KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News

3D chip stacking to take Moore's Law past 2020

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:12:23 GMT

By combining 3D-stack-architecture of multiple cores with hair-thin, liquid-cooled microchannels, IBM and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich hope to extend Moore's law for another decade or more. 3D chip stacks with interlayer cooling overcome the bandwidth bottleneck between core and cache memory and allow for systems with a much higher efficiency, so supercomputers won't consume too much energy to be affordable. To solve the cooling challenge, the team is developing Aquasar, a first-of-a-kind, water-cooled supercomputer. The team plans to design microchannels with single-phase liquid and two-phase cooling systems using nano-surfaces that pipe coolants within a few millimeters of the chip to absorb the heat. More info: IBM Zurich (Source: )

Lasers + nanotubes create invisible wireless speakers

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:49:40 GMT

High-quality, intense sound can be generated when vertical arrays of nanotubes ("forests") are struck with laser light modulated by sound, University of Texas At Dallas researchers have discovered. The nanotubes absorb energy from the laser light, inducing variations in the pressure of the air around the nanotubes, which are perceived as sound (the thermo-acoustic effect). No electrical contact with the nanotube speaker is required, making them wireless. "Speakers made with carbon nanotube sheets are extremely thin, light and almost transparent," said Dr. Mikhail Kozlov, a research scientist and the study's lead author. "They have no moving parts and can be attached to any surface, which makes the surface acoustically active. They can be concealed in television and computer screens, apartment walls, or in the windows of buildings and cars. The almost invisible strands form films that can 'talk.'" The technology can also be used for noise cancellation. More info: University of Texas At Dallas (Source: )

How electricity moves through cells

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:00:56 GMT

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have created a molecular image of a system that moves electrons between proteins in cells, obtained using x-ray crystallography. The study could provide insights to minimize energy loss in other systems, from shrinking electronic circuitry to a more efficient electrical grid. More info: University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences (Source: )

Reading minds with computers and fMRI

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:00:25 GMT

Past events leave unique "memory traces" in the hippocampus of the brain that can be distinguished from one another in fMRI brain scans, a study at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London has found. While inside an fMRI scanner, volunteers were asked to recall each of three films they had just seen. A computer algorithm then identified which film the volunteer was recalling purely by looking at the pattern of their brain activity. Stills from the films used in the study (Professor Eleanor Maguire) More info: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging (Source: )

Robot toddler gets an upgrade

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:49:56 GMT
A consortium of European universities has added more functional hands and legs to the iCub robot, built to test theories about how children think, learn and develop. (Tony Kyriacou/Rex Features) (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18634-robot-toddler-gets-an-upgrade.html)

Rob Glaser Defines the Superphone and Predicts the Mobile Future

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:57:49 GMT
By 2013 the installed base of smart phones and "superphones" will exceed the installed base of PCs, and those web-surfing devices will be mobile, says Rob Glaser, chairman of RealNetworks. (Source: http://gigaom.com/2010/03/10/rob-glaser-defines-the-superphone-and-predicts-the-mobile-future/)

Disease Cause Is Pinpointed With Genome

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:50:31 GMT
Two research teams have independently decoded the entire genome of patients to find the exact genetic cause of their diseases. The approach may offer a new start in identifying the genetic roots of major killers like heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's. Geneticists said the new research showed it was now possible to sequence the entire genome of a patient at reasonable cost and with sufficient accuracy to be of practical use to medical researchers. One subject's genome cost just $50,000 to decode. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/health/research/11gene.html)

The scientific brain

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:58:25 GMT
The brain's main job, like that of a scientist, is to generate hypotheses about what is going on in the outside world, a Max Planck Institute for Brain Research study suggests. It takes less effort for the brain to register predictable than unpredictable images. (Max Planck Institute for Brain Research) More info: Max Planck Institute for Brain Research (Source: )

Solar power could provide 10% of US energy: report

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:50:17 GMT
The U.S. could source 10 percent of its electricity from solar power by 2030, up from just 0.1 percent in 2008, according to a report produced by the independent environmental group Environment America. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news187445269.html)

Bottled Wind Could Be as Constant as Coal

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:33:57 GMT
The Electric Power Research Institute and the Department of Energy have identified grid-scale storage as a key need for the rapidly diversifying electricity system, and compressed-air energy storage looks like the cheapest option available. In the last four months, four compressed-air projects have gotten new funding. (Source: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/compressed-air-plants/)

Decision-makers betrayed by their wide eyes

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:03:46 GMT
Pupil dilation may be evidence of decision-making, Olivia Carter, a neuroscientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, has found. That might make for a low-tech way of reaching out to people who cannot communicate due to brain damage or paralysis: responses to yes/no or multiple-choice questions could be inferred from pupil dilation. (Adam Hart-Davis/SPL) (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527504.000-decisionmakers-betrayed-by-their-wide-eyes.html)

The Secret Lives Of Objects: StickyBits Turn Barcodes Into Personal Message Boards

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:48:42 GMT
Stickybits, a new iPhone and Android app that lets you scan any barcode and attach a geo-tagged message to that physical object, has been launched by Stickybits. The barcode in a greeting card, for instance, could trigger a video message from the sender. One on a box of medical supplies could inventory what is inside. A business card with a code on it could link to a resume or LinkedIn profile. The app lets you follow people and see their object stream, or get notified whenever one of your objects is scanned, moved, or new bits are attached to them. Stickybits is similar to science-fiction author Bruce Sterling's concept of "Spimes." (Source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/08/stickybits-barcodes-message-boards/)

Designer nano luggage to carry drugs to diseased cells

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:34:21 GMT
Particles derived from the Cowpea mosaic virus that can carry anti-cancer agents to cancer cells have been developed by researchers at Norwich BioScience Institutes. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news187386357.html)

Need a translation? Google awaits your call

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:29:51 GMT
Google Translate can now "listen" to speech and provide translations in a computerized voice for English, Mandarin and Japanese on phones that run Google's Android operating system. It can also translate text to and from more than 50 languages. (Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-google-translate10-2010mar10,0,3347088.story)

Exclusive: Colorado Doctors Skirt FDA Jurisdiction to Provide Stem Cell Therapies

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:02:21 GMT
Regenerative Sciences in Broomfield, Colorado provides its patients with the Regenexx procedure, an adult stem cell transplant that uses your own cells (autologous) to treat joint injuries and bone damage. Human stem cell therapies like this one aren't approved by the FDA. (Source: http://singularityhub.com/2010/03/09/colorado-doctors-skirt-fda-jurisdiction-to-provide-human-stem-cell-therapies-video/)

It's 2010 - finally my jet pack is here!

