Category Archives: Transhuman News

4.4 Genetic Engineering

By: Juliana Agostino

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4.4 Genetic Engineering - Video

S033RS03 Science Topics Genetics and Genetic Engineering
Science Topics Genetics and Genetic Engineering #39;Science Topics #39; BBC schools programme. Series originally broadcast on BBC2 1983 - 1985. Repeated until 1992.

By: Lammas Science

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S033RS03 Science Topics Genetics and Genetic Engineering - Video

IMAGE:Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, combines advances in biomedical engineering, biomechanics, mathematical modeling, biopolymer chemistry, computer science, and tissue engineering... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 8, 2015-- By defining a set of key metrics to evaluate the fuel systems available to drive autonomous and wearable soft robots, a team of engineers and chemists are able to compare the advantages and limitations of current technology options. They assess various types of pneumatic energy sources and their benefits for specific applications in an article published in Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Soft Robotics website.

Michael Wehner and coauthors from Harvard University (Cambridge and Boston, MA), Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR), Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA), Robot G and I Research (Bedford, MA), Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA), and Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), characterize the most advanced pneumatic energy systems designed to power untethered and wearable soft robots based on their energy density and flow capacity, as well as noise, toxic byproducts, application-specific requirements, and the time and additional parts needed for development. The goal of the study, entitled "Pneumatic Energy Sources for Autonomous and Wearable Soft Robotics," is to provide a framework for configuring fuel systems in soft robotics.

"As soft pneumatic systems start to gain acceptance in robotic applications, it is vital that the advantages and limitations of different energy systems are fully explored. This paper provides comparisons and analysis that will useful for anyone designing such systems," says Editor-in-Chief Barry A. Trimmer, PhD, who directs the Neuromechanics and Biomimetic Devices Laboratory at Tufts University (Medford, MA).

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About the Journal

Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, combines advances in biomedical engineering, biomechanics, mathematical modeling, biopolymer chemistry, computer science, and tissue engineering to present new approaches to the creation of robotic technology and devices that can undergo dramatic changes in shape and size in order to adapt to various environments. Led by Editor-in-Chief Barry A. Trimmer, PhD, and a distinguished team of Associate Editors, the Journal provides the latest research and developments on topics such as soft material creation, characterization, and modeling; flexible and degradable electronics; soft actuators and sensors; control and simulation of highly deformable structures; biomechanics and control of soft animals and tissues; biohybrid devices and living machines; and design and fabrication of conformable machines. Tables of content and a sample issue can be viewed on the Soft Robotics website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing and Tissue Engineering. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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New study from Harvard compares design of fuel systems for soft robots

GMO is an abbreviation for a genetically modified organism whose genome has been altered by the techniques of genetic engineering so that its DNA contains one or more genes not normally found there.

Eighty per cent of our food contains some sort of GMO that you buy at the grocery store, and proponents of the technology point out theres not one incidence of human health issue. The USDA, the FDA, the CDC, and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization have all concluded that the technology is safe, and agricultural producers maintain that this technology is an absolutely necessary tool for them to be able to feed a growing world population. Travis Miller is the Interim Associate Director for State Operations for the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service.

Id encourage people, I like to do a garden myself, and Id encourage people to grow a garden but you cant feed the 300 million people in the United States all with back yard gardens, plus the 50% or more of our crop that we send overseas to feed other people. And GMOs have provided the technology that has reduced the pesticide use, has reduced the insect damage to our crops, has improved the quality of our crops, so that we do have the, its one of the many technologies that were now using to get the kind of yields we have to have to continue to feed the world.

Genetically Modified Organism technology is invaluable to plant breeders. If you look at what crops used to look like when we first started cultivating crops, the dont even resemble what we have today. And that was through traditional breeding technology, pollen from one source and pollen from another source. Problems that have plagued agriculture for decades are being addressed.

Now GMO is another important tool that a plant breeder can put in his tool box and say, oh, well what about this plant disease that we have, well heres a gene that I can take from a spinach plant and put in in a grapefruit and solve a disease thats going to take the citrus industry out.

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From the Ground Up - GMOs Necessary To Feed The World