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128 items tagged "science"

Related tags: space [+], dna [+], commons [+], robot [+], physics [+], energy [+], open [+], nasa [+], medicine [+], mit [+], brain [+], theory [+], source [+], solar [+], simulation [+], quantum [+], neuroscience [+], mars [+], light [+], google [+], generator [+], game [+], dinosaur [+], data [+], cat [+], Research [+], Earth [+], water [+], video [+], toxic [+], tesla [+], supercomputing [+], sun [+], string [+], storage [+], stephen [+], stem [+], steel [+], star [+], spacecraft [+], sound [+], shark [+], serbia [+], scissors [+], scifi [+], river [+], psychology [+], power [+], potomac [+], pong [+], plastic [+], planet [+], plane [+], photo [+], photgraphy [+], nuron [+], nih [+], nes [+], neroscience [+], moon [+], molecule [+], molecular [+], microbe [+], mice [+], memory [+], memories [+], medicice [+], mechanics [+], matter [+], material [+], mario [+], lock [+], lie [+], laser [+], kryptonite [+], jupiter [+], jfk [+], internal [+], images [+], image [+], ice [+], hovercraft [+], hiv [+], heat [+], hdd [+], hawking [+], hard [+], glucose [+], glaciers [+], genome [+], genetics [+], gene [+], frozen [+], flexible [+], fish [+], fields [+], fabric [+], eye [+], explosion [+], electron [+], einstein [+], drive [+], distant [+], dish [+], digital [+], detector [+], dc [+], dark [+], creatice [+], cpu [+], computer [+], comons [+], combustion [+], chemical [+], cells [+], cell [+], brothers [+], biology [+], biofeedback [+], big [+], bang [+], autism [+], astronomy [+], astrology [+], asexual [+], air [+], access [+], Washington [+], Magnetic [+], Greenland [+], cc [+]

Slashdot

• 

  Science Debate 2008

  Posted: February 9th, 2008, 1:43pm MST by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  bhmit1 writes "BusinessWeek is reporting about Science Debate 2008, an attempt to put the scientific issues front and center in the US Presidential race. After 12,000 scientists signed on in support of the idea of a debate focused on science, no campaign has replied to an invitation to such a debate. The article notes that only one candidate has said much about science issues in the campaign, and that some who are running are sufficiently anti-science as to deny evolution. There is a link to a comparison of the candidates' positions on issues informed by science. (Yes, Ron Paul is included.)"

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Physics Help and Math Help - Physics Forums

• 

  New Solar Tech Even Works at Night

  Posted: February 1st, 2008, 10:21pm MST by sanman

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  solar science energy physics sun   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  A new solar technology based on tiny nano-sized antennae is capable of harvesting energy with 80% efficiency, as opposed to the 10-20% seen on commercial solar panels today. But if that isn't amazing enough for you, these new panels can even harvest energy at night, by absorbing light from the infrared region of the spectrum, which continues to residually radiate during nighttime. And even better still is that solar panels based on this technology could be manufactured even more cheaply than existing silicon-based solar panels today. Now these are innovations that could radically transform the world, allowing anyone to generate power 24/7 locally onsite, without even being connected to a power transmission grid. Disruptive technologies like this kind of remind me of the invention of the cellphone.
  
  [www.groovygreen.com]
  
  [www.inl.gov]
  
  http://www.gizmag.com/researchers-de...at-night/8574/

Creative Commons Blog

• 

  NPG introduces a CC license for genome research

  Posted: December 6th, 2007, 2:14pm MST by Kaitlin Thaney

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  cc science genome dna   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  From the Science Commons blog …

  In a move to make genome research more accessible, Nature Publishing Group (NPG) has introduced a new editorial policy that will put genome research published by Nature under a CC-BY-NC-SA license. The license grants readers the ability to share and remix the material under the following conditions: the work must be attributed to the author as specified by the author of licensor, cannot be used for commercial purposes, and that any derivative works be licensed under the same or a similar license. NPG’s editorial policy can be read in full here.

  An editorial posted today discusses some of the reasoning behind enacting this new author license policy.

  From the Nature editorial, “Shared genomes” (December 6, 2007):

  “In the continuing drive to make papers as accessible as possible, NPG is now introducing a ‘creative commons’ licence for the reuse of such genome papers. The licence allows non-commercial publishers, however they might be defined, to reuse the pdf and html versions of the paper. In particular, users are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the contribution, provided this is for non-commercial purposes, subject to the same or similar licence conditions and due attribution. […]”

  More after the jump …

Slashdot

• 

  Blast-Proof Fabric Resists Multiple Explosions

  Posted: December 6th, 2007, 12:40pm MST by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  fabric science material chemical explosion   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  An anonymous reader tips a Gizmodo story on a fabric whose properties are counterintuitive, to say the least of it. "Zetix is a fabric so strong it will resist multiple car bomb blasts without breaking. It absorbs and disperses the energy from explosions... it can be used in body armor, window covering, military tents, and hurricane defenses... [and] it can be used as medical sutures that won't damage body tissue. All of this is thanks to a property that apparently defies the laws of physics: helical-auxetics, objects that actually get fatter the more you stretch them. The concept makes my head want to explode, but when you see it in action it actually makes sense."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  
• 

  $999 For a Complete DNA Scan, Worth it?

  Posted: December 3rd, 2007, 12:03pm MST by CmdrTaco

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  dna gene Research science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  DoroSurfer writes "ZDNet is reporting that 23andme.com will open its doors on Monday, allowing you to send them a cheek swab and have your DNA analyzed for $999 (plus shipping, of course... ;)). So what's a thousand bucks buy you? They can tell you your ancient ancestry, They can tell you what diseases you're predisposed to, They give you a "Gene Explorer" that allows you to do a search in your genome to find out if you have a certain gene (e.g., you just heard on the news that Gene XYZ has been linked to Alzheimer's Disease)."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Reuters: Science

• 

  Sticky molecule may hold key to nerve disorders

  Posted: November 29th, 2007, 6:36pm MST

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  neuroscience science nuron   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  LONDON (Reuters) - A sticky molecule previously linked to inflammation also helps seal vital insulation around peripheral nerves, making it a potential target for new drugs against nerve disorders, scientists said on Thursday.
• 

  Dinosaur find dries Australia water project

  Posted: November 26th, 2007, 7:00pm MST

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  dinosaur science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  CANBERRA (Reuters) - A hoard of dinosaur bones has been discovered at the site of a planned desalination plant meant to deliver Australia's second biggest city from drought, forcing a re-think of the A$3 billion ($2.7 billion) project.

Slashdot

• 

  Scientists Trap a Rainbow

  Posted: November 19th, 2007, 12:44pm MST by ScuttleMonkey

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science light physics   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  An anonymous reader writes to tell us that Physicists from both the University of Surrey and Salford University have devised a method to trap a multi-colored rainbow of light inside a prism. "Previous attempts to slow and capture light have involved extremely low or cryogenic temperatures, have been extremely costly, and have only worked with one specific frequency of light at a time. The technique proposed by Professor Hess and Mr Kosmas Tsakmakidis involves the use of negative refractive index metamaterials along with the exploitation of the Goos Hänchen effect, which shows that when light hits an object or an interface between two media it does not immediately bounce back but seems to travel very slightly along that object, or in the case of metamaterials, travels very slightly backwards along the object."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  
• 

  Open Source, Genetically Engineered Machines From a Kit?

  Posted: November 15th, 2007, 3:23pm MST by Zonk

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science mit genetics   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  An anonymous reader writes "Students in an MIT competition are helping to build a dev-kit for cells. Together with synthetic biologists, they're building a Registry of Standard Biological Parts called BioBricks. They aim to do for cells for what open source software has done for computers. 'The competition is a showcase for the burgeoning field of synthetic biology. Knight and his colleagues Randy Rettberg and Drew Endy, who created the contest in 2004, want to make biological systems easy to build by applying the tools of computer science and engineering: using standard parts and modular design to simplify complex systems. The goal is to create "genetic Legos" that could produce any chemical, from ethanol to pharmaceuticals.'"

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Reuters: Science

• 

  Left brain picks desired sounds from cacophony

  Posted: November 15th, 2007, 1:40pm MST

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science brain sound   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  HONG KONG (Reuters) - Ever wondered how we are able to conduct a conversation at a noisy party? Researchers from Japan, Canada and Germany have found that it is our left brain that picks out the desired sounds from a cacophony of loud, competing sounds.
• 

  U.S. researchers get stem cells from cloned monkeys

  Posted: November 14th, 2007, 3:39pm MST

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have cloned monkeys and used the resulting embryos to get embryonic stem cells, an important step towards being able to do the same thing in humans, they reported on Wednesday.

washingtonpost.com - A Section

• 

  Scientists Track Time and Place of HIV's Arrival

  Posted: November 4th, 2007, 12:00am MST

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science hiv   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  In the decades since young gay men in the United States started dying from a mysterious syndrome in the 1980s, scientists have wondered how and when the AIDS virus arrived. Many scenarios have been proposed, including one early but now-discounted theory that the disease was imported by a promiscuous...
  

Reuters: Science

• 

  Cat's eye view of DNA sheds light on human disease

  Posted: October 31st, 2007, 7:08pm MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  cat dna science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first full genetic map of a cat -- a domestic pedigreed Abyssinian -- is already shedding light on a common cause of blindness in humans and may offer insights into AIDS and other diseases, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Reuters: Top News

• 

  Cat's eye view of DNA sheds light on human disease

  Posted: October 31st, 2007, 6:27pm MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  cat dna science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first full genetic map of a cat -- a domestic pedigreed Abyssinian -- is already shedding light on a common cause of blindness in humans and may offer insights into AIDS and other diseases, researchers reported on Wednesday.

