Cloaked Nano-particles

Everyone’s familiar with the old fable about the wolf in sheep’s clothing.   In this story a wolf dresses up like a sheep and sneaks past the farmer to go straight to his fluffy targets.  Well, a similar story is currently unfolding in the medical field and it could have a huge impact on cancer patients.  

Scientists are working on taking a nanoparticle and wrapping it in the outer membrane of a white blood cell in order to let it sneak past the watchful eye of the immune system.  As of now the immune system is able to detect foreign objects like nanoparticles and remove or destroy them within minutes.  Dressing the nanoparticle up to look like a white blood cell allows the immune system to let it pass into the bloodstream without much commotion.  These camouflaged medical deliveries could last in the body for up to hours at a time. Remarkably, these nanoparticles would go directly to the source of the malignant cells.  In other words, these nanoparticles can deliver specific types of drugs to specific cells.  In this instance the idea is that chemotherapy could be delivered straight to cancer cells only.

This would be a huge step forward in the medical field.  Currently the most commonly accepted form of cancer treatments involve a broad range treatment, meaning we have yet to isolate the treatment to only cancer cells.  These masked nanoparticles, in theory, would be able to go straight to the malignant cells and let the rest of the body system carry on as business per usual.

Research on this is continuing and hopefully more news will develop in the near future.

Pi

Science and math fans around the world have been celebrating Pi day for a while now. Pi is the 3.14 number that helps us understand circles, so what better day to celebrate than March 14? So, the question is what makes Pi so special?

From the wheels on your car to the orbit of distant stars in the cosmos are all put to paper using our old friend, Pi. These practical applications help determine the size, shape, volume, area, and circumference of circles. Imagine the Spalding basketball factory without Pi, we’d have some weirdly shaped basketballs…or whatever they’d be called. Pi’s use in our day to day lives surrounds these circular concepts, but wait, there’s so much more.

One of the amazing things about Pi is that it is an irrational number. Meaning, it goes on forever. The digits that comprise Pi take up more digits than some of the largest numbers we have, like the massive googolplex for example. In fact, in 2011 Pi was calculated out to over 10 trillion numbers! Mathematician Shigeru Kondo took 371 days to calculate Pi to 10,000,000,000,050 decimal places. Big stuff!

Here’s the kicker, when calculating all those trillions of digits for Pi, it was noticed that there are no repeating patterns in there. A truly random set of numbers strung together in an endless chain. What does one do with these large, endless, non-repeating numeric patterns? Those big computational issues come in handy for testing today’s supercomputers and their programming speeds.

So, from putting satellites in geosynchronous orbit, to testing super computers, to helping make that perfect pumpkin pie, Pi is an extremely well rounded number.

For more information check out the official Pi-Day page, but for a rock song about the number check out the video below.

A Sweet Way to Fuel the Future

What’s the future of fuel?  Well, there are many ideas that have been presented ranging from solar to wind to hydropower.  The growing energy needs of our planet will require some creative thinking and likely some ideas that don’t reside in the standard energy toolbox that we are accustom to today.  With that said, a sweet new idea has been brought to the table that involves using sugar to help fuel the world of tomorrow. 

An international group of researchers have been working with the US Department of Energy and have recently presented a very interesting idea on how sugar polymers could help provide a form of fuel that would work with our existing vehicles.

This discovery is centered on an enzyme that could enhance the growth of cell walls in plants.  The thicker cell walls would contain an abundance of a sugar polymer called Galactan.   In theory using this sugar polymer and a fermentation process, scientists could create fuel.  Not just any old fuel, but a fuel that works in existing engines. 

In addition to this, the plant in use would not be a food plant.  Currently we use corn to help make the ethanol as a vital component to the gas we use.  Corn is certainly an edible item that could be used to feed many people around the world, but a sizeable amount is going into the production of fuel.  This new idea would involve using non-food plants, thus not impacting the global production of food.

Wait, there’s more!  The process by which this fuel would be made would involve having large areas dedicated to vast fields to grow these plants.  Plants take in CO2 as they grow, thus (globally) consuming the CO2 that is put out by vehicle emissions.  The plants with enhanced cell walls would effectively be a carbon neutral process, meaning it balances out the input and output of CO2 in our atmosphere. Making this a step in the right direction for dealing with the large amount of unchecked emissions, which we experience today.

So, a carbon neutral process that doesn’t take food out of the mouths of others AND works in the existing vehicles we have today?  Galactan fuel is definitely a creative idea that warrants more research and attention!

Fuel your curiosity for this topic:

What is Galactan?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactan

What does it mean to be CARBON NEUTRAL?
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/carbon_neutral.html 

Why Planet Cell Walls?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21709/

Is anyone else talking about this?:
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2012/12/21/boosting-galactan-sugars-could-boost-biofuel-production/

What does a loom have in common with your laptop?

If you’re reading this you must be using some sort of computer. Most of us have an idea about the origins of our modern computer units, but sometimes explaining the lineage of these machines leads only up to the first design. The big question is - how did we get all the way to a computing machine? We could not have gone from fire or the wheel straight to iTunes, right? What’s responsible for the giant leaps and bounds in technology that make our life what it is today? The process of science, that’s how!

Clothing, oddly enough, has a distant relation to the machine that is allowing you to read these words right now. In the early 1800s, Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented a mechanical power loom that could weave really intricate patterns in fabric. The designs of fabric were rooted in a wooden slot card that controlled the loom’s weaving directions.

A few decades later, Charles Babbage used this slot card idea to create a machine that calculated numbers based on a paper slot card, his machine had the way cool name of ‘The Difference Engine.’ Instead of resulting in a lovely rug with intricate colored designs, Babbage had intricate data and numbers punched into a card. The detailed weaving concept inspired detailed data processing. 

