Currently, a significant factor holding back renewable energy sources like solar and wind is the fact that energy storage is often inefficient and expensive. When the sun stops shining or the wind stops blowing, that energy source is cut off. With better energy storage, however, the economics of the entire industry would change.
Source: Uncle Sam’s boffins stumble upon battery storage holy grail • The Register
With a few more genetic tweaks, the resulting hybrid protein, dubbed Magneto, proved to be viable and responsive to magnetic fields in cells. When the researchers moved a magnet near the cells carrying the hybrid, Magneto jerked, opening the ion channel. This caused an influx of ions into the cells, sparking an electrical change that could fire off brain signals.
When the researchers put the gene for Magneto in zebrafish, a model organism for brain development, they found that the hybrid could alter complex behaviors. Using a genetic switch, the researchers made Magneto active in the zebrafish nerve cells that are involved in sensing touch. And, when they added a magnetic field, the fish upped the amount of time they coiled their tails, a touch-induced escape response.
The researchers next tested Magneto in mice, a mammalian model. By making Magneto active in cells that are responsive to dopamine—a neurotransmitter critical for reward-motivation pathways in the brain—the researchers could charm the mice into preferring an area of a chamber with a magnetic field.
Source: Magnetic mind control works in live animals, makes mice happy | Ars Technica
Technology is moving faster than our ability to understand it, and there is no consensus on what is ethical. It isn’t just the lawmakers who are not well-informed, the originators of the technologies themselves don’t understand the full ramifications of what they are creating. They may take strong positions today based on their emotions and financial interests, but as they learn more, they too will change their views.
Source: As Technology Barrels Ahead—Will Ethics Get Left in the Dust? – Singularity HUB
“It’s going to blow up,” a distraught and defeated Ebeling told his wife, Darlene, when he arrived home that night.
And it did, 73 seconds after liftoff. Seven astronauts died. Cold weather and an O-ring failure were blamed, and Ebeling carried three decades of guilt.
“That was one of the mistakes God made,” Ebeling, now 89, told me three weeks ago at his home in Brigham City, Utah. “He shouldn’t have picked me for that job. But next time I talk to him, I’m gonna ask him, ‘Why me? You picked a loser.’ “
Source: Your Letters Helped Challenger Shuttle Engineer Shed 30 Years Of Guilt : The Two-Way : NPR
The Ordnance Survey (national mapping agency for the UK) has just released their first map of a region on another planet. It’s a high resolution relief shaded contour map, and includes the area of Mars where ExoMars will land in 2018. Here is a close up view of it with the ESA landing ellipse in Oxia Planum superimposed.
When researchers implanted ITOP-generated bone, muscle, and cartilage into rats and mice, the printed materials developed blood supplies and internal structures resembling those of natural tissue. The researchers are currently working with the Food and Drug Administration to set up human trials, with the ultimate goal of creating replacement body parts for people who need them.
Source: Tissue printer creates lifelike human ear | Science | AAAS
Everyone knew the mission would fail — the technicians, the pilot and the friend who would replace him if he deserted the mission. But Soviet leaders demanded a triumph in space, and so in 1967, Vladimir Komarov allowed himself to be launched towards his own death.
Source: Cosmonaut Crashed Into Earth ‘Crying In Rage’ : Krulwich Wonders… : NPR
A large part of the human brain, just like the brain of other animals, is devoted to threat detection. These circuits are constantly evaluating our internal and external state for threats. This cannot be conscious, because that’s too slow. It’s deep in the brain below the cerebral cortex, where consciousness arises, in a region called the hypothalamic attack region.
The hypothalamus is where a lot of our urges and automatic functions are carried out, like sexual behavior. The hypothalamic attack region controls defensive-aggressive behavior. If scientists stimulate these neurons with an electrode, an animal will instantly become aggressive and attack a test animal in the cage.
Source: Your Brain Is Hardwired to Snap
In what has been claimed to be the first use of gene editing technique CRIPSR for replacement of a defective gene associated with a sensory disease, researchers have repaired a genetic defect that causes blindness.
Source: Researchers use CRISPR to repair genetic defect that causes blindness | Dispatch Tribunal
In short, there is a negative relationship between yield and nutritional content. And during the last 50 years, the farmers have optimized for one thing: yield. When you optimize for yield, you compromise nutrition.
Source: Tale of Tasteless Tomatoes: Why Vegetables Do Not Taste Good Anymore – Calm Science