  

  

Slashdot

• 

  Super-Light Plastic As Strong as Steel

  Posted: October 5th, 2007, 6:02pm MDT by Zonk

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  plastic steel science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Roland Piquepaille writes "A new composite plastic built layer by layer has been created by engineers at the University of Michigan. This plastic is as strong as steel. It has been built the same way as mother-of-pearl, and shows similar strength. Interestingly, this 300-layer plastic has been built with 'strong' nanosheets of clay and a 'fragile' polymer called polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), commonly used in paints and glue, which acts as 'Velcro' to envelop the nanoparticles. This new plastic could soon be used to design light but strong armors for soldiers or police officers. The researchers also think this material could be used in biomedical sensors and unmanned aircraft."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Linux.com :: Feature

• 

  PRISM Coalition lobbies against open access

  Posted: September 24th, 2007, 4:00pm MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  open access science medicine   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Forces are mashaling to oppose the open access movement, the open source-inspired movement to make academic research publicly available online. The American Association of Publishers (AAP) recently announced the creation of the Partnership for Research Integrity in Science and Medicine (PRISM), an apparent lobby group organized to resist efforts to compel academic publishers to make publicly funded research generally available. PRISM's methods appear eerily similar to those used to oppose legislation to make public documents available in an open format, as well as the actions against free downloads by such organizations as the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America.

Slashdot

• 

  Another Way To Erase Memories

  Posted: August 17th, 2007, 2:17pm MDT by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  neroscience science memory memories   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  amigoro writes "Neuroscientists have discovered that long-term memories are not etched in a stable form, like a 'clay tablet,' as once thought. The process is much more dynamic, involving a miniature molecular machine that must run constantly to keep memories going. Jamming the machine briefly can erase long-term memories." A few months back we discussed a similar removal of rat memories by a different method.

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Creative Commons Blog

• 

  Science Commons’ John Wilbanks in Popular Science

  Posted: July 19th, 2007, 2:20pm MDT by Kaitlin Thaney

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science comons   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  This just in from PopSci.com …

  “Will John Wilbanks Launch the Next Scientific Revolution?

  Using innovative copyrights and a Web 2.0 platform, John Wilbanks may just transform how scientific discoveries are made

  by Abby Seiff

  When Pasteur had his eureka moment, the processes leading up to it were barely different than Archimedes’s. The scientist hypothesized, created his tools, and executed his experiments with little need for input from his colleagues. My, how things have changed. As science has become increasingly complex and interconnected, even the smallest a-ha instance demands that researchers spend the bulk of their time on grunt work - combing through relevant journal articles that are poorly annotated, begging colleagues for necessary materials (a biologist may need specific cell lines, for instance), and tracking down data sets. As scientific goals grow more multifaceted, the challenges for research and developments lie not only in the experiments themselves, but also in the transfer of information among peers.

  Enter John Wilbanks, executive director of the Science Commons initiative, and the six-year-old innovation of its parent organization, Creative Commons - an intelligent, understandable copyright that’s revolutionizing how everything from photos to publications are shared. Wilbanks and his team (which includes Nobel Prize winners Joshua Lederberg and John Sulston) are focused on three areas where roadblocks to scientific discovery are most common: in accessing literature, obtaining materials and sharing data. […]”

  You can read the rest of this article, which includes an interview with Wilbanks, here.

Slashdot

• 

  MIT Finds Cure For Fear

  Posted: July 16th, 2007, 12:43pm MDT by ScuttleMonkey

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  mit science mice neuroscience   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Doom con runs away writes "MIT biochemists have identified a molecular mechanism behind fear, and successfully cured it in mice, according to an article in the journal Nature Neuroscience. They did this by inhibiting a kinase, an enzyme that change proteins, called Cdk5, which facilitates the extinction of fear learned in a particular context."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Creative Commons Blog

• 

  Wellcome Images Launches With CC Licences

  Posted: July 10th, 2007, 2:46pm MDT by Cameron Parkins

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science cc creatice commons image   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Wellcome Images, an online image repository “depicting 2,000 years of mankind and medicine”, recently launched their enormous collection online under a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-commercial Licence 2.0. From their press release:

  Launched on 15 June 2007, ‘Wellcome Images’ is the world’s leading source of images on the history of medicine, modern biomedical science and clinical medicine. All content has been made available under a Creative Commons License, which allows users to copy, distribute and display the image, provided the source is fully attributed and it is used for non-commercial purposes.

  Wellcome Images is constantly updated with new clinical, and biomedical and historical images from the Wellcome Library, Europe’s leading resource for the study of history of medicine which recently re-launched as part of the new and forthcoming Wellcome Collection.

  This is absolutely amazing news. Projects like Wellcome Images are phenomenal resources for those in the academic world, allowing students and teachers alike open access to a wealth of information. By utilizing CC-licensing, Wellcome Images is more able to fully realize the true spirit of academia - an unblocked and open pursuit of knowledge and understanding.

Slashdot

• 

  Tiny Generator Runs Off Vibrations

  Posted: July 5th, 2007, 12:02pm MDT by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science generator   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Warbothong writes "Researchers at Southampton University in the UK have developed a tiny generator that uses local vibrations to output microwatts of power. The device is smaller than one cubic centimeter. It shows promise as an alternative to batteries for applications where frequent battery replacement would not be feasible. The devices are currently being used in industry where 'there is the potential for embedding sensors in previously inaccessible locations,' but its creators imagine it could be used in devices such as pacemakers, where the beating of the heart would produce ample movement to power the magnetic mechanism."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  
• 

  Researchers Prove Existence Of New Type Of Electron Wave

  Posted: July 4th, 2007, 6:04pm MDT by ScuttleMonkey

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science physics electron   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  ScienceDaily is reporting that physicists at the University of New Hampshire have discovered the existence of a new type of electron wave on metal surfaces. "The acoustic surface plasmon, which will have implications for developments in nano-optics, high-temperature superconductors, and the fundamental understanding of chemical reactions on surfaces. [...] 'The existence of this wave means that the electrons on the surfaces of copper, iron, beryllium and other metals behave like water on a lake's surface,' says Diaconescu, a postdoctoral research associate in the Condensed Matter Group of the physics department at UNH. 'When a stone is thrown into a lake, waves spread radially in all directions. A similar wave can be created by the electrons on a metal surface when they are disturbed, for instance, by light.'"

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  
• 

  Researchers Claim Pheromones Trigger Brain Cell Growth

  Posted: July 4th, 2007, 5:16pm MDT by stemceller (posted by ScuttleMonkey)

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science brain   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is reporting that pheromones could enable the growth of new brain cells. "Pheromone signals from dominant males spark new brain cells in their female partners and could help repair injured brains, suggests a new study by a University of Calgary neuroscientist. Sam Weiss's findings, in the July issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, provide evidence that pheromones -- subtle chemical signatures that influence mating behavior -- can control stem cells in the brain."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  
• 

  Perpetual Energy Machine Getting Lots of Attention

  Posted: July 4th, 2007, 2:46pm MDT by ScuttleMonkey

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science energy   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Many users have written to tell us about a magnetic machine promising "infinite clean energy". Engadget has the first picture of the device and is reporting that the announcement (along with a short video) of this supposed device will be released later tonight. "CEO Sean McCarthy tells SilconRepublic how it works. Namely, the time variance in magnetic fields allows the Orbo platform to 'consistently produce power, going against the law of conservation of energy which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed.' He goes on to say 'It's too good to be true but it is true. It will have such an impact on everything we do. The only analogy I can give is if you had absolute proof that God wasn't real.'" In my experience if something seems too good to be true it generally is. I wouldn't get your hopes up.

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  
• 

  New Drug Helps to Dampen Bad Memories

  Posted: July 4th, 2007, 1:05pm MDT by ScuttleMonkey

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science psychology   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  wile_e_wonka writes to tell us Researchers at Harvard and the Montreal-based McGill University are working on a drug that would allow psychiatrists to dampen painful memories in their patients when combined with therapy. "They treated 19 accident or rape victims for ten days, during which the patients were asked to describe their memories of the traumatic event that had happened 10 years earlier. Some patients were given the drug, which is also used to treat amnesia, while others were given a placebo. A week later, they found that patients given the drug showed fewer signs of stress when recalling their trauma."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Engadget

• 

  100 times HDD speed possible thanks to lasers

  Posted: July 1st, 2007, 7:05pm MDT by Conrad Quilty-Harper

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  laser science hard drive hdd   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Desktops

  The concept of light powered computing has surfaced again, this time thanks to a group of researchers at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Using laser technology that we're not even going to pretend to understand, they've figured out a way of transferring data in speeds measured in quadrillionths of a second -- a measurement so fast even our spell checker doesn't recognize it. The technology is around 100 times faster than traditional magnetic storage methods, but it still has some way to go until it can replace your hard drive: for one thing, the researchers need to figure out a way to reduce the footprint of the laser, currently at an apparently massive 5 microns width. As always, we shall wait in anticipation for any developments.
  
  [Via Slashdot]

   

  Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

  Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

  

Slashdot

• 

  Science Videos Search Engine

  Posted: July 1st, 2007, 9:31am MDT by CmdrTaco

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science video   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Rami writes "ScienceHack is a search engine for science videos. What makes ScienceHack unique is that every video is screened by a scientist or an engineer to verify the video's accuracy and quality. ScienceHack focuses on many topics including physics, chemistry and biology. If you go to YouTube to search for videos, you will get spam videos and comments and many conspiracy and low quality videos. ScienceHack has none of that. ScienceHack currently supports videos from YouTube, Google videos and Metacafe." http://sciencehack.com/

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  
• 

  Freeman Dyson On Open Source Biology

  Posted: June 30th, 2007, 3:52pm MDT by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  open source biology science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  kripkenstein sends us an article by Freeman Dyson in the NY Review of Books, in which the eminent physicist and big thinker takes on the possible end to the Darwinian era of speciation that has endured 3 billion years on this planet. He discusses the history and future of biology in terms that many in this community will find familiar: "[We can speculate about] a golden age... when horizontal gene transfer was universal and separate species did not yet exist. Life was then a community of cells of various kinds, sharing their genetic information... Evolution could be rapid... But then, one evil day, a cell resembling a primitive bacterium happened to find itself one jump ahead of its neighbors in efficiency. That cell, anticipating Bill Gates by three billion years, separated itself from the community and refused to share... [But] now, as Homo sapiens domesticates the new biotechnology, we are reviving the ancient... practice of horizontal gene transfer, moving genes easily from microbes to plants and animals, blurring the boundaries between species. We are moving rapidly into the post-Darwinian era, when... the rules of Open Source sharing will be extended from the exchange of software to the exchange of genes. Then the evolution of life will once again be communal, as it was in the good old days before separate species and intellectual property were invented."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Engadget

• 

  Biopong enables workouts whilst gaming

  Posted: June 30th, 2007, 4:01am MDT by Darren Murph

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  pong science biofeedback game   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Gaming

  
  If setting up your computer to play Pong with itself was beginning to incite a bit of jealously, fret not, as a recent project over at Teckjunkie can enable you to experience the famed title in an entirely new way. Aptly dubbed Biopong, this DIY endeavor relied on quite a bit of electrical engineering knowledge, a kit from ThinkGeek, and a steady flow of blood to your extremities. The rules are simple: flex either arm in order to interact with the game, and the uber-coordinated set may even be able to lift a few weights whilst gaming it up. Be sure to peep the video of this Wii exercise alternative after the jump.
  
