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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Month: January 2002

Gamete stem cells may also control aging

According to a press release (18 January 2002), researchers at the University of California at San Francisco have found that stem cells for eggs and sperm also control aging in the roundworm C. elegans. The unsuspected role may find parallels in other organisms including humans, they suggest.

The finding shows for the first time that genes act in the adult animal to control its rate of aging. The stem cells, it seems, can modify lifespan even as aging is proceeding. The key stem cells, the scientists found, are not those that actually become egg or sperm, but their sister cells from the same stem cell pool, known as "proliferating germline stem cells," that divide continuously in the animalís reproductive tissues. Their study is reported in the 18 January 2002 issue of Science.

More on DNA-based motor at NYU lab

Vik points to an article in Technology Research News ("Morphing DNA makes motor", by Kimberly Patch, 16 January 2002) on the research by Nadrian Seeman at New York University into DNA-based devices:

"Dr. Nadrian Seeman has created and tested a 4-step DNA motor that can rotate indefinitely. Fuelled by other DNA strands, the molecular motor described in [the] TRN article operates in controllable steps. Dr. Seeman says that the range of motion is from 0.04 to 4 nm, although movement of 35nm has been made using arrays of the devices."

This item was also reported here on 2 January 2002.

NASA project to develop nanocapsules for cancer therapy

A news items from Science@NASA ("Voyage of the Nano-Surgeons", by Patrick L. Barry, 15 January 2002), a news service of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), describes work at the NASA Ames Research Center to develop "nanoparticles" and "nanocapsules" that will hunt down diseased cells and penetrate their membranes to deliver precise doses of medicines. The hope is that the tiny capsules may someday be injected into people's bloodstreams to treat conditions ranging from cancer to radiation damage.

Read more for details of the project and web links to other resources.

HHMI team reveals structure of chloride ion channel

According to a press release, a team of scientists led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator Roderick MacKinnon at The Rockefeller University has determined the three-dimensional structure of the chloride ion channel. Their work was reported in the 17 January 2002, issue of Nature. Additional information is available in a second press release from Rockefeller University, where the MacKinnon lab is located. The same team worked out the details of the function of another type of ion channel, or molecular sorter, for potassium in November 2001.

The researchers discovered the chloride ion channel has a completely different structure from the potassium ion channel. While the potassium ion channel has one large single pore with a water-filled, pyramid-shaped cavity, the chloride ion channel has two pores, each shaped like an hourglass with a narrow constriction at the center. The scientists also discovered the arrangement of the protein subunits that make up the channel are arranged entirely differently in the two types of channels. In the potassium ion channel, four protein subunits contribute to a single pore. In the chloride ion channel, each protein subunit has its own pore and the two halves of the subunit have opposite orientations in whatís called two-fold rotational symmetry. Future experiments in MacKinnonís laboratory will focus on determining how the chloride ion channel opens and closes to maintain the appropriate concentration of ions inside the cell.

Similar work on a membrane channel specific for water molecules was reported here on Nanodot in December 2001.

Near-Earth asteroid traffic heavy during January

from the gotta-get-off-this-rock dept.
According to an article from the Reuters news service ("Two Hefty Asteroids Pass Close to Earth", by Deborah Zabarenko, 16 January 2002), two hefty asteroids passed close to Earth on 16 January 2002, with at least five more set to swing near by January's end. One of the close-approaching asteroids measured between .6 and 1.8 miles in diameter, a big enough space rock to cause catastrophe if it collided with Earth. According to the report, at least five more fairly big asteroids were to pass close to Earth's orbit before Jan. 29, according to NASA's Near Earth Object Program. The article also notes there was some mild consternation over asteroid 2001 YB5, a 1,000-foot wide asteroid that got within 500,000 miles of Earth during the second week of January.

NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Tracking project watches for asteroids .6 miles or more across that have the potential to wreak havoc on Earth if they hit. Of the approximately 1,200 big dangerous asteroids believed to exist, scientists have detected 564. The vast majority of those — 471 — have been discovered since 1990.

Many scientists believe that an asteroid perhaps 3 miles across wiped out the dinosaurs and many other species when it crashed to Earth at the end of the Cretaceous era 65 million years ago. According to another press release (17 January 2002), at team of University of Arizona scientists will begin field work on an international project to core 1.8 kilometers into an immense crater created by the impact of an asteroid or comet 65 million years ago that is thought to be the object responsible for the Cretaceous extinctions. The project, the Chicxulub Scientific Drilling Project (CSDP), is located near Mérida, Yucatan, Mexico.

