Everyone loves having a birthday party in their honor and the Bigfoot family is no exception. Due to how close knit the Bigfoots are, however, they continue to celebrate the birthdays of all adults involved in full party mode. In fact, in some Bigfoot clans, the adult parties rival the kids parties in fanfare and decorations.
Finding the ideal party supplies can sometimes be a challenge for Bigfoots, though. In spite of the challenges, over the years, the Bigfoots have evolved enough so they are usually able to find what they need in time to throw one of their infamous parties.
?My family and I are a quiet and peace loving folk so it was really upseting when people would run screaming from us when we came to town to get our party supplies,? opines Berta Bigfoot gently. ?Fortunately, after a few more visits to town, people began to let their curiosities get the best of them. Soon, we were able to locate a party store nearby.?
Says Pearl Tucker, ?I admit I was slightly taken aback by the sight of this quartet of giant fur covered beings that had to bend down to comfortably enter my party store.? The owner of the town?s only party store, Party Supplies Palace, continues,?It wasn?t long, however, before I was put at ease by the Bigfoot family and we got down to the business of discussing their party supply needs.?
Finding new and fresh themes for the parties for the members of the Bigfoot family has been proven to be a challenge for both the family itself and Ms Tucker.
?Since the Bigfoot family has a history of throwing big and elaborate parties for all of its members, they had pretty much exhausted their options for this year?s events. Fortunately, after a few meetings with the family, both here at my shop and at their own home, I was able to get a feel for what they like and want,? Ms Tucker shared. The results were a number of special orders that focused on the theme of this year?s parties: the goat.
Pin the tail on the goat, a goat pinata, and goat themed plates, napkins, table coverings and cups are just a few of the items visible to the party guests who have been fortunate enough to snap up an elusive invitation to one of the Bigfoot family?s parties.
Most errors are quickly forgotten. Others end up remaking the face of science
By David Kaiser and Angela N. H. Creager
?|
May 29, 2012
Image: Photograph by Dan Saelinger
In Brief
Mistakes can push scientific understanding forward. Errors that touch on deep features of the world can be more valuable in the long run than narrowly correct ideas.
Famously important scientific mistakes include Niels Bohr?s atomic model, the theory of continental drift (in its original form) and the experiments of Enrico Fermi that led to nuclear fission.
Two less well-known errors also stand out: a vagabond physicist devised a faster-than-light telegraph in the 1980s. The hunt to uncover its flaws drove advances in quantum information theory.
In the 1940s Max Delbr?ck, the key founder of molecular biology, based his research on a number of incorrect and misleading assumptions. He would go on to win a Nobel Prize.
Perhaps more than any other profession, science places a premium on being correct. Of course, most scientists?like most living humans?make plenty of mistakes along the way. Yet not all errors are created equal. Historians have unearthed a number of instances in which an incorrect idea proved far more potent than thousands of others that were trivially mistaken or narrowly correct. These are the productive mistakes: errors that touch on deep, fundamental features of the world around us and prompt further research that leads to major breakthroughs. Mistakes they certainly are. But science would be far worse off without them.
Niels Bohr, for example, created a model of the atom that was wrong in nearly every way, yet it inspired the quantum-mechanical revolution. In the face of enormous skepticism, Alfred Wegener argued that centrifugal forces make the continents move (or ?drift?) along the surface of the earth. He had the right phenomenon, albeit the wrong mechanism. And Enrico Fermi thought that he had created nuclei heavier than uranium, rather than (as we now know) having stumbled on nuclear fission.
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -European Championship co-hosts Kiev and Warsaw have decried as unfair a BBC report that portrayed their fans as racist, and UEFA reiterated that all foreign guests will be safe.
The BBC Panaroma documentary, titled "Euro 2012: Stadiums of Hate," showed fans in Ukraine and Poland giving the Nazi salute and taunting black players with monkey noises. Asian students were also shown being attacked at Metalis Stadium in Kharkiv, one of the host venues.
Former England captain Sol Campbell said in the program broadcast on Monday in Britain that fans should not travel to those countries "because you could end up coming back in a coffin."
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Voloshyn said the program was unjust and smacked of arrogance and xenophobia as it portrayed "Eastern Europe as mentally not equal to the rest of Europe."
"We believe this report is outrageous, done in the best traditions of Soviet journalism," Voloshyn said. "Ukraine is one the leaders in Europe in terms of religious and racial tolerance.
"Nazi symbols can be seen at ... any match in England, but does it mean that fans should not come to London for the Olympics?"
Markian Lubkivsky, UEFA's Euro 2012 director in Ukraine, said foreign fans coming to Ukraine would be safe.
"From UEFA's point of view, I see no threats for citizens of various nationalities to stay in Ukraine," Lubkivsky was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. He added Campbell's statement was "vexing" for Ukraine.
In Poland, the government body that is organizing Euro 2012 called the accusations of racism "unjust," stressing that Poland has zero tolerance for racism and xenophobia.
"The problem of stadium pathologies, such as xenophobia or racism, is a problem specific to the whole of Europe and not only to Poland," said Mikolaj Piotrowski, a spokesman for the body. "As in every European country, it affects a small minority of those present at the stadiums - unfortunately, a minority that is usually loud and visible in the media."
