Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Persistent Luminescent phosphors encourage formation of reefs
Luminescent phosphors have been used in biology and imaging for many applications. Interestingly, there is another application that has not been publicized as much. Scientists from Malaysia, Moldova and Russia have made unique persistent phosphors that last for many days and hours in tough environment below the ocean. These are originally made nearly 16 years…
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Innovation – Progression and development rather than burst of insight
Innovation and invention takes time to progress and get absorbed into the daily thought. It is also developed over time based on the influence from the current thinking and is not very radical as hypothesized. This is best illustrated by an example. Charles Darwin is rightly credited for his theories on evolution and it leads…
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Pollen robots
In spring, the flowers and trees blooming look very attractive but also signal a release of pollen which triggers allergies and hay fever in many people. Many drugs have become available to combat the symptoms but the release of pollen is significant. There is not much that can be done to control the amount of…
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What is the real need for lab automation?
All the scientists when asked whether they use some kind of lab automation answer – “Of course” but recently a survey conducted by Lab Equipment showed that nearly 35% of the respondents do not use any lab automation systems. However that is still a large number of respondents who do use the lab equipment. Among…
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Transfecting Eukaryotic cells by squeezing them
Transferring any protein, DNA or a large molecule through the cell is very difficult. There are two techniques that are very commonly used for this purpose. The one that is used the most in electroporation: in which a defined pulse of current /electricity is passed through the medium to create small holes in the membrane…
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Diagnostic tests – the gold standard
The gold standard for almost all the paper based diagnostic tests is the home pregnancy test called Clear Blue. What is forgotten is that this test was created in 1985 by a company called Unipath and this went on to become the most often used test that became a standard by which most diagnostic tests…
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Biological forces, picoNewtons and forces at the microscopic level
It is hard to imagine binding forces as a scientist develops an immune-assay and often times the commonly used antibodies are often thought to be the tightest binders. But these forces are very interesting to measure and compare among different types of interactions. But first what is the measurement unit of the force? The force…
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Soft nanomaterials, Raman scattering and BRIGHTS
Dr Singamaneni’s from the University of Washington in St. Louis has created interesting and bright reporter molecules that could function as next generation probes for Biomarkers. Typically, the probes used are fluorescent or heavy metal but rarely have used Raman scattering for for pre-clinical assay work. The phenomenon is very interesting since it uses Surface…
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Quenchbody technology – detect anything in 90 sec through antigen-antibody reaction.
Ushio has made a great detector that can detect toxins, drugs and many other agents using a new method of detection that was published earlier in 2011. The technology is interesting. The detection reagent is a Variable region fragment ofHeavy chain antibody (VH) that has the quenched fluorescence group embedded in its structure. This is…
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Commoditization of technology – Part 5 – take it or leave it attitude
This is an unusual strategy adopted by only a few companies. The company believes in its strategy, instrument, device or service so much that it essentially tells the customer, we are different and we would like to stay that way. Join us if you like us otherwise we do not care. This is a tough…
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