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:46:28 GMT
Martin Aircraft in New Zealand has announced the first commercially-available jet pack, priced at $86,000 and due on the market in a year (training required). (Source: http://www.gizmag.com/first-commercially-available-jetpack/14423/)

Fiber-wireless (Fi-Wi) to provide ultra-high-speed, short-range communication

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:40:44 GMT
"Fiber-wireless" (Fi-Wi) networks are overcoming problems with wireless congestion, providing high-speed connectivity (faster than 1 Gb/s) by combining fiber (for connection to a central office) and 60 GHz signals (for local high-speed wireless inside a house or office), Christina Lim from the University of Melbourne and her coauthors explain. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news187346128.html)

How to see through opaque materials

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:28:37 GMT
A new experiment conducted by researchers at the City of Paris Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution (ESPCI) has shown that it's possible to focus light through opaque materials and detect objects hidden behind them, provided you know enough about the material. They produced a numerical model called a transmission matrix, which includes over 65,000 numbers describing the way that a material scatters light in a layer of material. They could then use the matrix to tailor a beam of light specifically to pass through the layer and focus on the other side. Alternatively, they could measure light emerging from the opaque material, and use the matrix to assemble of an image of an object behind it. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news187274527.html)

A Little Black Box to Jog Failing Memory

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:19:41 GMT
Sensecam, which contains a digital camera and an accelerometer to measure movement, can be used for life-logging and as a memory aid for people with Alzheimer's and other memory disorders. (Microsoft Corporation) (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/health/09memory.html?ref=science)

Speed Reading of DNA May Help Cancer Treatment

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:13:31 GMT
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a way to monitor the progress of a patient's cancer treatment using a new technique for rapidly sequencing, or decoding, large amounts of DNA. It uses mitochondrial DNA as markers of cancerous cells, based on the finding that more than 80 percent of cancers had mutations in their mitochondrial DNA. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/science/09gene.html?ref=science)

How to build a superluminal computer

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:46:22 GMT
Superluminal (faster-than-light) hyprcomputers could be created by taking advantage of the nonlocal phenomenon (instant changes to a distant entangled particle), say Volkmar Putz and Karl Svozil at the Vienna University of Technology. For example, light traveling through a vacuum can be made to spontaneously form into an electron-positron pair--an entangled pair--which then recombine to form a photon again. This process happens instantaneously, allowing the photon to effectively "jump" across space. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24903/)

Google Public Data Explorer lets you create dynamic charts and maps

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:18:57 GMT
Google's new Public Data Explorer makes large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. You can create dynamic, interactive mash-up line graphs, bar graphs, maps and bubble charts that can be embedded in Web pages. The visualizations are dynamic, so you can watch them move over time, change topics, highlight different entries and change the scale. (Source: )

Reflections on Avatar by Ray Kurzweil

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:34:32 GMT
I recently watched James Cameron's Avatar in 3D. It was an enjoyable experience in some ways, but overall I left dismayed on a number of levels.
It was enjoyable to watch the lush three-dimensional animation and motion capture controlled graphics. I'm not sure that 3D will take over -- as many now expect -- until we get rid of the glasses (and there are emerging technologies to do that, albeit, the 3D effect is not yet quite as good), but it was visually pleasing.

3D information visualization displays and interactive multitouch screens as featured in this scene from "Avatar" already exist and are in use today. (20th Century Fox)
While I'm being positive, I was pleased to see Cameron's positive view of science in that the scientists are "good" guys (or at least one good gal) with noble intentions on learning the wisdom of the Na'vi natives and on negotiating a diplomatic solution.
The Na'vi were not completely technology-free. They basically used the type of technology that Native Americans used hundreds of years ago - same clothing, domesticated animals, natural medicine, and bows and arrows.
They were in fact exactly like Native Americans. How likely is that? Life on this distant moon in another star system has evolved creatures that look essentially the same as earthly creatures, with very minor differences (dogs, horses, birds, rhinoceros-like animals, and so on), not to mention humanoids that are virtually the same as humans here on Earth. That's quite a coincidence.
Cameron's conception of technology a hundred years from now was incredibly unimaginative, even by Hollywood standards. For example, the munitions that were supposed to blow up the tree of life looked like they were used in World War II (maybe even World War I). Most of the technology looked primitive, even by today's standards. The wearable exoskeleton robotic devices were supposed to be futuristic, but these already exist, and are beginning to be deployed. The one advanced technology was the avatar technology itself.
But in that sense, Avatar is like the world of the movie A.I., where they had human-level cyborgs, but nothing else had changed: A.I. featured 1980's cars and coffee makers. As for Avatar, are people still going to use computer screens in a hundred years? Are they going to drive vehicles?
I thought the story and script was unimaginative, one-dimensional, and derivative. The basic theme was "evil corporation rapes noble natives." And while that is a valid theme, it was done without the least bit of subtlety, complexity, or human ambiguity.

From the movie "Dances with Wolves" (MGM)
The basic story was taken right from Dances with Wolves. And how many (thousands of) times have we seen a final battle scene that comes down to a battle between the hero and the anti-hero that goes through various incredible stages -- fighting on a flying airplane, in the trees, on the ground, etc? And (spoiler alert) how predictable was it that the heroine would pull herself free at the last second and save the day?
None of the creatures were especially creative. The flying battles were like Harry Potter's Quidditch, and the flying birds were derivative of Potter creatures, including mastering flying on the back of big bird creatures. There was some concept of networked intelligence but it was not especially coherent. The philosophy was the basic Hollywood religion about the noble cycle of life.
The movie was fundamentally anti-technology. Yes, it is true, as I pointed out above, that the natives use tools, but these are not the tools we associate with modern technology. And it is true that the Sigourney Weaver character and her band of scientists intend to help the Na'vi with their human technology (much like international aid workers might do today in developing nations), but we never actually see that happen. I got the sense that Cameron was loath to show modern technology doing anything useful. So even when Weaver's scientist becomes ill, the Na'vi attempt to heal her only with the magical life force of the tree of life.

