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Phoenix666 writes:

Researchers face a fundamental challenge as they seek to scale up human tissue regeneration from small lab samples to full-size tissues, bones, even whole organs to implant in people to treat disease or traumatic injuries: how to establish a vascular system that delivers blood deep into the developing tissue.

Current bioengineering techniques, including 3-D printing, can't fabricate the branching network of blood vessels down to the capillary scale that are required to deliver the oxygen, nutrients and essential molecules required for proper tissue growth. To solve this problem, a multidisciplinary research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Arkansas State University-Jonesboro have successfully turned to plants.
...
"Plants and animals exploit fundamentally different approaches to transporting fluids, chemicals and macromolecules, yet there are surprising similarities in their vascular network structures," the authors wrote. "The development of decellularized plants for scaffolding opens up the potential for a new branch of science that investigates the mimicry between plant and animal."

In a series of experiments, the team cultured beating human heart cells on spinach leaves that were stripped of plant cells. They flowed fluids and microbeads similar in size to human blood cells through the spinach vasculature, and they seeded the spinach veins with human cells that line blood vessels. These proof-of-concept studies open the door to using multiple spinach leaves to grow layers of healthy heart muscle to treat heart attack patients.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Imagine a liquid that could move on its own. No need for human effort or the pull of gravity. You could put it in a container flat on a table, not touch it in any way, and it would still flow.

Brandeis researchers report in a new article in Science that they have taken the first step in creating a self-propelling liquid. The finding holds out the promise of developing an entirely new class of fluids that can flow without human or mechanical effort. One possible real-world application: Oil might be able to move through a pipeline without needing to be pumped.

The researchers work at Brandeis' Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), part of a National Science Foundation initiative to create a revolutionary new class of materials and machines made from biological components.

The breakthrough reported in the journal Science was achieved by reproducing in the lab the incredibly complex series of processes that allow cells to change shape and adapt to their environment. Cells can do this because the building blocks of its scaffolding—hollow cylindrical tubes called microtubules—are capable of self-transformation. The microtubules grow, shrink, bend and stretch, altering the cell's underlying structure.

They invented the Blob. Can't decide if that's creepy or cool...

Transition from turbulent to coherent flows in confined three-dimensional active fluids (DOI: 10.1126/science.aal1979) (DX)

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Anonymous Cowarder writes:

The Senate just voted to undo landmark rules covering your Internet privacy

U.S. senators voted 50 to 48 to approve a joint resolution from Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) that would prevent the Federal Communications Commission's privacy rules from going into effect. The resolution also would bar the FCC from ever enacting similar consumer protections. It now heads to the House.

takyon: Also at NPR, The Hill, Reuters, Ars Technica, and EFF.

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Phoenix666 writes:

IT researchers break anonymity of gene databases

DNA profiles can reveal a number of details about individuals, and even about their family members. There are laws in place that regulate the trade of gene data, which has become much simpler and cheaper to analyze today. However, these laws do not apply to an equally relevant type of genetic data, so-called microRNAs, even though these can also point to serious diseases. This means that anonymity needs to be strictly maintained in microRNA studies as well. Researchers from the Research Center for IT Security, CISPA, have now been able to show that a few microRNA molecules are sufficient to draw conclusions about study participants. The computer scientists will be presenting their means of attack, and appropriate countermeasures, at the Cebit computer fair in Hannover (Hall 6, Stand C47).

"Ever since American scientists successfully attacked a study in 2008, where just parts of the DNA were enough to identify participants, researchers have been debating if, and in what detail, we should be permitted to publish gene data," says Michael Backes, who is professor for Cryptography and IT Security at Saarland University, and the scientific director of the Competence Center for IT security, CISPA. "Luckily we don't have that problem in Germany, that health insurance companies can ask for more money from someone who is sick," says Pascal Berrang, who is researching aspects of data privacy in genetic data as part of his doctoral studies at CISPA. This is different in the United States, for instance, where there is already a flourishing trade in health data. Not even medical studies are safe, says Berrang.

