Slashdot Mirror
Algae Can Carry Cargo
Steve Nixon writes "Recently, a team of scientists devised a way to make single-celled algae bear loads over distances of several centimeters--a tactic that the researchers say could prove useful in tiny machines. Algae and other single-celled organisms power their movements with molecular motors. 'Scientists have long coveted these motors for use in micromachinery,' notes chemist Douglas B. Weibel of Harvard University.
Microscopic DNA robots will be delivering sublime advertising messages. The whole concept would be of course garbage since you wouldn't be able to see them anyway, but it wouldn't stop the bastards convincing potential investors in spamming you. You know who am I talking about, the shady 4.22% :)
Cute little bastards, lugging cargo around.
and go on strike. Can't you just see the little picket signs circling around the pond?
And stoners can again get pizza and Mountain Dew delivered directly to their sofa by this tireless algae crew (better than the old slime molds that used to do the job!)
Please tell a geek deeply rooted in electrical and software systems, why this is helpful and why it couldnt be replaced with a simpler solution...
;)
Maybe teach them to clean keyboards?
I'm getting married Sept 17th and will need help moving furniture and boxes of geek books...
my geeklog
The manufacturing facility for more cargo carriers is a vat with some nutrients and sunlight. What's your simpler assembly line look like?
... but can you get a teensy, tiny corporate logo on their sides?
Dog is my co-pilot.
Has anyone tried this with ants? Ants are known to be capable of carrying several times their own weight (witness the dead insects they cart around). Now I wonder, would a trail of sugar do...?
I, for one, welcome our new cargo-carrying slaves.
But the real question is if they can make tiny pyramids.
It's research which might lead to something more useful than carrying bits of plastic around. Well, transistors weren't used in microprocessors on day one.
Old and busted: TCP/IP
New Hotness: TCP Over Algae!
unless they get a strong union like the Teamsters.
....
Just imagine a picket line of these guys
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
the part i dont find simple is attaching the cargo to these carriers and tracking it. Much less what the hell would be useful enough to put on algae, and then furthermore, something that small that needs to be carried a FEW CENTIMETERS?! i dont see...
new meaning to red tide!
Bacterial motors? Micromachinery? It sounds like they're doing William Dembski's research for him!
Maybe, but it's only a matter of time before Balco reps meet algae at the lab and give them "the cream." Wait til algae get buff on 'roids... watch what they can carry then.
Ignorance is not a crime; neither should it be a way of life
Congress control $ = inmates run the asylum
I may be misunderstood. I dont mean a simpler process of producing crap-carrying-algae my friend. I mean a simpler process of moving crap a few meters. For example if you can even find anything that small worth moving a FEW CENTIMETERS, why not use oh i dunno...
degradable capsules (like medicine pills), injection, air propellant, liquid propellant, heck even a soft nudge.
They for one welcome their new light emitting, load passing overlords.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
with the contents of my shower.
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
There is an interview with chemist George Whitesides, one of the authors of the paper in question, at sciencefriday.com for those interested.
Dowload the show http://www.sciencefriday.com/ or the podcast on date 8-19 with George Whitesides. He is the administrative lead of the project and he talks about other interesting things besides Algae toting around loads.
-FlynnMP3
PETA = People for the Ethical Treatment of Algae
There could be a number of sitiuations where algae might work better. Example, maybe you have a target thats covered with a glass/plexiglass/translucent-plastic plate on one side that you don't want to break (no simply injecting your payload into). It might not be a direct shot to the target area, so that air or liquid propellant might have it land in the wrong place. You could however shine a light on the right spot and have the algae swim around until it found it. I'm sure folks can think of others.
Recently, a team of scientists devised a way to make single-celled algae bear loads over distances of several centimeters
With this kind of gas prices any help we get will be appreciated. Thanks Algae. I have a request, Could you please carry me and my car to the work everyday?
Yeah, but can they carry Linux?
