Sunday, February 7, 2010
Google To Air Ad During Super Bowl?
From CNET:
Perhaps Google CEO Eric Scmidt's tweet said it all.
"Can't wait to watch the Super Bowl tomorrow. Be sure to watch the ads in the 3rd quarter (someone said 'Hell has indeed frozen over')," he wrote Saturday.
This tweet appears to be a response to speculation by John Battelle, founder of Federated Media Publishing, that one of the world's most ad-diffident companies would be running a brand ad during the Big Game's third quarter. (Kickoff is just after 3:20 p.m. PST Sunday on CBS, publisher of CNET.)
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Computers That Use Light Instead of Electricity? First Germanium Laser Created
Image: MIT researchers have demonstrated the first laser built from germanium that can produce wavelengths of light useful for optical communication. (Credit: Graphic by Christine Daniloff)From Science Daily:
ScienceDaily (Feb. 5, 2010) — MIT researchers have demonstrated the first laser built from germanium that can produce wavelengths of light useful for optical communication. It's also the first germanium laser to operate at room temperature. Unlike the materials typically used in lasers, germanium is easy to incorporate into existing processes for manufacturing silicon chips. So the result could prove an important step toward computers that move data -- and maybe even perform calculations -- using light instead of electricity. But more fundamentally, the researchers have shown that, contrary to prior belief, a class of materials called indirect-band-gap semiconductors can yield practical lasers.
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Genes Help Explain Who Gets Fit
From Live Science:
When you put in hours at the gym, you expect to get fitter. It turns out, that assumption doesn't hold true for everyone. A new study suggests specific genes may determine, at least in part, how much we really benefit from exercise.
While "benefit from exercise" can mean plenty of things, from slimming down to boosting one's ability to complete a marathon, the researchers specifically looked at what is called VO2 max, or aerobic capacity. This is a measure of how much blood your heart pumps and how much oxygen your muscles consume when they constrict to, say, move your legs on a treadmill.
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Darwin Out Of Africa 45,000 Years Ago
Charles Darwin's family history has been mapped. His ancestors left Africa 45,000 years ago.From Cosmos:
SYDNEY: The father of evolution Charles Darwin was a direct descendant of the Cro-Magnon people, whose entry into Europe 30,000 years ago heralded the demise of Neanderthals, scientists revealed.
Darwin, who hypothesised that all humans evolved from common ancestors in his seminal 1859 work On the Origin of Species, came from Haplogroup R1b, one of the most common European male lineages, said genealogist Spencer Wells.
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Facebook, At 400 Million Users, Marks Its 6th Year
From San Francisco Chronicle:On the sixth anniversary of the day Facebook was launched from a Harvard University dorm room, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the social-networking firm had 400 million active members around the globe.
And Facebook celebrated both milestones Thursday night with a party at the company's Palo Alto headquarters and by rolling out yet another set of changes for its members' pages as a present.
Facebook has expanded dramatically in the past year. Just one year ago this month, there were only 175 million active members.
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NASA Scraps Endeavour Launch: STS- 130 Delayed Until Monday Due To Clouds
The shuttle Endeavour approaches pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.(Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now)
From The New York Daily News:
Better luck Monday, NASA.
Clouds rolled in over Cape Canaveral early Sunday morning, causing the space administration to scrub a planned nighttime launch off the space shuttle Endeavour.
"Sometimes you just got to make the call," said shuttle commander George Zamka, disappointed by the cancellation. "We understand and we'll give it another try tomorrow night."
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Endeavour To Deliver Space Station 'A Room With A View'
EARTHGAZING: Space shuttle Endeavour will deliver Node 3, also known as Tranquility, along with a panoramic cupola, seen in place on the International Space Station in an artist's conception. NASAFrom The Christian Science Monitor:
Space shuttle Endeavor will bring a new seven-window module to the International Space Station. It'll be used as a utility room for air and water purification and for exercise equipment. It'll also give astronauts a spectacular view of Earth and space.
