Mapping Our Complex Brains: Human Connectome Project

Fascinating new project mapping the complex circuitry of our brains.






Human Connectome Project

From Denny: There's circuitry and then there's our brain's circuitry. The brain is the last frontier for medical understanding about the body. Think of what it must be like to be a cartographer of the human brain: fascinating.

$30 million project

The Human Connectome Project has tasked itself with the lofty goal of achieving just that in only five years. And the consortium of 33 American researchers, at nine different institutions, have amassed a hefty $30 million to do it. This is the first of its kind effort to map the complex circuitry of the brain. They will be detailing every tiny connection that links to thousands of different brain regions.

The lead universities in this massive effort are Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Minnesota's Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR). These two sites are where most of the brain scanning will take place.

What kind of brain scanners you ask?

Yes, there is another grant for that, the HCP grant of $8.5 milllion, from 16 areas of the National Institutes of Health. Massachusetts General Hospital and UCLA are on point to develop advanced, custom brain scanners. Those scanners will possess much higher spatial resolution and increased sensitivity.

Just how large is this project?

Try 90 billion neurons big. And that figure still doesn't touch the brain's large scale and complexity. The brain is estimated to possess at least 150 trillion synapses. Synapses are those connections that pass signals to and from neurons and electrical signals have to negotiate all this complexity. The neurons and the connections between them are what make up the circuitry of our brains.

"These cells and synapses form the circuits that underlie all our thinking and emotion – everything that makes each of us a unique individual," says David Van Essen, PhD, the Edison Professor and head of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Washington University.

What technology will they use?

The hope for this project is to accurately map out in great detail this complexity, going to the next level generation of medicine. To accomplish this feat researchers are tapping into state-of-the-art brain scanning technologies like diffusion imaging, various MRI methods, and magnetoencephalography. They will also utilize new brain analysis techniques.

Scanning techniques will include:

* diffusion imaging - a new form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that produces detailed information on cell structure by tracking the random movements of water molecules

* resting state functional MRI - monitors brain activity while subjects relax, to reveal which brain regions work in sync with each other via brain networks

* task-related functional MRI - helps associate particular capabilities with specific brain regions by tracking brain activity as subjects perform visual, motor, cognitive, and other tasks

* magnetoencephalography - monitors very rapid patterns of activity involving millions of brain cells but provides less specific spatial data


What else will researchers study as they map the brain?

Researchers want to map more than just how messages move through our brains. They want to view how the brain networks as various regions work together. To amass this information they are going to need a supercomputer (at Washington University's High Performance Computing Center) to process all the data collected.

What's a voxel?

The map resolutions will be focusing upon the intensely small, called a "voxel." A voxel is a small swath of grey brain matter containing about one million neurons each. Researchers estimate this project will generate about one petabyte of data it's so mind-boggling (or 1 quadrillion - 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes).

Which part of the brain is going to receive the most study?

Efforts will be concentrated on the the cerebral cortex. Those wrinkled sheets of gray matter on both sides of the brain are where the most complex mental functions are carried out. Just visualize a funny looking wrinkly 14-inch pizza if these areas were spread out flat.

Did you know that each person's celebral cortex is different?

A brain's wrinkles and folds, the shape and size of the brain structures, even the wiring of the circuits vary a lot from person to person. Researchers want to better understand those variabilities and also any genetic underpinnings so they have decided to recruit 1,200 twins and siblings of twins in the project.

"This lets us look at the heritability of different brain circuits by comparing identical twins to non-identical twins and siblings," he explains. "It will also let us start linking various genes to specific aspects of brain circuitry."

New understanding of the brain to help with autism and schizophrenia

The hope is this new brain mapping of the complex circuitry will help neuro-scientists when they need to test their theories, hypotheses and other study findings against this data. Medicine continues to push the window on deeper understanding of how the brain functions so they can find cures for neurological disorders.