  [Via Hack-A-Day]

  Continue reading Biopong enables workouts whilst gaming

   

  Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

  Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

  
• 

  Scientists perform quantum computer simulation on vanilla PC

  Posted: June 29th, 2007, 12:40am MDT by Darren Murph

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  simulation quantum computer science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Desktops

  
  We've seen what (little) a quantum computer can do, but a pair of curious scientists flipped the equation around and sent a humdrum PC to do a supercomputer's work. Professor Peter Drummond and Dr. Piotr Deuar were able to "successfully simulate a collision of two laser beams from an atom laser using an everyday desktop computer," which would typically only be attempted on a substantially more powerful machine. Notably, the achievement wasn't entirely without flaw, as the purported randomness in the testing eventually "swamped everything" and forced the simulation to be halted in order to gather any useful data whatsoever. Unfortunately, we're all left to wonder exactly what kind of machine was used to chew through such grueling calculations (Compubeaver, perhaps?), but feel free to throw out your suggestions below.
  
  [Via Physorg, image courtesy of ACQAO]

   

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  Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

  

Slashdot

• 

  Military Running a Parallel Earth Simulator

  Posted: June 29th, 2007, 10:22pm MDT by Zonk

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  Earth supercomputing simulation science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Fantastic Lad writes "The US Department of Defense (DOD) may already be creating a copy of you in an alternate reality. Putting supercomputers to an innovative use, the military is simulating our planet in an effort to predict the outcome of different scenarios. They might run tests to see how long 'you' can go without food or water, or how 'you' will respond to televised propaganda. Billions of nodes are created in the system, intended to reflect every man, woman, and child. 'Called the Sentient World Simulation (SWS), it will be a "synthetic mirror of the real world with automated continuous calibration with respect to current real-world information", according to a concept paper for the project. Simulex is the company developing these systems, and they list pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and defense contractor Lockheed Martin among their private sector clients. The U.S. military is their biggest customer, apparently now running the most complex version of the system. JFCOM-9 is now capable of running real-time simulations for up to 62 nations, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and China. The simulations gobble up breaking news, census data, economic indicators, and climactic events in the real world, along with proprietary information such as military intelligence."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.06.24 - ARMAGEDDON - Super Volcanoes, Meteorites and Earthquakes

  Posted: June 26th, 2007, 12:02pm MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.06.24 - ARMAGEDDON - Super Volcanoes, Meteorites and Earthquakes

Engadget

• 

  Musical Tesla coil plays Super Mario Brothers theme

  Posted: June 21st, 2007, 11:02am MDT by Joshua Topolsky

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science tesla mario brothers nes   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

  
  After the robotic giraffe, a Mac running XP and this guy's second Zune tattoo, you probably thought there was nothing left to see, but then along comes a giant Tesla coil that creates a "resonant frequency" and plays the SMB music to a crowd of onlookers. No word on if it knows "Signs" or not. Check the video after the break.
  
  [Via Make]

  Continue reading Musical Tesla coil plays Super Mario Brothers theme

   

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  Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

  

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.06.17 - Forensic Science Show

  Posted: June 19th, 2007, 7:49am MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.06.17 - Forensic Science Show

Creative Commons Blog

• 

  Nature Publishing Group launches free pre-print service for the biological sciences

  Posted: June 18th, 2007, 8:57am MDT by Kaitlin Thaney

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  cc science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  From the Science Commons blog …

  “Today Nature Publishing Group launches Nature Precedings – a free document sharing service for the sciences. The service further enables scientists to share their preliminary findings and research in a free environment, while allowing authors to retain copyright in their work. All accepted contributions are released under a Creative Commons Attribution license, allowing for the material to be reused and redistributed as long as it is attributed to the author under terms specified.

  This is the biological equivalent of the physics arXiv, but with a critical improvement. Placing pre-prints online solves the problem of an individual’s ability to access an article. But in the absence of an explicit copyright license, it’s unclear what that individual can actually do with the downloaded file. Nature’s choice to use CC-BY is a validation of the need to grant rights in advance to users, and of the CC-BY license in a truly Open Access service.

  The launch of this Web service is a promising step towards further facilitating the dissemination and open exchange of information in the biological sciences. Precedings features submissions from biomedicine, chemistry and the earth sciences. The Web service fulfills the role of a preprint server but accepts a wider array of document types, including unpublished manuscripts, presentations, white papers and supplementary findings. Curators from Nature Publishing Group review all submissions. Acceptance is determined by the document’s relevancy to the field and legitimacy.

  From Nature’s press release,

  ‘Helping scientists to communicate their ideas is central to Nature’s mission, and we are constantle seeking new ways to achieve this,” said Annette Thomas, Managing Director of Nature Publishing Group. “Precedings is an important new step for us and, we hope, the research community. We are particularly proud to have conceived and developed the service with the help of a group of such highly esteemed organizations; the British Library, the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), Science Commons, and the Wellcome Trust.’ […] “

  More after the jump …

Slashdot

• 

  "Cascade B" Particle Discovered At Fermilab

  Posted: June 17th, 2007, 12:34am MDT by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science quantum mechanics   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  pnotequalsnp writes to note that physicists at Fermilab have discovered a new heavy particle called the Cascade B. This is the first particle ever seen that is made up of quarks representing all three quark families. A team of 610 physicists from 88 institutions reported the discovery in a paper submitted to Physical Review Letters last week. This must be the discovery that triggered rumors that the Higgs had been found.

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Engadget

• 

  Spectrolab designs highly efficient solar cell

  Posted: June 16th, 2007, 1:05pm MDT by Darren Murph

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science solar cell energy light   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

  While we certainly applaud the designers at Spectrolab for developing a solar cell that's reportedly "twice as efficient as typical rooftop solar panels," we're stifling most of our excitement until it actually leaves the laboratory. Nevertheless, the Boeing subsidiary has apparently cranked out a cell that utilizes metamorphic materials and is "designed for photovoltaic systems that use lenses and mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays onto small, high-efficiency solar cells." The unique semiconductors used are said to resemble ones that adorn satellites and planetary landers, and can capture three layers of the solar spectrum versus the single layer that traditional solar panels collect. Unfortunately, it seems that the eventual goals for this thing are rather ho hum, as the crew only expects the cells to hit 45-percent efficiency within the next six or so years. C'mon folks, you've already got alternatives at 40.

   

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  Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

  

Slashdot

• 

  US Can't Meet The "Grand Challenges" of Physics

  Posted: June 16th, 2007, 5:27am MDT by Zonk

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science physics   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  BlueSky writes "A new report paints a troubling picture of the state of physics research in the US, which the authors believe has dire consequences for the competitiveness of the US. 'The report identifies six key questions that will represent the grand challenges that materials science will face over the coming decade, the ones most likely to produce the next revolution. But it also raises fears that those challenges will be met by researchers outside of the US. It highlights the fact that government funding has not kept up with the rising costs of research at the same time that the corporate-funded research lab system has collapsed. As a result, US scientific productivity has stagnated at a time when funding and output are booming overseas.'"

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Engadget

• 

  Scientists convert glucose into fuel and polyesters

  Posted: June 16th, 2007, 2:10am MDT by Darren Murph

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  glucose energy science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

  
  Glucose has been the building block for many zany creations 'round these parts, but using the widely available substance to create "products currently created from petroleum" has some fairly far reaching consequences. Gurus at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have reportedly "converted sugars ubiquitous in nature into a primary building block for fuel and polyesters," dubbed hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). Aside from the obvious benefits of finding yet another renewable energy to tap into, learning to harness this power could give garb and plastic manufacturers new routes to source raw materials. So what do the creators themselves think? "The opportunities are endless" -- we say: prove it.

   

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  Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

  

Slashdot

• 

  Giant Dinosaur Bird Discovered

  Posted: June 15th, 2007, 9:35pm MDT by Zonk

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  dinosaur science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Cyclist110 writes "The BBC has the story of the discovery, in Inner Mongolia, of a Dinosaur bird twice the size of a man and weighing in at over 3000 lbs. From the article: 'Chinese researchers uncovered the fossilised remains of the flightless giant in the Erlian basin in Inner Mongolia. The researchers had originally thought they had found the bones of a tyrannosaur — the group of dinosaurs to which T. rex belongs — due to their large size.'"

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Reuters: Technology

• 

  Experimental jet tested at 10 times speed of sound

  Posted: June 15th, 2007, 5:30am MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science air plane   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  CANBERRA (Reuters) - An experimental jet engine has been successfully tested at speeds of up to 11,000 km (6,835 miles) per hour, or 10 times the speed of sound, during trials in Australia's outback, defense scientists said on Friday.

