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Medicine

Submission + - Aging Reversed in Mice after Telomerase Treatment 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Guardian reports that scientists claim to be a step closer to reversing the aging process after experimental treatment developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School turned weak and feeble old mice into healthy animals by regenerating their aged bodies. "What we saw in these animals was not a slowing down or stabilization of the aging process. We saw a dramatic reversal – and that was unexpected," says Ronald DePinho, who led the study. The Harvard group focused on a process called telomere shortening where each time a cell divides, the telomeres are snipped shorter, until eventually they stop working and the cell dies or goes into a suspended state called "senescence". Researchers bred genetically manipulated mice that lacked an enzyme called telomerase that stops telomeres getting shorter causing the mice to age prematurely and suffer ailments, including a poor sense of smell, smaller brain size, infertility and damaged intestines and spleens. When the mice were given injections to reactivate the enzyme, it repaired the damaged tissues and reversed the signs of aging raising hope among scientists that it may be possible to achieve a similar feat in humans – or at least to slow down the aging process. "This could lead to strategies that enhance the regenerative potential of organs as individuals age and so increase their quality of life," added DePinho cautioning that "whether it serves to increase longevity is a question we are not yet in a position to answer.""
Games

Have I Lost My Gaming Mojo? 418

Posted by Soulskill from the blame-dr.-evil dept.
danabnormal writes "Increasingly I'm being frustrated in my attempts to find a game I want to play. In an effort to catch up, I've been using my bog standard Dell laptop to dig out treasures I have missed, such as American McGee's Alice, Grim Fandango and Syberia. I don't often get the time to play games, so I like to have the opportunity to dip in and out of a title without feeling like I'm losing something by not playing it for periods of time. But when I find a title I like, I make the time. Heavy Rain is the last game that gripped me, that truly engaged me and made me want to complete it in a single sitting. I'm tired of the GTA formulas, bored of CoDs and don't have the reaction time to think on my feet for AOE III. Is it about time I tossed in the controller and resigned myself to the fact that the games I want only come out once in a blue moon? Or have I just not found that one great title that will open me up to a brand new genre? Lords of Ultima is going OK at the moment — is there anything of that ilk I've missed? What are your thoughts? Do you stick to a particular genre? Are you finding it harder, as you get more mature, to find something you want to play?"
Science

Submission + - Large Hadron Collider (LHC) generates a 'mini-Big (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by buildslave
buildslave writes: The Large Hadron Collider has successfully created a "mini-Big Bang" by smashing together lead ions instead of protons.
The scientists working at the enormous machine on Franco-Swiss border achieved the unique conditions on 7 November.
The experiment created temperatures a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun.

Comment Re:Yes, but.... (Score 1) 75

by drbinofski (#30199984) Attached to: Modded UX490 UMPC Shows Off Years of Community Development

...does it run 3 versions of windows for no reason?

But seriously for a second. Why run 3 versions of Windows?! So yes you *can* - the ostensible reason for doing anything 'adventurous' like climbing a mountain - ''cos it's there like'; but running three versions of windows is hardly adventurous is it? Answers on a post-card puhleeze. Apologies for the hideous punctuation in that last uber-sentence :/

Comment Re:I'll believe it when I see it... (Score 1) 219

by drbinofski (#29669887) Attached to: Microsoft, EU Reach Antitrust Accord

If this actually happens, it will be a Very Good Thing for the world in general, as Microsoft will no longer be legally able to keep changing their protocols to break access by non-Microsoft software.

Given their track record, though, I don't believe for a minute that Microsoft will actually make all the information available in a clear and usable format. More likely they'll release some information that looks nice, to show what good boys they're being, then release some more information terribly scrambled, and keep most of the information to themselves, because by that point the EU will be paying less attention to them and they'll have to take them back to court to get them to do anything more.

Same old story.

And yes, I am a terminal cynic. Why do you ask? ;-)

Dan Aris

They can't seem to produce their software in "a clear and usable format" so I fail to see why information about their software should do anything but follow suit :)

Comment Re:Alan Turing (Score 1) 117

by drbinofski (#29668789) Attached to: Interview With Brian Kernighan of AWK/AMPL Fame

Bring me a new interview with Alan Turing and maybe that would peak my interest

Now that could be quite the challenge. I hear he's not granting many interviews lately.

Certainly would. Establishing an after-life being one and formulating a means of communication with those in the after-life being the next. Expectations of what would 'peak my interest' being pretty modest after all! ;)
Idle

Submission + - Avatars to have business dress codes by 2013 (itpro.co.uk)

Submitted by nk497
nk497 writes: With businesses increasingly using digital tech like virtual worlds and Twitter, their staff will have to be given guidelines on how they "dress" their avatars, according to analysts.

"As the use of virtual environments for business purposes grows, enterprises need to understand how employees are using avatars in ways that might affect the enterprise or the enterpriseâ(TM)s reputation," said James Lundy, managing vice president at Gartner, in a statement. "We advise establishing codes of behavior that apply in any circumstance when an employee is acting as a company representative, whether in a real or virtual environment."
Space

Submission + - Universe Has An Order of Magnitude More Entropy (sciencenews.org)

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "Previous estimates are now thought to skimp on the entropy of the observable universe. Modeling supermassive black holes, researchers claim that they are the largest contributor of entropy. Since they contribute at least an order of magnitude more than previously thought, the total of all the observable universe is correspondingly higher. The paper (in gruesome detail) highlights new issues that arise with these new calculations — like estimating us a little bit closer to heat death (moving entropy totals from 10^102 to 10^104 out of a maximum of 10^122)."
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - 85% of Mac owners also own a PC (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by Barence
Barence writes: More than eight out of ten Mac owners also own a PC, according to a new piece of research. The NPD survey found that 12% of US computer-owning households have a Mac. However, 85% of those also own a Windows PC, suggesting that the Mac/PC divide is nowhere near as clear cut as both Apple and Microsoft suggest. Mac owners are also far more likely to have multiple computers in the house. Two thirds of Mac owners have three or more computers in the home, while only 29% of PC owners have two or more PCs.
Science

Submission + - New Graphical Representation of the Periodic Table (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: The great power of Mendeleev's periodic table was that it allowed him to predict the properties of undiscovered elements. But can this arrangement be improved? Two new representations of the periodic table attempt to do just that. The first uses a new graphical representation that shows the relative sizes of atoms as well as their groups and periods. The other uses the same kind of group theoretical approach that particle physicists developed to classify particles by their symmetries (abstract). That helped particle physicists predict the existence of new particles but may have limited utility for chemists who seem to have discovered (or predicted) all the elements they need already.

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