DNA motor programmed to navigate a network of tracks

Monday, January 23, 2012

Expanding on previous work with engines traveling on straight tracks, a team of researchers at Kyoto University and the University of Oxford have successfully used DNA building blocks to construct a motor capable of navigating a programmable network of tracks with multiple switches. The findings, published in the January 22 online edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, are expected to lead to further developments in the field of nanoengineering.

The research utilizes the technology of DNA origami, where strands of DNA molecules are sequenced in a way that will cause them to self-assemble into desired 2D and even 3D structures. In this latest effort, the scientists built a network of tracks and switches atop DNA origami tiles, which made it possible for motor molecules to travel along these rail systems.

"We have demonstrated that it is not only possible to build nanoscale devices that function autonomously," explained Dr. Masayuki Endo of Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), "but that we can cause such devices to produce predictable outputs based on different, controllable starting conditions."

The team, including lead author Dr. Shelley Wickham at Oxford, expects that the work may lead to the development of even more complex systems, such as programmable molecular assembly lines and sophisticated sensors.

"We are really still at an early stage in designing DNA origami-based engineering systems," elaborated iCeMS Prof. Hiroshi Sugiyama. "The promise is great, but at the same time there are still many technical hurdles to overcome in order to improve the quality of the output. This is just the beginning for this new and exciting field."

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Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences, Kyoto University: http://www.icems.kyoto-u.ac.jp/e/

Thanks to Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences, Kyoto University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116928/DNA_motor_programmed_to_navigate_a_network_of_tracks

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Libyan Islamists rally to demand sharia-based law (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) ? Hundreds of Libyan Islamists rallied on Friday to demand that Muslim sharia law inspire legislation in what organizers called a response to the emergence of secular political parties after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's dictatorship last year.

Assembled by Islamist political and religious groups, mostly young and bearded men holding up copies of the Koran demonstrated in squares in the capital Tripoli, the eastern city of Benghazi and in Sabha in the southern desert.

In Tripoli's Algeria Square, Islamists burned copies of the "Green Book," Gaddafi's eccentric handbook on politics, economics and everyday life, to underline that the Koran should be the country's main source of legislation.

By contrast, a group of secularists who have staged a sit-in in the square for more than a month chanted: "We want a civil state."

The Islamist demonstrators encompassed members of the conservative Muslim Brotherhood and harder-line Salafis, who both back strict versions of Islam, and relative moderates who prefer a civil state simply inspired by sharia.

The protests offered a glimpse into Libya's political future in which Islamist and secularist parties are expected to vie for seats in a national assembly scheduled to be elected in June to draft a constitution for the North African country.

Experts believe the Muslim Brotherhood is the most organized political force and could emerge as the leading political player in Libya after Gaddafi, who harshly suppressed Islamists during his 42 years in autocratic power.

Western powers are coming to accept that the advent of democracy in the Arab world means bringing Islamists to power. They have become the biggest election winners in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco over the past few months.

The chairman of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdul Jalil, promised in October to uphold Islamic law. "We as a Muslim nation have taken Islamic sharia as the source of legislation, therefore any law that contradicts the principles of Islam is legally nullified," he said.

The deputy central bank governor said last month a law regulating Islamic banking would be issued in the first quarter of 2012, but stressed that both conventional and Islamic banks would be allowed to operate in Libya.

Islamists in Algeria Square held up placards demanding a financial system respecting Islam's ban on interest and calling for a constitution derived from sharia's legal and moral codes.

"We want to run our life according to Islamic principles, be it the economy, politics or our relations with other countries," said Abdul Basit Ghuwaila, a preacher at a Tripoli mosque. "Most people think Islam is just about harsh penalties."

Ghuwaila, 49, said sharia should not govern all Libyan law, but insisted that legislation should not contradict it.

Nour al-Zintani, a participant in the month-long sit-in for a secular state, said the majority of Libyans wanted Islam to be a part of their life but not a strict interpretation of it.

"We all want sharia," she said, standing next to her teenage daughter, both of them wearing a Muslim headscarf, "but not the one they're talking about, the one that rejects women. We want a moderate Islam that gives women their rights."

