“…the payoff is scientific as well as technological. Scientists had already discovered that the electronic properties of semiconductor material can change dramatically when its tiniest metallic components are tightly packed between organic molecules, a phenomenon called nano-confinement. “But now we find that mechanical properties can also change dramatically. On a basic science level, that’s why this is exciting,”…” Full Slice

“…“We have demonstrated the application of strain engineering in a colloidal quantum-dot system by introducing a method that spontaneously creates a regularly spaced arrangement of quantum dots within a colloidal quantum rod…A linear array of quantum dots within a nanorod effectively creates a one-dimensional superlattice, or striped nanorod.”…” Full Slice

“Northrop Grumman’s 100 percent equity plans for Scaled Composites in Mojave, California will not impact work underway in developing the commercial, passenger-carrying SpaceShipTwo…on July 5 Northrop Grumman agreed to increase their ownership of Scaled Composites. The large aerospace firm has had for several years approximately 40 percent of Scaled, now increasing its equity to 100 percent…Northrop Grumman values the mode of operation that Scaled Composites has currently.” Full Slice - Another step toward private space activity success

I propose that Buckycentric folk design triangular computer screens with triangular pixels. Display of data would not be rows of text, but trees, symbolic rather than linquistic. Mentat training would be employed so that the users could quickly come up to speed with the interface, and triad, rather than pair, programming would be applied.

“In what advocates hailed as a major advance for scientific communication, the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday approved a measure directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide free public online access to agency-funded research findings within 12 months of their publication in a peer-reviewed journal…The current NIH Public Access Policy, implemented in 2005 as a voluntary measure, has resulted in the deposit of less than 5% of eligible research by individual investigators…” Full Slice - A long overdue move to “…tear down the wall…” (hat tip to Pink Floyd)

“…”All together, these probes would have seven times the length of human genome,”…The data were evaluated with several specially designed statistical methods, including a variant of machine learning.

The result of this painstaking analysis: on average, every 180th DNA building block is variable. And about four percent of the reference genome either looks very different in the wild varieties, or cannot be found at all. Almost every tenth gene was so defective that it could not fulfill its normal function anymore!

Results such as these raise fundamental questions. For one, they qualify the value of the model genomes sequenced so far. “There isn’t such a thing as the genome of a species“…Detailed analyses showed that genes for basic cellular functions such as protein production or gene regulation rarely suffer knockout hits. Genes that are important for the interaction with other organisms, on the other hand, such as those responsible for defense against pathogens or infections, are much more variable than the average gene. “The genetic variability appears to reflect adaptation of local circumstances,”…” Full Slice

“A typical human mouth teems with as many as 700 different species of microbes. A handful of these have been specifically implicated in promoting gum disease, dental cavities, and bad breath, but for the most part, the make-up of this complex ecosystem and its impact on human health remain largely unexplored. A new device created by…researchers, however, may make some of the most reclusive members of this and other microscopic communities much more accessible for laboratory study.

The vast majority of microbes are notoriously resistant to growing in laboratory cultures because they are so intricately linked to their own unique ecosystems…The microfluidic chip designed…for the current study is equipped with tiny chambers and valves that allow researchers to isolate microbes at the nanoliter scale. Because each microbe is isolated in a vanishingly small volume of liquid, the concentration of its genetic material within that solution is actually quite high…” Full Slice

“…research has revealed how the internal motion of proteins affects their function and overturns the standard view of protein structure-function relationships, suggesting why rational drug design has been so difficult…“The motions that we are looking at are very small, but very fast, on the time scale of billions of movements per second…Proteins just twitch and shake.”…“Protein-protein interactions are central to ‘signalling’, which is often the molecular origin of diseases…” Full Slice

“In the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, a team of researchers has discovered a novel bacterium that transforms light into chemical energy…the new genus and species Cab. thermophilum also belongs to a new phylum, Acidobacteria. The discovery marks only the third time in the past 100 years that a new bacterial phylum has been added to the list of those with chlorophyll-producing members. Although chlorophyll-producing bacteria are so abundant that they perform half the photosynthesis on Earth, only five of the 25 major groups, or phyla, of bacteria previously were known to contain members with this ability…the new bacterium has special light-harvesting antennae known as chlorosomes, which contain about 250,000 chlorophylls each. No member of this phylum nor any aerobic microbe was known to make chlorosomes before this discovery…” Full Slice

“This study represents great potential for the use of standard ceramic processing methods for nanotechnology…The phase separation occurs spontaneously, providing two phases whose dimensions both extend into the nanometer scale. This unique feature could lead to its application as a template for the assembly of nanostructures or molecular monolayers.”” Full Slice

“…While it is common to say that a mammalian brain functions like a computer, this is a somewhat faulty idea, in part because the observation from [researcher`s] lab suggests that gap junctions cause “short circuiting” as part of the brain’s normal functions. (A real computer could not function if it short circuited.) It is possible that these short circuits in the mammalian brain generally enhance brain function and adaptation to the environment, such as by permitting creative thinking, the combining of isolated facts into new ideas.

Additionally, [other researcher] –- has proposed that excessive firing of these circuits along gap junctions may play a role in psychosis and mania.” Full Slice

“Researchers…are co-ordinating a global effort to sequence the genome of one of the World’s most important mushrooms - Agaricus bisporus. The secrets of its genetic make up could assist the creation of biofuels, support the effort to manage global carbon, and help remove heavy metals from contaminated soils.

The Agaricus mushroom family are highly efficient ‘secondary decomposers’ of plant material such as leaves and litter –breaking down the material that is too tough for other fungi and bacteria to handle. How exactly it does this, particularly how it degrades tough plant material known as lignin, is not fully understood…” Full Slice

“A torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is among an athlete’s most-dreaded injuries, often requiring surgery and months of rehab…While being tackled in football or hurtling into an embankment on an icy ski course can tear this major knee ligament, most athletes actually “do themselves in”–they don’t collide with a person or object, they end up injuring themselves when they land off-balance during a jump or run.

But why?

…scientists have shown that differences in brain function may be to blame, predisposing some of us to “noncontact” knee injuries…” Full Slice

“…Maybe the reason civilizations don’t get around to colonizing other planets is that there’s a narrow window when they have the tools, population and will to do so, and the window usually closes on them. “In 1970 everyone figured we’d have humans on Mars by now, but we haven’t taken the opportunity,…We should it do soon, because colonizing other worlds is our best chance to hedge our bets and improve the survival prospects of our species. Sooner or later something will get us if we stay on one planet. By the time we’re in trouble and wish we had that colony on Mars, it may be too late.”

You could argue that he’s being too pessimistic about space exploration…” Full Slice

“The electronics industry to date has relied largely on the control of charge flow through size scaling (i.e. reducing the physical size of elements such as transistors) to increase the performance of existing electronics…size scaling clearly cannot continue indefinitely as atomic length scales are reached, and new approaches must be developed. Basic research efforts…have shown that spin angular momentum, another fundamental property of the electron, can be used to store and process information in metal and semiconductor based devices…The realization of efficient electrical injection and significant spin polarization using a simple magnetic tunnel barrier compatible with “back-end” silicon processing should greatly facilitate development of silicon-based spintronic devices.” Full Slice