Data storage

Data storage: fast and loose approach improves memory

An unconventional design for a nano-scale memory device uses a shuttle service free of mechanical movements to improve performance.
Loose and ringing on your cell phone is usually a cause for concern. As most electronic devices, the telephone operates by electrons moving through fixed circuit pathways. If electrons are not sufficiently contained within these pathways, efficiency and speed of a lowering device. However, since the components in miniaturized electronic devices shrink with each generation, the electrons become more difficult to contain. Now, a research team led by Vincent Pott in the A * STAR Institute of Microelectronics, has designed a memory device using a loose and mobile actually improves performance.
The weak part is a small metal disc, or link, about 300 nano-meters thick and 2 micrometers long and is located within a metal cage more or less cylindrical. Because transportation is small, gravity has little effect on the same. Instead, the adhesion forces between the shuttle and metal cage to determine its position. When attached to the top of the cage, the shuttle completes an electrical circuit between two electrodes, causing current to flow. When in the bottom of the cage, the circuit is broken and no current flows. The shuttle is movable from above downwards by applying a voltage to a third electrode, known as a gate underneath the cage.
Pott and coworkers suggested using this positioning to encode binary digital information. It is predicted that adhesion forces would keep the shuttle in place even when the power is off, allowing the memory device to retain information for longer periods of time. In fact, the investigators found that the high temperature - a cause classical electronic memory loss - should actually increase the duration of retention of data by softening of the metal that composes the shuttle memory disc and cage , strengthening the bond. The ability to operate in hot environments is a key requirement for military and aerospace applications.
The shuttle also untethered occupies less area than other designs and is not expected to suffer from mechanical fatigue, as it avoids the use of components that need to bend or flex - such as those used in competing approaches cantilever mechanical memory. In a simulation, Pott and colleagues found that the shuttle memory should be able to change at speeds of more than 1 megahertz.

Quantum Analog

New powerful tool flow is Quantum analog phase space :

UK-based physical Steuernagel Ole from the University of Hertfordshire, with Dimitris Kakofengitis and Georg Ritter, found that the "flow Wigner 'a powerful new tool is called the quantum analogue of spatial phase flow.
Provides information flow Wigner quantum dynamics similar to that obtained from the phase space trajectories in classical physics. Wigner flow can be used for displaying quantum dynamics. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, the flow of aid Wigner abstract analysis of quantum dynamics using topological methods.
Ole Steuernagel, University of Science and Technology Research Institute, said: "Since the paths are not present in the phase space quantum physicists did not pay much attention to partners in flow fields, although they do not exist Now, our research shows that the quantum phase. spatial flow is well worth studying. "
In classical physics, phase space trajectories lead to flow fields that represent the system dynamics along their paths, which produce additional information about the behavior of a system.
Quantum theory of phase space trajectories do not exist because of Heisenberg uncertainty principle does not allow the formation of well-defined paths. But quantum physicists have not given up entirely on the phase space. The study of the second best option, the movement of the distributions of quantum physics' of phase space-based probability has really exploded in recent years.
Sophisticated systems for the reconstruction of the most prominent of these distributions, "Wigner function 'from experimental data have established quantum phase space analysis on a firm basis. Nevertheless, since studies quantum trajectory can not be done , some of the energy of established classical methods lack.
Researchers have been studying Wigner flow, based on the dynamic function of the Wigner, and have shown that reveals new and surprising characteristics of the quantum dynamic phase space. It is, for example, the vortices that rotate the "wrong" way around and listed in the "wrong" part of the phase space, when viewed from the point of view of classical physics. Therefore, these dynamic patterns are manifestations of the quantum nature of the system.

Cisco VoIP Phones

Computer scientists find vulnerabilities in Cisco VoIP Phones:

