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User: -kabammi-

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  1. Re:possible priority question? on Reducing Plant Stress Leads to Martian Farms · · Score: 1

    This research is already part of a massively well funded body of life science research going on today. Plants, fungi and bacteria are all being engineered to act as biological cleaning agents to:

    a) extract lead, cadmium and copper from soil
    c) extract oil from water
    d) extract heavy metals from water
    e) extract air pollutants from air

    The potential for companies to generate plants to clean up their own "acts" as well as after-market plants which perform these jobs to other companies and even the general public is massive. Imagine pitching a rose which just looks nice, or a rose that looks equally as nice - but also is better for the environment because it breaks down carbon monoxide or breaks down CO2 twice as efficiently, helping the greenhouse emission problem?

    Those decisions make financial sense, and that sense has been inacted now for over 10 years. Genetic engineering using exactly the same techniques as used here (with Agrobacterium used to generate transgenic plants expressing particular genes), or selective breeding for specific genetic traits, are two methods being used to generate plants that act as growing living biological cleaning agents, and this is already bearing "fruit" (pardon the pun). There are a number of well published studies in Nature journals which show factually that plants which have been generated using these technologies can (for example) remove lead and cadmium from soil:

    Song, W.Y., et al, 2003. Engineering tolerance and accumulation of lead and cadmium in transgenic plants. Nature Biotechnology.

    http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v21/n8/full/nbt8 50.html
    http://www.nature.com/nbt/index.html

  2. ridiculous on Tecmo Sues Game Hackers Under DMCA · · Score: 1

    If you've bought it, surely you can modify what you own for your own personal use? Does this mean that I can no longer colour in the White nike symbol on my nike shoes and wear them out, because it makes it look (to the public) that they are something that is not representative of what nike really does? Could I go further to say that I could get sued by Adidas for wearing my old shirt with lots of holes on it, out in public, giving them a bad name? Modification of tangible items you own has been done for forever and a day. Why should this not apply to software? Microsoft/Bungie has not taken this action with the Halo/Halo2 mods out there!!?

  3. Re:PS3 on More Cell Processor Details And First Pictures · · Score: 1

    Yes, by today's standards 4.6Ghz seems fast. Recall though, how advanced the PS2's graphics seemed when it was first announced - it exceeded PC graphics at the same time.. same with the nvidia Xbox chipset when announced was far more powerful than PC graphics at the time. In 2007 when this unit is released, the actual performance of the machine will probably be quite mainstream. This is only the announcement of the CPU guys, remember. Also remember that the PS3, if anything like the PS1 or PS2, may have a lifespan of 5-10 years. So you have to imagine that in 2017 how fast a 4.6ghz clock speed will be at that time. Who can truly imagine how fast PC's will be by then!!?! :) These consoles have to be armed with the best possible components in order to give them longevity and flexibility in the market to compete with Xbcube units produced by Nintendosoft in 2010. ;)

  4. Re:DNA42 on Asteroid Named After Douglas Adams · · Score: 1

    Yes, DNA are his full initials, and he also happened to be born (1952) in the same university town that Watson and Crick 6-months later (early 1953) discovered the double-helical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, ie. DNA. :) I think they should've used 2001DNA42 as the name, as Adams often made light-hearted quips that Watson and Crick stole his initials for their own gain ;) (of course it was still called DNA before its structure was solved, before he was born, but that's beside the point).