SciTech #ScienceSunday Digest - 49/2016.
SciTech #ScienceSunday Digest - 49/2016.
Permalink here: http://www.scitechdigest.net/2016/12/allen-crispr-cells-advanced-synbio.html
Allen CRISPR cells, Advanced Synbio tools, Radioelectric diamond power, High temperature ice, Programmably disordered DNA, Endohedral fullerene clocks, Dendrimer atom mimicry, Linked enzyme molecular synthesis, Wireless optogenetic control, Nvidia’s Xavier chips.
1. Allen CRISPR Stem Cell Collection
The Allen Institute for Cell Science has released the Allen Cell Collection, comprising five induced pluripotent stem cell lines genetically engineered with CRISPR to fluorescently tag or label critical structural proteins in the cell http://www.alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/cell-science/news-press/press-releases/allen-institute-cell-science-releases-gene-edited-human-stem-cell-lines. Tagged structures that can be easily visualised include the nucleus, mitochondria, microtubules, cell junctions, and cell adhesion complexes. Because these are human stem cells the differentiation into specialised cells and tissues can also be tracked with the same ease and efficiency. Additional collections will be released next year. These tools provide a very useful means by which to study the effects of other mutations and genetic modifications.
2. Advancing Synthetic Biology Tools
First, a number of easy, convenient mini-laboratories are being developed and launched to better allow people to edit, engineer, create, and test their own modified cells http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/tools-for-would-be-biohackers-here-come-3-mini-labs. The core ethos here is to continually reduce the cost and complexity required to tinker and edit cells, in the same way that the cost and complexity of computers was reduced, and so better unleash biological innovations. Second, at the industrial scale synthetic biology development is being driven by advances in automation http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/the-robot-revolution-comes-to-synthetic-biology, for driving high-throughput screening and selection to build organisms to required specifications. I feel like we’re approaching a tipping point here.
3. Radioelectric Diamond Energy Generators
Like thermoelectric materials that generate electricity from heat and piezoelectric materials that generate electricity from movement, a new prototype diamond-based material functions as a radioelectric material to generate electricity from radioactive sources http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2016/november/diamond-power.html. The prototype synthetic diamonds use Nickel-63 as the radioactive source, but the next version should use Carbon-14 from radioactive graphite nuclear waste as the source incorporated into the synthetic diamonds. One gram of Carbon-14 in a battery would generate 15 Joules of energy per day, and would take over 5,000 years to reach half power. I wonder if future variations might increase the energy output for proportionally lower lifetimes. In other news work continues to develop diamonds as the ultimate semiconductors http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/research/stories/faces21_hatano.html.
4. High Temperature Ice in Nanotubes
When inside carbon nanotubes water remains “frozen” solid even at temperatures above the boiling point of water http://news.mit.edu/2016/carbon-nanotubes-water-solid-boiling-1128. The behaviour of the water at these temperatures is dependent on the diameter of the carbon nanotube, such that 1.05nm tubes vs 1.06nm tubes resulted in a tens-of-degrees temperature difference in the apparent freezing point - the team claim an ice-like phase for the solid water but need additional experiments to confirm it is ice. A couple of thoughts: first, the pressure exerted by the nanotubes must be significant, second, I wonder if there are superconducting applications here for example, confining materials to a superconducting phase that otherwise would not be possible at high temperatures.
5. Programmably Disordered DNA Origami
For the first time DNA origami building blocks or tiles have been engineered to self-assemble in both deterministic and random ways in order to generate large-scale emergent features with tunable statistical properties - what is known as programmable disorder http://www.caltech.edu/news/programmable-disorder-53104. An example of these designs include Truchet tiles, which fit together deterministically, but in one of two different random ways, in order to generate complex patterns. The structures formed are more organic, like trees or dendrites. In related programmable materials news shape-memory polymers are enabling new applications http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2016/Q4/programmable-materiels-showing-future-potential-for-industry.html.
6. Endohedral Fullerenes as Atomic Clocks
Endohedral fullerenes, which are buckyball cages encasing a particular atom or ion, are being produced industrially for a range of miniature devices and applications http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/11/millimeter-accurate-gps-in-smartphones.html. Endohedral fullerenes encapsulating nitrogen atoms might be used to produce tiny low-power on-chip atomic clocks that might provide cars and phones with GPS accuracy to 1mm, which would be a game changer. I’ve also wondered for about 15 years how arrays of suitable endohedral fullerenes might be used as high density digital memory devices. Other applications include energy harvesting and sensing.
7. Atom Mimicry with Dendrimers
Dendrimers, large molecules with precise branches extending from a central core, can now not only be engineered to mimic the electron valency of atoms but also linked into dendrimer arrays that mimic the covalent electron pair bonding between atoms in a molecule http://phys.org/news/2016-12-aspect-atom-mimicry-nanotechnology-applications.html. The group produced large 2D arrays of these “molecules” whose geometry and pitch can be controlled by the design of the dendrimer and linker molecules. This is a fascinating new atom-mimicry tool, similar to certain types of quantum dots, with applications no one has yet thought of.
