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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
Autonomous Car Navigates the Streets of Berlin
Post Date: 2011-09-22 06:57:44 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2011) — Researchers from Freie Universität Berlin traveled 80 km in total as passengers during a test drive of their autonomous car "MadeInGermany" over the weekend. The car is driven by computers -- the safety driver behind the steering wheel only monitors the car's behavior. The autonomous car is a conventional VW Passat modified for "drive by wire." Electronic commands from the computer are passed directly to the accelerator, the brakes, and the steering wheel of the vehicle. Multiple sensors integrated in the car's chassis provide information about all cars or persons on the street. They allow the car to avoid obstacles, ...
Robots' first conversation descends into argument
Post Date: 2011-09-21 12:34:44 by Ada
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Two chatbots forget the etiquette of avoiding religion, sex or politics in conversation when two PhD students at Cornell University introduced the pair to eachother. Cornell University researchers Jason Yosinski and Igor Labutov rigged up a chatbot system to allow online avatars to talk to each other. Chatbots are designed to emulate the conversational abilities of humans, usually in an attempt to pass the Turing Test for intelligence. Alan Turing in his 1950 paper proposed that if a computer could fool a sufficiently adept human while conversing with them into thinking that the machine is another human, that computer could be then called intelligent. However, the conversation rapidly ...
Scientists Turn Back the Clock On Adult Stem Cells Aging
Post Date: 2011-09-21 07:23:37 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2011) — Researchers have shown they can reverse the aging process for human adult stem cells, which are responsible for helping old or damaged tissues regenerate. The findings could lead to medical treatments that may repair a host of ailments that occur because of tissue damage as people age. A research group led by the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and the Georgia Institute of Technology conducted the study in cell culture, which appears in the September 1, 2011 edition of the journal Cell Cycle. The regenerative power of tissues and organs declines as we age. The modern day stem cell hypothesis of aging suggests that living organisms are as old as ...
Inexhaustible' Source of Hydrogen May Be Unlocked by Salt Water
Post Date: 2011-09-21 07:07:23 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2011) — A grain of salt or two may be all that microbial electrolysis cells need to produce hydrogen from wastewater or organic byproducts, without adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere or using grid electricity, according to Penn State engineers. "This system could produce hydrogen anyplace that there is wastewater near sea water," said Bruce E. Logan, Kappe Professor of Environmental Engineering. "It uses no grid electricity and is completely carbon neutral. It is an inexhaustible source of energy." Microbial electrolysis cells that produce hydrogen are the basis of this recent work, but previously, to produce hydrogen, the fuel cells ...
China launch to pave way for space station
Post Date: 2011-09-21 03:18:32 by Tatarewicz
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BEIJING - China will launch an unmanned module next week, paving the way for a planned space station, a spokesman for the space program said on Tuesday. Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace 1", will blast off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province between Sept 27 and 30, the spokesman said. The 8.5-ton module, and the Long March II-F rocket that will carry it skyward, were positioned onto the launch pad on Tuesday, signaling that the project has entered the final preparation stage. "Scientists will conduct final tests in the next few days before injecting propellants for the launch," Cui Jijun, director of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, said. The ...
Stimulating brain with electricity aids learning speed
Post Date: 2011-09-20 05:38:11 by Tatarewicz
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Electrically stimulating the brain can help to speed up the process of learning, scientists have shown. Applying a small current to specific parts of the brain can increase its activity, making learning easier. Researchers from the University of Oxford have studied the changing structure of the brain in stroke patients and in healthy adults. Prof Heidi Johansen-Berg presented their findings at the British Science Festival in Bradford. The team at Oxford has been conducting research into how the structure of the brain changes in adulthood, and in particular what changes occur after a stroke. They have used an approach called functional MRI to monitor activity in the brain as stroke ...
Breakthrough Technology Identifies Prostate Cancer Cells
Post Date: 2011-09-20 05:28:21 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2011) — A team of researchers at UC Santa Barbara has developed a breakthrough technology that can be used to discriminate cancerous prostate cells in bodily fluids from those that are healthy. The findings are published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While the new technology is years away from use in a clinical setting, the researchers are nonetheless confident that it will be useful in developing a microdevice that will help in understanding when prostate cancer will metastasize, or spread to other parts of the body. "There have been studies to find the relationship between the number of cancer cells in the blood, ...
Scientists Discover 'Hidden' Code in DNA Evolves More Rapidly Than Genetic Code
Post Date: 2011-09-18 07:04:03 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 16, 2011) — A "hidden" code linked to the DNA of plants allows them to develop and pass down new biological traits far more rapidly than previously thought, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The study, published September 16 in the journal Science, provides the first evidence that an organism's "epigenetic" code -- an extra layer of biochemical instructions in DNA -- can evolve more quickly than the genetic code and can strongly influence biological traits. While the study was limited to a single plant species called Arabidopsis thaliana, the equivalent of the ...
