Shmorgisborg of Science

During my dissertation defense presentation a couple of weeks ago, I explained that one of the advantages of any fluorescence-based biological or chemical detection system would be the ability to scale down such a system to a portable and deployable size. My evidence for this was the mention of two biosensing detection systems commercialized by Research International: the Raptor and the Biohawk. Both of these systems are, for lack of a better word, awesome. Both systems use what are known as sandwich immunoassays to detect the target analytes. And both systems are capable of detecting multiple analytes simultaneously. The sandwich immunoassay used in these sensors is an antibody-based detection method in which a primary antibody specific to a target compound is adsorbed onto a glass waveguide, similar to an optical fiber. If the target compound is present in a sample, it will bind selectively to the primary antibody. After exposure to a sample, a solution containing a secondary antibody that is labeled with a fluorescent dye is flown over the waveguide. If the target compound is bound to the primary antibody, the secondary antibody will also bind to it, creating a sort of antibody-antigen-antibody sandwich (hence the name of the assay). Excitation light is then sent through the waveguide, exciting the fluorescent dye bound to the secondary antibody, indicating the presence of the target compound.

I remember learning about RI's Raptor sensor during my coursework early in my graduate studies, so it has been around for quite some time and has become a bit of a mainstay. Certainly if you'd like to learn more about either of these systems, you can check out Research International's website and read up about them. Besides plenty of reading material, there are some really nice diagrams on how the sandwich immunoassay works, as well as diagrams showing the inner workings of a fully automated biosensor. They also have some other cool detection and sampling platforms that are worth checking out if you're interested in those types of things.

And now for some news.

As if CERN hadn't made headlines enough lately (see Large Hadron Collider), they made big news last week when they announced and published the results of their recent studies on antimatter. One of two research groups working on parallel studies was able to effectively create atoms of antihydrogen, hold them in an electromagnetic field, and keep them there for nearly 200 milliseconds. Although this is a big deal, the end goal is to create and trap many more antihydrogens and to hold them for much longer periods of time so that the properties of the trapped antimatter can be thoroughly studied and examined. And so this study is a major step forward in regard to the overall objective.

And there you have it, folks. A blog update with actual substance. Been a while.

It's a Celebration!

A quick update on how things are going with the author: on Wednesday November 10th, I successfully defended my doctorate dissertation. Technically, I am not yet a doctor, as the Mizzou graduate school has not received my forms and dissertation, but I am hoping that all of the paperwork will be submitted within the next week or so. So what I'm getting at here is that if you feel like calling me Dr. Stringer, I would be comfortable with that.

So what's next, you ask? That's still a little up in the air. I was interviewed by a company that I really liked, but did not get the job. Instead, I will likely take a post-doc position and stay here in Columbia. It's all worked out pretty well considering I've grown to like Columbia quite a lot. In addition, the post-doc position will allow me to work on some unfinished research that I was just beginning as I was writing my dissertation.

For now, I'm going to have to leave it at that. I'll be updating soon with some information on some very cool, already-on-the-market biosensing systems that I discussed briefly during my defense. Until then, the doctor is on-call.

Curiosity Didn't Kill the Cat, But It Could if It Wanted To

Oh wow. I can't believe it's been over a month since I've updated this thing. But I guess that's how it goes when you're preparing for a final defense and trying to pin down a job for after graduation. Add my current position as live-in babysitter and sprinkle in a little part-time work in the lab getting a pilot study going, and you've got a daily schedule that leaves very little room for blogging.

For those who are interested, my final defense will be November 10th at 10:00am in room 259 of the Agriculture Engineering Building. The defense presentation will be public, so come by if you'd like.

Now for my main reason for creating this post: as a follower of NASA's Twitter feed, I was informed of this live video of the assembly of the next generation Mars rover, called Curiosity. I believe that the folks you see working in the clean room are currently assembling the robotic arm of the rover at the time of posting this. If you're getting to this post, and therefore the link, much later than when this update was posted, I'm not sure what you'll see. But it appears as though you'll find some sort of rover assembly at that URL for quite some time. Anyways, it's pretty awesome, so I recommend checking it out.

Posting will probably continue to be intermittent (or nonexistent) for at least the next week and a half or so. I will try to begin adding regular updates after my defense, but it will be crunch time for getting a job and moving, so we'll see how it goes. Until next time, enjoy watching assembly of the Mars rover...or whatever else happens to be at that particular URL when you click the link.

Call Me a Derelict Once Again

Wow. It's been a long time since I've posted. Turns out that fatherhood is a fairly time-consuming venture. And when you combine it with writing a dissertation, conducting research, and job-hunting...well let's just say my days are certainly full.

I have to say that there were a couple of fairly major events that happened recently that I would've liked to blog about. First was the Perseid meteor shower, which peaked late last week. I guess we haven't totally missed that one, considering that if you live in a region with relatively low light pollution, you can probably still glimpse a few meteoroids per hour. If you're lucky. The other event that I would've liked to have posted on here was yesterday's live streaming video feed of the repairs being made to the International Space Station. The series of spacewalks that took place were undertaken to repair a faulty pump that is used to cool the station and its components. I watched a few minutes of the video feed, and what I saw of it was pretty fascinating. Most of the feed was focused on the ground crew, who we saw conversing idly, as well as eating lunch (I saw one tech eating a sandwich and found myself wondering, 'what kind of sandwich is that?'). But I did get to see some of the live video from the camera that appeared to be fixed to the astronaut's helmet. From that camera, I watched as the astronaut basically just tried to get from one point to another; either trying to reach the repair site or trying to return to the ISS exterior hatch. The really interesting part was how the astronaut made his or her way across the surface of the station using a series of handles. It was slow going, but probably very reassuring to always have at least one hand on something solid.

Anyways, I'm not sure if I'll be back to regular posting or not. We'll see how it goes. I'll try to update at least every week or two, though. In the meantime, I'll try to keep my chops up by continuing to watch Carl Sagan's Cosmos with my son, and as many episodes of Nova as I can.

How Do You Say 'Mark It, Dude' In Swiss?

One thing is for certain: there's nothing eco-friendly about travel by airline. Aircraft engines sputter huge amounts of pollutants while in the air. Another certainty is that our skies are only becoming more and more congested with these noisy, fuming creatures. To remedy this problem, the governments of the U.S. and Europe have considered various measures for curbing airline pollution, such as taxes, emission standards, etc. But really, as more airlines take flight everyday, it's unlikely that these measures will make any long-term positive impact.

