GOOGLE BODY BROWSER.

Google already taken us to various part, in the global. And now google going to taken an round around our human body, it show a small tissue of our body...  It's currently in Google Labs and requires a web browser with WebGL support for perusal (Chrome beta, Firefox 4.0b1), though they might wanna change that name before its official launch. Body browsing sounds kinda creepy. [The Hairpin via Body Browser]

Gadgets Getting Smaller

Electrical Engineers Envision Broad, Transformational Use of Flash Memory

With their high capability and no moving parts, flash drives safely store data in camera memory sticks and in some MP3 players, and they also hide in gadgets such as cell phones. Experts say once prices go down enough, flash drives will even start replacing hard drives in laptops.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--Experts say we're no longer in the technology revolution, but in the technology evolution. The next step is to make everything we use shrink. That's why gadgets like cell phones, laptops, and MP3 players get smaller and smaller, yet can do more.

Zack Weisfeld, general manager of M-Systems in Sunnyvale, Calif., says, "I just need a screen, I need a keyboard, and basically, I carry my computer with me."

A USB flash drive uses a flash memory chip to store all of your computer applications and files just like a hard drive. Weisfeld says, "A USB flash drive means you can store a thousand disks in a little thing."

Not only can a flash memory chip hold a huge amount of information, but it also protects your information better. Unlike a hard drive, it has no moving parts inside to damage the memory. And the chip is smaller than a push pin.

"What many people don't realize is they use a lot of flash every day," Weisfeld tells DBIS. The tiny little chip is a household item and often goes unnoticed because it's buried inside devices. Flash memory technology makes it possible to have small cell phones capable of Internet access and video games.

Experts say that next, flash memory will appear in laptops. Esther Spanjer, an electrical engineer for M-Systems, says, "In another year or so, you will see the first commercial flash disk drives on the market that you will put in your laptop vs. a standard hard disk drive." They say as the size goes down, the power of these devices will continue to grow.

The only limitation of flash right now is the price, which is comparable to a hard drive with up to 60 gigabytes of memory. Flash technology is also used in memory sticks for cameras and in cars that have info-tainment and GPS systems.

BACKGROUND: How can we store hundreds of songs on pocket-sized portable devices, like Apple's iPods? Flash memory chips are the technology behind the multimedia capability of most of today's electronic devices. Digital cameras can have flash drives; and memory cards can store many different kinds of media: everything from sound and music files downloaded from the Internet, to personal photographs and digitally recorded video clips, even satellite radio.

ABOUT FLASH MEMORY: There are many forms of electronic memory, depending on the application. Flash memory is used for fast and easy information storage in devices like digital cameras and home video game consoles. It is not the same thing as RAM, which stores temporary files and is erased when you turn the computer off. (Flash RAM is used in car radios, and requires an external power source -- the car battery -- to maintain its contents.) Flash memory is used more like a hard drive for permanent, yet portable, data storage.

ADVANTAGES OF FLASH MEMORY: Flash memory offers many advantages. It is noiseless and allows faster access. It is also lighter and smaller in size, and it has no moving parts. The reason we don't use it for everything is because it is more expensive than the cost per megabyte for a conventional hard disk, which is not only cheaper, but also has much more storage capacity. As scientists continue to make improvements in the speed and storage capability of flash memory chips, we will see more and more extra features on gadgets in terms of enhanced visual, audio and memory capabilities.

SOME COMMON USES OF FLASH MEMORY:

• Your computer's BIOS chip
• CompactFlash (digital cameras)
• SmartMedia (digital cameras)
• Memory Stick (digital cameras)
• PCMCIA memory cards (laptops)
• Memory cards for video game consoles

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

'Racetrack' Magnetic Memory Could Make Computer Memory 100,000 Times Faster

Imagine a computer equipped with shock-proof memory that's 100,000 times faster and consumes less power than current hard disks. EPFL Professor Mathias Kläui is working on a new kind of "Racetrack" memory, a high-volume, ultra-rapid non-volatile read-write magnetic memory that may soon make such a device possible.

