6.09.2011
iCloud provides instant sync for Apple devices
no iTunes on the cloud however...
iCloud provides instant sync for Apple devices
5.31.2011
Investing in higher education...the entrepreneurial way
Is it possible to finance higher education the way we finance start-up companies?
5.16.2011
5.09.2011
Smart phones evolved from laptops which are evolving from smart phones
"certain aspects of desktop and laptop operating systems start imitating the little upstarts that had initially imitated them... Apple's Mac OS X Lion (which I includes the Mac App Store, full-screen apps, and multitouch gestures."(HP has webOS, Microsoft with Windows 8 is far behind in the field)COMPUTING
The Desktop Is Turning Mobile
Credit: Technology Review
"It's very likely that PC operating systems will be affected by mobile devices' operating systems—and more broadly, that the lines between the two will increasingly blur," Michael Dahlin - computer science professor at Univ. of Texas
5.04.2011
The Evolution of Global Learning
The curator of the world famous TED conference gives a terrific talk (using Prezi for his presentation) about the evolution of a global 'Learning Cycle' and how online video is shaping the way people form crowds, in a global sense, to spur education and innovation with no borders.
4.26.2011
Water into wine...Stem cells into neurons
Stable, self-renewing neural stem cells created
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco and colleagues have reported the creation of long-term, self-renewing, primitive neural precursor cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) that can be directed to become many types of neurons without increased risk of tumor formation.
To produce the neural stem cells, the researchers added small molecules in a chemically defined culture condition that induces hESCs to become primitive neural precursor cells, but then halts the further differentiation process.
Because the process doesn’t use any gene transfer technologies or exogenous cell products, there’s minimal risk of introducing mutations or outside contamination, the researchers said.
Stained mature neurons, derived from precursor cells, expressing the neurotransmitter dopamine (credit: UC San Diego School of Medicine)
The scientists were able to direct the precursor cells to differentiate into different types of mature neurons. ”You can generate neurons for specific conditions like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease), Parkinson’s disease or, in the case of my particular research area, eye-specific neurons that are lost in macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa or glaucoma,” said Kang Zhang, M.D., Ph.D.
The same method can be used to push induced pluripotent stem cells (stem cells artificially derived from adult, differentiated mature cells) to become neural stem cells, Zhang said.
Harvesting water from fog
Fog harvesting for water
MIT researcher Shreerang Chhatre and associates have developed new ways to use “fog harvesting” to provide water to the world’s poor.
A fog-harvesting device consists of a fence-like mesh p anel, which attracts droplets, connected to receptacles into which water drips. To build larger fog harvesters, researchers generally use mesh, rather than a solid surface, because a completely impermeable object creates wind currents that will drag water droplets away from it.
In some field tests, fog harvesters have captured one liter of water (roughly a quart) per one square meter of mesh, per day. Chhatre is conducting laboratory tests to improve the water collection ability of existing meshes.Mesh being tested for use on fog-harvesting devices (credit: Patrick Gillooly)
4.25.2011
The NFL Lockout is finally over
A federal judge gave professional football players a significant victory Monday, granting an injunction to stop the N.F.L.'s six-week lockout Monday. Judge Susan Richard Nelson of United States District Court did not stay her decision, sending the N.F.L scrambling to seek a stay from the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to prevent the league from having to open for business immediately.
If the stay is not granted, the N.F.L. will have to put rules in place allowing players to return to work and free agency to open within days, creating a flurry of activity similar to the normal operations of an off-season. Teams will be allowed to hold workouts with players, players will be permitted to meet with trainers to rehabilitate injuries and coaches to study game film.NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/sports/football/26nfl.html?emc=na
Judge Grants Injunction to End N.F.L. Lockout, Pending Appeal
By JUDY BATTISTA
April 25, 2011
4.22.2011
Feel the drugs working
A startup is developing a simple ultrasound method to get cancer drugs into the brain.
Technology Review
Friday, April 22, 2011 By Courtney Humphries
4.14.2011
Crustaceans to the rescue
Material removes radioactive materials from drinking water
Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that a combination of forest byproducts and crustacean shells may be the key to removing radioactive materials from drinking water.
“As we’re currently seeing in Japan, one of the major health risks posed by nuclear accidents is radioactive iodide that dissolves into drinking water. Because it is chemically identical to non-radioactive iodide, the human body cannot distinguish it — which is what allows it to accumulate in the thyroid and eventually lead to cancer,” said Dr. Joel Pawlak.
The material is a combination of hemicellulose, a byproduct of forest materials, and chitosan, crustacean shells that have been crushed into a powder. It absorbs water and can extract contaminates, such as radioactive iodide, from the water. The material binds the iodide in water and traps it so that it can then be disposed of without risk to humans or the environment.
