Nanoscale Topography: Aptamer-Mediated Efficient Capture and Release of T Lymphocytes on Nanostructured Surfaces (Adv. Mater. 38/2011) - Chen - 2011 - Advanced Materials. Elon Musk's SpaceX to build 'Grasshopper' hover-rocket. High performance access to file storage SpaceX, the upstart start-up rocket company founded by famous techwealth kingpin Elon Musk, is to build and test-fly a "Grasshopper" hover rocket based on the massive first-stage fuel tank of the company's Falcon 9 vehicle, capable of carrying ten tonnes of cargo or seven people into orbit. As yet SpaceX is not discussing the Grasshopper publicly, but we learn some interesting details of the new craft from an environmental impact statement covering planned test flights filed with the Federal Aviation Administration (65-page PDF/1.4MB).
According to the filing, the Grasshopper is seen as a "Reusable Launch Vehicle" (RLV). It will be 106ft tall, and built around the first-stage fuel tank of the existing Falcon 9 rocket stack: The Grasshopper RLV consists of a Falcon 9 Stage 1 tank, a Merlin-1D engine, four steel landing legs, and a steel support structure. SpaceX is not alone in investigating such plans. ‘Flesh-eating’ bug in the news. New research has found that the incidence of a tissue damaging bacterial infection – necrotising fascitits – is rising in New Zealand. National media have been quick to report on the increases in cases of ‘flesh-eating’ bacteria. The research, published in the Journal of Infection, shows that necrotising fascitits has risen from fewer than 10 cases a year in 1990 to more than 70 cases a year in 2006. Necrotising fasciitis is a severe bacterial infection commonly caused by Group A Streptococcus (GAS). It results in the rapid destruction of soft tissue, with most severely affected people requiring extensive surgery and sometimes amputation of limbs to prevent infection spread.
Although the authors of the research cannot say exactly why cases of condition are increasing, they suggest that greater virulence of the infecting bacteria, decreased resistance due to other chronic illnesses and other environmental factors could all play a role. Media coverage: Spanish scientists trial promising HIV vaccine.
Researchers at the Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) have successfully completed Phase I human clinical trials of a HIV vaccine that came out with top marks after 90% of volunteers developed an immunological response against the virus. The MVA-B vaccine draws on the natural capabilities of the human immune system and "has proven to be as powerful as any other vaccine currently being studied, or even more", says Mariano Esteban, head researcher from CSIC's National Biotech Centre. View all The MVA-B vaccine first showed promising signs back in 2008 when clinical trials involving mice and macaque monkeys demonstrated a very high efficiency against Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).
The recent human trials involved 30 healthy volunteers, where 24 were treated with MVA-B, while the other 6 were treated with a placebo, carried out over a 48 week period. Development of MVA-B is based on the insertion of four HIV genes in a previously used vaccine (MVA) for smallpox. Women have stronger immune systems than men -- and it's all down to X-chromosome related microRNA. As anyone familiar with the phrase 'man-flu' will know women consider themselves to be the more robust side of the species when it comes to health and illness. Now new research, published in BioEssays, seems to support the idea. The research focuses on the role of MicroRNAs encoded on the X chromosome to explain why women have stronger immune systems to men and are less likely to develop cancer.
The research, led by Dr Claude Libert from Ghent University in Belgium, focused on MicroRNA, tiny strains of ribonucleic acid which alongside DNA and proteins, make up the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life. "Statistics show that in humans, as with other mammals, females live longer than males and are more able to fight off shock episodes from sepsis, infection or trauma," said Libert. "We believe this is due to the X chromosome which in humans contains 10% of all microRNAs detected so far in the genome. Science Magazine: Sign In. As an echolocating bat closes in on a flying insect, it increases call emission to rates beyond 160 calls per second. This high call rate phase, dubbed the terminal buzz, has proven enigmatic because it is unknown how bats are able to produce calls so quickly.