Harry Potter rides Buckbeak the Hippogriff (Warner Bros.) while Jake Sully rides a Mountain Banshee / aka Ikran (20th Century Fox)
In Cameron's world, Nature is always wise and noble, which indeed it can be, but he fails to show its brutal side. The only thing that was brutal, crude, and immoral in the movie was the "advanced" technology. Of course, one could say that it was the user of the technology that was immoral (the evil corporation), but that is the only role for technology in the world of Avatar.
In addition to being evil, the technology of the Avatar world of over 100 years from now is also weaker than nature, so the rhinoceros-like creatures are able to defeat the tanks circa 2100. It was perhaps a satisfying spectacle to watch, but how realistic is that? The movie shows the natural creatures communicating with each other with some kind of inter-species messaging and also showed the tree of life able to remember voices. But it is actually real-world technology that can do those things right now. In the Luddite world of this movie, the natural world should and does conquer the brutish world of technology.
In my view, there is indeed a crudeness to first-industrial-revolution technology. The technology that will emerge in the decades ahead will be altogether different. It will enhance the natural world while it transcends its limitations. Indeed, it is only through the powers of exponentially growing info, bio, and nano technologies that we will be able to overcome the problems created by first-industrial-revolution technologies such as fossil fuels. This idea of technology transcending natural limitations was entirely lost in Cameron's vision. Technology was just something crude and immoral, something to be overcome, something that Nature does succeed in overcoming.

Unimaginative, non-futurist props in the supposed future world of the movie A.I. (Warner Bros.). Most sci-fi films depict a few truly clever technologies representing a probable human future, while leaving the rest too ordinary and undeveloped to be believable. The entire world of human technology will evolve in step, affecting all aspects of the way we work, live, play, heal, create, learn or defend. Advanced technology will be embedded everywhere, in even our most mundane objects, interconnected and always-on. In a future world capable of strong A.I. and inter-stellar travel, the landscape of technology merged with our daily activities will actually be far more advanced, and far more interesting than in the film depictions we see today.
It was visually pleasing; although even here I thought it could have been better. Some of the movement of the blue natives was not quite right and looked like the unrealistic movement one sees of characters in video games, with jumps that show poor modeling of gravity.
The ending (spoiler alert) was a complete throwaway. The Na'vi defeat the immoral machines and their masters in a big battle, but if this mineral the evil corporation was mining is indeed worth a fortune per ounce, they would presumably come back with a more capable commander. Yet we hear Jake's voice at the end saying that the mineral is no longer needed. If that's true, then what was the point of the entire battle?
The Na'vi are presented as the ideal society, but consider how they treat their women. The men get to "pick" their women, and Jake is offered to take his choice once he earns his place in the society. Jake makes the heroine his wife, knowing full well that his life as a Na'vi could be cut off at any moment. And what kind of child would they have? Well, perhaps these complications are too subtle for the simplistic Avatar plot.
See also:
REUTERS | Human exoskeleton suit helps paralyzed people walk
DISCOVERY NEWS | New exoskeleton gives soldiers super strength

CURRENT TECHNOLOGY | Lockheed Martin's HULC: hydraulic-powered, un-tethered, anthropomorphic exoskeleton (Lockheed Martin)
LOCKHEED MARTIN | The HULC: Dismounted Soldiers often carry heavy combat loads that increase the stress on the body leading to potential injuries. With a HULC exoskeleton, these loads are transferred to the ground through powered titanium legs without loss of mobility.
The HULC is a completely un-tethered, hydraulic-powered anthropomorphic exoskeleton that provides users with the ability to carry loads of up to 200 lbs for extended periods of time and over all terrains. Its flexible design allows for deep squats, crawls and upper-body lifting. There is no joystick or other control mechanism. The exoskeleton senses what users want to do and where they want to go. It augments their ability, strength and endurance. An onboard micro-computer ensures the exoskeleton moves in concert with the individual. Its modularity allows for major components to be swapped out in the field. Additionally, its unique power-saving design allows the user to operate on battery power for extended missions. The HULC's load-carrying ability works even when power is not available.
Lockheed Martin is a leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the Warfighter including ground Soldier systems such as wearable situational awareness equipment and mobility assistance systems. Future advancements in exoskeleton technologies will focus on specific user communities, shifting energy and performance requirements. Lockheed Martin is also exploring exoskeleton designs to support industrial and medical applications. (Source: )

Time to start taking the Internet seriously

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:49:08 GMT
"The Internet ... has increased not the quality but the quantity of the information we see," says David Gelernter, a professor of computer science at Yale. "We know that the Internet creates 'information overload,' a problem with two parts: increasing number of information sources and increasing information flow per source... Integrating multiple information sources is crucial to solving information overload. Blogs and other anthology-sites integrate information from many sources.... But we won't be able to solve the overload problem until each Internet user can choose for himself what sources to integrate, and can add to this mix the most important source of all: his own personal information — his email and other messages, reminders and documents of all sorts. To accomplish this, we merely need to turn the whole Cybersphere on its side, so that time instead of space is the main axis. "If we think of time as orthogonal to space, a stream-based, time-based Cybersphere is the traditional Internet flipped on its side in digital space-time. The traditional web-shaped Internet consists (in effect) of many flat panels chaotically connected. Instead of flat sites, where information is arranged in space, we want deep sites that are slices of time. When we look at such a site onscreen, it's natural to imagine the past extending into (or beyond) the screen, and the future extending forward in front of the screen; the future flows towards the screen, into the screen and then deeper into the space beyond the screen. "Every month, more and more information surges through the Cybersphere in lifestreams — some called blogs, "feeds," "activity streams," "event streams," Twitter streams. All these streams are specialized examples of the cyberstructure we called a lifestream in the mid-1990s....There is no clear way to blend two standard websites together, but it's obvious how to blend two streams. You simply shuffle them together like two decks of cards, maintaining time-order — putting the earlier document first." (Source: http://edge.org/3rd_culture/gelernter10/gelernter10_index.html)

