Hot Recent Science & Technology Articles (32)

Posted: 1/31/2017

1. Genetically Modified Bacteria Could Eat Away The World’s Massive Plastic Problem (This could take care of another manufactured hysteria! “... bacteria called Pseudomonas putida are genetically modified to “eat” polyethylene-terephthalate (PET), a common type of plastic that’s proliferating in the oceans and on the land. Essentially, … “Plasticure-BGU“ spreads these bacteria on plastic particles, so that the plastic eventually breaks down … as a biproduct of this process, will produce electricity by utilizing the energy released from PET’s bonds”)
2. The discovery of how LSD changes a protein’s structure may explain why the drug is so powerful, and why its trips are so long and strange (“By freezing an LSD molecule bound to a single brain cell receptor as a crystal in a lab, researchers were able to get a 3-D x-ray image of the drug and the protein locked together. “My lab has been trying to do this since the early 1990s,” …  It is the first 3-D image of a psychedelic bound to a brain receptor, …  But when an LSD molecule lands on the receptor, the molecule snags onto a portion of the protein and folds it over itself as the molecule binds to the receptor. “There was this lid that came over the molecule. It looked like it trapped LSD in the receptor,” … “That immediately suggested to us why LSD lasts so long.” … It begins to explain not only why standard recreational doses have this profound effect, but also why microdoses (about 10 micrograms of LSD) might have an effect.””)
3. Physicists unveil new form of matter—time crystals (“Last year, … sketched out the phases surrounding a time crystal and what to measure in order to confirm that this new material is actually a stable phase of matter. This stimulated two teams to build a time crystal, the first examples of a non-equilibrium form of matter. … Two groups followed … blueprint and have already created the first-ever time crystals. The groups … reported their successes, using two totally different setups … Time crystals repeat in time because they are kicked periodically … that they are the first of a large class of new materials that are intrinsically out of equilibrium, unable to settle down to the motionless equilibrium of, for example, a diamond or ruby. … The time crystal created … a conga line of 10 ytterbium ions whose electron spins interact, similar to the qubit systems being tested as quantum computers. To keep the ions out of equilibrium, the researchers alternately hit them with one laser to create an effective magnetic field and a second laser to partially flip the spins of the atoms, repeating the sequence many times. Because the spins interacted, the atoms settled into a stable, repetitive pattern of spin flipping that defines a crystal. Time crystals were first proposed in 2012 by Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, and last year theoretical physicists at Princeton University and UC Santa Barbara's Station Q independently proved that such a crystal could be made.”)
4. ‘Metallic hydrogen’ claim faces fiery scrutiny from scientists, Metallic hydrogen, once theory, becomes reality (Looks like this claim needs more verification! Are we closer to a room temperature superconductor? “To create it … squeezed a tiny hydrogen sample at 495 gigapascal, or more than 71.7 million pounds-per-square inch - greater than the pressure at the center of the Earth. … metallic hydrogen is predicted to be metastable," …. if you take the pressure off, it will stay metallic, similar to the way diamonds form from graphite under intense heat and pressure, but remains a diamond when that pressure and heat is removed. … as the most powerful rocket propellant yet discovered.”)
5. Synthetic nanoparticles achieve the complexity of protein molecules (“... The researchers …  established the structure of Au246, one of the largest and most complex nanoparticles created by scientists to-date and the largest gold nanoparticle to have its structure determined by X-ray crystallography. Au246 turned out to be an ideal candidate for deciphering the complex rules of self- assembly because it contains an ideal number of atoms and surface ligands and is about the same size and weight as a protein molecule. …  They found that the ligands in the nanoparticles self-assembled into rotational and parallel patterns that are strikingly similar to the patterns found in proteins' secondary structure. This could indicate that nanoparticles of this size could easily interact with biological systems, providing new avenues for drug discovery. … The researchers also found that Au246 particles form by following two rules. First, they maximize the interactions between atoms, a mechanism that had been theorized but not yet seen. Second the nanoparticles match symmetric surface patterns, a mechanism that had not been considered previously. The matching … shows that the components of the particle can recognize each other by their patterns and spontaneously assemble into the highly ordered structure of a nanoparticle.”)