Referring to Campbell, he said, "Dear Sol, feel invited - feel like at home; in Poland, at our common Euro 2012. Get to know us as we really are."
Poland's Interior Ministry said in statement it would complain to the BBC because its report contained "unjust," biased and unverified opinions. Ministry spokeswoman Malgorzata Wozniak said Polish police were ready to ensure security during the tournament.
Commenting on the program, Campbell urged fans to not go to Poland and Ukraine for Euro 2012, which starts next week.
"Stay at home, watch it on TV. Don't even risk it," said Campbell, who was black.
He added that European football's governing body was wrong to award the tournament to Poland and Ukraine.
"What they should say is, `If you want this tournament, you sort your problems out. Until we see a massive improvement ... you do not deserve these prestigious tournaments in your country,"' he said.
Ukraine finds itself under increasing scrutiny and pressure as it prepares to host the championship. Besides the racism accusations, President Viktor Yanukovych is under harsh criticism for the politically tainted jailing of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Some critics say Euro 2012 has turned into a public relations disaster for Ukraine.
---
AP writers Monika Scislowska and Vanessa Gera contributed to this report from Warsaw.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
MONDAY, May 28 (HealthDay News) -- Women who work the night shift more than twice a week might be increasing their risk for breast cancer, Danish researchers find.
Moreover, the risk appears to be cumulative and highest among women who describe themselves as "morning" people rather than "evening" people, the researchers say.
"About 10 to 20 percent of women in modern societies have night shift work," said lead researcher Johnni Hansen. "It might therefore be one of the largest occupational problems related to cancer."
Right now, the reasons for these findings are uncertain.
"Night shift work involves exposure to light at night, which decreases the production of the night hormone melatonin that seems to protect against certain cancers," said Hansen, of the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology at the Danish Cancer Society, in Copenhagen.
In addition, light at night might introduce circadian disruption, where the master clock in the brain becomes desynchronized from local cellular clocks in different body organs, affecting the breast, he said.
"Repeated phase shifting may lead to defects in the regulation of the circadian cell cycle, thus favoring uncontrolled growth," Hansen said.
Also, sleep deprivation after night shift work leads to the suppression of the immune system, which might increase the growth of cancer cells, he added.
This is not the first time this association has been recognized. In 2007 the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, said that working the night shift is "probably carcinogenic to humans," according to background information in the study.
The new study was published in the May 28 online edition of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
To determine the effect of night shift work on the risk for breast cancer, Hansen's team collected data on more than 18,500 women who worked for the Danish Army between 1964 and 1999.
The researchers identified 210 women who had breast cancer and compared them to almost 900 similar women who did not have breast cancer.
All of the women were asked about their working patterns, lifestyles and other factors such as their use of contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy, and their sunbathing habits.
In addition, women were asked to classify themselves as "morning" or "evening" people.
In all, 141 women with breast cancer responded to the study questionnaires. In addition, 551 women who did not have breast cancer responded.
Among these women, the risk for breast cancer was increased 40 percent if they worked at night, the researchers found.
But for women who worked nights at least three times a week, and for at least six years, the risk was doubled, the findings showed.
Women who worked the night shift but who described themselves as morning people were at even higher risk of breast cancer. They were almost four times more likely to develop breast cancer as those who didn't work nights, according to the researchers.
In comparison, women who considered themselves evening people were twice as likely to develop breast cancer, they added.
Morning-preferring women who did not work at night had a lower overall risk of breast cancer than evening types, Hansen's team found.
"Since night shift work is unavoidable in modern societies, this type of work should be limited in duration and limited to less than three night shifts per week," Hansen said. "In particular, morning types should limit their night work," he added.
While the study found an association between night shift work and breast cancer, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
Men who work at night may also be at risk for prostate cancer, Hansen noted. This evidence comes from three small studies, he said.
Dr. Stephanie Bernik, chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said that "it's very hard to single out the causes of breast cancer and whether women on the night shift have a higher risk."
But there appears to be some truth to this, she added.
"Stress increases the risk of breast cancer and affects the body as a whole, and working at night can throw off your circadian rhythm and cause stress," Bernik said.
"This is another finding that breast cancer is caused by a multitude of different environmental and genetic influences, so this is probably a piece of the puzzle," she added.
An expert on environmental factors that affect cancer, Richard Stevens, from the department of community medicine at the UConn Health Center in Farmington, Conn., said that "the evidence is growing rapidly about light at night and, specifically, shift work and breast cancer."
"But, this is the first study about the morning/evening preference," he noted.
"If it's true that light at night increases the risk of disease, then there are very practical implications," Stevens said.
If lighting is really an issue in night work, it is known which wavelengths suppress melatonin the most, and lighting could be adjusted to eliminate those wavelengths, he explained.
There are other things people can do to avoid the effects of light at night on health, he added.
"For example, for health in general, if you wake up during the night, stay in the dark; don't turn on the light. If you turn on the lights it will start suppressing melatonin immediately," Stevens said.
"There is a lot more involved than melatonin, but it's a good marker if your circadian rhythm is being changed," he said.
Studies are ongoing on the risk of night work and prostate cancer, Stevens noted.
More information
For more about breast cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.
