They are now starting the astronaut selection program for a trip in 10 years, but there is no indication whatever that they are concerned about the much more fundamental task of designing a transport ship?!?! Really, really suspicious. What are the prospects supposed to train on/for ?

"People in thirty seven countries have purchased our merchandise, demonstrating their support for Mars One"

OK, I understand. Presumably the foundation managers are well paid. That is no problem even for a non-profit.

Software is about the only remotely tech-centric field where you have a small chance of success as a college dropout founder even without prior certified qualification, and then only in submarkets which do not cater to other high-tech or regulated fields.

You may become a lucky millionaire with a blockbuster iPad app for the unwashed masses - if you somehow hit the customer taste better than your 1000 competitors, and cash in before you spend your money on the next 10 unsuccessful projects - , but you will never get a foot into, for the average start-up company, much more reliably profitable fields like machinery design and control software, simulation and research data processing tools, or even seemingly boring stuff like custom database-related software which needs to adhere to strict regulations - which is about anything from bookkeeping to medical data processing.

And do not even dream about starting your biotech company directly out of high-school.

This smells fishy. Certainly, there are no laws of nature violated... carbon dioxide can be hydrogenated to hydrocarbons, alcohols, etc., that is well-known technology ...but why would anybody trying to build a commercial company presumably trying to earn money at some stage go to the expense (both financially and energy-wise) to isolate carbon dioxide from air (0.04%), when it is readly available for example from the exhaust of tradional power plants and other fuel-burning processes (>22%, up to 100% with 'clean coal' tech), or, if you want to go fully biological, from fermentation operations (100%). That does not make any economic sense at all.

Also, the point about the lack additives is strange. Original refinery fuel is almost pure hydrocarbons and minor oxidation products, too - the additives are not a side product of the distillation process from oil. The addititives are added (immediately before filling the delivery trucks) because they improve the burn characteristics, lubrication, waste product accumulation - which are needed for synfuel in the same fashion.

The article makes no mention of thriving competitors with similar business models which have already been in business for several years.

A post about such a topic omitting any reference to, for example, DeepDyve (www.deepdyve.com) can only be classified as advertisement.

Note that there has been *zero* human testing yet, not even phase 1 tests on healthy human subjects. From among the compounds that make it to that stage, maybe one in 50 or 100 (!) really makes it to market.

Aminopyridines (the class this new compound is from) have known pharmaceutical uses - and some compounds of this class have severe side effects, such as causing epileptic seizures that are difficult to reproduce in animals. .And its pretty reactive amino group is a general red flag.

But of course I wish the researchers luck with their tests.

This is non-news. Cures which work in cell cultures are a dime a dozen. This is at least six years from going to market, and has >95% chance to fail as an actual drug.

The real progress are the recently introduced, FDA-approved treatments by Vertex, Merck (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/23/us-vertex-idUSTRE74M3I320110523) and soon Gilead (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/19/us-bristolmyers-hepatitis-idUSBRE83I0T920120419). These are really fantastic advances in the treatment of that disease.

will be filed simultaneously (*) in Europe, Japan, and increasingly in BRIC countries to protect world-wide market potential.

So what is to be gained if the US text is kept secret, but the essentially identical application is in the open in three dozen other countries?

(*) especially after the recent changes in the US patent system to use the same principles as the rest of the world

Japanese researchers have recently created a system which identifies drivers by recognizing their asses in the driver's seat:

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20111213D13JSN01.htm

The editors still have not bothered to fix 'thermisol' in the summary - and it is even spelled correctly (thiomersal, or thimerosal) in the newspaper article....

just like the superconductors/semiconductors fiasco yesterday.

How can you believe you are intelligently discussing a science-related issue when you cannot even name the topic correctly?

No graphene anywhere in this (or any other) plane. You are confusing something.

The composite material are carbon fibers (essentially burned nylon), not graphene, nanotubes, buckyballs or anything similarly exotic. This is then drenched in polymer resin and backed. The polymer resin is the heaviest component in the overall composition.

How is this "invention" different from the established product BASF Micronal which has been available for a couple of years?

http://www.basf.com/group/corporate/en/brand/MICRONAL_PCM

Platinum complexes are a standard treatment for many cancers. They intercalate in DNA, especially in rapidly dividing cells, and block DNA transscription.

These contain isolated (but complexed) metal atoms, though, not nanoparticles. I do not know whether these compounds could also serve as effective electron sources on X-ray irradiation, or whether they might form nanoparticles in a tumor cell, or outside dead cells after killing them in their primary therapeutic function.

No reputable agency will let you sign up for just one or two months for service in a really foreign place. Preparation courses alone take already more time than that.

I suggest you find something useful to do locally.

I can imagine pulling off a successful IT start-up without formal education, but a biotech company (which is among the fields listed)?

You won't even get (legally) access to microorganisms and chemicals without excellent professional standing ... and I really do not see how you could get sufficiently self-educated for anything in this field beyond running a microbrewery....

He is *not* having different results. That is the whole point.

Massive press hype, from reporters without science background who fell for the PR of the competition organizers.