Wolfram Co-Founder On Why Wolfram|Alpha Doesn't Need to Kill Google

Theo in Tub: Mike Walker

From Popsci.com:

Gray Matter's own Theodore Gray reports from his day job at Wolfram on how his new "knowledge engine" provides exactly what Google can't

PopSci's Grouse recently reviewed Wolfram|Alpha. I guess that's what happens when you ignore your editors for a week: They let someone else write about your project!

PopSci readers know me as the mad scientist behind the Gray Matter column, and the book based on it, Mad Science, but I actually have what I affectionately refer to as a day job, as co-founder of Wolfram Research, Inc, the company behind Wolfram|Alpha. And the reason I was ignoring my editor asking me to write about Wolfram|Alpha is that I was recovering from the lead up to our public launch of that very service.

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Blasting Off the Moon's Surface: Apollo 11, The Untold Story

From Popular Mechanics:

After a 22-hour stay on the moon, Aldrin and Armstrong prepared to fire the ascent stage of the lunar module to launch back into lunar orbit. Here, Collins tries to find the Eagle with a telescope, Aldrin breaks the engine-arm circuit breaker and the lunar module executes a series of burns before docking and returning for splashdown.

H. David Reed, flight dynamics officer (FIDO), Green Team, Mission Control: My job was to come in prior to ascent, find out where they landed, and use that information to compute their launch time. Then we’d upload that to the crew. When I called the tracking people, the guy at the other end of the line said, “Dave, take your pick. I’ve got five different landing sites.” He said: We know where the lunar module thinks it landed, where the backup guidance system thinks it landed, where the radars on the ground tracked them, where we targeted them, and now we’ve got the geologists saying a different location.

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Synchronized Brain Waves Focus Our Attention

From Wired Magazine:

Separate brain regions firing in unison may be what keeps us focused on important things while we ignore distractions.

A deluge of visual information hits our eyes every second, yet we’re able to focus on the minuscule fraction that’s relevant to our goals. When we try to find our way through an unfamiliar area of town, for example, we manage to ignore the foliage, litter and strolling pedestrians, and focus our attention on the street signs.

Now, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered that the brain’s control center syncs up to its visual center with high-frequency brain waves, directing attention to select features of the visual world.

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California Fires Up Laser Fusion Machine

From The Guardian:

Success at National Ignition Facility could pave the way for commercial laser fusion power stations and provide a solution to world energy crisis

A tentative first step towards an era of clean, almost limitless energy will take place today with the opening of a giant facility designed to recreate the power of the stars in an oversized warehouse in California.

The $3.5bn National Ignition Facility (NIF) sits in a 10-storey building covering three football fields and will harness the power of lasers to turn tiny pellets of hydrogen into thermonuclear energy.

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Scientists Identify Genes Behind Ageing Process

Ageing: Prof Partridge said tackling the very causes of ageing rather than treating the symptoms offers the best prospects for dealing with the diseases that result from it. Photo: GETTY

From The Telegraph:

Scientists have identified genes which control the ageing process in findings which could lead to new drugs to prevent illnesses from heart disease to Alzheimer's.

Mutations have been found to extend the lifespan of animals in the lab such as worms, fruit flies and mice - and appear to play the same role in humans.

Professor Linda Partridge, director of the Institute of Healthy Ageing at University College London, claims the research could help treat or delay many diseases simultaneously with medication.

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Decoding Antiquity: Eight Scripts That Still Can't Be Read

Photo: The Etruscan Alphabet - Shown here are two of three gold plaques from Pyrgi, circa 500BC. The plaque on the left is written in Etruscan, while the one on the right is written in Phoenician. They both describe the same event - the dedication by the Etruscan ruler Thefarie Velianas of a cult place (Image: Museo di Villa Giulia, Rome)

From The New Scientist:

WRITING is one of the greatest inventions in human history. Perhaps the greatest, since it made history possible. Without writing, there could be no accumulation of knowledge, no historical record, no science - and of course no books, newspapers or internet.

The first true writing we know of is Sumerian cuneiform - consisting mainly of wedge-shaped impressions on clay tablets - which was used more than 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Soon afterwards writing appeared in Egypt, and much later in Europe, China and Central America. Civilisations have invented hundreds of different writing systems. Some, such as the one you are reading now, have remained in use, but most have fallen into disuse.

These dead scripts tantalise us. We can see that they are writing, but what do they say?

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Canada Has A Frigid May After A Cold Winter

From Watts Up With That?

May has been frigid slowing the planting and emergence of the summer crops in Canada. Late freezes and even snows are still occurring regularly and can be expected the rest of the month.

