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Jul 30, 2023

Scientists Use Gene Editing To Create a Better Melon

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical

The plant hormone ethylene, in its gaseous state, has long been recognized for its ability to hasten fruit ripening and has a notable impact on shelf-life. In a recent study, scientists used the CRISPR/Cas9 system for gene editing to modify the ethylene production pathway in the luxury Japanese melon (Cucumis melo var. reticulatus “Harukei-3”) to increase its shelf-life.

Their findings were recently published in the journal Frontiers in Genome Editing.

The enzyme 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid.

Jul 30, 2023

Lights could be the future of the internet and data transmission

Posted by in categories: computing, internet

Fast data transmissions could be delivered in homes and offices through light-emitting diodes (LED) bulbs, complementing existing communication technologies and networks.

The future’s new internet technologies are being rapidly refined by academics and LED-based communication links are expected to be extensively used in numerous emerging services and scenarios, including Light-fidelity (Li-Fi), underwater communications, moderate-to high-speed photonic interconnects and various “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices.

A new study, published in Nature Photonics and led by the University of Surrey and University of Cambridge, has investigated how to release high-speed photonic sources using . These are semiconductors being researched with LEDs for their excellent optoelectronic properties and low-cost processing methods.

Jul 30, 2023

UChicago Scientists Show Entanglement Is Responsible For Computational Hardness In Quantum Systems

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

A University of Chicago-led team found a computational problem that showed entanglement is responsible for quantum speedups.

Jul 30, 2023

Meta-optical fibres downsize endoscopes

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Ultrathin optical elements known as meta-optics can reduce the tip length of endoscopes, which is one of the limiting factors of these medical devices. That’s the latest finding from researchers at the University of Washington, who used an inverse design approach to downsize the tip length by a third. They also demonstrate that the endoscope can capture video in real time over the full visible spectrum, something that has proved difficult with previous approaches.

Endoscopy involves inserting a long, flexible tube (consisting of a camera and a light guide) into the body to obtain images of internal tissues. In existing devices, the tube is tipped with a rigid optical component, the length of which is a fundamental limitation to the device being able to travel through small convoluted ducts such as arteries.

In principle, this problem can be solved by making an endoscope from just a single optical fibre or a bundle of fibres, but the snag here is that some of the light travelling down the fibres is scattered by defects and gets distorted beyond recognition. It cannot therefore be reconstructed to obtain an accurate image. Such devices are also limited to short working distances.

Jul 30, 2023

How a BBQ lighter can make DNA vaccines more powerful

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Georgia Tech researchers have transformed a standard BBQ lighter into a delivery system that uses an electric spark to boost DNA vaccines — and it could help increase global access to a cheap, powerful new vaccine technology.

mRNA vs. DNA vaccines: DNA vaccines deliver a bit of genetic code that tells cells in the body to make a protein from a specific virus or bacteria. That triggers the immune system to create antibodies against that protein that will protect you if you’re ever infected by that particular pathogen.

This is exactly how mRNA vaccines work, too, and just like mRNA vaccines, DNA-based shots are relatively cheap to produce and easy to change to make new vaccines — but the way mRNA and DNA vaccines get their genetic instructions into cells is different.

Jul 30, 2023

How Much Junk Food Is Bad For Health?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, genetics, health

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Jul 30, 2023

Why Meta is giving away its extremely powerful AI model

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The AI debate splitting the tech world, explained.

Jul 30, 2023

Google’s new AI model generates music from your brain activity. Listen for yourself

Posted by in categories: media & arts, robotics/AI

The music you listen to creates specific brain patterns that AI can use to generate that same sound. Here’s how.

Jul 30, 2023

Filtering Out Alien Signals From Earth Noise Just Got a Whole Lot Easier

Posted by in category: alien life

The search for alien life has always been hampered by the huge racket that Earth generates, rendering it difficult to tease out alien signals from all the local noise.

But a new method for recognizing radio signals traveling through interstellar space could narrow the search considerably.

Continue reading “Filtering Out Alien Signals From Earth Noise Just Got a Whole Lot Easier” »

Jul 30, 2023

The Death of Summer

Posted by in category: futurism

We should not be surprised if such changes occur. Summer was not always about the seaside and sunbathing. True, there is a long tradition, dating back at least to the Romans, of leaving the city for the seashore in the summer months. Baiae, on the northern tip of the Gulf of Naples, was a favorite haunt of the emperors Augustus, Nero and Caligula. (According to Seneca the Younger, it was a “harbor of vice.”) But activities such as swimming in the sea and stripping semi-naked to lie on the beach are of quite recent provenance.

Moreover, the seaside is not an appealing summer location in much of the world. No sweat-soaked imperial civil servant in British-ruled India would have chosen the Bay of Bengal as his preferred holiday destination. The only way to escape the heat of the summer was — as Rudyard Kipling described — to flee the plains and head northwards to Himalayan “hill stations” such as Simla.

Now that summer in more and more of the world is as searingly hot as India in Kipling’s time, we are all going to have to take a leaf out of his book. The hill station is coming back, and this time it’s global.