Like the tried and true VHS videocassette, the proposed solution involves data recorded on magnetic tape. But the similarity ends there; in this system the tape would be a nickel-iron nanowire, a million times smaller than the classic tape. And unlike a magnetic videotape, in this system nothing moves mechanically. The bits of information stored in the wire are simply pushed around inside the tape using a spin polarized current, attaining the breakneck speed of several hundred meters per second in the process. It's like reading an entire VHS cassette in less than a second.Annoyed by how long it took his computer to boot up, Kläui began to think about an alternative. Hard disks are cheap and can store enormous quantities of data, but they are slow; every time a computer boots up, 2-3 minutes are lost while information is transferred from the hard disk into RAM (random access memory). The global cost in terms of lost productivity and energy consumption runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars a day.

A new kind of "Racetrack" memory -- a high-volume, ultra-rapid non-volatile read-write magnetic memory -- may soon pave the way for computers equipped with shock-proof memory that's 100,000 times faster and consumes less power than current hard disks. (Credit: Image courtesy of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL))

In order for the idea to be feasible, each bit of information must be clearly separated from the next so that the data can be read reliably. This is achieved by using domain walls with magnetic vortices to delineate two adjacent bits. To estimate the maximum velocity at which the bits can be moved, Kläui and his colleagues* carried out measurements on vortices and found that the physical mechanism could allow for possible higher access speeds than expected.

Their results were published online October 25, 2010, in the journal Physical Review Letters. Scientists at the Zurich Research Center of IBM (which is developing a racetrack memory) have confirmed the importance of the results in a Viewpoint article. Millions or even billions of nanowires would be embedded in a chip, providing enormous capacity on a shock-proof platform. A market-ready device could be available in as little as 5-7 years.

Racetrack memory promises to be a real breakthrough in data storage and retrieval. Racetrack-equipped computers would boot up instantly, and their information could be accessed 100,000 times more rapidly than with a traditional hard disk. They would also save energy. RAM needs to be powered every millionth of a second, so an idle computer consumes up to 300 mW just maintaining data in RAM. Because Racetrack memory doesn't have this constraint, energy consumption could be slashed by nearly a factor of 300, to a few mW while the memory is idle. It's an important consideration: computing and electronics currently consumes 6% of worldwide electricity, and is forecast to increase to 15% by 2025.

Project Pioneers Use of Silicon-Germanium for Space Electronics Applications

A five-year project led by the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a novel approach to space electronics that could change how space vehicles and instruments are designed. The new capabilities are based on silicon-germanium (SiGe) technology, which can produce electronics that are highly resistant to both wide temperature variations and space radiation.

Titled "SiGe Integrated Electronics for Extreme Environments," the $12 million, 63-month project was funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In addition to Georgia Tech, the 11-member team included academic researchers from the University of Arkansas, Auburn University, University of Maryland, University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University. Also involved in the project were BAE Systems, Boeing Co., IBM Corp., Lynguent Inc. and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Georgia Tech student researcher Troy England works in the laboratory with a device containing silicon-germanium microchips, seen in his left hand. (Credit: Credit: Gary Meek)

"The team's overall task was to develop an end-to-end solution for NASA -- a tested infrastructure that includes everything needed to design and build extreme-environment electronics for space missions," said John Cressler, who is a Ken Byers Professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Cressler served as principal investigator and overall team leader for the project.

A paper on the project findings will appear in December inIEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability, 2010. During the past five years, work done under the project has resulted in some 125 peer-reviewed publications.

Unique Capabilities

SiGe alloys combine silicon, the most common microchip material, with germanium at nanoscale dimensions. The result is a robust material that offers important gains in toughness, speed and flexibility.

That robustness is crucial to silicon-germanium's ability to function in space without bulky radiation shields or large, power-hungry temperature control devices. Compared to conventional approaches, SiGe electronics can provide major reductions in weight, size, complexity, power and cost, as well as increased reliability and adaptability.

"Our team used a mature silicon-germanium technology -- IBM's 0.5 micron SiGe technology -- that was not intended to withstand deep-space conditions," Cressler said. "Without changing the composition of the underlying silicon-germanium transistors, we leveraged SiGe's natural merits to develop new circuit designs -- as well as new approaches to packaging the final circuits -- to produce an electronic system that could reliably withstand the extreme conditions of space."

