Epigenetics enigma resolved: First structure of enzyme that removes methylation. Scientists have obtained the first detailed molecular structure of a member of the Tet family of enzymes. The finding is important for the field of epigenetics because Tet enzymes chemically modify DNA, changing signposts that tell the cell's machinery "this gene is shut off" into other signs that say "ready for a change. " Tet enzymes' roles have come to light only in the last five years; they are needed for stem cells to maintain their multipotent state, and are involved in early embryonic and brain development and in cancer. The results, which could help scientists understand how Tet enzymes are regulated and look for drugs that manipulate them, are scheduled for publication in Nature. Researchers led by Xiaodong Cheng, PhD, determined the structure of a Tet family member from Naegleria gruberi by X-ray crystallography. The structure shows how the enzyme interacts with its target DNA, bending the double helix and flipping out the base that is to be modified.
Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using light, nanoparticles. Researchers from the University of Houston have found a catalyst that can quickly generate hydrogen from water using sunlight, potentially creating a clean and renewable source of energy. Their research, published online Sunday in Nature Nanotechnology, involved the use of cobalt oxide nanoparticles to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Jiming Bao, lead author of the paper and an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UH, said the research discovered a new photocatalyst and demonstrated the potential of nanotechnology in engineering a material's property, although more work remains to be done. Bao said photocatalytic water-splitting experiments have been tried since the 1970s, but this was the first to use cobalt oxide and the first to use neutral water under visible light at a high energy conversion efficiency without co-catalysts or sacrificial chemicals.
Ucadi ·: How much are you worth as a slave (animal) vs. a thing (stock)? The First Civilization. Magnetic materials: Forging ahead with a back-to-basics approach. Scientists have recently started to explore the possibility of using an intrinsic property of the electron known as spin for processing and storing information. Magnetic fields can influence the dynamics of electron spin, so harnessing this potential relies on precision engineering of crystalline storage materials. Chee Kwan Gan and co‐workers at the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing and the A*STAR Data Storage Institute in Singapore have used theoretical calculations to show how the magnetic characteristics of specific materials can be controlled at the atomic level. Their results could lead to novel magnetic recording devices. One promising route to such spintronic devices is to design structures consisting of alternating layers of different magnetic atoms.
The properties of these structures, however, are highly sensitive to the precise arrangement of the crystal. The researchers modeled a material consisting of alternating layers of cobalt and palladium atoms. Electrical control of single atom magnets. The energy needed to change the magnetic orientation of a single atom – which determines its magnetic stability and therefore its usefulness in a variety of future device applications – can be modified by varying the atom's electrical coupling to nearby metals. This striking result was published today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology by an international group of scientists working at the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) at UCL (UK), the Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (Portugal), the University of Zaragoza (Spain), and the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics (Germany).
Anyone playing with two magnets can experience how they repel or attract each other depending on the relative orientation of their magnetic poles. The fact that in a given magnet these poles lie along a specific direction rather than being randomly oriented is known as magnetic anisotropy, and this property is exploited in a variety of applications ranging from compass needles to hard drives.
Conservatives erase Internet history - Public Sector IT. The Conservative Party has attempted to erase a 10-year backlog of speeches from the internet, including pledges for a new kind of transparent politics the prime minister and chancellor made when they were campaigning for election. Prime minister David Cameron and chancellor George Osborne campaigned on a promise to democratise information held by those in power, so people could hold them to account.
They wanted to use the internet transform politics. But the Conservative Party has removed the archive from its public facing website, erasing records of speeches and press releases going back to the year 2000 and up until it was elected in May 2010. It also struck the record of their past speeches off internet engines including Google, which had been a role model for Cameron and Osborne's "open source politics". Sometime after 5 October, when Computer Weekly last took a snapshot of a Conservative speech from the Internet Archive, the Tory speech and news archive was eradicated. A Startup Envisions a Low-Power, Long-Range Internet of Things. The iPhone wouldn’t stop chirping. On a recent morning I was riding in a car through Silicon Valley with three people from a startup called Iotera. A small tracking tag was attached to the passenger-side sun visor.
