In a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, a research group from UCLA has been able to use E. Coli to synthesize complex alcohols that could be used as a biofuel. This is just one of the many wonders of genetic engineering. I’m sure in the next 5 to 10 years we will be able to use these simple bacteria to create a cheap and renewable source of fuel. The original article may be found here.
Next stop Gattaca.
Previously believed to be impossible, reasearchers at the University of Pittsburg have be able to sustain a surface based chain reaction. The previous beliefes were that the reaction would fizzle out after only one to two chemical reactions, Pittsburg crew was able to sustain the reaction through 10 molecules.
Why does this have any relevance to hard drives you ask. Well by being able to control the state of a molecule with a single electron you can effectively mimic the 1 and 0 storage system of conventional magnetic hard drives only on an unbelievably small scale. Would you like your phone to hold a terabyte of data or maybe a hundred terabytes? Well when this technology becomes available you just might be able to. Keep in mind it is a long way to go from a single chain reaction with 10 molecules to a well organized data storage system, but this experiment shows that it is at least theoretically possible.
The actual experiment involved dimethyldisulfide molecules on a gold surface. An electron was added and would be centered on one of the sulfur atoms. This would then cause the bond between the two sulfur molecules to break and form a free radical, which would then form a bond with another sulfur atom and break another sulfur - sulfur bond. This process proceed through 10 steps.
For more information please see the original article here.
A group of Japanese scientist have been able to decipher enough of the electrical signals in a persons brain to be able to figure out what they are looking at. This is mind boggling to me because this means we may only be a little while away from being able to control a computer with our thought.
Mind reading computers
The images in the top row is what was show to the person and the bottom row id how the computer interpreted it. This is still a new technology and the scientist are working on making the measurements more accurate which will improve the details of the image. They also believe that this technology might eventually allow people to record their dreams. Does anyone else feel like this just popped out of a sci fi movie?
For more information please see the article located here.
Have you ever wished you could grow skin in an assemble line? Me neither, but now you can anyway. Though this new technology means very little to most of us, it can be life changing for burn victims or anyone that requires skin grafts. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart are working on a process that will allow for artificial skin to be grown in a completely automated process.
The skin sample will be tested for sterility, chopped up, separated then cultured to grow the different layers of skin that we all have. For more information and crossectional pictures of the new skin please read the full article found here.
Plastic is great because of its low production cost as well as weight, but for advanced electronics it fails to meet one very important need. To conduct electricity. Well this little set back has been finally overcome. The IFAM in Bremen have figured our how to combine the useful properties of metal and plastic into one material. This composite is a mixture of a plastic with this metal to make one material that I believe resembles steel wool.
I have my doubts about how this might work in small components because their may not be enough paths connecting throughout the material to carry current. Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft writes in a December 10th article on Sciencedaily.com about how the material would lower the production cost on larger components that require both properties. For more information and pictures of the material see the original article.
Harvard researchers have developed a cheap method of screening for potentially thousands of virus, bacteria, or other toxins in developing countries. Their solution is not much more complex than a few layers of paper and plastic but the potential benefit is amazing. For more details about their break through see this articleon sciencemag.org.
Hello Everyone out there in webland.
I started this blog, and hopefully podcast, to help get the latest sciencey information to the geeky masses. I ha ve always been a huge fan of science and have based many of my life decisions accordingly. I know there are many people out there that love to read about the newest breakthrough and discoveries and they hate for the evening news to dumb it down too much. Because of this I decided to start this blog to appeal to al of you.
I will make it a point to read the newest articles in the most respected scientific journals to let you know what is going on before everyone else knows. I will try to add posts weekly but it all depends on how busy I am. I hope you can all understand. I also want to try to add weekly home science experiments to the mix for a little hands on experience.
Until my next post, may all your decisions be based on fact.
-Chris