"This effort will have a major impact on our understanding of the healthy adult human brain," says lead investigator David Van Essen, PhD, the Edison Professor and head of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Washington University. "It will also enable future projects that probe what changes in brain circuits underlie a broad variety of disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia."

"In the last two decades, scientists have developed a fantastic number of tools for non-invasive study of the human brain," says lead investigator Kamil Ugurbil, PhD, director of the CMRR and the McKnight Presidential Chair Professor of Radiology, Neurosciences and Medicine at the University of Minnesota. "The connectome project will significantly advance these techniques, many of which are based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and apply them to generate unprecedented insights into the connectivity and function of the brain."

"On a scale never before attempted, this highly coordinated effort will use state-of-the-art imaging instruments, analysis tools and informatics technologies – and all of the resulting data will be freely shared with the research community," said Dr. Michael Huerta of the National Institute of Mental Health, who directs the NIH Connectome initiative. "Individual variability in brain connections underlies the diversity of our thinking, perception and motor skills, so understanding these networks promises advances in brain health."



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Check Out Spectacular August Perseid Meteor Showers

*** Look up in the middle of the night to see as many as 100 shooting stars above your head for a spectacular show brought to you by the Universe!





From Denny: Every August we night sky watchers get to enjoy the Perseid meteor showers. This year it's supposed to be spectacular with hundreds whizzing by in the sky for our enjoyment. It peaks from midnight to dawn. In my area there will probably be cloud cover like most years but I'm still getting up in the middle of the night hoping to catch a glimpse. Hot and humid Louisiana is not exactly the best viewing of astronomical events. :)

Meteor showers are made up of what?

This famous meteor shower is actually the exhaust plume of the comet called 109/Swift-Tuttle. We really have to work on getting scientists to employ a Romance era English professor - who secretly writes modern day romance novels on the side for outrageous income - to come up with some better and more creative names.

So here's what happens as this ST comet enters the inner solar system. As it whips around the sun it starts heating up. The ice pockets on the comet melt, pretty much skip the liquid stage just for fun, and turn into gas. Those ice pockets also spew out dust and rock chunks as the ice is coming loose. Like any good drama queen exiting the stage, as this comet exits the inner solar system, there is still the long train of a debris trail that remains for our Earth to pass through. And we on Earth find this process terribly romantic as we gaze up toward the heavens.

Planet Earth started its move into Swift-Tuttle’s stream of dust by the middle of July. "The debris is a very old stream that has been building for a long time and is a very dense concentration of dust," says Peter Jenniskens, a meteor researcher at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.

"Indeed, if you look back at records from the Middle Ages, you can see that people in the Middle Ages were seeing the Perseid meteor shower," he says. This year the Perseid shower is trumpeted to be above average.

How much will you see?

Under the best of conditions this meteor shower may generate up to 100 meteors an hour. It all depends upon just how dark your skies are going to be so you have to know your area. If you are in an area where you can hike up to the top of a mountain you can expect to see up to 108 meteors an hour. The peak viewing hours are from 3 AM to 4 AM Eastern Standard Time. And the official word is too that our night sky will be having a double feature: a waning-gibbous moon. Read that as it's a new moon so the Perseid shower won't have to compete with a lot of moonlight.

"Earth will be passing through a denser patch of Swift-Tuttle's dust stream than usual," according to William Cooke, who heads NASA's Meteroid Environment Office at the Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "The main dust stream got a slight stir from Saturn, and we're also running into a patch of material the comet off-loaded in 1479," Cooke explains.







Why called the Perseid shower?

The meteors appear to be emerging from the area of the night sky that contains the constellation Perseus. For some good advice of how to photograph this event and some more detailed viewing tips check out the American Meteor Society's website.

Check out the "Fluxtimator." You can check out what is likely to happen in your area for meteor showers besides this August show of the Perseid. The graph will automatically adjust itself to give you the best viewing times for your location when you select which meteor shower, your nearest major urban area, your viewing conditions and the date. It will even tell you how many of those famous shooting stars you are likely to see.

If your alarm clock fails to rouse you tonight, don't worry. You still have a chance the next morning at about the same times.