New Device Generates Energy from Small Vibrations
Post Date: 2011-09-18 06:50:40 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 16, 2011) — Today's wireless-sensor networks can do everything from supervising factory machinery to tracking environmental pollution to measuring the movement of buildings and bridges. Working together, distributed sensors can monitor activity along an oil pipeline or throughout a forest, keeping track of multiple variables at a time. While uses for wireless sensors are seemingly endless, there is one limiting factor to the technology -- power. Even though improvements have brought their energy consumption down, wireless sensors' batteries still need changing periodically. Especially for networks in remote locales, replacing batteries in thousands of ...
Park your car with your mobile phone
Post Date: 2011-09-18 04:59:00 by Tatarewicz
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A French company has been demonstrating technology at this week's International Motor Show in Frankfurt that can park a car by using a mobile phone. The technology from Paris-based company Valeo means drivers can hop out of their cars when faced with a tight spot and guide the car in from the safety of their mobile phones. The system, which works on both Apple and Android-based phones, operates a series of sensors around the car to guide the vehicle. Drivers can control acceleration and brakes from the phone. It is the latest development in the company's Park4U system which is already available in cars manufactured by Volkswagen, Ford, Lincoln and Audi. Valeo was founded in 1923 ...
GE to invest $1 billion in cancer research
Post Date: 2011-09-16 00:11:37 by Tatarewicz
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US industrial conglomerate General Electric said on Thursday that it would invest $1 billion in cancer research over the next five years. GE chief executive Jeff Immelt and several venture capital partners launched the initiative, which will be aimed at improving diagnostic techniques for breast cancer, the company said in a statement. The investment will go toward research and development into technologies and solutions for cancer detection and treatment, beginning with breast cancer, GE said. GE and its partners also announced a $100 million "global open innovation challenge" to provide grants to researchers who develop promising early-detection techniques. The contest ...
Blockbuster Anti-Cancer Technology
Post Date: 2011-09-15 07:04:41 by Tatarewicz
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The science story with the biggest buzz recently was probably the successful treatment of three leukemia patients by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania. While the leukemia research is important, I don’t think that many understand where it fits in the bigger picture of cancer therapy development. I believe, in fact, that there are a half-dozen more- promising therapies. The anti-cancer treatment that caught the media’s attention is actually a gene therapy from the University of Pennsylvania. Scientists genetically modified three patients’ own cancer-fighting T-cells and gave them back. For some time, we have been able to modify T-cells to specifically attack ...
New GMO rice high in iron, zinc
Post Date: 2011-09-15 05:07:57 by Tatarewicz
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White rice contains insufficient concentrations of iron, zinc and pro-vitamin A to meet daily nutritional requirements. Image: bo1982/iStockphoto Scientists from the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) have produced rice with high enough iron levels that it meets daily recommended requirements for iron intake. The team, based at the Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne and South Australia, and Flinders University, and funded by the Australian Research Council and HarvestPlus, genetically modified rice to increase the amount of iron that is transported to the endosperm of the grain (the part that people eat). This resulted in rice that has up to four times more iron ...
Bacteria spreading in warming oceans
Post Date: 2011-09-14 03:09:54 by Tatarewicz
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BRUSSELS (AP) — Warning: The warming of the world's oceans can cause serious illness and may cost millions of euros (dollars) in health care. That is the alarm sounded in a paper released online Tuesday on the eve of a two-day conference in Brussels. The 200-page paper is a synthesis of the findings of more than 100 projects funded by the European Union since 1998. It was produced by Project CLAMER, a collaboration of 17 European marine institutes. The paper says the rising temperature of ocean water is causing a proliferation of the Vibrio genus of bacteria, which can cause food poisoning, serious gastroenteritis, septicemia and cholera. "Millions of euros in health costs ...
8 Grams Of Thorium To Power A Car For More Than 300,000 Miles
Post Date: 2011-09-14 01:44:03 by farmfriend
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8 Grams Of Thorium To Power A Car For More Than 300,000 Miles By Vlad Balan September 5th, 2011 American company Laser Power Systems claims to have found the optimum solution to fuel all existing cars in the world at a much lower cost than petrol. And if you’re expecting this solution to be hydrogen, you’re wrong, it’s a radioactive element, called Thorium. According to the company’s scientists, the 90th element in the periodic table can be a great power source for cars. Even though the company’s officials didn’t release too much info about the technology, it’s definitely an electric powertrain, with the “conventional” Lithium-ion batteries ...
Powered by Seaweed: Polymer from Algae May Improve Battery Performance
Post Date: 2011-09-13 07:47:51 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2011) — By looking to Mother Nature for solutions, researchers have identified a promising new binder material for lithium-ion battery electrodes that not only could boost energy storage, but also eliminate the use of toxic compounds now used to manufacture the components. Known as alginate, the material is extracted from common, fast-growing brown algae. In tests so far, it has helped boost energy storage and output for both graphite-based electrodes used in existing batteries and silicon-based electrodes being developed for future generations of batteries. The research, the result of collaboration between scientists and engineers at Clemson University and the ...
