tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82698759134820747202024-03-12T17:32:18.277-07:00Ciencia en Canoa, by Vanessa Restrepo Schild. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.comBlogger3637125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-48794691365727348432019-11-02T16:56:00.000-07:002019-11-02T16:56:16.974-07:00The scientists who are creating a bio-internet of things<div style="font-size: large; text-align: justify;">
<b>The internet of things connects devices across the globe. Now researchers are considering how bacteria can join the network.</b><br />
by <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/profile/emerging-technology-from-the-arxiv/">Emerging Technology from the arXiv</a><br />
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<br /><span style="background-color: yellow;"><img alt="conceptual image of bacterial in a petri dish" class="jsx-1546557212 enlargable" height="266" role="button" src="https://cdn.technologyreview.com/i/images/michael-schiffer-13uugsl9q7a-unsplash_0.jpg?sw=1272&cx=0&cy=0&cw=3000&ch=2000" style="display: block; height: auto; width: 100%;" tabindex="0" width="400" /> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;">Imagine designing the perfect device for the internet of things</span>. What functions must it have? For a start, <b> </b></div>
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<li>it must be able to <b>communicate</b>, both with other devices and with its human overlords. </li>
<li>It must be able to <b>store and process</b> information. </li>
<li>And it must <b>monitor its environment </b>with a range of sensors. </li>
<li>Finally, it will need some kind of <b>built-in motor</b>.</li>
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There is no shortage of devices that have many of these features. Most are based on widely available, low-cost devices such as <b>Raspberry Pis, Arduino</b> boards, and the like.<br />
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But another set of machines with similar functions is much more plentiful, say <b>Raphael Kim</b> and <b>Stefan Poslad</b> at <b>Queen Mary University of London</b> in the UK. They point out that <span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>bacteria</b> communicate effectively and have built-in engines and sensors, as well as powerful information storage and processing architecture</span>.<br />
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And that raises an interesting possibility, they say. <b>Why not use bacteria to create a biological version of the internet of things?</b> Today, in a call to action, they lay out some of the thinking and the technologies that could make this possible.<br />
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The way bacteria store and process information is an emerging area of research, much of it focused on the bacterial workhorse <i>Escherichia coli</i>. These (and other) bacteria <b>store information in ring-shaped DNA structures called plasmids</b>, which they transmit from one organism to the next in a process called <b>conjugation</b>.<br />
<img alt="Bacterial IoT" class="jsx-1546557212 " height="271" src="https://cdn.technologyreview.com/i/images/bacterial-devices.jpg?sw=2500&cx=0&cy=0&cw=819&ch=348" style="display: block; height: auto; max-height: calc(-40px + 100vh); max-width: 100%; width: auto;" tabindex="-1" width="640" /><br />
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Last year, <b>Federico Tavella</b> at the <b>University of Padua</b> in Italy and colleagues <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610071/storing-data-in-dna-is-a-lot-easier-than-getting-it-back-out/">built a circuit in which one strain of immotile E. coli transmitted a simple “Hello world” message</a> to a motile strain, which carried the information to another location.<br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">This kind of information transmission occurs all the time in the bacterial world, creating a fantastically complex network</span>. But Tavella and co’s proof-of-principle experiment shows how it can be exploited to create a kind of <b>bio-internet</b>, say Kim and Poslad.<br />
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E. coli make a perfect medium for this network. They are motile—they have a built-in engine in the form of waving, thread-like appendages called <i><b>flagella</b></i>, which generate thrust. They have receptors in their cell walls that sense aspects of their environment—<b>temperature, light, chemicals,</b> etc. They store information in DNA and process it using <b>ribosomes</b>. And they are tiny, allowing them to exist in environments that human-made technologies have trouble accessing.<br />
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E. coli are relatively easy to manipulate and engineer as well. The grassroots movement of DIY biology is making biotechnology tools cheaper and more easily available. The <span style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="https://amino.bio/">Amino Lab</a>, for example, is a genetic engineering kit for schoolchildren, allowing them to reprogram E. coli to glow in the dark, among other things.</span><br />
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This kind of <b>biohacking</b> is becoming relatively common and shows the remarkable potential of a bio-internet of things. Kim and Poslad talk about a wide range of possibilities. “<i>Bacteria could be programmed and deployed in different surroundings, such as the sea and ‘smart cities’, to sense for toxins and pollutants, gather data, and undertake bioremediation processes,</i>” they say.<br />
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Bacteria could even be reprogrammed to treat diseases. “<i>Harbouring DNA that encode useful hormones, for instance, the bacteria can swim to a chosen destination within the human body, [and] produce and release the hormones when triggered by the microbe’s internal sensor,</i>” they suggest.<br />
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Of course, there are various downsides. While genetic engineering makes possible all kinds of amusing experiments, <span style="background-color: yellow;">darker possibilities give <b>biosecurity</b> experts sleepless nights</span>. It’s not hard to imagine bacteria acting as vectors for various nasty diseases, for example.<br />
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It’s also easy to lose bacteria. One thing they do not have is the equivalent of GPS. So tracking them is hard. Indeed, it can be almost impossible to track the information they transmit once it is released into the wild.<br />
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<b>And therein lies one of the problems with a biological internet of things. </b>The conventional internet is a way of starting with a message at one point in space and re-creating it at another point chosen by the sender. It allows humans, and increasingly devices, to communicate with each other across the planet.<br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Kim and Poslad’s bio-internet, on the other hand, offers a way of creating and releasing a message but <b>little in the way of controlling where it ends up</b>.</span> The bionetwork created by bacterial conjugation is so mind-bogglingly vast that information can spread more or less anywhere. <span style="background-color: yellow;">Biologists have observed the process of conjugation transferring genetic material from bacteria to yeast, to plants, and even to mammalian cells.</span><br />
<b><br />Evolution plays a role too.</b> All living things are subject to its forces. No matter how benign a bacterium might seem, the process of evolution can wreak havoc via mutation and selection, with outcomes that are impossible to predict.<br />
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Then there is the problem of bad actors influencing this network. The conventional internet has attracted more than its fair share of individuals who release malware for nefarious purposes. The interest they might have in a biological internet of things is the stuff of nightmares.<br />
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Kim and Poslad acknowledge some of these issues, saying that creating a bacteria-based network presents fresh ethical issues. “<i>Such challenges offer a rich area for discussion on the wider implication of bacteria driven Internet of Things systems</i>,” they conclude with some understatement.<br />
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That’s a discussion worth having sooner rather than later.<br />
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Ref: <b><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.01974">arxiv.org/abs/1910.01974</a></b> : <i>The Thing with E. coli: Highlighting Opportunities and Challenges of Integrating Bacteria in IoT and HCI.</i></div>
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<b>ORIGINAL: <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614629/the-scientists-who-are-creating-a-bio-internet-of-things/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MIT Technology Review</a></b></div>
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By Michael Schiffer / unsplash<br />
Nov 1, 2019</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15556271214391586752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-79585906043408958272019-09-25T16:00:00.000-07:002019-11-02T16:57:35.473-07:00Carlo Ratti's orange squeezer serves juice in bioplastic cups made from the peel<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Italian studio <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/tag/carlo-ratti-associati/">Carlo Ratti Associati</a> has developed an orange juice bar that <span style="background-color: yellow;">turns the waste fruit peel into 3D-printed <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/tag/bioplastic/">bioplastic</a> cups to drink the contents from</span>, as an example of the <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/tag/circular-economy/">circular economy</a> in practice.<br /><br />Created for global energy company <a href="https://www.eni.com/en_IT/home.page">Eni</a>, <b>Feel the Peel</b> is a prototype orange-squeezing machine that aims to bring circular design into everyday life.<br /><br />The 3.10-metre-tall experimental juice bar is topped by a circular dome filled with 1,500 oranges. When someone orders a juice, the oranges slide down into the squeezer where they are cut in half and juiced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">After being juiced, the leftover orange peel falls into a see-through compartment at the bottom of the machine. The <span style="background-color: yellow;">collected rinds are then dried and milled to make "orange dust", which is mixed with polylactic acid (PLA) to form a <b>bioplastic material</b>.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2019/04/11/carlo-ratti-circular-garden-mycelium/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="120" src="https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/04/carlo-ratti-circular-garden-design_dezeen_2364_sq-1-191x191.jpg" width="120" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2019/04/11/carlo-ratti-circular-garden-mycelium/">Related story</a></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2019/04/11/carlo-ratti-circular-garden-mycelium/">Carlo Ratti grows Gaudí-inspired structures with a kilometre of mushroom mycelium </a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Grown
from a fungus material, the structures were shredded and returned to
the soil as compost after the design festival, in a fully circular
fashion.
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<span style="font-size: small;">This material is then heated and melted to form a filament, which is fed through a <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/tag/3d-printing/">3D printer</a> incorporated into the machine.</span></div>
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<img height="640" src="https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/09/carlo-ratti-feel-the-peel-design_dezeen_2364_col_2-852x1257.jpg" width="433" /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Visitors can watch the printing process as it builds up concentric layers of the filament, before using the finished product to drink the freshly-squeezed juice.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-size: small;">The cup can then be recycled after use, with the material continually broken down and remade into further cups in theory.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">The move to a circular economy – which involves designing out waste and pollution from the production and consumption process, and regenerating natural systems – is being encouraged by the <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/tag/ellen-macarthur-foundation/">Ellen MacArthur Foundation</a> and others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Last month, <span style="background-color: yellow;">MacArthur launched <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2019/08/06/ellen-macarthur-foundation-circular-design-programme/">an initiative to persuade 20 million designers</a> to shift from linear to circular principles in their work.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">"<i>The principle of circularity is a must for today's objects,"</i> said founder Carlo Ratti. "<i>Working with Eni, we tried to show circularity in a very tangible way, by developing a machine that helps us to understand how oranges can be used well beyond their juice."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">According to Ratti, the next iterations of Feel the Peel might include new functions, such as printing fabric for clothing from orange peel. </span></div>
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<img height="640" src="https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/09/carlo-ratti-feel-the-peel-design_dezeen_2364_col_3-852x1278.jpg" width="426" /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The <b>Circular Juice Bar</b> will be installed at the <b>Singularity University Summit</b> in Milan from 8 to 9 October 2019, before touring around Italy in the following months in a bid to "<i>demonstrate a new approach to environmental circularity in daily life</i>".</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Feel the Peel</b> is not the first collaboration between <a href="https://carloratti.com/">Carlo Ratti Associati</a> and <b>Eni</b> that explores circular design. The pair previously teamed up to present <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2019/04/11/carlo-ratti-circular-garden-mycelium/">a series of arched architectural structures made from mushroom mycelium</a> at Milan Design Week 2019.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Grown from a fungus material, the structures were shredded and returned to the soil as compost after the design festival, in a fully circular fashion.
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>ORIGINAL: <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2019/09/10/carlo-ratti-feel-the-peel-circular-orange-juice-bar-design/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dezeen </a></b></span><a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2019/09/10/carlo-ratti-feel-the-peel-circular-orange-juice-bar-design/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><br /></a><a href="https://www.dezeen.com/author/natashah-hitti/">Natashah Hitti</a><br />
<a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2019/09/10/">10 September 2019</a><span style="font-size: small;"><b><time data-published="1568119001" datetime="2019-09-10 12:36"> </time></b></span></div>
Hugo Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03534051823437072588noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-32570377726891990732019-09-19T16:57:00.004-07:002019-09-19T17:46:24.137-07:00I have a dream that the powerful take the climate crisis seriously. The time for their fairytales is over<div>
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IN A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED SPEECH IN CONGRESS AFTER TRAVELLING HALF THE WAY ACROSS THE ATLANTIC BY BOAT, GRETA THUNBERG URGES US SENATORS TO LEARN FROM THE SACRIFICES OF MARTIN LUTHER KING AND OTHER CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE. HERE IS THE TRANSCRIPT</div>
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 1.5em;">My name is Greta Thunberg, I am 16 years old and I’m from Sweden. I am grateful for being with you here in the USA. A nation that, to many people, is the country of dreams.</span></span></div>
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I also have a dream: <span style="background-color: yellow;">that governments, political parties, and corporations grasp the urgency of the climate and ecological crisis and come together despite their differences - as you would in an emergency - and take the measures required to safeguard the conditions for a dignified life for everybody on earth</span>.</div>
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Because then - we millions of school striking youth - could go back to school.</div>
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I have a dream that the people in power, as well as the media, <b>start treating this crisis like the existential emergency it i</b>s. So that I could go home to my sister and my dogs. Because I miss them.</div>
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In fact, I have many dreams. But this is the year 2019. <span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>This is not the time and place for dreams. This is the time to wake up. This is the moment in history when we need to be wide awake</b></span>.</div>
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And yes, we need dreams, we can not live without dreams. But there’s a time and place for everything. And dreams can not stand in the way of telling it like it is.</div>
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<b>Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: in pictures</b></div>
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And yet, <span style="background-color: yellow;">wherever I go I seem to be surrounded by fairytales</span>. Business leaders, elected officials all across the political spectrum spending their time making up and telling bedtime stories that soothe us, that make us go back to sleep.</div>
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These are “feel-good” stories about how we are going to fix everything. How wonderful everything is going to be when we have “solved” everything. But the problem we are facing is not that we lack the ability to dream or to imagine a better world. <span style="background-color: yellow;">The problem now is that we need to wake up. <b>It’s time to face the reality, the facts, the science.</b></span></div>
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And the science doesn’t mainly speak of “<i><b>great opportunities to create the society we always wanted</b></i>”. It tells of unspoken human sufferings, which will get worse and worse the longer we delay action - unless we start to act now. And yes, <span style="background-color: yellow;">of course, a sustainable transformed world will include lots of new benefits.</span> But you have to understand. This is not primarily an opportunity to create new green jobs, new businesses or green economic growth. <span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>This is above all an emergency, and not just any emergency. This is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced.</b></span></div>
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And we need to treat it accordingly so that people can understand and grasp the urgency. Because you can not solve a crisis without treating it as one. <b style="background-color: yellow;">Stop telling people that everything will be fine when in fact, as it looks now, it won’t be very fine</b>. This is not something you can package and sell or ”like” on social media.</div>
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<b>Stop pretending that you, your business idea, your political party or plan will solve everything</b>. We must realize that <span style="background-color: yellow;">we don’t have all the solutions yet</span>. Far from it. Unless those solutions mean that we simply stop doing certain things.</div>
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Changing one disastrous energy source for a slightly less disastrous one is not progress. Exporting our emissions overseas is not reducing our emission. Creative accounting will not help us. In fact, it’s the very heart of the problem.</div>
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Some of you may have heard that we have 12 years from 1 January 2018 to cut our emissions of carbon dioxide in half. But <span style="background-color: yellow;">I guess that hardly any of you have heard that there is a 50 percent chance of staying below a 1.5 degree Celsius of global temperature rise above pre-industrial levels. <b>Fifty percent chance</b>.</span></div>
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And these current, best available scientific calculations do not include nonlinear tipping points as well as most unforeseen feedback loops like the extremely powerful methane gas escaping from rapidly thawing arctic permafrost. Or already locked in warming hidden by toxic air pollution. Or the aspect of equity; climate justice.</div>
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So a 50 percent chance -<span style="background-color: yellow;"> a statistical flip of a coin</span> - will most definitely not be enough. That would be impossible to morally defend. <b>Would anyone of you step onto a plane if you knew it had more than a 50 percent chance of crashing? More to the point: would you put your children on that flight?</b></div>
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And <b>why is it so important to stay below the 1.5 degree limit?</b> Because that is what the united science calls for, to avoid destabilizing the climate so that we stay clear of setting off an irreversible chain reaction beyond human control. <b>Even at 1 degree of warming, we are seeing an unacceptable</b> loss of life and livelihoods.</div>
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So where do we begin? Well, I would suggest that we start looking at <b><a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">chapter 2, on page 108 in the IPCC report that came out last year</a></b>. Right there it says that <span style="background-color: yellow;">if we are to have a 67 per cent chance of limiting the global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, we had, on 1 January 2018, about 420 Gtonnes of CO2 left to emit in that carbon dioxide budget.</span> And of course, <b>that number is much lower today</b>. As we emit about 42 Gtonnes of CO2 every year if you include land use.</div>
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<b style="background-color: yellow;">With today’s emissions levels, that remaining budget is gone within less than 8 and a half years</b>. These numbers are not my opinions. They aren’t anyone’s opinions or political views. <b>This is the current best available science</b>. Though a great number of scientists suggest even these figures are too moderate, these are the ones that have been accepted by all nations through the IPCC.</div>
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And please note that <b>these figures are global</b> and therefore do not say anything about the aspect of equity, clearly stated throughout the Paris Agreement, which is absolutely necessary to make it work on a global scale. That means that richer countries need to do their fair share and get down to zero emissions much faster, so that people in poorer countries can heighten their standard of living, by building some of the infrastructures that we have already built. Such as roads, hospitals, schools, clean drinking water, and electricity.</div>
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The <b>USA is the biggest carbon polluter in history</b>. It is also the <b>world’s number one producer of oil.</b> And yet, you are also <span style="background-color: yellow;">the only nation in the world that has signaled your strong intention to leave the Paris Agreement. Because quote ”<i>it was a bad deal for the USA</i>”.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Four-hundred and twenty GTons of CO2 left to emit on 1 January 2018 to have a 67 percent chance of staying below 1.5 degrees of global temperature rise. Now that figure is already down to less than 360 GTons.</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">These numbers are very uncomfortable</span>. But people have the right to know. <b>And the vast majority of us have no idea these numbers even exist. In fact, not even the journalists that I meet seem to know that they even exist.</b> <b style="background-color: yellow;">Not to mention the politicians.</b> And yet they all seem so certain that their political plan will solve the entire crisis.</div>
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<b>But how can we solve a problem that we don’t even fully understand?</b> How can we leave out the full picture and the current best available science?</div>
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I believe there is a huge danger in doing so. And no matter how political the background to this crisis may be, we must not allow this to continue to be a partisan political question. <b>The climate and ecological crisis are beyond party politics. </b>And our main enemy right now is not our political opponents. Our main enemy now is physics. And we can not make “deals” with physics.</div>
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Everybody says that making sacrifices for the survival of the biosphere - and to secure the living conditions for future and present generations - is an impossible thing to do.</div>
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<b style="background-color: yellow;">Americans have indeed made great sacrifices to overcome terrible odds before.</b></div>
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Think of the brave soldiers that rushed ashore in that first wave on Omaha Beach on D Day. Think of Martin Luther King and the 600 other civil rights leaders who risked everything to march from Selma to Montgomery. Think of President John F. Kennedy announcing in 1962 that America would “<i>choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…</i>”</div>
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Perhaps it is impossible. But looking at those numbers - looking at the current best available science signed by every nation - then I think that is precisely what we are up against.</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">But you must not spend all of your time dreaming or see this as some political fight to win.</span></div>
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And you must not gamble your children’s future on the flip of a coin.</div>
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<b>Instead, you must unite behind the science.</b></div>
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<b>You must take action.</b></div>
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<b>You must do the impossible.</b></div>
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<b>Because giving up can never ever be an option.</b></div>
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/greta-thunberg-congress-speech-climate-change-crisis-dream-a9112151.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Independent</a><br />
by Greta Thumberg<br />
2019/09/19<br />
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<iframe height="400" src="https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/" width="640">src: <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/">NASA</a> </iframe>
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Hugo Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03534051823437072588noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-29354166716939563612019-09-15T09:24:00.002-07:002019-09-15T11:39:53.873-07:00Greta Thunberg speech at the National Assembly in Paris 2019-07-23 <div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">"<i>I have some good news and some bad news regarding the climate emergency. I will start with the good news.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>The world, as a small number of people have been saying lately, will not end in 11 years.</i></span></div>
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<i style="font-family: arial;">The bad news, however, is that around the year 2030, if we continue with business as usual, we will likely be in a position where we may pass a number of tipping points. And then we might no longer be able to undo the irreversible climate breakdown.</i></div>
