Can Battlefield Robots Take The Place Of Soldiers?

Can battlefield land-robots be made to obey the rules of war?

From The BBC:

Can war be fought by lots of well-behaved machines, making it "safer for humans"? That is the seductive vision, and hope, of those manufacturing and researching the future of military robotics.

With 8,000 robots already in use, they believe they can bring about a military revolution.

Most of the robots currently deployed on land deal with non-combat tasks such as bomb disposal - unlike lethal aerial drones.

But Bob Quinn, who works for the US subsidiary of the British robot manufacturer QinetiQ, says the future promises more armed robots on the battlefield, including driverless vehicles.

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Why NASA Picked Stormy Florida

From Christian Science Monitor:

Weather thwarts shuttle launches. But important factors favor this state.

If the space shuttle Endeavour lifts off in the early hours of Feb. 7, it will be the first shuttle launch in more than half a year to leave on time.

Each of the last three missions has been delayed for days or weeks – with one held back by a scheduling conflict and two by stormy weather. Despite its "Sunshine State" moniker, Florida has postponed shuttles due to five hurricanes, two hailstorms, a tropical storm, lightning damage, countless cloudy days, and meddlesome woodpeckers stabbing a fuel tank. And if the temperature goes below 36 degrees F., as it did earlier this month, Cape Canaveral's fickle weather will thwart yet another scheduled blastoff.

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The 20 Richest Americans In Tech

From Pingdom:

The tech industry is littered with billionaires. We all enjoy a good income, but some clearly have earned more than others. Much, much more. The question is, how much money do the really big names in tech actually have?

To find out, we went through the Forbes 400, a list of the wealthiest Americans, and filtered out the people who work within the tech field, or more specifically: IT.

So here they are, the 20 richest Americans in tech today.

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Boeing’s New 747-8 Continues A Jumbo Tradition

From Autopia:

EVERETT, Washington — Boeing spent more than five years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing its new 747-8, but in the end the decision on whether to send the company’s biggest aircraft ever down the runway and into the air for the first time rested with the man in the cockpit.

The flight window for the 747-8’s maiden flight opened at 10 a.m. Monday, but Mother Nature had other plans. Paine Field was socked in by low clouds, and the clock was ticking. Mark Feuerstein, Boeing’s chief test pilot for the 747 program — the man who has spent years preparing for the day — had to decide whether to proceed.

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It Seems That Man Has Been Fighting Man Since The Beginning Of Time

Image: Augusta McMahon/Tell Brak Project

The Dawn Of Civilization: Writing, Urban Life, And Warfare -- Discovery Magazine

An extraordinary ancient Syrian settlement shines a light on one of the most important moments in human history.

Joan Oates’s sharp blue eyes spotted something that was not right. Standing on the windy summit of a vast, human-made mound in northeastern Syria, the wiry 81-year-old archaeologist noticed an ugly scar that had been left by a backhoe on one of the smaller mounds ringing the ancient city of Nagar, where she has excavated for a quarter century. Oates had just arrived to begin her latest season at the site, and this blemish on her cherished landscape annoyed her. Two young men on her team volunteered to investigate the damage. They returned, shaken. Jumping into the trench, one of them had come face-to-face with a skull. “Everywhere we looked, there were human bones,” one recalls. “There were an enormous number of dead people.”

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An Early Warning System For Cancer

Image: Immune tracer: This image shows the overexpression of cancer-associated glycan structures (green) on proteins in cancer cells. The cells’ nuclei are stained in blue. Credit: Kirstine Lavrsen

From Technology Review:

Autoantibodies could alert doctors to cancer development.

A new screening tool developed by scientists in Denmark may help detect the earliest stages of cancer by taking advantage of the body's own defenses. The researchers constructed a microarray system that analyzes patients' blood for a specific class of immune agents called autoantibodies. These are agents that attack the body's own tissue, targeting what they perceive as "foreign" cells, such as specific molecules on the surface of tumors.

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The MV-22 Osprey Finds Purpose In Disaster Relief

MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit launching from the USS Bataan. (Photograp by Benjamin Chertoff)

From Popular Mechanics:

Can the much-maligned tilt-rotor aircraft earn respect on the job?

USS Bataan—After a couple of days working just under the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan you begin to recognize the signature sounds of various helicopters: The high-pitch rip of an HH-60 Knighthawk, the deep, rapid drum beat of the giant CH-53D Super Stallion or the rhythmic song of a UH-1 Huey. So the crew of the USS Bataan, outside Haiti, knows when something new lands onboard. Seconds after a bass-drum vibration shook the ward-room lounge, an excited Marine officer stuck his head in and announced "The Ospreys are taking off! Let's go up to the top of the island and watch!"

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Wonder Material Graphene Becomes Lighting For Future Devices And Homes

Light-emitting Electrochemical cells Lighting the way for a graphene-based future Linkoping University/Umea University/Rutgers University

From Popular Science:

New light-emitting electrochemical cells could replace OLEDs.

Graphene may brighten the future more literally than we had originally anticipated, besides merely revolutionizing electronics and Silicon Valley. Swedish and American researchers have transformed the one-atom-thick carbon material into a new, inexpensive lighting component that could give organic light diodes (OLEDs) a run for their money.

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Enceladus: Nasa Discovers New Evidence That Saturn Moon 'May Contain Life'

Saturn's icy Moons visible here, from left to right are: Janus, Enceladus and Epimetheus captured by the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera Photo: REX

From The Telegraph:

New evidence that liquid water lies beneath the surface on the Saturn moonof Enceladus has been discovered by Nasa scientists, suggesting that life may exist.