Dance Dance Revolution.
...Algae?"
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
I slipped and wrenched my back this morning, so I've taken some pain medication, but the first thing that popped into my head when i saw the headline was a vast raft of algae carrying standard size shipping containers across the ocean. I must be in pretty bad shape.
just don't tell Plankton
or we'll have another stoner SpongeBob SquarePants movie on our hands
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
a cluster of these... :)
Mush there! Mush you... mushies?
Let's see, perhaps redundancy, control, absolute size, ability to metabolize their own fuel from readily-available materials.
But what makes you think algae aren't the simplest process? If evolution is even somewhat true, algae would have long ago become a more efficient self-contained carrier than we could economically muster.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
...gone to far...
I think We have bigger concerns today... like the price of gas to move alot more in a day than algie ever will.
What's an algae bear? Is this one of those UK things? Like a 'loo' is really a toilet? Is an 'algae bear' a goatee or something?
Imagin the prospect of alge cell organisms moving under tiny motors on top of a water's surface. Then close both of your eyes and see THE FUTURE.
I suggest you read Slashdot
Greencasting.
(looking into a microscope...)
...
Ah, yes - there goes a 1, a 1, a 0, another 0, a 1, a 0
A bit slow on the bandwidth, but your software is environmentally friendly!
Betting at all the usual places.
Relax, dude, nobody moved your cheese. It just got moldy, and then it was like "hey, there's more sunlight overe there", and it crawled over by the window.
I may twist orthodoxy to partly justify a tyrant. But I can easily make up a German philosophy to justify him entirely.
What's an algae bear? Is this one of those UK things? Like a 'loo' is really a toilet? Is an 'algae bear' a goatse or something? ps. pretend this was anonymous... slashdot dosent' like my subnet anymore...
Gravity Sucks
To be honest, this particular piece of research is almost a footnote in his career. Most of the things he does will never end up in something the average person ever comes into contact with, but the salient ideas will change the landscape of technology 20 years down the road. If you're at all interested in nanoscience, this is a guy to watch.
I've seen this exact same effect years ago with small children and CrazyGlue.
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Can they reach low Earth orbit?
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
we could teraform any world!
What happens when they demand reparations? Each individually won't want much but together? Watch out!
Go down to the shoreline and step on an inclined algae-covered rock.
I asure you that they'll bear your load a lot further than a few centimeters. (Although getting your ass to the emergency room afterward is your problem)
I can't wait for a beowulf cluster of these!
Sweet, my first ./ meme!
This sounds like the perfect way to make a space elevator
...
anybody know where can i buy algae by the kilometer?
I just found the box to change my sig. Um.... [timeless witticism].
Could you please carry me and my car to the work everyday?
Here you go.
Middle-age has not been kind.
... being a well-known ball of slime, could be useful in organizing the algae to toil in your underground sugar caves.
this is just so cruel.
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
I can see their slogan alread: LIQUIDARITY!
eukaryote!
Bring me food, minions!
"Bob, we've got some bad news for you. You're being replaced at the factory."
"What! %$^&#, it's outsourcing, isn't it. Or you've brought cheap labor from some country, didn't you!"
"Actually, no. You're being replaced with algae. Don't you read Slashdot?"
"........?"
Don't post in typerighter font! Its annoying!
"When the cells reached their destinationswimming as much as 20 centimeters, or 20,000 of their own body lengths, from start to finishthe researchers flashed UV light to break the chemical bond that attached the beads. Visible light shining from the track's opposite end coaxed the organisms back to the start."
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
man I loved that site. I loved having DVDs delivered to my office in SF after purchasing them online - within an hour.
Is there anything like this around any more?
This reminds me of http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085017/
-Alex. http://bit.ly/1iVPtfA
carries mexican bacteria and viri across border 2) ??? 3) Profit!
