Tiny Nanomotors Successfully Placed Inside Live Human Cells For First Time
Scientists have successfully placed tiny synthetic motors in live human cells through nanotechnology. Using ultrasonic waves as the power source and magnets to steer, the nanomotors can zip around the cell and perform tasks. Could they even eventually act like Killer T-cells and attack malignant cancer cells?
The main obstacle for placing nanomotors in cells is the power source. Previous nanomotors needed toxic fuels to propel them. It wouldn't move in a biological environment.
The researchers at Penn State University and at Weinberg Medical Physics found that ultrasonic waves can be used to power these motors and that magnetic fields can be used to steer them.
Bionanotechnology is fast becoming popular in medical and scientific research. Implants and devices hundreds of times smaller than the width of a human hair, can be integrated into cells. This technology can open up various medical applications such as surgery, deliver medication, and even eradicate cancer cells. Because of its microscopic size, bionanotech devices are non-invasive and results in fewer complications normal open surgery would have.
Bionanomotors Inside Live Cells
For the first time, a team of chemists and engineers at Penn State University have placed tiny synthetic motors inside live human cells, propelled them with ultrasonic waves and steered them magnetically. It's not exactly "Fantastic Voyage," but it's close. The nanomotors, which are rocket-shaped metal particles, move around inside the cells, spinning and battering against the cell membrane.
"As these nanomotors move around and bump into structures inside the cells, the live cells show internal mechanical responses that no one has seen before," said Tom Mallouk, Evan Pugh Professor of Materials Chemistry and Physics at Penn State. "This research is a vivid demonstration that it may be possible to use synthetic nanomotors to study cell biology in new ways. We might be able to use nanomotors to treat cancer and other diseases by mechanically manipulating cells from the inside. Nanomotors could perform intracellular surgery and deliver drugs noninvasively to living tissues."
Source Article: @http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1WCA9M/13t0XPlif:PdMiD3Hq/www.quantumday.com/2014/02/tiny-nanomotors-successfully-placed.html
World's Biggest Swarm of Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Released in Brazil
The world’s largest ever swarm of genetically modified mosquitoes has been released in Brazil to combat infectious disease.
Jacobina, a farming town in Bahia, has been plagued for years by dengue fever, a mosquito-borne tropical
disease and a leading cause of illness and fatality in Brazil.
disease and a leading cause of illness and fatality in Brazil.
The newly hatched Aedes aegypti mosquitoes have been engineered to wipe out their own species, the Global Post reported.
Last year Brazil reported 1.4 million cases of dengue, for which there is no vaccine - the most severe form of the illness, dengue hemorrhagic fever, can lead to shock, coma and death.
The so-called “Franken-skeeter” has been genetically modified (GM) in a laboratory with a gene designed to devastate the non-GM Aedes aegypti population and reduce dengue's spread.
However, critics have voiced concerns about the mutant mosquitoes and have said further laboratory studies should be carried out before releasing highly mobile GM insects into the environment
“They are even harder to recall than plants are if anything goes wrong,” said Helen Wallace, director of the British environmental group GeneWatch.
Conventional public health campaigns to fight dengue by fumigating and adding larvicide to water tanks have had little impact because Aedes aegypti often live and breed inside homes and develop resistance to insecticides.
Field testing with Oxitec’s GM mosquitoes will begin in Panama in April. Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide soon on whether or not to approve a test release of GM mosquitoes in the Florida Keys, which suffered an outbreak of dengue in 2009.
by Antonia Malloy
IBM Solar Collector Magnifies Sun By 2000X – Could Power The Entire Planet
The process of trapping the sunlight produces water that can be used to produce filtered drinkable water, or used for other things like air conditioning etc. Scientists envision that the HCPVT system could provide sustainable energy and fresh water to communities all around the world.
According to Greenpeace, this technology can establish itself as the third largest player in the sustainable power generation industry. A study published in 2009 predicted that solar power could supply all the world’s energy needs, with minimal space. (1) Greenpeace estimates that it would take only two percent of the Sahara Desert’s land area to supply the entire planet’s electricity needs.(1)
Article @http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2iaCQQ/1UZhEY6Bl:PdMiD3Hq/www.collective-evolution.com/2014/02/21/up-for-grabs-ibm-solar-collector-magnifies-sun-2000x/
by Arjun Walia
One of the Biggest Scientific Breakthroughs in 2013: The Real Reason We Sleep
Could the discovery of why we need sleep lead to the discovery of how we can operate with-out sleep? In other words, can we artificially do what sleep does for the brain, without actually sleeping? This could be the equivalent to cloning oneself, it would mean a 100 percent markup on a person's time efficiency, or double the salary, because more time equals more money. What would the implications for this world mean, if we eradicated the need for sleep?
Scientists discover the first real reason we need sleep:
We know we need to sleep. We know our brains and bodies work better after sleep. But what we didn’t know, until now, was why.
Scientists have just reported the first major mechanical reason our brains need to sleep — certain cleaning mechanisms in the brain work better when we shut the brain down.
Just like how dump trucks take to the city streets during the pre-dawn hours because there’s less traffic, our brain’s cleaners also work best when there’s less going on.
“This study shows that the brain has different functional states when asleep and when awake,” study researcher Maiken Nedergaard, of the University of Rochester said.
“In fact, the restorative nature of sleep appears to be the result of the active clearance of the by-products of neural activity that accumulate during wakefulness.”
We’ve known that our brains consolidate memories during sleep and perform other important functions.
All of our cells accumulate waste while they are working, and these waste products can be toxic. If they aren’t removed they can build up and kill our cells. Throughout the rest of the body the lymphatic system washes these waste products away, but the brain is cut off from these actions because of the blood-brain barrier.
When the brain is sleeping, channels between cells grow. This allows cerebrospinal fluid into the depths of the brain tissues to flush out toxic proteins that build up during the day, including the kind that are responsible for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.
The image above, from Xie et. al in Science, shows how when mice sleep, fluid-filled channels (pale blue) between neurons expand and flush out waste.
by Dahl Saguicio
MIT Doctor Bioprints Pinhead-sized Human Livers
A doctor at MIT has 3D printed micro livers from human cells.
Dr Sangeeta Bhatia, director of the Laboratory for Multiscale Regenerative Technologies at MIT, created the pinhead-sized miniature liver with a team of researchers for the purpose of testing drugs.
Jeremy Hobson of Boston’s WBUR NPR radio news station interviewed Bhatia on Monday. Bhatia told Hobson that her team created the liver in hopes it can be scaled up and used as a functional alternative to a human liver in liver transplants.
Bhatia explained that livers are made up of many individual liver cells, so to scale up the liver they’ve created they would need to generate more cells.
“The livers we’ve built so far look a lot like a soft contact lens. We call them our contact lens livers, and they contain about a million liver cells. Your liver actually has about a hundred billion liver cells, so they need to be about a thousand times bigger,” said Bhatia.
She continued, “We have built little human livers already that we can grow that contain about a million cells in animal experiments that we would then like to take to humans someday.”
3D printing organs has been a hot topic recently although no one has managed yet to bioprint a liver that functions reliably enough to be used in the human body. Engineering researchers at the University of San Diego California did manage to create a liver mimicking device.
If Bhatia and her team can successfully scale up their printed liver, they may have managed to create the world’s first functional 3D printed liver.
by Shanie Phillips
US Navy Wants to Power Warships with Seawater
The U.S. Navy may someday turn its back on fossil fuels entirely, thanks to an effort to turn seawater into fuel for ships at sea, according to a story in International Business Times.
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory developed a way to extract carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas from seawater "by a gas-to-liquids process with the help of catalytic converters," according to the report.
The world's largest navy would like to free itself from the price and inventory fluctuations associated with oil-based fuels. The Navy operates almost 300 vessels, but all but 72 submarines and a handful of aircraft carriers are powered by fuel derived from oil.
New Artificial Heart Keeps You Alive Without a Pulse
An 8-month-old calf named Abigail has no heart and no pulse. If you hooked her up to an EKG monitor, she would flatline — yet, she's alive. In fact, she appears completely unimpaired — a healthy and active young calf. How is this possible?
Abigail is the animal subject of an experimental new artificial heart technology that is capable of keeping a patient alive despite producing no heartbeat or pulse, reports MedicalXpress, an offshoot of PhysOrg.com
The technology is the brainchild of miracle medical workers Dr. Billy Cohn and Dr. Bud Frazier from the Texas Heart Institute, who have spent years trying to create an artificial heart that does not wear out or cause blood clots and infections. Their research culminated in the use of artificial heart technology that had been sitting right under their noses the whole time.
Abigail's heart was removed and completely replaced by the new pumping device, yet she didn't seem to miss a beat. After the experiment was repeated on a total of 38 calves with similar success, Cohn and Frazier were ready to try their device in a human patient.
Craig Lewis, a 55-year-old man who was dying from amyloidosis, was the first trial. After being given 12 hours to live, Lewis allowed the doctors to insert the new pumps into his chest. The device worked flawlessly, and Lewis miraculously recovered, but he lived for only another month before the disease took other organs.
by Bryan Nelson
New Particle Unlike Any Other Form of Matter
Not content with perhaps the biggest scientific discovery of the decade, scientists at the Large Hadron Collide continue to search for new particles—and now they've found one that seems to be an entirely new form of matter.
