Archive for the ‘biological’ category: Page 169
Dec 12, 2018
New X-ray imaging approach could boost nanoscale resolution for advanced photon source upgrade
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biological, nanotechnology, neuroscience, particle physics
A longstanding problem in optics holds that an improved resolution in imaging is offset by a loss in the depth of focus. Now, scientists are joining computation with X-ray imaging as they develop a new and exciting technique to bypass this limitation.
The upcoming Advanced Photon Source Upgrade (APS-U) project at Argonne will put this problem under one of the brightest spotlights imaginable. The upgrade will make the APS, a Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility, 500 times brighter than it is today, further enhancing the capabilities of its X-rays to study the arrangements of atoms and molecules in a wide range of biological and technological materials.
“A whole variety of X-ray imaging experiments ultimately will need something like this as they all push the resolution to finer length scales in the future,” said Chris Jacobsen, an Argonne Distinguished Fellow and professor of physics at Northwestern University. With the Upgrade in place, the APS’s X-rays could allow scientists to study systems like the brain’s full network of synaptic connections, or the entire volume of an integrated circuit down to its finest details.
Dec 10, 2018
The Future of Tech Will Change Everything From Food to Healthcare
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biological, computing, food
Advancement in technology will continue to impact the way we work, eat, and even take care of ourselves. A new report from Scientific American takes a look at some of the top emerging technologies that range from the field of biology to computer science. The publication’s chief science editor Seth Fletcher talked to Cheddar about what’s next when it comes to tech.
WATCH NEXT
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Dec 10, 2018
Artificial synapses made from nanowires
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: biological, nanotechnology
Scientists from Jülich together with colleagues from Aachen and Turin have produced a memristive element made from nanowires that functions in much the same way as a biological nerve cell. The component is able to save and process information, as well as receive numerous signals in parallel. The resistive switching cell made from oxide crystal nanowires is thus an ideal candidate for use in building bioinspired “neuromorphic” processors, able to take over the diverse functions of biological synapses and neurons.
Dec 6, 2018
What Bodies Think About: Bioelectric Computation Outside the Nervous System — NeurIPS 2018
Posted by Xavier Rosseel in category: biological
That was pretty interesting…
Presented December 4th 2018 by Prof. Michael Levin (Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University)
Dec 5, 2018
Modeling the Microbiome
Posted by Xavier Rosseel in categories: biological, health, mathematics, physics
What the study shows, the researchers said, is that the interactions between the bacterial populations are as significant to the host’s overall fitness as their presence — the microbiome’s influence cannot be solely attributed to the presence or absence of individual species. “In a sense,” said Jones, “the microbiome’s influence on the host is more than the sum of its parts.”
The gut microbiome — the world of microbes that inhabit the human intestinal tract — has captured the interest of scientists and clinicians for its critical role in health. However, parsing which of those microbes are responsible for effects on our wellbeing remains a mystery.
Taking us one step closer to solving this puzzle, UC Santa Barbara physicists Eric Jones and Jean Carlson have developed a mathematical approach to analyze and model interactions between gut bacteria in fruit flies. This method could lead to a more sophisticated understanding of the complex interactions between human gut microbes.
Dec 5, 2018
The Transhuman Revolution: What it is and How to Prepare for its Arrival
Posted by Marcos Than Esponda in categories: biological, evolution, transhumanism
What would it be like to live through our own species’ evolution? The biological process of natural selection that gave rise to every species on Earth takes hundreds of generations to turn one species into another, but what if that process could be skipped entirely?
A look at the future of transhumanist technologies and what their evolution will mean for our society.
Continue reading “The Transhuman Revolution: What it is and How to Prepare for its Arrival” »
Dec 1, 2018
Fossil named after Burke Museum curator tells whale of a tale
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biological, education
A whale that lived 33 million years ago when present-day Oregon was part of the ocean floor has been newly named after a curator at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle.
And Elizabeth Nesbitt’s whale isn’t your typical cetacean: An analysis of the fossil, published in the Nov. 29 issue of Current Biology, suggests that Maiabalaena nesbittae bridged a gap between species of whales that had teeth and species that have a different mouth-feeding mechanism known as baleen.
“For the first time, we can now pin down the origin of filter-feeding, which is one of the major innovations in whale history,” study co-author Nicholas Pyenson, the National Museum of Natural History’s curator of fossil marine mammals and an affiliate curator at the Burke Museum, said in a news release.
Continue reading “Fossil named after Burke Museum curator tells whale of a tale” »
Nov 29, 2018
Hydrogel-based electrodes for brain implants developed
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: biological, engineering, neuroscience
Hydrogels are physical and chemical polymer networks capable of retaining large quantities of liquid in aqueous conditions without losing their dimensional stability. They are used in a whole host of applications, and in combination with other components and they acquire specific properties such as electrical conductivity. The Materials + Technology research group in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Environment of the UPV/EHU’s Faculty of Engineering selected a biopolymer that had not previously been used for applications of this type: starch. “One of our lines of research focuses on starch, and we regard it as having biological, physical and chemical properties suitable for producing hydrogels,” said Kizkitza Gonzalez-Munduate, a member of the group.
Nov 23, 2018
Corals and their microbiomes evolved together, new research shows
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: biological
Corals and the microbes they host evolved together, new research by Oregon State University shows.