(Additional reporting by Mohammad Al Tommy; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120120/wl_nm/us_libya_sharia_rallies

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Mysterious flotsam in Gulf of Mexico came from Deepwater Horizon rig

ScienceDaily (Jan. 19, 2012) ? Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, mysterious honeycomb material was found floating in the Gulf of Mexico and along coastal beaches. Using state-of-the-art chemical forensics and a bit of old-fashioned detective work, a research team led by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) confirmed that the flotsam were pieces of material used to maintain buoyancy of the pipe bringing up oil from the seafloor.

The researchers also affirmed that tracking debris from damaged offshore oil rigs could help forecast coastal pollution impacts in future oil spills and guide emergency response efforts -- much the way the Coast Guard has studied the speed and direction of various floating debris to guide search and rescue missions. The findings were published Jan. 19 in Environmental Research Letters.

On May 5, 2010, 15 days after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, oceanographer William Graham and marine technicians from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab were working from a boat about 32 miles south of Dauphin Island, Ala., when they saw a 6-mile-long, east-west line containing more than 50 pieces of white material interspersed with sargassum weed. The porous material was uniformly embedded with black spheres about a centimeter in diameter. No oil slick was in sight, but there was a halo of oil sheen around the honeycomb clumps.

Two days later, the researchers also collected similar samples about 25 miles south of Dauphin Island. Nobody knew what the material was, with some hypothesizing at first that it could be coral or other substance made by marine plants or animals. Graham sent samples to WHOI chemist Chris Reddy, whose lab confirmed that the material was not biological. But the material's source remained unconfirmed.

In January 2011, Reddy and WHOI researcher Catherine Carmichael, lead author of the new study, collected a piece of the same unknown material of Elmer's Beach, Grand Isle, La. In April, 2011, they found several large pieces, ranging from 3 to 10 feet, of the honeycomb debris on the Chandeleur Islands off Louisiana.

Oil on all these samples was analyzed at WHOI using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography. The technique identifies the thousands of individual chemical compounds that comprise different oils from different reservoirs. The chemistry of the oil on the debris matched that of oil sampled directly from the broken pipe from the Macondo well above the Deepwater Horizon rig.

In addition, one piece of debris from the Chandeleur Islands retained a weathered red sticker that read "Cuming" with the numbers 75-1059 below it. Reddy found a company called Cuming Corporation in Avon, Mass., which manufactures syntactic foam flotation equipment for the oil and gas industry. He e-mailed photos of the specimen to the company, and within hours, a Cuming engineer confirmed from the serial number that the foam came from a buoyancy module from Deepwater Horizon.

"We realized that the foam and the oil were released into the environment at the same time," Reddy said. "So we had a unique tracer that was independent of the oil itself to chronicle how oil and debris drifted out from the spill site."

The scientists overlaid the locations where they found honeycomb debris on May 5 and 7 with daily forecasts produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the trajectory of the spreading oil slick. NOAA used a model that incorporated currents and wind speeds, along with data from planes and satellites. On both days, the debris was about 6.2 miles ahead of the spreading slick.

The explanation, the scientists said, is the principle of leeway, a measure of how fast wind or waves push materials. The leeway for fresh oil is 3 to 3.3 percent, but the scientists suspected that "the protruding profile of the buoyant material" acted acting like a sail, allowing wind to drive it faster than and ahead of the floating oil.

In this case, the flotsam served as a harbinger for the oncoming slick, but because different materials can have different leeways, oil spill models may not accurately forecast where oiled debris will head. "Even a small deviation in leeway can, over time, results in significant differences in surface tracks because of typical wind fields," the scientists wrote.

The Coast Guard has a long history of calculating the leeway of various materials, from life jackets to bodies of various sizes and weights, to improve forecasts of where the materials would drift if a ship sank or a plane crashed into the sea. But calculating leeways has not been standard practice in oil spills.

"We never had solid data to make the case until this study," said Merv Fingas, who tracked oil spills for more than 38 years for Environment Canada, which is equivalent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"These results," the study's authors wrote, "provide insights into the fate of debris fields deriving from damaged marine materials and should be incorporated into emergency response efforts and forecasting of coastal impacts during future offshore oil spills."

