JL Hutch

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Permalink laboratoryequipment: Vampire Bacteria Could Be Living Antibiotic A vampire-like bacteria that leeches onto specific other bacteria–including certain human pathogens–has the potential to serve as a living antibiotic for a range of infectious diseases, a new study indicates.Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-vampire-bacteria-could-be-living-antibiotic-110111.aspx
Permalink smarterplanet: New algorithm could substantially speed up MRI scans | Medical Xpress Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices can scan the inside of the body in intricate detail, allowing clinicians to spot even the earliest signs of cancer or other abnormalities. But they can be a long and uncomfortable experience for patients, requiring them to lie still in the machine for up to 45 minutes. Now this scan time could be cut to just 15 minutes, thanks to an algorithm developed at MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields and radio waves to produce images of the body. Rather than taking just one scan of a patient, the machines typically acquire a variety of images of the same body part, each designed to create a contrast between different types of tissue. By comparing multiple images of the same region, and studying how the contrasts vary across the different tissue types, radiologists can detect subtle abnormalities such as a developing tumor. But taking multiple scans of the same region in this way is time-consuming, meaning patients must spend long periods inside the machine
Permalink 14-billion-years-later: We All Know That Plastics Can’t Conduct…Wrong. The 2000 Nobel prize in Chemistry was given for the discovery of conductive, organic polymers known as Intrinsically Conducting Polymers (ICPs) capable of conducting an electrical current. These rely on the fact that when oxidized the polymeric chains have regions where there is an absence of otherwise delocalized electrons. This means that when supplied with a small amount of energy electrons can jump in out of these pockets and therefore move along the polymer chain. One of the greater applications for ICPs is in the invention of flexible electronics, specifically through creation of Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) as seen above. While these are in the earlier stages of development it is thought that in the future this will allow for incredibly thin, light-weight and flexible displays on electronics.
Permalink scinerd: Your Living Conditions as a Child May Be Detectable In Your DNA for Life Findings published today in the International Journal of Epidemiology suggest that socio-economic status and living standards early in life may actually cause changes to your DNA that you carry with you for life, regardless of how your living conditions change along the way. Some adult diseases—type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, etc.—have been linked to socio-economic disadvantages in early life. But we don’t really know why or how. Researchers in Canada and the UK may have just found the key. Their sample size is admittedly small, but what they found was significant. In 40 research patients in the UK that are participating in an ongoing study that has documented many aspects of their lives, researchers looked at differences in gene methylation. Methylation is an epigenetic modification to one’s DNA that changes a gene’s activity, generally reducing that activity within the genome. Various factors can influence methylation, including environmental conditions.
Permalink npr: The United Nations says today symbolically marks the moment when the world’s population reaches 7 billion. A little more than two centuries ago, the global population was 1 billion. How did it grow so big so fast? With the help of a sound montage and video, it gets a little easier to see how the Earth can produce that kind of a crowd. Watch our video: 7 Billion: How Did We Get So Big So Fast Photo: Adam Cole, Maggie Starbard / NPR
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Permalink bylinebeat: YouTube announces Original Programming w/ Some 100 Creators, From Madonna to Lionsgate (AP) YouTube is making a bold step into original programming in an entertainment venture with some 100 content creators, from Madonna to The Wall Street Journal. The Google Inc.-owned video site said Friday that it’s launching more than 100 new video channels. The partners include an array of Hollywood production companies, celebrities and new media groups that will produce mainly niche-oriented videos. Photo Credit: YouTube / Google Inc.
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Permalink 8bitfuture: IBM hopes to simulate human brain in nine years. IBM’s Blue Brain Project has spent the last six years aiming to replicate the function of a human brain using supercomputers. At the last milestone two years ago, the group simulated the brain of a cat. Now a new research paper is claiming the “dawn of a new era in the scale of cortical simulations”, by announcing that 4.5% of a working human brain has been replicated using 147,456 processors The current schedule is set to have the simulated human brain 100% complete by 2019, using 880,000 processors.