Web-Crawling Computers Will Soon Be Calling The Shots In Science

Computers may by programmed to generate hypotheses with little human intervention required. Photograph: Corbis

From The Guardian:

Within a decade, computers will be able to plough through scientific data looking for patterns and connections – then tell scientists what they should do next.

Move over scientists – computers will be asking the questions from now on. They will trawl the millions of scientific papers on the web and suggest new hypotheses for humans to test, according to an article in tomorrow's issue of Science.

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Richest Planetary System Discovered

A close-up of the sky around the star HD 10180. Credit: ESO and Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin

From Cosmos:

PARIS: A distant star orbited by at least five planets has been found, according to European astronomers, in the biggest discovery of so-called exoplanets since the first was logged 15 years ago.

The star is similar to our Sun and its planetary lineup has an intriguing parallel with own Solar System, although no clue has so far been found to suggest it could be a home from home, they said.

The star they studied, HD 10180, is located 127 light years away in the southern constellation of Hydrus, the male water snake, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said.

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Discovery Of Ancient Cave Paintings In Petra Stuns Art Scholars

Detail of a winged child playing the flute, before and after cleaning. Photograph: Courtesy of the Courtauld Institute

From The Guardian:

Exquisite artworks hidden under 2,000 years of soot and grime in a Jordanian cave have been restored by experts from the Courtauld Institute in London.

Spectacular 2,000-year-old Hellenistic-style wall paintings have been revealed at the world heritage site of Petra through the expertise of British conservation specialists. The paintings, in a cave complex, had been obscured by centuries of black soot, smoke and greasy substances, as well as graffiti.

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Commercial Organic Farms Have Better Fruit and Soil, Lower Environmental Impact, Study Finds

A new study found that organic farms produced more flavorful and nutritious berries while leaving the soil healthier and more genetically diverse. (Credit: iStockphoto/Margarita Borodina)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2010) — Side-by-side comparisons of organic and conventional strawberry farms and their fruit found the organic farms produced more flavorful and nutritious berries while leaving the soil healthier and more genetically diverse.

"Our findings have global implications and advance what we know about the sustainability benefits of organic farming systems," said John Reganold, Washington State University Regents professor of soil science and lead author of a paper published in the peer-reviewed online journal, PLoS ONE. "We also show you can have high quality, healthy produce without resorting to an arsenal of pesticides."

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My Comment: This scientific study only reveals what every farmer knows .... stay away from pesticides and fertilizers and you will produce a better product.

Hurricane Alley Heats Up With Stormy Threesome

As Hurricane Earl nears the East Coast Thursday, two tropical systems linger behind: Tropical Storm Fiona, located north-northeast of San Juan, and Tropical Storm Gaston, located east of the Lesser Antilles. Credit: NOAA.

From Live Science:

Three swirling storms are roaring across the Atlantic with nervous East Coast residents keeping a close eye on the conveyor belt of tropical activity as hurricane season enters its busiest time.

Hurricane Earl is bearing down on the Carolinas and has strengthened into a Category 4 storm, with maximum winds of 145 mph (235 kph), according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Category 3 storms or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength are classified as major hurricanes. [In Images: Hurricane Hunters Flying into Earl.]

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Throat Cancer Rates Soar In Men

From The Telegraph:

Throat cancer cases have soared by 50 per cent in men in the last 25 years due to obesity and bad diet, researchers have found.

Back in the eighties around 2,600 men were diagnosed with oesophageal cancer every year but now the figure is more than 5,100.

The most dramatic rise was among men in their 50s, as rates increased by 67 per cent over the same period.

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When Drones Go Wild

When Drones Go Rogue In Friendly Skies, How Do We Bring Them Home? -- Popular Science

An advanced fly-by-wire system capable of landing grossly damaged unmanned aircraft—demonstrated on video saving a plane missing 80 percent of one wing—is key to solving one of unmanned flight’s biggest problems.

