Friday, September 24, 2010
Robots On TV: Rescue Bot Knows, Um, What You Mean
From New Scientist:
A robot that can understand plain English and manage a complicated to-do list could soon be the hero of search and rescue missions.
Most robots that can recognise speech only respond to pre-determined instructions. For example, some powered wheelchairs respond to spoken directions, but only when certain words are spoken clearly. In the real world, that's not how humans communicate. Our speech is peppered with "disfluencies" – the "umms", "ahs" and stutters of everyday language. If we want to successfully speak to robots in real-life situations – such as search and rescue missions, where noise and stress might get in the way of clarity – robots need to understand these complications.
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Mars Methane Mystery: What's Making The Gas?
This image shows concentrations of Methane discovered on Mars. Click to enlarge this image. NASAFrom Discovery News:
Methane in Mars' atmosphere lasts less than a year meaning something -- either geologic or biological -- keeps belching it out.
A six-year study of methane in Mars' atmosphere shows the planet is far from dead, though whether it is merely geologically active or host to microbial life is unknown.
An Italy-based team of researchers combed through billions of measurements taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor to compile seasonal maps of the gas, a simple chemical compound that appears in minute quantities in Mars' carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.
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Artificial Human Brain Being Built In A Lab
Credit: WikimediaFrom Cosmos:
BIRMINGHAM: Researchers have developed an artificial bit of human brain to help them study Alzheimer's and other diseases, a huge improvement over animal models.
Mike Coleman and his team from Aston University, Birmingham, have developed artificial brain tissue that responds to some chemicals like human brains do. Their findings were presented at the British Festival of Science in Birmingham.
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Neandertals Were Able To 'Develop Their Own Tools'
From The BBC:Neanderthals were keen on innovation and technology and developed tools all on their own, scientists say.
A new study challenges the view that our close relatives could advance only through contact with Homo sapiens.
The team says climate change was partly responsible for forcing Neanderthals to innovate in order to survive.
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Watch And Learn How Music Videos Are Triggering A Literacy Boom
A group of people watched television at a slum in Gulbai Tekra, an area in the city of Ahmedabad in India. (Jaydeep Bhatt) From Boston.com:
Tiny, sun-soaked Khodi on the western coast of India’s Gujarat state is the kind of village where cattle still plough the fields and women fill clay pots with water from the village well. In the past few years, however, the town has been changing: Thatched mud huts are slowly giving way to sturdy, single-story concrete blocks; farmers conduct their business on cellphones. The state buses, which until a decade ago were only filled with men, are now crammed with women. Enrollment in the local school has soared.
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Ocean Cooling Contributed to Mid-20th Century Global Warming Hiatus
Iceberg in the icefjord near the city of Ilulissat in Greenland. While the temperature drop was evident in data from all Northern Hemisphere oceans, it was most pronounced in the northern North Atlantic, a region of the world ocean thought to be climatically dynamic. (Credit: iStockphoto/Anders Peter Amsnæs)From Science Daily:
ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2010) — The hiatus of global warming in the Northern Hemisphere during the mid-20th century may have been due to an abrupt cooling event centered over the North Atlantic around 1970, rather than the cooling effects of tropospheric pollution, according to a new paper appearing Sept. 22 in Nature.
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Itsy Bitsy Spider's Web 10 Times Stronger Than Kevlar
The web of the Darwin's bark spider (Caerostris darwini), can span some square feet (2.8 square meters) and is attached to each riverbank by anchor threads as long as 82 feet (25 meters). Credit: Matjaz Kuntner.From Live Science:
Scientists have found the toughest material made by life yet — the silk of a spider whose giant webs span rivers, streams and even lakes.
Spider silks were already the toughest known biomaterials, able to absorb massive amounts of energy before breaking. However, researchers have now revealed the Darwin's bark spider (Caerostris darwini) has the toughest silk ever seen — more than twice as tough as any previously described silk, and more than 10 times stronger than Kevlar.
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Thursday, September 23, 2010
Amazing Sight in the South Pacific
From Funzug.com
A yacht was traveling in the south Pacific when the crew came across a weird sight. Look at these photos and try to imagine the thrill of experiencing this phenomenon.
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How Change of Seasons Affects Animals and Humans
The equinox, on Wednesday evening, marks the beginning of fall and less daylight for the Northern Hemisphere. The change can have profound effects on animals and is also partially responsible for fall foliage. Credit: Dreamstime.From Live Science:
Tomorrow (Sept. 22) at 11:09 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, the center of the sun will cross Earth's equator, marking the autumnal equinox, and the start of fall in the Northern Hemisphere.
For a brief period, days and nights around the world each last close to 12 hours (day and night are not exactly equal, as the term “equinox” is meant to imply). Then, as the Earth continues its path around the sun, days become shorter and nights lengthen, with the change becoming more pronounced in the higher latitudes, but remaining nonexistent at the equator.
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Boeing Wins Bid to Build Vulture, The Solar Spyplane That Stays Aloft For Five Years
SolarEagle Boeing's SolarEagle will fly continuously for five years under DARPA's Vulture II program. Boeing From Popular Science:
Boeing’s spyplane development wing won an $89 million contract this week to build the SolarEagle unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, designed to fly continuously for five years at 65,000 feet.