This is where Solar Impulse comes onto the scene. As of yesterday morning, the first night flight by a solar-powered aircraft was completed. Solar Impulse's HB-SIA aircraft lifted off the previous morning in Switzerland, spent the day charging its batteries at high altitude, and then spent the night running solely on those batteries thanks to the four electric engines that propel the craft. After 26 hours of flight, the HB-SIA returned to its home airfield and landed.

The plane itself is really quite simple. Essentially, it is a lightweight glider with an immense wingspan fitted with four electric propeller engines. The top of the extra-wide wing is covered with thousands of solar cells, which charge the polymer lithium batteries. And dangling from underneath the expanse of wing is a small cockpit that holds only one pilot. After its first successful night flight, the Solar Impulse team's next challenges include a trans-Atlantic flight and a round-the-world flight, both slated to be attempted within the next 3 years.

It should be noted that the power required to keep a large airliner packed with travelers in the sky is quite immense, so don't expect to see a fleet of solar-powered Boeing 747s anytime soon. But it is reasonable to think of this flight as a rather large leap in that direction. After all, it wasn't really all that long ago that sustained passenger flight was considered impossible even with conventional aircraft (Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic took place just over 83 years ago). If you want to hear my prediction (which I know you don't because it means absolutely nothing...I'm not an expert in aviation or renewable energy), I'd be willing to bet that I will fly on a solar-powered aircraft in my lifetime.

So there.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Whimper

My current reading material is Richard Dawkins' latest book, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. It's the first Dawkins book that I've read, and although I'm very much enjoying it, I find him so overly pretentious and oftentimes contradicting himself throughout the book that I have to take frequent reading breaks to ensure that I am not assimilated by the Borg of smugness (Star Trek reference - kicking the nerd factor up another notch). It was during one of these reading breaks that I switched on the television yesterday evening and looked through our selection of on-demand Netflix items. While perusing through the various childrens' shows and lame reality TV programs, I happened upon a series titled When We Left Earth. I vaguely remember this show airing on Discovery Channel, but since I don't have cable, I hadn't seen any of the episodes. As one might expect, this is a television show dedicated to the history of NASA and of manned space flight. I only watched the first episode, which covered the Mercury Program and the initial seven American astronauts, but I can't wait to watch the rest of the series. In fact, all day I've been looking forward to plopping down in front of the TV with an adult beverage and watching another episode or two.

I bring this up not just because I'm plugging the show and believe that it should be required material for school children, but also because it drew my thoughts to one of my favorite books: The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. So not only am I shamelessly plugging a show about manned space flight, I'm also plugging a book about manned space flight. And I must say that if space flight fascinates you to any degree, you must pick up a copy of The Right Stuff and give it a read. But I should warn you that if your fascination with space flight is as intense as mine, you will have difficultly putting it down and other tasks will take second priority. So don't plan on being real productive once you get started with that one.

While watching When We Left Earth, I found myself thinking about a certain fact about myself, which is that while I am completely awe-stricken by manned space flight and still to this day floored by the idea that a man walked on the moon, I have very little interest in going into space. This concept was hammered home last night during the introductory sequence of the show, in which one of the images we see are an astronaut in orbit with the features of the Earth gliding by behind him.

And that's when I started feeling a little queasy.

Yes, I'm infatuated with manned space flight. But if you sent me into space, stuffed me into a suit and pushed me out the door, I'd grab onto the first thing thing I could get a hold of, with arms and legs, and hold tight until it was time to go back in. The thought of being out there, in the vastness of space, somewhat terrifies me. With that said, if someone from NASA came to me and said, "Cody, we'd like to send you to space. How about it?" I'm not sure that I'd be able to say no. I'd just probably spend the whole trip quaking with fear. And probably crying a little bit.

Lungs and Penguins; But Not Penguins' Lungs

I have returned to the wonderful town of Columbia after a successful trip to Ft. Leonard Wood and back yesterday. My plenary talk went quite well. And although I didn't see any earth-shattering presentations or hear of any bewilderingly awesome research, I did meet some really nice people. I had hoped to at least have a few nuggets from my day at Leonard Wood to discuss on this blog, but alas, I returned with very little noteworthy nerd-stuff.

I will say this: Ft. Leonard Wood is a strange place. Everyone wears the same outfit. They travel in large groups, often singing monotonous chants in unison. And perhaps I'm the only one who finds this odd, but despite the fact that the fort does not cover an overtly large area, everyone drives everywhere they go. Even though the early summer weather yesterday was seasonably mild, I did not see a single person walking or riding a bike.

With the understanding that my previous post was fairly scant and lacking any real substance, I am unfortunately going to have to leave this post in the same state. My day of travel was quite tiring and I'm having a hard time focusing, or for even functioning for that matter, today. Maybe my next post should be on the science of sleep; perhaps I'll learn a thing or two and will be able to stay alert enough to keep this blog going. I will, however, leave you with two items of interest before I fall asleep at my desk. The first item (actually, two items combined into one) is an article on creating lungs in a laboratory. The two studies that are featured in the article were both published in Science, and describe two methods for engineering a lung, or at least a device that performs a similar function. The first study is actually a biologically engineered lung, in which lung tissue was decullularized, and then the decelled platform was subsequently reseeded with lung cells. The cells, using the extracellular matrix of the decellularized platform as a guide, grew into the correct positions so that the lung was effectively recreated. The second study was a microfluidic device, wherein the fluidic channel was lined with lung cells. Outside of the channel were blood capillaries, which gave each device the function of a single alveolus of the lung. Both studies were pretty cool and I'm constantly amazed at the advances in tissue engineering. And generally speaking, both of these were pretty big advances.

The second item that I would like to leave you with is a video of a penguin that I took while at the Shedd Aquarium last month. Why? Because penguins are totally awesome!

Enjoy!

Filler and Fluff

As is becoming the norm with this blog, I have found myself quite busy recently and unable to update as much as I would like. So busy, actually, that I didn't even realize that I had forgotten to post last week until this morning. It was kind of like I forgot that I forgot, which is sort of paradoxical.

Anyways, my reason (not excuse; they're totally different. Duh.) for mismanaging my blog was that, firstly, I was working on a grant proposal late last week that ended up taking considerably more time than I had initially thought, and, secondly, that I am preparing to present at an upcoming conference. The conference that I will be attending is the International Symposium on Spectral Sensing Research (ISSSR), which is sponsored by the U.S. Army and is being hosted by Missouri State University, Jordan Valley Innovation Center, and Fort Leonard Wood. If you are familiar with Missouri geography, you might notice that, while MSU and JVIC are both located in Springfield, Fort Leonard Wood is something like 100 miles away. So their solution is to bus the entire conference to Fort Leonard Wood for the presentations that are taking place there.

