Austin Stevenson

A team of researchers at the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology has developed a prototype cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) microscope that, despite being significantly cheaper than high-end machines, has successfully solved protein structures with near-atomic resolution. The findings have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Science Magazine reports: [MB physicist Chris Russo] wants a manufacturer to commercialize his team's design, which he believes could be built and sold for $500,000. That's within reach of a new hire's startup package, or one of the regular equipment grants offered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or National Science Foundation, says Bridget Carragher, founding technical director of the Chan Zuckerberg Imaging Institute. "It would be a marvelous machine," she says. "Everyone who wants to do structural biology could do it." [...] One of the team's key insights was that the electron beam does not need the energies typically used in high-end cryo-EM microscopes. Levels of 100 kiloelectronvolts (KeV) -- one-third as high -- suffice to reveal molecular structure, and they reduce costs by eliminating the need for a regulated gas, sulfur hexafluoride, to snuff out sparks. The team also saw room for improvement in the system of lenses that focuses the electrons and the detector that captures them after they probe the sample. With the resulting prototype, the LMB group determined the structure of 11 diverse proteins. One was the iron-storing protein apoferritin, which has become a benchmark for cryo-EM resolution records. The LMB researchers mapped it at 2.6 angstroms -- 2.6 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom. That's not as high as the record cryo-EM resolution of 1.2 angstroms, but plenty good enough to make an atomic model, Russo says. And the process was fast. Because the microscope sat in the same lab as the freezing stage, the team could quickly check that its samples were good enough, rather than waiting weeks for results from a high-end machine. "Every single structure was done in less than a day," Russo says. Thermo Fisher Scientific, which makes a top-end machine, says it is already expanding the cryo-EM market. In 2020, it began to sell a lower cost option, called Tundra, that operates at 100 KeV. "I would say that there are universities that probably never believed they could own cryo-EM that now have the tools," says Trisha Rice, a vice president who heads the company's cryo-EM business. Indeed, Rajan's university just ordered one for $1.5 million. Russo says Tundra is a step in the right direction, but his team's innovations could make cryo-EM even cheaper. For example, he says, Tundra dials back the energy on a simplified version of the costly electron source used in top-end microscopes, whereas the electron gun on the LMB prototype was designed for 100 KeV from scratch. But he understands that commercializing his team's design would require large investments by potential manufacturers. "We're talking to all of them," Russo says. "But at the end of the day, it's up to them."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As Halloween approaches with frantic, last-minute wig purchases, and candy binges, you may find yourself overextended and undernourished. You need some real food, but the spooky times don’t have to stop. Get some of your creepy energy back with these unnerving spiderweb eggs.

Read more...

Scooter rental company, Bird, has officially boarded the struggle bus. The micro mobility provider sent out emails to current and past customers requesting that they settle their lingering debts earlier this month. And the company left no stone unturned in its quest to recoup revenue.

Read more...

Shopify has routinely denied calls to ban a noted right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ harassment group from using its platform to sell merchandise. Now it’s becoming clear just how deep the company has stuck its head in the sand to ignore the LGBTQ community’s pleas.

Read more...

With a revamped lock screen, redesigned notifications and an enhanced Focus mode, iOS 16 promises to bring a lot of useful new features to Apple's iPhone later this year. But as is always the case with keynotes like WWDC, there's not enough time to cover every enhancement. And one such feature Apple didn't mention is that iOS will allow you to use Face ID even when your iPhone is oriented horizontally.  

The quality of life improvement was spotted by Vox Media product manager Parker Ortolani on Apple's iOS 16 preview webpage. As The Verge points out, Apple has allowed iPad owners to use Face ID in this way for a while now, so it's not exactly a new feature. Still, it's one of those changes iPhone users, particularly those who use devices like the Razer Kishi and Backbone One, will appreciate. On its preview page, Apple says the feature will work with supported models without specifying the exact ones included in that list. We've reached out to the company for more information.      

Follow all of the news from WWDC right here!

Here are the week's best tech deals including early Amazon Prime Day 2021 deals on Echo Dots and the Echo Show 5, and the Beats Flex earbuds for $39.