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Seg?n la lista oficial de pel?culas m?s taquilleras a nivel mundial de toda la historia (boxofficemojo), con casi 4 semanas en cartelera, The Avengers esta en el cuarto lugar, superando a Transformers 3 y detr?s de la ?ltima pel?cula de la saga de Harry Potter.
Top 10 de pel?culas taquilleras a Nivel Mundial
Avatar Recaud?: $2.782,3 millones (2009)
Titanic Recaud?: $2.185,2 millones (1997)
Harry Potter y Las Reliquias de la Muerte Parte 2 Recaud?: $1.328,1 millones (2011)
The Avengers Recaud?: $1.209,7 millones (2012)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon Recaud?: $1.123,7 millones (2011)
El Se?or de los Anillos: El Retorno del Rey Recaud?: $1.119,9 millones (2003)
Piratas del Caribe: El cofre de la Muerte Recaud?: $1.066,2 millones (2006)
Toy Story 3 Recaud?: $1.063,2 millones (2010)
Piratas del Caribe: En Aguas Misteriosas Recaud?: $1.043,9 millones (2011)
Star Wars Episodio I: La Amenaza Fantasma Recaud?: $1.027,0 millones (1999)
De estas 10 pel?culas, las que a?n siguen en cartelera al momento de escribir este post son: Titanic (re-estrenada en versi?n 3D), The Avengers y Star Wars Episodio I (re-estrenada en 3D).
La ?ltima carta bajo la manga: The Avengers a?n no se ha estrenado en Jap?n, lo har? reci?n el 17 de Agosto 2012, incrementando para esas fechas a?n m?s su taquilla.
En cuanto a la taquilla local de Estados Unidos, The Avengers tambi?n se encuentra en el cuarto puesto de la pel?cula m?s taquilla de la historia, superando a Star Wars Episodio I: La Amenaza Fantasma (que recientemente se volvi? a re-estrenar en 3D y por eso sigui? aumentando su taquilla desde su perima versi?n).
Top 10 de pel?culas taquilleras en USA
Avatar Recaud?: $760.507.625 (2009)
Titanic Recaud?: $658.546.990 (1997)
The Dark Knight Recaud?: $533.345.358 (2008)
The Avengers Recaud?: $486.369.000 (2012)
Star Wars Episodio I: La Amenaza Fantasma Recaud?: $474.544.427 (1999)
Star Wars Recaud?: $460.998.007 (1977)
Shrek 2 Recaud?: $441.226.247 (2004)
E.T.: El Extraterrestre Recaud?: $435.110.554 (1982)
Piratas del Caribe: El cofre de la Muerte Recaud?: $423.315.812 (2006)
El Rey Le?n Recaud?: $422.783.777 (1994)
Se espera que para este Lunes en USA The Avengers supere los $500 millones en recaudaciones y que este Domingo el estreno de Men in Black 3 le robe el primer puesto de la taquilla del fin de semana.
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Funding will establish platform technology for emerging synthetic biology fieldPublic release date: 24-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hilda Kalap hilda.kalap@epsrc.ac.uk Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) will help the UK's world-leading researchers in synthetic biology to establish platform technology in the emerging field with a new grant of almost 5 million. Platform technology is the crucial next step necessary for applications to be produced and commercialised.
Announcing the grant later today in a major speech at the University of East Anglia, Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts will say: "Synthetic biology could provide solutions to many of humanity's most pressing issues and at the same time presents significant growth opportunities. This investment will lay the groundwork for the commercialisation of research, ensuring academics and industry can realise the full potential of this exciting area of science."
The Flowers Consortium of five universities, Imperial College London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Newcastle and King's College London, carries out research into synthetic biology in the UK. The Consortium builds on earlier EPSRC investments such as the 4.5 million for the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation (CsynBI) at Imperial which is co-directed by Professor Richard Kitney and Professor Paul Freemont.
Synthetic biology aims to design and engineer novel biologically based parts, devices and systems, and redesign existing natural biological systems for useful purposes. It is seen as affecting a wide range of industrial sectors including chemicals, materials, biosensors, biofuels and healthcare.
The platform technology will be based on an information system SynBIS which uses a web-based environment. SynBIS is currently in Beta trials and is expected to be available by the end of June. SynBIS will host BioCAD and modelling tools for the field. This opens up the possibility of undertaking high level software design of bioparts and devices which can be assembled using laboratory robots and other automatic methods.
The grant will also be used to establish a professional registry of biological parts and devices using a robotic data-collection pipeline for characterisation. The richer data that can be obtained will lead to improved mathematical modelling and in turn more predictable and reliable design and construction of the parts.
Professor Kitney said: "The new grant will build on the work of CsynBI and the other universities in the Flowers Consortium to create important new resources for the academic and industrial community in synthetic biology."
Professor Freemont said: "The establishment of the Flowers Consortium now provides a critical mass of researchers who are developing innovative open access technology platforms to accelerate the growth of synthetic biology research in the UK."
Another goal of the Consortium is to use funding to create a UK infrastructure for synthetic biology which will be widely available via a project web server that can be shared by universities throughout the UK and beyond, further enhancing UK and international collaborations such as the one with Stanford University.
