DeeKnow’s Grotto

A DNA Walking Robot - I'm really not a scientist's nose-hair but I am kinda interested in this whole nano-engineering hoo-ha. For years we've been hearing about future creation of microscopic machines that might beaver away at mechanical tasks too small for us to perform. Popular applications might be medical functions where these tiny machines creep around inside us reparing or inspecting internal body parts and problems without the need for invasive surgery.

Sounds a bit scary and I'm not sure I'd trust the little suckers but all this talk as far as I thought was just theory. However according to this post I read yesteray science boffins are beginning to engineer something real at the nano-scale. Two New York University chemists have managed to make a pair of DNA strands walk their way across a bunch of other DNA strand sections. Its all experimental (with the emphasis on 'mental') but its real... and today.

Private Spaceship Almost In Space - there's a global competition on at the moment (with a us$10m first prize) to be the first private spaceship in space and the race is definately on. According to an item at the BBC an Amercian company recently reached a height of 64km and expect to reach the competition target of 100km in height some time next month.

One-hundred kilometers is the boundary of space, and about 330,000 feet!!! Thats roughly 10-times the height you reach in a typical jet flight. Too bad if you've got an ear-infection or tooth-ache on one of those suckers, the descent would be absolute hell !!!

10:46:32 PM