Nanotechnology
Genomics AI tool: Google’s DeepVariant released as open source
A novel artificial intelligence tool that can accurately call out variants in sequencing data was released as open source on the ...
Video: World’s tiniest tape recorder made with CRISPR and built from microbes
[H]ere’s a use for the bacteria we bet you’ve never considered: Scientists at Columbia University Medical Center have created the world’s ...
So much data to store: Can DNA solve our problem?
Many pundits predict it’s just a matter of time till DNA pips magnetic tape as the ultimate way to store ...
Nano-mapping DNA mutations with CRISPR could transform disease treatment
A team of scientists led by Virginia Commonwealth University physicist Jason Reed, Ph.D., have developed new nanomapping technology that could ...
Can gene tweaking lower our cholesterol? Using CRISPR and nanotechnology in mice
U.S. researchers have used nanotechnology plus the powerful CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool to turn off a key cholesterol-related gene in ...
Video: CRISPR gene editing in real time
[Researcher Osamu] Nureki’s paper was published in Nature Communications Friday, and by early morning, the video that astonished the room in [a CRISPR ...
Nanotechnology might help farmers fight climate change, pests and disease–and boost yields
Researchers are exploring the impact of using nanoscale nutrients––including copper––on eggplants and other crops. While early results have shown substantial ...
Rooting racism and sexism out of artificial intelligence
In 2016, Microsoft released a “playful” chatbot named Tay onto Twitter designed to show off the tech giant’s burgeoning artificial ...
CRISPR 2.0 ‘base editing’ arrives and it’s an even more remarkable disease-fighting tool
You’ve probably heard of the molecular scalpel CRISPR-Cas9, which can edit or delete whole genes. Now, scientists have developed a ...
Google’s self-learning AI starts with blank slate and ‘creates knowledge itself’
Google’s artificial intelligence group, DeepMind, has unveiled the latest incarnation of its Go-playing program, AlphaGo – an AI so powerful that ...
First alien life forms we encounter could well be robots
[T]he first aliens we encounter are likely to be machines, and they’ll be almost unimaginably old. Susan Schneider of the ...
We’re a long way from Blade Runner-like organic androids
[Editor's note: Fumiya Iida is a lecturer in mechatronics at the University of Cambridge.] The new Blade Runner sequel will return ...
Has the evolution of artificial intelligence reached its limits?
But the peculiar thing about deep learning is just how old its key ideas are. Hinton’s breakthrough paper...was published in ...
Data storage may be coming to a molecule near you
[George Church] and two Harvard colleagues translated an HTML draft of a 50,000-word book on synthetic biology, coauthored by Church, ...
Tubular cell ‘highways’ could change what we know about cell interactions
[Researcher Yukiko Yamashita’s] group had been studying how fruit flies maintain their sperm supply and had engineered certain cells involved ...
‘Information bottleneck’ theory could help crack human learning mysteries
Even as machines known as “deep neural networks” have learned to converse, drive cars, beat video games and Go champions, dream, paint pictures ...
Finding and destroying tumors with microscopic ‘spasers’
[Research by] Vladimir Zharov of the University of Arkansas and Mark Stockman of Georgia State University, in Atlanta involves injecting ...
Life 3.0: What happens when AI becomes ‘master of its own destiny’?
[Editor's note: Max Tegmark is a physicist at MIT. The following is part of an excerpt from his new book, Life 3.0: ...
Fluoride flipping: Hidden RNA regulator could help create new antibiotics
So much of what happens inside cells to preserve health or cause disease is so small or time-sensitive that researchers ...
Lesson for gene editing: How do we regulate a technology when we ‘can’t imagine’ the consequences of its use?
Humanity has a method for trying to prevent new technologies from getting out of hand: explore the possible negative consequences, ...
Cancer treatment uses genetically engineered biomaterial to deliver drugs and block resistance
[M]any chemotherapeutic agents […] cause serious side effects because they kill healthy cells in addition to cancer cells; some forms ...
Genetics of pandemics: How can we prevent future flus?
The scientific textbook depiction of the flu virus is about to get a facelift, due to a University of Pittsburgh ...
Innovative ‘cell guillotine’ could revolutionize wound healing
For the last 100 years, slicing a single cell into two equal parts has proven to be a process that's tedious, ...
Creating ‘leaks’ in blood vessels could aid in drug delivery
The endothelial cells that line blood vessels are packed tightly to keep blood inside and flowing, but scientists have discovered ...
Medication time-released ‘talking’ nanoparticles could target cancer
Two nanoparticles have communicated with one another to perform a task for the first time, paving the way for more ...
Controlling gene expression with light may lead to disease treatments
Researchers in UC Santa Barbara’s departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology have gotten a step ...
Read ELP’s Nicholas Staropoli Reddit Science ‘Ask Me Anything’ on Epigenetics: Hype and Health
Editor’s Note: On Friday, June 2nd from 1pm–3pm EDT, ELP director Nicholas Staropoli hosted a Reddit-science Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) about the hype surrounding ...