DNA tagged posts

As the data boom continues to boom, more and more information gets filed in less and less space. Even the cloud will eventually run out of space, can’t thwart all hackers, and gobbles up energy. Now, a new way to store information could stably house data for millions of years, lives outside the hackable internet, and, once written, uses no energy. All you need is a chemist, some cheap molecules, and your precious information.

“Think storing the contents of the New York Public Library with a teaspoon of protein,” says Brian Cafferty, first author on the paper that describes the new technique and a postdoctoral scholar in the lab of George Whitesides, the Woodford L...

Tapping into the unique nature of DNA, Cornell engineers have created simple machines constructed of biomaterials with properties of living things. Using what they call DASH (DNA-based Assembly and Synthesis of Hierarchical) materials, engineers constructed a DNA material with capabilities of metabolism, in addition to self-assembly and organization – three key traits of life.

“We are introducing a brand-new, lifelike material concept powered by its very own artificial metabolism...

Artist’s concept depicting one possible appearance of the planet Kepler-452b.
Credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

Scientists have identified a group of planets outside our solar system where the same chemical conditions that may have led to life on Earth exist. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB), found that the chances for life to develop on the surface of a rocky planet like Earth are connected to the type and strength of light given off by its host star.

Their study, published in the journal Science Advances, proposes that stars which give off sufficient ultraviolet (UV) light could kick-start life on their orbiting planets in the same way it likely developed on Earth, where the UV light powers a s...

UB knot theorist Bill Menasco. The whiteboard in the background depicts drawings of mathematical knots and surfaces that Menasco created from memory. Credit: Douglas Levere – See more at: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2016/02/017.html#sthash.1rCiO0em.dpuf

But take it from Bill Menasco, a knot theorist of 35 years: This field of mathematics, rich in aesthetic beauty and intellectual challenges, and has applications. It involves the study of mathematical knots, which differ from real-world knots in that they have no ends. Each one is a string that crosses over itself a number of times, then reconnects with itself to form a closed loop. Today, we know the study of knots could have applications in surprising areas...