January 21, 2013

New storage nanoparticle could make hydrogen a practical fuel

University of New South Wales researchers have demonstrated that hydrogen can be released and reabsorbed from sodium borohydride, a promising storage material, overcoming a major hurdle to i

A diagram of the nanoparticle, with sodium borohydride encased in nickel, and a TEM image of the particles (credit: University of New South Wales)

ts use as an alternative fuel source.

Considered a major a fuel of the future, hydrogen could be used to power buildings, portable electronics and vehicles — but this application hinges on practical storage technology.

The researchers synthesized nanoparticles of sodium borohydride and encased these inside nickel shells.

Their unique “core-shell” nanostructure demonstrated remarkable hydrogen storage properties, including the release of energy at much lower temperatures than previously observed.

“No one has ever tried to synthesize these particles at the nanoscale because they thought it was too difficult, and couldn’t be done. We’re the first to do so, and demonstrate that energy in the form of hydrogen can be stored with sodium borohydride at practical temperatures and pressures,” says Dr Kondo-Francois Aguey-Zinsou from the School of Chemical Engineering at UNSW.

Lightweight compounds known as borohydrides (including lithium and sodium compounds) are known to be effective storage materials, but it was believed that once the energy was released it could not be reabsorbed — a critical limitation. This perceived “irreversibility” means there has been little focus on sodium borohydride.

“By controlling the size and architecture of these structures we can tune their properties and make them reversible — this means they can release and reabsorb hydrogen,” says Aguey-Zinsou. “We now have a way to tap into all these borohydride materials, which are particularly exciting for application on vehicles because of their high hydrogen storage capacity.”

In its bulk form, sodium borohydride requires temperatures above 550 degrees Celsius just to release hydrogen. However, with the core-shell nanostructure, the researchers saw initial energy release happening at just 50 °C, and significant release at 350 °C.

“The new materials that could be generated by this exciting strategy could provide practical solutions to meet many of the energy targets set by the U.S. Department of Energy,” says Aguey-Zinsou.

Myriad Genetics BRCA1 and BRCA2 patents upheld in court

Originally posted by bbc.co.uk on August 17, 2012

A court in the US has again backed a biotech company’s right to patent genes which have been isolated from the human body.

Myriad Genetics has patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are strongly linked to breast and ovarian cancer.

Patents on genes have been repeatedly contested in the courts.

The latest decision by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals sided in favour of the company.

The patents are valuable as they give the owners exclusive rights to diagnostic tests for the genes. One of the questions in the case was whether isolating a gene makes it different to one still in the body.

Circuit Judge Alan Lourie said: “Everything and everyone comes from nature, following its laws, but the compositions here are not natural products.

“They are the products of man, albeit following, as all materials do, laws of nature.”

The decision was welcomed in a statement from the president of Myriad Genetics Peter Meldrum: “We are very pleased with the favourable decision the court rendered today which again confirmed that isolated DNA is patentable.

“Importantly, the court agreed with Myriad that isolated DNA is a new chemical matter with important utilities which can only exist as the product of human ingenuity.”

However the American Civil Liberties Union, which contested the patents, argued: “Human DNA is a natural entity like air or water. It does not belong to any one company.

“This ruling prevents doctors and scientists from exchanging their ideas and research freely.”

Structure of the BRCA1 protein - Credit: emw/creative commons

Original source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19294050

First ever computer model of a living organism performed

In what can only be described as a milestone in biological and genetic engineering, scientists at Stanford University have, for the first time ever, simulated a complete bacterium. With the organism completely in virtual form, the scientists can perform any kind of modification on its genome and observe extremely quickly what kind of changes would occur in the organism. This means that in the future, current lab research that takes extremely long to perform or is hazardous in nature (dealing with lethal strains of viruses for instance), could be moved almost exclusively to a computer.