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<i style="font-family: arial;">A lot of people, a lot of politicians, business leaders, journalists say they don't agree with what we are saying. They say we children are exaggerating, that we are alarmists. To answer this I would like to refer to page 108, chapter 2 in the latest IPCC report. There you will find all our "opinions" summarized because there you find a remaining carbon dioxide budget. Right there it says that: <span style="background-color: yellow;">if we are to have a 67% chance of limiting the global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees, <b>we had on January 1st, 2018, 420 gigatons of carbon dioxide left in our CO2 budget</b>. And of course, <b>that number is much lower today</b>. We emit about <b>42 gigatons of CO2 every year</b>.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>At current emissions levels, <b>that remaining budget is gone within roughly eight and a half years</b>. These numbers are as real as it gets, though a great number of scientists suggests that they are too generous, these are the ones that have been accepted by all nations through the IPCC.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>And not once, not one single time have I heard any politician, journalists or business leader even mention these numbers. It is almost like you don't even know they exist, as if you haven't even read the latest IPCC reports on which the future of our civilization is depending.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>Or maybe you are simply not mature enough to tell it like it is. Because even that burden you leave to us children. <b>We become the bad guys who have to tell people these uncomfortable things because no one else wants to or dares to</b>. And just for quoting and acting on these numbers, these scientific facts, we receive unimaginable amounts of hate and threats. We are being mocked and lied about by elected officials, members of Parliament's, business leaders, journalists. What I really would like to ask all of those who question our so-called "opinions" or think that we are extreme: <b>- Do you have a different budget for at least a reasonable chance of staying below the 1.5 degrees of warming limit? Is there another intergovernmental panel on climate change? Is there a secret Paris agreement that we don't know about? One that not includes the aspect of equity?</b> Because these are the numbers that count, this is the current best available science. <span style="background-color: yellow;">You can't simply make up your own facts just because you don't like what you hear.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i><b>There is no middle ground when it comes to the climate and ecological emergency</b>. Of course, you could argue that we should go for a more risky pathway, such as the alternative of 580 gigatons of CO2 from January 1st, 2018, which gives us a 50/50 percent chance of limiting the global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees. That amount of carbon dioxide will run out in about 12 years of current business as usual. But why should we do that, why should we accept taking that risk, leaving the future living conditions for humankind to a 50/50 flip of a coin. 420 gigatons left of CO2 to emit. And now that number is down to less than 360 gigatons. And please note that these figures are global and therefore do not say anything about the aspect of equity, clearly stated throughout the Paris agreement, which is absolutely necessary to make it work on a global scale. That means that richer countries need to get down to zero emissions faster, so the people in poorer parts of the world can heighten their standard of living by building some of the infrastructures that we have already built, such as roads, hospitals, electricity, schools and providing clean drinking water.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>And because you have ignored these facts, because you and pretty much all of the media to this very minute, keep ignoring them, people do not know what is going on. If you respect science, if you understand science, then this is it. 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit on January 1st to have a 67% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees of global temperature rise, according to the IPCC.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>In the Paris agreement, we have only signed up for staying below 1.5 to 2 degrees of temperature rise. And that, of course, gives us a bigger remaining carbon dioxide budget. But the latest IPCC report shows that aiming instead for below 1.5 degrees would significantly reduce the climate impacts, and that would most certainly save countless human lives.</i></span></div>
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<i style="font-family: arial;">This is what it's all about, this is all that we are saying. But I will also tell you this: -<span style="background-color: yellow;">You cannot solve the crisis without treating it as a crisis, without seeing the full picture. You cannot leave the responsibility to individuals, politicians, the market or other parts of the world to take. This has to include everything and everyone.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>Once you realize how painfully small the size of our remaining carbon dioxide budget is, once you realize how fast it is disappearing, once you realize that basically nothing is being done about it and once you realize that almost no one is even aware of the fact that carbon dioxide budgets even exists, then tell me what exactly do you do? And how do we do it without sounding alarmist? That is the question we must ask ourselves, and the people in power.</i></span></div>
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<i style="font-family: arial;">The science is clear and all we children are doing is communicating and acting on that united science. Now political leaders in some countries are starting to talk. They are starting to declare climate emergencies and announcing dates for so-called climate neutrality. And declaring a climate emergency is good. But only setting up these vague, distant dates and saying things which give the impression of that things are being done and that action is on the way, will most likely do more harm than good. Because of the changes required are still nowhere in sight. Not in France, not in the EU, nowhere. And I believe that the biggest danger is not our inaction. The real danger is when companies and politicians are making it look like real action is happening, when in fact almost nothing is being done, apart from clever accounting and creative PR.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>The climate and ecological emergency is right here, right now. But it has only just begun, it will get worse. 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit on January 1st 2018 to have a 67 percent chance of staying below a 1.5 degrees of global temperature rise. And now that figure is already down to less than 360 gigatons.</i></span></div>
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<i style="font-family: arial;">At current emissions levels that remaining budgets is gone within roughly eight and a half years. In fact, since I started this speech the world has emitted about 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide. And if anyone still has excuses not to listen, not to act, not to care, I ask you once again: -Is there another Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? Is there a secret Paris agreement that we don't know about? One that does not include the aspect of equity? Do you have a different budget for at least a reasonable chance of staying below 1.5 degrees of global temperature rise? Some people have chosen not to come here today, some people have chosen not to listen to us, and that is fine, we are after all just children. <span style="background-color: yellow;">You don't have to listen to us, but you do have to listen to the United science, the scientists.<b> And that is all we ask, just unite behind the science!</b></span></i><span style="font-family: "arial";">"</span><br />
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <a href="https://fridaysforfuture.org/greta-speeches#greta_speech_july23_2019">https://fridaysforfuture.org/greta-<span style="font-size: small;">speeches#greta_speech_july23_2019</span></a><a href="https://fridaysforfuture.org/greta-speeches#greta_speech_july23_2019" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fridays for Future</a>
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Hugo Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03534051823437072588noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-1213900542409570742019-02-23T07:36:00.001-08:002019-02-23T07:36:47.930-08:00These Artificial Leaves Can Absorb 10 Times More CO2 From The Air Than Real Leaves<div style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">
Plants possess a natural ability to purify the air and produce energy while doing so. The ability is called <b>photosynthesis</b> and it is the process whereby plants use water and carbon dioxide from the air to produce carbohydrates using energy from the sun. Scientists have found a way to make this happen artificially. The thing is, <b>they hadn’t been able to get these <b><a href="https://today.uic.edu/moving-artificial-leaves-out-of-the-lab-and-into-the-air">artificial leaves</a></b> to work outside the lab</b> because the lab leaves use pure, pressurized carbon dioxide from tanks, which is different than getting it out of the air.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://i2.wp.com/www.intelligentliving.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ACS_Sustainable-Chemistry-Engineering-Submission_FINAL_RGB_8-bit_JPEG1.jpg?ssl=1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img height="593" src="https://i2.wp.com/www.intelligentliving.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ACS_Sustainable-Chemistry-Engineering-Submission_FINAL_RGB_8-bit_JPEG1.jpg?resize=1024%2C949&ssl=1" width="640" /></a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An artificial, bio-inspired leaf. <b>Carbon dioxide</b> (red and black balls) enter the leaf as <b>water</b> (white and red balls) evaporates from the bottom of the leaf. An <b>artificial photosystem</b> (purple circle at the center of the leaf) made of a light absorber coated with catalysts converts carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide and <b>converts water to oxygen</b> (shown as double red balls) using sunlight.” (Image: Meenesh Singh).</td></tr>
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But now, researchers from the <b><b><a href="https://today.uic.edu/moving-artificial-leaves-out-of-the-lab-and-into-the-air" target="_blank">University of Illinois at Chicago</a></b></b> have proposed a design solution that could change everything. Their idea just might be the leaves’ ticket out of the lab and into the environment. Their findings are reported in the journal <b><a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b04969">ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering .</a></b>“</div>
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Meenesh Singh, assistant professor of chemical engineering in the <b>UIC College of Engineering</b> and corresponding author on the paper, said:</div>
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<b><i>“So far, all designs for artificial leaves that have been tested in the lab use carbon dioxide from pressurized tanks. In order to implement successfully in the real world, these devices need to be able to draw carbon dioxide from much more dilute sources, such as air and flue gas, which is the gas given off by coal-burning power plants.”</i></b></div>
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The only way that these artificial leaves will be able to collect and concentrate carbon dioxide (a potent greenhouse gas) from the air around us to drive their artificial photosynthetic reactions is if <b>they are unhooked from the pressurized carbon dioxide supply</b>.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="273" src="https://i1.wp.com/www.intelligentliving.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/artleaf.jpg?resize=846%2C362&ssl=1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image: Meenesh Singh</td></tr>
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Here’s how Singh and his colleague <b>Aditya Prajapati</b>, a graduate student in his lab, propose to solve this problem:</div>
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<li>The <span style="background-color: yellow;">traditional artificial leaf is placed inside a water-filled capsule</span> constructed out of a <b>semi-permeable membrane</b>.</li>
<li>When the sunlight warms the water, it <span style="background-color: yellow;">evaporates through the membrane </span>– when that happens it gets the capsule to suck in carbon dioxide (co2).</li>
<li>The CO2 that’s been sucked in then gets converted into <b>carbon monoxide (CO)</b> and oxygen by the artificial leaf inside the capsule.</li>
<li>The carbon monoxide (CO) could be siphoned from the device and used to create <span style="background-color: yellow;">synthetic fuels ranging from gasoline to methanol</span>;</li>
<li>And the <span style="background-color: yellow;">oxygen could be released back into the environment</span> or collected.</li>
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In other words, all they have to do is <span style="background-color: yellow;">envelope the artificial leaf technology (that has already been developed and works but only in the lab) within this specialized membrane and the whole unit will be able to function outside, like a natural leaf.</span> Furthermore, according to their research, they believe that an artificial leaf built around their design would be <b>10 times more efficient at converting CO2 to fuel than natural leaves</b>.</div>
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Their calculations reveal that <span style="background-color: yellow;">360 of their artificial leaves, each 1.7 meters long and 0.2 meters wide</span>, would generate about half a ton of CO daily, which can be used as a basis for synthetic fuels. If those leaves were to be spread out over 500 square meters, then they could reduce the CO2 levels in the air within 100 meters of the space by 10 percent in just one day.</div>
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Singh concludes:</div>
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“<i><b>Our conceptual design uses readily available materials and technology, that when combined can produce an artificial leaf that is ready to be deployed outside the lab where it can play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.</b></i>”</div>
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="https://www.intelligentliving.co/artificial-leaves/">Intelligent Living</a></b></div>
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by <b><a href="https://www.intelligentliving.co/author/andrea/">Andrea D. Steffen</a></b><br />
February 22, 2019</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-17283315095942053702019-01-27T19:48:00.000-08:002019-01-27T19:48:47.696-08:00Chemical Computing, the Future of Artificial Intelligence<div style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">
In 1951, the Russian chemist <b>Boris Belousov</b> sent to a scientific journal a study in which <span style="background-color: yellow;">he described an astonishing discovery: while trying to simulate a metabolic process in the laboratory, he had <b>discovered a chemical reaction that occurred and then reversed itself on its own, alternating between a yellow colour and a colourless state</b></span>. Belousov <b>couldn’t find any journal willing to publish his results,</b> since they appeared to violate a fundamental law of nature.</div>
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However, <b>his work—which only came to light in 1959</b> through a brief presentation at a symposium—<span style="background-color: yellow;">has become, half a century later, the foundation stone of a new discipline: <b>chemical computing</b>. </span>This technological path is an <b>alternative to quantum computing and conventional computing</b>, capable of processing in parallel based on the same operating principles as our brain, promising futuristic applications, such as integrating in our body in the form of <b>intelligent biosensors</b>.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Portrait<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;"> of Boris Belousov. Source: Wikimedia</span></td></tr>
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Computing is based on the use of <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_gate">logic gates</a></b>, which process a data input—usually in binary code—to produce a result or output. In the chips of our current computers, this function is carried out thanks to semiconductors, materials with a binary response capacity operating through the movement of electrons. However, this is not the only possible system; <b><a href="https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/the-race-for-the-quantum-computer/">quantum computing</a></b>, currently in the experimental phase, uses properties of subatomic particles that can also take alternative values, with greater versatility than semiconductors.</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Until the discovery of Belousov, no one would have suspected that chemical reactions could act as logic gates.</span> According to the <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics">second law of thermodynamics</a></b>, these processes are linear, spontaneously moving towards equilibrium through an increase in entropy, a measure of the energy of chaos; what is done cannot be undone, at least on its own. For this reason, Belousov’s work was rejected and ignored, until <span style="background-color: yellow;">a decade later it was recovered, extended and made known by the biophysicist <b>Anatol Zhabotinsky</b>.</span></div>
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<b>THE FIRST CHEMICAL OSCILLATOR</b></div>
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The <span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belousov%E2%80%93Zhabotinsky_reaction">Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction</a></b> was the first chemical oscillator, <b>a non-linear reaction that moves alternately in one direction and then the opposite</b> as the process itself modifies the concentrations of the ions present, and which only stops when the reagents are consumed</span>. In a Petri dish, these <b>reactions produce waves of colours</b> that diffuse from different points and act as inputs; the interaction between these input data can produce as an output a new wave—a 1, in binary code.</div>
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But this ability of chemical systems to compute by acting as logic gates is not something invented by humans, but was discovered, since it exists in nature. “<i><b>We are already using chemical computers,</b> because <span style="background-color: yellow;">our brains and bodies employ communication via the diffusion of mediators, neuromodulators, hormones</span>, etc.,</i>” says computer scientist <b>Andrew Adamatzky</b>, director of the <b><b><a href="http://uncomp.uwe.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">International Center of Unconventional Computing</a></b></b> at the <b>University of the West of England</b> in Bristol. “<i><b>We are chemical computers</b></i>,” he summarises.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction is a non-linear reaction that moves alternately in one direction and then the opposite. Credit: Jkrieger</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">For decades it was believed that the brain’s computational capacity lay in the <b>neuron as a minimal </b></span><span class="" style="background-color: yellow;"><b class="">unit</b></span>, and that its subcellular parts were limited to acting as simple transmitters of the decisions made by the cell in terms of the inputs received. <span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1559659/">Today it is known that this is not the case</a></b>, and that discrete parts of the neuron, such as </span><br />
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<li>the dendrites (the branches that receive the signals), </li>
<li>the axon (which sends the impulse to other neurons), and </li>
<li>the synapse (the space that communicates between them) </li>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">are <b>independently modulable,</b> and therefore capable of computing by themselves. </span>As this modulation is exerted through chemical agents, <span style="background-color: yellow;">the brain is not an electrical computer, but <b>an electrochemical one</b>.</span></div>
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<b>THE BRAIN, A PARALLEL COMPUTER</b></div>
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The great versatility of each neuron confers on the brain a valuable quality. “<i>The brain and chemical computers are parallel computers</i>,” explains biophysicist <b><b><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325174923_Dynamics_of_1D_array_of_inhibitory_coupled_chemical_oscillators_in_microdroplets_with_global_negative_feedback" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vladimir Vanag</a></b></b>, from the <b>Centre for Nonlinear Chemistry</b> at the <b><b><a href="https://eng.kantiana.ru/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University</a></b></b> (Russia). Parallel computing is not within the reach of conventional microprocessors (though it is for quantum ones). In practice, this advantage that chemical computing possesses overcomes one of its drawbacks—its slower speed.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig9pcWOm32pDXjefYWM0Ag5Mp2BlmUEg1NtyaaRvKmur2AQYSC-l-9fgPSV3SEDrhTZCEp4ut4NMHoz7dsp5tdQyLCAU8GTaFQ3TbXLLEctYtqIDHYhyTRJxCRe8cfBh5vbX2F6Q8KO8cey5hL/s1600/a-The-array-of-the-BZ-microdroplets-in-a-1D-capillary-b-Spacetime-plot-for-the.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="631" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig9pcWOm32pDXjefYWM0Ag5Mp2BlmUEg1NtyaaRvKmur2AQYSC-l-9fgPSV3SEDrhTZCEp4ut4NMHoz7dsp5tdQyLCAU8GTaFQ3TbXLLEctYtqIDHYhyTRJxCRe8cfBh5vbX2F6Q8KO8cey5hL/s640/a-The-array-of-the-BZ-microdroplets-in-a-1D-capillary-b-Spacetime-plot-for-the.png" width="640" /></a></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(a) The array of the BZ microdroplets in a 1D capillary. (b) Spacetime plot for the dynamics of the BZ MDs at GNF with coefficient g e = 0.11. The total size of the space-time plot is equal to 1875 mm  424 s. Short horizontal bars depict spikes for each of the 15 BZ MDs. The averaged diameter d of a single MD equals 125 mm. The red arrow depicts the averaged period of oscillations, T 0 = 159 s. The slope of the blue line characterizes the ''velocity'' spike propagation, 1.68 mm s À1. Some droplets in snapshot (a) look lighter since they are in the oxidized state of the catalyst, the others look darker since they correspond to the reduced state of the catalyst. White dashes in droplets with index numbers (from 1 to 15) display the image reading area to record the ox-red state of the droplets. Compared with the great speed of electronic chips, chemical computing is limited by the speed of the diffusion of reactions in the medium. Researchers like Adamaztky are working on breaking this barrier: “Systems can be scaled down to the nano-scale and then everything will be fast,” he says. However, he notes that certain applications will not require higher speeds: “When reaction-diffusion computers are embedded in the human body, their speed of processing information will perfectly match natural processes.”</span></h1>
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But in any case, <span style="background-color: yellow;">Vanag explains with an example how parallel computing compensates for any speed limit: if a micro-oscillator—equivalent to a processor—occupies a cubic volume of 100 microns on each side, a single cubic centimetre could contain a million of them, all working in parallel.</span> Thus, “<i>we can increase the number of micro-oscillators by many orders of magnitude and overcome the speed of conventional computers,</i>” he says. <span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>Say goodbye to <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law">Moore’s law</a></b></b>; with chemical computing, a small increase in volume is enough to multiply the processing capacity. </span>This is the secret of the human brain, slower than any computer, but more powerful than all of them.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The brain is slower than any computer,<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;"> but much more powerful. Credit: Pixbay</span></td></tr>
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<b>A NEW ARTIFICIAL-INTELLIGENCE</b></div>
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In addition, chemical computing brings other crucial advantages. “<i><b>It should work without electricity,</b></i>” says Vanag. “<b>No viruses, autonomous regime of working, and extremely high efficiency</b>.” And all this while using just a few cheap chemical reagents. Thanks to these qualities, <span style="background-color: yellow;">chemical computing is emerging as a promising alternative to simulate the human brain</span>. By building bottom-up systems, starting with small oscillator networks and adding more and more layers of complexity, scientists are learning how cognitive functions such as image recognition or decision making appear.</div>
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Of course, <span style="background-color: yellow;">a consequence of this chemical recreation of the brain would be the possibility of obtaining new artificial-intelligence systems</span>, but radically different from what we usually envision: <b>imagine robots made of gel, without a defined shape, capable of dividing themselves into smaller ones so that each one of them works independently</b>. Perhaps they’ll even be embedded in our own bodies, analysing our biological parameters, curing our diseases. “<i>But this is a fantasy,</i>” concludes Vanag. “<i>At the moment.</i>”</div>
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Javier Yanes</div>
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<b><a href="https://twitter.com/yanes68">@</a></b><b><a href="https://twitter.com/yanes68">yanes68</a></b></div>
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ORIGINAL: <b><a href="https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/chemical-computing-the-future-of-artificial-intelligence/">OpenMind</a></b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15556271214391586752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-64727007032084759742019-01-26T16:39:00.004-08:002019-01-26T16:40:05.389-08:00David Attenborough: 'The Garden of Eden is no more'. Read his Davos speech in full<div style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">Hilde Schwab and Sir David Attenborough at the 25th Annual Crystal Awards.<br />
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Thank you, Professor Klaus Schwab, Hilde Schwab and the World Economic Forum for this generous award and inviting me to Davos.</div>
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I am quite literally from another age.</div>
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I was born during the <b>Holocene</b>- the name given to the 12,000-year period of climatic stability that allowed humans to settle, farm and create civilisations.</div>
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Those conditions fostered our unique minds, giving rise to international trade in ideas as well as goods making us the globally-connected species we are today.</div>
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Much of what will be discussed here is the consequence of that stability.</div>
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Global businesses, international co-operation and the striving for higher ideals these are all possible because for millennia, on a global scale, nature has largely been predictable and stable.</div>
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Now in the space of one human lifetime -<span style="background-color: yellow;"> indeed in the space of my lifetime <b>all that has changed</b>.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Holocene has ended. The Garden of Eden is no more.</td></tr>
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<i><b>We have changed the world so much that scientists say we are now in a new geological age - The Anthropocene - The Age of Humans.</b></i></div>
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When you think about it, there is perhaps no more unsettling thought. The only conditions modern humans have ever known are changing and changing fast.</div>
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It is tempting and understandable to ignore the evidence and carry on as usual or to be filled with doom and gloom.</div>