Word spread last week that a rogue MQ-8B Fire Scout copter drone entered restricted airspace just 40 miles shy of Washington D.C. after losing contact with its operators. The revelation occurred smack in the middle of AVUSI 2010, the world’s largest UAV tradeshow. And it served as a poignant reminder that all the game-changing technology on display here at the Denver Convention Center still has some innovating to do, especially when flight crews lose control of their unmanned craft.

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My Comment: The video is impressive .... watch it.

Shape-Shifting Robot Compensates For Damaged Limb

From New Scientist:

Think that shape-shifting robots, or ones that march on no matter how many limbs they lose, are just for Terminator films? Think again. A team of European roboticists have developed software that allows a modular robot to adapt when one part stops working.

David Johan Christensen at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, working with Alexander Spröwitz and Auke Ijspeert at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, simulated a quadruped robot constructed from a dozen Roombots – identical rounded robots that have been developed in Lausanne and which can combine to form a variety of modular shapes (see picture).

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Astronaut’s Eye View: Time-Lapse Videos of Earth

From Wired Science:

A NASA astronaut on the Space Shuttle Endeavor brought space back down to Earth. Astronaut Don Pettit took over 85 time-lapsed videos of Earth from his stint on the International Space Station to highlight features of the changing planet.

"There is phenomenology that happens on a timescale that you can't see in real time," he said. "It occurred to me that making time-lapse movies on the space station would bring out things that you normally don't observe."

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Death Of The Couch Potato:

More users are watching TV on their laptops than ever before, according to a new study (picture posed by model)

Death Of The Couch Potato: Study Finds More Than A Third Of Viewers Now Watch Their Favourite TV Shows Online -- Daily Mail

An increasing number of viewers are watching their favourite TV shows online rather than on television, a new survey as found.

More than a third of users (34 per cent) now watch their favourite programmes online compared to only 29 per cent who watch them mostly on television.

The figures - from a joint survey by SeeSaw.com and Radio Times - show how the way we consume television is changing rapidly.

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My Comment: Count me as one of those who watches 90% of his shows and movies online.

Double Space Strike 'Caused Dinosaur Extinction'

From The BBC:

The dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago by at least two space impacts, rather than a single strike, a new study suggests.

Previously, scientists had identified a huge impact crater in the Gulf of Mexico as the event that spelled doom for the dinosaurs.

Now evidence for a second impact in Ukraine has been uncovered.

This raises the possibility that the Earth may have been bombarded by a whole shower of space rocks.

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My Comment: Regardless if there was one or more asteroid strikes .... it was a bad day for the dinosaurs when the first one happened.

Oxford English Dictionary 'Will Not Be Printed Again'

The second OED was published in 1989 Photo: GETTY

From The Telegraph:

The next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, the world’s most definitive work on the language, will never be printed because of the impact of the internet on book sales.

Sales of the third edition of the vast tome have fallen due to the increasing popularity of online alternatives, according to its publisher.

A team of 80 lexicographers has been working on the third edition of the OED – known as OED3 – for the past 21 years.

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Researchers Create Ultra-Sensitive Robotic Nose Using Frog Eggs As An Olfactory Sensor

Detecting Molecules with Frog Eggs

From Popular Science:

Researchers at the University of Tokyo are using frog eggs to enhance what might seem like an unlikely element of robotics: olfactory sensing. By injecting the eggs with the DNA from various insects known for expressing keen senses of smell, the team was able to create a robotic nose that can detect molecules at levels as low as a few parts per billion.

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Roots of Gamblers' Fallacies and Other Superstitions: Causes of Seemingly Irrational Human Decision-Making

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 31, 2010) — Gamblers who think they have a "hot hand," only to end up walking away with a loss, may nonetheless be making "rational" decisions, according to new research from University of Minnesota psychologists. The study finds that because humans are making decisions based on how we think the world works, if erroneous beliefs are held, it can result in behavior that looks distinctly irrational.

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My Comment: I guess saying 'the Devil made me do it' is not going to fly.