Columbia Engineering Computer Science PhD candidate Ang Cui and Computer Science Professor Salvatore Stolfo found serious vulnerabilities in Cisco VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) phones, devices used worldwide by a wide range of network organizations of governments to banks to large corporations, and beyond. In particular, they have found safety violations concern Cisco VoIP phone technology. At a recent conference on the safety of the devices connected, Cui demonstrates how you can insert malicious code into a Cisco VoIP phone (any model 14 Cisco Unified IP Phone) and start spying private conversations - not only by telephone, but also in around the phone - from anywhere in the world.
"There are only Cisco phones at risk. All VoIP phones are particularly problematic as they are everywhere and reveal our private communications," says Stolfo. "It is relatively easy to penetrate any corporate phone system, phone system any government, any house with Cisco VoIP phones - are not safe."
Cui and Stolfo analyzed phone firmware (the software that runs on the computer on the phone) and they were able to identify many vulnerabilities. They are particularly concerned with integrated systems that are widely used in network and via the Internet, including VoIP phones, routers and printers, and have focused their research on developing new advanced security technologies to protect these systems.
"The binary firmware analysis is commonly used to identify faulty software hackers 'white hat' and scientists and security researchers like our team," says Stolfo. "We conducted this analysis to demonstrate a defense technology, software called symbionts, which protects them from exploitation."
Symbionts software is designed to protect embedded systems from attacks malicious code injection in these systems, including routers and printers.
"This is a defense mechanism that is based on host code structure inspired by a natural phenomenon known as defensive symbiotic mutualism," said Cui. "The symbiote is especially suitable for embedded systems with sophisticated reinforcement legacy host-based defenses."
The researchers see these symbionts as a sort of digital lifestyle that coexists well with arbitrary executables in a mutually defensive. "They draw computing resources (CPU cycles) from the host at the same time protecting the host against attacks and exploitation," said Cui. "And, because they are so diverse in nature, which can provide self-protection against direct attack by adversaries that directly affect host defenses."
"We envision an architecture for general purpose computing systems consisting of two mutual defense by a machine that is embedded Symbiote autonomous, distinct and unique to each instance of a host program," says Stolfo. "The symbiote can reside within any arbitrary body of software, regardless of its place in the system stack. Could be injected into a host arbitrary in many different ways, while your code can be" random "for a number of well known methods. "
The symbiote, which at runtime is required by your host to run successfully for the host to operate, then monitors the behavior of its host to make sure it is working properly, and if not, the host stops to damage. Removal or attempted removal of the Symbiote host makes inoperable.
"The beauty of the Symbiote", Cui says, "is that it can be used to protect all types of embedded systems, from phones and printers to ATMs and even cars -. Systems we all use every day"
Cisco has since released a patch to fix these vulnerabilities, but is ineffective. "It does not solve the fundamental problems we have pointed to Cisco," said Cui. "I know of no solution to solve the systemic problem with the firmware Cisco IP Phone, except Symbiote technology or rewrite the firmware. We intend to demonstrate your Cisco IP Symbiote protected at an upcoming conference."

Stimulators

Allows Robot 'Remote Presence "in Programming stimulating the brain and spine :

With the rapid expansion of the use of the brain and spinal cord stimulation therapy (neuromodulation), the new "remote presence" technologies can help meet demand for experts to program the stimulator, reports a study published in the January Neurosurgery.

The preliminary study conducted by Dr. Ivar Mendez of Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, supports the feasibility and safety of using a remote presence robot - called the "RP-7" - for increasing access to skilled specialists for programming and brain stimulators used spine neuromodulation.
Robot allows experts Nurses Program Guide Simulators Dr. Mendez and his group developed the RP-7 as a way to allow the "experts" are not experts telementor nurses simulators programming devices. Already widely used for Parkinson's disease and severe chronic pain, modulations is being studied for use in other conditions, such as epilepsy, severe depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In this form of therapy, a small electrode is surgically placed in a precise location in the brain or spine. A gentle electric current is supplied to stimulate said area, with the aim of disrupting the abnormal activity. As more patients undergo therapy for stimulation of the brain and spinal cord, there is a growing demand for programming expert stimulators generate electrical current.
The RP-7 is a battery-operated mobile robot that can be controlled by a laptop. It is equipped with cameras and microphones, allowing the expert, the nurse and patient to communicate. The robot's "head" consists of a flat screen monitor that shows the face of expert operator.
The RP-7 also has an "arm" equipped with a touchscreen controller, the nurse can use to program the stimulator. The expert can "telestrate" to tell the nurse pushing the right buttons for the programming.
Access to specialists in the next room - or miles away in the preliminary study, patients with neuromodulation devices were randomized to conventional programming, with the expert in the room, or remote programming, with the expert using the RP -7 to guide a nurse in the programming of the stimulator. For the study, experts operators were simply in another room of the same building. However, since the RP-7 operates on a conventional wireless connection, the expert can be anywhere you have Internet access.
In the analysis of 20 patients (10 in each group), no significant difference in the accuracy or clinical outcomes of controls by the presence versus conventional programming. No adverse events occurred at any meeting.
The remote presence session took a little time: 33 versus 26 minutes, on average. Patients, nurses expert and all gave high satisfaction scores of programming experience.
"This study shows that the presence of distance can be used for programming of the focal points of neuromodulation devices," Dr. Mendez and coauthors write. The study provides "proof of principle" that the RP-7 or similar devices can help meet the need of expertise needed to serve a growing number of patients with neuromodulation therapies.
Researchers have also begun a pilot study using a new mobile device, called RP-Xpress. About the size of a small suitcase, the RP-Xpress is being used for long distances home visits for patients who live hundreds of miles away, using existing local cellular networks. Dr. Mendez and his colleagues conclude: "We envision a time in the near future, when patients with implanted devices neuromodulation have real-time access to a physician experienced in the comfort of your own home."

