Robo-Suit Will Help Aging Japanese Farmers Pick Crops ith EaseW

Robotic Suit Aids Farmers A postgraduate student at the Tokyo Agriculture and Technology University models a motorized exoskeleton developed to help aging farmers endure the strain of hard labor. AFP

From Popular Science:

Harvesting the bounty of the earth is harder than it looks, especially you're over 65 years old -- as two-thirds of Japan's farmers are. For those whose joints ache more with every radish pulled out of the ground, Shigeki Toyama, a professor at Tokyo Agriculture and Technology (TAT) University, has developed a motorized exoskeleton designed to boost the wearer's strength by 62 percent.

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Hewlett Packard Outlines Computer Memory Of The Future

Image: 17 memristors captured by an atomic force microscope

From The BBC:

The fundamental building blocks of all computing devices could be about to undergo a dramatic change that would allow faster, more efficient machines.

Researchers at computer firm Hewlett Packard (HP) have shown off working devices built using memristors - often described as electronics' missing link.

These tiny devices were proposed 40 years ago but only fabricated in 2008.

HP says it has now shown that they can be used to crunch data, meaning they could be used to build advanced chips.

That means they could begin to replace transistors - the tiny switches used to build today's chips.

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Did A Comet Trigger A Mini Ice Age?

A sudden plunge of global temperatures 12,900 years ago may have been caused by a comet impact, a British researcher argues. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey

From Cosmos/AFP:

PARIS: A sudden plunge of global temperatures at the dawn of human civilisation may have been caused by a comet impact, a British researcher argues.

Known as 'the Younger Dryas', it has been also called the Big Freeze and the Last Blast of the Ice Age - but for researchers trying to understand the Earth's ancient climate, it's one of the big mysteries of the field.

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Space Skydiver Suit Revealed

From Discovery News:

Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner wants to attempt a record-breaking free fall from 120,000 feet above the Earth. It's not the kind of jump a person can do with a conventional sky-diving suit and helmet. After all, Baumgartner will break the speed of sound during his fall. He will need life-support.

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Periodic Discussions: It's Going To Take A Long Time For Element 117 To Make It Onto The Periodic Table. Why?

From Slate:

A team of Russian and American scientists announced today the creation of several atoms of the previously unknown element 117. The discovery of "ununseptium" will eventually fill a longtime gap on the periodic table, although that formal change may not happen for years. In June 2009, element 112 was designated as an official element, more than a decade after it was first created. Sam Kean explained why changing the periodic table requires the scientific equivalent of a Supreme Court decision. His column is reprinted below.

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Scientists Explore Origins Of 'Supervolcanoes' On The Sea Floor: Ancient Goliaths Blamed For Multiple Mass Extinctions

JOIDES Resolution departing from Yokohama, Japan, on the Shatsky Rise expedition. (Credit: John Beck, IODP/TAMU)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2010) — "Supervolcanoes" have been blamed for multiple mass extinctions in Earth's history, but the cause of their massive eruptions is unknown.

Despite their global impact, the eruptions' origin and triggering mechanisms have remained unexplained. New data obtained during a recent Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) expedition in the Pacific Ocean may provide clues to unlocking this mystery.

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Ancient Pre-Human Skeleton May Contain Shrunken Brain

The cranium of the newly identified species, Australopithecus sediba, was found at the Malapa site, South Africa. Credit: Photo by Brett Eloff courtesy of Lee Berger and the University of the Witwatersrand.

From Live Science:

A shrunken brain may potentially lie inside the fossil skull of a newfound candidate for the immediate ancestor to the human lineage, researchers now reveal.

This new species, dubbed Australopithecus sediba, was accidentally discovered in South Africa by the 9-year-old son of a scientist. Two members of this hominid were introduced to the world last week — a juvenile male and an adult female, who might have known each other in life and who could have met their demise by falling into the remains of the cave where they were discovered.

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The 10 Best Mathematicians

Pythagoras, from a 1920s textbook. Photograph: © Blue Lantern Studio/Corbis

From The Guardian:

Alex Bellos selects the maths geniuses whose revolutionary discoveries changed our world.

Pythagoras (circa 570-495BC)

Vegetarian mystical leader and number-obsessive, he owes his standing as the most famous name in maths due to a theorem about right-angled triangles, although it now appears it probably predated him. He lived in a community where numbers were venerated as much for their spiritual qualities as for their mathematical ones. His elevation of numbers as the essence of the world made him the towering primogenitor of Greek mathematics, essentially the beginning of mathematics as we know it now. And, famously, he didn't eat beans.

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Profile: Julian Assange, The Man Behind Wikileaks

Julian Assange

From Times Online:

They seek him here, they seek him there, but the founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks is as elusive as a modern-day pimpernel.

Julian Assange dreamt that one day the internet would streamline the leaking of state secrets. Last week his whistleblowers’ website posted its most explosive leak yet: a secret video shot by an American attack helicopter of Iraqi civilians and a Reuters photographer being mown down, apparently in cold blood.