Massive Mega-Star Challenges Black Hole Theories

This artist's impression shows the magnetar in the very rich and young star cluster Westerlund 1. This remarkable cluster contains hundreds of very massive stars, some shining with a brilliance of almost one million suns. Credit: ESO / L. Calçada.

From Live Science:

Astronomers have discovered a massive star that once dwarfed our sun and is now challenging theories of how stars evolve, die and form black holes.

The star is a peculiar cosmic object known as a magnetar. Magnetars are extremely dense, super-magnetic stars that can form from supernova explosions. [Photo of the massive star. ]

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My Comment: That is one hell of a big (and heavy) star.

Loud Video: NASA Test Fires Largest-Ever Solid Rocket Motor

From Popular Science:

In Utah today, NASA completed a successful test of the world's largest, most powerful solid rocket motor, the DM-2. For two minutes, the motor, designed to provide up to 3.6 million pounds of thrust, roaringly fired a column of flame, while some 760 instruments monitored its every aspect. Best to turn down your speakers before the countdown in this video hits zero.

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Arctic Oil And Gas Drilling Ready To Take Off

Click on Image to Enlarge

From New Scientist:

DRILLING for oil kicked off in Greenland's Arctic waters last week - just weeks after the Deepwater Horizon leak was finally plugged - angering environmental groups. Cairn Energy, based in Edinburgh, UK, is the first company to explore Greenland's waters for oil. It won't be the last.

Interest in the Arctic - which holds 13 per cent of the world's remaining oil and 30 per cent of its gas - is booming, driven by the rising price of oil and a shortage of other places for multinational companies to drill.

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My Comment: Forget about Greenland, it is what Canada, the U.S., and Russia will be doing in the arctic that has the greatest potential on impacting the environment.

Can The Pentagon Be Made WikiLeak-Proof?

Darpa’s Star Hacker Looks to WikiLeak-Proof Pentagon -- The Danger Room

Tomorrow’s WikiLeakers may have to be sneakier than just dumping military docs onto a Lady Gaga disc. The futurists at Darpa are working on a project that would make it harder for troops to funnel classified material to WikiLeaks — or to foreign governments. And that means if you work for the military, get ready to have your web, email and other network usage monitored even more than it is now.

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My Comment: Call me skeptical, but unless the Pentagon decides to develop and construct their own independent internet .... hackers and groups like Wikileaks will always be a problem.

Early Man And Cannibalism

A model of a homo antecessor female scooping out the brains of human head

Early Man 'Butchered And Ate The Brains Of Children As Part Of Everyday Diet' -- The Daily Mail

Early cavemen in Europe ate human meat as part of their everyday diet, new research suggests.

A new study of fossil bones in Spain shows that cannibalism was a normal part of daily life around 800,000 years ago among Europe’s first humans.

Bones from the cave, called Gran Dolina, show signs of cuts and other marks which will have been made by early stone tools.

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My Comment: Hmmmm ... brains ....

Scheme To 'Pull Electricity From The Air' Sparks Debate

The claim of electricity from the air as a renewable resource is controversial

From The BBC:

Tiny charges gathered directly from humid air could be harnessed to generate electricity, researchers say.

Dr Fernando Galembeck told the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston that the technique exploited a little-known atmospheric effect.

Tests had shown that metals could be used to gather the charges, he said, opening up a potential energy source in humid climates.

However, experts disagree about the mechanism and the scale of the effect.

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My Comment: In a time of impending energy shortages (and high cost) .... I would not hesitate to look for alternatives.

Does Langage Influence Culture?

Lost In Translation -- Wall Street Journal

New cognitive research suggests that language profoundly influences the way people see the world; a different sense of blame in Japanese and Spanish.

Do the languages we speak shape the way we think? Do they merely express thoughts, or do the structures in languages (without our knowledge or consent) shape the very thoughts we wish to express?

Take "Humpty Dumpty sat on a..." Even this snippet of a nursery rhyme reveals how much languages can differ from one another. In English, we have to mark the verb for tense; in this case, we say "sat" rather than "sit." In Indonesian you need not (in fact, you can't) change the verb to mark tense.

