Techcordance

Reformation

ISTANBUL, Turkey – You have probably heard of the Christian Protestant Reformation. Now get ready for what some are calling a Muslim reformation.
A group of Islamic scholars in Turkey is attempting to re-interpret some of Islam’s most sacred texts. The goal: to give the faith a modern makeover. Mehmet Kirbasoglu is passionate about his faith in Allah, the Muslim God. But he believes that his religion needs a fresh interpretation for the 21st Century.
“We need a new way of looking at our holy scriptures in the light of today’s social and religious environment,” Kirbasoglu said.
And so for the past few years, Kirbasoglu, and 80 other Muslim Turkish scholars, have been examining the Hadith — a collection of some 170,000 sayings attributed to the prophet Mohammed.

Battery Virus

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have demonstrated how a genetically modified virus can be used to construct both the cathode and anode of a lithium-ion battery.Virus-built rechargeable batteries would have the same power capacity as the batteries used to power hybrid cars, project leader Professor Angela Belcher said in an MIT press statement on Thursday. In a paper published in the journal Science, the research team explained that they manipulated two genes of the M13 virus to equip the bacteriophage with peptide groups that attract single-walled carbon nanotubes at one end, while the other end of the virus was equipped with peptides that nucleate amorphous iron phosphate.
Combining the nanotubes with the iron phosphate created a highly conductive material that was used in a cathode, said the MIT statement. Battery energy was transferred in “a very short time”, as electrons could travel along the carbon nanotube networks and percolate throughout the electrodes.