Catalyst could power homes on a bottle of water, produce hydrogen on-site

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:14:45 GMT
With one bottle of drinking water and four hours of sunlight, MIT chemist Dan Nocera claims that he can produce 30 KWh of electricity, which is enough to power an entire household in the developing world. With about three gallons of river water, he could satisfy the daily energy needs of a large American home. Using the electricity generated from a 30-square-meter photovoltaic array, Nocera's cobalt-phosphate catalyst converts water and carbon dioxide into hydrogen and oxygen. The process is similar to organic photosynthesis, except that in nature, plants create energy in the form of sugars instead of hydrogen. The hydrogen produced through artificial photosynthesis can be stored in a tank and later used to produce electricity by being recombined with oxygen in a fuel cell, even when the sun isn't shining. Alternatively, the hydrogen can be converted into a liquid fuel. With his start-up company, Sun Catalytix, which was awarded $4 million in government funding through the new ARPA-E agency, Nocera hopes to make the system affordable enough to allow individual homes to generate their own fuel and electricity on-site. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news187031401.html)

MIT builds first sensor to to detect single molecules produced by living cells

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:05:27 GMT
MIT researchers have built the first sensor array that can detect single molecules produced by living cells, using a carbon nanotube sensor array that can detect hydrogen peroxide molecules and could help scientists learn more about that molecule's role in cancer. The sensor consists of a film of carbon nanotubes embedded in collagen. Cells can grow on the collagen surface, and the collagen also attracts and traps hydrogen peroxide released by the cell. When the nanotubes come in contact with the trapped hydrogen peroxide, their fluorescence flickers. By counting the flickers, one can obtain an accurate count of the incident single molecules. More info: MIT news (Source: )

Carbon nanotubes generate electricity that could be harnessed for new energy systems

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:25:56 GMT
Carbon nanotubes with a lit fuel coating generate an electrical current, the result of a fast-moving combustion wave (thermal wave) traveling along the length of the carbon nanotube that drags electrons along, MIT scientists have discovered. The system puts out about 100 times greater energy in proportion to its weight than an lithium-ion battery. In theory, says Michael Strano, MIT's Charles and Hilda Roddey Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, such devices could maintain their power indefinitely until used, unlike batteries, whose charges leak away gradually as they sit unused. And the nanowires could be made in large arrays to supply significant amounts of power for larger devices. He suggests that one possible application would be in enabling new kinds of ultra-small electronic devices — for example, devices the size of grains of rice, perhaps with sensors or treatment devices that could be injected into the body. Or it could lead to "environmental sensors that could be scattered like dust in the air." By using different kinds of reactive materials for the coating, the wave front could oscillate, thus producing an alternating current, the basis for radio waves such as cell phone transmissions. Artist's impression More info: MIT news (Source: )

Dark, dangerous asteroids found lurking near Earth

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:34:44 GMT
NASA's WISE mission has spotted 16 formerly hidden near-Earth objects with orbits close to Earth's. WISE is expected to discover as many as 1000 near-Earth objects, but astronomers estimate that the number of unknown objects with masses great enough to cause ground damage in an impact runs into the tens of thousands. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18616-dark-dangerous-asteroids-found-lurking-near-earth.html)

Knowing the mind of God: Seven theories of everything

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:48:18 GMT
String theory, loop quantum gravity,and quantum Einstein gravity are three of the theories of everything that describe the workings of the universe at the most fundamental level in this brief summary. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18612-knowing-the-mind-of-god-seven-theories-of-everything.html)

Shields down! Earth's mag field may drop in a flash

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:40:34 GMT
We can forecast a flip of the Earth's magnetic poles only a few decades in advance, and then only with data that is as precise as possible, researchers at Denis Diderot University and colleagues found in computer simulations of the Earth's magnetic dynamo. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527504.400-shields-down-earths-mag-field-may-drop-in-a-flash.html?full=true&print=true)

GestureTek to Let You Interact With Images Projected From Your Phone

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:22:24 GMT
GestureTek has developed technology that can project images from your phone that you can interact with. GestureTek technology is also licensed to Microsoft for use on the Xbox360 Natal project due out in Q3 this year and to Hitachi for a TV coming out in Japan in Q3 2010. You can control the TV's volume and channel using hand gestures processed via a camera in the TV. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/external/venturebeat/2010/03/04/04venturebeat-gesturetek-to-let-you-interact-with-images-p-25643.html)

A Theory Set in Stone: An Asteroid Killed the Dinosaurs, After All

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:54:52 GMT
A study by a group of 41 researchers has verified the theory that a massive asteroid some 10 kilometers across that slammed into Earth, creating Chicxulub Crater on Mexico's Gulf Coast, killed off many of the species on the planet, including the non-avian dinosaurs. (Don Davis / NASA) (Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=asteroid-killed-dinosaurs)

Ultrafast wireless system could eliminate wires for communications in homes, businesses and cars

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:36:30 GMT
Purdue University researchers have developed a miniature silicon-based device capable of transmitting 60 gigahertz radio-frequency signals, a step toward making wires obsolete for communications in the homes and offices of the future. To achieve this extremely high frequency, the device uses silicon "microring resonators" in a system that converts ultrafast digital laser pulses into bursts of analog radio-frequency signals, replacing large "bulk optics" systems. The device could enable all communications, from high-definition television broadcasts to secure computer connections, to be transmitted from a single base station. Diagram showing design of microring resonators (Purdue University, Minghao Qi) Further information: Purdue University news release (Source: )

IBM Scientists Create Ultra-Fast Photonic Device for Communication between Computer Chips

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:04:29 GMT
IBM scientists have unveiled a "nanophotonic avalanche photodetector," a significant step towards replacing electrical signals that communicate via copper wires between computer chips with silicon nanocircuits that communicate using pulses of light. The device uses the "avalanche effect" in Germanium and is the world's fastest device of its kind. It can receive optical information signals at 40Gbps (billion bits per second) and simultaneously multiply them tenfold. By using light instead of electrical signals, enormous amounts of information can be sent between chips while using much less power. "This invention brings the vision of on-chip optical interconnections much closer to reality," said Dr. T.C. Chen, vice president, Science and Technology, IBM Research. "With optical communications embedded into the processor chips, the prospect of building power-efficient computer systems with performance at the Exaflop level might not be a very distant future." Further information: IBM news release (Source: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/29595.wss)

Free will is an illusion, biologist says

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:49:47 GMT
University of Pennsylvania biologist Anthony Cashmore argues that belief in free will is akin to religious beliefs, since neither complies with the laws of the physical world, representing a continuing belief in vitalism or magic. He says free will is an illusion derived from consciousness, but consciousness has an evolutionary advantage of conferring the illusion of responsibility. As Cashmore explains, the human brain acts at both the conscious level as well as the unconscious. It's our consciousness that makes us aware of our actions, giving us the sense that we control them. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186830615.html)

