How To Make A Liquid Invisibility Cloak

Hiding behind water (Image: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty)

From New Scientist:

When J. K. Rowling described Harry Potter's invisibility cloak as "fluid and silvery", she probably wasn't thinking specifically about silver-plated nanoparticles suspended in water. But a team of theorists believe that using such a set-up would make the first soft, tunable metamaterial – the "active ingredient" in an invisibility device.

The fluid proposed by Ji-Ping Huang of Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and colleagues, contains magnetite balls 10 nanometres in diameter, coated with a 5-nanometre-thick layer of silver, possibly with polymer chains attached to keep them from clumping.

Read more ....

CES: Apple Looms Over CES From Afar

Photo: Steve Ballmer shows off a slate PC during his opening keynote at CES 2010. (Credit: James Martin/CNET)

From CNET:

LAS VEGAS--The most buzzed-about device at CES 2010 wasn't even on display here.

A tablet or slate computer from Apple was basically all anyone wanted to talk about, and it's not even a confirmed product yet. As a result, Lady Gaga might be the only thing that was actually at CES 2010 that could even be described as generating large-scale buzz.

Read more ....

30,000-Year-Old Child's Teeth Shed New Light On Human Evolution

Virtual 3D reconstruction of four deciduous and one permanent teeth assessed for linear, surface, and volumetric tissue proportions. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Bristol)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 8, 2010) — The teeth of a 30,000-year-old child are shedding new light on the evolution of modern humans, thanks to research from the University of Bristol published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The teeth are part of the remarkably complete remains of a child found in the Abrigo do Lagar Velho, Portugal and excavated in 1998-9 under the leadership of Professor João Zilhão of the University of Bristol. Classified as a modern human with Neanderthal ancestry, the child raises controversial questions about how extensively Neanderthals and modern human groups of African descent interbred when they came into contact in Europe.

Read more ....

Record–Breaking Snow And Cold Reminiscent Of The Late '70s

White areas show where snow covers the ground completely as of Jan. 5, 2010. Credit: NOAA

From Live Science:

If this winter's record-breaking snowfalls and bitter cold remind you of your childhood, perhaps you grew up when disco was alive and well.

"People who were around in the late '70s remember several winters similar to this," said Deke Arndt, who was a child of the 70s and now makes his living by monitoring climate data for the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).

For those who don't recall those years, this winter may seem unprecedented. It's not.

Read more ....

2010 Will See A Blizzard Of Television Innovations

From Times Online:

Las Vegas TV manufacturers and broadcasters are trying to bring the magic back to the living room.

Soon through your TV set you will be able to watch immersive 3D, talk to your grandma, browse all your favourite websites and update Facebook.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week a blizzard of TV innovations were unveiled to bring high tech 3D, video chat and internet capabilities to the humble box in the corner.

Read more ....

What Keeps Time Moving Forward? Blame It On The Big Bang

From Scientific American:

A timely Q&A with physicist Sean Carroll about how our one-way trip from past to future is entangled with entropy and the origin of the universe.

Physicists often describe the fabric of the universe we inhabit as four-dimensional spacetime, comprising three dimensions of space and one of time. But whereas we spend our days passing freely through space in any direction we wish (gravity and solid obstacles permitting), time pushes us along, willingly or not, in a single predetermined direction: toward the future.

Read more ....

Hovering Drone Draws Rave Reviews At CES

An AR. Drone helicoptor at the International Consumer Electronics Show

From AFP:

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Hovering silently a few feet off the ground it looks like a flying saucer out of a Steven Spielberg film.

But it's no alien device. It's a new toy called the AR.drone from French company Parrot -- a small remote-controlled helicopter which is piloted using an Apple iPhone or an iPod Touch through a Wi-Fi connection.

A demonstration of the miniature helicopter, or quadricopter for its four propellers, drew rave reviews at the opening here of the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) as it flew around the heads of exhibitors and journalists.

The pilot maneuvers the drone using the accelerometer in an iPhone or iPod.

Read more ....

My Comment: The military applications for this tech are obvious.

