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Submission + - New Advance Confines GMOs To The Lab Instead Of Living In The Wild

Submitted by BarbaraHudson
BarbaraHudson writes: from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong dept. In Jurassic Park, scientists tweak dinosaur DNA so that the dinosaurs were lysine-deficient in order to keep them from spreading in the wild. Scientists have taken this one step further as a way to keep genetically modified E. coli from surviving outside the lab. In modifying the bacteria's DNA to thwart escape, two teams altered the genetic code to require amino acids not found in nature. One team modified the genes that coded for proteins crucial to cell functions so that that produced proteins required the presence of the synthetic amino acid in the protein itself. The other team focused on 22 genes deemed essential to a bacterial cell's functions and tied the genes' expression to the presence of synthetic amino acids. For the bacteria to survive, these synthetic amino acids had to be present in the medium on which the bacteria fed. In both cases, the number of escapees was so small as to be undetectable.

Comment Re:Very admirable - two more cents (Score 1) 206

by Chipmunk100 (#48812997) Attached to: China's Engineering Mega-Projects Dwarf the Great Wall
I think some of us in this thread underestimate the Chinese economy. A good proportion of the Chinese are affluent and they can afford to use, and they do use the high speed rail system. Shanghai-Beijing route is just few hours by high speed rail and a great convenience. In addition, the way they moderate traffic in cities by heavily subsidizing buses (city bus ride in Beijing cost only 2 yuan) help them save a lot of gas and road space, and very helpful for the low income. We, in the US, have the idea that everything must be privatized and must run for a profit. Certain things just dont work like that.

Comment Very admirable (Score 5, Interesting) 206

by Chipmunk100 (#48808361) Attached to: China's Engineering Mega-Projects Dwarf the Great Wall
For those of you who have not been to China, what China does in terms of infrastructure projects is quite laudable. For a population of that size and country of that size, they need such projects for faster development. In the US, we are more interested in political scoring than building infrastructure or other developmental projects. Is it a sign of decay for us?

Comment Hype or real? (Score 3, Interesting) 58

by Chipmunk100 (#48255927) Attached to: Google Developing a Pill To Detect Cancer
How do these particles avoid gut enzymes, once in the blood how do these particles avoid phagocytosis by macrophages, how can you expect that magnetic dragging of a number of these particles will not be deleterious, for example some of these got into cellular organelles being forcefully pulled out through their membranes etc. Either it is crazy or there is something ingenious about it.

Submission + - Location of spilled oil from 2010 Deepwater Horizon event found (ucsb.edu)

Submitted by Chipmunk100
Chipmunk100 writes: A study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims to have identified the location of two million barrels of submerged oil thought to be trapped in the deep ocean following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill. By analyzing data from more than 3,000 samples collected at 534 locations over 12 expeditions, they identified a 1,250-square-mile patch of the deep sea floor upon which 2 to 16 percent of the discharged oil was deposited. The fallout of oil to the sea floor created thin deposits most intensive to the southwest of the Macondo well. The oil was most concentrated within the top half inch of the sea floor and was patchy even at the scale of a few feet.

Submission + - Green house gases or the ocean important in climate change (rutgers.edu)

Submitted by Chipmunk100
Chipmunk100 writes: Most of the concerns about climate change have focused on the amount of greenhouse gases that have been released into the atmosphere. Researchers have found that circulation of the ocean plays an equally important role in regulating the earth’s climate. The study results were published the journal Science (pay wall). “Our study suggests that changes in the storage of heat in the deep ocean could be as important to climate change as other hypotheses – tectonic activity or a drop in the carbon dioxide level – and likely led to one of the major climate transitions of the past 30 million years," said one of the authors.

Submission + - "Love Hormone" Oxytocin Regulates Sociosexual Behavior in Female Mice (sciguru.org)

Submitted by Chipmunk100
Chipmunk100 writes: In a research article in the journal Cell scientists report that there is a subset of neurons that are vital in social interest of female mice for males during estrus, the sexually receptive phase of their cycle. They say that these neurons are responsive to oxytocin. The level of oxytocin rise when we hug or kiss a loved one.

Submission + - WhatsApp's next version to include VoIP calls and recording (geektime.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Apps like Viber, Skype, Tango and Google Hangout already support VoIP, which allows you to make voice calls over a broadband connection. Beyond WhatsApp’s huge pool of over 600 million active users, which will undoubtedly disrupt cell service providers’ payment model, what is even more intriguing is the VoIP recording feature. With the exception of third-party add-ons available for Skype, no other VoIP app includes this feature.

Submission + - Biofuels from corn crop can generate more greenhouse gases than gasoline (unl.edu)

Submitted by Chipmunk100
Chipmunk100 writes: Using corn crop residue to make ethanol and other biofuels reduces soil carbon and can generate more greenhouse gases than gasoline, according to a study published today in the journal Nature Climate Change. The findings by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln team of researchers cast doubt on whether corn residue can be used to meet federal mandates to ramp up ethanol production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Submission + - Los Angeles Science Teacher suspended over student science fair projects (scpr.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "A high school science teacher at Grand Arts High School in Los Angeles was suspended from the classroom in February, after two of his science fair students turned in projects deemed dangerous by the administrators. " "One project was a marshmallow shooter—which uses air pressure to launch projectiles. The other was an AA battery-powered coil gun—which uses electromagnetism to launch small objects. Similar projects have been honored in past LA County Science Fairs and even demonstrated at the White House."

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