceans, thick ice, thin ice, water Leave a comment
Synthetic biology: Pituitary glands from stem cells
Research into the uses stem cells is at that stage where almost every month a new application is announced, typically in the replacement of damaged cells or tissues. The most recent application is the creation of pituitary gland tissue from the embryonic stem cells of mice. Researchers at the Japanese RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology [...]
Posted in News: Synthetic Biology Tagged embryonic stem cells, pituitary gland, RIKEN, Sasai, stem cells, synthetic biology, synthetic organs 2 Comments
Asteroid 2005 YU55: No impact on the neighborhood
Asteroid 2005 YU55 photographed in passing…Credit: NASA November 9, 2011: It was a reminder for the neighborhood (Earth and Moon) that strangers pass in the night. Night being metaphorical in this case because the asteroid 2005 YU55 actually took about three days to orbit through the vicinity of the Earth and Moon. As asteroids go, [...]
Posted in News: Impact Event Tagged 2005 YU55, asteroid, NASA, NEA, Near Earth Asteroid, NEO Leave a comment
DNA computing: Genetic expression used for computer logic
Over the last few years it’s been shown theoretically and with some prototype devices that a biological computer is possible. That is, a digital computer where the components are built not of silicon or metal but with organic material. The question has become not can a biological computer be developed, but how – or more [...]
Posted in News: Computer Power Tagged biological computer, DNA computing, E. coli, Kitney, logic gate, Wang Leave a comment
The mystery of dark matter in small galaxies
Considering that dark matter is supposed to make up about 23% of all mass-energy density in the universe, it’s surprisingly difficult to pin down. It can’t be seen or measured directly, that much is known. Its existence is inferred from gravitational effects on things that instruments can see and from gravitational lensing (the bending of [...]
Posted in News: Dark Matters Tagged astrophysics, dark energy, dark matter, Fornax, Penarrubia, Sculptor, small galaxies, Walker 1 Comment
DNA nanosensors
Not all sensors are electronic, or at least if you expand the scope of sensor technology, measurement techniques (which is what sensor technology is about) can also be chemical or physical, among other things. In this case, the sensor is built from DNA and it’s called a DNA nanosensor. The idea behind this particular nanosensor [...]
Posted in News: Sensor Technology Tagged assay, cell programming, DNA, nanosensor, protein, RNA, sensor technology, signaling pathway, transcription factor 1 Comment
HARPS finds a batch of 50+ new exoplanets
Punch up the numbers, add more than fifty planets to the count of those that potentially could harbor life, bringing the total almost to 700. These new exoplanets were discovered by the HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher) at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The announcement, at the Extreme Solar System conference in [...]
Posted in News: Exogenous Life Tagged Doppler effect, exoplanet, Goldilocks Planet, HARPS, La Silla, radial velocity, solar system, super-Earth 1 Comment
Plasmonic nanostructures make graphene viable for super-fast communications
On the one hand graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms in a honeycomb pattern, can move electrons (electricity) very fast and efficiently. On the other hand graphene is lousy at absorbing energy, specifically from sunlight; only about 3% is absorbed. Sounds like graphene, a wonder material in many accounts, isn’t cut out for solar [...]
Posted in News: Photonics Tagged Geim, graphene, nanowire, Novoselov, optoelectronics, photonics, plasmonic nanostructure Leave a comment
lincRNA: A recently discovered RNA organizes stem cell differentiation
What makes a scientist’s heart go pitter-patter? Something like this: When the Broad team discovered more than 3,500 unique lincRNAs in the human and mouse genomes in 2009, “the potential was enormous, and we wanted to know what they could be doing.” [Source: Technology Review] Here’s the scenario: A team of researchers at the Broad [...]
Posted in News: Proteomics Tagged Broad Institute, cell development, DNA, genetics, Guttmann, lincRNA, pluripotent, proteomics, RNA, stem cells 1 Comment
Micromold technology: New technique for fabricating cells and tissues
As they say, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Perhaps they should also say, there’s more than one way to make a cat skin. One of the key objectives of synthetic biology is to create materials that can imitate the functions of cells and tissues, like creating the building blocks of biological [...]
Posted in News: Synthetic Biology Tagged drug-delivery, hydrogel, Khademhosseini, micromolds, microparticles, MIT, nanotechnology, synthetic biology, Tekin Leave a comment
New evidence for liquid water on Mars
The possible seasonal rills of running water on Mars……Credit: NASA, JPL Earth has lots of liquid water, like oceans of it – though salty. Why would people be excited by briny water on Mars? However, for those intrepid, dreaming human beings who think of traveling to Mars and one day pitching camp there, the news [...]
