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Precision motion tracking — thousands of cells at a time

Novel microscopy technique could open new windows into protozoan behavior, microbial diseases and fertility
September 19, 2012

Motion Tracking Thousands of Cells

Researchers at UCLA and Nanjing University of Science and Technology in China have developed a new way to observe and track large numbers of rapidly moving objects under a microscope, capturing precise motion paths in three dimensions.

The researchers followed an unprecedented 24,000 rapidly moving cells over wide fields of view and through large sample volumes, recording each cell’s path for as long as 20 seconds.

“We can very precisely… read more

Topics: Biotech | Physics/Cosmology

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The case for optionally manned aircraft

September 18, 2012

Contender concept image of LRS-B next-generation stealth bomber (credit: Boeing/Lockheed Martin)

Purely manned or purely unmanned aircraft possess various inherent advantages and limitations. Optionally manned aircraft provide the best of both worlds, allowing commanders to employ force at various risk levels and to employ their aircraft and crews to their fullest capacities, says Lt. Col. Peter Garretson in Armed Forces Journal.

Such platforms — and in particular, the planned Long Range Strike-Bomber (LRS-B) — represent the lowest-cost, lowest-risk path toward… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Survival/Defense

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Amazing medical advances heal wounded troops

September 18, 2012

synthetic_windpipe

Scientists are growing ears, bone and skin in the lab, and doctors are planning more face transplants and other extreme plastic surgeries. Around the country, the most advanced medical tools that exist are now being deployed to help America’s newest veterans and wounded troops, Huffington Post reports.

In Los Angeles, surgeons used part of Michael Mills’ forehead to rebuild his nose after a bomb disfigured him in… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Human Enhancement

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How bees decide what to be: reversible ‘epigenetic’ marks linked to behavior patterns

Johns Hopkins researchers link reversible epigenetic marks to behavior patterns
September 18, 2012

Bee on flower_1

Johns Hopkins scientists report what is believed to be the first evidence that complex, reversible behavioral patterns in bees — and presumably other animals — are linked to reversible chemical tags on genes.

The scientists say what is most significant about the new study is that for the first time, DNA methylation “tagging” has been linked to something at the behavioral level of a whole organism.… read more

Topics: Biotech | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Environment/Climate

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Most extensive pictures ever of an organism’s DNA mutation processes

September 18, 2012

picture_DNA_mutation

Biologists and informaticists at Indiana University have produced one of the most extensive pictures ever of mutation processes in the DNA sequence of an organism, elucidating important new evolutionary information about the molecular nature of mutations and how fast those heritable changes occur.

By analyzing the exact genomic changes in the model prokaryote Escherichia coli that had undergone over 200,000 generations of growth in the… read more

Topics: Biotech | Environment/Climate

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Low-powered optical ‘nanotweezers’ allow for manipulating fragile biological samples

How to pick up a cell with laser beams without zapping it
September 18, 2012

illinois_nanotweezers

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated for the first time how low-power “optical nanotweezers” can be used to trap, manipulate, and probe nanoparticles, including fragile biological samples.

“We already know that plasmonic nanoantennas enhance local fields by up to several orders of magnitude, and thus, previously showed that we can use these structures with a regular laser source to make very… read more

Topics: Biotech | Nanotech/Materials Science | Physics/Cosmology

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‘Memristors’ based on transparent electronics offer technology of the future

Memristors are faster, smaller, and use less power than non-volatile flash memory
September 18, 2012

Inside a flash drive (Nrbelex/Wikimedia Commons)

Transparent electronics (pioneered at Oregon State University) may find one of their newest applications as a next-generation replacement for some uses of non-volatile flash memory, a multi-billion dollar technology nearing its limit of small size and information storage capacity.

Researchers at OSU have confirmed that zinc tin oxide, an inexpensive and environmentally benign compound,  could provide a new, transparent technology where computer… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Warp drive may be more feasible than thought, scientists say

September 18, 2012

warp-drive-starship

A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light travel — a concept popularized in television’s Star Trek — may not be as unrealistic as once thought, according to scientists at the 100 Year Starship Symposium, Space.com reports.