While this certainly seems considerably troublesome, it certainly works out well for me. Here's why: my research was selected for a plenary talk. If, like me, you're not quite sure of what this means, the dictionary is a wonderful aid. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, plenary means 'attended by all qualified members.' This means that there will be no concurrent sessions with my presentation, and that all of the conference attendees will be present for my talk. Boil it down to brass tax, and you can conclude that this presentation is a pretty big deal. However, until I was informed that my abstract had been selected for a plenary talk, I had not planned on even attending the conference because of more pressing concerns here in Columbia. And so after a pow-wow with my advisors, it was decided that I would register and attend just long enough to give my talk and shake some hands and then return home. Luckily, the plenary talks are being given at Fort Leonard Wood, not in Springfield, and so the early morning pilgrimage that I will have to make will only be the two-hour trip from Columbia to Fort Leonard Wood, as opposed to the three-hour trip from Columbia to Springfield.

Although I'm not certain that I'll be sticking around for any of the other talks, I'm hoping to meet some big-time sort of people; military and national lab program directors and the like. And perhaps by keeping my ears open, I'll be able to post later this week or next week on some of the cool stuff going on in the field of spectroscopic sensing research.

Would They Be Called Titanians?

(Artist's rendering of the 2005 landing of Huygens probe on Titan)

For those of you fascinated by the possibility extraterrestrial life, word is circulating quickly of new studies on Titan, one of the moons that orbits Saturn. These studies, which are being reported by ScienceNews, as well as being a topic of discussion on today's Science Friday, indicate that some form of life may be taking in compounds that are created in Titan's atmosphere in a respiration-like process.

Using spectrometry data from the Cassini spacecraft (which I've written about before in another post), along with some fancy computer modeling, researchers have discovered that compounds that were expected to be found on or near the surface of the moon are generally absent. One way of explaining this phenomenon is that organisms living on the surface are consuming these compounds. This sounds vague and somewhat implausable, but it seem to be a reasonable hypothesis. The reason that this theory holds water is that two separate studies were performed that examined separate compounds. The compounds, acetylene, ethane, and hydrogen make up a kind of bizarre-O version of Earth's nitrogen cycle, wherein methane and acetylene are broken down by UV radiation in the atmosphere to form various byproducts, including hydrogen and more acetylene (from the breakdown of methane). The heavier compounds then fall down toward the surface of the moon, where they are unexpectedly absent from spectral analysis. The reason? Maybe, just maybe, organisms on the surface of the planet are gobbling those molecules up for food. It's also unclear how the initial compounds are reconstituted in the atmosphere, which could also be handily explained by a respiration-ish process; kind of like how we help reconstitute carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere as we exhale.

Pretty wild stuff.

All in all, I thought these studies were pretty cool. I haven't had a chance to listen to the SciFri podcast from today's show, but I'm looking forward to checking it out. I have to admit, though, that my fascination with alien life is pretty lacking. In fact, when asked if I believe that there is life beyond our planet, I've replied with a meager shrug and a poorly enunciated 'I dunno,' which sounded more like 'uh-Uh-uh.' It certainly is the stuff of inspiration and awe for many, but I'll save my concern for when we find out that the alien life that we've been searching for looks something like this:
I just hope that, when that day comes, Sigourney Weaver is up to the challenge...

Check It Out!

I'm very pleased to announce that today's post is all about informing you, the reader, of things that are going on that you, the reader, can see for yourself.

C'mon, let's check it out.

The first little tidbit is that the planets Venus, Mars, and Saturn will all be visible in the same night sky this month. The locations of the planets in the sky, at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere, are described in an article at Space.com, which also describes the planets' movements over the weeks and months ahead until they are no longer visible. This week, though, will provide a particularly nice view of our Sun-orbiting brethren, given a sufficient lack of clouds. If, like me, you have a hard time following the article's description of the planets' locations, there is also a link to a handy image that illustrates the positions of each planet in the western evening sky. For your convenience, I have stolen the image and posted it below.


While I was piddling around at Space.com, I was also reminded that tomorrow is the scheduled test launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. Some of you may remember that I've written about the Falcon 9 in a past post, which can be found here. The Falcon 9 is the vehicle that is slated to take the place of the retiring space shuttle, so this test launch is a pretty big deal. And I must say that I'm very excited about it. Especially since you can get live updates and information about the test launch at SpaceX's website, and what's even cooler is that they will be streaming a live webcast of the launch, which is scheduled to occur at 10:00 am tomorrow (Friday, June 4th). The webcast will go live 20 minutes before launch, at 9:40 am.

Let me repeat that: At 9:40 tomorrow morning, click right here to see a live webcast of the first test launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

Goings-On Over Our Heads

The big news this week is the Air Force's unmanned scramjet that broke the record for hypersonic flight. This is not to say that this broke the airspeed record, as NASA's space shuttle has pretty much had that record under wraps for quite some time (during atmospheric reentry). However, it did reach a speed of Mach 6, and was able to maintain hypersonic speeds for an extended period of time. The Boeing X-51A Waverider scramjet is a wingless unmanned aircraft that was designed for sustained hypersonic flight testing by the Air Force. Wednesday's hypersonic trip was the Waverider's first free flight, wherein it was launched from under the wing of a B-52 and sustained hypersonic flight for several minutes. The vehicle essentially looks like an over-sized ballistic missile and so while I think the X-51A's flight is pretty cool, it seems to be missing the grandeur of the record setting flights of, say, the X-1A by Chuck Yeager and other manned flights in winged, supersonic death machines.

Despite my so-so interest in this story, I wandered over to the Popular Science website to read more about it, where I found that they had posted a PopSci photo gallery looking back at a century of aviation in honor of the scramjet's test flight, which I thought was pretty interesting. And then I noticed that they were featuring a video titled 'World's biggest airship inflated for the first time.' I had to see it, and sure enough, it was an awesome spectacle indeed. The video is high-res so I recommend watching it on as big a screen as you can possibly get your hands on to enhance the whole 'biggest airship being inflated' experience. The ship that is being inflated in the video is E-Green Technologies' Bullet 580 airship. Once inflated, the ship is 235 feet long and 60 feet wide and is capable of carrying small loads of cargo to an altitude of 20,000 feet, or larger loads of cargo (up to 15,000 lbs) to a lower altitude of around 2,000 feet. What's really astounding about this vehicle is its design. The outer hull is made from thin-layer Kevlar, making it both extremely light weight as well as very strong. In fact, the CEO of E-Green told Discovery News that if there was some sort of accident and the airship had to make a hard landing, it would just "kind of bounce," which makes sense considering there's no rigid frame to speak of to damage. The thing really is a gigantic balloon. Along with the design of the hull, the layout of the ship is also worth noting. For instance, the cargo bay is actually inside the structure, and is filled with air. Helium-filled ballasts surround the cargo area and these ballasts provide the lift required for flight.

