In a mind-boggling world first, a team of biologists and security researchers have successfully infected a computer with a into a strand of DNA. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s very real — although you probably don’t have to worry about this particular threat vector any time soon. That said, the possibilities suggested by this project are equally fascinating and… Read More
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Malicous code written into DNA infects the computer that reads it
Companies can technically buy a quantum computer right now, but it’s not really the same as a general-purpose computer. Even if you don’t question whether or not it is quantum computing , it really amounts to specialized hardware. However, IBM hopes to change all that: it’s planning to build the first commercially-oriented universal quantum computer. The plan is to build a system with roughly 50 quantum bits (the Quantum Experience started with 5 and now simulates 20) within the next few years. That may not sound like much, but 50 qubits could be more powerful than the best supercomputers when handling some calculations — tasks that were impractical before would suddenly be within reach. Not surprisingly, you probably won’t get to use this quantum machine yourself. Much as in the old mainframe days, this computer is aimed at “business and science” customers that need to solve specific problems. To that end, IBM is helping research partners Canon, Hitachi Metals, Honda, JSR, Nagase and Samsung explore potential uses for quantum tech. The exciting part, IBM argues, isn’t so much the known performance as the possibilities. No one knows the full extent of what a universal quantum computer can do — it’s entirely feasible that the device will solve problems that aren’t even on the table right now. The biggest challenges are creating a tangible roadmap for production, and developing something affordable enough that it’s genuinely practical to use outside of a handful of cases. Source: IBM Think Blog , IBM News Room
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IBM plans to build a universal quantum computer
A team of scientists from the University of California, San Francisco only wanted to slow down mice embryos’ cell growth in the lab. Instead, they managed to completely pause their development, putting the blastocysts (very early embryos) in suspended animation for a month. What’s more, they found that the process can put stem cells derived from the blastocysts in suspended animation, as well. Okay, let’s face it: that doesn’t sound nearly as cool as putting humans in suspended animation. But their finding still has huge implications for various fields of medicine. Doctors could develop a way to suspend embryos for IVF and scientists could find a method to slow down aging, among other possibilities. Helps that the researchers were able to prove that the embryos can develop normally even after a pause in their growth. Team member Ramalho-Santos from the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research said: “It was completely surprising. We were standing around in the tissue culture room, scratching our heads, and saying wow, what do we make of this? To put it in perspective, mouse pregnancies only last about 20 days, so the 30-day-old ‘paused’ embryos we were seeing would have been pups approaching weaning already if they’d been allowed to develop normally.” So, what exactly did the team do that led to their finding? They used a drug that inhibited the activities of a protein called mTOR, which regulates different cellular processes. By inhibiting the protein, they also inhibit the cells’ activities. In the future, the researchers want to explore mTOR inhibitors’ capability to pause stem cells’ activities in the late stages of their development, which could be used to repair or replace organs. And since other studies already showed that mTOR inhibitors can extend the lives of mice, the researchers want to explore their possible uses in aging research. Source: University of California, San Francisco
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Scientists put mouse embryos in suspended animation for a month