At the end of the project, the researchers supplied NASA with a suite of modeling tools, circuit designs, packaging technologies and system/subsystem designs, along with guidelines for qualifying those parts for use in space. In addition, the team furnished NASA with a functional prototype -- called a silicon-germanium remote electronics unit (REU) 16-channel general purpose sensor interface. The device was fabricated using silicon-germanium microchips and has been tested successfully in simulated space environments.

A New Paradigm

Andrew S. Keys, center chief technologist at the Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA program manager, said the now-completed project has moved the task of understanding and modeling silicon-germanium technology to a point where NASA engineers can start using it on actual vehicle designs.

"The silicon-germanium extreme environments team was very successful in doing what it set out to do," Keys said. "They advanced the state-of-the-art in analog silicon-germanium technology for space use -- a crucial step in developing a new paradigm leading to lighter weight and more capable space vehicle designs."

Keys explained that, at best, most electronics conform to military specifications, meaning they function across a temperature range of minus- 55 degrees Celsius to plus-125 degrees Celsius. But electronics in deep space are typically exposed to far greater temperature ranges, as well as to damaging radiation. The Moon's surface cycles between plus-120 Celsius during the lunar day to minus-180 Celsius at night.

The silicon-germanium electronics developed by the extreme environments team has been shown to function reliably throughout that entire plus-120 to minus-180 Celsius range. It is also highly resistant or immune to various types of radiation.

The conventional approach to protecting space electronics, developed in the 1960s, involves bulky metal boxes that shield devices from radiation and temperature extremes, Keys explained. Designers must place most electronics in a protected, temperature controlled central location and then connect them via long and heavy cables to sensors or other external devices.

By eliminating the need for most shielding and special cables, silicon-germanium technology helps reduce the single biggest problem in space launches -- weight. Moreover, robust SiGe circuits can be placed wherever designers want, which helps eliminate data errors caused by impedance variations in lengthy wiring schemes.

"For instance, the Mars Exploration Rovers, which are no bigger than a golf cart, use several kilometers of cable that lead into a warm box," Keys said. "If we can move most of those electronics out to where the sensors are on the robot's extremities, that will reduce cabling, weight, complexity and energy use significantly."

A Collaborative Effort

NASA currently rates the new SiGe electronics at a technology readiness level of six, which means the circuits have been integrated into a subsystem and tested in a relevant environment. The next step, level seven, involves integrating the SiGe circuits into a vehicle for space flight testing. At level eight, a new technology is mature enough to be integrated into a full mission vehicle, and at level nine the technology is used by missions on a regular basis.

Successful collaboration was an important part of the silicon-germanium team's effectiveness, Keys said. He remarked that he had "never seen such a diverse team work together so well."

Professor Alan Mantooth, who led a large University of Arkansas contingent involved in modeling and circuit-design tasks, agreed. He called the project "the most successful collaboration that I've been a part of."

Mantooth termed the extreme-electronics project highly useful in the education mission of the participating universities. He noted that a total of 82 students from six universities worked on the project over five years.

Richard W. Berger, a BAE Systems senior systems architect who collaborated on the project, also praised the student contributions.

"To be working both in analog and digital, miniaturizing, and developing extreme-temperature and radiation tolerance all at the same time -- that's not what you'd call the average student design project," Berger said.

Miniaturizing an Architecture

BAE Systems' contribution to the project included providing the basic architecture for the remote electronics unit (REU) sensor interface prototype developed by the team. That architecture came from a previous electronics generation: the now cancelled Lockheed Martin X-33 Spaceplane initially designed in the 1990s.

In the original X-33 design, Berger explained, each sensor interface used an assortment of sizeable analog parts for the front end signal receiving section. That section was supported by a digital microprocessor, memory chips and an optical bus interface -- all housed in a protective five-pound box.

The extreme environments team transformed the bulky X-33 design into a miniaturized sensor interface, utilizing silicon germanium. The resulting SiGe device weighs about 200 grams and requires no temperature or radiation shielding. Large numbers of these robust, lightweight REU units could be mounted on spacecraft or data-gathering devices close to sensors, reducing size, weight, power and reliability issues.

Berger said that BAE Systems is interested in manufacturing a sensor interface device based on the extreme environment team's discoveries.

Other space-oriented companies are also pursuing the new silicon-germanium technology, Cressler said. NASA, he explained, wants the intellectual-property barriers to the technology to be low so that it can be used widely.