After years of construction, the International Space Station is about to get a room with a spectacular view.
At 4:39 a.m. Eastern Standard Time Sunday, NASA is set to launch the space shuttle Endeavour and its six-member crew on a mission to deliver the final US components – made in Europe – to the orbiting lab: Node 3, named Tranquility, and a seven-window cupola for the node, which will give crewmembers breathtaking views of Earth and space.
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Sweat And Blood: Why Mosquitoes Pick And Choose Between Humans
Receptors are drawn to chemical in human sweatFrom Times Online:
For some people, a mosquito in the room is a threat to any little patch of exposed skin, while others seem to go unscathed. Now scientists have discovered chemicals in human sweat that make certain individuals more attractive to the insects.
Those targeted most aggressively are likely to have higher concentrations of the chemicals in their perspiration, or simply sweat more, the US researchers say.
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Briton Takes Off For Space Station As Nasa Faces Funding Crisis
Nasa astronaunt Nicholas Patrick. Photograph: Tony Kyriacou / Rex FeaturesFrom The Telegraph:
Nicholas Patrick's mission to international space station comes as Barack Obama announces cuts to US space programme.
As a schoolboy in Yorkshire watching the first moon landings on television, Nicholas Patrick could only dream of following the pioneers of Apollo into space.
Inspired by their achievements, he moved to America to achieve his childhood ambition of becoming an astronaut. On Sunday, when the shuttle Endeavour blasts off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, Patrick will embark on one of the greatest adventures ever undertaken by one of the handful of Britons to reach orbit in an American spacecraft.
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Moore’s Curse And The Great Energy Delusion
From The American:
Our transition away from fossil fuels will take decades—if it happens at all.
During the early 1970s we were told by the promoters of nuclear energy that by the year 2000 America’s coal-based electricity generation plants would be relics of the past and that all electricity would come from nuclear fission. What’s more, we were told that the first generation fission reactors would by then be on their way out, replaced by super-efficient breeder reactors that would produce more fuel than they were initially charged with.
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3D: Coming To A Laptop Near You
The Asus G51J laptop has a bit of peripheral flicker - and that fades quickly as your eyes acclimatise - but otherwise it deliversFrom The Daily Mail:
The latest hi-tech laptop delivers realistic 3D gaming without leaving you feeling all at sea (though the cost may make you feel a little queasy...)
Two minutes after opening Asus's G51J 3D laptop, I felt like I was operating a theme park ride. There was a queue of people watching 3D video of racers zooming round the Nurburgring, oohing and aahing and enquiring whether you really have to wear the funny glasses. My more primitive colleagues actually reached out to touch the cars. Next time, I will be charging.
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Saturday, February 6, 2010
Quantum Computing Leap Forward: Altering a Lone Electron Without Disturbing Its Neighbors
Jason Petta, an assistant professor of physics, has found a way to alter the property of a lone electron without disturbing the trillions of electrons in its immediate surroundings. Such a feat is an important step toward developing future types of quantum computers. (Credit: Princeton University, Office of Communications, Brian Wilson)From Science Daily:
Science Daily (Feb. 6, 2010) — A major hurdle in the ambitious quest to design and construct a radically new kind of quantum computer has been finding a way to manipulate the single electrons that very likely will constitute the new machines' processing components or "qubits."
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Why We Gamble: The Enticement Of Almost Winning
From Live Science:
Betting on the Super Bowl, roulette, or even online poker can be thrilling, and with the advent of online gambling, it's easier than ever before. Yet winning and losing can have unexpected effects on the brain that keep people coming back for more, scientists are finding.
Gamblers sink an increasing sum of money into their efforts to win. Over the last 20 years legalized betting has grown tremendously; it's now a $100 billion industry. More than 65 percent of Americans gamble, according to Gallup's annual Lifestyle Poll conducted last year, and up to 5 percent of those betters develop an addiction to the activity.