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Images Mark 20 Years Of Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope

From The Telegraph:

The most dramatic and significant images of the universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope have been named to mark the iconic telescope's 20th anniversary in space.

In the two decades since its launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has transformed the way we see and understand our universe.

In pictures: 3D space pictures: stereo images of moons, galaxies and nebulae

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New Super-Heavy Element Discovered That Points Towards 'Strange Materials Of The Future'

From The Daily Mail:

Physicists have discovered a new super-heavy element that had been labeled a nuclear 'missing link' by scientists.

The element 117 is roughly 40 per cent heavier than lead and has been given the temporary name ununseptium, which refers to its atomic number.

Researchers believe the element points towards a concoction of more massive and stable elements that could be used to create strange and unpredictable new materials.

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First Footage From World's Deepest Volcanic Vents

From New Scientist:

At this depth, the water is hot enough to melt lead, and the pressure it exerts means that every square centimetre has to withstand the weight of five hefty men.

"It was like wandering across the surface of another world," says Bramley Murton, a geologist at the National Oceanographic Centre (NOC) in Southampton, UK, who piloted the Hy-Bis underwater vehicle around these deep volcanic vents and filmed them for the first time.

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Happy 50th Birthday To The Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence!

SETI's Allen Telescope Array via SETI Institute

From Popular Science:

Celebrating half a century of no aliens

Fifty years ago today, on April 8th, 1960, a Cornell astronomy professor named Frank Drake pointed a radio telescope at the star Tau Ceti in the hope of hearing broadcasts from extraterrestrial intelligence. Naturally, he didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. But with this experiment, Drake began the decades-long search for aliens, known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), that celebrates its 50th anniversary today. Over the last half century, SETI has failed at its initial goal of contacting aliens, but succeeded mightily in bringing new attention to astronomy, helping to develop cloud computing, and inspiring generations of new scientists.

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'World Needs A Barometer Of Life'

From The BBC:

The world needs a "barometer of life" to prevent ecosystems and species being lost forever, scientists have warned.

Existing schemes, they said, did not include enough species from groups such as fungi and invertebrates to provide a detailed picture of what is at risk.

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said the barometer would increase the number of species being assessed from almost 48,000 to 160,000.

The data would help identify areas in need of urgent action, they added.

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CSN Editor On Vacation, Will Be Back Soon

Update: Taking Easter off with family. Will return on Monday, April 12.

Yup .... took a little vacation. Will be back soon.

US Launches Agency To Monitor Evereyone

Army Biometrics U.S. Army Staff Sgts. Jerrod McClure, foreground, and Aaron McFarland, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, input Iraqi's data into a biometrics system Dec. 15, 2008, in Nimrud, Iraq, as part of the application process for Iraqis applying to work on a road repair project in the city. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. JoAnn S. Makinano

U.S. Government Launches Official Agency to Manage Biometric Database -- Popular Science

All hail BIMA, the new U.S. biometrics agency.

Collecting fingerprints and other biometric data has long allowed law enforcement and the military alike to track down wanted individuals, solve cases, or just keep tabs on people. Now what was a U.S. government task force under the U.S. Army has officially become a full-scale national security agency in charge of biometrics, according to the Secrecy News blog run by the Federation of American Scientists.

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Picking Our Brains: Can Ee Regenerate The Brain?

The nervous system has 10,000 different types of neuron (Image: Jean Livet)

From New Scientist:

YOU were born with all the brain cells you'll ever have, so the saying goes.

So much for sayings. In the 1990s, decades of dogma were overturned by the discovery that mammals, including people, make new neurons throughout their lives. In humans, such "neurogenesis" has been seen in two places: neurons formed in the olfactory bulb seem to be involved in learning new smells, while those born in the hippocampus are involved in learning and memory.

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Bats Could Inspire New Radar Systems

Bats emit high-pitched sounds to locate obstacles and prey as they fly Photo: CORBIS

From The Telegraph:

Bats which have evolved to avoid having their echo signals blocked by interference could help scientists develop more efficient sonar and radar systems.

Bats emit high-pitched sounds to locate obstacles and prey as they fly, but when travelling in packs there is a risk the noises might overlap and interfere.

A similar problem arises when a bat chases a moth through thick foliage. Signals bouncing off the leaves can overlap and set up interference.

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Could Toads Be Used To Warn Humans Of Impending Natural Disasters?

Man's best friend? Scientists believe toads have a sixth sense

From The Daily Mail:

The toad has long been a favourite magical companion of witches and wizards. Now it seems that the humble amphibians may have picked up some magical skills of their own.

Scientists have discovered that common toads have a sixth sense about natural disasters - and can predict when an earthquake is about to strike.

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Better Military Technology Does Not Lead to Shorter Wars, Analysis Reveals

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2010) — It is generally assumed that military technology that is offensive rather than defensive in nature leads to shorter wars. Yet, a new doctoral thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, shows that this assumption is not correct.

For long, researchers have thought that offensive military technology, such as armoured cars and attack jets, makes it easier to shorten the duration of a war. It is also generally perceived that when the offensive technology is more effective than the defensive technology, it is more advantageous to start a war.

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