The analysis of crying conducted under the supervision of the psychologist Kathleen Wermke from the ZWES showed that the newborns tended to produce the intonation pattern most typical for their respective mother tongue. The crying patterns of the German infants mostly began loud and high and followed a falling curve while the French infants more often cried with a rising tone. This early sensitivity to features of intonation may later help the infants learn their mother tongue, the researchers say. "When they begin to form their first sounds, they can build on melodic patterns that are already familiar and, in this way, don't have to start from scratch", says the neuropsychologist. The evolutionary roots of this behaviour are older than the emergence of spoken language, the researchers believe. "The imitation of melodic patterns developed over millions of years and contributes to the mother-child bond" says Friederici.

Press release: Babies with an accent ...

Abstract in Current Biology: Newborns' Cry Melody Is Shaped by Their Native Language...

In a new study published in Biology Letters, the researchers gathered biomechanical data from unilateral amputees and from able-bodied sprinters. Interestingly, they discovered that the prosthetic leg generated a 9 percent lower ground reactive force, one of the primary determinants of running top speed, than the unaffected leg.

The conclusions from initial data from the time of the controversy stated that amputee runners were at an advantage. However, those opinions are being disproven as new data is painting a clearer picture that, if anything, these runners suffer a disadvantage.

Abstract: Running-specific prostheses limit ground-force during sprinting

More from MIT here...

Around 20 percent of the human genome is currently patented. These patents restrict researchers and health professionals in how they are able to use the patented genes. A researcher is not able to study a patented gene without the patent owner's approval. Similarly, geneticists are barred from testing for patented genes without approval.

The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation claiming that the patents violate the First Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, the Patent Act of 1952 and Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the US constitution. The lawsuit was filed against Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation.

Here is an excerpt from the court's opinion:

The Plaintiffs in this action comprise a broad range of parties, including researchers, genetic counselors, medical and/or advocacy organizations, and women facing the threat of breast cancer or who are in the midst of their struggle with the illness. The challenges to the patents-in-suit raise questions of difficult legal dimensions concerning constitutional protections over the information that serves as our genetic identities and the need to adopt policies that promote scientific innovation in biomedical research. The widespread use of gene sequence information as the foundation for biomedical research means that resolution of these issues will have far-reaching implications, not only for gene-based health care and the health of millions of women facing the specter of breast cancer, but also for the future course of biomedical research... The novel circumstances presented by this action against the USPTO, the absence of any remedy provided in the Patent Act, and the important constitutional rights the Plaintiffs seek to vindicate establish subject matter jurisdiction over the Plaintiffs' claim against the USPTO.

Read the opinion here... (.pdf)

ACLU's Page for the Case...

(hat tip: Wired)

(Image: By walknboston on Flickr)

"This is the first system that works in water at normal pH levels and can be modified at will to enhance its reactivity," said IU Bloomington chemist Dongwhan Lee, who led the research. "We are now looking at how to make the detector more sensitive."

Graduate student Junyong Jo is the report's first author.

One of the reasons the detector is not ready for market, Lee says, is that its optical properties need to be improved to emit light at longer wavelengths with less interference from background signals, especially those of biological origin. Since pond or river water is likely to contain living organisms and other organic matter, Lee says the detector system must be perfected.

Another unique aspect of the detector molecule is its modular structure.

"This is an essentially three-component chemical device with an activator, a receptor, and a reporter module," Lee said. "These three components we can change at will in the future, either to make the detector more sensitive, or have it detect an entirely different toxin by sending out signals as different colors of light. Because of the structure's modularity, a change in one of the three components doesn't really affect the others."

Lee and Jo were inspired by life itself -- the natural properties of proteins -- when they began designing their sensor molecule. The design of this novel system takes advantage of the structure-organizing "beta turn" motif commonly found in protein structures. The detector is essentially inert, except in the presence of cyanide, with which it preferentially reacts. The addition of cyanide induces a subtle but important structural change in the detector that turns it into a pigment that absorbs ultraviolet light (currently 270 nm) and convert it to light emission at around 375 nm, a purplish color at the very edge of human beings' normal vision range.

Cyanide is a negatively charged ion composed of one carbon and one nitrogen atom. Among its many chemical targets inside cells is the oxidative phosphorylation system, which is a crucial producer of energy. Cyanide disrupts the system, making it impossible for cells to maintain even the most basic processes, which is one reason cyanide is considered a poison.

Abstract in in J. Am. Chem. Soc.: Turn-On Fluorescence Detection of Cyanide in Water: Activation of Latent Fluorophores through Remote Hydrogen Bonds That Mimic Peptide β-Turn Motif

Full story: Designer molecule detects tiny amounts of cyanide, then glows...

Viewed under a microscope, the microbots are operated by remote control and move in response to changing magnetic fields or electrical signals transmitted across a microchip playing field. The bots are a few tens of micrometers to a few hundred micrometers long, but their masses can be just a few nanograms (billionths of a gram). They are manufactured from materials such as aluminum, nickel, gold, silicon and chromium.

