n0b3l1a

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Machu Picchu

Welcome to the mysterious ruins of Machu Picchu, Peru. Prepare yourself as you are about to embark on a virtual tour exploring one of the most intriguing destinations on the planet. Don’t worry ... you won’t need heavy hiking gear or an experienced guide to tour the spectacular views and scenery the magnificent complex has to offer.

Start by viewing a virtual tour of Machu Picchu, and then follow the map on your left to continue your journey ...

7,000 feet above sea level and nestled on a small hilltop between the Andean Mountain Range, the majestic city soars above the Urabamba Valley below. The Incan built structure has been deemed the “Lost Cities”, unknown until its relatively recent discovery in 1911. Archaeologists estimate that approximately 1200 people could have lived in the area, though many theorize it was most likely a retreat for Incan rulers. Due to it’s isolation from the rest of Peru, living in the area full time would require traveling great distances just to reach the nearest village.

Separated into three areas - agricultural, urban, and religious - the structures are arranged so that the function of the buildings matches the form of their surroundings. The agricultural terracing and aqueducts take advantage of the natural slopes; the lower areas contain buildings occupied by farmers and teachers, and the most important religious areas are located at the crest of the hill, overlooking the lush Urubamba Valley thousands of feet below.

Hikers, tourists, and the early explorers describe similar emotions as they climb their way through the Inca Trail. Many call the experience magical. Glancing out from the Funerary Rock Hut on all the temples, fields, terraces, and baths seems to take you to another time. Blending in with the hillside itself, many say the area creates a seamless and elegant green paradise, making it a must for anyone who travels to Peru.

Translating genes into health

http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v45/n1/full/ng.2510.html?WT.ec_id=NG-201301

A major challenge for genomics is to provide clinical benefits to the genetically diverse human population. Genome science has achieved a catalog of mutations and informative SNPs. Next-generation sequencing is rapidly delivering thousands of complete human genomes, but understanding and applying genomic knowledge remains a daunting undertaking. These challenges and opportunities for genomic medicine were central themes of the Golden Helix Symposium held in Turin, Italy, 18–21 April 2012.

The expanding scope of DNA sequencing

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v30/n11/abs/nbt.2421.html

In just seven years, next-generation technologies have reduced the cost and increased the speed of DNA sequencing by four orders of magnitude, and experiments requiring many millions of sequencing reads are now routine. In research, sequencing is being applied not only to assemble genomes and to investigate the genetic basis of human disease, but also to explore myriad phenomena in organismic and cellular biology. In the clinic, the utility of sequence data is being intensively evaluated in diverse contexts, including reproductive medicine, oncology and infectious disease. A recurrent theme in the development of new sequencing applications is the creative 'recombination' of existing experimental building blocks. However, there remain many potentially high-impact applications of next-generation DNA sequencing that are not yet fully realized.

The battle for sequencing supremacy

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v30/n11/full/nbt.2412.html

Today, the HiSeq 2000 instrument can generate up to 600 Gb of sequence data in about 10 days, sufficient to sequence four entire human genomes with each base sequenced an average of 30 times (30× depth of coverage). This throughput and quality also come with a high price tag (~$700,000 for the instrument and $6,000–8,000 per genome), but with over 1,000 instruments placed worldwide, the HiSeq 2000 is the backbone of most cutting-edge sequencing centers.

It also faces stiff competition from Illumina, whose benchtop MiSeq is more expensive upfront and slower, but also generates more data—more accurately, according to some studies. Both Ion Torrent and 454 sequencing tend to encounter problems with homopolymers, misreading stretches of sequence where the same nucleotide is repeated many times and generating inappropriate insertions or deletions (indels). “Based on our diligence, homopolymers continue to be an issue for Life Tech, and I think the MiSeq has a considerable lead in data accuracy,” says William Quirk, managing director and senior research analyst at PiperJaffray.

