Two movies set in the Babylon 5 universe will be sold on DVD and are filming now. There were originally three mini-movies featuring Sheridan, Lochley, Galen and Garibaldi. However, the Garibaldi one has been pushed to the next DVD (assuming sales are good for this one). The effects and the look of the shows will …
Rice University chemists today revealed the first method for cutting carbon nanotubes into “seeds” and using those seeds to sprout new nanotubes. The findings offer hope that seeded growth may one day produce the large quantities of pure nanotubes needed for dozens of materials applications. There are dozens of types of SWNTs, each with a …
Resveratrol helps protect against the diseases of obesity and at higher doses helps to double endurance in mice Dr. Sinclair dosed his mice daily with 22 milligrams of resveratrol for each kilogram of weight to protect them from the diseases of obesity. For an 80 kilogram man that would be 1.7 grams per day. Currently …
8 web page article that tracks the history, hurdles and promise of gene therapy from decades past to the slow steady progress of today Several areas of progress are converging to realize the dream of control of our genes and bodies proteins. 1. Better microscopic and nanoscale tools for imaging and tracking what is happening …
Optical interferometry has been used to see better for astronomy to spot planets around stars. It has now been applied to seeing the activity and structure of living cells at the nanometer scale A research group in the MIT Spectroscopy Lab, led by postdoctoral associate Christopher Fang-Yen, is using optical interferometry to watch the activity …
From new scientist magazine, RNA activation is a new technique that boosts gene activity, providing a genetic “on” switch. RNAi can silence genes in two ways. It can block the messenger RNA that is the intermediate between gene and protein and it can also interfere with “promoter” sequences that boost a gene’s activity. It was …
Improvements using rows of silver nanorods enhances the signal from a technique, called surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) so that individual viruses can be rapidly identified SERS works by measuring the change in frequency of a near-infrared laser as it scatters off viral DNA or RNA. This change in frequency, named the Raman shift for …
In New Scientist magazine, they have forecasts for the next 50 years. Several of the forecasts involve discovering alien life or the remains of alien life and several forecast breakthroughs in understanding the workings of the brain and mind Here are the ones I agree with or find interesting. The forecasts I agree with tend …
nanowires coated with diamond can be up to 100 times better at carrying electric current than bare nanowires at very low temperatures, and two times better at room temperature. This improvement is determined by a property known as electron mobility. The diamond-coating technique suggested by Balandin and Fonoberov enhances electron mobility in a very different …
DARPA is fuding a short wave infrared video that are heavy as two quarters — about 10 grams — and able to pick out child-sized targets from 100 meters away. They would be mounted on helmets or small drones and use less than 200 milliwatts of power. The agency wants an entire featherweight imaging system …
A group of students at Harvard University have constructed 30 nanometers in diameter DNA containers. The DNA barrels could one day be used to deliver drugs or gene or protein-based therapies to specific tissues in the body. While DNA architecture previously took years to design and construct, a method developed earlier this year provides a …