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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
Where Does the Carbon Dioxide Really Come From?
Post Date: 2014-03-02 07:03:18 by Ada
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Ian Rutherford Plimer is an Australian geologist, professor emeritus of earth sciences at the University of Melbourne, professor of mining geology at the University of Adelaide, and the director of multiple mineral exploration and mining companies. He has published 130 scientific papers, six books and edited the Encyclopedia of Geology. Born12 February 1946 (age 67) Residence Australia Nationality Australian Fields Earth Science, Geology, Mining Engineering Institutions University of New England,University of Newcastle,University of Melbourne,University of Adelaide Alma mater University of New South Wales,Macquarie University Thesis The pipe deposits of tungsten-molybdenum-bismuth in ...
Firefox aims to power $25 smartphone
Post Date: 2014-03-01 04:13:35 by Tatarewicz
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Barcelona (AFP) - Firefox OS, an upstart smartphone operating system aimed at challenging the Apple and Google duopoly, will power a new category of $25 smartphones for developing countries, the California-based nonprofit Mozilla Foundation said Sunday. Mozilla sought to show off the success of its system, launched a year ago to prise open a market in which Google's Android was at the heart of 78.4 percent of all smartphones sold last year and Apple's iOS in another 15.6 percent, according to figures from technology research house Gartner Inc. On the eve of the opening on Monday of the four-day Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Mozilla announced the commercial launch of ...
Talking Dog Device Ready to Hit Market Soon
Post Date: 2014-02-28 06:57:14 by Tatarewicz
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Device Aims to Translate Dog Thoughts Into Words What if your dog could greet you with more than a growl, or announce the reason he's scratching at the door? It sounds absurd and much like the storyline from the Pixar film, “Up,” but Scandinavian scientists are working to develop a headset that could soon allow your furry best friend to speak his mind. The Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery is the brains behind “No More Woof” -- technology that aims to distinguish canine thought patterns and then issue them as short sentences via a microphone. “The brainwaves differ quite a lot from different races as well as individual dogs,” NSID writes on ...
The Worst Snowden Revelation of Them All
Post Date: 2014-02-28 06:41:12 by Ada
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So far ... One common reaction to Edward Snowden’s exposure of the National Security Agency’s pervasive surveillance of Americans and people around the world has been: Well, at least they aren’t doing what US government agents did in the 1960s and 1970s – targeting dissident political activists, spying on and disrupting their constitutionally-protected activities, and seeking to discredit them with programs like Cointelpro. Except they are, as it turns out. The latest revelations and newly-released documents, detailed by Glenn Greenwald in a shocking piece for his new outlet, The Intercept, show that’s exactly what they’re doing. Whereas J. Edgar ...
How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations
Post Date: 2014-02-25 06:01:31 by Ada
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One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation- destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents. Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in the English-speaking “Five Eyes” alliance. ...
3-D Printer Helps Paralyzed Woman Walk
Post Date: 2014-02-25 02:42:28 by Tatarewicz
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When doctors told Amanda Boxtel in the early 1990s that she’d never walk again, they had probably never dreamed of 3-D printing. Now, the woman who was paralyzed from the waist down in a 1992 skiing accident is defying that prediction with the help of a 3D-printed exoskeleton, CNET reports. NEWS: Artists Discovery 3-D Printing The custom-built suit, developed by 3D Systems and EksoBionics, lets Boxtel stand up and walk on her own. “We had to be very specific with the design so we never had 3D-printed parts bumping into bony prominences, which can lead to abrasions,” Scott Summit, senior director for functional design at 3D Systems, told CNET. Bruising is a concern ...
Scientists create powerful artificial muscle with fishing line
Post Date: 2014-02-23 23:12:46 by Tatarewicz
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WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- An international team of researchers said Thursday they have successfully used fibers, such as those used for fishing lines and sewing threads, to create inexpensive but powerful artificial muscles. In a paper published in the U.S. journal Science, the team led by the University of Texas and joined by other research institutes from China, Canada, Turkey, Australia and South Korea, described a surprisingly simple way to make the muscles by twisting high- strength polymer fibers until they coil up, just like one would twist the rubber band of a model toy airplane. "The new muscles are capable of lifting loads 100 times heavier than human muscles of the ...
This might be the best thing to happen to cars since the invention of headlights BGR.com
Post Date: 2014-02-22 08:55:38 by Tatarewicz
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Anyone in the Northeastern United States right now (or anywhere else that might be getting hammered by snow) knows how much of a pain it can be to drive during and after a blizzard. There’s ice everywhere, mounds of snow to drive around or over, and you have to fight your way through it all while other drivers who are less careful slide around the roads. Winter tires can definitely help, but buying them and having them put on your car is a pricey proposition that many people don’t want to deal with or simply can’t afford. But what if there was a better way? Nokian Tyres — not to be confused with Nokia, which actually did manufacture car tires many decades ago — ...
