Scientists at MIT mimic plant processes to build solar cells that renew themselves like living beings.
Living things don't have that many advantages over machines. We're not as quick, or as precise, and we don't have as good a memory. Moreover, while they are made of tough stuff, we are mostly composed of things that go squish. One of the limited advantages we have is that when we go squish, we have built-in repair shops. When they go crunch, they're crunched.
Self-renewal has been a goal of many different technology manufacturers, but especially the makers of solar cells. For years scientists have looked resentfully at their solar cells, the components of which wear out or break, and envied plants, which have a built-in systems that take apart and renew any worn-out bits.
MIT researchers have found a way to imitate this process:
Sequence analysis is the application of Information Technologies to Molecular Biology. It deals with biological sequences, and processes them to extract significant information that may yield new insights and guidelines in the understanding of biological organisms
Basics for sequence analysis
Proteins
A protein is typically built of a series of basic blocks called amino acids , chained together in a linear sequence of blocks. Amino acids may come in a variety of shapes and properties: they may be small or bulky, hidrophobic or hidrophyllic, electrically charged or neutral, etc... hence allowing for very complex shapes and interactions to be produced.
Amino acids are commonly referred to by name or by an abbreviation, usually in three or one letter. This allows for more efficient descriptions of how they are chained together to build a protein:
Neutral-Nonpolar | 3-letter | 1-letter |
Glycine | Gly | G |
L-Alanine | Ala | A |
L-Valine | Val | V |
L-Isoleucine | Ile | I |
L-Leucine | Leu | L |
L-Phenylalanine | Phe | F |
L-Proline | Pro | P |
L-Methionine | Met | M |
Neutral-Polar | | |
L-Serine | Ser | S |
L-Threonine | Thr | T |
L-Tyrosine | Tyr | Y |
L-Tryptophan | Trp | W |
L-Asparagine | Asn | N |
L-Glutamine | Gln | Q |
L-Cysteine | Cys | C |
Acidic | | |
L-Aspartic | Asp | D |
L-Glutamic | Glu | E |
Basic | | |
L-Lysine | Lys | K |
L-Arginine | Arg | R |
L-Histidine | His | H |
Bioinformatics derives knowledge from computer analysis of biological data. These can consist of the information stored in the genetic code, but also experimental results from various sources, patient statistics, and scientific literature. Research in bioinformatics includes method development for storage, retrieval, and analysis of the data. Bioinformatics is a rapidly developing branch of biology and is highly interdisciplinary, using techniques and concepts from informatics, statistics, mathematics, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, and linguistics. It has many practical applications in different areas of biology and medicine.
Roughly, bioinformatics describes any use of computers to handle biological information. In practice the definition used by most people is narrower; bioinformatics to them is a synonym for "computational molecular biology"- the use of computers to characterize the molecular components of living things.
Definition of Bioinformatics form various sources:-
- Bioinformatics is the science of developing computer databases and algorithms for the purpose of speeding up and enhancing biological research. (source: www.whatis.com)
- As a discipline that builds upon computational biology, bioinformatics encompasses the development and application of data-analytical and theoretical methods, mathematical modeling and computational simulation techniques to the study of biological, behavioral, and social systems.
Engineers have long dreamed of using DNA as the backbone for the next generation of computer circuits. New research shows just how it might be done.
Instead of conventional circuits built of silicon that use electrical current, computer engineers could take advantage of the unique properties of DNA, the double-helix molecule that carries life’s information. “Conventional technology has reached its physical limits," said Chris Dwyer, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering.
Dwyer recently demonstrated that by simply mixing customized snippets of DNA and other molecules, he could create billions of identical, tiny, waffle-looking structures.
These nanostructures can then be used as the building blocks for a variety of circuit-based applications, ranging from the biomedical to the computational. Key to the promise of these DNA nanostructures is an ability to rapidly "switch" between zeros or ones -- the basic on/off binary action that powers computation. Light can be used to stimulate similar binary responses from DNA-based switches, though at a much faster rate than in silicon.
“When light is shined on the chromophores" -- parts of DNA responsible for its color -- "they absorb it, exciting the electrons,” Dwyer said. “The energy released passes to a different type of chromophore nearby that absorbs the energy and then emits light of a different wavelength. That difference means this output light can be easily differentiated from the input light, using a detector.”
Dwyer added: "This is the first demonstration of such an active and rapid processing and sensing capacity at the molecular level."
Building computers with life's building blocks
Now We Are going to launch a biotechnology magazine Which will surely help you guy's to go through new technology's and inventions of biotechnology.
Many of us invested in the success of sustainable agriculture have a knee-jerk response against genetically-modified foods, and for good reason — they often come with patent protection, pesticides, and other undesirable features. But a new development from the
National Institute of Plant Genome Research in New Delhi suggests that GMO crops could have at least one positive use: dramatically increasing the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.
Photo by The Ewan
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Scientists at MIT mimic plant processes to build solar cells that renew themselves like living beings.Living things don't have that many advantages over machines. We're not as quick, or as precise, and we don't have as good a memory. Moreover, while they are made of tough stuff, we are mostly composed of things that go squish. One of the limited advantages we have is that when we go squish, we have built-in repair shops. When they go crunch, they're crunched.Self-renewal has been a goal of many different technology manufacturers, but especially the makers of solar cells. For years scientists have looked resentfully at their solar cells, the components of which wear out or break, and envied plants, which have a built-in systems that take apart and renew any worn-out bits.MIT researchers have found a way to imitate this process:
