I blogged recently about the Methuselah Foundation's LysoSENS project, one of their funded research efforts to help eliminate the deleterious effects of aging. What I didn't read closely enough was that the contest ended on December 31 (although I'm sure they are still accepting samples).
On their blog, they have posted an update including details of the top five samples they received. If you're interested in details of the progress being made in the fight against aging, check it out.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Researchers Develop Method to Control Water Flow Through Carbon Nanotubes
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method of controlling the flow of water through carbon nanotube membranes with an unprecedented level of precision. That may not sound that interesting, but it could lead to technologies designed to transform salt water into pure drinking water almost instantly, or to immediately separate a specific strand of DNA from the biological jumble.
Nanotube membranes have fascinated researchers with their combination of high flow rates and high selectivity, allowing them to filter out very small impurities and other organic materials like DNA and proteins from materials with high water content. The problem is that nanotube arrays are hydrophobic, strongly repelling water.
The researchers found a way to use low-voltage electricity to manipulate the flow of water through nanotubes. They discovered that when the nanotube’s membrane is given a small positive potential of only 1.7 volts, and the water is given a negative potential, the nanotubes quickly switch from repelling water to pumping water through the tube. When the charge on the water is raised, the water flows through at an exponentially faster rate. When the experiment is reversed with a negatively charged nanotube, it takes much higher voltage (90 volts) to move the water through the tube.
Nanotube membranes have fascinated researchers with their combination of high flow rates and high selectivity, allowing them to filter out very small impurities and other organic materials like DNA and proteins from materials with high water content. The problem is that nanotube arrays are hydrophobic, strongly repelling water.
The researchers found a way to use low-voltage electricity to manipulate the flow of water through nanotubes. They discovered that when the nanotube’s membrane is given a small positive potential of only 1.7 volts, and the water is given a negative potential, the nanotubes quickly switch from repelling water to pumping water through the tube. When the charge on the water is raised, the water flows through at an exponentially faster rate. When the experiment is reversed with a negatively charged nanotube, it takes much higher voltage (90 volts) to move the water through the tube.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Intel Builds Fastest Chip Ever
Intel yesterday announced that its researchers have created a single chip with 80 processing cores, capable of a trillion floating point operations per second (Teraflops). The chip isn't available yet, however, and likely won't be for another five or six years.
A chart on Intel's website demonstrates how, through frequency scaling, the chip can be made to achieve as much as 1.81 Teraflops, though doing so increases the power needed from 62 Watts (less than many commercial processors available today) to 265 Watts. Just 10 years ago, a cluster of supercomputers capable of processing the same amount of calculations took up more than 2,000 square feet and consumed a half-megawatt of electricity.
This type of processor will be a big step in the right direction for making computers do what we really want. Better pattern recognition for speech and video, better simulations of physical and biological processes, and better video games are just a few examples of how more powerful processors can make our lives better.
A chart on Intel's website demonstrates how, through frequency scaling, the chip can be made to achieve as much as 1.81 Teraflops, though doing so increases the power needed from 62 Watts (less than many commercial processors available today) to 265 Watts. Just 10 years ago, a cluster of supercomputers capable of processing the same amount of calculations took up more than 2,000 square feet and consumed a half-megawatt of electricity.
This type of processor will be a big step in the right direction for making computers do what we really want. Better pattern recognition for speech and video, better simulations of physical and biological processes, and better video games are just a few examples of how more powerful processors can make our lives better.
Friday, February 9, 2007
Branson Creates $25 Million Global Warming Prize
British billionaire Sir Richard Branson has announced a $25 million prize for the first group to come up with a way of removing one billion metric tons of carbon gases a year from the atmosphere for 10 years -- with $5 million of the prize being paid at the start and the remaining $20 million at the end.
The prize will initially only be open for five years, with ideas assessed by a panel of judges including Branson, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, British ex-diplomat Crispin Tickell, U.S. climate scientist James Hansen, Briton James Lovelock and Australian environmentalist Tim Flannery.
Branson also reiterated a pledge he made in September to invest $3 billion toward fighting global warming, saying he would commit all profits from his travel companies over the next 10 years. As part of that pledge, he launched a new Virgin Fuels business, which will invest up to $400 million in green energy projects over the next three years.
The prize will initially only be open for five years, with ideas assessed by a panel of judges including Branson, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, British ex-diplomat Crispin Tickell, U.S. climate scientist James Hansen, Briton James Lovelock and Australian environmentalist Tim Flannery.
Branson also reiterated a pledge he made in September to invest $3 billion toward fighting global warming, saying he would commit all profits from his travel companies over the next 10 years. As part of that pledge, he launched a new Virgin Fuels business, which will invest up to $400 million in green energy projects over the next three years.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
New Synthesized Compound Shows Promise as Cancer Treatment
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have synthesized a new compound--similar to one produced naturally by a species of sea squirt--that shows exciting results in tests as a cancer treatment. The compound, called AB-5, is a variant of diazonamide A, a toxin produced by Diazona angulata.
