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Sep 6, 2016
These Nanobots Can Repair Circuits All by Themselves
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: computing, nanotechnology, physics, robotics/AI
A new technique uses the curious physical laws of the nano-scale itself to “program” nanobots. Welcome to the future of nanotechnology.
Nanorobotics has long been touted as one of the most promising “miracle technologies” of the future. But one of the fundamental problems with such extreme miniaturization is how to “program” nanobots—after all, you can’t very well shrink computer circuitry to fit within nanometer-scale technology.
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Sep 6, 2016
Stem Cells Allow Scientists to Repair Injured Spinal Cords
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
In a study published in Nature Medicine, researchers report that they have successfully coaxed stem cell-derived neurons to regenerate lost tissue in damaged corticospinal tracts of rats.
Stem cells are an amazing part of medical research. Because of their ability to become virtually any cell in the human body, they could hold the cure for many varied and grave diseases—from bones, to sight, to memory and thinking, stem cells could help us correct a host of conditions.
In fact, it seems that stem cells might be the key to repairing spinal cord injuries.
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Sep 6, 2016
THIS is how you can use ultrasound for wound healing
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
https://youtube.com/watch?v=PL-0Ga9Sziw
Other than speeding up bone healing, slowing Alzheimer’s in mice, ultrasound has been found to help with speedy wound healing. Ultrasound application can help diabetic patients, who suffer from helping defects, up to 30% to decrease the healing time of wounds.
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Sep 6, 2016
Gender Sterotyping? —Not so Fast!
Posted by Philip Raymond in categories: education, journalism, sex
There is a stark contrast between the cover stories in current issue of Boys’ Life –vs- Girls’ Life. [see it here]. The Boys cover effectively urges males to learn, build, think and question assumptions. But, the Girls cover wonders “Oh My! What will you do with your hair and nails today!”
Although I am a feminist—and readily jarred by the juxtaposition of contrary messages—I am giving editors at Girls’ Life a ‘get out of jail’ pass this time. It may not be the sexism that it seems.
[Originally published at AWildDuck under my pen name, “Ellery”]
Jennifer Wright (@JenAshleyWright) kicked up a firestorm last week, when she tweeted a photo of two side-by-side magazines on a newsstand. The contrast between cover features of Boy’s Life –vs- Girl’s Life is startling. With characteristic sarcastic wit, she tweeted:
“Why are you feminists always complaining?
We treat boys and girls exactly the same.”
Sep 6, 2016
Google Co-Founder Larry Page Owns A Secret Flying Car Company
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: business, transportation
Bloomberg Businessweek alleges that Page has invested more than $100 million of his own personal funds into a flying car company since they started in 2010 and is currently funding another flying car startup.
You know how, when you’re stuck in traffic, you wish that you could pull a secret lever in your car that would make it shoot up in the air, fly you out of the congested street, and quickly whisk you to your meeting—where you are, of course, a corporate (and punctual) hero?
Well, it seems Google cofounder Larry Page may have been thinking the same thing. Bloomberg Businessweek claims that Page secretly owns a startup named Zee. Aero, a company that has been so evasive that employees were allegedly given cards with instructions on how to deflect reporters.
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Sep 6, 2016
Brain circuit that drives sleep-wake states, sleep-preparation behavior is identified
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: food, neuroscience
Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have identified a brain circuit that’s indispensable to the sleep-wake cycle. This same circuit is also a key component of the reward system, an archipelago of interconnected brain clusters crucial to promoting behavior necessary for animals, including humans, to survive and reproduce.
It makes intuitive sense that the reward system, which motivates goal-directed behaviors such as fleeing from predators or looking for food, and our sleep-wake cycle would coordinate with one another at some point. You can’t seek food in your sleep, unless you’re an adept sleepwalker. Conversely, getting out of bed is a lot easier when you’re excited about the day ahead of you.
But until this study, no precise anatomical location for this integration of the brain’s reward and arousal systems has been pinpointed, said Luis de Lecea, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.
Sep 6, 2016
Intel to Acquire Movidius: Accelerating Computer Vision through RealSense for the Next Wave of Computing
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: computing, drones, robotics/AI, virtual reality
Sep 6, 2016
New CERN LHC Experiments –“Predict a Boson Beyond the Higgs That Could Unlock Clues to Existence of Dark Matter”
Posted by Andreas Matt in categories: cosmology, particle physics
Two separate experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, on the French-Swiss border, appear to confirm the existence of a subatomic particle, the Madala boson, that for the first time could shed light on one of the great mysteries of the universe — dark matter.
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Sep 6, 2016
Stable nuclear expression of ATP8 and ATP6 genes rescues a mtDNA Complex V null mutant
Posted by Steve Hill in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, genetics, life extension
The SENS Research Foundation has finally published this anticipated and important paper on mitochondrial gene transfer which has ramifications for mitochondrial diseases and more importantly one of the processes of aging. It is great to see that finally after a decade of criticism Aubrey de Grey has proven his approach is viable.
We explore the possibility of re-engineering mitochondrial genes and expressing them from the nucleus as an approach to rescue defects arising from mitochondrial DNA mutations. We have used a patient cybrid cell line with a single point mutation in the overlap region of the ATP8 and ATP6 genes of the human mitochondrial genome. These cells are null for the ATP8 protein, have significantly lowered ATP6 protein levels and no Complex V function. Nuclear expression of only the ATP8 gene with the ATP5G1 mitochondrial targeting sequence appended restored viability on Krebs cycle substrates and ATP synthesis capabilities but, failed to restore ATP hydrolysis and was insensitive to various inhibitors of oxidative phosphorylation. Co-expressing both ATP8 and ATP6 genes under similar conditions resulted in stable protein expression leading to successful integration into Complex V of the oxidative phosphorylation machinery. Tests for ATP hydrolysis / synthesis, oxygen consumption, glycolytic metabolism and viability all indicate a significant functional rescue of the mutant phenotype (including re-assembly of Complex V) following stable co-expression of ATP8 and ATP6. Thus, we report the stable allotopic expression, import and function of two mitochondria encoded genes, ATP8 and ATP6, resulting in simultaneous rescue of the loss of both mitochondrial proteins.
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