The researchers chose a pathogen called Mycoplasma genitalium as their target for modeling, out of practical reasons. For one, the bacterium is implicated in a number of urethral and vaginal infections, like its name might imply as well, however this is of little importance. The bacterium distinguishes itself by having the smallest genome of any free-living organism, with just 525 genes. In comparison, the ever popular lab pathogen, E. coli has 4288 genes.

Don’t be fooled, however. Even though this bacterium has the smallest amount of genetic data that we know of, it still required a tremendous amount of research work from behalf of the team. For one, data from more than 900 scientific papers and 1,900 experiments concerning the pathogen’s behavior, genetics, molecular interactions and so on, were incorporated in the software simulation. Then, the 525 genes were described by 28 algorithms, each governing the behaviour of a software module modelling a different biological process.

“These modules then communicated with each other after every time step, making for a unified whole that closely matched M. genitalium‘s real-world behaviour,” claims the Stanford team in a statement.

Thus, even for an organism of its size, it takes that much information to account for every interaction it will undergo in its lifespan. The simulation work was made using a 128-node computing cluster, and, even so, a single cell division takes about 10 hours to simulate, and generates half a gigabyte of data. By adding more computing power, the computing process can be shortened, however its pretty clear that for more complex organisms, much more resources might be required.

“You don’t really understand how something works until you can reproduce it yourself,” says graduate student and team member Jayodita Sanghvi.

BIG LEAP FORWARD FOR GENETIC ENGINEERING AND CAD

Emulating for the first time a living organisms is fantastic by itself, and is sure to set the ground for the development of Bio-CAD (computer-aided-design). CAD is primarily used in engineering, be it aeronautic, civil, mechanical, electrical and so on, and along the years has become indispensable, not only in the design process, but more importantly in the innovation process. For instance, by replacing the insulating material for a boiler in CAD, the software will imediately tell the engineer how this will affect its performance, all without having to actually build and test it. Similarly, scientists hope to achieve a similar amount of control from bio-CAD as well. The problem is that biological organisms need to be fully described into the software for bio-CAD to become lucrative and accurate.

“If you use a model to guide your experiments, you’re going to discover things faster. We’ve shown that time and time again,” said team leader and Stanford professor Markus Covert.

We’d love to see this research expanded forward, which most likely will happen, but we’re still a long way from modeling a human – about 20,000 genes short.

The findings were presented in the journal Cell.

Sources:

https://www.zmescience.com/medicine/genetic/computer-model-simulation-bacteria-31243/

https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/07/first-organism-fully-modelled.html

https://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674%2812%2900776-3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_coli

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoplasma_genitalium

Max Igan’s Trance-Formation (Full)

Full film available for download at:
https://thecrowhouse.com
IP: https://67.20.81.143
from May 15th 2012

“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves and the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem. - Howard Zinn

Universal Law trumps all others.

1. No man or woman, in or out of government shall initiate force, threat of force or fraud against my life and property and, any and all contracts I am a party to, not giving full disclosure to me, whether signed by me or not, are void at my discretion.

2. I may use force in self-defense against anyone that violates Law 1.

3. There shall be no exceptions to Law 1 and 2.

Navy builds 50,000 square foot lab to simulate desert, jungle to test military robots

By Kurzweil AI on April 9, 2012

The 50,000 square foot

Tropical High Bay at NRL's Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research is a 60' by 40' greenhouse that contains a re-creation of a southeast Asian rain forest (credit: NRL)

Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research (LASR) at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. is a real-world testing lab for robots, where they’ll be tested in sandstorms, jungle humidity, and water.

It can be used for small autonomous air vehicles, autonomous ground vehicles, and the people who will interact with them. A motion capture video system allows engineers to track up to 50 objects and gather high-accuracy ground truth data of all positions of these tracked objects.

The facility includes four human-systems interaction labs that can be used as control rooms for human-subject experiments, or for development of autonomy software.

An audio system allows for injecting directional sound into the environment, such as the sound of troops marching or environmental background noises.

The labs also contain eye trackers (useful for studying how people work with advanced interfaces for autonomous systems) and multi-user/multi-touch displays.

