New Car Concept – Genius
BMW GINA Light Visionary Model: Premiere – The only thing I have to say is that whoever thought of this should be a millionaire. Can you imagine cars with Louis Vutton skins? The opportunities are endless.
DARPA Develops Brain Chemical to Replace Sleep – Amazing is just the beginning, It was discovered that the deficiency of “Orexin A” (yes i know it sounds like some Sci-Fi character) causes narcolepsy in some people. Then the next step was to introduce this chemical into people to see what happened and voila, Sleep Gone! Yes as easy as that this nasal spray takes away the symptoms of sleep and it produces no effect on already awake people (because it is not an stimulant as caffeine). The future apparently will be like your light switch… one pill to go to sleep and another to wake up.
Recently CBS News on their broadcast 60 Minutes made an article about a new and extremely important subject; The Vanishing of the Bees (Colony Collapse Jeopardizing Beekeepers). You may think well what’s that got to do with me? (besides I hate bees…) Well, I could infuse you with a heavy dose of sarcasm but I guess I’ll stick to the facts. Around one third of all the food we consume daily is in fact thanks to the bees. They pollinate millions of crops from nuts to blueberries. The basic problem we are having (and this includes many other places like Puerto Rico and Europe) is that the bees are gone! No they haven’t met their creator they just vanished. Many theories are being thrown out there from pesticides (made from nicotine) to viruses and even the changing of the magnetic poles (they usually switch polarization every couple thousand years). Even “bee stress” has been thrown to the pot.
I won’t post the article here you can go to the CBS site and read it and even if you don’t read it please watch the video (see below), this is not just about higher honey prices its about everything else and their repercussion. Continue reading →
Maine Solar House: “Yep you heard it right its an actual functioning solar house that not only generates its own energy but whatever energy it produces in excess gets directed to the grid. This idea has always been on my mind I hope that in the future i can equip my house with solar electric and solar thermal panels (Hurricane resistant of course) to economize money and leave a smaller footprint (once a boy scout always a boy scout).
Classes give budding CSIs a reality check –: “Experts say curtailing some of the myths surrounding forensic science is becoming even more important because of what they call the CSI effect the shows are giving juries unrealistic expectations of what their local crime labs are capable of doing.” This is something we have talked and fear, the fact that people are starting to believe Crime Labs are as sophisticated and Fun as the ones we see on TV every week. This has been known as the “CSI Effect” affecting jurors and judges all over the country. I have to say that CSI is one of my Favorite TV Series but this new phenomenon is making me shaky. Just remember people that TV is TV and Real life Crimes don’t take 1 Hour to be solved.
Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Muscle Twitch Switch — Genetic finding could mean gain without pain: “In the battle against flab, who wouldn’t love an ‘exercise’ pill? Such a quick fix might someday possible: biomedical researchers have found a way to rev up the metabolic machinery and thereby keep excess weight off–using genetics instead of the gym.”
“Ok what should I do this morning… Do I take the sit-ups pill or the jogging pill today”. Like MS used to say “Where would you like to go today?”
Do we really need a pill to do the exercise we should be doing? This is either Marvelous or Depressing you read and decide, but IMHO this makes Richard Simmons and many Nutritionists cry.
NASA – Hypersonic X-43A Flight: “NASA’s X-43A Scramjet Breaks Speed Record”. This Nov 16 on the Pacific Ocean the X-43A Scramjet flew at MACH 10 that is at ten times the speed of sound (760 m/h). The most interesting part is that this rocket, instead of carrying liquid oxygen (as its oxidizer), takes the oxygen directly from the atmosphere. Finally some new stuff, I was getting bored by the same huge rockets attached to the “Space Shuttle” 😉 . For Video.
CNN.com – Researchers reconstruct 1918 virus: “Researchers reconstruct 1918 virus”. Scientists have made from scratch the Spanish flu virus that killed as many as 50 million people in 1918, the first time an infectious agent behind a historic pandemic has ever been reconstructed. Why did they do it? Researchers say it may help them better understand — and develop defenses against — the threat of a future worldwide epidemic from bird flu. The researchers also refined their focus on one gene, the HA gene, that encodes the hemagglutinin surface protein that help the virus attach to cells and multiply. The 1918 virus is deadly with the HA gene, but when the gene was replaced, it was not virulent, Tumpey said. The virus particles are being stored at the CDC, and there are no plans to send samples off campus, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, the agency’s director.
Computer Made from DNA and Enzymes: “Israeli scientists have devised a computer that can perform 330 trillion operations per second, more than 100,000 times the speed of the fastest PC. The secret: It runs on DNA.
A year ago, researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, unveiled a programmable molecular computing machine composed of enzymes and DNA molecules instead of silicon microchips. Now the team has gone one step further. In the new device, the single DNA molecule that provides the computer with the input data also provides all the necessary fuel.”
Biosingularity » Blog Archive » Newly discovered killer cell fights cancer: “A mouse immune cell that plays dual roles as both assassin and messenger, normally the job of two separate cells, has been discovered by an international team of researchers. The discovery has triggered a race among scientists to find a human equivalent of the multitasking cell, which could one day be a target for therapies that seek out and destroy cancer.”
Abe Diaz