A series of experiments at the LHC have confirmed that a new particle called Z(4430)—catchy!— actually exists, and it's the best evidence to date of a new form of matter called a tetraquark. Quarks are the subatomic particles that, combined, form all matter. In pairs they form mesons; in triplets, protons and neutrons. Tetraquarks are a hypothesized combination of four of the little things—and Z(4430) was, if it existed, thought to be an example. Thing was, nobody knew for sure—until now—that it existed or not.
Its sighting at the LHC changes things. Researchers from CERN have found as many as 4000 of the particles, which means that those who think tetraquarks do exist are pretty excited. There remains some work to be done to understand once and for all if Z(4430) is with 100 percent certainty a tetraquark, and even then exactly what that means for us. But in the meantime, it's nice to know that the LHC isn't resting on its laurels.
by Jamie Condliffe
Magnetic Spin of Electrons Save Data
British physicist Stuart Parkin, one of the brains behind the global "big data" revolution, on Wednesday won Finland's answer to the Nobel Prize, which is awarded by Technology Academy Finland.
"Prof. Parkin receives the 2014 Millennium Technology Prize in recognition of his discoveries, which have enabled a thousand-fold increase in the storage capacity of magnetic disk drives," the independent foundation said in a statement, adding that his innovations paved the way for streaming movies and other media via the Internet.
"Our contemporary online world is largely possible because of these atomically-thin magnetic structures."
Parkin, 58, is an IBM research fellow, a consulting professor at Stanford University and director of the experimental department of Germany's Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics.
His work on spintronics -- which uses the magnetic spin of electrons to save data -- has contributed to an explosion in memory capacity around the world allowing information to be stored in magnetic disk drives accessed online via the "cloud".
by AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Hunter-Gatherers Share Foraging Pattern With Sharks, Honeybees
TUCSON, ARIZONA—A team of scientists has determined that the pattern displayed by human hunter-gatherers to forage for food is the very same for as for disparate organisms, like sharks and honeybees. The researchers studied the Hadza people of Tanzania, a culture that still hunts big game, tracking the hunter-gatherers' movements with GPS-fitted wristwatches. The primary discernable hunting behavior of the Hazda is called a Lévy walk, a fundamental movement pattern across species characterized by a series of short treks in a particular area followed by larger sojourn to find a new area for exploration. “We can characterize these movement patterns across different human environments, and that means we can use this movement pattern to understand past mobility,” said David Raichlen, a University of Arizona anthropologist and principal investigator on the new research.
New, Inexpensive Production Materials Boost Promise of Hydrogen Fuel
Generating electricity is not the only way to turn sunlight into energy we can use on demand. The sun can also drive reactions to create chemical fuels, such as hydrogen, that can in turn power cars, trucks and trains.
The trouble with solar fuel production is the cost of producing the sun-capturing semiconductors and the catalysts to generate fuel. The most efficient materials are far too expensive to produce fuel at a price that can compete with gasoline.
"In order to make commercially viable devices for solar fuel production, the material and the processing costs should be reduced significantly while achieving a high solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency," says Kyoung-Shin Choi, a chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In a study published last week in the journal Science, Choi and postdoctoral researcher Tae Woo Kim combined cheap, oxide-based materials to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases using solar energy with a solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 1.7 percent, the highest reported for any oxide-based photoelectrode system.
Choi created solar cells from bismuth vanadate using electrodeposition -- the same process employed to make gold-plated jewelry or surface-coat car bodies -- to boost the compound's surface area to a remarkable 32 square meters for each gram.
"Without fancy equipment, high temperature or high pressure, we made a nanoporous semiconductor of very tiny particles that have a high surface area," says Choi, whose work is supported by the National Science Foundation. "More surface area means more contact area with water, and, therefore, more efficient water splitting."
Remote-Controlled Birth-Control Microchip Launch by 2018
Fighting over the remote control could soon end up in more than just a channel-hopping battle, if researchers at MIT have their way. In the Bill Gates-funded quest for the next form of contraception, a Massachusetts startup has come up with a small remote-controlled chip, like a digital wifi version of the pill, that will allow women to switch their fertility on and off at the touch of a button.
The chip is implanted under the skin and releases small doses of the contraceptive hormone levonorgestrel on a daily basis, with enough capacity to last 16 years. About the same size as a Scrabble tile, it houses a series of micro-reservoirs covered by an ultra-thin titanium and platinum seal. The hormone is released by passing a small electric current from an internal battery through the seal, which melts it temporarily, allowing a 30 microgram dose of levonorgestrel to seep out each day. And it can be simply switched off by a wireless remote, avoiding the clinical procedures needed to deactivate other contraceptive implants.
“The ability to turn the device on and off provides a certain convenience factor for those who are planning their family,” says MIT's Dr Robert Farra, adding that “the idea of using a thin membrane like an electric fuse was the most challenging and the most creative problem we had to solve.”
by Oliver Wainwright
New Bacteria-Killing Light Can Destroy Superbugs With the Flip of a Switch
Sterilization is hands down one of the most important technologies ever developed by mankind, but though we've known how to do battle with bacterial pathogens in places like the operating room for decades, superbugs like MRSA and Clostridium difficile persist in hospital environments, often causing serious medical complications. But now, researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow have devised a novel means to drive dangerous pathogens to cell suicide by simply bathing them in a pleasant violet light.
Light-based sterilization is nothing new – ultraviolet light can do a number on pathogens, though it also does damage to humans – but the new method uses a narrow spectrum of visible, harmless light wavelengths known as HINS (High Intensity, Narrow Spectrum) light to do the trick. HINS light excites molecules within bacteria such that they produce a chemically lethal response, in essence pushing bacteria to kill themselves. But while it drives bacteria to cell suicide, it's harmless to humans and therefore can be incorporated into existing lighting systems in clinical environments to provide continuous sterilization of surfaces and air.
Continuous sterilization, of course, keeps infectious bacterial pathogens from spreading around places like hospital wards, where immune systems are low and the chances of infection are high.
And what of the violet hue? Some might find it a nice ambient addition to the usual bright-white aura of the average operating theater. But for the sake of consistency the team has also figured out how to integrate the HINS light with a combination of LED technologies to produce a warm white light that can be used alongside the usual hospital lighting scheme.
by Clay Dillow
Dogs Sniff Out Cancer
Dogs can sniff out prostate cancer with uncanny accuracy, Italian researchers reported on Sunday.
While it’s not a test that is ready for prime time, the findings suggest quick and accurate new ways to screen for the disease, which kills 29,000 U.S. men every year. And the report joins a growing list of studies showing that dogs can smell the byproducts of various types of cancer.
“These dogs were really able to detect these particular compounds with a high degree of accuracy,” said Dr. Stacy Loeb of New York University, a urologist who was not involved in the study.
Gianluigi Taverna of Humanitas Research Hospital in Milan and colleagues took urine samples from 320 men with prostate cancer, and 357 without it. The men with cancer had all different stages of the disease, from very low-risk, slow-growing tumors, to cancer that had spread.
Some of the men in the non-prostate-cancer group had other diseases or conditions, including other types of cancer.
One of the dogs detected every single prostate cancer case, and only hit false positives — when it identified cancer when it wasn’t there — in 2 percent of cases. The other dog was almost as accurate.
Taken together, the two dogs had an accuracy rate of 98 percent, the team reported to the annual meeting of the American Urological Association Sunday.
“We have definitely turned what used to seem a myth into a real clinical opportunity,” they wrote.
“These data show analysis of volatile organic compounds in urine is a promising approach to cancer detection,” said Dr. Brian Stork, a urologist at West Shore Urology in Muskegon, Michigan, who also was not involved in the study.
“The possibility of using dogs identifying cancer is something most would never have considered possible a decade or two ago. It’s an interesting concept that ‘man’s best friend’ could help save your life.”
The findings replicate a smaller study done with a single dog in France, who sniffed out prostate cancer in 33 samples.
Dogs have also sniffed out lung tumors and they are being tested to see if they can detect ovarian cancer.
Loeb points out that it is far too soon to say the dogs could be put to work screening men for prostate cancer. The dogs could smell compounds associated with prostate cancer, she noted. “What (the researchers) don’t say is how good these compounds are for predicting prostate cancer and, more important, for predicting aggressive prostate cancer,” she said.
“We’re very good at diagnosing prostate cancer,” she added. “What we really need are diagnostics that are better at helping us identify life-threatening prostate cancer.”
Prostate cancer is diagnosed in more than 230,000 U.S. men a year. There’s a debate now over whether too many men get diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer that never would have caused them any harm. That’s because the disease can grow very slowly, and it’s difficult now to predict whose cancer is slow-growing and whose is dangerous.
by Maggie Fox
Researchers Achieve Higher Solar-Cell Efficiency With Zinc-Oxide Coating
Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have achieved the highest efficiency ever in a 9 millimeter-squared solar cell made of gallium arsenide. After coating the cufflink-sized cells with a thin layer of zinc oxide, the research team reached a conversion efficiency of 14 percent.
A small array of these cells – as few as nine to 12 – generate enough energy for small light-emitting diodes and other devices. But surface modification can be scaled up, and the cells can be packaged in large arrays of panels to power large devices such as homes, satellites, or even spacecraft.
The research team, led by Omar Manasreh, professor of electrical engineering, published its findings in Applied Physics Letters and the April 2014 issue of Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.
An alternative to silicon, gallium arsenide is a semiconductor used to manufacture integrated circuits, light-emitting diodes and solar cells. The surface modification, achieved through a chemical synthesis of thin films, nanostructures and nanoparticles, suppressed the sun’s reflection so the cell could absorb more light. But even without the surface coating, the researchers were able to achieve 9-percent efficiency by manipulating the host material.