"The idea is to make this infrastructure available to all interested parties," he said. "That way it could be used for any electronics assembly -- an instrument, a spacecraft, an orbital platform, lunar-surface applications, Titan missions -- wherever it can be helpful. In fact, the process of defining such an NASA mission-insertion road map is currently in progress."

New Psychology Theory Enables Computers to Mimic Human Creativity

A dealer in antique coins gets an offer to buy a beautiful bronze coin. The coin has an emperor's head on one side and the date "544 B.C." stamped on the other. The dealer examines the coin, but instead of buying it, he calls the police. Why?

Solving this "insight problem" requires creativity, a skill at which humans excel (the coin is a fake -- "B.C." and Arabic numerals did not exist at the time) and computers do not. Now, a new explanation of how humans solve problems creatively -- including the mathematical formulations for facilitating the incorporation of the theory in artificial intelligence programs -- provides a roadmap to building systems that perform like humans at the task.

A mathematical model based on psychology theory allows computers to mimic human creative problem-solving, and provides a new roadmap to architects of artificial intelligence. (Credit: iStockphoto/Baris Onal)

Ron Sun, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor of cognitive science, said the new "Explicit-Implicit Interaction Theory," recently introduced in an article inPsychological Review, could be used for future artificial intelligence.

"As a psychological theory, this theory pushes forward the field of research on creative problem solving and offers an explanation of the human mind and how we solve problems creatively," Sun said. "But this model can also be used as the basis for creating future artificial intelligence programs that are good at solving problems creatively."

The paper, titled "Incubation, Insight, and Creative Problem Solving: A Unified Theory and a Connectionist Model," by Sun and Sèbastien Hèlie of University of California, Santa Barbara, appeared in the July edition of Psychological Review. Discussion of the theory is accompanied by mathematical specifications for the "CLARION" cognitive architecture -- a computer program developed by Sun's research group to act like a cognitive system -- as well as successful computer simulations of the theory.

In the paper, Sun and Hèlie compare the performance of the CLARION model using "Explicit-Implicit Interaction" theory with results from previous human trials -- including tests involving the coin question -- and found results to be nearly identical in several aspects of problem solving.

In the tests involving the coin question, human subjects were given a chance to respond after being interrupted either to discuss their thought process or to work on an unrelated task. In that experiment, 35.6 percent of participants answered correctly after discussing their thinking, while 45.8 percent of participants answered correctly after working on another task.

In 5,000 runs of the CLARION program set for similar interruptions, CLARION answered correctly 35.3 percent of the time in the first instance, and 45.3 percent of the time in the second instance.

"The simulation data matches the human data very well," said Sun.

Explicit-Implicit Interaction theory is the most recent advance on a well-regarded outline of creative problem solving known as "Stage Decomposition," developed by Graham Wallas in his seminal 1926 book "The Art of Thought." According to stage decomposition, humans go through four stages -- preparation, incubation, insight (illumination), and verification -- in solving problems creatively.

Building on Wallas' work, several disparate theories have since been advanced to explain the specific processes used by the human mind during the stages of incubation and insight. Competing theories propose that incubation -- a period away from deliberative work -- is a time of recovery from fatigue of deliberative work, an opportunity for the mind to work unconsciously on the problem, a time during which the mind discards false assumptions, or a time in which solutions to similar problems are retrieved from memory, among other ideas.

Each theory can be represented mathematically in artificial intelligence models. However, most models choose between theories rather than seeking to incorporate multiple theories and therefore they are fragmentary at best.

Sun and Hèlie's Explicit-Implicit Interaction (EII) theory integrates several of the competing theories into a larger equation.

"EII unifies a lot of fragmentary pre-existing theories," Sun said. "These pre-existing theories only account for some aspects of creative problem solving, but not in a unified way. EII unifies those fragments and provides a more coherent, more complete theory."

The basic principles of EII propose the coexistence of two different types of knowledge and processing: explicit and implicit. Explicit knowledge is easier to access and verbalize, can be rendered symbolically, and requires more attention to process. Implicit knowledge is relatively inaccessible, harder to verbalize, and is more vague and requires less attention to process.

