Is this new? Oh, well, time to catch up with those forward thinkers at the Pentagon then. Surely govt intelligence uses these resources too - it cannot be news that strategic collecting of brainpower needs to look outside the Physics department, can it?

Here's something four-year-olds know: A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for. Those are things that make me believe that this is a one-way change. Because four year olds, the people who are soaking most deeply in the current environment, who won't have to go through the trauma that I have to go through of trying to unlearn a childhood spent watching Gilligan's Island, they just assume that media includes consuming, producing and sharing.

It's also become my motto, when people ask me what we're doing--and when I say "we" I mean the larger society trying to figure out how to deploy this cognitive surplus, but I also mean we, especially, the people in this room, the people who are working hammer and tongs at figuring out the next good idea. From now on, that's what I'm going to tell them: We're looking for the mouse. We're going to look at every place that a reader or a listener or a viewer or a user has been locked out, has been served up passive or a fixed or a canned experience, and ask ourselves, "If we carve out a little bit of the cognitive surplus and deploy it here, could we make a good thing happen?" And I'm betting the answer is yes.

 This is the wrap-up but the whole article is worth reading. It's about the way that society responds to cognitive surpluses created by innovation. He's got his cause and effect a bit mangled, I think, but it's an interesting viewpoint. His point is that when a technological or societal change occurs that frees up human capacity in some way, that capacity is absorbed at first in what might be seen as bad ways. In the 18th century as the industrial revolution created an unprecedented urban population boom in London, some of that brainpower was taken up by gin (see Hogarth pics etc) and the pursuit of gin and the recovery from gin and the procurement of yet more gin. In post-war America, the changes created by labour-saving devices and other tech innovations meant there was lots of excess thinking time and whitematter that went to, amongst other things, daytime TV. Shirky's first point is that this effect is happening again right now as IT picks up more human labour leaving us spinning our cognitive wheels again, and there is a cognitive surplus going begging (or being 'wasted' on MMORPGs etc). His second, and more interesting point, is that the quantity of cognitive surplus is simply *immense*. Wikipedia represents 100megahours of human effort - daytime TV is currently absorbing a hundred times that every year in the US alone. How can you access that potential? How can you deploy it? Who, apart from sitcoms and Wikipedia, is competing with you to deploy it? Why aren't you measuring your country's efficiency in those terms?

And, to hark back to the stuff about scientists using cognitive enhancement drugs, once you've figured out how to access it, how are you going to maintain or boost the supply?

Scientists like to low-ball their estimates. The now-famous IPCC scenarios for the effects of climate change are already known to be woefully, unrealistically conservative (Freeman Dyson's recent comments notwithstanding). Arctic changes expected 20 years from now are happening now, and in North America the beginning of spring has already been pushed back by two weeks, which is enough to play havoc with the fertility cycle of many migratory birds (among other consequences). The worst-case scenarios used in public debate ignore some extremely worrisome factors, such as the possible release of oceanic methane from clathrates. If we're going to deal with this problem, we have to do it now, as in, within the term of your next government.

The science journal Nature asked its readers to take an online survey of cognitive enhancing drug use. 1400 responded and 20% reported using drugs for brain enhancement with methylphenidate (Ritalin) the most popular followed by modafinil (Provigil to reduce sleepiness).

For those who choose to use, methylphenidate was the most popular: 62% of users reported taking it. 44% reported taking modafinil, and 15% said they had taken beta blockers such as propanolol, revealing an overlap between drugs. 80 respondents specified other drugs that they were taking. The most common of these was adderall, an amphetamine similar to methylphenidate. But there were also reports of centrophenoxine, piractem, dexedrine and various alternative medicines such as ginkgo and omega-3 fatty acids.

The most popular reason for taking the drugs was to improve concentration. Improving focus for a specific task (admittedly difficult to distinguish from concentration) ranked a close second and counteracting jet lag ranked fourth, behind 'other' which received a few interesting reasons, such as “party”, “house cleaning” and “to actually see if there was any validity to the afore-mentioned article”.

The propranolol (sold as Inderal) is a beta blocker which suppresses flight-or-flight stress reactions. Some musicians use beta blockers for performances. Though their primary use is to lower high blood pressure. It is also used in lower doses against anxiety.

The willingness of scientific researchers to use currently available drugs as cognitive enhancers suggests that these drugs might really work to improve mental performance. It also shows that these people who do competitive intellectually difficult work look for ways to get an edge.

Ritalin for faster computer chip design, less buggy software development, and more optimized mechanical designs? Ritalin for brainstorming marketing strategies? Anyone tried it for intellectual work?

The flippant question is: got a policy framework to fit this in? It seems to me that this is not the next big thing; it's *the* big thing (so big that it is already treated lightly, which is the tone I extract from the above and from the Nature article).