“We want to increase the efficiency of small cells,” said Yahia Makableh, doctoral student in electrical engineering. “With this specific material, the theoretical maximum is 33 percent efficiency, so we have some work to do. But we’re making progress. The beauty of zinc oxide is that it’s cheap, non-toxic and easy to synthesize.”
Makableh said the surface modification could also be applied to other solar cells, including those made of indium-arsenide and gallium-arsenide quantum dots. Solar cells made of these materials may be able to achieve 63-percent conversion efficiency, which would make them ideal for future development of solar cells.
Makableh used equipment and instrumentation in the College of Engineering’s Optoelectronics Research Lab, which is directed by Manasreh. Researchers in the lab grow and functionalize semiconductors, nanostructured anti-reflection coatings, self-cleaning surfaces and metallic nanoparticles to be used in solar cells. Their ultimate goal is to fabricate and test photovoltaic devices with greater solar-energy conversion efficiency.
Manasreh focuses on experimental and theoretical optoelectronic properties of semiconductors, superlattices, nanostructures and related devices. Since joining the University of Arkansas in 2003, he has received more than $8 million in public research funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Air Force and the National Science Foundation.
by U of A Newswire
Miraculous Scalpel Can Detect Cancerous Tissue As it Cuts
In many cases, having surgery to remove a tumor means having to go back for another surgery because some of the tumor was left behind. This is because it’s very difficult to tell by sight whether tissue is cancerous or not.Researchers at London’s Imperial Hospital have created an intelligent scalpel that can tell if the tissue it is touching is healthy or cancerous.
The “iKnife” works by instantly sampling the smoke that rises from an incision. The smoke contains important biological information that can be analyzed within three seconds. If the smoke says that the doctor missed part of the tumor, he or she can immediately remove the rest of the diseased tissue. In its first study, the iKnife diagnosed cancerous tissue with a 100 percent accuracy rate.
According to the researchers, the iKnife can reduce costs to both the health industry and patients by reducing the number of repeat surgeries required. Plenty more testing needs to take place before the iKnife can be widely used, but at the moment the biggest obstacle facing the researchers is the cost: £200,000 (or $300,000 USD). The price will naturally fall once the trials are completed and the scalpel can be sold on a wide scale.
Drug May Reverse Down Syndrome Symptoms
Dr. Alberto Costa has a personal stake in his Down syndrome research: his daughter, Tyche. Costa's life and work changed direction after she was born 16 years ago and Costa — a physician and neuroscientist — decided to dedicate his career to the study of Down syndrome.
In the past decade and a half, Costa's research has focused on normalizing the brain cells in the hippocampus, the portion of the brain responsible for memory and spatial navigation. In 2006, Costa published a study that found that a drug — the antidepressant Prozac — could normalize the cells in this area of the brain. But it was still unclear whether or not these normalized cells would automatically translate to better memory and improve cognitive deficits. The next year, Costa worked with Down syndrome mice and found that the Alzheimer’s drug memantine could improve their memory. Costa's study showed that a single injection of memantine produced benefits within minutes, enabling Down-equivalent mice to learn as well as standard mice.
Costa's theory is that memantine works not by increasing or changing brain cells, but by normalizing how they work. People with Down syndrome have three copies of all or most of the genes on Chromosome 21 instead of just two, so receptors in this area of the brain tend to be hyperactive — overreacting to stimuli and making it difficult for the brain to focus and learn. Memantine, according to Costa's hypothesis, quiets the noise, allowing the brain cells to react normally. Costa's journey was the focus of a feature story in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine.
Now Costa is working on the first randomized clinical trial to use the drug in humans. For Costa's trail, he is testing memory and spatial learning in 40 young adults with Down syndrome who have received memantine pills daily for 16 weeks. Costa will present preliminary results of this research at a scientific meeting in Illinois this fall. If successful, memantine could provide a new future for Costa's daughter Tyche and the 400,000 other people living with Down syndrome in the U.S.
NASA Develops Material That Is Blacker Than Black
Engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have produced a material that absorbs more than 99% of ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and far-infrared light that strikes it. They reported their discovery at the SPIE Optics and Photonics conference. John Hagopian is the lead engineer for the team who are based on NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Hagopian has reconfirmed the material's absorption capabilities in additional testing. He adds, "The reflectance tests showed that our team had extended by 50 times the range of the material's absorption capabilities. Though other researchers are reporting near-perfect absorption levels mainly in the ultraviolet and visible, our material is darn near perfect across multiple wavelength bands, from the ultraviolet to the far infrared. No one else has achieved this milestone yet."
The technology involves nanotech based coating based on multi walled carbon nanotubes. These tiny hollow tubes are made of pure carbon and about 1 million times smaller than a dot or period printed on a page. In the project, These are positioned vertically on various substrate materials much like a shag rug. The NASA team grew the nanotubes on silicon, silicon nitride, titanium, and stainless steel, as these materials are commonly used in space-based scientific instruments.
Telomeres The Key To Aging And Cancer
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| Fluorescence-stained chromosomes (red) on a microscope slide. Telomeres (yellow) sit at the ends of each chromosome. Photo courtesy of Dr. Robert Moyzis, UC Irvine, US Human Genome Program |
Now that we know why we age, can we prevent it? What would the implications be?
Inside the nucleus of a cell, our genes are arranged along twisted, double-stranded molecules of DNA called chromosomes. At the ends of the chromosomes are stretches of DNA called telomeres, which protect our genetic data, make it possible for cells to divide, and hold some secrets to how we age and get cancer.
Telomeres have been compared with the plastic tips on shoelaces, because they keep chromosome ends from fraying and sticking to each other, which would destroy or scramble an organism's genetic information.
Yet, each time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter. When they get too short, the cell can no longer divide; it becomes inactive or "senescent" or it dies. This shortening process is associated with aging, cancer, and a higher risk of death. So telomeres also have been compared with a bomb fuse.
Can heart attack damage be reversed?
In medical school, Gerald Karpman was taught that when it comes to matters of the heart, what's done is done.
"If you survived the heart attack, you survived at the level that you were going to be," he recalls. "Whatever damage was done was permanent."
That thinking has prevailed until very recently, when studies involving a handful of patients showed an infusion of stem cells might help rebuild healthy hearts in heart attack survivors.
On March 7, Karpman joined that perilous club. A dermatologist in Camarillo, California, and a former marathon runner, the 66-year-old had a rigorous routine: eight to 10 miles of walking each day and a meticulous, meatless diet.
But that morning, sitting at his home computer, a pain kicked in.
"Within about 30 seconds, I was in extreme discomfort," recalls Karpman, who says it was worse than the kidney stones he once suffered. "I couldn't sit still. I mean even driving the car (to the hospital), I couldn't put a seat belt on; I'm just moving around, just trying to think of something else."
Karpman made it to Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, where doctors used stents to reopen an artery in his heart and save his life.
As he lay recovering, he took in some grim news: Nearly 20% of his heart muscle was dead, starved of oxygen. Dead heart tissue leaves a scar, interrupting the coordinated muscle action that makes the heart such an efficient pump.
A standard measure of the heart's pumping ability is the ejection fraction, the percentage of blood in the left ventricle that is pumped out with each heartbeat. A healthy ejection fraction is between 55 and 70, according to the American Heart Association. Karpman's was 30.
Damage as severe as what Karpman suffered carries a high risk of developing heart failure.
An hour's drive to the southeast, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dr. Eduardo Marban has recently launched an experiment to help patients like Karpman.
Marban led one of the earlier stem cell trials, using cells taken by biopsy from the patient's own heart. The cells were multiplied in a laboratory for two to three weeks and then reinfused through a catheter. At the time, says Marban, it was thought that the stem cells themselves turned into new heart muscle and blood vessels.
"In fact, the more we learned, the more we realized that that's not what these cells do," he says. "They can make heart muscles and blood vessels in a dish very nicely. But in the living organism what they seem to do is secrete factors that wake up the surrounding heart muscle."
Like re-charging a battery, the infusion of new cells seems to trigger the body to produce new tissue: new muscle and blood cells.
"The cells will only be there a few weeks before they're immunologically rejected, but during that time they do their magic, and their magic stays behind long after the cells are gone," explains Marban.
Shifting his approach, Marban developed a process that avoids the need for a biopsy, instead using stem cells taken from the hearts of organ donors. Technicians select and grow the strongest cells, which are stored until needed.
Using an off-the-shelf product offers some advantages, Patients undergo one procedure, instead of two. That means it can be administered sooner after a heart attack, which in theory might speed recovery. Also, with the two step-process, some patients' stem cells were hard to grow in the lab. With Marban's approach, the patient is assured of getting carefully screened, vigorous cells.
Marban and his collaborators are looking to test the treatment at 25 to 35 hospitals around the United States, on a total of more than 300 patients with moderate or severe heart damage. Since enrollment began earlier this year, a few dozen have received the stem cell infusions. Officially it's known as the Allogeneic Heart Stem Cells to Achieve Myocardial Regeneration trial, or ALLSTAR.
Nine weeks after his infusion, Karpman is back to walking four miles a day. He's taking a more relaxed approach to his health, but says he's regained a lot of strength. What he doesn't know is whether stem cells get the credit. A third of the ALLSTAR patients receive a dummy treatment -- a placebo -- and Karpman won't find out until the study is over which group he falls into.
"It may be the placebo effect; it may be the stem cells," he says. "I haven't thought too much about it. I'm just happy that I'm feeling better."
In a quiet moment, he reflects on what an effective treatment could mean to his profession.
