Science Explained: RNA Interference

Posted on November 13, 2009  Comments (1)

Explained: RNA interference

Every high school biology student learns the basics of how genes are expressed: DNA, the cell’s master information keeper, is copied into messenger RNA, which carries protein-building instructions to the ribosome, the part of the cell where proteins are assembled.

But it turns out the picture is far more complicated than that. In recent years, biologists have discovered a myriad of other molecules that fine-tune this process, including several types of RNA (ribonucleic acid). Through a naturally occurring phenomenon known as RNA interference, short strands of RNA can selectively intercept and destroy messenger RNA before it delivers its instructions.
…
Double-stranded RNA molecules called siRNA (short interfering RNA) bind to complementary messenger RNA, then enlist the help of proteins, the RNA-induced silencing complex. Those proteins cleave the chemical bonds holding messenger RNA together and prevent it from delivering its protein-building instructions.

This article from MIT is one, of many, showing MIT’s commitment to science education of the public. Good job, MIT.

Related: Antigen Shift in Influenza Viruses – Posts explaining scientific principles and concepts – DNA Passed to Descendants Changed by Your Life – Why Does Hair Turn Grey as We Age? – Amazing Science: Retroviruses

Open Science: Looking at Dust

Posted on November 12, 2009  Comments (0)

Open access paper: Migration of Contaminated Soil and Airborne Particulates to Indoor Dust.

Indoor dust is a mixture of soil tracked into a residence, particulate matter derived from ambient outdoor air, and importantly, organic matter. Indoor dust is about 40% organic matter by weight in residential housing. Particles tracked into a residence are redistributed on floor surfaces account for over 60% of the dust mass on floors.

Related: Untidy Beds May Keep us Healthy – Open Science: Explaining Spontaneous Knotting – Electron Filmed for the First Time – Waste from Gut Bacteria Helps Host Control Weight

Soft Morphing Robot Future

Posted on November 12, 2009  Comments (3)

This webcast shows iRobot’s (Romba maker) prototypes for soft flexible robots. The robot uses “jamming” to morph the body which allows animal like locomotion and the ability to reshape the body to squeeze through small and difficult to navigate locations.

Related: Caterpillar-Inspired Robot – Friday Cat Fun #8: Cat Ridding a Roomba – iRobot Gutter Cleaning Robot – Moth Controlled Robot – Self Re-assembling Robots

Energy Secretary Steve Chu Speaks On Funding Science Research

Posted on November 11, 2009  Comments (2)

Energy Secretary Steve Chu (and Nobel Laureate) speaks with Google CEO Eric Schmidt about science research. One of the things Steve Chu is doing is funding high risk experiments that have great potential. This is something that is often said should be done but then people resort to safe investments in research. Taking these risks is a very good idea.

This is another example the remarkable way Google operates. The CEO actually understands science and the public good. Google also provides a huge amount of great material online in the form of webcasts of those speaking at Google. Google behaves like a company run by engineers. Other companies have engineers in positions of power but behave like companies run by any MBAs (whether they are lawyers, accountants, marketers or engineers).

Related: President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology – Scientists and Engineers in Congress – Eric Schmidt on Google, Education and Economics – Larry Page on How to Change the World – Diplomacy and Science Research – Google Investing Huge Sums in Renewable Energy and is Hiring

Engineering: Cellphone Microscope

Posted on November 8, 2009  Comments (2)

UCLA Professor Aydogan Ozcan‘s invention (LUCAS) enables rapid counting and imaging of cells without using any lenses even within a working cell phone device. He placed cells directly on the imaging sensor of a cell phone. The imaging sensor captures a holographic image of the cells containing more information than a conventional microscope. The CelloPhone received a Wireless Innovations Award from Vodafone

a wireless health monitoring technology that runs on a regular cell-phone would significantly impact the global fight against infectious diseases in resource poor settings such as in Africa, parts of India, South-East Asia and South America.

The CelloPhone Project aims to develop a transformative solution to these global challenges by providing a revolutionary optical imaging platform that will be used to specifically analyze bodily fluids within a regular cell phone. Through wide-spread use of this innovative technology, the health care services in the developing countries will significantly be improved making a real impact in the life quality and life expectancy of millions.
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For most bio-medical imaging applications, directly seeing the structure of the object is of paramount importance. This conventional way of thinking has been the driving motivation for the last few decades to build better microscopes with more powerful lenses or other advanced imaging apparatus. However, for imaging and monitoring of discrete particles such as cells or bacteria, there is a much better way of imaging that relies on detection of their shadow signatures. Technically, the shadow of a micro-object can be thought as a hologram that is based on interference of diffracted beams interacting with each cell. Quite contrary to the dark shadows that we are used to seeing in the macro-world (such as our own shadow on the wall), micro-scale shadows (or transmission holograms) contain an extremely rich source of quantified information regarding the spatial features of the micro-object of interest.

