Scientific data in various fields of human endeavor. Interesting user friendly presentation of articles in sciences both recent and in the distant past
The Ultimate Aero EV – World’s Fastest Electric Car
Shelby SuperCars recently announces plans to produce an all-electric version of one of their current cars, the Ultimate Aero, also known as the world’s fastest production car. The new model will be powered by their revolutionary All-Electric Scalable Powertrain (AESP), and will provide 100% torque at 0 RPM and better performance compared to traditional internal combustion engines. With a 1,000hp twin motor and 800 ft-lb of torque, the car will be able to acheive 60mph in 2.5 seconds and have a top speed of 208mph. According to the company, the battery will charge in 10 minutes and have a 150 to 200 mile range.
Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 24th June 2009
Oregon researchers have created the first genetically modified monkey. ANDi, a playful, coffee-colored rhesus monkey born on October 2nd 2000, has been engineered to carry a gene from another species. The work demonstrates that a foreign gene can be delivered and inserted into a primate chromosome. The researchers anticipate that gene insertions in the monkey will lead to primate models of human diseases—like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease and obesity—that will offer a more robust testing ground for new drugs, gene therapy and modified stem cells.
ANDi (DNA inserted spelled backward)
is the first transgenic monkey.
“Our ultimate goal is to produce human disease models. Primates show human pathology better than mice, which, in many cases, are the only systems we have for modeling human diseases,” says Anthony Chan, of the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center, in Beaverton. The report is published in this week’s issue of Science.
Chan’s goal was to show that a foreign gene can be inserted into a monkey’s chromosome and produce a functional protein. The GFP gene was chosen because the protein it produces emits a fluorescent green glow that can easily be seen through a microscope. Eventually scientists want to insert human disease genes and study disease progression in monkeys, says Chan.
Tissue samples taken from ANDi’s cheek, hair, umbilical cord and placenta confirm that the cells contain the GFP gene and corresponding mRNA; the molecule that bridges the gap between DNA and protein. However, when the tissue was examined under the microscope, no green protein could be seen.
“Maybe the quantity of protein is too small to be seen or maybe the mRNA is not being translated,” says Chan.
The team will continue to monitor ANDi for GFP;
Some transgenic animals do not produce any foreign protein until after the first year.
(LEFT)Virus particles carrying the GFP gene are injected into the unfertilized egg. The gene (white) is released from the virus and incorporated into the chromosome. (RIGHT)About 6 hours after introducing the virus scientists artificially fertilize the egg by injecting a sperm from a male rhesus. The fertilized egg then begins to grow and divide. Two to three days later when the egg has divided twice and become a four-celled embryo it is implanted into a surrogate mother. Courtesy Oregon Regional Primate Research Cente
VIEW THE LINK BELOW FOR MORE
Introducing ANDi: The first geneticallymodifiedmonkey
Oregon researchers have created the first geneticallymodifiedmonkey. ANDi, a playful, coffee-colored rhesus monkey born on October 2nd 2000, … www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/01_01/ANDi.shtml
Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 29th May 2009
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Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 29th May 2009
At last, a robot that is powered by food – but watch out, this gastrobot’s ideal food is flesh!
According to this week’s New Scientist, a researcher at the University of South Florida has developed a 12-wheeled monster called Chew Chew, with a microbial fuel cell stomach that uses E. coli bacteria to break down food and convert chemical energy into electricity.
“Turning food into electricity isn’t unique,” says Wilkinson. “What I’ve done is make it small enough to fit into a robot”.
The microbes produce enzymes that break down carbohydrates, releasing electrons which are harnessed to charge a battery by a reduction and oxidation reaction.
Wilkinson says this is analogous to blood supply and respiration in a mammal – but delivering electrons instead of oxygen.
Gastrobot consists of three 1-metre long wheeled wagons complete with pumps for redox solution, battery bank, oesophagus, ultrasonic eyes, mouth, DC motor and E.coli powered stomach.
