Stuart Lindsay and his collaborators use genetic material to bridge the gap between a scanning tunnelling microscope and a sample of interest.

As the tip scans along the surface, the genetic material either bonds or ignores the underlying genetic material - leading to a varying tunnelling current. The resulting image reveals the identity of the DNA sample under inspection.

Quantum physics could come to the aid of medical science as a new technique for identifying DNA utilizes the quantum effect of tunnelling. The method, developed by physicists in the US, will enable users to read genetic codes directly by studying DNA with ...<< MORE >>

This had already been posted back in September 2007 and as it did attract tremendous interest I'm happy to give it a makeover with more detail ! 

For those who do not often change things on a UHV vacuum system, here's some tips if you need to mount a viewport. First, never use a viewport that appears to be, or is known to be damaged. A replacement viewport costs far less than repairing a system that has been subject of an implosion caused by a faulty viewport.
                                                                                           
SAFETY
Pressure differentials: Kodial VPZ viewports are designed to withstand 1 Bar differential pressure. Other standard ...<< MORE >>

Back in the mid eighties, as workstations had become the norm, we all had dreams of a paperless world; for me it was a dream that never hatched! My desk was permanently ornamented with thick computer printouts of marketing statistics and, more often than not, I never really found the time to plunge into the hundreds of Z-folds and make proper use of the data! 

Three decades later it can be argued if we've doubled, tripled or even quadrupled the amount of paper in the office environment!

Just over a year ago we reassessed the costs of our printed promotional material with as objective to drastically cut costs. We adopted a permission-based software application ...<< MORE >>

"The cosmic theatre has outgrown the Newtonian stage, and we need a larger setting to understand the broader cosmic drama. Instead of a vision of isolated bodies turning gear-like in a vacuum, we need a vision of electrical circuits embedded in a conducting medium whose components drive each other and may be in resonance. We have left the familiar world of solids, liquids and gases. We have entered a world of plasma, where the rules are different and more complex. We now live in an Electric Universe."

You've understood it, this is controversial material - so intrinsically stimulative to ...<< MORE >>

Science informs us that microbes were the first inhabitants of Earth. These are single-celled organisms which we commonly call bacteria, fungi and protozoa. Microbes are still found everywhere today, in boiling hot thermal springs, as well as deep below the surface of the Antarctic, and even high in the atmosphere.

Microbes decompose the waste products of other living things, creating nutrients. They are also used to make beer, bread, and yogurt. Did I hear you say...yak!?

Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago. No one knows for a fact when or how life began. The final, most important events leading to the beginning of life are possibly the least ...<< MORE >>

Posted by Xavier at December 7, 2007 9:41 AM | Add Comment