Instead of having a man embedded with spider, scientists thought of having spiders weave man-made material.
A group of scientists from Italian, British and Czech institutions published “Silk reinforced with graphene or carbon nanotubes spun by spiders” where they describe how the manage to sucessfully induce spiders to use added components into their webs composition.
It’s been a while we know electroencephalograms give information on what is happening inside our brains. But it’s not something you’d want to be getting around in your head – or is it?
John Rogers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign led the team that built a flexible electronic skin that conforms to the body, which is so light that it sticks to the skin through van der Waals force – the same mechanism that lets geckos’ feet stick to surfaces. It only falls off when the build-up of dead skin beneath it makes it lose its grip.
“Breaking the communication barrier between dolphins and humans
When a chimpanzee gazes at a piece of fruit or a silverback gorilla beats his chest to warn off an approaching male, it’s hard not to see a bit of ourselves in those behaviors and even to imagine what the animals might be thinking. But dolphins are something truly different. They “see” with sonar and do so with such phenomenal precision that they can tell from a hundred feet away whether an object is made of metal, plastic, or wood. They can even eavesdrop on the echolocating clicks of other dolphins to figure out what they’re looking at. Unlike primates, they don’t breathe automatically, and they seem to sleep with only half their brains resting at a time. Their eyes operate independently of each other. They’re a kind of alien intelligence sharing our planet—watching them may be the closest we’ll come to encountering ET.
Dolphins are extraordinarily garrulous. Not only do they whistle and click, but they also emit loud broadband packets of sound called burst pulses to discipline their young and chase away sharks. Scientists listening to all these sounds have long wondered what, if anything, they might mean. Surely such a large-brained, highly social creature wouldn’t waste all that energy babbling beneath the waves unless the vocalizations contained some sort of meaningful content. And yet despite a half century of study, nobody can say what the fundamental units of dolphin vocalization are or how those units get assembled.
“If we can find a pattern connecting vocalization to behavior, it’ll be a huge deal,” says Kuczaj, 64, who has published more scientific articles on dolphin cognition than almost anyone else in the field. He believes that his work with the synchronized dolphins at RIMS may prove to be a Rosetta stone that unlocks dolphin communication…” read full story in National Geographic
Recent technique for genetic editing made possible by ‘knock-out’ targeted genes.
In this case, researches inacvtivated a single endogenous gene in potatoes that are deemed responsible for sugar accumulation at cold storaging.
Such potatoes, once fried, would produce lower levels of acrylamide, a suspected carcinogen.
From MIT Technology Review:
Neural probes that combine optics, electronics, and drugs could help unlock the secrets of the brain.
Various powerful new tools for exploring and manipulating the brain have been developed over the last few years. Some use electronics, while others use light or chemicals.
At one MIT lab, materials scientist Polina Anikeeva has hit on a way to manufacture what amounts to a brain-science Swiss Army knife. The neural probes she builds carry light while collecting and transmitting electricity, and they also have tiny channels through which to pump drugs…
DNA manipulation technique using CRISPR enzymes, binds to particular parts of the genome before splicing it, promissed nothing less than a revolution in genetics. Now it starts bearing fruits, and initial human-dna editing testing under way, even as many heed warnings on ethical issues.
Chinese researchers were cautious enough to select only non-viable embryos. While results were not consistent enough to indicate we mastered genetic altering, it stands as a clear statement that this fronteer is open for game. And that (some) researchers are not waiting until the ethical debate around it is settle – if such a thing is even possible.
A couple of recent articles about this on MIT Review, by Jason Pontin, and in Popular Science by Alexandra Ossola