At present, though, most clinically minded companies see the greatest opportunity in developing assays for targeted resequencing of individual loci associated with disease—applications where small, high-speed benchtop instruments are ideal. “Life Technology recently announced that more than 50% of their PGM placements now are going into the clinic,” says Quirk. Some centers, like the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, are already using tumor sequencing to guide patient treatment, and McPherson reports that instruments like the MiSeq have proven quite effective in enabling his team to act quickly and confidently. “We're trying to return results—from the time the patient is consented to the time the clinician gets a report—in three weeks,” he says. “That requires that the sequencing doesn't take more than a day or two.”

Illumina and Life Technologies have been quick to recognize this opportunity, and both MiSeq and PGM are undergoing US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluation for general use as clinical instruments.

Targeted clinical diagnostics is also the primary focus of Cambridge, Massachusetts–based GnuBio, a startup that has largely stayed below the radar, but already has a working instrument installed at Canada's Montreal Heart Institute. In their system, a microfluidic workflow combines PCR amplicons from a genomic sample with nanodroplets containing one of ~5,000 different hexameric sequencing primers, each associated with a specific dye barcode.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Busan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busan

Busan (Officially Busan Metropolitan City), formerly spelled Pusan^[3] (Korean pronunciation: [pusan]) isSouth Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of approximately 3.6 million.^[1]The Metropolitan area (includes adjacent cities of Gimhae and Yangsan) population is 4,399,515 as of 2010.^[4] It has Korea's largest beach and Korea's longest river. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the world's fifth busiest seaports by cargo tonnage.^[5] The city is located on the southeastern-most tip of the Korean peninsula.

Busan is home to the world's largest department store, the Shinsegae Centum City.

Cupid and Psyche

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid_and_Psyche

Envious and jealous of the beauty of a mortal girl named Psyche, Venus asks her son Cupid (known to the Greeks as Eros) to use his golden arrows while Psyche sleeps, so that when she awakens, Venus (Aphrodite in the Greek tradition) would place a vile creature for her to fall in love with. Cupid finally agrees to her commands after a long debate. As he flies to Psyche's room at night, he becomes invisible so no one can see him fly in through her window. He takes pity on her, for she was born too beautiful for her own safety. As he slowly approaches, careful not to make a sound, he readies one of his golden arrows. He leans over Psyche while she is asleep and before he can pierce her shoulder with the tip of his arrow, she awakens, startling him, for she looks right into his eyes, despite his invisibility. This causes him to scratch himself with his arrow and fall deeply in love with her. He cannot continue his mission, for every passing second he finds her more appealing. He reports back to Venus shortly after and the news enrages her. Venus places a curse on Psyche that prevents her from meeting a suitable husband. Cupid is greatly upset, and decides that, as long as Psyche remains cursed, he will no longer shoot arrows, which will cause the temple of Venus to fall.

Michelangelo Palloni, fresco Sleeping Psyche, c. 1688, Wilanów Palace

After months of no one — man or animal — falling in love, marrying, or mating, the Earth starts to grow old, which causes concern to Venus, for nobody praises her for Cupid's actions. Finally, she agrees to listen to Cupid's demands, allowing him his one desire, which is Psyche. Venus, upset, agrees to his demands only if he begins work immediately. He accepts the offer and takes off, shooting his golden arrows as fast as he can, restoring everything to the way it should be. People again fall in love and marry, animals far and wide mate, and the Earth begins to look young once again.

The New York Genome Center

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v30/n11/full/nbt.2429.html

Nancy J. Kelley is founding executive director of the New York Genome Center (NYGC), an independent, nonprofit research organization whose mission is “to transform genomic research and healthcare for New York and the world”. Institutional founding members include Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Columbia University, Cornell University/Weill Cornell Medical College, The Jackson Laboratory, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Mount Sinai Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York University/NYU School of Medicine, North Shore-LIJ Health System, The Rockefeller University, and Stony Brook University. NYGC chose Illumina as its founding technology collaborator. Nature Biotechnologytalked to Kelley about NYGC's plan to become one of the largest genomics and bioinformatics facilities in North America.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

The Six Lessons I Live By

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121002115428-204263538-the-six-lessons-i-live-by?trk=eml-mktg-top12-a-1220-p7

Lessons on entrepreneurship.

The Perfect Job Interview in 8 Simple Steps

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121121171031-20017018-the-perfect-job-interview-in-8-simple-steps?trk=eml-mktg-top12-a-1220-p5