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Three billion years after inanimate chemistry first became animate life, a newly synthesized laboratory compound is behaving in uncannily lifelike ways.

The particles aren’t truly alive — but they’re not far off, either. Exposed to light and fed by chemicals, they form crystals that move, break apart and form again.

“There is a blurry frontier between active and alive,” said biophysicist Jérémie Palacci of New York University. “That is exactly the kind of question that such works raise.”

singularitarian:

Researchers at the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have created a way to store data in the form of DNA — a material that lasts for tens of thousands of years.

The new method, published in the journal Nature, makes it possible to store at least 100 million hours of high-definition video in about a cup of DNA.

singularitarian:

Magnetic levitation is old hat these days, with maglev trains operating in China and planned systems taking shape in other countries. But they run by manipulating the train, which is “floating” on a magnetic field, with electricity. Now a team of researchers in Japan have found a way to manipulate magnetically levitating objects using light. The technique could lead to new forms of powered maglev transportation systems and could make solar-powered generators more efficient.

singularitarian:

Researchers at MIT have discovered a new state of matter with a new kind of magnetism. This new state, called a quantum spin liquid (QSL), could lead to significant advances in data storage. QSLs also exhibit a quantum phenomenon called long-range entanglement, which could lead to new types of communications systems, and more.

singularitarian:

Swiss Federal Institute of Technologyscientists found that carbon nanotubes offer the potential to establish functional links between neurons that could fight disease and enhance our brains.

Voyager 1 may well have become the very first human built object to cross the heliopause