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How to use Amazon Cloud supercomputers to view molecules in remarkable detail

Cloud computing code speeds processing of data-intensive microscopy data
February 5, 2013

Salk Institute for Biological Studies researchers have shared a how-to secret for biologists: code for Amazon Cloud that significantly reduces the time necessary to process data-intensive microscopic images.

The method promises to speed research into the underlying causes of disease by making single-molecule microscopy of practical use for more laboratories.

“This is an extremely cost-effective way for labs to process super-resolution images,” says … read more

Topics: Biotech | Computers/Infotech/UI

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Defect-free graphene discovery could led to large-scale manufacturing of graphene-based devices

New method could open the way to large-scale manufacturing of graphene-based devices with applications in fields such as electronics, energy, and healthcare
February 5, 2013

Scanning Electron Microscope image of well-aligned hexagonal graphene domains (credit:

A team led by Oxford University scientists has overcome a key problem of growing graphene — a one atom-thick layer of carbon — without the defects that weaken it and prevent electrons from flowing freely within it when using chemical vapor deposition.

With the previous methods, tiny flakes of graphene form with random orientations, leaving defects or seams between flakes that grow together.… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Dramatic improvements in quantum-dot performance

New production method could enable everything from more efficient computer displays to enhanced biomedical testing
February 5, 2013

An MIT  research team has developed a major new process for producing quantum dots with four important qualities:

  • uniform sizes and shapes;
  • bright emissions, producing close to 100 percent emission efficiency;
  • a very narrow peak of emissions, meaning that the colors emitted by the particles can be precisely controlled;
  • elimination of a tendency to blink on and off, which

… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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British Army deploys tiny helicopters

February 4, 2013

MINIATURE SURVEILLANCE HELICOPTERS HELP PROTECT FRONTLINE TROOPS

A tiny remote-control helicopter is being used for surveillance on the front line to detect enemy threats to British troops.

British troops are using a nano drone just 10cm long and weighing 16 grams on the front line in Afghanistan to provide vital information on the ground, Sky News reports.

They are the first to use the state-of-the-art handheld tiny surveillance helicopters, which relay reliable full… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Survival/Defense

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If you give people virtual superpowers, will they use those abilities for good or evil?

February 4, 2013

superman

Researchers at Stanford recently investigated the subject by giving people the ability of Superman-like flight in the university’s Virtual Human Interaction Laboratory (VHIL).

While several studies have shown that playing violent videogames can encourage aggressive behavior, the new research suggests that games could be designed to train people to be more empathetic in the real world.

To test this hypothesis, the group — which… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics

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Mind-meld brain power is best for steering spaceships

February 4, 2013

bci_essex

Researchers are discovering that they get better results in some tasks by combining the signals from multiple brain-computer interface (BCI) users.

Until now, this “collaborative BCI” technique has been used in simple pattern-recognition tasks, but a team at the University of Essex in the UK wanted to test it more rigorously, New Scientist reports.

So they developed a simulator in which pairs of BCI… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Human Enhancement | Space

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Software predicts tomorrow’s news by analyzing today’s and yesterday’s

February 4, 2013

800px-World_newspapers_

Prototype software can give early warnings of disease or violence outbreaks by spotting clues in news reports.

Researchers have created software that predicts when and where disease outbreaks might occur, based on two decades of New York Times articles and other online data. The research comes from Microsoft and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, MIT Technology Review reports.

The system could someday help aid organizations and… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

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Meta’s AR headset lets you play with virtual objects in 3D space

February 4, 2013

meta_ar_concept_2

A new augmented reality headset from Meta puts a full twin-display digital environment — controlled by two-hand 3D tracking — in front of the user, Slashgear reports.

The prototype headset uses Epson Moverio BT-100 see-through glasses with a low-latency 3D camera mounted on top.

Both components reportedly feed into custom electronics in a separate wearable computer, which can track individual fingertips and… read more

Topics: VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics

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Could stem cells repair damaged cones in retinas, allowing for daylight color vision?