A warp drive would manipulate space-time itself to move a starship, taking advantage of a loophole in the laws of physics that prevent anything from moving faster… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology | Singularity/Futures | Space

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Blue Brain project accurately predicts connections between neurons

September 18, 2012

Patterning of putative synapses between synaptically coupled neurons (credit: EPFL)

In a landmark paper, published this week in PNAS (forthcoming), the EPFL’s Blue Brain Project (BBP) has identified key principles that determine synapse-scale connectivity by virtually reconstructing (in supercomputer) a cortical microcircuit and comparing it to a mammalian sample.

These principles now make it possible to predict the locations of synapses in the neocortex, the researchers say.

“This is a major breakthrough,… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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Does this epigenetic chemical in the brain help create the brain’s complexity?

The brain chemical 5-hmC appears to control the brain's cellular splicing machinery to generate the diverse proteins that, in turn, give rise to the unprecedented complexity of the brain?
September 18, 2012

Is 5-hmC the master controller that tells synapses when to grow neurons? (Credit: iStockphoto)

Researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto have identified a new role of a chemical involved in controlling the genes underlying memory and learning.

“The brain is a plastic tissue, and we know that learning and memory require various genes to be expressed,” says CAMH Senior Scientist Dr. Art Petronis, a senior author on the new study.

“Our research… read more

Topics: Biotech | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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A computerized house that generates as much energy as it uses

NIST unveils net-zero energy residential test facility to improve testing of energy-efficient technologies
September 18, 2012

NIST Net Zero Energy Residential Test Facility

The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has unveiled a laboratory in the form of a typical suburban home, designed to demonstrate that a family of four can generate as much energy as it uses in a year.

The two-story, four-bedroom, three-bath “Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility“ was built to U.S. Green Building Council LEED Platinum standards — the highest standard for sustainable… read more

Topics: Energy | Environment/Climate | Innovation/Entrepreneurship

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Human muscle, regrown on animal scaffolding

September 17, 2012

Sergeant Strang has grown new leg muscle thanks to a thin sheet of material from a pig, The New York Times reports.

The material, called extracellular matrix, is the natural scaffolding that underlies all tissues and organs, in people as well as animals. It is produced by cells, and for years scientists thought that its main role was to hold them in their proper position.

But… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Nanotech/Materials Science

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A first: organs tailor-made with body’s own cells

September 17, 2012

synthetic_windpipe

Andemariam Beyene sat by the hospital window, the low Arctic sun on his face, and talked about the time he thought he would die.

Two and a half years ago doctors in Iceland, where Mr. Beyene was studying to be an engineer, discovered a golf-ball-size tumor growing into his windpipe. Despite surgery and radiation, it kept growing. In the spring… read more

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

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Bina48 is first humanoid robot to address a conference

Could a humanoid robot be a teacher or personal tutor in the next decade?
September 17, 2012

bina48

An advanced computer called the BINA48 (Breakthrough Intelligence via Neural Architecture, 48 exaflops per second processing speed and 480 exabytes of memory; exa = 10 to the 18th power), and also known as “the Intelligent Computer,” became aware of certain plans by its owner, the Exabit Corporation, to permanently turn it off and reconfigure parts of it with new hardware and software into one or more new computers. … — From… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Biomed/Longevity | Human Enhancement

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SpiderFab: low-cost kilometer-scale antennas in space

September 17, 2012

SpiderFabConcept

“We’d like someday to be able to have a spacecraft create itself entirely from scratch, but realistically that’s quite a ways out; that’s still science fiction,” says Robert Hoyt, CEO and chief scientist of Tethers Unlimited Inc. Instead, with his “SpiderFab” project, he proposes to use 3D printing technology aboard a tiny CubeSat to create a much larger structure in space.

The  project received $100,000 from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts… read more

Topics: Electronics | Energy | Nanotech/Materials Science | Space

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