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May 24, 2016

US biochemist wins award for rewriting DNA to mimic evolution

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, evolution

US biochemical engineer Frances Arnold on Tuesday won a million-euro technology prize in Finland for her work on “directed evolution”, a method of rewriting DNA to improve medicines and develop green fuels.

“Frances Arnold receives the 2016 Millennium Technology Prize in recognition of her discoveries that launched the field of ‘directed evolution’, which mimics natural evolution to create new and better proteins in the laboratory,” the Technology Academy Finland, which awards the prize at two-year intervals, said in a statement.

Arnold, 59, who is a professor of chemical engineering at California Institute of Technology, said her work made it possible to “solve human problems”, such as replacing toxic chemicals like fossil fuels.

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May 24, 2016

Could Wi-Fi be replaced

Posted by in category: internet

Will Wi-Fi routers be outdone by a network of smart light bulbs?

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May 23, 2016

Harvard Team Takes Major Step toward Overcoming Antibiotic Resistance

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Cientistas de Harvard University criou uma nova plataforma para superar a resistência aos antibióticos.

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May 23, 2016

Sneak peek: A first look at YouTube’s VR interface within Daydream

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, virtual reality

On Thursday, Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc.

At first, it will also only run on a select number of devices — most of which are touch-enabled (think Google’s own Chromebook Pixel, the Asus Chromebook Flip and Acer’s R11).

Like numerous other announcements Google made at its I/O developers conference this week, the Android apps integration feature won’t be available for users until this fall. For the layman, that means that while you may be able to install Android apps, some of them might not be ideal until developers eventually get around to making things work correctly. You’ll be able to make a Skype call, work with Office files, be productive offline, and play games like Minecraft or Hearthstone.

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May 23, 2016

U.S. lawmaker orders NASA to plan for trip to Alpha Centauri

Posted by in category: space travel

Representative John Culberson (R–TX) wants agency to envision a spacecraft that can travel at 10% light-speed.

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May 23, 2016

Size quantization of Dirac fermions in graphene

Posted by in categories: electronics, particle physics

Printed Electronics World Tags.

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May 23, 2016

American Entrepreneurs Will Build the Fountain of Youth in Fiji

Posted by in category: life extension

There’s no better place to get your telomeres lengthened (without going to jail).

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May 23, 2016

Neuron-Based Chips Will Soon Become Commonplace, This Startup Founder Says

Posted by in category: computing

What does it mean to be alive? This question has been haunting us since the beginning of time. Thousands if not millions of novelists, philosophers, scientists have tried to answer.

However, for practical purposes, you don’t really need to know: you just live. You just learn to move in this world according to a certain set of rules, and as long as they work, you keep going.

All things considered this is not much different to the approach to brain-like computers that a Newark, California, based startup named Koniku is taking. Most of the experiments in this field are focused on trying to understand and replicate the infinite complexity of the brain using artificial methods, or on creating interfaces that connect the physical world with machines.

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May 23, 2016

HIV Genes Have Been Cut Out of Live Animals Using CRISPR

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical

For the first time ever, scientists were able to successfully cut out the HIV genes from live animals, and they had over a 50% success rate.

A significant milestone was achieved today in the fight against HIV—scientists led by Kamel Khalili of the Comprehensive NeuroAIDS Center at Temple University just reported that, for the first time, HIV genes have been successfully eliminated from the genomes of animals infected with the virus.

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May 23, 2016

This self-healing material could solve many wearable woes

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, electronics, nanotechnology, wearables

The physical limitations of existing materials are one of main problems when it comes to flexible electronics, be it wearables, medical or sports tech. If a flexible material breaks, it either stays broken, or if it has some self-healing properties it may continue to work, but not so well. However, a team from Penn State have creating a self-healing, flexible material that could be used inside electronics even after multiple breaks.

The main challenge facing researchers led by Professor Qing Wang, was ensuring that self-healing electronics could restore “a suite of functions”. The example used explains how a component may still retain electrical resistance, but lose the ability to conduct heat, risking overheating in a hypothetical wearable, which is never good. The nano-composite material they came up with was mechanically strong, resistant against electronic surges, thermal conductivity and whilst packing insulating properties. Despite being cut it in half, reconnecting the two parts together and healing at a higher temperature almost completely heals where the cut was made. The thin strip of material could also hold up to 200 grams of weight after recovering.

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