New Tools For Rewriting The Code Of Life, Enables Creating Artificial Life Forms

MIT and Harvard researchers have developed technologies that could be used to rewrite the genetic code of a living cell, allowing them to make large-scale edits to the cell’s genome. Such technology could enable scientists to design cells that build proteins not found in nature, or engineer bacteria that are resistant to any type of viral infection.

The technology, described in the July 15 issue ofScience, can overwrite specific DNA sequences throughout the genome, similar to the find-and-replace function in word-processing programs. Using this approach, the researchers can make hundreds of targeted edits to the genome of E. coli, apparently without disrupting the cells’ function.

Source: Nano Patents and Innovations

First Photos of China’s 298-Million-Year-Old Buried Forest

These are the first photos of some of the countless treasures found in the extraordinary 298-million-year-old forest discovered under coal mine in Wuda, Inner Mongolia, China.

The beautiful images show "the exceptional preservation of the fossil plants of the peat-forming swamp forest." The research team has found entire plants and trees, allowing them to confirm previously published reconstructions. It's also the first time ever that they have found fossilized tree and plant communities arranged in a forest.

A volcanic eruption buried the entire forest under ash, preserving it in this exquisite state, never seen before. The lead scientists classify it as a "Permian vegetational Pompeii" in the title of their research. According to University of Pennsylvania paleobotanist Hermann Pfefferkorn, it's an extraordinary "time capsule."

Read more with pictures: Gizmodo

The Miracle of Water: The Yin & the Yang

We all have the experience of rejuvenation and joy on a vibrant spring day when the sap is rising in the plants and the tree buds are bursting with new life. Water is at the very heart of life creation. Sitting by a waterfall or on the rocks at the edge of the ocean on a sunny day, one can feel the energy of the water in our body. Water is closely linked to the emotions. There is a strong resonance of water with humans. Our ancestors were fascinated by its magic and there is a vast mythology linked to water.

Water carries all life. But water is beyond time, for it bears in its flow the seeds of future life, as well as the memory of past life. Water mediates between life and death, between being and not being, between health and sickness. We have lost touch with the magic of water, the freshness of the mountain spring, the reflection in a mountain lake, the mystery of the sacred well. We just take for granted that water will come at the turn of a tap.

We have allowed water to spread illness and disease. Much is spoken these days of the destructive nature of water. Such water is Nature on the rampage, perhaps showing who is boss, at a time when humanity has wrought so much reckless damage to Earth’s ecosystems and to the natural environment.

Our bodies are composed of about 70% water, a similar percentage to that of the ocean surface compared to land. Blood and sap are really variations of water. Earth is known as the planet of water; astronauts wondered at Earth’s blue, shimmering, watery aura seen from space. It seems as if water was intended for life; certainly life could not have come without it. Water is found throughout the Universe, though seldom as a liquid, which requires the relatively narrow temperature band which our Earth provides.

Without doubt water is the most important substance on Earth. It drives everything, from the most delicate metabolic processes in our bodies, to creating environments favourable to life, to weather patterns and climate change.

The poet, philosopher and scientist, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was, more than anyone, a bridge between pre-and post-Enlightenment thinking. He sensed a profound difference in outlook between the new rational, mechanistic and more exclusive worldview, and the more traditional inclusive, Nature-centred view. He called the latter ‘holistic’ science in contrast to ‘reductionist’ science. Goethe understood that all life is one, closely interconnected and interrelated, with water as the very symbol of holism, with its role in the sustenance of life.

Goethe referred to water as “the ground of all being.” Thales of Miletus (640-546 BCE) also believed water to be infused with Being, believing it was the original substance of the Cosmos. The Austrian ‘Water Wizard’, Viktor Schauberger (1885-1958), held a similar view, saying that water is the product of the subtle energies that brought the Earth into being and is itself a living substance.

Read more: New dawn Magazine

DNA Sequencer Plugs Right Into Your USB Port, Analyzes Your Genome

In the nine years since the Humane Genome Project wrapped up, gene sequencing has gotten faster and cheaper at a pace rivaling the computer industry. Now a technology company in the UK has another breakthrough, taking a cue from the computer industry itself: A cluster of fast individual compute nodes, so easily scalable that the company made a USB-powered disposable version.

The goal is to democratize sequencing and eliminate the still-heady costs associated with genetic analysis, making DNA and protein sequencing as commonplace as an exam with a tongue depressor.