I am growing algae that moves to the surface on new moons and full moons.It has the ability to feel gravity in a closed jar.I think that the poch marks on the bottom of lake superior are produced by this algae. The Lake superior donut mystery is an article that has pictures of these marks.The marks are 75 meters ,they are in groups of four.Some form parellel lines They do not seem to be randomly placed,Almost UFOish
That's a terrible attitude. You claim to be a geek but can't see anything other than a direct simple application? Please turn in your geek card, geeks need ot be better thinkers than that.
Many, if not most, "worthless" discoveries are very worth while. Say, for instance one that happened around me a few years back, why does your shower curtain billow inward in a shower? Models at the time, all of them, showed it should go the other way (one would think that the steam would expand pushing it out, and air isn't flowing creating a low pressure area to push it inward). They spent millions and figured out why - a waste? Who cares? Well, this little tidbit of understanding saved *billions* in jet fuel cost and will continue to accrue for many years - is that "worthless". Not to mention that quite a few mysteries, some fairly major, were solved in fluid dynamics from this. This study was blasted on the news and some govt watchdog places on waste.
The article presented even mentions that the understanding of thier "motors" will most likely revolutionalise thier field. What if this results in us learning how to go further than centimeters, say meters or kilomoters?
Would you say to the people who rubbed amber against fur and use it to pick up a few peices of straw (and those that decided to study that) "So, I can pick up more than that with my hands" - yet that *directly* lead to how to produce electricity - which I am sure you consider fairly important today.
------- Sorry about the spelling, I suffer from two problems. Dyslexia makes it difficult to spell well, lazy makes it
*Sigh* Come one. I am no geek then, I will renounce that, but Im not that dumb either. Your example was pretty cool but you did not cite any sources at all. Alas I will let it go because you tried.
You basically are saying you have FAITH that something big will come of this which is why it is important. Wow, in science, a proof-based arena, you are coming at me with "maybe", "who knows", "what if", and asking me to turn in my geek card? And you point to your "extrapolation" of going from centimeters to...whoa "KILOMETERS!!" as being a "better thinker"? Besides the fact that in denouncing my geekdom you did not present an idea related to this that point to you being a "better thinker", you base it off of nothing.
In all seriousness I just dont think it is news at this point i mean come on its sort of laughable. I agree that when this advancements leads to, or clearly points to, a real advancement we should go tell it on the mountains of Slashdotopolis. But at this point? No.
To use the example you used against me, imagine:
SLASHDOT NEWS FLASH:Scientist's figure out why shower curtains billow inwards!
Ahhh, hold the presses, this could be big.
*takes Geek card back and adds a star*
Science is a proof based area but you don't need the proof _before_ you do the experiment.
Also, his idea was related to things that look insignificant but turn out to be very useful, I'm not sure what you wanted differently. Science has an aspect of exploration, figuring out things purely becuase you don't know them. Although, it would have been nice to see some explanation of how he got from showers to aircraft.
The curtain problem looks like simple 'hot air rises' to me. The steam goes up and the cold air coming in at the bottom pushes against the curtain. Simple.
I would have thought it was because the water flowing from the shower head drags air down with it causing a downdraught in the area of the shower.
This air would then be at a lower pressure than the air outside the shower curtain causing the curtain to billow inwards.
Only low density stuff could be produced this way, but maybe it is more environmentally friendly ?
H.P. Lovecraft was right after all!
He describes those algae in "At the Mountains of Madness"!
We are all doomed!!!!11
UnNetHack: NetHack Improved!
African or European Algea?
'Scientists have long coveted these motors for use in micromachinery,'
Scientists should not be concerned with "use" of anything. they should simply observe things and record those observations!
engineers and architects should be concerned with "use" and those guys are not Scientists, they are artists!
this is whats wrong with science, its being sold as something its not, thats why we end up with scientists making the same mistake.
I say nay, Thats just more and more outsourcing as far as I'm concerned ;) only this time its with single-celled organism's. What's this world coming to!?
Working to make this world a darker place...