2-D Matrix Laser

More complex world of 2-D Matrix Laser Beamsteering demonstrated:

A new 2-D optical technology will enable advanced stages LADAR and other defense applications.

Most people are familiar with the concept of RADAR. Radio frequency (RF) waves travel through the atmosphere, reflected from a target, and return to the radar system for processing. The amount of time it takes to return to correlate the object distance. In recent decades, this technology has been revolutionized electronically scanned (phased) arrays (ESA), which transmit RF waves in a particular direction without mechanical movement. Each emitter varies in amplitude and phase to form a radar beam in a particular direction through constructive and destructive interference with other transmitters.
Similar to laser radar detection and ranging, or LADAR, explores a view to determine the distance and other information, but uses optical beams instead of RF waves. LADAR provides a more detailed level of information that can be used for applications such as rapid mapping in 3-D. However, current methods of optical beam steering necessary for LADAR, most of which are based on simple mechanical rotation, are simply too bulky, slow or incorrect to meet potential LADAR.
As reported in the current issue of the journal Nature, researchers at DARPA recently demonstrated the more complex 2-D optical assembly removed for ever. The matrix, which has dimensions of 576μm x 576μm only about the size of a pinhead, consists of 4,096 (64 x 64) nano-antennas integrated into a silicon chip. The key to this breakthrough was the development of a design that is scalable to a large number of nano-antennas  development of new micro-fabrication techniques, and the integration of photonic and electronic components on a single chip.
"The integration of all the components of an optical assembly staged a miniature set of 2-D chips can lead to new capabilities for sensing and imaging" said Sanjay Raman, program manager for DARPA Diverse Accessible Heterogeneous Integration (Dahi ) program. "By bringing this functionality to a tablet form factor scale, this arrangement can generate high-resolution, beam patterns - a capability that researchers have tried to create optical phased array chip is truly a technology that allows a wide number of systems. LADAR and one day revolutionize much the same way that revolutionized RADAR AEE. LADAR Beyond, this chip may have applications for biomedical imaging, 3D holographic displays and ultra-high speed data communications. "

Quantum Communication

Quantum Communication: Photon each account

Ultrafast, efficient and reliable single photon detectors are among the most sought after components of photonics and quantum communication, which have not yet reached maturity for practical application. Physicist Dr. Wolfram Pernice, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), in collaboration with colleagues from Yale University, Boston University, and Moscow State Pedagogical University, achieved the breakthrough in the integration of a single photon detectors with nano-photonic chips. The detector combines near-unit detection efficiency with high time resolution and has a very low error rate.
Without reliable detection of individual photons, it is impossible to make real use of the latest advances in optical data transmission and quantum computing, is like having no analog-digital converter in a conventional computer to determine if the applied voltage is 0 or 1. Although a number of different models of single photon detector have been developed in recent years, to date, none has provided satisfactory performance.
Several new ideas and advanced developments entered the prototype developed in the "Integrated Quantum Photonics" project at the Center for Functional Nano-structures DFG (CFN). The new single-photon detector, tested in the wavelength range of telecommunications achieves detection efficiency previously achieved 91%.
The detector was made by fabricating superconducting nano-wires directly on top of one nanophotonic wave-guide  This geometry can be compared with a tube that conducts electricity, around which a wire is wound a superconducting state and, as such, has no electrical resistivity. The nano-scale wire of niobium nit ride absorbs photons propagating along the wave-guide  When a photon is absorbed, the superconductivity is lost, which is detected as an electrical signal. The longer the tube, the greater the probability of detection. The lengths involved are in the micrometer range.
A special feature of the installation detector is directly over the chip, allowing it to replicate randomly. Single photon detectors ever built were independent units, which were connected to chips with optical fibers.

