Creative New

A LEADER IN THE HIVE: THE QUEEN BEE.Via us2.harunyahya

A bee’s future as queen or worker may rest with parasitic fly.Via eurekalert

Genomic dissection of behavioral maturation in the honey bee.Via pubmedcentral.nih.gov

Strange things are happening in the lowland tropical forests of Panama and Costa Rica. A tiny parasitic fly is affecting the social behavior of a nocturnal bee, helping to determine which individuals become queens and which become workers.

pictures:worth1000

[Read more →]

Amateurs are trying genetic engineering at home.

Via news.yahoo

SAN FRANCISCO – The Apple computer was invented in a garage. Same with the Google search engine. Now, tinkerers are working at home with the basic building blocks of life itself.

Using homemade lab equipment and the wealth of scientific knowledge available online, these hobbyists are trying to create new life forms through genetic engineering — a field long dominated by Ph.D.s toiling in university and corporate laboratories.

In her San Francisco dining room lab, for example, 31-year-old computer programmer Meredith L. Patterson is trying to develop genetically altered yogurt bacteria that will glow green to signal the presence of melamine, the chemical that turned Chinese-made baby formula and pet food deadly.

“People can really work on projects for the good of humanity while learning about something they want to learn about in the process,” she said.

So far, no major gene-splicing discoveries have come out anybody’s kitchen or garage.

[Read more →]

Via nextbigfuture

Via amsc

-American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC), a leading energy technologies company, and Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) announced today at the Surface Navy Association’s 21st National Symposium the successful completion of full-power testing of the world’s first 36.5 megawatt (49,000 horsepower) high temperature superconductor (HTS) ship propulsion motor at the U.S. Navy’s Integrated Power System Land-Based Test Site in Philadelphia. This is the first successful full-power test of an electric propulsion motor sized for a large Navy combatant and, at 36.5 megawatts, doubled the Navy’s power rating test record. 

The HTS ship propulsion motors offer a range of benefits and advantages for both naval and commercial shipping applications including the following:

• Up to three-times higher torque density than alternative technologies, HTS machines are more compact and lighter in weight. The size and weight benefits make HTS machines less expensive and easier to transport and install, as well as allowing for arrangement flexibility in the ship.
• Absence of iron stator teeth reduce the structureborne noise
• High efficiency from full-to-low speed, boosting fuel economy, sustained speed, and mission range, all key mission parameters for warships.
• Isothermal field winding is well suited for repeated load changes

A typical Navy ship, such as the DD(X) destroyer, needs two propulsion motors, each rated at 36.5 MW, 120-rpm. Such large motors have been built using conventional technology but they are four to five times heavier than the ONR funded 36.5 MW HTS motor being built by AMSC.

[Read more →]

Via khanacademy

Via youtube

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.

We have 700+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan. He has also developed a free, adaptive math program available here.

[Read more →]

Via newscientist

A TWO-legged molecular machine that can walk unaided along a single strand of DNA could one day shift cargo around nanofactories. That’s the promise of a walking molecular nanobot made by researchers at the University of Oxford.

Molecular engines that walk along strands of DNA are nothing new, but none has featured as many successful features as the Oxford team’s device. Unlike earlier attempts, their nanobot doesn’t wander aimlessly back and forth, fall off its track or destroy its track as it walks. The team have also devised an ingenious way of powering the nanobot that allows it to move freely.

The walker consists of two connected feet, each made of a short sequence of DNA bases that attach to a complementary sequence on the DNA track. However, the sequence of bases on the track is designed so that the feet have to compete for a foothold. That means that as one foot steps down, the other is forced to lift off.

[Read more →]