Potential Record Ice on Lake Superior May Mean a Cooler Summer
Post Date: 2014-02-20 07:56:12 by Ada
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With no end in sight, the winter of 2014 rages on, ushering in frigid Arctic air and dumping record-breaking snow and ice on much of the nation. This season, ice coverage on Lake Superior has exceeded other measurements in recent history. "By the long shot this is the most ice we've had on Lake Superior in 20 years," Associate Professor Jay Austin of the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, Minn., said. During a typical winter, 30 to 40 percent of the Great Lakes are covered by ice, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson. Click for Full Text!
Chinese chemists pioneer water-jet printing
Post Date: 2014-02-19 20:58:44 by Tatarewicz
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BEIJING, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Most people are quite familiar with ink-jet printing. But a team of chemists from northeast China's Jilin University has recently attracted worldwide attention by inventing a water-jet printer. Like any ordinary printer, the machine takes a blank page and covers it with print. But instead of ink, this printer uses water. Although this does mean that the text will fade away within 22 hours of being printed, Professor Zhang Xiao'an, leader of the team, said that 40 percent of printed pages are thrown away after being read only once anyway. In addition, the printer can switch between water and ink in case the user wants a more permanent print. What ...
Why does the brain remember dreams?
Post Date: 2014-02-18 01:59:39 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily The reason for dreaming is still a mystery for the researchers who study the difference between "high dream recallers," who recall dreams regularly, and "low dream recallers," who recall dreams rarely. In January 2013 (work published in the journal Cerebral Cortex), the team led by Perrine Ruby, Inserm researcher at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, made the following two observations: "high dream recallers" have twice as many time of wakefulness during sleep as "low dream recallers" and their brains are more reactive to auditory stimuli during sleep and wakefulness. This increased brain reactivity may promote awakenings during the ...
Japan's Rakuten to acquire Israeli chat app Viber
Post Date: 2014-02-15 04:50:52 by Tatarewicz
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JERUSALEM, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Rakuten Inc., Japan's largest e- commerce company, is acquiring the mobile chat application Viber developed by Israelis for 900 million U.S. dollars, Rakuten said in a statement on Friday. Viber was established by four Israelis with a 30 million U.S. dollar-investment out of their own pocket. Rakuten said the acquisition of Viber, with its over 100 million active users per month, is part of the company's strategy to strengthen its global platform in the area of e-commerce and digital content services. Viber lets users connect via mobile calls or messages free of charge. Users can also share photos, videos or locations. The business has ...
Huge US thermal plant opens as industry grows
Post Date: 2014-02-15 02:44:39 by Tatarewicz
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PRIMM, Nevada (AP) — A windy stretch of the Mojave Desert once roamed by tortoises and coyotes has been transformed by hundreds of thousands of mirrors into the largest solar power plant of its type in the world, a milestone for a growing industry that is testing the balance between wilderness conservation and the pursuit of green energy across the American West. Related Stories India to Build World's Largest Solar Power Plant Takepart.com Duke Energy Indiana seeks solar power proposals Associated Press The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, sprawling across roughly 5 square miles (13 sq. kilometers) of federal land near the California-Nevada border, formally opened ...
Nuclear fusion breakthrough: US scientists make crucial step to limitless power
Post Date: 2014-02-13 01:33:07 by Tatarewicz
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RussiaToday... A team of scientists in California announced Wednesday they are one step closer to developing the almost mythical pollution-free, controlled fusion-energy reaction, though the goal of full “ignition” is still far off. Researchers at the federally-funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory revealed in a study released Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature that, for the first time, one of their experiments has yielded more energy out of fusion than was used in the fuel that created the reaction. In a 10-story building the size of three football fields, the Livermore scientists “used 192 lasers to compress a pellet of fuel and generate a reaction in ...
Plastic shopping bags make a fine diesel fuel
Post Date: 2014-02-13 01:00:16 by Tatarewicz
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Plastic shopping bags, an abundant source of litter on land and at sea, can be converted into diesel, natural gas and other useful petroleum products, researchers report. The conversion produces significantly more energy than it requires and results in transportation fuels -- diesel, for example -- that can be blended with existing ultra-low-sulfur diesels and biodiesels. Plastic shopping bags, an abundant source of litter on land and at sea, can be converted into diesel, natural gas and other useful petroleum products, researchers report. The conversion produces significantly more energy than it requires and results in transportation fuels -- diesel, for example -- that can be blended ...
China's Jade Rabbit rover comes 'back to life'
Post Date: 2014-02-12 23:59:26 by Tatarewicz
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Beijing (AFP) - China's troubled Jade Rabbit lunar rover, which experienced mechanical difficulties last month, has come "back to life", state media reported on Thursday. "It came back to life! At least it is alive and so it is possible we could save it," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Pei Zhaoyu, spokesman for the lunar programme, as saying on a verified account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter. The probe, named Yutu or Jade Rabbit after the pet of Chang'e, the goddess of the moon in Chinese mythology, had experienced a "mechanical control abnormality" last month, provoking an outpouring of sympathy from weibo users. Concerns ...
