Electronic circuitry composed of nanowires can now be fitted to a surface of almost any shape on an object made of virtually any material, using a new approach to fabrication and transfer of nanowire electronics developed by Stanford researchers.
Monthly Archives: July 2011
Merck and Nano-C, Inc. Jointly Develop New-Generation Materials for Organic Photovoltaic Applications
Merck KGaA announced it has signed a collaboration agreement with Nano-C, Inc. of Westwood, MA, United States, a leading developer of nanostructured carbon for use in energy and electronics applications. Both companies aim to jointly develop and commercialize advanced semiconducting materials and formulations for applications in organic photovoltaics.
Single-molecule magnets encapsulated inside carbon nanotubes
Single-molecule magnets (SMM) are fascinating nanoscale structures with unique functional properties showing promise for high-density electronic data storage devices, solid state quantum computers, spintronic devices such as spin valves, and other advanced technological applications. Despite a flurry of research in this area - since an individual magnetic molecule represents the ultimate size limit to storing and processing information - the main challenge related to harnessing properties of SMM remained unsolved. A new study by a group of European researchers reports the successful encapsulation of single-molecule magnets in carbon nanotubes, yielding a new type of hybrid nanostructure that combines all the key single-molecule magnet properties of the guest molecules with the functional properties of the host CNT.
Artificial cilia spur new thinking in nanotechnology (w/video)
Due to the importance of ciliary functions for health, there is great interest in understanding the mechanism that controls the cilias' beating patterns. But learning exactly how cilia movement is coordinated has been challenging. That may be beginning to change as a result of the creation, by a team of Brandeis researchers, of artificial cilia-like structures that dramatically offers a new approach for cilia study.
Multifunctional nanotechnology tool simplifies design and study of nanostructures
Basic operations in the field of nanotechnology that are currently very difficult or impossible to perform can become easy with a new multi-nano tool called FIBLYS. Nanosized components in for example solar cells will be designed and studied in an entirely new way, which the researchers hope will increase the solar cells' energy output with up to 15 percent.
New X-ray camera will reveal big secrets about how chemistry works
Designed to record bursts of images at an unprecedented speed of 4.5 million frames per second, an innovative X-ray camera being built with STFC's world-class engineering expertise will help a major new research facility shed light on the structure of matter.
New invisibility cloak hides objects from human view
For the first time, scientists have devised an invisibility cloak material that hides objects from detection using light that is visible to humans. The new device is a leap forward in cloaking materials.
New distributorship announcement: Aperio
Genecompany is now the sole distributor for Aperio in Hong Kong and China.
We’re pleased to inform that Genecompany is now the authorized distributor for Aperio in Hong Kong and China. With this agreement, Genecompany now offer our customers the Aperio‘s products which are the only complete solution for digital pathology over the world.
Courtesy of Gene Company.
Farewell Walter Reed Hospital
After more than 100 years of active operations, Walter Reed Army Medical Center lowered its flag for the last time as activities transition to the newly constructed Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in neighboring Bethesda, MD.
The hospital was known for both treating U.S. presidents and high ranking military and civilian officials and scandal alike.
Truth be told, I wanted to go to Hawaii, California or Colorado where there were active Army hospitals with pathology residency programs. By the time I finished medical school and internship, those programs were closed.
Walter Reed was one of the Army pathology programs that remained and we stayed at Walter Reed for 9 years were I completed my internship, residency and had my first job in practice.
Some of the best years of my life, personally and professionally, although I don't think I appreciated it at the time. The day I started "clearing post" was the day the BRAC list come out with Walter Reed's name on it. 6 years later, much like AFIP as well which was an installation on the Walter Reed campus, has closed down its operations.
What military medicine offers trainees and physicians is a camaraderie and sense of group effort that is hard to match in civilian medicine. Within the military healthcare system you were able to practice medicine. No asking permission from insurance companies for approvals, no reimbursement issues that directly impacted you or issues with hospital contracts, payers, payees, etc... Nevermind you were fortunate enough to take care of soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines -- people charged with defending our country at times with personal sacrifice and taking care of their families who counted on these individuals to be safe from harm.