Drew Endy of Stanford's Bioengineering department says: "I am grateful to be working with the EPSRC Centre of Science and Innovation in Synthetic Biology at Imperial College in partnership with other leading UK universities. This strategic UK investment in synthetic biology will strengthen key UK-US partnerships and also global research networks in ways that benefit all people and the planet."
The Consortium is currently working on a number of applications and is engaging with industry to commercialise potential products.
Two of these are biosensors for testing arsenic in water and for the earlier detection of urinary tract infections.
Dr Kedar Pandya, EPSRC Engineering Theme Leader, said: "Engineering research and leadership is critical to the further development of the UK's synthetic biology sector. Engineering technology provides the necessary product standardisation, robustness and design. We will continue to grow the investment we make in this area so that the UK's research base continues to be world-leading."
The emerging technology has the potential to make a major contribution to the government's growth agenda, creating wealth and employment. In tandem with other fields of science, synthetic biology can play a significant part in addressing some of the key challenges that the world faces in the areas of energy, health and the environment.
###
Contact details: EPSRC Press Office on 01793 444404 or pressoffice@epsrc.ac.uk
Notes to editors:
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK's main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. EPSRC invests around 800 million a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone's health, lifestyle and culture.
EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK. www.epsrc.ac.uk
The Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation (CSynBI) was established in 2009 in partnership with the BIOS Centre through an EPSRC Science and Innovation award that aims to build new activity in areas of national strategic importance, with a particular focus on supporting new research leaders.
The Centre is part of Imperial College London's Institute for Systems and Synthetic Biology - a multidisciplinary, multi faculty institute focused on developing novel approaches to research in biology, medicine and engineering. The Centre is based in the Faculty of Engineering and works closely with the Departments of Bioengineering and Life Sciences in the emerging field of synthetic biology.
A major strategic aim of the Centre is to establish a robust engineering framework for the design and optimisation of new synthetic biology parts, devices and systems and to integrate this research with emerging ethical legal and societal issues.
Researchers from the BIOS Centre at King's College London form an integral part of CSynBI and are exploring the social, political, economic and ethical dimensions of synthetic biology. They are also addressing issues of public engagement and trust, as well as engaging with the central concerns of policy and regulation in this novel and rapidly developing area.
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/syntheticbiology/people an appropriate regulatory and policy regime.
SynthSys is a Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology at the University of Edinburgh. The centre's focus is to pioneer genetic and chemical tools to manipulate the cell, technologies to quantify responses at the single-cell level, and mathematical models to both predict and control cellular behaviour.
SynthSys's experimental and theoretical researchers seek to deliver world-leading research in Synthetic and Systems Biology by combining theory and informatics with molecular biology to understand and re-design biochemical systems.
The centre integrates researchers from Innogen, the ESRC Centre for Social and Economic Research on Innovation in Genomics, to embed the principles of responsible innovation in translating our research into impact.
SynthSys, formerly the Centre for Systems Biology Edinburgh, was established as a Centre for Integrative Systems Biology in 2007 with an investment of 9M from the BBSRC and EPSRC.
Newcastle University is a centre of excellence for interdisciplinary computing science and bacterial cell biology, and has been active in systems and synthetic biology for more than a decade. The University's synthetic biology focus closely integrates expertise from across a wide variety of disciplines including computing science, engineering, mathematics and molecular biosciences.
A major strength is the inclusion of The Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology (CBCB), the world's first major research centre with a focus on fundamental bacterial cell processes.
Newcastle will play a key role in the project, leading the computational design and the development of industrially relevant bacterial strains.
Cambridge Synthetic Biology at the University of Cambridge, is an interdisciplinary consortium of laboratories established in 2005 with the aim to engage biologists, engineers, computer scientists, social scientists educators and artists to participate in the emerging world of Biological Design.
The Haseloff, Micklem and Ajioka labs leading Cambridge Synthetic Biology, are currently engaged in projects that include seminal work in developing synthetic biology standards and tools for plants and microbes, computational approaches for designing genetic circuits and practical solutions to healthcare.
Jim Haseloff's lab in the Dept. of Plant Sciences with support from the EPSRC, is focused on the engineering of plant morphogenesis, using microscopy, molecular genetic, computational and synthetic biology techniques. Advanced imaging techniques allow the visualisation of plant microachitecture, and the cellular interactions that underly plant morphogenesis. The lab is exploring new genetic circuits that will allow reprogramming of the distribution of natural cell types to remodel tissues or organs with specialised biosynthetic or storage functions. Plants, with their indeterminate and modular body plans, wide spectrum of biosynthetic activities, ease of genetically manipulation, and wide use as crop systems will underpin future sustainable technologies.
Gos Micklem, head of the Cambridge Computational Biology Institute, leads international projects funded by the NIH and the Wellcome Trust on data integration, where data from all the major model organisms can be "mined" through the InterMine platform. The Micklem computational group is now expanding this technology into synthetic biology with the development of SynBioMine. The power of generating collated and annotated data for specified biological functions will help realise the potential for incorporating natural biological diversity into engineered biological systems.
Jim Ajioka's lab based in the Dept. of Pathology with support from the Wellcome Trust, is directing synthetic biology into practical solutions for healthcare in impoverished regions with little infrastructure. Vast areas of South and Southeast Asia suffer from arsenic contaminated groundwater, where the distribution and contamination level of individual wells is unknown.
