quixote9 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Mars had a Moon-making impact like Earth (molvray.com)

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quixote9

on Thursday June 26, 2008 @11:16AM

quixote9 writes: "The BBC reports on a set of Nature articles showing that Mars had an impact about four billion years ago by a huge asteroid.

This was about the same time that a much bigger object slammed into the Earth, throwing material into orbit around our infant planet. This material is thought to have coalesced to form the Moon. ... "It happened probably right at the end of the formation of the four terrestrial planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars," said Craig Agnor, a co-author on the Francis Nimmo study. ... "In terms of the process of the planets sweeping up the last bits of debris, this could have been one of the last big bits of debris."

There's a theory that having a big moon is important to the development of life, because the much bigger tides create a bigger intertidal zone, but people used to think having a huge Moon like ours was a once-in-a-universe event. If huge impacts that could generate big moons are common, then, maybe . . . ."

Submission + - Hard data on Vista usage: not so much (marketwatch.com)

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quixote9

on Monday June 04, 2007 @12:02PM

quixote9 writes: "We've heard conflicting estimates of how widely adopted Vista has been. Now comes some hard data. DRAM makers ramped up to meet the huge expected demand for more memory needed by Vista. Except the demand hasn't materialized. Now they're suffering. Alternatively, maybe everyone's cleverly hacked their Ultimate Aero Glass Vista to fit on their old PCs. You think?"

Submission + - a longevity gene found

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quixote9

on Wednesday May 02, 2007 @11:23PM

quixote9 writes: "Calorie restriction while maintaining nutrient levels has long been known to dramatically increase life spans. Very different lab animals, from worms to mice, live up to 50% longer (or even more) on the restricted diets. However, so far, nobody has been able to figure out how this works. Scientists at the Salk Institute have found a specific gene in worms (there's a very similar one in people) that is directly involved in the longevity effect. That opens up the interesting possibility that doctors may someday be able to activate that gene directly and we can live long and prosper . . . without giving up chocolate."

Submission + - new nanoparticle cancer therapy

Submitted by

quixote9

on Tuesday January 09, 2007 @11:10AM

quixote9 writes: "Tbe BBC reports on a new nanoparticle-based therapy that sounds particularly promising. Biologically, it makes sense. For the drug companies, they don't need to tailor individual drugs, which is their problem with monoclonal antibodies. Watch this one closely!

From the article:

"The researchers used the nanoparticles to zero in on the network of blood vessels that supply the tumours in mice with nutrients and oxygen. A potentially powerful function of nanoparticles is the ability to home in on particular targets inside the body. While various nanoparticles have been designed to target tumours, the efficiency is relatively low. The researchers developed a technique for amplifying this homing ability by designing a multifunctional nanoparticle that binds to a protein structure found only in tumours and associated blood vessels. ... The tests showed that within hours of the injection, the artificial platelets began blocking the supply without harming normal tissues. The scientists believe the nanoparticles could also be used to carry drugs to the tumour.

[PS. No "medicine" subtopic. Couldn't find a relevant subtopic.]"

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