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But there is also a vast potential for what we might do.</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>We need to move beyond guilt or blame and get on with the practical tasks at hand.</b></span></div>
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We did not get to this point deliberately – and it has happened astonishingly quickly.</div>
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When I made my first television programmes most of audiences had never even seen a pangolin - indeed few pangolin had ever seen a TV camera!</div>
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When in 1979 I made a series tracing the history of life on earth, I was aware of environmental problems but I didn’t imagine we were fundamentally changing nature.</div>
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In 1999, whilst making the Blue Planet series about marine life, we filmed coral-bleaching, but I still didn’t appreciate the magnitude of the damage that had already started.</div>
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Now however we have evidence, knowledge and the ability to share it on a scale unimaginable even just a few years ago.</div>
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<b style="background-color: yellow;">Movements and ideas can spread at astonishing speed.</b></div>
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The audience for that first series, 60 years ago, was restricted to a few million viewers in southern England.</div>
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My next series - Our Planet- which is about to be launched, will go instantly to hundreds of millions of people in almost every country on Earth via Netflix.</div>
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And the evidence supporting the series will be free to view by everyone with an internet connection via <b>WWF</b>.</div>
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If people can truly understand what is at stake, I believe they will give permission to business and governments to get on with the practical solutions.</div>
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And as a species we are expert problem-solvers. But we haven’t yet applied ourselves to this problem with the focus it requires.</div>
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We can create a world with clean air and water, unlimited energy, and fish stocks that will sustain us well into the future.</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>But to do that we need a plan.</b></span></div>
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Over the next 2 years there will be <b>United Nations</b> decisions on <b>Climate Change</b>, <b>Sustainable Development</b> and a <b>New Deal for Nature</b>. Together these will form our species’ plan for a route through the Anthropocene.</div>
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What we do in the next few years will profoundly affect the next few thousand years.</div>
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I look forward very much to the discussions and insights this week</div>
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Thank you again for this great honour.</div>
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/david-attenborough-transcript-from-crystal-award-speech" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">WEForum</a></b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-45146900377132816422018-11-05T08:29:00.000-08:002018-11-05T08:29:56.192-08:00El poder de la opción B para romper estereotipos<div style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">
La Dra. <b><a href="https://mujeresconciencia.com/2018/03/30/alexandra-olaya-castro-fisica-teorica/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Alexandra Olaya Castro</a></b> es física teórica, y es conocida por su trabajo en <b><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mec%C3%A1nica_cu%C3%A1ntica" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">física cuántica</a></b> biomolecular, en particular por su<span style="background-color: yellow;"> investigación sobre los <b><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estado_cu%C3%A1ntico">efectos cuánticos</a></b> en la <b><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fotos%C3%ADntesis">fotosíntesis</a></b>. </span>En 2016 fue galardonada con la <b><a href="http://www.iop.org/about/awards/bronze/maxwell/medallists/page_67613.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Medalla Maxwell</a></b> del <b><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Physics" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Institute of Physics</a></b>, una de las mayores distinciones de la física teórica, siendo la primera latinoamericana en obtenerla.</div>
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En esta conferencia de <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2GxMJDsl6Q">TEDxBogotaMujeres</a></b>, <b>Alexandra Olaya Castro</b> habla sobre estereotipos y propone enfrentarse a ellos para intentar eliminarnos, es decir, propone optar por “la opción B”. En primer lugar, habla de su historia personal, de cómo consiguió estudiar, doctorarse y ganar la Medalla Maxwell procediendo de una familia humilde de Colombia. Y en segundo lugar, habla de su investigación, de la física cuántica biomolecular, y de cómo tomó “la opción B” para investigar en un área interdisciplinar, rompiendo estereotipos en la ciencia.</div>
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Yo veo a los estereotipos como agujeros negros sociales, que atrapan la luz de mentes brillantes, de mentes talentosas, de mentes que pueden transformar. </div>
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<b>ORIGINAL</b>: <b><a href="https://mujeresconciencia.com/2018/04/08/poder-la-opcion-b-romper-estereotipos/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mujeres Con Ciencia</a></b></div>
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Edición realizada por <b><a href="http://www.ehu.eus/~mtwmastm/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Marta Macho Stadler</a></b></div>
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8 abril, 2018</div>
Hugo Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03534051823437072588noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-13886512698771692952018-08-26T14:02:00.003-07:002018-08-26T14:05:13.240-07:00Test Tube Artificial Neural Network Recognizes "Molecular Handwriting"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Conceptual illustration of a droplet containing an artificial neural network made of DNA that has been designed to recognize complex and noisy molecular information, represented as 'molecular handwriting.' Credit: Olivier Wyart</td></tr>
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<b><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/media_colorbox/15039/colorbox/en">Qian Lab - "Winner Take All" Method Enables DNA Computing</a></b></div>
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<b>Test tube chemistry using synthetic DNA molecules can be utilized in complex computing tasks to exhibit artificial intelligence</b></div>
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Researchers at <b>Caltech</b> have <span style="background-color: yellow;">developed an artificial neural network made out of DNA that can solve a classic machine learning problem: correctly identifying handwritten numbers</span>. The work is a significant step in <b>demonstrating the capacity to program artificial intelligence into synthetic biomolecular circuit</b>s.</div>
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The work was done in the laboratory of <b><a href="http://www.bbe.caltech.edu/content/lulu-qian">Lulu Qian</a></b>, assistant professor of bioengineering. <b><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0289-6" target="_blank">A paper describing the research</a></b> (<i>paywall</i>) appears online on July 4 and in the July 19 print issue of the journal <b>Nature</b>.</div>
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"<i>Though scientists have only just begun to explore <b>creating artificial intelligence in molecular machines</b>, its potential is already undeniable,</i>" says Qian. "<i>Similar to how electronic computers and smart phones have made humans more capable than a hundred years ago, <span style="background-color: yellow;">artificial molecular machines could make all things made of molecules, perhaps including even paint and bandages, more capable and more responsive to the environment in the hundred years to come</span>.</i>"</div>
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Artificial neural networks are mathematical models inspired by the human brain. Despite being much simplified compared to their biological counterparts, <span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>artificial neural networks</b> function like networks of neurons and are <b>capable of processing complex information</b></span><b>.</b> The <b>Qian laboratory's ultimate goal for this work is to program intelligent behaviors</b> (the ability to compute, make choices, and more) with artificial neural networks made out of DNA.</div>
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"<i>Humans each have over 80 billion neurons in the brain, with which they make highly sophisticated decisions. Smaller animals such as roundworms can make simpler decisions using just a few hundred neurons. In this work, <b>we have designed and created biochemical circuits that function like a small network of neurons to classify molecular information substantially more complex than previously possible</b>,</i>" says Qian.</div>
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To illustrate the capability of <b>DNA-based neural networks</b>, Qian laboratory graduate student <b>Kevin Cherry</b> chose a task that is a classic challenge for electronic artificial neural networks: recognizing handwriting.</div>
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Human handwriting can vary widely, and so when a person scrutinizes a scribbled sequence of numbers, the brain performs complex computational tasks in order to identify them. Because it can be difficult even for humans to recognize others' sloppy handwriting, identifying handwritten numbers is a common test for programming intelligence into artificial neural networks. These networks must be "taught" how to recognize numbers, account for variations in handwriting, then compare an unknown number to their so-called memories and decide the number's identity.</div>
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<b>WHY DNA?</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Key to creating biomolecular circuits out of DNA are the <b>strict binding rules</b> between molecules of DNA</span>. A single-stranded DNA molecule is composed of smaller molecules called nucleotides—abbreviated A, T, C, and G—arranged in a string, or sequence. The nucleotides in a single-stranded DNA molecule can bond with those of another single strand to form double-stranded DNA, but the nucleotides bind only in very specific ways: An A nucleotide with a T or a C nucleotide with a G.</div>
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Taking advantage of these <b>predictable binding rules</b>, Qian and her colleagues can design short strands of DNA to undergo predictable chemical reactions in a test tube and thereby compute tasks, such as molecular pattern recognition. <span style="background-color: yellow;">In <b>2011</b>, Qian and her colleagues created the first artificial neural network made of DNA molecules that could <b>recognize four simple patterns</b></span>.</div>
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In the work described in the <b><b><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0289-6" target="_blank">Nature paper</a></b></b>, Cherry, who is the first author on the paper, demonstrated that <b>a neural network made out of carefully designed DNA sequences</b> could carry out prescribed chemical reactions to accurately identify "<i><b>molecular handwriting</b></i>." Unlike visual handwriting that varies in geometrical shape, each example of molecular handwriting does not actually take the shape of a number. Instead, each molecular number is made up of 20 unique DNA strands chosen from 100 molecules, each assigned to represent an individual pixel in any 1<b>0 by 10 pattern</b>. These DNA strands are mixed together in a test tube.</div>
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"<i>The lack of geometry is not uncommon in natural molecular signatures yet still requires sophisticated biological neural networks to identify them: for example, a mixture of unique odor molecules comprises a smell</i>," says Qian.</div>
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Given a particular example of molecular handwriting, the DNA neural network can classify it into up to nine categories, each representing one of the nine possible handwritten digits from 1 to 9.</div>
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First, Cherry built a DNA neural network to distinguish between handwritten 6s and 7s. He tested 36 handwritten numbers and the test tube neural network correctly identified all of them. His system theoretically has the capability of classifying over 12,000 handwritten 6s and 7s—90 percent of those numbers taken from a database of handwritten numbers used widely for machine learning—into the two possibilities.</div>
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Crucial to this process was encoding <b>a "winner take all" competitive strategy</b> using DNA molecules, developed by Qian and Cherry. In this strategy, a particular type of DNA molecule dubbed <b>the annihilator </b>was used to select a winner when determining the identity of an unknown number.</div>
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"<i>The annihilator forms a complex with one molecule from one competitor and one molecule from a different competitor and reacts to form inert, unreactive species,</i>" says Cherry. "<i>The annihilator quickly eats up all of the competitor molecules until only a single competitor species remains. T<b>he winning competitor is then restored to a high concentration and produces a fluorescent signal </b>indicating the networks' decision.</i>" </div>
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Next, Cherry built upon the principles of his first DNA neural network to develop one even more complex, one that could classify single digit numbers 1 through 9. When given an unknown number, this "<b><i>smart soup</i></b>" would undergo a series of reactions and output two fluorescent signals, for example, green and yellow to represent a 5, or green and red to represent a 9.</div>
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Qian and Cherry plan to develop artificial neural networks that can learn, forming "memories" from examples added to the test tube. This way, Qian says, the same smart soup can be trained to perform different tasks.</div>
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"<i>Common medical diagnostics detect the presence of a few biomolecules, for example <b>cholesterol</b> or blood <b>glucose.</b></i>" says Cherry. "<i>Using more sophisticated biomolecular circuits like ours, <b style="background-color: yellow;">diagnostic testing could one day include hundreds of biomolecules</b>, with the analysis and response conducted directly in the molecular environment</i>."</div>
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The paper is titled <b><a href="http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20180214-162530340">"Scaling up molecular pattern recognition with DNA-based winner-take-all neural networks."</a></b> Funding was provided by the <b>National Science Foundation</b>, the <b>Burroughs Wellcome Fund</b>, and the <b>Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation</b>.<br />
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<b>Related:</b></div>
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<li><b><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/computing-biochemical-circuits-made-easy-54206">Computing with Biochemical Circuits Made Easy</a></b></li>
<li><b><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-create-first-artificial-neural-network-out-dna-1703">Caltech Researchers Create the First Artificial Neural Network Out of DNA</a></b></li>
<li><b><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-build-largest-biochemical-circuit-out-small-synthetic-dna-molecules-1692">Caltech Researchers Build Largest Biochemical Circuit Out of Small Synthetic DNA Molecules</a></b></li>
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<b>ORIGINAL: </b><b><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/test-tube-artificial-neural-network-recognizes-molecular-handwriting-82679">Caltech</a></b></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-23193711860243673652018-08-26T11:27:00.000-07:002018-08-26T11:27:10.006-07:00 Millimeter-Scale Computers: Now With Deep Learning Neural Networks on Board<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;">Photo: University of Michigan and TSMCOne of several varieties of University of Michigan micro motes. This one incorporates 1 megabyte of flash memory.</span></td></tr>
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Computer scientist <b><a href="http://web.eecs.umich.edu/faculty/blaauw/research.html">David Blaauw</a></b> pulls a small plastic box from his bag. He carefully uses his fingernail to pick up the tiny black speck inside and place it on the hotel café table.<span style="background-color: yellow;"> At one cubic millimeter, this is one of a line of the world’s smallest computers. </span>I had to be careful not to cough or sneeze lest it blow away and be swept into the trash.</div>
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Blaauw and his colleague <b><a href="http://web.eecs.umich.edu/~dennis/">Dennis Sylvester</a></b>, both IEEE Fellows and computer scientists at the <b>University of Michigan</b>, were in San Francisco this week to present ten papers related to these “<b><a href="http://web.eecs.umich.edu/faculty/blaauw/research/M3-Michigan-Micro-Mote.html">micro mote</a></b>” computers at the IEEE <b><a href="http://isscc.org/">International Solid-State Circuits Conference</a></b> (ISSCC). <span style="background-color: yellow;">They’ve been presenting different variations on the tiny devices for a few years.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Their broader goal is to make smarter, smaller sensors for medical devices and the internet of things—sensors that can do more with less energy</span>. Many of the microphones, cameras, and other sensors that make up eyes and ears of smart devices are always on alert, and frequently beam personal data into the cloud because they can’t analyze it themselves. <span style="background-color: yellow;">Some have <b><a href="http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/25/softbank-ceo-masayoshi-son-sees-a-future-with-1-trillion-internet-of-things-devices/">predicted</a></b> that by 2035, there will be <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/internet/the-internet-of-fewer-things">1 trillion such devices</a></b></span>. “<i>If you’ve got a trillion devices producing readings constantly, we’re going to drown in data,</i>” says Blaauw. By developing <b>tiny, energy efficient computing sensors that can do analysis on board</b>, Blaauw and Sylvester hope to make these devices more secure, while also saving energy.</div>
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Photo: University of Michigan/TSMCMade of multiple layers of computing.</div>
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At the conference, they described micro mote designs that use only a few nanowatts of power to perform tasks such as distinguish the sound of a passing car and measuring temperature and light levels. They showed off a compact radio that can send data from the small computers to receivers 20 meters away—a considerable boost compared to the 50 centimeter range they reported <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/injectable-radios-to-broadcast-from-inside-the-body">last year</a></b> at ISSCC. They also described their work with <b><a href="http://www.tsmc.com/english/default.htm">TSMC</a></b> on embedding flash memory into the devices, and a project to bring on board dedicated, low-power hardware for running artificial intelligence algorithms called deep neural networks.</div>
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Blaauw and Sylvester say they take a holistic approach to adding new features without ramping up power consumption. “There’s no one answer” to how the group does it, says Sylvester. If anything, it’s “smart circuit design,” Blaauw adds. (They pass ideas back and forth rapidly, not finishing each other’s sentences but something close to it.)</div>
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The memory research is a good example of how the right tradeoffs can improve performance, says Sylvester. Previous versions of the micro motes used 8 kilobytes of SRAM, which makes for a pretty low-performance computer. To record video and sound, the tiny computers need more memory. So the group worked with TSMC to bring flash memory on board. Now they can make tiny computers with 1 megabyte of storage.</div>
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Flash can store more data in a smaller footprint than SRAM, but it takes a big burst of power to write to the memory. With TSMC, the group designed a new memory array that uses a more efficient charge pump for the writing process. The memory arrays are a bit less dense than TSMC’s commercial products, for example, but still much better than SRAM. “We were able to get huge gains with small trade-offs,” says Sylvester.</div>
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Another micro mote they presented at the ISSCC incorporates a <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/deep+learning">deep-learning</a></b> processor that can operate a neural network while using just 288 microwatts. Neural networks are artificial intelligence algorithms that perform well at tasks such as face and voice recognition. They typically demand both large memory banks and intense processing power, and so they’re usually run on banks of servers often powered by advanced GPUs. Some researchers have been trying to lessen the size and power demands of deep-learning AI with dedicated hardware that’s specially designed to run these algorithms. But even those processors still use over 50 milliwatts of power—far too much for a micro mote. The Michigan group brought down the power requirements by redesigning the chip architecture, for example by situating four processing elements within the memory (in this case, SRAM) to minimize data movement.</div>
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The idea is to bring neural networks to the internet of things. “A lot of motion detection cameras take pictures of branches moving in the wind—that’s not very helpful,” says Blaauw. Security cameras and other connected devices are not smart enough to tell the difference between a burglar and a tree, so they waste energy sending uninteresting footage to the cloud for analysis. On-board deep-learning processors could make better decisions, but only if they don’t use too much power. The Michigan group imagine deep-learning processors could be integrated into many other internet-connected things besides security systems. For example, an HVAC systems could decide to turn the air conditioning down if they see multiple people putting on their coats.</div>
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After demonstrating many variations on these micro motes in an academic setting, the Michigan group hopes they will be ready for market in a few years. Blaauw and Sylvester say their start-up company <b><a href="http://cubeworks.us/">CubeWorks</a></b> is currently prototyping devices and researching markets. The company was quietly incorporated in late 2013. Last October, Intel Capital <b><a href="https://newsroom.intel.com/news-releases/intel-capital-announces-38m-new-investments/">announced</a></b> they had invested an undisclosed amount in the tiny computer company. </div>
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/robotics/artificial-intelligence/millimeterscale-computers-now-with-deep-learning-neural-networks-on-board" target="_blank">IEEE Spectrum</a></b></div>
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By <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/author/katherine-bourzac">Katherine Bourzac</a></b></div>
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Posted 10 Feb 2017</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-59952660158463103822018-08-26T11:26:00.000-07:002018-09-08T09:43:10.340-07:00With Synthetic Biology Software, Geneticists Design Living Organisms From Scratch<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Image: Chris Bickel </span></td></tr>
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The first time geneticist <b><a href="http://www.med.nyu.edu/research/institute-systems-genetics-isg/about-our-director">Jef Boeke</a></b> designed a synthetic chromosome, he sometimes wrote and edited its DNA sequence in a Microsoft Word document.<br />
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His goal was to create a slightly altered version of yeast chromosome 9, the shortest of the 16 chromosomes that make up the organism’s genome and contain all the operating instructions for life. He started with the short chromosome’s right arm, but even this task was daunting. Its DNA code consisted of 90,000 “letters,” the molecules referred to as A, C, G, and T that are arranged in particular sequence to encode biological function.<br />
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Painstakingly, Boeke went through the code, making changes that he thought would be scientifically interesting or that would make the chromosome more stable. This misery drove him to seek help from student <b><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/thegermwrangler">Sarah Richardson</a></b> in his neighbor <b><a href="http://www.bme.jhu.edu/people/primary.php?id=383">Joel Bader</a></b>’s lab, who wrote scripts to automate some of the most tedious steps. This was the embryonic beginning of what was to become the genome design software called BioStudio.<br />
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Once Boeke finished his design, the synthetic chromosome was constructed by taking short snippets of manufactured DNA and stringing them together. Then Boeke’s team checked the design by taking a normal yeast cell, swapping out its natural chromosome 9, and looking to see if it would keep functioning with a manmade chromosome inside. Nobody knew if it would work.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110914/full/news.2011.537.html">It did</a></b>. The <b><a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/nature10403.epdf">results were published</a></b> in Nature in 2011, and the quest to build synthetic critters from scratch took a big step forward. Boeke’s team prepared to design the other 15 chromosomes to make a completely synthetic yeast—and the world’s first completely synthetic <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eukaryote">complex organism</a></b>.<br />
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But the manual approach wasn’t scalable. The chromosome 9 project had involved 90,000 letters, a <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_pair#Length_measurements">length denoted as 90 kb</a></b>. The overall yeast genome was 12 million letters long, or 12Mb. “It was obvious right away that we needed something much more heavyweight,” Boeke says.<br />
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The results of their solution are now on display in the journal <b><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/">Science</a></b>, which yesterday published seven papers from the <b><a href="http://syntheticyeast.org/">synthetic Yeast 2.0</a></b> project. One of those papers describes their breakthrough enabling technology, the custom-built software program <b><a href="https://bitbucket.org/notadoctor/biostudio-dev">BioStudio</a></b>.<br />
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Boeke, who leads the yeast project and serves as director of NYU’s <b><a href="http://www.med.nyu.edu/research/systemsgenetics">Institute for Systems Genetics</a></b>, oversaw the genome design. The papers published today <b><a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aaf4557">describe that design process</a></b> using BioStudio and also report on the completion of five new chromosomes by collaborators from around the world.<br />
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BioStudio allowed Boeke’s team to take the normal yeast genome and make the deletions, insertions, and changes they wanted, making genetic tinkering as easy as cut and paste. The program also includes a version control feature akin to Word’s track changes, recording each edit of the genome so it can easily be reversed if it’s later found to be detrimental to the yeast’s survival.<br />
