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Oct 12, 2024

The Next Frontier: DNA Emerges as a Powerhouse for Data Storage and Computing

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, security

Researchers from NC State and Johns Hopkins have developed a breakthrough technology that leverages DNA for data storage and computing, offering capabilities such as storing, retrieving, computing, and rewriting data.

This technology is made viable by innovative polymer structures called dendricolloids, enhancing data density and preservation. It enables functions similar to electronic devices and could potentially secure data for millennia, providing a promising foundation for the future of molecular computing.

DNA Data Storage and Computing.

Oct 12, 2024

Unique Particles — With Stickiness of Gecko Feet — Formed by Harnessing Chaos

Posted by in categories: chemistry, engineering, food, nanotechnology, particle physics

New research from North Carolina State University shows that unique materials with distinct properties akin to those of gecko feet – the ability to stick to just about any surface – can be created by harnessing liquid-driven chaos to produce soft polymer microparticles with hierarchical branching on the micro-and nanoscale.

The findings, published today (October 14, 2019) in the journal Nature Materials, hold the potential for advances in gels, pastes, foods, nonwovens, and coatings, among other formulations.

The soft dendritic particle materials with unique adhesive and structure-building properties can be created from a variety of polymers precipitated from solutions under special conditions, says Orlin Velev, S. Frank and Doris Culberson Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC State and corresponding author of the paper.

Oct 12, 2024

Soft dendritic microparticles with unusual adhesion and structuring properties

Posted by in categories: materials, particle physics

Polymer precipitation under turbulent flows generates soft microparticles with branched dendritic coronas and high adhesive properties.

Oct 12, 2024

Forget ‘Super’ Glue, Scientists Develop New ‘Hyper’ Glue

Posted by in category: materials

The team of chemists and composite materials researchers discovered a broadly applicable method of bonding plastics and synthetic fibers at the molecular level in a procedure called cross-linking. The cross-linking takes effect when the adhesive is exposed to heat or long-wave UV light making strong connections that are both impact-resistant and corrosion-resistant. Even with a minimal amount of cross-linking, the materials are tightly bonded.

“It turns out the adhesive is particularly effective in high-density polyethylene, which is an important plastic used in bottles, piping, geomembranes, plastic lumber, and many other applications,” says Professor Abbas Milani, director of UBC’s Materials and Manufacturing Research Institute, and the lead researcher at the Okanagan node of the Composite Research Network. “In fact, commercially available glues didn’t work at all on these materials, making our discovery an impressive foundation for a wide range of important uses.”

UVic Organic Chemistry Professor Jeremy Wulff, whose team led the design of the new class of cross-linking materials, collaborated with the UBC Survive and Thrive Applied Research to explore how it performed in real-world applications.

Oct 12, 2024

In Wuhan, Robotaxis Put China’s Self-Driving Ambitions to the Test

Posted by in categories: government, robotics/AI, transportation

With government support and backing from tech giants, robotaxis are rapidly integrating into daily life in China in a push to position autonomous vehicles at the forefront of urban innovation.

But this rapid rollout has not been without controversy.

Oct 12, 2024

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 132 — Living in Martian Mushrooms

Posted by in categories: habitats, space

Growing Fungal Space Habitats

Oct 12, 2024

Scientists Mapped The Human Brain’s Sewage System For The First Time

Posted by in category: neuroscience

The plumbing goes deep.

Oct 12, 2024

Twenty years after its discovery, graphene is finally living up to the hype

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics, space

Manchester, England— On a rare sunny day in northern England, the National Graphene Institute (NGI) here gleams like a five-story block of obsidian. Squeezed into the University of Manchester’s sprawling downtown campus, the research center is clad in almost 2000 lustrous black panels with small hexagonal perforations—an architectural nod to the structure of the atom-thin sheet of carbon that gives the building its name.

NGI exists because graphene was first isolated a short walk away in a University of Manchester lab. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov presented it to the world 20 years ago this month and later won a Nobel Prize for the work. Since its unveiling, billions of dollars of R&D funding have flowed to graphene, in a global race to exploit its peerless properties. It is better at carrying electricity than any metal, a superb heat conductor, and hundreds of times stronger than steel—selling points trumpeted in the marketing materials of universities and companies alike.

Early on, researchers were not shy about promising graphene breakthroughs, with predictions that it would enable superthin rollable TVs and space elevators, and even supplant silicon in computer chips. “Expectations were very, very high,” Geim says. “The companies I was involved in were mostly based on hype.”

Oct 12, 2024

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube

Posted by in category: media & arts

Oct 12, 2024

‘Phenomenal’ tool sequences DNA and tracks proteins — without cracking cells open

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Researchers are queuing up to try a powerful microscopy technique that can simultaneously sequence an individual cell’s DNA and pinpoint the location of its proteins with high resolution — all without having to crack the cell open and extract its contents. Imaging DNA and proteins inside intact cells provides crucial information about how these molecules work together.

The method’s developers have already used it to study how ageing might alter the way that proteins in the nucleus interact with chromosomes. As the body ages, they found, changes in these nuclear proteins could suppress gene activity.

“This paper is really extraordinary,” says Ankur Sharma, a cancer biologist at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, who was not involved in the study but is keen to use the approach to study cancer cells and described it as “phenomenal” on the social-media platform, X.

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