Bear with me on this. Consider: science or applied discovery or transformative research or any of those things are definitely positively correlated to some degree with economic success. Consider also that it is entirely plausible that cognitive enhancement of researchers via drugs such as Ritalin may be positively correlated to some degree with science quality or pace of innovative output or somesuch. Given those two correlations, what position should you advocate and what incentives are you creating vis-a-vis better-brains-through-drugs when you ask for economic transformation?

The above is a pretty argument but a little sophomoric/sophomoronic. Nevertheless, I think the Futurewatch work is seeking heads-up of what will be socially and scientifically relevant in 15y or so (i.e. if it's 1992 right now, what is this 'web' thingy?). Cognitive enhancement *is* going to be a more relevant argument by then. Trite analogy: the communist bloc countries in the 70s and 80s sought drug-fuelled prestige from the Olympics; in this century, cognitive boosters can give your country a more direct and sustained advantage.

Sewer-gas-induced suspended animation is rapid and reversible

Heart rate and metabolism drop, while blood pressure and oxygen levels maintained

Low doses of the toxic gas responsible for the unpleasant odor of rotten eggs can safely and reversibly depress both metabolism and aspects of cardiovascular function in mice, producing a suspended-animation-like state. In the April 2008 issue of the journal Anesthesiology, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) reseachers report that effects seen in earlier studies of hydrogen sulfide do not depend on a reduction in body temperature and include a substantial decrease in heart rate without a drop in blood pressure.

“Hydrogen sulfide is the stinky gas that can kill workers who encounter it in sewers; but when adminstered to mice in small, controlled doses, within minutes it produces what appears to be totally reversible metabolic suppression,” says Warren Zapol, MD, chief of Anesthesia and Critical Care at MGH and senior author of the Anesthesiology study. “This is as close to instant suspended animation as you can get, and the preservation of cardiac contraction, blood pressure and organ perfusion is remarkable.”

Previous investigations into the effects of low-dose hydrogen sulfide showed that the gas could lower body temperature and metabolic rate and also improved survival of mice whose oxygen supply had been restricted. But since hypothermia itself cuts metabolic needs, it was unclear whether the reduced body temperature was responsible for the other observed effects. The current study was designed to investigate both that question and the effects of hydrogen sulfide inhalation on the cardiovascular system.

The researchers measured factors such as heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, respiration and physical activity in normal mice exposed to low-dose (80 ppm) hydrogen sulfide for several hours. They analyzed cardiac function with electrocardiograms and echocardiography and measured blood gas levels. While some mice were studied at room temperature, others were kept in a warm environment – about 98º F – to prevent their body temperatures from dropping.

In all the mice, metabolic measurements such as consumption of oxygen and production of carbon dioxide dropped in as little as 10 minutes after they began inhaling hydrogen sulfide, remained low as long as the gas was administered, and returned to normal within 30 minutes of the resumption of a normal air supply. The animals’ heart rate dropped nearly 50 percent during hydrogen sulfide adminstration, but there was no significant change in blood pressure or the strength of the heart beat. While respiration rate also decreased, there were no changes in blood oxygen levels, suggesting that vital organs were not at risk of oxygen starvation.

The mice kept at room temperature had the same drop in body temperature seen in earlier studies, but those in the warm environment maintained normal body temperatures. The same metabolic and cardiovascular changes were seen in both groups, indicating that they did not depend on the reduced body temperature, and analyzing the timing of those changes showed that metabolic reduction actually began before body temperature dropped.

“Producing a reversible hypometabolic state could allow organ function to be preserved when oxygen supply is limited, such as after a traumatic injury,” says Gian Paolo Volpato, MD, MGH Anesthesiology research fellow and lead author of the study. “We don’t know yet if these results will be transferable to humans, so our next step will be to study the use of hydrogen sulfide in larger mammals.”

Zapol adds, “It could be that inhaled hydrogen sulfide will only be useful in small animals and we’ll need to use intravenous drugs that can deliver hydrogen sulfide to vital organs to prevent lung toxicity in larger animals.” Zapol is the Reginald Jenney Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School.

 Well, you can't say it wouldn't be useful!

Famed geneticist creating life form that turns CO2 to fuel

Thu Feb 28, 3:57 PM ET

A scientist who mapped his genome and the genetic diversity of the oceans said Thursday he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel.

Geneticist Craig Venter disclosed his potentially world-changing "fourth-generation fuel" project at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California.

"We have modest goals of replacing the whole petrochemical industry and becoming a major source of energy," Venter told an audience that included global warming fighter Al Gore and Google co-founder Larry Page.

"We think we will have fourth-generation fuels in about 18 months, with CO2 as the fuel stock."