History of the Swift-Tuttle comet

This comet was discovered as far back in history as 1862 by two astronomers: Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle. They both saw this comet within days of each other. I guess they agreed to both claim bragging rights - so the astronomy community decided to split the difference and name the comet after both of them.

This comet swings around our sun once in every 133.28 years. The last time we saw it was back in 1992 and it will return again in 2126, assuming we all survive the Mayan predictions of 2012. Astronomers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are pretty excited about the next visit. They say it should be spectacular because the comet will pass so close to Earth, by a distance of only 14 million miles.

The Oort cloud is where the Swift-Tuttle comet originated. The Oort cloud is this huge spherically shaped cloud made up of frozen leftovers from when the solar system was formed, about 4.6 billion years ago. The word is that when the ST comet was passing through the inner solar system that planet Jupiter took an interest and captured it. After that event about 160,000 years ago the comet's orbit around the sun shrank.

While Jupiter was successful at rounding up this comet into the zone Jupiter's gravity was not able to reel in this comet to become part of the short-period comets stable. Those guys reappear about every 20 years or even in less time. This ST comet proved difficult to tame and joined the ranks of comets like Halley's Comet, having an orbital period that could range from 20 to 200 years.

Every time the ST comet tours through the inner solar system it makes a teasing pass across Jupiter's orbit. Yet it manages to remain just out of reach of grasping Jupiter so the ST comet's travel plans and path are never significantly altered. This is one crafty stealthy comet determined to remain free to do as it will. One thing is for sure is that every time the ST comet passes by it slowly thickens that famous dust stream it leaves behind for us all on Earth to admire.

The best place to view this comet will be in the Northern Hemisphere. Yeah, since I live in south Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico I only get to view about 30 to 40 meteors an hour - and that's at the peak. It's still worth the spectacular view in the wee hours of the morning.






To enjoy your night out watching the sky for free from the University of Texas's McDonald Observatory:

* Try to drive out to a safe and secure dark spot outside your city or town where you can reduce the light pollution that will interfere with your viewing. Be sure to arrive early enough to allow for your eyes to adjust to the dark. Here in Louisiana we do have a small observatory in a large park setting where city residents go for these events.

* Make sure you have a low horizon to the northeast. This is where the constellation Perseus will rise.

* Either lay on a blanket or a chaise lounge you've brought just for this purpose (you plan-ahead person, you) and position yourself so the horizon is just within your peripheral vision. Since Perseus moves across the night sky, be ready to tweak your viewing position as it does so.

* As the folks at the observatory say: "Treat meteor watching like you would the 4th of July fireworks. Pack comfortable chairs, bug spray, food and drinks, blankets, plus a red-filtered flashlight for reading maps and charts without ruining your night vision. Binoculars are not necessary. Your eyes will do just fine."

* If you need a quick red filter for your flashlight, try picking up a tail-light repair kit from your local auto-parts store. The red plastic works well and is fairly easy to cut.

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Astronomers and the night sky Photo by Peter Petrov


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How Northern Lights Are Created By Sun Flares

*** Check out 3 video clips of the solar flares and magnetic filament in action as they create the Northern Lights on Earth.





From Denny: The Northern Lights are quite the spectacular celestial show. Right about now I wished I lived back up in Maine or along the Canadian border to be able to view this month's show in the night sky. The past few days our sun has been busy throwing off sun flares and magnetic filament to create the Northern Lights phenomenon.

The three clips feature just how spectacular the sun looks right now while space expert James Oberg explains how this celestial show can affect us here on Earth. With sun flares there are often satellite issues and that involves bank transactions like when you go to pump gas and your credit card won't scan or record the transaction because of the magnetic interference from the heavens. Oh, well, stuff your pockets full of cash if you want to travel or sit back and just enjoy the show in the night sky.







