Tag Archives: interaction

A virus reveals the physics of nanopores

By Guest PostJuly 8, 2014Sciencebacterial phyla, brown university, candidatus andersenbacteria, derek stein, dna sequencing, dna strands, e coli bacteria, ebola, gemaelde, interaction, jenifer johnson, jill banfield, karthik anantharaman, ken williams, kunstgeschmack, matthew pelowski, membrane, nanopore, new bacteria groups, polymer, sozial faktoren, virus

Nanopores could provide a new way to sequence DNA quickly, but the physics involved isn’t well understood. That’s partly because of the complexities involved in studying the random, squiggly form DNA takes in solution. Researchers from Brown have simplified matters by using a stiff, rod-like virus instead of DNA to experiment with nanopores. Their research has uncovered previously unknown dynamics in polymer-nanopore interactions.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Nanopores may one day lead a revolution in DNA sequencing. By sliding DNA molecules one at a time through tiny holes in a thin membrane, it may be possible to decode long stretches of DNA at lightning speeds. Scientists, however, haven’t quite figured out the physics of how polymer strands like DNA interact with nanopores. Now, with the help of a particular type of virus, researchers from Brown University have shed new light on this nanoscale physics. (more…)

IBM Survey: Speed and Analytics Key Drivers in Mobile Adoption for Organizations

By Guest PostNovember 19, 2013Technologyanalytics, business, byod, ibm survey, infographic, innovation, integration, interaction, kevin custis, mobile adoption, mobile strategy leaders, organizations, security, social business, speed, upwardly mobile enterprise

Half of the Respondents Report a Greater Than 10 Percent Gain in Employee Productivity as a Result of Their Mobile Efforts

ARMONK, N.Y. – 19 Nov 2013: IBM today announced results of a new study revealing that 90 percent of global organizations surveyed are willing to sustain or increase their investments in mobile technologies over the next 12-18 months. One of the reasons for increased investments is the measurable impact on speed and productivity. For example, half of the respondents report a greater than 10 percent gain in employee productivity as a result of their mobile efforts. (more…)

Watching Earth’s Winds, On a Shoestring

By Guest PostOctober 30, 2013Scienceatmosphere, climate, earth, earth science mission, el niño, ernesto rodríguez, european ascat scatterometer, hazard for populations, hurricane, interaction, international space station, iss rapidscat, low energy microwave, michael suffredini, microwave energy, NASA, ocean, rapid scatterometer, scatterometer satellite mission, seasat satellite, simon collins, sun synchronous orbit, tropical cyclone

Built with spare parts and without a moment to spare, the International Space Station (ISS)-RapidScat isn’t your average NASA Earth science mission.

Short for Rapid Scatterometer, ISS-RapidScat will monitor ocean winds from the vantage point of the space station . It will join a handful of other satellite scatterometer missions that make essential measurements used to support weather and marine forecasting, including the tracking of storms and hurricanes. It will also help improve our understanding of how interactions between Earth’s ocean and atmosphere influence our climate. (more…)

Mastering Scientific Mumbo Jumbo

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2012Education, Scienceabiotic, bill, biotic factor, common craft show, foundations of science, humor, intelligent decisions, interaction, marcus gillespie, massive, mastering, matt rowe, Media, melinda gates, michigan state university, mooc, mumbo jumbo, open online course, pseudoscience, sam houston, Science, scientific, scientific community, state university, stephen thomas, type

About the video: Discusses the interaction between abiotic and biotic factors. The style of the animation is influenced by The Common Craft Show.

Warning: This class will teach students to translate scientific mumbo jumbo into understandable phrases.

Michigan State University’s first, free Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC, also promises to then teach students “to speak mumbo jumbo and amaze your friends.” (more…)

University of Toronto Study Demonstrates Impact of Adversity on Early Life Development

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2012Sciencebehavioural geneticist, biology, british columbia, childhood adversity, chris reaume, cifar, dna sequence, drosophila melanogaster, ebbd, Environment, enzyme, evidence, evolutionary biology, food, for, foraging gene, fruit fly, gene, gene robinson, human development, illinois, interaction, james burns, kindergartener, larvae, marla sokolowski, molecular genetics, Nature, neuroscience, pkg, pnas, pre programmed, protein, reproductive fitness, rna, rovers, sitters, tom boyce, toronto, transgenic manipulation, university

