university – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Unknown Language Discovered in Malaysia

Researchers have cataloged close to 7, 000 distinct human languages on Earth, per Linguistic Society of America’s latest count. That may seem like a pretty exhaustive list, but it hasn’t stopped anthropologists and linguists from continuing to encounter new languages, like one recently discovered in a village in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula. From a report: According to a press release, researchers from Lund University in Sweden discovered the language during a project called Tongues of the Semang. The documentation effort in villages of the ethnic Semang people was intended to collect data on their languages, which belong to an Austoasiatic language family called Aslian. While researchers were studying a language called Jahai in one village, they came to understand that not everyone there was speaking it. “We realized that a large part of the village spoke a different language. They used words, phonemes and grammatical structures that are not used in Jahai, ” says Joanne Yager, lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Linguist Typology. “Some of these words suggested a link with other Aslian languages spoken far away in other parts of the Malay Peninsula.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Unknown Language Discovered in Malaysia

Researchers grew a fully mature human egg in a lab

Researchers in the UK and the US have taken human eggs in their most early stage and developed them to maturity in a lab for the first time. It’s a big achievement that could open up new avenues for infertility treatment and give scientists a better understanding of how the egg development process works and how it can go wrong. While this has been done before in mice, experiments of which have resulted in live offspring, this is the first time it has been done with human eggs. The research team had previously developed a protocol wherein they could take eggs in later stages of development and bring them to maturity, and they expanded that protocol in an attempt to develop eggs from start to finish in the lab. They took samples of ovarian tissue from 10 women while they were undergoing caesarean section surgery and cultured sections of that tissue that have the ability to release an egg, structures known as follicles. The follicles were cultured in a multi-step procedure that allowed for eggs to develop. At the end of each step, follicles, and eventually eggs, that had successfully matured further were moved to the following step. The team initially isolated 87 follicles and by the end of the 21-day procedure, nine eggs reached a stage of maturity that would in theory allow them to be fertilized with sperm and develop into an embryo. While only 37 percent of the early-stage follicles resulted in a fully grown egg and only 10 percent achieved levels of maturity that could allow for reproduction, it’s still an important step in the study of egg development, or oogenesis. Ali Abbara, an endocrinology senior lecturer at the Imperial College of London who wasn’t involved with the study, told Reuters , “The technology remains at an early stage, and much more work is needed to make sure that the technique is safe and optimized before we ascertain whether these eggs remain normal during the process, and can be fertilized to form embryos that could lead to healthy babies.” Evelyn Telfer, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh and the leader of the study, told Reuters that the team is now working on optimizing this process and evaluating how healthy the resulting eggs are. One next step is to try to fertilize the eggs with sperm to see if they can result in a viable embryo — work that requires a licence that the team doesn’t yet have. This work could help improve IVF treatments in the future and could particularly help girls with cancer. They typically have pieces of their ovaries removed and preserved prior to receiving cancer treatments that might damage their follicles. However, if there’s a chance that the tissue has cancer cells, it can’t be reimplanted later on. If doctors could mature those eggs outside of her body, those eggs could still be used without introducing risk to the woman. Additionally, in cases where women have a condition that prevents the development of their eggs, this type of research could help scientists understand why that happens. “There are several conditions in which women lose their eggs much earlier in life, or they don’t grow, ” Telfer told New Scientist . “If we could understand the process…we could develop treatments for that.” The research was published in Molecular Human Reproduction . Via: Reuters Source: Molecular Human Reproduction

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Researchers grew a fully mature human egg in a lab

Ingestible gut sensors reveal potential new immune system

Ingestible technology — the stalwart theme of medical sci-fi — has been in the works for decades, but now researchers are closer than ever before to taking it mainstream thanks to successful trials of gas-sensing capsules. The swallowable sensors, designed by RMIT University in Australia, could revolutionize the way gut disorders and diseases are diagnosed and treated, offering a potential game-changer for the one-in-five people worldwide who will suffer from gastrointestinal problems in their lifetimes. The capsule is the size of a vitamin pill and works by detecting and measuring gut gas in real time, then sending data to a mobile phone. Trials have uncovered bodily mechanisms never seen before, including what could be an entirely new immune system . “We found that the stomach releases oxidising chemicals to break down and beat foreign compounds that are staying in the stomach for longer than usual, ” said study lead and capsule co-inventor Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh. “This could represent a gastric protection system against foreign bodies. Such an immune mechanism has never been reported before.” The researchers also found evidence that the colon contains oxygen, contradicting previously-held beliefs that it’s an oxygen-free area of the body. The technology also provides a more effective way of measuring and analyzing activities in the gut. Scientists would previously have to rely on faecal samples or invasive surgery, which Kalantar-zadeh noted is “not a true reflection of the gut microbiota at that time”. The capsule has now passed human trials, and the team is exploring ways of commercialising the technology, partnering with development company Planet Innovation to bring the product to market. Via: Science Daily Source: Nature.com

