Biotechnology

Continue reading page | 1 | 2 As the dust settles on Facebook's $19 billion WhatsApp takeover, Richard Harper , principal researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, explains what really lies behind the deal Now that Facebook has announced it is to buy the popular smartphone messaging platform WhatsApp, much has been made of the sum agreed, even more about might and power and competition rules. It's not what WhatsApp does (or might become) that the commentators are focusing on, but the billions Facebook is shelling out for it. Facebook has become, we are warned, a mighty leviathan of corporate wealth, and this is the proof. Many ask whether this sort of corporate behaviour will negatively affect the world we live in. After all, the enormous and beneficial impact of the internet is precisely because it allows diversity and creativity; it creates new business possibilities. Is it one of the most successful of these possibilities that...

IN A pleasant spot on Tasmania's coast, Barilla Bay Oyster Farm has been growing and serving oysters for more than three decades. But are their oysters as healthy as they can be? The farm is about to find out. Some of the oysters are having sensors the size of credit cards tacked onto their shells. Farm manager Justin Goc says the information will help him make better decisions. The farm is one of a handful of places that have joined a trial organised by Sense-T, a government-funded project to build a sensor network across Tasmania. The project aims to link up several types of existing sensors, as well as install new ones, to create an agricultural database. Sensor technology is now sophisticated enough to be able to monitor an oyster's heartbeat. The new sensors will do this, and also track whether the oyster's shell is open, which provides insight into the oyster's feeding habits. It will record how deep in the water...

Continue reading page | 1 | 2 People in a vegetative state showed signs of awareness after electric brain stimulation â€" and minimally conscious people were able to communicate again Treatment might be possible (Image: Michele Constantini/plainpicture) TALK about an awakening. People who have been in a minimally conscious state for weeks or years have been temporarily roused using mild electrical stimulation. Soon after it was applied to their brains, 15 people with severe brain damage showed signs of consciousness, including moving their hands or following instructions using their eyes. Two people were even able to answer questions for 2 hours before drifting back into their previous uncommunicative state. "I don't want to give people false hope â€" these people weren't getting up and walking around â€" but it shows there is potential for the brain to recover functionality, even several ye...

Trust in Bitcoin may be low following the collapse of its biggest currency exchange, but a new virtual currency has an extra draw. Riecoin is designed to help solve a mathematical mystery involving prime numbers. As with Bitcoin, Riecoin users "mine" virtual coins using a program that solves a difficult mathematical problem. But with Riecoin, this mining process also finds clusters of consecutive prime numbers. These "prime constellations" provide a way to test the Riemann hypothesis, which is one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems designated by the Clay Mathematics Institute in Providence, Rhode Island. A proof of the hypothesis is worth $1 million. Riecoin can't find a proof, but it might find an example of a constellation that doesn't fit with Riemann and so offer clues as to how to disprove it â€" although most mathematicians expect it to hold. Riecoin is the second currency based...

A paper strip can sample urine for signs of tumours in the body. The cancer-detecting strip could one day make it simpler and more affordable to detect some cancers at an early stage. "Something I think that's really shocking is the prevalence of cancer and cardiovascular disease in both the developed world and the developing world," says Andrew Warren, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who led the team of researchers that developed the test. "Diagnostics are really a great way to help a lot of people as quickly as possible." Unlike communicable infections like HIV and tuberculosis, signals from tumour proteins are difficult to detect. To get around that problem, the researchers created nano-scale biomarkers that can be injected into the bloodstream. Each marker is designed to interact with specific proteins that are produced by cancer cells. When the two meet, the proteins snip of...

The Masters of Biotechnology Program in the School of Science and Computer Engineering at the University of Houston-Clear Lake ( UHCL ) in Houston, Texas, invites applications for a permanent non-tenure-track lecturer position at the rank of Visiting Assistant Professor, to begin in August 2014. The successful candidate will be expected to teach and coordinate the following graduate level laboratory courses: Methods in Biotechnology, Advanced Methods in Biotechnology I, and Advanced Methods in Biotechnology II. Also the position requires the development of other courses within the candidate’s specialization area or to meet the needs of the program. Minimum Requirements A Ph.D. in the field of Biology or a closely related area, with research experience in one or more of the following areas is required: molecular biology, cell biology, molecular genetics and/or molecular biotechnology. Preferred Requirements Preference will be given to individuals with post-doctoral and 2 to 3 ye...

Not ready to don a Google Glass headset? An alternative way to access smartphone content could hang around your neck. A digital device disguised as a necklace or brooch could one day project email, tweets and text alerts onto nearby surfaces, allowing you to open them with hand gestures. "The projector gives you a window into the virtual world that you carry around like a flashlight, as a way of serendipitously accessing information," says Christian Winkler at the University of Ulm in Germany. His team's Ambient Mobile Pervasive Display generates a green "SMS" graphic that is projected ahead of the user (see video above). To find out who the message is from, you hold your palm in front of you and the sender's name is projected onto it. To read the message, you make a gesture, such as a subtle swipe, and the text is displayed on your hand. The idea is that most functions that normally require a screen can ...