Monthly Archives: January 2010

A Biotech Magic Trick: Skin Cells Transformed Directly Into Brain Cells | 80beats

Posted on by

neuronsMiceCells just keep surprising us. Researchers have now found that, with a little genetic tweaking, they can transform skin cells into brain cells without having to first reprogram them to act like multipurpose stem cells. This finding, the first of its kind, is in this week’s edition of the journal Nature.

The researchers did their study on mice. They induced the change by inserting only three genes into cultured skin cells. Once those three genes activated, the skin cells converted into fully functioning nerve cells that even formed synapse connections with the other converted nerve cells [Popular Science]. That change took less than a week, a surprisingly rapid rate. Said team member Marius Wernig: “These are fully functional neurons. They can do all the principal things that neurons in the brain do” [AFP].

Four years ago, when researchers figured out how to turn adult cells back into a pluripotent state, where they can then become any cell type in the body, it opened up many new research avenues (and raised hopes of getting around the controversy that dogged embryonic stem cell research). But making these induced pluripotent stem cells is a complex process. This study’s approach removes the entire middle step, making the leap directly from one kind of cell to another. There’s another major advantage: pluripotent cells can also grow into tumors, so skipping that step reduces the risk of cancer.

If this new approach worked in people, the medical consequences could be impressive. Brain cells derived from a skin graft would be genetically identical to the patient and therefore remove the risk of immune rejection–such an approach might one day be used to treat Parkinson’s or other neurodegenerative diseases [Technology Review].

That could take some time, because not only was this study done on mouse cells, but the scientists also aren’t 100 percent sure how the process works. When scientists convert adult cells to an embryonic state, they can just strip out epigenetic markers (overlying mechanisms that determine which stretches of DNA are active in the cell, and therefore how the cell will function). Team member Qiao Zhou says the new process requires more precision. “But when directly reprogramming from one somatic cell to another, you cannot randomly remove epigenetic marks,” says Zhou. “You have to remove some and add some and keep many intact. Recognizing which to leave alone and which to change is the key” [Technology Review].

Related Content:
80beats: One Step Closer To Embryo-Free (And Controversy-Free) Stem Cells
80beats: A Safer Way to Transform Skin Cells Into Stem Cells Brings Medical Trials Closer
80beats: Nanoparticles + Stem Cells = Faster Healing Wounds
80beats: Liposuction Leftovers Are a Stem Cell Bonanza
DISCOVER: Second Act for Stem Cells

Image: Thomas Vierbuchen


Samsung’s 3D Blu-Ray Player Available for Preorder [Blu-Ray]

Posted on by

As soon as I saw Samsung's BD-C6900 3D Blu-Ray player, I desperately wanted to preorder one—awkward product name aside. $400 just seems like a small price to pay for 3D-induced headaches in my very own living room.

There are plenty of other Samsung products popping up for preorder on Amazon today, such as the BD-C6500 with a price $300 and a boot-time of only 15 seconds—though that player is limited to two dimensions. Like my TV. [Amazon via 3D-Display-Info via Engadget]


12V LED Incandescent Replacement

Posted on by

Hello all,

I have been working on a project for RV lighting systems to replace the current low efficiency, high current, high temperature, 1920's technology style bulbs.

I have ordered several types of festoon LED bulbs and other LEDS from the auto market. I found many with

The Next Touchscreens Will Be Very Sensitive About How Hard You Poke Them [Touchscreens]

Posted on by

We've made the leap from resistive to capacitive touchscreens that are more accurate—and multitouchy—so what's next? Screens that feel how hard you tickle them.

One of several approaches to making that happen uses a quantum tunneling composite—quantum tunneling happens when you bring two conductors close together, but with an insulating layer still between them, and electrons jump between the two conductors. Peratech's way to do this is with a polymer that changes resistance as you apply force for the insulating layer, so that bottom line, screens using this tech can tell how hard you pressing on the screen, since the sensors are able tell within two micrometers of how far in the screen's bending.