Hard to imagine people actually told me ten years ago the government would never close Walter Reed or AFIP.
Times change.
What if the cure for cancer were discovered tomorrow?
There is a quote I heard or saw a number of years ago that says something like "Medicine, the only profession that labors incessantly to destroy the reason for its own existence".
Recently ESPN went through a telethon for the Jimmy V Foundation and the ESPY awards and celebration always receive mention of Coach Jim Valvano and his famous "Never Give Up" speech.
Occasionally, I think of Dr. Randy Pausch and his "Last Lecture" speech.
These men and countless others, both patients, families, friends and providers have strived to raise money to find cancer cures.
What if the cure for cancer were discovered tomorrow? And the efforts of tens of thousands of volunteers, researchers, organizers, physicians, politicians, deans and bureaucrats saw to it that a cure could be found.
Of course, one of the reasons a cure for cancer has not been discovered despite countless hours and trillions in funding worldwide is that cancer is not a single disease, it is very heterogeneous, even among cancers that involve the same organ or organ system.
For the sake of argument what if the cures for colon, lung, breast and prostate cancer were discovered tomorrow?
How long would it be before the cure was validated by groups outside those making the initial claim and the product brought to market?
Would the cure treat only those diagnosed with the disease or could it be taken to prevent the disease?
Ask this question of anyone in passing (at least for me when I talk to folks in healthcare, laboratories, fellow pathologists) and you will hear "I would be out of a job". But would they?
What would a cure do to the economics of healthcare as it pertains to oncology diagnostics, therapeutics, oncologic surgery, radiation and management of known complications of the disease and its treatments?
What effect would the saved lives that may have been lost due to population statistics and what impact would that have on other diseases and medical specialties? Fewer oncology visits may mean increased cardiology referrals as one example. Would it be too late for me to do a cardiology fellowship?
Future posts will try to tackle some of these hypothetical scenarios based on known facts, figures, costs and population models. If you know of any good sources, please let me know.
Indica Labs extends In situ hybridization capabilities with automated quantification of dual ISH assays
Albuquerque, New Mexico 7/26/2011 – Indica Labs, inc. announces new capabilities for measuring dual ISH assays for the purpose of measuring gene amplification in tumors and other tissues. The new, fully automated and quantitative solution allows researchers and pathologists to measure dual ISH assays, such as those provided by leading reagent manufacturers, with the single click of a button rather than having to manually count spots which is an arduous process. The software rapidly counts dual probe signals and reports ratios between probes on a per cell basis. This automated approach is not only faster and less error prone than manual interpretation of the assays, it also generates additional data such as signal ratios and signal counts at the cellular level in addition to the specimen or tumor level data. This additional level of detail is useful in measuring the cellular heterogeneity within tumors. Indica Labs, CEO Steven Hashagen stated:
“We are excited about expanding our ISH quantification capabilities. The use of brightfield ISH assays is increasingly becoming more main-stream and image analysis software dramatically simplifies the work involved for scoring these assays. Moreover, the use of dual ISH kits makes image analysis quantification even more of a necessity than before.”
This latest release of Indica's ISH software is highly configurable such that it can be used to measure a wide range of reagent kits, tissue types, and image file formats. Prior to this announcement, Indica Labs’ product offering included several other tools for measuring just single probe CISH, SISH, and RNA ISH assays. To learn more about any of the ISH quantification products visit http://indicalab.com/products.html. Additionally, Indica Labs and Aperio presented all of these capabilities in a complementary webinar that aired on July 21st. To view a recording of the webinar, visit http://www.aperio.com/pathology-events/webinar_events.asp.
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About Indica Labs, Inc.