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Silicon Valley’s Dark Secret: It’s All About Age

From Tech Crunch:

An interesting paradox in the technology world is that there is both a shortage and a surplus of engineers in the United States. Talk to those working at any Silicon Valley company, and they will tell you how hard it is to find qualified talent. But listen to the heart-wrenching stories of unemployed engineers, and you will realize that there are tens of thousands who can’t get jobs. What gives?

The harsh reality is that in the tech world, companies prefer to hire young, inexperienced, engineers.

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My Comment: Sadly this is true. At 50 .... I know that I am over the hill. But at least I saved for this day when .... sad to say .... I become obsolete.

Use Microsoft Surface to Control a Swarm of Robots With Your Fingertips

Robot Swarm Control Mark Micire/UMass Lowell Robotics Lab

From Popular Science:

A sharp-looking tabletop touchscreen can be used to command robots and combine data from various sources, potentially improving military planning, disaster response and search-and-rescue operations.

Read more ....

Ye Cannae Change The Laws Of Physics. Or Can You?

From The Economist:

RICHARD FEYNMAN, Nobel laureate and physicist extraordinaire, called it a “magic number” and its value “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics”. The number he was referring to, which goes by the symbol alpha and the rather more long-winded name of the fine-structure constant, is magic indeed. If it were a mere 4% bigger or smaller than it is, stars would not be able to sustain the nuclear reactions that synthesise carbon and oxygen. One consequence would be that squishy, carbon-based life would not exist.

Read more ....

First Clear Evidence Of Organized Feasting By Early Humans

This is a view of excavation area at Hilazon Tachtit Cave, Israel. (Credit: Naftali Hilger)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2010) — Community feasting is one of the most universal and important social behaviors found among humans. Now, scientists have found the earliest clear evidence of organized feasting, from a burial site dated about 12,000 years ago. These remains represent the first archaeological verification that human feasting began before the advent of agriculture.

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My Comment: I guess this tells us that the 'family get together' has been with us since the beginning of time.

Why Do Hurricanes Often Curve Out To Sea?

From Live Science:

The forecast path of Hurricane Earl, expected to run parallel to the U.S. East Coast before heading offshore, is a typical one for Atlantic storms to follow.

The reason: They are steered away from land by prevailing wind patterns and surrounding environmental flow.

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Books Are Better Without Pages

A man browses through books at the Cecil H. Green Library on the Stanford University Campus, Dec. 17, 2004 in Stanford, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

From Global Post:

The paper book is dead. Long live the narrative.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Kindle owners buy twice as many books as non-Kindle owners. Just one of the many signs that while the paper book is dead, the narrative will live on.

If you are saying to yourself, “That sounds horrible. I hope books do not go away,” I ask you to consider the world’s poorest and most remote kids.

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My Comment: Alas .... this is true. Hardcover books will only be a novelty item in the next few decades.

Why Music Is Good For You

From Scientific American:

A survey of the cognitive benefits of music makes a valid case for its educational importance. But that's not the best reason to teach all children music, says Philip Ball.

Remember the Mozart effect? Thanks to a suggestion in 1993 that listening to Mozart makes you cleverer, there has been a flood of compilation CDs filled with classical tunes that will allegedly boost your baby's brain power.

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My Comment: For me .... when there is a melody that I like .... it gives me a sense of relaxation and peace of mind.

Conduct Virtual Explorations of Mars with New WorldWide Telescope Feature

Screenshot showing Olympus Mons in 3-D using the World Wide Telescope.

From Universe Today:

Love 3-D imagery of Mars? There's now a firehose just for you! The WorldWide Telescope has teamed up with NASA to use images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera to provide a high-resolution 3-D map of the Red Planet. Included are fully-interactive images and the latest and greatest NASA data, which will allow for a virtual way to explore Mars and perhaps to even make your own scientific discoveries. This is the highest-resolution fully interactive map of Mars ever created, and includes guided video tours with two NASA scientists, James Garvin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Carol Stoker of Ames.

