Category: Nanodot

from the be-careful-when-choosing-grandparents dept.
Andrew writes "This item from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from New Scientist: Annibale Puca and his team of researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) have used genetic linkage analysis to show a 95% probability that a particular region on chromosone four correlates to long lifespan in humans. Importantly this region appears to have a strong influence on the rate of ageing. Read about it at: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns999 91201"

According to an HHMI press release, "By comparing the DNA of siblings who are extremely long-lived, researchers believe they have found a region on chromosome 4 that may hold an important clue to understanding human longevity. According to the researchers, their finding is "highly suggestive" that somewhere in the hundreds of genes in that region of chromosome 4 is a gene or genes whose subtle modifications can give a person a better chance of living well beyond the average life expectancy."
Additional information on this research can be found at EurekAlert and in this article from UPI.

A useful overview of work to develop nanoscale computing systems appears on the Science Notes website, an annual showcase of work by students in the Science Communication Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The article, "Atoms that add" by Erica Klarreich, covers work in molecular electronics, quantum dots and other approaches to nanoscale devices that could be used to build computing systems.

from the World-Watch dept.
According to a report in Tornado-Insider (ìThe Renaissance of Minatecì, by D. Coviello, 23 July 2001), funding has been secured for Minatec, the new research and incubation center for microtechnology and nanotechnology startups in Grenoble, France. Minatec operates under the French Commissariat de líEnergie Atomique (CEA) Laboratoire díélectronique, technologie et instrumentation (LETI; website is in French), based in Grenoble. The financing plan would provide 122 million euros (about U.S. $106 million). About half of the funds will come from nearby regions, towns, councils and departments, with the remainder provided by private institutions and the CEA. According to the report, Minatec aims to build a 60,000-square-meter center for 3,500 entrepreneurs, students, professors and researchers in the field of microelectronics and nanotechnology to work on developing products and launching start-up companies. It is expected to be completed by 2004.
If you read French, you can find more information at the Minatec website.

from the molectronics dept.
An extensive article in the New York Times ("Clever Wiring Harnesses Tiny Switches", by K. Chang, 17 July 2001) provides an overview of recent advances in the field of molecular electronics. The article focuses on work by Hewlett-Packard Labs. HP was awarded a patent on 3 July 2001 for a wiring strategy that takes describes how to connect molecular-scale devices by essentially assigning each switch a random marker that allows signals to be routed to it. The method is important because, as the NYT states, "conventional wires are too wide to attach to such molecular components, and the prospect of trying to hook together billions of components or more is daunting, if not impossible." The article quotes HP Labs research director Stanley Williams: "The current patent really is the blueprint for the research we're going to be doing for the next four years." HP was awarded another patent on a molecular memory device in October 2000.
Note: Access to content on the NYT website it free, but may require registration.

The article also notes that "researchers have already constructed the tiniest of components — molecules that act as switches — and they are now starting to tackle the harder problem: how to wire the tiny switches together into useful devices." The demonstration in June 2001 of a functional single-molecule switch is highlighted.

from the World-watch dept.
An interesting and extensive overview of the issues related to the regulation or banning of human cloning in South Korea appeared in the Korea Herald ("Experts call for urgent legislation on human cloning", by Yoo Soh-jung, 13 July 2001). The article also surveys similar debates in the United States and Europe.

The cloning issue is of particular concern in South Korea, in part because in 1998, researchers at Kyunghee University Hospital's infertility clinic claimed they succeeded in a human cloning test. The researchers removed the nucleus from the ovum of a 30-year-old woman and replaced it with a somatic cell. They claimed ovum successfully reached cell division and segmentation. (These results have since been disputed.) The director of the research team was quoted as saying that the "experiment was not designed to clone human beings but to clone specific organs for transplant."

from the not-quite dept.
ChrisHibbert writes "There was a recent scientific announcement closely enough related to the Foresight Idea Futures claim Germ15 that the organizers of the market called in an expert to determine whether the claim should be judged true at this point. The claim simply says:

      By 2015, the NY Times will report the live birth of a
      germline-modified human, who lived more than one year
      after. (This birth can happen anywhere in the world.)"

Read more for the results . . .

from the good-news,-bad-news dept.
Two recent items indicate some of the effects the Internet is having on scientific research:
A study by University of Michigan researcher Stephanie Teasley describes the use of technology that allows distributed collaboration via a "collaboratory" — a virtual center where people in different locations work together as easily as if they were all in the same place — is gaining appeal in science and education, as well as business and industry. Teasley and her co-workers report on some of the benefits and opportunities collaboratories offer, as well as the stumbling blocks associated with a distributed problem solving environment, in the 29 June 2001 issue of Science. An article in the New York Times ("Inside the Virtual Laboratory, Ideas Percolate Faster Than Rivalries", by I. Austen, 5 July 2001) provides additional coverage.
Another item in the the NY Times ("The Web as Dictator of Scientific Fashion", by J. Glanz, 19 June 2001) indicates the Web and cheap satellite communications may be fostering a sort of "pack science." The article notes that "instead of fostering many independent approaches to cracking problems, the Web, by offering scientists a place to post their new results immediately, can create a global bandwagon in which once-isolated scientists rush to become part of the latest trend . . . In the resulting stampede, all but a few promising avenues are quickly abandoned.î

Note: Access to the NYT website is free, but may require registration.

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas have shown that genes near human telomeres can be silenced, or turned off. This discovery may help explain how and why humans age. Telomeres are repeating sequences of DNA located at the end of each chromosome and are believed to function as a counting mechanism for cellular aging. The cell biology researchers report in the 15 June 2001 issue of Science that human cells can exhibit telomere position effect (TPE), in which genes near telomeres can be turned off, and that the strength of gene silencing is proportional to the length of nearby telomeres.

from the nanoengineering dept.
As a preview of its upcoming conference sessions on nanotechnology, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) ran an interview with Oak Ridge National Lab researcher Michael Simpson in a recent issue of ASME News.

Nanotechnology will be the focal point of one of the many technical tracks that will be featured during ASME's 2001 Congress and Exhibition in November. Nanotechnology will also be the subject of several tutorials to be given during the conference.

The nanotechnology track will start 12 November with a keynote panel discussing their work in the field. One of the panelists will be Simpson, who is the founder and principal investigator of the Molecular-Scale Electronics and Nanoscale Technologies Group at Oak Ridge National Lab. Simpson's group has been active in the controlled synthesis and directed assembly of carbon nanofibers into devices and systems.

from the hold-everything dept.
Researchers at Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have developed a method to induce a state of so-called suspended animation in the zebrafish, a relatively new model of vertebrate developmental biology. Their work is reported in the 12 June 2001 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Early Edition No. 24). The abstract is available without a subscription.

The researchers discovered that after 24 hours of oxygen deprivation — resulting in cessation of all observable metabolic activity, including heartbeat — zebrafish embryos can resume a normal course of development with no harmful effects on their health or growth. "Understanding the mechanisms that control biological quiescence could have dramatic implications for medical care, as it could give us an ability to control life processes at the most basic, fundamental level," said Mark Roth, Ph.D., a member of the Hutchinson Center's Basic Sciences Division and one of the principal researchers.