A Science News Aggregator That Covers Stories in the World Of Science And Technology.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Pick The Stradivarius Violin
Double-Blind Violin Test: Can You Pick The Strad? -- NPR
In the world of violins, the names Stradivari and Guarneri are sacred. For three centuries, violin-makers and scientists have studied the instruments made by these Italian craftsmen. So far no one has figured out what makes their sound different. But a new study now suggests maybe they aren't so different after all.
OK, here's a test. Clip one is a musical phrase from Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major. Clip two is the same phrase. The same musician plays both. But one is on a Stradivarius violin, the other on a violin made in 1980. See if you can tell the difference.
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My Comment: I choose the wrong one .... hmmmm .... and I use to be a professional musician.
100,000 Times More ‘Nomad Planets’ Than Stars?
An artistic rendition of a nomad object wandering the interstellar medium (intentionally blurry to represent uncertainty about whether it has an atmosphere). A nomadic object may be an icy body akin to an object found in the outer solar system, a more rocky material akin to asteroid, or even a gas giant similar in composition to the most massive solar system planets and exoplanets. (Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Galaxy May Swarm With 100,000 Times More ‘Nomad Planets’ Than Stars -- Kurzweil
There may be 100,000 times more wandering “nomad planets” in the Milky Way than stars, and some may carry bacterial life, according to a new study by researchers at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC).
If any of these nomad planets are big enough to have a thick atmosphere, they could have trapped enough heat for bacterial life to exist,” said Louis Strigari, leader of the team that reported the result in a paper submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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Galaxy May Swarm With 100,000 Times More ‘Nomad Planets’ Than Stars -- Kurzweil
There may be 100,000 times more wandering “nomad planets” in the Milky Way than stars, and some may carry bacterial life, according to a new study by researchers at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC).
If any of these nomad planets are big enough to have a thick atmosphere, they could have trapped enough heat for bacterial life to exist,” said Louis Strigari, leader of the team that reported the result in a paper submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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100 Billion Stars In The Milky Way
An Otherworldly Discovery: Billions of Other Planets -- Wall Street Journal
Astronomers said Wednesday that each of the 100 billion stars in the Milky Way probably has at least one companion planet, on average, adding credence to the notion that planets are as common in the cosmos as grains of sand on the beach.
The finding underscores a fundamental shift in scientific understanding of planetary systems in the cosmos. Our own solar system, considered unique not so long ago, turns out to be just one among billions.
Until April 1994, there was no other known solar system, but the discoveries have slowly mounted since then: The Kepler space telescope, designed for planet-hunting, now finds them routinely.
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My Comment: And how many planets?
Is Google 'Dumping' Search
There has been a huge maelstrom about Google integrating Google+ into its search links. And it all misses the point.
Twitter and others are complaining that Google is throwing its massive 65 percent plus market share weight around and quashing smaller competitors. The reason Twitter and others are so threatened is that the pattern of shared links within Google+ provides a decent enough indicator as to what links are interesting. What's important is what's trending, and algorithms can get a sense of that with just a subset of everything that's getting shared on the Web.
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My Comment: That's what I like about Google .... always trying to stay one step ahead.
The Rise And Fall Of Personal Computing
The Rise And Fall Of Personal Computing -- Asymco
Thanks to Jeremy Reimer I was able to create the following view into the history of computer platforms.
I added data from the smartphone industry, Apple and updated the PC industry figures with those from Gartner. Note the log scale.
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My Comment: I love the graphs that he posted.
Friday, February 24, 2012
The World Belongs To Apps
Steve Jobs initially resisted apps, fearing sabotage. But when the late Apple chief relented in 2007, the floodgates opened
A ticker on the front of Apple's website rolls over relentlessly, increasing by about 500 a second as it moves relentlessly towards 25bn.
It is counting the number of units of application software downloaded from the company's App Store – and the rise of a business that barely existed five years ago, but which now dominates daily conversation so much that the phrase, "There's an app for that", has become both an offer of help and a joke.
The counter is expected to hit the target by early March. By then, users will have spent about £3.6bn buying apps through the store, of which Apple will have passed on £2.5bn and retained £1.1bn.
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My Comment: And this is all just starting.
Apple Buys Chomp
Apple Inc. (AAPL), the world’s most valuable company, acquired San Francisco-based Chomp Inc., which helps users sort through the widening array of software applications for mobile devices.
