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The Military

Submission + - Targeting the President's DNA 2

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Atlantic reports that experts in genetics and microbiology are convinced we may be only a few years away from the development of advanced, genetic bio-weapons able to target a single human being based on their DNA. The authors paint a scenario of the development of a virus that causes only mild flu in the general population but when the virus crosses paths with cells containing a very specific DNA sequence, the sequence would act as a molecular key to unlock secondary functions that would trigger a fast-acting neuro-destructive disease that produces memory loss and, eventually, death. The requisite equipment including gene sequencers, micro-array scanners, and mass spectrometers now cost over $1 million but on eBay, it can be had for as little as $10,000. According to Ronald Kessler, the author of the 2009 book In the President’s Secret Service, Navy stewards gather bedsheets, drinking glasses, and other objects the president has touched—they are later sanitized or destroyed—in an effort to keep would-be malefactors from obtaining his genetic material. However no amount of Secret Service vigilance can ever fully secure the president’s DNA, because an entire genetic blueprint can now be produced from the information within just a single cell. How to protect the President? The authors propose open-sourcing the president’s genetic information to a select group of security-cleared researchers who could follow in the footsteps of the computer sciences, where “red-team exercises,” are extremely common practices so a similar testing environment could be developed for biological war games. "Advances in biotechnology are radically changing the scientific landscape. We are entering a world where imagination is the only brake on biology," write the authors. "In light of this coming synbio revolution, a wider-ranging relationship between scientists and security organizations—one defined by open exchange, continual collaboration, and crowd-sourced defenses—may prove the only way to protect the president.""

Comment Cognitive Dissonance (Score 4, Interesting) 1142

Is it possible to fully comprehend the world scientifically, and foster a mechanistic perception of the universe, and still foster a faith at the same time? If this it isn't possible, and it is argued that faith will cloud our otherwise pristine judgement, how can we trust the observations or arguments produced by scientists of faith?
Science

Submission + - Complex Logic Circuit Made from Bacterial Genes (wustl.edu)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Just as electronic circuits are made from resistors, capacitors and transistors, biological circuits can be made from genes and regulatory proteins. Engineer Tae Seok Moon’s dream is to design modular “genetic parts” that can be used to build logic controllers inside microbes that will program them to make fuel, clean up pollutants, or kill infectious bacteria or cancerous cells.

The circuit Moon eventually built consisted of four sensors for four different molecules that fed into three two-input AND gates. If all four molecules were present, all three AND gates turned on and the last one produced a reporter protein that fluoresced red, so that the operation of the circuit could be easily monitored.
Patents

Submission + - BBC Interviews Apple vs Samsung Jury Foreman (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by MrSteveSD
MrSteveSD writes: The BBC has published a long interview with Velvin Hogan, the jury foreman in the Apple vs Samsung case. He still seems to be sticking to a rather confused definition of what constitutes prior art.

I showed the jurors that the two methods in software were not the same, nor could they be interchangeable because the hardware that was involved between the old processor and the new processor — you couldn't load the new software methodology in the old system and expect that it was going to work.

Submission + - Bigger Brain = More Mates? (sciencedirect.com)

Submitted by BiophysicalLOVE
BiophysicalLOVE writes: Both the "theory of the mind" (the process of intentionality, or in some degree consciousness) and social group size (the number of social contacts we maintain) are thought to be the result of the workings of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), one of the most evolutionarily recent additions to the brain. Evidence of this was most apparent from the correlation between brain-to-body mass ratio and social group size seen in primates — with higher brain-to-body mass ratios maintaining larger social networks-. Now neurobiologists in the UK have shown that in a sample of 40 humans, measurements of the PFC indeed correlate with intentionally scores, which in turn are a measure for your maximum manageable social group size. So brains = buddies?
Data Storage

Submission + - Sapphire disk to last tens of thousands of years (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by Frosty Piss
Frosty Piss writes: No data storage medium seems to last long before becoming obsolete. This has become an issue for the builders of nuclear waste repositories, who are trying to preserve records of what they've buried and where, not for a few years but for tens of thousands of years. The solution may be a sapphire disk inside which information is engraved using platinum. The prototype costs around $30,493 to make, but Patrick Charton of the French nuclear waste management agency ANDRA says it will survive for a million years. The aim, Charton says, is to provide 'information for future archaeologists.' But, he concedes: 'We have no idea what language to write it in.'
Windows