In collaboration with the Edinburgh group, the lab is taking research from previous projects, notably coloured pigment producing "E. chromi", and applying it to the construction of a whole-cell arsenic biosensor for use in the field.
Since 2005, Cambridge Synthetic Biology has established and maintained collaborations with leading synthetic biology laboratories, computer scientists, artists and designers including the Endy lab at Stanford, the Voigt lab at MIT, the Phillips group at Microsoft Research and Daisy Ginsberg and James King, whose rendition of "E. chromi" has been displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
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Funding will establish platform technology for emerging synthetic biology fieldPublic release date: 24-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hilda Kalap hilda.kalap@epsrc.ac.uk Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) will help the UK's world-leading researchers in synthetic biology to establish platform technology in the emerging field with a new grant of almost 5 million. Platform technology is the crucial next step necessary for applications to be produced and commercialised.
Announcing the grant later today in a major speech at the University of East Anglia, Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts will say: "Synthetic biology could provide solutions to many of humanity's most pressing issues and at the same time presents significant growth opportunities. This investment will lay the groundwork for the commercialisation of research, ensuring academics and industry can realise the full potential of this exciting area of science."
The Flowers Consortium of five universities, Imperial College London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Newcastle and King's College London, carries out research into synthetic biology in the UK. The Consortium builds on earlier EPSRC investments such as the 4.5 million for the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation (CsynBI) at Imperial which is co-directed by Professor Richard Kitney and Professor Paul Freemont.
Synthetic biology aims to design and engineer novel biologically based parts, devices and systems, and redesign existing natural biological systems for useful purposes. It is seen as affecting a wide range of industrial sectors including chemicals, materials, biosensors, biofuels and healthcare.
The platform technology will be based on an information system SynBIS which uses a web-based environment. SynBIS is currently in Beta trials and is expected to be available by the end of June. SynBIS will host BioCAD and modelling tools for the field. This opens up the possibility of undertaking high level software design of bioparts and devices which can be assembled using laboratory robots and other automatic methods.
The grant will also be used to establish a professional registry of biological parts and devices using a robotic data-collection pipeline for characterisation. The richer data that can be obtained will lead to improved mathematical modelling and in turn more predictable and reliable design and construction of the parts.
Professor Kitney said: "The new grant will build on the work of CsynBI and the other universities in the Flowers Consortium to create important new resources for the academic and industrial community in synthetic biology."
Professor Freemont said: "The establishment of the Flowers Consortium now provides a critical mass of researchers who are developing innovative open access technology platforms to accelerate the growth of synthetic biology research in the UK."
Another goal of the Consortium is to use funding to create a UK infrastructure for synthetic biology which will be widely available via a project web server that can be shared by universities throughout the UK and beyond, further enhancing UK and international collaborations such as the one with Stanford University.
Drew Endy of Stanford's Bioengineering department says: "I am grateful to be working with the EPSRC Centre of Science and Innovation in Synthetic Biology at Imperial College in partnership with other leading UK universities. This strategic UK investment in synthetic biology will strengthen key UK-US partnerships and also global research networks in ways that benefit all people and the planet."
The Consortium is currently working on a number of applications and is engaging with industry to commercialise potential products.
Two of these are biosensors for testing arsenic in water and for the earlier detection of urinary tract infections.
Dr Kedar Pandya, EPSRC Engineering Theme Leader, said: "Engineering research and leadership is critical to the further development of the UK's synthetic biology sector. Engineering technology provides the necessary product standardisation, robustness and design. We will continue to grow the investment we make in this area so that the UK's research base continues to be world-leading."
The emerging technology has the potential to make a major contribution to the government's growth agenda, creating wealth and employment. In tandem with other fields of science, synthetic biology can play a significant part in addressing some of the key challenges that the world faces in the areas of energy, health and the environment.
###
Contact details: EPSRC Press Office on 01793 444404 or pressoffice@epsrc.ac.uk
Notes to editors:
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK's main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. EPSRC invests around 800 million a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone's health, lifestyle and culture.
EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK. www.epsrc.ac.uk
The Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation (CSynBI) was established in 2009 in partnership with the BIOS Centre through an EPSRC Science and Innovation award that aims to build new activity in areas of national strategic importance, with a particular focus on supporting new research leaders.
The Centre is part of Imperial College London's Institute for Systems and Synthetic Biology - a multidisciplinary, multi faculty institute focused on developing novel approaches to research in biology, medicine and engineering. The Centre is based in the Faculty of Engineering and works closely with the Departments of Bioengineering and Life Sciences in the emerging field of synthetic biology.
A major strategic aim of the Centre is to establish a robust engineering framework for the design and optimisation of new synthetic biology parts, devices and systems and to integrate this research with emerging ethical legal and societal issues.
Researchers from the BIOS Centre at King's College London form an integral part of CSynBI and are exploring the social, political, economic and ethical dimensions of synthetic biology. They are also addressing issues of public engagement and trust, as well as engaging with the central concerns of policy and regulation in this novel and rapidly developing area.
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/syntheticbiology/people an appropriate regulatory and policy regime.
SynthSys is a Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology at the University of Edinburgh. The centre's focus is to pioneer genetic and chemical tools to manipulate the cell, technologies to quantify responses at the single-cell level, and mathematical models to both predict and control cellular behaviour.