Sounds like a great place to test those taco-delivery drones. — Ed.

Source: https://www.kurzweilai.net/navy-builds-50000-square-foot-lab-to-simulate-desert-jungle-to-test-military-robots

‘Genius’ computer with an IQ of 150 is ‘more intelligent’ than 96 per cent of humans

By Rob Waugh on February 17, 2012

  • Software uses mixture of logic and ‘human-like’ thinking
  • Score is classified as ‘genius’
  • It could ‘spot patterns’ in financial data

A computer has become the first to be classed as a ‘genius’ after scoring 150 in an IQ test.

The average score for people is 100. A score of 150 ranks the artificial intelligence programme among the top four per cent of humans.

The programme uses a mixture of mathematical logic and ‘human-like’ thinking, enabling it to outperform previous software on IQ tests.

Artificial intelligence? The high-IQ software uses a mix of computer logic and 'human like' thinking to achieve higher scores than previous software

Even advanced maths programmes usually score below 100.

The software was designed by a team led by researcher Claes Strannegård at the University of Gothenburg. His aim was to make a programme that ‘thinks’ like a person.

‘We’re trying to make programmes that can discover the same types of patterns that humans can see,’ he says.

IQ tests are based on two types of problems - seeing visual patterns and guessing number sequences.

The Swedish research group believes that number sequence problems are only partly mathematics – psychology is important too.

Strannegård says ‘One, two - what comes next? Most people would say 3, but it could also be a repeating sequence like 1, 2, 1 or a doubling sequence like 1, 2, 4. Neither of these alternatives is more mathematically correct than the others. What it comes down to is that most people have learned the 1-2-3 pattern.’

he group is therefore using a psychological model of human patterns in their software.

They have integrated a mathematical model that models human-like The group has improved the programme that specialises in number sequences to the point where its score implies an IQ of at least 150.

‘Our programmes are beating the conventional math programmes because we are combining mathematics and psychology.’

The programme’s ‘human-like’ thinking could have uses outside IQ tests. It can spot ‘patterns’ in any information that has a human component, such as financial data.

‘Our method can potentially be used to identify patterns in any data with a psychological component, such as financial data. But it is not as good at finding patterns in more science-type data, such as weather data, since then the human psyche is not involved,’ says Strannegård.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2102577/A-genius-born-New-programme-intelligent-96-cent-humans-IQ-150.html

DNA nanorobots deliver ‘suicide’ messages to cancer cells, other diseases

By Kurzweil AI on February 17, 2012

Researchers at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed

Gated Nanorobot

Hinged nanorobot opens when target molecules are sensed

a nanorobotic device made from DNA that could potentially seek out specific cell targets within a complex mixture of cell types and deliver important molecular instructions, such as telling cancer cells to self-destruct.

Inspired by the mechanics of the body’s own immune system, the technology might one day be used to program immune responses to treat various diseases.

Using the DNA origami method (complex 3-D shapes and objects are constructed by folding strands of DNA), the researchers created a nanosize robot in the form of an open barrel whose two halves are connected by a hinge.

Recognition molecules

The nanorobot’s DNA barrel acts as a container that can hold various types of contents, including specific molecules with encoded instructions that can interact with specific signaling receptors on cell surfaces, including disease markers.

The barrel is normally held shut by special DNA latches. But when the latches find their targets, they reconfigure, causing the two halves of the barrel to swing open and expose its contents, or payload.

Programming cancer-cell suicide

The researchers used this system to deliver instructions, encoded in antibody fragments, to two different types of cancer cells — leukemia and lymphoma.

Schematic front orthographic view of DNA barrel of closed nanorobot loaded with a protein payload. Two DNA-aptamer locks fasten the front of the device on the left (boxed) and right.

In each case, the message to the cell was: activate your apoptosis or “suicide switch” — which allows aging or abnormal cells to be eliminated.

