Google Subsidizing Ultrafast Broadband Test

From CNET:

Google, never satisfied with the pace of change, plans a test that will provide 50,000 to 500,000 people with fiber-optic broadband Internet access with a network speed of a gigabit per second starting as soon as this year.

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Strategy To Grow UK Space Sector

From The BBC:

The UK space industry can become a much bigger global player, employing thousands more highly skilled workers and turning over perhaps £40bn a year.

The projection is made in a report prepared jointly by industry, government, and academia.

The Space Innovation Growth Strategy identifies key market opportunities - from the delivery of internet services by satellite to space tourism.

The report says greater investment will position the UK for future success.

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Obesity In Kids: Three Lifestyle Changes That Help

Getty

From Time Magazine:

To curb the childhood-obesity epidemic, health experts have long urged parents to make healthy changes to their family's lifestyle — such as eating nutritiously, reducing TV time, exercising and getting a good night's sleep.

Individually, these behaviors have been linked to a lower risk of obesity in kids, but researchers at Ohio State University were interested in learning whether their effect might be cumulative — that is, whether families who adopted not just one but two or more of these behaviors could reduce their children's risk of obesity even further.

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Google Takes On Facebook, Twitter With ‘Buzz’

From Epicenter:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Google says there’s already plenty of social networking information out there, and what the world really needs is a way to wrangle Twitter, MySpace and Facebook to tame information overload. If its “solution” guts the existing players, so much the better for the search giant.

Google has largely failed in its attempts to build a social networking site before, so it’s taking a different tack: With the Tuesday launch of Google Buzz, the company is pushing a new way to organize by building on a “destination” that millions of people already visit constantly, every day: Gmail.

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Botox May Deaden Not Just Nerves, But Emotions, Too

From Discover Magazine:

Sure, Botox can banish crows feet, smooth those wrinkles, and lift those frown lines, making the client look more youthful–and somewhat expressionless. But the treatment may have effects that are more than skin deep. A new study suggests that by paralyzing the frown muscles that ordinarily are engaged when we feel angry, Botox short-circuits the emotion itself [Newsweek].

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U.S. Solar Market To Double In The Next Year

Powering up: Workers help construct a solar power plant built by the Pasadena, CA-based eSolar. The mirrors focus light on a tower, generating heat for producing electricity. Credit: eSolar

From Technology Review:

Government incentives and lower solar prices are starting to pay off.

In a few years, the United States is likely to be the world's largest market for solar power, eclipsing Germany, which has taken the lead as a result of strong government incentives in spite of the relative paucity of sunlight in that country. A number of factors could make growth possible in the United States--especially changes in legislation that give utilities incentives to create large solar farms.

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New Armored Wall System Assembles Like Legos, Could Replace Sandbags In Afghanistan

McCurdy's Armor Dynamic Defense Materials

From Popular Science:

Attention recruits. Those of you landing in Afghanistan in coming months may not have to engage in the sandbag stacking and trench digging usually associated with lowly grunt-dom. An $800,000 investment in an armored wall system known as McCurdy’s Armor could have Marines rapidly erecting 6.5-foot-tall mortar-, RPG- and bullet proof fortresses in less than an hour, saving the days it can take to fortify an area by conventional means and making forward-operating units more nimble.

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Brain Location for Fear of Losing Money Pinpointed -- The Amygdala

Two patients with rare lesions to the brain have provided direct of evidence of how we make decisions -- and what makes us dislike the thought of losing money. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 9, 2010) — Two patients with rare lesions to the brain have provided direct of evidence of how we make decisions -- and what makes us dislike the thought of losing money.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology studied a phenomenon known as 'loss aversion' in two patients with lesions to the amygdala, a region deep within the brain involved in emotions and decision-making. The results of the study, part-funded by the Wellcome Trust, are published February 8 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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The Most Awe-Inspiring Natural Wonders In America

From Live Science:

If Earth is giant natural art gallery, the United States is among its most impressive geologic installations. From sea to shining sea, fascinating geologic oddities abound. But enough words. With apologies to dozens of geologic wonders that could be on this list, here are 10 of the most awe inspiring, both for their raw beauty and for the forces that went into their creation ...

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Can Battlefield Robots Take The Place Of Soldiers?

Can battlefield land-robots be made to obey the rules of war?

From The BBC:

Can war be fought by lots of well-behaved machines, making it "safer for humans"? That is the seductive vision, and hope, of those manufacturing and researching the future of military robotics.

With 8,000 robots already in use, they believe they can bring about a military revolution.

Most of the robots currently deployed on land deal with non-combat tasks such as bomb disposal - unlike lethal aerial drones.

But Bob Quinn, who works for the US subsidiary of the British robot manufacturer QinetiQ, says the future promises more armed robots on the battlefield, including driverless vehicles.

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Why NASA Picked Stormy Florida

From Christian Science Monitor:

Weather thwarts shuttle launches. But important factors favor this state.

If the space shuttle Endeavour lifts off in the early hours of Feb. 7, it will be the first shuttle launch in more than half a year to leave on time.

Each of the last three missions has been delayed for days or weeks – with one held back by a scheduling conflict and two by stormy weather. Despite its "Sunshine State" moniker, Florida has postponed shuttles due to five hurricanes, two hailstorms, a tropical storm, lightning damage, countless cloudy days, and meddlesome woodpeckers stabbing a fuel tank. And if the temperature goes below 36 degrees F., as it did earlier this month, Cape Canaveral's fickle weather will thwart yet another scheduled blastoff.

