“You can’t possibly be The Witcher”
GM hypo-allergenic cats only a dream?
BoingBoing points out an update to the Allerca reserve your allergy free cat article. From the New Scientist:
Allerca’s claims that a technique called RNA-induced gene silencing can work in cats are “unfounded”, says Greg Hannon at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York state, and author of the book RNAi: A Guide to Gene Silencing. So far the technique has been used only in mice.
While it seems like we won’t be getting our hypo-allergenic cats for some time, that’s not a bad thing in my opinion. Allerca’s research has not even begun, and is not even taking place in their own labs–rather, they are outsourcing it in 2005. Why pay for a product that is not even in development? And, the ethical considerations of a modified breed are considerable, as RNA-induced gene silencing may cause defects in the animals.
Cornell Researchers solve the Falling-Paper Problem
James Maxwell in 1853 studied the motion of falling playing cards, wondering why flat surfaces do not fall straight down like other objects. Now a researcher from Cornell University has found an answer. As J. Wang explains, “Leaves and paper fall and rise in a seeming chaotic manner. As they fall, air swirls up around their edges, which makes them flutter and tumble. Because the flow changes dramatically around the sharp edges of leaves and paper, known as flow singularity, it makes the prediction of the falling trajectory a challenge” (www.physorg.com/news1630.html).
“There were a few surprises,” Wang notes. “We found the flat paper rises on its own as it falls, which would not happen if the force due to air is similar to that on an airfoil.”
See more in the Cornell Daily Sun and Slashdot.
