“A team of researchers…has constructed for the first time a synthetic cellulosome in yeast which is much more ethanol-tolerant than the bacteria in which these structures are normally found.

The yeast cellulosome could enable efficient one-step consolidated bioprocessing by maximizing the catalytic efficiency of cellulosic hydrolysis with simultaneous fermentation. The process of using these engineered yeasts can potentially make the production of bioethanol from biomass more efficient and economical….” Full Slice

“The first all-sky maps developed by NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft, the initial mission to examine the global interactions occurring at the edge of the solar system, suggest that the galactic magnetic fields had a far greater impact on Earth’s history than previously conceived, and the future of our planet and others may depend, in part, on how the galactic magnetic fields change with time.

“The IBEX results are truly remarkable, with emissions not resembling any of the current theories or models of this never-before-seen region,”…” Full Slice

fractal globules
float through tabular cell fogs
graceful ballots cast

“…The researchers’ spectroscopic study suggests that graphene grows in the form of tiny islands built of concentric rings of carbon atoms. The islands are strongly bonded to the iridium surface at their perimeters, but are not bonded to the iridium at their centers, which causes them to bulge upward in the middle to form minuscule geodesic domes. By adjusting the conditions as the carbon is deposited on the iridium, the researchers could vary the size of the carbon domes from a few nanometers to hundreds of nanometers across….” Full Slice

“…”Cells cleverly separate the most active genes into their own special neighborhood, to make it easier for proteins and other regulators to reach them,”…at a finer scale, the genome adopts an unusual organization known in mathematics as a “fractal.” The specific architecture the scientists found, called a “fractal globule,” enables the cell to pack DNA incredibly tightly …”Nature’s devised a stunningly elegant solution to storing information — a super-dense, knot-free structure,”…” Full Slice

“…While the focus of the present work is in the microwave regime, in conventional optics, light reflections present a major roadblock to light-driven circuits reaching the same level of sophistication as widely used microelectronic circuits. A variety of practical applications, such as optical isolation and optical information storage, could potentially benefit from the novel and unparalleled one-way photonic behavior observed by the…team. Numerous applications that require strong interactions between light and matter could also gain from such an efficiency boost.” Full Slice

“The first demonstration of a renewable method for hydrogen production from wastewater using a microbial electrolysis system is underway…The refrigerator-sized hydrogen generator will take winery wastewater, and using bacteria and a small amount of electrical energy, convert the organic material into hydrogen…”This is a demonstration to prove we can continuously generate renewable hydrogen and to study the engineering factors affecting the system performance,”…”The hydrogen produced will be vented except for a small amount that will be used in a hydrogen fuel cell.”…” Full Slice

—–A Power Station in Your Basement

The centerpiece of the new mini power plant system is a natural gas powered engine used in some Volkswagen Golf models. Thanks to the engine’s highly intelligent design—and the fact that the heat it produces can be directly used to heat the house—the efficiency factor of the Volkswagen mini thermal power plant lies at around 94 percent.

“…The results show a clear link between neuregulin 1 and creativity: Volunteers with the specific variant of this gene were more likely to have higher scores on the creativity assessment and also greater lifetime creative achievements than volunteers with a different form of the gene…this is the first study to show that a genetic variant associated with psychosis may have some beneficial functions…“molecular factors that are loosely associated with severe mental disorders but are present in many healthy people may have an advantage enabling us to think more creatively.”…these findings suggest that certain genetic variations, even though associated with adverse health problems, may survive evolutionary selection and remain in a population’s gene pool if they also have beneficial effects.” Full Slice

…for spaceweather.com, you can always just get ahold of the recent pictures from SOHO yourself.

…or get a summary of what measurements people took and what theoretical work they are using to try to understand climate change.

http://www.ipcc.ch/

You don’t have to agree with people’s interpretations, but if you dispute their measurements, you’d better have something better than conspiracy theory.

At least a start:

I recommend that Children’s Hospital relocate from their Laurelwood facility to a brand new facility in Federal Way.  Specifically, relocate next to the Federal Way Transit Center where the old AMC theater was prior to being torn down.  That property is owned by the city and was originally intended to house Highline Community College.  That project is on indefinite hold.

The City of Federal Way (FDub) owns the the property.  It is zoned for 18 story buildings.  The ground is level and clear and impacts no riparian areas.  The property has views of the Cascades, Mt. Rainier, Puget Sound, and the Olympics (at 5 stories plus, Rainier from everywhere.).  Two transit centers, I-5, and open area for helicopter landings are close by.  Light rail is coming.  There are several closeby areas that would server as a helicopter landing pad when bringing in emergency pediatric cases.

I recommend:

• The City of Federal Way advocate for the relocation of Children’s Hospital to downtown FDub
• The City give the property known as Center Plaza to Children’s Hospital in exchange for relocating for 10 years.
• The City.rezone Center Plaza to allow any configuration Children’s Hospital desires, including maximum building height.
• The City work with Children’s to acquire other nearby property as necessary.

“A study that tracked genetic mutations through the human equivalent of about 5,000 years has demonstrated for the first time that oxidative DNA damage is a primary cause of the process of mutation - the fuel for evolution but also a leading cause of aging, cancer and other diseases.

The research…also indicated that natural selection is affecting the parts of the genome that don’t contain genes – supposedly “junk” DNA that increasingly appears to have important roles in life processes that are very poorly understood….” Full Slice

Vondelpark Congregation of the Servants of the GFO.

Just a picture of some servants of the GFO, Vondelpark Parish, Amsterdam, Nederlands.

XXX!  (Compassion, Resolution and Heroism)