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Apr 22, 2020

DNA may not be life’s instruction book—just a jumbled list of ingredients

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

The common view of heredity is that all information passed down from one generation to the next is stored in an organism’s DNA. But Antony Jose, associate professor of cell biology and molecular genetics at the University of Maryland, disagrees.

In two new papers, Jose argues that DNA is just the ingredient list, not the set of instructions used to build and maintain a living organism. The instructions, he says, are much more complicated, and they’re stored in the that regulate a cell’s DNA and other functioning systems.

Jose outlined a new theoretical framework for heredity, which was developed through 20 years of research on genetics and epigenetics, in peer-reviewed papers in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface and the journal BioEssays. Both papers were published on April 22, 2020.

Apr 22, 2020

A new dimension for solar energy

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

Circa 2012 Now, a team of MIT researchers has come up with a very different approach: building cubes or towers that extend the solar cells upward in three-dimensional configurations. Amazingly, the results from the structures they’ve tested show power output ranging from double to more than 20 times that of fixed flat panels with the same base area.


Innovative 3D designs from an MIT team can more than double the solar power generated from a given area.

Apr 22, 2020

Method turns back the clock on old human cells

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

When the researchers studied the patterns of aging-associated chemical tags called methyl groups, which serve as an indicator of a cell’s chronological age, they found that the treated cells appeared to be about 1½ to 3½ years younger on average than untreated cells from elderly people, with peaks of 3½ years (in skin cells) and 7½ years (in cells that line blood vessels).


The study found that inducing old human cells in a lab dish to briefly express these proteins rewinds many of the molecular hallmarks of aging and renders the treated cells nearly indistinguishable from their younger counterparts.

“When iPS cells are made from adult cells, they become both youthful and pluripotent,” says Vittorio Sebastiano, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University and senior author of the paper, published in Nature Communications.

Continue reading “Method turns back the clock on old human cells” »

Apr 22, 2020

American woman pedals 184 mph, smashing record held

Posted by in category: futurism

Circa 2018


It’s the first time a woman’s held the world record in over 100 years of attempts.

Apr 22, 2020

Sunflower: Kansas’ largest solar farm begins operation

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

Sunflower Electric Power Corp.

JOHNSON CITY – Sunflower Electric Power Corp. and Lightsource BP have announced that the Johnson Corner Solar Project entered commercial operation on April 7. The $37 million project, which was financed and constructed by Lightsource BP, is located approximately 2 miles southwest of Johnson City in Stanton County.

Lightsource BP, a global leader in the development, financing and management of utility-scale solar energy projects, is the project owner and operator. All the energy from the project is being sold under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to Sunflower, a nonprofit electric utility providing wholesale generation and transmission services to six member-owners serving in central and western Kansas. The National Renewables Cooperative Organization (NRCO) played a key role in helping Sunflower develop this important project for the public power community.

Apr 22, 2020

Two people killed after tornado hits Marshall County, officials say

Posted by in category: climatology

Two people died Wednesday after a tornado hit the Madill area, according to officials in Marshall County.

Marshall County Emergency Management officials told KXII that two people died because of the storms that moved through the area. They have not released any information about the victims.

Apr 22, 2020

Miso Robotics

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI

Spotted on my feed.


“The new burger chef makes $3 an hour and never goes home.” — LA Times.

Flippy is the world’s first autonomous robotic kitchen assistant that can learn from its surroundings and acquire new skills over time. Specifically designed to operate in an existing commercial kitchen layout and to serve alongside kitchen staff to safely and efficiently fulfill a variety of cooking tasks. Miso is working with major QSR locations to integrate Flippy as an overhead rail system. The overhead rail system will reduce the cost to produce Flippy by 50% and requires ZERO real estate footprint.

Continue reading “Miso Robotics” »

Apr 22, 2020

The Integratron

Posted by in category: futurism

Experience a quartz crystal sound bath inside a storied, all-wood sound-chamber.

Apr 22, 2020

NASA tracking asteroid taller than 6 double decker buses at 12,000mph near Earth

Posted by in category: space

The asteroid, identified as 2020 GB2, is 98ft tall – the equivalent height of six double decker buses stacked on top of one another.

Apr 22, 2020

‘Nanocardboard’ flyers could serve as martian atmospheric probes

Posted by in categories: space, transportation

O,.O woah!


This summer, NASA plans to launch its next Mars rover, Perseverance, which will carry with it the first aircraft to ever fly on another planet, the Mars Helicopter. As the first of its kind, the Mars Helicopter will carry no instruments and collect no data—NASA describes merely flying it all as “high-risk, high-reward” research.

With the risks of extraterrestrial flight in mind, Penn Engineers are suggesting a different approach to exploring the skies of other worlds: a fleet of tiny aircraft that each weigh about as much as a fruit fly and have no moving parts.

Continue reading “‘Nanocardboard’ flyers could serve as martian atmospheric probes” »