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Boosting ‘cellular garbage disposal’ can delay the aging process, UCLA biologists report

May 8, 2013

In this image, fewer protein aggregates (green) accumulate in the aged fly brain when the gene parkin is overexpressed. (F-actin, a cytoskeleton protein, is seen in red and cell nuclei are seen in blue.) (Credit: Anil Rana/UCLA Life Sciences)

UCLA life scientists have identified a gene previously implicated in Parkinson’s disease that can delay the onset of aging and extend the healthy life span of fruit flies. The research, they say, could have important implications for aging and disease in humans.

The gene, called parkin, serves at least two vital functions: it marks damaged proteins so that cells can discard them before they become… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

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Injectable nano-network controls blood sugar in diabetics for days at a time

May 7, 2013

The nano-network releases insulin in response to changes in blood sugar (credit: Zhen Gu/NC State University)

In a promising development for type 1 diabetes treatment, researchers have developed a network of nanoscale particles that can be injected into the body and release insulin when blood-sugar levels rise, maintaining normal blood sugar levels for more than a week in animal-based laboratory tests.

The work was done by researchers at North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Massachusetts Institute… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Are you ready for RFID chips built into your money and documents?

May 7, 2013

ndsu_smart_paper_money

North Dakota State University. researchers have developed a new way of embedding traceable chips within “smart” paper — raising the possibility of banks and governments guarding against counterfeiting and even tracking the usage of paper money, IEEE Spectrum reports.

The new method of embedding radio frequency identification chips (RFID) in paper uses a patent-pending technology called Laser Enabled Advanced Packaging (LEAP) to transfer and assemble… read more

Topics: Electronics | Social/Ethical/Legal

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Fighting words against Big Data

May 7, 2013

who_owns_the_future

Jaron Lanier’s new tech manifesto, Who owns the future? “delivers “Olympian, contrarian fighting words about the Internet’s exploitative powers” and big Web entities and their business models, The New York Times reports.

The book reiteraties ideas from Lanier’s previous book — Web businesses exploit a peasant class, users of social media may not realize how entrapped they are, a thriving middle class is essential… read more

Topics: Internet/Telecom | Singularity/Futures | Social/Ethical/Legal

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Portable devices provide rapid, accurate diagnosis of tuberculosis, other bacterial infections

May 7, 2013

On this 2.5- by 7.5-cm cartridge, DNA extracted from sputum samples is amplified in the chambers on the left. TB-specific sequences are magnetically labeled in the microfluidic mixing channels in the center and detected by passage through the micro-NMR coil on the right. (Credit: Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital)

Two new portable diagnostic devices for rapid, accurate diagnosis of tuberculosis and other bacterial infections have been developed by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH),  Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and the Broad Institute.

A microfluidic device for diagnosing TB, other infectious bacteria

A handheld diagnostic device that MGH investigators first developed to diagnose cancer has been adapted to rapidly diagnose tuberculosis… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

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A ‘shockingly bright’ gamma-ray burst

May 7, 2013

Swift's X-Ray Telescope took this 0.1-second exposure of GRB 130427A at 3:50 a.m. EDT on April 27, just moments after Swift and Fermi triggered on the outburst. The image is 6.5 arcminutes across. (Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler)

A record-setting blast of gamma rays from a dying star in a galaxy about 3.6 billion light-years away has wowed astronomers around the world — the highest-energy light ever detected from such an event.

At 3:47 a.m. EDT, April 27, Fermi’s Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) triggered on an eruption, designated GRB 130427A, of high-energy light in the constellation Leo.

The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) recorded one gamma ray… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology

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First fully 3D-printed gun test-fired

May 7, 2013

liberator_1

Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson has test-fired the world’s first fully 3D-printed gun — “the Liberator.”

The CAD file is downloadable* at DEFCAD, operated by Defense Distributed — a “makeshift response to Makerbot Industries’ decision to censor files uploaded in good faith at Thingiverse, specifically firearms-related files.”

