UCLA scientists engineer blood stem cells to fight melanoma

Researchers from UCLA’s cancer and stem cell centers have demonstrated for the first time that blood stem cells can be engineered to create cancer-killing T-cells that seek out and attack a human melanoma. The researchers believe the approach could be useful in about 40 percent of Caucasians with this malignancy. Done in mouse models, the …

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UCLA researchers demonstrate fully printed carbon nanotube transistor circuits for displays

Researchers from Aneeve Nanotechnologies, a startup company at UCLA’s on-campus technology incubator at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), have used low-cost ink-jet printing to fabricate the first circuits composed of fully printed back-gated and top-gated carbon nanotube–based electronics for use with OLED displays. The team made carbon nanotube thin-film transistors with high mobility and a …

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UK Considers PRISM and Thorium Reactors for converting Plutonium stockpile

Guardian UK – General Electric set out proposals on Wednesday to build a new nuclear reactor at Sellafield that would convert the UK’s stockpile of radioactive plutonium into electricity. The multibillion pound project would take plutonium – the residue from the UK’s nuclear power plants – and use it as fuel for a 600MW reactor …

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China connects another new nuclear reactor and Progress on the pebble bed reactor and other new reactors

1. Unit 4 of China National Nuclear Corporation’s (CNNC’s) Qinshan Phase II nuclear power plant was connected to the grid on 25 November – the second Chinese reactor to be connected this year. It is expected to enter commercial operation early in 2012. The reactor, a CNP-600, is a two loop domestic design rated at …

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Australian and Czech project to make Thorium molten salt reactor

A group of Australian and Czech companies have come together to develop a thorium fueled molten salt reactor. While thorium reactors are currently banned in Australia, they are recognized to have less waste than uranium reactors, and do not have the capacity to produce weapons. Spokesperson for SDH and the Australian/ Czech consortium, Phil Joyce, …

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Iranian uranium conversion facility has exploded

the Australian – An Iranian nuclear facility has been hit by a huge explosion, the second such blast in a month, prompting speculation that Tehran’s military and atomic sites are under attack. Satellite imagery seen by The Times of London confirmed that a blast that rocked the city of Isfahan on Monday struck the uranium …

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Clinical trial for muscular dystrophy demonstrates safety of customized gene therapy

Clinical trial for muscular dystrophy demonstrates safety of customized gene therapy. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that it is safe to cut and paste together different viruses in an effort to create the ultimate vehicle for gene therapy. In a phase I clinical trial, the investigators found no …

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Gene therapy turns muscles into HIV antibody factories

David Baltimore of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, and colleagues have a new approach that is part vaccine, part gene therapy. They turn muscles into factories that churn out potent antibodies against HIV. Because muscle isn’t on HIV’s hitlist, it will continue to generate antibodies even after an HIV infection, making the …

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Nvidia Mobile Head Phil Carmack talks about Augmented Reality

EEtimes interviewed Phil Carmack. The term “augmented reality” has been overused, but we were by far the first to show it using a Tegra 1 in 2008. Basically its computer vision coupled with other capabilities. You will want your mobile computer to recognize you and your environment and to replicate you and your world–you want …

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Six Central banks provide cheap loans to shore up financial system and China eases reserve requirements

1. Wall Street Journal – The U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank launched a joint action to provide cheap, emergency U.S. dollar loans to banks in Europe and elsewhere, a sign of growing alarm among policy makers …

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