Last week we wrote about the coming age of in vitro meat. Here's a major step in that direction, People for the Ethical treatment of Animals (PETA) is offering a $1,000,000 push-prize for the development of vat meat:

PETA Offers $1 Million Reward to First to Make In Vitro Meat

Scientists around the world are researching or seeking the funds to research ways to produce meat in the laboratory—without killing any animals. In vitro meat production would use animal stem cells that would be placed in a medium to grow and reproduce. The result would mimic flesh and could be cooked and eaten. Some promising steps have been made toward this technology, but we're still several years away from having in vitro meat be available to the general public.

PETA is now stepping in and offering a $1 million reward to the first scientist to produce and bring to market in vitro meat.

Why is PETA supporting this new technology? More than 40 billion chickens, fish, pigs, and cows are killed every year for food in the United States in horrific ways. Chickens are drugged to grow so large they often become crippled, mother pigs are confined to metal cages so small they can't move, and fish are hacked apart while still conscious—all to feed America's meat addiction. In vitro meat would spare animals from this suffering. In addition, in vitro meat would dramatically reduce the devastating effects the meat industry has on the environment.

Via InstaPundit, here's a Popular Mechanics piece with more details on this emerging technology.

Whatever you might think about PETA (and I personally have never thought much), they are to be applauded for taking this step. All their accumulated shock messages, sanctimonious political posturing, and obnoxious, not to mention frequently dangerous, behavior over the years have probably had a net effect of making most people less sympathetic to the cause of animal rights (or at least animal well-being) than they would have been. But this is a positive step -- a financial incentive to bring about a new technology that can eliminate animal suffering and end a lot of environmental damage associated with livestock farming.

Continue reading "Meat Factory Update" »

Posted by Phil Bowermaster at 07:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This Reuters article:
Centennial time capsule car found ruined | Oddly Enough | Reuters

Got me thinking about a couple of things. First, how might the time capsule have been done better (please confine speculation to approximately mid-century technology), and second, what would constitute

"an advanced product of American industrial ingenuity with the kind of lasting appeal that will still be in style 50 years from now."

with respect to early twenty-first century technology?

Please discuss in the comments.

P.S. I think I'll do some checking into how the economics of the capsule contents might have been improved. I'll let you know if anything particularly interesting comes of that.

UPDATE (Moments later): a bit of searching yields a price range of about $900 to $11,000 for similar era Belvederes in conditions ranging from semi-restored to ... iffy. A restored 1956 done by hot-rod legend Boyd Coddington's shop goes for $29,500

UPDATE FROM STEPHEN:

I'm reminded of Doc Brown's 70 year preservation of his time traveling Delorean:

Notice how this was portrayed in Back to the Future III. Dr. Brown put the vehicle up on pylons. It's covered. And it's in a sealed room.

A mine would be far superior to a natural cave because caves tend to be damp (they're usually formed by water). The preserver could choose a place in the mine where drainage is assured. Barring a cave-in or the renewed mining activities, this sort of time capsule would be perfect.

But even as portrayed in BTTF III, certain parts - like the rubber wheels - didn't fare so well. Even a carefully preserved car would need a lot of work before it would be ready for the highway.

Posted by Michael S. Sargent at 09:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Recent discoveries suggest that Brown Dwarfs, the get-no-respect Rodney Dangerfields of stellar types, act kind of like those mysterious pulsars with their super-powerful blasts of radiation, only on a smaller, brown-dwarf-appropriate scale:

How pulsars produce their radiation has been a problem in astrophysics for 40 years.

This is because we have little understanding of how hot, electrified gas, or plasma, behaves in the extreme conditions present at a pulsar.

Brown dwarfs are now the second class of stellar object known to produce persistent levels of extremely bright, "coherent" radiation.

Greg Hallinan from the National University of Ireland in Galway and his colleagues used the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico to observe a very cool, rapidly rotating brown dwarf called TVLM 513-46546.

Dr Hallinan said: "Our research shows that these objects can be fascinating and dynamic systems, and may be the key to unlocking this long-standing mystery of how pulsars produce radio emissions.

"It looks like brown dwarfs are the missing step between the radio emissions we see generated at Jupiter and those we observe from pulsars".

A while back I called on readers to submit their best ideas as to what use brown dwarfs could be put to. At the time, I believe there were some who saw this exercise as the worst kind of fanciful speculation, but now I feel that I stand vindicated.

After all, the practical uses we might have for brown dwarfs will almost certainly get us started on what do with all those pulsars!

Posted by Phil Bowermaster at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has all the trappings of a pretty standard science fiction story. A mysterious weather phenomenon occurs in India -- red rain. A scientist from Mahatma Gandhi University gathers a sample of the mystery substance and, examining it under a microscope, discovers that it contains microbes. The microbes deny easy classification. They seem healthy and they are reproducing, but they don't fit any known categories.

And oh, by the way -- they don't have DNA.