By making use of this new way of thinking, unlike conventional lens based imaging approaches, LUCAS does not utilize any lenses, microscope-objectives or other bulk optical components, and it can immediately monitor an ultra-large field of view by detecting the holographic shadow of cells or bacteria of interest on a chip. The holographic diffraction pattern of each cell, when imaged under special conditions, is extremely rich in terms of spatial information related to the state of the cell or bacteria. Through advanced signal processing tools that are running at a central computer station, the unique texture of these cell/bacteria holograms will enable highly specific and accurate medical diagnostics to be performed even in resource poor settings by utilizing the existing wireless networks.

This is another great example of engineers creating technologically appropriate solutions.

Related: Better health through your cell phone – Mobile Phone-based Vehicle Anti-theft System – Appropriate Technology: Self Adjusting Glasses – Engineering a Better World: Bike Corn-Sheller – The Engineer That Made Your Cat a Photographer – Freeware Wi-Fi app turns iPod into a Phone

White Paper on Engineering Leadership Education

Posted on November 3, 2009  Comments (4)

Engineering leadership education is emerging as a topic in engineering institutions worldwide. But the review of international “best practices” in engineering leadership education says a lack of resources, expertise, and formal networks in the nascent field is causing concern in a profession threatened by a diminishing focus on the notion of the “engineer-as-doer.”

Commissioned by the Bernard M. Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program, the new white paper, Engineering Leadership Education: A Snapshot
 Review
 of International Good
 Practice, reveals that the vast majority of engineering leadership education programs are based within the U.S. and most are relatively new (developed in the last five years). The white paper highlights the distinct divide between the U.S. and the rest of the world in both attitude and approach to engineering leadership education.

“As a sub-discipline, engineering leadership education is not yet on the radar of most engineering education experts outside the U.S.,” said Dr. Edward Crawley, Director of the Bernard M. Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program. “Certainly for many of the programs outside the U.S., there’s some discomfort with the notion of ‘leadership education’, as they feel this concept runs counter to their educational culture of inclusiveness and equality.”

The report was conducted by Dr. Ruth Graham in a series of interviews between September 2008 and March 2009. Dr. Graham investigated more than 40 programs, seeking to provide an insight into current practice, highlight international variations in approach, and identify examples of good practice.

One major 
current 
trend
 in 
engineering
 leadership 
education
 is 
the 
development 
of
 the 
students’
 global 
awareness
 and
 their 
ability 
to 
work 
on 
complex
cross‐national
 projects
 – 
which
 is
 seen 
by many
 as
 the 
environment
 within 
which
 the
 engineering 
leader
 of 
the 
future 
will 
need 
to 
operate. 

Many
 of 
the 
programs 
which 
were 
most 
highly 
rated 
by 
interviewees 
incorporate 
some
 global
 elements 
either 
through 
international 
travel, 
remote
 link‐ups
 with
 overseas
 universities/companies 
or 
project
 briefs
 involving 
an
 international 
or
 cross‐cultural
 context.
 
The trend 
towards
 a 
more
 ‘global’ 
view
 of 
leadership 
education
 was 
seen 
by 
many 
of 
the
 interviewees
 as
 one
 that 
would
 continue.

Read more

Dolphin Delivers Deviously for Rewards

Posted on November 2, 2009  Comments (2)

Deep thinkers

At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi, Kelly the dolphin has built up quite a reputation. All the dolphins at the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way, the dolphins help to keep their pools clean.

Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on. This behaviour is interesting because it shows that Kelly has a sense of the future and delays gratification. She has realised that a big piece of paper gets the same reward as a small piece and so delivers only small pieces to keep the extra food coming. She has, in effect, trained the humans.

Her cunning has not stopped there. One day, when a gull flew into her pool, she grabbed it, waited for the trainers and then gave it to them. It was a large bird and so the trainers gave her lots of fish. This seemed to give Kelly a new idea. The next time she was fed, instead of eating the last fish, she took it to the bottom of the pool and hid it under the rock where she had been hiding the paper. When no trainers were present, she brought the fish to the surface and used it to lure the gulls, which she would catch to get even more fish. After mastering this lucrative strategy, she taught her calf, who taught other calves, and so gull-baiting has become a hot game among the dolphins…

Too bad for the poor gulls but this is pretty cool. Plus it serves gulls right, one stole my breakfast a few years ago when I was down in Florida.

Related: Dolphins Using Tools to Hunt – Friday Fun: Dolphins Play with Air Bubble Rings – Bird Using Bait to Fish – Dolphin Rescues Beached Whales – When Performance-related Pay Backfires

Science and Engineering Lectures Online

Posted on November 1, 2009  Comments (3)

VideoLectures.Net offers free and open access of a high quality video lectures presented by distinguished scholars and scientists at events like conferences, summer schools, workshops and science promotional events. The portal is aimed at promoting science, exchanging ideas and fostering knowledge sharing by providing high quality didactic contents not only to a scientific community but also to a general public.

Enjoy the great lectures they provide. Also see the Curious Cat directory of science and engineering webcast web sites. There are lots of great presentations available now. The last several years has really seen a huge increase in the valuable webcasts available online.

Related: Science Postercasts – Great Physics Webcast Lectures – Google Tech Webcasts #4 – Toyota Engineering Development Process – Marissa Mayer on Innovation at Google – Canada Film Board Provides Open Access

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