DNA nanotechnology is the design and manufacture of artificial nucleic acid structures for technological uses. In this field, nucleic acids such as DNA are used as non-biological engineering materials for nanotechnology rather than as the carriers of genetic information in living cells. Researchers in the field have created static structures such as crystal lattices, nanotubes, polyhedra, and arbitrarily shaped DNA origami; as well as functional structures including molecular machines and DNA computers. The conceptual foundation for DNA nanotechnology was first laid out in the early 1980s, and the field began to attract widespread interest in the mid-2000s. The field is beginning to be used as a tool to solve basic science problems in structural biology and biophysics, such as protein structure determination, and potential real-world applications in nanomedicine and molecular scale electronics are under development. ( more...)

The 2012 United States federal budget was the budget to fund government operations for the fiscal year 2012. The original spending request was issued by President Barack Obama in February 2011. That April, the Republican-held House of Representatives announced a competing plan, The Path to Prosperity, emboldened by a major victory in the 2010 Congressional elections associated with the Tea Party movement. The budget was greatly affected by the Budget Control Act of 2011, which was passed in August 2011 as a resolution to the debt-ceiling crisis and mandated budget cuts over the subsequent ten years beginning with Fiscal Year 2012. The actual budget for Fiscal Year 2012 was enacted in three appropriations bills in November and December 2011, in accordance with the United States budget process. In addition, legislation was passed to extend a cut in the Social Security payroll tax for the entirety of calendar year 2012. ( more...)

The Caltech–MIT rivalry is a college rivalry between the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), stemming from the colleges' reputations as top science and engineering schools in the United States. The rivalry is unusual given the geographic distance between the schools (their campuses are separated by about 3000 miles and are on opposite coasts of the United States), as well as its focus on elaborate pranks rather than sporting events. The most recent pranking war was instigated in April 2005, when Caltech students pulled multiple pranks during MIT's Campus Preview Weekend for prospective freshmen. MIT students responded a year later by stealing Caltech's antique Fleming Cannon and transporting it across the country to MIT's campus. Subsequent pranks have included fake satirical school newspapers distributed by Caltech students at MIT, and the appearance of a TARDIS device on top of Caltech's Baxter Hall. ( more...)

John Harmen Marburger III (February 8, 1941 – July 28, 2011) was an American physicist who directed the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the administration of President George W. Bush, serving as the Science Advisor to the President. His tenure was marked by controversy regarding his defense of the administration against allegations from over two dozen Nobel Laureates, amongst others, that scientific evidence was being suppressed or ignored in policy decisions, including those relating to stem cell research and global warming. However, he has also been credited with keeping the political effects of the September 11 attacks from harming science research—by ensuring that tighter visa controls did not hinder the movement of those engaged in scientific research—and with increasing awareness of the relationship between science and government. He also served as the President of Stony Brook University from 1980 until 1994, and director of Brookhaven National Laboratory from 1998 until 2001. ( more...)

The Drexler–Smalley debate on molecular nanotechnology was a public dispute between K. Eric Drexler, the originator of the conceptual basis of molecular nanotechnology, and Richard Smalley, a recipient of the 1996 Nobel prize in Chemistry for the discovery of the nanomaterial buckminsterfullerene. The dispute was about the feasibility of constructing molecular assemblers that could robotically assemble molecular materials and devices by manipulating individual molecules. The two also traded accusations that the other's conception of nanotechnology was harmful to public perception of the field and threatened continued public support for nanotechnology research. The debate was carried out from 2001 to 2003 through a series of published articles and open letters. It is often cited in the history of nanotechnology due to the fame of its participants and its commentary on both the technical and social aspects of nanotechnology. It has also been widely criticized for its adversarial tone, causing commentators to go so far as to characterize the tone of the debate as similar to "a pissing match" and "reminiscent of [a] Saturday Night Live sketch". ( more...)

A Holliday junction is a branched nucleic acid structure containing four double-stranded arms joined together. They may adopt one of several conformations depending on buffer salt concentrations and the identity of the nucleobases closest to the junction. The structure is named after the molecular biologist Robin Holliday, who proposed its existence in 1964. In biology, Holliday junctions are a key intermediate in multiple types of genetic recombination as well as double-strand break repair. These junctions usually have a symmetrical sequence and are thus mobile, meaning that the four individual may slide though the junction. Additionally, four-arm junctions similar to Holliday junctions appear in some functional RNA molecules. Immobile Holliday junctions, with asymmetrical sequences that lock the strands in a specific position, were artificially created by scientists to study their structure. These junctions also later found use as basic structural building blocks in DNA nanotechnology, where multiple Holliday junctions can be combined into specific designed geometries that provide molecules with a high degree of structural rigidity. ( more...)

