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Jan 10, 2017

New active filaments mimic biology to transport nano-cargo

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, nanotechnology, particle physics, robotics/AI

Very interesting read. The researchers created a completely artificial microscopic transport system mimicking the human body. With this technology we’re going to be able to address many areas of healthcare as well as some areas of AI.


Inspired by micro-scale motions of nature, a group of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, in Chennai, India, has developed a new design for transporting colloidal particles, tiny cargo suspended in substances such as fluids or gels, more rapidly than is currently possible by diffusion.

Fluid friction determines micro-scale inertia in fluid. This means, for instance, blood cells swimming within blood encounter roughly the same amount of drag that a human would experience attempting to swim through molasses.

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Jan 10, 2017

Synthetic gene circuits: Insulin self-regulation

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, innovation

Nice breakthrough.


A self-adjusting synthetic gene circuit senses and reverses insulin resistance in animal models of diabetes and obesity.

People with type 2 diabetes — an obesity-associated disease that is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide — develop insulin resistance. The condition can be counteracted by adiponectin, a cytokine secreted by adipocytes that promotes insulin sensitivity and regulates glucose metabolism via the receptors AdipoR1 and AdipoR2 (ref.). In fact, by mimicking adiponectin, the AdipoR-activating small molecule AdipoRon improves glucose and lipid metabolism in mice. Owing to the capacity of adipocytes to regulate insulin and glucose pathways, considerable efforts have been devoted to taking advantage of adiponectin for clinical applications. Writing in Nature Biomedical Engineering, Martin Fussenegger and colleagues demonstrate the therapeutic benefits of a self-adjusting synthetic gene circuit designed to sense and reverse insulin resistance in animal models of diabetes and obesity.

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Jan 10, 2017

Nanowire ‘inks’ enable low-cost paper- or plastic-based printable electronics

Posted by in categories: materials, nanotechnology

Duke University chemists have found that silver nanowire films like these conduct electricity well enough to form functioning circuits without applying high temperatures, enabling printable electronics on materials like paper or plastic. (credit: Ian Stewart and Benjamin Wiley)

By suspending tiny metal nanoparticles in liquids, Duke University scientists can use conductive ink-jet-printed conductive “inks” to print inexpensive, customizable RFID and other electronic circuit patterns on just about any surface — even on paper and plastics.

Printed electronics, which are already being used widely in devices such as the anti-theft radio frequency identification (RFID) tags you might find on the back of new DVDs, currently have one major drawback: for the circuits to work, they first have to be heated to 200° C (392°F) to melt all the nanoparticles together into a single conductive wire.

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Jan 10, 2017

Why you crave hot chips after a night on the town

Posted by in category: biological

And, one of the world’s greatest mysteries has solved!


Don’t feel too guilty when you drunkenly bite into a hot dog at 3 am – you can’t argue with biology.

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Jan 10, 2017

Humans living on the MOON? Scientists find ideal location for LIFE on the rock’s DARK SIDE

Posted by in category: space

I do know that China has already made plans to mine the dark side of the Moon. And, China is launching their 1st ship this year; so this is going to get interesting.


NASA scientists exploring the dark side of the moon have revealed an ideal location for a permanent base on the rock.

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Jan 10, 2017

Scientists Think They’ve Uncovered the ‘Missing Element’ Inside Earth’s Core

Posted by in category: futurism

It’s well known that the innermost part of Earth is made mostly of iron (about 85 percent). Nickel accounts for about 10 percent. That last 5 percent however, has remained a bit of a mystery.

A Japanese research team has been searching for that missing element for decades, and now believes that the final 5 percent is most likely made from silicon, reports the BBC.

They presented their results at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

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Jan 10, 2017

Pentagon Seeks A More Powerful Social Media Monitoring Machine

Posted by in categories: government, military, terrorism

This is one of those situations that I often get conflicted over. Yes, it’s good to keep people safe; however, at what cost is too much? As, one person’s interpretation of a bad web site is not the same for others. Such as when Nelson Mandela led the whole anti-apartheid movement he was considered then a terrorist. And, the 1960s when Dr. King fought for real equal rights for all people; he was deemed by US government a terrorist. And, neither one of these situations where anything like ISIS today. So, it is a very tricky situation; and hope the courts can help us ensure things are legally done the right way.


DARPA is soliciting software that distinguishes between anti-American slogans and true intent to kill on a global scale.

MILITARY

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Jan 10, 2017

Building a Google for the dark web

Posted by in categories: internet, robotics/AI

I can honestly state there is already one that folks are using; I would suggest DARPA should assess it and maybe acquire it. As it would give them a jump start and they can enhance it for their own needs.


In today’s data-rich world, companies, governments and individuals want to analyze anything and everything they can get their hands on – and the World Wide Web has loads of information. At present, the most easily indexed material from the web is text. But as much as 89 to 96 percent of the content on the internet is actually something else – images, video, audio, in all thousands of different kinds of nontextual data types.

Further, the vast majority of online content isn’t available in a form that’s easily indexed by electronic archiving systems like Google’s. Rather, it requires a user to log in, or it is provided dynamically by a program running when a user visits the page. If we’re going to catalog online human knowledge, we need to be sure we can get to and recognize all of it, and that we can do so automatically.

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Jan 10, 2017

Amazon Has 45,000 Robot Employees

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

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Jan 10, 2017

Fast Radio Bursts from Extragalactic Light Sails

Posted by in categories: alien life, engineering

Abstract: We examine the possibility that Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) originate from the activity of extragalactic civilizations. Our analysis shows that beams used for powering large light sails could yield parameters that are consistent with FRBs. The characteristic diameter of the beam emitter is estimated through a combination of energetic and engineering constraints, and both approaches intriguingly yield a similar result which is on the scale of a large rocky planet. Moreover, the optimal frequency for powering the light sail is shown to be similar to the detected FRB frequencies. These ‘coincidences’ lend some credence to the possibility that FRBs might be artificial in origin. Other relevant quantities, such as the typical mass of the light sail, and the angular velocity of the beam, are also derived. By using the FRB occurrence rate, we infer upper bounds on the rate of FRBs from extragalactic civilizations in a typical galaxy. The possibility of detecting fainter signals is briefly discussed, and the wait time for an exceptionally bright FRB event in the Milky Way is estimated.

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