purkinje - Slashdot User

Submission + - What You Eat Affects Your Genes (discovermagazine.com)

Submitted by purkinje on Wednesday September 21, 2011 @03:08PM

purkinje writes: Tiny bits of genetic material, called microRNAs, can make their way from the food you eat into your blood stream, and change how your genes are expressed, according to a new study. A team of Chinese scientists found tiny bits of white rice microRNA floating around in people's blood after a meal. When they looked at what was happening on a cellular level, they found that the microRNAs were changing gene expression, decreasing levels of a receptor that filters out LDL (bad) cholesterol. When the scientists gave mice both rice and a chemical to block the microRNAs, their levels of that receptor returned to normal---showing that the microRNAs weren't just swimming through the blood stream, but acting on genes in the animals' cells.

Submission + - Amazon to offer Kindle ebooks via public libraries (amazon.com)

Submitted by destinyland on Wednesday September 21, 2011 @02:13PM

destinyland writes: Amazon announced this morning that they’re making Kindle ebooks available for free in America through 11,000 local public libraries. "We’re thrilled that Amazon is offering such a new approach to library ebook..." said one Seattle's librarian, and one Kindle blog listed out the top advantages. (You can even read them if you don’t own a Kindle using one of Amazon's free apps, and they'll also be available in Amazon's browser-based Cloud Reader for Safari and Chrome.)

Submission + - WikiLeaks Founder's Unauthorized Autobiography (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by macwhizkid on Wednesday September 21, 2011 @01:54PM

macwhizkid writes: After signing a major book deal for his autobiography, Julian Assange backed out (allegedly worrying about self-incrimination) but failed to return his £500,000 advance payment. The publisher is understandably unhappy with this outcome, and intends to publish the "world's first unauthorized autobiography" from an early draft Assange submitted. The book will be in stores tomorrow, but I'm still hoping it'll be published early on WikiLeaks...

Submission + - Brain Power Boosted With Electrical Stimulation (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula on Wednesday September 21, 2011 @09:39AM

Zothecula writes: With the possible exception of those affected by hyperthylmesia — a rare condition where a person has an extraordinary capability to recall events from their past — most of us wouldn't mind having our memory enhanced. That's just what appears to have happened to a group of mice when targeted areas of their brains were electrically stimulated. The treatment triggered an increase in the creation of new cells in the hippocampus, with experiment results suggesting the mice's spatial learning improved. The researchers responsible say the results could have implications for the treatment of memory disorders in humans.

Submission + - Graphene in Space Offers Clues to Life on Earth (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula on Wednesday August 17, 2011 @11:08AM

Zothecula writes: Human beings may have only discovered how to create the one-atom-thick sheets of carbon atoms known as graphene in 2004 but it appears the universe could have been churning out the stuff since much earlier than that. While not conclusive proof its existence in space, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has identified the signature of graphene in two small galaxies outside our own. If confirmed, it would be the first-ever cosmic detection of the material and could hold clues to how carbon-based life forms such as ourselves developed.

Submission + - Computer Science Tools Flood Astronomy with Data (discovermagazine.com) 1

Submitted by purkinje on Tuesday July 19, 2011 @03:15PM

purkinje writes: Astronomy is getting a major data-gathering boost from computer science, as new tools like real-time telescopic observations and digital sky surveys provide astronomers with an unprecedented amount of information--the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, for instance, generates 30 terabytes of data each night. Using informatics and other data-crunching approaches, astronomers--with the help of computer science--may be able to get at some of the biggest, as-yet-unanswerable cosmological questions.

Submission + - Boeing Building an Enormous Laser for the US Navy (discovermagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 21, 2011 @03:10PM

An anonymous reader writes: Boeing is working to build a huge, incredibly powerful, soon-to-be-seafaring laser for the US Navy. This free electron laser can produce light of any wavelength (ie, color) directly from an electron beam, and gets an energy boost from a superconducting particle accelerator. Once it's onboard ships, the laser could be used to shoot down cruise missiles and artillery shells.

Submission + - Dutch party votes for internet filtering (www.nu.nl)

Submitted by tulcod on Tuesday June 21, 2011 @01:03PM

tulcod writes: The Dutch government has accidentally passed a law on net neutrality, enabling ISPs to filter internet traffic based on "ideological motives". The PvdA (labor party) accidentally voted for this exception to the Telecomwet (telecommunications law), which, on its own, does not allow such filtering. PvdA intends to repair their mistake.

Submission + - No, We're Not Headed For a New Ice Age (discovermagazine.com)

Submitted by purkinje on Friday June 17, 2011 @11:13AM

purkinje writes: Unusual calm in the solar cycle--called a solar activity minimum--has sparked claims that the Sun will cool the Earth, leading us into a new ice age. While Europe did experience a Little Ice Age during a solar activity minimum three centuries ago, the connection between sunspots and climate is a lot more complicated, and it's unlikely this change in the Sun's activity will cool Earth down--or even affect the climate at all. Plus, any cooling that might come from this would be less than the global warming that's been going on. So don't pull out that parka yet; a new ice age seems more than unlikely.

Submission + - Think I'm Not American? Pass the Hamburgers. (discovermagazine.com)

Submitted by purkinje on Monday May 16, 2011 @02:46PM

purkinje writes: Immigrants and their children may choose to eat American food as a way to fit in, a new study found, which may help explain why immigrants catch up to the country's obesity levels in 15 years. The researchers cast doubt on some subjects' Americanness, asking if they spoke English or saying they had to be American to participate; this provokes what psychologists call stereotype threat, the fear you'll confirm negative stereotypes about your group. White participants weren't affected by these comments, but Asian-American participants were more likely to list quintessentially American foods--burgers, BLTs, mac and cheese--as their favorites when the researchers called their status as American into question. They were also more likely to order and eat those dishes, consuming an average of 182 more calories than their non-threatened counterparts.

Slashdot Top Deals