8. Daisy-Chained Sperm Enzymes for Molecular Synthesis
A precise ten-step biological synthesis pathway for converting glucose into lactate has been demonstrated with a system that mimics the way enzymes in sperm tails rapidly ferry molecules and metabolites along the length of the tail http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/12/fast-efficient-sperm-tails-inspire-nanobiotechnology. Instead of enzymes vibrating in solution and randomly encountering their particular molecule, the group tethered all of the necessary enzymes to nanoparticles, which resulted in much lower concentrations of intermediate molecular products in solution. This is another step on the path towards atomically precise manufacturing. Add the particular enzymes for your synthetic pathway of interest to nanoparticles (perhaps further advances will lock in precise positions to ensure molecule-by-molecule handoff and transfer with no wastage) and drop into a solution or environment of choice, or inject into blood in order to perform the needed reaction as therapy, sensor, stimulant, industrial production or clean up agent.
9. Latest Wireless Optogenetic Animal Control
This week saw a nice update and review of wireless optogenetic animal control tools that we’ve covered previously over the years http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/neuroscientists-wirelessly-control-the-brain-of-a-scampering-lab-mouse. The key development has been tiny LEDs that can be implanted and wirelessly powered and controlled, requiring the mice or rats to be observed in cages equipped with radio frequency generators that can both power and send control signals to the tiny implanted chips connected to the LEDs. Instead of needing large receiving antennas new devices are able to track and use the body of the animal itself for resonant coupling.
10. Towards Exascale Computing with Nvidia
Nvidia has introduced Xavier, its most ambitious single-chip computer, which has 7 billion transistors and computes at 20 trillion operations per second (OPS) for just 20 watts of power. 50 of these chips would provide a petaOPS of processing for 1 kilowatt of power, while in 2018 50,000 units would reach exaOPS for 1 megawatt of power. Coverage at NBF here http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/11/nvidia-xavier-chip-20-trillion.html and here http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/11/50000-nvidia-xavier-chips-would-deliver.html. Commercial drivers include ramping up AI, deep learning, and autonomous vehicle data processing applications.
SciTech Tip Jar: http://www.scitechdigest.net/p/donate.html
Permalink here: http://www.scitechdigest.net/2016/12/allen-crispr-cells-advanced-synbio.html
Allen CRISPR cells, Advanced Synbio tools, Radioelectric diamond power, High temperature ice, Programmably disordered DNA, Endohedral fullerene clocks, Dendrimer atom mimicry, Linked enzyme molecular synthesis, Wireless optogenetic control, Nvidia’s Xavier chips.
1. Allen CRISPR Stem Cell Collection
The Allen Institute for Cell Science has released the Allen Cell Collection, comprising five induced pluripotent stem cell lines genetically engineered with CRISPR to fluorescently tag or label critical structural proteins in the cell http://www.alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/cell-science/news-press/press-releases/allen-institute-cell-science-releases-gene-edited-human-stem-cell-lines. Tagged structures that can be easily visualised include the nucleus, mitochondria, microtubules, cell junctions, and cell adhesion complexes. Because these are human stem cells the differentiation into specialised cells and tissues can also be tracked with the same ease and efficiency. Additional collections will be released next year. These tools provide a very useful means by which to study the effects of other mutations and genetic modifications.
2. Advancing Synthetic Biology Tools
First, a number of easy, convenient mini-laboratories are being developed and launched to better allow people to edit, engineer, create, and test their own modified cells http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/tools-for-would-be-biohackers-here-come-3-mini-labs. The core ethos here is to continually reduce the cost and complexity required to tinker and edit cells, in the same way that the cost and complexity of computers was reduced, and so better unleash biological innovations. Second, at the industrial scale synthetic biology development is being driven by advances in automation http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/the-robot-revolution-comes-to-synthetic-biology, for driving high-throughput screening and selection to build organisms to required specifications. I feel like we’re approaching a tipping point here.
3. Radioelectric Diamond Energy Generators
Like thermoelectric materials that generate electricity from heat and piezoelectric materials that generate electricity from movement, a new prototype diamond-based material functions as a radioelectric material to generate electricity from radioactive sources http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2016/november/diamond-power.html. The prototype synthetic diamonds use Nickel-63 as the radioactive source, but the next version should use Carbon-14 from radioactive graphite nuclear waste as the source incorporated into the synthetic diamonds. One gram of Carbon-14 in a battery would generate 15 Joules of energy per day, and would take over 5,000 years to reach half power. I wonder if future variations might increase the energy output for proportionally lower lifetimes. In other news work continues to develop diamonds as the ultimate semiconductors http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/research/stories/faces21_hatano.html.