  

  

Slashdot

• 

  Mass of Dwarf Planet Eris 27% Greater than Pluto

  Posted: June 14th, 2007, 5:55pm MDT by Zonk

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science astronomy space   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  jcgam69 writes "When it was discovered in 2005, some thought Eris should be considered the 10th planet of our solar system. Everyone still considered Pluto a planet then. At first, Eris was thought to be slightly larger. Now — with the help of Eris' moon — Eris is known to be 27% more massive than Pluto. If Pluto had remained a planet to the entire community of astronomers, surely Eris would be considered the 10th planet."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

NewsForge

• 

  Baylor neuroimaging lab has open source on the brain

  Posted: June 14th, 2007, 4:01pm MDT by StoneLion

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science open source   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  The Baylor College Human Neuroimaging Lab (HNL) uses Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to record and research brain activity. The fMRI scans human brains at work, detecting areas of greater blood flow that indicate which part of the brain is active as subjects perform a variety of activities. The data flows from the scanners to a high-performance 32-node CentOS cluster to be analyzed and returned to researchers in statistical form. HNL Systems Administrator Justin King is a big fan of open source software and frequently writes his own applications when he can't find what he needs in the community. King also takes advantage of commercial open source projects.

DCist

• 

  Sci-Fi Femme Fatales This Month at the Hirshhorn

  Posted: June 12th, 2007, 4:25pm MDT by Ian Buckwalter

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  dc Washington science scifi   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  The women of Venus want to once again experience a man's touch. A former Miss D.C. transcends all normal applications of the term "statuesque beauty". And Jane Fonda does what Jane Fonda does best: save the world. The Hirshhorn brings high camp into the realm of high art with the kickoff of their free "Summer Camp" film series this Thursday. The theme? The feisty, dangerous, and scantily-clad women of adolescent male fantasies 50s & 60s science fiction cinema.

  Strong (but visually exploited) women run a pretty consistent thread through the world of sci-fi/fantasy. While the easiest examples can be found in any comic book store, pop culture at large still carries on the traditions of the classic B-movies. Princess Leia in the gold bikini is pretty much an iconic image at this point, and while Joss Whedon had Sarah Michelle Gellar put the "buff" into Buffy in later seasons, let's not forget that the first season of the series put the Slayer into an endless series of tight sweaters, mini-skirts and push-up bras.

  Every Thursday for the rest of the month, the Hirshhorn screens classics of the genre, with more in-depth discussion of the phenomenon by film scholar David Wilt introducing each film. They also invite everyone to enjoy a BBQ sandwich by the Plaza Fountain before the screenings, to celebrate the "BarBarella-Q" series. It's up to you to provide the sandwich.

  All screenings begin at 8 p.m., are free of charge, and run about an hour and a half.

  The schedule:

  June 14
  Queen of Outer Space (1958)
  Zsa-Zsa Gabor plays a Venutian scientist fighting against her Queen's plan to eradicate men from the solar system, one planet at a time. When three strapping American astronauts land on the planet, many other Venutian women can't help but agree that boys aren't all bad after all, and they must all overthrow the Queen before she destroys the Earth. Civil war was never so sexy.

  June 21
  Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)
  Allison Hayes, D.C.'s entry in the 1949 Miss America pageant and a star of local television in the early 50s, made a career out of schlocky drive-in fare with titles like The Unearthly and The Disembodied. None is more well known, though, than her turn as a five-story colossus with an axe to grind with her no-good cheater of a husband. Philanderers beware.

  June 28
  Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy (1968)
  While "Queen of the Galaxy" technically puts her at second in command to the "Queen of Outer Space", nobody puts Jane Fonda in a corner. Barbarella is one of the biggest cult hits of all time, spawning cultural reference points too numerous to count. She was spreading free love throughout the galaxy long before Tek Jansen came on the scene. You owe it to yourself to see the sexy results on the big screen before Robert Rodriguez updates this 401st century woman for the 21st century next year.

  

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.06.10 - Question and Answer Show

  Posted: June 12th, 2007, 11:47am MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.06.10 - Question and Answer Show

CNN.com

• 

  Scientists claim stem cell breakthrough

  Posted: June 6th, 2007, 5:32pm MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science stem cells   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Read full story for latest details.

  

  

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.06.03 - Animal Behaviour - Feathered Einsteins, Mischievious Meerkats and Monkey Vision

  Posted: June 5th, 2007, 12:03pm MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.06.03 - Animal Behaviour - Feathered Einsteins, Mischievious Meerkats and Monkey Vision

Creative Commons Blog

• 

  Science Commons in the news

  Posted: June 5th, 2007, 11:50am MDT by Kaitlin Thaney

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  cc science commons   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  From the Science Commons blog …

  Information World Review and SPARC’s Open Access Newsletter both feature pieces this month highlighting a new set of online tools recently released by Science Commons and SPARC. The toolkit aims to help authors retain critical rights over their scholarly works.

  From IWR’s article, “Commons copyright targets scientists”, which was posted today:

  “[…]’This is about authors’ rights,’ said John Wilbanks, vice-president [for] Science Commons. ‘Right now, authors trade the most important rights – like the right to make copies of their own scholarly works – to traditional publishers. That trade has led to an imbalanced world of restricted access to knowledge, skyrocketing journal prices, and an inability to apply new technologies to the scholarly canon of knowledge.’”

  More after the jump …

Slashdot

• 

  Terabytes of Mars Pictures Released to Public

  Posted: June 4th, 2007, 3:04pm MDT by ScuttleMonkey

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  mars science images   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Riding with Robots writes "The team that runs the high-rez camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has just released more than 1,200 Mars images to the Planetary Data System, NASA's mission data archive. The team has also released 1.7 Terabytes of data to a user-friendly site that allows users to quickly home in on each image, most of which are a gigabyte-sized files measuring 20,000 by 50,000 pixels. Not all the images have been thoroughly studied yet: in the announcement, the camera's lead scientist said, 'These images must contain hundreds of important discoveries about Mars. We just need time to realize what they are.'"

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Tom's Hardware

• 

  Scientists Convert Processor Heat Into Electricty

  Posted: June 4th, 2007, 2:27pm MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science cpu heat   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Perhaps AMD and Intel should not have abandoned the Gigahertz-race and bunsen-burner processors after all.
  

Slashdot

• 

  Turning Heat Into Sound Into Electricity

  Posted: June 4th, 2007, 1:38pm MDT by ScuttleMonkey

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  WrongSizeGlass writes "Science Daily is reporting on work by physicists at the University of Utah who have developed small devices that turn heat into sound and then into electricity. 'We are converting waste heat to electricity in an efficient, simple way by using sound [...] It is a new source of renewable energy from waste heat.' They report that technology holds promise for changing waste heat into electricity, harnessing solar energy and cooling computers and radars."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

Creative Commons Blog

• 

  SXSW podcasts now online

  Posted: June 4th, 2007, 11:19am MDT by Kaitlin Thaney

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science commons cc   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  From the Science Commons blog …

  Podcasts from this year’s Interactive component of SXSW are now available. Science Commons’ John Wilbanks moderated one of these very panels, exploring the social and legal ramifications of “Semantic Web” and “Web 2.0″ as it applies to scientific publishing. Joining Wilbanks for this panel was Matthew Cockerill (BioMed Central), Melissa Hagemann (Open Society Institute), Timo Hannay (Nature Publishing Group), and Amit Kapoor (Topaz).

  The podcast can be found on the SXSW Web site. We encourage you to visit SXSW 2007’s site for access to all of their telecasts from the event.

Slashdot

• 

  Economic Analysis of Toilet Seat Position

  Posted: June 3rd, 2007, 8:16am MDT by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science game theory   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Ant writes "The Science Creative Quarterly has published an economic analysis of The Social Norm of Leaving the Toilet Down, employing game theory. This analysis is more thorough than preceding ones cited (from 2002 and 2005), as it factors in the cost of yelling. Both men and women can take some comfort in the conclusion though neither may in the end be satisfied.

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  
• 

  The Big Bang Vs. The Big Rumble

  Posted: June 3rd, 2007, 5:33am MDT by Alien54 (posted by kdawson)

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  theory string science big bang   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  WBUR radio in Boston hosts a talk with two physicists, Alan Guth and Neil Turok, who represent, respectively, the consensus theory of the inflationary Big Bang and an upstart theory of the initiation of the universe in the collision of two three-dimensional "branes." Turok and Paul Steinhardt developed their "Ekpyrotic proposal" out of the mathematics behind string theory. In the audio the two physicists are perhaps more respectful of one another's views than the host wishes them to be. If you ignore the "let's you and him fight" framing of the debate, you will hear some interesting physics elucidated.

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

washingtonpost.com - A Section

• 

  Release of Microbe Study Spurs Bioterror Worries

  Posted: May 31st, 2007, 12:00am MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  dna science microbe   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Researchers in Germany reported yesterday that they had altered the DNA of a disease-causing bacterium to enable it to infect a species it cannot normally sicken -- a double-edged advance that experts said could deepen scientists' understanding of human diseases but could also speed the development...

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.05.27 - Planets and Cosmology

  Posted: May 28th, 2007, 11:15am MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.05.27 - Planets and Cosmology

washingtonpost.com - A Section

• 

  Slump in NIH Funding Is Taking Toll on Research

  Posted: May 27th, 2007, 12:00am MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  nih Research science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Stanford University biochemist Roger D. Kornberg won a Nobel Prize last year for work he began in the 1970s, but he is pretty sure that if he had been born a generation later, he never would have had the chance.
• 

  Female Sharks Can Reproduce Alone, Researchers Find

  Posted: May 22nd, 2007, 12:00am MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science shark asexual   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  A team of American and Irish researchers have discovered that some female sharks can reproduce without having sex, the first time that scientists have found the unusual capacity in such an ancient vertebrate species.

Reuters: Technology

• 

  Google takes stake in genomics info startup

  Posted: May 22nd, 2007, 6:32pm MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  google science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  STANFORD, California (Reuters) - Google Inc. has taken a small stake in a biotech company that was co-founded by the wife of one of Google's founders, Sergey Brin, Google said in a U.S. regulatory filing on Tuesday.