Like the NIST-coordinated "nanosoccer" events at the 2007 and 2009 RoboCup competitions (see www.nist.gov/public_affairs/calmed/nanosoccer.html), the Mobile Microrobotics Challenge will pit tiny robotic contestants against each other in three tests: (1) a two-millimeter dash in which microrobots sprint across a distance equal to the diameter of a pin head; (2) a microassembly task where the competitors must insert pegs into designated holes; and (3) a freestyle competition where each team chooses a task for its robot that emphasizes one or more abilities from among system reliability, level of autonomy, power management and task complexity.

These events are designed to "road test" agility, maneuverability, response to computer control and the ability to move objects—all skills that future industrial microbots will need for tasks such as microsurgery within the human body or the manufacture of tiny components for microscopic electronic devices.

NIST is organizing the 2010 Mobile Microrobotics Challenge with the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. NIST's goal in coordinating competitions between the world's smallest robots is to show the feasibility and accessibility of technologies for fabricating MEMS, which are tiny mechanical devices built onto semiconductor chips. The contests also drive innovation in this new field of robotics by inspiring young scientists and engineers to become involved.

Press release: Is Your Microrobot Up for the (NIST) Challenge?

Link: Mobile Microelectronics Competition...

Flashbacks: Video of a Nanosoccer Nanobot; Public Invited to See Nanosoccer 2008 US RoboCup Open; The Official Website of Nanobot Nanosoccer

Link @ TED...

Michael Berger at Nanowerk explains:

The calculations by [Ali] Dhinojwala's and [Todd] Blackledge's team showed that silk generates work 50 times greater than the equivalent mass of human muscle. The researchers point out that these numbers are also much better than most of the synthetic materials developed so far.

The researchers hypothesize that water molecules cause a general swelling of the silk and their removal during drying results in contraction.

"This is strikingly similar to the mechanism proposed to explain how plant tissues can act as motors - actively expelling seeds from the parent plant and even burying seeds in the ground," explains Dhinojwala. "For instance, differential expansion and contraction on opposite sides of the cellulose awns of wheat seeds causes them to bend under daily fluctuations of humidity thereby burying the seeds in the ground. Thus, cyclic contraction of spider silk may result from a relatively general response of biological tissues to humidity."

Read on at Nanowerk...

Abstract in Journal of Experimental Biology: Spider silk as a novel high performance biomimetic muscle driven by humidity

Image credit: Tice Lerner...

Link: Henry Markram builds a brain in a supercomputer...

This pilot study looked at serum samples from 18 post-prostatectomy patients collected over the course of a number of years.

The researchers were able to reliably and accurately quantify PSA values at less than 0.1 nanograms per milliliter, the clinical limit of detection for commercial assays. The lower limit of detection for PSA using the bio-barcode assay is approximately 300 times lower than the lower limit of detection for commercial tests. The PSA measurements were used to classify the patients as either having no evidence of disease or having a relapse of disease.

The Northwestern team is now conducting a similar retrospective study of 260 patients and eventually plans to do a large prospective study.

The ultra-sensitive technology is based on gold nanoparticle probes, decorated with DNA and antibodies that can recognize and bind to PSA when present at extremely low levels in a blood sample. A magnetic microparticle, outfitted with a second antibody for PSA, also is used in the assay. When in solution, the antibody-functionalized particles "recognize" and bind to PSA, sandwiching the protein between the two particles.

The key is that attached to each tiny gold nanoparticle (just 30 nanometers in diameter) are hundreds of identical strands of DNA. Mirkin [Chad A. Mirkin, professor of chemistry, professor of medicine and professor of materials science and engineering] calls this "bar-code DNA" because they have designed it as a label specific to the PSA target. After the "particle-protein-particle" sandwich is removed magnetically from solution, the DNA is removed from the sandwich and read using a Verigene® ID system, a nanotechnology platform designed to detect and quantify DNA.

The amount of PSA present is calculated based on the amount of bar-code DNA. For each molecule of captured PSA, hundreds of DNA strands are released, which is one of the ways the PSA signal is amplified.

More from Northwestern: Detecting the Undetectable in Prostate Cancer Testing...

Abstract in PNAS: Nanoparticle-based bio-barcode assay redefines "undetectable" PSA and biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy

Key to deciphering the genome's structure was the development of the new Hi-C technique, which permits genome-wide analysis of the proximity of individual genes. The scientists first used formaldehyde to link together DNA strands that are nearby in the cell's nucleus. They then determined the identity of the neighboring segments by shredding the DNA into many tiny pieces, attaching the linked DNA into small loops, and performing massively parallel DNA sequencing.

Lieberman-Aiden observed that the data suggest a fractal globule. He then teamed up with Mirny and Mirny's student Maxim Imakaev to confirm his hypothesis and demonstrate conclusively that the Hi-C data matched fractal globule behavior. Computer simulations further helped to reveal biologically important features of such a DNA architecture.

In future experiments, the researchers hope to follow the development of stem cells into mature cell types such as kidney cells, says Lieberman-Aiden. "We want to understand how that process takes place, because it clearly involves some 3-D remodeling of the nucleus."

Press release: A new dimension for genome studies...

Abstract in Science: Comprehensive Mapping of Long-Range Interactions Reveals Folding Principles of the Human Genome