In summation, there's some pretty exciting stuff going on up in the sky these days; what with scramjets flying around at Mach 6 and giant airships on the loose. But the X-51A is a far cry from the dangerous manned supersonic craft of the late 40s and 50s, and the Bullet 580 is certainly a much different creature than the zeppelin airships of the pre-Hindenburg disaster days.

Maximum Overdrive 2: Attack of the Zombie Satellite

Once again, I have been neglecting my blog. I'd like to think that my reason for being absent was a sound one though: I got married. So for those of you who have been referring to me as miss must now refer to me as mister...or something like that.

Unfortunately, while I was absent the greatest story for a nerdy, science fiction-loving blogger broke, and so it is only now that I've been able to get around to posting about it. The story is best summed up by the headline that ran on the Christian Science Monitor's website: 'Zombie' Satellite Runs Amok in Earth's Orbit. Seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to.

That's right folks; a zombie satellite. It's believed that the communications satellite named Galaxy 15 lost contact with its handlers after a solar flare toasted it early last week. However, despite having lost communication with home base, it's still operating at full capacity. It's still, you know, doing stuff. That doesn't mean that we terrestrial beings have anything to fear from what is being referred to as the 'zombiesat.' At least, we shouldn't fear for our lives or our safety. We do have one thing to fear, though, as a Discovery News contributor is speculating that the zombiesat could potentially interrupt airing of the series finale of 'Lost.' And that, people, would be a fate far worse than death.

All kidding aside (not really), there may be something larger going on here. I, for one, don't believe these so-called experts who claim that the satellite's communication was knocked out by a solar flare for one stinking minute. Actually, I'm pretty sure that we all know what's going to happen here, and that there's only one man who can save us. A lot of people may think that I'm talking about Bruce Willis or President Barack Obama. But alas, these men cannot help us out of this particular situation. No, friends, our only hope now is Emilio Estevez. Because I've heard a story not so different from this one before, and it has a name: Maximum Overdrive.

Having Traded Wings of Wax for Cameras

Saw a great story about NASA's newly acquired images of the Sun. If you haven't run across this yet (it was a featured story on Yahoo's homepage earlier this week), I recommend at least checking out the video linked above.

If you're like me and have heard absolutely nothing about this project, never fear; I'll fill you in. The images of the Sun that the above story refers to were gathered by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The SDO is an orbiting observatory that was launched back in February. The goal of its 5-year mission is to provide data on the Sun that will allow us to better understand the glowing orb in the sky that is the source of all life on Earth, as well as to gain knowledge about Earth's precarious but fundamentally necessary relationship with it.

Over the past couple of months, while the craft was soaring over our heads outside the Earth's atmosphere, the SDO has been undergoing checks and testing to ensure that all of the on-board equipment is working properly. This equipment consists of three main instruments. The first is the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), which is primarily used for studying variability of the Sun's magnetic field and internal workings. The second instrument is the Extreme-Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE), which examines what is known as extreme ultraviolet radiation produced by the Sun. EVE is capable of accurately measuring light with wavelengths lower than 30 nm, and it is this high-energy radiation that is responsible for heating the upper atmosphere of the Earth and thus giving rise to our ionosphere. The last piece of equipment is the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), and it is capable of full-disc imaging of the Sun and will be taking constant video of the massive star throughout the SDO's mission lifetime.

The AIA, as one might expect, will be providing the coolest images and videos; at least for those of us not directly involved in solar research. It's these images that have been tossed around on the internet and shown in news stories. You can find the images at the SDO image gallery site, as well as videos at the briefing multimedia site, but I thought I would add a few of my favorites to this post. I hope you enjoy them. I sure have (the second one is my new desktop wallpaper).

Cooler Than UAVs? I Think So

This week, I'll be continuing upon last week's post, which focused on my experiences at the SPIE Defense Security & Sensing symposium in Orlando, FL. Hopefully, though, this post will be a bit more interesting to those who are not conducting research in sensor development. On the first day of the conference, after I had finished my presentation, an event called 'student lunch with the experts' was held. The event took place in one of the resort's ballrooms, and the dining tables were set up in such a way that every other seat at a table was occupied by an 'expert' - mostly high-level researchers at top laboratories, companies, and universities - and the seats in between were open, to be filled by the students attending the lunch.

At the 'student lunch with the experts,' I ended up sitting with two gentlemen from the Naval Research Laboratory. One of the NRL researchers discussed his research on analyzing and modeling light propagation in turbulent media, which was definitely pretty cool, but was more interested in having his colleague explain his work. Once coaxed into speaking about his work, the second NRL researcher explained that he was involved with 'gliders.'

"Are you familiar with gliders?" he asked us. We shook our heads no.

Gliders, it turns out, are unmanned vehicles. Similar in some ways to the UAVs - unmanned aerial vehicles - that the US armed forces have been implementing over the past few years, but these vehicles are quite different. The gliders are also known as AUVs - autonomous underwater vehicles. Unlike their airborne brethren, the underwater gliders are not piloted by a technician at a console in another location. Instead, the technician gives the glider a set of GPS coordinates. Once given its destination, off it goes, completely on its own at a nice leisurely pace of 1-2 knots. Upon reaching its destination, the AUV pops up to the surface of the water and establishes a satellite communication link with its home base. At this point, the glider can either stay put at its current location or can be given a new set of coordinates, in which case it will submerge and continue along to the new destination.

Another difference between the underwater gliders and the UAVs are that the glider has no visible means of propulsion; no jets, no propellers. Rather than relying on power-gobbling propellers, the glider makes use of ballasts, combined with fins and the ocean's thermal gradient, to transfer vertical motion into horizontal thrust. In practice, this would mean that the glider would receive its coordinates and then dive. As it dives, internal ballasts push the nose of the glider downward, pushing the glider forward. Once a certain depth is reached, thermal gradients buoy the glider back toward the surface. As it ascends, the nose points upwards, propelling the glider forward in a fashion similar to its descent. The resulting trajectory takes on a saw-tooth profile: up-and-down over and over again, but always moving forward. And because the AUV has no motor to speak of, its power consumption is minimal. So efficient are they that the duration of their submerged journeys can last for months, limited only by the life of the battery. That is unless they are attacked by sharks first, which has proven to be a bit of a problem.

