Technology has immortality, cures for the worlds devastating diseases, quantum computing and a host of other science fiction notions in its grasp. Current trends in a number of areas indicate that over the next 10 years many of these technologies will come to fruition. "The Next 10 Years" tracks the trends that will transform our everyday lives in almost unimaginable ways.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

MIT spin-off plans to manufacture cheap, efficient solar cells

MIT spin-off plans to manufacture cheap, efficient solar cells:
Researchers from MIT have improved commercial solar cells that will soon be significantly cheaper and more efficient than those available today. Ely Sachs, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, predicts that by 2012 such solar cells will be comparable in price with coal, which is about $1 per watt.
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Carbon Nanotubes Improve Fuel Cells

Carbon Nanotubes Improve Fuel Cells:
A group of scientists has created a new, improved fuel-cell electrode that is very lightweight and thin. Composed of a network of single-walled carbon nanotubes, the electrode functions nearly as well as conventional electrodes but renders the entire fuel cell much lighter. The research is an important step toward lightweight power supplies, which are becoming necessary as electronic devices get ever smaller and more streamlined.
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Artificial photosynthesis moves a step closer

Artificial photosynthesis moves a step closer

Jülich scientists have made an important step on the long road to artificially mimicking photosynthesis. They were able to synthesise a stable inorganic metal oxide cluster, which enables the fast and effective oxidation of water to oxygen.

This is reported by the German high-impact journal Angewandte Chemie in a publication rated as a VIP ("very important paper"). Artificial photosynthesis may decisively contribute to solving energy and climate problems, if researchers find a way to efficiently produce hydrogen with the aid of solar energy.

Hydrogen is regarded as the energy carrier of the future. The automobile industry, for example, is working hard to introduce fuel cell technology starting in approximately 2010. However, a fuel cell drive system can only be really environmentally friendly, if researchers succeed in producing hydrogen from renewable sources. Artificial photosynthesis, i.e. the splitting of water into oxygen and hydrogen with the aid of sunlight, could be an elegant way of solving this problem.



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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Ultra-Fast Quantum-Dot Information Storage

Ultra-Fast Quantum-Dot Information Storage

The information-storage market is dominated by two main types: Flash memory, used in memory sticks and cell phones, and dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which is the main memory in a personal computer. Both types have their advantages and disadvantages, but a new type of memory, based on tiny atom clusters, called quantum dots, may soon displace both of them.

In research published in the March 4, 2008, online edition of Applied Physics Letters, scientists from the Technical University of Berlin, in Germany, and Istanbul University, in Turkey, describe how they created a type of quantum-dot-based memory device that can save information at speeds of only a few nanoseconds (billionths of a second).

The paper's lead author, Technical University of Berlin scientist Martin Geller, explained to PhysOrg.com, “Flash memory, which is today's market-driver in the semiconductor industry, and which everybody knows from memory sticks, digital cameras, and mp3-players, has a slow write time. The semiconductor industry is seeking faster Flash memories, but hasn't found an ultimate solution yet. Our quantum-dot-based memory may provide long storage time without power consumption of Flash memory, as wells as a fast write time and better scalability to real-life devices."

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Tiny buckyballs squeeze hydrogen like giant Jupiter

Tiny buckyballs squeeze hydrogen like giant Jupiter

Hydrogen could be a clean, abundant energy source, but it's difficult to store in bulk. In new research, materials scientists at Rice University have made the surprising discovery that tiny carbon capsules called buckyballs are so strong they can hold volumes of hydrogen nearly as dense as those at the center of Jupiter.

"Based on our calculations, it appears that some buckyballs are capable of holding volumes of hydrogen so dense as to be almost metallic," said lead researcher Boris Yakobson, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Rice. "It appears they can hold about 8 percent of their weight in hydrogen at room temperature, which is considerably better than the federal target of 6 percent."