Ultra-Small Devices

Ultra-Small Devices for Energy-Efficient Electronics :

Ultra small devices for efficient energy

A team of scientists at the Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork and the National University of Singapore devices are designed and manufactured ultra low power small electronics. By figuring out how molecules behave in these devices, a tenfold increase in the efficiency of switching is obtained by changing only one carbon atom. These devices could provide new ways to combat overheating in mobile phones and laptops, and could also help in electrical stimulation of tissue repair for wound healing.
Creating penetration of molecular devices with highly controllable electrical properties appear in the Nature Nanotechnology. Dr. Damien Thompson at the Tyndall National Institute, UCC and a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore led by Professor Chris Nijhuis designed and created devices which are based on molecules that act as valves or electrical diode rectifiers .
Dr. Thompson explains, "These molecules are very useful because they allow current to flow through them into the ignition and block the flow of current when turned off. Results of the study show that the simple addition of an additional carbon atom is sufficient to improve device performance by more than a factor of ten. follow up a lot of new ideas based on these results, and we hope ultimately to create a number of new components for electronic devices. " Level atom-Dr. Thompson Computer simulations showed how molecules with an odd number of carbon atoms go straight molecules with an even number of carbon atoms. This allows them to pack more closely together. Closely packed assembly of these molecules were formed on surfaces of the metal electrodes in Singapore Nijhuis group and proved remarkably free of defects. These high quality devices can suppress the leakage currents and thus operate efficiently and reliably. The device can be switched on and off cleanly only on the basis of the load and the shape of the molecules, as well as in regulating the biological nanomachines photosynthesis, cell division and tissue growth.

Tyndall Electronics Theory Group leader Prof. Jim Greer explains "The modern electronic devices such as phones and tablets in manufacturing today rely on tiny switches that are close molecular sizes This provides new challenges for electronics but opens interesting opportunities to combine the molecular properties that are used to. working advantage. Dr. Thompson is an exciting new way to exploit the molecular design for new forms of performing information processing. "A key feature to promote nano-scale electronics will be the ability using molecules as rectifiers and switches. By demonstrating the rational design of molecules with a grinding day. Extensive and highly reproducible ON / OFF ratio, the study provides a key step in the creation of device components ultrasmall technologically feasible Fifty thousand rectifier molecules strung end to end would fit across the diameter of a human hair. Advances in the scientific computing, synthesis and characterization Now we can understand and control the material on the scale of atoms and molecules.

Cell Cocktail Rice-resistant cancer cells, Nice to normal cells

Juice rice cells can knock out two types of human cancer cells as well or better than the potent anticancer drug Taxol, a scientist at Michigan Technological University discovered in laboratory tests. Moreover, Taxol does something you can not do: playing well with normal cells.
Biologist Wusirika Ramakrishna and his team made their fight against cancer shaker with drops of rice stem cells called callus, grown in the lab using garden-variety seed plant rice Oryza sativa. Then secretions collected from these calli and applied to the cells of the colon and kidney cancer in laboratory.
After 96 hours exposure to a solution of 20-a callus of rice-1, 95 percent of kidney cancer cells were killed along with 83 percent of colon cancer cells, while normal cells lung were virtually unscathed. Taxol was lethal to cancer cells well, but also kill significant numbers of normal cells.
Wusirika believes the rice callus culture can attack the cancer with the same kind of plant chemicals that make very healthy vegetables to eat.
"They are full of metabolic compounds that are good for us," he says. "We believe that is what is killing the cancer."
Then test the solution Wusirika like rice callus in the prostate, lung and breast cancer cells, the most common types of cancer .. "We will work with all of them, but we have to find out," he said.
He also wants to determine which of the compounds released by the rice callus has cancer-fighting properties and how they work against tumor cells. Or, he says, it is possible that the suite of biochemicals in callus solution work as a team to fight cancer.