The researchers from Saarbrücken, together with their colleagues Mathias Humbert and Praveen Manoharan, focused on analyzing data security issues for a specific kind of gene information, one that is now commonly used in medical research: microRNAs. These short molecules of ribonucleic acid have recently gained importance as new forms of biomarkers – biological identifiers that clearly indicate a patient's general health condition, or the presence of certain diseases, to physicians and researchers. MicroRNAs can therefore divulge even more details about a patient's condition than conventional DNA analysis, since the latter only yields the probability of the patient developing the disease in question. This aspect of microRNA analysis makes the Saarbrücken computer scientists' findings even more significant. Using two different attack techniques, they were able to break the anonymity of the test subjects in a microRNA study. "If the results were published, and a health insurance fund knew the microRNA profile of one of its members, it could deduce whether that patient was part of the study, and pinpoint individual diseases," Pascal Berrang says; that would be more than enough information.

Even if they know every bit of your DNA, can they really know who you are?

takyon: Article in German at Saarland University. Related PDF at arXiv.

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Fnord666 writes:

Most website visits these days entail a database query—to look up airline flights, for example, or to find the fastest driving route between two addresses.

But online database queries can reveal a surprising amount of information about the people making them. And some travel sites have been known to jack up the prices on flights whose routes are drawing an unusually high volume of queries.

At the USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation next week, researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Stanford University will present a new encryption system that disguises users' database queries so that they reveal no private information.

The system is called Splinter because it splits a query up and distributes it across copies of the same database on multiple servers. The servers return results that make sense only when recombined according to a procedure that the user alone knows. As long as at least one of the servers can be trusted, it's impossible for anyone other than the user to determine what query the servers executed.

"The canonical example behind this line of work was public patent databases," says Frank Wang, an MIT graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science and first author on the conference paper. "When people were searching for certain kinds of patents, they gave away the research they were working on. Stock prices is another example: A lot of the time, when you search for stock quotes, it gives away information about what stocks you're going to buy. Another example is maps: When you're searching for where you are and where you're going to go, it reveals a wealth of information about you."

Source: https://phys.org/news/2017-03-web-users-privacy.html

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Siberian Times states that thousands of bulging methane gas bubbles have been located in Siberia. These are thought to explode to form the giant craters found in the area. Scientist say it's thawing permafrost releasing methane caused by elevated temperatures. Article contains amazing pictures.

Similar observations have been made around the Arctic regions. This is a cause for concern as methane is a potent greenhouse gas creating a positive feedback loop; there is potential for a chain reaction.

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takyon writes:

NASA will operate aboard the International Space Station (ISS) until 2024, but there is no consensus on what do after that year. There is some talk of commercializing the station (and a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module is already attached to the ISS):

The United States' ability to send astronauts to Mars in the mid-2030s depends in part on cutting back or ending government funding for the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024, the head of a congressional subcommittee that oversees NASA said Wednesday (March 22). "We ought to be aware that remaining on the ISS [after 2024] will come at a cost," U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Space, said during a hearing about options and impacts for station operations beyond 2024. "Tax dollars spent on the ISS will not be spent on destinations beyond low Earth orbit, including the moon and Mars," Babin said. "What opportunities will we miss if we maintain the status quo?"

[...] [NASA Associate Administrator Bill] Gerstenmaier, who oversees NASA's human exploration programs, urged Congress to plan a smooth transition from the station to beyond-low-Earth-orbit initiatives, with an eye on preserving U.S. leadership in space, especially with China planning to launch a new space station in 2023. [...] Mary Lynne Dittmar, executive director of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration advocacy group, warned that ending the U.S.' efforts at the station too early could nix budding commercial space companies, some of which might eventually support the station's continued operation as a commercial outpost. "Applications with strong market potential are emerging," Dittmar said. "Abandoning the ISS too soon will most certainly guarantee failure."

[...] While Congress ponders the station's future, NASA should expand its partnerships with private companies, urged Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a Washington, D.C.-based industry association. "The NASA investment[s] in these partnerships are already paying huge dividends," Stallmer said. For example, by partnering with private companies, NASA has been able to cut its costs to fly cargo — and, soon, crew — to the station, compared with what it spent to operate its own fleet of space shuttles, which cost about $500 million per mission to fly.

Also at The Verge.

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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The Los Angeles Times reports

An estimated 17,000 AT&T technicians in California and Nevada went on strike [March 22], highlighting workplace tensions within the massive Dallas telecommunications giant.

The strike follows a protracted dispute between AT&T and union members affiliated with the Communications Workers of America [CWA], District 9, who have been working without a contract for nearly a year. Workers say they have been increasingly asked to perform the duties of higher-paid employees and that AT&T has cut sick leave and disability benefits and required them to pay more for their healthcare.

