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#Post#: 4236--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cool Techie Geeky Stuff...
By: Chiprocks1 Date: December 6, 2011, 11:38 am
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Not shocking to me since everyone I know has always said I live
in my own world.
[IMG]
HTML http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i266/Chiprocks1/Smilies/0%20All%20Smilies/rimshot.gif[/img]
#Post#: 4544--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cool Techie Geeky Stuff...
By: Mac Date: December 20, 2011, 11:50 am
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This speaks volume...
#Post#: 4545--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cool Techie Geeky Stuff...
By: Chiprocks1 Date: December 20, 2011, 11:51 am
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Hahahahahaha!!
Zing!!!!!!
And oh so true!
#Post#: 4770--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cool Techie Geeky Stuff...
By: Chiprocks1 Date: December 31, 2011, 9:40 am
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[center]2012 Tech Predictions
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogmg0H_TzRo
[/center]
#Post#: 4771--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cool Techie Geeky Stuff...
By: Mac Date: December 31, 2011, 10:02 am
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Interesting.
Getting back into the tech game, I think I'll be good with my
iPad 2 for awhile. iPad3 doesn't sound significant enough for
me. Besides, I really don't want to start playing that game
again of staying up with the Jonses.
#Post#: 4772--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cool Techie Geeky Stuff...
By: Chiprocks1 Date: December 31, 2011, 10:04 am
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[quote author=Mac link=topic=262.msg4771#msg4771
date=1325347352]
I really don't want to start playing that game again of staying
up with the Jonses.
[/quote]
Amen, Brother. I'm beyond that now. Have been for a long time.
#Post#: 4846--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cool Techie Geeky Stuff...
By: Mac Date: January 3, 2012, 12:14 pm
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[glow=red,2,300]The Quadrantid meteor shower[/glow]
[quote]If you enjoy the sight of "shooting stars," then make
plans to look skyward before dawn on Wednesday, when a strong
display of Quadrantid meteors may appear. This first meteor
shower of 2012 may end up being one of the best. [/quote]
more...
HTML http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45857264/ns/technology_and_science-space/
Shower map
HTML http://www.space.com/14104-strong-quadrantid-meteor-shower-peaks-wednesday.html
#Post#: 4947--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cool Techie Geeky Stuff...
By: Mac Date: January 6, 2012, 3:01 pm
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[glow=red,2,300]Life-like cells are made of metal
HTML http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20906-lifelike-cells-are-made-of-metal.html<br
/>[/glow]
[quote]Could living things that evolved from metals be clunking
about somewhere in the universe? Perhaps. In a lab in Glasgow,
UK, one man is intent on proving that metal-based life is
possible.
He has managed to build cell-like bubbles from giant
metal-containing molecules and has given them some life-like
properties. He now hopes to induce them to evolve into fully
inorganic self-replicating entities.
"I am 100 per cent positive that we can get evolution to work
outside organic biology," says Lee Cronin (see photo, right) at
the University of Glasgow. His building blocks are large
"polyoxometalates" made of a range of metal atoms – most
recently tungsten – linked to oxygen and phosphorus. By simply
mixing them in solution, he can get them to self-assemble into
cell-like spheres.
Cronin and his team begin by creating salts from negatively
charged ions of the large metal oxides bound to a small
positively charged ion such as hydrogen or sodium. A solution of
this salt is squirted into another salt solution made of large,
positively charged organic ions bound to small negative ones.
When the two salts meet, they swap parts and the large metal
oxides end up partnered with the large organic ions. The new
salt is insoluble in water: it precipitates as a shell around
the injected solution.
Cronin calls the resulting bubbles inorganic chemical cells, or
iCHELLs, and says they are far more than mere curiosities. By
modifying their metal oxide backbone he can give the bubbles
some of the characteristics of the membranes of natural cells.
For example, an oxide with a hole as part of its structure
becomes a porous membrane, selectively allowing chemicals in and
out of the cell according to size, just like the walls of
biological cells. This property gives the membrane control over
the range of chemical reactions that can happen within – a key
feature of specialised cells (Angewandte Chemie, DOI:
10.1002/anie.201105068).
The team has also made bubbles within bubbles (see images),
creating compartments that mimic the internal structure of
biological cells. Better yet, they have started imbuing the
iCHELLs with the equipment for photosynthesis by linking some
oxide molecules to light-sensitive dyes. Cronin says early
results suggest he can create a membrane that splits water into
hydrogen ions, electrons and oxygen when illuminated – the
initial step of photosynthesis.
"We've [also] got an indication that we can pump protons across
the membrane" to set up a proton gradient, says Cronin – another
key stage in harnessing energy from light. If he can assemble
all these steps, Cronin could create a self-powered cell with
elements of plant-like metabolism.
It's early days; other synthetic biologists are reserving
judgement for now. Cronin's bubbles are never going to be truly
life-like until they carry something like DNA to drive
self-replication and evolution, says Manuel Porcar of the
University of Valencia in Spain. That is theoretically possible,
he says, "but I cannot imagine what kind of system they would
implement". Cronin isn't sure yet either, but last year he
showed that he could get polyoxometalates to use each other as
templates to self-replicate (Science, DOI:
10.1126/science.1181735).
In an ambitious seven-month experiment, Cronin is now
mass-producing bubbles and injecting them into an array of tubes
and flasks filled with different chemicals at different pH
levels. He hopes that the mix of environments will allow only
the fittest bubbles to survive. "If the pH is too low and [some
bubbles] dissolve then those droplets will have died." Others
may persist and accumulate. In the long run, the real test will
be whether the cells can modify their own chemistry to adapt to
different environments. Cronin hints that his latest work may
show this, but is unwilling to give details as yet. "I think we
have just shown the first droplets that can evolve" is all he
will say.
If Cronin is right, then the possible range of extraterrestrial
life is blown wide open. "There is every possibility that there
are life forms out there which aren't based on carbon," he says.
Tadashi Sugawara of the University of Tokyo, Japan, doesn't see
why not. "On Mercury, the materials are all different. There
might be a creature made of inorganic elements." Cronin may be
some way from proving this, says Sugawara, but "he has pointed
out a new direction".[/quote]
#Post#: 4959--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cool Techie Geeky Stuff...
By: Chiprocks1 Date: January 7, 2012, 2:21 am
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[quote author=Mac link=topic=262.msg4947#msg4947
date=1325883717]
[glow=red,2,300]Life-like cells are made of metal
HTML http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20906-lifelike-cells-are-made-of-metal.html<br
/>[/glow]
[/quote]
Finally! Evidence that everyone has Metal DNA inside of
them.[IMG]
HTML http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i266/Chiprocks1/Smilies/0%20All%20Smilies/headbanginggenesimmons.gif[/img]
#Post#: 4960--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cool Techie Geeky Stuff...
By: Mac Date: January 7, 2012, 8:11 am
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I swear, when your in the retirement home, the other seniors
will slowly roll away from your head banging ;)
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