They are called my feet...and they get me around a lot farther then a few centimeters.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
Sure they can carry cargo, but can they carry a tune?
I for one welcome our new load-bearing algae overlords.
Education is the silver bullet.
When correcting your anonymous, pedantic quibbles, don't forget to check the "Post Anonymously" box.
" Although, it would have been nice to see some explanation of how he got from showers to aircraft."
I'm a computer scientist, I didn't understand it then, nor do I now. I havn't the foggiest how a jet engine works. I knew the research group, so that's kinda hard to link to a discussion I had with them during lunch. But I can understand "fluid dynamics" and "Very different from what we thought".
That's why I also included the thing on electricity - I assumed that people could at least understand them, alas the original poster decided to ignore that one also.
------- Sorry about the spelling, I suffer from two problems. Dyslexia makes it difficult to spell well, lazy makes it
I see you ignored the electricity stuff - too hard to make fun of huh? It was a discussion I had with the researchers, you can believe it or not, that is why I gave two examples - the second one being well known enough I assume that a geek wouldn't need a link to know about it.
Lets see:
"SLASHDOT HEADLINE: People pick up two strand of straw with rock!" (look, it even includes a spelling/grammer mistake".
One should of held the presses for that one, it was big. Bu then, slashdot isn't the presses either.
"Wow, in science, a proof-based arena, you are coming at me with "maybe", "who knows", "what if", and asking me to turn in my geek card? "
No, I asked you to turn your geek card in because you have no vision or ability to think outside the obvious headline. Learn to read. If you don't think that type of thinking has a place in science you *really* are not involved with research at all, nor should you be.
"And you point to your "extrapolation" of going from centimeters to...whoa "KILOMETERS!!" as being a "better thinker"?"
Yes, I can envision where something like this can make an inpact, considering such "worthless" stuff has before. I highly suspect that, at this moment, those researchers are trying to figure out if they can do such a thing at this moment. That's why vision and forward thinking are important and this is news.
"Besides the fact that in denouncing my geekdom you did not present an idea related to this that point to you being a "better thinker", you base it off of nothing."
I pointed out that people who think like you do (ar at least the way you said) are not geeks, you seem to lack the ability to think beyond the obvious. I then pointed out that it is entirely reasonable to that "worthless" discoveries can be very worthwhile, I sued two examples one that you ignored. I suppose because it didn't fit with what you wanted to argue. Again, you seem to fail at simple logic and reading, unable to overcome your own prejudices.
Plus,you can't have been reading slashdot all that long,, or even know what it is about, if you think that only major ground breaking stories get posted. ones the editors find "neat" have always been here, and for many many people algae carrying a load is pretty neat.
Too bad the geek card you took back was fake, I guess the little foil sticky star on it fits though, that's what they gave the special ed students back when I was in school.
------- Sorry about the spelling, I suffer from two problems. Dyslexia makes it difficult to spell well, lazy makes it
(apologies if this comes off as a troll)
When I became disillusioned with the Creationists, my single dominant thought was, "if you're right and this isn't junk science, DO SOMETHING with it." I proposed specifics like manufacturing opals and stalagtites on shortened time frames. (Wouldn't it be cool to build a game room with real stalagtites?)
I also read Michael Behe's book "Darwin's Black Box" wherein he describes the "irreducible complexity" of things Mr. Dawkins would call designoids like mousetraps and specifically the molecular motor that powers the flagella of single celled organisms.
Since the guys doing "genetic algorithms" have had some success applying evolutionary thinking, perhaps this is an opportunity for Darwin fans to DO SOMETHING demonstrating how to overcome Mr. Behe's objections to Darwinism. Specifically, use some form of guided evolution (such as we see with dog or horse breeding) to develop the molecular motors discussed here.
(am I a Creationist/Darwinist? I am skeptical of both. and damned few people can decouple emotions enough discuss the issues rationally. maybe i AM trolling?)