  

  

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.05.20 - Volcanic pollution, the Ozone Hole and the Greenhouse Effect - The Atmosphere Show

  Posted: May 22nd, 2007, 1:04pm MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.05.20 - Volcanic pollution, the Ozone Hole and the Greenhouse Effect - The Atmosphere Show

Creative Commons Blog

• 

  Science Commons, SPARC Announce New Tools for Scholarly Publishing

  Posted: May 17th, 2007, 11:45am MDT by Kaitlin Thaney

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science commons cc   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  From the Science Commons blog …

  “Together with SPARC and MIT, we are proud to announce the release of a set of online tools designed to help authors retain rights over their scholarly works, including the right to self-archive their material.

  The Scholar’s Copyright Addendum Engine is one of these tools, making it easier for authors to select and attach an addendum to the standard copyright transfer form, allowing them to amend the traditional terms of agreement with publishers. The Addendum Engine makes this as simple as point-and-click.

  The tool can be found on the Science Commons, SPARC and MIT Web sites, and can also be readily implemented on university sites, such as our first adopter - Carnegie Mellon University. By providing the means to easily plug in the addendum generator on sites such as Carnegie Mellons, the tool takes on a new role, serving as a university toolkit.

  Through the Addendum Engine, authors can choose from an array of provided addenda, some of which have been consolidated in order to address the problem of addenda proliferation. This is true of the Science Commons and SPARC addenda, named “Access-Reuse”, a combination of the SPARC Author Addendum and the Science Commons Publish-Creative Commons Addendum.

  For details on specifying a default agreement and to integrate the addendum generator onto your Web site like Carnegie Mellon, click here.

  We invite you to take a look at the other addenda and materials part of this release. For more information about the launch, please read the official press release. You can also learn more about this project on our Web site, or by visiting SPARC and MIT. “

washingtonpost.com - A Section

• 

  Scientists Cast Doubt on Kennedy Bullet Analysis

  Posted: May 16th, 2007, 12:00am MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science jfk   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  In a collision of 21st-century science and decades-old conspiracy theories, a research team that includes a former top FBI scientist is challenging the bullet analysis used by the government to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald alone shot the two bullets that struck and killed President John F....

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.05.13 - Germs, Fungi and Viruses - The Microscopic World

  Posted: May 15th, 2007, 12:06pm MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.05.13 - Germs, Fungi and Viruses - The Microscopic World

washingtonpost.com - A Section

• 

  Science Notebook

  Posted: May 13th, 2007, 12:00am MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.05.06 - Naked Scientists Question and Answer Show

  Posted: May 7th, 2007, 7:00pm MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.05.06 - Naked Scientists Question and Answer Show

CNN.com

• 

  NASA rethinking death in mission to Mars

  Posted: May 1st, 2007, 6:45pm MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  nasa science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Read full story for latest details.

  

  

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.04.29 - Migrating Genes, Surnames and Y Chromosomes

  Posted: May 1st, 2007, 12:59pm MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.04.29 - Migrating Genes, Surnames and Y Chromosomes

Creative Commons Blog

• 

  Science Commons News: Copyright and fair use in the blogosphere

  Posted: May 1st, 2007, 7:41am MDT by Kaitlin Thaney

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  cc science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  From the Science Commons blog:

  A recent incident in the blogosphere has sparked a discussion on the role of copyright and fair use laws in the digital world.

  Last week, Shelley Batts - a PhD student - was accused of a fair use violation for pulling a figure and a chart from a scientific paper to post on her blog. Soon after Batts posted the data on her site, she received a cease-and-desist letter via e-mail from lawyers from the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, a journal owned by John Wiley. The representative who contacted her accused her of violating fair use by reproducing the material from the journal on her blog. Batts soon took down the figures, reproduced the data in an Excel format, and avoided legal penalty.

  Her experience raises a larger question, though. In the world of blogging where cutting and pasting is common practice, how do copyright and fair use laws apply? Katherine Sharpe addressed this very question on ScienceBlogs, calling on Springer Publishing’s Johannes Velterop and Science Commons’ John Wilbanks to comment. […]

  More after the jump …

CNN.com

• 

  Earth-like planet found

  Posted: April 25th, 2007, 2:10am MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science Earth planet   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Read full story for latest details.

  

  

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.04.22 - Oceans and Marine Conservation

  Posted: April 24th, 2007, 12:32pm MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.04.22 - Oceans and Marine Conservation

Slashdot

• 

  Nanotubes May Improve Solar Energy Harvesting

  Posted: April 24th, 2007, 12:02pm MDT by Zonk

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  eldavojohn writes "Scientists are hoping that the 'coaxial cable' style nanotube they developed will resolve energy issues that come with converting sunlight to energy. The plants currently have us beat in this department but research is discovering new ways to eliminate inefficiencies in transferring photons to energy. Traditional methods involve exciting electrons to the point of jumping to a higher state which leaves 'holes.' Unfortunately, these electrons and holes remain in the same regions and therefore tend to recombine. The new nanotubes hope to route these excited electrons off in the same way a coaxial cable allows a return route for electrons. End result is fewer electrons settling back into their holes once they are elevated out of them yielding a higher return in energy."

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  
• 

  'Kryptonite' Discovered in Serbian Mine

  Posted: April 24th, 2007, 8:46am MDT by Zonk

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science serbia kryptonite   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Rubinstien writes "A mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum was contracted to help identify an unknown mineral found in a Serbian mine. While he initially thought the miners had discovered a unique compound, after its crystal structure was analyzed and identified the researcher was shocked to find the material already referenced in literature. Fictional literature. Dr. Chris Stanley, from the BBC article: 'Towards the end of my research I searched the web using the mineral's chemical formula — sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide — and was amazed to discover that same scientific name, written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luthor from a museum in the film Superman Returns ... I'm afraid it's not green and it doesn't glow either — although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange.'"

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  
• 

  Quantum Physics Parts Ways With Reality

  Posted: April 23rd, 2007, 10:28pm MDT by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science physics einstein   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  aeoneal sends us to PhysicsWeb for news guaranteed to induce headache in those wedded to the reality of, well, reality. Researchers from the University of Vienna have shown the violation of a stronger form of Bell's inequality known as Leggett's inequality. The result means that we must not only give up Einstein's hope of "no spooky action at a distance," we must also give up (some of) the idea that the world exists when we are not looking. From the article: "[Studies] have ruled out all hidden-variables theories based on joint assumptions of realism, meaning that reality exists when we are not observing it; and locality, meaning that separated events cannot influence one another instantaneously. But a violation of Bell's inequality does not tell specifically which assumption — realism, locality, or both — is discordant with quantum mechanics." From the Nature abstract: "Our result suggests that giving up the concept of locality is not sufficient to be consistent with quantum experiments, unless certain intuitive features of realism are abandoned." Only subscribers to Nature, alas, can know what features those are, as PhysicsWeb doesn't tell us.

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  

  

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.04.15 - New Ideas in Cancer

  Posted: April 16th, 2007, 7:00pm MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.04.15 - New Ideas in Cancer

Creative Commons Blog

• 

  Science Commons goes virtual

  Posted: April 13th, 2007, 3:33pm MDT by Kaitlin Thaney

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science cc   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  John Wilbanks will be giving a talk in the virtual world Second Life this Monday (4/16). Taking on avatar-form for his first official SL speaking engagement, Wilbanks will be giving an introduction to Science Commons. The talk - “Scientific Research and the Creative Commons Methodology” - will shed light on the application of CC copyright licenses in a research context for science. The talk will also examine the application of CC methods such as standard human-readable contracts and technology implementations of contracts to non-digital materials (such as DNA, stem cells, research animals).

  An avatar is required to attend this lecture, which can be acquired for free on Second Life’s Web site.

  The event will take place at the Science Center on Info Island II at 1 p.m. EST/ 10 a.m. SL time.

• 

  Science Commons News: EU Commissioner calls for emphasis on knowledge

  Posted: April 10th, 2007, 2:44pm MDT by Kaitlin Thaney

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science cc   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  From the Science Commons blog:

  A commissioner of Science and Research for the European Union has called for “knowledge” to be added as the fifth community freedom. The four other freedoms recognized from the EU Treaty are goods, services, capital and labor.

  Janez Potocnik proposed this idea at the launch of his green paper, “The European Research Area: New Perspectives”, last week. The paper outlines the components necessary to maximize the potential in the European Research Area (ERA) with a new emphasis - the movement of knowledge. […]

  More after the jump …

Engadget

• 

  Meade intros mySKY Personal Planetarium

  Posted: April 9th, 2007, 5:02pm MDT by Donald Melanson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science space photo digital photgraphy   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

  It may not let you take deep space photographs, but Meade's new mySKY Personal Planetarium should help to give you a better sense of your cosmic environs, and also double as a suitable ray gun prop in your next no-budget sci-fi movie. To keep things simple, Meade's thankfully packed some GPS capabilities into the device, which should keep it properly aligned at all times with no input needed from you. Those GPS capabilities can also be extended to any Meade AutoStar-enabled telescope, with the mySKY doubling as a control unit for the telescope. In either configuartion, the device will let you find and identify more than 30,000 astronomical objects, displaying all the relevant information on its 480 x 234 LCD. You'll need to be fairly serious about your backyard astronomy to consider one of these though, with it set to demand a hefty $400 when it's released next month.

   

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• 

  Hovercraft helicopter hybrid UAV attracts interest of US military

  Posted: April 9th, 2007, 8:07am MDT by Conrad Quilty-Harper

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  hovercraft science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Transportation

  Geoff Hatton, a British engineer that previously worked on hovercraft designs, has designed an unmanned aerial vehicle that has attracted the interest of the US military and its very healthy budget allocation. The design is based around the melding of a hovercraft with a helicopter, and manages to take some of the best characteristics of each. For one thing, the saucer shaped UAV can fly high in the air (unlike a hovercraft) but also doesn't have a large rotor blade (unlike a helicopter.) The concept takes advantage of the "coanda effect" -- which says that a fluid will tend to stay attached to a convex surface -- with control surfaces at the base of the UFO-like vehicle used to alter the course of the UAV. One of the main reasons that the military is interested is that the design means there's much less of a problem with collisions because the rotor isn't as big or as exposed on other reconnaissance vehicles, although Geoff points out that there are "a lot of prospects besides the military": because civilians can be klutzes when it comes to unmanned aerial vehicles too.
  