This is life, but not life as we know it. After considering other possible explanations, the scientist comes to a startling conclusion: these microbes are an alien life form, specially evolved to survive the hardships of outer space. They were transported here via a meteor or comet.

That would be the opening chapters of the book. In the following chapters, the microbes would start growing out of control or trying to communicate with the scientist. But not in this version. In this version of the story, the scientist publishes his findings in a peer-reviewed journal and the debate begins as to whether alien life has been discovered. That's not nearly as exciting, I realize, except for one little factoid -- this isn't fiction.

Okay, let's not get all excited. Every time we find "proof" of alien life, it inevitably turns out to be something else. This probably will, too. Which might account for the low-key coverage in the linked CNN story:

If his theory proves correct, the cells would be the first confirmed evidence of alien life and, as such, could yield tantalizing new clues to the origins of life on Earth.

Really, do you think? Gee, it might also be considered the single most important scientific discovery...ever. I guess that is pretty tantalizing.

One little twist that I like about this story. Remember that scene in ET where the scientists have quarantined ET and Eliot and they're trying to figure out what, medically, they could do to save the creature? One scientists excitedly declares, "It's got DNA. That's confirmed, it has DNA!" In real life, it turns out that it's more exciting to find a life form without DNA. Who would have guessed?

Posted by Phil Bowermaster at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So what really killed off the dinosaurs? How about poisonous mammals?

Small prehistoric mammals may have looked like easy pickings for their fearsome contemporaries, but a new study suggests many matched might with venom.

The theory could explain how the fox-sized mammals of the Mesozoic Era 225 to 65 million years ago defended themselves against much larger predators. It also may explain why male platypuses have a fang-like venomous spur on their inside hind legs.

But wait a second, why would later mammals have lost this venom-dispensing capability? It seems to me that it would have come in quite handy for a long time.

The answer:

"The echidnas and platypus are relicts of very old stem mammals," said lead author Jørn Hurum, a paleontologist at the University of Oslo, Norway. "All other mammals this primitive are extinct."

The common ancestors of most modern mammals, he explained, "lost the trait when they acquired upright stance on the hind limbs. The more primitive mammals still had the legs more or less sprawling out from the body... . It is a really bad idea to have venomous spurs pointing inwards when your ankles almost meet during walking."

See, it's always something. Either you've got giant lizards stomping around trying to eat you, or you're sticking yourself in the leg with your own venomous spur. Sheesh.

Posted by Phil Bowermaster at 08:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a major development from this week that I never got around to writing anything about.

Patients receiving lab-grown organs.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- The first human recipients of laboratory-grown organs were reported today by Anthony Atala, M.D., director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. In The Lancet, Atala describes long-term success in children and teenagers who received bladders grown from their own cells.

“This is one small step in our ability to go forward in replacing damaged tissues and organs,” said Atala, who is now working to grow 20 different tissues and organs, including blood vessels and hearts, in the laboratory.

The engineered bladders were grown from the patients’ own cells, so there is no risk of rejection. Scientists hope that laboratory-grown organs can one day help solve the shortage of donated organs available for transplantation. Atala reported that the bladders showed improved function over time -- with some patients being followed for more than seven years.

Just yesterday, two friends of mine underwent kidney transplant surgery. My friend Kees has been blogging his long struggle with dialysis and search for a donor here. The site also tells about how our mutual friend David came to be that donor. This looks like a happy ending, with everyone doing well and the new kidney "taking."

But as Virginia Postrel commented a while back when preparing for kidney donor surgery, this is a procedure that may not be around that much longer. With bladders grown successfully, and hearts and other organs under development, I don't think it will be long before someone in Kees's position will have options not quite available today: like getting a new kidney without anyone having to give one up -- a kidney that won't require immune system suppressants to avoid rejection.

It's also satisfying to see something that I thought was very likely come to pass. Here we see individualized organ farming/harvesting without any stem cells/bastocysts/human beings with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereunto (whatever terms suits you) being harmed in the process.

No need for a tiresome argument at all. That's a good thing.

Posted by Phil Bowermaster at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It makes sense that the new year begins in January -- a little ray of hope in the dead of winter. One thing I'm sure most of us in the Northern Hemisphere are looking forward to is the days getting longer over the next few months. Then in springtime for those of us in the US (and many other countries) comes the annual setting of the clocks ahead to squeeze even more daylight into our waking hours.

Well Diana Mertz Hsieh at Noodlefood is seconding a motion raised by Eugene Volokh late last year that we stop tinkering with the clock and figure out a way to get more actual daylight.

I would note that this has been done already (sort of) in one locale on a limited scale. Now how do we all get our fair share of extra daylight?

Suggestions are welcome.

Posted by Phil Bowermaster at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It occurs to me that the "mathematical approach to produce desired configurations of nanoparticles by manipulating the manner in which the particles interact with one another" mentioned in the "Utility Fog" post might be a great way to produce carbon nanotubes.