'Anchors' Organize chromosomal DNA during cell division

'Anchors' Organize chromosomal DNA during cell division: New role of telomeres in cell growth may shed light on aging and age-related diseases

For humans to grow and to replace and heal damaged tissue, the cells of the body must play continuously, a process known as "cell division", by which a cell becomes two, two become four, and so successively. A key question is how bio-medical research chromosomes that are duplicated during cell division so that each daughter cell receives an exact copy of the genome of a person, are organized during this process.
Now, scientists at the Salk Institute have discovered a new function of human cell division that can help explain how DNA is organized in the nucleus of cells reproduce. They found that telomeres, molecular caps protect the ends of chromosomes move toward the outer edge of the cell nucleus after they have been duplicated.
This image shows the telomeres (yellow), protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that have been moved to the outer edge of a cell nucleus (blue). Salk researchers discovered that anchor telomeres to the nuclear membrane after the cell duplicates its DNA during cell division, which can help organize chromosomes as the cell divides into two daughter cells.
While the consequences of this spatial reorganization of telomeres are not yet clear, the findings could shed light on how our genes are regulated and how programs are altered gene expression during cell division, an important step in understanding the aging and diseases arising from genetic mutations, such as cancer.
"What we have discovered is that telomeres not only protect our chromosomes, also help organize our genetic material in the nucleus," says Jan Karlseder, a professor in the Salk Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Darlene Shiley President and Donald. "This is important, because the three-dimensional position of the DNA in the nucleus influences gene expression profiling and how it changes over time in the genome."
Telomeres, a combination of protein and DNA are vital in DNA replication aging and tumor suppression. Whenever a primary human cell divides, the telomeres shorten until critically short telomeres lead to cell destruction. Much research has been focused on understanding the dynamics Karlseder telomeres to develop ways to influence the aging process, and thus limit the growth of cancer cells.
Besides explore the involvement of telomeres in aging syndromes and interactions between the mechanism of DNA damage and telomere Karlseder studies the role of telomeres during cell cycle. Previous studies on human cells have shown that telomeres change position during cell division, suggesting that also may play a role in the organization of the DNA into nuclei. However, these studies only provide instant telomeres isolated at different stages of the cell cycle.
In their new study, the researchers used advanced time lapse confocal microscopy Salk live cells to track the movement of telomeres in real time during the cell cycle. Continued for 20 hours telomeres in living cells molecules by labeling with bright under a microscope. They also recorded the movement of chromatin, a combination of DNA and proteins that form chromosomes.

Breast cancer risk increases

Breast cancer risk increases with repeated CT Nuclear Estimates :

Researchers reviewed the records of about 250,000 women included in an integrated system to provide health services found that the increased use of CT between 2000 and 2010 could result in an increased risk of breast cancer in some women, even younger patients and receiving the repeated examinations. According to the study, which was presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), nuclear medicine examinations can also help increase breast cancer risk.CT ionizing radiation such as X-ray use produces cross-sectional images of the body. In nuclear medicine imaging, radio-pharmaceuticals - a compound that includes a small amount of a radioactive material - is given in the body to help visualize internal organs.

"When a woman undergoes CT or nuclear medicine imaging of the chest, abdomen or spine, breast tissue can absorb some of the radiation," said lead author Rebecca Smith-Bind-man, MD, professor of radiology and imaging Bio-medical at University of California, San Francisco. "Breast tissue is one of body tissues known to be susceptible to developing cancer as a result of exposure to radiation."

The study, led by Ginger Feliz, MD, MPH, fellow breast images Prentice Women's Hospital - Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, found that among the female members of the system, the use of CT increased by 99.8 TC 1,000 women in 2000 to 192.4 CT scans per 1,000 women in 2010 (an annual increase of 6.8 percent). In 2010, 46 percent of CT scans of the chest exposed to radiation. Nuclear medicine imaging lines declined from 39.3 per 1,000 women in 2000 to 27.5 lines per 1,000 women in 2010 (a decrease of 3.5 percent per year), however, in 2010, 84 percent of nuclear medicine studies exposed to radiation from the breast.

"So far, the impact of the increasing use of images in radiation exposure to breast tissue and subsequent risk of breast cancer is unknown," said Dr. Smith-Bindman. "Our goal was to quantify the use of imaging and radiation exposure to the breast among women who participated in delivery of integrated health system and use this data to determine the risk of images related to breast cancer in these studies. "

The research team collected information CT dose of 1,656 patients that underwent CT examinations exposed to radiation from the breast and, using a new method of automated calculation calculates the effective radiation dose patients and the amount of radiation absorbed in the chest. The team also analyzed the volume radio-pharmaceutical and associated radiation exposure to 5507 used in nuclear medicine procedures that exposed his chest to radiation. "We found that the estimated radiation dose for breast CT were highly variable between patients, with higher doses coming multipurpose cardiac CT and chest, where successive images are captured studied organ," said Dr. Smith-Bind-man.

