New research indicates that sex differences in studies of jealousy by evolutionary psychologists are spurious, an artifact of the particular method used in those studies.
They suggest that, rather than representing a hard-wired psychological mechanism for promoting reproduction, jealousy could have evolved in each sex for some more general purpose — for example, protecting social bonds in a very social species.
New $99 software that converts standard two-dimensional video images into three-dimensional viewing in real time has been unveiled.
The PC-based system requires users to wear special glasses. The technology creates the illusion of depth by generating two images out of one, each tilted and distorted to generate the illusion of depth when combined.
A chip for TV sets is expected in 2003.
The world’s best human chess player, Vladimir Kramnik, has taken the lead over Deep Fritz, the world’s best computer player, in a million-dollar battle between man and machine.
Kramnik was given a copy of Deep Fritz three months before the start of the contest, allowing him to prepare in a similar way as he would for a match with a grandmaster — by analyzing his previous games.
Unlike… read more
Implants may allow human minds to commune with each other directly, monitor body functions in real time, and (by 2050) link into a global network in which police respond to the mere thought of crime, says Professor Kevin Warwick.
MIT has posted a sampling of its free courses, with 32 classes in 17 departments, on its OpenCourseWare (OCW) website.
Over the next decade, the university will post lecture notes, assignments, syllabi, tutorials, video simulations and reading lists from over 2,000 courses on the site.
The Association of Lisp Users (ALU) has announced that the first annual ILC ChatterBot Beauty Contest will be held during the International Lisp Conference 2002 in San Francisco, October 27 to 31.
Bots competing in the event will be judged “not only on apparent intelligence but also on their artistic abilities, their personalities, their sense of humor, their imagination,” according to an ILU statement.
ALU has… read more
Researchers have discovered a way to convert nanotubes into superconductors by placing hydrogen on the exterior, leading to dense concentrations of charge-carrying electrons.
Carbon nanotubes are considered to be building blocks of future electronic and mechanical devices.
References:
NIST press release: “Can Nanotubes Be Engineered to Superconduct?”
“Effects of hydrogen adsorption on single-wall carbon nanotubes: Metallic hydrogen decoration,” by O. Gulseren, T. Yildirim, and S.… read more
Quantum cryptography keys encoded in polarized photons of light have been transmitted more than 23 kilometers through air, British researchers have announced. They say the breakthrough is an important step towards a satellite-based global communications system that is completely secure and expect to have a system design by March 2003.
Quantum cryptography guarantees that keys cannot be intercepted without the sender and receiver knowing by using the quantum properties… read more
California Institute of Technology researchers hope to replace large chemistry equipment with devices based on a fluidic storage chip that can store 1,000 different substances in an area slightly larger than a postage stamp.
The technology could eventually allow experiments that involve hundreds or thousands of liquid samples to run on desktop or even handheld devices, potentially reducing the cost and complexity of medical testing, genetics research and drug… read more
The Library of Congress is evaluating grid technology to preserve and manage the library’s more than 7.5 million digital records from 100 collections of manuscripts, books, maps, films, sound recordings and photographs in its American Memory project.
Researchers have now created transistors whose switching components are literally single atoms. The next application of molecular electronics will most likely be for computer memory. In the longer term, scientists are still thinking how to use their molecular circuits for performing the logic operations of computer chips.
Ray Kurzweil will present a comprehensive program for extending longevity and vitality that he devised in collaboration with longevity expert Terry Grossman, M.D. in “A Bridge to a Bridge to a Bridge,” a talk at the Fifth Alcor Conference on Extreme Life Extension in Newport Beach, CA, November 15-17. Based on correcting imbalances in metabolic processes, the program is the subject of a forthcoming book and is a… read more
Microsoft Corp. has unveiled the Center for Information Work, a permanent exhibit of office products and software that are at least five years away.
The future concepts include surround sound, copying or moving material between the computers by just pointing at them, and multimedia email, but Microsoft failed to address important security issues in the center. The future concepts include surround sound, copying or moving material between the computers… read more
Bell Labs has fired Jan Hendrik Schon for falsifying experimental data in the areas of superconductivity, molecular electronics and molecular crystals.
Cryonic breakthroughs in preventing tissue damage from freezing, human therapeutic cloning to replace damaged or missing tissue, and radical new techniques for life extension will be among the topics addressed at the Fifth Alcor Conference on Extreme Life Extension in Newport Beach, CA, November 15-17.Michael D. West, President & CEO of Advanced Cell Technology; Ray Kurzweil, CEO, Kurzweil Technologies; and Gregory Benford, science fiction writer and Professor of… read more