Thursday, September 30, 2010
Does ET Live On Goldilocks Planet?
From The Daily Mail:
An astronomer picked up a mysterious pulse of light coming from the direction of the newly discovered Earth-like planet almost two years ago, it has emerged.
Dr Ragbir Bhathal, a scientist at the University of Western Sydney, picked up the odd signal in December 2008, long before it was announced that the star Gliese 581 has habitable planets in orbit around it.
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We, Robot: What Real-Life Machines Can And Can’t Do
Photo: A lot of us teach ourselves how to reason, how to think, how to analyze new information....This has been very difficult for robots to be able to do.From Science News:
As director of the Maryland Robotics Center, Satyandra Gupta oversees 25 faculty members working on all things robotic: snake-inspired robots, robotic swarms, minirobots for medicine and robots for exploring extreme environments on land, under the sea and in outer space. In September the Center hosted its first Robotics Day; afterward, Gupta talked robots with Science News writer Rachel Ehrenberg.
How do robots influence our lives today?
There are certain scenarios, such as manufacturing — making cars, making airplanes — where people are replacing human labor with robotic devices and the rationale is usually that it is less expensive, quality is consistent, that kind of thing. Then there are certain applications where very few humans can do the task because the skills required are so high…. Surgery would be an example. Let’s imagine that there’s a very hard-to-perform surgery that very few humans can do. Now if a robot can be trained or even teleoperated by these surgeons, then you would be able to get that performance from that robot.
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Fossil Secrets Of The Da Vinci Codex
Da Vinci realised people were wrong about the origin of Italy's fossils(Image: Ted Spiegel/Corbis)
From New Scientist:
Did Leonardo decipher traces of ancient life centuries before Darwin?
It was to be Leonardo da Vinci's most impressive work yet. In 1483, the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, commissioned the up-and-coming artist to create a huge bronze statue of a horse, standing over 7 metres tall. Da Vinci spent the next 10 years perfecting a full-size clay model. Sadly, it was never cast in bronze. Tonnes of the metal were needed, and Sforza ended up using the earmarked supplies to make weapons for use against invading French troops. When the French army took Milan in 1499, its archers used da Vinci's clay horse for target practice.
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Paper-Thin Screens With A Twist
From The Wall Street Journal:
Lots of researchers have been trying to come up with a way to make flexible displays that work like computer screens but with a literal twist—they can be bent, rolled and folded like a sheet of paper.
The Taiwan-based Industrial Technology Research Institute, or ITRI, won the top prize in this year's Innovation Awards contest for a manufacturing technique that promises to clear the way for commercial development of high-quality displays on flexible materials.
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Making Music On A Microscopic Scale
Image of the chip containing six mass-spring systems (i.e. six tones). (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Twente)From Science Daily:
ScienceDaily (Sep. 29, 2010) — Strings a fraction of the thickness of a human hair, with microscopic weights to pluck them: Researchers and students from the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology of the University of Twente in The Netherlands have succeeded in constructing the first musical instrument with dimensions measured in mere micrometres -- a 'micronium' -- that produces audible tones. A composition has been specially written for the instrument.
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Sloppy Records Cast Galileo's Trial In New Light
An 1857 painting titled "Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition" shows the astronomer standing trial before the Roman Catholic Church inquisitors. Credit: Cristiano Banti (1824–1904)From Live Science:
When it comes to bad record-keepers, no one expects the Roman Inquisition — but that's exactly what one historian discovered while trying to resolve a centuries-old controversy over the trials of Galileo.
The Roman Catholic Church's second trial of the famed Italian astronomer has come to symbolize a pivotal culture clash between science and religion. But a broad examination of 50 years’ worth of records suggests the Roman Inquisition viewed the case more as an ordinary legal dispute than a world-changing philosophical conflict.
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Did Australian Aborigines Reach America First?
The skull of Luzia, possibly the oldest skeleton in the Americas, who has facial features distinctive of Australian Aborigines. Credit: Marco Fernandes/COSMOSFrom Cosmos:
SYDNEY: Cranial features distinctive to Australian Aborigines are present in hundreds of skulls that have been uncovered in Central and South America, some dating back to over 11,000 years ago.
Evolutionary biologist Walter Neves of the University of São Paulo, whose findings are reported in a cover story in the latest issue of Cosmos magazine, has examined these skeletons and recovered others, and argues that there is now a mass of evidence indicating that at least two different populations colonised the Americas.
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Stonehenge An Ancient Tourist Destination?
Photo: Revellers watch the sunrise at Stonehenge on the day of the summer solstice in Wiltshire in southern England. New research suggests that people may have come from all over to visit the mysterious stone monoliths. (REUTERS FILES/Stephen Hird)From CNEWS:
Stonehenge wasn't just a gathering place for locals. New research suggests that people may have come from all over Europe and the Mediterranean to visit the mysterious stone monoliths.
British scientists analyzed the teeth of people buried near Stonehenge and found that some of them had travelled great distances to arrive in southern England.
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Distant World Could Support Life
ANOTHER WORLDGliese 581 (upper left in this artist’s depiction) has six confirmed planets, including one (foreground) that orbits the star at a distance hospitable to life. Lynette CookFrom Science News:
Scientists have spotted an Earth doppelgänger that may have the right specs to harbor life, in the Libra constellation just 20 light-years distant.
Although details about conditions on the planet’s surface remain a mystery, the find suggests that many more potentially habitable planets are likely to be found. The discovery is reported online September 29 at arXiv.org and will be described in an upcoming Astrophysical Journal.
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Water Map Shows Billions At Risk Of 'Water Insecurity'
From The BBC:
About 80% of the world's population lives in areas where the fresh water supply is not secure, according to a new global analysis.