Research suggests a second, RNA component of genome

from the beyond-the-proteome dept.
An article in the 12 January 2002 issue of Science News ("Biological Dark Matter: Newfound RNA suggests a hidden complexity inside cells", by John Travis) summarizes research done over the past decade or so that indicates terrestrial biology may have a second component to its genetic systems that expresses functional RNA, rather than messenger RNA that guides the synthesis of proteins. Many previously unrecognized gene sequences apparently encode RNA molecules that have important regulatory and developmental functions.

An overview of South Korean nanotech programs

from the World-Watch dept.
An intriguing article in the January 2002 issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine ("A bid to take the lead", by Y. Eugene Pak), a publication of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), reviews the strategic direction of South Korean plans to become a world leader in nanotechnology by 2010. Pak, a researcher in the MEMS laboratory at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology in Kiheung, Korea, near Seoul, notes that "Korea has put forth an ambitious plan that will prepare itself to achieve world-class competitiveness in nanotechnology within the next 10 years." According to Pak, "A panel of experts from government, industry, and academia has drafted a strategic plan for commercialization of nano-technologies. The strategy is a three-tier plan to establish needed infrastructure and human resources by 2005, to commercialize nanotechnology from 2005 onward, and finally to become one of the world's leaders by 2010."

Pak describes many nanotechnology-related research projects in government, university, and industrial laboratories covering nanomagnetic and ferroelectric thin-film processing, carbon nanotubes for molecular electronic devices, quantum dots, quantum computing, nanolithography, single-electron transistors, scanning probe microscope-based surface physics, and nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS). He also notes the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare has drafted a 10-year plan to carry out research in nanobiotechnology, including nanoscale diagnostic devices, nanoscale treatment systems, and nanobiomimetics.

The formulation of South Koreaís ambitious nanotechnology program was covered here on Nanodot on 25 May, 31 July, and 2 August 2001.

Note: If the above link to the ME article is broken, try this link to the back issues archive (this link may be inactive until the issue is archived).

NYT article describes progress in regenerative medicine

An article in the New York Times ("Doctors Advance in Helping Body to Repair Itself", by Gina Kolata, 15 January 2002) reviews current work in regenerative medicine, particularly recent research with pancreatic cells and the heart. The article notes comments from a recent editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine which noted that the findings regarding self-repair of the heart had enormous implications, because scientists may be able to prompt that repair. "Such approaches to therapy, which previously were only pipe dreams, are now realistic goals that may soon be within reach."

A previous NYT article on regenerative medicine from 18 December 2001 generated an extensive discussion here on Nanodot.

Note: Access to the NYT site is free, but requires registration.

Foresight Update 47 available on the web

The latest issue of Foresight Update, our quarterly newsletter, is now available online. Foresight Update 47 offers coverage of the Ninth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology in November 2001, as well as nanotech-related news from across the United States and around the world. The issue also contains a new article on nanomedicine ("Volumetric Cellular Intrusiveness of Medical Nanorobots") by Robert A. Freitas Jr.

Special issue of Interface highlights nanotech

The Fall (October-December) 2001 issue of Interface, a technical trade publication of the Electrochemical Society, is devoted to the theme of "Smaller is better: emerging nanoscience". [Note: all of the following links lead to Adobe Acrobat PDF files, not web pages.]

The issue is introduced by a piece by guest editor Joseph T. Hupp ("Emerging Nanoscience and Functional Artificial Nanoarchitectures"), a professor of chemistry at Northwestern University and a researcher at Northwesternís Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly. Calling nanoscience and nanotechnology vibrant areas of research and development, Hupp writes, "The excitement, and the private and public investment to back it, comes from nothing less than the promise of revolutionary advances in medicine, communications, and other areas of contemporary technology." He also notes that ìNanotechnology becomes viable, of course, only when desired nanoscale objects can be intentionally and reproducibly made,î and goes on to describe "top-down" and "bottom-up" approaches to nanotech, clearly favoring the latter: ìNew materials and new architectures — devised in a bottom-up, molecular fashion — can be engines for the invention of new and better nanoscience and the development of new and better nanotechnology."

The issue contains three technical articles that describe nanostructured materials and functions:

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