Genetic Engineering for Mining Water Filtering This is a biotech company video made to show the process of genetically modifying bacteria used for filtering mining water-- Created using PowToon -- Free si... By: shchang18 … Continue reading →

[Cross-posted from our new Energy and Environment blog.] One of the strange things about being human beings is that we are highly conscious of our surroundings, yet are oblivious to the molecular machinations within our own bodies. Sure, we monitor ourselves were hungry, were tired, were squirrelly, weve got the sewing-machine leg, we shoulda tried the decaf. Those of us who focus on our breathing can find our psychic zone of serenity, where we can feel superior to other people who breathe less immaculately and more clumsily. But whatever: Were not aware of whats happening at the cellular level, down there where the ribosomes are taking information from DNA and manufacturing proteins that somehow serve specific functions simply through their three-dimensional structure. We certainly dont pause to consider that, thanks to the trillions of bacteria we host, most of the genetic information in our bodies is not actually human. Were a composite organism. Life is basically the weirdest and most astonishing thing ever. And now, increasingly, human beings are at the controls through genetic engineering and other advanced laboratory technologies. This is the age of synthetic life. GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are a source of enduring controversy, and its not … Continue reading →

[Cross-posted from our new Energy and Environment blog.] One of the strange things about being human beings is that we are highly conscious of our surroundings, yet are oblivious to the molecular machinations within our own bodies. Sure, we monitor ourselves were hungry, were tired, were squirrelly, weve got the sewing-machine leg, we shoulda tried the decaf. Those of us who focus on our breathing can find our psychic zone of serenity, where we can feel superior to other people who breathe less immaculately and more clumsily. But whatever: Were not aware of whats happening at the cellular level, down there where the ribosomes are taking information from DNA and manufacturing proteins that somehow serve specific functions simply through their three-dimensional structure. We certainly dont pause to consider that, thanks to the trillions of bacteria we host, most of the genetic information in our bodies is not actually human. Were a composite organism. Life is basically the weirdest and most astonishing thing ever. And now, increasingly, human beings are at the controls through genetic engineering and other advanced laboratory technologies. This is the age of synthetic life. GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are a source of enduring controversy, and its not … Continue reading →

One of the strange things about being human beings is that we are highly conscious of our surroundings, yet are oblivious to the molecular machinations within our own bodies. Sure, we monitor ourselves were hungry, were tired, were squirrelly, weve got the sewing-machine leg, we shoulda tried the decaf. Those of us who focus on our breathing can find our psychic zone of serenity, where we can feel superior to other people who breathe less immaculately and more clumsily. But whatever: Were not aware of whats happening at the cellular level, down there where the ribosomes are taking information from DNA and manufacturing proteins that somehow serve specific functions simply through their three-dimensional structure. We certainly dont pause to consider that, thanks to the trillions of bacteria we host, most of the genetic information in our bodies is not actually human. Were a composite organism. Life is basically the weirdest and most astonishing thing ever. And now, increasingly, human beings are at the controls through genetic engineering and other advanced laboratory technologies. This is the age of synthetic life. GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are a source of enduring controversy, and its not simply a matter of science. There are economic … Continue reading →

IMAGE:Big Data, published quarterly in print and online, facilitates and supports the efforts of researchers, analysts, statisticians, business leaders, and policymakers to improve operations, profitability, and communications within... view more Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers New Rochelle, January 28, 2015 - EMBERS is a large-scale big data analytics system designed to use publically available data to predict population-level societal events such as civil unrest or disease outbreaks. The usefulness of this predictive artificial intelligence system over the past 2 years is reviewed in an article in Big Data, the highly innovative, peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Big Data website. In the article "Forecasting Significant Societal Events Using the EMBERS Streaming Predictive Analytics System," Andy Doyle and coauthors, CACI, Inc. (Lanham, MD), Virginia Tech (Arlington, VA), and BASIS Technology (Herndon, VA), describe the structure and function of the Early Model Based Event Recognition using Surrogates (EMBERS) system. They describe EMBERS as a working example of a big data streaming architecture that processes large volumes of social media data and uses a variety of modeling approaches to make predictions. "EMBERS represents a significant advance in our ability to make sense of … Continue reading →