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Nothing like BioStudio existed when Boeke asked Richardson to help him out. Then a PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins University (and now chief scientific officer at the synthetic biology startup MicroByre), Richardson says existing software focused on displaying long genome sequences and allowing researchers to annotate them as they laboriously figured out the purpose of various strings of DNA. When she asked around about adding an editing function to let researchers change those intricate sequences, she got shocked responses. “You would have thought I’d suggested abandoning a toddler at the mall,” she says.<br />
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Richardson worked with Boeke to create a genome editing software that was wrapped in a user-friendly web interface called <b><a href="http://gmod.org/wiki/GBrowse">Gbrowse</a></b>. For a while, Boeke was the software’s only user, and he provided Richardson with plenty of frank feedback. “I’d say, it’s way too slow, it’s killing me!” he remembers. They achieved one big speed-up when they realized that every edit—even the insertion of just a few letters—was causing a cascade of updates throughout the entire genome. By localizing the update, Boeke says, the editing process got about 15 times faster. The BioDesign software makes genetic tinkering as easy as cut and paste.<br />
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Once BioStudio was fully up and running, Boeke’s team designed the full genome of what they call Sc2.0, referencing the scientific name for brewer’s yeast, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharomyces_cerevisiae">Saccharomyces cerevisiae</a></b>. Overall, their Sc2.0 genome design is 8 percent shorter than the original yeast genome, and it includes 1.1 Mb (or roughly a million) changes.<br />
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After finalizing this initial design, they asked <b><a href="http://syntheticyeast.org/collaborators/">collaborators around the world</a></b> to take on the project of building specific chromosomes. They knew the design would continue to morph, as some of their initial changes would prove infeasible. But they also knew that all edits made by their collaborators would be captured in track changes.<br />
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The original edits came from a long list, Boeke says. “We spent something like eight months debating what changes to put on the list,” he says. “It’s fundamentally an arbitrary list of genetic changes we thought would be interesting.” But the team had to be careful not to push it too far: “We knew that with every change we made, we’d increase the risk that we’d kill the yeast,” he says.<br />
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BioStudio enabled the designers to make some major edits easily, explains Leslie Mitchell, a postdoc researcher in Boeke’s lab who took the lead on much of the genome design. With single keystrokes, she could make changes that would affect all the DNA in a chromosome. Some of these system-wide changes removed repetitive segments of DNA or took out pieces called <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposable_element">transposons</a></b> that make genomes more prone to mutation. Another added “watermarks” that would show up when the synthetic DNA was added to a normal yeast cell, making it obvious which parts of the cell were human-made.<br />
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After such broad-scale edits were done, Mitchell says, the designers could go in and look at each chromosome’s sequence in detail, making expert decisions about where they wanted to make further changes. Overall, she estimates, it took about an hour to edit 100 kb of DNA, so the 500-kb chromosome 5 took about 5 hours to design.<br />
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Richardson, the coder, remembers that the researchers had one more big ask for BioStudio, which had to do with DNA assembly. While synthetic biology companies now make it easy to <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/dna-manufacturing-enters-the-age-of-mass-production">order custom strings of manufactured DNA</a></b>, those strings are typically fairly short. For the synthetic yeast project, the researchers would order strings of DNA that were only about 70 letters, or <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_pair#Length_measurements">base-pairs</a></b>, long. When those strings arrived in the lab, the researchers first assembled them into “building blocks” of about 750 bp, then put those building blocks together into into 2-4 kb “minichunks,” then constructed 10 kb “chunks,” and finally built 30-60 kb “megachunks.” Synthetic biology lends itself to engineering’s classic “design-build-test” cycle.<br />
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But there are genetic constraints on how strings of DNA can be assembled. The researchers wanted BioStudio to take any long DNA sequence and make it “modular,” chopping it up into pieces that could be ordered from the DNA-makers and then patched together in that series of assembly steps. “They wanted to be able to push a button when they were done with their edits, and have the genome slot itself into an assembly pattern,” Richardson remembers. “That was the craziest thing they asked for.”<br />
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Synthetic biology lends itself to engineering’s classic “design-build-test” cycle. For Sc2.0, megachunks of the designer chromosomes were built and inserted into normal yeast cells to test whether they interfered with its life functions. If the yeast cell died or displayed abnormal behavior, the researchers embarked on a debugging process.<br />
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In one type of debugging, they would make many yeast colonies with many different combinations of synthetic megachunks and watch to see which colonies failed, then look for the common denominator in those failures. Mitchell, who led the work on <b><a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aaf4831">designing and debugging chromosome 6</a></b>, explains that there were different sorts of bugs. The most interesting were those that arose from genome changes they’d made that they expected to be harmless—because those bugs taught the researchers something about yeast biology.<br />
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Boeke says that so far, the team has found a bug in their genome design roughly every 300 kb. “But there may be more, we may not have found them all yet!” he says. With most of the synthetic yeast chromsomes still under construction, he’s still expecting surprises. “It’s like when you release code and wait for the user feedback,” he says. Geneticists need software to help them explore this new design frontier: the design of life itself.<br />
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The synthetic yeast project is on track to complete all 16 chromosomes by the end of 2017. Then the team will turn to the task of putting all the chromosomes into a single cell, and seeing if it still functions as a yeast cell should. That process may yield still more bugs, Mitchell says. “It might be that individual changes on two chromosomes are well tolerated, but they don’t work when you put them together,” she says. “We may potentially have to track bugs across chromosomes.”<br />
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While BioStudio has been invaluable for the synthetic yeast project, the researchers aren’t sure whether it will be useful for other synthetic biology projects. “If you want to make the kinds of changes we made for yeast, it’s very straightforward,” says Mitchell, “but for other types of changes you’d have to write the code.” The <b><a href="https://bitbucket.org/notadoctor/biostudio-dev">software is open source</a></b>, she notes, so interested parties could build on it.<br />
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Whether it’s BioStudio or another program, the <b><a href="https://www.cbinsights.com/blog/synthetic-biology-startup-funding/">fast-growing field of synthetic biology</a></b> will need software to help geneticists explore this new design frontier: the design of life itself.<br />
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Some synthetic biology startups are trying to adapt simple organisms like yeast to make them produce useful products, such as biofuels, vaccines, <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/the-robot-revolution-comes-to-synthetic-biology">or even perfume</a></b>. Other researchers are more interested in constructing whole critters from scratch, in hopes of gaining new insights into the mechanics of life in the process.<br />
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The first completely synthetic genome was bacterial, <b><a href="http://www.jcvi.org/cms/press/press-releases/full-text/article/first-self-replicating-synthetic-bacterial-cell-constructed-by-j-craig-venter-institute-researcher/home/">constructed at the J. Craig Venter Institute in 2010</a></b>; its single-chromosome measured 1 Mb in length. From that start, the 12-Mb yeast genome marks a big step up. And Boeke is part of a group that has proposed to scale up considerably from the single-celled yeast. Last June they <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/the-next-genetics-moonshot-building-a-human-genome-from-scratch">called for the creation of a synthetic human genome</a></b> as part of a massive project to develop DNA assembly technology; they published <b><a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6295/126">an article</a></b> in the journal Science that suggested a $100 million investment to get the project off the ground.<br />
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The human genome clocks in at 3 billion letters, or 3 Gb. To tackle that project, genome designers and coders may have to get together for a Synthetic Bio Hackathon.<br />
Learn More <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/BioDesign">BioDesign</a></b><b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/genome">genome</a></b><b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/software">software</a></b><b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/synthetic+biology">synthetic biology</a></b><b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/yeast">yeast</a></b><br />
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/with-synthetic-biology-software-geneticists-design-living-organisms-from-scratch">IEEE Spectrum</a></b></div>
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By <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/author/strickland-eliza">Eliza Strickland</a></b><br />
Posted 10 Mar 2017 | 20:30 GMT</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-29542515734898233922018-08-23T05:43:00.003-07:002018-09-08T09:45:48.751-07:00Descubren nueva especie animal en la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta<div style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">
<b>Son los microorganismos más resistentes en el planeta por sus cualidades físicas y anatómicas</b></div>
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Expertos investigadores señalan que los Tardígrados o también denominados ‘Ositos de Agua’, podrían ayudar a descifrar los mecanismos que utilizan estos organismos para preservar intacto su estructura celular y su ADN cuando están en estado seco, buscando crear nuevas alternativas para conservar, por ejemplo, órganos humanos.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv563CHTI9HKBOPkmq7qpPmEzj86712ciQNN2W12rvv0uB5ZW7DI2n2k1JAedB3TWSk2e8yFc5hmhTyPCQY4IUvsbjTq5Cod8hjIDZrpOFsTnlHShyphenhyphenRBUVSjtP8TwSUnq8KzM_MqGq4HxqxtzU/s1600/CienEnCa_003_documento_3_20180821165649.142.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="1019" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv563CHTI9HKBOPkmq7qpPmEzj86712ciQNN2W12rvv0uB5ZW7DI2n2k1JAedB3TWSk2e8yFc5hmhTyPCQY4IUvsbjTq5Cod8hjIDZrpOFsTnlHShyphenhyphenRBUVSjtP8TwSUnq8KzM_MqGq4HxqxtzU/s640/CienEnCa_003_documento_3_20180821165649.142.jpg" width="640" /></a></b></td></tr>
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Esta es la representación de un tardígrado a gran escala. Estos animales tienen una talla media de 5 milímetros.<br />
Foto: Roger Urieles</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">El </span><b style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://scienti.colciencias.gov.co:8085/gruplac/jsp/visualiza/visualizagr.jsp?nro=00000000009153" target="_blank">Grupo de Investigación en Manejo y Conservación de Fauna y Flora y Ecosistemas Estratégicos Neotropicales MIKU</a></b></b><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">, dirigido por el doctor </span><b style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">Sigmer Quiroga Cárdenas</b><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;"> y conformado por docentes y estudiantes de la </span><b style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">Universidad del Magdalena</b><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">, realizó el hallazgo de seis nuevas especies de Tardígrados provenientes de la </span><b style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta</b><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">. </span><br />
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El descubrimiento parte de las investigaciones relacionadas con el estudio de la biodiversidad en el ecosistema estratégico. En salidas de campo realizadas en el marco de varios proyectos de investigación, <span style="background-color: yellow;">se recolectaron muestras de musgos y líquenes en donde fueron hallados los tardígrados</span>, con los que posteriormente se realizaron micropreparados para ser analizados por el grupo de expertos y estudiantes de MIKU. </div>
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“Estamos colocando a disposición del país y el mundo científico, especies con las que podemos investigar los mecanismos de tolerancia que serán de gran utilidad para la ciencia”, indicó Sigmer Quiroga, director del grupo de Investigación MIKU.</div>
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Las nuevas especies <b><i>(Bryodelphax kristenseni, Doryphoribius rosanae, Itaquascon pilatoi, Milnesium kogui, Minibiotus pentannulatus, Paramacrobiotus sagani</i></b>), hacen parte de los cerca de siete mil ejemplares de Tardígrados de diferentes géneros depositados en el <b>Centro de Colecciones Biológicas de la Universidad del Magdalena</b>, constituyéndose en la colección más grande de estos organismos en Colombia.</div>
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El docente de la Alma Mater asegura que el estudio de la capacidad de resistencia de estos animales microscópicos puede ser en diferentes campos de interés humano como la medicina, farmacéutica e ingeniería de alimentos, entre otros. “<i>Estos organismos acuáticos cuando el agua escasea, poseen la capacidad de entrar en un estado de anhidrobiosis en el cual pueden resistir a condiciones muy extremas de temperaturas o niveles de radiación que serían letales para otros organismos.</i>” señaló. </div>
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Agrega que “<i>si se descifran los mecanismos que utilizan estos organismos para preservar intacto su estructura celular y su ADN cuando están en estado seco, podrían crearse nuevas alternativas para conservar, por ejemplo, órganos humanos</i>”. </div>
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<b>Los tardígrados: un animal ‘indestructible’</b></div>
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Reconocidos por ser el animal más resistente en el planeta por sus cualidades físicas y anatómicas, los tardígrados o también llamados '<b>ositos de agua</b>' son el centro de estudio de este grupo de investigación adscrito a la Vicerrectoría de Investigación de la Alma Mater.</div>
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Su nombre hace referencia al movimiento particular de estos animales, <span style="background-color: yellow;">son caminantes lentos que alcanzan a medir entre 1 y 2 milímetros pero lo más importante es su capacidad para sobrevivir a las condiciones más adversas</span>. </div>
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El estudio de los tardígrados ha sido esporádico en el país, siendo la Universidad del Magdalena, por intermedio del Grupo de Investigación MIKU, pionero y líder en la investigación de estas especies en la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta por más de una década.</div>
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Este colectivo investigador está conformado por los biólogos egresados de la Alma Mater: <b>Rosana Londoño, Anisbeth Daza y Martin Caicedo</b>, al igual que los estudiantes: <b>Natalia Cantillo (UNIMAGDALENA) y Dayanna Venencia (Uniatlantico)</b>, acompañados por el doctor <b>Oscar Lisi</b> de la <b>Universidad de Catania</b>, Italia.</div>
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Los tardígrados se encuentran actualmente representados por más de 1200 especies, clasificadas en dos clases: <b><i>Heterotardigrada y Eutardigrad</i></b>a. A través de campañas informativas, el Grupo de Investigación MIKU busca dar a conocer la importancia de estos animales en los ecosistemas y su uso como modelos biológicos para el estudio de los mecanismos de extremotolerancia.</div>
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="https://www.unimagdalena.edu.co/presentacionPublicacion/VerNoticia/3258" target="_blank">UniMagdalena</a></b></div>
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21/08/2018 04:56 PM por Dirección de Comunicaciones</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-46579164769009654482018-08-20T09:25:00.001-07:002018-08-20T09:25:29.776-07:00CMU Engineers Find Innovative Way to Make a Low-Cost 3D Bioprinter <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<b><b>Starting with a MakerBot 3D printer, researchers tapped open-source hardware and software to build an affordable piece of tech that can print laboratory-grown cells on a large scale.</b></b></div>
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While 3D printers have already caused quite a buzz in the healthcare field — <b><a href="https://healthtechmagazine.net/article/2017/08/healthcare-cusp-3d-medical-printing-revolution">facilitating difficult surgeries and opening the door to low-cost prosthetics</a></b> — the concept of <b>bioprinting</b> on a large scale has eluded the industry for the most part. But a recent breakthrough from <b><a href="http://www.engineering.cmu.edu/">Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering</a></b> could change all that.</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Bioprinting, or printing laboratory-grown cells in order to form living structures<span style="background-color: transparent;">, has the ability to profoundly transform healthcare.</span></span></div>
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“<i>The approach could revolutionize <b>regenerative medicine</b>, enabling the production of complex tissues and cartilage that would potentially support, repair or augment diseased and damaged areas of the body,</i>” <b><a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170815095009.htm">Science Daily reports</a></b>.</div>
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While researchers from the <b><a href="http://web.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a></b> and elsewhere have been digging into how to facilitate <b><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-06358-x">low-cost bioprinting</a></b>, these <span style="background-color: yellow;">options are often limited in scale or availability</span>. The new open-source and low-cost solution from CMU, which makes use of a<b><a href="https://www.3dhubs.com/3d-printers/printrbot-simple-metal" target="_blank"> standard desktop 3D printer</a></b>, could open the door to printing biomaterials, like artificial human tissue, and fluids on a larger scale, <b><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468067217300822">according to a new paper released by CMU</a></b>.</div>
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“<i>Bioprinting has historically been limited in volume, so essentially the goal is to just <u>scale up the process without sacrificing detail and quality of the print</u></i>,” <b>Kira Pusch</b>, an author of the paper and a recent graduate of CMU’s Materials Science and Engineering undergraduate program, <b><a href="https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2018/april/diy-bioprinter.html">tells CMU’s news site</a></b>. “<i>What we’ve created is<b> <b><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468067217300822" target="_blank">a large volume syringe pump extruder</a></b></b> that works with almost any open source fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer. This means that it’s an inexpensive and relatively easy adaptation for people who use 3-D printers.</i>”</div>
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<b>Open-Source Tools Lead to a ‘Democratizing’ Bioprinter</b></div>
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What makes the CMU bioprinting method unique is a technique the lab developed called <b><b><a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5627/f199bf63f3156914a380f31fc932928fc3fa.pdf" target="_blank">Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) 3D bioprinting</a></b></b> that is designed to specifically print “<b><i>soft and living materials</i></b>,” <b>Adam Feinberg</b>, another author of the paper and an associate professor of materials science and biomedical engineering at CMU, <b><a href="https://www.roboticstomorrow.com/article/2018/05/carnegie-mellon-designs-low-cost-high-efficiency-3d-bioprinter/12016">tells Robotics Tomorrow</a></b>. The technique <span style="background-color: yellow;">essentially prints the tissue in a gel that is later carefully melted away to ensure the <b>cells remain viable</b></span>.</div>
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Feinberg notes that the technique is capable of printing a wide range of cells “<i>including collagen and other extracellular matrix proteins</i>,” representing most tissue in the body.</div>
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“<i>Usually there’s a trade-off, because when the systems dispense smaller amounts of material, we have more control and can print small items with high resolution, but as systems get bigger, various challenges arise</i>,” Feinberg, who is also a member of the <b><a href="https://engineering.cmu.edu/organs/">Bioengineered Organs Initiative</a></b> at Carnegie Mellon, tells CMU’s news site. “<i>The [large-volume extruder (LVE)] 3-D bioprinter allows us to print much larger tissue scaffolds, at the scale of an entire human heart, with high quality.</i>”</div>
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The lab began its journey toward large-scale and low-cost bioprinting after it purchased a <b><a href="https://www.cdwg.com/product/MakerBot-Essentials-Pack-MakerBot-Replicator-Smart-Extruder-3D-print/4389090?pfm=srh">MakerBot</a></b> 3D printer. Over the course of six years, <b>researchers modified the printer using open-source hardware and software</b>. In the spirit of that endeavor, the team has made its designs for the printer open source, hoping to further collaboration and discovery in the medical field.</div>
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“<i>Essentially, we’ve developed a bioprinter that you can build for under $500, that I would argue is at least on par with many that cost far more money</i>,” Feinberg tells CMU’s news site. “<i><u>Most 3-D bioprinters start between $10,000 and $20,000. This is significantly cheaper, and we provide very detailed instructional videos. It’s really about democratizing technology and trying to get it into more people’s hands.</u></i>”</div>
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<b><b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="https://healthtechmagazine.net/article/2018/07/cmu-engineers-find-innovative-way-make-low-cost-3d-bioprinter">Health Tech Magazine</a></b></b></div>
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by <b><a href="https://healthtechmagazine.net/author/juliet-van-wagenen">Juliet Van Wagenen</a></b></div>
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Juliet is the senior web editor for StateTech and HealthTech magazines. In her six years as a journalist she has covered everything from aerospace to indie music reviews — but she is unfailingly partial to covering technology.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-48586809466683607552018-08-20T09:23:00.001-07:002018-08-20T10:16:50.202-07:00You Should Know These 20 Technology Leaders Driving China's A.I. Revolution<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">China’s leading technology companies are on fire, <b>heavily investing in artificial intelligence and building true global presences</b></span>. McKinsey <b><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjV_5iY88jUAhVK32MKHUMzCM0QFggoMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mckinsey.com%2Fglobal-themes%2Fchina%2Fartificial-intelligence-implications-for-china&usg=AFQjCNHf9mXwRkdzIyN5bun87OLeq2YEoA&sig2=RARu8wWvD4SCsVUQ-Z9ucw">recently reported</a></b> that <b>academic and research institutions in the country publish more cited research papers than the US, UK, or any other global leader in AI, <span style="background-color: yellow;">producing nearly 10,000 papers in 2015 alone</span>.</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>Backed by strong government mandates and billions of dollars</b> of both private and public investments, China is challenging the US for position of global AI leader</span>. Fearful of competition, the <b>US government is considering <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2017/06/13/technology/13reuters-usa-china-artificialintelligence.html">placing restrictions</a></b> on Chinese investments in AI and technology in the United States.</b> In many sectors, such as healthcare, China may <b><a href="http://www.topbots.com/united-states-falls-behind-china-canada-healthcare-artificial-intelligence/">already be ahead</a></b> of America in applying AI to critical public issues.</div>
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You might recognize names like <b>Andrew Ng, Sebastian Thrun, Geoffrey Hinton,</b> or <b>Yann LeCun</b> as important figures in AI, but <span style="background-color: yellow;">few Westerners can name the key leaders driving AI innovation in China and at Chinese companies globally.</span> These executives, entrepreneurs, professors, and researchers helm the most important Chinese tech companies and research labs and are respected widely for their technical expertise and accomplishments.</div>
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We’ve researched and curated <b>20 of the most important figures in the Chinese AI landscape that you should know</b>: </div>
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<b>1. KAI-FU LEE</b></div>
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Co-Founder of <b><a href="http://www.sinovationventures.com/" target="_blank">Sinovation Ventures</a></b>, Former President of Google China</div>
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<b></b><span style="background-color: yellow;">Kai-Fu Lee is <b>a globally recognized technology leader</b> with executive experience at Apple, Microsoft, and Google</span>. He got his BS in Computer Science from <b>Columbia University</b> and his PhD from <b>Carnegie Mellon</b>. Lee established <b>Google China</b> prior to co-founding <b><a href="http://www.sinovationventures.com/" target="_blank">Sinovation Ventures</a></b>, a venture capital firm actively funding technology and AI startups in the US and China.</div>
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With celebrity status in China and over 50 million followers on Chinese social networks, <span style="background-color: yellow;">Lee has become an oracle in <b><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/06/sinovation-ventures-dr-kai-fu-lee-is-betting-big-on-artificial-intelligence/">predicting trends</a></b> in Chinese tech</span>. Lee <b><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/27/kai-fu-lee-robots-will-replace-half-of-all-jobs.html">told</a></b> CNBC recently that <b>artificial intelligence is the “</b><i><b>singular thing that will be larger than all of human tech revolutions added together</b>, including electricity, the industrial revolution, internet, and mobile internet.</i>”</div>
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<b>2. QI LU</b></div>
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Group President & COO, <b><a href="http://research.baidu.com/Blog/" target="_blank">Baidu</a></b></div>