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Justice Dept. to Google Books: Close, But No Cigar
From Epicenter:
Google’s plan to digitize the world’s books into a combination research library and bookstore has hit another snag, in the form of a U.S. Justice Department statement that “despite substantial progress made, issues remain” with the proposed settlement agreement of the class action lawsuit The Authors Guild Inc. et al. v. Google Inc.
The Justice Department joins key members of The Authors Guild in applauding some of the changes Google and the guild have made to their proposed agreement, submitted in September, including the elimination of Google’s right to the books for unspecified future uses, the creation of a new position to represent unknown rights holders, and a mechanism allowing competing companies to license Google’s library to offer competing products.
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The Great Global Warming Collapse -- A Commentary
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Photograph: Getty Images
From The Globe And Mail:
As the science scandals keep coming, the air has gone out of the climate-change movement.
In 2007, the most comprehensive report to date on global warming, issued by the respected United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made a shocking claim: The Himalayan glaciers could melt away as soon as 2035.
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The Big Question: What Do We Know About The Human Brain And The Way It Functions?
Independent GraphicsFrom The Independent:
Why are we asking this now?
Scientists this week announced that they had succeeded in communicating with a man thought to be in a vegetative state, lacking all awareness, for five years following a road accident. Using a brain scanner they were able to read his thoughts and obtain yes or no answers to questions. They asked him to imagine playing tennis if he wanted to answer yes and to imagine walking through his home if he wanted to say no. By mapping the different parts of the brain activated in each case with the scanner, the scientists were able accurately record his reponses.
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Do We Want Brain Scanners To Read Our Minds?
Scientists can communicate with vegetative patients Photo: GETTY IMAGES From The Telegraph:
As 'vegetative' patients ‘talk’ to scientists, Professor Colin Blakemore assesses the profound implications this has for the sick - and the healthy.
What nightmare could be worse than being buried alive? Conscious, terrified, but unable to communicate through the impenetrable barrier of a coffin lid and a metre of earth. In the past few days, this ultimate horror has been transformed from the stuff of bad dreams and B movies to two very different front page stories.
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21st Century Energy: Some Sobering Thoughts
From OECD Observer:
Transition to new energy sources is unavoidable, but here are five sobering first principles to remember along the way.
Are we about to switch to new energy sources? Grandiose plans are being drawn up for installing veritable forests of giant wind turbines, turning crops and straw into fuel ethanol and biodiesel, and for tapping solar radiation by fields of photovoltaic cells. As with most innovations, there is excitement and high expectation. Will these developments and other renewable energy conversions one day replace fossil fuels? Eventually they will have to, but a reality check is in order.
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Blizzard Warning For DC, NYT: “Capital Is Crippled As Blizzard Continues “
Snow covers a decorative iron fence at the White House in Washington, on Saturday, during a snow storm in the Washington area. Photo: AP via The HinduFrom Watts Up With That?:
A winter storm continued its blizzard rage in some parts of the Mid-Atlantic region on Saturday morning, dumping nearly two feet of wet, heavy snow that cut power to about 200,000 residents, caused the roof of a private jet hangar to collapse at Washington Dulles International Airport and forced the nation’s capital into quiet hibernation.
All postal operations in the Washington area, including the suburbs in Northern Virginia and Maryland were canceled on Saturday.
Did An Asteroid Strike In Australia Plunge Anglo-Saxon England Into A Mini Ice-Age?
A veil of dust thrown up by an asteroid 2,000ft across may have caused a mini ice-age in 535ADFrom The Daily Mail:
A giant meteorite that broke in two as it crashed off Australia, could have been responsible for a mini-ice age that engulfed Britain in 535AD.
The claim was made by marine geophysicist Dallas Abbott at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union last month.
She found evidence of two substantial impact craters in the Gulf of Carpentaria, off the northern Australian coast.
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