6. Caught Sending Chemical Messages A virus that infects bacteria listens to messages from its relatives when deciding how to attack its hosts (This could be huge! “Viruses sense chemical signals left behind by their forebears so they can decide whether to kill or just to infect their hosts. The discovery—in viruses that attack Bacillus bacteria—marks the first time that any type of viral communication system has ever been found. … The team first injected phi3T into a flask of Bacillus subtilis bacteria, and found that the virus tended to kill the bacteria. Then they filtered the contents of this flask to remove bacteria and viruses—but keeping small proteins—and fed this ‘conditioned medium’ to a fresh culture of bacteria and phages. That changed what the phage did: it was now more likely to slip its genome into the bacteria, rather than kill it. … After a two-and-a-half year search … discovered that arbitrium was a short viral protein that seeps out of infected bacteria after death. When levels of arbitrium build up—after a large number of cells have died — phages stop killing off the remaining bacteria and retreat to lie dormant in bacterial genomes instead. … identified two further phi3T proteins that measure levels of arbitrium and then influence the nature of subsequent infections.  … found more than 100 different arbitrium-like systems, most of them in the genomes of other Bacillus viruses. “Phages broadcast in different frequencies. They speak in different languages and they can hear only the language that they speak,” he adds.”)
7. Baboons use vowel sounds strikingly similar to humans
8. Observations hint at a new recipe for giant black holes (“”)
9. Hundreds of elusive protein structures pinned down from genome data (“... “This is a major step forward” in determining how proteins fold … The new work predicts 614 protein structures, representing 12% of the estimated 5211 protein families for which no experimental structure exists. … that they’ve used their technique in conjunction with metagenome sequencing, in which researchers sequence vast swaths of genome data from unknown organisms in the ocean and soil. By sifting through the sequence data, they were able to track enough coevolving amino acids to pin down the structures of 614 proteins,”)
10. AI Software Learns to Make AI Software  Google and others think software that learns to learn could take over some work done by AI experts. (When software trumps human design! “If self-starting AI techniques become practical, they could increase the pace at which machine-learning software is implemented across the economy. Companies must currently pay a premium for machine-learning experts, who are in short supply. … termed “automated machine learning” … are terming “learning to learn” could also help lessen the problem of machine-learning software needing to consume vast amounts of data on a specific task in order to perform it well. … in which learning software designed deep-learning systems that matched human-crafted ones on standard tests for object recognition.”)
11. Researchers imprint stable, chemically active polymer equivalents of DNA
12. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-01-cells-age-fat-content-shifts.html
13. Neutrons and a 'bit of gold' uncover new type of quantum phase transition (“ … the discovery of a new type of quantum phase transition. This unique transition happens at an elastic quantum critical point, or QCP, where the phase transition isn't driven by thermal energy but instead by the quantum fluctuations of the atoms themselves.”)
14. Scientists switch on predatory kill instinct in mice (“”)
15. Mathematical Model Reveals the Patterns of How Innovations Arise  The work could lead to a new approach to the study of what is possible, and how it follows from what already exists. (“... created the first mathematical model that accurately reproduces the patterns that innovations follow. The work opens the way to a new approach to the study of innovation, of what is possible and how this follows from what already exists. The notion that innovation arises from the interplay between the actual and the possible was first formalized by the complexity theorist Stuart Kauffmann. In 2002, Kauffmann introduced the idea of the “adjacent possible” as a way of thinking about biological evolution. … The result is that the model reproduces Heaps’ and Zipf’s Laws as they appear in the real world—a mathematical first.”)
16. Study suggests surprising reason killer whales go through menopause (To save resources and to care for younger!)
17. Smile! Researchers have found a natural alternative to painful tooth fillings (Love Serendipity! “In tests on mice, the drug, tideglusib, successfully triggered stem cells that are located in the soft pulp center of a tooth to restore a tooth’s original dentine …  Tideglusib, initially meant for Alzheimer’s patients, has already passed clinical safety trials, which could mean this treatment will hit the market sooner rather than later. ”)
18. Monkey Say, Monkey Do: Baboons Can Make Humanlike Speech Sounds New research suggests our last common ancestor with these monkeys possessed the vocal machinery needed to speak
19. America's Long-Overdue Opioid Revolution Is Finally Here  Thanks to advances in neuroscience, researchers are beginning to disentangle powerful pain relief from addiction, overdose and death (A painkiller revolution in the making! Good synopsis! This article is about Oliceridine, PZM21, and UMB425)
20. New model could help scientists design materials for artificial photosynthesis (Approaching the holy grail of artificial synthesis! “Understanding the sensitive interplay between the self-assembled pigment superstructure and its electronic, optical, and transport properties is highly desirable for the synthesis of new materials and the design and operation of organic-based devices”)