SynthSys's experimental and theoretical researchers seek to deliver world-leading research in Synthetic and Systems Biology by combining theory and informatics with molecular biology to understand and re-design biochemical systems.
The centre integrates researchers from Innogen, the ESRC Centre for Social and Economic Research on Innovation in Genomics, to embed the principles of responsible innovation in translating our research into impact.
SynthSys, formerly the Centre for Systems Biology Edinburgh, was established as a Centre for Integrative Systems Biology in 2007 with an investment of 9M from the BBSRC and EPSRC.
Newcastle University is a centre of excellence for interdisciplinary computing science and bacterial cell biology, and has been active in systems and synthetic biology for more than a decade. The University's synthetic biology focus closely integrates expertise from across a wide variety of disciplines including computing science, engineering, mathematics and molecular biosciences.
A major strength is the inclusion of The Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology (CBCB), the world's first major research centre with a focus on fundamental bacterial cell processes.
Newcastle will play a key role in the project, leading the computational design and the development of industrially relevant bacterial strains.
Cambridge Synthetic Biology at the University of Cambridge, is an interdisciplinary consortium of laboratories established in 2005 with the aim to engage biologists, engineers, computer scientists, social scientists educators and artists to participate in the emerging world of Biological Design.
The Haseloff, Micklem and Ajioka labs leading Cambridge Synthetic Biology, are currently engaged in projects that include seminal work in developing synthetic biology standards and tools for plants and microbes, computational approaches for designing genetic circuits and practical solutions to healthcare.
Jim Haseloff's lab in the Dept. of Plant Sciences with support from the EPSRC, is focused on the engineering of plant morphogenesis, using microscopy, molecular genetic, computational and synthetic biology techniques. Advanced imaging techniques allow the visualisation of plant microachitecture, and the cellular interactions that underly plant morphogenesis. The lab is exploring new genetic circuits that will allow reprogramming of the distribution of natural cell types to remodel tissues or organs with specialised biosynthetic or storage functions. Plants, with their indeterminate and modular body plans, wide spectrum of biosynthetic activities, ease of genetically manipulation, and wide use as crop systems will underpin future sustainable technologies.
Gos Micklem, head of the Cambridge Computational Biology Institute, leads international projects funded by the NIH and the Wellcome Trust on data integration, where data from all the major model organisms can be "mined" through the InterMine platform. The Micklem computational group is now expanding this technology into synthetic biology with the development of SynBioMine. The power of generating collated and annotated data for specified biological functions will help realise the potential for incorporating natural biological diversity into engineered biological systems.
Jim Ajioka's lab based in the Dept. of Pathology with support from the Wellcome Trust, is directing synthetic biology into practical solutions for healthcare in impoverished regions with little infrastructure. Vast areas of South and Southeast Asia suffer from arsenic contaminated groundwater, where the distribution and contamination level of individual wells is unknown.
In collaboration with the Edinburgh group, the lab is taking research from previous projects, notably coloured pigment producing "E. chromi", and applying it to the construction of a whole-cell arsenic biosensor for use in the field.
Since 2005, Cambridge Synthetic Biology has established and maintained collaborations with leading synthetic biology laboratories, computer scientists, artists and designers including the Endy lab at Stanford, the Voigt lab at MIT, the Phillips group at Microsoft Research and Daisy Ginsberg and James King, whose rendition of "E. chromi" has been displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Watch what you say. Venus retrograde will begin to concentrate your love energy into your thoughts and words. Your expressions of affection may go a little overboard and send people running. Old will become new for brief moments as thoughts of old lovers return.
Time to pay some bills. You?ve been having a lot of fun lately and it?s now time to settle up. Don?t worry too much there will be money left over and you?ll begin earning again in a couple of weeks. Love is all about people you can reach out and touch right now.
It?s going to feel like someone hit the brakes on love. What happened to all the attention? This brief pause is a good time to see where you want everything to go. You?ll clearly see how things used to be, how they can be, and what you really want to have happen. Figure everything out this week and don?t force anything.
Your subconscious is getting a real workout. Open enemies make themselves heard. Don?t give too much of yourself. It might be a temporary situation. Everything will resolve in a couple of weeks. Stay calm.
The Sun will enter into your astro-sector of hopes, wishes, and the people that can make them happen. This will take some of the sting off of why people have suddenly begun ignoring you. It?s going to be social and fun and there is a chance for public rewards but in a more subdued way.
It?s going to feel weird at work. When you?re out in the public it?s as if all eyes are on you but for some reason no one is coming up to say hello. Perhaps you should make the first move. Remember, old is new right now, so go with what works. You have an opportunity for huge success on the job this year.
Venus retrograde in you astro-house of travel, adventure, and believe it or not.. fun jokes, is sending you on voyages of love and adventure. You?ll visit old friends, places, and lovers. On the down side, your new love has totally checked out and will remain emotionally unavailable for a couple of weeks. Don?t sweat it. They?ll be back. You?re worth it.
Business partnerships require a second look. It?s going to feel like all of the good that has been coming your way has suddenly dried up. Although I?m recommending the other signs sit this week out, I?d like you to take a big leap of faith. The problem for the entire last year has been an inability to follow through on initial sparks of love. Love has not disappeared, it?s standing still, waiting for you to swoop in.