"My dad was a general practitioner. He was old school; he made house calls, I used to go with him in the evening. And he had two books that had all the information he needed to use in medicine. I have bookshelves just on dermatology. The amount of advancements in knowledge is mind-boggling," says Karpman.
"To have something that actually repairs that damage that was done (from a heart attack), it's remarkable."
Moss Brought Back to Life After 1,500 Years Frozen In Ice
Searchers from the British Antarctic Survey and Reading University have demonstrated that, after over 1,500 years frozen in Antarctic ice, moss can come back to life and continue to grow. For the first time, this vital part of the ecosystem in both polar regions has been shown to have the ability to survive century to millennial scale ice ages. This provides exciting new insight into the survival of life on Earth.
The team, reporting in Current Biology this week, observed moss regeneration after at least 1,530 years frozen in permafrost. This is the first study to show such long-term survival in any plant; similar timescales have only been seen before in bacteria. Mosses are known to survive environmental extremes in the short-term with previous evidence confirming up to a 20 year timescale for survival. Their potential to survive much longer timescales had not previously been examined.
Mosses are an important part of the biology of both polar regions. They are the dominant plants over large areas and are a major storer of fixed carbon, especially in the north.
Co-author Professor Peter Convey from the British Antarctic Survey explains: "What mosses do in the ecosystem is far more important than we would generally realise when we look at a moss on a wall here for instance. Understanding what controls their growth and distribution, particularly in a fast-changing part of the world such as the Antarctic Peninsula region, is therefore of much wider significance."
The team took cores of moss from deep in a frozen moss bank in the Antarctic. This moss would already have been at least decades old when it was first frozen. They sliced the frozen moss cores very carefully, keeping them free from contamination, and placed them in an incubator at a normal growth temperature and light level. After only a few weeks, the moss began to grow. Using carbon dating, the team identified the moss to be at least 1,530 years of age, and possibly even older, at the depth where the new growth was seen.
According to Professor Convey: "This experiment shows that multi-cellular organisms, plants in this case, can survive over far longer timescales than previously thought. These mosses, a key part of the ecosystem, could survive century to millennial periods of ice advance, such as the Little Ice Age in Europe.
"If they can survive in this way, then recolonisation following an ice age, once the ice retreats, would be a lot easier than migrating trans-oceanic distances from warmer regions. It also maintains diversity in an area that would otherwise be wiped clean of life by the ice advance.
"Although it would be a big jump from the current finding, this does raise the possibility of complex life forms surviving even longer periods once encased in permafrost or ice."
High-Tech Paint Keeps Parking Lots 40 Degrees Cooler
Anyone who's taken a midsummer stroll through Manhattan might appreciate this. Light-colored, heat-reflecting asphalt and paint makes a parking lot cooler by 40 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius) on a hot day.
The idea of painting city sidewalks, walls and roofs white isn't new, but we happened to run into a nice demonstration of it recently. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Northern California has painted one of its parking lots with several commercially available heat-reflecting coatings, to show what a difference they can make and to test how they'll fare over time.
In general, heat-reflecting surfaces keep cities more comfortable, reduce residents' electricity use for air conditioning and reduce the amount of heat that cities reflect back into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. They can even improve air quality. "Across an entire city, small changes in air temperature could be a huge benefit as it can slow the formation of smog," Haley Gilbert, a research assistant at the Berkeley Lab who studies heat in cities, said in a statement.
White-painted roofs usually get the most attention, but paler pavements could make a big difference, too, researchers say. Pavement accounts for 35 to 50 percent of the surfaces in city, according to the Berkeley Lab. Since city dwellers spend much more time on sidewalks than they do on roofs, paler pavement would be an improvement they could immediately appreciate.
Read more: http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/stories/high-tech-paint-keeps-parking-lots-40-degrees-cooler#ixzz37SxlSoyZ
Amazon asks FAA for permission to test its delivery drones
Amazon is asking the Federal Aviation Administration permission to use drones as part of its plan to deliver packages to customers in 30 minutes or less.
The news sent shares of the nation's largest e-commerce company up nearly 6 percent on Friday.
The online retailer created a media frenzy in December when it outlined a plan on CBS' "60 Minutes" to deliver packages with self-guided aircrafts that seemed straight out of science fiction.
In a letter to the FAA dated Wednesday, Amazon said it is developing aerial vehicles as part of Amazon Prime Air. The aircraft can travel over 50 miles per hour and carry loads of up to 5 pounds. About 86 percent of Amazon's deliveries are 5 pounds or less, the company said.
"We believe customers will love it, and we are committed to making Prime Air available to customers worldwide as soon as we are permitted to do so," Amazon said in the letter.
The FAA allows hobbyists and model aircraft makers to fly drones, but commercial use is mostly banned. Amazon is asking for an exemption so it can test its drones in the U.S. The Seattle company says its drone testing will only take place over Amazon's private property, away from airports or areas with aviation activity —and not in densely populated areas or near military bases.
The FAA is slowly moving forward with guidelines on commercial drone use. Last year, Congress directed the agency to grant drones access to U.S. skies by September 2015. But the agency already has missed several key deadlines and said the process would take longer than Congress expected.
So far, two drone models — Boeing and the Insitu Group's ScanEagle, and AeroVironment's Puma — are certified to operate commercially, but only in Alaska. One is being used by BP to survey pipelines, and the other is supporting emergency response crews for oil spill monitoring and wildlife surveillance, according to the FAA.
"We're continuing to work with the FAA to meet Congress's goal of getting drones flying commercially in America safely and soon," said Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global public policy, in a statement. "We want to do more research and development close to home."
The FAA did not respond to a request for comment.
Amazon's stock rose $18.28, or 5.6 percent, to close at $346.20 on Friday. The stock is down about 18 percent since the beginning of the year.
Nano-Crystals Make Solar Cells
Australian researchers have invented nanotech solar cells that are thin, flexible and use 1/100th the materials of conventional solar cells.
Printable, flexible solar cells that could dramatically decrease the cost of renewable energy have been developed by PhD student Brandon MacDonald in collaboration with his colleagues from CSIRO’s Future Manufacturing Flagship and the University of Melbourne’s Bio21 Institute.
Their patented technology is based on inks containing tiny, semiconducting nanocrystals, which can be printed directly onto a variety of surfaces.
By choosing the right combination of ink and surface it is possible to make efficient solar cells using very little material or energy.
“The problem with traditional solar cells,” Brandon says, “is that making them requires many complex and energy intensive steps.”
“Using nanocrystal inks, they can be manufactured in a continuous manner, which increases throughput and should make the cells much cheaper to produce.”
Nanocrystals, also known as quantum dots, are semiconducting particles with a diameter of a few millionths of a millimetre. Because of their extremely small size they can remain suspended in a solution.
This solution can then be deposited onto a variety of materials, including flexible plastics or metal foils. It is then dried to form a thin film.
Brandon and his colleagues discovered that by depositing multiple layers of nanocrystals they can fill in any defects formed during the drying process.
The result is a densely packed, uniform film, ideal for lightweight solar cells.
The nanocrystals consist of a semiconducting material called cadmium telluride, which is a very strong absorber of light. This means that the resulting cells can be made very thin.
“The total amount of material used in these cells is about 1 per cent of what you would use for a typical silicon solar cell.
Even compared to other types of cadmium telluride cells ours are much thinner, using approximately one-tenth as much material,” Brandon says.
The technology is not limited to solar cells. It can also be used to make printable versions of other electronic devices, such as light emitting diodes, lasers or transistors.
For his work Brandon has received the 2010/11 DuPont Young Innovator’s Award and has had his work published in the journal Nano Letters.
Brandon MacDonald is one of 16 early-career scientists presenting their research to the public for the first time thanks to Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the Australian Government.
Article @http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/3XHQaY/1wV14Qvmv:DZE-zaOU/sciencealert.com.au/news/20112906-22328.html
Aluminum studs could boost the performance of any solar cell
A team of researchers at Imperial College London has found that attaching an array of cylindrical aluminum studs on top of a solar cell can dramatically improve the amount of light trapped inside its absorbing layer, leading to electrical current gains as high as 22 percent.
In most solar cells, about half of the manufacturing costs are taken up by the absorbing layer alone. This all-important layer is where incoming photons collide with the atoms in the structure and "knock off" electrons, generating a current.
In an effort to reduce manufacturing costs, scientists have been focusing on ways to reduce the thickness of the absorbing layer while keeping efficiencies high. One approach involved depositing arrays of gold and silver studs on top of the solar cells. Since these metals are known to interact strongly with light, the studs were meant to deflect photons at an angle, so that most photons would travel for longer distances within the absorbing layer, and have a greater chance of knocking off an electron.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. A great portion of light was actually absorbed by the studs and, rather than increasing, the overall current produced by the cell actually decreased.
Armed with a better understanding of how the internal structures of different metals interact with light, Dr. Nicholas Hylton and colleagues set out to test a similar array of aluminum nanocylinders.
Besides being cheaper and more abundant than either gold or silver, aluminum is also much better at reflecting and scattering light without absorbing it. Thus, when photons hit the nanoarray, many more are deflected and travel through the absorption region for greater distances, as originally intended.
"The idea with our work is that we're using plasmonic nanostructures to enhance the absorption of light in the semiconductor materials that are used to make solar cells," Hylton tells Gizmag. "In particular we used devices made from gallium arsenide (GaAs) to test the effect of using metal nanostructures and demonstrate enhancements, but the principle could be applied to other types of solar cells like those made from silicon or organic materials."
