New Device Gets A Better Grip On Gaming

The OrbiTouch keyboard, originally created to help people with carpal tunnel syndrome, is taking the gaming world by storm. Credit: Blue Orb

From Live Science:

It's hard enough to navigate an unexplored realm in an online role-playing game, but when your only means of control is the constant back and forth from keyboard to joystick, it can be hard to get into character.

Now, an approach originally designed to help people with carpal tunnel syndrome is emerging as a solution. The system lets users talk, travel and fight — all from the comfort of a single device.

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Will Fusion Fade ... Or Finally Flare Up?

May 31: A video from the National Ignition Facility explains what the super-laser experiment is designed to do. NIF / LLNL

From MSNBC:

The hot, medium and cool prospects for harnessing ultimate star power.

Is nuclear fusion the ultimate energy source, or the ultimate pipe dream? Millions upon millions of dollars are being spent to find out which answer is the right one. For some technologies, the answer could come sooner than later. For others, it may be later rather than sooner.

The easiest way to access fusion power is to go outside on a sunny day: Nuclear fusion is the reaction that powers the sun, by crushing hydrogen atoms into helium atoms and converting the small blips of extra mass into energy. Hydrogen bombs, tested by the world's armies but never used on the battlefield, do the same thing.

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Tempers Flare In Climate Change Flap

From CBS:

One day after reports that Britain's Met office intends to reexamine 160 years' worth of temperature data, emotions over what's now being dubbed "Climategate" are getting more raw by the day.

During a live television faceoff hosted by the BBC, Marc Morano, a former communications director of the U.S. Senate Environment Committee and now an editor with the Web site Climate Depot squared off against Professor Andrew Watson of the University of East Anglia in eastern England. It didn't take long before the two got in each other's face and Watson became increasingly annoyed with Morano's loud interruptions. He finally lost it by the end when the anchor thanked the participants.

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Copying Birds May Save Aircraft Fuel

Photo: Corbis

From The Economist:

BOTH Boeing and Airbus have trumpeted the efficiency of their newest aircraft, the 787 and A350 respectively. Their clever designs and lightweight composites certainly make a difference. But a group of researchers at Stanford University, led by Ilan Kroo, has suggested that airlines could take a more naturalistic approach to cutting jet-fuel use, and it would not require them to buy new aircraft.

The answer, says Dr Kroo, lies with birds. Since 1914, and a seminal paper by a German researcher called Carl Wieselsberger, scientists have known that birds flying in formation—a V-shape, echelon or otherwise—expend less energy. The air flowing over a bird’s wings curls upwards behind the wingtips, a phenomenon known as upwash. Other birds flying in the upwash experience reduced drag, and spend less energy propelling themselves. Peter Lissaman, an aeronautics expert who was formerly at Caltech and the University of Southern California, has suggested that a formation of 25 birds might enjoy a range increase of 71%.

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Shopping Styles Of Men And Women All Down To Evolution, Claim Scientists

From The Telegraph:

The reason women love to spend hours browsing in shops while men prefer to be in and out of the high street in minutes is down to their hunter-gathering past, claim scientists.

Differing roles in prehistoric times have evolved into differing shopping styles, the researchers believe.

While women spent their days gathering food often with children, men were hunters who made specific plans about how to catch and kill their prey.

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An End To An Era

Astronaut Hangout to Close After 30 Years -- Space.com

A former Air Force barrack-turned-bar that counted astronauts among its regular patrons will close next month after more than three decades serving the NASA community in Houston.

"The Outpost is closing... and this time, it is for good," wrote owner Stephanie Foster in a note added Tuesday to the Webster, Texas tavern's Web site. "All-in-all, you must admit that it has been an interesting and fun run for this little bar."

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Tunable Terahertz Lasers Could Allow Airport Scanners To Chemically Analyze Substances

Lasers for Scanners Uh sir, you're not supposed to have that TriStar Pictures

From Popular Science:

A new way to tune the width of terahertz quantum cascade lasers heralds a breakthrough in airport scanning and much more.

