] Two Americans have won the 2003 Nobel Prize in chemistry
] "for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes,"
] the Nobel Foundation announced Wednesday from its
] headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden.

CNN.com - Cell research wins Nobel Prize - Oct. 8, 2003

neat! get your learn on...

nanotechweb.org - Tim Harper - Freeing up nanotechnology information (October 2003)

seems like a /. for nanotech

News.NanoApex.com Nanotechnology MEMS News

] VeriSign Inc., the firm that operates a key piece of the
] Internet's address system, said it would temporarily shut
] down a new service that makes money off the typos of Web
] users after the Internet's oversight body threatened to
] take legal action against the company.

Woohoo!

VeriSign Freezes Search Service (TechNews.com)

Museum security guards stood by nervously Thursday as curators -- joking they hoped the gem's storied curse wouldn't rub off -- allowed a reporter and photographer to hold the diamond briefly after it was removed from its case for scientific study.

What does it feel like to hold such a priceless gem, one of the most famed in the world?

The first thought that comes to mind is "Wow!"

It's like holding a bit of ancient India, the French Revolution, Georgian England and Gilded Age America in one magnificent moment.
You cradle the 45.5-carat stone -- heavier than its translucence makes it appear -- turning it from side to side as the light flashes from its facets, knowing it's the hardest natural material yet fearful of dropping it.

Once part of the French crown jewels, the fabled gem is now the star of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. It normally resides in a special protective display case in a secure room.

For the testing it was taken to a museum laboratory, reachable down winding corridors and through three locked doors. It was only the second time in 20 years the Hope has been removed from its necklace setting, where it is surrounded by bright clear diamonds that intensify its blue color.

National Gem Collection Curator Jeffrey Post ordered the lights turned off and focused an ultraviolet beam on the Hope Diamond. Then he switched off the beam and, in pitch dark, the diamond glowed bright orange-amber.

It's that strong color, which lasts for several seconds after the diamond is exposed to ultraviolet light, that intrigues scientists. What causes the gem to fluoresce remains a mystery. Post speculates it's related to chemical impurities that give it that blue color.

But the Hope Diamond has inspired legends over the years and some may prefer those to sheer science.

Some say, for instance, that the glowing color reflects the blood of royalty spilled in the French Revolution and the trail of bad luck said to have followed the stone over many years -- including the bankruptcy of the Hope family for whom it is named and the death of the young son of later owner Evalyn McLean.

Hope Diamond glows with mystery

Decius wrote:
] ] Yet another Network Solutions/Verisign deception plot at
] ] work. My company has a number of names (unfortunately)
] ] registered with Verisign. So we moved one of them about
] ] gosh, the beginning of August.
] ]
] ] So guess what we get in the email this morning? A dunning
] notice
] ] for *not paying* for our domain registration. And an offer
] to reclaim
] ] the domin before "it becomes available to the general
] public".
]
] These guys were sanctioned for this days ago! Four options:
]
] 1. Verisign has decided that they are beyond reproach.
] 2. Verisign has been sniffing glue.
] 3. Someone is framing Verisign.
] 4. My computer is controlled by trolls from the underworld.

I choose 5: all of the above:) - Nano

RE: Verisign back in the fraud?!

inignoct wrote:
] ] The aim of the Molecular Media Project is to use cells
] ] and atoms to perform useful computational tasks at
] ] the micron (10-6m) and/or nanoscales (10-9m) of
] ] organisation. The Molecular Media Project is
] ] principally concerned with exploiting polymer and
] ] colloidal nano-agglomeration or biotechnology for
] ] new media applications. Digital data in the form of (i)
] ] still image, (ii) text, (iii) motion pictures and (iv)
] ] sound have all been modified at the micro/nanoscale.
] ] This research overlaps chemistry, physics,
] ] microbiology, computer science, mathematics, performance
] ] art and design.
]
] Cause glitches with yeast. What a concept.

cool!

RE: Molecular Media Project

crankymessiah wrote:
] ] Since the earliest research into the the English Language
] ] as spoken in North America was begun by Noah Webster in
] ] the early 18th century, the regional variations in
] ] dialect have always been the most challenging and
] ] difficult to explain field. Since the development of
] ] carbonated beverage in 1886, one of linguistic
] ] geography's most important and least investigated
] ] phenomena has been the sharp regional divisions in the
] ] use of the terms "pop" and "soda." Due to the domination
] ] of hard-line conservative lingusitic geographers in such
] ] leading institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford and
] ] the University of the West Indies, this dilemma has been
] ] swept under the rug . . . until now. Using the new
] ] technologies of the Internet and the World Wide Web, I
] ] and my colleagues at the California Institute of
] ] Technology and Lewis & Clark College are undertaking a
] ] bold new research into this fascinating area.
]
] Great maps to go along with this.

RE: The Pop vs. Soda Page

Fukuyama argues that the United States, like Japan and Germany, has been a high-trust society historically but that this status has eroded in recent years. This well-researched book provides a fresh, new perspective on how economic prosperity is grounded in social life.

Trust: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order

cool

Antibiotic Laced Nanoballs Could Improve Infection Treatment