Anti Abortion Protest Propaganda

Posted: 1/27/2017

Today, I had to cringe again about National Public Radio (NPR).

This morning, NPR would refer to the March for Life in Washington, DC only as anti abortion protest in their reporting.

This is scandalous! Shameful!

This is awful Orwellian language! Such language is the same language of people supporting Eugenics or Nazi Euthanasia!

Who defends the unborn life? When does human life begin? At conception?

I fully support President Trump to stop funding NPR and PBS with government money! The earlier, the better!

Mexico Is Already Paying For The Border Wall Since Election

Posted: 1/26/2017

I am not sure where President Trump is going with this campaign promise to build a wall. Apparently, he is getting serious building an improved physical barrier on the border to Mexico. Presumably, there will be also more modern means of surveillance along the border, like drones or other devices like radar or infrared.

On a quick note, Mexico is indeed already paying for this campaign promise. The Mexican peso depreciated significantly since the November 8 election. I suspect, foreign direct investments have began to slow down. American companies are thinking twice now about any future investments across the border.

One can only hope that President Trump will negotiate with President Nieto how the high incidence of crimes in Mexico and other central American states can be reduced. Mexico also needs to check and stop the flow of emigrants from other countries passing through Mexico to reach the U.S.

The U.S. Does Not Need 16 Intelligence Agencies!

Posted: 1/22/2017

Hope President Trump will reform and reorganize these often politicized intelligence agencies of the U.S. There are just too many of them.

Yes, it makes sense to have specialized agencies. Whether every branch of the military needs their own intelligence service is certainly debatable.

Yes, it makes a lot of sense to have competing intelligence agencies instead of one colossal, uniform agency. But 16 agencies? Why does the DEA have their own intelligence agency or the FBI for that matter?

How much overlap and how much duplicate efforts are we actually dealing with? Many cooks spoil the broth! Please save taxpayers’ money!

I am not an espionage expert, but here a few suggestions for reform:

1. Counterintelligence and intelligence agencies probably need to be separate
2. Human intelligence operations probably should be separated from technical/digital intelligence operations

Something Wrong With Government Run Lotteries

Posted: 1/21/2017

I have mentally grappled for a long time what I should think of the pervasive prevalence of government run lotteries in Western democracies. Caveat, I am not really familiar with many of them.

1. Usually, these lotteries are run as state monopolies. Hence, private, commercial lotteries of the same scale usually do not exist in the same country
2. It is a form of government controlled gambling and a prohibition of private enterprise
3. These lotteries are highly profitable for governments! That these profits are dedicated to be spent on public goods is a pretense
4. Usually, the lottery prizes are highly skewed towards extreme prizes for a few winners. These prizes then are taxed accordingly! Nice!
   Why not have smaller prizes for many winners? Why so much for a few?
5. Apparently, before the 20th century, lotteries in the U.S. used to be privately run, before they were prohibited by government like in other Western countries
6. If lottery is a form of taxation, then why not make tax payments entirely a voluntary expense for citizens instead of being compulsory! Make Benjamin Franklin proud who said “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” (or Daniel Defoe)
   Ban this certainty of taxes so citizens can vote with their money for the policies of our elected representatives. More democracy with dollars and cents!

Obama Narcissist In Chief

Posted: 1/20/2017

Finally Barack Obama is out of the White House! The most unlawful president at least since Nixon and so much more! Worst president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt!

