Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. is adding to its passive component portfolio for extreme high-temperature environments with a new series of SMD wraparound thin-film chip resistors optimized for use in multichip modules for down-hole drilling and aerospace applications.
Sensitive silver nanowire biosensors could transform diagnostics
UT Dallas nanotechnology researcher Walter Hu has received a $400,000 grant to develop an innovative and manufacturable nanoelectronic biochip that can detect individual molecules.
Funding for development of optical nanoscopy technology
A Cardiff University researcher has secured a highly sought-after Leadership award which could propel her research onto the world stage.
DayStar is Pursuing Offshore Manufacturing of its CIGS Solar Modules
DayStar Technologies, Inc., a developer of solar photovoltaic products based on CIGS thin-film deposition technology has announced it is pursuing a strategy for offshore manufacturing of its CIGS solar modules.
Stakeholder preferences in regulating nanotechnology
How to regulate nanotechnology and the application of nanomaterials has been quite a controversial issue in recent years. While for instance non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth consider the existing regulatory situation to be inadequate and are urging a strictly precautionary approach, industry representatives are instead seeking the development of specific guidance and standards to support implementation of existing regulations, which are generally seen as adequate. Researchers have used Multicriteria Mapping (MCM) to study why some regulatory options - bans, moratoriums, voluntary measures, etc. - are deemed to be acceptable/unacceptable by various stakeholders in the U.S. and the criteria they use to evaluate the different regulatory options. Not surprisingly, the largest difference in ranking of the policy options can be observed between environmental NGOs and the representatives from the industrial companies and the trade association.
Artificially controlling water condensation leads to ‘room-temperature ice’
Researchers have studied the underlying mechanisms of water condensation in the troposphere and found a way to make artificial materials to control water condensation and trigger ice formation at room temperature.
Nanoblasts from laser-activated nanoparticles move molecules, proteins and DNA into cells
Using chemical 'nanoblasts' that punch tiny holes in the protective membranes of cells, researchers have demonstrated a new technique for getting therapeutic small molecules, proteins and DNA directly into living cells.
Fly eye paves the way for manufacturing biomimetic surfaces
Rows of tiny raised blowfly corneas may be the key to easy manufacturing of biomimetic surfaces, surfaces that mimic the properties of biological tissues, according to a team of Penn State researchers.
Cheaper substrates made of oxide materials
Imagine building cheaper electronics on a variety of substrates - materials like plastic, paper, or fabric. Researchers at Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University have made a discovery that opens this door, allowing them to build electronic components like diodes on many different substrates.
Postdoctoral research awards will recognize entrepreneurship excellence
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the National Postdoctoral Association have announced the call for nominations for the 2011 Kauffman Foundation Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur and Emerging Postdoctoral Entrepreneur awards, which recognize exceptional postdocs who are working to commercialize research.
First recipient of the Yang Family Nanotechnology EXploration for Undergraduate Scholarship
Michael Hovish, an undergraduate student at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering of the University at Albany, was recognized on July 26 as the first recipient of the Yang Family Nanotechnology EXploration for Undergraduate Scholarship (NEXUS).
Integral Molecular Announces Key Patent Issued on Lipoparticle Technology for Deriving High Concentrations of Cell-free Membrane Proteins
The patent, issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, covers the core composition of Integral Molecular's Lipoparticle technology, a novel cell-free format for deriving highly-concentrated membrane proteins for antibody development, drug discovery, and biomedical research.
Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center Awards $450,000 to Five Companies
The Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center recently announced that it has provided $450,000 in funding to five companies located throughout the state of Pennsylvania in its seventh round of awards. This round of funding was focused on commercializing the application of nanomaterials for new energy solutions.
Humble protein, nanoparticles tag-team to kill cancer cells
A normally benign protein found in the human body appears to be able - when paired with nanoparticles - to zero in on and kill certain cancer cells, without having to also load those particles with chemotherapy drugs.
"Lewd and Scandalous Books," Monash University Library, Melbourne, Through September 30th
Above are some wonderful anatomical images from the exhibition "Lewd and Scandalous Books," on view at Monash University library in Melbourne, Australia until September 30th. I especially love the top image, which brings to mind the Anatomical Venus trope.
You can visit the virtual exhibition--from which these images are drawn--by clicking here.
Images top to bottom:
- Beach, W. (Wooster), 1794-1868. An improved system of midwifery, adapted to the reformed practice of medicine: illustrated by numerous plates … / / by W. Beach (Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co., 1859).
- Mauriceau, François, 1637–1709. Traité des maladies des femmes grosses … / Par François Mauriceau. 6th ed. (Paris: Par la Compagnie des Libraires, 1721–28)
- Crooke, Helkiah, 1576–1635. Mikrokosmographia: A description of the body of man … / By Helkiah Crooke … 2nd ed. (London: Printed for Thomas and Richard Cotes, and are to be sold by Michael Sparke, 1631).
Found via Book Tryst.
Repurpose an Old Washing Machine as a Backyard Fire Pit [DIY]
Want a backyard fire pit but would like something more unique than your basic fire pit DIY? Check out how a clever user at DIY site Instructables made an attractive fire pit from a stainless steel washing machine drum. More »
Foxconn (Accidentally) Poisons 250 Workers [Foxconn]
The Foxconn stories keep dragging on. Over at their India factory, 250 workers were poisoned by pesticide spray, resulting in them ending up in hospital due to "sensations of giddiness and nausea." More »
Hide Your iPhone 4 In A Little Black Book [Cases]
The Little Black Book iPhone 4 case has every little bit of that romantic, old-fashioned feel that you might adore about a Moleskine notebook. But at the same time, it'll keep your iPhone 4 safe and somewhat disguised. More »
Apple 24-Inch and 30-Inch Cinema Displays To Be Discontinued (Update: Confirmed) [Unconfirmed]
Based on a tweet by Macworld's Jason Snell, it seems that Apple's 24-inch and 30-inch Cinema Displays may be discontinued after the new 27-inch versions hit stores. Updated. More »
Sex Week continued: when love shocks | The Loom
[This is my second post of Sex Week]
In the sexual universe, all sorts of things can feel good, even if we human have a hard imagining how they can bring any pleasure. Electricity, for example, may be nothing for us beyond a painful shock. But for some fishes, it is the essence of desire.
