March 2012
83 posts
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“It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours… in the labor of calculation which...”
– ~Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz (1646-1716)
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High-Speed Drug Discovery: Nano-Printing Creates... →
A new way to print, and modify, nanoscale molecular samples could mean faster drug discovery and scientific experimentation. Combinatorial chemistry—exposing a huge array of slightly different molecules to sample in parallel—is an extremely fast way to screen drug molecules, or to test the way certain molecules affect biological cells. Researchers at the International Institute for Nanotechnology...
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A Neuroscientist's Quest to Reverse Engineer the... →
In brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, neurons degenerate and die. Autopsy reveals that something is visibly wrong with the brain. Yet for many mental disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia, a clear and consistent pathology of the brain has not been found. Why? Researchers have conjectured that the individual neurons are healthy, but they are connected with each...
Charlie Stross Debugs Pirate Bay's Low Orbit... →
Rather than looking up at the stars, I believe the Pirate Bay should be looking down at the sewers. Their robot minions would be better modelled on the humble sewer rat than on the soaring seagull.
In the city, you are never more than three metres away from a rat. They’re spectacularly successful. We’ve built them a wonderful habitat replete with high-speed autoroutes — storm drains...
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National Lab Fires Off Record Laser Shot →
On 15 March, the 192 laser beams of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, fired a record 1.875-megajoule shot into the laser’s target chamber, surpassing its 1.8-megajoule design specification. The shot, which was just a demonstration and did not incorporate a target, nonetheless represents a milepost in an effort to get past the...
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Researchers Working on Artificial Brain →
Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg have taken the first step in creating a three-dimensional model of the brain by attaching neurons to a positively charged nanocellulose scaffold.
The purpose is to understand Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease better, for example.
Nitrocellulose (microfibrillated cellulose) is obtained from plant...
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Ford Uses Virtual Reality to Accelerate Car Design... →
Designing a car can take years, but Ford has been able to cut the process in half, from six years to three years, by using virtual reality. “We are able to cheat reality,” says Elizabeth Baron, a VR technical specialist at Ford. She says virtual reality enables the automaker to do all kinds of tests in a short period of time, though there are limitations to the technology too.
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