Another sticking point is AT&T's closure of U.S. call centers, including a facility near Anaheim. The union contends that AT&T has moved 8,000 call center jobs in recent years to the Philippines, Mexico, and other countries.

[...] "We're currently negotiating with the union in a good-faith effort to reach a fair labor agreement covering wireline employees" in California and Nevada, [said AT&T spokesman Marty Richter]. "We've reached 28 fair labor agreements since 2015, collectively covering nearly 123,000 employees."

AT&T said it has hired 20,000 people into union-represented jobs in 2016 and has more than 4,200 other union job openings.

"We're a union-friendly company, with more full-time, union-represented employees than any company in America", Richter said. "We're the only major wireless company with a unionized workforce."

Union officials said Wednesday's walkout, which began at 6 a.m., was triggered by AT&T's demand that technicians who typically install and maintain the company's U-Verse TV service also work on the cables and hardware for landline phone service (AT&T's wireless division is not affected by the action).

"We are hoping to reach an agreement settlement with the company", said Shelia Bordeaux, a member of the executive board of the CWA Local 9003 in Los Angeles. "They are unilaterally and continually changing the job duties of our premise technicians to do a higher-wage job at a lower rate of pay."

The two sides have been trying to negotiate a new contract to replace the one that expired in April 2016. Bordeaux said Wednesday's strike was to resolve the issue of job duties for the premise technicians, and only included landline workers who belong to the CWA in California and Nevada.

In addition to Los Angeles, workers were striking in San Diego and San Francisco.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Researchers are already working to create smart skin that embeds sensors that mimic the tactile feedback of human skin, making it possible for amputees to feel pressure, temperature and even dampness. But how to power the futuristic material?

A team from the University of Glasgow in the UK has come up with a version that harnesses the sun's rays. Because it produces its own energy from a natural source, the engineers say, the electronic skin would operate longer than similar materials powered by batteries or tethered to a power source that would also limit portability, clearly a key feature of any everyday prosthetic or touch-sensitive robot on the go.

The team of engineers attached a layer of power-generating photovoltaic cells to the back of a sensor-laden prosthetic hand. The sensors are made from graphene, a flexible material that's stronger than steel, electrically conductive and transparent.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Looks like a fun weekend project:

This post is to shows how to exchange arbitrary data between an Android phone and an NFC reader application. To make things a bit more interesting, we'll tunnel an HTTP download over NFC. The Android app provides a URL which the terminal (we assume it's connected to the Internet) will download and send back to the app.

Specifically, this post will show how to build:

• An Android app that uses NFC with Host Card Emulation to perform bidirectional communication with an NFC reader application.
• A simple NFC reader application based on libnfc and libcurl.

Full sample code for this post is available at https://github.com/classycodeoss/android-nfc-http-tunnel.

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Fnord666 writes:

LastPass patched three separate bugs that affected its Chrome and Firefox browser extensions, which if exploited, would have allowed a third-party to extract passwords from users visiting a malicious website.

All bugs were discovered by Tavis Ormandy, a security researcher working for Google's Project Zero.

One bug affected the LastPass for Chrome extension, while the other two affected the company's Firefox add-on.

The vulnerability affecting the LastPass Chrome extension can be exploited by attacking an intermediary JS script that stands between the user's browser and the LastPass cloud service, where the company stores user passwords.

"It's possible to proxy untrusted messages to LastPass 4.1.42 due to a bug, allowing websites to access internal privileged RPCs (Remote Procedure Calls). " Ormandy explained. "There are a lot of RPCs, allowing complete control of the LastPass extension, including stealing passwords. If you have the 'Binary Component' installed, this even allows arbitrary code execution."

The second and third bugs Ormandy discovered affect the LastPass Firefox add-on version 3.3.2 only. LastPass told Ormandy that version 3.3.2 is their most popular version.

Despite this, two weeks ago, LastPass announced they were retiring the LastPass Firefox add-on v3.3.2 because of Firefox's future plans to drop the old Add-ons API and move to a new system they call WebExtensions. The LastPass Chrome and Firefox extensions don't use the same version numbers, and the v3 on Firefox is the stable branch.

Just like the Chrome extension issue, the exploitation vector for these two issues is malicious JavaScript code that can be hidden in any online website, owned by the attacker or via a compromised legitimate site.