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Qi Lu was hired by Baidu to lead the company’s strategic efforts in AI and push forward integration and collaboration within the company. <span style="background-color: yellow;">Every Baidu business unit, including AI teams working on autonomous driving, reports to Lu</span>. A spokesperson from Baidu stated: “<i>With Dr. Lu on board, we are confident that our strategy will be executed smoothly and Baidu will become a world-class technology company and global leader in AI.</i>”</div>
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Prior to joining Baidu, Lu was personally recruited by Steve Ballmer to join <b>Microsoft </b>where he eventually became EVP of the Applications & Services Group. Lu started his professional career in <b>IBM</b>’s research labs, before joining <b>Yahoo</b> and rising to EVP of the Search & Advertising Group. He completed a BS in Computer Science at <b>Fudan University</b> and was invited by <b>Carnegie Mellon</b> professor Edmund M. Clarke to pursue his PhD at CMU.</div>
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<b>3. HAIFENG WANG</b></div>
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Head of AI Group, <a href="http://research.baidu.com/Research_Areas?id=55" target="_blank">Baidu</a></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">After Andrew Ng’s departure from Baidu, Haifeng Wang took over as leader of the expanded AI Group (AIG),</span> consisting of<br />
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<li>Baidu’s Institute of Deep Learning, </li>
<li>Big Data Lab, </li>
<li>Silicon Valley AI Lab, </li>
<li>Augmented Reality Lab, </li>
<li>Natural Language Unit, </li>
<li>AI Platform Unit, and </li>
<li>a few other departments.</li>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Wang’s technical specialty is natural language processing (NLP) and machine translation </span>and he has authored over 100 academic papers in AI. He applies his expertise to Baidu’s efforts in<br />
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<li>NLP, </li>
<li>computer vision, </li>
<li>speech recognition, </li>
<li>knowledge graphs, </li>
<li>personalized recommendations, and </li>
<li>deep learning. </li>
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Wang is also an adjunct professor at <b><a href="http://en.hit.edu.cn/" target="_blank">Harbin Institute of Technology</a></b> where he received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Computer Science.</div>
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<b>4. TONG ZHANG</b></div>
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Executive Director of AI Lab, <b><a href="https://ai.tencent.com/ailab/index.html" target="_blank">Tencent</a></b></div>
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<b>The battle for top AI talent is incredibly fierce</b>. Tong Zhang was poached from Baidu by Tencent last year to lead Tencent’s newly established AI lab. Formerly he was head of <b>Baidu’s Big Data Lab</b>, worked at <b>IBM</b> and <b>Yahoo</b>, and was a professor at <b>Rutgers University</b>.</div>
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With a team of over 200 engineers, Zhang is focused on developing Tencent’s capabilities in machine learning, computer vision, speech recognition, and natural language processing and applying new AI technologies to the company’s vast array of popular consumer products like WeChat.</div>
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<b>5. JINGREN ZHOU</b></div>
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Chief Scientist and Vice President of <b><a href="https://www.alibabacloud.com/" target="_blank">Alibaba Cloud</a></b>, Alibaba</div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Alibaba Cloud launched in 2009 and is now Alibaba’s fastest growing business unit. Similar to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Alibaba Cloud, also called <b>Aliyun</b>, emerged out of the company’s need for enormous computing power to handle millions of online shopping transactions.</span><br />
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Jingren Zhou leads big data and AI research at Alibaba Cloud’s Institute of Data Science Technology (iDST). In this role, he drives Alibaba’s AI technologies in speech, natural language, image and video processing, and large-scale machine learning.</div>
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Prior to joining Alibaba, Zhou was an engineering manager at Microsoft in charge of developing the big data computation platform supporting Windows, Office, and Bing. He received his BS from the University of Science and Technology of China and his PhD in Computer Science from Columbia University.</div>
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<b>6. XIAOFE HE</b></div>
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President, <b><a href="http://research.xiaojukeji.com/index_en.html" target="_blank">DiDi Research</a></b></div>
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DiDi Chuxing is the “Uber of China”, with over 50TB of real-time data and over 9 billion routes driven per day. DiDi Research, the “brains of Didi Chuxing”, is a machine learning research institute set up by the company to predict demand, reduce surge impact, and also develop self-driving car technology.</div>
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President Xiaofe He got his BS in Computer Science from Zhejiang University and PhD from University of Chicago. Prior to helming DiDi Research, he worked as a research scientist and President of Yahoo Research Labs and joined Zhejiang University as a professor focused on applying mathematics and data analysis to solve important problems in pattern recognition, multimedia, and computer vision.</div>
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<b>7. YUANQING LIN</b></div>
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Head of Baidu Research, <a href="http://research.baidu.com/Research_Areas?id=55" target="_blank">Baidu</a></div>
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As Head of <a href="http://research.baidu.com/" target="_blank">Baidu Research</a>, Yuanqin Lin manages Baidu’s research labs, which include the<br />
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<li><b>Big Data Lab (BDL)</b>, </li>
<li><b>Augmented Reality Lab (ARL)</b>, and the </li>
<li><b>Institute of Deep Learning Lab (IDL)</b>. </li>
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Along with Wei Xu, he will be leading Baidu’s contributions to China’s government-funded National Engineering Laboratory of Deep Learning Technology that is co-helmed by Tsinghua & Beihang University.</div>
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Prior to Baidu, Lin was the head of Media Analytics at NEC Labs America where he led teams focusing on computer vision research for mobile search and driverless cars. Lin received his MS degree in Optical Engineering from Tsinghua University and his PhD in Electrical Engineering from University of Pennsylvania.</div>
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<b>8. PINPIN ZHU</b></div>
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President & CTO, <b><a href="http://www.xiaoi.com/index.shtml" target="_blank">Xiaoi</a></b></div>
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Xiaoi is China’s leading platform for conversational AI, powering the majority of the country’s bot and virtual assistant experiences. Established in Shanghai in 2001, the company’s technologies are used by hundreds of medium to large enterprises, government entities, and over 500 million users collectively.<br />
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Pinpin Zhu’s numerous patents in the space – including ones for “Chatting Robot System” and “SMS Robot System” – drove Xiaoi’s technical dominance in conversational interfaces. In addition to running Xiaoi, Zhu is also a Doctor of Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been appointed to China National Information Technology Standardization Committee, and has received numerous awards and accolades for his contributions to the field.</div>
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<b>9. WEI XU</b></div>
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Distinguished Scientist, <a href="http://research.baidu.com/Research_Areas?id=55" target="_blank">Baidu</a></div>
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In a company full of highly credentialed scientists, researchers, and engineers, <span style="background-color: yellow;">Wei Xu is the only one with the title “<b>Distinguished Scientist</b>”.</span> He is highly respected for his technical chops within the company due to his work on <span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><a href="https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle" target="_blank">PaddlePaddle</a></b>, a deep learning toolkit which was open sourced in late 2016</span>. In development for over three years, PaddlePaddle is used to power search rankings, targeted advertising, image classification, translation, and self-driving cars.</div>
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Xu received his Bachelor’s degree at Tsinghua University, his MS from <b>Carnegie Mellon</b>, and was previously a researcher at <b>NEC Labs</b> and <b>Facebook</b> before joining Baidu.</div>
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<b>10. WANLI MIN</b></div>
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Principal Data Scientist, Alibaba</div>
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Wanli Min led the research and development of <b><a href="https://intl.aliyun.com/" target="_blank">Alibaba Cloud</a></b>’s (Aliyun) artificial intelligence system, named Little Ai. Ai has been deployed by Alibaba internally to support customer service and traffic pattern predictions for the company’s flagship e-commerce business. Min also used machine learning to predict the winner of a top-rated Chinese reality TV show called “I Am Singer” and helped city planners in Guangdong province optimize traffic lights in real-time to reduce congestion.</div>
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Min entered college at the age of 14 and received his Bachelors from the University of Science & Technology of China and a PhD in Statistics from the University of Chicago.</div>
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<b>11. KUN JING</b></div>
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General Manager of <b><a href="http://duer.baidu.com/" target="_blank">Duer, Baidu</a></b></div>
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Duer is Baidu’s answer to Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google’s Assistant. The conversational AI platform powers virtual assistant capabilities in a number of devices, ranging from XiaoYu, China’s version of the Amazon Echo, to voice-activated smart televisions.</div>
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Kun Jing leads the Duer business unit. Prior to joining Baidu, Jing was Microsoft’s R&D Director and created Xiaoice, a popular chatbot that went viral on Tencent’s WeChat and Sina’s Weibo. Xiaoice has over 20 million registered users who interact with the bot an average of 60 times a month, earning it the rank of Weibo’s top influencer.</div>
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<b>12. DONG YU</b></div>
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Deputy Director of AI Lab, <b><a href="https://www.tencent.com/en-us/abouttencent.html" target="_blank">Tencent</a></b></div>
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Hired as deputy head of Tencent’s AI Lab, Dong Yu co-runs the new lab with Tong Zhang and spearheads research in speech recognition and natural language understanding. Prior to joining Tencent, Yu was the principal researcher at Microsoft Research Institute’s Speech and Dialog Group, an adjunct professor at Zhejiang University, a visiting professor at University of Science and Technology of China, and a visiting researcher at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He received a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Zhejiang University and a PhD in Computer Science from Idaho University.</div>
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“I’m excited to join AI Lab,” Yu <b><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tencent-appoints-dr-yu-dong-as-ai-lab-deputy-director-and-opens-new-ai-lab-in-seattle-300449405.html">shares</a></b>. “Over the past decade, Tencent has accumulated abundant experience in application scenarios, developed a massive data bank, established powerful computing capabilities, and built an outstanding team of technology experts; all which have helped form the foundation of in-depth research and AI application at Tencent today.”</div>
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<b>13. ADAM COATES</b></div>
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Director of <b>Silicon Valley AI Lab, Baidu</b></div>
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Coates received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Computer Science from <b>Stanford University</b> and has worked on everything from computer vision for autonomous cars, deep learning for speech recognition, and machine learning for helicopter acrobatics. At Baidu, he worked on <b><a href="https://github.com/mozilla/DeepSpeech" target="_blank">DeepSpeech</a></b>, a speech recognition and transcription engine that performs as well as native Mandarin speakers, and <b><a href="http://research.baidu.com/deep-voice-production-quality-text-speech-system-constructed-entirely-deep-neural-networks/" target="_blank">DeepVoice</a></b>, a text-to-speech synthesis engine that generates believable human-like audio.</div>
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Coates is particularly excited about putting AI in the hands of real-world consumers. When he was selected by <span style="background-color: yellow;">MIT Technology Review as one of 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2015</span>, he <b><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2015/visionary/adam-coates/">explained</a></b> that “<i>in rapidly developing economies like in China, there are many people who will be connecting to the Internet for the first time through a mobile phone. Having a way to interact with a device or get the answer to a question as easily as talking to a person is even more powerful to them. I think of Baidu’s customers as having a greater need for artificial intelligence than myself.</i>”</div>
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<b>14. KAI YU</b></div>
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Founder & CEO, <b><a href="http://www.horizon-robotics.com/index_en.html" target="_blank">Horizon Robotics</a></b></div>
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Formerly head of Baidu’s Institute of Deep Learning, Kai Yu left Baidu to start Beijing-based startup Horizon Robotics. Funded by leading investors like <b>Yuri Milner</b> and <b>Sequoia Capital</b>, <span style="background-color: yellow;">Yu’s mission is to become the “<i>Android of Robotics,</i>” a <b><a href="https://medium.com/act-news/can-this-chinese-startup-be-the-android-of-ai-69d7fd0c078e">pervasive AI system</a></b> that powers all of our smart devices</span>. Unlike other Chinese tech giants which dominate in the cloud, Horizon aims to adapt AI to every piece of hardware in the physical world.</div>
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Horizon has launched two platforms to date: </div>
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<li><b>Anderson</b> for smart homes and </li>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Anderson imbues home appliances with capabilities such as facial recognition and automatic ordering</span>, while <span style="background-color: yellow;">Hugo is an advanced driver assistance system</span> that performs real-time pedestrian and object detection even in adverse weather conditions.</div>
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Yu received his BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from <b>Nanjing University</b> and his PhD in Computer Science from <b>Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat Munchen</b> in Germany.</div>
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<b>15. JING WANG</b></div>
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Former Senior Vice President of Engineering, Baidu</div>
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While at Baidu, Jing Wang managed over 5,000 engineers in numerous business units, including the ones he founded:<br />
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He left the company shortly after Andrew Ng’s resignation to start his own self-driving car company, and is widely credited with driving forward Baidu’s progress in the space.</div>
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Prior to joining Baidu, Wang was Deputy Head of Google’s Shanghai engineering office as well as eBay China’s CTO and R&D general manager. He received his Bachelor’s from the University of Science & Technology of China and his Master’s in Computer Science from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.</div>
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<b>16. BO ZHANG</b></div>
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Professor of Computer Science and Technology, <b><a href="http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/newthuen/" target="_blank">Tsinghua University</a></b></div>
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As a professor at Tsinghua University, Bo Zhang’s research interests include AI, machine learning, pattern recognition, knowledge engineering, and robotics. His notable academic achievements include advances in robotic task and motion planning, probabilistic logic neural networks (PLN), and machine learning algorithms for image retrieval and classification and webpage structure mining.</div>
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Along with Baidu and Wei Li of Beihang University, Tsinghua was selected to co-lead the government-funded National Engineering Laboratory of Deep Learning. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and received his Bachelor’s in Automatic Control from Tsinghua University.</div>
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<b>17. HUA WU</b></div>
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Technical Chief of <b>NLP Group, Baidu</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: medium;">Hua Wu contributed a number of technical breakthroughs in </span><br />
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in her seven year tenure at Baidu. The New York Times hailed her research work in multi-task learning as “<b>pathbreaking</b>” and <span style="background-color: yellow;">she was able to successfully deploy her invention at scale to hundreds of millions of users of Baidu’s translation products</span>. Wu is also responsible for the technology behind Baidu’s conversational AI, <b>Duer.</b></div>
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Wu received her PhD from the <b>Chinese Academy of Sciences</b> and co-chairs leading academic AI conferences such as ACL and IJCAI.</div>
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<b>18. WEI LI</b></div>
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President and Professor of Computer Science, <b><a href="http://ev.buaa.edu.cn/" target="_blank">Beihang University</a></b></div>
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Along with Bo Zhang of Tsinghua University and senior executives from Baidu, Wei Li was selected to co-lead <b>China’s National Engineering Laboratory of Deep Learning</b>. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and also president of Beihang University. Li has won numerous accolades and prizes for his technical contributions in artificial intelligence and network computing.</div>
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Li graduated from the Department of Mathematics and Mechanics of Beijing University and received his PhD in Computer Science from the <b>University of Edinburgh</b>.</div>
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<b>19. HONGBIN ZHA</b></div>
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Professor of Machine Learning, <b><a href="http://english.pku.edu.cn/" target="_blank">Peking University</a></b> </div>
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“<i>China hopes to leap-frog the US and other Western countries by vast and fast investment in the AI industry,</i>” <b><a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/06/10/chinas-bid-beat-worlds-artificial-intelligence-revolution">says</a></b> Hongbin Zha, AI researcher and professor at Beijing’s Peking University. Zha directs the <b>Key Lab of Machine Perception</b> at Peking University and collaborates with Microsoft Research Asia alongside other AI leaders across the continent. His research interests include computer vision theory, virtual reality, and robotics.</div>
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He received his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Hefei University of Technology in China and his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Kyushu University in Japan.</div>
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<b>20. YUNJI CHEN</b></div>
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Professor at <b><a href="http://english.ict.cas.cn/" target="_blank">Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences</a></b></div>
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In 2015, <span style="background-color: yellow;">Yunji Chen was <b><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2015/inventor/yunji-chen/">selected</a></b> by MIT Technology Review as one of their <b>top 35 Innovators Under 35</b></span>. Described as “<i>iconoclastic and cosmopolitan</i>”, he was chosen for his work in <b>designing specialized deep-learning processors which dramatically reduce the computational costs of large-scale machine learning</b>. His dream is to <span style="background-color: yellow;">enable even common cell phones to be “<i>as powerful as Google Brain</i>”.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Chen entered college at age 14 and completed his PhD with lightning speed by the age of 24.</span> He’s now chief architect of the <b><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson" target="_blank">Godson-3C</a></b></b>, a microprocessing chip that reduces energy requirements for computers to recognize objects and translate languages and is developing the <span style="background-color: yellow;"><b><b><a href="http://www.cambricon.com/" target="_blank">Cambricon</a></b></b>, a brain-inspired processor chip that models human nerve cells and synapses to facilitate deep learning</span>. The research team is led by Chen and his younger brother, <b>Tianshi Chen</b>, two of the youngest professors at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.</div>
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<b>ABOUT THE AUTHOR</b></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.topbots.com/author/adelyn/">Adelyn Zhou</a></b></div>
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Adelyn is the Head of Marketing at TOPBOTS. She's got a decade of experience growing billion-dollar companies like Eventbrite, NextDoor, and Amazon. Follow her on Twitter at @adelynzhou to learn how to accelerate your growth with AI.</div>
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="http://www.topbots.com/20-technology-leaders-executives-driving-chinese-ai-innovation/">TopBots</a></b></div>
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by <b><a href="http://www.topbots.com/author/adelyn/">Adelyn Zhou</a></b></div>
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Jun 18, 2017</div>
<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.topbots.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F06%2Fhaifeng_wang_200_web.png&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiuwaQ1LlafTRI3iCkk5L1M62Dlq1MCAQIa_1Pzd8tICtzQt_lb6btRYAmfy4bsbFzIhC_A432nsPsDehSVVZUsZ-1tzKkhkM07gfbp1glYhTrInao56URPCwiYwu5qxU-bd14IGSytQQ72uGpI5TVNIQQ-IdVuRNe9tBN27gin6IROtybD5s0qQU0=" -->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-70787671000316533522018-08-18T07:06:00.002-07:002018-08-18T07:06:19.942-07:00Our plastic problem is out of control. Here’s how we can fight it<div style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">
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The worldwide total volume of plastic has reached 8.3 billion metric tons, the equivalent of more than 800,000 Eiffel Towers. Image: REUTERS/Damir Sagolj</div>
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On a street in <b>Phnom Penh, Cambodia</b>, a seafood café is setting up for the evening rush. Styrofoam boxes are ripped open. The broken tops are dumped in the street. Plastic bags full of prawns are emptied into trays, then thrown out. In a few minutes, a small mountain of trash piles up on the sidewalk. As a rickshaw trundles by, its riders chuck an empty plastic drink container onto the heap<span style="background-color: yellow;">. This is one of the hundreds of mounds of plastic that dot this rapidly urbanizing city</span>.</div>
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In April, The Guardian featured a <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/25/mountains-and-mountains-of-plastic-life-on-cambodias-polluted-coast">shocking photo essay</a></b> on the accumulation of plastic in the Cambodian city of <b>Sihanoukville</b>. It showed mountains of trash dumped on streets and beaches. But this <b style="background-color: yellow;">plastic dystopia is not unique to Cambodia</b>. If we don’t act now and <b>cut it out of our daily lives</b>, we, as well as the environment, will suffer irreparable harm.</div>
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We live in a world of plastic. It is an amazingly convenient material - cheap, light, flexible, and durable. Used for bags, bottles, and containers, it is in our homes, schools, and workplaces. But that rampant use has come at a heavy price.</div>
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The<b> worldwide total volume of plastic has reached 8.3 billion metric tons</b>, the equivalent of more than 800,000 Eiffel Towers, according to a 2017 article in <b>Science Advances</b>. Of this enormous amount, <b>6.3 billion metric tons have been disposed as waste</b>.</div>
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Around 10 million plastic bags are used in Phnom Penh every day, according to the <b><a href="http://www.acra.it/index.php?lang=en" target="_blank">ACRA Foundation</a></b>. Urban Cambodians use more than 2,000 plastic bags every year.</div>
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<b>Around 90% of the world’s plastic waste ends up in the ocean</b>. Most of it <b><a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.7b02368">arrives by way of just 10 major rivers</a></b>, one of which is the Mekong. Every year, <b><a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768">8 million tons of plastic reach the ocean</a></b>, which is the equivalent of a full garbage truck every minute.</div>
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The <b style="background-color: yellow;">biggest problem is that plastic does not biodegrade easily</b>. It stays around for thousands of years. Slowly, it <span style="background-color: yellow;">leaks chemical substances that are harmful to the environment, for animals and for people</span>.</div>
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In marine areas, many mammals, fish, and birds suffer from ingesting plastic or becoming entangled in plastic materials. <span style="background-color: yellow;">More than 90% of all birds and fish are reported to have plastic particles in their stomach</span>. In this way, toxic chemicals accumulate and pass through the food chain. Since fish comprises more than <b><a href="http://pubs.iclarm.net/resource_centre/WorldFish-Annual-Report-2016.pdf">60% of the protein intake for rural Cambodians</a></b>, this is a significant problem.<br />
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A landfill site in Siem Reap, Cambodia</div>
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Image: UNDP</div>
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<b>For all these reasons, taking action to mitigate the harmful impacts of plastic is an urgent task. So what can be done?</b></div>
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It is heartening that many countries have implemented policy measures to tackle their plastic problem. Last year, Kenya completely <b>banned the production, sale, and use of plastic bags</b>. Violations may result in imprisonment of up to four years or fines of up to $40,000. Many other countries, including Bangladesh, Rwanda, and China, are following Kenya’s lead, putting in place either total or partial bans on plastic bags, or new forms of plastic taxation.</div>
