Wait a second, can you repeat that?...Did you say the atmosphere almost collapsed?

NASA-funded researchers are monitoring a big event in our planet's atmosphere. High above Earth's surface where the atmosphere meets space, a rarefied layer of gas called "the thermosphere" recently collapsed and now is rebounding again. One possible explanation is carbon dioxide (CO₂). When carbon dioxide gets into the thermosphere, it acts as a coolant, shedding heat via infrared radiation. It is widely-known that CO2 levels have been increasing in Earth's atmosphere. Extra CO2 in the thermosphere could have magnified the cooling action of solar minimum (Lately, solar activity has been very low. In 2008 and 2009, the sun plunged into a century-class solar minimum).

You mean stuff actually gets done at the Pentagon

US scientists working for the experimental arm of the Pentagon have developed artificial blood for use in transfusions for wounded soldiers in battlefields. The blood cells are said to be functionally indistinguishable from normal blood cells and could end forever the problem of blood donor shortages in war zones and difficulties in transporting blood to remote and inaccessible areas.


http://www.physorg.com/news198221258.html

So that's why the Arizona desert is so damn hot...

Last month was the hottest June ever recorded on Earth, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday, amid global climate warming worries.


http://www.physorg.com/news198434180.html

A chemical to make brain cells grow: Mental decline thwarted in aging rats

Scientists have discovered a compound that restores the capacity to form new memories in aging rats, likely by improving the survival of newborn neurons in the brain's memory hub. The research, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, has turned up clues to a neuroprotective mechanism that could lead to a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

http://www.physorg.com/news197793408.html

Technology's smallest microscope, medicine's biggest ally

Engineer invents world's smallest, lightest telemedicine microscope

-Aydogan Ozcan, whose invention of a novel lensless imaging technology for use in telemedicine could radically transform global health care, has now taken his work a step further -- or tinier: The UCLA engineer has created a miniature microscope, the world's smallest and lightest for telemedicine applications.

-Telemedicine involves performing medical tests in the field and requires portable tools in a resource-limited environment and integration into a medical network e.g. hospital or central lab.

-This lensless microscope solves both these problems: (a) it is small & lightweight, and (b) simple to operate - anyone (not necessarily a doctor) can use it, and then upload the digital image via smart phone/computer to be analyzed by a medical professional.

-Potential to monitor diseases and water quality in 3rd world countries with limited health care facilities, and at a realistic cost.
http://www.physorg.com/news191170981.html

Low battery? Just plug it in...to yourself

MEMS device generates power from body heat -- In an attempt to develop a power source that is compact, environmentally friendly, and has an unlimited lifetime, a team of researchers from Singapore has fabricated an energy harvesting device that generates electricity from body heat or any environment where there is a temperature gradient. Their device, called a thermoelectric power generator, attaches to the body and generates a power output of a few microwatts, which could be useful for powering implanted medical devices and wireless sensors.

Just another day in the life of a carbon nanotube

Carbon Nanotubes Boost Cancer-Fighting Cells

-One defensive strategy in the human immune system utilizes T cells, which are able to detect bad stuff in the body, replicate in lymph nodes, and then induce a strong immune response.
-Tumor cells are able to survive because they prevent tumor-specific T cells from replicating and therefore suppress any immune response.
-A technique called 'Adoptive Immunotherapy' is a treatment option, where patient's blood is drawn and T cells are stimulated and replicated in the lab before being transferred back into the patient.
-A major drawback right now is that it can take several weeks until sufficient T cells are produced.

-Yale scientists have found that carbon nanotubes mimic lymph nodes in the lab and reduce the time to produce enough tumor-fighting T cells by 1/3.
-All that is needed now is find an efficient way of removing the carbon nanotubes before re-injecting the T cells into the patient.

One small step for man, One giant leap for cancer treatment

(PhysOrg.com)
-'DNA -> RNA -> Protein' is the central dogma of genetics.
-A good way for me to remember complex scientific concepts is to put them in context with something simpler that I understand.
-For me the best context for this genetic concept is comparing it to opening a zip file on the computer.
     -Say you have a zip file (DNA). You cannot simply open the zip file, because it is only useful for storage.
     -In order to open the zip file you must first unzip it (transcription) into a readable file (RNA).
     -Now, when you try and open the unzipped file (RNA) it results in something usable such as a word document, pdf, or mp3 (protein).

-Most anticancer drugs target certain proteins unique to the growth and survival of tumor cells.
-These therapeutics have some limitations because of the 3-D shapes of proteins and the possibility of mutations which 'hide' the protein from the drug without changing the protein's use for the cell.
-A new approach using small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targets a type of RNA in the cell called messenger RNA (mRNA).

-Unlike protein, mRNA is linear in shape (no bends/folds to hide itself) and has fewer potential mutations.
-This therapy is very exciting because it allows for the indirect targeting of virtually every protein.
-A major hurdle of this therapy (other than getting the siRNA into the cell is targeting only the tumor cell(s).
-Solution = packing the siRNA into nanoparticles which bind only to cancerous cells, then release the siRNA into the bound tumor cell.
-Most importantly, this combined treatment was found to be effective in a human patient during a phase I clinical trial.
-This therapy is being developed for treating cancer, but I can see it being utilized for treating nearly every disease.

