N1005 IBM Research: Almaden

How to build a better cell through engineering

<br /> <div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/photos/3293.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/photos/3293.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><i><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Editor's note: this article is by IBM Research Staff Member Simone Bianco, PhD</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">There’s nothing better on a hot day than a cold beer. Hefeweizen? Lager? Maybe a pilsner? It’s a matter of yeast that gives all beer its flavor. Yeast is the single-celled organism that makes an otherwise simple list of ingredients, complex. And it’s not just for common brewing or baking. Because different strains perform in different ways – some fermenting at high temperatures, other at cold temperatures – yeast is the one of the most-studied organisms in the world.</span><br /><a name="more"></a><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">If we were to take a look at the microscopy, we would see that these yeast strains are morphologically different. Their internal organization differs, sometimes dramatically. The effect of that is reflected in the way the organism performs specific functions. In this case fermentation. A paradigm of cell biology is that the alterations of cell morphology are connected to alterations of chemical reactions inside the various cell structures, called organelles. Changes in the architecture of the cell will correspond to a difference in cell behavior, with either suppression or modification of existing cellular capabilities, or even the emergence of new functionalities. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Engineering a cell</span></b><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">There is, however, little mechanistic understanding of the links between cell morphology and cell function. Evolution has provided all living organisms with a genetic code that contains all the information necessary for each and every cell to function properly, from single cell organisms, like yeast, to multi-cellular, incredibly complex higher organisms like us humans. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Yet, decoding all the information contained in the genetic code is still an impossible task, today. Tens of thousands of genes are activated at specific times during the existence of just one yeast cell, and even more chemical reactions will occur during its lifespan. Hundreds of protein species will inhabit the cell, providing the building blocks of life. Monitoring this activity is a task that cannot be tackled with today's technology. Fundamental understanding of such an important part of the life of our cells needs a paradigm shift. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">We need a new discipline: cellular engineering.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">It is evident that such a task cannot be accomplished by a single research institution. Exceptional experimental capabilities need to go hand in hand with top-of-the-line computational and analytical tools. This is why the University of California, San Francisco, the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Exploratorium, and IBM Research have joined forces. The collaboration wants to design, build, and test models of cellular organization. And ultimately develop cells that can perform specific functions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Think of cell morphology as a proxy for cellular state and function. We can study it through microscopy methods, which are orders of magnitude cheaper than genetic screens, and provide enough accuracy to be used routinely in almost any laboratory. But building relationships between morphology and functionality requires extensively targeted experimental efforts, where cells, like beer yeasts, need to be subject to specific stimuli, and then imaged. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">At the same time, it requires computational capabilities that need supercomputing-level power, and need new analysis tools to extract meaningful information, and learn from the wealth of data that will be produced. Furthermore, informed mathematical models are needed to quickly generate novel hypotheses from principles of cellular organization that can be tested in the laboratory. Finally, molecular information of a cell – its chemistry, genetics, proteomics -- will be needed in order to generate the ontology necessary to engineer cells that perform specific functions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoiCz_T3LQmGdFYXo1DexcWa-nW60iJqOx-N9MQ6O3LhRneWn9S6ce6QFTv_bWsXP4kIMpkW6WaQrTNeQBdvsV3IsbhizLoQw2WL8mEVDcofSHFP7g8sX1x-sMnB1Gpl7GPJa3aWj2el8/s1600/cellgraph4.jpg" /><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Mapping of the entire cell structure can be broken down to useable information using techniques like PCA and LDA, then machine learning is applied to understand the parsed data. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Modeling the morphology of cancer</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">The model example of the usefulness of fundamental understanding of the connection between cell morphology and cell behavior is cancer pathology.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">When a doctor suspects that a patient has a tumor, the doctor will perform a biopsy: the removal of tissue samples of that are imaged and reviewed by a pathologist. The doctor then relies on an extensive set of image correlations to existing cases to compare the shape of the patient’s organelles (a cell’s wall, nucleus, mitochondria, and other internal parts) to those imaged from tumor tissues at different stages of progression. The correlation in the morphology becomes a correlation in functionality: the patient’s cells, if indeed cancerous, will replicate indefinitely, providing the hallmark behavior of any tumor. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">This is, in many cases, an art, and it relies on invasive techniques, the expertise of the doctor, the state of the tumor, and different levels of understanding of the involved cellular mechanisms. A general mechanistic understanding of the morphological transformation processes does not yet exist, but it could dramatically improve the efficiency of diagnosis, and even reduce the need for invasive tests and further genetic screens. Moreover, cellular engineering could help introduce innovative therapeutic measures, as protection of other cells by aggregating and dividing labor between cells, or creation of new complex organizations for novel bio-materials to protect against cancerous cells.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">The perfect cell for the perfect job</span></b><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">What is our goal with this research? If we know how cells adjust their morphology, we could control these mechanisms, predict their performance, and increase their range of capabilities. Engineered cells could be used to monitor the activity of bioreactors, devices to carry out specific chemical processes in a lab environment. NASA recently used advanced bioreactors to grow tissue samples of liver, muscle, cartilage and bone. Scientists could soon have an endless reservoir of tissues to test their research hypothesis, with a clear impact on the future of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">The disposal of organic pollutants are increasingly done by bioremediation, or using specific enzymes to convert waste into an output that is non-toxic and can serve another purpose within its environment. Specific detectors monitor the production of the product to generate useful information by proper modulation of the enzymes’ internal morphology. We can also build novel organic toxicity sensors by sensing cells’ morphology, and understanding their modifications. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">This isn’t science fiction. The spirotox test estimates the toxicity of a volatile compound, like a gas, by monitoring cell organelles’ deformation after toxic exposure.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">These sorts of sentinels cells, engineered to respond to changes in composition or concentration, could also be used to prevent food adulteration and protect people from food fraud. Or, more efficient biofuels can be engineered through reprogramming cell morphologies to maximize the efficiency of energy production.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">The hope is that, one day, we will be able to build cells that do what we want. Even make better beer.</span><br /><br />

