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Jun 1, 2020

New Recombineering Method May Overcome Key Obstacle in Genetically Engineering Bacteria

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, genetics

New genetic engineering method promises to super-charge recombineering and open the bacterial world at large to this underutilized approach.

Jun 1, 2020

Iron Nanorobots Go Undercover to Track Living Cells Inside the Body

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, nanotechnology

Customizable magnetic iron nanowires pinpoint and track the movements of target cells.

Living cells inside the body could be placed under surveillance—their location and migration noninvasively tracked in real time over many days—using a new method developed by researchers at KAUST.

The technique uses magnetic core-shell iron nanowires as nontoxic contrast agents, which can be implanted into live cells, lighting up those cells’ location inside a living organism when scanned by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The technique could have applications ranging from studying and treating cancer to tracking live-cell medical treatments, such as stem cell therapies.

Jun 1, 2020

Memories light the corners of my mind

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Using light-activated ion channels to stimulate sensory and motivational pathways, Vetere and colleagues constructed fully artificial memories in mice. Mice preferred or avoided an odor they had never smelled before, depending on the pattern of stimulation.

Jun 1, 2020

Evidence of New X17 Particle Reported, but Scientists Are Wary

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

Could the mysterious particle be our window into studying dark matter?

Jun 1, 2020

Dark matter engine

Posted by in categories: cosmology, space travel

The Dark matter engine is the key to the extreme acceleration capabilities of the modern space ship. Invented by Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, the engines on the Planet Express ship harness the power created by burning dark matter in large furnaces, channels it through an afterburner that gives 200% fuel efficiency and propelles the ship through space fast enough to cover the whole universe in a matter of days.

How it works Edit

Let’s look at the real universe example of Rigel, a star in Orion’s Belt approximately 900 light-years away from Earth. This means that even traveling at the speed of light (300,000 km/s) it would take 900 years to get there. Traveling at 9 times the speed of light (2,700,000 km/s) it would take 100 years to get there and at 100 times the speed of light (30,000,000 km/s) it would take nine years. Albert Einstein’s famous statements that it would be mathematically impossible to travel faster than light seem to have held up through out the 3rd millennia and although in 2208 the scientific community allegedly raised the speed of light so that they could go faster, the problem that one cannot go faster than the speed of light remains.

Jun 1, 2020

100-Year-Old Physics Problem Finally Solved – Accurately Predicts Transmission of Infectious Diseases

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, information science, mathematics

A Bristol academic has achieved a milestone in statistical/mathematical physics by solving a 100-year-old physics problem – the discrete diffusion equation in finite space.

The long-sought-after solution could be used to accurately predict encounter and transmission probability between individuals in a closed environment, without the need for time-consuming computer simulations.

In his paper, published in Physical Review X, Dr. Luca Giuggioli from the Department of Engineering Mathematics at the University of Bristol describes how to analytically calculate the probability of occupation (in discrete time and discrete space) of a diffusing particle or entity in a confined space – something that until now was only possible computationally.

Jun 1, 2020

Liftoff Falcon 9!

Posted by in category: space travel

Liftoff!

Jun 1, 2020

Post-coronavirus fate differs among Shenzhen tech startups

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, robotics/AI

GUANGZHOU/TOKYO — Tech startups in Shenzhen, known as China’s Silicon Valley, are set to experience a range of outcomes as the novel coronavirus pandemic appears to near its end, with some seeing their businesses thrive while others face headwinds following significantly reduced investment.


AI and robot companies feel positive impact, while some face harsh climate.

Jun 1, 2020

Evolution of coronavirus outlines path from animals to humans

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

Summary: Study reports SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was well suited to making the jump from animals to humans by shapeshifting as it gained the ability to infect human cells. The virus’s ability to infect humans occurred via exchanging gene fragments from a coronavirus that infected pangolins. The species-to-species transmission was a result of the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to bind to host cells through alterations to its genetic material.

Source: Duke University

A team of scientists studying the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, found that it was especially well-suited to jump from animals to humans by shapeshifting as it gained the ability to infect human cells.

Jun 1, 2020

‘It’s fundamental’: Graphcore CEO believes new kinds of AI will prove the worth of a new kind of computer

Posted by in categories: mathematics, robotics/AI

Graphcore, the four-year-old startup based in Bristol, England, has a chip that takes the kinds of math that a neural network processes and splits them across 1,216 tiny computers, each of which does its work in parallel with its brethren. The company believes its chip makes new kinds of AI possible.