Indica Labs provides sophisticated pathology image processing software for whole slide tissue analysis. Indica Labs' software tools seamlessly integrate into leading digital pathology platforms to provide reproducible and highly quantitative data to pathologists in hospitals, academic medical centers, government research institutions, global pharmaceutical companies, and small biotech firms. For more information, please visit http://www.indicalab.com. Indica Labs products are intended for research use only.
Contact
Indica Labs, Inc. info@indicalab.com
PathXL Performance Acceleration – Upgrade For All PathXL Users
i-Path is pleased to introduce improved performance for PathXL platform, available to all customers from the 20th July 2011. This upgrade will bring noticeable benefits for i-Path customers who use PathXL for research, education and clinical purposes.
The PathXL acceleration integrates with the PathXL Image Server to speed up the delivery of digital images. From 20th July 2011 images will be provided to the customer using a faster network connection (gigabit) and intelligent algorithm compression techniques. Current PathXL users will experience noticeable improvements, with instantaneous image viewing on suitable bandwidth networks.
All i-Path hosted customers will benefit immediately from this upgrade with no additional effort required from the side of the customer.
Please contact the i-Path Support Team for more information.
Morbid Anatomy Presents This Week at Observatory: Taxidermy and Antique Automata Live and in Person!
Hope to see you there!
Shrinking and Other Acts of Sabotage
An illustrated lecture with Petra Lange-Berndt, University College London
Date: Thursday, July 28th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid AnatomyTaxidermy is quite literally the incarnation of trophy culture; It is no coincidence that the 19th Century craze for taxidermy coincided with the emergence of the biological sciences, which were, themselves, strongly tied to colonial interests of exploration, exploitation, classification, and reorganization of the world.
Today, this violent story -- as well as the bulk of 19th Century decorative taxidermy, such as heads on shields, armchairs made out of whole bears, elephant footstools or lamp bases adorned with birds of paradise -- are largely absent from public collections and their institutionalized narratives. Also problematic for the serious student of the medium is that, like art conservators or the editors of texts, taxidermists are only successful if there is no visible trace of their work left in the final product.
Tonight's presentation by Petra Lange-Berndt, author of Animal Art: Specimens in Modern and Contemporary Art Practices, 1850-2000, will chase the stories that are woven into the textures of taxidermy by focusing on the fabrication of the nature/cultures in question, and by asking such questions as what kind of politics are attached to these stilled lifes? And how have the power relations encountered in public natural history collections been challenged by modern and contemporary artists?
Petra Lange-Berndt is a lecturer at the Department of History of Art, University College of London. She has published a book in German on Animal Art: Specimens in Modern and Contemporary Art Practices, 1850-2000 (Silke Schreiber, 2009) and just organised a conference on "Taxidermy and Colonial Practice" at the Natural History Museum, London. She likes all kinds of unpopular arts and B-cultures and was co-curator of an exhibition in three parts on "Sigmar Polke: We Petty Bourgeois! The 1970s" at the Kunsthalle in Hamburg (2009-10); her new research is concerned with artists' colonies and communes.
Photo: Photo from Natural History Museum of Nantes (France), by Julie N. Hascoët
Living Dolls: The Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum
A live automata demonstration and illustrated lecture by Jere Ryder, Conservator of the Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum
Date: Friday, July 29th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid AnatomyThe Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey is one of the finest collections of automata--or moving mechanical toys popular in the 18th Century and 19th Centuries--in the world. Compiled over 50 years by heir to the Guinness beer fortune Murtogh D. Guinness (1913-2002), the collection features scores of immaculately preserved historic automata--many of them produced in 19th Century France--with subjects ranging from snake charmers to magicians, singing birds to anthropomorphic monkeys, Cleopatra in her death throes to a waltz-playing Mephistopheles; it also includes a number of mechanical musical instruments and a variety of programmed media ranging from player piano rolls to pinned cylinders.