Editor's note: this article is by IBM Research Staff Member Simone Bianco, PhD There’s nothing better on a hot day than a cold beer. He...

Novel nanocomposites made of confined polymers

10:00 AM N1000 0

<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">IBM researchers, with collaborators at Stanford University, have combined their expertise in porous materials for microprocessors and thin film mechanical properties to study the fundamental properties of polymers under confinement. <br /><br />Their challenge was to fill tiny holes called nanopores (1/10,000 the size of a human hair) with long and bulky molecules. The equivalent of fitting a 300 passenger commercial plane into your car garage. While the latter is physically impossible, polymers can deform to adapt to such a significant form factor change. During this process, their intrinsic properties are dramatically modified – which is precisely what our researchers were looking for. But the results weren’t what they expected.</span><br /><a name="more"></a><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-isunBLdilvMaAkLi0tLRT6GOLzkr1RTXsGq9z8aZidBPDqU103w8X1gGYqKMaWm9Zi6eGaQIr0Wi6QkKrCPvUZ7y5aBGAq9g3VsN3625Coo013VWXTKCZI2wO9EHjyJd-_Wq9uxbmb4/s1600/Hybrid-nanocomposites_web1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-isunBLdilvMaAkLi0tLRT6GOLzkr1RTXsGq9z8aZidBPDqU103w8X1gGYqKMaWm9Zi6eGaQIr0Wi6QkKrCPvUZ7y5aBGAq9g3VsN3625Coo013VWXTKCZI2wO9EHjyJd-_Wq9uxbmb4/s400/Hybrid-nanocomposites_web1.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hybrid nanocomposite art</span><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">by students at Stanford University</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">In their normal state (not confined), polymers' mechanical properties mainly depend upon the number of entanglements (i.e, the number of knots). When you pull on one chain, you pull on many knots such that a tremendous amount of energy has to be dissipated before reaching a breaking point. This is what give polymers their physical strength: from your plastic cup to your suitcase.<br /><br />Think about trying to pull one noodle from a full plate of cooked pasta. It is almost impossible to pull only one from the bunch. But if you could force all the noodles into a tiny espresso cup, the knots would magically disappear because it is the only way for the entangled pasta to accommodate such a small space. Similarly in polymer physics, polymers' mechanical properties such as resistance to fracture, decrease under confinement due to the loss of entanglements. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">For the resulting nanocomposite materials, it was then predicted that their mechanical properties would follow the same trend. Surprisingly, the exact opposite is what IBM and Stanford researchers uncovered. The polymers’ resistance to fracture increased with decreasing entanglements. The results showed that five times more energy was required to break these nanocomposites as initially anticipated. </span></div><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br />The discovery has significant implications for the microelectronic industry as microprocessors continue to shrink, and porous materials are widely used in devices such as smartphones, and tablets due to their prominent insulating properties. Its increased strength could help prevent mechanical failures of the next generation of microprocessors when more porous materials, better insulators but more fragile materials, are manufactured. This strategy is currently under development at our Albany research and development center for advanced microelectronics.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Read more<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;"> about th<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;">is break<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;">through in the <i>Nature Materials</i> art<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;">icle <a href="http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat4475.html" target="_blank">Fundamental limits of material toughening in molecularly confined polymers</a>.</span> </span></span></span></span><br /><br /><br />