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In Cambodia, too, new initiatives are emerging to fight plastic pollution. In April, the Ministry of Environment introduced new regulation for the use of plastic bags. Major supermarkets such as Aeon and Lucky now charge 10 cents per bag. The Ministry of Environment is also considering plans for jute bags as an alternative. The school curriculum is being updated to educate future generations on the harm caused by plastics.</div>
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<b>Have you read?</b></div>
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<b><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/microplastic-pollution-in-air-pollutes-our-lungs">Are you breathing plastic air at home? Here’s how microplastics are polluting our lungs</a></b></div>
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<b><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/seaweed-indonesia-s-answer-to-the-global-plastic-crisis">Seaweed, Indonesia’s answer to the global plastic crisis</a></b></div>
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<b><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/11/heres-the-good-news-about-plastic-waste">These countries are getting creative with plastic waste</a></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">One promising idea to fight plastic pollution is known as the circular economy,</span> which focuses on <b>Waste Reduction, Reuse, and Recycling (3R)</b>. In a circular economy, waste is treated as a valuable material that should be reused or recycled, not only in order to reduce the volume of trash but also to generate new economic opportunities.<br />
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First of all, this requires <b>policies that actively encourage a 3R approach to plastic waste</b>. For example, the EU adopted a <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/index_en.htm" target="_blank"><b>Circular Economy Action Plan</b></a> in 2016, which includes targets for <b>recycling 75% of packaging waste by 2030</b> and <b>making all plastic packaging recyclable by the same date</b>. The EU is also proposing a ban on the most commonly used single-use plastic products.</div>
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But <span style="background-color: yellow;">making a circular economy take off also requires the active involvement of citizens and the private sector.</span> Even small individual acts, such as bringing one’s own shopping bag to the market, contribute to lowering the amount of plastic waste. Businesses can ban plastic bags and encourage the use of biodegradable bags. The <b><a href="http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home.html" target="_blank">United Nations Development Programme</a></b> in Cambodia has done so, at its office. Hotels and factories have the opportunity to <b>create networks of recycling and reusing materials</b>, simultaneously saving money and decreasing waste.</div>
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In order to introduce lasting change, <b style="background-color: yellow;">it is critical to raising awareness</b>. This can happen through <b>environmental education and information campaigns</b>, directed at young people especially, as well as at the private sector.</div>
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Finally, new approaches to <b>good solid waste management are essential</b>. Given the mountains of plastic we generate, this won’t be easy. But if we all commit to beating plastic pollution, we can make a monumental difference.</div>
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/how-to-fight-our-plastic-problem">World Economic Forum</a></b></div>
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<b><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/nick-beresford">Nick Beresford </a></b>United Nations Development Programme Country Director, Cambodia</div>
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<b><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/moeko-saito-jensen">Moeko Saito Jensen</a> </b>Senior Policy Advisor, United Nations Development Programme in Cambodia</div>
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<b><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/george-edgar">George Edgar</a> </b>Ambassador, Head of European Union Delegation to Cambodia</div>
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<b><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/maria-sargren">Maria Sargren</a> </b>Ambassador of Sweden to Cambodia</div>
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<b><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?via=wef&text=Our%20plastic%20problem%20is%20out%20of%20control.%20Here%E2%80%99s%20how%20we%20can%20fight%20it&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.weforum.org%2Fagenda%2F2018%2F06%2Fhow-to-fight-our-plastic-problem%2F">05 Jun 2018</a></b><br />
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Hugo Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03534051823437072588noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-10125571663855636082018-08-18T06:42:00.001-07:002018-08-18T06:42:35.119-07:00Older than dinosaurs: last South African coelacanths threatened by oil exploration<b>Just 30 of the prehistoric fish known to exist, raising fears oil wells will push it to extinction</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Coelacanths have remained almost unchanged for 420m years. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo</span></td></tr>
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Bright blue, <b>older than dinosaurs</b> and weighing as much as an average-sized man, coelacanths are the most endangered fish in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/southafrica"><b>South Africa</b></a> and among the rarest in the world.</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Barely 30 of these critically-endangered fish are known to exist off the east coast of South <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/africa">Africa</a></b></span>, raising concern that a new <b>oil exploration</b> venture in the area could jeopardise their future.</div>
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<b>Coelacanths</b>, whose <b>shape has remained almost unchanged for 420m years</b>, captured world attention when the first living specimen was caught off the port city of East London in 1938. This discovery was followed by the subsequent capture of several more off the <b>Comoros islands</b> in the early 1950s, <span style="background-color: yellow;">confirming that <b>coelacanths were definitely not extinct</b></span>.</div>
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December 2000 brought further excitement when divers found a small coelacanth colony in underwater canyons near South Africa’s <b>Sodwana Bay</b>, adjacent to the <b>iSimangaliso</b> wetland park and world heritage site.</div>
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Now the <b style="background-color: yellow;">Rome-based energy group Eni</b> plans to drill several deep-water oil wells in a 400km long exploration block known as Block ER236.</div>
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<b>Dr. Andrew Venter</b>, the chief executive of <b><a href="http://wildtrust.co.za/" target="_blank">Wildtrust</a></b>, one of several conservation groups lobbying for a significant expansion of South Africa’s protected ocean areas, said: “<i>The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 decimated fish populations – so i<span style="background-color: yellow;">f we had an oil spill off iSimangaliso it is very likely it could wipe out these coelacanths</span>.</i>”</div>
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The <span style="background-color: yellow;">Sodwana coelacanths are about 40km from the northern boundary of the Eni exploration area and nearly 200km north of the first drilling sites</span>, but Venter said oil spills spread far and swiftly.</div>
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His concerns have been echoed by the coelacanth expert <b>Prof Mike Bruton</b>, who said the fish are specialist creatures, sensitive to environmental disturbance.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Staff at the National Museum of Kenya show a coelacanth caught by a fisherman on 21 November 2001. Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images</td></tr>
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“<i><span style="background-color: yellow;">Anything that interferes with their ability to absorb oxygen, such as oil pollution, would threaten their survival.</span> The risk of oil spills or blowouts during exploration or future commercial production in Block ER236 is a source of serious concern.</i>”</div>
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Last year, Eni commissioned a mandatory <b>environmental impact assessment (EIA)</b> but the scoping report makes scant mention of the potential threat to the Sodwana coelacanths.</div>
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Instead, the report suggested that coelacanths were unlikely to be found next to the first exploration wells.</div>
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Responding to fears the fish could be wiped out by leaks or undersea blowouts, the oil drilling company said: “<i>Eni always applies the highest operational and environmental standards, which often exceed local compliance regulations</i>.</div>
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“<i>Prior to any operation, we undertake sensitivity mapping to identify sensitive offshore marine habitat which guides our planning. In addition to this, Eni would comply with all the requirements of the environmental management programme which is based on the outcomes of the impact assessment.</i></div>
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“<i>Specialist studies have been conducted for both marine ecology and oil spill modelling scenarios and no specific threat has emerged in relation to this. The specialist study pertaining to accidental spillage modelling is currently being independently third-party peer-reviewed.</i>”</div>
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Bruton said studies on coelacanths caught off the coasts of Indonesia and Tanzania showed that the <span style="background-color: yellow;">remoteness of their habitat had not protected them from exposure to pollutants such as PCB and DDT,</span> which had been used on land but had drifted over the sea on atmospheric winds and had accumulated up the food chain to the top predators, such as the coelacanth.</div>
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If oil were to be spilled in the ocean, <span style="background-color: yellow;">Bruton feared the coelacanth colony could be destroyed</span>. “<i>The risk needs to carefully evaluated before this commercial venture has progressed too far and it is too late</i>,” he said. “<i>Oil spills do not respect the boundaries of marine protected areas.</i>”<br />
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<b>ORIGINAL</b>: <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/17/older-than-dinosaurs-last-south-african-coelacanths-threatened-by-oil-exploration">The Guardian</a></b><br />
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17 Aug 2018</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-54005753547967234132018-08-04T13:21:00.004-07:002018-08-04T13:21:41.568-07:00Inexpensive biology kits offer hands-on experience with DNA<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image: Felice Frankel</td></tr>
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To help students gain a better grasp of biological concepts, <b>MIT</b> and <b>Northwestern University</b> researchers have <span style="background-color: yellow;">designed new educational kits that can be used to perform <b>experiments that produce glowing proteins, scents</b>, or other easily observed phenomena, through the <b>engineering of DNA</b></span>.</div>
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“<i>Our vision is these kits will serve as a creative outlet for young individuals, and show them that biology can be a design platform</i>,” says <b>James Collins</b>, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science in MIT’s Institute for <b><a href="http://imes.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Medical Engineering and Science (IMES)</a></b> and Department of Biological Engineering</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">To help students gain a better grasp of biological concepts, MIT and Northwestern University researchers have designed new educational kits that can be used to perform experiments that produce glowing proteins, scents, or other easily observed phenomena, through the engineering of DNA.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Using freeze-dried, shelf-stable cellular components, students can learn about key biological concepts.</span></div>
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Biology teachers could use the <b>BioBits</b> kits to demonstrate key concepts such as how DNA is translated into proteins, or students could use them to design their own synthetic biology circuits, the researchers say.</div>
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“<i>Our vision is that these kits will serve as a creative outlet for young individuals, and show them that biology can be a design platform,</i>” says <b>James Collins</b>, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science in MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) and Department of Biological Engineering. “<i>The time is right for creating educational kits that could be utilized in classrooms or in the home, to introduce young folks as well as adults who want to be retrained in biotech, to the technologies that underpin synthetic biology and biotechnology.</i>”</div>
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The new <span style="background-color: yellow;">kits contain no living cells but instead consist of freeze-dried cellular components</span>, which makes them inexpensive, shelf-stable, and accessible to any classroom, even in schools with minimal resources.</div>
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<a name='more'></a>“<i><b>Synthetic biology</b> is a technology for the 21st century, and these ‘just add water’ kits are poised to transform synthetic biology education. Indeed, BioBits kits are user-friendly, engage the senses in a fun and exciting way, and reduce biosafety concerns,</i>” says <b>Michael Jewett</b>, the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence, an associate professor of chemical and biological engineering, and co-director of the<b><a href="http://syntheticbiology.northwestern.edu/" target="_blank"> Center for Synthetic Biology at Northwestern University</a></b>, who led the research team with Collins.</div>
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The researchers describe the two kits, <b>BioBits Bright</b> and <b>BioBits Explorer</b>, in two papers appearing in Science Advances on Aug. 1. The lead authors of both papers are <b>Ally Huang,</b> an MIT graduate student; <b>Peter Nguyen</b>, a postdoc at Harvard University’s <b>Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering</b>; and <b>Jessica Stark</b>, a Northwestern University graduate student.</div>
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In recent years, Collins’ lab has been working on <span style="background-color: yellow;">technology to extract and freeze-dry the molecular machinery needed to translate DNA into proteins</span>. They developed <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/to-produce-biopharmaceuticals-on-demand-just-add-water-0922"><b>freeze-dried pellets</b></a>, which contain dozens of enzymes and other molecules extracted from cells, and can be stored for an extended period of time at room temperature. <span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>Upon the addition of water and DNA, the pellets begin producing proteins encoded by the DNA</b></span>.</div>
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The Collins and Jewett labs recently began to adapt this technology to educational biology kits, in hopes of bringing hands-on, laboratory experiences to high school students, as well as younger students.</div>
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“<i>I fell in love with biology in high school, but I never really truly understood the biological concepts until college, when I started working in a research lab and actually doing all the real experiments,</i>” says Huang, who took on the project after joining Collins’ lab a few years ago. “<i>The intent of this project was to find a way to bring these laboratory experiments into a non laboratory setting in an easy-to-do and cheap way.</i>”</div>
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The researchers set out to create the equivalent of the toy chemistry kit, which allows users to perform their own simple chemical reactions at home.</div>
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“<i>One of the best gifts I got as a kid was a chemistry kit</i>,” Collins says. “<i>I did all the prescribed reactions and then went off-script and created my own reactions, some of which were probably not recommended. But I had a tremendous time, and, like <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2018/richard-schrock-looks-toward-future-chemistry-0206"><b>many faculty here</b></a>, was inspired, in part, to consider a career in science because of those kits.</i>”</div>
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Similar kits are available to help children build their own simple <b>electronic</b> or <b>robotic systems</b>, but right now, the researchers say, <span style="background-color: yellow;">there is no cost-effective equivalent for biology</span>. One reason for that is that most biology experiments involve living cells, which require expensive equipment to keep them alive and can also pose safety risks. The MIT and Northwestern researchers were able to overcome that obstacle with their freeze-dried cellular components.</div>
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“<i>The goal was to create a kit where the teacher could open the box and hand out all the components to the kids, without any prep time,</i>” Huang says. “<i>You add the water that contains your DNA to these freeze-dried pellets, and just by doing that the kids can produce a variety of different proteins, and visualize or sense different outputs from these proteins.</i>”</div>
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The <span style="background-color: yellow;">BioBits Bright kit is based on <b>fluorescent proteins</b></span>. The kit includes tubes with freeze-dried pellets containing <b>all of the cellular components needed to translate DNA into proteins</b>, as well as <b style="background-color: yellow;">DNA that encodes fluorescent proteins of several different colors</b>. Students can add DNA to the pellets, put the tubes into an inexpensive incubator the researchers designed, and then <span style="background-color: yellow;">image them using a $15 device that the researchers also developed</span>.</div>
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This kind of experimentation, which allows students to vary the </div>
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helps students to grasp firsthand the “central dogma” of biology: how information encoded by genes flows from DNA to RNA to proteins. <span style="background-color: yellow;">The <b>kit can be produced for less than $100 for a classroom of 30 students</b>, making it feasible for use in schools with limited budgets</span>.</div>
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In the <b>BioBits Explorer</b> kit, the researchers included DNA that <span style="background-color: yellow;">encodes proteins with outputs other than fluorescence, helping to teach additional biological concepts such as <b>reaction catalysis</b></span>. One DNA sequence included in the <span style="background-color: yellow;">kit codes for an enzyme that converts isoamyl alcohol into banana oil, producing a distinctive scent</span>. Another DNA sequence produces an enzyme that can catalyze the formation of h<b>ydrogels</b>. The kit also allows students to <span style="background-color: yellow;">extract DNA from a fruit such as a banana or kiwi and then test it with <b>a sensor that can distinguish between DNA sequences</b> found in different types of fruit</span>.</div>
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<b>Mix and match</b></div>
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In addition to classroom experiments, the researchers believe these kits could be useful for school science clubs where students could “<i>mix and match the components and try to come up with new reactions, or experiment to find what new combinations of outputs they could make</i>,” Huang says.</div>
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In trial runs in the Chicago public schools, which began last year, the researchers found that students ranging in age from elementary school to high school were able to successfully perform their own experiments using the kits.</div>
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“<i>Seeing the students’ and teachers’ results, which showed that a first-time user could run the BioBits Bright labs successfully, was when it started to become real,</i>” Stark says. “<i>That data gives us evidence that these kits have the potential to significantly expand the kinds of hands-on biology activities that are possible in classrooms or other non-lab settings</i>.”</div>
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<b>The team is now building new prototypes of the BioBits Bright kit that will be tested in high schools in Boston, Cambridge, and Chicago this fall</b>. The researchers have launched a <a href="http://www.mybiobits.org/"><b>website</b></a> to help enable the creation of an open source community that would allow teachers to add their own supporting curriculum, and scientists to add new components to the kits.</div>
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“<i>Eventually, we hope to form a larger community of scientists and educators who are interested in continuing to translate cutting-edge science into hands-on educational experiences,</i>” Stark says.</div>
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The researchers hope that the kits will not only help students grasp the connections between what they learn from their biology textbook and real-life biological events, but also stimulate their interest in careers in biology or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.</div>
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“<i><u>We want the BioBits kits to help students see themselves as scientists and hope that these open-access kits might inspire the next generation of students to pursue STEM education,</u></i>” Jewett says.</div>
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The research was funded, in part, by the <b>Army Research Office</b>, the <b>National Science Foundation</b>, the <b>Air Force Research Laboratory Center of Excellence</b>, the <b>Defense Threat Reduction Agency</b>, the <b>David and Lucile Packard Foundation</b>, the <b>Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Program</b>, and the <b>Department of Energy</b>.</div>
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<b>By weight, human beings are insignificant.</b></div>
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If everyone on the planet were to step on one side of a giant balance scale, and all the bacteria on Earth were to be placed on the other side, we’d shoot violently upward. That’s because <span style="background-color: yellow;">all the <b>bacteria</b> on Earth combined are about <b>1,166 times more massive than all the humans</b></span>.</div>
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Comparisons to other categories of life similarly demonstrate how very, very small we are. As a sweeping new study in the <b>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</b> finds, in a census sorting <b><a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/05/15/1711842115">all the life on Earth by weight</a></b> (measured in gigatons of carbon, the signature element of life on Earth), <b style="background-color: yellow;">we make up less than 1 percent of life</b>.</div>
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There are an estimated 550 gigatons of carbon of life in the world. A gigaton is equal to a billion metric tons. A metric ton is 1,000 kilograms, or about 2,200 pounds.</div>
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We’re talking in huge, huge, mind-boggling terms here.</div>
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So, using the new data in PNAS, we tried to visualize the weight of all life on Earth to get a sense of the scale of it all.</div>
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<b>All life on Earth, in one chart</b></div>
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What you’ll see below is a kind of tower of life. <span style="background-color: yellow;">Each large block of this tower represents a gigaton of life, and the blocks are grouped into broad kingdoms.</span> There are the protists (think microscopic life like amoebae), archaea (single-celled organisms somewhat similar to bacteria), fungi (mushrooms and other types of fungus), bacteria (you’re familiar with these, right?), plants, and animals.</div>
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As you can see, <b style="background-color: yellow;">plants dominate our world</b>. If the tower of life were an office building, plants would be the main tenants, taking up dozens of floors. Comparatively, all the animals in the world — seen in gray in the tower — are like a single retail shop (a trendy one, to be sure) on the ground floor.<br />
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<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmUvnCuJVUKUdauTgWlBY7G5CTNz9FX4F7f2yQPNXux72mzh4u0SnhM8IFJK2xZN5_KnpHFchfioHa_LIJ7gN1iAqppKzslKG5ykASQ2fKvn-pwfwR4gGBuBor55Q2QJiV3pvJ2gONbuuf-Bgk/s1600/CeC_LifeDistribution_slice1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1095" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmUvnCuJVUKUdauTgWlBY7G5CTNz9FX4F7f2yQPNXux72mzh4u0SnhM8IFJK2xZN5_KnpHFchfioHa_LIJ7gN1iAqppKzslKG5ykASQ2fKvn-pwfwR4gGBuBor55Q2QJiV3pvJ2gONbuuf-Bgk/s1600/CeC_LifeDistribution_slice1.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div>
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<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgua7NQOLUETF9JJj555QYI3ZNoQ_1UEx32nosPdExuDvgd26AEFMC86uLtzu771otw_i0XoW4qHRRB-l_87QqYd1lb7z3v4hMO5bj4NFh5aqrzP2MdzU2yNhZpvH25qM5nybxVy6giFM5qmcsl/s1600/CeC_LifeDistribution_slice2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="561" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgua7NQOLUETF9JJj555QYI3ZNoQ_1UEx32nosPdExuDvgd26AEFMC86uLtzu771otw_i0XoW4qHRRB-l_87QqYd1lb7z3v4hMO5bj4NFh5aqrzP2MdzU2yNhZpvH25qM5nybxVy6giFM5qmcsl/s1600/CeC_LifeDistribution_slice2.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div>
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<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhTMPC1yUZt2IBS0chFV1imyY7U1IjbgQcYiz9r7vT58ePOwBV3ZoO55Oypgv6fAAZuQfvZ_bU7q2OOoyBkwErBGwV6wDjrtx2EfA0kDzEAeBUQzeiMFz5X5HdLV-45mdIsrhE07zF2MAWaXbH/s1600/CeC_LifeDistribution_slice3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="807" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhTMPC1yUZt2IBS0chFV1imyY7U1IjbgQcYiz9r7vT58ePOwBV3ZoO55Oypgv6fAAZuQfvZ_bU7q2OOoyBkwErBGwV6wDjrtx2EfA0kDzEAeBUQzeiMFz5X5HdLV-45mdIsrhE07zF2MAWaXbH/s1600/CeC_LifeDistribution_slice3.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkHLhun7Tu0JLzE6mvd0XYvhP4VQEop0SeBzQc9PH99BKjh8erfuaUBvvD00g3s3-aQpD1OoKMHfCOTe7tIH3EiDCjszss1KaOpEgZM6hnG9nvUEdRa1Ia97e7-JqRgalXJnezLxbKT6ImubiY/s1600/CeC_LifeDistribution_slice4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkHLhun7Tu0JLzE6mvd0XYvhP4VQEop0SeBzQc9PH99BKjh8erfuaUBvvD00g3s3-aQpD1OoKMHfCOTe7tIH3EiDCjszss1KaOpEgZM6hnG9nvUEdRa1Ia97e7-JqRgalXJnezLxbKT6ImubiY/s1600/CeC_LifeDistribution_slice4.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;">FROM INFO ON : <b><a class="crossmark-square" data-target="crossmark" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-align: start;"><br />The biomass distribution on Earth<br />Yinon M. Bar-On, Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo</a></b></span></td></tr>
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And <span style="background-color: yellow;">if we zoom in on all animal life, we again see how insignificant humans are compared to everyone else in the kingdom</span>. Arthropods (insects) outweigh us by a factor of 17. Even the mollusks (think clams) weigh more.</div>
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<b>What’s missing from this chart is just as important</b></div>
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Yet <b style="background-color: yellow;">despite our small biomass among animals, we’ve had an overwhelmingly huge impact on the planet</b>. The chart above represents a massive amount of life. But it doesn’t show what’s gone missing since the human population took off.</div>
