Following is a summary of current science news briefs.
Ion Torrent vies for $10 million genome prize
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A genome-sequencing contest announced
six years ago finally has its first entrant: Life Technologies
Corp.’s Ion Torrent, which on Monday said it was
entering the fray. The Archon Genomics X Prize will award $10
million to the first team that sequences the complete genomes
of 100 people aged 100 or older in 30 days or less, for no more
than $1,000 each, and with an error rate of no more than 0.0001
percent.
Bacteria outbreak in Northern Europe due to ocean warming,
study says
LONDON (Reuters) – Manmade climate change is the main
driver behind the unexpected emergence of a group of bacteria
in northern Europe which can cause gastroenteritis, new
research by a group of international experts shows. The paper,
published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Sunday,
provided some of the first firm evidence that the warming
patterns of the Baltic Sea have coincided with the emergence of
Vibrio infections in northern Europe.
Analysis: Biosensors – the canary in a coalmine worth $13
billion
LONDON (Reuters) – When Tony Turner started studying the
arcane area of biosensors 30 years ago, the market for those
devices was worth only $5 million a year and he used to see one
research paper on the subject every two years. Now a professor
at Linkoping University in Sweden running a department
dedicated to bioelectronics, Turner says a study he led at
Cranfield University in Britain found the devices now generate
annual sales of $13 billion and spawned 6,000 research papers
last year.