Submission + - Microsoft Nukes Sidebar From Orbit - It's the Only Way to be Sure (microsoft.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft quietly shut down the Windows Gadget Gallery this week, shuttering the official directory of useful addons for your desktop. "Because we want to focus on the exciting possibilities of the newest version of Windows, the Windows website no longer hosts the gadget gallery." Windows Gadgets were recently found to have a security vulnerability but rather than fix the issue, Microsoft has put out a patch which removes the Sidebar completely and recommended developers move on to developing live tiles for Windows 8.
Android

Submission + - Boeing 787 Dreamliner: Powered by Android, and 69TB of solid-state storage (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is the most-anticipated wide-bodied jet of all time: Boeing has taken a total of 859 orders since 2004, and so far it has only delivered 14 planes. By end of 2013 it intends to ramp up production to 10 units per month, but even then, most customers still have a wait time of between 5 and 10 years. This submission isn’t about the Dreamliner’s composite body, or the fact that it uses 20% less fuel than a 767, though: Inside all 859 of those planes, each and every seat will be outfitted with an Android-powered entertainment system. Boeing is offering two flavors of in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) solutions: The Thales TopSeries Avant, and the Panasonic eX3. Two days ago, Qatar Airways showed off its recently-delivered 787 Dreamliner at the Farnborough International Airshow in the UK — and inside there are 254 seats, all equipped with the Thales IEFC. There are two classes in the Qatar Airways 787, economy and business, and they’re outfitted with 17-inch and 10-inch touchscreen IEFCs respectively. The IEFCs are completely integrated — all of the hardware is stored in the seat-back unit (there’s no under-seat box). And the hardware spec well, this is the bit that blew my mind. Each IEFC has an STMicro dual-core ARM processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 256GB (!) SSD. There’s also a main server, which features 32 x86 cores (so, quad-CPU Xeon or Opteron), 128GB of RAM, and a further 4TB of SSD storage. All told, a Qatar Airways Dreamliner has 508 ARM cores, 32 x86 cores, 382GB of RAM, and 69 terabytes of solid-state storage."
The Internet

Submission + - First "iPad Mini" Photos Surface Online (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "Apple will neither confirm nor deny the existence of a mini tablet — or any of its products, for that matter — which is why any time photos of iPhone or iPad components surface, it's a big deal. It may be the only peek we get at these products before their official unveiling. On Tuesday night, Gotta Be Mobile received "exclusive" photos from a trusted source within Apple's foreign supply chain, which showed various engineering samples of Apple's alleged 7.85-inch iPad. The photos line up with previous reports about the tablet, and suggest a form factor that's not only wider and longer than Google's upcoming Nexus 7, but it's also thinner than Apple's third-generation iPad released in March. According to the engineering samples, the iPad Mini would be around 213 mm tall, 144 mm wide, and about 8 mm thick."

Comment Complex Subject (Score 1) 333

by BiophysicalLOVE (#40602765) Attached to: Trying to Untangle Anarchist Attacks On Scientists
This subject was covered most exhaustively earlier in the year by nature: http://www.nature.com/news/anarchists-attack-science-1.10729. I think that both articles miss a point. Although these attacks may seemed linked, or claimed to be linked, I doubt it. This violence may be carried out by as few as two people - a motorcyclist and a gunman, yet both articles paint this as a huge sideswipe by an organised Anarchist (paradox alert) movement. For all we know these attacks may be carried out by a handful disgruntled ex-employees claiming an antiscientist rhetoric to intimidate their former employer, or, in a fit of self-delusion, jump on the anarchist bandwagon to give some sort of paper-thin reasoning for their violence tendencies. "The Olga Cell", "sorcerer of the atom" "LONG LIVE THE CONSPIRACY OF CELLS OF FIRE"? Surely anyone who has a few Anarchist cliches and stereotypes to call upon could write this stuff?

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