Firm Unveils X-rated Tobot

Engineer-inventor Douglas Hines adjusts the head of his
company's "True Companion" sex robot, Roxxxy

From AFP:

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Roxxxy the sex robot had a coming out party Saturday in Sin City.

In what is billed as a world first, a life-size robotic girlfriend complete with artificial intelligence and flesh-like synthetic skin was introduced to adoring fans at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas.

"She can't vacuum, she can't cook but she can do almost anything else if you know what I mean," TrueCompanion's Douglas Hines said while introducing AFP to Roxxxy.

Read more ....

A Deluge Of Devices For Reading And Surfing

Televisions at Samsung’s booth at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Isaac Brekken for The New York Times

From The New York Times:

LAS VEGAS — You’ve heard of Amazon.com’s Kindle. And you probably know that Apple is likely to introduce a tablet computer this year. Soon you may also be hearing about the Alex, the Que proReader and the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid.

Those products are part of a new wave of slender touch-screen tablets and electronic reading devices that dozens of companies, both well known and unknown, brought to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Some of these gadgets allow people to read for long periods of time without eye strain and without killing the batteries. Others focus on allowing their owners to surf the Web, watch video and play casual games without being tethered to a bulky laptop and its traditional keyboard.

Read more ....

Coral Reefs Are Most Fecund Cradles Of Diversity

From New Scientist:

Coral reefs have generated more new kinds of animal than all other marine habitats put together. So concludes an analysis of the earliest fossils of more than 6000 sea-floor invertebrates, which found that reefs "gave birth" to close to 6 in 10 of the groups studied.

Coral reefs house a striking number and variety of organisms. Debate has raged since the 1970s over whether they provide the ideal conditions for new species to emerge or simply attract them from other habitats. Until now, the latter argument has tended to prevail.

Read more ....

Sarkozy's 'New Year's Wish': Investigate Google

Image: Nicholas Sarkozy, president of France has a strong link to the creative community. His wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is a well-known singer and songwriter. (Credit: Screenshot by Greg Sandoval/CNET)

From CNET:

It's doubtful that they would admit it, but U.S. studio chiefs and music moguls must dream that their country will one day elect a president like Nicolas Sarkozy.

Few of the world's leaders are as aggressive in protecting copyright as the president of France, and he proved it again Thursday during a speech to members of the country's creative community when he endorsed some controversial pro-copyright proposals.

Read more ....

Skiff E-Reader And Amazon Kindle DX

From The Next Big Future:

The Skiff Reader, the first e-reader to integrate the upcoming Skiff Service, is a state-of-the-art device that is simple and easy-to-use.

It features the largest and highest-resolution electronic-paper display yet unveiled in a consumer device, at 11.5" in size (measured diagonally) and a resolution of 1200 x 1600 pixels (UXGA). Skiff has signed a multi-year agreement with Sprint (NYSE:S) to provide 3G connectivity for Skiff’s dedicated e-reading devices in the United States. Plans are underway to have the Skiff Reader available for purchase later this year in more than 1,000 Sprint retail locations across the U.S., as well as online at www.sprint.com. Availability, pricing, additional distribution channels and other details will be disclosed at a later date. the Skiff Reader will also support wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi.

Read more ....

China And India Displacing OECD Oil Consumption

From Future Pundit:

Writing in a comment on a post at The Oil Drum Gregor Macdonald very succinctly sums up an energy future where China, India, and other rapidly developing countries gradually displace OECD countries as oil purchasers.

High oil prices are more painful to the OECD/Developed world user than the Developing world user. In the Developing world coal accounts for the largest chunk of BTU consumption, and the marginal utility to the new user of oil is high. In other words, the OECD user is embedded in a system where the historical consumption pattern has been to use much more oil per capita. But in the developing world, just a small amount of oil to the new user of oil is transformational. It will be the developing world therefore that will take oil to much, much higher prices in the next decade. They will use small amounts per capita, but the aggregate demand will be scary high. After all, the developing world's systems are not leveraged to oil. They are new users of oil--and unlike us, aren't married to a system that breaks from high oil prices.

Read more ....