Nuclear fusion power - the ultimate clean energy

(PhysOrg.com) -- Imagine if you could generate electricity using nuclear power that emitted no radioactivity: it would be the answer to the world's dream of finding a clean, sustainable energy source.

Solar cells - I think they can, I think they can

Solar cells: UQAM researcher solves two 20-year-old problems
Thanks to two technologies developed by Professor Benoit Marsan and his team at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM) Chemistry Department, the scientific and commercial future of solar cells could be totally transformed. Professor Marsan has come up with solutions for two problems that, for the last twenty years, have been hampering the development of efficient and affordable solar cells.

http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/dep_chim/rindex.php?dossierprof=prof&pagehtm=marsan.htm

How many scientists does it take to replace a light bulb? None, cause it never burns out

(PhysOrg.com) -- Light bulbs that last 100 years and fill rooms with brilliant ambiance may become a reality sooner rather than later, thanks to a National Renewable Energy Laboratory discovery.

Can you hold your breath forever?

(PhysOrg.com) -- Oxygen may not be the staple of modern complex life that scientists once thought. Until now, the only life forms known to live exclusively in anoxic conditions were viruses, bacteria and Archaea. But in a new study, scientists have discovered three new multicellular marine species that appear to have never lived in aerobic conditions, and never metabolized oxygen.

Putting oil profits to good use

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new eco-city being built in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Masdar City, will be the world’s first clean technology city, relying entirely on renewable energy sources, and being free of cars, skyscrapers and waste.

'Organic Electronics' coming soon to a Whole Foods near you

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new technique developed by Princeton University engineers for producing electricity-conducting plastics could dramatically lower the cost of manufacturing solar panels.

Magnesium: Alternative Power Source

PhysOrg.com) -- There is enough magnesium to meet the world's energy needs for the next 300,000 years, says Dr. Takashi Yabe of the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Harnessing Sunlight to Convert Carbon Dioxide to Liquid Fuel

(PhysOrg.com) -- A startup company, Joule Biotechnologies, Inc., has developed an alternative solution of producing liquid fuel by harnessing sunlight to directly convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into liquid energy (SolarFuel).

The Ultimate Protection - No not Trojan, Spray-on glass

• Liquid glass spray a.k.a. "SiO2 ultra-thin layering" is transparent, non-toxic, and offers protection from water, UV radiation, acid, dirt, heat, and bacteria.
• Silicon dioxide (silica, main compound in glass) added with water/ethanol depending on surface to be coated, no additives.
• Works by forming a water-resistant coating ~100 nanometers thick.
• Nanoscale thickness makes the glass highly flexible and breathable (potential biological usage).
• Non-toxic, environmentally safe, easy-to-clean with water & wiping.
• Potential Usage:
• Sterilizing equipment & surfaces (food/medical industry, around the house = bye bye unnecessary cleaning products).
• Protection of monuments & buildings from weathering and graffiti.
• Coating seeds & plants to increase resistance to fungal/bacterial diseases.
• Stain-resistant clothing.
• Available in DIY (Do-it-yourself) stores in Britain soon, prices starting ~£5 (US$8).

http://www.physorg.com/news184310039.html
http://www.nanopool.eu/couk/index.htm

Why'd the chicken cross the road? Cause it saw the light was green

• Color receptor organization in the retina chickens exceeds that of mammals and most other retinas observed in nature.
• But why is that? One explanation:
• Millions of years ago, during the evolution of birds and mammals, our ancestors were primarily nocturnal, adapting night-vision receptors called rods for survival from the threat of larger predators.
• Birds on the other hand, widely believed to be descendants of dinosaurs, were able to survive during the daytime and further develop their light-sensing receptors called cones.
• Humans have retina cones sensitive only to red, blue, and green wavelengths.
• Birds share these and have other receptors to detect violet and ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths, and another specialized receptor believed to detect motion.
• Relevance:
• Could lead to new understandings of inherent problems in human eyes and ideas on how to fix them.

http://www.physorg.com/news185539169.html

Want to get smarter? Then take a nap

• A midday nap could refresh the mind and actually make you smarter.
• A simple experiment showed that young adults who took a nap in the early afternoon after a rigorous study session improved their learning capacity in the early evening during another study sesh compared to those who didn’t nap and got worse at learning.
• "It's as though the e-mail inbox in your hippocampus is full and, until you sleep and clear out those fact emails, you're not going to receive any more mail. It's just going to bounce until you sleep and move it into another folder," said Matthew Walker, assistant professor of psychology and lead investigator at UC Berkeley.
• Many would argue that napping for such a short period of time doesn’t actually help because you never enter REM sleep.
• However, this study backs the notion that Stage 2 non-REM sleep, which occurs after deep sleep (non-REM) but before the dream state (REM), is vital for memory capacity.
• After all, we spend 50% of the night in this Stage 2 transition stage so it makes perfect sense that it plays a crucial role in a healthy mindset.

http://www.physorg.com/news185948338.html