Source: Popsci

EU's Prodi Admits Leaders Knew Euro Would Cause Ruin but Hoped Political Union Would Follow

The Flowers that Launched the Euro ... To mark the anniversary of the arrival of the euro in the form of notes and coins, euronews spoke with Romano Prodi, who in 2002 was President of the European Commission .... Prodi: "Well, the difficult moments were predictable. When we created the euro, my objection, as an economist (and I talked about it with Kohl and with all the heads of government) was: how can we have a common currency without shared financial, economical and political pillars? The wise answer was: for the moment we've made this leap forward. The rest will follow ... Then instead came the Europe of fear: fear of China, fear of immigrants, fear of globalisation. So it was clear that this crisis would arrive. But the euro is so important, it's so convenient for everyone — especially Germany — that I've no doubt that the euro won't just survive, but it will be one of the landmarks for the world economy." – euronews

Dominant Social Theme: The Euro is a fragrant blossom.

Free-Market Analysis: The EU's top politicos knew what was going to happen to the European Union and in fact, they planned for it. We can see from this shockng excerpt (above) just how duplicitous these "leaders" were.

Yes, Romano Prodi has now actually admitted it. Those running the EU, and those standing behind them, are trying to create world government and the European Union was evidently and obviously created as a stepping-stone.

The EU was not presented as a rung on the ladder to world government but that's what it has become. Initially, it was just supposed to be a trade association but it should be clear to an unbiased observer that was just a disguise. The end result was what it is becoming. Here's some more from the interview:

Read more: Daily Bell

DNA Nanobots Tell Cancer Cells to Self Destruct

Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a robotic device made from DNA that could potentially seek out specific cell targets within a complex mixture of cell types and deliver important molecular instructions, such as telling cancer cells to self-destruct. Inspired by the mechanics of the body's own immune system, the technology might one day be used to program immune responses to treat various diseases. The research findings appear today in Science.

Using the DNA origami method, in which complex three-dimensional shapes and objects are constructed by folding strands of DNA, Shawn Douglas, Ph.D., a Wyss Technology Development Fellow, and Ido Bachelet, Ph.D., a former Wyss Postdoctoral Fellow who is now an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Nano-Center at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, created a nanosized robot in the form of an open barrel whose two halves are connected by a hinge. The DNA barrel, which acts as a container, is held shut by special DNA latches that can recognize and seek out combinations of cell-surface proteins, including disease markers. When the latches find their targets, they reconfigure, causing the two halves of the barrel to swing open and expose its contents, or payload. The container can hold various types of payloads, including specific molecules with encoded instructions that can interact with specific cell surface signaling receptors.

Douglas and Bachelet used this system to deliver instructions, which were encoded in antibody fragments, to two different types of cancer cells—leukemia and lymphoma. In each case, the message to the cell was to activate its "suicide switch"—a standard feature that allows aging or abnormal cells to be eliminated. And since leukemia and lymphoma cells speak different languages, the messages were written in different antibody combinations.

Source: Physorg.com

Microsoft says Google is bypassing its cookie stopping technology too

(PhysOrg.com) -- Shortly after the world learned that Google has been bypassing user preferences on Safari based browsers to allow advertisers to leave unwanted cookies on their devices, Microsoft put out a press release deploring the practice and gleefully announced that devices running Internet Explorer had no such problems. Microsoft is now backtracking on that announcement and has put out a new one declaring that Google is in fact doing the same thing with Internet Explorer 9 that it has been doing with Safari.

But of course, it’s not that simple. With Safari, it was a very clear situation of using a sneaky method to bypass users wishing to prevent cookies being placed on their devices. While the same result can be had by Google, or other companies to circumvent IE9’s blocking schemes, the reasoning for doing so is not necessarily the same. It all comes down to how Microsoft goes about disallowing vendors from leaving cookies. Specifically, IE9 follows the P3P Compact Policy Statement, which is basically the honor system. Sites that wish to leave a cookie send a little tiny message to the browser promising that they won’t use them to gather personal information. Unfortunately, the sending machine can simply lie to bypass the blocking facility. Or, they can simply send a nonsensical message if they choose. Either will work just as well. Thus, it appears that not only Google, but virtually any other site that wishes too can very easily bypass the IE9 cookie blocking feature.

But, of course that’s not the end of the story. Google says that P3P is outdated and Microsoft should stop using it because other sites are forced to try to bypass the control feature if they wish to allow users to use modern browser features such as those provided by Google+ or popular facilities like Facebook’s “like” button.

In response, Microsoft says it has contacted representatives at Google and asked them to stop circumventing their privacy controls and has created a “fix” for users that wish to stop cookies being placed on their IE9 devices, and as an aside said they believe Facebook is just as guilty as Google in trying to circumvent its blocking facilities. They also point out that users can use IE9’s Tracking Protection Lists feature to block specific websites from leaving cookies on their machines.

It’s not clear at this point if Microsoft, or Apple for that matter will institute permanent changes into their software, but it seems likely as lawmakers have begun looking into the issue and may force changes if they are not made willingly.

Source: Physorg.com