Simple organisms can be genetically re-engineered to produce vaccines or octane-based fuels as waste, according to Venter.

Biofuel alternatives to oil are third-generation. The next step is life forms that feed on CO2 and give off fuel such as methane gas as waste, according to Venter.

"We have 20 million genes which I call the design components of the future," Venter said. "We are limited here only by our imagination."

His team is using synthetic chromosomes to modify organisms that already exist, not making new life, he said. Organisms already exist that produce octane, but not in amounts needed to be a fuel supply.

"If they could produce things on the scale we need, this would be a methane planet," Venter said. "The scale is what is critical; which is why we need to genetically design them."

The genetics of octane-producing organisms can be tinkered with to increase the amount of CO2 they eat and octane they excrete, according to Venter.

The limiting part of the equation isn't designing an organism, it's the difficulty of extracting high concentrations of CO2 from the air to feed the organisms, the scientist said in answer to a question from Page.

Scientists put "suicide genes" into their living creations so that if they escape the lab, they can be triggered to kill themselves.

Venter said he is also working on organisms that make vaccines for the flu and other illnesses.

"We will see an exponential change in the pace of the sophistication of organisms and what they can do," Venter said.

"We are a ways away from designing people. Our goal is just to make sure they survive long enough to do that."

 Venter usually delivers, have you noticed?

 Interesting monetizing approach. A sort of cross between Digg and futures markets.

Armed robot rampage - February 28, 2008

Sheffield University professor and media darling Noel Sharkey took the spotlight at a policy conference yesterday, warning that wars and terrorist attacks may soon be conducted by robots that can think for themselves. The conference, sponsored by British defence think-tank Royal United Services Institute, was organized specifically to discuss the ethical and legal implications of using unmanned vehicles for defence and security.

 Knows how to get attention, doesn't he. We'll need Saffo's predicted 'Steve-Jobs-of-Robotics' to do a bit of work first - robots are expensive and you want to reuse them but terrorists are cheap and disposable - why would Osama bother?!

The University of Auckland has just announced that they have embedded Creative Commons licensing for all new submissions by PhD students into the university’s digital repository, ResearchSpace.

From the repository’s librarian Leonie Hayes:

“At the moment the showcase collection is PhD theses, there are nearly 800 in the PhD collection, most are open access. There are another 900 awaiting signoff from authors. When new graduates submit online they have a choice of adding a CC licence along with their consent for a digital copy.

We are also investigating application of Creative Commons licenses to our other digital collections.”

For the purposes of the repository, students are using a localized Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license, legally ported to jurisdictional law by the CC team in New Zealand.

 Are the other universities doing this? Is there any reason why the research by the CRIs should not be under CC licences? And is there any decent, non-"we've-always-done-it" reason why NZ govt documents for public release are not CC (for 'Creative Commons' not 'Crown Copyright')?

 Really, it's coming. I'm telling you.

Complete Chemical Synthesis, Assembly, and Cloning of a Mycoplasma genitalium GenomeDaniel G. Gibson, Gwynedd A. Benders, Cynthia Andrews-Pfannkoch, Evgeniya A. Denisova, Holly Baden-Tillson, Jayshree Zaveri, Timothy B. Stockwell, Anushka Brownley, David W. Thomas, Mikkel A. Algire, Chuck Merryman, Lei Young, Vladimir N. Noskov, John I. Glass, J. Craig Venter, Clyde A. Hutchison, III, Hamilton O. Smith^*

We have synthesized a 582,970–base pair Mycoplasma genitalium genome. This synthetic genome, named M. genitalium JCVI-1.0, contains all the genes of wild-type M. genitalium G37 except MG408, which was disrupted by an antibiotic marker to block pathogenicity and to allow for selection. To identify the genome as synthetic, we inserted "watermarks" at intergenic sites known to tolerate transposon insertions. Overlapping "cassettes" of 5 to 7 kilobases (kb), assembled from chemically synthesized oligonucleotides, were joined by in vitro recombination to produce intermediate assemblies of approximately 24 kb, 72 kb ("1/8 genome"), and 144 kb ("1/4 genome"), which were all cloned as bacterial artificial chromosomes in Escherichia coli. Most of these intermediate clones were sequenced, and clones of all four 1/4 genomes with the correct sequence were identified. The complete synthetic genome was assembled by transformation-associated recombination cloning in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, then isolated and sequenced. A clone with the correct sequence was identified. The methods described here will be generally useful for constructing large DNA molecules from chemically synthesized pieces and also from combinations of natural and synthetic DNA segments.

Already "published" as press releases and heavy hints weeks ago. 