Monday’s Best Deals | Kinja Deals

Read more...

Unless you spent 2018 living in a cave (which would be 100 percent justified given the political climate) you’ve undoubtedly heard the buzz around the new 5G wireless networks coming online. They not only promise faster internet speeds for mobile devices but wireless internet that’s actually fast enough to completely…

Read more...

Benjamin Melniker, a legendary Hollywood producer who helped bring Batman to the big screen, died Monday at the age of 104.

Read more...

This weekend has eats, drinks, a Twitter library for the ages and more. [ more › ]

An anonymous reader writes: In December 2013 San Francisco's tension with its surging tech class reached a breaking point. Protesters swarmed Google buses. They stood in front of Twitter carrying a coffin labeled "Affordable Housing." Google glassholes were on the rise. In the midst of this, the CEO and founder of AngelHack posted a rant about the homeless. "In downtown SF the degenerates gather like hyenas, spit, urinate, taunt you, sell drugs, get rowdy, they act like they own the center of the city," Greg Gopman wrote. He thought he was becoming a thought leader. Instead, the entire city turned against him. Reviled and suddenly unemployable, Gopman spent a quixotic year spinning up businesses to solve homelessness. His journey is weirdly emblematic of today's startup-fueled San Francisco.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Netgear networking gear, a Kindle Fire tablet, and an electric shaver kick off Wednesday’s best deals. Bookmark Kinja Deals and follow us on Twitter to never miss a deal. Commerce Content is independent of Editorial and Advertising, and if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small share of the sale. Click here to learn more, and don’t forget to sign up for our email newsletter.

Read more...

We've been relatively lucky with above average temperatures for the month of December, but the official start of winter is upon us and that means snow, ice and freezing temps are just around the corner. [ more › ]

The ideal way to hard cook an egg is to steam it and then drop it in ice water. The shells practically jump off the egg and the egg holds its beautiful shape.

Read more...

You're probably going to see a lot of virtual reality sports coverage before long, but there's still a lot of ground left to cover -- including, apparently, fisticuffs. Showtime has posted what it says is the first full-length VR video of a boxing ma...

Plenty of hotels provide views of the surrounding landscape, but few take it as seriously as the Juviet Landscape Hotel. Located along the river Valldøla near the edge of the...

Visit Uncrate for the full post.

While the BBC adds new features to its iPlayer apps at a decent clip, it can't always ensure they get enough real-world testing before they're shipped. Maybe that's why the Beeb has today launched a new Mobile iPlayer beta programme that aims to ga...

Bees are important: they aren’t just cool-looking and producers of delicious sweeteners, but they’re essential to pollinate plants and to produce the food that those plants grow. Yet sudden deaths of bees have been linked to a new class of pesticides, neonicotinoids, which some experts say has a devastating effect on the nervous systems of bees.

The environmental group Friends of the Earth is encouraging True Value and Ace, two supplier co-ops for locally-owned hardware stores nationwide, to stop carrying plant-care products that contain neonicotinoids. Larger home-supply stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s are working toward ridding their stores of the products, but the co-ops haven’t done so yet.

Why? A spokesperson for Ace explained to the Chicago Tribune that the company wants to obey the law, so you won’t find any banned pesticides in their stores, but they want to strike a compromise between giving customers what they want and protecting the environment. “Ace Hardware is committed to providing our customers with products that not only meet their needs but that are also in compliance with applicable laws and regulations from environmental agencies and regulators,” they explained.

True Value said that they do offer “alternative pesticides,” including Milky Spore and insecticidal soaps, in it stores, and that the company would like to phase out products containing the controversial substances… as soon as there are effective alternatives.

Bayer, one of the manufacturers of neonicotinoid pesticides, says that they do not affect bees when they’re used “responsibly and properly, and according to label instructions.”