Space expert James Oberg explains what's behind the Northern Lights show:

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Spectacular video of the sun in this news clip:

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Check out NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory capturing sun flares which create the wonderful Northern Lights phenomenon:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

*** Update 5 Aug 2010: Missed Tuesday's northern lights show? Another is on its way.

For folks along the northern rim of the US, a second chance to see the northern lights will come when another solar outburst hits Earth Wednesday or Thursday.

Aurora-forecast page


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Giant Asteroid Threatens Earth In 170 Years

*** Crank up the planet asteroid defense system because Earth is expecting an asteroid impact soon - by astronomical time.




An artist's impression of what an asteroid impact with Earth might look like - photo from Newscom

Hollywood Asteroid Destruction Movies

From Denny: And you wonder where Hollywood gets these scary ideas for their movies. There's a new study out suggesting Earth might get hit by a giant asteroid in 2182. So, folks, that gives us about 170 years and a number of generations to get our proverbial act together to figure out how to destroy it, derail it off a collision course or evacuate the planet. Of course, that's if it hits at all. I do wish these guys would make up their minds. Is the human race scheduled for extinction or isn't it?

Scientists, being the annoying beings they know how to be, they are alarmists while they are also double speaking us about how unlikely it is that this giant asteroid will slam into Earth. Don't you just want to chick slap these guys into another time zone for the way they jack up your emotions and then deflate them like some helium balloon?

The official glamorous name of this giant asteroid

What's this giant asteroid's name? It's a terribly exotic one: 1999 RQ36 and it sounds like something off a Formerly Known As Prince music album. So now fading rock stars are naming killer asteroids?

The odds of impact

Well, the Vulcan Spock look alikes in the science world have declared this giant asteroid only has a one in a 1,000 chance of truly smashing into Earth. Thanks, guys, I feel so reassured now. The co-author of the study, María Eugenia Sansaturio of the Universidad de Valladolid in Spain, says half of the risk calculated corresponds to what are potential impacts in the glorious year of 2182. Listen, folks, we still have to live past 2012...

Sansaturio and the study team said they employed mathematical models to determine the risk of this asteroid impacting Earth as far in the future as 2200. What they discovered from the model is there were two opportunities for this possible collision in 2182.

More about their research is detailed in the science journal Icarus.

How big is this asteroid?

Just how large is this giant asteroid? It measures about 1,837 feet across which is about 560 meters. The National Academy of Sciences says in a recent report that a space rock of this dimension could cause widespread devastation at the impact site. "Ya think?"

This giant asteroid has been tracked by scientists through as many as 290 observations and 13 radar surveys like a pack of FBI agents watching a house of prostitution. Yet there is still some uncertainty because of the small influence it gets from the gentle push of the so-called Yarkovsky effect.

The Yarkovsky Effect

What's the Yarkovsky effect? Glad you asked because I didn't know it either. Of course, it was named for a Russian engineer (I.O. Yarkovsky) who talked about this effect way back in 1900. He described how an asteroid gains momentum from thermal radiation that it emits from its night side. After several hundred years go by, this effect's influence on an asteroid's orbit could be monumental.

The erratic asteroid orbit makes it difficult to pin down odds

Back to the study team in Spain as they figured out that up until the year of 2060, Earth's chances of getting hit by this giant asteroid is minimal and downright remote. That's so comforting, guys. However, the odds start increasing by a magnitude of four by the year of 2080 because the the orbit of the asteroid brings it closer to hanging out near Earth.

Those scary odds of impact start dipping down as the asteroid moves away from Earth. Then those odds rise again in 2162 and 2182 as the asteroid's orbit swings back toward Earth. It's an erratic orbital dance and therefore difficult to know exactly the odds of impact. "The consequence of this complex dynamic is not just the likelihood of a comparatively large impact, but also that a realistic deflection procedure (path deviation) could only be made before the impact in 2080, and more easily, before 2060," Sansaturio said. "After 2080, it would be more difficult to deflect the asteroid." Read that as we are screwed on this planet if the mathematicians are correct.

