Posted: 5/24/2015
Even Robots Now Have Their Own Virtual World A highly realistic simulated world is proving vital to robotics researchers. (“Before many of the robots set foot (or wheel) on the course, however, they will be put through their paces in a highly realistic virtual world. This 3-D environment, called Gazebo, makes it possible to try out robot hardware or software without having to power up the real thing. It’s a cheap and quick way to experiment without risking damage to valuable hardware components. And it allows many researchers to work on a single robot simultaneously.”)
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-memory-traces-exist-in-cell-bodies (“Could Memory Traces Exist in Cell Bodies? The long-held belief that memories are stored at synapses—the junctions between cells—may not be the full story”)
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2015/may/20/extraordinary-magnetic-shield-could-reveal-neutrons-electric-dipole-moment (“The team's shield consists of concentric shells of aluminium and a proprietary, highly magnetizable alloy known as Magnifer. The entire shield occupies a volume of 4.1 m3 and the shielded volume is about 1 m3. It excludes magnetic fields – depending on their frequency – by a factor of roughly one million, which equates to an internal magnetic field of about 0.5 nT (0.5 × 10–9 T). In contrast, the average magnetic field throughout the Milky Way is thought to be about 0.6 nT.”)
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2015/may/21/spin-currents-endure-at-room-temperature-in-germanium (“that the spin current travels about 660 nm before it begins to suffer significant degradation. This applies at room temperature (about 290 K), and when the germanium was cooled down to 130 K, the spin current could travel about twice as far. This backs up a new theory of spin transport that was proposed last year by Yang Song, Oleg Chalaev and Hanan Dery of the University of Rochester in the US.”)
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/05/ancient-rna-enzymes-ribozymes-freeze-thaw-cycles (“UK researchers have shown repeated cycles of freezing and thawing could have allowed the first complex RNA enzymes, or ribozymes, to form on early Earth – a key step for the evolution of life.”)
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/DNA-testing-could-identify-litterbugs-dog-poop-miscreants-180955178/ (“The company that produced the DNA portraits, Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs, calls its DNA portrait technology “Snapshot.” It’s mostly aimed at law enforcement looking to solve cases where there is a DNA sample but no suspects or DNA database hits. With as little as 50 picograms of DNA—the average human cell contains about 6 picograms of DNA—Snapshot can create a composite profile of a person, including likely skin, eye and hair color, face shape and ethnic ancestry.”)
Sixth DNA base discovered? (“the possible existence of a sixth DNA base, the methyl-adenine (mA), which also help determine the epigenome and would therefore be key in the life of the cells.”)
Missing link in evolution of complex cells discovered (“report the discovery of a new group of Archaea, the Lokiarchaeota (or 'Loki' for short), and identify it to be a missing link in the origin of eukaryotes.”)
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/05/silver-turns-bacteria-deadly-zombies (“... scientists first killed a sample of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa using a solution of silver nitrate. Then, they carefully separated the dead bacteria from the silver solution. When they exposed living bacteria to the dead, they witnessed a microscopic massacre: Up to 99.99% of the living bacteria met their doom.”)
Brain scan reveals out-of-body illusion (“Neuroscientists have created an out-of-body illusion in participants placed inside a brain scanner. They then used the illusion to perceptually 'teleport' the participants to different locations in a room and show that the perceived location of the bodily self can be decoded from activity patterns in specific brain regions.”)
http://www.hhmi.org/news/new-method-allows-precise-measurement-transcriptome-single-cells (“HHMI scientists have now developed a transcriptome imaging technique that can characterize the abundance and spatial distribution of numerous RNA species in single cells.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150421084812.htm# (“... a pioneering Oxford University brain scanning study has discovered. It suggests that babies experience pain much like adults.The findings suggest that not only do babies experience pain much like adults but that they also have a much lower pain threshold.” Until today a large number of babies may not receive any kind of pain relief medication when undergoing surgery. What?)
Beyond genes: Are centrioles carriers of biological information? (“The discovery raises the possibility that transmission of biological information could involve more than just genes. They are currently the focus of much research, since mutations in the proteins that make them up can cause a broad range of diseases, including developmental abnormalities, respiratory conditions, male sterility and cancer. Publishing in the Nature journal Cell Research, EPFL scientists show that the original centrioles of a fertilized egg, which only come from the father, persist across tens of cell divisions in the developing embryo.”
http://www.nibib.nih.gov/news-events/newsroom/ultrafast-camera-captures-images-speed-light-0# (100 billion frames per second. “For example, the camera could be used to visualize energy metabolism as it occurs within a cell’s mitochondria or the way light passes through tissue, an important consideration for therapies that use lasers to destroy diseased tissue with the goal of leaving healthy tissue unharmed.”)
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