Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Medicine

Submission + - Could a Newly Developed RNA-Based Vaccine Offer Lifelong Protection From Flu? (medicaldaily.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new experimental flu vaccine made out of messenger RNA (mRNA) that may work for life is now being developed.
German researchers said on Sunday that the vaccine, made of the genetic material that controls the production of proteins, protected animals against influenza and, unlike traditional vaccines, it may work for life and can potentially be manufactured quickly enough to stop a pandemic.
Past studies have suggested a universal flu vaccine that involved targeting other proteins on the flu virus that don't change as quickly as the NA and HA proteins, but the new newly proposed vaccine goes beyond that and targets the underlying RNA-driven processes that create the NA and HA proteins, regardless of their strain.
Mars

Submission + - SpaceX Founder Sets Sights On Martian Colony (isciencetimes.com)

Submitted by amkkhan
amkkhan writes: Elon Musk, founder of the private spaceflight company SpaceX, is has his eye on forming a Mars colony, and you can be part one of the first Martian explorers for only $500,000. The Mars colony would be part of a Mars settlement program, and Must envisions ferrying up to 80,000 people to the red planet as part of the first Mars colony.

The Mars settlement program would start with 10 people, who would journey on to Mars on a reusable rocket created by SpaceX powered by liquid oxygen and methane, according to Yahoo! News.

"At Mars, you can start a self-sustaining civilization and grow it into something really big," Musk said, according to Space.com.
Hardware

Submission + - Datagram Recovers from 'Apocalyptic' Flooding During Sandy (datacenterknowledge.com)

Submitted by 1sockchuck
1sockchuck writes: During SuperStorm Sandy, few data centers faced a bigger challenge than the Datagram facility in lower Manhattan. The storm surge from Sandy flooded its basement, disabling critical pumps. “It was apocalyptic,” said CEO Alex Reppen. “It was like a tidal wave over lower Manhattan." While companies like CoreSite dealt primarily with the loss of ConEd power, the Datagram team sought to recover operations in an active flood zone. Why was mission-critical equipment in the basement? Because city officials restrict placing fuel tanks on rooftops and upper floors, citing concerns about diesel emerging from the 9-11 attacks.
Programming

Submission + - A Gentle Rant About Software Development and Installers (slashdot.org) 1

Submitted by
Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: "This is the story of the comparison that just wasn’t meant to be. It’s a story of everything that can go wrong in the customer end of the software world, and some thoughts on what needs to be done, especially in an area known as Installers. I’m a software engineer with 25 years of experience, and for years I’ve wanted to point out some of the shortcomings of my own industry to help make it better for everyone involved—not only for the end-users, but also for the IT people who have to support the products; the salespeople who have to sell and later, possibly, apologize for the software; for the executives whose hands are tied because they don’t have the technical knowledge to roll up their sleeves and help fix problems in the code; and for the programmers themselves who might get stuck with what some consider the absolute worst position for a programmer: maintenance of crappy code written by programmers who have long since left the organization."
Your Rights Online

Submission + - Confidential Police Confetti at Macy's Parade (upi.com)

Submitted by cstacy
cstacy writes: The Nassau County (New York) Police Department is "very concerned" about reports that shreds of police documents (with social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, license plate numbers, incident reports, and more) rained down as confetti in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The documents also unveiled the identities of undercover officers, including their SSNs and bank information, according to WPIX-TV. Macy's has no idea how this happened, as they use commercial, colored confetti, not shredded paper.
Patents

Submission + - Congress Tackles Patent Reform

Submitted by nadamsieee
nadamsieee writes: Wired's Luke O'Brian recently reported about Congress' latest attempt to reform the patent system. In the article O'Brian tells of how "[w]itnesses at Thursday's hearing painted a bleak picture of that system. Adam Jaffe, a Brandeis University professor and author of a book on the subject, described the system as "out of whack." Instead of "the engine of innovation," the patent has become "the sand in the gears," he said, citing widespread fears of litigation." The House Oversight Committee website has more details. How would you fix the patent system?

Slashdot Top Deals

Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable, and three parts which are still under development.

Close