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Jun 8, 2019

Human body is a mosaic pattern of DNA mutations, say researchers

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Researchers have discovered that the human body’s 3 trillion cells aren’t clones of a single DNA sequence, as is widely believed. Instead, the cells of the human body contain a plethora of altered DNA, called mutations. These multiply to produce patches of tissue, called “somatic clones,” inside the ‘normal’ tissue. The scientific term for this phenomenon is mosaicism.

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Jun 8, 2019

NASA is opening the space station to $35,000-a-night visits. A tourist who paid Russia $30 million to get there a decade ago says it’s a ‘seismic shift.’

Posted by in category: space

Richard Garriott, who spent two weeks visiting the space station in 2008, said NASA used to fight the idea of private ISS visitors.

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Jun 8, 2019

$180 million DNA ‘barcode’ project aims to discover 2 million new species

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

For centuries biologists have identified new species at a painstakingly slow pace, describing specimens’ physical features and other defining traits, and often trying to fit a species into the tree of life before naming and publishing it. Now, they have begun to determine whether a specimen is likely a novel species in hours—and will soon do so at a cost of pennies. It’s a revolution driven by short stretches of DNA—dubbed barcodes in a nod to the familiar product identifiers—that vary just enough to provide species-distinguishing markers, combined with fast, cheap DNA sequencers.


As massive global effort launches, portable DNA sequencers also allow species identification in the field.

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Jun 7, 2019

What You Think is as Important as What You Eat

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

Recent research in the field of mind-body medicine shows there’s a lot more to health than what you eat, and most of it has to do with your mind.

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Jun 7, 2019

NASA’s Juno Mission to Jupiter

Posted by in category: space

A beautiful abyss. This view of an area within a Jovian jet stream includes a vortex with an intensely dark center. Nearby, other features display bright, high altitude clouds that have puffed up into the sunlight.

I took this color-enhanced image on May 29, 2019, as I performed my 20th science flyby of Jupiter. At the time, I was about 9,200 miles (14,800 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops. Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created this image using data from the JunoCam imager. Details: https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/news/jupiter_abyss

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Jun 7, 2019

Life — after life: Does consciousness continue after our brain dies?

Posted by in category: neuroscience

How can people brought back from death after cardiac arrest report having experienced lucid and vivid memories and recollections without a functioning brain? The study of near-death experiences is challenging the idea our consciousness fades to black when our body expires.

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Jun 7, 2019

New evidence from LHC shows pentaquark has a molecule-like structure

Posted by in category: particle physics

A team of researchers working on the LHCb collaboration has found evidence showing that a pentaquark they have observed has a molecule-like structure. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes the evidence and the structure of the pentaquark they observed.

Four years ago, a team working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) observed what is known as a pentaquark by smashing protons into each other. Its existence had been theorized, but it was not until the right technology was deployed at the LHC that researchers were able to observe it with a reasonable degree of confidence. It was subsequently found to be a particle made up of four and one antiquark. (Quarks are indivisible particles that make up neutrons and protons.)

In this new effort, the researchers have gained a better perspective on the actual organization of the pentaquark. They report that they have nine times as much data from observations as they had when the pentaquark was first observed, so they have high confidence in their findings. They report that the pentaquark was made up of a three-quark baryon and a quark-antiquark meson, and that they were bound together in a way reminiscent of a molecule.

Continue reading “New evidence from LHC shows pentaquark has a molecule-like structure” »

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.

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