Source: BleepingComputer

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takyon writes:

The only diary known to be written by President John F. Kennedy is up for auction on April 26th:

A diary kept by President John F Kennedy as a young man travelling in Europe, revealing his fascination with Adolf Hitler, is up for auction. Kennedy, then 28, predicted "Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of the most significant figures who ever lived". "He had in him the stuff of which legends are made," he continued.

Kennedy wrote the entry in the summer of 1945 after touring the German dictator's Bavarian mountain retreat. It is thought by historians to be the only diary [ever] kept by the 35th US president.

[...] He wrote that Hitler "had boundless ambition for his country which rendered him a menace to the peace of the world, but he had a mystery about him in the way he lived and in the manner of his death that will live and grow after him". The 61-page diary was kept by Kennedy around four months after Hitler committed suicide. [...] In a description of the auction, [Deirdre Henderson] wrote: "When JFK said that Hitler 'had in him the stuff of which legends are made', he was speaking to the mystery surrounding him, not the evil he demonstrated to the world."

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takyon writes:

Scientists claim to have reversed some aspects of aging in mice by using a modified FOXO4-p53 interfering peptide:

A drug that can reverse aspects of ageing has been successfully trialled in animals, say scientists. They have rejuvenated old mice to restore their stamina, coat of fur and even some organ function. The team at Erasmus University Medical Center, in the Netherlands, are planning human trials for what they hope is a treatment for old age. A UK scientist said the findings were "impossible to dismiss", but that unanswered questions remained.

The approach works by flushing out retired or "senescent" cells in the body that have stopped dividing. They accumulate naturally with age and have a role in wound healing and stopping tumours. But while they appear to just sit there, senescent cells release chemicals that cause inflammation and have been implicated in ageing. The group of scientists created a drug that selectively killed senescent cells by disrupting the chemical balance within them. "I got very rebellious, people insisted I was crazy for trying and for the first three times they were right," Dr Peter de Keizer told the BBC.

Also at Science Magazine and NBF.

Phoenix666 writes:

The device, named the Clutch Crutch, attaches to the user's upper thigh and straps around the foot and ankle to provide hands-free support. The device could be used for injuries such as a sprained or broken ankle, an Achilles tear, fractured or broken tibia or fractured or broken foot. In addition to Sadural, co-inventors are Brett Adams, Andrew Fan, Jeffrey Cargill, Sameer Saiya and Junyan Lim, all graduates of Purdue's School of Mechanical Engineering.

"The Clutch Crutch provides great ergonomic and natural movement while keeping pressure away from the injured part of the leg. It also allows the user to retain upper leg strength and knee joint movement," Adams said. "The device is adjustable for different heights and has a gas spring that absorbs shock so there is no immediate force on the leg. These features combined provide a more effective gait for the user."

[...] "We included memory foam cushioning pads under the quad and on the foot holder so there is minimal user discomfort," he said. "The Clutch Crutch is very modular, allowing users to go on different terrain such as flat ground, cement, grass and things like stairs. This device is designed to fit varying heights, weights, shapes and lifestyles."

The Clutch Crutch could also become a 'smart' device with the addition of sensors and an app, Fan said.

A video of the Clutch Crutch in use is available on YouTube.

Makes the wearer look like one of those calves born with extra legs. Is there a better way?

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Phoenix666 writes:

In a vulnerable forest in southeastern Brazil, where the air was once thick with the guttural chatter of brown howler monkeys, there now exists silence.

Yellow fever, a virus carried by mosquitoes and endemic to Africa and South America, has robbed the private, federally-protected reserve of its brown howlers in an unprecedented wave of death that has swept through the region since late 2016, killing thousands of monkeys.

Karen Strier, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of anthropology, has studied the monkeys of this forest since 1983. She visited the reserve -- her long-term study site near the city of Caratinga -- in the state of Minas Gerais, in January of 2017. "It was just silence, a sense of emptiness," she says. "It was like the energy was sucked out of the universe."

Using what in some cases are decades of historical data, Strier and a team of Brazilian scientists focused on studying primates in Brazil's patchwork Atlantic Forest are poised to help understand and manage what happens next. They have never seen monkeys perish in such numbers, so quickly, from disease.

[...] The way yellow fever has spread also concerns Brazilian health officials. As of mid-March 2017, they have confirmed more than 400 human cases of the disease, mostly in Minas Gerais, causing nearly 150 human deaths. The Brazilian Ministry of Health is investigating another 900 possible cases and concern is mounting that it will spread to cities, threatening many more people.

Paging Doctor Dolittle...

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