Our mission was to see how far we could drive from Iotera’s office building before the tag would stop transmitting its location to a small base station on the building’s roof—which meant the location-logging app on the phone would go silent. It took several miles. That’s good news for Iotera, which is developing tracking technology that can work throughout cities without requiring access to a commercial wireless network or even a short-range wireless protocol like Bluetooth. The system uses GPS-embedded tags that can last for months on a single charge, occasionally sending their coordinates over unlicensed wireless spectrum to small base stations with a range of several miles. Iotera is taking a risk by trying to sell its own wireless base stations.
The Printer That Can Print A 2,500 Square Foot House In 20 Hours. We have seen huge advancements in 3D printing. We’ve even seen oversized wrenches printed that measure 1.2 meters in length. Now, we can print an entire 2,500 sqft house in 20 hours. In the TED Talk video below, Behrokh Khoshnevis, a professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC), demonstrates automated construction, using 3D printers to build an entire house in 20 hours. In manufacturing we use a process called CAD/CAM (computer-aided design / computer-aided manufacturing). 3D models are designed on a computer and then manufactured using CNC Machines or 3D printers.
The design is manufactured into a physical object automatically, with instruction from 3D computer model to physical object without human interface. In this video, we see a prototype of a machine called ‘Contour Crafting’ Michael Cooney Michael Cooney, the founder of EngNet, worked as a project engineer for many years sourcing equipment. Karen Hudes speaks to Freedom Central. Fire Update: Lost Many Cameras, 20 Boxes. No One Hurt. | Internet Archive Blogs. Scanning Center with Fire Damage to Left of Main Building As fires go, we were lucky.
We are still assessing what happened but this is where we stand: * No one was hurt. * Lost a 130 sq meter side-building (1300 sq feet) that held scanning equipment. . * We lost maybe 20 boxes of books and film, some irreplaceable, most already digitized, and some replaceable. . * We do not know the cause, but there is no evidence of foul play. * An outpouring of support has lead to over 1500 donations totaling over $60,000 in the first 2 days. . * No servers were affected. . * All employees of the scanning center were back scanning again, using repurposed equipment, within 48 hours. . * Despite the fire, we were able to hold a pre-planned event celebrating the birthday of Aaron Swartz 3 days after the fire. All in all we were lucky, and we are very thankful for the support from everyone. Lets keep making copies– a key towards preservation and access. Thank you, all. Original Post: Fire in the Scanning Center Funding.
ICC: Support Justice, Reject Immunity. Member countries of the International Criminal Court (ICC) should reject efforts to provide immunity from prosecution to sitting government leaders, Human Rights Watch said today. The court’s 122 member countries are expected to take part in the annual session of the Assembly of States Parties, which begins on November 20, 2013, in The Hague. At the request of the African Union (AU), a special segment of the meeting will discuss the indictment of heads of state in office and its impact on peace and stability.
In October the AU called for immunity from prosecution for sitting national leaders, and for the suspension of the ICC’s cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto of Kenya. On November 14, an AU-endorsed request to suspend the cases against Kenyatta and Ruto failed to obtain enough votes in the United Nations Security Council for passage. The court’s jurisdiction over alleged international crimes may be triggered in one of three ways. News and information for McMinnville and Yamhill Valley, Oregon - wine country newspaper. UPDATE: State filing confirms shutdown, Nov. 30 to be last day of operations Marcus Larson/News-RegisterEvergreen Airlines, the key subsidiary of Evergreen International Aviation, headquartered on Highway 18, will close shop later this month. Nov 7, 2013 By Nicole MontesanoOf the News-Register [UPDATE: State filing confirms Evergreen shutdown] Evergreen International Airlines — key remaining component of Evergreen International Aviation, following the selloff of its helicopter division — has announced to employees by voicemail that it will be closing its doors effective Friday, Nov. 29, according to current and former employees.
Calls seeking confirmation from the company were not returned. The closure will eliminate most of the parent company's remaining workforce. Former employees said the air cargo arm, which once ferried freight around the world in a fleet of 747s, has been laying off employees to the point where it is already down to a skeleton force.
Random: Effects. Notes.