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| Anis Tarakan Blogs |
| This blog contains about science books as well as a variety of journals, additional on Search engine optimization, how to Make Money, the various Free Domain, and than science and technology news |
| Language: English |
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| King Tut and half of European men share DNA |
| 2011-08-03 22:06:00 |
According to a group of geneticists in Switzerland from iGENEA, the DNA genealogy center, as many as half of all European men and 70 percent of British men share the same DNA as the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, or King Tut.Tuthankamen's famous burial mask, on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Source: wikipediaFor a film created for the Discovery Channel, scientists worked to reconstruct the DNA of the young male King, his father Akhenaten and his grandfather Amenhotep III. They discovered that King Tut had a DNA profile that belongs to a group called haplogroup R1b1a2. This group can be found in over 50 percent of European men and shows the researchers that there is a common ancestor.This genetic profile group is also found in 70 percent of Spanish males and 60 percent of French ma...
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| Plant biologists dissect genetic mechanism enabling plants to overcome environmental challenge |
| 2011-08-03 22:03:00 |
When an animal gets too hot or too cold, or feels pangs of hunger or thirst, it tends to relocate – to where it's cooler or hotter, or to the nearest place where food or water can be found. But what about vegetative life? What can a plant do under similar circumstances?Plants can't change the climate and they can't uproot themselves to move to a more favorable spot. Yet they do respond successfully to changes in environmental conditions in diverse ways, many of which involve modifications of the way they grow and develop.Plant biologists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have now discovered at the genetic level how one species of grass plant responds to the challenge to growth posed by shade. Central to this work is the team's identification of the role played by a gene called gras...
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| DNA strands that select nanotubes are first step to a practical 'quantum wire' |
| 2011-08-03 22:00:00 |
DNA, a molecule famous for storing the genetic blueprints for all living things, can do other things as well. In a new paper, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) describe how tailored single strands of DNA can be used to purify the highly desired "armchair" form of carbon nanotubes. Armchair-form single wall carbon nanotubes are needed to make "quantum wires" for low-loss, long distance electricity transmission and wiring.Wrapped up in their work: this molecular model shows a single-strand DNA molecule (yellow ribbon) coiled around an "armchair" carbon nanotube. Credit: Roxbury, Jagota/NISTSingle-wall carbon nanotubes are usually about a nanometer in diameter, but they can be millions of nanometers in length. It's as if you took a one-atom-thick sheet o...
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| NIST finds that ethanol-loving bacteria accelerate cracking of pipeline steels |
| 2011-08-03 21:53:00 |
U.S. production of ethanol for fuel has been rising quickly, topping 13 billion gallons in 2010. With the usual rail, truck and barge transport methods under potential strain, existing gas pipelines might be an efficient alternative for moving this renewable fuel around the country. But researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) caution that ethanol, and especially the bacteria sometimes found in it, can dramatically degrade pipelines.Micrograph of crack in X52 steel after the sample was subjected to mechanical forces for several days in an ethanol solution containing acid-producing bacteria, Acetobacter aceti. Researchers at NIST's biofuels testing facility found that the bacteria increased fatigue crack growth rates at least 25-fold compared to what would oc...
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| Natural killer cells contribute to immune response against HIV |
| 2011-08-03 21:45:00 |
A new study shows for the first time that natural killer (NK) cells, which are part of the body's first-line defence against infection, can contribute to the immune response against HIV. In an article in the August 4 issue of Nature, a research team based at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard reports that the HIV strains infecting individuals with particular receptor molecules on their NK cells had variant forms of key viral proteins, implying that the virus had mutated to avoid NK cell activity."This study suggests for the first time that NK cells can impose immune pressure on HIV, something that had previously been described only for T cells and antibodies, adding an additional cell to the repertoire of those with anti-HIV activity," says Marcus Altfeld, MD, PhD, of the Ragon In...
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| Web search needs a shake-up |
| 2011-08-03 21:40:00 |
A University of Washington computer scientist is calling on the international academic community and engineers working in industry to take a bolder approach when designing how people find information online.In a two-page commentary titled "Search needs a shake-up," published in the Aug. 4 issue of the journal Nature, UW professor of computer science and engineering Oren Etzioni calls on experts to, literally, think outside the search box. The piece is being published on the 20-year anniversary of Tim Berners Lee unveiling his World Wide Web project.Etzioni doesn't mince words. In the article, he writes that the main obstacle to progress "seems to be a curious lack of ambition and imagination."In a phone interview, Etzioni was more conciliatory."The piece is meant to be provocative," said E...
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| Chemist contributes to development of novel method for recovering old fingerprints |
| 2011-08-03 21:34:00 |
A Northern Illinois University chemist is part of an international team of scientists whose work might someday crack open cold-case files.Latent fingermarks from a male donor developed on aluminum foil. Credit: Xanthe SpindlerThe scientists are developing a new fingerprinting method that could make it possible to recover previously unusable or undetected prints from old evidence and from surfaces long considered too difficult by crime scene investigators.Results of a preliminary study on the development of the novel immunogenic method were published this past spring in Chemical Communications, a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.Despite fingerprinting being a foundational technique of modern forensic science, only a fraction of all the fingermarks at a crime scene are actually dete...
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| RIM launches five new BlackBerry smartphones |
| 2011-08-03 21:25:00 |
Canada's Research in Motion on Wednesday announced plans for five new BlackBerry smartphones, the largest global product launch in the company's history.Sales representatives help customers on the first day the BlackBerry Torch hits the shelves in 2010. Canada's Research in Motion on Wednesday announced plans for five new BlackBerry smartphones, the largest global product launch in the company's history.RIM, which has seen its stock price slump as it faces tough competition from Apple's iPhone and others, said it would introduce two new "BlackBerry Bold" models and three of its "BlackBerry Torch," all of which use the new BlackBerry 7 operating system."The launch of this family of handsets will be RIM’s largest global launch ever and more than 225 carriers and distribution partners have ...
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| NRC report downsizes estimates of deaths from nuclear plant meltdown |
| 2011-08-03 21:19:00 |
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in conjunction with Sandia National Laboratories has been working on a report to update and revise estimates of the number of people that would be killed or harmed as a result of a nuclear core meltdown at a plant in the United States. While currently still unavailable to the public, a copy of the report was obtained by the Union for Concerned Scientists, under the Freedom of Information Act; the group then gave a copy to the New York Times, which then ran a story on its findings.In the report, a work in progress over the past six years, the research team finds that previous estimates of the number of deaths likely to occur due to a meltdown, to be much higher than new evidence suggests; this because they believe the amount of cesium 137 release...
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| Research group develops “superior conducting” solid state lithium battery |
| 2011-08-03 21:16:00 |
A Japanese research group has developed a solid state lithium battery that appears to perform just as well as conventional liquid lithium ion batteries. The group has published their results in Nature Materials and claim to have found a solid electrolyte that performs on a par with current liquid technology, and does so over a much broader temperature range and because it’s solid should be more compact as well as less sensitive to physical damage and fire hazard.Source: wikipediaLithium ion batteries are currently used in a wide variety of consumer electronics (and electric vehicles) due to their energy density, re-chargeability and slow loss of power when not in use. The problem with them has been that they are rather fussy due to the liquid electrolyte that serve as the means of moving...
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