4.11.2011
4.10.2011
4.08.2011
Prescription weed, awesome. Not so fast says Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic Clinical Practice Committee (MCCPC) establishes policy on medical marijuanaARZ
April 8, 2011 | This Week at Mayo Clinic | Volume 2, Number 18
The recent legalization of medical marijuana in Arizona required Mayo Clinic to assess how it will respond to medical marijuana use at Mayo Clinic Hospital and whether Mayo Clinic physicians will certify and attest for medical marijuana use by their patients.
Due to the specificity of the Arizona state law and requirements for ongoing care, few Mayo Clinic practices could meet the rigid statutory and regulatory requirements, thus exposing Mayo physicians to possible penalty from the local medical board. The law states that physicians may elect not to participate in certifying or attesting for medical marijuana; the Mayo Clinic Clinical Practice Committee (MCCPC) is exercising this option. Mayo Clinic physicians will not be permitted to certify or attest unless permission is granted by the Arizona Clinical Practice Committee (ACPC).
4.07.2011
The stem cell revolution of medicine continues...
Stem cells used to create retinal tissue
Embryonic stem cells are capable of innately forming tissue structures without genetic alterations.
Ref.: Mototsugu Eiraku et al., Self-organizing optic-cup morphogenesis in three-dimensional culture, Nature, April 6, 2011
Ref.: Mototsugu Eiraku et al., Self-organizing optic-cup morphogenesis in three-dimensional culture, Nature, April 6, 2011
Lexmark 2011 - Colorjet printer with the ability to construct a building
Buildings Made with a Printer
Thursday, April 7, 2011 By Kevin Bullis
4.06.2011
Mining the moon
For some entrepreneurs, Moon is money
April 6, 2011
Source: For Some Entrepreneurs, Moon Is Money — Apr 4, 2011
Dr. Barney Pell, founder of Powerset, with his two co-founders, Naveen Jain (Infospace) and Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards have started a new company called Moon Express to develop a space vehicle that will in turn allow the company to tap into mineral resources on the lunar surface.
Moon Express describes itself as a “lunar transportation and data services company created to establish new avenues for commercial space activities beyond Earth orbit” and “will be sending a series of robotic spacecraft to the Moon for ongoing exploration and commercial development. Our big play is to develop a robotic lander to transport things to (and from) the moon,” Pell said.
“There is eventually going to be a moon rush, because there are a lot of resources on the moon that we will need,” said Pell. Resources like platinum and other metals that are needed for fuel cells and the post-fossil fuel economy. “In the future we want to be able to land the payloads and machines and bring things back,” said Pell. ”We want to be the last mile to the moon.”
4.05.2011
A power-generator at (& in) your fingertips
First practical nanogenerator produces electricity with pinch of the fingers
After six years of intensive effort, scientists are reporting development of the first commercially viable nanogenerator, a flexible chip that can use body movements — a finger pinch now en route to a pulse beat in the future — to generate electricity. Speaking here today at the 241st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, they described boosting the device's power output by thousands times and its voltage by 150 times to finally move it out of the lab and toward everyday life.
Powering a home with a bottle of water, I'm sure the energy companies are excited about that...Not
Creating power from water
(PhysOrg.com) -- Creating power from water. I bet when I say that you picture a dam or a large turbine being pushed by hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, all rushing at tremendous speeds. It is a cool, and accurate, image of how most power comes from water. That is not to say that it is the only way that power can come from water.I'm so glad scientists take inspiration from Hollywood
Scientists plan to drill all the way down to the Earth's mantle
(PhysOrg.com) -- In what can only be described as a mammoth undertaking, scientists, led by British co-chiefs, Dr Damon Teagle of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England and Dr Benoit Ildefonse from Montpellier University in France, have announced jointly in an article in Nature that they intend to drill a hole through the Earth’s crust and into the mantle; a feat never before accomplished, much less seriously attempted.
Cleaning water using the power of the sun
Portable solar device creates potable water
(PhysOrg.com) -- By harnessing the power of the sun, a Monash University graduate has designed a simple, sustainable and affordable water-purification device, which has the potential to help eradicate disease and save lives.
Using the yard to power your home, closer to reality than you might think
Scientists today claimed one of the milestones in the drive for sustainable energy — development of the first practical “artificial leaf.” Speaking at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, they described an advanced solar cell the size of a poker card that mimics photosynthesis.
Nanotechnology takes the fight to deadly bacteria
New Type of Drug Kills Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 By Katherine Bourzac
You had me at all-you-can-eat-&-drink
www.azcentral.com
4/7: Forks & Corks moves to Phoenix's Cityscape, Forks & Corks moves culinary event to downtown Phoenix's CityScape.
