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Using a Poison to Turn Sunlight into Food

August 19, 2008

Red slime mat made up of an extremophile bacteria in hot springs in Mono Lake, California use arsenic rather than water to carry energy during photosynthesis, U.S. Geological Survey researchers have found.

By analyzing the genetic material of the microbe, the researchers have determined that this is a primitive process, going back at least three billion years. That could mean that arsenic-based photosynthesis predates the oxygen-producing variety that enables… read more

Topics: Biotech

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Using a Robot to Teach Human Social Skills

July 10, 2007

A humanoid robot designed to teach autistic children social skills has begun testing in British schools.

Known as KASPAR (Kinesics and Synchronisation in Personal Assistant Robotics), the $4.33 million bot smiles, simulates surprise and sadness, gesticulates and, the researchers hope, will encourage social interaction among autistic children.

Topics: AI/Robotics | Human Enhancement

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Using an electron beam to manipulate nanoparticles

January 16, 2013

How to trap a gold nanoparticle in an environmental cell: an electron beam passes through a silicon nitride window and grabs the nanoparticle (credit: Haimei Zheng et al./Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Scientists from Berkeley Lab and the National University of Singapore have developed a way to manipulate nanoparticles using an electron beam.

They used an electron beam from a transmission electron microscope to trap gold nanoparticles and direct their movement, and to assemble several nanoparticles into a tight cluster.

They also imaged the nanoparticles as they manipulated them.

Based on their results, the scientists… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science | Physics/Cosmology

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Using ant-based swarm intelligence for materials handling

March 26, 2012

Swarming and transporting

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML in Dortmund, Germany plan to use “swarm intelligence” for materials handling. Their Multishuttle Moves — swarms of autonomous transport shuttles — could provide an alternative to traditional systems.

The scientists have assembled a testing facility with a swarm of 50 autonomous devices. “In the future, transport systems should be able to perform all of these tasks autonomously,… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

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Using artificial intelligence to chart the universe

September 25, 2012

cosmic_web

Astronomers at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics have developed an AI algorithm to help them chart and explain the distribution of dark matter with unprecedented accuracy.

The algorithm starts with the fluctuations in the density of the universe seen in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), then models the way matter collapses into today’s galaxies over the subsequent 13 billion years. The results of the algorithm are… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Physics/Cosmology

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Using carbon nanotubes as qubits for quantum computers

March 26, 2013

nano_guitar_tum

A study by physicists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has shown how nanotubes can store information in the form of vibrations.

Using quantum mechanical phenomena, computers could be much more powerful than their classical digital predecessors.

Up to now, researchers have experimented primarily with electrically charged particles. But because nanomechanical devices are not charged, they are much less sensitive to electrical interference.… read more

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

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Using Carbon Nanotubes For Quantum Computing

July 16, 2004

Academics at the University of Oxford have developed a design protocol for inserting filled molecules of Buckminsterfullerene (“Buckyballs”) into carbon, and other types of nanotubes.

The Buckyballs are themselves filled with molecules that have either an electronic or structural property that can be used to represent a quantum bit (Qubit) of information and can be associated with other adjacent Qubits. The improved stability of the system now allows several… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science | Quantum

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Using carbon nanotubes to seek and destroy anthrax toxin and other harmful proteins

December 11, 2007

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers have developed a new way to seek out specific proteins, including dangerous proteins such as anthrax toxin, and render them harmless using nothing but light.

Ravi S. Kane, professor of chemical and biological engineering, described the research: “By attaching peptides to carbon nanotubes, we gave them the ability to selectively recognize a protein of interest — in this case anthrax toxin — from a mixture… read more

Topics: Biotech | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Using cells’ chemical signaling to control cancer or detect toxins

November 17, 2011

Cell signals

MIT researchers have found that cells’ chemical signaling mechanisms can tell whether their signals are being received, and then adjust the volume of their messages as needed.

Cells use these chemical signaling systems to control many basic functions. For example, signaling can control how genes are turned on and off in response to external or internal cues, how cells grow and organize their internal structures, and even… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

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Using DNA to Control Nanoparticle Assembly

August 22, 2007

Uing DNA, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory are studying how to control both the speed of nanoparticle assembly and the structure of its resulting nanoclusters.

The synthetic DNA used in the laboratory is capped onto individual gold nanoparticles and customized to recognize and bind to complementary DNA located on other particles. This process forms clusters containing multiple particles.

The research could… read more

Topics: Biotech | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Using exploding nanoparticles to insert DNA and proteins into cells

July 29, 2010

Zapped human prostate cancer cells after exposure to laser-activated carbon nanoparticles. (Prerona Chakravarty)

Chemical “nanoblasts” activated by bursts of laser light can punch tiny holes in the protective membranes of cells just long enough to admit therapeutic small molecules, proteins and DNA directly into living cells, Georgia Institute of Technology.researchers have discovered.

“One of the most significant uses for this technology could be for gene-based therapies, which offer great promise in medicine, but whose progress has been limited by the difficulty of getting… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Using fMRI and machine learning for ‘brain reading’

December 23, 2011

(Credit: iStockphoto)

In another Minority Report-like research finding, a UCLA research team has made crucial advances in “brain reading,” using fMRI and machine learning methods to predict reactions of smokers experiencing nicotine cravings.

The research, presented last week at the Neural Information Processing Systems Machine Learning and Interpretation in Neuroimaging workshop in Spain, was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is interested in using… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Innovation/Entrepreneurship | Social Networking/Web

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Using glucose meters to measure other target molecules in blood, serum, water, or food

July 25, 2011

Coupling functional DNA sensors and glucose meters for fast, easy, portable detection of drugs, toxins, disease markers, and other molecules in blood, water, or food (credit: Li Huey Tan, Yu Xiang, and Yi Lu)

Glucose meters can be used as simple, portable, inexpensive meters for a number of target molecules in blood, serum, water or food, researchers at the University of Illinois have found.

To use glucose meters to detect a target other than glucose, the researchers coupled them with a class of molecular sensors called functional DNA sensors. Functional DNA sensors use short segments of DNA that bind to specific… read more

Topics: Biotech | Electronics

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Using HIV to attack itself

January 21, 2013

HIV virus (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

A Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) Associate Professor David Harrich has developed a way to use HIV to beat HIV in the laboratory.

He has determined how to modify a protein in the virus, creating the the “Nullbasic” protein, which provides strong, lasting protection from infection by stopping the virus from replicating in a lab environment. Animal trials are due to start this year.

“If this… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

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Using Humans as a Computer Model

October 16, 2001
Automated switching allowed AT&T/Bell Labs to keep up with the demand for telephones

The computer industry’s “next grand challenge” is the ever-increasing complexity of computing in the Internet era, with its global networks and proliferation of digital devices, says Paul M. Horn, a senior vice president who oversees the research labs at I.B.M., in a paper, “Autonomic computing.”

“Autonomic computing” is a biological metaphor suggesting a systemic approach to attaining a higher level of automation in computing.… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Computers/Infotech/UI

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