Earlier this year, Observatory brought a group to visit this collection in person; for those of you who were unable to join us--or who are hungry more!--we are bringing the automata closer to home. Tonight, we invite you to join Jere Ryder, Conservator of the Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum, for a live demonstration of antique automata drawn from both the Guinness Collection and his own personal collection. Mr. Ryder will detail the history of these bewitching toys with an illustrated lecture on their history, show an introductory video, and demonstrate and describe the mechanics that bring them to life.
Bio: As Conservator of the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata, Jere Ryder brings a lifetime of involvement within this specialized field. A keen interest developed after being introduced to them by collector parents, whom Mr. Guinness had encountered in the 1950s. He became a family friend, and served as mentor and inspiration for later study within the field. With no specialized teaching institutions dedicated to this particular realm, it was Jere's father, Hughes M. Ryder, who introduced he and his brother to major European families, collections and related museums, assisting his ability to enter into studies/apprenticeships to surviving, established field masters, modern manufacturers and successors of original firms dating to as early as 1800. Throughout junior high and high school he received objects for repair from regional dealers and distributors. He and his brother Stephen created a business partnership in 1973 and since have repaired, restored, appraised and advised for some of the finest collections, acquiring objects on behalf of state and privately-owned museums worldwide, and are internationally renowned for research projects and the ability to source rare instruments offering new paths of study.
Image: “Mechanical Singing Bird Jardiniere,” made by the firm of Bontems, Paris, France, circa 1880 & recently restored
You can find out more--and get directions to Observatory--by clicking here.
Amsterdam-Based Museum Vrolik Closed for Redesign; July 29th Last Day to Visit Before it Closes!
This just in from my friend Laurens De Rooy, curator of the fantastic Amsterdam-based Museum Vrolik, specimens of which are pictured above:
Museum Vrolik to close for ten months
Following in the footsteps of other top museums in Amsterdam, the Vrolik Museum will close for refurbishment and redesign from August 2011 to May 2012. The ten-month overhaul of the anatomy museum of the Academic Medical Centre aims to make the unique collection more appealing to a broader public. The 29th of July will be the last opportunity to visit the museum before it closes.Museum Vrolik has been one of the AMC’s main attractions since 1984. Its collection includes items that are hundreds of years old, with more than ten thousand anatomical specimens in preservative, human and animal skeletons and skulls, and anatomical models and reconstructions. One of the museum’s treasures is the so-called Hovius display case, an 18th-century case full of bones and skulls ravaged by disease collected by physician Jacob Hovius. Of great scientific importance is the collection of congenital defects, including Siamese twins, cyclops and sirens.
An inspiring environment for all with an interest in disease, health, and the human body
With students of medicine and specialists the museum’s original target group, visitors without a medical background would often find the museum’s layout dated or even a little haphazard. Following its refurbishment, the museum should attract a much broader public, and serve as an easily accessible and inspiring learning environment for all with an interest in disease, health and the human body.
The main exhibition will feature the human body with all of its normalities and abnormalities, but the museum will also look into the history of its many different collections, honouring its original founders. The museum was named after Amsterdam professors Gerardus Vrolik (1775-1859) and his son Willem Vrolik (1801-1863), both anatomists and collectors. After their deaths, the Vrolik collection was expanded by other Amsterdam professors of anatomy.The best exhibits now on show at the Special Collections UvA
During the closure of the museum a number of the museum’s top exhibits will be temporarily on display at the Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam (located at Oude Turfmarkt) which will host the exhibition ‘the discovery of man’ from 27 September 2011 to 15 January 2012. Together with Museum Vrolik, the Special Collections will exhibit anatomy atlases and specimens and explore how the dissection of the human body has changed man's view of himself. For further information, go to http://www.bijzonderecollecties.uva.nl.Museum Vrolik
Academisch Medisch Centrum
Meibergdreef 15, J0-130 (Medical Faculty)
Open Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Admission free
http://www.amc.nl/vrolik
If this museum and/or the photos above are of interest, make sure to check out the lavishly illustrated publication Forces of Form:The Vrolik Museum which includes these images and more; you can ind out more--or order a copy of your very own!--by clicking here.
