linkstream2 microblog

Interesting discussion by Ken Dill reviewing the field of protein folding over the past 50 years. Dr Dill links it to a number of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and type II diabetes, which are transmitted by aberrantly folding proteins. There is also a bit of discussion about folding landscapes in the funnel.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6110/1042

The #Protein-Folding Problem, 50 Years On: Broad review, ranging from funnels to misfolded proteins & Alzheimer’s
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6110/1042

Interesting discussion about the creation of smart rocks and smart pebbles, which allow the tracking of current. These contain a data logger embedded in either aluminum or plastic. The tricky bit is how one finds them after they have been dropped off. Some ways might be radio transmitters, metal detectors and so forth but all of these have downsides.

How to Build a Smarter #Rock? Put a data #logger into aluminum or plastic; then track via radio or metal detector
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6113/1412.summary

Half a Million DVDs in Your #DNA: Nice writeup of Goldman et al paper, highlighting 3X density incr. to >2 PB / g DNA
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2013/01/half-million-dvds-your-dna

Very interesting discussion outside of science about the potential of storing large quantities of archival data on DNA. The statistic is that you can store a little more than 2 petabytes in a gram of DNA. This is actually cost effective relative to magnetic tape if one wants to do storage for >500 years. However one imagines that as the price of DNA sequencing and synthesis goes down this will become more favorable, perhaps being reasonable for archival storage in the ~50 year regimen. One of the issues with DNA storage, of course, is the lack of random access and the inability to rewrite over already stored media. But for long-term archival storage DNA is considerably more stable than the magnetic storage on tape or disk.

http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2013/01/half-million-dvds-your-dna http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v494/n7435/full/nature11875.html

Battle for the Barrel: Going from E10 to E25 gas (%ethanol) is a battle between #biofuel hopefuls & big #oil
https://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6126/1374

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23467469
Should You Mix Those Two Drugs? Ask Dr. #Google. Nice use of co-associated #search queries by @Rbaltman et al.
http://news.sciencemag.org/math/2013/03/should-you-mix-those-two-drugs-ask-dr.-google

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6123/1026

A Call to Cyber Arms: Highlights the effectiveness of #stuxnet & the potential of future cyberweapons
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6123/1026 #security

Interesting discussion of various bits of computer security in relation to the United States and China. There is mention that by far the most successful weapon developed thus far is the Stuxnet virus, which has not been publicly claimed by the United States or Israel but is suggested to have originated with them. There is also mention of a Snowden-like character from China who gave an interview to a US publication in relation to the extent of Chinese hacking.

There is an interesting discussion about synthesized voices and how the technology is changing as well as some of the legal implications of this. Does a person own their voice after it has been moved into a synthesizer? For instance one can easily take the addresses from George Bush and Barak Obama and create synthesized voices from them that sound fairly realistic, which in turn can be used to say virtually anything.

Do you own your own voice? It’s now possible to synthesize realistic #voices from snippets such as an Obama address
http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/v499/n7457/nature-2013-07-11.html

#Emergent Sensing of Complex Environments by Mobile Animal Groups: Fish swarm into dark patches from speed adjustment
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6119/574.abstract

An interesting discussion of how fish swarms reflect collective behavior. The basic idea is that fish like to swim in dark patches of water as opposed to light patches and one question is how a swarm finds this quickly. It turns out that it is not related to individual fish swimming away from light and dark but rather that the fish in light water swimming more quickly than those in dark water and the fish also trying to stay together as a swarm. The latter acts essentially as almost an axle between two wheels that are moving at different speeds forcing the fish to naturally turn into dark areas. A very intuitive discussion of this topic and a nice comparison to how this type of collective behavior is what one sees in the nervous system as well – One would not want to be making mental decisions on the basis of an individual neuron.

Interesting discussion of a protein produced in mice and dog urine that acts as a pheromone. It is called Darcin and was named after the famous character, Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen’s novels, since it makes females very attracted to males.

Pheromonal Induction of Spatial Learning in Mice: Darcin
(#Austen-inspired name) acts as an attractant to females
https://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6113/1462

Iron production electrified. New tech for extraction of Fe directly from its oxide w/o C via high-T #electrolysis.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v497/n7449/full/nature12102.html

This piece contains an interesting discussion of new blast furnace technology, which enables one to extract the oxygen directly from iron oxide without the need for carbon or the creation of carbon dioxide as it uses electrolysis. The key idea is being able to do this at very high temperatures.

QT:”
Kerri Smith: Extracting iron from its naturally found form, iron oxide is a hot and heavy business. You throw your iron oxide and some carbon into a blastfurnace and then heat it to 1600 degrees Celsius, out comes iron, worldwide about a billion tons of it a year, but also outcomes carbon dioxide- bad news for the environment. Scientists would like to use other friendlier methods to make iron. This week a team from MIT reports a way to convert iron oxide to iron using electricity. It’s not a new idea. It’s basically a form of
electrolysis which extracts the oxygen leaving pure iron behind. But they’ve gotten over the biggest problem, finding material that can withstand the temperatures of molten metal oxides. Metallurgist Derek Fray at the University of Cambridge in the UK has written a News and Views article about the research. He started by telling me how much CO2, iron production is responsible for. Nature (2013); Nature(2013) ”

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v497/n7449/full/nature12102.html