I don?t know why you won?t accept responsibility but you will be confronted this week by those closest to you. It?s time to face up and apologize. Leave the problems in the past and everyone will forgive. It?s difficult to believe but you?re the only one holding on.
As the other signs wonder what?s happened to love, you?ll get a boost. This week Saturn, your astro-ruler will team up with Venus. This will constrict or bring a reality to love. It?s not the best for dreamers but it?s perfect for someone who has a plan and knows how to work it. Take this opportunity to advance your goals.
Suddenly.. not lucky. Sort of. Try not to blame recent events too much for this short dry spell. You were right all along and things will return back to frisky shortly. Now?s the time to figure out how sexy you want it to get.
Careful around the house as repair bills begin to mount. Love seems to have disappeared and you?re left to clean up the mess. Don?t take it too hard and try to keep the stress down mid-week. Your hand will be forced. Be careful.
Today, the internet has provided a way for people to communicate for free. It virtually replaced conventional mails where it can be too slow for it to arrive to its destination. With emails, your letter can arrive to its destination in a matter of seconds. With this benefits, businesses and regular people alike are now taking advantage of emails as a way to communicate with their relatives at a faster rate and for free.
Another great thing about the internet is that it now allows you to chat with your family and friends for free. This service that everyone with an internet connection can take advantage of is called instant messenger. Today, this technology is now being used by a lot of people to chat even faster with their family and friends. This kind of program allows you to talk to your friends in real time via text chat.
There are even instant messengers that have features that will allow you to chat with your family and friends by using your voice. And, another great feature by instant messengers available today is that it allows you to activate your webcam. Through this piece of equipment, you will be able to let your family and friends see you and vice versa.
The internet definitely provides a great way for people to communicate and exchange information. With the upload and download features of the email and the instant messenger, you will be able to share your files with your family and friends. It can be a music file, it can be documents, and it can even be photos.
Today, many software providers have developed a new kind of communication system that takes advantage of the internet. This communication system combines the conventional telephone technology with the internet communication technology to create a new kind of telephone system. This new technology is called VoIP.
VoIP provides all the different features of a conventional telephone system, such as phone conferencing, call waiting, answering machine, fax machine, caller ID, and it allows you to call long distance, call mobile phones, and it also allows you to call conventional phones. Although the phone conferencing, call waiting, fax machine and caller ID capabilities is a service that you can get for free with VoIP phones, the long distance calls, mobile phone and conventional phone calls has a charge when you call these different phone systems. However, it is cheaper than conventional phones.
Another great thing about VoIP is that it allows you to call other VoIP phones wherever it is for free, provided that the VoIP phone you are calling is also subscribed to the VoIP service provider you are subscribed in. With this feature, you will avoid getting charged for every phone call you make.
You can also take advantage of video conferencing for free by just using your webcam. This VoIP service is standard and is provided by most VoIP service providers for free. This kind of service is impossible or is very expensive in conventional telephone systems.
Whether you use VoIP phones for business or for your home, it is definitely a very useful tool and also a phone that can replace your conventional telephone. With free and cheap phone calls, VoIP is definitely the phone system of the future.
There are a lot of VoIP service providers popping out in the market today. However, you have to choose the best kind of VoIP phones in order for you to take advantage of the technology. So, what makes a good VoIP service provider?
You have to look at the following factors in order to know what you need. The very first thing that you should have is an active high speed internet connection. If you have this, you are ready in getting VoIP installed in your home. A good VoIP phone system is a VoIP phone system that is used by most of your family, friends and business acquaintances. This means that you should subscribe to a VoIP service provider that your family, friends and acquaintances uses. This will be able to provide you with free phone calls.
The best kind of VoIP phone system is a system that will be able to provide you with all the standard features of VoIP. This means that the caller ID, video conferencing, audio conferencing, and other mentioned features should be included in the package at no extra charge.
You also have to make sure that the VoIP system you are subscribing from should be able to provide quality services. It should be able to let you enjoy real-time phone calls and should not delay communications.
These are the things that you should look for when getting the best VoIP phone system. With all these features, you will be able to get the best VoIP phone system available.
President Barack Obama speaks during the meeting on Afghanistan during the NATO Summit, Monday, Monday, May 21, 2012, in, Chicago. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Barack Obama speaks during the meeting on Afghanistan during the NATO Summit, Monday, Monday, May 21, 2012, in, Chicago. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Barack Obama speaks at the start of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) meeting on Afghanistan at the NATO Summit in Chicago, Monday, May 21, 2012. From left are, British Prime Minister David Cameron, left, and Gen. John R. Allen, Commander of the International Security Assistance Force. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama mingles before the meeting on Afghanistan during the NATO Summit, Monday, May 21, 2012, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The NATO leaders gather as the opening session of the NATO Summit begins in Chicago, Sunday, May 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
French President Francois Hollande, right, meets with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen during a bilateral meeting at Radisson Blu Hotel before attending the opening session of the NATO Summit in Chicago, Sunday, May 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Yoan Valat, Pool)
CHICAGO (AP) ? President Barack Obama and fellow NATO leaders solidified plans Monday for an "irreversible transition" in Afghanistan, affirming their commitment to ending the deeply unpopular war in 2014 and voicing confidence in the ability of Afghan forces to take the lead for securing their country even sooner.
