The Origin Of Life - John Maynard Smith

Royal Institution Discourse (1995). In modern organisms, there is a division of labour between two kinds of molecule: DNA, which stores … all » and transmits genetic information, and proteins, which do all the work. They are connected by the ‘genetic code’, whereby DNA specifies what kinds of proteins can be made. This process of translation is well understood, but it is far too complicated to have arisen by chance in the primitive oceans. How can this apparent paradox be resolved?

Popular Science - ‘Worst Jobs in Science’

The Worst Jobs in Science

Pain, Tedium, Danger, Disgust, Humiliation—It’s all just part of the average workday for the (often proud, more often smelly) members of our third annual honor roll of the Worst Jobs in Science.

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Don’t forget to check out #3… probably the worst job of all.

Creationism and reason

So it came to pass that creationism begat intelligent design which begat Discovery Institute which begat Biologic Institute (16 December 2006, p 8). It is amusing that a creed so dedicated to refuting Darwin is itself forced to undergo continual evolution.

From Neil Paterson

There is a difficulty with the creationists’ latest ploy to invest “intelligent design” with a veneer of scientific respectability by submitting their experimental work to peer-reviewed journals, which is that no scientific experiment can have any bearing on their hypothesis.

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Mini heat harvesters could be new energy source

New ways of turning heat into sound waves - and then into electricity - may be the next step toward a practical new source of alternative energy.

Scientists have known for decades that they can turn heat into sound using simple devices called acoustic heat engines. But this week a team of University of Utah researchers plan to show they’ve succeeded in miniaturising and optimising the devices, which then turn the sound into usable electricity.

If true, the advance could open the door to super-efficient power plants, cars, and computers, as well as a new generation of solar cells.

More about alternative fuel sources

Embedded nanowires could control tissue growth

A new way of embedding silicon nanowires in cells could one day allow scientists to control how living tissues grow using electrical stimulation.

Living cells cannot easily be connected to nanowires. In the past, researchers have had to physically push nanowires or carbon nanotubes into the cells, which can damage or kill them.

However, Peidong Yang of the University of California at Berkeley and a team of researchers found that when cells in a solution settle onto an array of silicon nanowires, they gradually incorporate the wires into the cells without any resistance.

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Ancient Plant May Become New Source of Biofuel

Researchers are all abuzz over a promising new source of biofuel that flourished almost 3,500 years ago in Europe. Camelina, if planted on a large scale on marginal farmland from eastern Washington to North Dakota, could provide a significant source of clean energy.”This is the most exciting crop I have seen in my 30 some years in this field,” said Steven Guy, a crop-management specialist and professor at the University of Idaho. While early results from test plantings have been encouraging, the only farmers who have shown interest in it are from Montana, where over 50,000 acres of camelina have already been planted.

Full Article at treehugger.com

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Do you think we should continue our dependence on hydrocarbons, and use edible plants as fuel? Post your comments, and voice your opinion!

Single spinning nuclei in diamond offer a stable quantum computing building block

Surmounting several distinct hurdles to quantum computing, physicists at Harvard University have found that individual carbon-13 atoms in a diamond lattice can be manipulated with extraordinary precision to create stable quantum mechanical memory and a small quantum processor, also known as a quantum register, operating at room temperature. The finding brings the futuristic technology of quantum information systems into the realm of solid-state materials under ordinary conditions.The results, described this week in Science, could revolutionize scientists’ approach to quantum computing, which is built on the profound eccentricity of quantum mechanics and could someday far outperform conventional supercomputers in solving certain problems.

“These experiments lay the groundwork for development of a new approach to quantum information systems,” says Mikhail D. Lukin, professor of physics in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Read about the future of computing here

Switchable hologram promises memory boost

A device that stores holograms using a liquid crystal film controlled electronically has been created by researchers in Singapore. They hope that future versions could be used to store large amounts of digital data in small areas, or to manipulate living cells with light.

Holographic memory can store more information than memory technologies like CDs and DVDs because information can be encoded in three dimensions, in the form of light interference. In fact, holographic data disks are already on the market (see Start of the hologram wars), although these can only be written to once.

Read full article here

Bizarre chemical discovery gives homeopathic hint

It is a chance discovery so unexpected it defies belief and threatens to reignite debate about whether there is a scientific basis for thinking homeopathic medicines really work.

A team in South Korea has discovered a whole new dimension to just about the simplest chemical reaction in the book - what happens when you dissolve a substance in water and then add more water.

Conventional wisdom says that the dissolved molecules simply spread further and further apart as a solution is diluted. But two chemists have found that some do the opposite: they clump together, first as clusters of molecules, then as bigger aggregates of those clusters. Far from drifting apart from their neighbours, they got closer together.

Find out more from newscientist.com here