Yet another awesome zebrafish story.
February 4, 2013

Zebrafish cone photoreceptor mosaic (credit: Brittany Fraser et al./PLOS ONE

University of Alberta (UA) researchers have discovered that a zebrafish’s stem cells can selectively regenerate its damaged photoreceptor cells.

UA lead researcher Ted Allison says that for some time geneticists have known that stem cells in zebrafish can replace damaged vision cells.

Rods and cones are the most important photoreceptors. In humans, rods provide us with night vision while cones give us… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

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Drug-delivery nanoparticles mimic white blood cells to avoid immune rejection

February 4, 2013

Camouflaged nanoparticles (yellow) cloaked in the membranes of white blood cells rest on the surface of an immune system cell (phagocyte, blue) without being recognized, ingested, and destroyed (credit: Methodist Hospital, Houston)

Scientists at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute have found a possible way to fool the immune system to prevent it from recognizing and destroying nanoparticles before they deliver their drug payloads.

“Our goal was to make a particle that is camouflaged within our bodies and escapes the surveillance of the immune system to reach its target undiscovered,” said Department of Medicine Co-Chair Ennio Tasciotti, Ph.D.,… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Watching fish thinking

February 1, 2013

zebrafish_thinking

Neuroscientists have found a way to watch neurons fire in an independently moving animal for the first time. The study was done in fish, but it may hold clues to how the human brain works, Science Now reports.

Junichi Nakai of Saitama University’s Brain Science Institute in Japan and colleagues selected a glowing marker known as green fluorescent protein (GFP) and linked it to a compound that… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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Tools of modern gunmaking: plastic and a 3D printer

February 1, 2013

30 round magazine opened in FreeCAD (credit: Distributed Defense)

Representative Steve Israel, Democrat of New York wants to extend an existing law, set to expire this year, that makes weapons that are undetectable by security scanners — like a printed all-plastic gun — illegal, The New York Times reports.

But there are also major technical obstacles to creating an entire gun on a 3-D printer, not the least of which is that a plastic gun would… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science | Survival/Defense

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First artificial enzyme created by evolution in a test tube

February 1, 2013

3-D structure of the evolved enzyme (an RNA ligase), using 10 overlaid snapshots. In the top region, the overlays show the range of bending and folding flexibility in the amino acid chain that forms the molecule. The two gray balls are zinc ions. (Credit: University of Minnesota)

There’s a wobbly new biochemical structure in Burckhard Seelig’s lab at the University of Minnesota that may resemble what enzymes looked like billions of years ago, when life on earth began to evolve.

Seelig created the fledgling enzyme by using directed evolution in the laboratory.

Working with team members, he subsequently determined its structure.. Lab tests show that the enzyme… read more

Topics: Biotech | Synthetic Biology

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Bio-inspired catalyst to lower cost of producing hydrogen

February 1, 2013

Bioinspired iron-based catalyst. Key atoms and groups are indicated. The color convention throughout is Fe atoms, brown; S atoms, yellow; P atoms, violet; C atoms, gray; N atoms, blue; O atoms, red; and H atoms, white. (Credit: Patrick H.-L. Sit et al./PNAS)

Hydro­gen has tremen­dous poten­tial as an eco-friendly fuel, but it is expen­sive to pro­duce. Now researchers at Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity and Rut­gers Uni­ver­sity have moved a step closer to har­ness­ing nature to pro­duce hydro­gen.

The team, led by Prince­ton chem­istry pro­fes­sor Annabella Sel­l­oni, takes inspi­ra­tion from bac­te­ria that make hydro­gen from water, using enzymes called di-iron hydro­ge­nases.

Cheap components = cost-effective

They used… read more

Topics: Biotech | Energy | Environment/Climate

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Building a lunar base with 3D printing

February 1, 2013

Lunar base made with 3D printing (credit: ESA)

Setting up a lunar base could be made much simpler by using a 3D printer to build it from local materials.

Renowned architects Foster + Partners have joined with ESA to test the feasibility of 3D printing using simulated lunar soil (regolith).

The architects devised a weight-bearing “catenary” dome design with a cellular structured wall to shield against micrometeoroids and space radiation, incorporating a… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science | Space

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