Posted in News: Space Exploration Tagged brine, carbon dioxide, CRISM, exogenous life, liquid water, Mars, Mars colonies, MRO, NASA, spectrograph Leave a comment
The Big Splat: New two moon hypothesis
It doesn’t sound very scientific, but some scientists are calling it the “Big Splat.” That refers to the results of a new computer model showing the early Earth having two moons that collided. Planetary scientists Martin Jutzi and Erik Asphaug at the University of Southern California, Santa Cruz (USA) and publishing in the journal Nature [...]
Guanfacine: A possible drug to improve memory in old age
As you get old, you start to forget things. True. Not that you couldn’t forget things when you’re younger and distracted; but as you get older, perhaps you’re more easily distracted. Why would that be? There are many lines of research into the loss of memory capacity as we age. One such line is conducted [...]
Posted in News: Extending Lifespan Tagged ADHD, aging, Arnsten, cAMP, clinical trial, ion channels, memory, neurons, pre-frontal cortex, Tenex 1 Comment
Epigenetic memory: Another path for genetic inheritance
As we have all been schooled, DNA determines what is inherited. If it isn’t encoded in the genes, it won’t be passed on. Except it is becoming ever more apparent this isn’t completely true. There is another way that characteristics can be passed to the next generations; it’s called epigenetic memory. Or at least it’s [...]
Posted in News: Epigenetics Tagged Dean, DNA, epigenetic memory, FLC, genetics, histones, Howard, inheritance, stress response Leave a comment
Epigenetics and methylation: New DNA bases linked to protein
Adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine: These are the nucleobases, or just plain bases of DNA that in pairs called nucleotides carry the genetic code of life. There are four of them, right? At least that’s what most everybody learns. Of course, there is another base, uracil, which is found in RNA where it replaces thymine. [...]
Posted in News: Epigenetics Tagged cytosine, DNA, epigenetics, methylation, new bases, nucleotide, RNA, Tet, Zhang Leave a comment
Toward a new DNA: thymine out, chlorouracil in
Scientists have been twiddling with DNA for some time. While DNA may be the blueprint of life, it is not immutable (of course) and that means the hand of man likes to poke around in the mix. One kind of poking has been to see if one of the bases – adenine (A), thymine (T), [...]
Posted in News: Synthetic Biology Tagged chemical evolution, chlorouracil, DNA, nucleic acids, RNA, synthetic biology, thymine, uracil, xenobiology 1 Comment
Salt water ocean on Enceladus
It could be called the briny deep, but that might be pushing it a little. Nevertheless, a new study confirming a salty ocean under the icy surface of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, is significant. Further analysis of data from the Cassini space probe led by researchers at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and the University of [...]
Posted in News: Exogenous Life Tagged Cassini, Enceladus, exogenous life, Moon, ocean, salt water, Saturn Leave a comment
Fluorescence microscopy: Scoping out molecular immune mechanisms
Science and technology have long danced together. Until somebody built a telescope, the moons of most planets were invisible. The impact of the microscope was even more telling. This relationship continues and it’s useful to occasionally dip into the flow of scientific discovery to recognize just how much of it relies on advances in technology. [...]
Posted in News: Scientific Instruments Tagged fluorescence microscope, immune system, immunology, molecule, PALM, STORM, T-cells, UNSW, vesicles, Williamson Leave a comment
Supercomputer race: Japan’s Fujitsu takes the lead
The bragging rights for building the world’s fastest supercomputer pass to Japan and Fujitsu’s K-supercomputer. For most people this is a fleeting tidbit of technology news, but it is one kind of milestone marking the increasing power of computers. For the computer industries in the countries involved, it is a rather big deal. In this [...]
Posted in News: Computer Power Tagged China, Fujitsu, IBM, Japan, K-supercomputer, petaflop, supercomputer, Tianhe-1A 2 Comments
State of the oceans: Degrading faster
International Programme on the State of the Ocean expert panel…Credit: IPSO The ocean big and wide and mighty…is damaged, seriously damaged. How to get that message across in an era when so much propaganda is directed toward destroying the credibility of science? For years scientists have been warning that the oceans are degrading – acidification, [...]
Posted in News: Degrading Oceans Tagged acidification, climate change, degrading oceans, IPSO, IUCN, overfishing, pollution, State of the Ocean Leave a comment
Stem cell injection improves aging cells in mice