Then, Herman Hollerith took Babbage’s paper slot idea to the next level by creating a system that could input detailed numbers and data on a larger scale. This invention was soon picked up by the U.S. Census Bureauand Hollerith was rewarded quite nicely. So, what does a math-freak do with a lot of money in the late 1800s? Well, this particular math-addict helped co-found a little company that we now know as IBM. The rest, as they say, is history…or cache and cookies.

For more information check these links out!

History of Computers

Punched Card's Pedigree 

NYC to Tokyo in just 45 minutes?

So, who's up for grabbing lunch in Tokyo today?

Yes, Tokyo, Japan.  Well, today this may not be a possibility, but scientists are working on new plane designs that could make this lunch date a distinct possibility.

XCOR, a rocket engineering firm, has announced the design of a new suborbital plane called the Lynx.  This vehicle would be able to take passengers from New York City to Tokyo in just 45 minutes.  Pretty amazing, right?  This plane would launch into the sky and reach about 60 miles above the Earth's surface.  This would place the passenger above almost all of our atmosphere.  Currently most commercial flights only get about 23,000 feet up (a little over 4 miles).  So, 60 miles above the Earth is a pretty large step up considering today's standards.  The lynx would be high enough for passengers to see the curve of the Earth, the blackness of space, and experience a little bit of weightlessness.  The flight would take only 45 minutes at the amazing speed of 3,800 mph (mach 5) that the engineering firm wishes to achieve. 

Travel has always been a great source of inspiration and invention among humans.  The earliest means of long range travel took place on foot.  Our earliest ancestors walked a lot.  This was made a little easier with the advent of floating wood on water, boats.  Once upon a time it took nearly nine months to cross the ocean.  As boats became more efficient the time took a little bit less, but you just could not make it faster than months at a time.  On Dec 17, 1903, the Wright brothers took one giant step forward in human transportation when they successfully flew the very first plane in North Carolina.  This design was very elementary compared to our modern day flying machines, but at the time this was a monumental achievement.  The Wright flyer was the first spark that ignited the rapid evolution of flying technology.  Shortly after the Wright brothers invention, planes developed into machines that could make trans-atlantic flights.  The first non-stop transatlantic flight went from Maryland to Ireland in a whopping 29 hours.  Think about that for a moment.  Humans were used to taking months to make this journey and suddenly there came a time in which it only took 29 hours, a fraction of the time it took on boat.  As planes developed the flight times got shorter.  Currently, a flight from Maryland to Ireland takes about nine hours.  So, let's zoom out a little, 9 months on boat, to 29 hours on early plane, to 9 hours using modern technology, in a relatively short time period of technological evolution.  Sure, 45 minutes seems bizarre, but consider what the first plane passengers must have thought when crossing the ocean below them.  What XCOR is hoping to do is just continuing the growth of technology and use the process of science to help advance a very basic component of human life, travel.

The Lynx plans on launching in 2013 with ticket prices starting at $95,000.  There has been no official announcement on the on-board baggage just yet.  Stay tuned for more developments!

Stop Thinking!

Why can’t we stop thinking?

Try to stop thinking for five seconds.

Ready?

…steady…

……GO!

Okay, now you’re just reading this and not-stopping-your-thoughts!!

So why can’t we stop thinking? Well, this is the handiwork of our old friend, evolution.

A long time ago moment-to-moment readiness was necessary for survival.  In those days people had to worry about things like lion attacks, leopard attacks, monkeys stealing berries, scorpions, falling rocks, drowning, giant snakes, and so on.  This required a brain that was constantly working.  Naturally, not every single cognoscente being had the most efficient brain and thus the process of natural selection got involved.

Those that ended up as menu items on the savannah could not pass their genes on to the next generation.  Those that did survive turned out to be our ancestors.  This process, generation after generation, fine-tuned the brain to be working 24 hours a day. 

A lot has changed since then.  After all, you’re reading this on a computer monitor and not having it read out to you around a tree, right?  Well, our brain has not stopped working.  This genetic gift from our ancestors is still working around the clock, but now it has to process different types of information.  At some capacity we’re still ready to react to sudden things like lion attacks, but more realistically car accidents or dropping a tray of food.  Regardless our brain is still constantly thinking.  Our preservation instincts have had to adjust with the modern times:

“Was that my exit?!?”

“I didn’t know I have a wealthy relative in Angola?”

“So, what will my boss will think of this?”

“I wonder what will happen if I eat that now?”

and so on…

This cerebral power-house works around the clock! No wonder it consumes 20% of our body’s energy!  That’s pretty amazing considering that the brain is a mere 2% of our body mass!

This non-stop thought factory is what makes us who we are so please remember to think responsibly!

 Learn more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/04/why-impossible-stop-thinking-evolved-neurologist_n_2236625.html

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/general-health/55481-help-my-mind-wont-stop-thinking.html

Holiday Fun at the Polar Express Pajama Party

Thanks to all of the Museum member families who brought cute pajamas and lots of holiday cheer to our Polar Express pajama parties! Hundreds of cookies and numerous gallons of milk were consumed - and our member kids handcrafted tons of holiday ornaments. But of course, the highlight was the super-comfy showing of The Polar Express on the biggest screen in Virginia.

We want to repeat the parties next year and give more member families a chance to come. What do you think members – should we do it again? Any ideas on how to make it even more fun?  

If you haven’t seen The Polar Express in IMAX® yet, it’s still showing through December 31. Members can use their free passes or buy discounted tickets for only $5. It’s a great accompaniment to our Fruitcake Science experiments that will happen December 26-30. Come see us during holiday break!