Physorg January 29, 2018 When the heart circulates blood through the arteries and veins, the light absorbed by the skin changes by measurable amounts. Hemoglobin in the blood has an absorption peak for green light. When the heart pushes blood into arteries near the skin, more green light is absorbed and less is reflected. Researchers at Utah State University have invented a system that processes the color data and computes an average over regions of the image where skin is visible on the face, neck or arms. Future versions of the design could even replace hospital tools that monitor blood […]
Tag Archives: Biotechnology
A biological solution to carbon capture and recycling?
Science Daily January 8, 2018 The E. coli bacterium can grow in the complete absence of oxygen. When it does this it makes a special metal-containing enzyme, called ‘FHL’, which can interconvert gaseous carbon dioxide with liquid formic acid. An international team of researchers (Scotland, UK, Industry partners) has shown that when the bacteria containing the FHL enzyme are placed under pressurized carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas mixtures — up to 10 atmospheres of pressure — then 100 per cent conversion of the carbon dioxide to formic acid is observed. The reaction happens quickly, over a few hours, and at […]
Teaching life a new trick: Bacteria make boron-carbon bonds
Source: Eurekalert, November 29, 2017 Researchers at Caltech used directed evolution method, where enzymes are evolved in a lab to perform desired functions, to coax the bacteria into making boron-containing compounds. They mutated the DNA that encodes the protein and then put the mutated DNA sequences into thousands of bacterial cells. The DNA of successful mutant proteins was then mutated again, and the cycle was repeated until the bacteria making the proteins were highly proficient at assembling the boron-carbon compounds. Their final bacterial creations were up to 400 times more productive than synthetic chemical processes used for the same reaction. […]