Tech posts are back

I took most of last week off as a vacation before digging back into the tail-end of my thesis.

Source: Nature Researchers have discovered that wounded skin induces the skin cells to generate, among other things, hair follicles. In an experiment involving rat skin, wounds were observed to generate hair follicles, albeit without pigment. The researchers see using a form of dermabrasion and a topical cream to induce skin to regrow hair as a treatment for baldness.

Source: Space.com A proposed planet-finding mission will look for habitable planets, starting with 40 Eridani - the home of the fictional planet Vulcan of Star Trek fame. Scientists believe that the triple-star system has a habitable zone that, if it contains a rocky planet, could support life. The planet would circle a K-type dwarf star (40 Eridani A)at a distance of 0.6 AU with a "year" lasting six of our months.

Source: ABC News A medical researcher has discovered that by halting production of the ACAT2 enzyme, mice are able to consume high-fat foods without the usual health problems. In fact, they appear to be as health as mice feed only "healthy" fats. The ACAT2 enzyme is important for modifying cholesterol such that the liver stores it. Without the enzyme, the liver simply flushes the cholesterol out as a waste product. The researchers are moving to trials with monkeys, and are discussing with pharmaceutical companies the possibility of using a pill to deactivate ACAT2 production in humans. The only remaining question is: what purpose does it serve that lead to our having it in the first place?

Source: BBC News A controversial theory has been proposed to explain mass extinctions in North America. They believe that during the last Ice Age, an extra-terrestrial object, possibly a comet, struck northern Canada 12,900 years ago and melted huge quantities of the Laurentide ice sheet that covered much of Canada at that time. The glacier would have absorbed most of the impact so no crater would exist. The blast would have scoured large parts of North America, resulting in the extinction of most of North America's large mammals including mammoths, mastodons, horses, camels, and giant sloths.

Source: Reuters A new discovery could lead to engines fueled by water and aluminum. Engineers at Purdue University have discovered that by mixing gallium with aluminum, the resulting pellets can extract oxygen from water, resulting in hydrogen on demand. Previously, aluminum was known to extract oxygen from water, but the result was an aluminum oxide layer that limited the process. The presence of gallium appears to ensure that the oxidation continues until the aluminum has been exhausted. This means that a hydrogen-powered engine could depend on a tank of water rather than stored hydrogen. The trick now is to reduce the cost of the aluminum-gallium pellets to below the current cost of gasoline, but given the rate at which the price is rising that shouldn't take too long.