Q. What has China Southern Airlines promised to the scientist who develops a SARS vaccine?

A. China Southern Airlines announced that any scientist who discovers a vaccine for SARS will earn the honorary title of "China Southern Airlines Most Respected Passenger" and will receive free flights on the airline for the rest of his or her life.

Rock.....fly free forever....

] In the first study of its kind, researchers led by Bali
] Pulendran, PhD, at the Emory Vaccine Center and the
] Yerkes National Primate Research Center have shown
] anthrax lethal factor (LF) impairs the function of
] dendritic cells and thereby compromises the immune
] system%u2019s ability to fight the microbe. The findings,
] which appear in the July 17 issue of Nature, have
] implications for developing more effective anthrax
] therapies and guiding researchers in better controlling
] detrimental immune responses, such as in autoimmune
] diseases and organ rejection following transplant
] surgeries.

Emory Researchers Discover Novel Mechanism Of How Anthrax Impairs Immunity

Greenpeace report on Nanotech

Greenpeace report on Nanotech

" LIKE ICE CREAM FROM TRITON
[1] Besides the liquid nitrogen, no special ingredients were used in this experiment. [2] The non-cryogenic ingredients were combined in a mixing bowl. [3] The nitrogen was added a cup at a time. Note the use of heavy cryo gloves—this was not an occasion for oven mitts. [4] The concoction was stirred thoroughly and continuously to keep an unbreakable crust from forming. [5] The ice cream was ready to eat when smooth and free of lumps."

Any recipe with liquid nitrogen has to be good

[A chem prof at MTSU made this for one of his class once....my friend Leah said it was the best ice cream she had ever had - Nano]

Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream

] Dubbed the Intelligent Pill or iPill, the new
] drug-delivery system packs a micropump and sensors that
] monitor the body's temperature and pH balance into one
] pill. If the body's temperature and pH reach certain
] levels, the iPill responds by pumping out more or less of
] its drug payload.

Wired News: Diagnosis and Medicine in a Pill

] The network of brain cells, located in Professor Steve
] Potters lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology
] in Atlanta, and the mechanical arm, located in the lab of
] Guy Ben-Ary at the University of Western Australia in
] Perth, interact in real-time through a data exchange
] system via an Internet connection between the robot and
] the brain cells.

Researchers Use Lab Cultures to Create Robotic ‘Semi-Living Artist’

Decius wrote:
] ] The key ingredient in Subramanian's organic circuits
] ] is "liquid gold." Synthesized in his
] ] laboratory, liquid gold consists of gold nanocrystals
] ] that are only 20 atoms across and melt at 100 degrees
] ] Celsius, 10 times lower than normal.
] ]
] ] The gold nanocrystals are encapsulated in an organic
] ] shell of an alkanethiol (an organic molecule containing
] ] carbon, hydrogen and sulphur) and dissolved in ink. As
] ] the circuit is printed on plastic, paper or cloth using
] ] inkjet technology, the organic encapsulant is burned off,
] ] leaving the gold as a high-quality conductor.
]
] This is an interesting approach. I wonder if it can be
] expanded to other kinds of molecules. Basically, encase the
] molecules you really want inside of a something like a bucky
] ball, but which is easy to manipulate, and easy to destroy.
] Then you build a general purpose acutator for positioning the
] bucky balls. One you've layed out the balls where you want
] them, you either burn them off, or destroy them chemically,
] revealing the molecules you really want, which, being next to
] eachother will bond.... This is the sort of abstration layer
] that nanotech needs.
]
] Thoughts from people with more chemisty knowledge?

Interesting idea Tom.....it would depend on what molecules you were using. Once the vector (in your example, a bucky ball kind of substance) was destroyed, the normal chemical properties of the molecules would be revealed. If two molecules that normally can't interact with each other were coated in some sort of plastic or bucky ball, and they were able to then be moved close together, they would still not form a bond once the vector was destroyed unless their original chemical properties changed somehow so that they could interact. It all comes down to charges and electron shells when it comes to bonding. As well, some molecules are just too bulky to be able to bond well....so getting molecules closer to each other using some sort of medium wouldn't help that. But in cases like this article mentions, it would work...just as long as the molecules can bond, then using a vector to get them in a certain shape before they bond should work.

RE: Small Times: News about MEMS, Nanotechnology and Microsystems

] This reminds me of a series of conversations I had a few
] years ago with a hotshot mo-bio professor, about the
] national-security implications of bio-attacks versus
] cyber-attacks. I started out convinced that the
] cyber-attack threat, while real, was overstated; but
] bio-attacks terrified me. He had the converse view, that
] bio-attacks were possible but overhyped, while
] cyber-attacks were the real nightmare scenario. Each of
] us tried to reassure the other that really large-scale
] malicious attacks of the type we knew best (cyber- for
] me, bio- for him) were harder to carry out, and less
] likely, than commonly believed.

Freedom to Tinker: Why Aren't Virus Attacks Worse?

] "When Iraq broadcast photos of dead American soldiers,
] the U.S. considered that against human rights," Jordanian
] political analyst Sahar al-Qassem said. "So, why are they
] violating that now by showing such inhumane pictures?"

I strongly agree with this position. Although I am sympathetic to the position that hiding the public from the realities of war has as much to do with desensitizing them as it does with respecting the families of the dead, if we are to take the position that it is morally inappropriate to show pictures like this, and we absolutely have taken this position, then to turn around and do so is an abomination. We are obviously violating our own moral platitudes. I am extremely disappointed.

Don't be fooled by explanations that there are "strategic" reasons for this; that people in Iraq need evidence that the "tyrants have been deposed." The Iraqi military had "strategic" reasons for showing the pictures that they showed: that people in Iraq need evidence that American soldiers can be defeated. The POINT of a moral platitude is that it overshadows strategic interests.

If they wanted to prove that these men were dead they could have found another way. Publish the dental xrays. It would be just as open to scepticism as these pictures have been.

Yesterday, if speaking honestly, I'd have told you I was on the fence about the administration. I don't like the way they've been going about things, but I understand the strategy, and it does appear to be working, and you have to give them credit for that.

However, this kind of blatent moral hyprocracy is beyond the pale. If you don't stand behind your own moral platitudes, then what IS it that separates you from the terrorists? Nothing at all.

I'm going to vote for the most promising opposing candidate in the election.

[ I agree with Decius. I remember the outrage and disgust I felt when I saw the pictures of dead American soldiers on that website, and I don't understand why we have "stooped to that level" so to speak. All strategy aside, this is hypocracy. - Nano]

U.S. violates is own moral platitude

] ATHF is an animated television masterpiece that
] captures the day to day lives of three fast food
] (literally...) detectives and follows them through
] their misadventures as they try and solve the
] hilarious mysteries presented to them in Southern
] New Jersey. 

This show kicks ass....its hilarious. Check it out.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force