  [Via The Raw Feed]

   

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• 

  ASTRO satellite hooks spacecraft up with fuel whilst orbiting

  Posted: April 8th, 2007, 1:20pm MDT by Darren Murph

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Robots

  Launching a few birds into space is quite a feat in its own right, but pumping hydrazine fuel into an orbiting counterpart autonomously is really something to be proud of. Just about a month after launching the two unmanned crafts into space, the ASTRO satellite "successfully pumped vital hydrazine fuel into its NextSat counterpart as part of Scenario 0-1, the first in a series of increasingly challenging tests." The machines are currently taking part in the series of Orbital Express missions, and apparently, things are on the up and up thus far. Future tests are slated to include "autonomous undocking, proximity operations and re-docking," as well as installing a battery on NextSat with its robotic arm. We can't wait to see what happens when one of the two gets testy about refueling after hours, but we sure hope the galactic battle is somehow caught on tape.
  
  [Via Digg]

   

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  BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

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• 

  Medical robot can do organ biopsies during MRI scans

  Posted: April 7th, 2007, 1:31pm MDT by Conrad Quilty-Harper

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science medicine robot   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Robots

  The Johns Hopkins Urology Robotics Lab based in Baltimore, Maryland has developed a medical robot called the PneuStep that is capable of carrying out organ biopsies in the process of an MRI scan. The robot features a motor that provides power "without metal or electricity" which means that it can operate within the intense magnetic fields generated by Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines. Instead, it is made of "plastics, ceramics and rubber" and is "driven by light and air": specifically, a series of pistons and gears which are controlled by a computer in the next room. The motor also happens to be far more precise than the bags of meat that we usually trust to remove our tumors. The PneuStep could improve the treatment of prostate cancer, which is apparently in many cases impossible to spot outside of an MRI machine. Previously, surgeons relied on "blind" biopsies in the case of operations on organs like the prostate. We'd imagine then that the addition of this robot to a surgeon's tool box will do wonders for patient morale.
  
  [Via Medgadget]

   

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• 

  USC researcher crafting silicon brain cells

  Posted: April 7th, 2007, 6:18am MDT by Darren Murph

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science medicice brain   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

  C'mon, linking actual brain cells to a silicon chip might sound a bit sensational at first, but considering the work that's already been done on replacement retinas and human brains, Ted Berger's recently-hyped work is pretty much right on time. Essentially, the USC researcher has spent the past decade or so "engineering a brain implant that can re-create thoughts," and moreover, certain implementations could even "remedy everything from Alzheimer's to absent-mindedness." We know, thoughts of instantaneous brilliance are running wild through your mind, and considering that Ted (and his highly-regarded team) have figured out how to link a silicon chip to actual brain cells and elicit responses, the possibilities are indeed nearly endless. Put simply, Berger hopes that brain disorders that are currently battled with intensive drug regimens with less-than-exciting side effects can be solved "by simply implanting a few computerized brain cells." Of course, the team admits that it's "years, maybe decades" away from hospital-approved apparatuses, but if you're interested in reading (a lot) more about "the future of brain science," grab your specs, prepare your paltry short term memory, and hit the read link for all the insight.
  
  [Via MedGadget]

   

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• 

  NASA's PILOT project could autonomously extract oxygen from lunar soil

  Posted: April 6th, 2007, 10:28am MDT by Darren Murph

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  nasa robot science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Robots

  
  We've got means to extract oxygen from water, a portable bar, and even ways to deprive entire server farms of the sustenance, but a new project being tackled by Lockheed Martin is hoping to create O2 on the moon. A critical part of NASA's PILOT (Precursor In-situ Lunar Oxygen Testbed) initiative, this digger bot will work hand-in-hand with a "processing plant that will add hydrogen to moon soil, heat it to 1,652-degrees Fahrenheit, condense the steam, and finally extract the oxygen." Additionally, the blue LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) box atop the three-foot-long machine can assist it in locating "oxygen-rich lunar soil and autonomously carry it to a processing plant." The overriding goal is to use the newly extracted O2 for air, or moreover, to combine it with hydrogen and produce water for the four astronauts that the lunar base could support. Unfortunately, there's no timetable as to when we'll actually see the PILOT roll into action, but we're most interested in porting this bad boy over to Mars along with half the traffic in LA.
  
  [Via The Raw Feed]

   

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  Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

  

Tom's Hardware

• 

  Electricity from Ultrasonic Waves

  Posted: April 5th, 2007, 10:18am MDT

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Nanogenerator could provide electricity for microscopic machines by harvesting energy from its environment
  

Engadget

• 

  Eye opening research into eye closing

  Posted: April 4th, 2007, 6:59pm MDT by Paul Miller

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science eye   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

  
  Fabian's M.A. thesis is a bit hard to read if you take his advice: close your eyes. But despite that little problem, he seems to have come up with some clever applications for eye closing in a computing environment, specifically "How closing the eyes enriches visual media." You just have to peep the video showreel to see what he's getting at, but the basic gist of it involves using winks, squints and blinks to operate related computing tasks, such as closing your eyes to activate text-to-speech, or closing one eye to activate a sniper scope. Other applications get a little bit higher minded, such as using your imagination to improve video content, or merely blinking to shut off the screen and rest you eyes. If you want spy the rest of Fabian's research, you'll have to prop open your own peepers to get a view -- we're taking a nap.

   

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• 

  Stephen Hawking's going Zero-G on April 16th

  Posted: April 4th, 2007, 10:42am MDT by Thomas Ricker

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science space stephen hawking   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Transportation

  It's not quite a ride on Branson's Virgin Galactic but Stephen Hawking is finally getting his chance to leave terra firma. The world famous theoretical physicist has hitched a ride with Zero-G on April 16th. The specially modified 727-200 will take off from the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The craft will perform a number of parabolic maneuvers in flight to create a Mars-like, moon-like, and zero-g gravity experience -- a flight lasting 90 minutes in total. A brief history of time, indeed.
  
  [Via The Inquirer]
  
  Read [warning: PDF]

   

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• 

  Chinese engineers reveal nuclear-powered lunar rover

  Posted: April 3rd, 2007, 1:54pm MDT by Evan Blass

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  robot science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Robots

  
  digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/Chinese_engineers_reveal_nuclear_powered_lunar_rover'; While the US is already thinking ahead to manned missions on Mars, China's space program is still in its infancy, with the country taking the very first steps to sending vehicles and eventually people to the Moon. After launching a lunar orbiter later this year, scientists will begin the process of choosing among several competing rover designs for exploring the Moon's geology and terrain, and now the first of these candidates has been unveiled for public consumption. Very similar to the famous Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the six-wheeled bot created by a team at Shanghai Aerospace System Engineering Institute is capable of cruising around the Moon at a reported 100 meters per hour, all the while snapping photos and collecting bits of moon rock for analysis and possible sale on eBay. Perhaps the most interesting part of this design is its dual-mode power system, which consists of the standard solar cell array as well as a nuclear power source, allowing the rover to operate continuously and in areas that go long periods without sunlight. No word yet on when exactly the Chinese will pick the winning rover, but expect whichever model emerges victorious to head skyward sometime in 2012.
  
  [Via BBC, photo courtesy of Shanghai Daily]

   

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• 

  MIT gurus developing bionic feet / ankles

  Posted: April 3rd, 2007, 10:37am MDT by Darren Murph

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  mit medicine science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Robots

  Leave it to the brilliant minds at MIT's Biomechatronics Lab to crank out yet another bionic limb, as a newfangled mechanical foot / ankle combo is apparently on the minds of more than a few of its researchers. In a recent patent application, the team describes an "artificial foot and ankle joint" consisting of a "leaf spring foot member," flexible elastic ankle, and an actuator motor that applies force to the ankle. Aside from sporting a fairly intelligent system to improving one's gait, it also boasts a built-in safety feature that prevents foot rotation beyond a specified angle, and the internal sensors can also activate the motors at different intervals depending on the surface in which one is walking. The prosthetic feet join a horde of other bionic limbs and appendages meant to make life as an amputee a fair bit easier, and as terrific as this here invention sounds, we're betting the Olympic committee dashes your hopes of illegally obliterating a few running records by barring these from basic competitions.
  
  [Via NewScientistTech]

   

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• 

  Intelligent micro-drill carefully delves through tissue

  Posted: April 3rd, 2007, 3:43am MDT by Darren Murph

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science robot medicine   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Robots

  
  While the idea of a robotic surgeon always makes us a bit weary, a new micro-drill crafted in the UK is earning its stripes (and the public's trust) the old fashioned way: by executing its duties without harming someone. The intelligent medical drill was developed by Peter Brett and colleagues at the University of Aston and David Proops, a surgeon at University Hospital Birmingham, and is "used to bore small holes in the side of a patient's head so that a surgeon can install an implant." Aside from being just slightly creeped out at that imagery, a surgical device that has worked perfectly in three actual operations demands respect, as the device has successfully allowed doctors to "give profoundly deaf patients cochlear implants." This device stands out due to its uncanny ability to sense pressure, torque, and force, and can automatically shut down if it feels it's going to pierce a membrane that shouldn't be punctured -- and for all you fellows who greatly prefer your hair over just about anything, we're sure the implant industry is already checking into it.
  
