USB stick can sequence DNA in seconds - 17 February 2012. By Duncan Graham-Rowe It may look like an ordinary USB memory stick, but a little gadget that can sequence DNA while plugged into your laptop could have far-reaching effects on medicine and genetic research. The UK firm Oxford Nanopore built the device, called MinION, and claims it can sequence simple genomes – like those of some viruses and bacteria – in a matter of seconds. More complex genomes would take longer, but MinION could also be useful for obtaining quick results in sequencing DNA from cells in a biopsy to look for cancer, for example, or to determine the genetic identity of bone fragments at an archaeological dig.
The company demonstrated today at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) conference in Marco Island, Florida, that MinION has sequenced a simple virus called Phi X, which contains 5000 genetic base pairs. Proof of principle Oxford Nanopore is also building a larger device, GridION, for lab use. Long strands, and simple Pocketful of DNA More on these topics: Get ready for ecosystem collapse in the years ahead. Psychologist admits to faking dozens of scientific studies. They don't become celebrities in the common sense, but they can become celebrities within the scientific community, which is just as big (or perhaps bigger) a deal to them than getting on Jay Leno for an interview.
They also do stand to make a lot of money because they will be asked to give lectures all over the place, which pulls a mighty good dollar if people like what they have to say. There's two kinds of money in academia. "Hard Money" and "Soft Money". Hard money comes from a regular, budgeted source (such as state allocation to the university) that can be counted on year after year. If you spend most of your time teaching, you're more likely to be on hard money. Obviously you'd like your salary to come from a dependable source. Soft Money is money that comes with an expiration date. In light of all of that, consider the pressure to present your research as the most valuable thing since water and the most infallible thing since Jesus.
Timeline of a mass extinction. Since the first organisms appeared on Earth approximately 3.8 billion years ago, life on the planet has had some close calls. In the last 500 million years, Earth has undergone five mass extinctions, including the event 66 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs. And while most scientists agree that a giant asteroid was responsible for that extinction, there’s much less consensus on what caused an even more devastating extinction more than 185 million years earlier. The end-Permian extinction occurred 252.2 million years ago, decimating 90 percent of marine and terrestrial species, from snails and small crustaceans to early forms of lizards and amphibians.
“The Great Dying,” as it’s now known, was the most severe mass extinction in Earth’s history, and is probably the closest life has come to being completely extinguished. Possible causes include immense volcanic eruptions, rapid depletion of oxygen in the oceans, and — an unlikely option — an asteroid collision. Japanese man calculates pi to 10 trillion digits | Crave. TOKYO--Who knew that "1989" was near the 10-trillionth digit in the value of pi? No one until now. Two years ago, I speculated that a computer in Kyoto or Osaka would calculate the value of pi to 10 trillion digits. I was wrong. The computer that apparently just clinched that record is in Nagano, Japan.
And unlike the T2K-Tsukuba System that charted the irrational number in 2009 to 2.5 trillion digits, the latest number-crunching champ isn't a supercomputer--it's a hacked-together PC. Shigeru Kondo of Iida, Nagano Prefecture, worked with software designed by Northwestern University grad student Alexander Yee, and followed up their 2010 feat of reckoning pi to 5 trillion digits. The result was achieved earlier this month after 371 days of computation and numerous hard drive failures. The work was not affected by the March earthquake and tsunami, or by subsequent power shortages, because Nagano is in central Japan and on a different power grid than the disaster zones.
What's next for pi? Strange Particles May Travel Faster Than Light, Breaking Law of Physics | Albert Einstein Theory of Special Relativity | Laws of Nature | Atom Smasher & Neutrinos. This story was updated at 6:20 p.m. EDT. Nothing goes faster than the speed of light. At least, we didn't think so. New results from the CERN laboratory in Switzerland seem to break this cardinal rule of physics, calling into question one of the most trusted laws discovered by Albert Einstein. Physicists have found that tiny particles called neutrinos are making a 454-mile (730-kilometer) underground trip faster than they should — more quickly, in fact, than light could do.
If the results are confirmed, they could throw much of modern physics into upheaval. "The consequences would be absolutely revolutionary and very profound," said physicist Robert Plunkett of the Fermilab laboratory in Batavia, Ill., who was not involved in the new study. Rewriting the rules The OPERA experiment at the CERN physics laboratory in Geneva sends tiny particles called neutrinos vast distances to study their properties. Backbone of physics But this doesn't mean that the OPERA results are wrong, Fox said.