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Ingestible gut sensors reveal potential new immune system

With ingestible pill, you can track fart development in real time on your phone

Enlarge / The ingestible electronic pill. (credit: RMIT University ) Scientists often hope to break ground with their research. But a group of Australian researchers would likely be happy with breaking wind. The team developed an ingestible electronic capsule to monitor gas levels in the human gut. When it’s paired with a pocket-sized receiver and a mobile phone app, the pill reports tail-wind conditions in real time as it passes from the stomach to the colon. The researchers, led by Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh of RMIT University and Peter Gibson of Monash University, reported their invention Monday in Nature Electronics . The authors are optimistic that the capsule’s gas readings can help clear the air over the inner workings of our intricate innards and the multitudes of microbes they contain. Such fume data could clarify the conditions of each section of the gut, what microbes are up to, and which foods may cause problems in the system. Until now, collecting such data has been a challenge. Methods to bottle it involved cumbersome and invasive tubing and inconvenient whole-body calorimetry. Popping the electronic pill is a breeze in comparison. And early human trials have already hinted that the pill can provide new information about intestinal wind patterns and gaseous turbulence from different foods. Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Scanning technique reads hidden writing in mummy boxes

Historians can use scanning to peek inside mummies without risking damage, but that hasn’t been true for the papyrus boxes those mummies were placed in before entering the tomb. If you’ve wanted to read the discarded everyday writing on that papyrus, you’ve typically had to destroy the boxes. That won’t be necessary from now on, though: researchers at University College London have developed a scanning technique that lets you read a mummy case’s writing while leaving it intact. If you scan the cases with light at different frequencies, you can make the ink glow and thus see under the paste and plaster that would normally obscure the text. A lot of the writing is unspectacular (the BBC describes them as shopping lists and tax returns), but that’s the point — it’s about discovering Egyptian history beyond royalty and other famous people. The technique has already found success with one mummy stored in Kent. It’s not certain that it’ll find widespread adoption, but it’s hard to see historians turning this down. Much as with techniques used to read closed books , this lets researchers have the best of both worlds: they can read ‘secret’ text without having to sacrifice priceless relics. Source: BBC

World’s coolest chip runs at near absolute zero

How do you find out what happens to physics near absolute zero (aka 0 kelvin), the temperature where particle motion virtually stops? Scientists at the University of Basel might have just the device to do it. They’ve developed a nanoelectronics chip that they can successfully cool to a record-setting, bitterly cold 2.8 millikelvin. The trick involved a clever use of magnetic fields to eliminate virtually all sources of heat. The team started by using magnetic cooling (where you ramp down an applied magnetic field) to lower all the chip’s electrical connections down to 150 microkelvin. After that, they integrated another, specially constructed magnetic field system that let the researchers cool a Couloumb blockade thermometer — yes, even a thermometer’s heat is problematic when you’re edging close to absolute zero. It was successful enough that the chip could stay cold for 7 hours, which is plenty of time for tests. This is about more than bragging rights, of course. A chip that can run in such frigid conditions could help understand physics at its very limit. You might see strange behavior, for instance. It could also be helpful in creating ideal conditions for quantum physics experiments. And there’s still some room for improvement, to boot. The scientists are “optimistic” they can refine their method to lower the overall temperature to an even chillier 1 millikelvin. Via: Electronics 360 Source: University of Basel

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World’s coolest chip runs at near absolute zero

