The ‘pair of scissors’ analogy is probably the most well known of the attempts to describe how the CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-Cas9 gene editing system works. It seems a new analogy is about to be added according to a January 19 2021 news item on ScienceDaily (Note: This October 30, 2019 posting features more CRISPR analogies), In a series of experiments with laboratory-cultured bacteria, Johns Hopkins scientists have found evidence that there…

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Length but no width or height? That’s a quantum nanowire according to a Jan. 18, 2021 news item on Nanowerk (Note: A link has been removed), Why is studying spin properties of one-dimensional quantum nanowires important?Quantum nanowires–which have length but no width or height–provide a unique environment for the formation and detection of a quasiparticle known as a Majorana zero mode.A new UNSW [University of New South Wales]-led study (Nature Communications, “New signatures of the…

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A February 19, 2021 article by Pamela Fieber for CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) news online features news of a Calgary (Alberta) company, Summit Nanotech, and a greener way to mine lithium (Note: A link has been removed), Amanda Hall was on top of a mountain in Tibet when inspiration struck. “I saw a Tibetan monk reach into his robe and pull out an iPhone,” Hall told the Calgary Eyeopener [CBC radio programme].“If there’s an iPhone at…

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Discover Engineers Week is being held from February 21 -27, 2021 by the (US) National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). Included in the schedule of events is a special day, February 25, 2021, dedicated to introducing engineering to girls. There is a poster celebrating 10 female engineers on a February 18, 2021 blog posting at wetheparents.org. I’ve excerpted a few of the images and biographies, #5 Henrietta Vansittart Born Henrietta Lowe, a young Vansittart was…

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This is the first time I’ve seen wearable tech based on biological material, in this case, fungi. In diving further into this material (wordplay intended), I discovered some previous work on using fungi for building materials, which you’ll find later in this posting. Wearable tech and more A January 18, 2021 news item on phys.org provides some illumination on the matter, Fungi are among the world’s oldest and most tenacious organisms. They are now showing…

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Caption: A comparison of how linear PEG (left) and cyclic PEG (right) attach to a gold nanoparticle Credit: Yubo Wang, Takuya Yamamoto A January 20, 2021 news item on phys.org focuses on work designed to stop gold nanoparticles from clumping together (Note: A link has been removed), Hokkaido University scientists have found a way to prevent gold nanoparticles from clumping, which could help towards their use as an anti-cancer therapy.Attaching ring-shaped synthetic compounds to gold…

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Every once in a while I delve into concrete, especially Roman concrete, and cement. The most recent of these postings (until now) was a June 3, 2016 post titled, Making better concrete by looking to nature for inspiration. A January 8, 2021 Nagoya University press release (also on EurekAlert but published Jan. 13, 2021) describes how nuclear power plants could lead the way to an eco-friendly modern concrete as durable as that the ancient Romans…

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By FotoosRobin – originally posted to Flickr as Lotus root, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4826529 The lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) rhizome (mass of roots) is not the prettiest part of the lotus but its fibers (and presumably fiber from other parts of the lotus plant) served as inspiration for a hydrogel that might be used as a surgical suture according to a Jan. 14, 2021 news item on phys.org (Note: Links have been removed), “The lotus roots…

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This is a little outside my comfort zone but here goes anyway. From a December 23, 2020 news item on phys.org (Note: Links have been removed), Osaka City University scientists have developed mathematical formulas to describe the current and fluctuations of strongly correlated electrons in quantum dots. Their theoretical predictions could soon be tested experimentally.Theoretical physicists Yoshimichi Teratani and Akira Oguri of Osaka City University, and Rui Sakano of the University of Tokyo have developed…

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