It was absolutely appalling that this man in his final days in office had the audacity to give himself a Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. What kind of a man is this defense secretary Ash Carter?

Not to be outdone, days later former Vice President Biden had himself decorated by Obama with a Presidential Medal of Freedom! Absolutely pathetic!

On The Anatomy of Melancholy

Posted: 1/14/2017

This brief blog post is about Robert Burton’s classic book “The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is: With all the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Several Cures of it. In Three Maine Partitions with their several Sections, Members, and Subsections. Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically, Opened and Cut Up” (full book title; first published in 1621).

This voluminous book comes with about 900 pages, later editions added more pages.

In his satirical preface to the reader, Burton's persona Democritus Junior explains, "I write of melancholy by being busy to avoid melancholy."

Busy Mr. Burton was indeed! :-)

On The Office Of The Currency Comptroller

Posted: 1/14/2017

Introduction

Few people probably know that such an office exists in Washington, DC. It is one or one too many of several agencies tasked with the supervision and control of the financial sector in the entire U.S..

It is perhaps the oldest such federal agency (established in 1863). This agency never prevented or forecast any of the several, severe financial crisis that plagued the U.S. since its establishment.

Federal Government Overreach Example

I just stumbled across this fine example how the federal government is involved in petty tasks that should be left to the individual states or otherwise.

Why does the OCC have to get involved in accepting an application for and approving of the opening of a single bank branch office of a very local, small bank in Moore, OK? See the Corporate Decision #2001-07 April 2, 2001 May 2001

Incredible! Beats me! How did it come to this in the United States of America!

Hot Recent Science & Technology Articles (31)