While there's other tech out there for pressure-sensing screens, Peratech says their tech uses less power and is more sensitive. The first gadgets with Peratech's sauce is coming out as early as April, so we'll able to poke things with that much more intent. Though, I have a hard enough time hitting the right stuff on screen—now I'm gonna have to keep track of how hard I press? Hrm. [MIT via Engadget]


Welding SS 304 to SS 316

Posted on by

Hello everybody:

We have to perform a welding work, attaching bars of SS 304 with 7/16" of thickness to a plate of SS 316 with thickness of 3/4". For an start, we are planning to use E316L stick, 1/8" in diameter. Is it our election OK? or do we have to use E308?. Please, I want to hear any com

Hard Drive Clock Is An Arduino-Fueled, LED Trip [Clocks]

Posted on by

Hard drive clocks are a dime a dozen on sites like Etsy, but Hacked Gadgets reader NatureTM went the extra mile and employed an Arduino to control the time and LED light show on the reflective platters.

This is only phase one of NatureTM's project, a chronodot (for time accuracy) and a case will eventually be added. Details on the build are pretty basic at the moment, but a schematic can be requested and code should be posted...eventually. [Hacked Gadgets]


Motorola Confirms They Are Working On a Google Phone [Motorola]

Posted on by

A few weeks ago we heard rumors that the Motorola Shadow could earn the distinction of Nexus Two. Today Motorola confirmed that they are working with Google on a new phone to be sold directly to consumers.

There's no telling if the Droidesque Shadow is the device in question, or if Motorola's will even be Google's next flagship device, but during an earnings call today Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha confirmed that the company is working on a "direct to consumer device with Google."

Jha didn't offer any details on the forthcoming phone, but his statement serves as confirmation of two things: Google's Nexus One wasn't a one-off experiment and Motorola is involved in one of its successors. [Electronista]


Withings Wi-Fi Scale Gets Creepier With Google Health Integration [Health]

Posted on by

The Withings scale is great. It keeps track of your weight, BMI, and more to graph everything for an at-a-glance review of how fat you're getting. Now it's got Google Health integration for better—and slightly creepier—health records.

The Google Health service has been around for a while and allows you to maintain an online health profile. In theory this would aid doctors and family members in keeping track of your health history. By integrating a device like the Withings scale, the service could theoretically be used to help keep a health or fitness plan on track. After all, it's kinda tough to fib if your scale tells on you—not only to Twitter, but to Google and your doctor.

Withings Announces Integration with Google Health for its WiFi Connected Body Scale

Issy-les-Moulineaux, France – January 28, 2010 — Today, Withings, maker of the world's first WiFi connected personal scale, is announcing its integration with the Google Health service. As of today, the Withings WiFi Body Scale can provide updates to a user's Google Health profile wirelessly in real-time using its built-in WiFi connection.

Google Health, launched last year, is a personal health record that allows users to store, organize, and manage health information all in one place. It organizes a user's health information and allows them to share that information with family members, caregivers and doctors. Now, the scale will automatically update the user's weight and fat mass to their Google Health profile.

"It's exciting to be one of the early hardware devices to integrate with the Google Health service," said Cedric Hutchings, Withings General Manager. "Keeping your doctors and caregivers informed on all aspects of your health is important in maintaining a consistent health plan, so being part of Google Health's effort to make this possible is thrilling."

The WiFi Body Scale is a unique product that automatically records the user's body weight, lean & fat mass, and calculated body mass index (BMI) to his/her secure webpage and/or free Withings iPhone application, WiScale [more info on the scale here]. Also, if enabled by the user, the scale can automatically "Tweet" information in order to get motivation from the user's followers [more info on that feature here].

The scale is currently available on http://www.withings.com for $159.00 USD. For more information on Withings, go to http://www.withings.com . To request additional information or images of the WiFi Body Scale, please contact PR representative Jessica Darrican at (305) 576-1171 ext.16 or jessica@maxborgesagency.com.