What's truly exciting about AB-5 was that, in the initial tests, the compound worked as effectively as existing cancer treatments (paclitaxel and vinblastine) without their side effects of weight loss or reduced white blood cell counts. The AB-5 appears to be very selective in how it affects cells, attacking only cancerous cells.
The reason, the researchers say, is that in cancerous cells, an enzyme known as OAT is necessary for cell mitosis, but the enzyme is not necessary for regular, healthy cells. The AB-5 somehow interacted with the OAT, preventing it from being uses as part of cell mitosis for cancer cells, and thus blocking the cancer cells from reproducing.
The results are preliminary so far, and only tested in mice, but the researchers felt strongly enough about the results to license the research from UT Southwestern and start their own pharmaceutical company, Joyant Pharmaceuticals. I'll be watching this development closely, so stay tuned for future updates.
What's truly exciting about AB-5 was that, in the initial tests, the compound worked as effectively as existing cancer treatments (paclitaxel and vinblastine) without their side effects of weight loss or reduced white blood cell counts. The AB-5 appears to be very selective in how it affects cells, attacking only cancerous cells.
The reason, the researchers say, is that in cancerous cells, an enzyme known as OAT is necessary for cell mitosis, but the enzyme is not necessary for regular, healthy cells. The AB-5 somehow interacted with the OAT, preventing it from being uses as part of cell mitosis for cancer cells, and thus blocking the cancer cells from reproducing.
The results are preliminary so far, and only tested in mice, but the researchers felt strongly enough about the results to license the research from UT Southwestern and start their own pharmaceutical company, Joyant Pharmaceuticals. I'll be watching this development closely, so stay tuned for future updates.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Researchers Uncover Why Conductance of Nanowires Vary
A Georgia Tech physics group has discovered how and why the electrical conductance of metal nanowires changes as their length varies. In a collaborative investigation performed by an experimental team and a theoretical physics team, the group discovered that measured fluctuations in the smallest nanowires' conductance are caused by a pair of atoms, known as a dimer, shuttling back and forth between the bulk electrical leads.
The team formed niobium nanowires using the mechanically controlled break junction technique – that is bending a thin nanofabricated strip of niobium until it breaks. In the final stage before the strip breaks completely, all that's left is a nanowire made of a short chain of niobium atoms that bridge the gap between the two sides of the strip.
Conducting the experiment at 4.2 degrees Kelvin (far below niobium's superconductivity transition temperature of 9.2 Kelvin), as well as performing measurements above the transition temperature, Marchenkov's team measured the electrical conductance of the atomic nanowire as it is stretched during the bending of the strip. As this bending occurs, the atoms separate from each other. The researchers were capable of controlling this separation with a precision better than 1 picometer (one thousandth of a nanometer), which is about 100 times smaller than the typical size of atoms.
As the nanowire is slowly pulled, the conductance drops. The drop in conductance was gradual until a rapid decrease in the conductance was observed in a narrow region of just 0.1 angstrom . Upon further pulling of the wire, the conductance resumed its gradual decline.
The team formed niobium nanowires using the mechanically controlled break junction technique – that is bending a thin nanofabricated strip of niobium until it breaks. In the final stage before the strip breaks completely, all that's left is a nanowire made of a short chain of niobium atoms that bridge the gap between the two sides of the strip.
Conducting the experiment at 4.2 degrees Kelvin (far below niobium's superconductivity transition temperature of 9.2 Kelvin), as well as performing measurements above the transition temperature, Marchenkov's team measured the electrical conductance of the atomic nanowire as it is stretched during the bending of the strip. As this bending occurs, the atoms separate from each other. The researchers were capable of controlling this separation with a precision better than 1 picometer (one thousandth of a nanometer), which is about 100 times smaller than the typical size of atoms.
As the nanowire is slowly pulled, the conductance drops. The drop in conductance was gradual until a rapid decrease in the conductance was observed in a narrow region of just 0.1 angstrom . Upon further pulling of the wire, the conductance resumed its gradual decline.
Friday, February 2, 2007
Can You Explain String Theory?
A little while back, I posted a news article about a test for String Theory, but I realized afterward that I hadn't taken the time to explain what String Theory is. So I thought I'd put together another post explaining what String Theory is and what it represents for physics. But have you ever tried to explain String Theory succinctly, in a way that people will understand?
Turns out it would take me something book-length to pull it off, and that's not what I'm trying to do with this blog. Maybe you can explain it better than I can.
If so, Discover Magazine has a deal for you. They're having a contest that challenges people to create a video explaining String Theory in Two Minutes or Less. That's probably even more daunting a task than trying to explain it in a blog posting, but that's why it's a contest.
Turns out it would take me something book-length to pull it off, and that's not what I'm trying to do with this blog. Maybe you can explain it better than I can.
If so, Discover Magazine has a deal for you. They're having a contest that challenges people to create a video explaining String Theory in Two Minutes or Less. That's probably even more daunting a task than trying to explain it in a blog posting, but that's why it's a contest.
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