If Superman saw in terahertz radiation, he could do more than just peer through clothes and the human body. The Man of Steel might also be able to identify the chemical difference between a benign powder or an explosive tucked away inside a vial within a suitcase -- assuming that he could somehow tune his vision.

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French Immigrants Founded First British Farms

From New Scientist:

THE British may owe the French more than they care to admit. Archaeological finds from Britain show that farming was introduced 6000 years ago by immigrants from France, and that the ancient Brits might have continued as hunter-gatherers had it not been for innovations introduced by the Gallic newcomers.

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LHC Gets First Results; Step Toward "God Particle"?

A Large Ion Collider Experiment, or ALICE, (pictured above) recorded the first results from a proton-proton collision inside the Large Hadron Collider, physicists announced in December 2009. The collision created the precise ratio of matter and antimatter particles predicted from theory, showing that the so-called "big bang" machine is working as expected. Picture by Maximilien Brice, copyright CERN

From National Geographic:

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is quickly making up for lost time: The first scientific results from the recently restarted particle accelerator have been announced—about two weeks ahead of schedule.

During the first collisions of the LHC's twin beams of protons, a machine called A Large Ion Collider Experiment, or ALICE, collected the results from a proton-proton smashup.

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Greenhouse Gas Carbon Dioxide Ramps Up Aspen Growth

Stand of quaking aspen. (Credit: iStockphoto/Doug Sims)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2009) — The rising level of atmospheric carbon dioxide may be fueling more than climate change. It could also be making some trees grow like crazy.

That is the finding of a new study of natural stands of quaking aspen, one of North America's most important and widespread deciduous trees. The study, by scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota at Morris (UMM) and published December 4 in the journal Global Change Biology, shows that elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide during the past 50 years have boosted aspen growth rates by an astonishing 50 percent.

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Rural America Surprisingly Prosperous, Study Finds

(Click Image to Enlarge)
Much of rural America is prosperous, says a study that used specific criteria to evaluate community success. To qualify as prosperous, U.S. counties had to have lower poverty levels, unemployment rates, high school drop outs and housing problems than the nation as a whole. Here, a map showing the prosperity of U.S. counties. Counties that do better than the nation on all four criteria are colored red. Those that do better on three criteria are red-orange, two criteria are orange, one criteria is yellow and none is white. Credit: Andrew Isserman, Edward Feser, Drake Warren, University of Illinois.

From Live Science:

For many people "rural" is synonymous with low incomes, limited economic opportunity, and poor schools. However, a recent study found that much of rural America is actually prosperous, particularly in the Midwest and Plains.

Researchers just had to look at things differently to see the prosperity.

The study — announced today and based on date from the year 2000 — analyzed unemployment rates, poverty rates, high school drop-out rates, and housing conditions to identify prospering communities. The result: One in five rural counties in the United States is prosperous, doing better than the nation as a whole on all these measures.

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Nobel Prizes Hit By The Financial Crisis?

Nobel Prize Foundation Frets Over Its Finances -- ABC News

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The Nobel Foundation might have to reduce the money it awards winners of its prestigious prizes due to the effects of the global financial crisis, its director said on Saturday.

The foundation will give 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.5 million) for each prize this year as it has done for most of the last decade. But the downturn could strain resources for future prizes.

"It might be in the future we would be forced to lower the prize," Michael Sohlman, Executive Director for the Nobel Foundation, told a press briefing. "We have sailed the storm, but have taken on some water."

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Yahoo, Microsoft Finalize Search Deal

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer first approved a search deal in July, but the matter took a little extra time to complete. (Credit: Yahoo/Microsoft)

From CNET News:

Yahoo and Microsoft have finalized their agreement to install Microsoft as the exclusive search provider for Yahoo's network of sites, the companies announced Friday.

The deal, first reached in July, still needs to be approved by the U.S. government before it becomes final. But the companies said in October that they needed more time to complete the deal due to the "complex nature of this transaction," and Friday's announcement is likely the result of hundreds of hours of painstaking review from expensive lawyers.

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Scientists Create The World's Smallest 'Snowman'

The snowman is made of two tiny tin beads, normally used to calibrate electron microscope lenses, which were welded together with platinum Photo: Dr Cox / National Physical Laboratory

From The Telegraph:

Scientists have created the world’s smallest 'snowman', measuring about a fifth of the width of a human hair.

