The Internet Looks Like a Fractal Dandelion

In 2004 Barrett Lyon’s friends bet him $50 that he couldn’t map the entire Internet in a day. Within two weeks the self-described technologist and entrepreneur had created a program that could output a detailed visualization of Internet connectivity in a few hours. Seven years and billions more Internet-connected devices later, Lyon is still at it. This cosmic-looking image, one of his newest creations, traces the millions of routes along which data can travel and pinpoints the hubs receiving the most traffic. Internet giants such as AT&T and Google manage the most heavily used networks, which appear here as glowing yellow orbs; they tend to concentrate in the center of the sphere. The less popular local networks (red) sit on the periphery. Although Lyon’s visualizations have appeared in computing textbooks and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, he says he has yet to collect on his bet.

Source: Discovermagazine.com

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Transplante de medula óssea trata doente com sida

Investigadores alemães submeterem um paciente com cancro a um transplante de medula óssea e quatro anos mais tarde consideram este paciente, que também era portador de VIH, curado desta infecção, dá conta um estudo publicado na “Blood”.

Os autores do estudo, liderados Thomas Schneider, do hospital Charite, em Berlim, Alemanha, explicam que, por norma, o transplante de medula óssea costuma ser o último recurso no tratamento de cancros como a leucemia. Este transplante exige a destruição da medula óssea do próprio paciente - o que é, em si, um processo desgastante -, e o dador precisa ter um tipo de sangue e de sistema imunológico quase idênticos ao do receptor. São ainda necessários meses de espera até que o sistema imunológico do paciente seja restabelecido.

O paciente que sofria de leucemia e era portador do vírus da SIDA, recebeu o transplante em 2007, de um doador que tinha uma mutação num gene que codifica uma proteína, conhecida por receptor CCR5, o qual é utilizado pelo vírus para invadir e infectar as células do hospedeiro.

Desde 1996 que os cientistas sabiam que algumas pessoas, principalmente com origem no norte da Europa, que têm essa mutação não são infectadas pelo VIH. Alguns investigadores estão a trabalhar numa terapia genética que possa tratar e talvez curar o VIH, mas a tecnologia ainda está em estágios experimentais.

Os investigadores têm acompanhado o paciente e retirado algumas amostras do intestino, fígado, líquido cefalorraquidiano e cérebro, locais onde o vírus pode passar anos "escondido" até infectar as células. Contudo, a infecção por este vírus não foi detectada em nenhuma das amostras referidas.

Os cientistas concluem, assim, que, “de acordo com estes resultados, é razoável concluir que a cura da infecção pelo VIH foi conseguida neste paciente".

O vírus da SIDA afecta actualmente 33 milhões de pessoas no mundo, principalmente na África, e já matou 25 milhões nos últimos 30 anos. Existem já medicamentos que podem controlar a infecção, reduzindo o risco de contágio para outras pessoas, mas não existe ainda uma vacina.

FONTE: Estudo publicado na “Blood”

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Changing

As you read these words, your brain is changing. Through a maze of pathways far more complex than any computer network, your brain is distributing copies of what you are seeing to more than a dozen separate processing centers, where words are being recognized, analyzed, and understood. Simultaneously, the neurons in your brain are undergoing subtle changes where they connect with each other, so that if you read these words again—whether a minute or a year from now—you're likely to remember at least something of what they said.

Continued... here: "THE SYNAPSE REVEALED"

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Universal cancer marker shows new treatment options

A single screening method that can force a wide range of cancers to reveal themselves has been discovered. The universal cancer marker could help doctors find and treat tumours, and provide surgeons with a "dotted line" to cut them out.


The key to the technique is the receptor for follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). This receptor – typically involved in controlling women's reproductive cycles – appears in unusually large amounts in prostate tumours. So Aurelian Radu at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and colleagues looked for it in 1336 human tumour samples, including prostate, breast, lung and liver cancers.


The group applied colour-labelled antibodies for the FSH receptor to the samples. They found that in every sample, the antibodies bound to blood vessels around the periphery of the tumour.


Radu doesn't yet know why tumour blood vessels express the receptor, though he thinks it might play a role in the formation of new vessels.

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Deep Ocean music

The LIDO (Listening to the Deep Ocean Environment) site offers a live feed to 10 hydrophones sprinkled around European waters, and one in Canada. Several more are scheduled to come soon in Canada and in Asia.

The network's primary aim is to record and archive long-term subsea noise so that researchers can study the effects of human activity on whales and dolphins.

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Studies Begin to Shape New Image of DNA

Most of us carry a mental picture of DNA in its iconic form – the famous double helix unveiled by Francis Crick and James Watson. But HHMI researchers are beginning to develop a new picture of DNA that shows the molecule’s more dynamic side, which is capable of morphing into a large number of complex shapes. This shape-shifting ability permits proteins to attach and read the right region of DNA so genes can be turned on or off at the proper time.

The findings show that proteins are adept at reading nuances in the shape of the double helix. Those variations in shape transmit information about where proteins need to bind to make sure the right genes are activated or silenced during development.

Research published in the October 28, 2009, issue of Nature.

HHMI investigator: Barry Honig, Columbia University

Full story: HERE

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Llifelogger's new toy

New camera promises to capture your whole life


A camera you can wear as a pendant to record every moment of your life will soon be launched by a UK-based firm.

Originally invented to help jog the memories of people with Alzheimer's disease, it might one day be used by consumers to create "lifelogs" that archive their entire lives.

Worn on a cord around the neck, the camera takes pictures automatically as often as once every 30 seconds. It also uses an accelerometer and light sensors to snap an image when a person enters a new environment, and an infrared sensor to take one when it detects the body heat of a person in front of the wearer. It can fit 30,000 images onto its 1-gigabyte memory.

The ViconRevue was originally developed as the SenseCam by Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK, for researchers studying Alzheimer's and other dementias. Studies showed that reviewing the events of the day using SenseCam photos could help some people improve long-term recall.

Now Vicon, based in Oxford, UK, which specialises in motion-capture technology for the movie industry, has licensed the technology for the camera from Microsoft and intends to put it into large-scale production.

(...)

For consumers, the gadget will provide an easy way to become a "lifelogger" – someone who attempts to electronically record as much of their life as possible. Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell has made his life an experiment in lifelogging, recording everything from phone calls to TV viewing, and uses a SenseCam wherever he goes.

Journal reference: Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry

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Nicotine Creates Stronger Memories

Dr. John A. Dani, professor of neuroscience at BCM and co-author of the study.
Dani and Dr. Jianrong Tang, instructor of neuroscience at BCM and co-author of the report, decided to record brain activity of mice as they were exposed to nicotine, the addictive component of tobacco.

The mice were allowed to roam through an apparatus with two separate compartments. In one compartment, they received nicotine. In the other, they got a benign saline solution. Later, the researchers recorded how long the mice spent in each compartment. They also recorded brain activity within the hippocampus, an area of the brain that creates new memories.

“The brain activity change was just amazing,” Dani said. “Compared to injections of saline, nicotine strengthened neuronal connections – sometimes up to 200 percent. This strengthening of connections underlies new memory formation.”

Dani said understanding mechanisms that create memory could have implications in future research and treatments for memory disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, and for dopamine signaling disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease.

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kirlian photography

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Above

Several projects are already underway to look for neutrinos using the moon as a target. Radio telescopes aimed at the moon might detect brief pulses of radio waves that occur when neutrinos collide with the lunar soil.

(Image: T. A. Rector/I. P. Dell'Antonio/NOAO/AURA/NSF)

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