9300230
submission
telomerewhythere writes
"A team of University of Toronto chemists have made a major contribution to the emerging field of quantum biology, observing quantum mechanics at work in photosynthesis in marine algae.
"We stimulated the proteins with femtosecond laser pulses to mimic the absorption of sunlight," explains Scholes. "This enabled us to monitor the subsequent processes, including the movement of energy between special molecules bound in the protein, against a stop-clock. We were astonished to find clear evidence of long-lived quantum mechanical states involved in moving the energy. Our result suggests that the energy of absorbed light resides in two places at once — a quantum superposition state, or coherence — and such a state lies at the heart of quantum mechanical theory."
Article found in Nature"Link to Original Source
9265196
submission
siddesu writes
"Wired has a fascinating story about a recent discovery that sheds light on the quantum physics mechanisms behind the efficiency of photosynthesis. Antenna proteins appear to "use" quantum effects to route energy almost without loss from photon-sensitive molecules to nearby reaction-center proteins, which convert it to cell-driving charges. As a bonus, the article provides a car analogy."Link to Original Source
9071856
submission
Jizzbug writes
"In an increasingly internationalized world, why can't we globalize & legislate knowledge sharing instead of intellectual property?"
8972186
submission
kaychoro writes
"Google Chrome announces that they will support extensions along with an API for developers. They claim that over 1500 extensions are ready to be installed, and provide a video [youtube.com] of how to install them. Could this be what pushes Firefox out and brings Chrome in?"Link to Original Source
8890638
submission
cremeglace writes
"Particle physicists predict the world's new highest-energy atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland, might create tiny black holes, which they say would be a fantastic discovery. Some doomsayers fear those black holes might gobble up Earth--physicist say that's impossible--and have petitioned the United Nations to stop the $5.5 billion LHC. Curiously, though, nobody had ever shown that the prevailing theory of gravity, Einstein's theory of general relativity, actually predicts that a black hole can be made this way. Now a computer model shows conclusively for the first time that a particle collision really can make a black hole. No need to stock up on canned beans for doomsday though--the black holes still require energies vastly exceeding what the LHC is capable of."Link to Original Source
8856054
submission
Trailrunner7 writes
"Microsoft today admitted it knew of the Internet Explorer flaw used in the attacks against Google and Adobe since September last year. The vulnerability used in the attacks was privately reported to Microsoft last August by Meron Sellen, a white-hat hacker at BugSec, an Israeli security research company. Microsoft program manager Jerry Bryant said the company confirmed the severity of the flaw in September and planned to ship a fix in a cumulative IE update next month."Link to Original Source
8825828
submission
deusanima writes
"
Glowing bacteria that flash on and off together are pointing the way towards implants made of engineered cells that would deliver precise doses of drugs or hormones at specific times of the day.
The bacteria have been engineered to fluoresce in synchronised bursts to produce waves of luminescence, but the researchers were not after a biological light show. The feat is proof in principle that the activity of cells can be artificially coordinated, so that they no longer work in isolation.
As well as a new way of delivering drugs, controlling synchrony between cells might also provide new insights into sleep, learning and brain diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, which are thought to occur when synchrony between neurons is abnormal."Link to Original Source