Helium Crystals Grown in Zero Gravity

Physics On a Plane Helium Crystals Grown in Zero Gravity :

A group of physicists in Japan have taken to the skies to grow crystals in zero gravity.

The presentation of the results at the Institute of Physics of the Journal of the German Physical Society of New Physics, who have overcome the limitations of the laboratory to examine the peculiar dynamics of helium crystals on a scale much larger than can be achieved with ordinary materials.

Their findings could help researchers reveal the fundamental physics behind the formation of crystals, while also presented the phenomena that are hidden by gravity.

Helium crystals were grown using high pressures, extremely low temperatures (0.6K/-272 ° C) and spray with a superfluid - a quantum state of matter that behaves like a fluid but has a zero viscosity of meaning, which have complete resistance to stress. Superfluids can also flow through very small holes without any friction.

Lead author of the study, Professor Ryuji Nomura, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, said: "The Helio crystals grow very quickly in a superfluid helium atoms because they are made by a superflow fast, so it can not hinder crystallization process has been ideal material. for the study of basic questions of the form of crystals, because as the crystals are formed rapidly".

"It may take thousands of years for the classical normal crystals to reach their final form, however, at very low temperatures helium crystals can reach their final form in a second helium When crystals grow more than 1 mm can be easily deformed by gravity. therefore, we did our experiments on a plane. "

The experiments were conducted in a small plane, in cooperation with the Agency Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). When a specific route, known as parabolic flight, the jet supplied zero gravity conditions for 20 seconds. About eight experiments were carried out over a two-hour flight.

A specially designed mini fridge was taken aboard the aircraft, which was equipped with windows to crystal formation can be observed. Large crystals of helium were placed in the bottom of a high pressure chamber, and with a sound wave after zapping to crush into small pieces, which were then sprayed with a superfluid helium-4. Once crushed, the smaller crystals melt and rapidly grew larger until only one 10 mm glass survived.

Mouse Brain Cells

Mouse Brain Cells Activated, Reactivated in Learning and Memory :

Memories are made of this, says the song. Now neuro-scientists have shown for the first time individual cells turns mouse brain during learning and subsequently reactivated during memory recall. The results are published December 13.

We store episodic memories about events in our lives in a part of the brain called the hippo-campus  said Brian Wiltgen, now an assistant professor at the Center for Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis. (Most of the work was done while working Wiltgen University of Virginia. In animals, the hippocampus is important for navigation and storage of memories about the places.

"The exciting part is that now we are able to answer a fundamental question about memory," Wiltgen said. "It has been long assumed that the hippocampus is essential for memory because it leads to the reactivation of neurons (nerve cells) in the crust. The reason I can remember an event of his life is that the hippocampus is able to recreate the pattern of cortical activity that was there at the time. "

According to this model, patients with hippocampal damage lost due to memory can not recreate the activity in the cortex of the memory when done. Wiltgen mouse experiment makes it possible to test this model for the first time.

"Now we can do a good test of hippo-cam-pal function," Wiltgen said.

Current thinking is that learning activates a group of neurons that undergo changes, making new connections with each other to store memory. Memory retrieval reactive network.

Researchers working with human subjects, UC Davis and elsewhere, using imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging to see which brain areas are activated and deactivated in learning and recovery. But f MRI can not select an object as small as a single cell.

Wiltgen and the University of Virginia graduate student Kaycie Tayler used a transgenic mouse carrying a gene for a modified green fluorescent protein. When nerve cells are activated in the mouse produce a long lasting green fluorescence persists for weeks and a short red fluorescence which disintegrates in a couple of hours.

However, the whole system can be suppressed by dosing mice with the antibiotic doxycycline and Wiltgen Tayler and could manipulate the point where they began to label activated cells.

The mice were placed in a new cage with a strange smell and given a few minutes to explore. They were then given a mild electric shock through the floor of the cage. When he returned to the cage for a couple of days later, the mice would remember the shock and stay frozen in one place.

When they examined the brains of mice, the researchers could see that the cells were initially activated to form memory and recall were reactivated after.

Engineers Develop New Energy-Efficient Computer Memory

Engineers Develop New Energy-Efficient Computer Memory Using Magnetic Materials :

By using voltage instead of an electric current, researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have made great improvements in an ultra-fast, high capacity type of computer memory known as Access Memory Random magneto-resistance, or MRAM.

