Animal Magnetic Sense Comes from Protein That Acts as a Compass
November 23rd, 2015Via: New Scientist:
Quick – can you tell where north is? Animals as diverse as sea turtles, birds, worms, butterflies and wolves can, thanks to sensing Earth’s magnetic field.
But the magnet-sensing structures inside their cells that allow them to do this have evaded scientists – until now.
A team led by Can Xie’s at Peking University in China has now found a protein in fruit flies, butterflies and pigeons that they believe to be responsible for this magnetic sense.
“It’s provocative and potentially groundbreaking,” says neurobiologist Steven Reppert of the University of Massachusetts who was not involved in the work. “It took my breath away.”
There used to be two competing theories about magnetic sense: some thought it came from iron-binding molecules, others thought it came from a protein called cryptochrome, which senses light and has been linked to magnetic sense in birds.
Xie’s group was the first to guess these two were part of the same system, and has now figured out how they fit together.
UW Team Refrigerates Liquids with a Laser for the First Time
November 23rd, 2015Via: University of Washington:
The discovery could help industrial users “point cool” tiny areas with a focused point of light. Microprocessors, for instance, might someday use a laser beam to cool specific components in computer chips to prevent overheating and enable more efficient information processing.
Scientists could also use a laser beam to precisely cool a portion of a cell as it divides or repairs itself, essentially slowing these rapid processes down and giving researchers the opportunity to see how they work. Or they could cool a single neuron in a network — essentially silencing without damaging it — to see how its neighbors bypass it and rewire themselves.
U.S. Air Force Created Thermal Breaching Tool That Liquefies Metal in Seconds
November 23rd, 2015Hmm.
Physicists Achieve Quantum Entanglement at Room Temperature
November 23rd, 2015Via: SciTechDaily:
Previously, scientists have overcome the thermodynamic barrier and achieved macroscopic entanglement in solids and liquids by going to ultra-low temperatures (-270 degrees Celsius) and applying huge magnetic fields (1,000 times larger than that of a typical refrigerator magnet) or using chemical reactions. In the November 20 issue of Science Advances, Klimov and other researchers in Prof. David Awschalom’s group at the Institute for Molecular Engineering have demonstrated that macroscopic entanglement can be generated at room temperature and in a small magnetic field.
The researchers used infrared laser light to order (preferentially align) the magnetic states of thousands of electrons and nuclei and then electromagnetic pulses, similar to those used for conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to entangle them. This procedure caused pairs of electrons and nuclei in a macroscopic 40 micrometer-cubed volume (the volume of a red blood cell) of the semiconductor SiC to become entangled.
Pfizer Set to Buy Allergan for More Than $150 Billion
November 23rd, 2015More than $150 billion. Not a typo.
Via: Reuters:
Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) secured formal board approval on Sunday for its acquisition of Botox maker Allergan Plc (AGN.N) for more than $150 billion, a deal that will create the world’s biggest drug maker, according to people familiar with the matter.
The deal, the largest ever in the healthcare sector, will be announced on Monday and is sure to draw political ire in a U.S. presidential election year because Pfizer would redomicile to Ireland, where Allergan is registered, in a so-called “inversion” that would slash its corporate tax rate.
Commodities Clobbered as Dollar Bulldozes Higher
November 23rd, 2015Via: Reuters:
Commodity markets were clobbered and stocks and bonds were also in the firing line on Monday as expectations for a first increase in U.S. interest rates next month in almost a decade pushed the dollar to a seven-month high.
Related:
Gold drops towards six-year low on dollar, U.S. rate hike view
Syrian Passport in Paris May Be Planted, German Minister Says
November 23rd, 2015Via: Bloomberg:
A Syrian passport found next to a suicide bomber in the Paris terror attacks may have been planted, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.
Reports that the identity in the passport may have been registered in several countries along the so-called Balkan route raise the suspicion that it could be a deliberate attempt to implicate refugees and “make people feel unsafe,” de Maiziere said.
Research Credit: HL
Brussels Locked Down, Subway System Halted
November 21st, 2015Via: Daily Mail:
Brussels has been put into security lockdown after Belgian intelligence received ‘precise information’ of a planned Paris-style ISIS attack in the capital.
Belgium’s prime minister Charles Michel confirmed that the decision to raise the terror alert level in Brussels was taken ‘based on quite precise information about the risk of an attack like the one that happened in Paris.’
Service has been halted on the Brussels subway system and heavily armed police and soldiers are patrolling the Belgian capital amid a high security alert.
The country’s national security center has raised the terror threat level to Level four after fears of a ‘serious and imminent’ terror threat involving ‘weapons and explosives’.
Public Service Announcement: Asus Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1, Corsair DDR4 RAM and XMP
November 20th, 2015This is totally off topic, but maddening for the handful of people who are having the problem, so, all regular readers, please skip.
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If you landed here looking for a solution to the “overclocking failed” error when trying to enable XMP with your Asus Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 and Corsair DDR4 RAM (in my case, 16GB, 2x8GB, Corsair Vengeance LPX Series, CMK16GX4M2A2666C16, DDR4-2666): Updating the board’s BIOS fixes it.
My board came with BIOS 0901 and enabling XMP caused the overclocking failed error when trying to boot. It would only boot normally with XMP off and the DRAM running at 2133. People on forums are suggesting entering the DRAM timings manually, but I found that just upgrading the BIOS to 1302 made XMP work properly.
So, upgrade the BIOS, enable XMP and restart. That’s it.
Australia: Robot Bricklayer Can Build a Home in Two Days
November 19th, 2015Via: Financial Review:
Australian investors have begun buying in to the rise of the machines, as a company promising to replace the humble brickie with a robot that can build a four-bedroom house in two days hit the ASX boards.
Fastbrick Robotics started trading on the ASX on Wednesday, and was up almost 4 per cent by midday.
…
Fastbrick Robotics chief executive Mike Pivac said the robots would be able to build a house faster and more accurately than traditional methods.
“The home buyer is the real beneficiary of this. The time it takes to build a standard home is six to eight weeks, so the home buyer will save $20,000 to $30,000,” he said.