Trapping Sunlight with Silicon Nanowires

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:38:23 GMT
Using thin films made from ordered arrays of vertical silicon nanowires, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers were able to reduce both the quantity and the quality requirements for silicon, representing an economically viable path toward high-efficiency, low-cost thin-film solar cells. (Peidong Yang) (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186850199.html)

Using own skin cells to repair hearts on horizon

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:51:48 GMT
A heart patient's own skin cells soon could be used to repair damaged cardiac tissue thanks to pioneering stem cell research by University of Houston biomedical scientist Robert Schwartz. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186758255.html)

New chip to make eReaders cheaper

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:57:14 GMT
Freescale Semiconductor has developed a new chip, the i.MX508, that will double the speed at which eReaders can flip pages, increase battery life, and support larger, color screens, and is expected to reduce the retail price of eReaders by around $30 to $50. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186740637.html)

The sound of silence: an end to noisy communications

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:52:23 GMT
"Silent sounds," a new technology developed by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, monitors electromyographic signals (from lip muscle movements) and transforms them into a computer-generated voice for the listener at the other end of the phone. Applications also include helping people who have lost their voice due to illness or accident, and saying a PIN number or password silently to evade eavesdropping. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186741002.html)

Mind-controlled prosthetics without brain surgery

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:17:46 GMT
University of Maryland researchers have created a mathematical model that relates hand movements to EEG signals (which measure electrical activity of the brain), suggesting that EEG might also be used to control a prosthetic arm. EEG is less invasive and less expensive than implanted electrodes, which have previously been used to control robotic arms and computer cursors by thought alone. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18603-mindcontrolled-prosthetics-without-brain-surgery.html)

Touch Screens that Touch Back

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:12:30 GMT
A new haptic interface that creates the sensation of a physical button when a user touches the screen has been designed by California-based company Immersion. The device uses piezoelectric actuators that generate rapid horizontal vibrations to create the sensory experience. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/24679/?a=f)

Data, data everywhere

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:32:13 GMT
The amount of digital information increases tenfold every five years, says The Economist in a special report on managing information. According to IDG, mankind created 150 exabytes (billion gigabytes) of data in 2005. This year, it will create 1,200 exabytes. (IDC) By 2013 the amount of traffic flowing over the internet annually will reach 667 exabytes, according to Cisco. (Source: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15557443)

Scientists Strive to Map the Shape-Shifting Net

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:57:21 GMT
The shape of the Internet is changing rapidly, driven by a variety of factors, including content delivery networks that have pushed both data and applications to the edge of the network; the growing popularity of smartphones, leading to the emergence of the wireless Internet; the explosion of streaming video as the Internet's predominant data type; and "dark networks," private channels created to move information more cheaply and efficiently within a business or any kind of organization. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/science/02topo.html?ref=science)

New technique offers a more detailed view of brain activity

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:19:48 GMT
MIT and Caltech researchers have developed a new type of fMRI sensor that can measure a specific neurotransmitter (dopamine) -- a more detailed, higher-resolution indicator of neural activity than conventional fMRI, which measures blood flow in the brain. Dopamine holds particular interest for neuroscientists because of its role in motivation, reward, addiction and several neurodegenerative conditions, including Parkinson'ss disease. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186687539.html)

Long-distance quantum communication gets closer as physicists increase light storage efficiency by an order of magnitude

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:42:25 GMT
Physicists at the Laboratoire Aime Cotton - CNRS and University of Geneva have achieved reversible light storage efficiencies of more than a magnitude greater than those offered by previous techniques. The new method could be useful for extending the range of quantum repeaters, used for long-distance quantum communication. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186654076.html)

Skinput turns your arm into a touchscreen

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:29:58 GMT
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research have developed a new skin-based interface called Skinput that allows for using hands and arms as touchscreens. Skinput works by detecting the various ultralow-frequency sounds produced when tapping different parts of the skin, allowing users to control audio devices, play games, make phone calls, and navigate hierarchical browsing systems. A keyboard, menu, or other graphics are beamed onto a user's palm and forearm from a pico projector embedded in an armband. An acoustic detector in the armband then determines which part of the display is activated by the user's touch. Variations in bone density, size, and mass, as well as filtering effects from soft tissues and joints, mean different skin locations are acoustically distinct. Their software matches sound frequencies to specific skin locations, allowing the system to determine which "skin button" the user pressed. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186681149.html)

Why the internet will fail (from 1995)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:31:14 GMT
"No online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works." - Clifford Stoll, Newsweek, Feb 27, 1995 (Source: http://threewordchant.com/2010/02/24/why-the-internet-will-fail-from-1995/)

Scientists Develop Financial Turing Test

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:50:28 GMT
Humans can reliably distinguish between real and random market data, researchers at AlphaSimplex, MIT's Sloan School of Management, and NorthEastern University found in an experiment. Anyone can take the "financial Turing test" on their website. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24861/)

Quantum measurement precision approaches Heisenberg limit

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:51:14 GMT
Using techniques from machine learning, University of Calgary physicists have generated measurement procedures that can outperform the best previous strategy in achieving highly precise quantum measurements. The new level of precision approaches the limit resulting from Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which limits the achievable precision of a measurement. The new method uses a machine learning algorithm called particle swarm optimization (PSO), a "collective intelligence" optimization strategy inspired by the social behavior of birds flocking or fish schooling to locate feeding sites. The new high level of precision could have important implications for gravitational wave detection. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186395462.html)

The Power Of Plant Clock Computing

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:37:19 GMT
Stochastic process algebra, which encompasses concurrent processes and the communication between them, could lead to a new generation of super-efficient computing. Process algebra, which is being used by UK scientists for computation of the complex biochemical processes that drive the circadian clock of a plant, is potentially more powerful by several orders of magnitude than sequential Turing machine-based computing processes. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24870/)

Putting the Web in a Spreadsheet

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:20:41 GMT
IBM BigSheets can be used to collect, analyze, and visualize large quantities of unstructured data on the Web. It uses IBM's Hadoop to crawl through Web pages, parsing them to extract key terms and other useful data. It organizes this information in a very large spreadsheet, where users can analyze it using the sort of tools and macros found in desktop spreadsheet software. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/24666/?a=f)