Study part of growing body of knowledge surrounding gene-environment interplay

TORONTO, ON – It is time to put the nature versus nurture debate to rest and embrace growing evidence that it is the interaction between biology and environment in early life that influences human development, according to a series of studies recently published in a special edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Biologists used to think that our differences are pre-programmed in our genes, while psychologists argued that babies are born with a blank slate and their experience writes on it to shape them into the adults they become. Instead, the important question to be asking is, ‘How is our experience in early life getting embedded in our biology?’” says University of Toronto behavioural geneticist Marla Sokolowski. She is co-editor of the PNAS special edition titled “Biological Embedding of Early Social Adversity: From Fruit Flies to Kindergarteners” along with professors Tom Boyce (University of British Columbia) and Gene Robinson (University of Illinois). (more…)

Questions for Rashid Zia: Brown to Lead Multi-University Quantum Metamaterials Research

By Guest PostOctober 4, 2012Scienceair force, arto nurmikko, Diamond, electric dipole, encrypted communication, harry atwater, interaction, jelena vuckovic, kevin stacey, light, light wave, mark brongersma, matter, multidisciplinary, muri, nader engheta, nanometer, nicholas fang, office, optical memory, optical microprocessor, optical wavelength, quantum emitter, quantum metamaterials, quantum metaphotonics, quantum optics, quantum scale, rashid zia, research initiative, scalable technology, semiconductor, seth bank, shanhui fan, spatial variation, telecommunication, university, xiang zhang

Through a new Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) awarded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Brown will lead an effort to study new optical materials and their interactions with light at the quantum scale. The initiative, which includes six other top universities, will receive $4.5 million over three years, with a possible two-year extension.

Harnessing the power of light at the quantum scale could clear the way for superfast optical microprocessors, high-capacity optical memory, securely encrypted communication, and untold other technologies. But before any of these potential applications sees the light of day, substantial obstacles must be overcome — not the least of which is the fact that the wavelength of light is larger than quantum-scale objects, limiting the range of possible light-matter interactions. (more…)

Forcing the Molecular Bond Issue

By Guest PostSeptember 6, 2012Scienceadsorb, aerosol droplets, aleksandr noy, antibody, berkeley lab, binding free energy, biosensing assay, data, dfs, dynamic force spectroscopy, energy barrier, force spectra, formation, interaction, intermolecular bond, jim deyoreo, material, molecular bond, molecular foundry, molecular system, molecule, nanoscience center, nonlinear force, property, raymond friddle, rupture, single bond model, standard model, synthetic analogue, synthetic polymer, torsional force

New and Improved Model of Molecular Bonding from Researchers at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry

Material properties and interactions are largely determined by the binding and unbinding of their constituent molecules, but the standard model used to interpret data on the formation and rupturing of molecular bonds suffers from inconsistencies. A collaboration of researchers led by a scientist at the U.S Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed a first-of-its-kind model for providing a comprehensive description of the way in which molecular bonds form and rupture. This model enables researchers to predict the “binding free energy” of a given molecular system, which is key to predicting how that molecule will interact with other molecules.

“Molecular binding and unbinding events are much simpler than we have been led to believe from the standard model over the past decade,” says Jim DeYoreo, a scientist with the Molecular Foundry, a DOE nanoscience center at Berkeley Lab who was one of the leaders of this research. “With our new model, we now have a clear means for measuring one of the most important parameters governing how materials and molecules bind together.” (more…)

Opposites Attract

By Guest PostJuly 1, 2012Scienceenergy engineering, environmental, force, fuel cell membrane, hems, hems fuel cells, human hair, hydroxide exchange membranes, interaction, jason skovard, molecular interaction, nickel, non platinum metals, opposites attract, platinum catalysts, polymer chain, polymer membrane, polymer membranes, shuang gu, silver, udei, university of delaware, van der waals, yushan yan

UD professor reports milestone in fuel cell membrane research

It looks like a plastic candy wrapper that’s been charred on both sides, but it may hold the solution to commercially viable fuel cells.

About the thickness of a human hair, it is actually a thin polymer membrane sandwiched between two catalysts. The work is that of Yushan Yan, Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the University of Delaware, who is known for developing new catalysts and membranes to reduce the cost and improve the durability of fuel cells.

The membrane, he says, is a game changing development that shows great promise to revolutionize the way engineers and scientists think about traditional chemical crosslinking methods used to create strong fuel cell membranes. (more…)