Synthetic Life May Reveal Origins of Natural Life. After he announced the creation of the first organism with a fully synthetic genome last Thursday, Craig Venter, founder of the genomics research institute that bears his name, went on to talk about how this breakthrough will benefit industries like pharmaceuticals, energy and materials. In his explanation of the methods used to create the synthetic bacterium, Venter highlighted an important use for synthetic organisms: research. Like living test tubes, bacteria created by scientists could serve as controlled platforms for experiments by reducing the complexity that obscures the workings of many biological systems. This work could lead to staggering findings in two major ways. First, cells with synthetic genomes could allow scientists to essentially snip out the complexities of living cells leaving only the simpler parts.
Designing more elegant experiments In natural cells, a vast array of chemical reactions constantly takes place. Breathing life into fossils First life on Earth. Little Elephant Shows Big Brains | Problem Solving, Elephants & Tool Use. A 7-year-old Asian elephant named Kandula at the Smithsonian National Zoo wowed his keepers when he devised a strategy to use a large plastic cube to obtain out-of-reach food. And when the cube wasn't around, Kandula found other means, including using a tire and stacking multiple, smaller objects, to reach toward the food. [Elephant Images: The Biggest Beasts on Land] The researchers said he seems to have thought out the strategy all on his own, making Kandula one smart elephant.
What sets this apart from regular tool use is that the solution comes to the animal without any trial and error, as if he can conceptualize the problem and its solution. This aha moment — the split second spark of genius resulting in the sudden arrival of a solution to a problem — is a common human experience. It's even seen throughout the animal kingdom; chimpanzees and baboons do it, as do rooks and a parrot species called the kea. Light bulb! Elephant thoughts. Better than Superman? X-Ray Microscope Enables Nanovision | X-ray Diffraction Microscope | Energy & Technology. Forget X-ray glasses. A new X-ray microscope can see details a small as a billionth of a meter — without even using a lens. Instead, the new microscope uses a powerful computer program to convert patterns from X-rays bouncing off materials into images of objects as small as a one nanometer across, on the scale of a few atoms. Unlike Superman's X-ray vision, which allows him to look through walls to see the bad guys beyond, the new technology could be used to look at different elements inside a material, or to image viruses, cells and tissue in great detail, said study researcher Oleg Shpyrko, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego.
But one of the most important applications is in nano-sized engineering, Shpyrko said. "We can make things at nanoscale, but we can't see them very well," Shpyrko told LiveScience. To test the program, the researchers created a layered film made of the elements iron and gadolinium. Can Life Evolve From a Different Chemical Code? | Life Evolution In the Universe | Alien Life & Extraterrestrial Life. All life on Earth relies on a standard set of 20 molecules called amino acids to build the proteins that carry out life's essential actions. But did it have to be this way? All living creatures on this planet use the same 20 amino acids, even though there are hundreds available in nature.
Scientists therefore have wondered if life could have arisen based on a different set of amino acids. And what's more, could life exist elsewhere that utilizes an alternate collection of building blocks? [5 Bold Claims of Alien Life] "Life has been using a standard set of 20 amino acids to build proteins for more than 3 billion years," said Stephen J. So Freeland and his University of Hawaii colleague Gayle K. Amino acids are molecules built primarily from carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. "Technically there is an infinite variety of amino acids," Freeland told Astrobiology Magazine. Testing the possibilities "We know that these three are important to the ways they build proteins," Freeland said. Synthetic Life Could Help Colonize Mars, Biologist Says | Synthetic Life & Human Spaceflight | Mars Exploration & Mars Settlement.
SAN FRANCISCO — Synthetic organisms engineered to use carbon dioxide as a raw material could help humans settle the planet Mars one day, a prominent biologist says. Man-made, CO2-munching lifeforms are already in the works, geneticist Craig Venter told a crowd here during an event called TEDxNASA@SiliconValley Wednesday night (Aug. 17). Venter and his team, who made headlines last year by creating the world's first synthetic organism, are trying to design cells that can use atmospheric carbon dioxide to make food, fuel, plastics and other products. This ability would obviously have huge implications here on Earth, but it could also help make Mars — whose thin atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide — a more livable place, Venter said. "These kinds of processes will allow us to make almost anything needed there from that CO2 environment," Venter said in a video presentation.