Read more ....

My Comment: So much for my telescope.

Earliest Fossil Evidence Of Humans In Southeast Asia?

Archaeologists excavating Callao Cave in the Philippines.
Armand Salvador Mijares

From Earth Magazine:

Modern humans reached the islands of Southeast Asia by approximately 50,000 years ago, but our ancestors’ journey was not easy. Even during times of low sea level, a voyage to some of these islands would have required crossing open water, leaving many scientists to wonder how humans arrived on the most isolated islands. Now the story is growing more complicated: A group of archaeologists has discovered a 67,000-year-old foot bone that they say represents the earliest-known presence of humans in the northern Philippines and may be among the oldest-known traces of modern humans in all of Southeast Asia — that is, if the bone truly belongs to Homo sapiens. The bone’s small size and unusual features make it difficult to determine exactly which species of Homo it was — Homo sapiens, Homo floresiensis or something else?

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My Comment: Makes one wonder why early man migrated here. Climate? Food sources?

Obesity: Drink Till You Drop

The Economist:

A magic elixir is shown to promote weight loss.

CONSUME more water and you will become much healthier, goes an old wives’ tale. Drink a glass of water before meals and you will eat less, goes another. Such prescriptions seem sensible, but they have little rigorous science to back them up.

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My Comment: I prefer soup over water, but the impact is the same.

Olderst House In Britain Discovered

Oldest House In Britain Discovered To Be 11,500 Years Old -- The Telegraph

Archaeologists have discovered Britain's earliest house dating back 11,500 years.

The home is so old that when it was built Britain was still part of Continental Europe.

The circular structure near Scarborough, North Yorkshire, which dates back to the Stone Age 8,500 years BC, was found next to a former lake.

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My Comment: This is why history is fascinating.

Our Eavesdropping-On-ET Strategy Not Likely To Work

From Wired Science:

Bad news for SETI: Even with the most sensitive radio telescopes yet designed, humans probably won’t find intelligent aliens by listening in on their phones and televisions, a new study finds.

“Eavesdropping on ET is very hard, even with the latest radio telescopes,” said astronomer Duncan Forgan of the University of Edinburgh, a coauthor of the study. “If we don’t try any other ways of searching for aliens, then we may never find them.”

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My Comment: No ET call home I guess.

Men Who Earn Less, Cheat More

Men and women who earn much larger salaries than their partner are more likely to cheat, a new study finds, although women are half as likely to be unfaithful. (Credit: iStockphoto)

From Futurity:

CORNELL (US)—Men who aren’t the primary breadwinners in a relationship are more likely to be unfaithful, according to a new study. But, it’s not about the money, says the lead researcher. It’s about sexual identity.

“Any identity that’s important to you, if you feel it’s threatened, you’re going to engage in behavior that will reinstate your place in that group,” says Christin Munsch, a sociology doctoral candidate at Cornell University. She presented the results of her study at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting in Atlanta this month.

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Editor's Note

Vacation/Work is over, back to blogging

Editor's note

Because of work I have taken a brief hiatus from this blog. My work contract ends at the end of June, and I will resume blogging on July 15.

Improvements In Sniper Rifle Technology

As part of a training exercise, the members of a sniper team man a 7.62mm Springfield Armory M21 Sniping rifle (left) and sights through the scope of a 7.62mm M24 Sniper rifle (right). Photo courtesy Department of Defense Defense Visual Information Center

The U.S. Sniper's More Accurate, Quieter Rifle -- Popular Mechanics

Army Snipers in Afghanistan will receive an improved rifle this fall.

For snipers, every war is different. Recognizing the differences between conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army is now selecting a contractor to upgrade the 22-year-old Remington bolt-action rifle to become a more effective killing machine. The Army will pour about $5.6 million into upgrades to the M24, with the new gear expected to be delivered to troops by this fall. The M24's barrel is being modified to shoot heavier .300 Winchester Magnum rounds, instead of the 7.62mm NATO ammunition, which should extend the rifle's maximum effective range by hundreds of yards to a maximum of about 1400 yards. The suppressor will reduce the noise and flash of the gun so snipers can stay in their hiding positions much longer after they fire.