This programmable nanotherapeutic approach was modeled on the body’s own immune system, in which white blood cells patrol the bloodstream for any signs of trouble.

These infection fighters are able to home in on specific cells in distress, bind to them, and transmit comprehensible signals to direct them to self-destruct. This programmable power means the system has the potential to one day be used to treat a variety of diseases.

Integrating sensing and logical computing functions

“We can finally integrate sensing and logical computing functions via complex,

Aptamer lock mechanism, consisting of a DNA aptamer (blue) and a partially complementary strand (orange).

yet predictable, nanostructures — some of the first hybrids of structural DNA, antibodies, aptamers, and metal atomic clusters — aimed at useful, very specific targeting of human cancers and T-cells,” said George Church, a Wyss core faculty member and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, who is principal investigator on the project.

Because DNA is a natural biocompatible and biodegradable material, DNA nanotechnology is widely recognized for its potential as a delivery mechanism for drugs and molecular signals.

There have been significant challenges to its implementation, such as what type of structure to create; how to open, close,

and reopen that structure to insert, transport, and deliver a payload; and how to program this type of nanoscale robot.

By combining several novel elements for the first time, the new system represents a significant advance in overcoming these implementation obstacles.

For instance, because the barrel-shaped structure has no top or bottom lids, the payloads can be loaded from the side in a single step — without having to open the structure first and then re-close it.

Also, while other systems use release mechanisms that respond to DNA or RNA, the novel mechanism used here responds to proteins, which are more commonly found on cell surfaces and are largely responsible for transmembrane signaling in cells.

This is the first DNA-origami-based system that uses antibody fragments to convey molecular messages

Payloads such as gold nanoparticles (gold) and antibody fragments (magenta) can be loaded inside the nanorobot

— a feature that offers a controlled and programmable way to replicate an immune response or develop new types of targeted therapies.

“This work represents a major breakthrough in the field of nanobiotechnology as it demonstrates the ability to leverage recent advances in the field of DNA origami pioneered by researchers around the world, including the Wyss Institute’s own William Shih, to meet a real-world challenge, namely killing cancer cells with high specificity,” said Wyss Institute Founding Director Donald Ingber.

Ingber is also the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and the Vascular Biology Program at Children’s Hospital Boston, and professor of bioengineering at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “This focus on translating technologies from the laboratory into transformative products and therapies is what the Wyss Institute is all about.”

Ref.: Shawn M. Douglas, Ido Bachelet, George M. Church, A Logic-Gated Nanorobot for Targeted Transport of Molecular Payloads, Science, 2012 [DOI:10.1126/science.1214081]

Credit for images: Shawn M. Douglas et al./Science

Source: https://www.kurzweilai.net/dna-nanorobots-deliver-suicide-messages-to-cancer-cells-other-diseases

Western Elite Wages Info-War to Justify Syria Invasion?

By Prof. Igor Panarin

Escalating tensions surrounding Syria are preparation for aggression. Writer and political scientist Igor Panarin believes that part of the British-American and Israeli elite is waging an information war to justify a military invasion of Syria.

In the article below, Panarin explains his view.

The mass protests that broke out in a number of Arab countries in 2011 were orchestrated from London, which essentially became their coordination center. The BBC and Qatar’s supposedly-independent Al-Jazeera channel (which in reality is ideologically controlled by a part of the British-American elite) led the way in providing media support.

For instance, the BBC reports that an independent commission of UN human rights experts accused Syrian authorities of committing crimes against humanity as they dispersed anti-government protests. But French journalist Thierry Meyssan found out that the commission clearly fabricated the evidence they used in their investigation. For instance, according to the UN commission, Syrian security forces killed over 3,500 peaceful protesters.