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/U11Hs-slYLg/120119153116.htm

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'30 Rock' Parodies Tracy Morgan Anti-Gay Controversy

Remember waaay back in June, when Tracy Morgan offended the gay and lesbian community with some ugly, homophobic remarks during a comedy club stand-up routine? Well, the incident is back in the headlines again, thanks his show's boundary-pushing writers. Thurday night's episode of 30 Rock (Thursdays, at 8 p.m. ET on NBC) turned the real-life incident into a storyline for Morgan's character, Tracy Jordan. Watch the clip here:

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/30-rock-parodies-tracy-morgan-anti-gay-controversy-was-it-tasteful/1-a-420795?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3A30-rock-parodies-tracy-morgan-anti-gay-controversy-was-it-tasteful-420795

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World not quite as hot in 2011; ranks 11th warmest

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 17, 2011 file photo, a woman walks down a fog-covered trail at Montie Beach Park in Houston. The world last year wasn't quite as warm as it has been for most of the past decade, government scientists said Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, but it continues the general trend of rising temperatures. In the United States, it was only 1 degree above normal, which made it the 23rd warmest on record. But 17 cities - including Houston, Miami, Atlantic City, Trenton and Austin - had their warmest years. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Cody Duty)

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 17, 2011 file photo, a woman walks down a fog-covered trail at Montie Beach Park in Houston. The world last year wasn't quite as warm as it has been for most of the past decade, government scientists said Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, but it continues the general trend of rising temperatures. In the United States, it was only 1 degree above normal, which made it the 23rd warmest on record. But 17 cities - including Houston, Miami, Atlantic City, Trenton and Austin - had their warmest years. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Cody Duty)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The world last year wasn't quite as warm as it has been for most of the past decade, government scientists said Thursday, but it continues a general trend of rising temperatures.

The average global temperature was 57.9 degrees Fahrenheit, making 2011 the 11th hottest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. That's 0.9 degrees warmer than the 20th century average, officials said. In fact, it was hotter than every year last century except 1998.

One reason 2011 was milder than recent years was the La Nina cooling of the central Pacific Ocean. La Ninas occur every few years and generally cause global temperatures to drop, but this was the warmest La Nina year on record.

And 2011 also was the warmest year on record for Spain and Norway, and the second warmest for the United Kingdom. In the United States, the average temperature of 53.8 was just 1 degree above normal, making last year only the 23rd warmest on record. But 17 cities ? including Houston, Miami, Trenton and Austin ? had their warmest years.

This marks the 35th straight year that global temperatures were warmer than normal. NOAA's records for world average temperatures date back to 1880.

"It would be premature to make any conclusion that we would see any hiatus of the longer-term warming trend," said Tom Karl, director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. "Global temperatures are continuing to increase."

NASA, which calculates global temperatures in a slightly different way, announced essentially the same temperature for the year. But NASA's record-keeping calls it the ninth warmest ever.

Both NASA climate scientist James Hansen and University of Victoria's Andrew Weaver said they expect that in the next few years the world will set yet a new record high temperature. 2010 tied for the hottest on record.

NOAA also released new figures for extreme weather. The agency recalculated the number of billion-dollar weather disasters in the U.S., bumping the total from 12 to 14. Officials added Tropical Storm Lee, which dumped rain from Maryland to New England in September, and a July hail and wind storm in Colorado to the list.

The 14 extreme events smash the old record of nine billion-dollar disasters in 2008.

"America has endured an unusually large number of extreme events, totaling damages of more than $55 billion," NOAA deputy administrator Kathryn Sullivan said. She blamed a variety of factors, including population changes.

For the year, a record 58 percent of the United States had either extreme rainfall or severe drought, about triple what is normal for the country. Seven states ? New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Indiana and Kentucky ? had their wettest years since those types of records were kept beginning in 1895. Texas had its driest year ever.

The record wet up north and dry down south fits with what climate change science predicts, but it is too early to say if 2011's precipitation extremes were due to global warming, Karl said. And the unusual number of deadly tornadoes can't be linked to global warming, he said.

But Kevin Trenberth, director of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., which is a consortium of universities, said it's hard not to see the hand of man-made global warming behind the extremes.

"Where these events occur is largely driven by natural variability, but the fact that they are breaking records and causing tremendous damage when they do occur is undoubtedly because of the human stimulus," Trenberth said in an email.

___

NOAA's climate report: http://1.usa.gov/zeeYab

NASA's climate report: http://1.usa.gov/ynPirr

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-19-US-SCI-Warm-Year/id-068a21775b5648fc9cbe00e0dce8b049

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Asia stocks up as Wall Street cheers housing data (AP)

BANGKOK ? Asian markets rose Thursday as investors grew more comfortable with riskier assets such as stocks after the release of surprisingly strong U.S. housing figures and a pledge by the IMF to help stave off a financial crisis.

