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Comment Re:Obama (Score 1) 706

The best of both worlds? Evidently you don't remember what it was like to be a customer of Ma Bell. "We're the phone company, we don't have to care," was a good laugh line because it was true. If you think your current locally regulated ISP monopoly is bad, just wait until it's got the federal government FOAD seal of approval.

Biotech

DIY Lab Tests Getting More Capable 85

the_newsbeagle writes "People who are into the quantified health trend can already measure and chart a wide variety of metrics — steps taken, calories burned, heart rate, blood pressure, sleep patterns, etc can all be tracked using new gadgets. Now a new device called Cue lets people track their biochemical stats, too. Cue offers five DIY lab tests, automates the testing procedure, and sends the results to the user's smartphone. It lets guys check their testosterone levels, ladies check their fertility status, and also offers tests for the flu virus, vitamin D levels, and an inflammation-marker protein. Apparently more tests are expected down the line."
Biotech

Scientists Create Bacteria With Expanded DNA Code 85

perryizgr8 (1370173) writes "Biologists have managed to create a bacteria with DNA made of the usual A-T, C-G plus an artificial third base pair, thus encoding more data in DNA. From the article: 'The scientists behind the work at the Scripps Research Institute have already formed a company to try to use the technique to develop new antibiotics, vaccines and other products, though a lot more work needs to be done before this is practical. The work also gives some support to the concept that life can exist elsewhere in the universe using genetics different from those on Earth. “This is the first time that you have had a living cell manage an alien genetic alphabet,” said Steven A. Benner, a researcher in the field at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Fla., who was not involved in the new work.'"
Biotech

Synthetic Chromosomes Successfully Integrated Into Brewer's Yeast 107

New submitter dunnomattic writes: "Researchers at New York University School of Medicine have achieved a milestone in synthetic biology. A fully synthetic yeast chromosome, dubbed 'synIII,' has successfully replaced chromosome 3 of multiple living yeast cells. The researchers pieced together over 250,000 nucleotide bases to accomplish this feat. Dr. Jef Boeke, the lead author of the study, says, 'not only can we make designer changes on a computer, but we can make hundreds of changes through a chromosome and we can put that chromosome into yeast and have a yeast that looks, smells and behaves like a regular yeast, but this yeast is endowed with special properties that normal yeasts don't have.' Work is underway (abstract) to synthesize the remaining 15 chromosomes."

Comment Re:"...as we migrate our audience..." (Score 1) 232

+1 This is the most concise argument I've seen yet for why the current commenting system is so loved:

"... because the design permits unfettered chaos while providing the means for users to wade through it quickly and efficiently, so they can easily promote the best content to the top!"

OMG...focus your efforts on making this feature of the site more awesome and forget the rest of the window dressing.

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