But the figure is hardly credible, as it comes from a mysterious London-based human rights organization called Observatoire Syrien des Droits de l’Homme (OSDH) [Syrian Observatory of Human Rights – RT]. According to Meyssan, many of the 3,500 protesters supposedly killed by Syrian security forces are in fact alive and well. Their names, distributed by the OSDH, were in fact taken from the phonebook. Meyssan says an information war is being waged against Syria and that at least some of the footage distributed by Al-Jazeera is produced in special studios that reproduce the main squares of Syria’s major cities. The same trick was used with Libya, when the footage of street fighting in Tripoli on August 23, 2011, was actually shot in Qatari studios, which opened a new chapter in information warfare.

The Syrian government recently banned iPhones to stop the propagation of lies among protesters. Some of the protesters still use banned smartphones to disseminate false reports, announce protest rallies and distribute anti-government materials using the “Syria Alone” application. The application, launched on November 18, was developed by British and US experts specifically to help the opposition coordinate their protests. Information warfare specialists use Syria Alone to publish anti-government materials and criticize the work of law enforcers. The Syrian authorities believe that by banning the iPhone they can stop misinformation from spreading. In addition to the US and the EU, the anti-Syrian coalition now includes the Arab League, which recently expelled Damascus and then introduced tough sanctions against Syria.

A part of the British-American elite is playing the leading role in media campaign against Syria, which is no surprise after their success in Libya, where their media attacks preceded NATO’s direct military intervention. A similar strategy is now used against Syria.

For instance, the decision to suspend Syria’s membership in the Arab League leads to further international isolation, which is clearly what the West wants to achieve. The Arab League first took a similar decision regarding Libya in late February, and then it recognized the NATO-backed Transitional National Council as the only legitimate body representing the people of Libya, in August. In other words, what we see today is the same scenario being reproduced in Syria, with the Western multinational elite launching a media attack against that country.

The Syrian army and police are facing a strong opponent, including foreign mercenaries. According to some sources, there are around 10,000 of them, mainly from Arab countries and Pakistan and Pashtuns from Afghanistan.

Russia’s approach to the conflict in Syria radically differs from that of the United States and its allies. The Kremlin vetoed the UN Security Council resolution, which would have made it possible to repeat the Libyan scenario in Syria. Moscow is doing its best to avoid the escalation of the conflict, to prevent military intervention (among other things, by sending an aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean) and to establish a constructive peaceful dialogue.

 

Source: https://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28209

Brain Imaging Could Pick Out Benefits Cheats

By

Certain areas of the brain light up when we are in pain, meaning imaging techniques could soon be used to determine whether people are genuinely unfit for work or merely malingering, experts said.

Our understanding of how the brain works has come so far that detailed scans could also be used by judges to compile “risk assessments” for reoffending when sentencing criminals, or by parole boards.

Researchers led by Prof Nicholas Mackintosh of Cambridge University said brain imaging technology is not quite sophisticated enough for these purposes but could soon be fit for use.

But it would be dangerous to bring such techniques into the courtroom as a “lie detector” because the technology is easy to trick and juries may be too easily influenced by the evidence, they added in a new report,Brain Waves Module 4: Neuroscience and the Law.

Prof Mackintosh said that if a person has a particular brain characteristic or gene linked to criminal behaviour it “does not force you to behave in a criminal way [but] it may increase the probability.”

He said: “I would be surprised if in five years there were any colossal changes but I think certainly in 25 years we might see serious change.

“Decisions on parole … and decisions on whether someone is subject to an indeterminate sentence for public protection are areas where it is all about assessing probability, so it might be brought in a bit sooner.”

Certain studies also suggest that the age of criminal responsibility in Britain – ten years – could be too low, he added.

Recent research has shown that parts of our brain circuitry relating to behaviour do not fully develop until at least the age of 20, he said.

 

Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8951548/Brain-imaging-could-pick-out-benefits-cheats.html

What Facebook Knows About You

A couple of months ago the Austrian law student Max Schrems asked facebook to send him all their data stored about him.

All Europeans have a right to do this. Because facebook is based in Dublin, Ireland, it took a while before Facebook sent Max a CD with 1222 PDF files.

Read more at: https://www.taz.de/facebook-en