The next step after reading genetic code is writing it. Biotech pioneers J. Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith recently launched Synthetic Genomics, a Rockville, MD-based “synthetic biology” startup aimed at creating custom-made micro-organisms.
They are synthesizing entirely new DNA strands with the aim of controlling a particular life function. They then insert those into cells and have them execute that function.
The focus is on big problems with… read more
Smart plastic films programmed to release a precise sequence of treatments are poised to revolutionize drug delivery, thanks to a breakthrough in polymer chemistry at MIT.
The films could be used to coat implants such as artificial hips and tissue scaffolds to deliver phased release over a period of hours or weeks.
The method calls for depositing very thin polymer films on objects of any shape. The scientists… read more
RNA is emerging as more important than previously thought. Its conformational versatility and catalytic abilities have been implicated at the very core of protein synthesis and possibly of RNA splicing.
And the dynamics of the RNA messages passed between nucleus and cytoplasm provide a complex and sophisticated layer of regulation to gene expression.
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A zinc oxide nanostructure that resembles the helical configuration of DNA could provide engineers with a new building block for creating nanometer-scale sensors, transducers, resonators and other devices that rely on electromechanical coupling.
Based on a superlattice composed of alternating single-crystal “stripes” just a few nanometers wide, the “nanohelices” get their shape from twisting forces created by a small mismatch between the stripes and are produced using a vapor-solid… read more
Mobile phones could one day have the memory capacity of a desktop computer thanks to a microchip that mimics the functioning of the brain.
Researchers are developing a new 3-D chip design using spintronics and a complex interconnected network of nanowires, with computing functions and decisions performed at the nodes where they meet — an approach similar to neurons and axons in the brain.
It combines the storage… read more
Scientists have developed an ultra-light limb that they claim can mimic the movement in a real hand better than any currently available.
The Southampton Remedi-Hand can be connected to muscles in the arm via a small processing unit and is controlled by small contractions of the muscles which move the wrist. It uses six sets of motors and gears so each of the five fingers can move independently.… read more
A backpack that generates electricity as its wearer walks generates up to 7 watts, more than enough to power cellphones or other devices, while reducing backpack load forces on walkers.
Two genes, microcephalin and ASPM, involved in determining the size of the human brain have undergone substantial evolution in the last 60,000 years, researchers say, leading to the surprising suggestion that the brain is still undergoing rapid evolution.
Google has hired Internet pioneer Dr. Vinton G. Cerf as “chief Internet evangelist.”
“The Internet has a billion users, and we have 5.6 billion to go,” Dr. Cerf said. “Each will come to the Internet in different ways, like wirelessly, and Google needs to be receptive and adaptive to those different circumstances.”
Chemists at Queen’s University Belfast are exploring the capabilities of molecules that act like conventional computers but in spaces only a few nanometers across.
Molecular information processors placed in nano-spaces can gather, process and supply valuable data on how chemistry and biology function at this tiny scale. Molecules can also be used as information processors in medical and other applications.
Source: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research… read more
A breakthrough in nanotechnology could hasten the development of molecular machines that can act as artificial muscles or drug delivery systems in the body.
Chemists at Edinburgh University used ultraviolet light to stimulate human-made molecules to propel small droplets of liquid across flat and sloped surfaces.
The achievement, according to the researchers, is equivalent to a conventional machine lifting an object to more than twice the height of… read more
The world has made enough explosives for more than 300,000 nuclear bombs, according to the latest scientific assessment of countries’ nuclear stockpiles.
Experts are worried that terrorists could steal enough to trigger a nuclear catastrophe.
New research on individuals with schizotypal personalities — people characterized by odd behavior and language but who are not psychotic or schizophrenic — offers the first neurological evidence that they are more creative than either normal or fully schizophrenic individuals, and rely more heavily on the right sides of their brains than the general population to access their creativity.
Science is chipping away at the case for human uniqueness, showing that animals and machines are more like us than we believed.
What happens, as these trends continue, to the familiar guideposts for deciding what is human?
Glenbrook Networks says it has a way to tunnel far into the “deep Web” and extract Web pages that are largely unreachable by most search engines because they are stored in databases that Web crawlers can’t access.