Improving Memory The UCLA team, ask Merriam magneto-electric random access memory, has great potential for use in future memory chips for almost all electronic applications, such as smartphones, tablets, computers and microprocessors and data storage and solid state drives used in computers and data centers large.

Me-ram key advantage over existing technologies is that it combines low power consumption with an extremely high density, high speed read and write, and the lack of volatility - the ability to retain data when power is applied, similar to hard drives and flash memory cards, but it is much faster Me-ram.

Currently, magnetic memory is based on a technology called spin-transfer torque (STT), which uses the magnetic property of electrons - called spin - apart from its cargo. STT uses an electrical current to move electrons to write data to memory.

However, while STT is superior in many respects to the memory of competing technologies, the electrical mechanism based on actual scripts still requires a certain amount of energy, which means that heat is generated when data is written to it. Additionally, memory capacity is limited by the closing of each of the other data bits can be placed physically, a process that is limited by the current required to write information. The low bit capacity, in turn, translates into a cost per bit relatively large, which limits the application range of STT.

With Me-ram  the UCLA team has replaced the current STT voltage to write data to memory. This eliminates the need to transfer large amounts of electrons through wires and instead uses a voltage - the electrical potential difference - to change the magnetic bits and write information in memory. This has resulted in computer memory that generates much less heat, which is 10 to 1,000 times more energy efficient. And the memory can be more than five times denser, more bits of information stored in the same physical area, which also reduces the cost per bit.

The research team was led by principal investigator Kang L. Wang, Raytheon UCLA, Professor of Electrical Engineering and included the author John G. Alzate, an electrical engineering graduate student and Pedram Khalili, a research associate in electrical engineering and project director of the UCLA-DARPA research programs in nonvolatile logic.

Ordinary Heart Cells Become 'Biological Pacemakers'

 Injection of Single Gene :

Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute researchers have reprogrammed normal heart cells to become exact replicas of highly specialized pacemaker cells by injecting a single gene (Tbx18)-an important step forward in the search for a therapy of a decade-long biological to correct irregular heartbeats and bankrupt.
Progress was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology .
"Although we and others have created primitive biological pacemaker before, this study is the first to demonstrate that a single gene can direct conversion of the heart muscle cells to genuine pacemaker cells. The new cells spontaneously generated electrical impulses were indistinguishable from native pacemaker cells, "said Hee Cheol Cho, PhD., a scientist at the Heart Research Institute.
Pacemaker cells generate electrical activity that spreads to other cells in the heart in an orderly pattern to create rhythmic muscle contractions. If these cells go wrong, the heart pumps erratically best, healthy patients undergoing surgery often use electronic pacemaker as the only option for survival.
The heartbeat originates in the sinoatrial node (SAN) in the upper right chamber of the heart, which are grouped pacemaker cells. Of the 10 billion heart cells, fewer than 10,000 are pacemaker cells, often known as SAN cells. Once reprogrammed by the Tbx18 gene, pacemaker cells newly created - "San" ISAN induced cells or cells - had all the key features of natural pacemaker SAN and kept their similar characteristics, even after the effects of Tbx18 gene was gone .
But researchers at Cedars-Sinai, using a virus designed to carry a single gene (Tbx18) plays a key role in embryonic development of pacemaker cells directly reprogrammed heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) to specialized pacemaker cells. The new cells made in the distinctive characteristics and function of native pacemaker cells, both in cells and in laboratory studies of guinea pig reprogramming.
Previous efforts to generate new cells result in pacemaker cells of the heart muscle that can overcome on their own. However, the modified cells were closest to the muscle cells for normal pacemaker cells. Other methods used to obtain embryonic stem cells pacemaker cells. However, the risk of contamination of cancer cells is a persistent obstacle to the realization of the potential of embryonic stem cell therapeutic approach. The new work, just amazing, have pacemaker cells that closely resemble native cancer risk free.
For his work on biological pacemaker technology, Cho, last author of the article, recently won the Louis N. and Arnold M. Katz Basic Research Prize, the Young Investigator Award from the American Heart Association.

