Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: computing

Building building diamond lattices through DNA.

Using bundled strands of DNA to build Tinkertoy-like tetrahedral cages, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have devised a way to trap and arrange nanoparticles in a way that mimics the crystalline structure of diamond. The achievement of this complex yet elegant arrangement, as described in a paper published February 5, 2016, in Science, may open a path to new materials that take advantage of the optical and mechanical properties of this crystalline structure for applications such as optical transistors, color-changing materials, and lightweight yet tough materials.

“We solved a 25-year challenge in building diamond lattices in a rational way via self-assembly,” said Oleg Gang, a physicist who led this research at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) at Brookhaven Lab in collaboration with scientists from Stony Brook University, Wesleyan University, and Nagoya University in Japan.

The scientists employed a technique developed by Gang that uses fabricated DNA as a building material to organize nanoparticles into 3D spatial arrangements. They used ropelike bundles of double-helix DNA to create rigid, three-dimensional frames, and added dangling bits of single-stranded DNA to bind particles coated with complementary DNA strands.

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Graphene; the material for brain chip implants; however, Q-Dots ferrofluid is where it will make us totally rethink brain implants in the future.

A new technology developed by researchers in Italy and the United Kingdom allows for the creation of graphene-based materials that can be interfaced with neurons without losing its electrical conductivity. This can lead to the creation of neural electrodes that are not only biocompatible, but stable within the body as well. (Photo : University of Cambridge)

Scientists from the United Kingdom and Italy have developed a new process in which a carbon form known as graphene is combined with neurons without sacrificing the integrity of these cells.

This revolutionary technology is believed to be a stepping stone for the creation of graphene-based electrodes, which can be implanted in the brain of people with motor disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, in order to regain control of their damaged limbs.

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These types of movies always come out when society is about to make a huge change in it’s technology that will reshape everything. In the 1950’s we saw movies about alien invasions and run away computers. 60’s & 70’s it was the robots taking over or Dystopia such as West World, Omega Man, Clockwork Orange, then 80’s MadMax and so on. Here we are again with more end of human existance movies because of AI and Quantum. Here is the latest dystopian movie.

This is “The Last Generation to Die — Trailer” by timmaupin on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

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Another article just came out today providing additional content on the Quantum Computing threat and it did reference the article that I had published. Glad that folks are working on this.

The NSA is worried about quantum computers. It warns that it “must act now” to ensure that encryption systems can’t be broken wide open by the new super-fast hardware.

In a document outlining common concerns about the effects that quantum computing may have on national security and encryption of sensitive data, the NSA warns that “public-key algorithms… are all vulnerable to attack by a sufficiently large quantum computer.”

Quantum computers can, theoretically, be so much faster because they take advantage of a quirk in quantum mechanics. While classical computers use bits in 0 or 1, quantum computers use “qubits” that can exist in 0, 1 or a superposition of the two. In turn, that allows it to work through possible solutions more quickly meaning they could crack encryption that normal computers can’t.

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2016-01-29-1454078214-8291223-Patterson_cancer.jpg By David Patterson Professor of Computer Science University of California, Berkeley This ancient assassin, first identified by a pharaoh’s physician, has been killing people for more than 4,600 years. As scientists found therapies for other lethal diseases–such as measles, influenza, and heart disease–cancer moved up this deadly list and will soon be #1; 40% of Americans will face cancer during their lifetimes, with half dying from it. Most of us ignore cancer until someone close is diagnosed, but instead society could zero in on this killer by recording massive data to discover better treatments before a loved one is in its crosshairs.

Cancer is unlimited cell growth caused by problems in DNA. Some people are born with precarious DNA, and others acquire it later. When a cell divides, sometimes it miscopies a small amount of its DNA, and these errors can overwhelm a cell’s defenses to cause cancer. Thus, you can get it without exposure to carcinogens. Cigarettes, radiation, asbestos, and so on simply increase the copy error rate. Speaking figuratively, every time a cell reproduces, we roll the dice on cancer, with such mutagens loading the dice to raise cancer’s chances.

Most cancer studies today use partial genomic information and have fewer than 1,000 patients. One wonders whether their conclusions would still hold if they used complete genomes and increased the number of patients by factors of 10–100.

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NSA states it must act now against the “Quantum Computing Threat” due to hackers can possess the technology. I wrote about this on Jan 10th. Glad someone finally is taking action.

The National Security Agency is worried that quantum computers will neutralize our best encryption – but doesn’t yet know what to do about that problem.

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