UPDATE: Japan has requested what looks to be limited foreign aid. So far, that call still seems to exclude several nonprofit aid groups (like The American Red Cross). More »
Did Your Donation Really Reach Japan? (Probably Not.) [Disasters]
NASA’s Network of Automated Cameras Will Never Leave the Sky Unwatched [Space]
NASA is currently working on a project called the All-sky Fireball Network, its primary objective to monitor the entire night sky above the US for meteorite activity. Although limited to three fully automated cameras right now, a network of smart cameras that can record, analyze, and make publicly accessible all the events happening overhead could change our relationship with space. [Singularity Hub] More »
Japanese Nuke Officials: 1000x Normal Radiation Levels Inside Damaged Plant (Updated: Leaking Out) [Blip]
There's literally no such thing as a completely safe exposure to radiation. So official reports of 1000 times normal levels in the Fukushima plant's control room are very, very troubling—especially since this plant's venting air. More »
Nanoscale whiskers from sea creatures could grow human muscle tissue
Minute whiskers of nanoscale dimensions taken from sea creatures could hold the key to creating working human muscle tissue, University of Manchester researchers have discovered.
Osmotic forces play a role in nanotube formation in cells
When unfolding a tent for the first time, you may wonder how the huge tarpaulin fits into a bag the size of a football. Biologists wonder about something similar: when a cell divides, the surface area of the cell membrane grows. Moreover, when molecules are brought from one organelle to another inside the cell, membrane-enclosed transport vesicles are formed. So that membranes can be made available quickly, they are stored within the cells in the form of nanotubes, tubular membrane structures - similarly to a tarpaulin that has been folded together.
Russian Nanotechnology Corporation RUSNANO Reorganized as Open Joint-Stock Company
The Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies has become the first state corporation to complete reorganization. It was reregistered on March 11, 2011, as open joint-stock company RUSNANO.
InfiniScale and CEA-Leti Collaboration To Focus on Process-Variability Management in SOI Sub-28nm Technology
The partnership will tap Leti's design and technological expertise and provide InfiniScale access to Leti's fully depleted silicon on insulator (FD SOI) technology to validate InfiniScale tools with measurements on silicon.
Researchers use nanotechnology in gene detection to show disposition to certain cancers
Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington are perfecting a system to detect a gene mutation implicated in 90 percent of pancreatic cancers and often in lung cancer by running tiny amounts of blood over nanomaterials.
New nanotechnology increases the efficacy of medicines
Technology has been developed within Top Institute Pharma that helps medicines be absorbed quicker into the blood and thus be more effective. Researcher Hans de Waard, who is associated with the University of Groningen, will obtain his doctorate on this subject on March 11.
Oxford Nanopore Announces Licence Agreement With Harvard University for Graphene DNA Sequencing
Under the terms of the agreement, Oxford Nanopore has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize methods for the use of graphene for the analysis of DNA and RNA, developed in the Harvard laboratories of Professors Jene Golovchenko, Daniel Branton, and Charles Lieber.
New measurement into biological polymer networks
The development of a new measurement technology under a research project funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation is probing the structure of composite and biological materials.
Putting the ‘Q’ in quantum mechanics
Everything moves! But in a world dominated by electronic devices it is easy to forget that all measurements involve motion, whether it is motion of electrons through a transistor, or the simple displacement of a mechanical element. New EU-funded research suggests that quantum mechanics may hold the answer to when motion will die out.
Carl Zeiss to Exhibit High Performance Optical and Electron Microscopy Solutions at Pittcon 2011
Carl Zeiss, a leading provider of microscopy solutions, announces that it will be exhibiting a range of high performance optical and electron microscopy products at the Pittcon Conference and Expo 2011, March 13-18, 2011 at the Georgia World Congress Center, in Atlanta, Georgia.
New nanomaterials for regenerative medicine is to be discussed at Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology conference
SMi is proud to present their Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology: Applications + Commercialisation conference, taking place in London on 29th and 30th June, 2011.
Irish nanotechnology centre reports significant milestones for 2009-2010 period
The Science Foundation Ireland funded centre CRANN has launched its public report for 2009-2010. The report highlights that CRANN, a Trinity College Dublin Institute founded in 2004, has continued to establish itself as a national and international force in nanoscience and nanotechnology research and collaborative industry engagement.
Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactors Designed to Survive 7.9 Earthquake [Nuclear]
As the world watches what looks to be a meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, the Wall Street Journal reports the site's tested threshold for earthquakes was only 7.9—well below what transpired last week. More »
Software and Risk
A Not-So-Simple Truth, Wayne Hale
"February is a month for introspection for me, and the events of 8 years ago have been on my mind. In the Columbia accident investigation report, there are several pages devoted to the use of a computer program called "Crater" which analyzed potential damage to the thermal tiles. The results provided from that computer program indicated that no serious damage had been done to Columbia's tiles and therefore a safe landing would occur. Disaster occurred instead."
Fondling Swan-Butts For Science | Discoblog
Picture yourself as one of England’s majestic Bewick’s swans, about to take off on your annual long-distance flight to Arctic Russia, when out of nowhere a scientist grabs you and methodically gropes and measures your butt. It’s all for your own good: Researchers are hurriedly sizing up as many round rumps as they can lay their hands on, in a bid to understand what’s wiping out their population.
Smaller than the more common mute swans, which stay in Britain yearlong, Bewick’s swan has seen its population in Europe decline from 29,000 to 21,000 between 1995 and 2005, and researchers at UK’s Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, are willing to fondle the birds to save them.
They’re sizing up swans to test whether changes in the their habitat are to blame for their decline: The size of swan keesters indicated whether they have enough fat to survive their over-2,000-mile journey. Basically, if the birds are plump, then that rules out the possibility that they aren’t getting enough food, and opens the playing field for other culprits, such as power line collisions, lead poisoning, and hunting.For those of you without ...
Earthquake Updates Using Space Resources
NASA Terra Images: Flooding from Tsunami near Sendai, Japan
"NASA's Terra satellite's first view of northeastern Japan in the wake of a devastating earthquake and tsunami reveal extensive flooding along the coast. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) acquired the top image of the Sendai region on March 12, 2011, at 10:30 a.m. The lower image, taken by Terra MODIS on February 26, 2011, is provided as a point of reference."
- DLR Disaster Extent Map: Japan, Sendai Airport - Earthquake/Tsunami
- NOAA Animation: Honshu Tsunami Propagation Across The Pacific Basin
- Image: NOAA Model of Honshu Tsunami Event
- NASA Shows Topography of Tsunami-Damaged Japan City
Limitless: Enhancement Will Be Great Until You Go Crazy and Die | Science Not Fiction
Limitless is one of the first movies to directly take on the idea of pharmaceutical enhancement. The trailer is here and fake viral ad for NZT is here. I’m already wary of the film based on the trailer. Not because of the acting, directing, or plot, which all look good enough. Instead, my problem is that the movie appears to take the same boring old stance on enhancement: the cost of making yourself superhuman is too high.
Limitless has a simple set-up: loser/author Bradley Cooper who lives in filth and dresses like a hobo is offered a pill that will make everything all better. The pill makes him much smarter, more creative, and more driven. Thanks to this new found brilliance, Cooper makes boatloads of money and catches the eye of evil Robert De Niro, who threatens Cooper in various menacing and shadowy ways. Then the pill starts making Cooper crazy and his world starts crumbling around him. It’s Flowers for Algernon except with bespoke suits, exotic cars and international intrigue.
The reason I’m getting an overall vibe of “meh, who cares” from Limitless is that the even though the film has ...