Unfortunately, the microbial fuel cell doesn’t produce enough power to actually move Chew Chew. Instead, the electricity is used to charge the batteries and only when these are fully charged does can the robot move. When the batteries are drained, the cycle must then be repeated.
According to New Scientist, early applications for gastrobots are likely to include mowing lawns – grazing on grass clippings for fuel.
The ideal fuel in terms of energy gain is meat, says inventor Stuart Wilkinson, but at the moment Chew Chew lives on sugar cubes.
Catching meat would require the robot to produce more energy and besides Wilkinson isn’t so sure it’s good to give gastrobots a taste for meat.
Conversion to eat carion flesh or decaying corpses is another option.
“Otherwise they’ll notice there’s an awful lot of humans running around and try to eat them,” he warns.
New studies show the vaccine Cervarix blocks the virus that causes cervical cancer, but if it wins approval for U.S. sales, it will face an uphill battle against Gardasil, which has owned the market for three years.
Cervarix, Glaxo’s vaccine against human papilloma virus or HPV, already is approved in more than 90 other countries, but has been held up by delays in the United States. Several years ago, the British drugmaker was in a neck-and-neck race with rival Merck & Co., Gardasil’s maker, to be first on the U.S. market, but it lost when Gardasil got approved in June 2006.
Late in 2007, U.S. regulators said they wouldn’t approve Cervarix without additional data. from n extensive study still in progress at the time.
Final results from that 18,000-women study and two others are being presented this weekend at a conference in Sweden on papillomavirus. The data was submitted to the Food and Drug Administration on March 30, and FDA is expected to decide whether to approve Cervarix within several months.
If it does, analyst Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan‘s Ross School of Business, said doctors who have prescribed Gardasil for a few years may see no reason to switch – unless GlaxoSmithKline convinces them its product is much more effective or has fewer side effects.
Both vaccines target the two types of HPV that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers, types 16 and 18, and data indicate both are about 98 percent effective. But Merck also has data showing Gardasil blocks two other HPV types that cause most cases of genital warts that Cervarix does not target.
That will be a key factor for doctors, experts said.
“All else being equal, it’s a no-brainer for the doctor, (who) wants to give the most efficacious treatment,” Gordon said.
Despite Merck owning the U.S. market, Gardasil racked up only $262 million in global sales in the most recent quarter, versus $320 million for Cervarix, which has won more contracts from government health programs in other countries.
Partial results of the new Cervarix studies released to The Associated Press indicate it also offers good protection against 12 other HPV types.
One of the studies, which looked at looked at levels of antibodies to some HPV types after study participants were vaccinated with Cervarix or Gardasil, found higher antibody levels induced by Cervarix. But Dr. Gary Dubin, head of one of Glaxo’s clinical development centers, said that doesn’t prove Cervarix is more effective.
New data will be presented at the same conference on Gardasil, indicating it blocks HPV 16 for at least 9 1/2 years, according to Merck. Glaxo has followed women for up to 7 1/2 years and continues to test some to see if they develop cervical lesions or cancer.
Dr. Cynthia Rand, a researcher, pediatrician and associate professor at the University of Rochester Medical School, said Cervarix appears to be effective. But she said the higher antibody levels triggered by Cervarix, compared with Gardasil, might be meaningless. She said doctors don’t know if they will have to give booster shots years from now for either vaccine.
“It won’t change my practice” of giving Gardasil and likely won’t do so for other doctors, said Rand, whose university has patent claims and receives some royalties related to both vaccines. “Pediatricians prefer in general to also protect against genital warts.“
Associated Press
Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 9th May 2009
LONDON (UPI) — Japanese researchers say low levels of lithium found naturally in some water systems may help prevent suicides.
A study at Oita University in Japan, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found natural lithium levels ranging from 0.7 micrograms to 59 micrograms per litre in 18 communities in southern Japan, The (London) Daily Telegraph reported Friday.
Researchers found the suicide rate was significantly lower in communities whose water contained larger amounts of lithium.