Ace Hardware, True Value urged to drop pesticides said to hurt bees [Chiacgo Tribune]

If you attended an American elementary school during the last three decades, you might have taken part in the Book-It program at Pizza Hut. The program aimed to get elementary school-aged children reading and get entire families under the red roof of The Hut to enjoy a pleasant dinner. Now that the program is 30 years old, Pizza Hut is inviting Book-It alumni to come back for a personal pan pizza topped with literacy and nostalgia.

The site asks for the name of your elementary school, but no one seems to be cross-checking to make sure that your school was really part of the Book-It program in 1988. They’re using the current professions, cities, and elementary school names of the “alumni” to make a cool map showing all of the impressive things that the program alumni have grown up to become. Pizza Hut estimates that about 20% of all Americans of the proper age have participated in Book-It during the last three decades.

Pizza Hut announced the alumni outreach effort earlier this week, but we weren’t sure that the site was up and generating coupons until this afternoon. The form didn’t even work until yesterday. It’s working now, though. We’re not sure how good the personal pan pizza is per square inch, but the more important question is this: will the free pizzas for adults drum up business for Pizza Hut as it did back when the Hut was primarily a sit-down restaurant?

Book-It Alumni Program [Pizza Hut]

NOSTALGICALLY RELATED:
What Happens To Pizza Huts When They Are No Longer Pizza Huts?

Many scoffed at the notion of a gold iPhone, but it seems that metallic champagne is the color everyone's trying to buy. While online orders are being pushed back to next month, sources have told Engadget directly that some of Apple's flagship stores only received "tens" of gold iPhones, which sold out the moment doors opened. In a statement to AllThingsD, the company said that demand for the new hardware has been "incredible," and that supplies are already limited. On the upside, Cupertino is said to have already increased orders for Auric Goldfinger's favorite iPhone by up to a third, but until those devices make it out of the factory, it's probably easier to knock off Fort Knox than to get a gold iPhone.

Filed under: Cellphones, Apple

Comments

Source: WSJ Digits

Combination planting—where certain crops are planted together to stave off pests or enhance taste—is as old as farming itself. But up until recently, it’s been difficult to be precise about where and how different crops can benefit from each other. Benedikt Groß, a UK-based interaction designer, is using algorithmic processing t0 improve on a practice that's thousands of years old.

Groß’s idea actually stems from a fairly recent development in European farming culture: Biogas production. Across the EU, government subsidies for farmers who farm biogas crops are inspiring what Der Spiegel recently called “a modern day land grab.” Across the continent, farmers are buying up new land to plant corn and other biogas crops.

But just like every other crop, these plants are still subject to age-old problems, like vermin—which generally means farmers have to use pesticides. That’s where Groß comes in. His idea is to use the thousand-year-old concept of combination planting to reduce the need for chemicals.

Combination planting is old, but the way Groß applies it is new. Using an algorithm written in the visual scription program Processing, he’s developed a way to generate complex planting maps that play to the unique complexities of each plot of land (the crops are planted using a GPS system, which is actually a fairly common approach among modern farmers).

As part of his interaction design studies at the RCA, in London, Groß tested his script on an irregular, 28-acre plot of land in southern Germany. Using his algorithm, he created a Voronoi diagram-style map of oats, destined for biogas production, interwoven with a delicate thread of eleven wildflowers and herbs, known to repel vermin and pests. He supplied the map to his farmer collaborator in May, and the crops are due to be harvested for biogas this month. “These additional areas establish, or improve, the connectivity for fauna and flora between habitats,” he writes. “This increased diversity also eases typical problems of monocultures.”

Does this mean parametric design is poised to transform farming? Not quite. After all, it’s hard to say whether the money saved in pesticides is more than the cost of mapping and precision planting. Groß explains on his website that the point of his testbed was simply to illustrate how digital fabrication could eventually aid farmers.

But it’s not out of the question. After all, agricultural scientists are exploring how GPS-controlled shock collars for livestock could revolutionize crop rotation and eradicate fences altogether. Could algorithmically-planned fields be far behind? It’s a brave new farm—but let’s stay away from Soylent Green, shall we? [Creative Applications]

Avena+ Test Bed — Agricultural Printing and Altered Landscapes from Benedikt Groß on Vimeo.