More

Meet The ‘Liberator’: Test-Firing The World’s First Fully 3D-Printed Gun… read more

Topics: Innovation/Entrepreneurship | Nanotech/Materials Science | Survival/Defense

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Scientists adroitly manipulate a quantum bit using laser light alone

May 6, 2013

An artist's rendering of all-optical control of an individual electronic spin within a diamond. This spin is associated with a naturally occurring defect in diamond known as the nitrogen-vacancy center, a promising quantum bit (qubit) for quantum information processing. In their recently published paper, Yale et al. develop techniques to initialize, manipulate, and read out the electronic spin of this qubit using only pulses of light. Image courtesy of Peter Allen. (Credit: UC Santa Barbara)

By using light, researchers at UC Santa Barbara have manipulated the quantum state of a single atomic-sized defect in diamond — the nitrogen-vacancy center — in a method that allows for more unified control than conventional processes.

The method is also more versatile, and opens up the possibility of exploring new solid-state quantum systems.

“In contrast to conventional electronics, we developed an all-optical scheme… read more

Topics: Quantum

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Turning human stem cells into brain cells sheds light on neural development

May 6, 2013

HumanIntrnrnPrecursrsMouseSliceMigratn

Scientists from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research have led a study team that has manipulated human stem cells into producing types of brain cells known to play important roles in neurodevelopmental disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and autism.

The new model cell system allows neuroscientists to investigate normal brain development, as well as to identify specific disruptions in biological signals… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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Scientists revolutionize creation of genetically altered mice to model human disease

May 6, 2013

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Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch, who helped transform the study of genetics by creating the first transgenic mouse in 1974, is again revolutionizing how genetically altered animal models are created and perhaps even redefining what species may serve as models.

“This new method is a game changer,” says Jaenisch, who is also a professor of biology at MIT. “We can now make a… read more

Topics: Biotech

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Government lab reveals it has operated quantum internet for over two years

May 6, 2013

QC_network

A quantum internet capable of sending perfectly secure messages has been running at Los Alamos National Labs for the last two and a half years, MIT Technology Review reports.

One of the dreams for security experts is the creation of a quantum internet using quantum cryptography that allows perfectly secure communication based on the powerful laws of quantum mechanics.

The researchers created a quantum network based around… read more

Topics: Electronics | Internet/Telecom | Quantum

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Quantum-assisted nano-imaging

May 6, 2013

Basic configuration of NV-NMR detection, showing sample geometry along the diamond axis with NV spin embedded 20-nm deep within 12C diamond layer. The NV center detects NMR of protons in the PMMA polymer layer. (Credit: H.J. Mamin et al./Science)

Two separate teams of researchers working on DARPA’s Quantum-Assisted Sensing and Readout (QuASAR) program, led by the University of Stuttgart in Germany and IBM’s Almaden Research Center, have developed a nanoscale magnetometer that enables magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with sufficient resolution to measure as few as 10,000 protons in a volume of only 125 cubic nanometers, which approaches the level of individual protein molecules. … read more

Topics: Biotech | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Physics/Cosmology | Quantum

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3D-imaging brain tissue at 1 micron resolution

May 6, 2013

Image of the cerebral vascular system of a mouse obtained by 3D two-photon microscopy with addition of Lem-PHEA. (Credit: © B. van der Sanden and F. Appaix (Institut des Neurosciences de Grenoble))

A fluorescent dye that enables high-resolution (about 1 micron) 3D images of the cerebral vascular system has been synthesized by researchers at the Laboratoire de Chimie (CNRS) in France in collaboration with the Institut des Neurosciences (Université Joseph Fourier).

The “Lem-PHEA chromophore” dye fluoresces in the red-near infrared region biological transparency window using two-photon absorption and can pass through the skin. It features solubility in biological… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Physics/Cosmology

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Mechanical energy harvester replaces small batteries

May 6, 2013

BOLT micro-power module (credit: Microgen)

MicroGen has developed a “piezo-MEMS” (piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems) device that gathers ambient vibrations and converts them into electrical energy.

Vibration causes a tiny flap in the device to swing back and forth, generateing electrical current that charges an ultra-capacitor (a thin-film battery).

The “BOLT micro-power module” (MPM) begins commercial-scale production in summer 2013. It was researched and developed by the company at the… read more

Topics: Electronics | Energy | Nanotech/Materials Science

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New research could let vehicles, robots collaborate with humans

Everything around us is getting smarter
May 5, 2013

zipcar_map

Vehicles, robots and other autonomous devices could soon collaborate with humans, thanks to researchers at MIT who are developing systems capable of negotiating with people to determine the best way to achieve their goals.

“In general, everything around us is getting smarter,” says Brian Williams, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and leader of the Model-Based Embedded and Robotic Systems group… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Social/Ethical/Legal

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