www.physorg.com/news3533.html

Kilo and mega are history. We’re almost out of gigas, and bracing for a reign of tera. But the tera will not last — supercomputing dudes are already shifting allegiance to peta, and where they go, we follow. On the other side of the decimal divide, we have moved so fast from milli to nano that micro was barely noticed along the way.

This is no time to relax: the zeptos are coming, breezing past the picos, femtos, and attos in their path, thanks to “nanoelectromechanical resonators” about a micron in length and a hundred or so nanometers wide that can register molecules weighing just a few zeptograms — billionths of a trillionth of a gram. That is about the weight of thirty xenon atoms or a typical protein molecule.

The resonators could be used to identify specific molecules, including the protein molecules that signal the birth of a cancer. Inexpensive, desktop-sized microchip arrays of miniature mass spectrometers based on the technology could eventually replace entire labs full of conventional mass spectrometers costing millions of dollars.

Cell Watchers

sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/28/MNGNUBVJB31.DTL

www.physorg.com/news3434.html

A new microscope adapted from a standard high-end laboratory microscope can automatically track millions of individual cells for months. Individual cells can already be tracked by hand, but it is slow, laborious work that “drives lab workers crazy.” The new scope has already helped solve a long-running riddle about Huntington’s disease — whether a buildup of protein deposits in brain cells was a cause of the disease, a defense against it, or merely an indicator. It turns out that the protein-laden cells live longer – the proteins are protective. This finding could abruptly end a line of research that has been seeking to treat the disease by destroying the protein deposits.

The scope will likely soon be used in drug discovery by monitoring diseased cells as various candidate drugs are introduced. It may also be used to monitor the progress of genetically modified cells, to assess the effect of the modification on (say) cancer susceptibility . It is a very significant technology.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists have also developed nanoprobes able to penetrate cell nuclei, where they can track life’s fundamental processes, such as DNA repair, for hours on end, and image the activity for biologists.

Cell Phone Fuel Cell

www.physorg.com/news3181.html

Japan’s NTT has developed a fuel cell that uses hydrogen gas as a fuel and is small enough to directly fit in a mobile phone. A production-model mobile phone fitted with a prototype of the fuel cell successfully powered up and was ready to send and receive calls. NTT has also developed a device for refilling the hydrogen tank.