DKush - Slashdot User

Submission + - High school teacher creates microfluidic devices u (gizmag.com)

Submitted by

Phoghat

on Tuesday January 25, 2011 @09:13AM

Phoghat writes: "Microfluidic technology, in which liquid is made to pass through “microchannels” that are often less than a millimeter in width, has had a profound effect on fields such as physics, chemistry, engineering and biotechnology. In particular, it has made “lab-on-a-chip” systems possible.
Joe Childs, a high school teacher, along with Harvard University nhas found a quick, easy and inexpensive means for creating them"

Nature Publisher Launches PLoS ONE Competitor 62

Posted by Soulskill on Monday January 24, 2011 @06:16PM from the peer-to-peer-review dept.

linhares writes "Nature's Publishing Group is launching a new journal, Scientific Reports, announced earlier this month. The press release makes it clear that it is molded after PLoS ONE: 'Scientific Reports will publish original research papers of interest to specialists within a given field in the natural sciences. It will not set a threshold of perceived importance for the papers that it publishes; rather, Scientific Reports will publish all papers that are judged to be technically valid and original. To enable the community to evaluate the importance of papers post-peer review, the Scientific Reports website will include most-downloaded, most-emailed, and most-blogged lists. All research papers will benefit from rapid peer review and publication, and will be deposited in PubMed Central.' Perhaps readers may find it ironic that PLoS ONE, first dismissed by Nature as an 'online database' 'relying on bulk, cheap publishing of lower quality papers to subsidize its handful of high-quality flagship journals' seems to be setting the standards for 'a new era in publishing.'"

Sharks Seen Swimming Down Australian Streets 210

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 19, 2011 @03:03AM from the we're-going-to-need-a-bigger-sidewalk dept.

As if the flood waters weren't bad enough for the people of Queensland, it now appears that there are sharks swimming in the streets. Two bull sharks were spotted swimming past a McDonald’s in the city of Goodna, Butcher Steve Bateman saw another making its way past his shop on Williams street. Ipswich councillor for the Goodna region Paul Tully said: "It would have swam several kilometres in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway. It’s definitely a first for Goodna, to have a shark in the main street."

Nobel Prize Winner Says DNA Performs Quantum Teleportation 347

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 12, 2011 @11:22PM from the giant-book-that's-hidden-inside-you dept.

HJED writes "TechWorld is reporting that the joint winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2008, Luc Montagnier, is claiming that DNA can send 'electromagnetic imprints' of itself into distant cells and fluids which can then be used by enzymes to create copies of the original DNA. This would be equivalent to quantum teleportation. You can read the original paper here [PDF]."

Famous British Autism Study an 'Elaborate Fraud' 813

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday January 06, 2011 @11:10AM from the someone-alert-jenny-mccarthy dept.

Charliemopps writes "An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study — and that there was 'no doubt' Wakefield was responsible."

Journal Article On Precognition Sparks Outrage 319

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday January 06, 2011 @09:50AM from the but-magic-is-fun dept.

thomst writes "The New York Times has an article (cookies and free subscription required) about the protests generated by The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology's decision to accept for publication later this year an article (PDF format) on precognition (the Times erroneously calls it ESP). Complaints center around the peer reviewers, none of whom is an expert in statistical analysis."

Researchers Claim 1,000 Core Chip Created 118

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday January 03, 2011 @02:12PM from the eat-the-seeds dept.

eldavojohn writes "Remember a few months ago when the feasibility was discussed of a thousand core processor? By using FPGAs, Glasgow University researchers have claimed a proof of concept 1,000 core chip that they demonstrated running an MPEG algorithm at a speed of 5Gbps. From one of the researchers: 'This is very early proof-of-concept work where we're trying to demonstrate a convenient way to program FPGAs so that their potential to provide very fast processing power could be used much more widely in future computing and electronics. While many existing technologies currently make use of FPGAs, including plasma and LCD televisions and computer network routers, their use in standard desktop computers is limited. However, we are already seeing some microchips which combine traditional CPUs with FPGA chips being announced by developers, including Intel and ARM. I believe these kinds of processors will only become more common and help to speed up computers even further over the next few years.'"