Personalized Medicine on the Spot

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:15:40 GMT
Nanosphere's Verigene system, which takes just a few hours to analyze DNA from blood or other material, allows doctors to test for genetic variations without having to send samples out to a lab. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/24581/)

Robots to rescue soldiers

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:44:20 GMT
The Pentagon is asking inventors to come up with designs for a robot with strong, dexterous arms and grippers to rescue injured troops, with little or no help from outside, and that can cooperate with swarms of similar machines for mass rescues. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527495.200-robots-to-rescue-soldiers.html)

IBM Invents Short-Cut to Assessing Data Quality

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:37:10 GMT
IBM researchers have developed a "breakthrough" algorithm that cuts the computational costs of assessing data quality by two orders of magnitude. The impetus behind this work is the flood of data that is fed to computers to solve real-world problems -- everything from stock portfolio management to computational fluid dynamics. (Source: http://www.hpcwire.com/features/IBM-Invents-Short-Cut-to-Assessing-Data-Quality-85427987.html)

Recommendation algorithm wants to show you something new

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:28:56 GMT
A group of scientists are pushing the limits of recommendation systems (such as those used in Amazon and Netflix), creating new algorithms that will make more tangential recommendations to users, which can help expand their interests. (Source: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/02/recommendation-algorithm-wants-to-show-you-something-new.ars)

Rising Threat of Infections Unfazed by Antibiotics

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:08:17 GMT
Gram-negative bacteria are killing tens of thousands of hospital patients each year, spreading worldwide, and evolving to become ever more immune to existing antibiotics, with some strains resistant to virtually every antibiotic. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/business/27germ.html)

Implanted Neurons Let the Brain Rewire Itself Again

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:56:54 GMT
Transplanting fetal neurons into the brains of young mice opens a new window on neural plasticity, or flexibility in the brain's neural circuits. A better understanding of brain plasticity could one day point to new ways to treat brain injury and other neurological problems by returning the brain to a younger, more malleable state. Neurons transplanted from an embryo into the brain of a young mouse(Derek Southwell) (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/24664/)

Tiny ear listens to hidden worlds

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:41:10 GMT
"Optical tweezers" used to measure the sounds created by microscopic organisms have been developed by scientists at Glasgow and Oxford Universities and at the National Institute of Medical Research. They suspended very small glass or plastic beads in a beam of laser light to measure the movement of these beads as they are jostled by tiny objects, allowing for detection of piconewton (extremely weak) forces at molecular scales. The movements are then converted into sounds. By listening to microorganisms, it may be possible to better understand how they work and to ultimately investigate the action of new medicines that might affect their motion. (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8529232.stm)

Can avatars change the way we think and act?

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:21:40 GMT
You are more likely to imitate the behavior of an avatar in real life if it looks like you, Jesse Fox, a researcher at the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, found in a study that used digital photographs of participants to create personalized avatar bodies. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186342108.html)

IBM Researchers Develop Energy Efficient Method to Analyze the Quality of Data at Record Speeds

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:11:32 GMT
BM Research today unveiled a breakthrough method based on a mathematical algorithm for supercomputers that reduces the computational complexity, costs, and energy usage for analyzing the quality of massive amounts of data in less than 20 minutes instead of a day. The new method may greatly help enterprises extract and use the data more quickly and efficiently to develop more accurate and predictive models. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186341055.html)

Scientists reveal driving force behind evolution

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:07:35 GMT
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have provided the first experimental evidence that shows that evolution is driven most powerfully by co-evolutionary interactions with other species, rather than adaptation to the environment. The team observed viruses as they evolved over hundreds of generations to infect bacteria. They found that when the bacteria could evolve defenses, the viruses evolved at a quicker rate and generated greater diversity, compared to situations where the bacteria were unable to adapt to the viral infection. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186311100.html)

Brain implant reveals the neural patterns of attention

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:40:53 GMT
A paralyzed patient implanted with a brain-computer interface device has allowed University of Chicago scientists to determine the relationship between brain waves and attention. Using a small chip containing nearly 100 microelectrodes that was previously implanted in a patient's primary motor cortex, they found that beta waves indicate how much attention a subject is paying to the task at hand, while slower delta waves act as an internal metronome, allowing the brain to anticipate moments when attention is most needed. This new understanding of the relationship between brain activity and attention may have relevance in the field of neuropsychology. A diagnostic and therapeutic tool could possibly be developed that uses such recordings to assess a person's attention from moment to moment, with the signal fed back to the person to improve their attention. The rhythmic patterns of oscillations may also be useful in developing better brain-machine interface technology for quadriplegic individuals to operate prosthetics. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186236872.html)

Making Sense of Mountains of Data

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:06:22 GMT
Microsoft's new Pivot software explores large sets of data, presenting it intuitively in the form of a collection of images accompanied by textual data to allow for seeing it in a broader context. The technology at the core of Pivot is Microsoft's Seadragon, software designed for manipulating large quantities of visual information. It allows commodity hardware to rapidly move through vast collections of graphics, zooming in seamlessly without having to wait for information to load, and zooming out to view hundreds or thousands of images at once. To allow users to make their own collections, Microsoft has released an add-in for Microsoft Excel, called the Pivot Collection Tool, that lets users do this without requiring knowledge of XML. Video (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/web/24645/)

Triumph of the Cyborg Composer

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:32:15 GMT
David Cope's algorithmic compositions rival the beauty of music by human composers and have passed the musical equivalent of the Turing Test (listeners cannot determine which music is human-composed). They herald the future of a new kind of musical creation: armies of computers composing (or helping people compose) original scores, he believes. But some -- especially composers -- are threatened by the ability of artificial creativity programs to compose works fast that are good and that the audience likes. Undeterred, Cope thinks humans are actually more robotic than machines. "The question," Cope says, "isn't whether computers have a soul, but whether humans have a soul." (Source: http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/triumph-of-the-cyborg-composer-8507/)

The real Avatar: ocean bacteria act as 'superorganism'

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:11:40 GMT
Aarhus University scientists have found that sulphur-eating bacteria that live in muddy sediments beneath the sea floor may be connected by a network of microbial nanowires that could shuttle electrons back and forth, allowing communities of bacteria to act as one super-organism. Analogously, in the movie Avatar, the Na'vi people of Pandora plug themselves into a network that links all elements of the biosphere, from phosphorescent plants to pterodactyl-like birds. (20th Century Fox) (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527493.800-the-real-avatar-ocean-bacteria-act-as-superorganism.html)