Nasa's Cassini spacecraft flew through icy plumes created by ice volcanoes and detected negatively charged water molecules, in a clear sign an underground sea exists.

On Earth this short-lived type of ion is produced where water is moving, such as in waterfalls or crashing ocean waves.

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Scientists Identify First Genetic Variant Linked to Biological Aging in Humans

Scientists announced they have identified for the first time definitive variants associated with biological ageing in humans. (Credit: iStockphoto/Anne De Haas)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 8, 2010) — Scientists announced they have identified for the first time definitive variants associated with biological ageing in humans. The team analyzed more than 500,000 genetic variations across the entire human genome to identify the variants which are located near a gene called TERC.

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Want Passionate Kids? Leave 'Em Alone

From Live Science:

Parents who want their children to discover a passion for music, sports, or other hobbies should follow a simple plan: Don't pressure them.

By allowing kids to explore activities on their own, parents not only help children pinpoint the pursuit that fits them best, but they can also prevent young minds from obsessing over an activity, a new study finds.

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Apple iPad Price Cut: Blunder or Brilliance?

From PC World:

If Apple is really considering price cuts on its just-introduced iPad, the best advice is to make them before launch, not after.

Not today, or tomorrow, but a price drop a week--or even a day--before it goes on sale might give the iPad an incredible boost. I will also describe what other businesses can learn from Apple's troubles.

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First Results From Large Hadron Collider Published

Photo: The "extra" particles may make spotting the Higgs boson harder

From The BBC:

The results from the highest-energy particle experiments carried out at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in December have begun to yield their secrets.

Scientists from the LHC's Compact Muon Solenoid detector has now totted up all of the resulting particle interactions.

They wrote in the Journal of High Energy Physics that the run created more particles than theory predicted.

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Google Links Up With US Spy-Master To thwart Threats To Cyberspace

Google has threatened to pull out of the Chinese market
unless Beijing can guarantee uncensored searches.

From Times Online:

Google is teaming up with the US National Security Agency to battle cyber-attacks from China in a move that is causing disquiet on the internet.

The alliance of the world’s largest internet search company and the world’s most powerful electronic surveillance agency has provoked concern among privacy advocates. The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Centre filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking more details yesterday hours after the deal was disclosed by The Washington Post.

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Ageing Gene Found By Scientists Could Be Key To Longer Lifespans

Scientists say that by testing for the gene when some one is young could identify whether they have to alter their lifestyle accordingly. Photo: GETTY

From The Telegraph:

A longevity gene has been identified for the first time in a breakthrough that could eventually help people live longer, a new study suggests.

The researchers have located a gene which determines whether or not a person will biologically age quickly or slowly.

They think that by testing for the gene when some one is young could identify whether they have to alter their lifestyle accordingly.

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Genetic Disorder Turns Risk-Averse Into Gamblers

The study found that people with a damaged amygdala had a higher inclination to risk losing money as a result of reckless gambling. Alamy

From The Independent:

The brains of people who risk everything when gambling may be wired up differently to those of the naturally cautious, according to a study that appears to have discovered a neurological basis for reckless behaviour.

The research found that people were far more gullible to high-risk gambling when a small but distinct part of their brain had been damaged as a result of a rare genetic disorder. They showed little of the natural aversion to losing something of value that most people are born with.

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First Contact: Will We Ever Hear From Aliens?

The Allen Telescope Array in California. Photograph: Ho New/ Reuters

From The Guardian:

It will soon be half a century since the American astronomer Frank Drake first pointed a radio telescope at the star Tau Ceti in the hope of picking up an extraterrestrial broadcast, and we still haven't heard anything. So is there anyone out there?

Fifty years ago Frank Drake – then a young astronomer from Cornell University – began an experiment that would have profound implications for humanity's understanding of its place in the cosmos. He turned the newly constructed Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia towards Tau Ceti, a nearby star that is similar to our own Sun.

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Smoking May Pose 'Third-Hand' Cancer Hazard

From New Scientist:

Residues of cigarette smoke deposited on indoor surfaces can turn carcinogenic when they react with airborne chemicals. This "third-hand" exposure could in theory cause health problems, particularly in children, says Hugo Destaillats, a specialist in indoor pollution at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

His team found several chemicals on the inside of the cab of a half-pack-a-day smoker's truck, including a carcinogen called a NNK. Destaillats's team reckon that NNK is produced when nicotine from tobacco smoke reacts with nitrous acid in the air.

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Google's Handheld Translator Seeks To Cross Language Barriers

Google Android

From Popular Science:

Google's vision for a better world involves removing those pesky language barriers that keep people apart, and so the Internet search giant has begun development on a voice recognition and automatic translation system for cell phones. Such technology could either herald a new era of fruitful international collaboration or usher in new grievances and conflicts, depending on your viewpoint. The Times makes the obligatory reference to the Babel Fish of Hitchhiker's Guide that spawned bloody interstellar conflicts.

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Migrating Insects Fly In The Fast Lane

A new study sheds light on the flight behaviours that enable insects to undertake long-distance migrations, and highlights the remarkable abilities of these insect migrants. (Credit: iStockphoto/Karel Gallas)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 8, 2010) — A study published in Science, by researchers at Rothamsted Research (an institute of the BBSRC), the Met Office, the Natural Resources Institute, and the Universities of Exeter, Greenwich and York, sheds new light on the flight behaviours that enable insects to undertake long-distance migrations, and highlights the remarkable abilities of these insect migrants.

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