"If this object had been discovered after 2080, the deflection would require a technology that is not currently available," Sansaturio said. "Therefore, this example suggests that impact monitoring, which up to date does not cover more than 80 or 100 years, may need to encompass more than one century. By expanding the time frame for potential impacts, researchers would potentially identify the most threatening space rocks with enough time to mount deflection campaigns that are both technologically and financially feasible," she said.

Tell your children's children what to expect or deal with asteroid now

And there you have it. Make sure to leave a journal for your descendants so they can be scared the hell out of their minds too. Meanwhile, I'm taking a trip to Area 51 to find me some aliens with asteroid busting technology. Being proactive is the way to go. Let's go blast some giant asteroid out of the sky!


Congress Proposes Commission to Study Asteroid Impact Threat

Fresh Spin on Solar Powered Asteroids

NASA Panel Calls for Asteroid Defense Office


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Passionate Volcano Chasers: Photographing Eruptions Around the World

*** Check out the risks these amateurs take as they take vacations just to photograph erupting volcanoes all over the world.






From Denny: Do you ever wonder how those awe-inspiring photos get to us from the media? There are those crazy and downright obsessed volcano photographers out there in the science world. When word gets out that a volcano is erupting in the world, these guys jump on the first plane out to run to the volcano. Most people have more sense and run away from said erupting dangerous volcano. :)

Check out the personal story of one German photographer, Martin Rietze. To give you an idea of the ground conditions of what it's like for a photographer, Rietze's experience tells it all. He didn't sleep for three nights straight. (Smart move in my book.) Turns out the volcano was throwing out huge chunks of rock the size of cars like some screaming diva in a world class hissy fit. That would prompt anyone to stay awake and on alert.

He hugged a nearby boulder as a shield against the lava-spewing volcano. Yeah, that's right. Why? Because that protective boulder was only 1,600 feet from the mouth of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Crazy or brave, you decide.

Rietze is an engineer by day who builds delicate electronics for planetariums. He is also a volcanophile, one of a small group worldwide who like to spend their vacations traveling to erupting volcanoes. Molten magma, choking ash clouds, poisonous gases, smoking-hot boulders raining down upon them are all part of the thrill for this mostly male band of thrill seekers. The estimate is they number at about 200 and hail from Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, the USA, France and Switzerland. The majority of them are professional engineers: computer, electrical, chemical and mechanical.

This crazy pursuit is one of those adventures they know they can't make a living doing so it is a labor of love. Once this adventure was a solitary pursuit but with the advent of the web this small band of volcanophiles are able to share their adventures and tips.

Just when you think this pursuit is such a great idea, the professionals urge caution like from those who shoot for National Geographic: ""They put fire in people's eyes and their brain is left behind," say Donna and Steve O'Meara, a husband-and-wife team. They caution that because volcanoes are so incredibly alluring that inexperienced people tend to take far too many chances that are risky and not wise.

They remind us experienced volcanologists, Katia and Maurice Krafft from France and Harry Glicken from the USA, perished in an eruption on Mount Unzen in Japan on June 3, 1991. With them were 41 journalists who also risked their lives and died with the scientists.

Some in the academic community disdain the amateurs because of their risk taking. There are other academics who welcome them as a good resource. Richard Wunderman, editor of the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. says he counts on amateurs for reports and photos of eruptions that would otherwise go unrecorded. "They're an amazing resource."

One reason it is so dangerous to photograph a volcano is because of the amount of time required to get a clear shot. Clouds, fog and steam often obscure the view and what makes for a stunning photo. The more time you spend in the dangerous chaotic environment the greater the risk.

For safety gear in this vicious environment, Patrick Koster, a chemical engineer of Spijkenisse, the Netherlands, dons a climbing helmet, gloves, goggles and a gas mask to filter ash as well as neutralize chemicals in the gases emitted by the volcanoes. Koster says this gear is "very important because fresh lava can be razor-sharp. If you put your hand down on something, you can get cut badly."

