When people get a cold or the flu, they tend to experience a lack of energy. But what if viruses could actually generate energy — not to power your body, but to charge your electronic devices?

That's the idea behind a new electric generator developed by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The scientists coated a postage-stamp-sized electrode with specially engineered, harmless viruses that, when tapped, generated enough electricity to power a small LCD display. Their research was published online May 13 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

The scientists are exploiting a principle known as piezoelectricity — the generation of energy through mechanical stress, specifically pressure or vibrations. Piezoelectricity was first identified more than 130 years ago and is used in many common devices, but this is the first time that it has been generated by biological materials. The piezoelectric devices that are currently on the market rely upon toxic materials such as lead and lithium.

According to Berkeley Lab, this discovery could lead to innovations like tiny electric generators you could place in your shoes that would help charge your cell phone or other electronic devices with every step you take. Similarly, piezoelectric generators placed on stairs could help power lights and other nearby electronics.

"More research is needed, but our work is a promising first step toward the development of personal power generators, actuators for use in nano-devices, and other devices based on viral electronics," corresponding author Seung-Wuk Lee said in a prepared statement.

In looking for a way to eliminate the need for toxic substances in piezoelectric devices, the scientists turned to a biological solution. They used a genetically engineered variant of the M13 bacteriophage virus, which is harmless to humans (it only infects bacteria) and is also used in labs in recombinant DNA processes. The M13 virus self-replicates millions of times over the course of just a few hours, so it is plentiful enough and sustainable for piezoelectric applications.

The scientists had already studied the unmodified M13 virus and observed minor levels of the piezoelectric effect. In order to boost the voltage the virus generates, the scientists genetically modified it by adding four negatively charged amino acids to one of the virus's proteins.

The resulting viruses, when coated on the electrode, didn't generate a huge amount of electricity — just six nanoamperes, the equivalent of about one-quarter the volage supplied by a AAA battery — but it was a start.

"We're now working on ways to improve on this proof-of-principle demonstration," Lee said. "Because the tools of biotechnology enable large-scale production of genetically modified viruses, piezoelectric materials based on viruses could offer a simple route to novel microelectronics in the future."

source: Mother Nature network
article abstract at Nature Nanotechnology

Watch Downloadable Gun Parts,Bioterror: the Downside of Innovation on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

TRANSCRIPT
JEFFREY BROWN: And now part two in our series on using technology to make the world a better place.

That's the goal of Singularity University, a futuristic think tank in California.

NewsHour economics correspondent Paul Solman recently attended a conference there and reported on some of the mind-bending research being explored.

Tonight, Paul looks at the downside of the high-tech revolution. It's part of ongoing reporting Making Sense of financial news.

PAUL SOLMAN: At a recent conference filled with the wonders of new technology, one presenter's vision of the future was downright frightening.

MARC GOODMAN, Singularity University: There are two million unique computer viruses that are generated every month.

"Today, we say 'there's an app for that.' Now imagine if these were viruses each made for an individual cancer, and they were available for free or 99 cents. That's where we're going."
- Andrew Hessel, Singularity University
PAUL SOLMAN: Marc Goodman is a former cop who ran the Los Angeles Police Department's Internet Crimes Unit.

MARC GOODMAN: Never before in the history of humankind has it been possible for one person to rob 100 million people.
( Read more... )
source: PBS Newshour

Light from an alien "super-Earth" twice the size of our own Earth has been detected by a NASA space telescope for the first time in what astronomers are calling a historic achievement.

NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope spotted light from the alien planet 55 Cancri e, which orbits a star 41 light-years from Earth. A day on the extrasolar planet lasts just 18 hours.

The planet 55 Cancri e was first discovered in 2004 and is not a habitable world. Instead, it is known as a super-Earth because of its size: The world is about twice the width of Earth and is super-dense, with about eight times the mass of Earth.

But until now, scientists have never managed to detect the infrared light from the super-Earth world.

"Spitzer has amazed us yet again," said Spitzer program scientist Bill Danch of NASA headquarters in Washington in a statement today (May 8). "The spacecraft is pioneering the study of atmospheres of distant planets and paving the way for NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to apply a similar technique on potentially habitable planets."
( Alien planets await... )

SOURCE

Scientists at the UK’s Liverpool John Moores University believe that methane gas emitted by sauropod dinosaurs may have had a major effect on the Mesozoic climate. Yes, this is basically a study on dinosaur farts.