The Department of Energy has devoted more than $1 billion to developing technologies for hydrogen-powered automobiles, including technologies to cost-effectively store hydrogen for use in cars. Hydrogen is the lightest element in the universe, and it is very difficult to store in bulk. For hydrogen cars to be competitive with gasoline-powered cars, they need a comparable range and a reasonably compact fuel system. It's estimated that a hydrogen-powered car with a suitable range will require a storage system with densities greater than those found in pure, liquid hydrogen.



Sunday, March 16, 2008

Insight into HIV's 'on-off' switch shows promise for therapy, understanding cellular decisions

Insight into HIV's 'on-off' switch shows promise for therapy, understanding cellular decisions

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have discovered how a genetic circuit in HIV controls whether the virus turns on or stays dormant, and have succeeded in forcing the virus towards dormancy, a finding that shows promise as an avenue for HIV therapy. Their findings are published in the March 16 issue of the journal Nature Genetics.

Leor S. Weinberger, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego, with Michael L. Simpson of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Roy D. Dar of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, say that their study shows how a developmental decision between HIV’s two “replication fates” is made. The authors were able to measure the level of “noise” or randomness in HIV gene expression and use this noise to probe how HIV decides to replicate or remain dormant.

This method is somewhat like finding a radio station by honing in on regions with the most static. It provides a new tool for probing cellular, as well as viral, regulation, and for understanding how other biological decisions are made, notably how stem cells choose between different developmental fates.



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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Scientists identify new longevity genes

Scientists identify new longevity genes:
Scientists identify new longevity genes
Scientists at the University of Washington and other institutions have identified 25 genes regulating lifespan in two organisms separated by about 1.5 billion years in evolutionary change. At least 15 of those genes have very similar versions in humans, suggesting that scientists may be able to target those genes to help slow down the aging process and treat age-related conditions. The study will be published online by the journal Genome Research on March 13.

The two organisms used in this study, the single-celled budding yeast and the roundworm C. elegans, are commonly used models for aging research. Finding genes that are conserved between the two organisms is significant, researchers say, because the two species are so far apart on the evolutionary scale -- even farther apart than the tiny worms and humans. That, combined with the presence of similar human genes, is an indication that these genes could regulate human longevity as well.

"Now that we know what many of these genes actually are, we have potential targets to go after in humans," said Brian Kennedy, UW associate professor of biochemistry and one of the senior authors of the study. "We hope that in the future we could affect those targets and improve not just lifespan, but also the 'health span' or the period of a person's life when they can be healthy and not suffer from age-related illnesses."

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Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Nerve-tapping neckband allows 'telepathic' chat - tech - 12 March 2008 - New Scientist Tech

Nerve-tapping neckband allows 'telepathic' chat - tech - 12 March 2008 - New Scientist Tech:
A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a "voiceless" phone call for the first time.

With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerised voice.
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Algorithm finds the network -- for genes or the Internet

Algorithm finds the network -- for genes or the Internet:
Human diseases and social networks seem to have little in common. However, at the crux of these two lies a network, communities within the network, and farther even, substructures of the communities. In a recent paper in Physical Review E 77:016104 (2008), Weixiong Zhang, Ph.D., Washington University associate professor of computer science and engineering and of genetics, along with his Ph.D. student, Jianhua Ruan, published an algorithm (a recipe of computer instructions) to automatically identify communities and their subtle structures in various networks.

Many complex systems can be represented as networks, Zhang said, including the genetic networks he studies, social networks and the Internet itself. The community structure of networks features a natural division in which the vertices in each subnetwork are highly involved with each other, though connected less strongly with the rest of the network.
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New twist on life's power source

New twist on life's power source:
New twist on life's power source
A startling discovery by scientists at the Carnegie Institution puts a new twist on photosynthesis, arguably the most important biological process on Earth. Photosynthesis by plants, algae, and some bacteria supports nearly all living things by producing food from sunlight, and in the process these organisms release oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide.

