Author Archives: curiouscat

Bacterium Living with High Level Radiation

Organism found at SRS amazes scientific world by Rob Pavey

In addition to thriving in the face of normally-lethal radiation, the organism also demonstrates remarkable survival characteristics in terms of its DNA. Humans and most organisms can tolerate few breaks in DNA molecules, he said, but kineococcus radiotolerans has the ability to reassemble itself.

“With this organism, we can take an intact DNA molecule, blast it into little pieces, and in five to six hours the organism is restored and growing normally again,” Dr. Bagwell said. Dr. Bagwell and others who have studied the organism hope further research will yield clues that could aid in medical research, cancer studies and other areas.

“There’s a lot of excitement about this organism because of its ability to withstand tremendous abuse,” he said. “What we don’t know is how it does these things – and what more it can do. That’s the direction we’re going now.”

Related: What is an Extremophile? – more info on Kineococcus radiotolerans

Science Topics Explained on One Page

Seed Magazine has one page crib sheets on science topics as guides for living in the 21st century. For example, String Theory:

To unite the seemingly incompatible worlds of the very large and the very small, physicists propose string theory, a model of the universe in which tiny strings vibrate in more than three dimensions. This Cribsheet covers the basics of string theory: what it says, why we think it might give us a unified theory of physics, and whether experiment supports it. In addition, we tell you how the strings are shaped and why string theory may not be the final “theory of everything.”

Other topics: stem cells, climate change, avian flu, hybrid cars, nuclear power, hurricanes, extinction and the elements. Great stuff.

Related: Physics Concepts in 60 Seconds

Self-assembling Nanotechnology in Chip Manufacturing

Read more information about the content of the – IBM Brings Nature to Computer Chip Manufacturing:

the first-ever application of a breakthrough self-assembling nanotechnology to conventional chip manufacturing, borrowing a process from nature to build the next generation computer chips. The natural pattern-creating process that forms seashells, snowflakes, and enamel on teeth has been harnessed by IBM to form trillions of holes to create insulating vacuums around the miles of nano-scale wires packed next to each other inside each computer chip.

In chips running in IBM labs using the technique, the researchers have proven that the electrical signals on the chips can flow 35 percent faster, or the chips can consume 15 percent less energy compared to the most advanced chips using conventional techniques.

Via: IBM Airgap Microprocessors enabled by self assembly

Deforestation and Global Warming

Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming:

In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change.

Tropical Deforestation, Climate Impacts (NASA by Rebecca Lindsey):

Undisturbed tropical forests may be nearly neutral with respect to carbon, but deforestation and degradation are currently a source of carbon to the atmosphere and have the potential to turn the tropics into an even greater source in coming decades.

Microorganisms on Spaceships

Space Mold photo

Preventing “Sick” Spaceships, NASA:

Moreover, the mass of water was only one of several hiding behind different panels. Scientists later concluded that the water had condensed from humidity that accumulated over time as water droplets coalesced in microgravity. The pattern of air currents in Mir carried air moisture preferentially behind the panel, where it could not readily escape or evaporate.

Nor was the water clean: two samples were brownish and a third was cloudy white. Behind the panels the temperature was toasty warm—82ÂºF (28ÂºC)—just right for growing all kinds of microbeasties. Indeed, samples extracted from the globules by syringes and returned to Earth for analysis contained several dozen species of bacteria and fungi, plus some protozoa, dust mites, and possibly spirochetes.

But wait, there’s more. Aboard Mir, colonies of organisms were also found growing on “the rubber gaskets around windows, on the components of space suits, cable insulations and tubing, on the insulation of copper wires, and on communications devices,”

Photo: Dust mite was found floating in a globule of water onboard Mir. Other microorganisms collected include protozoa and amoeba. [Read more – Microbial Characterization of Free Floating Condensate
aboard the Mir Space Station – pdf]

New Yorker on CERN’s Large Hadron Collider

Can a seventeen-mile-long collider unlock the universe?