About Withings:

Withings is a French start-up established by three executives from the technology and telecom industry. With a focus on the innovation and design for everyday products, Withings introduced in September 2009 its first-of-its-kind WiFi Bodyscale in the United States. For more information on Withings, visit http://www.withings.com.

[Withings]


Apple Plans Video Camera For iPod Touch [Apple]

Posted on by

Usually reading the patent tea leaves is an inaccurate science at best, without knowing how exactly a proposed technology will fit into a company's product plans. Other times, there's an actual drawing of an iPod Touch with a video camera.

The patent was filed in the summer of 2009, but only just published today by the US Patent Office. It's maybe not the most surprising news in the world, given that the iPhone 3GS is already equipped with the technology. There really hasn't been a good reason for the Touch not to have a camera, other than Steve Jobs dithering about how people just don't want one. That's always seemed like poppycock, and I'm glad it looks like Apple's started to agree.

Separately, Apple also filed a patent for LED backlighting, which makes sense given that the iPad will come with exactly that. Whether we'll also be seeing it implemented on the next generation of iPhones and iPod Touches is anyone's guess. [Patently Apple]


Work Shop Ventilation

Posted on by

I need ventilation expert opinion,We have a workshop for fabrication of ship and boat,

because of welding fume,Grinding,sand blasting ,CS plate surface cleaning (paste cleaning with sandpaper) and painting the place is being dangerous for health.

What would be the best ventilation method

Libertarians respond to State of the Union address

Posted on by

WASHINGTON - Libertarian Party (LP) Chairman William Redpath issued the following statement today in response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address:

"Tonight's speech was a reminder that, for decades, the policies of Republicans and Democrats alike have failed. Libertarians are asking people to take matters into their own hands. Instead of just complaining, we're encouraging ordinary Americans to step up and run for Congress on the Libertarian Party ballot line.

read more

McGraw-Hill Still In Deep Denial Over iPad Leak [Denial]

Posted on by

Remember when McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw confirmed the iPad—and its OS—a day early on national television? And then Apple pointedly left them out of the presentation? Well, McGraw-Hill doesn't! No sir, never happened at all.

In a statement given to All Things D, McGraw-Hill spokesperson Steven Weiss backtracks laudably in an attempt to convince us we didn't see or hear those things we saw and heard:

[Mr. McGraw]'s speculative comments about Apple's pending launch, which he shared earlier in the day in a call with investors, were simply intended to suggest that if the new device were to use iPhone applications, many of our education products would be compatible with the technology and could be made easily available on it.

See what he did there? Whatever McGraw intended to suggest, what he actually said was that there was a tablet, and that it was running the iPhone OS. And he was right! Which makes it a leak. And the idea that the CEO of a guaranteed major supplier of iPad content wouldn't have known those details about the device in advance is beyond inconceivable.

Honestly, the fact that Terry McGraw mentioned something that everyone knew—or at least, strongly suspected—was going to happen isn't going to affect the number of iPads Apple sells one bit. So why not just own up to it? Oh, right. Because no one does that, ever. [All Things D]


What time is it?

Posted on by

"01/28/2010 10:56 AM" In the above example, what determines the time that is displayed with each post? Is it the OP's time zone, GMT, or something else? Honest guys, I did search first. Cheers.

Engineered E. Coli Bacteria Produces Road-Ready Diesel | 80beats

Posted on by

e-coli-bacteriaMost of us associate the bacteria E. coli with nasty stomach ailments. But a new study published in Nature magazine suggests E. coli can not just turn stomachs, but could potentially turn the wheels of your car, since a genetically engineered strain of the bacteria has produced clean, road-ready biodiesel.

The bacteria can work on any type of biomass, including wood chip, switchgrass, and the plant parts that are left behind after a harvest–all contain cellulose, a structural material that comprises much of a plant’s mass. Study coauthor Jay Keasling and his colleagues report engineering E. coli bacteria to synthesize and excrete the enzyme hemicellulase, which breaks down cellulose into sugars. The bacteria can then convert those sugars into a variety of chemicals–diesel fuel among them. The final products are excreted by the bacteria and then float to the top of the fermentation vat before being siphoned off [Technology Review].