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The authors of the PNAS article estimate that the <b style="background-color: yellow;">mass of wild land mammals is seven times lower than it was before humans arrived</b> (keep in mind it’s difficult to estimate the exact history of the number of animals on Earth). Similarly, <b style="background-color: yellow;">marine mammals, including whales, are a fifth of the weight they used to be because we’ve hunted so many to near extinction</b>.</div>
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<b style="background-color: yellow;">And though plants are still the dominant form of life on Earth, the scientists suspect there used to be approximately twice as many of them</b> — before humanity started clearing forests to make way for agriculture and our civilization.</div>
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The census in the PNAS paper isn’t perfect. Though remote sensing, satellites, and huge <b><a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/348/6237/873?ijkey=dac41cfd7f13a2894771be5995e332ffe2fb9c9a&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha">efforts to study the distribution</a></b> of life in the ocean make it easier than ever to come up with estimates, the authors admit there’s still a lot of uncertainty. But we do need a baseline understanding of the distribution of life on Earth. Millions of acres of forests <b><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation/?beta=true">are still lost every year</a></b>. Animals are going extinct 1,000 to 10,000 <b><a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/6/11/5797636/the-world-is-facing-a-major-extinction-crisis-here-are-ways-to-avoid">faster</a></b> than you’d expect if no humans lived on Earth. <b><a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/1/23/14351224/primate-extinction-report-ahhh">Sixty percent</a></b> of primate species, our closest relatives on the tree of life, are threatened with extinction.</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>We have to know how much more we stand to lose.</b></span></div>
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/5/29/17386112/all-life-on-earth-chart-weight-plants-animals-pnas">VOX</a></b></div>
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By <b><a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/brian-resnick">Brian Resnick</a></b> and <b><a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/javier-zarracina">Javier Zarracina</a></b><br />
May 29, 2018</div>
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<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?text=All+life+on+Earth%2C+in+one+staggering+chart&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fscience-and-health%2F2018%2F5%2F29%2F17386112%2Fall-life-on-earth-chart-weight-plants-animals-pnas"></a></b><b><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?counturl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fscience-and-health%2F2018%2F5%2F29%2F17386112%2Fall-life-on-earth-chart-weight-plants-animals-pnas&text=All+life+on+Earth%2C+in+one+staggering+chart&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fscience-and-health%2F2018%2F5%2F29%2F17386112%2Fall-life-on-earth-chart-weight-plants-animals-pnas&via=voxdotcom"></a></b><b><a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/5/29/17386112/all-life-on-earth-chart-weight-plants-animals-pnas#"></a></b>Hugo Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03534051823437072588noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-75288553893330180382018-05-16T10:45:00.005-07:002018-05-16T10:45:54.314-07:00Plug-and-play diagnostic devices<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<b>Jose Gomez-Marquez</b>, co-director of MIT’s Little Devices Lab, holds a sheet of paper diagnostic blocks, which can be easily printed and then combined in various ways to create customized diagnostic devices. Image: Melanie Gonick/MIT</div>
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<b>Modular blocks could enable labs around the world to cheaply and easily build their own diagnostics.</b></div>
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<b><a href="http://news.mit.edu/2018/plug-and-play-diagnostic-devices-0516?utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=#news-video-block">Watch Video</a></b></div>
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Researchers at <b><b><a href="http://littledevices.mit.edu/" target="_blank">MIT’s Little Devices Lab</a></b></b> have developed a set of <b>modular blocks</b> that can be put together in different ways to produce diagnostic devices. These “<span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>plug-and-play</b>” devices, which require little expertise to assemble, can test blood glucose levels in diabetic patients or detect viral infection, among other functions.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ampli blocks. Image by Melanie Gonick, MIT. </td></tr>
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“<i>Our long-term motivation is to enable small, low-resources laboratories to generate their own libraries of plug-and-play diagnostics to treat their local patient populations independently,</i>” says <b>Anna Young</b>, co-director of MIT’s Little Devices Lab, lecturer at the <b>Institute for Medical Engineering and Science</b>, and one of the lead authors of the paper.</div>
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Using this system, called <b style="background-color: yellow;">Ampli blocks</b>, the MIT team is working on devices to detect <b>cancer</b>, as well as <b>Zika virus</b> and other <b>infectious diseases</b>. The <span style="background-color: yellow;">blocks are inexpensive, costing about 6 cents for four blocks</span>, and they do not require refrigeration or special handling, making them appealing for use in the developing world.</div>
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“<i>We see these construction kits as a way of lowering the barriers to making medical technology,</i>” says Jose Gomez-Marquez, co-director of the <b>Little Devices Lab</b> and the senior author of the paper.</div>
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<b>Elizabeth Phillips</b> ’13, a graduate student at Purdue University, is also a lead author of the paper, which appears in the journal <b>Advanced Healthcare Materials</b> on May 16. Other authors include <b>Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli</b>, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and a visiting scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering; <b>Nikolas Albarran</b>, a senior engineer in the Little Devices Lab; <b>Jonah Butler</b>, an MIT junior; and <b>Kaira Lujan</b>, a former visiting student in the Little Devices Lab.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsSrgl1HZEytQwoa1JJyOn_P2zPbnCvC8_r6-n4TGIS3tcUlORXicAqBsp7wMQt5grPTgY-MiyQ03__XG09QqR7tlhwP8RysJ1rYtryVtpYk8BMhfYxj29K22rEkmQO1JUuwKTiLQT6pB9FMjx/s1600/CeC_LittleDevices_Modular001_DdU8homVAAQesHN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1057" data-original-width="1600" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsSrgl1HZEytQwoa1JJyOn_P2zPbnCvC8_r6-n4TGIS3tcUlORXicAqBsp7wMQt5grPTgY-MiyQ03__XG09QqR7tlhwP8RysJ1rYtryVtpYk8BMhfYxj29K22rEkmQO1JUuwKTiLQT6pB9FMjx/s640/CeC_LittleDevices_Modular001_DdU8homVAAQesHN.jpg" width="640" /></a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">Advanced Healthcare Materials Paper (click to enlarge)</span></td></tr>
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<b>Customized diagnostics</b></div>
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Over the past decade, many researchers have been working on <span style="background-color: yellow;">small, portable diagnostic devices based on chemical reactions that occur on paper strips</span>. Many of these tests make use of l<b>ateral flow technology,</b> which is the same approach used in home pregnancy tests.</div>
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Despite these efforts, such tests have not been widely deployed. One obstacle, says Gomez-Marquez, is that many of these devices are not <span style="background-color: yellow;">designed with large-scale manufacturability in mind</span>. Another is that <b style="background-color: yellow;">companies may not be interested in mass-producing a diagnostic for a disease that doesn’t affect a large number of people</b>.</div>
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The Little Devices Lab researchers realized that they could get these diagnostics into the hands of many more people if they created a kit of modular components that can be put together to generate exactly what the user needs. To that end, <b style="background-color: yellow;">they have created about 40 different building blocks that lab workers around the world could easily assemble on their own</b>, just as people began assembling their own radios and other electronic devices from commercially available electronic “breadboards” in the 1970s.</div>
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“<i>When the electronic breadboard came out, that meant people didn’t have to worry about building their own resistors or capacitors. They could worry about what they actually wanted to use electronics for, which is to make the entire circuit,</i>” Gomez-Marquez says.</div>
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In this case, the <span style="background-color: yellow;">components consist of a sheet of paper or glass fiber sandwiched between a plastic or metal block and a glass cover.</span> The blocks, which are about half an inch on each edge, <b>can snap together along any edge</b>.<br />
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<li>Some of the blocks contain channels for samples to flow straight through, </li>
<li>some have turns, and </li>
<li>some can receive a sample from a pipette or </li>
<li>mix multiple reagents together.</li>
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The <b>blocks can also perform different biochemical functions</b>. Many <span style="background-color: yellow;">contain antibodies that can detect a specific molecule in a blood or urine sample</span>. Those antibodies are attached to nanoparticles that change color when the target molecule is present, indicating a positive result.</div>
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These blocks can be aligned in different ways, allowing the user to create diagnostics based on one reaction or a series of reactions. In one example, the researchers combined blocks that detect three different molecules to create a test for <b><i>isonicotinic acid</i></b>, which can reveal whether tuberculosis patients are taking their medication.</div>
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The <span style="background-color: yellow;">blocks are color-coded by function</span>, making it easier to assemble predesigned devices using instructions that the researchers plan to put online. They also hope that users will develop and contribute their own specifications to the online guide.</div>
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<b>Better performance</b></div>
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The researchers also showed that <span style="background-color: yellow;">in some ways, these blocks can outperform previous versions of paper diagnostic devices.</span> For example, they found that they could run a sample back and forth over a test strip multiple times, enhancing the signal. This could make it easier to get reliable results from urine and saliva samples, which are usually more dilute than blood samples, but are easier to obtain from patients.</div>
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“<i>These are things that cannot be done with standard lateral flow tests, because those are not modular — you only get to run those once,</i>” says Hamad-Schifferli.</div>
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The team is now working on tests for <b>human papilloma virus, malaria, </b>and<b> Lyme disease</b>, among others. They are also working on <span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>blocks that can synthesize useful compounds, including drugs, as well as blocks that incorporate electrical components such as LEDs</b></span>.</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>The ultimate goal </b>is to get the technology into the hands of small labs in both industrialized and developing countries, so they can create their own diagnostics.</span> The MIT team has already sent them to labs in <b>Chile</b> and Nicaragua, where they have been used to develop devices to monitor patient adherence to TB treatment and to test for a genetic variant that makes malaria more difficult to treat.</div>
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<b>Catherine Klapperic</b>h, associate dean for research and an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, <span style="background-color: yellow;">says the MIT team’s work will help to make the diagnostic design process more inclusive.</span></div>
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“<i>By reducing the barriers to designing new point-of-care paperfluidics, the work invites nonexperts in and will certainly result in new ideas and collaborations in settings all around the world</i>,” says Klapperich, who was not involved in the research. “<i>The practical demonstrations of the system presented here are poised to be immediately useful, while the possibilities for others to build on the tool are large.</i>”</div>
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The researchers are now investigating large-scale manufacturing techniques, and they hope to launch a company to manufacture and distribute the kits around the world.</div>
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“<i>We are excited to open the platform to other researchers so they can use the blocks and generate their own reactions,</i>” Young says.</div>
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The research was funded by a gift from <b>Autodesk</b> and the <b>U.S. Public Health Service</b>.</div>
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="http://news.mit.edu/2018/plug-and-play-diagnostic-devices-0516"><b>MIT News</b></a></b></div>
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By Anne Trafton | MIT News Office </div>
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May 16, 2018</div>
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Hugo Angelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03534051823437072588noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-38497385954139199882018-05-16T10:11:00.000-07:002018-05-16T10:11:35.540-07:00 This Hard-to-Destroy Drone Goes From Rigid to Flexible When It Crashes<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://spectrum.ieee.org/img/epfl%20flexible%20drone%203-1489096260121.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Image: EPFL Don't worry, the drone is fine! </span></td></tr>
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Anyone who’s ever flown a drone of any sort will tell you that <b>sooner or later, you’re going to crash it. </b>The question is how exactly you will go about doing this, and how much of the drone will be functional after it’s happened. <span style="background-color: yellow;">Most flying animals somewhat frustratingly don’t have this problem</span>: Birds and insects run into things occasionally (or all the time, for small bugs), and just shrug it off and keep on going, thanks to their biological design, which includes both stiffness and flexibility. Now <b>roboticists at the EPFL, in Lausanne, Switzerland, are relying on these same qualities to design a highly resilient quadrotor that’s impressively difficult to destroy. </b><br />
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There are three primary strategies for designing drones with impact resistance.<br />
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<li>The first is to just <b>protect the propellers by surrounding them with the frame of the drone or with individual propeller guards.</b> Most commercial drones have something like this. With this level of protection, you’re less likely to injure people, but since the prop protection is rigid, you’re more likely to injure the drone itself if (I mean, when) you crash it. The EPFL quadrotor uses a flexible frame that locks in place with magnets. When a collision occurs, the frame breaks away from the magnets, and once the energy is dissipated, elastic bands pull the frame back together and you’re good to go.</li>
<li>The second level of impact protection is to <b>design your drone in a way that it can <span style="background-color: yellow;">absorb energy from the crash without breaking into pieces</span></b>. One way of doing that is to decouple the frame of the drone by, say, using flexible, elastic couplers. <span style="background-color: yellow;">This gives you a “squishy” drone, which is very effective at handling impacts, but <b>it’s also squishy in-flight, which causes all kinds of structural and stability problems</b></span>. </li>
<li>The most impressive level of impact protection that we’ve seen in drones is the brute force approach of <b>just surrounding the entire thing with a flexible, rotating cage</b>. <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/drones/flyabilitys-gimball-drone-exploring-ice-caves">Flyability</a></b> has made a compelling business case for using drones with protective cages, and for some applications, it’s fantastic. You do, however, pay a penalty, since the cage can increase the overall size of the drone by upwards of 60 percent, meaning that it’s safer to run into things, but you’re also much more likely to run into things. The cage adds mass as well, leading to a drone that can’t lift as much or fly as far. </li>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>EPFL’s idea is a compromise of sorts:</b></span> They’ve managed to create a drone with <b>a frame that’s rigid right up until it smashes into something, at which point it turns flexible</b>: <br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">The inspiration for this design came from insect wings</span>. To fly, insects need wings with high stiffness, but flexibility is critical for absorbing shock, and wasps do it with a special joint that allows the entire wing to “<i><b>reversibly crumple</b></i>” during a collision, as the EPFL researchers explain: <br />
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<i>Wasp wings display <b>dual stiffness</b>, that is <span style="background-color: yellow;">the ability to reversibly transition between rigid and soft states</span>, which <span style="background-color: yellow;">provides mechanical resilience without impairing flight performances</span>. The <b>wings of wasps contain a flexible resilin joint</b>... This design allows the wing tip to slightly flex during flight (rigid state), but reversibly crumple… during collisions (soft state). If the dual-stiffness behavior is impaired... the rigid wings undergo severe tear during collision. Therefore, <span style="background-color: yellow;">this design provides crash resilience by effectively preventing wing overload during collisions without compromising flight capabilities.</span></i></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Image: EPFL The quadcopter has two main parts: the external frame and a
central case. They are held together by magnetic joints, each with two
magnets and a spring (inset). </span></td></tr>
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The <span style="background-color: yellow;">quadrotor that the researchers came up with uses a flexible frame that locks in place around the core of the quadrotor with magnets. When a collision occurs, the frame breaks away from the magnets, absorbing the energy of the collision</span>. <b>Once the energy is dissipated, <span style="background-color: yellow;">elastic bands pull the frame back into its original configuration</span>, and the magnets snap together again, and you’re good to go</b>. <br />
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The uniqueness of the proposed design lies in the fact that the frame is rigid during flight, but softens during collisions. This allows combination of the advantages of both rigid and soft systems: stability and rapid response to user commands during flight, leading to flight performance equivalent to a drone equipped with a standard rigid frame, and crash resilience like a soft system. The experiments showed a satisfying survivability of the frame of the drone, that withstood roughly 50 collisions with no permanent damage. <br />
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The researchers, who are members of <b><a href="http://lis.epfl.ch/">EPFL’s Laboratory of Intelligent Systems</a></b>, suggest that an approach like this could be useful for all kinds of robots, not just drones. Most robots are rigid for various performance reasons (like precision), but the ability to be flexible when necessary without using intrinsically soft materials could could come in handy for grasping, locomotion, or simply as an added safety measure for human-robot interaction tasks. <br />
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S. Mintchev, Member, IEEE, S. de Rivaz and D. Floreano, Senior Member, IEEE <br />
“<b><a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7833174/">Insect-Inspired Mechanical Resilience for Multicopters</a></b>,” by S. Mintchev, S. de Rivas, and D. Floreano from EPFL was published in the 25 January 2017 issue of IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. <br />
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[ <b><a href="http://actu.epfl.ch/news/insect-inspired-mechanical-resilience-for-multic-2/">EPFL</a></b> ] </div>
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/%3Ciframe%20width=%22640%22%20height=%22360%22%20src=%22https://www.youtube.com/embed/VCZCdEr0qUg?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0%22%20frameborder=%220%22%20allowfullscreen%3E%3C/iframe%3E" target="_blank">IEEE Spectrum</a></b><br />
By <b><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/author/ackerman-evan-">Evan Ackerman</a></b><br />
Posted 9 Mar 2017 </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-485417308787266142018-01-08T20:41:00.002-08:002018-01-08T20:41:41.161-08:00Hybrid solid-state system harvests more hydrogen from water<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(From left) Junyoung Kim, Professor Guntae Kim, and Ohhun Gwona are part of the team who developed the Hybrid-SOEC, a more efficient new system for producing hydrogen(Credit:UNIST)</td></tr>
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Clean and plentiful, hydrogen is a promising fuel source, but there are a few problems standing in the way of it becoming mainstream. South Korean scientists have now developed a new system for producing hydrogen from water, which that they say overcomes some of these issues and produces the gas more efficiently than other water electrolysis systems.</div>
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The new device was developed by a research team consisting of scientists from the </div>
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<li><b><a href="http://www.unist.ac.kr/" target="_blank">Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)</a></b>, </li>
<li><b><a href="http://www.kier.re.kr/eng/" target="_blank">Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER)</a></b> and </li>
<li><b><a href="http://e.sookmyung.ac.kr/" target="_blank">Sookmyung Women's University</a></b>, </li>
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and is based on an existing design called a <b>solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC).</b></div>
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These work like other electrolyzers in that an electrical current splits water into its constituent molecules – hydrogen and oxygen – which can then be harvested. <span style="background-color: yellow;">The <b>difference is that in this setup, both electrodes are solid-state</b>, as is the <b>electrolyte that carries the ions between them</b></span>.</div>
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This has a few advantages over systems that use liquid electrolytes – namely, </div>
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<li>the liquids need to be topped up occasionally, and over time they tend to corrode other components. </li>
<li>And since solid-state electrolyzers operate at higher temperatures, they <b>don't need as much electrical energy</b> to function because they can draw energy from that heat.</li>
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But <span style="background-color: yellow;">SOECs still have room for improvement</span>. There are two main designs that use different electrolytes: </div>
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<li>One allows only oxygen ions to pass through, and </li>
<li>the other only hydrogen ions. </li>
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In either case, that one-way street limits the amount of hydrogen that can be produced.</div>
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So the<b style="background-color: yellow;"> researchers developed a new Hybrid-SOEC</b>, which <b>uses a mixed-ion conductor to transport both negatively-charged oxygen ions and positively-charged hydrogen ions</b> (protons) at the same time. The end result had all the benefits of a solid-state electrolyzer, with improved efficiency.</div>
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"<i>By controlling the driving environment of the hydrogen ion conductive electrolyte, a <b>'mixed ion conductive electrolyte'</b> in which two ions pass can be realized,</i>" says<b> Junyoung Kim</b>, first author of the study. "<i>In Hybrid-SOEC where this electrolyte was first introduced, water electrolysis occurred at both electrodes, which results in significant increase in total hydrogen production.</i>"</div>
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Using the mixed-ion conductor and electrodes made of <b>layered perovskite</b>, the <span style="background-color: yellow;">Hybrid-SOEC produced 1.9 liters (0.5 gal) of hydrogen per hour, running at a cell voltage of 1.5 V and a temperature of 700° C (1,292° F)</span>. The researchers say that's <b>four times more efficient</b> than existing water electrolysis systems, and after <span style="background-color: yellow;">running the device continuously for 60 hours, there were no signs of that performance degrading.</span></div>
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The research was published in the journal <b><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211285517307656">Nano Energy</a></b>.</div>
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<b>Source:</b> <b><a href="http://news.unist.ac.kr/a-new-strategy-for-efficient-hydrogen-production/">UNIST</a></b></div>
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="https://newatlas.com/hybrid-system-better-hydrogen-production/52769/">New Atlas</a></b></div>
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<b><a href="https://newatlas.com/author/michael-irving/">Michael Irving</a></b></div>
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December 28th, 2017</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-84634882076537348672018-01-03T10:42:00.000-08:002018-01-03T10:42:06.922-08:00This Living Light is powered by a houseplant<div style="line-height: 1.5em;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iFqwCqnj6yU/Wk0G2NesoII/AAAAAAAAQrg/CfiRG3_brXQ5F470wTJ0TnInoRC5Gia-ACLcBGAs/s1600/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_001_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1020" height="382" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iFqwCqnj6yU/Wk0G2NesoII/AAAAAAAAQrg/CfiRG3_brXQ5F470wTJ0TnInoRC5Gia-ACLcBGAs/s640/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_001_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="line-height: 1em; text-align: center;">1- The lamp works using photosynthesis. As organic compounds are released in the soil, bacteria generates electrons and protons. Those in turn are used as a battery to power the light.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">Imagine a lamp that <b>doesn’t need to be plugged in</b> – and that <b>you have to water once a week</b>.</span><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"> </span><a href="http://ermivanoers.nl/" style="font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><b>Ermi van Oers</b></a><span style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"> is making it happen with this incredible plant-turned-lamp. </span><span style="background-color: yellow; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><b>The Living Light</b> is an <a href="https://inhabitat.com/tag/off-grid/"><b>off-grid</b></a> light that’s <b>powered by a <a href="https://inhabitat.com/tag/plant/">houseplant</a></b> instead of an electrical socket.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6m2m-Wwanc8/Wk0G2kZoQoI/AAAAAAAAQro/a-QIm_1m1oMawGx4mr1i102pyHe5CMBtQCLcBGAs/s1600/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_002_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></a></b><br />
