Oh boy.
Got a design concept? You have until July 22 to submit your plan.
By Jennings Brown.
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Researchers at MIT are seeking to redesign concrete — the most widely used human-made material in the world — by following nature’s blueprints.
In a paper published online in the journal Construction and Building Materials, the team contrasts cement paste — concrete’s binding ingredient — with the structure and properties of natural materials such as bones, shells, and deep-sea sponges. As the researchers observed, these biological materials are exceptionally strong and durable, thanks in part to their precise assembly of structures at multiple length scales, from the molecular to the macro, or visible, level.
From their observations, the team, led by Oral Buyukozturk, a professor in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), proposed a new bioinspired, “bottom-up” approach for designing cement paste.
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Bad with money? Blame it on your hormones according to Richard Thaler.
Let’s face it: most of us suck at managing money.
According to a National Bureau of Economics working paper published this March, roughly three quarters of all American households carry some form of debt. 40% haven’t paid off their credit cards. Nearly half have no savings at all. And the US isn’t alone: Canada, the UK and Australia are in roughly the same debt-ridden neighborhood.
There’s no doubt that we’re bad with money. But according to Richard Thaler, an economist at the University Chicago, we’re not (entirely) to blame.
Interesting.
The research, published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, explains how the gene encourages the attachment of the protein, ubiquitin, to other proteins and plays a vital role in DNA repair. Should the results be confirmed by further studies, it is possible that patients with certain genetic changes in BRCA1 could be identified as being at higher risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
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Great news for precision medicine.
European regulators have given the green light for a British drug firm to produce the world’s first gene therapy treatment for children.
GlaxoSmithKline was given approval by the European Commission to provide the treatment to children with a rare immune disorder — which can be fatal for those affected.
The treatment, called Strimvelis, is the first stem cell gene therapy to treat children with severe combined immunodeficiency — commonly referred to as ‘bubble boy’ syndrome.
New fundamental research by UT Dallas physicists may accelerate the drive toward more advanced electronics and more powerful computers.
The scientists are investigating materials called topological insulators, whose surface electrical properties are essentially the opposite of the properties inside.
“These materials are made of the same thing throughout, from the interior to the exterior,” said Dr. Fan Zhang, assistant professor of physics at UT Dallas. “But, the interior does not conduct electrons — it’s an insulator — while the electrons on the surface are free to move around. The surface is therefore a conductor, like a metal, but it is in fact more robust than a metal.”
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Are black holes HOLOGRAMS?
Posted in cosmology, quantum physics
(Phys.org)—Researchers have designed a quantum thermal transistor that can control heat currents, in analogy to the way in which an electronic transistor controls electric current. The thermal transistor could be used in applications that recycle waste heat that has been harvested from power stations and other energy systems. Currently, there are methods for transporting and guiding this heat, but not for controlling, amplifying, and switching the heat on and off, as the quantum thermal transistor can do.
The researchers, Karl Joulain et al., at the University of Poitiers and CNRS in France, have published a paper on the quantum thermal transistor in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters.
“To manage electricity, one uses electronic diodes, transistor and amplifiers,” Joulain told Phys.org. “We would like to do the same thing with thermal currents. We would like to make logical thermal circuits in the same way electronic thermal circuits have been designed. In this way, wasted heat could be guided, switched on or off, amplified or modulated.”
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According to Mirror Online, the youngster is studying computing at college.
This gave the 18-year-old full control over the site, including the ability to “delete and suspend users, change the site’s name, censor certain words and manage the eventual ads”, as well as being able to “see everyone’s emails”.
Go to starcon.net.kp and you’ll find a very familiar looking website.
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My new article for Vice Motherboard on extreme biohacking that compares the Uncanny Valley to Speciation Syndrome:
Transhumanism tech like CRISPR, 3D printing, and coming biological regeneration of limbs will not only change lives for those that have deformities, but it will change how we look at things like a person with a three-foot tail and maybe even a second head.
At the core of all this is the ingrained belief that the human being is pre-formed organism, complete with one head, four limbs, and other standard anatomical parts. But in the transhumanist age, the human being should be looked at more like a machine—like a car, if you will: something that comes out a particular way with certain attributes, but then can be heavily modified. In fact, it can be rebuilt from scratch.
In the future, there may even be walk-in clinics where people can go to have various gene treatments done to affect their bodies. Already, we have IVF centers where people can use radical tech to privately get pregnant—and also control and monitor various stages of a child’s birth. Eventually, if government allows it, gene editing centers will also offer a multitude of designer baby traits, some which also would come via CRISPR. We might even eventually use artificial wombs for the whole process.