Science & TechnologyS


Umbrella

It's raining plastic: US Geological survey finds plastic in the rocky mountains

Jacita Bower
Science Alert
Thu, 15 Aug 2019 10:02 UTC
mountains
© Peter Pryharski/UnsplashBear Lake Trailhead, Colorado.
While a team of researchers from the US Geological Survey (USGS) was analyzing rainwater samples for nitrogen pollution, they found something they weren't expecting - plastic.

In a new report, aptly titled "It is raining plastic", the team explain that plastics were identified in over 90 percent of the rainwater samples they took at eight different sites, most of which are between Denver and Boulder, Colorado.

While it wouldn't be surprising for microplastics to contaminate most sample sites, considering the abundance of plastic in urban locations, some of these sites are remote. One of them, called CO98, is 3,159 metres (10,400 feet) above sea level in the Rocky Mountains.
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Bulb

Indian researchers develop biosensor device to detect heart disease


Hindustan Times
Mon, 19 Aug 2019 18:58 UTC
doctors hospital
© AFP 2019/ Prakash Singh
Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad Researchers are collaborating with research institutions across the world to develop a device to detect heart disease with high speed, sensitivity and reliability. Their ground-breaking work has recently been published in the reputed peer-reviewed Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

The Research Team is headed by Prof Renu John, Head, Department of Biomedical Engineering, IIT Hyderabad. Their work not only offers promise in the diagnosis or prediction of heart disorders within minutes but can also be extended to detection of other diseases.
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Info

Mystery of DNA methylation uncovered by scientist in Denmark

Anne Wärme Lykke, Anders Østerby Mønsted
DTU Biosustain, Denmark
Mon, 19 Aug 2019 18:58 UTC
DNA Methylation
© DTU Biosustain
To a large extent, DNA methylation, which regulates vital cell functions, is still a mystery to the scientific world. Now, scientists have developed a method to quickly couple methylation enzymes to their respective methylation pattern. This finding could become essential for successful gene engineering in many species.

All species mark their DNA with methyl groups. This is done to regulate gene expression, distinguish indigenous DNA from foreign DNA, or to mark old DNA strands during replication. Methylation is carried out by certain enzymes called methyltransferases, which decorate DNA with methyl groups in certain patterns to create an epigenetic layer on top of DNA.

Until now, scientists have not been struggling to tell which enzymes are responsible for which patterns. But in a new study, recently published in Nature Communications, scientists from The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability (DTU Biosustain) at Technical University of Denmark have coupled enzymes with specific methylation patterns in two bacteria.

"Knowing which enzyme does what opens up to a lot of applications. With this knowledge, you can construct model organisms with artificial methylomes, mimicking the methylation pattern of the strain you want to introduce DNA to. In this way you can ensure 'survival' of introduced DNA," says Specialist and first-author of this paper Torbjørn Ølshøj Jensen from DTU Biosustain.
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Microscope 2

Refining the CRISPR method

Fabio Bergamin
ETH Zurich
Wed, 14 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
dots are genes
© ETH Zurich/Carlo Cosimo CampaGenes and proteins in cells interact in many different ways. Each dot represents a gene; the lines are their interactions. For the first time, the new method uses biotechnology to influence entire gene networks in one single step.
Researchers at ETH Zurich have refined the famous CRISPR-Cas method. Now, for the very first time, it is possible to modify dozens, if not hundreds, of genes in a cell simultaneously.

Everyone's talking about CRISPR-Cas. This biotechnological method offers a relatively quick and easy way to manipulate single genes in cells, meaning they can be precisely deleted, replaced or modified. Furthermore, in recent years, researchers have also been using technologies based on CRISPR-Cas to systematically increase or decrease the activity of individual genes. The corresponding methods have become the worldwide standard within a very short time, both in basic biological research and in applied fields such as plant breeding.
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Bizarro Earth

Scientists mull astrobiological implications of scorched exoplanet

Adam Mann
Scientific American
Mon, 19 Aug 2019 17:13 UTC
exoplanet LHS 3844b
© Photo courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/R.Hurt (IPAC)An artist’s conception of the Earth-sized exoplanet LHS 3844b which orbits a small star 49 light-years from Earth.
Astronomer Laura Kreidberg admits she was initially a bit worried about her latest results. Examinations of a planet orbiting the red dwarf star LHS 3844 seemed to indicate that the rocky super-Earth, 30 percent larger than our world, possessed little or no atmosphere.

Kreidberg's concern stemmed from the fact that researchers are in the midst of a heated debate about the habitability of planets around red dwarfs, which make up 70 percent of the stars in our galaxy. A universe teeming with life is more likely if the worlds orbiting these diminutive entities, which are smaller and cooler than our sun, could be a good abode for biology.

But red dwarfs are harsh hosts, emitting frequent flares containing x-rays and ultraviolet radiation that could sterilize a planet, as well as energetic stellar winds that can strip it of its protective atmosphere. Kreidberg and her colleagues' findings, appearing today in Nature, could be seen as a mark against the idea that planets around small red stars could provide a nurturing environment.
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Robot

Real-life SkyNet? Pentagon wants to use AI to develop new weapons and vehicles

Tim Korso
Sputnik
Tue, 20 Aug 2019 14:08 UTC
killer robot
© CCO
Despite numerous science fiction stories and famous scientists cautioning humanity against using artificial intelligence in various weapons systems, it seems that the Pentagon has disregarded these warnings.

The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which operates under the US Department of Defence, has devised a new four-year project aimed at developing artificial intelligence (AI) for military purposes. This AI, in turn, is expected to help the Pentagon in its development of new vehicles, weapons, and equipment embedded with various cyber systems.