The chart above shows the May 2009 temperature anomaly through May 24th. Parts of central Canada (Churchill, Manitoba) are running 16 degrees F below normal for the month through the 26th (map ends 24th). Every day this month has seen lows below freezing in Churchill and only 6 out of the first 26 days days had highs edge above freezing. The forecast the rest of the month is for more cold with even some snow today in Churchill and again this weekend perhaps further south.

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My Comment: I live in Quebec, Canada .... I can vouch for this report.

New Solar Cycle Prediction: Fewer Sunspots, But Not Necessarily Less Activity

This is an image of the sun from NASA's twin STEREO satellites. Credit: NASA

From Physorg.:

PhysOrg.com) -- An international panel of experts has released a new prediction for the next solar cycle, stating that Solar Cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with a below-average number of sunspots. Led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and sponsored by NASA, the panel includes a dozen members from nine different government and academic institutions. Their forecast sets the stage for at least another year of mostly quiet conditions before solar activity resumes in earnest.

"If our prediction is correct, Solar Cycle 24 will have a peak sunspot number of 90, the lowest of any cycle since 1928 when Solar Cycle 16 peaked at 78," says panel chairman Doug Biesecker of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, Boulder, Colo.

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Earliest Known Case of Leprosy Unearthed

From Live Science:

A 4,000-year-old skeleton found in India bears the earliest archaeological evidence of leprosy, a new study reports.

The finding, detailed in the May 27 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE, is also the first evidence for the disease in prehistoric India and sheds light on how the disease might have been spread in early human history.

Though it is no longer a significant public health threat in most parts of the world, leprosy is still one of the least understood infectious diseases, in part because the bacteria that causes it (Mycobacterium leprae) is difficult to culture for research and has only one other animal host, the nine banded armadillo.

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Scientists Reaching Consensus On How Brain Processes Speech

Researchers are finding that both human and non-human primate studies have confirmed that speech, one important facet of language, is processed in the brain along two parallel pathways, each of which run from lower- to higher-functioning neural regions. (Credit: iStockphoto/Don Bayley)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (May 27, 2009) — Neuroscientists feel they are much closer to an accepted unified theory about how the brain processes speech and language, according to a scientist at Georgetown University Medical Center who first laid the concepts a decade ago and who has now published a review article confirming the theory.

In the June issue of Nature Neuroscience, the investigator, Josef Rauschecker, PhD, and his co-author, Sophie Scott, PhD, a neuroscientist at University College, London, say that both human and non-human primate studies have confirmed that speech, one important facet of language, is processed in the brain along two parallel pathways, each of which run from lower- to higher-functioning neural regions.

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Sub Will Explore Undersea Borders

From The BBC:

A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) designed by a team of researchers in the Irish Republic could help define the limits of nations' underwater borders.

Named after the Celtic goddess of beer and water, ROV Latis has just completed trials off Ireland's west coast.

The information it gathers could help to settle, once and for all, disputes over continental perimeters.

It uses high resolution CCTV and colour cameras capable of operating in very low light.

Simon Marr, technical market analyst at the University of Limerick, explained that it was designed to perform seabed surveys and had a fibre-optic communication channel to relay all of the information it gathered.

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Fire And Water Reveal New Archaeological Dating Method

Ancient bricks. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Manchester)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (May 25, 2009) — Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed a new way of dating archaeological objects – using fire and water to unlock their 'internal clocks'.

The simple method promises to be as significant a technique for dating ceramic materials as radiocarbon dating has become for organic materials such as bone or wood.

A team from The University of Manchester and The University of Edinburgh has discovered a new technique which they call 'rehydroxylation dating' that can be used on fired clay ceramics like bricks, tile and pottery.

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Why Chimps, Monkeys Don't Develop Alzheimer's

This April 29, 2009 photo shows 'Jody,' a chimpanzee who was used for breeding and biomedical research at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in Cle Elum, Wash. As attacks and other problems with privately owned chimpanzees make the news, some chimpanzee sanctuaries are seeing an increase in inquiries from pet owners, looking for help in caring for their animals. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

From Yahoo News/Healthday:

MONDAY, May 25 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists have long noticed a curious phenomenon among primates: Humans get the devastating neurological disorder known as Alzheimer's disease, but their closest evolutionary cousins don't.

Even more inexplicable is the fact that chimpanzee and other non-human primate brains do get clogged with the same protein plaques that are believed by many to cause the disease in humans.