  [Via NewScientistTech]

   

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-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.04.01 - Heart Disease and Repairing the Damaged Heart

  Posted: April 2nd, 2007, 8:00pm MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.04.01 - Heart Disease and Repairing the Damaged Heart

Engadget

• 

  Cornell researchers developing lie-detection software

  Posted: March 30th, 2007, 8:51pm MDT by Darren Murph

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  lie detector science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

  While most of the world simply takes what everyone else says at face value, there's always been a dark market for inconspicuous lie-detecting gadgetry for the overly paranoid, but researchers at Cornell University are hoping to take lie-detection to the next level by carefully analyzing emails and SMS messages for fibs. In a three-year effort to "compile a list of indicators of written deception," the team drew from some "40 years of research in linguistics and lies, including recent work in the context of computer media and reviews of Enron emails." By carefully inspecting word choices, verb tenses, and a variety of other textual factors, the software can purportedly use "contextual parameters" to spot lies, and they hope to market the goods to police agencies, upset spouses, and of course, corporate ethics committees.So if you're ever-so-suspicious significant other (or mischievous youngster) has just recently put down the Skype headset in favor of pounding out emails, rest assured, help is on the way.
  
  [Via TechDirt, image via Cornell]

   

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• 

  Nanotube breakthrough creates scalable transistors

  Posted: March 30th, 2007, 4:41pm MDT by Darren Murph

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

  
  Nanotubes have certainly played their part in various forms of swank gadgetry over the years, but researchers at the University of Illinois, Lehigh University, and Purdue University seem to have upped the ante for future nanotube implementations. Their approach utilizes "dense arrays of aligned and linear nanotubes as a thin-film semiconductor material suitable for integration into electronic devices," which essentially means that the arrays can be transferred into devices where silicon isn't entirely comfortable, such as "flexible displays, structural health monitors, and heads-up displays." Interestingly, the creators aren't expecting their discovery to overtake silicon, but they did mention that the linear arrays could be "added to a silicon chip and exploited for particular purposes, such as higher speed operation, higher power capacity, and linear behavior for enhanced functionality." Sounds like these gurus are just the type Intel would be scouting right about now, eh?
  
  [Via TechnologyReview]

   

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• 

  Mempile shows off "TeraDisc" DVD-sized optical storage

  Posted: March 28th, 2007, 12:25pm MDT by Paul Miller

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  storage dish science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Storage

  
  Somehow, in a world of 300GB holographic discs being packaged with cereal boxes -- OK, maybe we're not quite there yet -- a 1TB optical disc doesn't sound too terribly far fetched. However, Mempile's upcoming TeraDisc technology deserves no scoffing, with its 100 virtual layers for storage at a "fraction of the price" of other storage solutions on the market. Currently the disc can store 500GB in a transparent disc the thickness of a DVD, but future optimizations will allow for 200 layers of data, with 5GB on each layer, for a whole terabyte of good times. The capacity improvements come from the fact that the disc is transparent, so the laser doesn't have to bounce off of anything, it just goes right through. Right now the technology is still in development, but "strategic agreements" are already in place with media and device manufacturers, so all we've got to worry about is where to store all these cute kitten pics of ours while we're waiting for these discs to hit shelves.

   

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• 

  Scientists forge molecular-sized scissors

  Posted: March 27th, 2007, 5:23am MDT by Donald Melanson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  molecular scissors science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

  digg_url = 'http://digg.com/general_sciences/Scientists_Forge_Molecular_Sized_Scissors'; We've already seen molecular elevators, keypad locks, and even spiders, but a team of scientists at the University of Tokyo have now further expanded our pint-sized toolkit, crafting a pair of molecular scissors for those hard to reach places. Apparently, the scientists used rings of carbon and hydrogen for the blades, with a "chiral ferrocene" molecule supplying the pivot point, and couple of "phenylene groups" acting as handles -- all of which adds up to to a mere three nanometers in length. To manipulate the scissors, the scientists simply alternate between shining visible light and UV rays to open and close 'em. According to LiveScience, the team's now working on a slightly larger pair of clippers that can be operated remotely, potentially for use inside the human body -- which is only a somewhat less scary prospect than a swarm of nanobots being let loose for a little autonomous repair work.

   

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  BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

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-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.03.25 - The Science of Flight

  Posted: March 26th, 2007, 8:00pm MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.03.25 - The Science of Flight

Creative Commons Blog

• 

  Show your support for Open Access

  Posted: March 21st, 2007, 3:35pm MDT by Kaitlin Thaney

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  cc science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  From the Science Commons blog:

  Last month’s National Day of Action for Open Access raised awareness on college campuses nationwide about public access for taxpayer-funded research. Coinciding with this outpouring of support was the presentation of over 24,000 signatures from around the world in support of open access to European research, presented to the European Commission.

  The momentum achieved was tremendous, but is only the beginning.

  Building off of the tens of thousands of signatories of the European petition, a number of leading American organizations are backing the Petition for Public Access to Publicly Funded Research in the United States.

  In signing this petition, whether as an individual or as an organization, you pledge your support for free and open access to research paid for by your tax dollars. We hope that this will demonstrate to leading policy makers and officials just how important this issue is. Doing so just may help change existing policies.

  We here at Science Commons encourage you to join us and over 1,870 other signatories in showing your support.

  To sign the petition, click here. For more information on current poicies and legislation regarding public access to taxpayer-funded research, including the Federal Research Public Access Act, visit the ATA’s Web site.

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

• 

  Naked Scientists 07.03.18 - National Science and Engineering Week

  Posted: March 19th, 2007, 8:00pm MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.03.18 - National Science and Engineering Week

Slashdot

• 

  Diodes Could Drive Swimming Micro-Robots

  Posted: March 16th, 2007, 4:09am MDT by CowboyNeal

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science robot   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  finisterre writes "Diodes can be made to 'swim' through salt water by hitting them with an alternating electric field. The applied field induces a current that sets up a field between the diode's electrical contacts and creates a propulsive force. The abstract of the paper in Nature Materials is freely available. New Scientist has videos of the swimming diodes in action."

  

  
• 

  Enormous Amount of Frozen Water Found on Mars

  Posted: March 15th, 2007, 12:50am MDT by CowboyNeal

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  mars ice water science frozen   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  schweini writes "Space.com is reporting that the Mars Express probe's MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding) experiment has detected and measured an enormous amount of water ice near Mars' south pole, which would be sufficient to submerge the whole planet's surface underneath approximately 10m of water on average."

  

  
• 

  Genetically Modified Maize Is Toxic — Greenpeace

  Posted: March 15th, 2007, 10:47am MDT by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science toxic   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  gandracu writes "It appears that a variety of genetically modified maize produced by Monsanto is toxic for the liver and kidneys. What's worse, Monsanto knew about it and tried to conceal the facts in its own publications. Greenpeace fought in court to obtain the data and had it analyzed by a team of experts. MON863, the variety of GM maze in question, has been authorized for markets in the US, EU, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, and the Philippines. Here are Greenpeace's brief on the study and their account of how the story was unearthed (both PDFs)."

  

  
• 

  Spacecraft May Surf Magnetic Fields

  Posted: March 14th, 2007, 2:03am MDT by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science Magnetic fields space spacecraft   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Maggie McKee writes "Future spacecraft may surf the magnetic fields of Earth and other planets, taking previously unfeasible routes around the solar system, according to a proposal funded by NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts. The electrically charged craft would not need rockets or propellant of any kind. To get charged up, the spacecraft could either fire a beam of charged particles into space or simply allow a radioactive isotope to emit charged particles. Because long, thin filaments have large surface areas for holding charge, the spacecraft might look like Einstein's head — with wiry filaments sticking out at all angles — or a weird space 'stocking.'"

  

  
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  A New Lease On Internal Combustion

  Posted: March 13th, 2007, 5:31pm MDT by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science internal combustion   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Somnus suggests we check out the latest issue of MIT's Technology Review, where researchers describe how they can dramatically boost engine output and efficiency by preventing pre-ignition, or "knock." How they do it: "Both turbocharging and direct injection are preexisting technologies, and neither looks particularly impressive... by combining them, and augmenting them with a novel way to use a small amount of ethanol, Cohn and his colleagues have created a design that they believe could triple the power of a test engine."

  

  
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  New Horizons Probe's Images of Jupiter

  Posted: March 12th, 2007, 8:51pm MDT by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  jupiter science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  SeaDour writes "The Pluto-bound New Horizons space probe, launched a little over a year ago, recently succeeded in passing through a narrow navigational keyhole by Jupiter. Using the gas giant's tremendous gravity, the craft now has a significant boost toward its final destination, shaving three years off the time it would otherwise spend en-route. As it passed through the Jovian system, the probe took some fantastic images of the neighborhood, including detailed observations of erupting volcanoes on Io, time-lapse photography of Jupiter's tumultuous atmosphere, and the faint ring system that was first discovered in Voyager photography. These new images prove the capabilities of the small probe, which is set to reach Pluto in 2015."

  

  

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

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  Naked Scientists 07.03.11 - Naked Science Question and Answer

  Posted: March 12th, 2007, 8:00pm MDT

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.03.11 - Naked Science Question and Answer

Slashdot

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  The Search for Dark Matter and Dark Energy

  Posted: March 12th, 2007, 6:34pm MDT by ScuttleMonkey

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science dark matter energy   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  mlimber writes "The New York Times Magazine has a lengthy article on dark matter and dark energy, discussing the past, present, and future. 'Astronomers now realize that dark matter probably involves matter that is nonbaryonic ["meaning that it doesn't consist of the protons and neutrons of 'normal' matter"]. And whatever it is that dark energy involves, we know it's not 'normal,' either. In that case, maybe this next round of evidence will have to be not only beyond anything we know but also beyond anything we know how to know.'"

  

  

Creative Commons Blog

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  Science Commons News: An Open Data project from Google?

  Posted: March 9th, 2007, 10:28am MST by Kaitlin Thaney

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science commons cc open data   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  From the Science Commons blog:

  In a recent BBC article, Google’s Chris DiBona talked about a new program under development to help ameliorate some of the transfer problems in moving enormous data sets - up to 120,000 gigabytes worth.

  The project has not been released to the public, but would involve taking massive data sets, copying the sets, and keeping the data in open form - whether under a Creative Commons license or some other format. […]

  More after the jump …

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  Science Commons News: Elsevier, HHMI and Open Access

  Posted: March 8th, 2007, 3:20pm MST by Kaitlin Thaney

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  commons data science cc   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  From the Science Commons blog:

  Elsevier - a dominant subscription-based publisher - has made a deal with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute regarding Open Access.