Experts at the National Physical Laboratory in West London made the miniature figure which is just 0.01mm across.

However, far from the thrill of rolling balls of snow around a field to build their masterpiece, it was assembled using tools designed for manipulating nanoparticles.

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Wanna Know What U.S. Warplanes You’ll Tangle With In The Future? Visit An Aerospace Model Shop.

At Northrop Grumman’s model shop in El Segundo, California, Gary Miley applies gel to form a mold he will use to create a model blank. (Chad Slattery)

From Air And Space Smithsonian:

Shortly after 9 p.m. on a rainy February night in Los Angeles, Tony Chong switched on his home computer, logged into eBay, and began his nightly aircraft hunt. For more than two decades, Chong had been making exquisite aircraft models at Northrop Grumman’s display model shop—and collecting the rare desktop models his company and other U.S. airplane makers distributed to promote their programs. Often the listings on eBay were for castoffs, but that night in 2005 one model gave him a jolt: Painted in mottled camouflage and balanced on a familiar pentagon base, it was an 18-inch-long concept model of a Northrop Grumman FB-23 advanced bomber.

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My Comment: This is a fascinating read on the future of military aviation .... read it all.

The Science Behind Jabulani, Adidas's 2010 World Cup Soccer Ball

Jabulani, Deconstructed: Adidas

From Popular Science:

See a video on how this year's latest and greatest piece of soccer engineering comes together.

While the sporting world watched the clock for the high noon announcement of the brackets for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, we were salivating over another four-year tradition: the engineering and innovation that goes into the official World Cup ball. With the 2010 Cup's Jabulani ball (‘to celebrate’ in isiZulu), Adidas claims it has surpassed its own Teamgeist from 2006 in constructing the roundest and most accurate ball ever played. See how it's made inside.

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Physicists Race To Publish First Results From LHC

Large Hadron Collider

From New Scientist:

Good things come to those who wait. But now that the Large Hadron Collider has restarted after undergoing more than a year of repairs, physicists are racing to analyse the data. Just days after the first protons were smashed together at the LHC, the first paper on the results has been accepted to a journal.

The first collisions took place on Monday, 23 November; by Saturday, a paper had been uploaded to the arxiv server, where physicists often publish their results prior to formal publication. Three days later, it had been accepted by the European Journal of Physics.

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Mysterious "Strange" Stars May Rival Black Holes For Weirdness

In this top-down illustration of a black hole and its surrounding disk, gas spiraling toward the black hole piles up just outside it, creating a traffic jam. The traffic jam is closer in for smaller black holes, so X-rays are emitted on a shorter timescale. By NASA

From USA Today:

Think black holes are strange? Understandable considering these powerhouses of the universe (many times heavier than our sun) are collapsed stars with gravity so strong that even light cannot escape their grasp.

But maybe they're not "strange" enough, suggest some astrophysicists. "Stellar" black holes, ones only a few times heavier than the sun, may actually be something even weirder called a quark star, or "strange" star.

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Shark Fins Traced To Home Waters Using DNA -- A First

Workers remove the fin from a female mako shark on a beach in Santa Rosalia, Mexico, in an undated picture. For the first time, scientists have used DNA analysis to trace shark fins back to their home waters. Most of the hammerhead fins found at the market came from endangered populations in the western Atlantic, the researchers said in December 2009. Photograph by Brian J. Skerry, NGS

From National Geographic:

Many of the hammerhead sharks that are butchered to feed Asian demand for shark-fin soup start their lives in American waters, a new forensic study shows.

For the first time, scientists have used DNA from shark fins to determine where they came from. The researchers traced finds from the scalloped hammerhead shark species—collected at the world's biggest fin market in Hong Kong—back to rare populations in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans.

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Robots Become Reality

Pingpong-playing robot 'Topio'. The bipedal humanoid robot is designed to play table tennis against a human being. Photograph: Kim Kyung-hoon/Reuters

200 robot companies and institutes exhibit their latest specimens at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan.

Check out the entire gallery here.