 As the commentary points out, "The 582,970-bp "synthetic" genome produced by Gibson et al. also unequivocally demonstrates that it is now possible to construct the genomes for all known human viruses, including strictly regulated pathogens (such as smallpox), from publicly available DNA sequence data, methods, and materials." But this is important anyway. Once you have a promising human probiotic, or cellulolytic ethanolic yeast, or therapeutic alkaloid-producing fungus you should boil it down to the smallest dot you can and make it from scratch.

 Plus, we reductionists now get to build up instead of whittle down!

 A sort of Digg-for-futurewatchers. Since it is based on the Wisdom Of Crowds principle, we have to hope that there is a big enough crowd (it doesn't have to be wise enough - the theory is that wisdom is inevitable). There's an accompanying blog at http://memebox.com/articles

Washington University unveils draft sequence of corn genome

Feb. 25, 2008 -- A team of scientists led by Washington University in St. Louis has begun to unlock the genetic secrets of corn, a crop vital to U.S. agriculture. The researchers have completed a working draft of the corn genome, an accomplishment that should accelerate efforts to develop better crop varieties to meet society's growing demands for food, livestock feed and fuel.

Corn, also known as maize, underlies myriads of products, from breakfast cereal, meat and milk to toothpaste, shoe polish and ethanol.

The genetic blueprint will be announced on Thursday, Feb. 28, by the project's leader, Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., director of Washington University's Genome Sequencing Center, at the 50th Annual Maize Genetics Conference in Washington, D.C.

"This first draft of the genome sequence is exciting because it's the first comprehensive glimpse at the blueprint for the corn plant," Wilson says. "Scientists now will be able to accurately and efficiently probe the corn genome to find ways to improve breeding and subsequently increase crop yields and resistance to drought and disease."

The $29.5 million project was initiated in 2005 and is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Energy. "Corn is one of the most economically important crops for our nation," says NSF director Arden L. Bement Jr. "Completing this draft sequence of the corn genome constitutes a significant scientific advance and will foster growth of the agricultural community and the economy as a whole."

The team working on the endeavor, including scientists at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and Iowa State University, has already made the sequencing information accessible to scientists worldwide by depositing it in GenBank, an online public DNA database. The genetic data is also available at maizesequence.org.

The draft covers about 95 percent of the corn genome, and scientists will spend the remaining year of the grant refining and finalizing the sequence. "Although it's still missing a few bits, the draft genome sequence is empowering," Wilson explains. "Virtually all the information is there, and while we may make some small modifications to the genetic sequence, we don't expect major changes."

The group sequenced a variety of corn known as B73, developed at Iowa State decades ago. It is noted for its high grain yields and has been used extensively in both commercial corn breeding and in research laboratories.

The genome will be a key tool for researchers working to improve varieties of corn and other cereal crops, including rice, wheat and barley. "There's a lot of great research on the horizon," says plant biologist Ralph S. Quatrano, Ph.D., the Spencer T. Olin Professor and chair of Washington University's Department of Biology. "The genome will help unravel the basic biology of corn. That information can be used to look for genes that make corn more nutritious or more efficient for ethanol production, for example."

Corn is only the second crop after rice to have its genome sequenced, and scientists will now be able to look for genetic similarities and differences between the crops, Quatrano adds.

"The maize genome sequence will be of great interest to maize geneticists and biologists around the world, but also will be an important resource for plant breeding and biotechnology companies," says project collaborator Rob Martienssen, Ph.D., of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. "The maize sequence will be an invaluable reference for research, especially in renewable energy and biofuels, similar in significance to the human genome sequence for biomedical research".

The genetic code of corn consists of 2 billion bases of DNA, the chemical units that are represented by the letters T, C, G and A, making it similar in size to the human genome, which is 2.9 billion letters long. By comparison, the rice genome is far smaller, containing about 430 million bases.

The challenge for Wilson and his colleagues was to string together the order of the letters, an immense and daunting task both because of the corn genome's size and its complex genetic arrangements. About 80 percent of the DNA segments are repeated, and corn also has 50,000 to 60,000 genes, roughly double the number of human genes. Mobile genes, or transposons, make up a significant portion of the genome, further complicating sequencing efforts.

"Sequencing the corn genome was like putting together a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle with lots of blue sky and blue water, with only a few small sailboats on the horizon," Wilson explains. "There were not a lot of landmarks to help us fit the pieces of the genome together."

[Editor's note: A press conference discussing the maize genome will be held at 12:30 p.m., Feb. 28 in the Hoover Room at the Marriott Wardman Park, 2660 Woodley Road, NW, Washington, D.C.]

The United States is the world's top corn grower, producing 44 percent of the global crop. In 2007, U.S. farmers produced a record 13.1 billion bushels of corn, an increase of nearly 25 percent over the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The 2007 production value of corn was estimated at more than $3 billion. Favorable prices, a growing demand for ethanol and strong export sales have fueled an increase in farmland acreage devoted to corn production.