The Cupertino, California-based company paid about $50 million for Chomp, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the specifics are private. Apple confirmed the deal yesterday, without disclosing the purchase price.
“We buy smaller technology companies from time to time and generally don’t comment on our purposes or plans,” said Amy Bessette, a spokeswoman for Apple.
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My Comment: It's about time.
Is This The Future of Touchscreen Tech?
Is This The Future of Touchscreen Tech? New Video Will Blow Your Mind -- Mashable Tech
Gorilla Glass manufacturer Corning has unveiled a follow-up YouTube video to its wildly successful “A Day Made of Glass,” providing another look into what the future could be like with the growth of glass touchscreen interfaces, from innovative chalkboards and activity tables in classrooms to uses for it in hospitals.
Corning released two versions of “A Day Made of Glass 2″ — one with a narrator and another, abbreviated version without commentary — the video follows the life of young Amy and her family as they go through their day using various products made of glass. Amy does classwork on a glass tablet, controls the temperature of the car from the backseat and even attends a field trip at the Redwood Forrest with an interactive signage that brings learning to life. Her teacher also works with students on interactive touchscreen activity tables. Corning expects these activity tables to be rolled out in the near future.
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My Comment: Impressive.
Were Neutrinos Faster-Than-Light .... Or Not?
'Faster-Than-Light' Particles May Have Been Even Speedier -- CBC
Subatomic particles clocked at speeds exceeding the speed of light may have been going even faster than they appeared, physicists say.
A problem with some of the equipment used in the original experiment may have led to an overestimate of the time it took the particles, known as neutrinos, to make their 730-kilometre journey, reported CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in a statement Thursday.
As a result, their speed may have been underestimated.
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Update: Two Technical Problems Leave Neutrinos’ Speed in Question -- New York Times
CSN Editor: We will know the real answer in the next few months when more tests are done.
De-Classified UK Submarine Data Will Be Used To Assist Climate Science
UK Submarine Data De-Classified To Aid Climate Science -- BBC
The UK Ministry of Defence is to de-classify submarine data to help shed light on climate change in the Arctic.
Environmental data are routinely monitored by Navy vessels, but the measurements are highly sensitive because they could give away positions.
A dataset from one submarine mission will be released to give a snapshot of conditions under the ice.
It is hoped that further data could be released in future, yielding clues to how the Arctic is changing.
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Closer To A Heroin Vaccine
National Institute of Psychiatry's Director Maria Elena Medina speaks about the patent of a new vaccine that could reduce addiction to heroin, during a news conference at the institute in Mexico City February 23, 2012. Researchers at the institute say they have successfully tested the vaccine on mice and are preparing to test it on humans. The vaccine, which has been patented in the United States, works by making the body resistant to the effects of heroin, so users would no longer get a rush of pleasure when they smoke or inject it. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Mexican Researchers Patent Heroin Vaccine -- Yahoo News/Reuters
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - While Mexico grapples with relentless drug-related violence, a group of Mexican scientists is working on a vaccine that could reduce addiction to one of the world's most notorious narcotics: heroin.
Researchers at the country's National Institute of Psychiatry say they have successfully tested the vaccine on mice and are preparing to test it on humans.
The vaccine, which has been patented in the United States, works by making the body resistant to the effects of heroin, so users would no longer get a rush of pleasure when they smoke or inject it.
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My Comment: Faster please people are dying from the addiction properties of drugs every minute.
Tabasco Sauce Is In Demand On Board The International Space Station
Astronauts may have a particular affinity for Tabasco sauce in space because their sense of smell and taste is distorted. John Rose/NPR
Why Astronauts Crave Tabasco Sauce -- NPR
If you think astronauts just want dehydrated dinners and freeze-dried ice cream, think again. After a few days in space, they start reaching for the hot sauce.
In fact, they may start craving foods they didn't necessarily like on Earth.
"They crave [spicy] peppers, they crave sour and sweet things," says Jean Hunter, a food engineer at Cornell University. That means Tabasco sauce was definitely on the menu for space shuttle astronauts.
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Google Ocean
Google Street View Goes Undersea -- MSNBC
Less than a month after Google Ocean drowned our dreams of Atlantis by updating a image that previously showed mysterious grid patterns on the sea floor, the search giant is back with an underwater Street View.
