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Friday February 1, 2013 Daily edition   News and Blog Headlines Watching fish thinking Tools of modern gunmaking: plastic and a 3D printer First artificial enzyme created by evolution in a test tube Bio-inspired catalyst to lower cost of producing hydrogen Building a lunar base with 3D printing Creating a near-living crystal structure from colloids First true 3D microchip created: Cambridge scientists ‘Intelligent’ micro- and nanomotors based on enzymes discovered Latest News Watching fish thinking February 1, 2013   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 … more… Tools of modern gunmaking: plastic and a 3D printer February 1, 2013   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 … more… First artificial enzyme created by evolution in a test tube February 1, 2013   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 … more… Bio-inspired catalyst to lower cost of producing hydrogen February 1, 2013   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. … more… Building a lunar base with 3D printing February 1, 2013   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 … more… Creating a near-living crystal structure from colloids February 1, 2013   New York University physicists have developed a method for moving microscopic particles, using a blue light to prompt colloids to move and then assemble — much like birds flock and move together in flight. The method could enhance the design of a range of industrial products, including the architecture of electronics. The work addresses a … more… First true 3D microchip created: Cambridge scientists February 1, 2013   University of Cambridge scientists have created a new type of microchip that allows information to travel in three dimensions, enabling additional storage capacity on chips. Currently, microchips can only pass digital information in a very limited way — from either left to right or front to back, the researchers say. In the future, a 3D … more… ‘Intelligent’ micro- and nanomotors based on enzymes discovered February 1, 2013   Two common enzymes, catalase* and urease*, show movement in the presence of their respective substrate (hydrogen peroxide or urea, which act as fuel),  Pennsylvania State University researchers Peter J. Butler, Ayusman Sen, and colleagues have found in experiments. The finding has “important implications in areas ranging from biological transport to the design of ‘intelligent,’ enzyme-powered, autonomous … more… New EVENTS   Toward a Science of Consciousness 2013 Dates: Mar 3 – 9, 2013 Location: Agra, India more... New VIDEOS   First time-travel movies reveal surreal universe   Record-setting asteroid flyby New books Super Scratch Programming Adventure!: Learn to Program By Making Cool Games author The LEAD Project   Scratch is the wildly popular educational programming language used by millions of first-time learners in classrooms, libraries, and homes worldwide. By dragging together colorful blocks of code, kids quickly learn computer programming concepts and make cool games and animations. In Super Scratch Programming Adventure!, kids learn programming fundamentals as they make their very own playable video … more… Python for Kids: A Playful Introduction to Programming author Jason R. Briggs   For Kids Aged 10+ (And Their Parents) The code in this book runs on almost anything: Windows, Mac, Linux, even an OLPC laptop or Raspberry Pi! Python is a powerful, expressive programming language that’s easy to learn and fun to use! But books about learning to program in Python can be kind of dull, gray, … more… Visit KurzweilAI.net You are currently subscribed to the KurzweilAI.net newsletter as *|EMAIL|* To unsubscribe, please click here. To change your email preferences, please click here. *|LIST:ADDRESS|*.