In solving a problem, explicit knowledge could be the knowledge used in reasoning, deliberately thinking through different options, while implicit knowledge is the intuition that gives rise to a solution suddenly. Both types of knowledge are involved simultaneously to solve a problem and reinforce each other in the process. By including this principle in each step, Sun was able to achieve a successful system.

"This tells us how creative problem solving may emerge from the interaction of explicit and implicit cognitive processes; why both types of processes are necessary for creative problem solving, as well as in many other psychological domains and functionalities," said Sun.

News: Safari Books Online launches iPad application

Safari Books Online has launched a free iPad application, Safari to Go that allows subscribers to access and read books from its online library. Safari Books Online is a subscription-based on-demand digital library that delivers expert content from leading publishers in technology and business such as O’Reilly Media, Peachpit Press, John Wiley & Sons and many others. The Safari to Go application allows users to access books from the company’s.

Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office now available to early testers

Users of Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 can sync their Office documents to the Google cloud, without ever leaving Office. Once synced, documents are backed-up, given a unique URL, and can be accessed from anywhere (including mobile devices) at any time through Google Docs. And because the files are stored in the cloud, people always have access to the current version.

Once in the Google cloud, documents can be easily shared and even simultaneously edited by multiple people, from right within Office. A full revision history is kept as the files are edited, and users can revert to earlier versions in one click. These are all features that Google Docs users already enjoy today, and now bringing 

them to microsoft office.All you need is a Google account, and you’re ready to go. That’s it!..

Interested in joining in the preview program, please sign up here.

Paving Machine

Tiger-Stone is a Dutch made paving machine that uses gravity and an electric motor to print stone and brick roads. It’s a six meter wide machine that is capable of laying 300 square meters of road a day. The printing width is adjustable from the width of a road to as narrow as a bike lane or walkway. There are no moving parts within the machine, it simply uses a shelf that is fed bricks and they are automatically sorted and packed together by gravity, each stone will associate with the link previously made. There is a quiet electric motor that moves the machine along a bed of sand creating consistent results with a simply operated paver.

Web Designer VS Web Developers

How the browser works?

If anybody ask,how the browser works?. Show this tech pic. 

Mount Everest now 'wired' for Internet, ready for Starbucks

TeliaSonera subsidiary Ncell has just completed installation of a 3G base station at 5,200 meters (17,000 feet) that will reach the 8,848-meter peak of Mount Everest. Mind you, we've already seen a cellphone call made from the world's highest peak using a temporary base station in a Motorola publicity stunt. This time, however, it's permanent and faster allowing climbers to surf the internet or make 3G video calls.

Hi-Tech Cycling

Engineers Create A Strong But Lightweight Isotruss Bike Using Carbon Fibers

Engineers used elements of architecture and geometry to create a strong but lightweight triangle-based isotruss bicycle frame. To make a road bike or mountain bike, the isotruss is first wound with carbon fiber using a sheet that holds the tension constant. The engineers then hand-wind Kevlar strands over the isotruss. The process creates a bike with a large strength-to-weight ratio.

Karl Vizmeg has ridden his Delta 7 Arantix bike 1,700 miles. He has raced dozens of bikes, but says a new see-through model is the strongest and lightest.Almost every kid has at one time or another asked for one for Christmas. Now, engineers have developed what may be the most technologically advanced bike to hit the road yet. It took ten years to develop a new incredibly light and strong model that will take cyclists into the future.

"This is phenomenal," said Vizmeg. "I've had so much fun this year, particularly with the 'wow' factor, but [also] because it's such a great racing bike."

Vizmeg's $8,500 bike was handmade in Utah using geometry and architecture. To make bikes like his, workers first make an isotruss, a form made from isosceles triangles. Then, they wind carbon fiber around the form -- creating a great strength-to-weight ratio.

"We go back afterwards and hand-wind all the little Kevlar strands, inch-by-inch, over each isotruss," said Tyler Evans, program manager at Delta 7 Sports in Payson, Utah.

They then bake the bike to bond the materials. The mountain bike frame weighs 2.6 pounds. The new Ascend road bike weighs 1.8.

"This bike rides like bikes that are much heavier and stronger and built like a tank, but it's still in the featherweight category," Evans said.