Washington University School of Medicine's 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

 It's about time! We should know our most important crops

Electronic tattoo display runs on blood

The tattoo display: "Waterproof and powered by pizza."

Jim Mielke's wireless blood-fueled display is a true merging of technology and body art. At the recent Greener Gadgets Design Competition, the engineer demonstrated a subcutaneously implanted touch-screen that operates as a cell phone display, with the potential for 3G video calls that are visible just underneath the skin.

The basis of the 2x4-inch "Digital Tattoo Interface" is a Bluetooth device made of thin, flexible silicon and silicone. It´s inserted through a small incision as a tightly rolled tube, and then it unfurls beneath the skin to align between skin and muscle. Through the same incision, two small tubes on the device are attached to an artery and a vein to allow the blood to flow to a coin-sized blood fuel cell that converts glucose and oxygen to electricity. After blood flows in from the artery to the fuel cell, it flows out again through the vein.

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On both the top and bottom surfaces of the display is a matching matrix of field-producing pixels. The top surface also enables touch-screen control through the skin. Instead of ink, the display uses tiny microscopic spheres, somewhat similar to tattoo ink. A field-sensitive material in the spheres changes their color from clear to black, aligned with the matrix fields.

The tattoo display communicates wirelessly to other Bluetooth devices - both in the outside world and within the same body. Although the device is always on (as long as your blood´s flowing), the display can be turned off and on by pushing a small dot on the skin. When the phone rings, for example, an individual turns the display on, and "the tattoo comes to life as a digital video of the caller," Mielke explains. When the call ends, the tattoo disappears.

Could such an invasive device have harmful biological effects? Actually, the device could offer health benefits. That´s because it also continually monitors for many blood disorders, alerting the person of a health problem.

The tattoo display is still just a concept, with no word on plans for commercialization.

 Despite appearances this is not yet real. But I soooo want it to be! Got legislation to cover this? Gonna let them through airport security? Got the Privacy Act to cover it?

 Not so much a notable breakthrough but likely a framework for thinking about where scans might go. They are an odd mix of worthy, obvious, distracting and vague.

 Good list for the consumer; maybe too close to market for ministry. Offline web, wireless power and cellulolytic enzymes are my favourites

The Chinese Government's Plans for Nanotechnology

By Alexis Madrigal February 17, 2008 | 4:29:52 PMCategories: AAAS 2008, Nanotechnology  

BOSTON, MA - China aims to leapfrog the United States in technological development with substantial investment in nanotechnology, but whether those efforts will actually pay off is still unclear. That was the message from University of California at Santa Barbara researchers presenting their findings on the state of Chinese nanotechnology here at the AAAS annual meeting.

Richard Applebaum and Rachel Parker from the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at  UCSB conducted about sixty interviews with Chinese officials to piece together a picture of the current state of Chinese nanotechnology. Applebaum set the specific research effort within the context of China's stated overarching goal to "leapfrog" the West by using a combination of learning from the West (i.e. technology transfer) and increasing domestic research capacity ("indigenous innovation" or zizhu chuangxin).

Nanotechnology research is one of four Chinese "science Megaprojects" that have the central purpose of catching the country up to US research by 2020. Still, for all the big talk, the actual government investment is not overwhelming. The researchers estimated that the Chinese government only invested $400 million from 2002 to 2007, although that investment is expected to rise considerably.

They highlighted several international partnerships related to nanotechnology including the Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center and the Zheijang-California NanoSystems Institute, but didn't go into much detail about what types of projects are being developed in those centers.

Right now, most nanotech research is being pushed by the central and regional governments with little private capital contributing to the national output. There are a lot of questions about whether or not that is a sustainable model for developing a high-tech industry, Applebaum noted. (It should also be noted, though, that some would question whether the venture capital model is sustainable either.)

It also leads to strange applications of nanotechnology in high-profile venues. Parker said that the Olympic village parking lots being constructed in Beijing will have a nanopolymer coating that will absorb exhaust. It was just an off-hand mention, but I am officially intrigued by the idea of coating our parking lots with pollution absorbing material. I can't vouch for the true environmental-safety of that solution, but I'd love to know how they're doing it. The coating could be something like this  pollution absorbing concrete that uses titanium dioxide to degrade pollutants.

 More scare-stories from AAAS but an interestingly plausible one. China is not only going to become old before it becomes rich but it is going to become ultra-high-tech before it manages to distribute even post-WW2 technology through its domain. As usuaI with China these days, there are no precedents so it will be interesting. I suspect that, in a decade's time, it would be a ChAAS meeting that would be the one to attend

AAAS: Viral chatter

 Interesting not just because we might all be catching Simian Foamy Virus soon but mostly because it is a nice idea inspired from without the field of application. I don't think spies listening in to chatter is the best analogy, or at least that it shouldn't *stay* the best analogy - far better if it can move to being more like meteorology, where systematic harvesting of data like this is plugged into predictive models of quantified uncertainty and trends or upcoming specific events highlighted.

