Jellyfish-mimicking device could snatch cancer cells right out of the bloodstream. Catch and Release: Marine Animals Inspire Researchers to Invent a Device that can Detect, Capture and Release Rare Cancer Cells BOSTON, MA-A research team at Brigham and Women's Hospital has developed a novel device that may one day have broad therapeutic and diagnostic uses in the detection and capture of rare cell types, such as cancer cells, fetal cells, viruses and bacteria. The device is inspired by the long, elegant appendages of sea creatures, such as jellyfish and sea cucumbers. The study will be published online on November 12, 2012 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The device, a microchip, is inspired by a jellyfish's long, sticky tentacles that are used to capture miniscule food flowing in the water. The researchers designed a chip that uses a three-dimensional DNA network made up of long DNA strands with repetitive sequences that-like the jellyfish tentacles-can detect, bind and capture certain molecules. "The chip we have developed is highly sensitive. NYU Professors Develop Real-Life Star Trek Tractor Beam. Why America Needs More Robotic Parking - Commute. Add another item to the list of infrastructure in which the United States lags: robotic parking.
As common in Asia and Europe as streetlights, parking that automatically stores and retrieves cars is only now catching on in American cities. More primitive elevator-style parking has been around since the mid–20th century, but advanced automatic garages are more like three-dimensional chessboards: hydraulic pallets and computerized shelving park up to 250 cars per hour, with 32 cars in motion at any time. As cities become denser, the cost of high-density parking begins to pencil out for developers because it reduces parking square footage requirements by 50 to 75 percent, say experts, some of whom participated in a seminar held earlier this year in Los Angeles, presented by the University of California at Los Angeles Ziman Center for Real Estate.
The cube in Birmingham, England. Courtesy of The Cube A model of robotic parking, courtesy Robotic Parking Safety Concerns Robert R. An Illustrated Infographic Of Every Single Mission To Mars. Just a few weeks ago, we were celebrating one of the greatest technological achievements in human history: the arrival of Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars. One could argue that it’s right up there with the moonwalk of recently departed Neil Armstrong in terms of the awe it inspires. But keep in mind that this is by no means our first mission to Mars.
Click to enlarge. This illustrated infographic by National Post Graphics charts every man-made vessel we’ve sent toward Mars, from a slew of unsuccessful Russian efforts in the early 1960s to Mariner 4's historic 1964 fly-by and taking us right up to present day. As Kim Stanley Robinson writes in Red Mars, "we are all the consciousness that Mars has ever had. " Let’s hope the coming years and decades bring with them more missions, more data, and a more expansive consciousness--all in the name of a better understanding of our place in the universe. Click here for a full-size version. Working Out Doesn't Just Make You Stronger, It Makes You Smarter. We already know the facts: Our country is in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Few American adults exercise enough, and that poor lifestyle choice is getting handed down to our children, who are getting fat at record levels. And all that obesity is affecting our health, causing heart disease, diabetes, and untold other health consequences.
But what if the effects aren’t only physical? This new infographic, from OnlineCollegeCourses.com points out that exercise has some great benefits for not just how our body works, but how our brains work, too. It’s clearly important for kids, who need all the brain power they can get for school, but it’s equally important for adults: A fit worker is a fast, efficient worker. First, let’s review the facts.
Children--who should be buzzing about with so much energy that we have to ask them not to exercise--aren’t moving around that much anymore. So what? This applies to adults, as well. The lesson? Dreamland: What Happens While You Sleep and How It Affects Your Every Waking Moment. By Maria Popova “We are living in an age when sleep is more comfortable than ever and yet more elusive.” The Ancient Greeks believed that one fell asleep when the brain filled with blood and awakened once it drained back out. Nineteenth-century philosophers contended that sleep happened when the brain was emptied of ambitions and stimulating thoughts.
