More accumulated articles

[dracodraconis]

The LAN turns 30 - We've come a long way since 2.5 Mb/sec ARCNet was developed by Datapoint Corp. Incidentally, the name of the project was "Internet", but they decided not to call it that because they considered the name to be too "frivolous".  ARCNet eventually lost out to Ethernet (developed, incidentally, by Xerox a year before ARCNet).

Scientists accidentally find way to improve memory using deep-brain stimulation - They were originally trying to treat an obese patient who was unable to curb his appetite. His eating problem remained, but he recalled memories form 30 years earlier, then went on to experience gradual memory improvement.

Two new DNA "letters" developed - Thanks to d2leddy for pointing this one out. The scientists started out with 3600 base pairs generated randomly, then screened them to find those that would react with a polymerase enzyme. Only two, dubbed dSICS and dMMO2, worked with only a bit of tweaking to work the bugs out. The new bases can be used to build unique DNA combinations, such as for tagging DNA segments.

Sperm "tap" makes vasectomies reversible - Australian scientists propose a radio-controlled implant that would block sperm until an appropriate remote signal is received. How many ways can this go wrong?

Comments

[siderea]

How many ways can this go wrong?

Technically, two: off when it should be on, and on when it should be off. ;)

[ancalagon-tb.livejournal.com]

clever :D


I'm more concerned about the brain discovery. Yay for serendipity, but... the discovery could just likely have been "deep simulation turns people in raging cannibals, claims survivor".

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

That is true. Fortunately this worked, and now there is a new line of inquiry about why electrical stimulation works.

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

All right, I left myself open for that one. Perhaps it should be rephrased as what situations can arise in which one of those states can be a result.