Comparing the performance of a plasmonic solar cell equipped with the studs to one without the nanostructures, the researchers calculated that the nanocylinders could increase absorption efficiency by up to 22 percent.
The advance could pave the way toward cheaper, thinner, higher-efficiency, perhaps even flexible solar cells.
"In terms of augmenting existing solar panels, this type of technology needs to be integrated into the commercial manufacturing process and depends on our ability to make such tiny metal studs on a large scale," says Hylton. "There are a few technologies available to do this type of task, so it is really a question of how these can be integrated into existing commercial manufacturing processes. That's something we're working on and hope to take forward with industrial partners."
Scientists try 3-D printer to build human heart
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — It may sound far-fetched, but scientists are attempting to build a human heart with a 3-D printer.
Ultimately, the goal is to create a new heart for a patient with their own cells that could be transplanted. It is an ambitious project to first, make a heart and then get it to work in a patient, and it could be years — perhaps decades — before a 3-D printed heart would ever be put in a person.
The technology, though, is not all that futuristic: Researchers have already used 3-D printers to make splints, valves and even a human ear.
So far, the University of Louisville team has printed human heart valves and small veins with cells, and they can construct some other parts with other methods, said Stuart Williams, a cell biologist leading the project. They have also successfully tested the tiny blood vessels in mice and other small animals, he said.
Williams believes they can print parts and assemble an entire heart in three to five years.
The finished product would be called the "bioficial heart" — a blend of natural and artificial.
The biggest challenge is to get the cells to work together as they do in a normal heart, said Williams, who heads the project at the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, a partnership between the university and Jewish Hospital in Louisville.
An organ built from a patient's cells could solve the rejection problem some patients have with donor organs or an artificial heart, and it could eliminate the need for anti-rejection drugs, Williams said.
If everything goes according to plan, Williams said the heart might be tested in humans in less than a decade. The first patients would most likely be those with failing hearts who are not candidates for artificial hearts, including children whose chests are too small to for an artificial heart.
Hospitals in Louisville have a history of artificial heart achievements. The second successful U.S. surgery of an artificial heart, the Jarvik 7, was implanted in Louisville in the mid-1980s. Doctors from the University of Louisville implanted the first self-contained artificial heart, the AbioCor, in 2001. That patient, Robert L. Tools, lived for 151 days with the titanium and plastic pump.
Williams said the heart he envisions would be built from cells taken from the patient's fat.
But plenty of difficulties remain, including understanding how to keep manufactured tissue alive after it is printed.
"With complex organs such as the kidney and heart, a major challenge is being able to provide the structure with enough oxygen to survive until it can integrate with the body," said Dr. Anthony Atala, whose team at Wake Forest University is using 3-D printers to attempt to make a human kidney.
The 3-D printing approach is not the only strategy researchers are investigating to build a heart out of a patient's own cells. Elsewhere, scientists are exploring the idea of putting the cells into a mold. In experiments, scientists have made rodent hearts that beat in the laboratory. Some simple body parts made using this method have already been implanted in people, including bladders and windpipes.
The 3-D printer works in much the same way an inkjet printer does, with a needle that squirts material in a predetermined pattern.
The cells would be purified in a machine, and then printing would begin in sections, using a computer model to build the heart layer by layer. Williams' printer uses a mixture of a gel and living cells to gradually build the shape. Eventually, the cells would grow together to form the tissue.
The technology has already helped in other areas of medicine, including creating sure-fitting prosthetics and a splint that was printed to keep a sick child's airway open. Doctors at Cornell University used a 3-D printer last year to create an ear with living cells.
"We're experiencing an exponential explosion with the technology," said Michael Golway, president of Louisville-based Advanced Solutions Inc., which built a printer being used by Williams' team.
Hidden Portals Between Earth and Sun Exist Says NASA
NASA claims hidden portals between Earth and Sun exist – setting up a mission to find them
A portal is a shortcut, a guide, a door into the unknown - an extraordinary opening in space or time that connects travelers to distant realms.
Thinking SCI-FI? Well, read on.
NASA-funded researcher and plasma physicist Jack Scudder of the University of Iowa claims he has figured out a way how to find them. ”We call them X-points or electron diffusion regions,” he explains.
“They’re places where the magnetic field of Earth connects to the magnetic field of the Sun, creating an uninterrupted path leading from our own planet to the Sun’s atmosphere 93 million miles away.”
Observations by NASA’s THEMIS spacecraft and Europe’s Cluster probes suggest that these magnetic portals open and close dozens of times each day. They’re typically located a few tens of thousands of kilometers from Earth where the geomagnetic field meets the onrushing solar wind. Most portals are small and short-lived; others are yawning, vast, and sustained. Tons of energetic particles can flow through the openings, heating Earth’s upper atmosphere, sparking geomagnetic storms, and igniting bright polar auroras.
NASA is planning a mission called “MMS,” short for Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, due to launch in 2014, to study the phenomenon. Bristling with energetic particle detectors and magnetic sensors, the four spacecraft of MMS will spread out in Earth’s magnetosphere and surround the portals to observe how they work.
Just one problem: Finding them. Magnetic portals are invisible, unstable, and elusive. They open and close without warning “and there are no signposts to guide us in,” notes Scudder.
Actually, there are signposts, and Scudder has found them.
Portals form via the process of magnetic reconnection. Mingling lines of magnetic force from the sun and Earth criss-cross and join to create the openings. “X-points” are where the criss-cross takes place. The sudden joining of magnetic fields can propel jets of charged particles from the X-point, creating an “electron diffusion region.”
To learn how to pinpoint these events, Scudder looked at data from a space probe that orbited Earth more than 10 years ago.
“In the late 1990s, NASA’s Polar spacecraft spent years in Earth’s magnetosphere,” explains Scudder, “and it encountered many X-points during its mission.”
‘Designer sperm’ the future of genetic medicine?
Get ready: The “new genetics” promises to change faulty genes of future generations by introducing new, functioning genes using “designer sperm.”
A new research report appearing online in The FASEB Journal, shows that introducing new genetic material via a viral vector into the sperm of mice leads to the presence and activity of those genes in the resulting embryos.
This new genetic material is actually inherited, present and functioning through three generations of the mice tested. This discovery—if successful in humans—could lead to a new frontier in genetic medicine in which diseases and disorders are effectively cured, and new human attributes, such as organ regeneration, may be possible.
“Transgenic technology is a most important tool for researching all kinds of disease in humans and animals, and for understanding crucial problems in biology,” said Anil Chandrashekran, Ph.D., study author from the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at The Royal Veterinary College in North Mimms, United Kingdom.
To achieve these results, Chandrashekran and colleagues used lentiviruses to generate transgenic animals via the male germ line. When pseudotyped lentiviral vectors encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP) were incubated with mouse spermatozoa, these sperm were highly successful in producing transgenics. Lentivirally-transduced mouse spermatozoa were used in in vitro fertilization studies and when followed by embryo transfer, at least 42 percent of founders were transgenic for GFP. GFP expression was detected in a wide range of murine tissues, including testis and the transgene was stably transmitted to a third generation of transgenic animals.
“Using modified sperm to insert genetic material has the potential to be a major breakthrough not only in future research, but also in human medicine,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. “It facilitates the development of transgenic animal models, and may lead to therapeutic benefits for people as well. For years we have chased effective gene therapies and have hit numerous speed bumps and dead ends. If we are able to able to alter sperm to improve the health of future generations, it would completely change our notions of ‘preventative medicine.’”
Read more at http://scienceblog.com/68348/designer-sperm-inserts-custom-genes-into-offspring/#g8hshfDmcEwCTPYv.99
Really Fast VASIMR Rockets Could Be The Key To Private Mars Travel
By Clare Dodd and Matthew Stibbe
‘John Carter got there by standing in an open field, spreading his hands and wishing,’ said Carl Sagan. If only it were so simple, but thanks to cosmic radiation, orbital complications and between 54 and 401 million kilometers, it’s just not that easy for us humans to get to Mars .
VASIMR-powered ship arrives at Mars
Vasimr-powered spaceship arriving at Mars. Source: Wikipedia
That said, the VASIMR rocket, developed by the Ad Astra Rocket Company might just bring human exploration of the red planet within reach. Because when it comes down to it, it’s all about the need for speed.
If we travelled to Mars now, using current chemical rocket technologies, it would take around eight to nine months. During that time, the astronauts would have to deal with muscle and bone wastage and face bombardment by cosmic radiation and solar flares.
Any astronaut would then have to wait, and survive on Mars for two years before they could come back to Earth. ‘You’re contemplating a very long camping trip on the surface of a planet that has an atmosphere you cannot breathe and very little water,’ says Dr. Chang Díaz, CEO of Ad Astra and former NASA astronaut.
That’s because a Martian solar year lasts for two of our Earth years. So while we might start out pretty close to the red planet, after 12 months Mars would be on the opposite side of the sun to us, making a journey back impossible for another 12 months. Dr. Chang Díaz likened it to Earth being on the inside track of a race; we inevitably get ahead.
It’s these obstacles that have ultimately caused the cancellation or abandonment of so many previous manned-missions to Mars. Such missions would simply cost too much money, and put astronauts at too much risk for them to be viable.
Now, if we had the technology to get to Mars in, say, three months, we would have enough time to get there and back before Earth ran too far ahead in its orbital race, making for a much more plausible mission. And that’s where VASIMR comes in.
VASIMR stands for the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, and uses an electric plasma engine to get you moving a lot faster than traditional nuclear thermal and chemical rockets have the ability to do.