" I Will Possess Your Heart" is an alternative rock song recorded by the American band Death Cab for Cutie. The song depicts a one-sided obsessive relationship, which led Paste to name it one of the 25 creepiest songs about love. It is notable for its five-minute instrumental introduction as well as its music video which required location shooting across four continents. The song was the lead single from their sixth studio album, Narrow Stairs (2008). The song was critically acclaimed and nominated for the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. The music video, released on April 11, 2008, features scenes of a young woman traveling alone to various places around the world, interspersed with the band performing in an industrial freezer room. The shoot involved the actress, director, and a crew of two traveling 27,977 miles in 13 days. The video won the 2008 MTV Video Music Award for Best Editing and was nominated for the Best Cinematography award. ( more...)

The Glenwood Generating Station is a power station in Glenwood Landing, New York owned by National Grid plc. It is mainly known for being the former site of an architecturally significant 1920s brick power station considered significant as a rare surviving example of early 20th-century industrial architecture. It was designed in an industrial Beaux-Arts style, with large arched windows and stringcourse intended to prevent it from becoming an eyesore given its proximity to affluent communities. It was constructed with Flemish bond brickwork and decorative limestone elements. That building and an adjacent 1950s station were demolished over the course of 2013 to 2015, due to their obsolescence as well as the excessive cost of safely retaining the building given its poor condition. Two smaller generators constructed in 2002 remain in operation. ( more...)

Robert Dirks (May 29, 1978 – February 3, 2015) was an American chemist known for his theoretical and experimental work in DNA nanotechnology. Born in Thailand to a Thai Chinese mother and American father, he moved to Spokane, Washington at a young age. Dirks was the first graduate student in Niles Pierce's research group at the California Institute of Technology, where his dissertation work was on algorithms and computational tools to analyze nucleic acid thermodynamics and predict their structure. He also performed experimental work developing a biochemical chain reaction to self-assemble nucleic acid devices. Dirks later worked at D. E. Shaw Research on algorithms for protein folding that could be used to design new pharmaceuticals. In February 2015, Dirks died in the Valhalla train crash, the deadliest accident in the history of Metro-North Railroad. An award for early-career achievement in molecular programming research was established in his honor. ( more...)

A 501(h) election or Conable election is a procedure in United States tax law that allows a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization to participate in lobbying that is limited only by the financial expenditure on that lobbying, regardless of its overall extent. This allows organizations taking the 501(h) election to potentially perform a large amount of lobbying if it is done using volunteer labor or through inexpensive means. The 501(h) election is available to most types of 501(c)(3) organizations that are not churches or private foundations. It was introduced by Representative Barber Conable (pictured) as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1976 and codified as 26 U.S.C.  § 501(h), and the corresponding Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations were finalized in 1990. ( more...)

A Title 42 appointment is an excepted service employment category in the United States federal civil service. It allows scientists and special consultants to be hired as part of the Public Health Service or Environmental Protection Agency under a streamlined process "without regard to the civil-service laws". Courts have ruled that, although Title 42 appointments are exempt from hiring and compensation provisions of civil service laws, they are still entitled to protections relating to termination. Title 42 hiring authority was first enacted in 1944 as part of the Public Health Service Act, and was extended to the Environmental Protection Agency on a limited basis in 2006. It is named after Title 42 of the United States Code, which contains its legal basis. ( more...)

The characterization of nanoparticles is a branch of nanometrology that deals with the measurement of the physical and chemical properties of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles are unlike conventional chemicals in that their chemical composition and concentration are not sufficient metrics for a complete description, because they vary in other physical properties such as size, shape, surface properties, crystallinity, and dispersion state. Nanoparticles are characterized for various purposes, including nanotoxicology studies and exposure assessment in workplaces to assess their health and safety hazards, as well as manufacturing process control. There is a wide range of instrumentation to measure these properties, including microscopy and spectroscopy methods as well as particle counters. Metrology standards and reference materials for nanotechnology, while still a new discipline, are available from many organizations. ( more...)

The hazards of synthetic biology include biosafety hazards to workers and the public, mainly from exposure to pathogens and toxic chemicals; biosecurity hazards stemming from deliberate engineering of organisms to cause harm; and hazards to the environment including adverse effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services. In general, existing hazard controls, risk assessment methodologies, and regulations developed for traditional genetically modified organisms (GMOs) also apply to synthetic organisms. "Extrinsic" biocontainment methods used in laboratories include biosafety cabinets and gloveboxes, as well as personal protective equipment. In agriculture, they include isolation distances and pollen barriers. Synthetic organisms might potentially offer increased hazard control because they can be engineered with "intrinsic" biocontainment methods that limit their growth in an uncontained environment, or prevent horizontal gene transfer to natural organisms; these include auxotrophy, biological kill switches, and xenobiological organisms. ( more...)

MichChemGSI ( talk) 09:44, 5 August 2011 (UTC)