Almaden microprocessor nanotechnology polymer Stanford Novel nanocomposites made of confined polymers

IBM researchers, with collaborators at Stanford University, have combined their expertise in porous materials for microprocessors and thin f...

IBM's New Polymers Acclaimed for Use in 3-D Printing

5:00 AM N1000 0

<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbLd037G2eUG9OdLcV0459vQvrT37gog_F52hAUuGFkhrc_CUqO2Yo7qQ2mbh7rdQag24jOdvRxJWm8pNDew2v66vGuFto7byH1DNtS4ig4pet9YNp6WR_sVBVMBOvfJV6AZ-bT4EB46Qx/s1600/cfox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbLd037G2eUG9OdLcV0459vQvrT37gog_F52hAUuGFkhrc_CUqO2Yo7qQ2mbh7rdQag24jOdvRxJWm8pNDew2v66vGuFto7byH1DNtS4ig4pet9YNp6WR_sVBVMBOvfJV6AZ-bT4EB46Qx/s200/cfox.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">by Courtney Fox, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Carbon3D, Inc. </span></div><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Polymeric materials have become an integral part of our lifestyle over the last century. They're made into an enormous range of products, from simple and inexpensive injection-molded toys and </span><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; font-style: normal;">tchotchkes to</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"> super-strong bullet-proof vests and high-performance water-separation membranes.</span> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Recent enhancements in both chemical and computational capabilities are giving scientists the ability to create specially designed polymers aimed at solving a host of important materials challenges.</span><br /><a name="more"></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">One development that I am particularly excited about is the possibility that a new family of polymers invented last year by my former colleagues at IBM Research-Almaden may greatly expand the materials that can be used in </span><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><a href="http://ibmresearchnews.blogspot.com/2015/07/discovered-high-temperature-remoldable.html">3-D printing</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"> and other additive manufacturing techniques.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Additive techniques – which are estimated to comprise a </span><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2015/03/31/2015-roundup-of-3d-printing-market-forecasts-and-estimates/">$3 billion business today</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"> that's growing faster than 20 percent a year – are quite different from traditional “subtractive” manufacturing methods, which take a block of material and cut, carve, mill or etch away bits and pieces to form the desired part. In 3-D printing, a part is instead built up layer-by-layer with precise computer control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Typically, however, the materials must be able to flow through a small nozzle, yet retain its dimensions until it's cured, or solidified. This leads to a number of problems, such as a limited choice of materials and their finished-part properties, dimensional creep, weakness at the boundaries between layers, and long time it can take to print larger pieces.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">As a result, people usually use 3-D printing today only for making prototypes, not end-use mass-manufactured parts. This leads to another criticism: There is significant waste when the prototypes are discarded.</span><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/488/19098852454_37b203479e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/488/19098852454_37b203479e.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">IBM organogel</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Many of us in the industry are hopeful that the new IBM polymers have the potential to alleviate many of these issues. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">The central theme of the new polymers is the clever combination of a solvent and a monomer – a chemical structure that can be chained together to make a polymer – to make a gel that retains its shape. In this condition, the material can be both self-healing and recyclable. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Applying heat (or, for some combinations, ultraviolet light) will cause the monomer to join together, or cure, to form a permanent three-dimensional network of chemically cross-linked bonds that give the finished material its strength and other mechanical properties. Different combinations of monomers and solvents can result in widely diverse materials and properties. