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Feb 28, 2019

Gene Editing Is Trickier Than Expected—but Fixes Are in Sight

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical

A popular gene editing technique may produce lots of unintended changes to DNA, but the good news is we now have a better way of finding such errors.

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Feb 28, 2019

Whetstone: A New Tool for Neuromorphic Programming

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

This recent development should speed brain emulation and help bring more deep learning closer to the device.


Whetstone is a program for instituting Spiking Neural Networks for Artificial Intelligence. It was created by Sandia National Laboratories and is available as Open Source Code. The most modern vers…

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Feb 28, 2019

Boosting Cellular Housekeeping with Exercise and Fasting

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, neuroscience

In order to remain healthy and functional, cells have a number of maintenance systems that help them to dispose of metabolic waste and unwanted proteins. Autophagy is perhaps the best-known example of how cells purge their waste, and another is the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). Researchers are working on ways to boost the activity of the UPS to improve cellular health.

The ubiquitin-proteasome system

During normal cellular function, proteins being constructed in the cell can sometimes become misfolded and start to accumulate over time, which can cause the cell to become dysfunctional and encourage diseases such as Alzheimer’s to develop as the system gums up with bent and broken proteins.

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Feb 28, 2019

Scientists Give Mice “Super Vision” With Eye Injections

Posted by in categories: entertainment, nanotechnology

It’s something straight out of a Marvel comic book: giving test subjects the ability to see infrared light, similarly to how night-vision goggles work — but without the awkward and bulky apparatus.

Scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China injected tiny nanoparticles that bind to the retina into the eyeballs of test mice, granting them what the researchers called “super vision.”

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Feb 28, 2019

New Wearable Respiratory Sensor Will Monitor a Child’s Every Breath

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, wearables

Michelle Khine is a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Nine months ago, her newborn son was hospitalized for complications during childbirth and was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). While in the NICU, her son was connected to several machines that were supplying oxygen and monitoring his breathing.


A biomedical engineering research team from the University of California has developed a new wearable respiratory sensor to monitor children with chronic pulmonary conditions. The design was built with inspiration from a favorite childhood toy, Shrinky Dinks.

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Feb 28, 2019

China’s Get-Rich Space Program

Posted by in categories: economics, space

Unlike other nations, China’s space ambitions are centered on wealth creation through a space-based economy.

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Feb 28, 2019

DeepSpace: Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin banter about the fine print of suborbital tourism

Posted by in category: satellites

Welcome to the sixth edition of our new newsletter, DeepSpace! Each Tuesday, I’ll be taking a deep-dive into the most exciting developments in commercial space, from satellites and rockets to everything in between. If you’d like to receive DeepSpace and all of our newsletters and membership benefits, you can become a member for as little as $3/month here. Just […].

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Feb 28, 2019

Cooling 2D ion crystal may pave way for large-scale quantum computer

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

System hides cold ions from cooling laser, allowing hot ions to be selectively cooled.

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Feb 28, 2019

Your genetic data can be exploited without you ever knowing about it

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Your genome literally identifies you, but researchers and genetic firms keep saying that DNA data is anonymous. It’s a privacy scandal waiting to happen.

By Chelsea Whyte

EVERY person in the world is issued with a unique code before they are even born. Governments, insurance firms and indeed pretty much anyone can use this code to catalogue us throughout our entire lives. This isn’t a sci-fi dystopia – it is just genetics.

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Feb 28, 2019

Doudna’s Confidence in CRISPR’s Research Potential Burns Bright

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Jennifer Doudna, one of CRISPR’s primary innovators, stays optimistic about how the gene-editing tool will continue to empower basic biological understanding.

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