As the winner of Darpa’s Vulture II program, the plane really only has to fly for one to three months by 2014, however.
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Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Black Strings: Black Holes With Extra Dimensions
Five-dimensional black strings evolve into black holes connected by black string filaments, in this computer simulation. Credit: Pretorius/LehnerFrom Live Science:
Meet the Bizarro universe version of a black hole: a black string.
These hypothetical objects might form if our universe has hidden extra dimensions beyond the three of space and one of time that we can see, scientists say. A new study of five-dimensional black strings offers a glimpse into how these strange objects might evolve over time – if indeed they exist at all.
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Germany's North Sea Wind Turbines Attracting Sea Strangers
An aerial view of the offshore energy park Alpha Ventus in the North Sea, about 45 kilometres (27 miles) north of the island of Borkum, April 27, 2010. "Alpha Ventus," the first German wind park in the North Sea, has become home to a new biotope. On the foundations of the turbines, which began operating this spring, scientists have found oysters, crabs, sea anemones, and mussels. (Ingo Wagner/Pool/Reuters)From ABC News/Spiegel Online:
A slew of non-native marine species have made their home on the Alpha Ventus wind turbines off the German coast in the North Sea. Scientists say the oysters and crabs, among others, have not affected the structures.
"Alpha Ventus," the first German wind park in the North Sea, has become home to a new biotope. On the foundations of the turbines, which began operating this spring, scientists have found oysters, crabs, sea anemones, and mussels.
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The Pill At 50: Maybe Not The Best Birth Control For 2010
The birth control pill's simplicity helped it beat out competition - diaphragms, timed intercourse - in 1960. But today having to take a pill daily is a major shortcoming. TIM MATSUI / Getty ImagesFrom Philadelphia Inquirer:
The Pill turned 50 this year. Is it aging gracefully?
There's no doubt that it revolutionized contraception after Food and Drug Administration approval in 1960. It offered women a safe, effective way to prevent unplanned pregnancies. Women chose it over less reliable methods such as timed intercourse and the diaphragm.
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Reprogrammable Card Can Be Many Credit Cards In One
Card 2.0 The Multi-Account credit card lets you toggle between different accounts at the same bank. Dynamics Inc. From Popular Science:
A pair of new computerized credit cards can re-program their own magnetic stripes and hide their account numbers, providing added security for bank customers who don’t want to carry lots of plastic inside RFID-proof metal wallets.
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Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin
Exercise has been shown to be ineffective when it comes to losing weight – dieting is a better route Photograph: GettyFrom The Guardian:
Got a few pounds to lose? Cancel the gym membership. An increasing body of research reveals that exercise does next to nothing for you when it comes to losing weight. A result for couch potatoes, yes, but also one that could have serious implications for the government's long-term health strategy
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Steve Jobs In Email Pissing Match With College Journalism Student
From Gawker:
Steve Jobs is known for replying to random emails sent to his personal Apple email address. Well, a college journalism student from Long Island emailed him about a problem she had with Apple's PR department. Jobs' response? "Leave us alone."
Long Island University senior Chelsea Kate Isaacs, 22, emailed Jobs Thursday with a complaint: Her journalism professor had assigned her a story on a new initiative at her college to buy iPads for all incoming students. She wanted to get a quote from Apple about the use of iPads in academic settings. But when she repeatedly called Apple's PR department, leaving six voice messages, they never got back to her.
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Brain Matter Linked To Introspective Thinking
Views of the inflated cortical surface showing areas of brain grey matter correlating with introspective accuracy. Credit: Science/AAASFrom Cosmos:
WASHINGTON: People with a greater capacity for introspection have more grey matter in certain regions of their brains, according to a recent study.
Comparing the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from the brains of 32 research subjects, scientists established a link between introspective ability and the size and structure of a small area of the anterior prefrontal cortex - the part of the brain associated with ‘higher-thinking’ skills.
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The Water Of Life: A Small World With Huge Potential
Frozen assets: icy geysers from the south polar region of Enceladus. AFP / Getty ImagesFrom The Independent:
In the icy oceans of Enceladus, one of Saturn's tiny moons, scientists believe that there is proof that aliens exist. So why are there no plans to return to this mysterious miniature world?
In the future, swooping low over a lonely ice-moon of distant Saturn, an unmanned spacecraft will manoeuvre carefully, for it will be in a fragile orbit around a small world of feeble gravity.
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How Should San Francisco Plan For Sea-Level Rise?
BAY CITY: Sea-level rise due to climate change may imperil coastal development.Mila Zinkova, courtesy WikiCommons
From Scientific American:
A 1,400-acre swath of salt flats along the western edge of San Francisco Bay has become the latest site for a development dispute that promises to become increasingly common in coastal U.S. cities: Whether new waterside growth makes sense when sea levels are rising.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—A 1,400-acre swath of salt flats along the western edge of San Francisco Bay has become the latest site for a development dispute that promises to become increasingly common in coastal U.S. cities: Whether new waterside growth makes sense when sea levels are rising.
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