The First Brain Transplant

Researchers Create the World's First Fully Synthetic, Self-Repli If figuring out how to quickly sequence genomes was but the first small step for genetics, Craig Venter has gone ahead and made a giant leap for the discipline. The J. Craig Venter Institute announced today that it has created the world's first synthetic cell, boasting a completely synthetic chromosome produced by a machine. "This is the first self-replicating species we've had on the planet whose parent is a computer," Venter said in a press conference. The biological breakthrough could have myriad applications, as it essentially opens the door to engineered biology that is completely manipulated by laboratory scientists. Though a bacteria cell was the final product in this particular experiment, eukaryotic yeast was a critical player in the process. The yeast first linked the shorter snippets (just over 1,000 base pairs each) together into longer 10,000 base pair strands. "Every component in the cell comes from the synthetic genome," Venter said. [J.

Accelerating Future » Top 10 Transhumanist Technologies Transhumanists advocate the improvement of human capacities through advanced technology. Not just technology as in gadgets you get from Best Buy, but technology in the grander sense of strategies for eliminating disease, providing cheap but high-quality products to the world’s poorest, improving quality of life and social interconnectedness, and so on. Technology we don’t notice because it’s blended in with the fabric of the world, but would immediately take note of its absence if it became unavailable. (Ever tried to travel to another country on foot?) Technology needn’t be expensive – indeed, if a technology is truly effective it will pay for itself many times over. Transhumanists tend to take a longer-than-average view of technological progress, looking not just five or ten years into the future but twenty years, thirty years, and beyond. 10. 9. Clearly, World of Warcraft’s eight million subscribers and SecondLife’s five million subscribers are onto something. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2.

Neural Stimulator The goal of building this hardware was to create a stimulation system that could operate in a real-time feedback or control paradigm as well as the more traditional program mode (e.g., LTP protocols). Basically, to stimulate at any location and any time in response to ongoing activity measured with the MEA1060 amplifier. Command syntax: stim ch# or stim ch#,ch#,... setv setw delayms delays exec gnd ch# ungnd ch# Limitations: -Voltage stimulation only...obviously if you change or add an additional DAC you could do current as well..

Open Education and Bio380 lecture on Neanderthals This academic year I have set myself the goal of making all my lecture available for all, in the public domain, via YouTube and maybe also Slideshare. The technical side of doing this is fairly straightforward (capture a screen movie via QuickTime), but the major hassle is ensuring and documenting permissions for all images. In my first attempt, I quickly realised that putting this information on the same slides as the images led to cluttered chaos, so I have piled them all up at the end of the talk. It is unclear to me what the rules are about using material from published papers, but cannot see how authors would not want students to know about their work. It will be interesting to see if anyone other than my own students look at this stuff, but here we go, the game's afoot! Here is my first lecture for this year from the Bio380 course: Waking the Dead, on Neanderthals and their influence on the modern human gene pool. Slidecast via YouTubeSlides via Slideshare

molecules storage Storage is a very exciting thing these days: SSDs are increasing in capacity and becoming cheaper, hard drives are offering storage capacity that’s unprecedented at the consumer level, and recently, scientists have been able to store significant amounts of data using unusual mediums, such as strings of DNA and small groups of atoms. Now, scientists have managed to store data in individual molecules. Using a new, still-experimental technology, researchers have managed to turn individual molecules into a storage medium. In theory, this molecular memory could increase current storage capacities by one thousand times over more conventional means. Molecular memory isn’t an entirely new concept but there have always been significant hurdles, the first of which is no stranger to the computing world: cooling. Previously, molecular memory needed to be cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero — not exactly practical. [Image credit: Wallsonline]

Protocols PEI cc-4195 PEI from clonetics mixed with cc-4196 PBS Below is the procedure for preparing 1X PEI Plating Substrate using Cloneticsâ„¢ 5% PEI stock solution and Borate Buffer Solution. 1. Prepare PEI Plating Substrate to a final concentration of 0.05% (1X): Make a 1:100 dilution of the 5% PEI Plating Substrate stock solution using Borate buffer, and filter through a 0.2 micron filter. Store under sterile conditions at 4_C for up to 1 month. Dnase Vial, PDS Earle's Balanced Salt Solution, PDS Ovomucoid Inhibitor Vial, PDS Papain Vial, PDS Introduction Proteolytic enzymes are widely used in cell dissociation. The Worthington Papain Dissociation System is a set of reagents intended for use in the tissue dissociation method of Huettner and Baughman. The reagents are stable at ambient temperatures for the periods of time expected in normal shipping procedures, but the package should be refrigerated upon arrival and can be stored at 4-8°C for up to four months before use. Procedure 1. ï€

Handmade Books The last couple weeks I have been learning how to make books as part of my internship at the Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory. One of the most basic sewn bookbinding structures is called Japanese Stab Binding. It involves lining up the pages and covers of the soon-to-be book, making a series of holes, and sewing along the edge of the stack. These books are all made using scraps of leftover and recycled paper. The covers include handmade papers, maps from an old atlas, and an old field guide for identifying trees. The smaller books are made using lined notebook paper, pieces of scrapbook paper leftover from making cards, and empty Kleenex boxes.

inversion vieillissement A technique to keep the tips of your chromosomes healthy could reverse tissue ageing. The work, which was done in mice, is yet more evidence of a causal link between chromosome length and age-related disease. Telomeres, the caps of DNA which protect the ends of chromosomes, shorten every time cells divide. But cells stop dividing and die when telomeres drop below a certain length – a normal part of ageing. The enzyme telomerase slows this degradation by adding new DNA to the ends of telomeres. Mariela Jaskelioff and her colleagues at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, engineered mice with short telomeres and inactive telomerase to see what would happen when they turned the enzyme back on. Four weeks after the team switched on the enzyme, they found that tissue had regenerated in several organs, new brain cells were developing and the mice were living longer. Journal reference: Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature09603 More From New Scientist Celery power (New Scientist)

BrainBits LLC Cute Notebook just a notebook but it's all hopped up on cuteness. simple fun notebooks from wal-mart....with many many ribbons tied to the side. that's it. this is the mysterious crayon project! using old crayons...i made new ones. (you can make ice or bake in them too.) first break the crayons up and put the pieces into the shapes on the trays. set the silicone trays on a cookie sheet for stability. preheat your oven to 250-ish. put sheet of trays into the warm oven and check at 10 minutes. when all the crayons pieces have become liquid....they are done! remove the sheet from the oven and let cool for at least an hour...or 3 or 4. the liquid wax was beautiful! i was loving it! i wanted to pour it all over something and paint with it. maybe another time.... each letter crayon is about 2 inches tall. they are still crayons.... just now instead of being dull shaped old crayons in the bottom of the box they are adorable bright alphabet shapes. i love them. and now for the new obsession. it's SO EXCITING!!! and voila!