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Nice report published in Jan on.


The mechanism of selectivity in ion channels is still an open question in biology for more than half a century. Here, we suggest that quantum interference can be a solution to explain the selectivity mechanism in ion channels since interference happens between similar ions through the same size of ion channels. In this paper, we simulate two neighboring ion channels on a cell membrane with the famous double-slit experiment in physics to investigate whether there is any possibility of matter-wave interference of ions via movement through ion channels. Our obtained decoherence timescales indicate that the quantum states of ions can only survive for short times, i.e. ≈100 picoseconds in each channel and ≈17–53 picoseconds outside the channels, giving the result that the quantum interference of ions seems unlikely due to environmental decoherence. However, we discuss our results and raise few points, which increase the possibility of interference.

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Photoswitchable molecules are able to isomerize between two metastable forms through light stimuli. Originally being studied by photochemists, this type of molecule has now found a wide range of applications within physics, chemistry and biology. The extensive usage of photochromic molecules is due to the two isomers having fundamentally different physical and chemical properties. The most important attribute of a photoswitch is the photoisomerization quantum yield, which defines the efficiency of the photoisomerization event. Here we show how to determine the photoisomerization quantum yield in the solid state and in solution when taking thermal processes into account. The described method together with provided software allows for rapid and accurate determination of the isomerization process for this important class of molecules.

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Rules placed on Synbio in India; wonder who is next?


The technology could help produce drugs, vaccines, fuel components and other chemicals.

: India is taking its first steps to evolve a policy on synthetic biology, an emerging science through which new life forms can potentially be made in labs and existing life forms, such as bacteria and other microbes, tweaked to produce specific proteins or chemically useful products.

The Environment Ministry will be convening a group of experts on biodiversity and biotechnology, to assess synthetic biology work pursued in Indian labs, potential benefits and risks, and the implications of the trans-boundary movement of such life forms.

Impressive.


SideArm can be shipped inside a standard 20-foot shipping container for easy transport by truck, ship, rail, Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter. The small system is designed to operate in truck-mounted, ship-mounted, and standalone/fixed-site facilities. A crew of only two to four people can set-up or stow the system in minutes.

SideArm owes its small size to combining its launch and capture equipment into a single rail that folds for transport.

DARPA Program Seeks to use Wi-Fi and Cellular Networks for Military Communications

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Sounds definitely like DARPA could be looking at a more seamless BMI type technology and yes, Quantum Bio and telepathy is involved.


For decades scientists have wondered whether electromagnetic waves might play a role in intra- and inter-cell signaling. Researchers have suggested since the 1960s, for example, that terahertz frequencies emanate from cell membranes, but they’ve lacked the technology and tools to conduct reproducible experiments that could prove whether electromagnetic waves constitute purposeful signals for biological function-or if they’re merely background noise.

With recent advances in technology and modeling, experiments may now be possible to test signaling hypotheses. DARPA’s RadioBio program, announced this week, seeks to establish if purposeful electromagnetic wave signaling between biological cells exists-and if evidence supports that it does, to determine what information is being transferred.

The validity of existing and new electromagnetic biosignaling claims requires an understanding of how the structure and function of microscopic, natural antennas are capable of generating and receiving information in a noisy spectral environment.

In Brief

  • Scientists were able to rig up a system in which they could view a “photon-blockade breakdown” where the system switched from opaque to transparent.
  • This discovery has implications in both the development of advanced computer memory systems and better quantum simulations in the future.

For the first time, physicists have experimentally observed a first-order phase transition occur in a quantum system – verifying years of theoretical predictions.

Phase transitions are something that we see on a daily basis when our ice melts into water, or steam evaporates from a boiling kettle. While these transitions are easy for us to observe, phase transitions also happen on the very tiny, quantum-scale, where they play an important role in physics. But, up until now, no one had ever witnessed one experimentally.

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