4.04.2011
Hold on, maybe Israel isn't such a bad-guy
Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes
Convertible airplane just doesn't have a good ring to it
My dad was supposed to be on a SouthWest flight from Phoenix to Sacramento last night which was canceled because of plane changes. Just so happens that's the exact plane he would have taken a day later.
4.01.2011
Utilizing bacteria to produce AND deliver drugs
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/37242/?nlid=4296
Engineering bacteria to not only make drugs, but also to deliver them directly to the cells in the body that require them.
Engineering bacteria to not only make drugs, but also to deliver them directly to the cells in the body that require them.
3.31.2011
How Stem Cells Are Changing the Way We Think About Disease
How Stem Cells Are Changing the Way We Think About Disease
If you don't know too much about stem cells, this TIME article gives you a good idea of where the technology is at now and how it can evolve to solve most medical problems.
If you don't know too much about stem cells, this TIME article gives you a good idea of where the technology is at now and how it can evolve to solve most medical problems.
3.22.2011
Bonobos: Hippies of the jungle
Peaceful bonobos may have something to teach humans
Humans share 98.7 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, but we share one important similarity with one species of chimp, the common chimpanzee, that we don't share with the other, the bonobo. That similarity is violence. While humans and the common chimpanzee wage war and kill each other, bonobos do not. "There has never been a recorded case in captivity or in the wild of a bonobo killing another bonobo," notes anthropologist Brian Hare.
3.21.2011
Science Rhyme Time: A little exercise everyday can cause aging to delay
Regular exercise can delay the aging process
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Canadian scientists working with mice genetically modified to age twice as fast as normal has found regular exercise keeps them young.
You might want to think twice before deciding to run a marathon...
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/when-exercise-is-too-much-of-a-good-thing/?nl=health&emc=healthupdateema11
Exercise is indisputably good for your health. But some recent studies suggest that it's also possible to do too much of a good thing.
Exercise is indisputably good for your health. But some recent studies suggest that it's also possible to do too much of a good thing.
Can a magazine with one subscriber survive? Absolutely!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704758904576188621188047068.html
Each morning, the President of the United States gets briefed on the day's news by some of the smartest advisers around. The rest of us aren't so lucky. We have to sift through newspapers, magazines and websites to find out what's going on around us. Now, thanks to a free iPad app called Zite, the news-gathering process may get a lot easier for those of us who aren't leaders of the free world.
A new iPad app called Zite crawls the Web and uses your social network and online reading behavior to cull reading material you might like. WSJ's Katie Boehret compares this app to the similar Flipboard app.
Zite, by a Vancouver company of the same name, crawls over half a million Web domains to find specific reading material that would be of interest to you, according to your social network and/or online reading behavior. It evaluates this potential content by tracking signals (like tweets, comments, tags and sharing) from stories that indicate a certain level of social interest and momentum in the story. The result is a personalized magazine that gets more accurately targeted toward its reader the more it's used.
A light-and-heat combo makes for a great infrared sauna experience (& a way to track cancer and deliver drugs)
Organic nanoparticle uses sound and heat to find and treat tumors
Scientists have created an organic nanoparticle that is non-toxic, biodegradable, and nimble in the way it uses light and heat to treat cancer and deliver drugs, says principal investigator Dr. Gang Zheng, Senior Scientist, Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI) at Princess Margaret Hospital.
Scientists have created an organic nanoparticle that is non-toxic, biodegradable, and nimble in the way it uses light and heat to treat cancer and deliver drugs, says principal investigator Dr. Gang Zheng, Senior Scientist, Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI) at Princess Margaret Hospital.
Personal health care...there's an app for that
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/technology/01iht-srhealth01.html?_r=1
For more and more people, computers and software are becoming a critical part of their health care.
Thanks to an array of small devices and applications for smartphones that gather vital health information and store it electronically, consumers can take a more active role in managing their own care, often treating chronic illnesses — and preventing acute ones — without the direct aid of a physician.
2.23.2011
After Jeopardy, Watson 1, Mankind 0. Next up...doctors
IBM to Collaborate with Nuance to Apply Watson Analytics Technology to Healthcare
IBM and Nuance Communications, Inc. have announced a research agreement to explore, develop and commercialize the Watson computing system’s advanced analytics capabilities in the healthcare industry.
2.21.2011
Sprinkle a little water on some sodium silicide and presto...battery power
Technology breakthrough fuels laptops and phones, recharges scientist's 60-year career
How does a scientist fuel his enthusiasm for chemistry after 60 years? By discovering a new energy source, of course.
2.14.2011
Cheat sheet for surgeons, cut there and not there
Nerves Light Up to Warn Surgeons Away - Technology Review
Surgeons take pains to avoid injuring nerves in and around surgical sites—a stray cut could lead to muscle weakness, pain, numbness, or even paralysis. In delicate operations like prostate removal, for instance, accidentally damaging nerves can lead to incontinence or erectile dysfunction. Scientists at University of California San Diego have announced a new method for lighting up nerves in the body with fluorescent peptides, which could act as markers to keep surgeons away.