Tools of Change: Cool Market Solutions and Mind-Blowing Paradigms

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:48:54 GMT
At O'Reilly Media's fourth annual Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, O'Reilly Media founder Tim O'Reilly held a conversation with Ray Kurzweil. O'Reilly said that technology will soon create a new generation of e-books that will talk back to us in ways we can't conceive today. "The analytics we'll be able to harvest will change everything," O'Reilly said. "E-books will send information back to publishers about the ways people are reading. It will change how we edit and produce books. Kurzweil said the speed of technological innovation is speeding up exponentially and computers will be able to recreate the brain's function and devices will be placed inside the human body-indeed inside our brains--that will make us smarter. Over the next 10 years, Kurzweil said, "the web will take over everything, including our minds." (Source: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/450719-Tools_of_Change_Cool_Market_Solutions_and_Mind_Blowing_Paradigms.php?rssid=20796)

Optical system promises to revolutionize undersea communications

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:30:59 GMT
An undersea optical-acoustic communications system that enables data rates of up to 20 megabits per second over a range of 100 meters has been developed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientists. The advance will allow near-instant data transfer and real-time video from un-tethered ROVs and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) outfitted with sensors, cameras and other data-collecting devices to surface ships or laboratories. Artist's concept: sonar images (bands) are transmitted through an optical modem to receivers stationed on moorings in the ocean, connected to a cabled observatory (E. Paul Oberlander, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186164138.html)

Just Like Mombot Used to Make

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:15:02 GMT
The growing number of robots designed to serve and cook food, and in the process, act as good-will ambassadors and salesmen for a more automated future, includes Snackbot, a robot developed at Carnegie Mellon University that designed to serve and cook food; China-based Fanxing Science and Technology's AIC-AI Cooking Robot, the "world's first cooking robot," and Motoman SDA-10, with spatulas for arms. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/dining/24robots.html?ref=technology&pagewanted=all)

A $3.5 Billion Effort Aims to Help Tech Start-Ups

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:43:41 GMT
In an initiative called the Invest in America Alliance, Intel and 24 venture capital firms plan to invest $3.5 billion in American start-ups over the next two years. In addition, Intel, Google, Cisco Systems, Microsoft and 13 other employers pledged to add jobs in 2010, by hiring 10,500 graduates of American colleges, largely those with computer science and engineering degrees. Fewer than 10 percent of college graduates in the United States have engineering degrees, compared with more than one-third in India and China, and patent filings increased 30 percent in China last year, while declining 11 percent in the United States. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/technology/24venture.html?ref=technology)

Artificial Skin will use Quantum Tunneling

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:32:51 GMT
UK company Peratech is developing a novel pressure-sensing material for robots, using an electrically conductive material called quantum tunneling composite (QTC). When the material is compressed, electrons jump between two conductors separated by a polymer insulating layer covered with metallic nanoparticles. QTC robot skin could let a robot know precisely where it has been touched, and with how much pressure. It could also be helpful in designing machines that have better grasping capabilities, and for developing more natural ways for machines to interact with humans. As QTC is compressed, the metal filler particles are brought closer together, allowing electrical conduction. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/24843/)

A Brain Implant that Uses Light

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:20:56 GMT
Researchers at Medtronic are developing a prototype neural implant that uses light to alter the behavior of neurons in the brain. The device is based on the emerging science of optogenetic neuromodulation, in which specific brain cells are genetically engineered to respond to light. The company plans to market the device to neuroscience researchers and use it for in-house research on the effects of DBS. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/24644/)

U.S. Unprepared for 'Cyber War', Former Top Spy Official Says

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:13:10 GMT
The U.S. isn't prepared for a massive attack on its computer networks by another country and would lose, former Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell told a Senate panel today. (Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-23/u-s-unprepared-for-cyber-war-former-top-spy-official-says.html)

Neuroscientists find brain system behind general intelligence

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:31:50 GMT
General intelligence is found in several specific places in the brain, determined by a network of regions across both sides of the brain, researchers at CalTech, the University of Iowa, the University of Southern California, and the Autonomous University of Madrid have found. The researchers mapped the locations of brain lesions of 241 patients and correlated that with each patient's IQ score to produce a map of the brain regions that influence intelligence. The brain regions important for general intelligence are found in several specific places (orange regions shown on the brain on the left). The big orange regions in the right image are connections between the brain regions in the image on the left. (PNAS) (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186071954.html)

A Stellar, Metal-Free Way to Make Carbon Nanotubes

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 07:21:00 GMT
A new method of growing carbon nanotubes without requiring platinum or another metal as a catalyst has been developed by researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The carbon nanotubes are produced when graphite dust particles are exposed to a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases. The method was suggested by a 2008 discovery that the long, thin carbon structures known as graphite whiskers -- essentially, bigger cousins of carbon nanotubes -- were identified in three meteorites. Researchers suspect that it could have produced at least some of the simple carbon-based compounds in the early solar system. The work also could help researchers understand puzzling observations about some supernovas. Nanotubes grown on graphite (Yuki Kimura, Tohoku University) (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186086924.html)

Could Bloom Box revolutionize power industry?

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:20:59 GMT
Bloom Energy, a Silicon Valley start-up, plans to unveil an energy device Wednesday that the company hopes will be in almost every US home in the next five to 10 years. The Bloom box is a new kind of fuel cell that produces electricity by combining oxygen in the air with any fuel source, such as natural gas, bio-gas, and solar energy, creating energy without burning or combustion. Several devices are already being used by about 20 well-known companies.
Watch CBS News Videos Online (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news186123245.html)

Questioning the anthropic principle

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:12:27 GMT
MIT physicists have showed that universes quite different from ours still have elements similar to carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and could therefore evolve life forms quite similar to us, even when the masses of elementary particles called quarks are dramatically altered. Some physicists have theorized that only universes in which the laws of physics are "just so" could support life, and that if things were even a little bit different from our world, intelligent life would be impossible. In that case, our physical laws might be explained by the "anthropic_principle," meaning that they are as they are because if they were otherwise, no one would be around to notice them. Jaffe and his collaborators felt that this proposed anthropic explanation should be subjected to more careful scrutiny, so they decided to explore whether universes with different physical laws could support life. Unlike most other studies, in which varying only one constant usually produces an inhospitable universe, they examined more than one constant. Sources: Life beyond our universe and Looking for Life in the Multiverse (Source: )