Benchmark oil rose above $101 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index jumped 1.2 percent to 8,651.14. South Korea's Kospi rebounded 1 percent to 1,911.15 after a losing session Wednesday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.1 percent at 19,906.39.

Australia's S&P ASX 200 gained 0.2 percent to 4,224.30. Benchmarks in Singapore and mainland China also rose. Markets in Taiwan were closed for Chinese New Year.

Analysts said investors were becoming more comfortable with taking on risk despite multiple headwinds ? including a likely recession in Europe, a possible debt default by Greece and a warning from the World Bank on Wednesday of a possible slump in global economic growth.

"Evidence that markets are becoming increasingly resilient to bad news emerged from the muted reaction to sharp downgrades in growth forecasts by the World Bank," Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said in a research note.

Fears that the euro common currency might implode amid a mountain of sovereign debt eased Wednesday after the International Monetary Fund said it was looking at ways to raise another $500 billion for loans to struggling countries.

The IMF has put up roughly a third of the money given as rescue loans to European governments. But analysts cautioned that the crisis was far from over.

"What needs to be understood is that the IMF doesn't have enough money to help the eurozone countries. They could only get it from newly printed money from the ECB and that would mean inflation," said Martin Hennecke, associate director of Tyche Group in Hong Kong, referring to the European Central Bank.

"There's only two choices: Either you have bankruptcy of major countries like Italy, which would basically be Armageddon, or the ECB prints money and lends it to banks and the IMF, and that would mean high inflation."

For its part, Greece is running out of time to avoid becoming the first euro country to default on its debts and potentially trigger a chain reaction that could ultimately destabilize the global economy. Talks are taking place in Athens between the government and private creditors trying to negotiate a debt restructuring.

Negotiations resumed Wednesday after breaking down late last week amid disagreement over the terms of new bonds that Greece would issue to replace expiring bonds that it cannot afford to pay off. Greece needs to clinch the agreement quickly to qualify for more bailout loans before it faces a major bond repayment March 20.

Banks and insurance companies were among the beneficiaries of the better investment mood. Hong Kong-listed Ping An Insurance soared 5.8 percent and China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. rose 3.3 percent. China Construction Bank Corp. added 2.7 percent. Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group rose 1.2 percent.

Australia's Lynas Corp. soared 8 percent amid speculation that the rare earths miner will be cleared to proceed with its Malaysian project by officials later this month.

Meanwhile, several encouraging signs pushed Wall Street higher Wednesday. The National Association of Home Builders index, a measure of sentiment among builders, rose to its highest level since June 2007 as sales jumped. The index is rising, however, because builders are seeing a rise in people shopping for a home, not because they are seeing more sales.

Separately, the Federal Reserve said manufacturing rose 0.9 percent from November to December, the biggest gain since December 2010.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 0.8 percent at 12,578.95. Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.1 percent to 1,308.04. The Nasdaq composite index rose 1.5 percent to 2,769.71.

Benchmark oil for February delivery was up 88 cents to $101.47 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 12 cents to $100.59 per barrel on the Nymex on Wednesday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.2856 from $1.2841 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar fell to 76.74 yen from 76.80 yen.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

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Fassbender Reacts To Clooney's Racy Praise At Golden Globes (omg!)

Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais wasn't the only one doling out the bards at Sunday's ceremony.

When George Clooney accepted the award for Best Actor in a Drama (for his role in "The Descendants") he not only thanked pal Brad Pitt, but he also took a moment to commend fellow nominee Michael Fassbender on his manhood.

PLAY IT NOW: 2012 Golden Globes Red Carpet: Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie On Her Meltdown & His Ultimate Prank For George Clooney

"I would like to thank Michael Fassbender for taking over the frontal nude responsibly that I had," George joked, referring to Michael's often-nude performance in "Shame."

"Really Michael, honestly, you can play golf like this with your hands behind your back," George said, while making a golf swing motion with his hands behind back. "Go for it man, do it!"

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Golden Globes 2012: Inside The Show

As George joked with Michael, the "Shame" star was seen smiling in the audience, but what did Irish/German actor really think about "The Descendants" star joking about his manhood in front of all of Hollywood and the world?

"I love him, man," Michael told AccessHollywood.com's Laura Saltman following the ceremony.

For more Golden Globes action, including all the winners, fashion and best moments, CLICK HERE!

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Golden Globes 2012: The Winners

Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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