Cinematographer Sean Stiegemeier, of Los Angeles, remarked about how much easier it was to photograph the Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajökull since it was so accessible compared to most volcanoes that erupt in remote places in the world. "The one good day of weather we were there, there were probably 10 cars out next to the volcano, most of them photographers with gigantic lenses," he reported. "It was so loud, every now and again it felt like it was rumbling its stomach at us and then it would spit out lava."

Yeah, these crazy amateurs are definitely dedicated. :) Good hunting, guys. I'll definitely keep you in my prayers.







*** Photo by Helen Maria Bjornsd/Nordic Photos/Getty Images

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Ground-Breaking King of the Lab: Venter Creates Synthetic DNA

Synthetic DNA


From Denny: Frankenstein move over 'cause a new kind of scientist is in town: a Vietnam era ex-Navy guy gone micro-organism tech. Scientists are crowing they have succeeded in creating a living cell from DNA synthesized in a lab. It isn't yet a synthetic organism but give them time.

It is just me or is it just a bit creepy to create life in a lab? Can we all imagine a generation from now of the typical high school kid creating synthetic life in their lab? Of course, people of my mind are wondering where this may go since science has never owned a great track record on exercising wisdom in their achievements.




J. Craig Venter, creator of synthetic genome


Who is the scientist behind this scientific curiosity? Craig Venter is his name, a name that draws a lot of unfriendly fire in the science community. He sure has his detractors but even they admit he does think big.

What Did Venter Do?

Venter and his team have worked on this synthetic life idea since 1995. They utilized four chemical DNA constituents - called A, T, C and G - to form a synthetic genome. They inserted that synthetic genome into a cell, giving the cell orders as it grew and multiplied.

When you have worked on a project for that many years it's obvious there were a number of high hurdles to overcome. Venter said his first question was to figure out how to make a very big piece of DNA. You see - for those of us not in the DNA biz he explained - most chemical synthesis techniques will stop working once you arrive at a few thousand DNA letters. Great, so how to solve that problem? He discovered he could not copy a whole genome so he decided to do it in parts - sort of like the old adage of "the ant eating the elephant" solution. Venter said, "We wanted to make something close to a million."

How Venter Did It

Solving that chemistry issue took him most of the last 15 years of his life. How did they solve that problem? He and his team placed smaller fragments of synthesized DNA into bacterial cells where they huddled together into a tight group like a football team, becoming larger fragments. The second stage of the solution was to then insert the now enlarged fragments into yeast cells so the yeast cells could slap them all on the back making everyone fast friends. Read that as the yeast cells were successful at stitching those larger fragments all together like a quilt. Hmmm... brings up Frankenstein images, doesn't it? :)

And if that wasn't enough to solve, they still had to figure out how to transfer that huge chunk of DNA into a cell without fumbling said football and losing the game. They didn't want all their hard work to end up breaking as they transferred it. Venter also wanted to prove that he could transfer a working chromosome from one football team to another - like one species of bacteria to another.

Venter was crowned Creator God of Bacteria when he took the genome from a simple small cell bacteria, known by the impressive handle of Mycoplasma mycoides, and transferred it to another bacteria species (Mycoplasma capricolum). He will now be worshiped by very low life forms for at least a millennium - maybe longer.

You would think the new title of Creator God of Bacteria would have satisfied his scientist ego but no, Venter pressed on. He whipped out his science version of a copier and made an exact copy of the mycoides genome (think Football Team Red if your eyes are starting to glaze over at all the technicalities) in his lab and then transferred his synthetic genome into capricolum (think Football Team Blue).

Was it truly this easy? Wishing was not happening. To get the system to work correctly Venter and his team had to determine a more accurate DNA sequence for the mycoides genome (Football Team Red) and that detour journey took a number of years to figure out. This week, in the scientists' Holy Grail of journals, Science, Venter and his team got to scream their success from the rooftops.

Weighing in on the accomplishment is synthetic biologist from Boston University, Jim Collins, who claims this really isn't a new life form. He is saying basically what I've been thinking about this story is that "Its genome is a stitched together copy of the DNA of an organism that exists in nature."