E. coli bacteria naturally turn sugars into fatty acids to build their cell membranes; the researchers just tweaked the bacterium’s genetics a bit. The researchers basically amplified and then short-circuited E. coli’s internal machinery for producing large fatty-acid molecules, enabling them to convert precursor molecules directly into fuels and other chemicals…. In all, the authors report more than a dozen genetic modifications [Nature]. Researchers said the process could be refined to produce multiple chemical products ranging from jet fuel to solvents and lubricants [MSNBC]. However, they cautioned that the study was a “proof of concept” rather than a full demonstration of a commercially viable process.

Still, the news of bacteria producing biofuels has been welcomed by biofuel manufacturers who usually use corn and sugarcane to produce ethanol; these processes have raised ethical questions about using food crops for fuel. This new bacterial biofuel technique avoids such problems. The cellulosic biomass doesn’t have to come from plants that are consumed by humans or used in animal feedstocks, so the process doesn’t add undue pressure on global food prices, and since the E. coli can ferment and convert the biomass to biofuel all at once the process could greatly improve the economics of biofuel production [Popular Science].

Study coauthor Keasling is certainly excited about the possibilities. “We’ve got a billion tons of biomass every year that goes unused,” said Jay Keasling…. Theoretically, the fuel produced from biomass could make up for as much as 50 percent of U.S. oil imports. ”We want to turn the U.S. Midwest into the new ‘Mideast,’” Keasling said [MSNBC].

Related Content:
80beats: Study: Algae Biofuel Production Guzzles Water & Energy
80beats: Could Exxon Go Green? Oil Giant Invests in Algae Biofuel Research
80beats: Algae Tech’s Latest Goal: Make Ethanol for Bioplastics
80beats: Forget Biofuel. Is Bioelectricity the Next Big Thing?
80beats: Super-Green, Algae-Derived Jet Fuel Passes Tests With Flying Colors
DISCOVER: The Second Coming of Biofuels

Image: iStockphoto


Climate Change in the American Mind | The Intersection

Posted on by

I started a post this morning on the release of the new national survey out of Yale and George Mason regarding public beliefs and attitudes on global warming, but CM beat me to posting it. Still, it’s important to emphasize my concern reading that public trust in scientists has decreased, while the number of Americans who do not think climate change will harm biodiversity is on the rise. Some more of the figures:

  • The percentage of Americans who think global warming is happening has declined 14 points, to 57 percent.
  • The percentage of Americans who think global warming is caused mostly by human activities has dropped 10 points, to 47 percent.
  • Only 50 percent of Americans now say they are “somewhat” or “very worried” about global warming, a 13-point decrease.
  • Sixty-five percent distrust Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sarah Palin as sources of information.
  • Fifty-three percent distrust former Democratic Vice President Al Gore and 49 percent distrust President Barack Obama.
  • The percentage of Americans who believe that most scientists think global warming is happening is now at 34 percent

So amid growing scientific evidence that climate change will have–and indeed, is already having–real impacts around the world, there is a dramatic and dangerous disconnect with the American public. Unfortunately, we continue to live in an increasingly Unscientific America–where partisan politics, media spin, religious ideologies, and special interests hamper progress.


Looking ahead…

Posted on by

I should start this post by fully disclaiming that I don’t think I have any significant or impressive credentials to be making the following assertions. They are merely my opinions and thoughts, accumulated in a storage space in my mind over the last few months, as speculations of the current administration’s plans for NASA have reached a fever pitch, with rumors and supposedly confirmed facts rampant in the media.

From a young age, I buried my nose in astronomy books in my spare time. I, in fact, love to tell the story of my first direct contact with NASA – a fateful visit to Space Center Houston at the tender age of eight. I walked away, declaring I’d one day work in Mission Control and be an astronaut. I half realized that dream just under a month ago, when I sat in the Space Station Flight Control Room for the first time and spoke to the crew on the International Space Station, whom I helped train. I left the building that night, with my footsteps echoing across the empty parking lot, knowing that I had the amazing opportunity to contribute to a legacy left by the pioneers of yesteryear, ever single day.