Sauropods like Diplodocus, which lived 150 million years ago, probably generated methane in the same way modern cows do. The biggest difference, of course, is that a cow doesn’t weigh 45 tons.

“A simple mathematical model suggests that the microbes living in sauropod dinosaurs may have produced enough methane to have an important effect on the Mesozoic climate,” said Dave Wilkinson, the lead author of the study, published in Current Biology.

The study estimates that dinosaur-produced accounted for 472 million tons of methane emissions per year, which is about the same as the total of natural and man-made emissions today. Modern ruminant animals, including cows and giraffes, only account for 45 to 90 tons of that methane.

Those emissions, combined with forest fires and naturally-occurring gasfields, could have contributed to sustained warm climates throughout the Mesozoic.

source

Scientists have discovered skeletons in the cyanobacterial closet. A never-before-seen species of cyanobacterium loads its cells with little bonelike lumps that may act as ballast, helping to anchor the beastie in its home waters of a Mexican lake. The discovery, described in the April 27 Science, is the first report of such a microbe creating calcified structures inside its cells, rather than externally.

Scientists aren’t sure what to make of the discovery. Related cyanobacteria play a major role in the planet’s geochemical cycles. “It’s interesting and opens up possibilities we hadn’t thought about before,” says Robert Riding of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, who wrote a comment on the research in the same issue of Science. Because the microbe is the first of its kind, and so far, has been found in only one place, “it’s difficult to know where it will lead,” Riding says.

Geobiologist Karim Benzerara and his colleagues were investigating Lake Alchichica’s stromatolites, knobby pillars of sediment and microbes that can form in shallow waters. The researchers cultivated slimy films of the microbes in a lab aquarium. Looking at the slime under a microscope, the team saw that some cells looked like they were filled with little pearl-like granules. “That’s when we figured out that there was something special,” says Benzerara of the CNRS Institute of Mineralogy and Physics of Condensed Matter in Paris.

The granules are an unusual mixture of calcium, strontium, barium, magnesium and carbonate. Because the ratios of these ingredients aren’t the same in the granules as in the surrounding water, the researchers suspect that the cyanobacteria have some control over formation of the lumps and are actively transporting some of the ingredients into their cells. While the lumps occupy only about 6 percent of a cell, they change the microbe’s density, increasing it by 12 percent. This might help the microbes move from the water column to the surface of an underwater rock or stromatolite, the researchers speculate.

Even more intriguing is what the microbes might have been doing during Earth’s history, says geomicrobiologist Clara Chan of the University of Delaware in Newark. The new species is a type of cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) known for making Earth’s atmosphere more breathable. “Cyanobacteria are really the movers and shakers of the Earth,” says Chan. “They were a major source of oxygen.”

Long before land plants were around, ocean-dwelling cyanobacteria were oxygenating the atmosphere, notes Chan. And when ocean chemistry favored the precipitation of minerals out of solution, calcified crystals formed on the outside of the cells of many of these cyanobacteria as a byproduct of photosynthesis. There’s good evidence of these calcified structures in the fossil record from about 1.2 billion years ago to 100 million years ago. Beyond 1.2 billion years ago, the record is much spottier, even though cyanobacteria are thought to have existed for the past 2.7 billion years.

The new species, called Candidatus Gloeomargarita lithophora, may help explain the gaps in the record. A genetic analysis by Benzerara and his colleagues suggests that the species is part of an ancient lineage of cyanobacteria, the Gloeobacterales. If back in the day, related species created internal granules, rather than external shell-like structures, perhaps the granules wouldn’t show up in the fossil record. The researchers don’t yet know whether the granules dissolve or leave a trace after the cyanobacterium dies.

source

Self-replicating robots could be the solution to making first contact with an alien civilization.


These proposed exobots could efficiently explore our local galactic neighborhood and help locate any extraterrestrials that may be sending radio signals in our direction.

After 50 years of searching the heavens with radio telescopes and coming up empty, the SETI Institute's search for extraterrestrial intelligence may need an extra robotic boost.

In the current issue of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, John D. Mathews, a Penn State University professor of electrical engineering, offers his vision of a future populated by helpful and cost-effective exobots.

"It's extremely expensive to put humans in space," Mathews told The Huffington Post. "It's relatively cheap to put robotic vehicles in space. It's the path I started exploring and realized along the way that maybe we've elevated ET to this sort of god-like creature with amazing technology, and maybe that's not true -- maybe that's why we haven't found ET."

Mathews suggests that extraterrestrials may be traveling the same path to the stars as humans are, sending robots instead of living beings.