Posted: 1/14/2017

1. Bacteria recruit other species with long-range electrical signals (Really amazing stuff! “Bacteria living in diverse communities called "biofilms" ...  by sending long-range electrical signals to other bacterial species that can lead to the recruitment of new members to their biofilm community. … "... that bacterial biofilm communities can actively modulate the motile behavior of diverse bacterial species through electrical signals," ... "In this way, bacteria within biofilms can exert long-range and dynamic control over the behavior of distant cells that are not part of their communities."  … identified a new mechanism and paradigm for inter-species signaling … discovered in their laboratory work, which integrated experiments with mathematical modeling, that a biofilm composed of a single species of Bacillus subtilis bacteria was able to recruit bacteria of a different species—in this case, Pseudomonas aeruginosa—through electrical signaling. …  potassium ion electrical signaling generated by B. subtilis biofilms … Bacteria at the outer edge of the biofilm are closest to nutrients necessary for growth and could starve the sheltered interior cells. … discovered that oscillating biofilms develop what they call "metabolic codependence" by putting the brakes periodically on the outer cells' growth to give the interior cells access to nutrients. … that bacteria living in biofilm communities communicate with one another electronically through proteins called "ion channels," an electrical signaling method similar to that used by neurons in the human brain. … "... discovery suggests that the composition of mixed species bacterial communities, such as our gut microbiome, could be regulated through electrical signaling," … "It may even be possible that bacterial and human gut cells can interact electrically within the human gut. … in the future even lead to new electrical-based biomedical approaches to control bacterial behavior and communities."”)
2. 'BioClay' a ground-breaking discovery for world food security (“Our disruptive research involves a spray of nano-sized degradable clay used to release double-stranded RNA, that protects plants from specific disease-causing pathogens." … the technology reduced the use of pesticides without altering the genome of the plants. "Once BioClay is applied, the plant 'thinks' it is being attacked by a disease or pest insect and responds by protecting itself from the targeted pest or disease.”)
3. Porous, 3-D forms of graphene developed at MIT can be 10 times as strong as steel but much lighter (Is the future of 3D graphene finally near? “The team was able to compress small flakes of graphene using a combination of heat and pressure. This process produced a strong, stable structure whose form resembles that of some corals and microscopic creatures called diatoms. These shapes, which have an enormous surface area in proportion to their volume, proved to be remarkably strong. …. they created a variety of 3-D models and then subjected them to various tests. In computational simulations, which mimic the loading conditions in the tensile and compression tests performed in a tensile loading machine, "one of our samples has 5 percent the density of steel, but 10 times the strength ...”)
4. Physicists detect exotic looped trajectories of light in three-slit experiment (As if the two slit experiments were not weird enough! “"Our work is the first experimental observation of looped trajectories," …  "Looped trajectories are extremely difficult to detect because of their low probability of occurrence. … To increase the probability of the occurrence of looped trajectories, the researchers designed a three-slit structure that supports surface plasmons … The presence of these electromagnetic fields near the three slits increases the contribution of looped trajectories to the overall interference pattern by almost two orders of magnitude. … One of the reasons why the double-slit experiment has attracted so much attention is that it represents a physical manifestation of the principle of quantum superposition. The observation that individual particles can create an interference pattern implies that the particles must travel through both slits at the same time. This ability to occupy two places, or states, at once, is the defining feature of quantum superposition. ... The superposition principle can be applied to this surprising scenario by using the sum or 'superposition' of two wavefunctions; one describing a straight trajectory and the other describing looped trajectories.”)
5. TSRI Study: Protein Monitors Lung Volume and Regulates Breathing (Might help with lots of respiratory disorders like COPD, SIDS. “... how the Piezo2 protein, previously shown to be the principal [mechano]sensor of touch and proprioception, also plays a critical role in sensing lung expansion. … Adult mice lacking the Piezo2 channel in sensory neurons exhibit significantly increased tidal volume (amount of inhaled air in lungs) as well as an impaired Hering-Breuer reflex, an inhibitory respiratory reflex that prevents lung over-expansion.”)
6. Researchers harness novel RNA-targeting CRISPR system (Move over CRISPR Cas9 here comes CRISPR Cas13b “... has discovered and characterized two new types of RNA-targeting CRISPR systems, which utilize a new Cas enzyme, dubbed Cas13b ... is capable of targeting and degrading RNA … is expected to open new avenues for RNA manipulation and accelerate progress to understand, treat, and prevent disease. This ability to target only RNA, which helps carry out genomic instructions, allows researchers to specifically manipulate RNA in a high-throughput manner—and manipulate gene function more broadly. The characterization of Cas13b has the potential to create a suite of RNA manipulation tools for studying a wide-range of biological processes. … The newly characterized enzyme shares some of the features of Cas13a (formerly known as C2c2) … first characterized … in June 2016. Cas13b, like Cas13a, requires only a single guide RNA to specify the target and is also genetically encodable—meaning the necessary components can be synthesized as DNA for delivery into tissue and cells—and capable of targeting multiple RNA transcripts simultaneously. ”)