Thus, I speak as a very passionate space enthusiast, who’s known no reality but one with humans in space. I make the following points to acknowledge that frustrations are entirely plausible and understandable at this pivotal juncture in our nation’s space program. But, I also implore you, in spite of this, to consider the true implications of the changes that lay before of us. I ask that we embrace the opportunity for change, as we approach a unique moment in our agency’s history, one that we have not seen since its inception, yet one that gives us the freedom to actually define our future.

Over the last few days, even hours, I’ve heard countless, generally depressing thoughts about the future of our nation’s space program, based largely on supposedly confirmed reports from various media outlets. The most flagrant of these speculations, and perhaps the one that will eventually be revealed to be fact, is the cancellation of the Constellation program, inevitably delaying the return of humans to the moon.

Specific implications of these actions are not within my realm of knowledge or expertise. However, in my very naïve viewpoint, I believe we are now at a critical impasse, where we have the opportunity to set the course for the future of human space exploration. Never before have we been faced with such apathy, lack of support and funding; and yet, this same moment, though it may seem a burden, presents us with a challenge. How can we prove to the administration, Congress, the American public, our international partners, the world…that we are truly capable of pioneering the future of human spaceflight?

Critics of the Ares program have voiced their opinions since the groundwork was laid for the Constellation program, and yet now that there’s a possibility for its cancellation, outcries of the absurdity of this happening are widespread. Yes, we lose our immediate and near-term capability for sending humans beyond LEO. But this presents us with an opportunity, an opportunity to take the lessons learned from the Ares program, from the ISS program, from the Shuttle Program, from our very history, to go back to the drawing board.

In our changing world, it’s time that we realize that ignoring the commercial spaceflight sector will not benefit our agency in the slightest. On the contrary, by accepting their role in human space exploration and working to define their roles and develop requirements, we capitalize on the ability to contribute to the future of human space exploration. We give ourselves the chance to innovate in a way that has never been tried before. In essence, it gives NASA the perfect opportunity to define its next step.

Yes, this does now mean that we aren’t landing on the moon by 2018…I think it’s time to accept this fact and just move on. The Shuttle Program was done for, as soon as the Vision for Space Exploration was announced. We, as an agency, saw this coming. Perhaps we could’ve prepared for it a little more practically; hindsight is always 20/20. But now that we are at this pivotal juncture, it’s time to view the impending change as an opportunity to prove what we are capable of as an agency. It’s a chance for us to truly innovate and develop a plan for getting humans beyond LEO. It’s an opportunity for NASA to work with both the commercial sector and the international community, as partners for getting humans to the moon and onto Mars. Though the timeline is significantly delayed than previously thought, this is one of the most crucial moments in our agency’s history where we actually get to contribute in defining its direction.

So, think about why you became a part of the space program in the first place. Think about what interests you and makes you so passionate about human space exploration. If you’re like me, it’s a “je ne said quoi” quality that embedded itself in your soul at an early age and never left. It’s the yearning to explore and see new horizons. It drives you every day and excites your very being at the thought of your contributions, however minute or significant, helping humans fulfill one of our innate desires: to explore. How can we be upset over the new adventures that lay ahead? Why look back and criticize past decisions, when there is little we can do about them? Why not look forward to the future and use our position to drive our agency in the direction we’d all like to see it go: help humans get beyond LEO. There’s no single solution to getting this done. We have all the resources in the world at our disposal, literally, to accomplish what we did in the 1960s. Let’s prove our naysayers incorrect; let’s collaborate with our commercial and international partners; let’s expand the realm of possibilities and forge ahead with ambition, passion, and determination to accomplish what we all truly believe in, in our hearts. As someone once said, “We would not be honoring the legacy of those who came before us, if we didn’t believe our greatest accomplishments lay ahead of us.”