 And we will have to make decisions *today* to get the community ready for this. How many software licences will the scientist need to do this? What sort of mindset? What will be the price (not necessarily dollars) of admission for NZ scientists to this? What will we do with the hundreds of scientists mired in the massively outdated world of flat files and pdfs and GenBank when Generation Z is living in a world of rife clickthrough?

 Khosla backs himself

 Copy this initiative now! What possible gain is made for the public or the government by things like Crown Copyright and all that, at this point in our country's development? If there is one, you *must* articulate it. If, as I suspect, there kind of really isn't one (that's very good, when exposed to the open air) then make the change.

 Appealing to your patriotic side: are we really going to let the Aussies beat us at this?

AAAS: Wires and batteries made of viruses

 Energy storage technology is *the* field of interest at the moment and this is a surprising contribution by biology - the chemists and physicists are supposed to be looking after this for us

Oceans Eyed As New Energy Source

 Surely this is one of the things where gigantic-EEZ, maritime NZ has an advantage.

 

Mind you, one might've claimed the same thing about yachting, he said and quickly ran for cover...

'Recordable' proteins as next-generation memory storage materials

 Science by press release but you've got to admit that we are never so creative as when we are copying nature and nature opted for proteins to record memory (<-- NB this is my as-yet-unfalsified off-the-wall unsupported-by-evidence theory about cognitive memory, based on the assumption that protein plaques in the brain from CJD and suchlike are runaway artefacts of the normal process of information storage, totally unjustified, am just backing a random horse)

Cornell University researchers have succeeded in implanting electronic circuit probes into tobacco hornworms as early pupae. The hornworms pass through the chrysalis stage to mature into long-lived moths whose muscles can be controlled with the implanted electronics. The research was showcased at MEMS 2008, an international academic conference on Micro-Electrico-Mechanical Systems that took place from January 13-17 in Tucson, AZ.

The pupae insertion state was found to yield the best results. The resulting moth, a microsystem-controlled insect, has a circuit board protruding from the top of its midsection. Probes are inserted into the dorsoventral and dorsolongitudinal flight muscles. CT images show components of high absorbance indicating tissue growth around the probe.

The research also indicated the most favorable and least favorable times for insertion of control devices. The overall size of the circuit board is just 8x7mm, with a total weight of about 500 mg. The capacity of the battery is 16 mAh, and weighs 240 mg.

A driving voltage of 5 volts causes the tobacco hornworm blade muscles (two pairs) to move for flight and maneuvering.

The insect cyborgs are part of a program called HI-MEMS (Hybrid Insect MEMS), a DARPA program initiated by Program Manager Dr. Amit Lal. The ultimate goal of the HI-MEMS program is to provide insect cyborgs that can demonstrate controlled flight; the insects would be used in a variety of military and homeland security applications.

HI-MEMS program director Amit Lal credits science fiction writer Thomas Easton with the idea. Lal read Easton's 1990 novel Sparrowhawk, in which animals enlarged by genetic engineering (called Roachsters) were outfitted with implanted control systems.

Dr. Easton, a professor of science at Thomas College, sees a number of applications for HI-MEMS insects.

Moths are extraordinarily sensitive to sex attractants, so instead of giving bank robbers money treated with dye, they could use sex attractants instead. Then, a moth-based HI-MEMS could find the robber by following the scent."

"[Also,] with genetic engineering Darpa could replace the sex attractant receptor on the moth antennae with receptors for other things, like explosives, drugs or toxins," said Easton.

DARPA had better be careful with its insect army; in Easton's novel, hackers are able to gain control of genetically engineered animals by hacking the controller chips used in their implanted control structures.

If you are interested in one dark-side view of how this kind of invention could be used by corporations for advertising, see the madcap blurbflies from Jeff Noon's excellent 2000 sf novel Nymphomation.

Learn more about Hybrid Insect MEMS Sought By DARPA. Via Robot Watch.

 As if cockroaches weren't bad enough. Lots of applications. Who here in NZ does any of this kind of stuff? As Saffo says, robotics is about to take off just as soon as a 'Steve Jobs for robots' arrives. And, Asimov and Dick aside, successful robot deployment was never going to be about humanoid androids or replicants

Nature advance online publication 13 February 2008 | doi:10.1038/nature06557; Received 15 October 2007; Accepted 20 December 2007; Published online 13 February 2008

Gamete formation without meiosis in Arabidopsis

Maruthachalam Ravi¹, Mohan P. A. Marimuthu¹ & Imran Siddiqi¹

 Huge impact if it works - an understanding of the molecular basis of apomixis could fix hybrid vigour in several staples

Abstract PDF Supplementary Material Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited Related Article by Whitley, R. PubMed Citation

ABSTRACT

Background Three patients who received visceral-organ transplants from a single donor on the same day died of a febrile illness 4 to 6 weeks after transplantation. Culture, polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) and serologic assays, and oligonucleotide microarray analysis for a wide range of infectious agents were not informative.