Synthetic life The feat was more than just a neat trick. Helping out on Earth, and beyond. Giant Space 'Blob' Glows Green From Galaxies Within | Studies of the Early Universe | Strange Structures in Space | LiveScience. A giant, glowing blob of gas – a cosmic relic of the early universe – is lit by galaxies within it, according to a new study. "We have shown for the first time that the glow of this enigmatic object is scattered light from brilliant galaxies hidden within, rather than the gas throughout the cloud itself shining," lead author Matthew Hayes, of the University of Toulouse in France, said about the Lyman-alpha blob, a rare and brightly lit gas cloud structure that is among the largest known objects. A team of astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT), located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, to study the Lyman-alpha blob.
These huge structures of hydrogen gas are usually seen in regions of the early universe where matter is concentrated. The astronomers found that the light coming from the blob was strangely polarized, and by studying this effect they were able to unlock the mystery of how the blob shines. A chemical that can turn your organs transparent. El primer insecto ciborg. IBM says new chip mimics the human brain | Geek Gestalt. Computers with processors that mimic the human brain's cognition, perception, and action abilities are a lot closer than they've ever been after IBM on Wednesday unveiled the first generation of chips that will power them. The announcement comes nearly three years after IBM and several university partners were awarded a grant by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to re-create the brain's perception, cognitive, sensation, interaction, and action abilities, while also simulating its efficient size and low-power consumption. The grant was part of Phase 2 of DARPA's Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) project, the goal of which, IBM said, is "to create a system that not only analyzes complex information from multiple sensory modalities at once but also dynamically rewires itself as it interacts with its environment--all while rivaling the brain's compact size and low-power usage.
" Others see even more potential applications. Nissan developing car that reads your thoughts | Crave. Road rage much? You might want to think twice about that if you're driving a mind-controlled car under development by Nissan. The automaker teamed up with Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) to create a vehicle that can anticipate maneuvers like turning left or right "after scanning the thought patterns of its driver. " In a similar vein, researchers at the Berlin Institute of Technology used a BMI (brain-machine interface) simulator that allowed drivers to stop 130 milliseconds faster via thought control than brakes alone. EPFL scientists have already enabled wheelchair users to steer with their minds through BMI technology, as seen in the vid below. That kind of piloting requires a high level of concentration, so the Swiss scientists are trying other methods to develop a driving system that can respond to less focused mental states.
Related stories Drivers put the brakes on with thought alone Prius Project concept bike lets you shift by thinking. LED Lights Make Augmented Vision a Reality | Elemental LEDucation. LED Lights Make Augmented Vision a Reality Okay, this is just freaky. We know LED lights are versatile enough to be used for practically anything, but LED contact lenses?
Really?! Yes, as it turns out, really. University of Washington researchers have figured out how to implant semitransparent red and blue LED lights in contact lenses, for the purpose of receiving and displaying data in sharp visual images and video. Once miniature green LEDs are developed (and they’re in the works, as of now), full color displays will be possible. Lead researcher Babak Parvis comments “You won’t necessarily have to shift your focus to see the image generated by the contact lens,” it would just appear in front of you and your view of the real world will be completely unobstructed when the display is turned off.
Ah, the real world. Thanks to Extreme Tech for the quote and Trendhunter for the images. The Secret of the Fibonacci Sequence in Trees. As I headed to the exhibit where the hamadryas baboons ( Papio hamadryas ) resided, I knew something interesting would happen over the next few hours. As I walked into the exhibit, I found two mothers pulling their infants' tails to keep them from straying. This particular act reminded me of how some parents put leashes on their children so they won't wander too far. This example demonstrated how similar the behavior of hamadryas baboons and humans can be. Throughout my life I have enjoyed observing animals and the way they interact with their surroundings. Walking through parks I have watched squirrels, birds and other animals, always curious to know what their actions meant.
Consequently, when I had the opportunity to study the hamadryas baboons at the Prospect Park Zoo, I decided to focus my research on their behavior. When I visit zoos, I always wonder how much the animals' behavior is affected by their captivity. Simen, a 19-year-old Alpha Male Figure 2: Completed Ethogram for Matara. Investigadores desarrollan materiales que se “regeneran” solos.
Credible or inedible? - opinion - 31 August 2011. Meat without slaughter: '6 months' to bio-sausages - science-in-society - 31 August 2011. Ability for Mathematics May Be Inborn: Scientific American Podcast. Breathing new life into Earth. How Nature and Biomimicry Make Us Smarter | Innovations. Floating City, Libertarian Colonies Close to Reality.
Oldest Fossil on Earth Found. NASA And Tor-Forge Books Partner In Themed Science Fiction Works.