We found that previously More As an echolocating bat closes in on a flying insect, it increases call emission to rates beyond 160 calls per second. This high call rate phase, dubbed the terminal buzz, has proven enigmatic because it is unknown how bats are able to produce calls so quickly. We found that previously unknown and highly specialized superfast muscles power rapid call rates in the terminal buzz. Additionally, we show that laryngeal motor performance, not overlap between call production and the arrival of echoes at the bat’s ears, limits maximum call rate.
Superfast muscles are rare in vertebrates and always associated with extraordinary motor demands on acoustic communication. Superluminal Neutrinos Would Wimp Out En Route | Degrees of Freedom. The heat is on, too Neutrinos that go beyond light speed? Not so fast, say two theoretical physicists. In a terse, peremptory-sounding paper posted online on September 29, Andrew Cohen and Sheldon Glashow of Boston University calculate that any neutrinos traveling faster than light would radiate energy away, leaving a wake of slower particles analogous to the sonic boom of a supersonic fighter jet.
Their findings cast doubt on the veracity of measurements recently announced at CERN (and posted online here) that clocked neutrinos going a sliver faster than light. For someone who may have just helped to save the edifice of modern physics (if it was ever really at risk of crumbling down), Cohen is not especially upbeat or relieved. The result announced at CERN on September 23 (although the news had leaked out ahead of time) was certainly unexpected.
So, Cohen and Glashow (the latter a Nobel Prize winner) looked at precisely the high-energy kind of neutrinos that are detected at Gran Sasso. Faster-than-light neutrinos could be proof of extra dimensions. Similarly, how can I get my ice cream scoops to jump between flavours and manipulate them? Because my wife is always buying Chocolate, but I prefer Strawberry and would like it to be in the shape of a bunny rabbit. Three main issues I see with that. First, neutrinos fluctuate seemingly at random. The type is also created at random. So that's the big if you mentioned. Second, the only way we know of to create neutrinos is through nuclear fusion, very high energy particle collisions (such as those caused by cosmic rays or in a particle accelerator), or radioactive decay. Finally, detecting neutrinos is very difficult. On a planetary scale fiber optics work fine. There are times I wish I were a physicist.
I am no expert but that doesn't sound right. Why scientists should read science fiction | Culturing Science. Republished with scant edits from the previous iteration of Culturing Science on July 20, 2010. A great blog post about fiction inspiring science by Uta Frith reminded me of this old friend. Hat tip to Princess Ojiaku. Planet Comics #4 (1940), in the public domain I didn’t really grow up reading science fiction. Sure, I was (and am) completely obsessed with some fantasy novels (e.g.
My favorite stories are those that feel as though their coming true is just beyond the horizon. Some scientists might write this kind of anxious thinking off as trash. EC Comic's "Weird Science" #6 (1951) Sci-fi also provides a venue for discerning how our ways of thinking about science have developed historically. And sometimes the stories told ended up being truths nowadays. All I know is it’s really the end of the beginning. Gives you shivers, eh? Science is about that excitement.
Science fiction can remind us of this wonderment and hope. From "Weird Science" #6 (1951) Why Facebook's new Open Graph makes us all part of the web underclass | Technology. When you own a domain you're a first class citizen of the web. A householder and landowner. What you can do on your own website is only very broadly constrained by law and convention. You can post the content you like. You can run the software you want, including software you've written or customised yourself. And you can design it to look the way you want. If you use a paid-for web service at someone else's domain you're a tenant.
Welcome to the web underclass When you use a free web service you're the underclass. The conclusion here should be obvious: if you really care about your site you need to run it on your own domain. But it's no longer that simple. Anyone who's ever run a website knows that building the site is one thing, but getting people to use it is quite another. Traffic used to come from three places: the real world (print advertising, business cards, word of mouth, etc), search engines and inbound links. Social networks have changed all that. Antisocial networking. Myco-bio-diesel « The Hyphal Tip. Science Magazine: Sign In.