‘New lithium battery ditches solvents, reaches supercapacitor rates’:
Cool article, Zak. Thanks.
Scientists build living cell with just 473 genes
Scientists announced Thursday that they have built a single-celled organism that has just 473 genes — likely close to the minimum number of genes necessary to sustain its life. The development, they say, could eventually lead to new manufacturing methods.
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If a gene could be removed without disrupting the cell’s ability to live, grow and reproduce, it was deemed nonessential. Out it went. They chucked out a bunch of genes involved in transporting and metabolizing different kinds of food, since the cell they were working with had plenty of sugars to keep it going. They kept in almost all of the genes responsible for reading genetic material and creating more. They also kept a few that would allow the cell to reproduce quickly enough for them to observe that growth in the lab. And they added some specific DNA that could serve as a “watermark,” indicating the lab that had assembled it — the J. Craig Venter Institute.Based on estimates that biologists have been making for decades, Venter’s team thought the modified bacterium would only need about 250 genes to eke out a bare existence. But, says Venter, it ended up requiring a lot more genes than that.
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…minimal cells of various varieties could serve as starting points for engineering cells that digest or produce certain chemicals. “It’s a basic component that we can add things to,” says Venter, like a gene from a deep-sea creature that would allow a cell to eat carbon dioxide and spit out methane — a fuel.“You could design cells and choose the type of metabolism you want,” says Venter. “If you just have a cassette of those genes that you can just plug in, that will enable design to go much faster,” he says.
Cool stuff, with lots of potential to be used in some really interesting bio-engineering fields of the future. Although I suppose you could also put it over in the What Could Possibly Go Wrong thread, since it could probably also be the basis for some kind of gray goo (or would that be green goo?) scenario.
‘Sweet drug clears cholesterol, reverses heart disease—and was found by parents’:
Pretty cool what a little motivation can discover :)
Great article, unfortunate title. Lots of inventors/researchers are parents :)
High Schoolers Use Homemade Nuclear Fusion Reactor To Dominate Science Fairs (via Slashdot)
With modest theatrics, he pulled open his bookshelf to reveal a secret lab behind it. The first room contained the nuclear reactor.
In the adjoining room there was a well-equipped laboratory. Carl gave us radiation meters and gave us a lecture on radiation safety. He had instrumentation all around the reactor to detect any radiation leakage and assured us that there had never been any radiation outside of the one-ton shielding that housed the reactor. Then, it was time to turn on the nuclear reactor.
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Carl, an IT manager at Microsoft by day, had a vision of a private science club to teach students “real science.” He turned his vision into a Friday night program that attracts the brightest minds in the region. Adult volunteers, who are experts in biology, electrical engineering and software engineering also attend the Friday night meetings.The result is a long list of wins and accolades at the highest level of science competitions. In 2015, this little club that meets in Federal Way won 14 first place trophies at the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair, hauling in over $250,000 in scholarships. They attended the International Science and Engineering Fair and were awarded fourth place among 72 countries.
There’s probably a bit of “what could possibly go wrong” here, but it’s more than outweighed by the “how awesome is that” aspect.
I wonder what sort of permits & inspections are required for that. Their web site makes no mention of regulations. Science fair organizations are usually reasonably good at requiring documentation, at least for things they’ve encountered before.
Mr Burns is probably sponsoring them.
In another thread the fact of India being the powerhouse of mathematics invention was mentioned and these yotube videos cover some of that:
It is a shame the full BBC series History of Indian Mathematics is not available for us all to enjoy, it was rather good (as BBC series like this often are).
Not related to India, but fun and informative, Terry Jones (the former Python guy that liked dressing up as old women) did this documentary on maths a few years back:
Some dudes found a cool mechanism of spider silk and created a synthetic version.
An interesting ‘food science’ related article:
‘Official advice on low-fat diet and cholestrol is wrong, says health charity’:
Basically eat fat (as part of a balanced diet) to stay healthy! (but only natural fats, so those occurring naturally in things like avocados, fish etc)
A report from a random group which is not peer reviewed is not really “science”.
This should be prefaced with something like, “One weird trick to…”
Avocados hate him!
What’s a non-natural fat?
I’m assuming all the hydrogenated fats and trans fats and the like that goes in junk food or heavily processed food? In the 60s and 70s they were lauded for increasing shelf life of foods, but now it looks like they’re the only fats that can actually kill you.
haha, sorry to get all science downer in the mad about science thread, but that’s just how I roll.
Heavily processed foods are mostly just bad for you (from the types of fats TimElhajj mentions, to added sugar and salt they nearly always contain etc). Not that long ago research showed that even lightly processed meat (like mince meat and sausages) gave higher risks of cancer, just because of the process of finely mincing the meat!
I believe you are misremembering this IARC report. Here an explainer from Cancer Research UK:
‘Processed’ meat is meat that’s not sold fresh, but instead has been cured, salted, smoked, or otherwise preserved in some way (so things like bacon, sausages, hot dogs, ham, salami, and pepperoni). But this doesn’t include fresh burgers or mince.
No comment.
@ AWS260, yeah that was the kind of thing, and thanks for the link, lots of great ‘food science’ in it :)
May have been posted before, but youtube channel shows how to mine platinum from the side of the road.
Some heavy chemistry in there.