You might think the open-lattice design wouldn't be aerodynamic, but Delta 7 says wind-tunnel tests prove the bikes are as aerodynamic as traditional ones. The Ascend bike has another advantage.

"You definitely feel like a rock star, like you're famous, like you belong in the Tour de France or some high-end race," cyclist Dan Weller told Ivanhoe.

Right now, that feeling requires patience. It takes about 100 hours to build each IsoTruss bike. Delta 7 produced only 200 IsoTruss models in 2008, but is working on ways to mass-produce them in the near future. To get one right now, you have to add yourself to the waiting list and put down a $1,000 deposit.

A SEE-THROUGH BIKE FRAME? The Arantix mountain bicycle and Ascend road bicycle have frames made from carbon fiber, shaped into a form called IsoTruss. The lattice structure is woven by hand into the form of pyramid-like shapes made of isosceles triangles (the kind with two sides of equal length). The design is specially designed to make the bicycle resistant to bending and twisting, with a greater ratio of strength to weight than metal frames. This technology is currently promoted as an alternative to heavier, weaker materials in everything from automobiles to building materials and utility poles.

HOW TO WEAVE A BICYCLE: To construct the bike, the artisans take a single strand of carbon fiber and wind it back and forth (by hand) over a cylindrical mandrill until it is the right size, then wrap Kevlar around the fibers to bundle it. Then they bake it in an oven, which bonds all the carbon together.

The Materials Research Society, the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report. This report has also been produced thanks to a generous grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc.

Note: This story and accompanying video were originally produced for the American Institute of Physics seriesDiscoveries and Breakthroughs in Science by Ivanhoe Broadcast News and are protected by copyright law. All rights reserved.

Space Tornado

Physicists Spot Interstellar Shock Wave Using Spitzer Telescope

The spirals of a "space tornado" may be the first step in the formation of a new star. The structure, observed with NASA's Spitzer infrared telescope, is a shock wave created by a jet of material slamming on a cloud of interstellar gas and dust at more than 100 miles per second, heating the cloud and causing it to glow. Physicists say the jet may have been generated by magnetic fields.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--They can be destructive and deadly, and they're not just something that happens here on earth! Tornadoes are the most erratic, unpredictable and violent of storms, and now scientists are finding out they happen in the most unusual places!

Physicist Giovanni Fazio has spotted tornadoes in space. With the help of his infrared camera on board NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers discovered what looked like a tornado in space.

"I was responsible for building one of the cameras on board there that took this picture of the tornado," Fazio, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., tells DBIS. "We were quite surprised when I saw it. I never saw anything like this before in my life."

The surprise turned out to be a shock-wave created by a jet of material flowing through a vast cloud of interstellar gas and dust. The jet slammed into neighboring dust clouds at more than 100 miles per second, heating the dust and causing it to glow.

"When stars form, they form from the collapse of a cloud of gas and dust. And in the process of the gas and dust falling in, it doesn't fall directly in -- it sort of spirals in slowly," Fazio says.

He adds understanding a star's formation may someday help astronomers understand the formation of our galaxy. "How did we get here, and where are we going? That's what we are trying to understand."

So while tornados on earth can be destructive, tornadoes in space could reveal the mysteries of the universe.

Astronomers say they can only speculate about the source of the spiraling jet. One explanation? Magnetic fields throughout the region might have shaped the tornado-like object.

BACKGROUND: Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered a cosmic jet that looks like a giant tornado whirling in space. The "tornado" is actually a shock wave created by a jet of material flowing through a vast cloud of interstellar gas and dust. The jet slams into neighboring dust clouds at a speed of more than 100 miles per second, heating the dust so that it glows with infrared light. The Spitzer telescope detects that light.

WHAT ARE COSMIC JETS: Astronomers believe that cosmic jets form when a massive object, such as a neutron star or black hole, draws in matter, which forms a whirling "accretion disk" around the object. Friction within the disk can heat it to very high temperatures, so that excess energy is vented by ejecting subatomic particles from the poles of the disk at speeds approaching that of light. Scientists believe the jets start out fairly broad and then narrow into a funnel because of the strong magnetic field lines, which rotate and accelerate the jet of particles.