4. High Temperature Ice in Nanotubes
When inside carbon nanotubes water remains “frozen” solid even at temperatures above the boiling point of water http://news.mit.edu/2016/carbon-nanotubes-water-solid-boiling-1128. The behaviour of the water at these temperatures is dependent on the diameter of the carbon nanotube, such that 1.05nm tubes vs 1.06nm tubes resulted in a tens-of-degrees temperature difference in the apparent freezing point - the team claim an ice-like phase for the solid water but need additional experiments to confirm it is ice. A couple of thoughts: first, the pressure exerted by the nanotubes must be significant, second, I wonder if there are superconducting applications here for example, confining materials to a superconducting phase that otherwise would not be possible at high temperatures.
5. Programmably Disordered DNA Origami
For the first time DNA origami building blocks or tiles have been engineered to self-assemble in both deterministic and random ways in order to generate large-scale emergent features with tunable statistical properties - what is known as programmable disorder http://www.caltech.edu/news/programmable-disorder-53104. An example of these designs include Truchet tiles, which fit together deterministically, but in one of two different random ways, in order to generate complex patterns. The structures formed are more organic, like trees or dendrites. In related programmable materials news shape-memory polymers are enabling new applications http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2016/Q4/programmable-materiels-showing-future-potential-for-industry.html.
6. Endohedral Fullerenes as Atomic Clocks
Endohedral fullerenes, which are buckyball cages encasing a particular atom or ion, are being produced industrially for a range of miniature devices and applications http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/11/millimeter-accurate-gps-in-smartphones.html. Endohedral fullerenes encapsulating nitrogen atoms might be used to produce tiny low-power on-chip atomic clocks that might provide cars and phones with GPS accuracy to 1mm, which would be a game changer. I’ve also wondered for about 15 years how arrays of suitable endohedral fullerenes might be used as high density digital memory devices. Other applications include energy harvesting and sensing.
7. Atom Mimicry with Dendrimers
Dendrimers, large molecules with precise branches extending from a central core, can now not only be engineered to mimic the electron valency of atoms but also linked into dendrimer arrays that mimic the covalent electron pair bonding between atoms in a molecule http://phys.org/news/2016-12-aspect-atom-mimicry-nanotechnology-applications.html. The group produced large 2D arrays of these “molecules” whose geometry and pitch can be controlled by the design of the dendrimer and linker molecules. This is a fascinating new atom-mimicry tool, similar to certain types of quantum dots, with applications no one has yet thought of.
8. Daisy-Chained Sperm Enzymes for Molecular Synthesis
A precise ten-step biological synthesis pathway for converting glucose into lactate has been demonstrated with a system that mimics the way enzymes in sperm tails rapidly ferry molecules and metabolites along the length of the tail http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/12/fast-efficient-sperm-tails-inspire-nanobiotechnology. Instead of enzymes vibrating in solution and randomly encountering their particular molecule, the group tethered all of the necessary enzymes to nanoparticles, which resulted in much lower concentrations of intermediate molecular products in solution. This is another step on the path towards atomically precise manufacturing. Add the particular enzymes for your synthetic pathway of interest to nanoparticles (perhaps further advances will lock in precise positions to ensure molecule-by-molecule handoff and transfer with no wastage) and drop into a solution or environment of choice, or inject into blood in order to perform the needed reaction as therapy, sensor, stimulant, industrial production or clean up agent.
9. Latest Wireless Optogenetic Animal Control
This week saw a nice update and review of wireless optogenetic animal control tools that we’ve covered previously over the years http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/neuroscientists-wirelessly-control-the-brain-of-a-scampering-lab-mouse. The key development has been tiny LEDs that can be implanted and wirelessly powered and controlled, requiring the mice or rats to be observed in cages equipped with radio frequency generators that can both power and send control signals to the tiny implanted chips connected to the LEDs. Instead of needing large receiving antennas new devices are able to track and use the body of the animal itself for resonant coupling.
10. Towards Exascale Computing with Nvidia
Nvidia has introduced Xavier, its most ambitious single-chip computer, which has 7 billion transistors and computes at 20 trillion operations per second (OPS) for just 20 watts of power. 50 of these chips would provide a petaOPS of processing for 1 kilowatt of power, while in 2018 50,000 units would reach exaOPS for 1 megawatt of power. Coverage at NBF here http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/11/nvidia-xavier-chip-20-trillion.html and here http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/11/50000-nvidia-xavier-chips-would-deliver.html. Commercial drivers include ramping up AI, deep learning, and autonomous vehicle data processing applications.
SciTech Tip Jar: http://www.scitechdigest.net/p/donate.html
Comments
Post a Comment