Images:
- Part of a face, with the eye, eyelids and eyebrows (Vrolik collection); Photo by Hans van den Bogaard (all rights reserved)
- New-born conjoined twins , linked at the chest (thoracopagus) (Vrolik collection); Photo by Hans van den Bogaard (all rights reserved)
Pro-Defense, Pro-Israel GOP libertarian for Congress – TX CD-25
From Eric Dondero:
Meet Itamar Gelbman. He is a very unique Republican candidate running for Congress in Texas CD - 15 (north and west of Austin). Gelbman is a native of New York City, but grew up in Israel. He served in varying capacities, with the Tel Aviv police deparment and worked with the Israeli Defense Forces.
He is a libertarian, and member of the Facebook Libertarians in Support of Israel group.
From his website:
I am committed sustaining our strong relationship with Israel.
I will support Israel in its fight for survival and defend their good and right name in the U.N. assemblies.
And on America fighting Terrorism:
We will stand tall in defending our citizens. We will not raise a white flag because a crazy man in Yemen wants to hurt our women and children or another wants to build a nuclear bomb in Iran.
We will ensure co-operation between the different agencies inside the U.S.A and agencies of our allies across the globe such as Australia, Brittan and Israel.
We will ban any person who is affiliated with known terrorist groups such as the Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, etc, from entering in the U.S.A.
He is a supporter of the flat tax, extending corporate tax credits, and what he calls a "Heros Tax Credit" for military personell. He is also a diehard defender of the 2nd Amendment.
Blue Jellyfish Washing Up on Texas Beaches
July has brought a lot of Blue Button jellyfish to the Texas beaches. These beautiful jellies are quite harmless. Have you found Blue Buttons? Report your sighting by leaving a comment below this blog post. Visit my Blue Button sightings web page to see where else they are being found and to see more photos. [...]
This Guy Can Play Drums On Thin Air [Video]
This is not some guitar hero hack. Maayan Migdal hacked together this cool drum kit that uses his sandals and a pair of freaking garden rakes to make his sound. More »
Book Excerpt: Longing for God
Richard J. Foster and Gayle D. Beebe on leading an active life and practicing contemplation in spiritual formation.
Conservative Rocker challenges liberal media stereotypes of rightwingers
We can be "kick-ass, fun lovin'" Roller Derby fans; not "grey-suited, pocket protector," Bible thumping Geeks
From BigGovernment.com, "Conservatives, let's change perceptions Now!" by Deanna Murray:
Conservatives are doctors, lawyers, TV directors, actors, journalists, singers, seamstresses, Wall Street tycoons and a ton of other things. Some are church goers, some aren’t. Some believe in God, some don’t. But for some reason, all that is forgotten when we actually tell people where we stand. We just become ‘that conservative over there …’ or …‘that right-wing fanatic.’ All of our coolness disappears and we’re nothing but a label, defined by other people … people we don’t agree with.
But it really does need to be our mission to change perception. Every single person knows perception is reality … and the perception the media puts out there... is tainted, disrespectful and flat out wrong. We need to defiantly say we’re not going to take it any more and we are going to show this country who we are.
Does being a conservative mean we’re not a group of kick-ass fun-loving people? Damn, I don’t think I got that memo … at least I hadn’t when I was out at the roller derby last weekend hollering it up with a bunch of my girlfriends...
If we want to take back our country we have got to show the brainwashed who we really are. That we have a vision and a reason for believing what we do – and we still know how to live. This may seem superficial, but we’ve been painted into a grey-suited box, complete with pocket protector and fire and brimstone Bible …
Deanna Murray at MySpace
Rural doctor shortage prompts opening of medical school – fox4kc.com
Rural doctor shortage prompts opening of medical school fox4kc.com KANSAS CITY, Kan (Reuters) - A Kansas college hopes young doctors will be more willing to practice in small towns if they go to a medical school in a rural area. The University of Kansas will have what it says is the smallest four-year medical ... |