Methods We evaluated RNA obtained from the liver and kidney transplants in two recipients. Unbiased high-throughput sequencing was used to identify microbial sequences not found by means of other methods. The specificity of sequences for a new candidate pathogen was confirmed by means of culture and by means of PCR, immunohistochemical, and serologic analyses.

Results High-throughput sequencing yielded 103,632 sequences, of which 14 represented an Old World arenavirus. Additional sequence analysis showed that this new arenavirus was related to lymphocytic choriomeningitis viruses. Specific PCR assays based on a unique sequence confirmed the presence of the virus in the kidneys, liver, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid of the recipients. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed arenavirus antigen in the liver and kidney transplants in the recipients. IgM and IgG antiviral antibodies were detected in the serum of the donor. Seroconversion was evident in serum specimens obtained from one recipient at two time points.

Conclusions Unbiased high-throughput sequencing is a powerful tool for the discovery of pathogens. The use of this method during an outbreak of disease facilitated the identification of a new arenavirus transmitted through solid-organ transplantation.

 454 WGS as a way to identify a wholly novel pathogen in a wholly novel disease. Short-circuits much of the traditional way of discovering such things; don't mess around with typing or isolating, just sequence the bugger in one go. It's soon going to be not worth your time to do anything less, even with known pathogens. In fact, you have to wonder if we'll bother with markers of any kind (SNPs included!) if sequencing gets routine/cheap enough

Eric Kmiec, UD professor of biological sciences, undergraduate student Stephanie Callahan (center) and research associate Darlise DiMatteo conduct genetic research on spinal muscular atrophy in the lab at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute.

5:07 p.m., Feb. 11, 2008--Researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered a novel technique--that acts like a “spell-checker” for correcting a misspelling in the DNA code--to repair the defective gene that causes spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). This hereditary neuromuscular disease is the number-one genetic killer of children under two years old.

Babies born with Type 1 SMA, the most severe form of the disease, can't walk, crawl, sit unsupported, lift their heads, or breathe normally. Fifty percent die before their second birthday.

The research is published in the Jan. 14 online edition of Experimental Cell Research. The study was supported by $477,500 in National Tobacco Settlement funds to the state of Delaware. The research grant was awarded through the Delaware Health Fund.

“Think of it like a spell-check program--we're erasing the wrong letter in the DNA code and putting the right one in,” said Eric Kmiec, professor of biological sciences at UD.

Kmiec, who holds 14 patents for gene-editing technologies at the University, collaborated with research scientist Darlise DiMatteo and undergraduate Stephanie Callahan on the discovery in his laboratory at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute.

The technique has shown promising results in tests in mice and is now poised for development by OrphageniX Inc., based in Wilmington, Del. The start-up company was incorporated in 2005 to commercialize UD-patented technologies for repairing genes that cause rare, hereditary, “orphan” diseases, so named because they have not been “adopted” by the pharmaceutical industry for the development of treatments.

According to the Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy, an international, nonprofit organization, the disease affects one in 6,000 babies born, and one in 40 people is a genetic carrier.

A genetic 'bandage'

Spinal muscular atrophy is caused by a mutation in the SMN1 gene, which affects the motor neurons, the nerve cells in the spinal cord that control the muscles of the rib cage and limbs, which are essential for breathing, swallowing, sitting and walking.

Each gene is made up of a length of DNA, a code composed of the four chemical units that make up the genetic alphabet: A for adenine, G for guanine, C for cytosine and T for thymine.

In spinal muscular atrophy, a defect occurs in the SMN1 gene. There's a letter out of place--a T (thymine) occurs where there should be a C (cytosine). As a result, the gene doesn't make a protein that the motor nerves in the spinal cord need to survive, which leads to the gradual atrophy, or wasting, of the muscles.

UD professor Eric Kmiec with his research team focused on spinal muscular atrophy, including senior research associate Hetal Parekh-Olmedo (left), undergraduate student Stephanie Callahan, and research associate Darlise DiMatteo (foreground).

To replace the function of the defective SMN1 gene, the UD research team used a gene in the human body that is nearly an exact copy (SMN2). Then they introduced a small fragment of this healthy gene's DNA--a genetic “bandage” referred to as an oligonucleotide--into a diseased cell, triggering the cell to heal itself.