Chemical rockets work by burning a vast amount of fuel, which is expelled all in one go, but at a relatively low velocity, meaning a short sharp burst of speed. In contrast, the VASIMR rocket uses a little bit of propellant, which is expelled at very high velocities over a longer period of time; and this allows for steady and continuous acceleration.
VX-200 plasma engine at full power, employing both stages with full magnetic field. Source: Wikipedia
VX-200 plasma engine at full power, employing both stages with full magnetic field. Source: Wikipedia
In the simplest terms possible, relatively cold (40,000 degrees) plasma is generated in the first of two plasma chambers within the rocket. This plasma gets heated in the second chamber to very high temperatures (more than 2 million degrees) by radio waves emitted from a radio antenna. The plasma in both chambers is too hot for any material to hold it, so all along, it is confined and guided along in a magnetic duct, which ultimately ejects all that highly-energised plasma out of the rocket in a single, concentrated direction. And it’s that directed, superheated plasma that provides the continuous acceleration, which ultimately makes VASIMR so fast.
They key ingredient in that process, however, is the power to heat the plasma in the first place. Currently, for shorter, Earth-orbital journeys, Ad Astra is planning to use solar panels to produce the electricity, but they simply wouldn’t be powerful enough for a human journey to Mars. The only alternative is nuclear electric power.
‘The engine will be ready for commercial operation using solar power,’ says Dr. Chang Díaz, ‘but for fast human transportation, who is going to develop a nuclear reactor that is space worthy is still unknown, though there are several nations besides the USA capable of doing it.’
The investment and skill needed to develop the infrastructure that would support a nuclear powered VASIMR mission to Mars is huge. It goes well beyond the manpower, intelligence and budget of any single nation, no matter the size of that country’s national pride. Instead, ‘the appropriate chemistry is one of collaboration, not confrontation like in the 1960s’ says Dr. Chang Díaz.
One possibility is that the private sector will make space a place of business and open it up to the masses, much like it did for air transportation during the last century. The hope is that companies, like Ad Astra, can develop technologies safely, reliably, quickly and cheaply, with governments acting as regulators and perhaps even customers.
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| VX-200 plasma engine at full power, employing both stages with full magnetic field. Source: Wikipedia |
‘The US program remains frozen in the wonderful paradigm of the Apollo and Space Shuttle era,’ explains Dr. Chang Díaz. ‘That was a wonderful chapter in American and world history, but it is a chapter that needs to be closed. A new wonderful chapter is in the making and it involves the entire planet.’
A global endeavour is exactly what Dr. Chang Díaz thinks all space exploration should be; something that is open to everyone. He himself is fortunate enough to have been on seven space-shuttle flights during his time as a NASA astronaut, and has clocked up more than 1,600 hours in space.
But Dr. Chang Díaz recognises that he is one of only a few hundred people in the world, out of a population of more than seven billion, who get to call themselves astronauts. Youngsters around the world do not dream of watching Americans and citizens from other powerful nations go into space. They dream, instead, of reaching the stars and planets themselves.
To be able to travel to, and possibly even colonise another planet would be an unprecedented advancement for our species, but surely its significance would be tainted if the whole of the human race were not carried forward as part of that advancement. That is why, as Dr. Chang Díaz says, ‘Space is the great equalizer, it has to be open for all, otherwise it doesn’t make sense.’
‘If nuclear space technology is developed it gives access to more of the solar system than Mars,’ concludes Dr. Chang Díaz, ‘but to do it we have to change the paradigm or we’re not going to make it.’
Portable Handheld Plasma Flashlight Sterilizes and Kills Bacteria in an Instant
Plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Compared to gasses, the atoms of plasma are different because they are made up of free electrons and ions of the element. The word "PLASMA" was first applied to ionized gas in 1929 by American chemist and physicist, Dr. Irving Langmuir.
A common example of plasma can be found in fluorescent light bulbs and neon signs. Inside the long tubes of the sign and the bulb is a gas. Electricity flows through the tube when the light is turned on. The electricity acts as that special energy and charges up the gas. This charging and exciting of the atoms creates glowing plasma inside the bulb.
Plasma Medicine
Plasma medicine combines physics, life sciences and clinical medicine to apply plasma in therapeutic and medical applications. Plasma can be effective in sterilizing living tissue without affecting surrounding cells and can also stimulate tissue regeneration. Based on research on plasma-tissue interaction, first therapeutic applications in wound healing, dermatology and dentistry will be opened.
Plasma is also a source of UV-photons. These plasma-generated active species are useful for several bio-medical applications such as sterilization of implants and surgical instruments. Sensitive applications of plasma, like subjecting human body or internal organs to plasma treatment for medical purposes, are also possible.
Handheld plasma flashlight rids skin of notorious pathogens
A group of Chinese and Australian scientists have developed a handheld, battery-powered plasma-producing device that can rid skin of bacteria in an instant.
The device could be used in ambulance emergency calls, natural disaster sites, military combat operations and many other instances where treatment is required in remote locations.
The plasma flashlight which was presented April, in IOP Publishing's Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics is driven by a 12 V battery and doesn't require any external generator or wall power; it also doesn't require any external gas feed or handling system.
In the experiment, the plasma flashlight effectively inactivated a thick biofilm of one of the most antibiotic- and heat-resistant bacteria, Enterococcus faecalis – a bacterium which often infects the root canals during dental treatments.
The biofilms were created by incubating the bacteria for seven days. The biofilms were around 25 micrometres thick and consisted of 17 different layers of bacteria. Each one was treated for five minutes with the plasma flashlight and then analysed to see how much of the bacteria survived.
Results showed that the plasma not only inactivated the top layer of cells, but penetrated deep into the very bottom of the layers to kill the bacteria.
Co-author of the study, Professor Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov, from the Plasma Nanoscience Centre Australia, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, said: "The bacteria form thick biofilms, which makes them enormously resistant against inactivation which is extremely difficult to implement. High temperatures are commonly used but they would obviously burn our skin.
"In this study we chose an extreme example to demonstrate that the plasma flashlight can be very effective even at room temperature. For individual bacteria, the inactivation time could be just tens of seconds."
Plasma – the fourth state of matter in addition to solids, liquids and gases – has previously shown its worth in the medical industry by effectively killing bacteria and viruses on the surface of the skin and in water.
Although the exact mechanism behind the anti-bacterial effect of plasma is largely unknown, it is thought that reactions between the plasma and the air surrounding it create a cocktail of reactive species that are similar to the ones found in our own immune system.
The researchers ran an analysis to see what species were present in the plasma and found that highly-reactive nitrogen- and oxygen-related species dominated the results. Ultraviolet radiation has also been theorised as a reason behind plasma's success; however, this was shown to be low in the jet created by the plasma flashlight, adding to the safety aspect of the device.
The temperature of the plume of plasma in the experiments was between 20-230C, which is very close to room temperature and therefore prevents any damage to the skin. The device itself is fitted with resistors to stop it heating up and making it safe to touch.
"The device can be easily made and costs less than 100 US dollars to produce. Of course, some miniaturisation and engineering design may be needed to make it more appealing and ready for commercialisation," Ostrikov continued.
The device was created by an international team of researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Sydney and the City University of Hong Kong.
Cause of genetic disorder found in 'dark matter' of DNA
For the first time, scientists have used new technology which analyses the whole genome to find the cause of a genetic disease in what was previously referred to as 'junk DNA'
For the first time, scientists have used new technology which analyses the whole genome to find the cause of a genetic disease in what was previously referred to as "junk DNA". Pancreatic agenesis results in babies being born without a pancreas, leaving them with a lifetime of diabetes and problems digesting food. In a breakthrough for genetic research, teams led by the University of Exeter Medical School and Imperial College London found that the condition is most commonly caused by mutations in a newly identified gene regulatory element in a remote part of the genome, which can now be explored thanks to advances in genetic sequencing.
In a study published today (November 10 2013) in Nature Genetics, the team discovered that the condition is caused by mutations in genomic "dark matter", the vast stretches of DNA that do not contain genes that accounts for 99 per cent of the human genome. Instead, it is responsible for making sure that genes are "switched on" at the right time and in the right part of the body. The effects of this region on human development is only beginning to be understood, thanks to technologies which allow scientists to analyse the whole genome – all 3 billion letters in our DNA codes.
The research was funded through the Wellcome Trust, the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Exeter Clinical Research Facility.
Dr Mike Weedon, lead researcher and Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "This breakthrough delves into the 'dark matter' of the genome, which until recently, was very difficult to systematically study. Now, advances in DNA sequencing technology mean we have the tools to explore these non-protein coding regions far more thoroughly, and we are finding it has a significant impact on development and disease."
The pancreas plays an essential role in regulating levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood. It does this by the release of the hormone insulin, which is generated and released by cells known as pancreatic beta cells. It also produces enzymes to help digest and absorb food.
Pancreatic agenesis means babies have diabetes from birth and problems with digesting food which prevents weight gain. The disease is rare, but its study also helps scientists gain a better understanding of how the pancreas works, which helps shed light on research into diabetes.
Professor Andrew Hattersley, a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator who led the Exeter team said: "This finding gives a deeper understanding to families affected by this disorder, and it also tells us more about how the pancreas develops. In the longer term, this insight could have implications for regenerative stem cell treatments for Type 1 Diabetes."
The team found six different mutations in a newly discovered PTF1A regulatory region in eleven people affected by pancreatic agenesis from across the world.
The World's First Spray on Clothes
Could this eliminate the need for clothing around the world? A cheap re-usable alternative, eventually?