Current research on these vehicles is focused on how to utilize them to solve practical problems. One area of interest, which we discussed during the lunch, is the ability to mount sensors onto the AUVs, allowing them to autonomously collect data and monitor ocean water for analytes, such as environmental pollutants. Given the fact that it would be totally awesome to see a glider in action, not to mention the fact that my research emphasis is on environmental sensors, I'm sensing a possible collaboration here.

A Little Taste of Mushy-Brain Syndrome

I've returned from SPIE Defense Security & Sensing both refreshed and also mentally exhausted. It was a multi-day bombardment of all things awesome in the world of remote environmental sensing and other similar fields. In fact, I left a day before the conference was scheduled to end because I knew my brain would turn to mush if I stayed for the entire duration. I know this because I stayed for the whole shebang last year and, although I learned much, could make little of the notes that I had taken once I returned. Those conference sessions seemed to boil together into a steamy stew of science in my brain. I kept getting confused between different sensing mechanisms and who, of the talks that I particularly enjoyed, gave talks about which subject...'Now, I think that was the Air Force Research Lab that's doing the aptamer-based sensors...or was it MIT? Oh no...'

This year at the conference, I tried to stick with sessions that were at least somewhat related to my research, which means that I strayed away from imaging and target detection and tracking and instead mostly attended sessions on environmental and chemical sensing and the like. It didn't take long for me to notice a very obvious trend. In fact, I noticed it on the very first morning when I gave my talk. I would've been a fool to not notice it because the topic every other speaker in my session presented was on a particular type of research. That research, you may be wondering, was SERS. SERS, not to be confused with SARS, stands for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. To get a picture of how SERS works, let's start with the end in mind. And when I say 'end,' I mean the last two letters of the abbreviation: RS. Raman spectroscopy is a method of analyzing Raman scattering, the inelastic scattering of incident photons, from a species. The wavelength or wavelengths at which Raman scattering occurs are related to the vibrational energy of the molecular species, so that every molecule or compound has a particular Raman spectral fingerprint. By analyzing a particular sample, the Raman spectrum can be compared to known spectral fingerprints to identify the molecular makeup of the sample. The problem, however, is that Raman scattering is very weak, and this is where the first two letters, SE, come into play. Surfance enhancement of the Raman signal can be created when the sample being interrogated is applied to a nano-structured metallic surface. The gaps between nano-scale structures are tiny little amplifiers of the Raman scattering effect, most likely caused by local surface plasmon resonance effects.

This method of analyzing and identifying particular compounds with SERS is quite effective and also thoroughly documented, and so the primary research focus was on how to enhance the effect with various surface processing techniques and use of newfangled light sources, and also on how to apply this signal transduction method to a broader sensing platform. More specifically, how to grab the analyte of interest out of the environment so that SERS can be used to interrogate it. In fact, one group from the Army Research Lab was combining SERS signal transduction with molecularly imprinted polymers as a method for capturing the analyte. The reason this is of particular interest to me is because I also work with imprinted polymers and I found the entire scheme to be quite brilliant in its simplicity and effectiveness. However, I also realize from working with imprinted polymers that in practice there is absolutely nothing simple about it.

I have to admit that there were many other topics besides SERS that were discussed during the chemical and environmental sensing sessions at this year's Defense Security & Sensing. I noticed that laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was a recurring theme, as was ion mobility spectroscopy (IMS), but SERS was overwhelmingly the most popular subject within the sessions that I attended. And now that I've got the topics that I was most interested in (and I'm probably the only one interested in them) out of the way, I will return shortly with another post that shares some of the more wicked-cool things that I learned about at this year's SPIE Defense Security & Sensing conference.

Scary as HAL

I ran across a great article at ScienceNews wishing a happy 20th birthday to the Hubble Space Telescope. I highly recommend reading over the article, not only because it's well written and talks about the Hubble's interesting history, but also because it contains a link to a very nice slide show of Hubble's most iconic images. As it turns out, the article's author, Ron Cowen, has written some 940 articles on the 'astronomy,' 'planetary science,' and 'atoms and cosmos' beats for ScienceNews. The subjects of some of his more recent articles include the discovery and analysis of a planet outside of our solar system with a moderate temperature, the finding that a moon of Saturn may be capable of sustaining life, and updates on the Large Hadron Collider.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to make this post a short one, as I've got a lot on my plate preparing for the SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing conference next week. Before I go, though, I thought I'd leave you with this little tidbit: NASA, partnering with General Motors, has developed a new generation of dexterous robots designed for human assistance. You can read more about them here. Really, I'm not so sure that I would be comfortable working with a robot designed to assist human astronauts. After all, I've seen a little film called 2001: A Space Odyssey. Unlike the omnipresent HAL, though, these robots are humanoid. If I had to describe the way they look, I'd call it a cross between a storm trooper and Boba Fett. And the Star Wars references don't have to stop there. The robot is the second iteration in the Robonaut line of development. This means that they call it Robonaut 2, or R2 for short. Perhaps they should add specialized models to the line. Say, for instance, a dancing Robonaut. I'm sure the first design would only be able to complete simple repetitive movements, but surely the second design would be capable of complex and fluid break-dancing. And what would we call this robot? It would only be reasonable to name it Robonaut 2 - Dance 2, of course.

Or R2D2 for short.

Yahoo!ology

Before I get down to science-y stuff, I thought I'd mention my big news of the week. To make a short story long, I follow a local cycling blog called CoMo CyCo (Columbia Missouri Cycling Cooperative). I'm very fond of this blog and read it every day. Yesterday I left a comment on one of the previous posts. And in response, the CoMo CyCo PooBah (author of said blog), gave me a shout out (sort of) on yesterday's post. So if anyone is reading this blog because they meandered over from the CyCo, I hope you find it...well...not boring?