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The 20 Richest Americans In Tech

From Pingdom:

The tech industry is littered with billionaires. We all enjoy a good income, but some clearly have earned more than others. Much, much more. The question is, how much money do the really big names in tech actually have?

To find out, we went through the Forbes 400, a list of the wealthiest Americans, and filtered out the people who work within the tech field, or more specifically: IT.

So here they are, the 20 richest Americans in tech today.

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Boeing’s New 747-8 Continues A Jumbo Tradition

From Autopia:

EVERETT, Washington — Boeing spent more than five years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing its new 747-8, but in the end the decision on whether to send the company’s biggest aircraft ever down the runway and into the air for the first time rested with the man in the cockpit.

The flight window for the 747-8’s maiden flight opened at 10 a.m. Monday, but Mother Nature had other plans. Paine Field was socked in by low clouds, and the clock was ticking. Mark Feuerstein, Boeing’s chief test pilot for the 747 program — the man who has spent years preparing for the day — had to decide whether to proceed.

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It Seems That Man Has Been Fighting Man Since The Beginning Of Time

Image: Augusta McMahon/Tell Brak Project

The Dawn Of Civilization: Writing, Urban Life, And Warfare -- Discovery Magazine

An extraordinary ancient Syrian settlement shines a light on one of the most important moments in human history.

Joan Oates’s sharp blue eyes spotted something that was not right. Standing on the windy summit of a vast, human-made mound in northeastern Syria, the wiry 81-year-old archaeologist noticed an ugly scar that had been left by a backhoe on one of the smaller mounds ringing the ancient city of Nagar, where she has excavated for a quarter century. Oates had just arrived to begin her latest season at the site, and this blemish on her cherished landscape annoyed her. Two young men on her team volunteered to investigate the damage. They returned, shaken. Jumping into the trench, one of them had come face-to-face with a skull. “Everywhere we looked, there were human bones,” one recalls. “There were an enormous number of dead people.”

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An Early Warning System For Cancer

Image: Immune tracer: This image shows the overexpression of cancer-associated glycan structures (green) on proteins in cancer cells. The cells’ nuclei are stained in blue. Credit: Kirstine Lavrsen

From Technology Review:

Autoantibodies could alert doctors to cancer development.

A new screening tool developed by scientists in Denmark may help detect the earliest stages of cancer by taking advantage of the body's own defenses. The researchers constructed a microarray system that analyzes patients' blood for a specific class of immune agents called autoantibodies. These are agents that attack the body's own tissue, targeting what they perceive as "foreign" cells, such as specific molecules on the surface of tumors.

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The MV-22 Osprey Finds Purpose In Disaster Relief

MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit launching from the USS Bataan. (Photograp by Benjamin Chertoff)

From Popular Mechanics:

Can the much-maligned tilt-rotor aircraft earn respect on the job?

USS Bataan—After a couple of days working just under the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan you begin to recognize the signature sounds of various helicopters: The high-pitch rip of an HH-60 Knighthawk, the deep, rapid drum beat of the giant CH-53D Super Stallion or the rhythmic song of a UH-1 Huey. So the crew of the USS Bataan, outside Haiti, knows when something new lands onboard. Seconds after a bass-drum vibration shook the ward-room lounge, an excited Marine officer stuck his head in and announced "The Ospreys are taking off! Let's go up to the top of the island and watch!"

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Wonder Material Graphene Becomes Lighting For Future Devices And Homes

Light-emitting Electrochemical cells Lighting the way for a graphene-based future Linkoping University/Umea University/Rutgers University

From Popular Science:

New light-emitting electrochemical cells could replace OLEDs.

Graphene may brighten the future more literally than we had originally anticipated, besides merely revolutionizing electronics and Silicon Valley. Swedish and American researchers have transformed the one-atom-thick carbon material into a new, inexpensive lighting component that could give organic light diodes (OLEDs) a run for their money.

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Enceladus: Nasa Discovers New Evidence That Saturn Moon 'May Contain Life'

Saturn's icy Moons visible here, from left to right are: Janus, Enceladus and Epimetheus captured by the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera Photo: REX

From The Telegraph:

New evidence that liquid water lies beneath the surface on the Saturn moonof Enceladus has been discovered by Nasa scientists, suggesting that life may exist.

Nasa's Cassini spacecraft flew through icy plumes created by ice volcanoes and detected negatively charged water molecules, in a clear sign an underground sea exists.

On Earth this short-lived type of ion is produced where water is moving, such as in waterfalls or crashing ocean waves.

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Scientists Identify First Genetic Variant Linked to Biological Aging in Humans

Scientists announced they have identified for the first time definitive variants associated with biological ageing in humans. (Credit: iStockphoto/Anne De Haas)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 8, 2010) — Scientists announced they have identified for the first time definitive variants associated with biological ageing in humans. The team analyzed more than 500,000 genetic variations across the entire human genome to identify the variants which are located near a gene called TERC.

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Want Passionate Kids? Leave 'Em Alone

From Live Science:

Parents who want their children to discover a passion for music, sports, or other hobbies should follow a simple plan: Don't pressure them.

By allowing kids to explore activities on their own, parents not only help children pinpoint the pursuit that fits them best, but they can also prevent young minds from obsessing over an activity, a new study finds.

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