The rivers and lakes of central Africa are home to a couple hundred species of fishes called mormyrids. Their tails are packed with special cells that can produce electric discharges, and they use other kinds of cells embedded in their skin to detect the field they produce. If another fish passes by them, the field becomes deformed, and the mormyrid can sense the difference.
What must it be like to be able to sense electricity this way? It’s certainly nothing like the blind pain we feel. Their specialized sensors let them sense subtle changes. They probably get a feeling that’s a bit like touch, a bit like the sensation of heat, and a bit like hearing. It’s like touch in the sense that the fishes can sense electricity across their entire body and they interpret the sensations by creating body-shaped maps in their brains. It’s like the sensation of heat in the way it is diffuse, rather than creating sharp boundaries. And it’s like hearing in the way that fishes can sense fine differences in the frequency of the electric pulses they produce.
Mormyrids are so sophisticated in their sense of electricity that they can use it to hunt in total darkness. They can scan the bottoms of rivers and lakes for hidden prey. In one experiment, German scientists tested the sharpness of mormyrid electrolocation by putting larvae under one of two shapes, a diamond and a pyramid. The fish could quickly learn to head straight for the shape with the food under it.
Mormyrids also use their electric pulses to communicate with each other. In Lake Malawi, for example, Matthew Arnegard of Cornell University and Bruce Carlson of the University of Virginia observed packs of up to ten mormyrids hunt together for smaller fishes for days at a time. The fishes sent out crackles of electricity to each other to stay in close touch as they roamed for prey.
Mormyrids have also borrowed their electric senses for a less deadly purpose: courtship. The fish have tiny eyes, and so they probably don’t care much about how attractive other mormyrids look. In the darkness of their nocturnal world, there’s not much point in putting on a fancy courtship dance or to build an attractive nest on the river bottom. Instead, mormyrids find electricity sexy.
To find a mate, male mormyrid fishes produce electric pulses, which nearby females can detect. Females don’t just rush to the first courtship pulse they detect, though. Several species of mormyrids may live in the same waters, and so if female mormyrids indiscriminately mated with any male that produced a signal nearby, the barriers between the species would soon collapse.
Instead, the females are picky. The males of of each species produce their own unique electric pulse. The photograph shown here illustrates just a few of them. In a paper with the fabulous title, “Electrifying love: electric fish use species-specific discharge for mate recognition,” German scientists demonstrated that females are attracted to the pulses made by males of their own species more than those of other species.
Females don’t just discriminate between species. They also discriminate among the males of their own species. Peter Machnik and Bernd Kramer, two biologists of the University of Regensburg, documented this female preference in a mormyrid species known as the bulldog fish. When a male bulldog fish sings his electric courtship song, an interested female will swim up to him and butt her head into his. The male will float passively, releasing more electric pulses, while the female continues to head butt him dozens of times. Then the female spawns her eggs, which the male fertilizes. (Hey, it’s a mormyrid thing; you wouldn’t understand.)
Machnik and Kramer noticed that different male bulldog fishes produced different pulses. The main variation was their duration: some bulldog fishes produced longer pulses than others. To see of that difference mattered to the females, the scietnists programmed a device to produce pulses like a male bulldog fish and put it in a tank with females. The females were so enamored by the pulses that they head-butted the device. Machnik and Kramer discovered that the females head-butted more when the pulses were longer.
Female bulldog fishes may be attracted to long pulses for the same reason that yeast like strong pheromones: it’s an honest advertisement from desirable males. When bulldog fishes produce courtship pulses, they can put themselves at risk. Catfish, which prey on the bulldog fishes, also sense electricity. If a male makes long signals, he’s putting himself at greater danger. Stronger males can afford that risk better than weaker ones.
Recently, Arnegard and his colleagues studied how these signals have evolved over millions of years. They compared a dozen different species of mormyrids from a small area of jungle in Gabon. The scientists figured out how the species were related to one another, and then they compared the mormyrids in terms of both their anatomy and their electric pulses.
They found a big difference. Even the most closely related species of mormyrids had very different signals. In fact, their signals were about as different from each other than they were from their most distant relatives at the Gabon site. Their bodies, on the other hand, evolved much more slowly. Closely related species looked more like each other than they did to their distant cousins.
This difference may say a lot about how new species evolve. The first thing that changes when two populations of mormyrids start to diverge is their electric song. The fact that individual mormyrids vary in their songs demonstrates that those songs have the potential to evolve. The electric pulses might diverge for any number of reasons. Some fishes might live with dangerous catfish, for example, while others might escape to predator-free waters where their long songs would go unpunished. Once the pulses start changing, females might evolve preferences for the new patterns. Once those preferences take hold, they will keep a population of mormyrids from mating with other fishes. The two populations would start to diverge genetically, until they branched apart into two separate species.
It may be no coincidence that mormyrids have evolved into a vast number of species–200 and probably more–while their closest non-electric relatives have only evolved into 10 species. Their electric sex lives have become an engine of biodiversity.