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Chile Wins The Extremely Large Telescope

Artist's impression of the Mily Way rising over the ELT in Chile. Credit: ESO

From Cosmos/AFP:

BERLIN: Chile won the right to host the largest-ever telescope, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has announced, and it is due to begin operation in 2018.

The other main contender site for the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) was the Spanish isle of La Palma in the Canary Islands off western Africa.

The ESO, an intergovernmental astronomical research agency, already has three facilities operating in the Atacama Desert, including the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the town of Paranal, which is currently considered the foremost European-operated observatory.

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"Rogue" NASA Administrator Angling To Save Ares I Rocket Program From Budget Axe

The Ares I-X Rollout NASA's prototype heavy-lift rocket, the Ares I-X, on the launchpad in October 2009.

From Popular Science:

In a speech to NASA employees and the nation on April 15, President Obama unveiled a vision for U.S. space exploration that didn't include Constellation or development of its Ares I rocket. The next day, Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley issued his response to Obama: Not so fast.

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The Future Of Body Armor

Although it will be some time before the new germanium-based fabric has the same stopping power as this bulletproof vest, scientists are now exploring the possibility of using it to harness solar power. iStockphoto

'Tissue Paper' Could Stop Bullets, Harness Solar Energy -- Discovery News

Who wouldn't want a shirt that could stop a bullet and power your iPod? A new fabric can do just that.

A soft "tissue paper" made from normally brittle germanium and silicon contains individual fibers as strong as bulletproof Kevlar. Woven into traditional fabric or embedded in hard plastics, the new nanowires could stop bullets, harvest solar energy or perform dozens of other tasks.

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Brain-Like Computing On An Organic Molecular Layer

Magnetic resonance images of human brain during different functions appear on top. Similar evolving patterns have been generated on the molecular monolayer one after another (bottom). A snapshot of the evolving pattern for a particular brain function is captured using Scanning Tunneling Microscope at 0.68 V tip bias (scale bar is 6 nm). The input pattern to mimic particular brain function is distinct, and the dynamics of pattern evolution is also typical for a particular brain operation. (Credit: Anirban Bandyopadhyay)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2010) — Information processing circuits in digital computers are static. In our brains, information processing circuits -- neurons -- evolve continuously to solve complex problems. Now, an international research team from Japan and Michigan Technological University has created a similar process of circuit evolution in an organic molecular layer that can solve complex problems. This is the first time a brain-like "evolutionary circuit" has been realized.

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Chimps Understand And Mourn Death, Research Suggests

The chimpanzee Pansy, the morning after she died.
Credit: Nicola McCleery, Blair Drummond Safari Park.

From Live Science:

Chimpanzees may gather in hushed quiet to watch a fellow ape in her dying moments, and chimp mothers in the wild may carry their infants' mummified remains for weeks, according to new research on how humanity's closest living relatives deal with the deaths of those closest to them.

Insights into how chimpanzees respond to the death of one of their own are rare. One such instance came with the final hours of Pansy, a chimp more than 50 years old who lived in a Scottish safari park.

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The Search For Genes Leads To Unexpected Places

HUNTER Edward M. Marcotte and colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin have found hundreds of genes involved in human disorders. Ben Sklar for The New York Times

From New York Times:

Edward M. Marcotte is looking for drugs that can kill tumors by stopping blood vessel growth, and he and his colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin recently found some good targets — five human genes that are essential for that growth. Now they’re hunting for drugs that can stop those genes from working. Strangely, though, Dr. Marcotte did not discover the new genes in the human genome, nor in lab mice or even fruit flies. He and his colleagues found the genes in yeast.