Hybrid Tunnel

May Help Severed nerves Guide Back to Health :

Building a tunnel formed by two hard and soft materials to guide the re-connection of severed nerves can be the first step to help patients who have suffered extensive nerve trauma recover feeling and movement, according to a team biomedical engineering.
"Damage to the nerves in both the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system is a major health problem," said Mohammad Reza Abidian, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, Penn State. "According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, there are approximately 290,000 people in the U.S. who suffer from spinal cord injuries, with about 12,000 new injuries occurring each year."
Spontaneous nerve regeneration is limited to small injuries peripheral nervous system injury and actively suppressed in the central nervous system. When a nerve in the peripheral nervous system is a bit short, nerves can regenerate and reconnect. However, if the distance between the two is too late, growth can deviate and fail to connect.
The researchers, who published their findings in the current issue of the health of Advanced Materials, developed a new hybrid line consists of a soft material called hydro-gel, as an outside wall next to an interior wall made of an electrically active polymer conducting serve to guide tunnel regeneration and re-connection of severed nerve endings.
Abidian says the method may offer advantages over current surgeries used to reconnect severed nerves.
"Autografts are currently the gold standard value to close the gaps," said Abidian. "This is an operation that takes the nerve from another part of the body - for example - of a tendon, and then grafted into the injured nerve."

Exploding Star Missing from Formation of Solar System

Formation of Solar System :

A new study by researchers at the University of Chicago challenges the notion that the force of an exploding star forced the formation of the solar system.

In this study, published online last month in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, authors and Nicholas Tang Haolan Dauphas found the radioactive isotope of iron 60 - the telltale sign of an exploding star - is not abundant and mix well the material of the solar system. As cosmochemists, looking for remnants of stellar explosions in meteorites to help determine the conditions under which the solar system was formed.

Some moieties are radioactive isotopes of atoms unstable energy disintegrate over time. Scientists in the past decade have found high amounts of radioactive iron isotope 60 in the early solar system materials. "If you have 60 iron abundance in the solar system, that's a" smoking gun "- evidence of the presence of a supernova," said Dauphas, professor of geophysical sciences.

Iron 60 can only come from a supernova, what scientists have tried to explain this apparent abundance by suggesting that a supernova occurred in the area of ​​isotope diffusion through the explosion.

But the results of Tang and Dauphas "were different from the previous works: We found that 60 iron levels were uniform and low in the early solar system materials reached their conclusions by analyzing meteorite samples to measure the abundance of iron 60, looked .. with the same materials that previous researchers had worked, but used a different approach, more accurate than the evidence showed very low iron 60.

Previous methods meteorite samples remain intact and impurities not removed completely, which may have led to increased measurement error. Tang and Dauphas' approach, however, requires that "digest" meteorite samples in the solution before the measurement, allowing them to completely remove impurities.

This process eventually produced results with much smaller errors. "Haolan spent five years working very hard to reach these conclusions, so did these statements lightly. We have been very careful to get to a point where we are ready to go public in these measures," said Dauphas.

New Form of Cell Division Found

Natural Back-Up Mechanism for defective cell division

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center have discovered a new form of cell division in human cells.
They think that will act as a backup mechanism for cell division errors, prevents some cells from going down a path that can lead to cancer.
"If we could promote this new form of cell division called klerokinesis, we may be able to prevent certain types of cancer in developing countries," said lead researcher Dr. Mark Burkard, assistant professor of hematology-oncology at the School of Medicine University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Burkard presented the findings on Dec. 17 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco.
A medical researcher who see patients with breast cancer, cancer Burkard studies where cells contain too many chromosomes, a condition known as polyploidy.
About 14 percent of breast cancer cases and 35 percent of pancreatic cancers are three or more sets of chromosomes rather than two normal sets. Many other types of cancer cells containing chromosomes are defective and not too many or too few.
"Our goal in the laboratory has been to find ways to develop new treatment strategies for breast cancer with too many sets of chromosomes," he says. The original aim of the study was to make human cells that have extra sets of chromosomes. But after following the accepted pattern was observed unexpectedly new form of cell division.
So far, most Burkard and cellular biologists today accepted a century old hypothesis developed by the German biologist Theodor Boveri, who studied egg urchin populations. Boveri assumed that the error of cell division that leads to cells with abnormal chromosome set, then the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells defined. Evidence accumulated over the years, most researchers have come to accept the hypothesis.
Normal cell division is at the heart of the ability of an organism to grow from a single fertilized egg into a fully developed individual. More than a million rounds of division million to spend to make this happen. In each division, a stem cell daughter cells. Even in a fully grown adult, many types of cells routinely recreated through cell division.