ABOUT THE SPITZER TELESCOPE: The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched on 25 August 2003. Spitzer detects the infrared energy radiated by objects in space. Most of this infrared radiation is blocked by the Earth's atmosphere and cannot be observed from the ground. Spitzer allows us to peer into regions of space that are hidden from optical telescopes. Many areas of space are filled with vast, dense clouds of gas and dust that block our view. Infrared light, however can penetrate these clouds, allowing us to peer into regions of star formation, the centers of galaxies, and into newly forming planetary systems. Infrared also brings us information about the cooler objects in space, such as smaller stars which are too dim to be detected by their visible light, extrasolar planets, and giant molecular clouds. Also, many molecules in space, including organic molecules, have their unique signatures in the infrared.

The American Astronomical Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Note: This story and accompanying video were originally produced for the American Institute of Physics seriesDiscoveries and Breakthroughs in Science by Ivanhoe Broadcast News and are protected by copyright law. All rights reserved.

Miniature Human Livers Created in the Lab

Researchers at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have reached an early, but important, milestone in the quest to grow replacement livers in the lab. They are the first to use human liver cells to successfully engineer miniature livers that function -- at least in a laboratory setting -- like human livers. The next step is to see if the livers will continue to function after transplantation in an animal model.

The ultimate goal of the research, which will be presented on October 31 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in Boston, is to provide a solution to the shortage of donor livers available for patients who need transplants. Laboratory-engineered livers could also be used to test the safety of new drugs.

"We are excited about the possibilities this research represents, but must stress that we're at an early stage and many technical hurdles must be overcome before it could benefit patients," said Shay Soker, Ph.D., professor of regenerative medicine and project director. "Not only must we learn how to grow billions of liver cells at one time in order to engineer livers large enough for patients, but we must determine whether these organs are safe to use in patients."

Pedro Baptista, PharmD, Ph.D., lead author on the study, said the project is the first time that human liver cells have been used to engineer livers in the lab. "Our hope is that once these organs are transplanted, they will maintain and gain function as they continue to develop," he said.

To engineer the organs, the scientists used animal livers that were treated with a mild detergent to remove all cells (a process called decellularization), leaving only the collagen "skeleton" or support structure. They then replaced the original cells with two types of human cells: immature liver cells known as progenitors, and endothelial cells that line blood vessels.

An early milestone in the quest to grow replacement livers in the lab has been achieved. Researchers have used human liver cells to successfully engineer miniature livers that function -- at least in a laboratory setting -- like human livers. (Credit: iStockphoto/Sebastian Kaulitzki)

The cells were introduced into the liver skeleton through a large vessel that feeds a system of smaller vessels in the liver. This network of vessels remains intact after the decellularization process. The liver was next placed in a bioreactor, special equipment that provides a constant flow of nutrients and oxygen throughout the organ.

After a week in the bioreactor system, the scientists documented the progressive formation of human liver tissue, as well as liver-associated function. They observed widespread cell growth inside the bioengineered organ.

The ability to engineer a liver with animal cells had been demonstrated previously. However, the possibility of generating a functional human liver was still in question.

The researchers said the current study suggests a new approach to whole-organ bioengineering that might prove to be critical not only for treating liver disease, but for growing organs such as the kidney and pancreas. Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine are working on these projects, as well as many other tissues and organs, and also working to develop cell therapies to restore organ function.

Bioengineered livers could also be useful for evaluating the safety of new drugs. "This would more closely mimic drug metabolism in the human liver, something that can be difficult to reproduce in animal models," said Baptista.

Co-researchers were Dipfen Vyas, B.Sc., Zhan Wang, M.D., and Anthony Atala, M.D., director of the institute.

The abstract, "The Use of Whole Organ Decellularization for the Bioengineering of a Human Vascularized Liver," will be presented on Oct. 31.

Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Scientists 'Watch' Formation of Cells' Protein Factories, Ribosomes, for First Time

A team from The Scripps Research Institute has revealed the first-ever pictures of the formation of cells' "protein factories." In addition to being a major technical feat on its own, the work could open new pathways for development of antibiotics and treatments for diseases tied to errors in ribosome formation. In addition, the techniques developed in the study can now be applied to other complex challenges in the understanding of cellular processes.

