Scientists build cyborg light-gathering antenna

Researchers at the University of Toronto have used a combination of synthesized DNA and semiconductors to create a nano-scale antenna that harnesses light. Ted Sargent, says that the tiny antenna consists of tiny semiconductors arranged in a cross-like shape, held together by DNA .

http://earthsky.org/energy/scientists-build-antenna-that-captures-light


"DNA is something you can synthesize in a lab, and you can program exactly the sequence that you want it to have." Sargent said. "And the DNA was designed to have two regions. One that was prone to stick to the semiconductors, and the other region which was able to stick to other DNA. Because it contains DNA, this antenna can, with a little startup help, self-assemble."

Weirdness in 2012?

Now if you're smart, you take everything that Fox News says with a grain of salt. But this is interesting just for it's tie-in. Unless you live in a cave you have heard about the Mayan prediction that 2012A.D. spells some bad times for us and mother Earth.

According to the Wikipedia:

• (2012) Mesoamerican Long Count calendar ... completes its thirteenth b'ak'tun cycle since the calendar's mythical starting point. The Long Count b'ak'tun date of this starting point (13.0.0.0.0) is repeated, for the first time in a span of approximately 5,125 solar years. The significance of this period-ending to the pre-Columbian Maya themselves is unclear, and there is an incomplete that records this date.

Though unclear, many have taken the path of least resistance and gone straight to doom-saying.
That being said, the Fox News report note one very real occurrence about to take place in 2012 that really could raise havoc around the world.

Shaun points out that this article notes that the next peak in solar activity is expected to come around 2012. What could that possible mean to us. Well past solar burst have caused telegraph wires to short out in the United States and Europe, igniting widespread fires. This happened during a major solar storm in 1859, In 1989, the a peak knocked out power to all of Quebec, Canada. 2003 had several peaks included 10 major solar flares over a two-week period, knocking out two Earth-orbiting satellites and crippling an instrument aboard a Mars orbiter.

As Shaun points out, much like his story "Last Light" (which I read on an earlier program) a major electro-magnetic blast will devastate modern society, disabling if not destroying communications and computational centers. Interesting times huh?

<- more from Fox Story + 2012 in the Wikipedia ->

Is the Earth losing is protection for intergalactic radiation?

I think nothing is cooler than when science catches up with science fiction. Such as it is with a story that Shaun Saunders sends in from the Telegraph. - New data has revealed that the heliosphere, the protective shield of energy that surrounds our solar system, has weakened by 25 per cent over the past decade and is now at it lowest level since the space race began 50 years ago. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, which was launched Sunday October 19th will "listen" for the shock wave that forms as our solar system meets the interstellar radiation. This will give us a relative idea of the strength of the heliosphere which protects the Earth from about 90 per cent of the galactic cosmic radiation. The heliosphere is created by the solar wind, a combination of electrically charged particles and magnetic fields that meet the intergalactic gas at the boundary of our solar system. Without the heliosphere the harmful intergalactic cosmic radiation would make life on Earth almost impossible by destroying DNA and making the climate uninhabitable. As Shaun puts it, "Last Light" coming true!

My reading of Last Light can be found in the story archives and it appears in Shaun's story collection "Navigating the New World"

<- More ->

Black Hole Fires At Neighboring Galaxy

Remember Shaun Saunders short story Last Light (episode 39 of BMU) which told the tale of a dying civilization's last gasp effort for immortality? I won't ruin the ending for you, but it is one of my favorite short stories hands down. Well here is an article from science daily about the very same cosmic event that was highlighted in Saunders' story. As frightening as the event was to read in a story, imagine knowing that not only could it happen, but scienctists have found evidence that it HAS happened!

Click the article title or here for more

Last light can be found in the Beam Me Up archive at http://penbay.org/wrfr/bstories/archive.htm

This composite image shows the jet from a black hole at the center of a galaxy striking the edge of another galaxy, the first time such an interaction has been found. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/D.Evans