A proton is a hadron composed of two up quarks and one down; a neutron consists of two downs and one up.) Fermions also include neutrinos, which, somewhat unnervingly, stream through our bodies at the rate of trillions per second.
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The L.H.C., Doser explained, relies on much the same design, and, in fact, makes use of the tunnel originally dug for LEP. Instead of electrons and positrons, however, the L.H.C. will send two beams of protons circling in opposite directions. Protons are a good deal more massive than electrons—roughly eighteen hundred times more—which means they can carry more energy. For this reason, they are also much harder to manage.

“Basically, what you must have to accelerate any charged particles is a very strong electric field,” Doser said. “And the longer you apply it the more energy you can give them. In principle, what you’d want is an infinitely long linear structure, in which particles just keep getting pushed faster and faster. Now, because you can’t build an infinitely long accelerator, you build a circular accelerator.” Every time a proton makes a circuit around the L.H.C. tunnel, it will receive electromagnetic nudges to make it go faster until, eventually, it is travelling at 99.9999991 per cent of the speed of light. “It gets to a hair below the speed of light very rapidly, and the rest of the time is just trying to sliver down this hair.” At this pace, a proton completes eleven thousand two hundred and forty-five circuits in a single second.

Diversity Efforts for the Life Science Work Force

Focus on Diversity: INCUBATING INNOVATION – Diversity Efforts Rejuvenate the Life Science Work Force by Alethea Hannemann:

Support for undergraduate and graduate programs that encourage African-American scientists also comes from industry leaders. Merck, in a partnership with the United Negro College Fund, awards at least 37 scholarships a year to African-American researchers at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels; to date, the program has trained more than 370 scientists.
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In the end, building a robust, diverse science work force will take vigorous effort from many camps. The good news is that a host of programs in government, academia, and industry are dedicated to increasing the numbers of African-Americans in science. With continued efforts, education and recruiting programs should soon bear fruit, bringing new power to the life sciences.

Opossum Genome Shows ‘Junk’ DNA is Not Junk

Opossum Genome Shows ‘Junk’ DNA Source Of Genetic Innovation

Scientists previously thought that evolution slowly changed the genes that create specific proteins. As the proteins changed, so did the creatures that owned them. The current research shows that opossum and human protein-coding genes have changed little since their ancestors parted ways, 180 million years ago. It has been the regulation of their genes – when they turn on and off – that has changed dramatically.

“Evolution is tinkering much more with the controls than it is with the genes themselves,” said Broad Institute director Eric Lander. “Almost all of the new innovation … is in the regulatory controls. In fact, marsupial mammals and placental mammals have largely the same set of protein-coding genes. But by contrast, 20 percent of the regulatory instructions in the human genome were invented after we parted ways with the marsupial.”
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It had been initially thought that most of a creature’s DNA was made up of protein-coding genes and that a relatively small part of the DNA was made up of regulatory portions that tell the rest when to turn on and off. As studies of mammalian genomes advanced, however, it became apparent that that view was incorrect. The regulatory part of the genome was two to three times larger than the portion that actually held the instructions for individual proteins.

Very interesting. The more recent articles I read on DNA discoveries the more interesting it seems to get. Related: Learning About the Human Genome – New Understanding of Human DNA – DNA Transcription Webcast

$10 Million for Engineering Education Scholarships

$10 million perk aims to help prove engineering is the profession to pursue (link broken)

Kao today will announce that his family foundation is donating $10 million to establish scholarship funds at six regional universities for students majoring in electrical and computer engineering. Kao, an electrical engineer who co-founded Garmin, said he decided to fund the program because he was concerned the United States was losing its edge in engineering and design.

“As a business leader of a company like Garmin, and as an immigrant, I feel it should be a real concern for this country,” Kao said. “I don’t think it’s good for a country to be a pure service business.” The education initiative is the somewhat private billionaire CEO’s first significant endowment in the Kansas City area. “Compared to Asian countries, the career of engineer is somewhat overlooked” in the United States, Kao said. “Young kids don’t aspire to be engineers.”
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The endowment from the Kao Family Foundation will be used to fund 100 scholarships a year, offering students $5,000 annually. It will be tied in with Garmin’s internship program, offering 75 or more summer jobs that include a furnished apartment and health and dental benefits.

Encyclopedia of Life

Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity.

They are using wiki technology to create an encyclopedia of life as discussed by E.O. Wilson in his TED Prize Wish speech. It seems like a great idea to me.