Tests of the technique in mice with spinal muscular atrophy, conducted by Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, showed “very promising results” with the development of healthy muscle in the animals, Kmiec said.

“Babies with SMA die early in life,” Kmiec noted. “But if we can deliver the healing agent to the appropriate cell, we can help address this horrible disease. We're not looking at a cure, but we hope this technique could lead to a series of treatments that could alleviate the symptoms and improve the quality of life of patients,” Kmiec said.

The technique, known as targeted gene alteration (TGA), is among a group of UD-patented technologies under development by OrphageniX, a pre-clinical development stage biotechnology company that has moved quickly out of the starting gate since its launch in February 2007.

“OrphageniX plans to develop a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy with help from expert consultants in the field,” Michael Herr, chief executive officer, said.

The development of a treatment for SMA would advance to clinical testing within a year from funding by either investors or commercial collaborators, Herr noted.

Patients with the less severe, Type III form of spinal muscular atrophy would be targeted for initial human trials. Although individuals with Type III SMA suffer from a range of muscle weakness and fatigue quickly, the disease generally is not life-threatening at this stage.

Herr said that OrphageniX is committed to helping people by commercializing scientific breakthroughs, but he noted that, “we must also provide an adequate return to investors for OrphageniX to succeed.”

Truly translational research

For his latest research to be truly “translational,” extending from the lab bench to the bedside, Kmiec said it has been critical to involve people like Darlise DiMatteo, who have a keen understanding of spinal muscular atrophy.

DiMatteo, who joined Kmiec's research team a year ago, formerly worked at Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, where she conducted research studies of muscular dystrophy and SMA for more than a decade. The world-renowned children's hospital continues to be an important partner on the project, Kmiec said.

“We've received significant assistance from Drs. Vicky Funanage and Wenlan Wang at A. I. duPont Hospital,” Kmiec noted. “They would be a natural choice for clinical trials in SMA.”

“I love coming to work knowing that this research could make a difference for families affected by this disease,” DiMatteo said. “It's intriguing--why does a deficit in this particular protein cause this disease? And why do humans have an SMN2 gene that's almost identical to SMN1 when animals don't have that kind of backup? The effort will have been worth it if we can help find the answers.”

The research also has had a profound effect on Stephanie Callahan, an undergraduate student at UD who helped carry out the laboratory experiments, working under DiMatteo's guidance.

Callahan had the opportunity to participate in the project through a summer internship in the IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) program offered by the Delaware Biotechnology Institute when she was a student at Delaware Technical and Community College. Now she's finishing up her degree in biological sciences with a concentration in biotechnology and wants to pursue her master's degree at UD. After completing her education, she hopes to get a job doing research in industry, perhaps at a pharmaceutical company.

“It really opened my eyes to the possibilities and the potential applications of what you can do in the lab,” Callahan said. “It's been a great experience for me.”

Kmiec said the research so far has all the elements of a “real Delaware story”--connecting UD, A. I. duPont Hospital for Children, tobacco settlement funding awarded by the state, and a start-up company fueled by Delaware investors--and he's excited about the future.

“Publishing an article in a research journal is not the accomplishment--that is what some of us are paid to do, and my colleagues do this as well as I,” Kmiec said. “But the fact that the research program is translational and is working in that direction with outside validation and support is the real news. I hope our experience will help UD and other researchers like us realize their technology possibilities,” he added.

“What we've discovered--this gene spell-check--sounds very simple, where you erase one letter and put the right one in,” Kmiec noted, “but finding the pathway has taken a long time, since 1994. Now, with this latest development, we've taken a laser shot out of the primordial soup. It's a chance finally to make a difference for families with this disease.”

 Chimeraplasty appears under *another* name *again*. I still don't know if it is real or whether this is something pathological going on. Too good to be true or just too frequently resurgent to be anything other than a monstrous hydra?

Nine Cities, Nine Ideas

Ann Arbor, Mich., and Beijing, China, have precious little in common. But the modest college town and sprawling national capital do share one trait: They're part of a world-wide movement by cities to rein in their runaway energy use.

Ann Arbor is replacing the bulbs in its street lamps with light-emitting diodes that use much less power. Beijing is closing or relocating cement kilns, coal mines and chemical plants dating back to the era of Chairman Mao.

Elsewhere around the world, cities are embarking on all sorts of innovative programs to try to corral the amount of energy they consume. Chicago is planting rooftop gardens to cool down its municipal buildings. New York is working with a private company to harness the power of tidal currents in the city's East River. Amsterdam is using cold lake water to help air-condition homes.

 Not necessarily thought leaders (surely other cities are doing the same or more) but certainly some clever PR. This trend is *not* going to go away