Identifying and observing the molecules that form ribosomes -- the cellular factories that build the proteins essential for life -- has for decades been a key goal for biologists but one that had seemed nearly unattainable. But the new Scripps Research study, which appears in the October 29, 2010 issue of the journal Science, yielded pictures of the chemical intermediate steps in ribosome creation.

"For me it was a dream experiment," said project leader James Williamson, Ph.D., professor, member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, and dean of graduate and postgraduate studies at Scripps Research, who credits collaborators at the Scripps Research National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy (NRAMM) facility for making it possible. "We have great colleagues at Scripps to collaborate with who are willing to try some crazy experiments, and when they work it's just beautiful."

A team from The Scripps Research Institute has revealed the first-ever pictures of the formation of cells’ “protein factories.” (Credit: Gabe Lander)

Past studies of the intermediate molecules that combine to form ribosomes and other cellular components have been severely limited by imaging technologies. Electron microscopy has for many years made it possible to create pictures of such tiny molecules, but this typically requires purification of the molecules. To purify, you must first identify, meaning researchers had to infer what the intermediates were ahead of time rather than being able to watch the real process.

"My lab has been working on ribosome assembly intensively for about 15 years," said Williamson. "The basic steps were mapped out 30 years ago. What nobody really understood was how it happens inside cells."

Creating a New View

The NRAMM group, led by Scripps Research Associate Professors Clinton Potter and Bridget Carragher and working with Scripps Research Kellogg School of Science and Technology graduate students Anke Mulder and Craig Yoshioka, developed a new technique, described in the Science paper and dubbed discovery single-particle profiling, which dodges the purification problem by allowing successful imaging of unpurified samples. An automated data capture and processing system of the team's design enables them to decipher an otherwise impossibly complex hodgepodge of data that results.

For this project, second author Andrea Beck, a research assistant in the Williamson laboratory, purified ribosome components from cells of the common research bacterium Escherichia Coli. She then chemically broke these apart to create a solution of the components that form ribosomes. The components were mixed together and then were rapidly stained and imaged using electron microscopy. "We went in with 'dirty' samples that contained horribly complex mixtures of all different particles," said Williamson.

Mulder, who is first author on the paper, collected and analyzed the particles that were formed during the ribosome assembly reaction. Using the team's advanced algorithms, they were able to process more than a million data points from the electron microscope to ultimately produce molecular pictures.

The Pieces Fit

The team produced images that the scientists were able to match like puzzle pieces to parts of ribosomes, offering strong confirmation that they had indeed imaged and identified actual chemical intermediates in the path to ribosome production. "We always saw the same thing no matter how we processed the data, and this led us to believe this was real," said Williamson.

Further confirmation came as the researchers imaged components from different timeframes. After breaking down ribosome components, the scientists prepared samples at various stages allowing enough time for the molecular mix to begin combining as they do during ribosome creation in cells.

Imaging this time series, the team was able to show higher concentrations of larger, more complex molecules and fewer smaller molecules as time elapsed. These results fit with the limited information that was already available about the timing of formation steps, providing further confirmation of the team's success.

Interestingly, this work also confirmed that there are more than one possible paths in ribosome formation, a phenomenon known as parallel assembly that been suggested by prior research but never definitively confirmed.

Long-Term Potential

Williamson says that with the information now at hand, they will be able to move forward with studies of which additional molecules might be present in cells and essential for ribosome formation. Such data could offer exciting medical potential.

All bacteria contain and are dependent on ribosomes. Identification of molecules required for ribosome assembly could offer new targets for antibiotic drugs aimed at killing bacteria. "If we can figure out how to inhibit assembly, that would be a very important therapeutic avenue," said Williamson.

There are also indications that some diseases such as Diamond Blackfan Anemia might be caused, at least in some cases, by errors in ribosome production. Better understanding of that production could also reveal ways such errors might be repaired to cure or prevent disease.

At the more basic level, this successful project has also proven techniques that Scripps Research scientists and other researchers can apply to allow similar imaging and understanding of other complex but critical cellular processes.

In addition to Williamson, Mulder, Beck, Yoshioka, Potter, and Carragher, authors of the paper, entitled "Visualizing Ribosome Biogenesis: Parallel Assembly Pathways for the 30S Subunit," were Anne Bunner and Ronald Milligan from Scripps Research.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and a fellowship from the National Science Foundation.