But two studies by Arthur Grossman and colleagues reported in Biochimica et Biophysica Acta and Limnology and Oceanography suggest that certain marine microorganisms have evolved a way to break the rules—they get a significant proportion of their energy without a net release of oxygen or uptake of carbon dioxide. This discovery impacts not only scientists’ basic understanding of photosynthesis, but importantly, it may also impact how microorganisms in the oceans affect rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
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Friday, March 07, 2008

New study reveals profound impact of our unconscious on reaching goals

New study reveals profound impact of our unconscious on reaching goals:
New study reveals profound impact of our unconscious on reaching goals
Whether you are a habitual list maker, or you prefer to keep your tasks in your head, everyone pursues their goals in this ever changing, chaotic environment. We are often aware of our conscious decisions that bring us closer to reaching our goals, however to what extent can we count on our unconscious processes to pilot us toward our destined future?

People can learn rather complex structures of the environment and do so implicitly, or without intention. Could this unconscious learning be better if we really wanted it to?

Hebrew University psychologists, Baruch Eitam, Ran Hassin and Yaacov Schul, examined the benefit of non-conscious goal pursuit (moving toward a desired goal without being aware of doing so) in new environments. Existing theory suggests that non-conscious goal pursuit only reproduces formerly learned actions, therefore ineffective in mastering a new skill. Eitam and colleagues argue the opposite: that non-conscious goal pursuit can help people achieve their goals, even in a new environment, in which they have no prior experience.

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Wednesday, March 05, 2008

New potential drug target for the treatment of atherosclerosis

New potential drug target for the treatment of atherosclerosis:
A nuclear receptor protein, known for controlling the ability of cells to burn fat, also exerts powerful anti-inflammatory effects in arteries, suppressing atherosclerosis in mice prone to developing the harmful plaques, according to new research by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Their findings, reported in this week’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offer a new and specific target for the development of drugs that specifically treat cardiovascular complications associated with metabolic syndrome.

“Heart disease is like a ticking clock—it is progressive, relentlessly marching forward accelerated by a mix of high fat diets, inflammation and high blood pressure. We show that PPAR delta offers a kind of genetic shortcut around each of these medical roadblocks,” says Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Ronald M. Evans, Ph.D., a professor in the Salk Institute’s Gene Expression Laboratory, who co-directed the study with Chih-Hao Lee, a professor in the Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases at the Harvard School of Public Health.

comment: very promising research into an oral compound that can impact atheroscelerosis. Less money to war, more money for this sort of research!

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PPARdelta.com" at http://www.doctordomainnames.com
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Saturday, March 01, 2008

Researchers find key step in programmed cell death

Researchers find key step in programmed cell death

Investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered a dance of proteins that protects certain cells from undergoing apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death. Understanding the fine points of apoptosis is important to researchers seeking ways to control this process.

In a series of experiments, St. Jude researchers found that if any one of three molecules is missing, certain cells lose the ability to protect themselves from apoptosis. A report on this work appears in the advance online publication of Nature.


“This is probably the first description of what is happening mechanistically that contributes to the ability of cells to delay apoptosis,” said James Ihle, Ph.D., the paper’s senior author and chair of the St. Jude Department of Biochemistry. “It provides incredible insights into how three proteins work and how they can control apoptosis.”

The molecular interactions that St. Jude researchers describe in Nature play out in nerve cells and blood cells that develop from hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells.


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Researchers discover gene that blocks HIV

Researchers discover gene that blocks HIV

A team of researchers at the University of Alberta has discovered a gene that is able to block HIV, and in turn prevent the onset of AIDS.

Stephen Barr, a molecular virologist in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, says his team has identified a gene called TRIM22 that can block HIV infection in a cell culture by preventing the assembly of the virus.

"When we put this gene in cells, it prevents the assembly of the HIV virus," said Barr, a postdoctoral fellow. "This means the virus cannot get out of the cells to infect other cells, thereby blocking the spread of the virus."

Barr and his team also prevented cells from turning on TRIM22 - provoking an interesting phenomenon: the normal response of interferon, a protein that co-ordinates attacks against viral infections, became useless at blocking HIV infection.


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