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUOHSodFGPsq55TiPehx5sLB0L2cp3zjr52ydqgCZY0MSykXE67xH1BJHsLPl2YKxdMkt3t9gLdglUb7y4-KkGmD9p10ElYMdDaAw8gffZt_t_vhxPK9kl2bzj5ZPuL8G_S0tg7tGPRIHx/s1600/jgarcia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUOHSodFGPsq55TiPehx5sLB0L2cp3zjr52ydqgCZY0MSykXE67xH1BJHsLPl2YKxdMkt3t9gLdglUb7y4-KkGmD9p10ElYMdDaAw8gffZt_t_vhxPK9kl2bzj5ZPuL8G_S0tg7tGPRIHx/s1600/jgarcia.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Jeannette Garcia in the lab</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2014/05/ibm-researchs-jamie-garcia-fantastic-plastic.html">Jeannette Garcia's</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"> group at IBM previously demonstrated remarkable self-healing properties in pre-cured networks based on nitrogen-containing monomers used to make high-strength thermoset polymers: hemiaminal and hexahydrotriazine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>(A thermoset polymer is cured by heating its monomers.) </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Tuning the uncured combination so it flows more freely when experiencing shear stress should allow it to flow through tiny 3-D printer nozzles, yet retain its shape after deposition. It has not yet been demonstrated, but the materials' self-healing properties combined with a continuous curing process could also eliminate interlayer weakness in 3-D printed parts.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Our </span><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><a href="http://carbon3d.com/">CLIP</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"> technology at Carbon3D takes advantage of the interactions between UV light and oxygen to rapidly cure photopolymer resins. Our continuous process eliminates the need to repeatedly coat a layer of UV curable material, creating a layerless polymer network. Printing using CLIP also lowers the mechanical forces on a 3-D printed object; traditional 3-D printing techniques like stereolithography or fused deposition modeling could not accommodate soft materials like those developed by IBM. We are very excited about the rapidly expanding 3-D printing material landscape.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Hemiaminal materials can also be recycled, as treatment with acid allows recovery of the original starting monomers with sufficient purity to use to make new products. Combined with their high strength, these materials should enable longer product lifetimes using fewer raw materials.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">I believe the future is bright for these materials. I look forward to, for instance, someday using the hemiaminal-UV-curable networks described in the IBM group's </span><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201502033/full"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #2e74b5; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;">Advanced Materials</span></i></a><span style="color: #222222;"> report last month to print very-high-value membranes for batteries or water-purification directly, without using harsh solvents that are often required today.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Those are just a couple of ways that these new materials could increase the beneficial impacts of 3-D printing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">For three years while Dr. Fox was pursuing her Ph.D. at Stanford, she worked at IBM Research-Almaden with Jim Hedrick and Jeannette Garcia as part of the group that created the new family of recyclable and self-healing polymers. She is the lead author on a recent </span></i><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150715/ncomms8417/abs/ncomms8417.html"><i>Nature Communications report</i></a><i> </i></span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">that describes how the materials are made and the basis for their remarkable properties. Since late 2014 she has been working at Carbon3D, Inc., a startup company that is commercializing </span></i><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/joe_desimone_what_if_3d_printing_was_25x_faster?language=en"><i>its innovative 3-D printing process</i></a></span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"> that is 25 to 100 times faster than conventional 3-D printing methods.</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>