“If sleep doesn’t serve an absolutely vital function, it is the greatest mistake evolution ever made,” biologist Allan Rechtschaffen once remarked. Most of us will spend a full third of our lives asleep, and yet we don’t have the faintest idea of what it does for our bodies and our brains. But before we get too anthropocentrically arrogant in our assumptions, it turns out the quantitative requirement of sleep isn’t correlated with how high up the evolutionary chain an organism is: Lions and gerbils sleep about thirteen hours a day. What, then, happens as we doze off, exactly? (Recall the role of REM sleep in regulating negative emotions.) Georgia Tech develops self-charging battery that marches to the owner's beat. Design Firm Attempts To Create Floating Islands To Save Locals From Flooding. The Science of Sleep: Dreaming, Depression, and How REM Sleep Regulates Negative Emotions.
By Maria Popova “Memory is never a precise duplicate of the original… it is a continuing act of creation. Dream images are the product of that creation.” For the past half-century, sleep researcher Rosalind D. Cartwright has produced some of the most compelling and influential work in the field, enlisting modern science in revising and expanding the theories of Jung and Freud about the role of sleep and dreams in our lives. In The Twenty-four Hour Mind: The Role of Sleep and Dreaming in Our Emotional Lives (public library), Cartwright offers an absorbing history of sleep research, at once revealing how far we’ve come in understanding this vital third of our lives and how much still remains outside our grasp.
One particularly fascinating aspect of her research deals with dreaming as a mechanism for regulating negative emotion and the relationship between REM sleep and depression: The more severe the depression, the earlier the first REM begins. Donating = Loving Share on Tumblr. 7 Superfoods to Boost Energy Levels Now | Slideshow. Image credit: Photos from Shutterstock.com You've pulled an all-nighter – again -- and now you're dragging. But you can't afford to take a break from your intense schedule, if you want to keep growing your business. So, consider fueling up with so-called "super foods" to keep your energy up and stress level down. In email interviews, we turned to celebrated experts, including Drs. Mehmet Oz and Andrew Weil for seven such foods to seek out.
No doubt, these healthful picks will help you think more clearly and focus more on your business far more than a doughnut and super-sized soda. Why it's so special: This fish contains high levels of omega 3 fatty acids, linked to decreased rates of heart disease. How it helps energize you: Salmon is a good source of protein, which can help improve your alertness and performance. Why it's so special: These nuts are packed with fiber, protein and healthy fat to fill you up and curb cravings. You Might Also Like... Theory of cliodynamics uses science to predict history, sees violence erupt in cycles. Two More Nearing AIDS 'Cure' After Bone Marrow Transplants, Doctors Say : Shots - Health Blog. Hide captionTimothy Ray Brown, shown in May 2011 with his dog Jack in San Francisco, is the only man ever known to have been fully cured from AIDS.
Brown is known as the "Berlin patient" because he had a bone marrow transplant in a German hospital five years ago. Eric Risberg/AP Timothy Ray Brown, shown in May 2011 with his dog Jack in San Francisco, is the only man ever known to have been fully cured from AIDS. Brown is known as the "Berlin patient" because he had a bone marrow transplant in a German hospital five years ago. The so-called Berlin patient is famously the only person in the world who has been cured of HIV. Two people in Boston also seem to be free of HIV after undergoing bone marrow transplants for cancer, just as the Berlin patient did five years ago.
Harvard researchers got an enthusiastic response from an overflow crowd when they presented the first report on the patients at the 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C. Dr. The Higgs Boson, a Blip That Speaks of Our Place in the Universe. REVELATION A computer-generated image shows a typical proton collision of the kind that produced evidence of a particle thought to be the Higgs boson.
The “,” proposed almost 50 years ago to allow for consistency between theoretical predictions and experimental observations in elementary particle physics, appears to have been discovered — even as the detailed nature of the discovery allows room for even more exotic revelations that may be just around the corner. It is natural for those not deeply involved in the half-century quest for the Higgs to ask why they should care about this seemingly esoteric discovery.
There are three reasons. First, it caps one of the most remarkable intellectual adventures in human history — one that anyone interested in the progress of knowledge should at least be aware of. And finally, the effort to uncover this tiny particle represents the very best of what the process of science can offer to modern civilization. Dr.