In papers related to the project, DARPA explains that currently the development of such "cyber physical systems" (CPS) takes an enormous amount of time and resources, whereas the AI would reduce the gap between the system's inception and its deployment "from years to months".

CPS development currently involves contractors coming up with alternative designs for certain CPS sub-systems, each of them solving the tasks with various levels of efficiency. However, testing each design for functionality, efficiency and reliability takes time and thus many suggestions are dropped without being considered, potentially leaving out promising solutions.
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Alarm Clock

Invasion of the 'frankenbees': The latest developments in genetically modified pollinators

Bernhard Warner
theguardian.com
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 16:22 UTC
bees

Beekeepers are sounding the alarm about the latest developments in genetically modified pollinators.

The spring of 2008 was brutal for Europe's honeybees. In late April and early May, during the corn-planting season, dismayed beekeepers in Germany's upper Rhine valley looked on as whole colonies perished. Millions of bees died. France, the Netherlands and Italy reported big losses, but in Germany the incident took on the urgency of a national crisis. "It was a disaster," recalled Walter Haefeker, German president of the European Professional Beekeepers Association. "The government had to set up containers along the autobahn where beekeepers could dump their hives."

An investigation in July of that year concluded that the bees in Germany died of mass poisoning by the pesticide clothianidin, which can be 10,000 times more potent than DDT. In the months leading up to the bee crisis, clothianidin, developed by Bayer Crop Science from a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, had been used up and down the Rhine following an outbreak of corn rootworm. The pesticide is designed to attack the nervous system of crop-munching pests, but studies have shown it can be harmful to insects such as the European honeybee. It muddles the bees' super-acute sense of direction and upsets their feeding habits, while it can also alter the queen's reproductive anatomy and sterilize males. As contaminated beehives piled up, Bayer paid €2m (£1.76m) into a compensation fund for beekeepers in the affected area, but offered no admission of guilt.
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Cow Skull

Are gene edited cows or humans worth the risks involved?

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
gene editing
Scientists using the "second generation" of genetic manipulation technology have used gene-editing to alter the DNA of breed of cattle so that they supposedly do not grow horns. At around the same time another group of scientists claim to have injected human cells into monkeys to create chimeras, as in the ancient Greek myths of beings part lion, part snake. Earlier this year a group of Chinese researchers claimed to have deliberately gene-edited monkey clones with a mental disturbance. What few realize is that all this is taking place almost entirely without any serious health and safety regulation. Is this what mankind really needs at this juncture?

Gene-edited hornless cows

Scientists at the biotech company Recombinetics have filed a patent on cattle it has genetically engineered to not grow horns using gene-editing methods. They claimed the process to be safe and effective. However tests by scientists at the US Food and Drug Administration revealed that the CRISPR gene-editing process resulted in "unexpected alterations" of the genome, including "complex genomic rearrangements at or near the target site in 34 mammalian genome editing experiments."

The FDA researchers found gene-editing errors in the genome of the animals that were being overlooked. They identified major unintended effects. The gene scissors used, known as TALENs, are often described as highly precise. However, the FDA research showed that apart from the desired gene sequences being inserted into the genome, DNA originating from genetically engineered bacteria used in the process was also inserted. Specifically, they found presence of unintended antibiotic resistance genes in the gene-edited cattle. Recombinetics reports that it is also developing a precision gene-editing breeding method to eliminate the need to castrate pigs. Unintended effects?

Comment: The Pandora's Box of gene editing, AI, and about half a dozen other technologies - is wide open. In the pursuit of vast sums of money, much of the world will likely be made to suffer from "unintended consequences" because we are wielding scientific discoveries irresponsibly.

Then, one day in the not-too-distant-future, we'll be faced with some manner of disaster and ask ourselves a very impotent question that will likely be too late to learn from: "How in the hell did we allow this to happen?!"

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Satellite

It's a wrap: Russian satellites to become invisible from Earth


RT
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 07:58 UTC
Cloaked satellites
© screenshotDo you see them? Are they there? How would you know?
Russia's space agency claims to have found an unconventional way of equipping its satellites with stealth features, effectively making them hard to spot from Earth. A special wrap may be the solution, they say.

Roscosmos has invented top-notch technology which involves covering satellites with a unique air-bubble wrap that scatters light, Russian media reported. The method is said to reduce the satellite's visibility by 10 times or more when observed by telescopes from Earth.

The agency says the technology - which seems to be of dual use - could be employed to 'hide' satellites traveling at 10,000km to 20,000km above Earth's surface.

Russia, the first country to have sent a satellite into orbit, recently unveiled new technology involving the unmanned spacecraft. Just this month, Roscosmos presented a solution to the growing problem of space debris - a satellite that would destroy itself at the end of its lifetime.

The new type of satellite would feature materials that sublimate, meaning they transition directly from solid to gas without becoming liquid.
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Car Black

UPS has secretly used self-driving freight trucks for months

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sat, 17 Aug 2019 18:05 UTC
Self-driving truck
© tusimple
For the last few months, UPS has been using autonomous trucks to haul loads on a 115-mile route between Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona.

The company announced that its venture capital arm had made a minority investment in San Diego-based autonomous software company TuSimple, as confirmed with the company by Gizmodo. Their system uses nine cameras and two LIDAR sensors.

TuSimple claims it can cut the average cost of shipping in a tractor-trailer by 30 percent. In an announcement about the new partnership, UPS Ventures managing partner, Todd Lewis, said the venture arm "collaborates with startups to explore new technologies and tailor them to help meet our specific needs." -Gizmodo

And according to Verge, TuSimple has implemented its autonomous technology in Navistar vehicles.

While the current system requires a backup human driver and an engineer, TuSimple has been working with UPS to achieve full, "Level 4" human-less autonomy.

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