Menu

Blog

Page 8565

Jun 7, 2019

Modelling reveals new insight into the electrical conductivity of ionic liquids

Posted by in category: particle physics

A collaborative investigation has revealed new insight into how room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) conduct electricity, which may have a great potential impact for the future of energy storage.

The research focuses on the debate surrounding the physical mechanism of the electrical of RTILs. Their charged positive and negative organic ions lead them to be good conductors, but the conductivity seems paradoxical. Their high conductivity arises from their of charged ions within the liquid, but this density should also mean that the positive and negative ions are close enough to neutralise one another, creating new, which cannot support an electrical current. The modelling attempts to identify how conductivity is maintained in RTILs in light of these contradictory factors.

The research involved an international group of researchers, including Professor Nikolai Brilliantov of the University of Leicester and led by Professor Alexei Kornyshev of Imperial College London and Professor Guang Feng of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Continue reading “Modelling reveals new insight into the electrical conductivity of ionic liquids” »

Jun 7, 2019

How Much Would It Cost to Be Iron Man in Real Life? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted by in category: entertainment

It would cost $10 billion to fund superhero Iron Man’s lavish high-tech lifestyle in Iron Man 3 — about $9 billion more than past films.

Fictional billionaire Tony Stark is the CEO of his company Stark Enterprises, but in reality, what doesn’t he do? He’s a chemist, an inventor, an engineer and an entrepreneur. He may bring in the big bucks, but he’s certainly a spender when it comes to being properly equipped to ward off bad guys.

SEE ALSO: How Much Would It Cost to Be Batman in Real Life? [INFOGRAPHIC].

Continue reading “How Much Would It Cost to Be Iron Man in Real Life? [INFOGRAPHIC]” »

Jun 7, 2019

Google’s TensorNetwork library speeds up computation

Posted by in category: futurism

Google has open-sourced TensorNetwork, a tensor network library designed in collaboration with the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and X.

Read more

Jun 7, 2019

Godzilla, King Kong: films are actually spot on in how to defeat kaijus – mathematician

Posted by in category: entertainment

How do you get rid of a giant pest like Godzilla, King Kong, or any of the other assorted kaiju (Japanese for “strange beast”)? Evidence from films suggests that these monsters are highly destructive and tremendously difficult to kill.

To a mathematician, however, this situation is nothing more than a predator-prey interaction problem. By accurately simulating the properties of the species we want to eradicate, we can predict the required properties of the predators we would need to create. If we look to the movies that made them famous, we find two alternative strategies for dealing with an invasion of multiple monsters. We could build our own mechanical monsters, or create a kaiju of our own.

Read more

Jun 7, 2019

A bean for all seasons?

Posted by in category: climatology

Biology professor and researcher Christopher Cullis said he pondered two big questions when he first caught sight of the wild marama bean plant, its definitive patches of green leaves standing out in contrast from among an otherwise parched and brown Namibian landscape.

“Why isn’t this plant affected by the lack of water like everything else—and why isn’t it being eaten by any wildlife?” Cullis said, turning one of the walnut-sized beans over in his fingers and recalling his first trip to the coastal southwest African country about a decade ago. “The answers to those questions make this a very interesting and important legume.”

Continue reading “A bean for all seasons?” »

Jun 7, 2019

Everything as Code: The future of ops tools

Posted by in categories: futurism, innovation

How do we manage our complex, multi-cloud, hybrid infrastructures? Seth Vargo maps the operations tooling ecosystem you need to know in order to maintain your sanity, but he also looks into the future of infrastructure as code tools and what cool innovations we can expect.

Read more

Jun 7, 2019

Startup Unveils Freakish-Looking Flying Car With Folding Wings

Posted by in category: transportation

And it wants everyone to be able to afford the weird vehicle.

Read more

Jun 7, 2019

The theory of everything: The universe is ‘like a COMPUTER underlined

Posted by in categories: computing, space

SCIENTISTS are uncovering what underlies the universe and what makes up spacetime.

Read more

Jun 7, 2019

The Elusive Theory of Everything

Posted by in category: physics

Physicists have long sought to find one final theory that would unify all of physics. Instead they may have to settle for several.

  • By Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow on October 1, 2010

Read more

Jun 7, 2019

CRISPR-associated transposons able to insert custom genes into DNA without cutting it

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

A team of researchers affiliated with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, MIT and the National Institutes of Health has found that CRISPR-associated transposons can be used to insert custom genes into DNA without cutting it. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their new gene-editing technique and how well it worked when tested in a bacterial genome.

The CRISPR gene editing has made headlines in recent years due to its potential for treating hereditary diseases. Unfortunately, despite much research surrounding the technique, it is still not a viable option for use on human patients. This is because the technique is error-prone—when snipping strands of DNA, CRISPR sometimes cuts off-target DNA as well, leading to unintended and unpredictable consequences (and sometimes cancerous tumors). In this new effort, the researchers have found a way to use CRISPR in conjunction with another protein to edit a strand of DNA without cutting it—they are calling it CRISPR-associated transposase (CAST).

Prior research has shown that certain pieces of DNA called transposons are, for unknown reasons, able to reposition themselves in a genome spontaneously—for this reason, they have come to be known as jumping genes. Not long after they were discovered, researchers noted that they might be used for gene editing. This is what the researchers did in the new study. They associated a transposon called Tn7 with the Cas12 enzyme used with CRISPR to edit a section of a bacterial genome. In practice, CRISPR led the Tn7 transposon to the target location in the genome—at that point, the transposon inserted itself into the without cutting it.

Continue reading “CRISPR-associated transposons able to insert custom genes into DNA without cutting it” »