Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Experts say many people fail to appreciate lethal threat posed by binge drinking

Robot Fly Trap A professor at the University of Maine has made a robot version of a plant that in some ways is a robot all by itself...the Venus Fly Trap. The diminutive fly-grabber is partly made of a nanomaterial called ionic polymeric metal composite, which acts to replicate the tiny sensitive hairs inside a real trap that send a signal to the closing mechanism when stimulated by a fly landing inside--in this case the nanomaterial, when flexed, sends a tiny electrical signal through an amplifier to the two "leaves" of the trap, made out of the same material. When the bigger signal hits the leaves, they flex in reaction...and trap the fly.

Designer contact lenses are not one-size-fits all, FDA warned

When I started writing a blog to support my book, Talk Normal: Stop the Business Speak, Jargon and Waffle , I had an inkling that many of the words I loathed were common in the offices where I was working. But this could be an illusion: Once we’re bothered by something, we tend to notice it more.

The recent Nature paper from Jef Boeke’s group , “ Synthetic chromosome arms function in yeast and generate phenotypic diversity by design ,” begins with an appropriately futuristic sentence: “The first phase of any genome engineering project is design.” While there have been efforts to redesign viral genomes and chemically synthesize bacterial genomes , whole genomes of living cells are not yet something that can readily be designed from scratch. This new paper (excellently reviewed by Lab Rat a while back) approaches the design of genomes in a fascinating way; instead of trying to decide in advance what a good engineered/engineerable genome looks like or simply copying an existing genome, they designed the sequence of one arm of a yeast chromosome (about 90,000 base pairs) with built-in genetic flexibility, enabling future experiments and future evolution. [More]

Candy from a stranger? That's the least of worries for trick-or-treaters and their parents

84% of Realtors are currently using social media. Century 21 is leveraging Facebook to turn those conversations into sales

Are humans the only species with enough smarts to craft a language? Most of us believe that we are. Although many animals have their own form of communication, none has the depth or versatility heard in human speech.

The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott: Unseen Images from the Legendary Antarctic Expedition by David M. Wilson.

Panel considering whether to test now - or administer untested vaccine later in event of bioterror attack

Imagine K12 is a new Palo Alto incubator birthing only education startups.

Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man by Mark Changizi. BenBella Books, 2011 [More]

Forty-seven percent of Americans have firearm on property, Gallup poll showed

Poll shows more Americans have firearms now. But where are firearm-related fatalities most common?

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