It was also a big week for another reason. Again, to give more information than is really necessary, I use Yahoo! as my browser's homepage. I don't necessarily endorse using this site as your homepage, and I don't even necessarily endorse using its search engine capabilities. I'm just saying that I, for one, do. The primary reason that I have made Yahoo! my homepage is because I like to read through the headlines of featured stories. I find them informative at times, and it's a good way to force-feed myself the day's big news. Or at least what some schmuck in Silicon Valley thinks of as big news. The reason I'm saying all of this is because, in an unusual move by the popular search engine, two really, really science-y stories were featured on their homepage within only a couple of days of each other. I mean, it's not rare to see these types of stories featured on their page, but by 'not rare,' I mean, like, once a month. So to properly observe this fluke by the folks at Yahoo!, I thought I'd spend some time briefly describing these two stories; both of which are pretty cool.

The first story was titled 'NASA finds shrimp dinner on ice beneath Antarctica,' and basically the title sums it all up. NASA, despite that it was thought that no complex life existed below Antarctic ice sheets, dug a 600 ft hole in an Antarctic ice sheet, lowered a camera, and found...drum roll please...complex life. More specifically, they found a live shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish tentacle. The article doesn't suggest what they were actually looking for. If it was thought that no complex life existed in that environment, then why go through the trouble of digging a hole and dropping a camera? Seems odd to me. But regardless, the news is pretty groundbreaking and has opened up all sorts of new questions, not to mention new possibilities of finding life on planets where it was thought that life could not exist.

The second story was titled 'The world's only immortal animal,' and I thought this one was totally crazy. The animal that the blog is referring to is a species of jellyfish. The jellyfish uses a cellular process called transdifferentiation to revert from its adult phase back to its polyp phase, and then back again. It's somewhat comparable to an adult human with the ability to revert back to an infant, just so that they can grow up and do it all over again. And again. And again. And so on. The result is an animal that never has to die. Interestingly, because they never have to die, their populations are increasing rapidly as they are spreading around the world from their native Caribbean habitat.

So now I'll leave you to ponder our world's many natural wonders. And by all means, if you're not already a regular reader, I highly recommend checking out the CoMo CyCo blog. Particularly for Columbia residents, it's as entertaining as it is informative. Sometimes.

The Changing Shape of Life and Polymers

There are two-fold reasons to celebrate on this somewhat cool, dreary Friday. The first reason, which anyone reading this blog probably already knows since they know me personally, is that it's my birthday.

Exciting!

The second reason is that, according to the Facebook update I just received, today's NPR Science Friday is being broadcast just down the road at the St. Louis Science Center. And for those of you who don't think this is cause for revelry and celebration, find a new blog. You're not nerdy enough for this one.

Because it's my birthday, a day that makes it unquestionably clear that I'm getting older and there's nothing I can do about, I sometimes find myself thinking of bygone days and the many birthdays that have come before. Therefore, I thought I would stick with the theme of 'memory' for this afternoon's post. If you're a neuroscientist (I've got a particular one in mind, but won't mention him by name), then you're probably going to be disappointed. I'm not talking about the biology and function of the brain's capacity to store information. Instead, I'm referring to the shape memory of materials. For the engineers among us, the first word that comes to mind when I say 'shape memory' is most likely Nitinol. Nitinol is a shape memory alloy of nickel and titanium and is commonly used as the scaffold material in angioplasty stents. The stents are designed in such a way that, at room temperature, the Nitinol scaffold constricts and collapses into a small, dense shape. A catheter is then used to place the stent at the location of a blocked blood vessel. Once in place, the Nitinol warms to body temperature and the scaffold expands, opening the blockage and restoring blood flow.

There are other materials that have this same shape memory based on temperature, and there are also other means of restoring some materials to their original shape - such as with magnetic fields or electrical current. Most of these materials have been specifically engineered for this purpose. However, a polymer produced by DuPont with the proprietary name Nafion that has been widely used in fuel cells has recently been added to the list of shape memory materials. According to an article in ScienceNews, Nafion is capable of 'remembering' three previously held shapes through cycles of heating and cooling. Even though materials with such properties are not overtly rare, it is unusual to just stumble upon one, as is the case with Nafion. It just goes to show that there's always more totally rad stuff out there to study, examine, and poke and prod.

And with that, I'm off to celebrate my birthday...and to celebrate being in the same state as Ira Flatow.

Grit Your Teeth, Wipe Your Brow, and Earn That Degree

While cruising through the usual suspects of science news websites this afternoon, I came across this gem at Sciencenews.org: 'Rise of female weaponry driven by poop fights.' That's the title of an article about lady dung beetles with larger, nastier horns having a greater chance of producing viable offspring because they are more likely to win in a fight over the best poo in which to lay their eggs. All I have to say is, wow. Just...wow.

Speaking of cool headlines, I heard a pretty good one while listening to the local community radio station today. The headline said something about Michael J. Fox receiving an honorary doctorate for his work on Parkinson's Disease awareness. So I came back to the office and did a quick internet search. Sure enough, it's true. As it turns out, Fox was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. He'll be receiving the award today during a ceremony in New York. Also, you might recognize the name of the institute that is giving the honorary doctorate to Fox, as it's the organization that awards the Nobel Prize in medicine.

As someone who has worked for several years now towards a PhD degree, I have mixed feelings about the 'honorary doctorate.' I must say that sometimes it really feels like one's celebrity is enough to warrant an honorary degree, despite that person never having done anything to earn it. This sort of award system, in which you give someone something for doing absolutely nothing, really flies in the face of what the doctorate degree is all about. We're talking about the highest level of formal study here, not a hand-out. Not to say that my experience during my doctorate career has been all that grueling, but it hasn't been a cake-walk either. I've had my fair share of late nights, packed days, drastic failures, and breaking points in which I wanted to pull all my hair out and call it quits. But hey, no one said it would be easy. So why should it be easy for someone else who hasn't put in the work? That's all I'm really asking here.

But Michael J. Fox is a different story. He really has put the work in. And he's been doing it a lot longer than I have. I'm willing to go so far as to say that if anyone deserves an honorary doctorate, it's him. I don't necessarily think he's the only one who deserves it, but he's way up there on the list. So I think what I'm saying is that we should all have a drink on this beautiful Friday afternoon and toast to Michael J. Fox's success. He's earned our hearty congratulations, as well as an advanced degree.

So here's to you, Mike. Cheers!

Procrastination and Dereliction

As some may have noticed, I have been consistently neglecting this blog for the past couple of weeks. First of all, I would like to apologize for doing so, as I had promised myself that I would update with a new post at least once a week. I've fallen short of this goal as of late. Second, I would like to go ahead and provide lame excuses for why I have not been tending to my affairs.