"If we explore our solar system, we'll use robots first," he said. "Humans may follow, and we can't launch everything from Earth because of the cost. We need to have robots reproduce themselves. Furthermore, they would communicate using very narrow-beam laser systems. If ET is doing that, it makes them very difficult for us to see, except by accident."

NASA took its first step in using humanoid robots in space last year when Robonaut 2 hitched a ride to the International Space Station on board one of the final space shuttle missions.

R2 was created to help with specific tasks, and with many more robots planned for future space endeavors, it's a natural leap to have robots help make that first contact with an alien civilization.

But there are still some who oppose reaching out to ETs.

In 2010, famed British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said he believed aliens are out there, but cautioned against trying to make contact with them, fearing it might turn out very badly for Earth.

"Hawking is concerned about the possibility of betraying our presence, that, if they were to come here, it might not be good for us," said Seth Shostak, senior SETI astronomer. "It's hard for me to believe that they actually have (hostile) intentions on us," he added.

Shostak told AOL News that the search for aliens is like listening to a radio station: "When you tune in your favorite DJ, he doesn't know you've tuned him in, so there's no danger in SETI."

Mathews agrees that there's probably nothing to worry about if aliens pick up on any signals humans send into deep space.

"Unless there's a way around the limitation of the speed of light, it's very difficult for me to see why anyone -- why ETs -- would want to come to Earth in robotic form to do any harm. The barrier is immense, but if there's a way around the speed of light, all bets are off."

Check out this SETI video:



The Penn State engineering professor would like to see humans go back to the moon to establish a robotic factory. From there, he envisions sending exobots to asteroids to monitor the many large space rocks that pose potential threats as their orbits sometimes bring them close to Earth.

These exobots could aid the search for alien signals and might eventually intercept one from an extraterrestrial robot coming toward Earth. "As we go out into the solar system, we might actually find that ET is already here in the form of robots," Mathews said.

"We need to make decisions on what we will do when approached or when we discover that we're not alone, because I firmly believe we are not alone."

source: Huffington post

Sometimes, quitting can be hard work—especially if you have an alcohol dependency. Now, however, it could be a whole lot easier: France has just cleared a new anti-alcoholism drug for use by its nation of claret swillers.

Originally designed to treat nervous spasms, Baclofen—which goes by the trade names Kemstro, Lioresal and Gablofen—hasn't been shown to be definitively efficient in all cases of alcoholism, but it has been seen to provide "clinical benefits in some patients". In France, that's enough to sign it off for use in patients on a case-by-case basis, reports Medical Express.

Amazingly, the idea of using the drug as an alcoholism treatment came into being in 2008, when a French cardiologist called Olivier Ameisen wrote in a book called The End of My Addiction about how he treated his own drinking with high doses of the drug.

In a small trial conducted with 132 heavy drinkers, Baclofen succeeded in making 80 per cent either become abstinent or moderate drinkers. By comparison, the best any other anti-alcoholism drug has ever managed is 20-25 percent.

Sadly, there is a downside, and in this case it's side effects. Those taking the drug can expect side effects included fatigue, drowsiness, insomnia, dizziness and digestive troubles. Still, better than cirrhosis, right?
SOURCE

Scientists make 'sonic screwdriver'

A team of scientists has taken inspiration from Doctor Who and created their own "sonic screwdriver" that could be used in complex surgeries.

Physicists at the University of Dundee used equipment designed for MRI-guided ultrasound surgery and created a tool that can lift and spin a 10cm rubber disk with an ultrasound beam.

The team said the beam carries momentum that can push an object in its path and can cause the object to rotate when shaped like a helix or vortex.

( Well, I've got a banana and in a pinch you could put up some shelves... )

Source was bored, having a long night, and had some cabinets to put up.

Scientists Say Blood Test Can Tell Difference Between Depression, Anxiety in Teens
By Kathleen Doheny



April 17, 2012 -- Scientists have developed a blood test that may help diagnose major depression in teens and young adults.

The test is in very early stages. However, scientists hope it will someday make diagnosing depression more objective for teens.

"The bottom line is that a test is possible from blood that can differentiate teens with major depression from those who do not have it," says scientist Eva Redei, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

The findings are published in Translational Psychiatry.

It's crucial to point out that the study is very preliminary and not ready for clinical use, says Alexander B. Niculescu III, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and medical neuroscience at Indiana University School of Medicine. He is also researching blood tests for depression and other mood disorders.

( Read more... )

Source