Submission + - The woman who cannot feel fear

Submitted by

lee1

on Thursday December 23, 2010 @12:16PM

lee1 writes: "Being threatened with a knife and held at gunpoint did not frighten her.
Neither horror films nor haunted houses scare her. She handles dangerous
snakes without concern, and had to be restrained from reaching out to
touch a tarantula, because she was overcome with curiosity. She has
experienced fear as a child and knows that she should be afraid, but
simply is not. She is the first known case of someone who is unable to
process fear. Researcher Justin Feinstein at the University of Iowa
said "Because she is missing her amygdala, she is also missing the
ability to detect and avoid danger in the world [...] It is quite
remarkable that she is still alive." The researchers hope that by
studying the woman they can learn more about how the brain processes
fear, which might prove useful in treating patients suffering from post
traumatic stress disorder, whose lives, according to Feinstein, are
"marred by fear and they are often-times unable to even leave their home
due to the ever-present feeling of danger." By studying this unique
subject, researchers hope to develop therapies that selectively target
the brain areas that can sometimes allow fear to take over."

Comment Mite Gene (Score 1) 1

by DKush on Wednesday December 22, 2010 @02:42PM (#34643754) Attached to: Bee disease breakthrough

This is an interesting approach to controlling pests/parasites. I can envision its use in the treatment of diseases such as malaria. I wonder, though, if the gene that is being regulated is common throughout the arachnid world, would its use also effect spiders, ticks, other mites, etc. negatively. The scientist interviewed mentioned that "it wouldn't target the bees and...any other pollinating insects" but I would be interested to find out more about its uniqueness throughout arthropod genomes.

Submission + - Bee disease breakthrough (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by moorhens on Wednesday December 22, 2010 @07:01AM

moorhens writes: The BBC is describing new research that could save honeybees from the deadly Varroa mite. Unlike other treatments that have to balance the prospect of killing the mites against killing the bees themselves, this uses a genetic switch to turn the mites into their own worst enemy. Worldwide, the Varroa mite has been ravaging honeybee populations, either as a result of direct parasitism or by transmitting viruses. If this research does result in a practical medicine for bees, perhaps this will provide an answer to colony collapse disorder that has been decimating US bees. In Europe, we haven't had CCD (whatever you may read elsewhere), but Varroa alone is enough to wipe out an untreated colony in three years.

The 57 Lamest Tech Moments of 2010 123

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday December 21, 2010 @10:45AM from the you-probably-think-this-story's-about-you dept.

harrymcc writes "When it comes strange blunders, failed dreams, pointless legal wrangling, and other embarrassments, the technology industry had an uncommonly busy 2010. I compiled a list of the most notable examples--including the lost iPhone prototype, the short life of Microsoft's Kin, the end of Google Wave, the McAfee security meltdown, a depressingly long list of lawsuits over mobile patents, and much more."

Scientists Decipher 3-Billion-Year-Old Genomic Fossils 217

Posted by Soulskill on Monday December 20, 2010 @11:10PM from the long-time-gone dept.

hnkstrprnkstr writes "MIT scientists have created a sort of genomic fossil (abstract) that shows the collective genome of all life underwent an enormous expansion about 3 billion years ago, which they're calling the Archean Expansion. Many of the new genes appearing in the Archean Expansion are oxygen related, and could be the first biological evidence of the Great Oxidation Event, the period in Earth's history when oxygen became so plentiful that many anaerobic life forms may have become extinct."

Submission + - Mathematics: The Most Misunderstood Subject (fordham.edu) 1

Submitted by Lilith's Heart-shape on Monday December 20, 2010 @01:21PM

Lilith's Heart-shape writes: Dr. Robert H. Lewis, professor of mathematics at Fordham University of New York, offers in this essay a defense of mathematics as a liberal arts discipline, and not merely part of a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) curriculum. In the process, he discusses what's wrong with the manner in which mathematics is currently taught in K-12 schooling.

Comment Re:Occam's razor... (Score 1) 371

by DKush on Monday December 20, 2010 @12:30PM (#34616382) Attached to: Free Radicals May Not Be Cause of Aging

A tortoise is not a mammal.

Swiss Bank Has 43-Page Dress Code 212

Posted by samzenpus on Monday December 20, 2010 @12:04PM from the dress-for-a-specific-success dept.

Tasha26 writes "The HR of Swiss bank UBS AG came up with an innovative 43-page document (French) to establish fashion 'dos' and 'don'ts' in their retail branches. Among the rules are such things as: 'neither sex should allow their underwear to appear,' perhaps Dilbert was a bit ahead of them on that. The document also mentions smells and 'avoid garlic and onion-based dishes.'"

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