Ocean Acidity Linked to Mass Extinction
Post Date: 2011-09-11 01:26:55 by Tatarewicz
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Remember the ammonites? We don’t either. A new Canadian study suggests that the greatest mass extinction ever may have been caused by high acidity in the ocean. Roughly 250 million years ago, back when we were all one massive super-continent, a mysterious force took out 90% of the Earth’s species. Scientists have long speculated about the cause, often blaming Siberian volcanoes or meteorites, though no one solidified with certainty the mechanism by which the animals were killed. According to St. Francis Xavier University researcher Alvaro Montenegro, it could well have been rising levels of acidity in the ocean, which can alter the way animals create their bodies from ocean ...
Prognosticative computer
Post Date: 2011-09-10 07:05:57 by Tatarewicz
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Feeding a supercomputer with news stories could help predict major world events, according to US research. A study, based on millions of articles, charted deteriorating national sentiment ahead of the recent revolutions in Libya and Egypt. While the analysis was carried out retrospectively, scientists say the same processes could be used to anticipate upcoming conflict. The system also picked up early clues about Osama Bin Laden's location. Kalev Leetaru, from the University of Illinois' Institute for Computing in the Humanities, Arts and Social Science, presented his findings in the journal First Monday. Mood and location The study's information was taken from a range of ...
UK - US give fusion power another shot
Post Date: 2011-09-09 07:14:53 by Tatarewicz
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UK has formally joined forces with a US laser lab in a bid to develop clean energy from nuclear fusion. Unlike fission plants, the process uses lasers to compress atomic nuclei until they join, releasing energy. The National Ignition Facility (Nif) in the US is drawing closer to producing a surplus of energy from the idea. The UK company AWE and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have now joined with Nif to help make laser fusion a viable commercial energy source. At a meeting this week sponsored by the Institute of Physics and held at London's Royal Society, a memorandum of understanding was announced between the three facilities. The meeting attracted scientists and industry ...
Moving forward with lab-grown meat protein
Post Date: 2011-09-08 05:46:23 by Tatarewicz
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2011) — Late last week, an international group of scientists took a step closer to their goal to produce cultured meat. They agreed on important common positions about how to bring the research forward during a workshop in Gothenburg, Sweden, arranged by Chalmers University of Technology and the European Science Foundation. Many technology components are now coming into place in order to realize the concept of cultured meat. This includes a cell source that is possible to use, several alternative processes to turn these cells into muscle cells for meat, and nutrients free of animal components which can be produced from sunlight and carbon dioxide. In addition, a ...
Japanese breakthrough will make wind power cheaper than nuclear
Post Date: 2011-09-07 23:19:11 by GreyLmist
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A surprising aerodynamic innovation in wind turbine design called the 'wind lens' could triple the output of a typical wind turbine, making it less costly than nuclear power. Snapshot from video NOTE: Some major wind projects like the proposed TWE Carbon Valley project in Wyoming are already pricing in significantly lower than coal power -- $80 per MWh for wind versus $90 per MWh for coal -- and that is without government subsidies using today's wind turbine technology. The International Clean Energy Analysis (ICEA) gateway estimates that the U.S. possesses 2.2 million km2 of high wind potential (Class 3-7 winds) — about 850,000 square miles of land that could yield ...
Lunar orbiter finds footprints on the moon
Post Date: 2011-09-07 14:12:30 by Ada
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A NASA lunar orbiter has, for the first time ever, returned photographs showing footprints and tire tread marks on the surface of the moon, as left there decades ago by the Apollo astronauts. NASA said it was looking into protecting the lunar “heritage sites” from possible damage from future spacefaring vehicles, as the imprints left by mankind’s first extra-terrestrial vacation will remain — if untouched — for over a million years thanks to a distinct lack of wind or other weather patterns on the moon. This video is from Reuters, published Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011. Click for Full Text!
Japan scientists make body tissues transparent
Post Date: 2011-09-07 08:10:01 by Tatarewicz
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All the new breakthroughs in microscopy we’ve seen recently are designed to help scientists see deeper, inside individual cells and into the depths of the brain. Of course, this would be easier to do if there wasn’t a bunch of other tissue blocking the cells you want to see. Japanese researchers have a new solution: Make it all transparent. A new chemical reagent makes the brain see-through, allowing fluorescent tags to light up neurons and blood vessels deep inside. This enables 3-D images of entire structures, without having to cut anything away or divide anything into smaller sections. It doesn’t work on living tissue, at least not yet — researchers at RIKEN, ...
Milky Way Could Be Loaded With Time Bombs
Post Date: 2011-09-07 07:13:05 by Tatarewicz
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White dwarfs scattered throughout our galaxy could be ticking time bombs ready to explode as Type Ia supernovae once their rapid spins slow down. These burned out old stars usually weigh up to 1.4 times the sun's mass, a measurement known as the Chandrasekhar mass. If a white dwarf was heavier, gravity would compact it, causing nuclear fusion and a supernova. Extra mass could be acquired via two white dwarfs merging or gas accretion from a companion star, the more likely scenario, but evidence in support of this theory is scarcely seen in Type Ia supernovae. No donor stars have been found, and traces of hydrogen and helium near supernovae are absent, even though small amounts of ...
Texas Fires Update
Post Date: 2011-09-05 19:32:57 by Lod
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Fires update from TAMU forest service at URL. This is totally out of control. Screw the watering restrictions here, water will be run this evening.
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