If you don't yet know about Ray Kurzweil, you have some catching up to do...
2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal
Love it or hate it, Ray Kurzweil's theory of 'The Singularity' must be accepted as a legitimate possibility of what the future holds in store for humanity.
2.12.2011
GOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL
Best goal of the 2010-2011 EPL season scored by Wayne Rooney of the greatest team on the planet, ManU.
2.11.2011
Drawing blood safer than shedding skin in terms of generating stem cells
"Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found a better way to create induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells — adult cells reprogrammed with the properties of embryonic stem cells — from a small blood sample. This new method, described last week in Cell Research, avoids creating DNA changes that could lead to tumor formation.
Johns Hopkins researchers created the safer iPS cells by transferring a circular piece of DNA into blood cells from anonymous donors to deliver the needed genetic components. The traditional way is to use viruses to carry DNA into a cell’s genome. Unlike the viral methods, the circular DNA the Hopkins team used is designed to stay separate from the host cell’s genome. After the iPS cells formed, the circular DNA delivered into the blood cells was gradually lost.
Linzhao Cheng, Ph.D says the new method is also more efficient than the traditional use of skin cells to make iPS cells. “After a skin biopsy, it takes a full month to grow the skin cells before they are ready to be reprogrammed into iPS cells, unlike the blood cells that only need to grow for eight or nine days,” says Cheng. “The time it takes to reprogram the iPS cells from blood cells is also shortened to two weeks, compared to the month it takes when using skin cells.”
Safer way to make induced pluripotent stem cells | KurzweilAI
Johns Hopkins researchers created the safer iPS cells by transferring a circular piece of DNA into blood cells from anonymous donors to deliver the needed genetic components. The traditional way is to use viruses to carry DNA into a cell’s genome. Unlike the viral methods, the circular DNA the Hopkins team used is designed to stay separate from the host cell’s genome. After the iPS cells formed, the circular DNA delivered into the blood cells was gradually lost.
Linzhao Cheng, Ph.D says the new method is also more efficient than the traditional use of skin cells to make iPS cells. “After a skin biopsy, it takes a full month to grow the skin cells before they are ready to be reprogrammed into iPS cells, unlike the blood cells that only need to grow for eight or nine days,” says Cheng. “The time it takes to reprogram the iPS cells from blood cells is also shortened to two weeks, compared to the month it takes when using skin cells.”
Safer way to make induced pluripotent stem cells | KurzweilAI
2.07.2011
Popeye proved right...eating spinach is good for your muscles
(PhysOrg.com) -- After taking a small dose of inorganic nitrate for three days, healthy people consume less oxygen while riding an exercise bike. A new study in the February issue of Cell Metabolism traces that improved performance to increased efficiency of the mitochondria that power our cells.
...up until recently nitrate wasn't thought to have any nutritional value at all. It has even been suggested that this component of vegetables might be toxic. But Eddie Weitzberg [of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden] and his colleague Jon Lundberg earlier showed that dietary nitrate feeds into a pathway that produces nitric oxide with the help of friendly bacteria found in our mouths. Nitric oxide has been known for two decades as a physiologically important molecule.
Key ingredient for the origin of life on earth...clay?
Physicists at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Princeton, and Brandeis have demonstrated the formation of semipermeable vesicles from inorganic clay.
The research, published online this week in the journal Soft Matter,shows that clay vesicles provide an ideal container for the compartmentalization of complex organic molecules.
The authors say the discovery opens the possibility that primitive cells might have formed inside inorganic clay microcompartments.
Under The Radar: The Internet Just Ran Out of Numbers
On February 3, it finally happened: the clock ran out on the Internet as we know it. That was the day that the stash of Internet protocol addresses that are used to identify and locate computers connected to the Internet—the telephone numbers of the online world—was exhausted.
1.31.2011
Conjunction junction, now we know your function
LA JOLLA, CA—Among stem cell biologists there are few better-known proteins than nestin, whose very presence in an immature cell identifies it as a "stem cell," such as a neural stem cell. As helpful as this is to researchers, until now no one knew which purpose nestin serves in a cell.
In a study published in the Jan. 30, 2011, advance online edition of Nature Neuroscience, Salk Institute of Biological Studies investigators led by Kuo-Fen Lee, PhD., show that nestin has reason for being in a completely different cell type—muscle tissue. There, it regulates formation of the so-called neuromuscular junction, the contact point between muscle cells and "their" motor neurons.
Knowing this not only deepens our understanding of signaling mechanisms connecting brain to muscle, but could aid future attempts to strengthen those connections in cases of neuromuscular disease or spinal cord injury.
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