High doses of the naturally occurring metal are used to treat bipolar and mood disorders.
The findings have led some researchers to call for further study to consider the public health benefits of adding lithium to drinking water supplies, the newspaper said.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International
Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 4th May 2009
Toyota Motor Corp and Toyota Housing Corp announced April 14, 2009, that they began in earnest the development of a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) equipped with a power storage function.
The companies plan to commercialize the system in 2011, starting with trial sales by Toyota Housing. The system will be priced at several hundred thousand yen (several thousand dollars) when they hit the market, the companies said.
Existing HEMSs are equipped with functions to display energy usage and control home appliances such as air conditioners and lights. In addition to these functions, the system to be developed by Toyota Motors and Toyota Housing will feature a function to store electricity.
Inexpensive night time power and excess power generated by residential photovoltaic equipment in the daytime can be stored in a storage battery such as a Li-ion secondary battery to cope with power shortage in the daytime.
The new system is composed of the main body, which consists of a storage battery, an electric power converter and a controller, and a display/control panel for use inside a house. Toyota Motor will lead the development, and Toyota Housing will manage product planning. Denso Corp and Misawa Homes Co Ltd will help develop the main body and the display, respectively, of the system.
Toyota Motor has already completed an initial prototype that incorporates a Li-ion secondary battery with a storage capacity of 5kWh. The storage battery used in the system to be commercialized will be determined by conducting evaluations based on assumed residential electric load, etc.
Furthermore, Toyota intends to realize collaborations of the HEMS with a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and an electric vehicle (EV), which are expected to be widely used, in the future.
Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 22nd April 2009
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (UPI) — U.S. engineers say they’ve developed technology that can detect defects in vehicles by driving over a speed bump-like “diagnostic cleat” containing sensors.
Purdue University Associate Professor Douglas Adams is working with the U.S. Army and Honeywell International Inc. to develop the system.
In the tests, military vehicles are driven over the diagnostic cleat, which is like a rubber-jacketed speed bump equipped with sensors called triaxial accelerometers. The system measures vibrations created by forces that a vehicle’s tires apply to the cleat. Damage is detected in the tires, wheel bearings and suspension components by using signal processing software to interpret the sensor data.
“Let’s say one of the tires is severely under pressure,” Adams said. “The cleat tells you to turn around and fill up that tire because you are about to embark on a 10-hour mission with this vehicle. Or, you are returning the vehicle to the depot and the cleat tells you that the right rear suspension has a problem in the shock absorber or a critical bolt in the front suspension is broken. The maintenance personnel don’t have to troubleshoot the vehicle. They know what to fix.”
The system also could be used to test civilian vehicles, he said.
Research findings are to be presented April 22 in Detroit during the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International
Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 20th April 2009
From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Apollo 16, the fifth of six U.S. lunar landing missions, is successfully launched on its 238,000-mile journey to the moon. On April 20, astronauts John W. Young and Charles M. Duke descended to the lunar surface from Apollo 16, which remained in orbit around the moon with a third astronaut, Thomas K. Mattingly, in command. Young and Duke remained on the moon for nearly three days, and spent more than 20 hours exploring the surface of Earth’s only satellite. The two astronauts used the Lunar Rover vehicle to collect more than 200 pounds of rock before returning to Apollo 16 on April 23. Four days later, the three astronauts returned to Earth, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 16th April 2009
Shelby SuperCars recently announces plans to produce an all-electric version of one of their current cars, the Ultimate Aero, also known as the world’s fastest production car. The new model will be powered by their revolutionary All-Electric Scalable Powertrain (AESP), and will provide 100% torque at 0 RPM and better performance compared to traditional internal combustion engines. With a 1,000hp twin motor and 800 ft-lb of torque, the car will be able to acheive 60mph in 2.5 seconds and have a top speed of 208mph. According to the company, the battery will charge in 10 minutes and have a 150 to 200 mile range.
Before 
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