Spanish fashion designer Manel Torres invented the world’s first clothes-spray, which after application to the body can be removed, washed and worn again. Spray consists of special fibers mixed with polymers, so that the product obtained elastic and durable. The technology has been developed for use in household, industrial, personal and healthcare, decorative and fashion applications using aerosol cans or spray-guns, and will soon be found in products available everywhere. The spray-on clothing will allow designers to create new and unique garments, and embodies the collaboration of fashion and science. - See more at: http://www.chillhour.com/the-worlds-first-clothes-spray#sthash.wwKtUXxm.dpuf
Article @http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1sqhUD/yLNJTQqP:GDbQAB0E/www.chillhour.com/the-worlds-first-clothes-spray
Photodynamic Therapy: Shining A Light To Fight Cancer
Photodynamic Therapy or PDT is a clinical procedure that is used to against certain medical conditions including cancer.
It involves using light wavelengths to target and destroy selected cells and tissues. This procedure is both minimally non-invasive and non-toxic.
Recently, a study published by the National Cancer Institute showed a promising next step in PDT. Using a combination of antibodies and near infra red light, PDT can be adjusted to hit only specific cells rather than an area. The researchers used an antibody that targets specific proteins on the surface of the cancerous cells. These stick to the cell and hit by near infra red light that causes damage to these cells but not the surrounding tissue.
The study is published in Nature Medicine.
The Ultimate Medical Breakthrough
A couple of weeks ago the results of an experiment were published that offers a glimpse into the future of the human race -- a future when there is no more "getting old" and, most significantly, no cancer. But to fully appreciate what has happened, you will need to get the background story first.
It is a natural desire to want to live a long life. Despite the claims of eating organic food, vegetarianism or vitamins, the only thing scientifically linked to longevity (besides starvation) is genetics. If your parents and grandparents lived a long life, you will likely live long.
We now understand exactly what causes aging and death -- on the molecular level. Scientists have spent the last decade trying to manipulate the enzymes and protiens that determine how many times our cells can make copies of themselves -- and how long we can live. But they have always faced a dilema: the same conditions that makes a cell live longer are also present in cancer.
About a decade ago, it was discovered that the ends of the DNA molecular strands had a long series of meaningless code ("TTAGGG" in the language of DNA enzymes) that kept repeating and repeating. It was noticed that these strands, called telomeres, were longer in young cells (about 10,000 base pairs) and shorter in older cells (about 5,000 base pairs). When the telomeres got too short, the cell died.
For humans, this means that most of our cells have a fixed length to their telomeres that shorten each time they make copies of themselves. When they become too short the cells go dormant -- what we experience as "old age" -- and eventually die.
Telomeres are actually chains of molecules. They have often been compared to the blank leaders on film and recording tape which are intended to provide a "buffer", protecting the vital information during handling. Telomeres perform a similar function during the cell replication process.
When a cell divides, the spiral DNA molecule must split in half and reassemble a copy of itself. Protecting the vital DNA molecule from being copied out of synch, telomeres provide a kind of safety zone where mis-alignments (which are inevitable) will not result in any of the important DNA code being lost.
Perhaps the best analogy I have heard is to compare the telomeres to the white margin surrounding an important type written document. In this analogy, the printed text is the vital DNA code while the white space is the "blank" telomeres. Imagine that this paper is repeatedly slapped on a copy machine, a copy is made, and then that copy is used to make another copy. Each time the paper is subject to errors of alignment and these errors accumulate. After enough copying, it is probable that the white space will diminish and some of the actual text will not be copied. That's what happens inside our cells and it is the reason we get old and die.
The next big discovery was an enzyme called telomerase which was present in cells which regrew their telomeres and was absent in cells that didn't. With their genes for making the enzyme telomerase turned "on", cells were able to repair and regrow telomeres.
As might be expected, the fetus enjoys abundant telomerase. The surprise is that most of the telomerase making genes are turned "off" after birth. Human cells have their longest telomeres at birth, diminishing with each copy they produce and providing a finite number of potential replcations. (the Hayflick limit)
There are some specialized cells that continue to produce telomerase after birth. Tissue like the lining of your mouth and your digestive and immune system need to make many copies to repair the daily natural assault from the environment. But there is another kind of cell that manages to turn "on" the telomerase production, so much so that it becomes virtually immortal -- cancer.
The Cancer Problem
Usually, when a cell makes an error in copying itself, the error will prevent the cell from duplicating itself and it dies before making any copies of the error. So the mistake is limited. But with cancer, cells make errors in copying the DNA code and then, somehow, turn "on" the production of telomerase -- allowing them to make unlimited copies of themselves -- making them immortal. The aberrant cells frequently lose their former function, then rapidly reproduce and outlive normal cells. This is the process that creates tumors.
The realization that cancer cells have turned "on" their telomere production has influenced the direction of telomere research from a search for life to a search for death. Most of the effort has been devoted to turning "off" the telomerase and shortening the telomeres to kill the cancer cells.
When mice with inactive telomerase (short telomeres) were bred with cancer prone mice (long telomeres), the resulting offspring initially had long telomeres and were highly susceptible to cancer at a young age [3]. But when these offspring were bred for five generations their telomeres became gradually very short and they were free of cancer. The link between telomere length and cancer has since been replicated many times and is widely accepted.
In the past few years, pharmaceutical companies like Geron Corporation and Merck have been conducting clinical trials on vaccines designed to teach the body's immune system to attack cancerous cells producing telomerase [*]. Telomerase seems always to be viewed as a negative enzyme. Part of the problem is that cancer is considered a disease, where death is not. But that may soon change.
The early belief was that if humans could activate or turn "on" their telomerase, their cells could potentially be immortal BUT they would likely die from the cancer that is associated with longer telomeres. This was contradicted by some experiments with mice, bred to manipulate their telomerase activity.
And now the new research...
OK, let's talk. You and I both know that the future of the human race is headed in the direction of longer and healthier lifespans. The telomere experiments have thus far involved breeding mice to have shorter telomeres. Applying this to human life-extension would require selective breeding of humans in a carefully controlled program, over many generations. But it could be done.
Until now, there has been no way to switch "on" the telomerase quickly. Until now the human race was destined to be artificially evolved, creating a special "family" of telomerase enhanced beings that would intermarry and enjoy a long and disease free life.
But some scientists in Barcelona have just published their successful results of turning "on" telomerase in mice with a single treatment given to ordinary, healthy individuals of both adult and aged groups. This was achieved through a novel approach in gene therapy. (Published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine)
The gene therapy consisted of treating the animals with a DNA-modified virus, the viral genes having been replaced by those of the telomerase enzyme. Once the animal is infected, the virus acts as a vehicle depositing the telomerase gene in the cells, which then begin to manufacture it. Once the telomerase was being produced, the scientists noticed that the treated mice had lengthened their telomeres and appeared rejuvenated.
The experiments suggest that there is an ideal time when the treatment is most effective. They tested mice that were one year old (considered adult) and two years old (considered old mice). Mice treated at the age of one lived longer by 24% on average, and those treated at the age of two, by 13%. The therapy, furthermore, produced an appreciable improvement in the animals' health, delaying the onset of age-related diseases -- like osteoporosis and insulin resistance -- and achieving improved readings on aging indicators like neuromuscular coordination. These findings were similar to the Harvard study (described above) but did not involve selective breeding.
But the most surprising discovery was that, once again, the mice were free from cancer!
Scientists speculate that, if a healthy cell receives telomerase, it becomes less likely to make copying errors and better able to fight against disease. The telomerase benefits the entire body's systems, including our immunity and ability to rejuvenate.
Future Humans
In 2007, Blasco's group demonstrated that it was feasible to prolong the lives of transgenic mice, whose genome had been permanently altered at the embryonic stage, by causing their cells to express telomerase and, also, extra copies of cancer-resistant genes. These animals live 40% longer than is normal and also do not develop cancer.
Messing with a human embryo is something no moral scientists are prepared to do at present. The new research provides a way of achieving a longer and healthier life without conflicts with morality or religion.
It is believed now that when the telomerase production is switched "on" at an early adult age (as this new study shows), certain anti-cancer genes are also activated. Also, when the cells are younger, there is less likelihood that there are large numbers of aberrant cells that could be made immortal by the treatment.
Also important is the kind of virus employed to carry the telomerase gene to the cells. The researchers selected demonstrably safe viruses that have been successfully used in gene therapy treatment of hemophilia and eye disease. Specifically, they are non-replicating viruses derived from others that are non-pathogenic in humans.
This study is viewed primarily as a proof-of-principle that telomerase gene therapy is a feasible and generally safe approach to improve healthspan and treat disorders associated with short telomeres.
"Aging is not currently regarded as a disease, but researchers tend increasingly to view it as the common origin of conditions like insulin resistance or cardiovascular disease, whose incidence rises with age. In treating cell aging, we could prevent these diseases."
Because the virus used expresses the target gene (telomerase) over a long period, researchers were able to apply a single treatment. This might be the only practical solution for an anti-aging therapy, since other strategies would require the drug to be administered over the patient's lifetime (with all the big-Pharma and economic/social/political involvement that would ensue), multiplying the risk of adverse effects, or creating a whole new race of humans, selectively bred to turn "on" their telomerase.
We don't know yet whether the virus treatment can transmit this turned "on" telomerase to offspring. Probably not. Female eggs are made in the fetus before the mother's birth and would presumably be isolated from the treatment. Male sperm, on the other hand, are made-to-order and could possibly carry the genes. Right now it's looking more like an upgrade rather than whole new race.
