Carbon, Bacteria, and Fish Balls: The Machines of
the Future

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 22 July 2012 08:34:15 PM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

From Wired Top Stories: Today, microprocessors are built with silicon. But tomorrow, they'll be built with something else. This past week, with a paper published in the academic journal Nature Communications, researchers at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany and

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http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/20595/Carbon-Bacteria-and-Fish-Balls-The-Mach
ines-of-the-Future?from_rss=1

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UCLA Creates Transparent Solar Cell

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 22 July 2012 08:29:54 PM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

From Engadget: Transparent photovoltaics have yet to grace the face of your smartphone, but don't give up hope -- UCLA researchers are working on a new see-through solar cell that's showing potential. Read the whole article

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http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/20594/UCLA-Creates-Transparent-Solar-Cell?fro
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Radian Lets You Use Your Camera, iPhone and
Android Device for Time Lapse Projects

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 22 July 2012 08:28:28 PM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

From Engadget: Shaped like an oversized hockey puck, the Radian works with any camera that has a trigger-release input and can be used with or without a tripod. The device can be programmed through either an Android or iPhone app and lets you disconnect your smartphone once you've got yo

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and-Android-Device-for-Time-Lapse-Projects?from_rss=1

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Is Your Idea Patentable Are Patents a Waste of
Money and Time

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 22 July 2012 08:26:13 PM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

From Forbes - Tech: Many business builders who are seeking protection from competitors via the U.S. Patent Office have found the experience frustrating and disappointing. To improve the situation, Congress recently passed a law that will significantly modify the patent process. In part,

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aste-of-Money-and-Time?from_rss=1

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High School Student Creates: Test That is Much
More Accurate and 26,000 Times Cheaper Than Existing Pancreatic Cancer Tests

post from Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog on 22 July 2012 07:16:16 PM. © Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog

Seeing what these kids come up with is so refreshing after being so disappointed by the actions fo our leaders (politicians, business leaders, financiers, law enforcement [spying on citizens because they feel electronic privacy is fine to invade, taking away liberty...], health care in the USA [twice as expensive as elsewhere with no better results, 10 of millions without coverage]…). These kids make me feel hopeful, unfortunately the actions of the powerful leave me less hopeful.

Jack Andraka created a new paper based test for diagnosing pancreatic cancer that is 50% more accurate, 400 times more sensitive, and 26,000 times less expensive than existing methods. His method uses carbon nanotubes and can catch the disease in very early stages which is critical to treatment success. The test also covers other forms of cancer very effectively (he concentrated on the results for pancreatic cancer given the low survival rates for that cancer). Jack Andraka: “I actually love single-walled carbon nanotubes; they’re like the superheroes of material science.”

His results are great. Often initial results can be difficult to actually turn into such positive results in the real world. But this is a great step and it is great to see what young minds can do. The claims for how much better, cheaper etc. are wildly different in various places on the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) site.

Jack Andraka was awarded $75,000 for his development of a new method to detect pancreatic cancer as the winner of the top prize at the Intel ISEF (I believe it is new this year to call the winner the Gordon E. Moore Award).

A Novel Paper Sensor for the Detection of Pancreatic Cancer by Jack Andraka
North County High School, Glen Burnie, MD

Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease with a five-year survival rate of 5.5%. One reason for this is the lack of a rapid, sensitive, inexpensive screening method. A novel paper sensor is described that simply, rapidly and inexpensively screens for pancreatic cancer. Mia Paca cells overexpressing mesothelin, a biomarker for pancreatic cancer, were cultured; mesothelin was isolated, concentrated and quantified with ELISA. After optimization with the Western Blot assay, the antibody to human mesothelin was dispersed with single walled carbon nanotubes. This dispersion was used to dip-coat strips of filter paper, rendering the paper conductive.

Optimal layering was determined using a scanning electron microscope. Cell media spiked with varying amounts of mesothelin was applied to the paper biosensor. Change in electrical potential was measured before and after application and a dose-response curve was constructed with an R2 value of 99.92%. In vivo tests on human blood serum obtained from healthy people and patients with chronic pancreatitis, PanIn, pancreatic cancer revealed the same trends. The sensor?s limit of detection was found to be 0.156 ng/mL, satisfying the limit of 10 ng/mL, the level considered an overexpression of mesothelin consistent with pancreatic cancer.

The sensor costs $3.00; 10 tests can be performed per strip. A test takes 5 minutes and is 168 times faster, 26,667 times less expensive, and 400 times more sensitive than ELISA, 25% to 50% more accurate than the CA10-9 test and is a sensitive, accurate, inexpensive, and rapid screening tool to detect mesothelin, a biomarker for pancreatic cancer.

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http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2012/07/22/high-school-student-creates-test
-that-is-much-more-accurate-and-26000-times-cheaper-than-existing-pancreatic-cancer-tests/

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Untangling the brain

post from Top stories on 22 July 2012 06:19:45 PM. © Top stories

Our brains are a dense tangle of billions of nerve cells connected together at synapses. Knowing how everything links up is key to understanding how the brain works?but it's a huge challenge. Figuring out the brain's wiring diagram is the aim of 'connectomics'.

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http://machineslikeus.com/videos/untangling-brain

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Fire-walking gone awry

post from Top stories on 22 July 2012 06:14:00 PM. © Top stories

Story Source

The main shtick of so-called motivational speakers is to persuade people that if only they think positively enough, they can achieve great things.

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http://machineslikeus.com/news/fire-walking-gone-awry

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New clues to the early Solar System from ancient
meteorites

Story Source

In order to understand Earth's earliest history--its formation from Solar System material into the present-day layering of metal core and mantle, and crust--scientists look to meteorites.

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http://machineslikeus.com/news/new-clues-early-solar-system-ancient-meteorites

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Simulating a Cell and what you can do with it.

Yowza! A bunch of guys [of both genders] have simulated an entire cell, in a computer, starting from the biochemistry. (Jonathan R. Karr, Jayodita C. Sanghvi, Derek N. Macklin, Miriam V. Gutschow, Jared M. Jacobs, Benjamin Bolival Jr., Nacyra[...]

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http://kochanski.org/blog/?p=813

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