the_kanzure - Slashdot User

Submission + - Amateurs are trying genetic engineering at home (yahoo.com)

Submitted by

the_kanzure

on Thursday December 25, 2008 @02:05PM

the_kanzure writes: "AP is running a story on amateur genetic engineering: "The Apple computer was invented in a garage. Same with the Google search engine. Now, tinkerers are working at home with the basic building blocks of life itself. Using homemade lab equipment and the wealth of scientific knowledge available online, these hobbyists are trying to create new life forms through genetic engineering a field long dominated by Ph.D.s toiling in university and corporate laboratories.""

Comment Re:Brain Hacking (Score 1) 269

by the_kanzure on Monday May 19, 2008 @12:35AM (#23458618) Attached to: Using Magnets To Turn Off the Brain's Speech Center

This is very exciting as it could point to a future where you can literally hack your own brain.
Do you have a backup?

You have to sandbox it. You do not want to randomly delete a random neurotransmitter receptor from the brain, as an example. You need to make experiments that test this on organotypical slices of neurons [or grow brains in a jar]. Kind of like in a neurofarm. But the problem with neurofarms is that you need to have millions of nodes of experimentation, or massive Markram simulations because of the number of chemical possibilities at all of the receptor sites, plasma membranes, dendritic/axonic connectional possibilities, minicolumn rules, etc. How are you going to get that many nodes, that many instances of experimentation? Sounds like a job for a clanking replicator, really. Maybe automated manufacturing. And while you are working on this, how about some open source rTMS?

Submission + - NIH Open Access Victory (earlham.edu)

Submitted by

the_kanzure

on Wednesday December 26, 2007 @08:07PM

the_kanzure writes: "Peter Suber has a post on the latest Taxpayer Access Alliance victory with today's signing of HR 2762, stating that all research publications by the National Institutes of Health must be added to PubMed Central."

Submission + - Artificial maturation of human eggs (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by

the_kanzure

on Saturday September 22, 2007 @06:54PM

the_kanzure writes: "Medical scientists report on a new hormone-bath protocol that can cause immature eggs to mature after being cryogenically frozen and banked. Though the technique is unperfected, and might take five years to become reliable, there are interesting possibilities: artificial wombs, wombs-on-a-chip, and basically 'faking' babies. Throw in some stem cell research, and the scene could easily be mistaken for something right out of scifi. How long until somebody connects the dots and we start to see human cloning, true test-tube babies, etc.?"

Submission + - Public education is America's worst idea. (blogspot.com)

Submitted by

markyannone

on Sunday August 12, 2007 @08:43AM

markyannone writes: "http://yannone.blogspot.com/2007/08/americas-worst -idea.html It seemed like a good idea at the time. Even now there are those who will defend it to their deaths. But we have enough experience now to call the experiment an utter failure."

Submission + - Massive lift system recovers sunken oil platforms (youtube.com)

Submitted by

bigzigga

on Saturday July 28, 2007 @01:27PM

bigzigga writes: "The 4000-ton capacity lift system, affectionately known as the "Bottom Feeder", was used to salvage oil platforms destroyed by hurricanes in recent years. The Bottom Feeder, consisting of of twin 1,250 ton steel truss frames and four 200-ton winches, brought four such topsides to the surface in its successful June 2007 debut."

Submission + - Universities that bust paywalls? (slashdot.org)

Submitted by

the_kanzure

on Sunday July 22, 2007 @02:56PM

the_kanzure writes: "The recent article on tense situations for students accessing information has left me wondering, which universities are known to bust as many paywalls as possible? Which ones are working with the students, and which against? Paywalls include the databases that store papers, conference proceedings, editorials, reviews, etc., and are generally highly educational resources ... if you can get the keys."

Submission + - Science resources and study methods?

Submitted by

the_kanzure

on Wednesday May 09, 2007 @08:23PM

the_kanzure writes: "For those of us in professional environments, or in university, etc., what databases do you see as essential? PubMed Central, EBSCOHost, ScienceDirect, arXiv, CiteSeeR, STINET, archive.org, Google Scholar/Cache, ezProxy terminals, Merck indexes, these only scratch the surface of Internet databases for useful scientific information — especially chemistry (of all sorts), physics, aerospace, engineering, and so on. So, what databases and what sort of study sessions do you implement? Those of you who drink from the Internet as though a fountain of information, this means you too."

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