Caption: Parts of BlocKit Credit: Irni Khairuddin I’m always on the lookout for something that helps make blockchain and cryptocurrency more understandable. (For the uninitiated or anyone like me who needed to refresh their memories, I have links to good essays on the topic further down in this posting.) A July 10, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily announces a new approach to understanding blockchain technology, A kit made from everyday objects is bringing the blockchain…

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CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) technology is often touted as being ‘precise’, which as far as I can tell, is not exactly the case (see my Nov. 28, 2018 posting about the CRISPR babies [scroll down about 30% of the way for the first hint that CRISPR isn’t]). So, it’s a bit odd to see the word ‘precise’ used as part of a new CRISPR-based technology’s name (from a January 8, 2019 news…

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Have you ever wondered about the possible effects and impact of desalinating large amounts of ocean water? It seems that some United Nations University (UNU) researchers have asked and are beginning to answer that question. The following table illustrates the rise in desalination plants and processes, Today 15,906 operational desalination plants are found in 177 countries. Almost half of the global desalination capacity is located in the Middle East and North Africa region (48 percent),…

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While it’s true enough in English where you don’t spell the word team with the letter ‘I’, that’s not the case in French where the word is ‘equipe’. it makes me wonder how many other languages in the world have an ‘I’ in team. Moving on. This English language saying is true enough in its way but there is no team unless you have a group of ‘I’s’ and the trick is getting them to…

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I don’t understand why anyone would publicize science work featuring soundscapes without including an audio file. However, no one from Princeton University (US) phoned and asked for my advice :). On the plus side, my whale story does have a sample audio file. However, I’m not sure if I can figure out how to embed it here. Princeton and monitoring forests In addition to a professor from Princeton University, there’s the founder of an environmental…

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Caption: Schematic representation of the movement of the flower-like particle as it makes its way through a cellular trap to deliver therapeutic genes. Credit: WSU [Washington State University] It looks more like a swimming pool with pool toys to me but I imagine that nobody wants to say that they’re sending ‘pool toys’ through your bloodstream. Nanoflowers or flower-shaped nanoparticles sounds nicer. From a January 10, 2019 news item on Nanowerk, Washington State University [WSU]…

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I have two relatively recent news bits about nanomaterials, the second being entirely focused on graphene. Searchable database A July 9, 2019 news item on Nanowerk announces a means of finding out what hazards may be associated with 300 different nanomaterials (Note: A Link has been removed), A new search tool for nanomaterials has been published on the European Union Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) website. It will enable regulators to form a better view of…

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Caption: Wireless and battery-free implant with advanced control over targeted neuron groups. Credit: Philipp Gutruf This January 2, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily describes the object seen in the above and describes the problem it’s designed to solve, University of Arizona biomedical engineering professor Philipp Gutruf is first author on the paper Fully implantable, optoelectronic systems for battery-free, multimodal operation in neuroscience research, published in Nature Electronics.Optogenetics is a biological technique that uses light to…

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If you’re imagining an enhanced chakra balancing experience or more efficient digestion of your vitamin supplements, you will be a little disappointed in this latest news from the Imperial College of London (ICL). On the other hand, if you have damaged tissue, this discovery could make your recovery much easier. From a January 7, 2019 news item on phys.org, Materials are widely used to help heal wounds: Collagen sponges help treat burns and pressure sores,…

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A Jan. 3, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily touts a new means of transporting DNA-coated nanoparticles (DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid), This holiday season, scientists at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) — a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory — have wrapped a box of a different kind. Using a one-step chemical synthesis method, they engineered hollow metallic nanosized boxes with cube-shaped pores at the corners and demonstrated…

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