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Apple Sued By Elan Microelectronics Over Touch-Screen Technology

From Times Online:

The sale of Apple's iPhone and iPad in the US is under threat after the US International Trade Commission initiated a formal investigation into the company for allegedly infringing a patent covering multi-touch technology.

The ITC, which has the power to ban the import and sale of products, said it was responding to a request from the Taiwanese touchscreen maker Elan Microelectronics, which has a patent for technology that detects the simultaneous presence of two or more fingers on a touchscreen or touchpad.

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Wind Turbines Shed Their Gears

Photo: Power ring: This three-megawatt wind turbine uses permanent magnets and a design that makes it significantly lighter than a conventional geared turbine. Credit: Siemens

From Technology Review:

Both Siemens and GE bet on direct-drive generators.

Wind turbine manufacturers are turning away from the industry-standard gearboxes and generators in a bid to boost the reliability and reduce the cost of wind power.

Siemens has begun selling a three-megawatt turbine using a so-called direct-drive system that replaces the conventional high-speed generator with a low-speed generator that eliminates the need for a gearbox. And last month, General Electric announced an investment of 340 million euros in manufacturing facilities to build its own four-megawatt direct-drive turbines for offshore wind farms.

Read more ....

When Will We Be Able To Build Brains Like Ours?

Image: Henrik5000

From Scientific American:

Sooner than you think -- and the race has lately caused a 'catfight'.

When physicists puzzle out the workings of some new part of nature, that knowledge can be used to build devices that do amazing things -- airplanes that fly, radios that reach millions of listeners. When we come to understand how brains function, we should become able to build amazing devices with cognitive abilities -- such as cognitive cars that are better at driving than we are because they communicate with other cars and share knowledge on road conditions. In 2008, the National Academy of Engineering chose as one of its grand challenges to reverse-engineer the human brain. When will this happen? Some are predicting that the first wave of results will arrive within the decade, propelled by rapid advances in both brain science and computer science. This sounds astonishing, but it’s becoming increasingly plausible. So plausible, in fact, that the great race to reverse-engineer the brain is already triggering a dispute over historic “firsts.”

Read more ....

In Search Of The Perfect Wine

Can genetic engineering make wine even better?

From Cosmos:

Using genetic engineering and the latest science, researchers are learning how to manipulate wine's previously elusive qualities. It may be about 8,000 years old, but never has wine tasted this good.

Holding a glass of wine by its stem, careful not to warm the liquid with body heat, you raise it to the light above your head. The bright, clear liquid is the shade of pale straw, informing you of its youth and pure character.

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The Future For Night Vision Goggles

Night Vision Once the domain of military and police, a cheap thin-film approach to night vision could give cell phones, eyeglasses, and car windshields the ability to see in the dark.

A Cheap, Thin Film Gives Portable Night Vision to Cell Phones and Eyeglasses -- Popular Science

What we regularly refer to as “night vision goggles” are actually less like goggles and more like heavy, bulky (and outrageously expensive) pieces of machinery. But DARPA funded research at the U. of Florida has adapted technology regularly found in flat-screen OLED televisions to create a thin film that turns any infrared signal into visible light, which could integrate cheap night vision tech into car windshields, cell phone cameras and even regular eyeglasses.

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The 'Killer Fungus': Should We Be Scared?

A microscopic view of the fungus, known as Cryptococcus gattii
Edmond Byrnes / Joseph Heitman / Duke Dept. of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

From Time Magazine:

If you were keeping a watchful eye on the news feeds on Friday, you probably heard about a new strain of deadly fungus called Cryptococcus gattii that has emerged in Oregon and Washington, and is threatening to spread into California. If you're like me, you are also probably confused about how worried you should — or shouldn't — be about this killer pathogen.

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Bad Habits Can Age You By 12 Years

Smoking is among one of the four behaviors that can dramatically lower life expectancy.
Hemera Technologies/Getty Images

From Discovery News:

Smoking, excessive drinking and other bad habits can dramatically shorten your lifespan.

Four common bad habits combined -- smoking, drinking too much, inactivity and poor diet -- can age you by 12 years, sobering new research suggests.