There have been some data showing that colo-rectal cancer could result from extra long telomeres (or extra short ones) which suggests that there is an optimal range of telomere length that is between immortal and cancerous. So some maintenance to modulate telomere length might be required in a long lived population.
There are so many questions to be answered, and yet to be asked. What is the perfect age for the treatment? How much will it cost? Will it be universally available or restricted... by whom? Regardless, telomerase therapy is coming to humanity very soon.
When mice with inactive telomerase (short telomeres) were bred with cancer prone mice (long telomeres), the resulting offspring initially had long telomeres and were highly susceptible to cancer at a young age [3]. But when these offspring were bred for five generations their telomeres became gradually very short and they were free of cancer. The link between telomere length and cancer has since been replicated many times and is widely accepted.
In the past few years, pharmaceutical companies like Geron Corporation and Merck have been conducting clinical trials on vaccines designed to teach the body's immune system to attack cancerous cells producing telomerase [*]. Telomerase seems always to be viewed as a negative enzyme. Part of the problem is that cancer is considered a disease, where death is not. But that may soon change.
The early belief was that if humans could activate or turn "on" their telomerase, their cells could potentially be immortal BUT they would likely die from the cancer that is associated with longer telomeres. This was contradicted by some experiments with mice, bred to manipulate their telomerase activity.
And now the new research...
OK, let's talk. You and I both know that the future of the human race is headed in the direction of longer and healthier lifespans. The telomere experiments have thus far involved breeding mice to have shorter telomeres. Applying this to human life-extension would require selective breeding of humans in a carefully controlled program, over many generations. But it could be done.
Until now, there has been no way to switch "on" the telomerase quickly. Until now the human race was destined to be artificially evolved, creating a special "family" of telomerase enhanced beings that would intermarry and enjoy a long and disease free life.
But some scientists in Barcelona have just published their successful results of turning "on" telomerase in mice with a single treatment given to ordinary, healthy individuals of both adult and aged groups. This was achieved through a novel approach in gene therapy. (Published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine)
The gene therapy consisted of treating the animals with a DNA-modified virus, the viral genes having been replaced by those of the telomerase enzyme. Once the animal is infected, the virus acts as a vehicle depositing the telomerase gene in the cells, which then begin to manufacture it. Once the telomerase was being produced, the scientists noticed that the treated mice had lengthened their telomeres and appeared rejuvenated.
The experiments suggest that there is an ideal time when the treatment is most effective. They tested mice that were one year old (considered adult) and two years old (considered old mice). Mice treated at the age of one lived longer by 24% on average, and those treated at the age of two, by 13%. The therapy, furthermore, produced an appreciable improvement in the animals' health, delaying the onset of age-related diseases -- like osteoporosis and insulin resistance -- and achieving improved readings on aging indicators like neuromuscular coordination. These findings were similar to the Harvard study (described above) but did not involve selective breeding.
But the most surprising discovery was that, once again, the mice were free from cancer!
Scientists speculate that, if a healthy cell receives telomerase, it becomes less likely to make copying errors and better able to fight against disease. The telomerase benefits the entire body's systems, including our immunity and ability to rejuvenate.
Future Humans
In 2007, Blasco's group demonstrated that it was feasible to prolong the lives of transgenic mice, whose genome had been permanently altered at the embryonic stage, by causing their cells to express telomerase and, also, extra copies of cancer-resistant genes. These animals live 40% longer than is normal and also do not develop cancer.
Messing with a human embryo is something no moral scientists are prepared to do at present. The new research provides a way of achieving a longer and healthier life without conflicts with morality or religion.
It is believed now that when the telomerase production is switched "on" at an early adult age (as this new study shows), certain anti-cancer genes are also activated. Also, when the cells are younger, there is less likelihood that there are large numbers of aberrant cells that could be made immortal by the treatment.
Also important is the kind of virus employed to carry the telomerase gene to the cells. The researchers selected demonstrably safe viruses that have been successfully used in gene therapy treatment of hemophilia and eye disease. Specifically, they are non-replicating viruses derived from others that are non-pathogenic in humans.
This study is viewed primarily as a proof-of-principle that telomerase gene therapy is a feasible and generally safe approach to improve healthspan and treat disorders associated with short telomeres.
"Aging is not currently regarded as a disease, but researchers tend increasingly to view it as the common origin of conditions like insulin resistance or cardiovascular disease, whose incidence rises with age. In treating cell aging, we could prevent these diseases."
Because the virus used expresses the target gene (telomerase) over a long period, researchers were able to apply a single treatment. This might be the only practical solution for an anti-aging therapy, since other strategies would require the drug to be administered over the patient's lifetime (with all the big-Pharma and economic/social/political involvement that would ensue), multiplying the risk of adverse effects, or creating a whole new race of humans, selectively bred to turn "on" their telomerase.
We don't know yet whether the virus treatment can transmit this turned "on" telomerase to offspring. Probably not. Female eggs are made in the fetus before the mother's birth and would presumably be isolated from the treatment. Male sperm, on the other hand, are made-to-order and could possibly carry the genes. Right now it's looking more like an upgrade rather than whole new race.
There have been some data showing that colo-rectal cancer could result from extra long telomeres (or extra short ones) which suggests that there is an optimal range of telomere length that is between immortal and cancerous. So some maintenance to modulate telomere length might be required in a long lived population.
There are so many questions to be answered, and yet to be asked. What is the perfect age for the treatment? How much will it cost? Will it be universally available or restricted... by whom? Regardless, telomerase therapy is coming to humanity very soon.
Article @http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1MLS6V/J5Rp6lKU:IyxwRsi+/www.viewzone.com/telomerase.html
Scientists capture the first image of memories being made
The ability to learn and to establish new memories is essential to our daily existence and identity; enabling us to navigate through the world. A new study by researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (The Neuro), McGill University and University of California, Los Angeles has captured an image for the first time of a mechanism, specifically protein translation, which underlies long-term memory formation. The finding provides the first visual evidence that when a new memory is formed new proteins are made locally at the synapse - the connection between nerve cells - increasing the strength of the synaptic connection and reinforcing the memory. The study published in Science, is important for understanding how memory traces are created and the ability to monitor it in real time will allow a detailed understanding of how memories are formed.
When considering what might be going on in the brain at a molecular level two essential properties of memory need to be taken into account. First, because a lot of information needs to be maintained over a long time there has to be some degree of stability. Second, to allow for learning and adaptation the system also needs to be highly flexible.
For this reason, research has focused on synapses which are the main site of exchange and storage in the brain. They form a vast but also constantly fluctuating network of connections whose ability to change and adapt, called synaptic plasticity, may be the fundamental basis of learning and memory.
"But, if this network is constantly changing, the question is how do memories stay put, how are they formed? It has been known for some time that an important step in long-term memory formation is "translation", or the production, of new proteins locally at the synapse, strengthening the synaptic connection in the reinforcement of a memory, which until now has never been imaged," says Dr. Wayne Sossin, neuroscientist at The Neuro and co-investigator in the study. "Using a translational reporter, a fluorescent protein that can be easily detected and tracked, we directly visualized the increased local translation, or protein synthesis, during memory formation. Importantly, this translation was synapse-specific and it required activation of the post-synaptic cell, showing that this step required cooperation between the pre and post-synaptic compartments, the parts of the two neurons that meet at the synapse. Thus highly regulated local translation occurs at synapses during long-term plasticity and requires trans-synaptic signals."
Long-term memory and synaptic plasticity require changes in gene expression and yet can occur in a synapse-specific manner. This study provides evidence that a mechanism that mediates this gene expression during neuronal plasticity involves regulated translation of localized mRNA at stimulated synapses. These findings are instrumental in establishing the molecular processes involved in long-term memory formation and provide insight into diseases involving memory impairment.
This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the WM Keck Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Source: McGill University
Article @http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2l24Au/XL55r5fN:KFae27Wx/www.sciencecodex.com/scientists_capture_the_first_image_of_memories_being_made
MIT Creates New Energy Source
This is some pretty exciting news. It seems that researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the most prestigious science and engineering schools in the United States, has created a new energy source -- and it's clean and renewable. The odd thing is that the only way you can see this energy source is with a very powerful microscope, because it is created by using nanotechnology.
For a few years now, we have been hearing about the possibilities offered by the new field of nanotechnology. Now it looks like the first usable breakthrough has been accomplished. MIT has devised a process to generate electricity using nanotechnology. And this new process may soon revolutionize batteries for all kind of devices.
The researchers built tiny wires out of carbon nanotubes. Then they coated these wires with a fuel and discovered it generated electricity -- a lot of electricity considering its tiny size. They believe they will be able to use this technology to create batteries at least 10 times smaller than current batteries, but produce the same amount of electricity.
The nanotechnology batteries will have a couple of other advantages over current batteries. First, they will not lose power while sitting and not being used (as you probably know, current batteries can lose their charge even if they are not being used). This will result in a huge energy savings.
Second, these batteries are non-toxic since they are made of carbon. Current batteries are made from very toxic heavy metals like lead, nickel and cadmium, and must be disposed of very carefully. The carbon nanotechnology batteries can simply be burned and produce no toxic fumes or waste.
Computers, cell phones and other electronic devices will be the first to benefit from the nanotechnology batteries. This is a marvelous breakthrough, and I hope it's not too long before the new nano-batteries hit the market.
Solar Panels That You Can Drive, Park, and Walk On
They melt snow and cut greenhouse gases by 75-percent.
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