7. Nanoparticles awaken immune cells to fight cancer (Cancer is history! “... worked with mice with breast cancer, another form of cancer that often doesn’t respond to current immunotherapy drugs. Again, they injected the animals with their nanoparticles along with a checkpoint antibody. But this time their nanoparticles didn’t contain any additional chemotherapeutic drug. They then blasted the tumors with infrared light, and waited for the results. And in almost every case, not only was the primary breast cancer tumor destroyed, but metastases in the lung were wiped out as well, … “We were surprised to find that without the cytotoxic agents, you can achieve the same effect,” ...)
8. Scripps Florida Scientists Discover New Natural Source of Potent Anti-Cancer Drugs (Cancer is history! “Shen and his colleagues uncovered a new family of enediyne natural products, called tiancimycins, (TNMs) which kill selected cancer cells more rapidly and completely in comparison to toxic molecules used in FDA-approved antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs)— monoclonal antibodies attached to cytotoxic drugs that target only cancer cells. … The scientists also discovered several new producers of C-1027, an antitumor antibiotic currently in clinical development, which can produce C-1027 at much higher levels.”)
9. Promising malaria vaccine disables key parasite genes (This is new, perhaps even better approach different from another recent vaccine called RTS,S. What a progress! “The new approach disrupts the cycle of infection by knocking out three genes that P. falciparum needs to move into the bloodstream. …  gave a rodent version of this “genetically attenuated parasite,” or GAP, to mice and showed that they were completely protected when later infected with an unmodified—or wild-type—version of the same Plasmodium strain. ”)
10. Newly discovered state of memory could help explain learning and brain disorders (“ … Their observations point to a new form of working memory, which they dub prioritized long-term memory, that exists without elevated neural activity. Consistent with other recent work, the study suggests that information can somehow be held among the synapses that connect neurons, even after conventional working memory has faded.”)
11. Neutron Star May Display First Evidence of 80-Year-Old Quantum Prediction Polarized light suggests the presence of quantum phenomenon first predicted in the 1930s (“In 1930, physicists Werner Heisenberg and Hans Heinrich Euler predicted that very strong magnetic fields could change the polarity of light waves in a vacuum (where polarity refers to the orientation of the light's electric and magnetic fields). This effect, which they dubbed "vacuum birefringence," is not predicted by classical physics. Now, scientists using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) say they may have observed this effect in the light coming from a neutron star— a cosmic object with a very strong magnetic field.”)
12. Living Cells Bind Silicon and Carbon for the First Time A modified bacterial enzyme is taught to make bonds that evolution avoids (“They showed that a natural enzyme from a bacterium that lives in hot springs can form C–Si bonds inside living Escherichia coli cells—when the cells are fed the right silicon-containing compounds. And by engineering the enzyme, the researchers created a biological catalyst that performs the reaction more efficiently than any artificial one. … So the team introduced mutations into the active region of the enzyme and selected the bacteria that showed an improvement. A few generations were sufficient to enhance the yields—beating those of artificial catalysts.”)
13. "Neural Tourniquet" Zaps a Nerve to Stop Bleeding Anywhere in the Body (This could be huge! Stops internal as well as external bleeding! “But 15 years of research by the Feinstein team has built up ample evidence for this example of bioelectronic medicine, which uses neural stimulation to prevent or stop life-threatening hemorrhages. Now the researchers are launching a major clinical trial to show the world that their strange idea doesn’t just work, it can save lives. … doctors press a handheld device against the skin ... to stimulate the vagus nerve, which transmits information between the brain and the major organs. The nerve stimulation conveys a signal to the spleen, where the platelet blood cells that form clots receive their instructions. This signal “primes” the platelets, prepping them to form clots if they encounter a wound anywhere in the body.  “This grabs control of the mechanism the brain uses,” … “The body has this natural physiologic pathway to control bleeding, and this just ramps it up. In partnership with the Bill Gates-backed Global Good Fund, the Feinstein and Sanguistat researchers are launching clinical trials in the United States and in the developing world””)
14. Gut Microbes Contribute to Recurrent ‘Yo-Yo’ Obesity, Study Shows (“Now, researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science have shown in mice that intestinal microbes – collectively termed the gut microbiome – play an unexpectedly important role in exacerbated post-dieting weight gain, and that this common phenomenon may in the future be prevented or treated by altering the composition or function of the microbiome. … Furthermore, they identified two molecules driving the impact of the microbiome on regaining weight.  … flavonoids that are obtained through eating certain vegetables – are rapidly degraded by the “post-dieting” microbiome, so that the levels of these molecules in post-dieting mice are significantly lower than those in mice with no history of obesity.”)
15. Ancient pottery reveals oldest evidence of people cooking plants (“Researchers analyzed 110 pottery fragments (example above; scale bar is 5 centimeters long) unearthed at two sites in what is now southwestern Libya that were occupied, according to previous studies, between 8400 and 10,200 years ago. ”)
16. Antivenom made from nanoparticles could eventually treat bites from any snake (“Venomous snakes bite an estimated 4.5 million people every year, nearly 3 million of whom suffer serious injuries, such as the loss of a limb. That’s because almost all snake bites occur in rural areas where people lack ready access to a clinic stocked with antivenom. And in many cases, victims receive the incorrect antivenom. … They previously designed nanoparticles capable of binding a powerful toxin in bee venom, known as melittin, and removing it from blood. …   Their target was a family of toxins known as PLA2 proteins. Snakes produce hundreds of varieties of different PLA2s, which range from mildly toxic to powerful neurotoxins. … They incubated their nanoparticles with a cocktail of PLA2 molecules and isolated the nanoparticles that bound the PLA2s the best. ”)