anticancer genes-Blind mole-rats

Blind mole-rats are loaded with anticancer genes

Rodent's genome reveals secrets of surviving underground

 

 

BLIND AS A MOLE-RAT The genome of the blind mole-rat helps explain why the animals lack eyes, live long lives and are champion cancer fighters. The genome also reveals that the rodent is more closely related to Chinese hamsters than to naked mole-rats, from which its lineage split from about 71 million years ago.

 

Blind mole-rats aren’t exactly lookers — they don’t even have eyes. But the long-lived subterranean rodents do have other charms, including pronounced abilities to fight cancer (SN: 12/15/12, p. 12) and withstand low levels of oxygen and high levels of carbon dioxide.
Now, an international group of researchers has compiled the animal’s genetic instruction book, giving a glimpse into how the rodents perform these feats. The genome of the blind mole-rat, Spalax galili contains more than 22,000 genes, the team reports June 3 in Nature Communications. That’s about the same number of genes as humans have.
The eyeless rodent’s genome contains 259 defunct genes, including 22 involved in building the eye, constructing other parts of the visual system or processing visual signals. But the animals have doubled up on a cancer-fighting gene encoding the immune system chemical interferon-beta1 and have more genes involved in regulating cell death and other tumor-killing mechanisms than their close relatives rats and mice do. The team also found self-replicating pieces of DNA called SINEs that help protect the animals from low-oxygen and high-carbon dioxide conditions.

anticancer genes-Blind mole-rats

6:47 AM anticancer, Blind mole-rats, genome, reveals secrets of surviving underground, Rodent's

Google's Satellites Plan

Google Invests Billions on Satellites to Expand Internet Access

Google plans to invest more than $1 billion in a new fleet of satellites that will expand Internet access to unconnected regions of the world.

The company's decision to purchase 180 small, high-capacity satellites is just the first step in a project that could cost the search giant over $3 billion, reported The Wall Street Journal. The project's price tag will depend on whether the company decides to embark on a second phase of the project, which would double the number of satellites needed, Google insiders told the WSJ.
The new venture is being led by Greg Wyler, founder of the Google-backed satellite communications startup O3b Networks, Ltd. Wyler and a former O3b chief technology officer recently joined Google to spearhead the effort, reported the WSJ. Wyler's company is also known to be hiring engineers from satellite company Space Systems/Loral LLC. [Video: Google to Spend Billions on Satellites for Internet Everywhere]

The sky's the limit

Google's satellite project is one of several new ventures designed to expand Internet access to remote areas of the world. Last year, the company announced Project Loon, an aerial wireless network that uses high-altitude balloons to provide Internet service to users in underserved and rural areas.
Google also recently acquired Titan Aerospace, a company that develops ultra-lightweight, solar-powered drones that could replace the balloons from Project Loon altogether.
Speaking with the WSJ, Tim Farrar, head of the satellite-consulting firm TMF Associates, said that, for Google, drones and satellites might complement one another nicely. Drones, he said, offer better high-capacity service in smaller areas, whereas satellites offer broader coverage in areas that have less demand.
The satellites currently being developed by O3b Networks for Google are relatively small—weighing roughly 250 pounds (113 kilograms), according to the WSJ. This makes them markedly different from the satellites the company usually produces, which weigh about 1,500 pounds (680 kg) each. Due to non-disclosure agreements, additional details about what Google's new satellites might look like are hard to come by, according to media reports.
However, O3b Networks (the name of the company refers to the "other 3 billion" people worldwide without Internet access) has four of its own satellites currently in orbit, and plans to launch four more next month.

Faster & cheaper coverage?

O3b currently provides Internet connectivity to mobile carriers' base stations, reported the MIT Technology Review. The company's involvement could be good news for people in remote parts of the world, because O3b satellites provide a superior (and cheaper) way to deliver high-speed Internet than do conventional satellites, the MIT Technology Review said.
Compared to conventional Internet companies, whose satellites orbit roughly 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers) above Earth, O3b's satellites orbit around 5,000 miles (8,000 km) above the planet's surface.
This difference in altitude results in a corresponding difference in delays. While O3b users have to contend with a 150-millisecond delay in their Internet coverage (the time it takes for radio signals to go back and forth between the base carrier station and the satellite), those with other services might experience 600-millisecond delays for the same service. Such a delay, MIT reports, is generally considered excessive, at least for business use.
Google's foray into satellite Internet could speed up coverage for hundreds of millions of people around the world, a Google spokeswoman told the WSJ. The technology company noted that nearly two-third of the world's citizens have no access to the Internet at all.
But despite Google's enthusiasm for the new project, some outside the company are wary of the search giant's journey into the stratosphere. Roger Rusch, who runs the satellite-industry consulting firm TelAstra, Inc., told the WSJ that Google's project is a "pipe dream," and said the company will end up spending much more on the effort than originally planned, perhaps as much as $20 billion

Google's Satellites Plan

6:35 AM Google Invests Billions on Satellites to Expand Internet Access