Future Robots Will Run Like Cockroaches

Researchers at Oregon State University are using studies of guinea hens and other animals such as cockroaches to learn more about the mechanics of their running ability, with the goal of developing robots that can run easily over rough terrain. Credit: Oregon State University

From Live Science:

Most people find cockroaches repulsive, but not John Schmitt. A mechanical engineer at Oregon State University, Schmitt is using the leggy pests as a model for futuristic robots that can run effortlessly over rough terrain.

Current robots require too much computing power to get around, Schmitt explained. "We are trying to create robots that are more stable and take less energy," he said.

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Mankind's Greatest Explorations And Adventures

Corbis

From Time Magazine:

From the Moon to Mount Everest, our list of the greatest leaps and highest climbs in human history.

The crew of Apollo 11 faced risks that were literally out of this world. Engine failure could have left them stranded on the lunar surface or forever lost in space. Solar radiation and re-entry heat could have cooked them alive. A space-suit failure could have suffocated them in the most gruesome way. By today's standards, Apollo 11's technology was primitive — the onboard navigation computer contained only 74 kilobytes of memory, not enough to store a single MP3 music file. But as soon as Neil Armstrong took his first tentative step on the lunar surface, the risks were forgotten. For an all-too-brief moment, everyone on the planet was caught up in the thrill of human achievement, of a millennia-old fantasy come to life. Other lunar explorers would follow, but Apollo 11 was the first to take the giant leap for mankind.

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Fin Whales, Once Rare, Crowd Calif. Coast

Watch CBS News Videos Online

From CBS News:

(CBS) Tracking a mystery, Alisa Schulman-Janiger and other marine biologists follow an ocean footprint looking for the second largest mammal in the world, the fin whale.

Sightings of the fin whale - part of the family that includes the humpback and big blue whales - used to be a rarity in the Santa Monica Bay but not anymore. They're everywhere, reports CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes.

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Gene Rice On Its Way In China

GM crops have been cleared for commercial cultivation (Image: Jeff Hutchens/Getty)

From New Scientist:

Genetically modified rice cleared for commercial sale could be growing on Chinese farms as early as next year, making China the first country to allow commercial cultivation of GM strains. The field trials required for any new variety are now under way, following official safety clearance November.

Two varieties, called Huahui 1 and Bt Shanyou 63, received clearance and should be launched within the next two years. Both contain "Bt" proteins from the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium to protect them against the rice stem borer, the most serious rice pest in China.

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10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

Behold the Laser Avenger, a cannon that could be used to take down incoming aircraft. Boeing was able to shoot a drone out of the sky with the hummer-mounted laser, even though it’s not particularly high-powered. It cooked the remote-controlled aircraft using a somewhat feeble 1-kilowatt beam. More recently, the company shot down another UAV using a low-power laser paired with its Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments, or Matrix, system during a test in White Sands, New Mexico.

From The Danger Room:

Sure, the gear may look like it came straight out of Avatar or Battlestar Galactica. But all of the laser weapons, robots, sonic blasters and puke rays pictured here are real. Some of these weapons have already found their way onto the battlefield. If the rest of this sci-fi arsenal follows, war may soon be unrecognizable.

Read on for a look at some of these futuristic weapons being tested today.

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The Year In Robotics

Photo: Talking to me?: This robot, called Robovie, uses gaze cues to manage a conversation. Credit: Bilge Mutlu

From Technology Review:

During the past 12 months, robots got better at grasping, smiling, and avoiding angry humans.

In the past year, researchers have developed new robots to tackle a variety of tasks: helping with medical rehabilitation, aiding military maneuvers, mimicking social skills, and grasping the unknown. Here are the highlights.

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Bacteria 'Could Tackle Cocaine Addiction'

The discovery has been hailed as possible method of helping addicts get off Cocaine and could prevent deaths from overdose. Photo: PA

From The Telegraph:

A bacteria could be used to reduce the addictiveness of cocaine, scientists have found.

The naturally-occurring bacterial enzyme Cocaine esterase, CocE, breaks down cocaine which reduced its addictive properties.

The discovery has been hailed as possible method of helping addicts get off the drug and could prevent deaths from overdose.

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A History Of Walking On Water

From New Scientist:

On the afternoon of 22 January 1907, a wailing chorus of steamboat whistles sent the residents of Memphis, Tennessee, running to the banks of the Mississippi river. "A great crowd assembled on the riverside, thinking some great disaster was taking place on the water," reported the Memphis News-Scimitar. Instead, the swelling crowd was greeted by the sight of a man calmly walking on water. This was no miracle. Gliding along on a pontoon-like pair of "water shoes" was "Professor" Charles W. Oldrieve, the world's pre-eminent "aquatic pedestrian".

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Great Balls Of Fire! Embers 10,000 Times Hotter Than Our Sun Left Behind By Supernova

Suzaku detected X-rays from fully ionized silicon and sulfur - which
indicates temperatures of 17million celsius

From The Daily Mail:

The glowing embers left behind by one of the most powerful type of explosions in the Universe have been revealed for the first time.

Remnants from giant fireballs unleashed by a supernova are still glowing at temperatures 10,000 times hotter than the Sun thousands of years after the event.