If you could essentially put carbon on a conveyer belt and move it through a system that would dictate how the carbon interacts with other carbon atoms, then why wouldn't you be able to produce carbon nanotubes in the strengths and lengths necessary to do all sorts of interesting things?

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Toshiba has developed a fast-charging lithium ion battery that can charge to 80% capacity within a minute. Hat tip to Kjell Hagen of Norway who suggests that this technology might make electric vehicles practical.

The batteries that Toshiba is working with are meant for smaller items like portable electronics, but Kjell makes an important point. The problems with all-electric vehicles are:

1. Range
   
2. Expense of the batteries
   
3. Frequency of replacing batteries
   
4. Environmental impact of battery disposal
   
5. Lack of infrastructure (gas stations are not presently recharging stations)
   
6. and, Time required to recharge.

Power and performance might once have been a consideration, but see here and here.

Most electric cars presently use either lead acid or nickel cadmium batteries because lithium ion batteries are 3 to 4 times more expensive. Lithium ion batteries already offer superior range to those traditional electric car batteries. If these batteries could also be refueled within several minutes, then they might be worth the expense.

Either way, I'm excited about the possibility of a one-minute recharge on my cell phone.

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Like time travel (at least the going back in time part) and teleportation (as it applies to anything other than photons), invisibility has been one of those standard plots devices of casual science fiction -- that is, TV and movies -- with very little theoretical grounding. But that may be changing:

The idea of a cloak of invisibility that hides objects from view has long been confined to the more improbable reaches of science fiction. But electronic engineers have now come up with a way to make one.

Andrea Alù and Nader Engheta of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia say that a 'plasmonic cover' could render objects "nearly invisible to an observer". Their idea remains just a proposal at this stage, but it doesn't obviously violate any laws of physics.

"The concept is an interesting one, with several important potential applications," says John Pendry, a physicist at Imperial College in London, UK. "It could find uses in stealth technology and camouflage."

Continue reading "Cloaking Device?" »

Posted by Phil Bowermaster at 08:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's a good-news, bad-news day for the salvage industry. This morning we learned that "Electronics recycling is a growing business."

But this afternoon we learned that "Scientists Make Phone That Turns Into a Sunflower."

Materials company Pvaxx Research & Development, at the request of U.S.-based mobile phone maker Motorola has come up with a polymer that looks like any other plastic, but which degrades into soil when discarded.

Researchers at the University of Warwick in Britain then helped to develop a phone cover that contains a sunflower seed, which will feed on the nitrates that are formed when the polyvinylalcohol polymer cover turns to waste.

"It's a totally biodegradable and non-toxic plastic," said Pvaxx spokesman Peter Morris...

The company's new plastic, which was created over the past five years but was in development for longer, can be rigid or flexible in shape.

Some 650 million mobile phones will be sold this year, and most of them will be thrown away within two years, burdening the environment with plastics, heavy metals and chemicals. A biodegradable cover can offer some relief for nature, Warwick University said.

Yes, but it's no help for a salvage empire.

Continue reading "Sunflower and Son" »

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is interesting. Perhaps a stop-gap solution before full-blown brain prosthetics become commerically available:

Connecting a battery across the front of the head (the prefrontal cortex) can boost verbal skills, says a team from the US National Institutes of Health.

A current of two milliamperes applied for 20 minutes is enough to produce a significant improvement, they found.

Posted by Phil Bowermaster at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

No, not one of those documents.

We're talking about the mysterious Voynich Manuscript. Wired Magazine reports that it is not an ancient alchemical treatise, nor a thought experiment from Leonardo da Vinci, nor a relic from an alternate universe. (Well, I guess they can't completely rule that last one out, but Occam's Razor and all that.)

The document is gibberish. It's a very old hoax. And, based on the years spent trying to decipher it, I'd say one of the most successful hoaxes of all time.

Read the Wired article to learn why the document may have been created in the first place, how you can create your own undecipherable document, and, interestingly enough, how the techniques used to prove that Voynich is a fake just might help lead to a cure for Alzheimer's. Fake documents are powerful, aren't they? Bringing down TV networks, curing diseases...what's next?

(via GeekPress)

Posted by Phil Bowermaster at 05:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I don't know what's harder to believe — that these things make their way here (and somebody actually finds them), or that we're able to figure out so much about precisely where they came from.

The rock left the Moon no more than 340,000 years ago, carved out of the Imbrium Basin -- the right eye of the "Man in the Moon" -- by an asteroid impact. Lured by gravity, the fist-sized object arrived on Earth sometime within the past 9,700 years.

Gnos even thinks he might know the exact crater on the Moon from whence the rock came.

Reading this, I can't help but ponder the fact that that the planet we're on has also had it's share of meteor impacts over the years, including one that led to the end of the dinosaurs. What did we shoot out into space with those impacts? Just rocks? Is it possible that there are portions of tree trunks, dinosaur bones — maybe even a T. Rex carcass? — in orbit around the sun, just waiting for an eventual near encounter with one of the planets?

It's fun to consider.

Posted by Phil Bowermaster at 08:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)