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<b><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6m2m-Wwanc8/Wk0G2kZoQoI/AAAAAAAAQro/a-QIm_1m1oMawGx4mr1i102pyHe5CMBtQCLcBGAs/s1600/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_002_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1020" height="382" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6m2m-Wwanc8/Wk0G2kZoQoI/AAAAAAAAQro/a-QIm_1m1oMawGx4mr1i102pyHe5CMBtQCLcBGAs/s640/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_002_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" width="640" /></a></b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="line-height: 1em; text-align: center;">2- The healthier your plant is, the more photosynthesis takes place and the more energy you generate, which is a pretty cool way to gauge how happy your plant lamp is.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SCmNKgV5p8o/Wk0G2RmG0tI/AAAAAAAAQrk/dZhc7nVkk5sXrUTkFvLxv9359lQFoa7TwCLcBGAs/s1600/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_003_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1020" height="382" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SCmNKgV5p8o/Wk0G2RmG0tI/AAAAAAAAQrk/dZhc7nVkk5sXrUTkFvLxv9359lQFoa7TwCLcBGAs/s640/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_003_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="line-height: 1em; text-align: center;">3- Imagine a lamp that doesn't need to be plugged in and that you have to water once a week. Ermi van Oers is making it happen with this incredible plant-turned-lamp. The Living Light uses a houseplant to generate its energy in a totally self-sufficient, off-grid system that doesn't need an electric socket to power up.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As </span><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: inherit;"><b>organic compounds</b> are released into the soil from photosynthesis, <b>bacteria generates electrons and protons</b></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">. These particles are tapped as an energy source to power the light. The healthier the plant is, the more photosynthesis takes place – and the more energy the system generates. It’s a pretty cool way to gauge how happy your plant lamp is</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LyCGf65qyrM/Wk0G2s5V4OI/AAAAAAAAQrs/EQi51pfk3s0J13a2Xt0QiqCIMKrJuR25ACLcBGAs/s1600/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_004_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1020" height="382" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LyCGf65qyrM/Wk0G2s5V4OI/AAAAAAAAQrs/EQi51pfk3s0J13a2Xt0QiqCIMKrJuR25ACLcBGAs/s640/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_004_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="line-height: 1em; text-align: center;">4- Living Light produces up to 0.1mW of energy, which isn't enough to light an entire room, but is plenty to act as your evening reading lamp.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5ZlYqV8-MXw/Wk0G24w96HI/AAAAAAAAQrw/YMsgRrTDKVcUXU17kl53E9IPH5Qe92b9wCLcBGAs/s1600/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_005_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1020" height="382" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5ZlYqV8-MXw/Wk0G24w96HI/AAAAAAAAQrw/YMsgRrTDKVcUXU17kl53E9IPH5Qe92b9wCLcBGAs/s640/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_005_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="line-height: 1em; text-align: center;">5- Living Light produces up to 0.1mW of energy, which isn't enough to light an entire room, but is plenty to act as your evening reading lamp.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b8_MLgqBzNY/Wk0G3LoUqbI/AAAAAAAAQr0/vOkTA2WVbG4gXG8rfkGv3AePE7MJpm4LgCLcBGAs/s1600/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_006_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1020" height="382" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b8_MLgqBzNY/Wk0G3LoUqbI/AAAAAAAAQr0/vOkTA2WVbG4gXG8rfkGv3AePE7MJpm4LgCLcBGAs/s640/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_006_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="line-height: 1em; text-align: center;">6- The plant and the light form a circle of energy that can go off-grid and requires no electric socket to work.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s4mSChqhKBc/Wk0G3aMJKTI/AAAAAAAAQr4/zj1BkZ5rLNAQY_g1HwS0gdMrXvJF1ybdwCLcBGAs/s1600/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_007_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1020" height="382" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s4mSChqhKBc/Wk0G3aMJKTI/AAAAAAAAQr4/zj1BkZ5rLNAQY_g1HwS0gdMrXvJF1ybdwCLcBGAs/s640/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_007_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="line-height: 1em; text-align: center;">7- The project was featured at this year's Dutch Design Week.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_VMspV5Bpqc/Wk0G31N3LYI/AAAAAAAAQr8/uieNs_GYR7IAGiQSnhv_kF0BikMkXpGmgCLcBGAs/s1600/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_008_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="1020" height="344" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_VMspV5Bpqc/Wk0G31N3LYI/AAAAAAAAQr8/uieNs_GYR7IAGiQSnhv_kF0BikMkXpGmgCLcBGAs/s640/SGAAVI_LivingLamp_008_Ermi-van-Oers-Living-Lamp-7-1020x610.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="line-height: 1em; text-align: center;">8- Imagine a lamp that doesn't need to be plugged in and that you have to water once a week. Ermi van Oers is making it happen with this incredible plant-turned-lamp. The Living Light uses a houseplant to generate its energy in a totally self-sufficient, off-grid system that doesn't need an electric socket to power up.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: inherit;">The Living Light produces up to</span><b style="font-family: inherit;"> 0.1mW of energy</b><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: inherit;">, which isn’t enough to light an entire room, but it’s plenty to act as your evening reading lamp.</span></div>
Van Oers and team aren’t done yet – <b>they’re working on increasing the energy output, and they imagine that entire towns could be powered by forests one day</b>.</div>
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<b style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://ermivanoers.nl/">+ Ermi van Oers</a></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Via </span><b style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2017/11/15/living-light-ermi-van-oers-microbial-energy-photosynthesis-lighing-lamp-good-design-bad-world-dutch-design-week/">Dezeen</a></b></div>
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="https://inhabitat.com/this-living-light-is-powered-by-a-houseplant/">Inhabitat</a></b></div>
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by <b><a href="https://inhabitat.com/author/kristinelofgren/">Kristine Lofgren</a></b></div>
<b><a href="https://inhabitat.com/this-living-light-is-powered-by-a-houseplant/">11/17/2017</a></b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-46325484324548295522017-12-27T13:49:00.000-08:002017-12-27T13:50:37.267-08:00 Scientists Develop A Battery That Can Run For More Than A Decade <div style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://dailyaccord.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/battery-1130x580.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="800" height="328" src="https://dailyaccord.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/battery-1130x580.jpg" width="640" /></a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: Harvard University</td></tr>
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Researchers from the <b><a href="https://www.seas.harvard.edu/">Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)</a></b> have developed a new flow battery that stores energy in organic molecules dissolved in neutral pH water. This new chemistry allows for a <br />
<ul>
<li>non-toxic, </li>
<li>non-corrosive battery </li>
<li>with an exceptionally long lifetime and </li>
<li>offers the potential to significantly decrease the costs of production. </li>
</ul>
The research, published in <b><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00019">ACS Energy Letters</a></b>, was led by Michael Aziz, the Gene and Tracy Sykes Professor of Materials and Energy Technologies and Roy Gordon, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science. </div>
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<b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>A Neutral pH Aqueous Organic–Organometallic Redox Flow Battery with Extremely High Capacity Retention</b></span></span></b><br />
<b><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/author/Beh%2C+Eugene+S">Eugene S. Beh</a></b>†‡ <b><a href="http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5746-2973"><img src="http://pubs.acs.org/templates/jsp/images/orcid.png" /></a></b>, <b><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/author/de+Porcellinis%2C+Diana">Diana De Porcellinis</a></b>†#, <b><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/author/Gracia%2C+Rebecca+L">Rebecca L. Gracia</a></b>∥, <b><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/author/Xia%2C+Kay+T">Kay T. Xia</a></b>∥, <b><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/author/Gordon%2C+Roy+G">Roy G. Gordon</a></b><b><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00019#cor1">*</a></b>†‡, and <b><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/author/Aziz%2C+Michael+J">Michael J. Aziz</a></b><b><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00019#cor2">*</a></b>† <b><a href="http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9657-9456"><img src="http://pubs.acs.org/templates/jsp/images/orcid.png" /></a></b><br />
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† John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States<br />
‡ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States<br />
# Department of Chemical Science and Technologies, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, 00133 Rome, Italy<br />
∥ Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States<br />
ACS Energy Lett., 2017, 2 (3), pp 639–644<br />
DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00019<br />
Publication Date (Web): February 7, 2017<br />
Copyright © 2017 American Chemical Society<br />
*E-mail: <b><a href="mailto:gordon@chemistry.harvard.edu">gordon@chemistry.harvard.edu</a></b>., *E-mail: <b><a href="mailto:maziz@harvard.edu">maziz@harvard.edu</a></b>.</div>
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<b><span style="color: black;">Abstract</span></b><br />
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<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption">We demonstrate an aqueous organic and organometallic redox flow battery utilizing reactants composed of only earth-abundant elements and operating at neutral pH. The positive electrolyte contains <b><i>bis((3-trimethylammonio)propyl)ferrocene dichloride,</i></b><i> and the negative electrolyte contains</i><b><i> bis(3-trimethylammonio)propyl viologen
tetrachloride</i></b>; these are separated by an anion-conducting membrane passing chloride ions. Bis(trimethylammoniopropyl) functionalization leads to ∼2 M solubility for both reactants, suppresses higher-order chemical decomposition pathways, and reduces reactant crossover rates through the membrane. <b>Unprecedented cycling stability was achieved with capacity retention of 99.9943%/cycle and 99.90%/day at a 1.3 M reactant concentration, increasing to 99.9989%/cycle and 99.967%/day at 0.75–1.00
M</b>; these represent the highest capacity retention rates reported to date versus time and versus cycle number. We discuss opportunities for future performance improvement, including <b>chemical modification of a ferrocene center and reducing the membrane resistance without unacceptable increases in reactant crossover</b>. This approach may provide the decadal lifetimes that enable <b>organic–organometallic redox flow batteries</b> to be cost-effective for grid-scale electricity storage, thereby enabling massive penetration of intermittent renewable electricity.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Flow batteries store energy in liquid solutions in external tanks—the bigger the tanks, the more energy they store.</span> Flow batteries <b>are a promising storage solution for renewable, intermittent energy like wind and solar</b> but <span style="background-color: yellow;">today’s flow batteries often suffer degraded energy storage capacity after many charge-discharge cycles</span>, requiring periodic maintenance of the electrolyte to restore the capacity. <br />
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By <b>modifying the structures of molecules used in the positive and negative electrolyte solutions, and making them water soluble,</b> the Harvard team was able to engineer a battery that loses only one percent of its capacity per 1000 cycles. <br />
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“<i><span style="background-color: yellow;">Lithium ion batteries <b>don’t even survive 1000 complete charge/discharge cycles</b></span>,</i>” said Aziz. <br />
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“<i>Because we were able to dissolve the electrolytes in neutral water, this is a long-lasting battery that you could put in your basement,</i>” said Gordon. “<i>If it spilled on the floor, it wouldn’t eat the concrete and since the medium is noncorrosive, you can use cheaper materials to build the components of the batteries, like the tanks and pumps.</i>” <br />
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This reduction of cost is important. The <span style="background-color: yellow;"><b>Department of Energy (DOE)</b> has set a goal of building a battery that can store energy for less than $100 per kilowatt-hour</span>, which would make stored wind and solar energy competitive to energy produced from traditional power plants. <br />
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“<i>If you can get anywhere near this cost target then you change the world,</i>” said Aziz. “<i>It becomes cost effective to put batteries in so many places. This research puts us one step closer to reaching that target.</i>” <br />
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“<i>This work on aqueous soluble organic electrolytes is of high significance in pointing the way towards future batteries with vastly improved cycle life and considerably lower cost,</i>” said <b>Imre Gyuk</b>, Director of Energy Storage Research at the Office of Electricity of the DOE. “<i>I expect that efficient, long duration flow batteries will become standard as part of the infrastructure of the electric grid.</i>” <br />
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The <span style="background-color: yellow;">key to designing the battery was to first figure out <b>why previous molecules were degrading so quickly in neutral solutions</b></span>, said <b>Eugene Beh</b>, a postdoctoral fellow and first author of the paper. By first identifying how the molecule <b>viologen</b> in the negative electrolyte was decomposing, Beh was able to modify its molecular structure to make it more resilient. <br />
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Next, the team turned to <b>ferrocene</b>, a molecule well known for its electrochemical properties, for the positive electrolyte. <br />
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“<i>Ferrocene is great for storing charge but is completely insoluble in water,</i>” said Beh. “<i>It has been used in other batteries with organic solvents, which are flammable and expensive.</i>” <br />
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But <span style="background-color: yellow;">by functionalizing ferrocene molecules in the same way as with the viologen, the <b>team was able to turn an insoluble molecule into a highly soluble one that could also be cycled stably.</b></span> <br />
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“<i><b>Aqueous soluble ferrocenes</b> represent a whole new class of molecules for flow batteries,</i>” said Aziz. <br />
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The neutral pH should be especially helpful in lowering the cost of the ion-selective membrane that separates the two sides of the battery. <span style="background-color: yellow;">Most flow batteries today use <b>expensive polymers</b> that can withstand the aggressive chemistry inside the battery</span>. They can account for up to one third of the total cost of the device. <span style="background-color: yellow;">With essentially salt water on both sides of the membrane, expensive polymers can be replaced by cheap hydrocarbons</span>. <br />
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This research was coauthored by <b>Diana De Porcellinis</b>, <b>Rebecca Gracia</b>, and <b>Kay Xia</b>. It was supported by the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability of the DOE and by the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. <br />
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With assistance from <b><a href="http://otd.harvard.edu/" target="_blank"><b>Harvard’s Office of Technology Development (OTD</b></a></b>), the researchers are working with several companies to scale up the technology for industrial applications and to optimize the interactions between the membrane and the electrolyte. Harvard OTD has filed a portfolio of pending patents on innovations in flow battery technology.<br />
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="https://dailyaccord.com/scientists-develop-battery-can-run-decade/">Daily Accord</a></b><br />
Credit: Harvard University<br />
Feb 9, 2017 </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-21988122836730451452017-12-24T09:43:00.000-08:002017-12-27T13:55:56.641-08:00MIT Just Created Living Plants That Glow Like A Lamp, And Could Grow Glowing Trees To Replace Streetlights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://geneticliteracyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/trees.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="800" height="462" src="https://geneticliteracyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/trees.png" width="640" /></a></b></div>
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Roads of the future could be lit by glowing trees instead of streetlamps, thanks to a breakthrough in creating <b>bioluminescent plants</b>. <span style="background-color: yellow;">Experts injected specialized <b>nanoparticles</b> into the leaves of a <b>watercress</b> plant, which caused it to give off a dim light for nearly four hours.</span> This could solve lots of problems. <br />
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The chemical involved, which produced enough light to read a book by, is <b>the same as is used by fireflies to create their characteristic shine</b>. To create their glowing plants, engineers from the <b>Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)</b> turned to an enzyme called <b><i>luciferase</i></b>. <span style="background-color: yellow;"><i>Luciferase</i> acts on a molecule called <i><b>luciferin,</b></i> causing it to emit light. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Roads of the
future could be lit by glowing trees instead of streetlamps, thanks to a
breakthrough in creating bioluminescent plants. Experts created a
watercress plant which caused it to glow for nearly four hours and gave
off enough light to illuminate this book</span></span></td></tr>
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Another molecule called <i><b>Co-enzyme A</b></i> helps the process along by removing a reaction byproduct that can inhibit luciferase activity. The <span style="background-color: yellow;">MIT team packaged each of these components into a different type of nanoparticle carrier.</span> <br />
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The nanoparticles help them to get to the right part of the plant and also prevent them from building to concentrations that could be toxic to the plants. The result was a watercress plant that functioned like a desk lamp. <br />
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Researchers believe with further tweaking, the <span style="background-color: yellow;">technology could also be used to provide lights bright enough to illuminate a workspace or even an entire street, as well as low-intensity indoor lighting</span>. </div>
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<b>Michael Strano</b>, professor of chemical engineering at MIT and the senior author of the study, said: '<i><b>The vision is to make a plant that will function as a desk lamp</b> — a lamp that you don't have to plug in.<span style="background-color: yellow;"> The light is ultimately <b>powered by the energy metabolism</b><b> of the plant itself</b></span>. Our work very seriously opens up the doorway to <b>streetlamps</b> that are nothing but treated trees, and to indirect lighting around homes.</i>' <br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /> <i>Luciferases</i> make up a class of <b>oxidative enzymes</b> found in several species that enable them to 'bioluminesce', or emit light.</span> Fireflies are able to emit light via a chemical reaction. <br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">In the chemical reaction luciferin is converted to <b>oxyluciferin</b> by the luciferase enzyme</span>. Some of the energy released by this reaction is in the form of light. The <b>reaction is highly efficient</b>, meaning nearly all the energy put into the reaction is rapidly converted to light. <br />
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<b>Lighting accounts for around 20 per cent of worldwide energy consumption</b>, so replacing them with naturally bioluminescent plants would represent a significant cut to CO2 emissions. The researchers’ early efforts at the start of the project yielded plants that could glow for about 45 minutes, which they have since improved to 3.5 hours. <br />
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The <span style="background-color: yellow;">light generated by <b>one ten centimetre (four inch) watercress seedling</b> is currently about <b>one-thousandth</b> of the amount needed to properly read by</span>, but it was enough to illuminate the words on a page of John Milton's Paradise Lost. <br />
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The <span style="background-color: yellow;">MIT team believes it can boost the light emitted, as well as the duration of light, by further optimising the concentration and release rates of the chemical components.</span> For future versions of this technology, the team hopes to <span style="background-color: yellow;">develop a way to paint or spray the nanoparticles onto plant leaves, which could make it possible to transform trees and other large plants into light sources.</span> </div>
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The researchers have also demonstrated that <b>they can turn the light off by adding nanoparticles carrying a luciferase inhibitor</b>. This could enable them to eventually create plants that shut off their light emission in response to environmental conditions such as sunlight, they say. <br />
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The full findings of the study were published in the <b>American Chemical Society</b> journal <b><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/journal/nalefd">Nano Letters</a></b>. <br />
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="http://www.thespaceacademy.org/2017/12/mit-just-created-living-plants-that.html" target="_blank">The Space Academy</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.thespaceacademy.org/2017/12/mit-just-created-living-plants-that.html">December 18, 2017 </a></b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11808487343018760656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8269875913482074720.post-21881193928318565102017-12-22T18:47:00.000-08:002017-12-22T18:47:01.049-08:00Electric eel inspires bio-friendly power source, what happens next may shock you<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Could a device inspired by the electric eel offer a safer way to power medical implants?</td></tr>
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Scientists are always on the lookout for safer, more natural ways to power devices that go into our bodies. After all, who really needs toxic battery elements and replacement surgery?<br />
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One organism that is pretty good at generating <b>biocompatible power</b> (for itself, at least) is the <b>electric eel</b>, and scientists have now used the high-voltage species as a blueprint for a<span style="background-color: yellow;"> promising new self-charging device</span> that could one day power things like pacemakers, prosthetics and even <b><a href="https://newatlas.com/electrical-contact-lens-glucose/41682/">augmented reality contact lenses</a></b>. <br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Electric eels generate voltage through long stacks of thin cells that run end-on-end through their bodies</span>. Called <b>electrocytes</b>, these <span style="background-color: yellow;">cells create electricity by allowing sodium ions to rush into one end and potassium ions out the other, all at the same time</span>. The voltage created by each cell is small, but together, th<span style="background-color: yellow;">e stacks within a single eel can generate as many as <b>600 V</b>.</span> <br />
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To recreate this effect, researchers from the <b>University of Fribourg</b>, the <b>University of Michigan</b> and the <b>University of California San Diego</b> <span style="background-color: yellow;">turned to the difference in salinity between fresh and saltwater</span>. They deposited <b>hydrogel</b>, ion-conducting blobs onto clear plastic sheets and separated them with <b>ion-selective membranes</b>. <br />
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<b>Hundreds of blobs containing salt and freshwater were arranged in an alternating pattern</b>. <span style="background-color: yellow;">When the team <b>had all these gel compartments make contact with one another, they were able to generate </b>100 V through what is known as reverse <b>electrodialysis</b></span>, where energy is generated through differing salt concentrations in the water.<br />
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While the <span style="background-color: yellow;">eel triggers the simultaneous contact of its electrocytes using a neurotransmitter called <b>acetylcholine</b> as the command signal</span>, the team achieved this by carefully working a special origami pattern – called a <b><a href="https://newatlas.com/miura-ori-origami-engineers-nanoscale-buildings-satellites/41514/">Miura-ori fold</a></b> – into the plastic sheet. This meant that when pressure was applied to the sheet, it quickly snapped together and the cells shifted into exactly the right positions to create the electricity. <br />
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The device, which the team calls an <b>artificial electric organ</b>, isn't in the same ball park as an eel in terms of output, but the researchers do have some ideas around how to boost its efficiency. It points to the metabolic energy created by ion differences in the eel's stomach, or the mechanical muscle energy, as some of the possibilities, but does note that recreating these would be a major challenge. <br />
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"<i>The <b>electric organs in eels are incredibly sophisticated</b>, they're far better at generating power than we are,</i>" Mayer said. "<i>But the important thing for us was to replicate the basics of what's happening.</i>" <br />
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The research was published in the journal <b><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature24670">Nature</a></b>. You can hear from Mayer in the video below.<br />
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<b>Source:</b> <b><a href="https://www.unifr.ch/news/en/18315/?utm_source=news&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=redirection_from_homehttp%3A%2F%2Fwww3.unifr.ch%2Fhome%2Fen%2F">University of Fribourg</a></b>, <b><a href="http://www.ns.umich.edu/new/multimedia/videos/25325-electricity-eel-style-soft-power-cells-could-run-tomorrow-s-implantables">University of Michigan</a></b><br />
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<b>ORIGINAL:</b> <b><a href="https://newatlas.com/electric-eel-blueprint-power-source/52610/">NewAtlas</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://newatlas.com/author/nick-lavars/">Nick Lavars</a></b><br />
December 14th, 2017</div>
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