My primary excuse is that my current research project has faltered slightly - although it has really been a one-step-forward-two-steps-back sort of dance from the beginning. This would not normally be a problem, but I have a proceedings manuscript that must be submitted early next week so that I can attend an upcoming conference. As of right now, the amount of data that I have available for this manuscript is approximately zero...zip...nada. So not only am I putting up a data-gathering blitz, but I'm also preparing to write a full-length manuscript. In addition, I just received reviewer comments back from a major peer-reviewed journal to which I had submitted a paper. The reviewer requests are lengthy, and include significant editing of the paper, as well as fresh new experiments to be tacked on.

In all, I'm basically just saying that I'm very busy. But it's very important that I submit my proceedings manuscript on time. This manuscript will ensure my position as a presenter at the SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing conference in April. And I'm looking forward to taking some good notes and reporting back on some of the totally wicked stuff that is showcased at this event. In the meantime, I'll try to be more attentive to my blog. With any luck, I'll have time to add a real, live worthwhile post at the end of this week.

Science Can Even Make Beer Taste Better

As you may know, my research emphasis is in optical sensing technologies. You may also know that my current research focuses on the use of imprinted polymers as a method of detecting the presence of a particular molecule or compound. To keep up with the trends in my field, I was conducting a brief literature search yesterday and I ran across a news article about imprinted polymers. The article, published in Science Daily, describes a research group that is utilizing an imprinted polymer to remove a compound from beer that drives photo-oxidation of beer and other beverages. My jaw hit the floor. Not only is this idea totally awesome, but I've been considering contacting brew masters in the area to discuss potential research projects that could be applied to the beer making industry. After all, my dream since the age of 10 was to become a brew master. What better way to use my expertise in biological engineering than to apply it to my childhood aspirations?

Anyways, I wanted to quickly summarize how this process works so that you can appreciate the beauty of its simplicity. Molecular imprinted polymers, or MIPs, begin as a liquid solution that contains all the necessary reagents to create a solid polymer matrix. While still in an unpolymerized fluid state, the molecule that you are interested in grabbing from the environment, called the template, is added. In this case, the template would be Riboflavin - the compound that causes beer to become photo-oxidized (also referred to as light-stricken). At this point, crosslinking of the solution is initiated by an input of energy, most often in the form of heat, and you end up with a solid polymer that contains bound Riboflavin. Now comes the important part: the Riboflavin is chemically extracted from the polymer, leaving behind binding sites that are chemically- and shape-specific to Riboflavin. When the MIP is then re-exposed to a solution that contains Riboflavin, such as beer, the Riboflavin binds to the imprinted binding sites of the MIP, the polymer is removed from the beer taking the bound Riboflavin with it, and you end up with Riboflavin-free beer. So by simply dipping this polymer into the liquid, you can create a beer that is considerably less susceptible to becoming light-stricken, keeping the beer tasting fresh and hoppy for much longer.

What a wonderful world in which we live!

Take The Mask Off; You Look Like An Idiot

Last week, I droned on about our community's attempt to bring green technology solutions to the citizens of Columbia. I must say, I was really proud of that particular post because it's the first time I wrote about the goings-on of local affairs relating to science and technology. I realize that there is a great amount of ground-breaking research and technological development that goes on here, particularly within the confines of the University of Missouri system. However, we have information outlets ranging from our two local newspapers to campus-based publications that include the Maneater and Mizzou Engineer Magazine that seem to do a decent job of sharing notable scientific news with the public.

With this in mind, I set about trying to find yet another local story that I could discuss (with myself) here on this blog. While perusing through the stories on the homepage of the Columbia Daily Tribune, I ran across an AP story about how experts believe that the swine flu epidemic is more or less over. I know that this is not local, but it struck me as something I should consider speaking my mind about. Now, before I continue, I should mention that I am not a medical or human health expert, so I would recommend taking nothing I subsequently say seriously; these are just the public ramblings of a man who is procrastinating when more pressing and important matters should really be dealt with. I should also mention that I did become ill with what I believe was the swine flu, and can say with all honesty that I've been a whole lot sicker than that in my life.

I remember when the swine flu scare began, and it seemed vividly familiar to when the SARS scare occurred, which was sometime around 2002-2003. Basically, I'm referring to news stories showing Chinese people walking around wearing paper masks. Let's be clear about one thing, though: people did indeed die from both of these diseases. The World Health Organization estimates a 10% mortality rate for those infected with SARS, which is not a trivial statistic. Most of the fatalities, however, occurred in the elderly, which is common for most pathogens, as the elderly have a somewhat suppressed immune system compared to the young. In the case of the swine flu, the number of infections was much greater than SARS, but the mortality rate was much lower; around 0.02%. What was particularly frightening about the swine flu was that a small number of relatively healthy, young people developed viral pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome due to the H1N1 virus, and consequently died. This is the main characteristic that caused the swine flu to stand out and cause a bit of a panic.

As I said, the image that sticks with me when I think about the swine flu outbreak was of the Chinese people on the nightly news wearing their paper masks. This caused me to scoff and shake my head at the television. Perhaps there is a logical reason that these masks might help lessen one's chances of contracting the virus, but I'm not seeing it. Like most common viral pathogens, such as the seasonal flu, the swine flu spreads primarily through contact with water droplets shed from an infected person coughing or sneezing, or touching an object after touching his/her mouth or nose. Oftentimes, those droplets are inhaled directly from the air. And so when I think about what those paper masks would be doing to help, I have to think that they're simply absorbing any infectious droplets or mist that could be in the air. The problem that I'm seeing here is that after absorbing the virus, the masks are just holding them there next to your pie-hole, giving them all the time in the world to gain access to your precious bodily fluids. So it would seem that wearing a mask would do nothing but slow - not stop - infection by the pathogen. But seeing people walking around with those things sure does a job of scaring the bejeezus out of everybody.

Our Own Little Solar Farm

For those living in Columbia who venture over to West Ash Street once in a while, you may have noticed a curious property that sits across the street from the rear fence of Shelter Gardens. There, in the midst of mall-area hustle and bustle is an open grassy expanse. And nestled into one corner of this city-owned field are two solar panels. There is a sign that reads 'Columbia Solar Initiative' or 'Columbia Solar Plant' or some such thing. Avid readers of this blog (a joke of course...I'm not entirely sure I have a single reader, let alone avid readers) will know by now that I have a particular interest in renewable energy and climate change, and so this strange property has always fascinated me. Why did the city plop two solar panels in the middle of Columbia-proper? Why are there only two solar panels in an area that could hold dozens? Why are they hidden in the corner? I've pondered these questions for months now, and as it turns out, so have the semi-competent reporters at the Columbia Missourian.

