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Discussion of the Essence# programming language, and related issues and technologies. |
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Scientists Test Anti-obesity Vaccine from PhysOrg.com
In what may be the first published breakthrough of its kind in the global battle against obesity, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have developed an anti-obesity vaccine that significantly slowed weight gain and reduced body fat in animal models.
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Research dishes out flexible computer chips from PhysOrg.com
New thin-film semiconductor techniques invented by University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers promise to add sensing, computing and imaging capability to an amazing array of materials.
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Scientists Discover a Genetic Code for Organizing DNA from PhysOrg.com
DNA – the long, thin molecule that carries our hereditary material – is compressed around protein scaffolding in the cell nucleus into tiny spheres called nucleosomes. The bead-like nucleosomes are strung along the entire chromosome, which is itself folded and packaged to fit into the nucleus. What determines how, when and where a nucleosome will be positioned along the DNA sequence?
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Researchers create fiber webs that see from PhysOrg.com
In a radical departure from conventional lens-based optics, MIT scientists have developed a sophisticated optical system made of mesh-like webs of light-detecting fibers. The fiber constructs, which have a number of advantages over their lens-based predecessors, are currently capable of measuring the direction, intensity and phase of light (a property used to describe a light wave) without the lenses, filters or detector arrays that are the classic elements of optical systems such as eyes or cameras.
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Science Daily reports that scientists in Germany have overcome a major hurdle towards constructing a working quantum computer: Laser Tweezers Sort Atoms: Major Hurdle On Path To Quantum Computer
Chronos Version B1.173 has been publised ("Beta Release 1--build 173".) Chronos B1.173 is available for VisualWorks, Squeak and Dolphin. The Chronos Seed Archive for B1.173 is also available (the "Chronos Seed" is the platform-independent Chronos codebase, used for porting Chronos from VisualWorks to other Smalltalk pltatforms.)
Chronos Version B1.173 can be obtained from the Chronos Web Site. The VisualWorks version can also be obtained from the Cincom Public StORE Repository. You may also use the direct download link for VisualWorks, the direct download link for Squeak or the direct download link for Dolphin.
The Chronos Time Zone Repository is included in the download archive. Be sure to follow the Chronos Installation Instructions--especially if you have not already done so for a previous version of Chronos.
If you are reinstalling Chronos into an image in which an earlier version is already resident, and do not install the new version from the Cincom Public StORE Repository using StORE, it is necessary to first remove the earlier version. StORE has been able to correctly install the new version on top of every earlier version I have tried--but I haven't tried them all.
According to a posting on the GigaOM blog, Smallthought Systems have received $2 million in venture financing for their Dable DB structured-data web application.
Congratulations to Avi Bryant and Andrew Catton, the founders of Smallthought Systems. Well done, dudes!
The ScienceDaily article Stealth Radar System Sees Through Trees, Walls -- Undetected discusses an ultrawideband radar system that a) operates undetectably and without interfering with other EM signals, b) operates over even very short distances (unlike curent radar technology,) c) is able to see through just about any obstruction, and d) costs less than $100 to manufacture.
According to ScienceDaily's article Chewing Up A Key Regulator Of Fat Synthesis Keeps Mice Lean Despite A High-fat Diet:
Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a novel pathway that regulates the body's ability to store or burn fat, a discovery that suggests new ways to reduce obesity, diabetes and other fat-related human diseases.
According to the journal Nature, a method to convert adult cells into embryonic stem cells is on the verge of discovery:
Biologists say they are close to finding a cellular elixir of youth: a cocktail of proteins that can convert adult cells into embryonic stem cells that are able to grow replacement tissues.
Assuming this pans out, it means we are very, very close to a stunning new medical technology, whose impact should be as great as the sum of the germ theory of disease, antibiotics, anaesthetics, blood transfusions and x-rays. It would appear that, by the end of the next decade, 21st-Century medicine will be as far advanced over that of the late 20th Century, as 1990s medicine was over that of the 19th Century.