  Announced today, the agreement will make author manuscripts of articles published in Elsevier and Cell Press journals available to the public (in PubMed Central) six months after publication. The conditions will be applied to articles published after September 1, 2007 on HHMI funded research.

  More after the jump …

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

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  Naked Scientists 07.03.04 - Peruvian Mummies and Animal Domestication

  Posted: March 5th, 2007, 7:00pm MST

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.03.04 - Peruvian Mummies and Animal Domestication
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  Naked Scientists 07.02.25 - Parasites and Clean Water Supplies

  Posted: February 26th, 2007, 7:00pm MST

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.02.25 - Parasites and Clean Water Supplies
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  Naked Scientists 07.02.18 - Naked Question and Answer and Venomous Vipers

  Posted: February 19th, 2007, 7:00pm MST

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.02.18 - Naked Question and Answer and Venomous Vipers

Slashdot

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  Scientists Expose Weak DNA in HIV

  Posted: February 17th, 2007, 10:43am MST by CowboyNeal

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science dna   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Ace905 writes "The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced Thursday that they had discovered a very promising 'weak spot' in the HIV virus. The HIV virus, a progenitor to full blown AIDS has eluded all attempts at a vaccine since it was discovered sometime in the 1970's. The major problem with developing a vaccine initially was isolating the virus. Conventional viruses are often defeated with existing drugs, or after being tested against new compounds. HIV has been unique, and staggering in it's ability to resist all attempts at treatment by mutating its own genetic code. HIV is able to resist, with great effectiveness, any drug or combination drug-therapy that is used against it."

  

  
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  Bionic Eye Could Restore Vision

  Posted: February 16th, 2007, 6:15pm MST by Zonk

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  MattSparkes writes "A new bionic eye could restore vision to the profoundly blind. A prototype was tested on six patients and 'within a few weeks all could detect light, identify objects and even perceive motion again. For one patient, this was the first time he had seen anything in half a century.' The user wears a pair of glasses that contain a miniature camera and that wirelessly transmits video to a cellphone-sized computer in the wearer's pocket. This computer processes the image information and wirelessly transmits it to a tiny electronic receiver implanted in the wearer's head."

  

  

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

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  Naked Scientists 07.02.11 - Nuclear Power and Radiation in Medicine

  Posted: February 12th, 2007, 7:00pm MST

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.02.11 - Nuclear Power and Radiation in Medicine

washingtonpost.com - A Section

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  SCIENCE

  Posted: February 11th, 2007, 12:00am MST

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  Greenland glaciers science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Two of Greenland's largest glaciers that flow to lower elevations and the ocean are waxing and waning rapidly, researchers reported last week, suggesting that the effects of global warming on sea levels may be difficult to predict.
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  FINDINGS

  Posted: February 8th, 2007, 12:00am MST

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science autism   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Scientists are raising the first hope of recovery from an autism-like disease that leaves thousands of girls unable to talk or walk -- with an experiment that erased symptoms of the disorder in genetically engineered mice.

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

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  Naked Scientists 07.02.04 - Science of Pain and Phantom Limbs

  Posted: February 5th, 2007, 7:00pm MST

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.02.04 - Science of Pain and Phantom Limbs
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  Naked Scientists 07.01.28 - Extreme Organisms and Hydrothermal Vents

  Posted: January 29th, 2007, 7:00pm MST

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.01.28 - Extreme Organisms and Hydrothermal Vents

nbc4.com - Washington, D.C. Local News

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  Third Potomac Fish Species Develops Intersex Characteristics

  Posted: January 24th, 2007, 4:09pm MST

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science potomac fish river   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Scientists have discovered a third fish species with intersex characteristics in the Potomac River basin.

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

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  Naked Scientists 07.01.21 - Climate Change and Renewable Energy

  Posted: January 22nd, 2007, 7:00pm MST

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.01.21 - Climate Change and Renewable Energy
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  Naked Scientists 07.01.14 - Naked Science Question and Answer and the World of Chemistry

  Posted: January 15th, 2007, 7:00pm MST

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.01.14 - Naked Science Question and Answer and the World of Chemistry

Creative Commons Blog

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  Another Reason for Opening Access to Research

  Posted: January 11th, 2007, 12:43pm MST by Mia Garlick

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  cc science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Open access journal — the British Medical Journal — recently published an article by John Wilbanks, the Executive Director of one of CC’s projects: Science Commons. While much has been written about open access and it represents a welcome and increasing trend in scientific and academic publishing, John’s article provides a timely focus on how Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web can practically ensure that access is open and we reap the full benefits of it, after the legal barriers have been removed.

Slashdot

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  Astronomer Discovers the Most Distant Stars Ever Observed From Earth

  Posted: January 10th, 2007, 3:47pm MST by ScuttleMonkey

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  distant star nasa science space   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Cryolithic writes to tell us The Vancouver Sun is reporting that a University of B.C. astronomer recently used NASA's Hubble telescope to see a cluster of stars one billion light-years from Earth, the farthest stars ever observed from Earth. From the article: "That's interesting, he explains, because given that light travels at a finite speed -- 300,000 km a second -- the light emitted from the star cluster he and Kalirai saw was emitted one billion years ago. That means the cluster as it appeared to them two months ago was the way it looked one billion years ago. In other words, they were looking one billion years back in time."

  

  
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  The Astronomical Event Search Engine

  Posted: January 9th, 2007, 11:05pm MST by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  google space astrology science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  eldavojohn writes "Google has signed on with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project that will construct a powerful telescope in Chile by 2013. Google's part will be to 'develop a search engine that can process, organize, and analyze the voluminous amounts of data coming from the instrument's data streams in real time. The engine will create "movie-like windows" for scientists to view significant space events.' Google's been successful on turning its search technology on several different media and realms. Will they be successful with helping scientists tag and catalog events in our universe?" The telescope will generate 30 TB of data a night, for 10 years, from a 3-gigapixel CCD array.

  

  
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  NASA Will Go Metric On the Moon

  Posted: January 9th, 2007, 3:23pm MST by kdawson

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  nasa space moon science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  An anonymous reader writes "Space.com is reporting that NASA has decided to use the metric system for its new lunar missions. NASA hopes that metrication will allow easier international participation and safer missions. The loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter was blamed on an error converting between English units and metric units. 'When we made the announcement at the meeting, the reps for the other space agencies all gave a little cheer,' said a NASA official."

  

  
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  Detection of Earth-like Civilizations in Space Now Possible

  Posted: January 9th, 2007, 11:20am MST by Zonk

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  space science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Mr. McGibby writes "Astronomers have come up with an improved method of looking for extraterrestrial life with an Earth-like civilization. Theorist Avi Loeb proposes to use instruments like the Low Frequency Demonstrator (LFD) of the Mileura Wide-Field Array (MWA), an Australian facility for radio astronomy currently under construction. The array could (theoretically) detect civilizations broadcasting in the same frequencies as our own society. From the article: 'Loeb and Zaldarriaga calculate that by staring at the sky for a month, the MWA-LFD could detect Earth-like radio signals from a distance of up to 30 light-years, which would encompass approximately 1,000 stars. More powerful broadcasts could be detected to even greater distances. Future observatories like the Square Kilometer Array could detect Earth-like broadcasts from 10 times farther away, which would encompass 100 million stars. ' The original paper describes the details."

  

  

-The Naked Scientists Science Radio Show PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

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  Naked Scientists 07.01.07 - Red Wine, Caffeine and Bugs in Your Guts

  Posted: January 8th, 2007, 7:00pm MST

  LBL_ENCLOSURE [LBL_DOWNLOAD]

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Naked Scientists 07.01.07 - Red Wine, Caffeine and Bugs in Your Guts

washingtonpost.com - A Section

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  SCIENCE

  Posted: December 31st, 2007, 12:00am MST

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  A hormone associated with the onset of puberty in humans appears to play an important role in telling rodents whether it is the proper season to reproduce. The recently discovered hormone, called kisspeptin, is different in people and in hamsters but seems to serve a related reproductive function.
  

Slashdot

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  Flexible, Plastic Sheets of Power

  Posted: December 30th, 2006, 1:35am MST by Zonk

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  flexible power generator science   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  bethr writes "Imagine never having to plug in an electronic device to get power? Researchers at the University of Tokyo have demonstrated prototype plastic sheets with copper coils that wirelessly supply power to any device that touches its surface. You just put down your laptop and the pad sends it power: 'An array of organic transistors that detect the position of the gadget and direct current flow.' Apparently, the researchers had enough time to create a spiffy video of their doll house model, complete with a mini Christmas tree, showing off the technology."

  

  

Engadget

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  Chemists craft molecular keypad lock

  Posted: December 29th, 2006, 2:02am MST by Darren Murph

  LBL_TAG_TAGS:  molecule science lock   [LBL_TAG_EDIT]

  Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

  While the folks behind the AACS could probably use a few pointers about constructing a sufficient lock of their own, a group of scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovat, Israel have crafted a molecule-sized "keypad lock" that "only activates when exposed to the correct password, a sequence of chemicals and light." Organic chemist Abraham Shanzer and his colleagues suggest that their invention could "lead to a new level of safeguards for secret information," but we tend think the infamous hackers of the world would inevitably crack the code. Nevertheless, the molecule -- dubbed FLIP -- houses a core linker that mimics a bacterial compound that binds to iron, and attached to it are two molecules that respectively can glow either blue or green. Using three "buttons," which just so happen to be an acidic molecule, an alkaline compound, and ultraviolet light, the lock can be "opened" if given the right sequence of chemicals and light, and there's a grand total of two noticeable results possible. Interestingly, the researchers have insinuated that their creation could be used to recognize "when certain sequences of chemicals (like harmful toxins) are released in the body," but we haven't heard a 10-4 from the US Army just yet.
  
  [Via Yahoo, thanks, Antonio H.]

   

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