Researchers compiled a composite index of "water threats" that includes issues such as scarcity and pollution.
The most severe threat category encompasses 3.4 billion people.
Writing in the journal Nature, they say that in western countries, conserving water for people through reservoirs and dams works for people, but not nature.
They urge developing countries not to follow the same path.
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Kno Tablet Touted As Next-Gen Textbook
The Kno tablet computer. KnoFrom Christian Science Monitor:
Kno, a start-up electronics firm based in Santa Clara, Calif., will soon introduce a single-screen tablet computer intended for use by students across the country. The Kno – yes, it's both the name of the device and its maker – is expected to ship with a 14.1-inch screen and video functionality. (For comparison, the iPad sports a 9.7-inch screen.) The tablet computer will be controlled via a touchscreen and a plastic stylus.
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12 Events That Will Change Everything, Made Interactive
From Scientific American:In addition to reacting to news as it breaks, we work to anticipate what will happen. Here we contemplate 12 possibilities and rate their likelihood of happening by 2050
The best science transforms our conception of the universe and our place in it and helps us to understand and cope with changes beyond our control. Relativity, natural selection, germ theory, heliocentrism and other explanations of natural phenomena have remade our intellectual and cultural landscapes. The same holds true for inventions as diverse as the Internet, formal logic, agriculture and the wheel.
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My Comment: The web interactive page for each of the 12 events is here.
Darpa Is Looking At Young Minds For New Ideas
FIRST Robotics Competition Taking a cue from the FIRST Robotics Competition, DARPA is offering prize-based challenges to inspire high school students to design new robots. FIRST Seeking New Defense Robots, Darpa Gives Fabrication Technology To High Schoolers -- Popular Science
Taking a page from advertising strategy, DARPA is hoping to get ‘em while they’re young. The military’s mad-science wing wants various organizations to put manufacturing equipment in 1,000 high schools around the world, part of a new program called “MENTOR” — Manufacturing Experimentation and Outreach. The partnership will include new prize-based challenges to inspire a new generation of defense manufacturers.
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Report: Facebook, Skype Planning Deep Integration
This screenshot uses real pictures with fake names and numbers to illustrate a Skype-Facebook integration.From CNET:
You didn't think Facebook would integrate with Google Voice, did you?
Actually, according to sources close to the situation, Facebook and Skype are poised to announce a significant and wide-ranging partnership that will include integration of SMS, voice chat, and Facebook Connect.
The move by the pair--which have tested small contact importer integrations before--is a natural one for the social-networking giant, which is aiming to be the central communications and messaging platform for its users, across a range of media.
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Better Surgery With New Surgical Robot With Force Feedback
Surgical robot Sofie. (Credit: Bart van Overbeeke)From Science Daily:
ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2010) — Robotic surgery makes it possible to perform highly complicated and precise operations. Surgical robots have limitations, too. For one, the surgeon does not 'feel' the force of his incision or of his pull on the suture, and robots are also big and clumsy to use. Therefore TU/e researcher Linda van den Bedem developed a much more compact surgical robot, which uses 'force feedback' to allow the surgeon to feel what he or she is doing.
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Kelp Waits To Take Its Place In America's Stomachs
Alaria, a type of brown kelp, dries on a raft. The Maine company Ocean Approved will cut this seaweed up to sell for salads. Credit: Ocean Approved, LLC.From Live Science:
The leaves resemble brown lasagna noodles when they wash ashore on coasts around the world. Like many other seaweeds, sugar kelp has all sorts of uses. The leaves of Saccharina latissima provide a sweetener, mannitol, as well as thickening and gelling agents that are added to food, textiles and cosmetics.
But some believe its most important potential is largely untapped: as an addition to the American diet.
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'The Flintstones' Rocks On At 50
The series chronicled popular culture and spotlighted icons of the day -- not of 10,000 B.C. but of the 1960s. FlickrFrom Discovery News:
Fifty years ago, Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty debuted before American television audiences.
A half century ago, Fred and Wilma Flintstone and neighbors Barney and Betty Rubble put the mythical town of Bedrock on the map when "The Flintstones" cartoon aired on television for the first time.
The show, which parodied suburban life, was the longest running U.S. animated sitcom to be aired during peak viewing hours on television until another cartoon family, the Simpsons, claimed the record in 1997.
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Religion And Health: Is There A Link?
From ABC News:
Just Changing Churches May Be Harmful to Your Health, Study Claims.
Many scientific studies in recent years have sought to prove a link between religion and health, and they usually ended up contending that faith may be very good medicine. But new research attempts to look at the opposite side of that coin: What happens when a person loses faith, or even switches from one religious group to another?
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Decision Needed On European Space Truck Upgrade
ARV would have a conical re-entry capsule and a more capable service moduleFrom The BBC:
European countries will soon be asked if they wish to press on with design work to upgrade the ATV space truck.
The robotic craft takes supplies to the International Space station (ISS), but could be enhanced to return cargo to Earth and even carry a human crew.
Further feasibility work will cost some 150m euros, and nations are likely to decide by the end of the year whether to continue or shelve the project.
Much may depend on how they view future plans for human space exploration.
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Glonass To Provide Global GPS Coverage This Year - Top Official
Russia's navigation system Glonass. © RIA Novosti. Maksim BogodvidFrom RIA Novosti:
Russia's top space official confirmed on Monday Russia's navigation system Glonass will cover 100% of the Earth's surface by the end of the year.
"This year, I think, we will provide 100% coverage of the globe with the Glonass navigation system," the head of the federal space agency Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, said.
"We will have 24 [operational] satellites in orbit and 3-4 spacecraft in the required orbital reserve," he added.
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