A new polymer could make phone screen repairs a thing of the past

If you’ve ever had to deal with a cracked smartphone screen, you know what a hassle it can be. Slapping a screen protector on it is only a stopgap until you have to have the screen replaced , which comes with a decent price tag. Now, researchers in Tokyo have discovered a new polymer that may actually heal itself, potentially leading the way to a future of self-healing phone screens. The study was published in Science by a team of researchers led by Professor Takuzo Aida from the University of Tokyo. Titled “Mechanically robust, readily repairable polymers via tailored noncovalent cross-linking, ” the research promises a unique hard glass-like polymer called “polyether-thioureas” that can heal itself with only hand pressure. This makes it different than other materials that need high heat to heal up from a break. “High mechanical robustness and healing ability tend to be mutually exclusive, ” said researchers. “In most cases, heating to high temperatures, on the order of 120 degrees Celsius or more, to reorganize their cross-linked networks is necessary for the fractured portions to repair.” According to The Guardian , the special glass polymer was discovered by mistake by a graduate student, Yu Yanagisawa, who thought the material would become a type of glue. He found that cut edges of the polymer would stick to each other, and formed a strong sheet after being compressed by hand at 21 degrees Celsius. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen self-repairing phone tech, of course, with screen protectors that heal themselves and a Motorola patent for a self-repairing screen. However, new breakthroughs like this may help make broken screens and costly repairs a thing of the past. Via: The Guardian Source: Science

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A new polymer could make phone screen repairs a thing of the past

“Completely unique” Iron Age party cauldrons and more unearthed in Leicestershire

ULAS Archaeologists were called to Glenfield Park, Leicestershire, just before a development company broke ground on a massive project to build a warehouse and distribution center. People walking in the grassy field between two towns on the fringes of Leicester had found what seemed to be ancient artifacts. Previous digs in the area had uncovered a few Iron Age items, so it seemed likely there might be something more to find. Indeed there was. Much more. In fact, according to University of Leicester Archaeological Services’ John Hancock, new excavations revealed a 2000-year-old feasting center full of rare, valuable items, including 11 ceremonial cauldrons. Archaeologists had uncovered a party town. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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“Completely unique” Iron Age party cauldrons and more unearthed in Leicestershire

Quark fusion makes ten times as much energy as nuclear fusion

Scientists have overcome huge barriers in the past year to get us even closer to nuclear fusion, and with it a near-limitless supply of clean energy. But, what if there’s something far more powerful out there? According to researchers at Tel Aviv University and the University of Chicago, there is, and it involves the fusion of elementary particles known as quarks — the resulting energy from which would be ten times that of nuclear fusion. Quarks (not to be confused with the alien from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) are tiny particles that make up the neutrons and protons inside atoms. They come in six different types, with scientists referring to them in terms of three pairs: up, down; charm, strange; and top, bottom. To find out more, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have been smashing atoms together at high speeds. Doing so, causes these component parts to split from their parent atoms, and fuse with other particles, creating baryons. Prior research has indicated that energy is produced when quarks bind together. By looking into one-such occurrence (a doubly-charmed baryon), the physicists found that it would take 130 megaelectronvolts (MeV) of energy to force two charm quarks together. On top of that, the fusion ends up releasing even more power, around 12 MeV. Motivated by their findings, they then focussed on the much-heavier bottom quarks. The same binding process, they claim, would theoretically release approximately 138 MeV, which is almost eight times as much as hydrogen fusion (which also powers hydrogen bombs). Naturally, this set off alarm bells, with the researchers hesitating to go public with their findings. “If I thought for a microsecond that this had any military applications, I would not have published it, ” professor Marek Karliner told Live Science . But, further calculations suggested that causing a chain reaction with quarks would be impossible — mainly because they don’t exist long enough to set each other off. Plus, there’s the fact that this type of bottom quark fusion is completely theoretical. Whereas, the researchers didn’t fuse bottom quarks themselves, they claim it is technically achievable at the LHC. Source: Nature

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Quark fusion makes ten times as much energy as nuclear fusion

New evidence would push life back to at least 3.95 billion years ago

Enlarge / Four billion years old? You don’t look a day over 2 billion! (credit: Tashiro et al/Nature ) You could be forgiven for thinking that the remnants of the Earth’s first life don’t want to be found. Between geology and happenstance, the earliest life has certainly covered its tracks well. While paleontologists studying dinosaurs can sometimes bring an unambiguously gigantic femur home, those who study the origins of life are usually left arguing over the significance of microscopic motes of rock. A new discovery in northernmost Labrador, made by a team led by Takayuki Tashiro of the University of Tokyo, fits into that latter category. But don’t let its abstract smallness of the evidence dull your excitement. The researchers argue they have uncovered evidence that there was life on Earth more than 3.95 billion years ago—on a planet that isn’t much more than 4.5 billion years old itself. Counting carbon Some of the evidence for early life is in the form of fossilized microorganisms. It can be difficult to rule out bacterium-shaped mineral bits that can form in other ways, but research published earlier this year identified microscopic structures that seem to fit the bill in 3.7 billion-year-old rocks that were once part of seafloor hydrothermal vents. Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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New evidence would push life back to at least 3.95 billion years ago