The findings are from a study that tracked nearly 5,000 British adults for 20 years, and they highlight yet another reason to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

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Picking Planets From Potatoes

In space, objects tend to conform to one of five shapes: (clockwise from left) spheres, dust, potatoes, halos and disks. Credit: Lineweaver, Norman and Chopra

From Astrobiology Magazine:

When Pluto was discovered in 1930, it was considered to be the ninth planet of our solar system. Since that time, astronomers have discovered similar icy objects in that far-distant orbital region of the Sun known as the Kuiper belt. Many astronomers questioned whether Pluto should be grouped with worlds like Earth and Jupiter, and in 2006 this debate led the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the recognized authority in naming heavenly objects, to formally re-classify Pluto as a dwarf planet.

Read more ....

Research in Antarctica Reveals Non-Organic Mechanism For Production Of Important Greenhouse Gas

UGA research scientist Vladimir Samarkin and his colleagues measured the production of nitrous oxide, an important greenhouse gas, at Don Juan Pond in Antarctica and discovered at the site a previously unreported chemical mechanism for the production of this important greenhouse gas. The discovery could help space scientists understand the meaning of similar brine pools on Mars. (Credit: The University of Georgia)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2010) — In so many ways, Don Juan Pond in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica is one of the most unearthly places on the planet. An ankle-deep mirror between mountain peaks and rubbled moraine, the pond is an astonishing 18 times saltier than the Earth's oceans and virtually never freezes, even in temperatures of more than 40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

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Exercise Is Good For The Brain

From Live Science:

Working out on a treadmill isn't just good for the body, it's good for the brain, according to a new study, the latest to weigh in on the cognitive benefits of exercise.

Regular exercise speeds learning and improves blood flow to the brain in monkeys, the study found. The researchers suspect the same would hold true for humans.

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Book Review: 'The Roadmap To 100'

From L.A. Times:

What if you could live to 100 and not just survive but thrive -- even in your elder years? Dr. Walter M. Bortz II and Randall Stickrod, authors of "The Roadmap to 100," say it's not only possible but probable that many of us will do so.

There will be as many as 6 million centenarians in the world by the middle of this century -- most of them healthy, functional and largely independent, Bortz and Stickrod write. But conversely, there's also a large population that may die at a younger age than the previous generation and be in poorer health while alive, putting a strain on healthcare resources, they say.

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The Stars: May

Source: Hencoup Enterprises

From The Independent:

Since the Greek astronomer Ptolemy observed Polaris (the Pole Star) 2000 years ago, it has brightened more than two-and-a-half times.

This is 100 times more than theory would predict, and astronomers are baffled as to why. And William Shakespeare, it turns out, had it all wrong with Julius Caesar
declaiming: "I am as constant as the northern star". Now we know the star is far from constant.

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Remember That Ash Cloud? It Didn't Exist, Says New Evidence

False alarm? Satellite images have revealed there may never have been a doomsday volcanic ash cloud over the UK (file picture)

From The Daily Mail:

Britain's airspace was closed under false pretences, with satellite images revealing there was no doomsday volcanic ash cloud over the entire country.

Skies fell quiet for six days, leaving as many as 500,000 Britons stranded overseas and costing airlines hundreds of millions of pounds.

Estimates put the number of Britons still stuck abroad at 35,000.

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Living World: The Shape Of Life To Come

Rapid climate change may leave polar bears high and dry
(Image: Ingrid Visser/SplashdownDirect/Rex Features)

From New Scientist:

A 3-metre-tall kangaroo; the car-sized armadillos called glyptodons; giant lemurs and elephant birds from Madagascar. Almost as soon as humans evolved, we began killing off other species, not just by hunting but also by changing the landscape with fire.

Now we are altering the planet more rapidly and profoundly than ever, and much of the diversity produced by half a billion years of evolution could be lost in the next few centuries. We are triggering a mass extinction that could be as severe as the one that ended the reign of the dinosaurs.

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