What Came First In The Origin Of Life? New Study Contradicts the 'Metabolism First' Hypothesis

Image of what would be a "compound genome". Different molecules (in various colours) join the globule or corpuscle, which divides once it reaches a critical size. (Credit: Image provided by Doron Lancet)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 9, 2010) — A new study published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences rejects the theory that the origin of life stems from a system of self-catalytic molecules capable of experiencing Darwinian evolution without the need of RNA or DNA and their replication.

Read more ....

Looks Matter More In A City

From Live Science:

For women, looks may matter more if they live in the city than in rural areas, a new study finds.

The results, which are based on body shape rather than overall beauty, showed that in cities the most attractive gals had higher social and psychological well-being. That same link wasn't found for country residents.

The researchers suggest with higher population densities, cities offer more potential friends and sexual partners, allowing city folks to be choosier and so theoretically able to select the cream of the crop to associate with.

Read more ....

Peer-To-Peer Review: How ‘Climategate’ Marks The Maturing Of A New Science Movement, Part I

From Watt's Up With That?:

How a tiny blog and a collective of climate enthusiasts broke the biggest story in the history of global warming science – but not without a gatekeeper of the climate establishment trying to halt its proliferation.

It was triggered at the most unlikely of places. Not in the pages of a prominent science publication, or by an experienced muckraker. It was triggered at a tiny blog – a bit down the list of popular skeptic sites. With a small group of followers, a blog of this size could only start a media firestorm if seeded with just the right morsel of information, and found by just the right people. Yet it was at this location that the most lethal weapon against the global warming establishment was unleashed.

Read more ....

Research On Cocaine Reveals Gene-Altering Roots Of Addiction

A man prepares bundles of cocaine in his house to be sold in a neighborhood in Venezuela. Researchers are getting closer to understanding how the drug changes genes in the brain to cause addiction. Photograph by: Edwin Montilva / Reuters, National Post

From The Montreal Gazette/Reuters:

Prolonged exposure to cocaine can cause permanent changes in the way genes are switched on and off in the brain, a finding that may lead to more effective treatments for many kinds of addiction, U.S. researchers said.

A study in mice by Ian Maze of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and colleagues found that chronic cocaine addiction kept a specific enzyme from doing its job of shutting off other genes in the pleasure circuits of the brain, making the mice crave the drug even more.

Read more ....

Great Gizmos At Vegas Electronics Show

Watch CBS News Videos Online

From CBS News:

CNET.com Senior Editor Natali Del Conte Highlights Flashy Products at the Consumer Electonics Show.

(CBS) From 3-D televisions to the latest in computers, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has it all.

The event has so much that Natali Del Conte, senior editor of CNET.com, returned to "The Early Show" Friday to highlight more of the latest gizmos and gadgets from this year's show -- after showcasing several on Thursday.

Read more ....

No More Power Lines?

Sign of the past? Superconductor cables could replace transmission lines,
such as these in Los Banos, Calif. Newscom/file

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Buried super-cooled electrical cables may replace towering transmission lines and carry solar and wind energy efficiently over long distances.

Abundant solar and wind power lies across America’s vast plains and deserts, but getting that distant renewable energy to cities without wrecking vistas and raising lawsuits over transmission lines is a sizable hurdle for green-leaning utility companies. Thousands of miles of towering electrical lines will be needed before big alternative-energy projects can take hold. Yet such power lines portend years of legal snarls over the not-in-my-backyard problem.

Read more ....

'Grey Goo' Food Laced With Nanoparticles Could Swamp Britain

Photo: Prince Charles derided nanoparticles as 'grey goo' food

From The Daily Mail:

Britain is on the brink of a massive expansion in foods containing controversial 'grey goo' nanoparticles, according to the former head of the Food Standards Agency.

Low-calorie chocolate and beer that doesn't go flat could be on sale within just five years, Lord Krebs said last night.

However, he and other peers believe there will be no requirement for the hi-tech products to be labelled as containing nanoparticles - microscopic compounds that can worm their way into the brain, liver and kidneys with unknown consequences.

Read more ....