The answer to this puzzle could yield valuable insight into how Alzheimer's develops and progresses, and now researchers report they may have a clue. They report their finding in the latest issue of the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

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Hubble's Ten Most Significant Discoveries

Dark Energy: Courtesy of NASA

From Popsci.com:

PopSci offers up the ten most important scientific discoveries that the Hubble made possible, and the amazing images to go with them.

After astronauts fixed the lens on the Hubble space telescope, the satellite began sending back pictures of the cosmos that left all onlookers in awe. The beauty of those images often overshadowed the legitimate scientific progress the Hubble enabled.

So, in honor of the Hubble’s final servicing mission, Popsci.com and Mario Livio, a senior astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute and author of Is God A Mathematician?, look past the pretty pictures and count down the ten most important scientific discoveries that the Hubble made possible.

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Overfishing Goes Back Centuries, Log Books Reveal

One of the earliest depictions of trawling. Mosaic from the 5th century, Bizerte, Tunisia. Credit: Yacoub, M., Splendors of Tunisian Mosaics, Tunis, 1995, Fig. 115.

From Live Science:

Overfishing led to shrinking sizes of freshwater fish caught by Europeans all the way back in medieval times. And the real revolution in deep-sea fishing came not with modern day trawlers, but back in the 1600s when pairs of boats began dragging a net between them.

Those are just a few of the facts unearthed by marine historians who want to find out when ocean life populations and natural sizes began to shrink.

The evidence shows that much of the decline took place even before the modern fishing industry really got going.

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The Moment A Hummingbird Meets A Sticky End Thanks To A Hungry Praying Mantis

Struggle for survival: This hummingbird met a sticky end when feeding

From The Daily Mail:

This startling picture captures the moment a praying mantis snared a hummingbird.

The predatory insect is seen dangling from a plant with its right spiny foreleg impaling the helpless bird. Although not much bigger than its prey, the mantis was able to gorge itself before releasing the lifeless body of its victim.

Richard Walkup, from West Chester in Pennsylvania, US, told how his quick-thinking son had captured the scene.

He said: 'The other day while I was working in the yard my son urgently called to me, 'Dad, a praying mantis caught a hummingbird!'

'I came running to see for myself. By the time I arrived it was too late for the poor hummer and my scientifically minded son had already begun taking pictures and studying the scene. '

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Space Rock Yields Carbon Bounty

From The BBC:

Formic acid, a molecule implicated in the origins of life, has been found at record levels on a meteorite that fell into a Canadian lake in 2000.

Cold temperatures on Tagish Lake prevented the volatile chemical from dissipating quickly.

An analysis showed four times more formic acid in the fragments than has been recorded on previous meteorites.

The researchers told a meeting of the American Geophysical Union that the formic acid was extraterrestrial.

Formic acid is one of a group of compounds dubbed "organics", because they are rich in carbon.

"We are lucky that the meteorite was untouched by humans hands, avoiding contamination by organic compounds that we have on our fingers," said Dr Christopher Herd, the curator of the University of Alberta's meteorite collection.

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Tech-word Origins: Stranger Than Science

From Christian Science Monitor:

A lexicographer describes where science fiction struck first.

Scientists are uniquely qualified to describe the universe in numbers and equations, but sometimes it takes an imaginative novelist to distill discoveries into words.

For his book “Brave New Words,” freelance lexicographer Jeff Prucher uncovered a slew of words that many people assume came from science, but actually originated in the pulpy pages of early science fiction. Here are four of his favorites.

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Why We Stare, Even When We Don’t Want To

From Weird Science/Wired:

The stares of strangers endured by Connie Culp, recent face transplant recipient, might have little to do with cruelty or lack of empathy. These responses are likely a result of neurologic, biologic and evolutionary factors.

Prior to her operation, the center of Culp’s face was blank skin traversed by a single raw scar where she once had a nose, upper lip and cheeks. The disfigurement made her the target of something perhaps even less fixable: millions of years of evolutionary uncouth. When she went out in public, people gaped at her. After her operation, her face still looks unusual and the stares continue.

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Rising Sea Levels: Survival Tips From 5000 BC

As sea levels rise, we need to find ways to adapt. Ancient civilisations could give us some tips (Image: Paul Kay / SplashdownDirect / Rex)

From The New Scientist:

WITH rising seas lapping at coastal cities and threatening to engulf entire islands in the not-too-distant future, it's easy to assume our only option will be to abandon them and head for the hills. There may be another way, however. Archaeological sites in the Caribbean, dating back to 5000 BC, show that some ancient civilisations had it just as bad as anything we are expecting. Yet not only did they survive a changing coastline and more storm surges and hurricanes: they stayed put and successfully adapted to the changing world. Now archaeologists are working out how they managed it and finding ways that we might learn from their example.

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