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Looking Back in Time 12 Billion Years With New Instruments On Herschel Space Observatory

This is the Herschel Space Observatory. (Credit: European Space Agency)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 1, 2010) — An instrument package developed in part by the University of Colorado at Boulder for the $2.2 billion orbiting Herschel Space Observatory launched in May by the European Space Agency has provided one of the most detailed views yet of space up to 12 billion years back in time.

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Popular Treatment For Low-Back Pain Doesn't Work

From Live Science:

Mild electric shocks supplied by a portable device, a process called TENS, have been used for years to treat chronic low-back pain.

Problem is, it doesn't work, a new study concludes.

Anyone currently getting transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) treatments should consult with their doctor about the new findings, researchers said.

"The strongest evidence showed that there is no benefit for people using TENS for chronic low-back pain," said Dr. Richard M. Dubinsky of the Kansas University Medical Center.

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Africa-wide "Great Green Wall" To Halt Sahara's Spread?

Acacia trees line an African landscape in an undated picture. Picture by Tim Laman, NGS

From National Geographic:

China built its famous Great Wall to keep out marauders. Now, millennia later, a "Great Green Wall" may rise in Africa to deter another, equally relentless invader: sand.

The proposed wall of trees would stretch from Senegal to Djibouti as part of a plan to thwart the southward spread of the Sahara, Senegalese officials said earlier this month at the UN's Copenhagen climate conference.

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As Britain Told To Expect Snow For 'Next 10 Days', How Is The Rest Of The World Is Coping With This Arctic Weather?

Paramilitary policemen stand guard in front of the late
Chairman Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square, Beijing

From The Daily Mail:

When Britain woke up on the first day of the New Year it was met with freezing cold temperatures, feet of snow in places and the promise of travel chaos.

And now, three days into 2010, forecasters have warned to expect continued snowfall for the next 10 days - bringing with it added stress for commuters heading back to work after a festive break and children returning to school tomorrow.

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2010: The Year Of The Mobile

From Times Online:

The trend to smaller connected devices will continue this year, as the likes of Nokia, Google and Apple deliver their new products.

Desktop computers are so last decade. 2010 is shaping up to be the year when internet users move decisively away from bulky machines to the mobile web.

The trend towards portable, mini-laptops and devices that allow you to surf the web on the go will accelerate in 2010 as companies slug it out in the key battleground of smartphones, analysts predict.

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How To Find Hidden Explosives At Airports

These images were recorded with millimeter wave technology.
Credit: TSA

From Technology Review:

We already have the technology for discovering hidden explosives, but it could lead to long lines.

The bomb that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reportedly tried to set off as his flight neared Detroit on Christmas could have been detected using existing screening technologies, had they only been used. Not only could the explosives have been spotted using back-scatter X-rays or millimeter wave technology--which can see through clothes--invisible traces of the explosive could have been detected using chemical sensors. But both technologies, if used to screen all passengers, would lead to long lines at airport security checkpoints.

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Cancer Risk Increases With Blood Sugar

From The Telegraph:

Up to one in six Britons with high blood-sugar levels faces a greater danger of developing cancer, according to new research.

Excess blood sugar means someone could be more likely both to develop cancer and also to die from it, according to research in the Public Library of Science journal.

Women were more vulnerable than men and high blood sugar is linked o a range of different cancers for each gender, it found.

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Invading Beetles Mummified By Stingless Bees

From New Scientist:

It's not so much eternal life, more a case of instant death. Parasitic beetles that dare to invade the hive of certain stingless bees end up entombed forever in resin. "They're stopped in their tracks and they dehydrate and shrivel up like a mummy," says Mark Greco, an entomologist at the Swiss Bee Research Centre in Bern who discovered the practice in a species of Australian stingless bees, Trigona carbonaria, living in the wild.

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Ten Things That Cause Mass Extinctions

Credit: iStockphoto

From Cosmos:

SYDNEY: It's normal for a species to go extinct, and an average rate of one a year is the natural background rate. But over the past 4.5 billion years, there have been times when extinctions occured at 100 to 1,000 times faster - with the largest event wiping out 95 % of all species. Somewhere between five and 20 such mass extinctions have occured. Here are 10 possible causes for future extinction events.

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2010's Hi-Tech Top 10: Brace Yourselves For Touch-Screen Laptops And 3D TV

Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10

From The Daily Mail:

The march of technology is unstoppable. Even the credit crunch hasn't slowed the pace of innovation, and it's already looking like 2010 will be another vintage year for consumer electronics.

But it's not just gadget fans who should get excited - movie buffs, game lovers and even bibliophiles will be able to immerse themselves in their passions as never before.

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New Internet Piracy Law Comes Into Effect In France

From The BBC:

The first effects of France's new law against internet piracy will begin to be felt as the new year begins.

The law was passed after a long struggle in parliament, and in the teeth of bitter opposition from groups opposed to internet restrictions.

Illegal downloaders will be sent a warning e-mail, then a letter if they continue, and finally must appear before a judge if they offend again.

The judge can impose a fine, or suspend their access to the internet.

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