3D printing Almaden ibm research organogel IBM's New Polymers Acclaimed for Use in 3-D Printing

by Courtney Fox, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Carbon3D, Inc. Polymeric materials have become an integral part of our lifestyle over the last c...

“Simple” threshold algorithm earns Gödel Prize

6:16 AM N1000 0

<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Editor’s note: this article is by IBM Fellow Ronald Fagin.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Lauded for its “elegant mathematical properties,” the threshold algorithm that I developed with two colleagues led to our writing a paper (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/files/us-fagin/jcss03.pdf">Optimal Aggregation Algorithms for Middleware</a></i>) that won the 2014 Gödel Prize, which is awarded jointly by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest group on Algorithms and Computation, and the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science. The award is given annually for a breakthrough paper in theoretical computer science. Today, the algorithm is used in applications and systems that demand optimal results for gathering multi-sourced information. But its origin, and the paper’s, goes back to 1996. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div align="right"><table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; margin-left: 6.75pt; margin-right: 6.75pt; mso-border-alt: solid white .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid white; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid white; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-table-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-table-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-table-left: right; mso-table-lspace: 9.0pt; mso-table-overlap: never; mso-table-rspace: 9.0pt; mso-table-top: .05pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"> <tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">  <td style="border: solid white 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid white .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Praise for threshold algorithm</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The paper provides a framework to design   and analyze algorithms where aggregation of information from multiple data   sources is needed, such as in information retrieval and machine learning. In   these situations, the threshold algorithm offers a very efficient method for   producing a single unified list of the ‘top k’ results from the combined data   sources. </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The threshold algorithm’s elegant   mathematical properties and simplicity are particularly suitable for use in   middleware, software that is often used to augment computer operating systems   that support complex, distributed applications. The authors also introduced   the notion of instance optimality, an extremely strong guarantee of   performance, and showed that the threshold algorithm is instance optimal. The   paper’s groundbreaking results have built a foundation for much follow-on   research.</i></div></td> </tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal">In 1996, I wrote a paper about an efficient data aggregation algorithm (incidentally, referred to as “Fagin's algorithm”) that gathers information from multiple sources into a single top-<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">k</i>list (like gathering a “top 10” list within a given set of data). </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In 2001, my colleagues, <a href="http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~naor/">Moni Naor</a> and Amnon Lotem, and I developed a new, improved aggregation algorithm, which we called the threshold algorithm. It can be used when aggregation of information from multiple data sources is needed, to produce a top-<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">k</i> list. We showed that it is optimal in an extremely strong sense, in that no other algorithm can access less data than the threshold algorithm does and still obtain the correct answer.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Honestly, I was worried that the paper might be rejected because the algorithm was too simple. It took only 10 lines on a page to explain! But in our 2001 paper, we called it “remarkably simple” – sort of like turning a bug into a feature – and submitted the paper about it to the premier database theory conference, the ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (<a href="http://www.sigmod.org/the-pods-pages">PODS</a>). The Occam’s razor approach worked. The paper was not only accepted, but won the Best Paper Award!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>It went on to win the Test-of-Time Award at PODS a decade later, and is now the <a href="http://www.acm.org/press-room/news-releases/2014/goedel-prize-14">Gödel Prize</a>’s first database paper, 13 years later (the Gödel Prize committee considers papers within a 14 year window).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">The algorithmic setting where it is desired to find a top-<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">k</i> list for information that is aggregated, while minimizing the number of database accesses, has proven to be an extremely useful one. The threshold algorithm (or a variation of it) has now been applied in a large number of settings, including databases (relational, multimedia, semi-structured, probabilistic, and spatial), semantic web, information retrieval, distributed sensor networks, and product design. In fact, according to Google Scholar, the paper has now been cited almost 1,500 times.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA;"></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv4QG2uDYvN5Cxe7VS4ds-OGSLwbPR2cd7ttuPMQq7DRuRy-eX5y12c4wP7roH94VOHuYlcUynnFILnRqedRLdu-R7k3ju9EA8n-mEeUh5aj9kPLyMYjGdHuu9DqDnFk5Um7o4D6rd0W8X/s1600/ronfagin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv4QG2uDYvN5Cxe7VS4ds-OGSLwbPR2cd7ttuPMQq7DRuRy-eX5y12c4wP7roH94VOHuYlcUynnFILnRqedRLdu-R7k3ju9EA8n-mEeUh5aj9kPLyMYjGdHuu9DqDnFk5Um7o4D6rd0W8X/s1600/ronfagin.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Ron Fagin is an IBM Fellow, which is IBM's highest technical honor. There are currently 87 active IBM Fellows, and there have been only 257 IBM Fellows in the 51-year history of the program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Ron received his B.A. in mathematics from Dartmouth College and his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has won an IBM Corporate Award, eight IBM Outstanding Innovation Awards, an IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award, and two IBM key patent awards. He is a Fellow of IEEE, ACM, and AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science). He has co-authored three papers that won Best Paper Awards and three papers that won Test-of-time Awards, all in major conferences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was named Docteur Honoris Causa by the University  of Paris, and a "Highly Cited Researcher" by ISI (the Institute for Scientific Information). He won the IEEE Technical Achievement Award, IEEE W. Wallace McDowell Award, and ACM SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award (a lifetime achievement award in databases).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and the American  Academy of Arts and Sciences.</span></i> </span>

Almaden big data godel prize Ron Fagin “Simple” threshold algorithm earns Gödel Prize

Editor’s note: this article is by IBM Fellow Ronald Fagin. Lauded for its “elegant mathematical properties,” the threshold algorithm that I ...