Why Moore's Law Applied to Energy Systems is More Like Moore's Curse, Stephen Lightfoot.

How we are deluded into thinking the solutions for our energy problems will be easy.

attention miniature art enthusiasts!

for those missing BM this year...there is the Balsa Man Tiny Art festival in the Black Pebble. be on time, the Man burns fast! (i keep reading the site but can't determine if it is a joke)...

Scientists re-engineer a nematode's genetic code to produce an artificial amino acid that produces an artificial protein in every cell of the nematode worm's tiny body which contains a fluorescent dye that glows cherry red under ultraviolet light. read more...

Dr Chin of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (where Francis Crick and James Watson first cracked the structure of DNA) describes the technique as "potentially transformational": designer proteins could be created that are entirely under the researchers' control.
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But Dr Chin says any artificial amino acid could be chosen to produce specific new properties. Dr de Bono suggests the approach could now be used to introduce into organisms designer proteins that could be controlled by light.

My recent…

Seven Creepy Experiments That Could Teach Us So Much (If They Weren’t So Wrong) An article from Wired (Aug 2011) on the ape man, twin splitting, womb-swapping, embryo mapping, toxic heroes, optogenetics, brain sampling,...

On the Ape Man: "Mating a human with a chimp". Isn't this how Planet of the Apes started? Oh look there's a new ape movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Reminds me also of Arthur C. Clarke's simps from Rama II.

On Light: "Researchers have engineered a benign virus that, when injected into the brain, makes the ion channels—the switches that turn cells on and off—responsive to light. By flashing focused beams into brain tissue (usually with hair-width fiber-optic strands), researchers can selectively increase or decr…

Sense of Smell: Single Giant Interneuron in Locusts Controls Activity in 50,000 Neurons, Enabling Sparse Codes for Odours

"The brain is a coding machine: it translates physical inputs from the world into visual, olfactory, auditory, tactile perceptions via the mysterious language of its nerve cells and the networks which they form. Neural codes could in principle take many forms, but in regions forming bottlenecks for information flow (e.g., the optic nerve) or in areas important for memory, sparse codes are highly desirable."

a little bed time story that may keep you up all night

perhaps inappropriately named?

a hidden world of tiny treasures may be beneath your feet!



"photographs of sand reveal incredible beauty"

Spin Motor Spin! Spent a bit of time today fiddling around with my Arduino Duemilanove to control a little DC toy motor.

CIRC-03 from Arduino Experimenter's Guide:

• Code: source code to spin a motor
• Breadboard layout:
• The Transistor: NPN Type connect your load to collector and emitter to ground. The transistor amplifies current to the motor.
• Flyback Diode: A one-way valve to eliminate voltage spikes when using switches / relays.
• Resistor: the function of the resistor is to prevent damage (caused by excessive current) to either the transistor or the Arduino.
• Capacitor: If the Arduino was resetting I would need to use a capacitor to run the motor to prevent brownouts from t

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one sip and you'll be calling it moonshine. some links that give an overview of the basic distillation process. The equipment: the pot distiller, reflux columns, and fractionator. Fermenting then distilling. Washes, wines, and mashes. Spirits, brandies, and flavours.

Links to stimulate thinking:

• Alembic:an alembic is an alchemical still connecting two vessels
• homedistiller.org: read this over and over then read it again. Photos, recipes.
• Alembics: Beautiful handcrafted copper stills. Photos, recipes, and more!

First step is to learn how and what to ferment. Then decide what you want to brew. Then take it from there...