Catlin Seaview Survey, the project's official name, launched Thursday with what New Scientist describes as "an unprecedented photographic tour of Australia's Great Barrier Reef." It is even more ambitious than Google's land version, which provides an eye level view of neighborhoods, parks and other public areas all over the world. This submerged 360 degree photo survey's "aim is to learn as much as possible about the reef's state of health from a panoramic underwater photographic and video survey – and let the rest of us enjoy the reef's untrammelled beauty online."
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Thursday, February 23, 2012
The 'Wow!' Signal
The 'Wow!' Signal: One Man's Search for SETI's Most Tantalizing Trace of Alien Life -- The Atlantic
For decades, Robert Gray has been trying to duplicate the most surprising and still-unexplained observation in the history of the search for extraterrestrial life.
Late one night in the summer of 1977, a large radio telescope outside Delaware, Ohio intercepted a radio signal that seemed for a brief time like it might change the course of human history. The telescope was searching the sky on behalf of SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the signal, though it lasted only seventy-two seconds, fit the profile of a message beamed from another world. Despite its potential import, several days went by before Jerry Ehman, a project scientist for SETI, noticed the data. He was flipping through the computer printouts generated by the telescope when he noticed a string of letters within a long sequence of low numbers---ones, twos, threes and fours. The low numbers represent background noise, the low hum of an ordinary signal. As the telescope swept across the sky, it momentarily landed on something quite extraordinary, causing the signal to surge and the computer to shift from numbers to letters and then keep climbing all the way up to "U," which represented a signal thirty times higher than the background noise level. Seeing the consecutive letters, the mark of something strange or even alien, Ehman circled them in red ink and wrote "Wow!" thus christening the most famous and tantalizing signal of SETI's short history: The "Wow!" signal.
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Robot Fish
Real Fish Welcome Robotic Overlord Into Their School -- Wired Science
A robotic fish has sailed across an aquatic uncanny valley by tricking real fish into following it upstream.
The feat could lead to better understanding of fish behavior and perhaps some means to divert them from environmental disaster scenes.
“Although some previous works have successfully investigated the interactions between live animals and robots or animal-like replicas, none of these studies have considered robots that are designed to simulate animal locomotion,” wrote the authors of a new study about the robot.
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Man's First Homes And Settlements
Excavations in Jordan have revealed dwellings dating back millennia before the development of agricultural settlements. The finds suggest that hunter-gatherers could sustain at least partially sedentary lives. Credit: L. Maher, EFAP Archive
Shelters Date To Stone Age -- Science News
Hunter-gatherers hung out in huts long before farmers built villages.
The remains of a couple of nearly 20,000-year-old huts, excavated in a Jordanian desert basin, add to evidence that hunter-gatherers built long-term dwellings 10,000 years before farming villages debuted in the Middle East.
These new discoveries come from a time of social transition, when mobile hunter-gatherers hunkered down for months at a time in spots that featured rivers, lakes and plentiful game, say archaeologist Lisa Maher of the University of California, Berkeley and her colleagues. Discoveries in and around hut remnants at a Stone Age site called Kharaneh IV include hearths, animal bones and caches of pierced seashells and other apparently ritual items, Maher’s team reports in a paper published online February 15 in PLoS ONE.
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My Comment: It looks like "early man" was far more sophisticated than what we give him credit for.
Astronomers Discover A Water World
Astronomers Discover New Type Of Planet – The Water World -- The Telegraph
A watery planet with a thick, steamy atmosphere has left astronomers fumbling for their classification books.
The water world, which has been named GJ1214b, is 2.7 times bigger than earth but weighs almost seven times as much.
GJ1214b orbits a red-dwarf star at a distance of two million kilometres, suggesting temperatures may reach up to 200C.
Astronomers believe the planet is an entirely new classification of celestial body, with the mixture of water and high temperatures meaning there is a chance new alien materials could have been produced.
Previous types of planetary body known to exist include a rocky surface similar to earth, gas giants like Jupiter, and ice giants like Uranus.
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My Comment: That must be quite a site to see.
How Not To Fly
Birdman Releases Footage Of His 120mph Crash Into South Africa's Table Mountain -- The Telegraph
Jeb Corliss, a daredevil who nearly died after crashing into Table Mountain in South Africa, has posted footage only of the accident.
Corliss broke both his legs when he hit a outcrop of rocks while hurtling down the mountain in Cape Town at a speed of 120mph.
Corliss, 35, was being filmed by US network HBO and was performing his second jump from the Cape Town landmark when the accident happened at 10am on Jan 16.
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My Comment: Awesome video .... but ouch ....
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