Global-Warming Slowdown Due to Pacific Winds, Study Shows
Post Date: 2014-02-09 16:05:36 by Ada
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Stronger Pacific Ocean winds may help explain the slowdown in the rate of global warming since the turn of the century, scientists said. More powerful winds in the past 20 years may be forcing warmer seas deeper and bringing cooler water to the surface, 10 researchers from the U.S. and Australia said today in the journal Nature. That has cooled the average global temperature by as much as 0.2 degree Celsius (0.36 Fahrenheit) since 2001. Scientists have been trying to find out why the rate of global warming has eased in the past 20 years while greenhouse-gas emissions have surged to a record. Today’s paper elaborates on a theory that deep seas are absorbing more warmth by explaining ...
Bottle released by Mass. scientist in 1956 found
Post Date: 2014-02-09 16:04:10 by X-15
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BOSTON — It was April 1956, and the No. 1 song was Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel." At the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, scientist Dean Bumpus was busy releasing glass bottles in a large stretch of the Atlantic Ocean. Nearly 58 years later, a biologist studying grey seals off Nova Scotia found one of the bottles in a pile of debris on a beach, 300 miles from where it was released. "It was almost like finding treasure in a way," Warren Joyce said Friday. The drift bottle was among thousands dumped in the Atlantic Ocean between 1956 and 1972 as part of Bumpus' study of surface and bottom currents. About 10 percent of the 300,000 ...
Fact Check: Did Bill Nye Tell A Huge Lie About The Fossil Layers?
Post Date: 2014-02-07 11:06:23 by Ada
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Did you get a chance to see the debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye “the Science Guy” the other night? It was definitely entertaining. Unfortunately, it didn’t do much to clarify the issues that millions of Americans tuned in to learn more about. In fact, viewers got a lot of information from Bill Nye that simply is not true. For example, Bill Nye made it sound like science has discovered fossil layers all over the earth that are neatly stacked on top of one another with less evolved creatures in the earlier layers and more advanced creatures in the upper layers. He also made the incredible claim that you cannot find a single fossil which is in the wrong layer. This is ...
In Dallas, ex-CIA chief (Gen. Michael Hayden) details growing cybersecurity threat
Post Date: 2014-02-06 01:54:07 by X-15
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DALLAS — Land, sea, air and space were considered the country’s top security battlegrounds for decades. But in recent years, as technology has evolved, a fifth front has emerged — cyberspace. “I don’t think we realize how much [cellphones and technology] have changed our lives,” retired Gen. Michael Hayden, former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency, told a crowd at the Hyatt Regency Dallas on Tuesday. “Your armed forces now treat cyber as a domain,” said Hayden, a four-star general who spent nearly four decades in the Air Force. “The thumb is the largest.....ungoverned space ever. This is a digital Somalia.” Hayden spoke ...
How Amazon Does It - amazing
Post Date: 2014-02-03 18:10:08 by Lod
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When No One Is Just a Face in the Crowd
Post Date: 2014-02-02 13:46:43 by X-15
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Hey, big spenders. Facial recognition technology, already employed by some retail stores to spot and thwart shoplifters, may soon be used to identify and track the freest spenders in the aisles. The NEC Corporation, for instance, is working on “V.I.P. identification” software, based on face recognition, for hotels and other businesses “where there is a need to identify the presence of important visitors.” And companies like FaceFirst, in Camarillo, Calif., hope to soon complement their shoplifter-identification services with parallel programs to help retailers recognize customers eligible for special treatment. “Just load existing photos of your known ...
MIT researchers create wearable books
Post Date: 2014-02-02 06:55:01 by Tatarewicz
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PressTV... Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States have developed a wearable book that enables the readers to experience the characters’ feelings as they read the story. The book, which has been created under a project dubbed sensory fiction, is covered in sensors and actuators and is hooked up to a vest. The vest has a personal heating device to change the temperature of the readers’ skin as well as a compression system to make them feel tightness or loosening via airbags. It also alters vibrations to match the mood of the book. The book itself possesses 150 LEDs to create ambient light, which changes based on the setting and mood of the ...
Cell cycle speed is key to making aging cells young again
Post Date: 2014-02-01 02:22:10 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily: Researchers identified a major obstacle to converting cells back to their youthful state -- the speed of the cell cycle, or the time required for a cell to divide. When the cell cycle accelerates to a certain speed, the barriers that keep a cell's fate on one path diminish. In such a state, cells are easily persuaded to change their identity and become pluripotent, or capable of becoming multiple cell types. Researchers have identified a major obstacle to converting cells back to their youthful state -- the speed of the cell cycle, or the time required for a cell to divide. A fundamental axiom of biology used to be that cell fate is a one-way street -- once a cell ...
Scientific breakthrough wins Australian team place in solar energy research
Post Date: 2014-01-30 00:00:17 by Tatarewicz
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SYDNEY, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The race to catch China's groundbreaking solar energy research just got a lot hotter, with a team from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, this week taking out the global industry equivalent of the Oscars. Professor Stuart Wenham and his team at the UNSW, were already flying close to the sun in May last year, when they discovered hydrogen atoms could counter defects in silicon cells within solar panels, delivering improvements in photovoltaic panel design that had not been expected for another decade. The process makes cheap silicon "better than the best-quality material," according to the head of UNSW's photovoltaics (PV) ...
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