While Collins concedes Venter has created something remarkable it still isn't the Holy Grail of creating life. "We don't know enough biology to create or synthesize life," says Collins. "I think we're far removed from understanding how would you build a truly artificial genome from scratch."

While it's cool that Venter has figured out how to control a cell's behavior by using DNA created in the lab it sure leaves us wondering about this new situation in our world. Bioethicists have yet another tough task ahead as they wrestle with the morality.




Synthetic genome chart


Ethical Science Dilemmas

Another scientist to give his opinion is Gregory Kaebnick, a scholar at the Hasting Center, a bioethics think tank. Kaebnick is concerned about this new field of synthetic biology. What happens if any synthetic organisms make their escape from the lab and run wild, creating chaos? Does this cross the line where humans start playing God before they are fully grounded in wisdom? The bacteria crowd might be taking back Venter's crown as King of the Lab.

What happens if organisms no longer evolve on their own as they always have? Kaebnick thinks this could be a troubling developmental change in our world. Pretty much sounds like an "all bets are off" scenario as the rules of the world as we know it could change drastically or subtly. No one knows.

Of course, Venter, ever the controversial Devil's Advocate, believes his work is the very reason we should be exploring this area of creating life. "We decided that writing new biological software and creating new species, we could create new species to what we want them to do, not what they evolved to do," says Venter.

Venter's new company is called Synthetic Genomics. What he wants to do with these newly created species is make fuels and new vaccines. Currently, Venter and his colleagues have a monopoly on the techniques for genomic manipulation. They are also handsomely funded. There are other competitors working in related fields. The world of synthetic micro-organisms is inching closer and closer into colliding with the world of what we know and changing into the world of possibilities to cheer and fear.


*** For a bio on Craig Venter and more about his institute: J. Craig Venter Institute


*** For his 2007 book, A life decoded: my genome, my life By J. Craig Venter, check out the Google reader preview of 62 pages.

*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!

Astronomy: Butterfly Nebula

From Denny: This week, Sept. 9, NASA's been releasing new Hubble Telescope photos taken since those billion dollar repairs of the Telescope in May. The new photos are sharper of awesomely beautiful nebulas and galaxies in our universe, some with halo effects of light.

The Butterfly Nebula is known by other names such as the Bug Nebula and proper - and boring - catalogue name of NGC 6302. The Butterfly Nebula is in our own Milky Way Galaxy! It's approximately about 3,800 light years away in the constellation of Scorpius.

How did this nebula get that cool looking glowing effect on its outer edges? Photoshop, cosmic level? No, it's caused by a glowing gas that's being expelled out over 2,200 years! Quite the spectacular view from our perspective.

The butterfly shape stretches out over two light years. How do you envision the distance of two light years? It's about half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.

Obama is now the 44th President!

Just finished watching Obama's speech and other news coverage - what an historic time, what emotion for millions around the world. There must be millions of people crowded together on the Washington Mall. It reminds me of when the Pope in Rome, Italy celebrates Mass in St. Peter's Square and a million strong gather.

Interesting is that the ceremony ran a little long and by so doing Obama became the 44th President exactly at noon BEFORE he took the oath of office four minutes later. How many of you knew that bit of trivia?

Congrats Mr. President! May you be successful in all endeavors.

Denny

A new day is here!
Photo by stephentrepreneur @ flickr

Four Levels of Love

Four Levels of Love - this is a really interesting article from HubPages about the common human dilemma of love relationships.

Photo by jillallyn @ flickr

Tips for Saving on Groceries and Food Leftovers Ideas

Photo by muha... @ flickr in the Maldives islands


Tips for Saving on Groceries and Food Leftovers Ideas - Get your head out of the clouds and back down to earth with this fun article.

There is a great video in it too of a woman from Washington state who saves 80% of her food budget as she shops. She sure is a savvy shopper and tells all. Sure takes the stress out of life. Then you can go back to drifting your thoughts back up into the clouds for a long heady vacation!