The alliance leaders, meeting for a second day of talks in Obama's hometown, declared in a summit communique that while NATO will maintain a significant presence in Afghanistan after 2014, "this will not be a combat mission."
NATO and its partner nations formally agreed that Afghan security forces would take control of any combat next summer with NATO sliding into a support role. Obama called the transition "the next milestone" in bringing the nearly 11-year long war to a close.
"This will be another step toward Afghans taking full lead for their security as agreed to by 2014," Obama said as he opened a meeting of NATO leaders and other countries that have participated in the war.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Afghans were already leading security operations in half the country and were on pace to meet next year's targets.
"Transition means the people of Afghanistan increasingly see their own army and police in their towns and villages providing their security," Rasmussen said. "This is an important sign of progress toward our shared goal: an Afghanistan governed and secured by Afghans for Afghans."
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai was participating in Monday's meeting, as was Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, whose country will have a critical role in ensuring Afghanistan's stability after NATO troops leave.
Zardari's presence has cast a shadow over the summit. The U.S. and Pakistan remain at odds over Pakistan's closure of key routes used to send supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan closed the supply lines in November following a U.S. airstrike that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers. While both sides have indicated the issue will be resolved, no deal is expected during the NATO meetings.
Obama thanked other nations in Central Asia and Russia for their roles in providing "critical transit" for supplies but pointedly made no mention of Pakistan.
As NATO leaders herald the Afghan war's end, they face the grim reality of two more years of fighting and more of their troops dying in combat.
Some NATO countries, most recently France, have sought to end their combat commitments early. The Taliban and its allies have warned that they are waiting to fill the void in Afghanistan after NATO leaves.
Obama is eager to show election-year leadership on the world stage during the Chicago meetings.
Following a meeting with Karzai Sunday, Obama said NATO's drawdown plans mean that by 2014, "the Afghan war as we understand it is over."
But he acknowledged enormous progress must be made for that to become a reality.
"We still have a lot of work to do, and there will be great challenges ahead," Obama said after his lengthy talks with Karzai. "The loss of life continues in Afghanistan."
Obama's words were echoed by other U.S. officials, who sternly warned that American forces and their allies should still expect to be engaged in battle even after Afghans take the lead.
"After this milestone in 2013 there still will be combat capability, combat authority and an expectation there will be combat," said retired Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the top White House national security council official in connection with the war.
Many alliance leaders, Obama chief among them, have a political incentive for trumpeting that drawdown plan, given the growing public frustration.
Sixty six percent of Americans oppose the war, while only 27 percent support the effort, according to an AP-GfK poll released this month.
In France, voters elected President Francois Hollande in part because of a campaign pledge to pull his country's 3,300 troops out of Afghanistan ahead of schedule. Since taking office, Hollande has said he plans to make good on his promise to bring combat troops home by the end of this year but will maintain French support for Afghanistan in other ways.
The U.S. and NATO will also maintain a sizeable and lengthy commitment to Afghanistan after combat troops come home at the end of 2014.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a member of the Armed Services Committee who visits Afghanistan often, said that by 2014 Afghan forces, with the backing of international trainers and logistical support, "will be able to provide stability."
Speaking Monday on CBS' "This Morning," Reed said that Afghan leaders and the international community need to seek a political settlement "but the security forces will provide the foundation for the stability that is absolutely necessary as our troops withdraw."
Obama, in a trip to Afghanistan this month, signed a deal with Karzai detailing much of the U.S. commitment, including annual financing from Congress and support for development, health and education projects. The U.S. may also leave a residual troop presence in Afghanistan, though any such step would require approval from the Afghans.
At the NATO conference, leaders were also discussing how the international community would finance Afghan security forces after 2014. With none of the NATO countries having the stomach to pursue the war much longer, the only viable option is to support an Afghan army and police force capable of defending the country against the Taliban and its allies.
NATO estimates it will cost about $4.1 billion a year to finance the forces. The Afghan government will pay about $500 million of that, and the rest will come from donor countries, many of which are struggling with deficits and the specter of recession.
In a statement issued early Monday, NATO directed a review of the need for continued military support after ground forces depart. The alliance said it would "continue to provide strong and long-term political and practical support" to the government of Afghanistan and would "train, advise and assist" the Afghan military.
"This will not be a combat mission," NATO said.
While the Chicago meeting was not billed as a pledging summit, leaders were discussing where the rest of the contributions would come from. About $1.3 billion is expected to come from NATO members other than the United States. About $1 billion of that has already been pledged, a senior Western official said Sunday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to disclose the figures.
The U.S. and some nations outside the military coalition are expected to make up the $2.3 billion.
The challenge facing Obama and other world leaders will be to convince their own voters that Afghanistan is worth the investment. The war has already claimed the lives of at least 3,000 NATO service members ? more than 1,840 of them American ? and thousands of Afghans.
"I think it speaks to the level of commitment that even in these tough financial times these leaders are willing to make the political commitment to fund the Afghan security forces," Lute said.
___
Associated Press writers Ben Feller and Anne Gearan contributed to this report.
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Public release date: 24-May-2012
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