An article appearing in the Missourian in early 2008 indicates that Dow Chemical Co received a small grant to undertake feasibility studies of integrating solar energy into city power grids. So Dow partnered with the City of Columbia, and with the help of Missouri Solar Applications, built a rather puny 'solar power plant.' In another article later that same year, the Missourian reported that the city had begun selling power to residential households for a somewhat nominal fee. The project, which goes by the name of Solar One, allows a small number of Columbia residents to receive a portion of their energy from the source on West Ash, along with energy purchased by the city from a small array of solar panels on the roof of the Quaker Oats facility on Highway B. According to their website, it is anticipated that the project will continue to grow as other businesses add solar collection capabilities, after which the city will purchase a portion of the energy produced and distribute it to subscribing residents. If you're interested and would like to know more about this project, there's a pretty good video that can be found here.

After learning about the project, I'm pretty excited about it and I hope that they're able to meet their goal of producing 1% of Columbia's entire energy portfolio from solar by 2023. But their goal, while I'm sure is substantial and probably quite a challenge, seems a bit meager to me. Rather than relying on purchasing power from local residents, it seems like the city might be better off requesting funding via grants and other sources to expand their own solar power capabilities. I realize that the panels and auxiliary equipment are quite expensive, but the ideal vision that I see for Columbia's future is to turn the property on West Ash into a fully functioning solar farm, filled corner to corner with solar panel arrays. I can think of other city-owned locations where solar panels could be erected, too. Sure, 1% is great, but let's shoot for 10%...20%...50%. Go big or go home!

I know this won't happen anytime soon, but as the technology becomes cheaper and simultaneously more efficient, it could happen sooner than most of us think. In fact, I think I'll keep an eye on the West Ash Street property for signs of construction. Who knows, maybe the folks at Solar One and I are on the same page.

Sure, Things Are Bad. But They Could Be A Lot Worse.

Today I think I'll mention a few important points in the news. First of all, if you haven't heard about the results of the Cop15 climate conference, and are interested in such matters, it's worth noting that what came out of the summit was the framework of an international non-binding treaty. I know that combining terms like 'non-binding' and 'treaty' sounds a little oxymoronic, and I find myself thinking 'what's the point?' But the point is this: like the health care reform bill that is being worked over by the House and Senate, a non-binding treaty is still a legal deal that can be refined and added to over time. It's a start (sort of), and that's what we should focus on. According to a brief article on ScienceNews.org, the Copenhagen Accord will establish, among other things, a trust fund that will be financed by industrialized nations to provide monetary aid to poorer nations to help them cope with the effects of climate change, and is a much needed continuation of the Kyoto Protocol. I, personally, am not happy with it, but I'm glad that it's been drafted.

In other news, in the aftermath of the earthquake that absolutely devastated Haiti, I've been hearing lots of stories - mostly on NPR, because I'm a total public radio nerd - about the slowness of aid coming from the US. Here's one such story that I found with a quick Google search. I agree that the US was beginning to look a bit unconcerned about the people of Haiti, considering that at the time when aid workers from Venezuela, China, France, and Iceland were already touching down at the Port au Prince airport, the only thing we had done was send a military plane over the country to examine the destruction and plan what to do. However, in the last 24 hours or so, the US has been able to mobilize or is preparing to mobilize a fairly impressive armada. Popular Mechanics has broken down the rescue effort quite nicely, which will include four Coast Guard Cutters, a C-130 cargo plane with aid supplies and personnel, flocks of urban rescue teams, an 894-foot Navy hospital ship, and the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. The most important thing to consider here is that this appears to be a well thought-out support plan. The ships and plane should be able to reach their targets quickly and the Coast Guard cutters contain desalinization equipment, providing the clean water that will be needed to stave off diseases like dysentery. In general, I'm please with the US government's actions. Although they were somewhat sluggish, I think the aid workers and supplies that reach Haiti will be effective, and problems that plagued Katrina relief will be avoided. Mainly, I'm thinking of the horror stories about aid workers reaching New Orleans and not having supplies or not being allowed into the city. And I hope that, as disaster relief reaches full force, history will show that the United States was responsible for an effective response to the earthquake in Haiti.

But time will tell.

The Triumphant Return of the Cellular Biosensor

Cell-based biosensors kind of get a bad rap. And the reason for this is pretty simple: cells die. They're delicate little creatures that have to be continually monitored and cared for. And, when used as the basis of a sensing technique, if your cells die, your sensor doesn't work. That's why most sensing schemes use more hearty methods, such as antibodies or synthetic receptors or chemical reactions. This is the reason that I was surprised to see a cell-based sensor grabbing lots of attention in the media recently. In fact, I picked up the story initially from BBC news, but found via a quick internet search that the story had been published on news websites ranging from Science Daily to the India Report.

At any rate, the rationale behind the study was to examine the way in which a popular drug for treatment of schizophrenia works. It is known that the drug causes an increase in production of acetylcholine, but it had also been shown to block the receptors for acetylcholine. Without knowing which dichotomous action was prevailing within the interior of cells, it was impossible to deduce the action of the drug on the brain.

The research team then devised a cell-based biosensor to study the exact effect that the drug had on cells in the brain. The group began with embryonic kidney cells and genetically modified them so that the receptor for acetylcholine was directly coupled with a common G-protein downsteam intracellular signaling cascade. This cascade was then linked to calcium ion upregulation, which activated a calcium-sensitive fluorescent reporter. The fluorescent reporter, then, was fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based, meaning that it consisted of two distinct fluorescent molecules. When exposed to calcium, the two fluorescent molecules move closer together, causing one of the molecules to donate more energy to the other, producing a visible color change. This means that when the cells bind acetylcholine, they produce calcium, which causes the color of their fluorescence to shift. When these cells were implanted into rat brains and the rats exposed to the schizophrenia drug, they found no change in the fluorescence of the sensor cells, meaning that the receptor blocking activity of the drug was its primary function.

At least, all this is what I gathered from their most recent publication in Nature. There you can take a look at the team's data as well as a more detailed description of their methods. Really, this is pretty exciting stuff. Utilizing cellular biosensors in this way could be a major player in future drug discovery research. No more guessing as to the function of drugs based on studies on cells in a petri dish. Implant the genetically modified sensor cells, give the rat the drug, and visually see the effect that the drug has on the cells.