Augmented Identity

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:35:56 GMT
Recognizr, an application that lets users point a smart phone at a stranger and immediately learn about them -- combining computer vision, cloud computing, facial recognition, social networking, and augmented reality -- has been developed by The Astonishing Tribe (TAT), a Swedish mobile software and design firm. A user points the phone's camera at someone nearby. Software then detects the subject's face and creates a unique signature by combining measurements of facial features and building a 3-D model. This signature is sent to a server where it's compared to others stored in a database. Providing the subject has opted in to the service and uploaded a photo and profile of themselves, the server then sends back that person's name along with links to their profile on several social networking sites, including Twitter or Facebook. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/24639/?a=f)

Junctionless transistor could simplify chip making, say researchers

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:18:02 GMT
In a move that could revolutionize nanoelectronics manufacturing and the semiconductor industry, scientists at the Tyndall National Institute (Cork, Ireland) have designed and fabricated what they claim is the world's first junctionless transistor. The junctionless transistor, otherwise known as the gated resistor, could simplify manufacturing of transistors at around the 10-nanometer stage. It is based on the deployment of a control gate around a silicon wire that measures just a few dozen atoms across. (Source: http://www.eetimes.com/223100050)

A Global Social Network Without The Language Barrier - Mojofiti

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:01:32 GMT
The Mojofiti social networking website uses real-time machine translation to allow users to transparently collaborate with others in 27 languages. (Source: http://singularityhub.com/2010/02/16/a-global-social-network-without-the-language-barrier-mojofiti/)

Internet in 2020 will increase intelligence, experts find

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:32:42 GMT
Experts and stakeholders, responding to the fourth "Future of the Internet" survey, conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and Elon University's Imagining the Internet Center, largely agreed that the Internet will enhance -- not degrade -- our intelligence, countering a cover story for the Atlantic Monthly magazine in the summer of 2009. The Internet will also change the functions of reading and writing and be built around still-unanticipated gadgetry and applications, they concluded. The respondents were asked to consider the future of the Internet-connected world between now and 2020 and the likely innovation that will occur, as well as the Internet's influence on the future of human intelligence. Source: Does Google Make Us Stupid? (Source: )

A midday nap markedly boosts the brain's learning capacity

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:14:09 GMT
A midday 90-minute stage 2 non-REM sleep (takes place between deep sleep and the dream state known as Rapid Eye Movement or REM) period refreshes the mind and can make you smarter, UC Berkeley researchers have found. The findings reinforce their hypothesis that sleep is needed to clear the brain's short-term memory storage and make room for new information. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news185948338.html)

Life-like evolution in a test tube

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:08:18 GMT
Scripps Research Institute scientists have synthesized RNA enzymes (also known as ribozymes) that can replicate themselves chemically without the help of any proteins or other cellular components. Many scientists believe that early life was based on RNA and predated the arrival of life based on DNA and proteins. (Source: http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3325/life-evolution-a-test-tube)

Hi Tech & Innovation 3-D Chip Design Challenges

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:01:30 GMT
3-D chip designers will have to consider bandwidth improvement (such as using vertical copper interconnects), heat, mechanical stress, and mechanical design vs. cost to achieve significant benefits with 3-D chips, according to Imec experts. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news185811757.html)

Long-promised cancer revolution begins

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:32:11 GMT
A personalized blood test that can be used to spot cancer recurrence before tumor growth shows up on scans has been developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and Science Translational Medicine. The test detects genetic rearrangements that distinguish cancer cells from normal cells. Eventually it might also pave the way for more personalized cancer treatments tailored to the genetic signature of individuals' tumors. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2010/02/linda-geddes-reportera-persona.html)

Drake wants off-world listening post for alien messages

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:28:52 GMT
SETI founder Frank Drake wants to take the search for aliens about 82 billion kilometers away from Earth, where electromagnetic signals from planets orbiting distant stars would be focused by the gravitational lensing effect of our sun, making them, in theory, more easily detected. Gravitational lenses could also be used to increase the range of transmitted signals. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527483.200-drake-wants-offworld-listening-post-for-alien-messages.html)

Solar Cells Use Nanoparticles to Capture More Sunlight

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:02:10 GMT
Stanford University spinoff Broadband Solar is developing coatings that increase the amount of light that inexpensive amorphous silicon solar cells absorb, making them competitive with the leading thin-film solar cells. (Brongersma lab, Stanford) By coupling to the surface of metal nanoparticles in the form of surface waves called plasmons, Broadband's nanoscale metallic particles redirect incoming light along the plane of the solar cell. So each photon takes a longer path through the material, increasing its chances of dislodging an electron before it can reflect back out of the cell. The nanoparticles also increase light absorption by creating strong local electric fields. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24623/?a=f)

Researcher creates 'Facebook for Scientists'

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:25:19 GMT
ResearchGate has built a social network of more than 250,000 researchers from 196 countries. Over 1,000 subgroups have been formed for specific disciplines, and 60,000 research documents have been uploaded for sharing with others on the site (Source: http://digital.venturebeat.com/2010/02/18/researcher-creates-facebook-for-scientists/)

In learning, the brain forgets things on purpose

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:08:36 GMT
Learning requires active forgetting (removing memories) to allow for new information to come in, experiments with flies by researchers at Tsinghua University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory suggest. The researchers have traced the process to a molecular pathway including a small protein known as Rac. When that mechanism is blocked, flies hold on to newly acquired memories for longer than they otherwise would. Rac switches on when flies simply forget with the passage of time, they report. It just switches on faster when the insects either get distracted by new information or "confused" by conflicting experiences. When Rac was blocked, new memories decayed more slowly, extending their life from a few hours to more than a day. When Rac levels were artificially increased in fly neurons, the insects' new memories were erased more rapidly. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news185720165.html)

Research uncovers how antidepressants actually work

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:27:33 GMT
Antidepressant drugs that increase levels of the norepinephrine neurotransmitter trigger neurogenesis (growth of new neurons) in the hippocampus, while drugs such as Prozac that increase levels of serotonin fail to stimulate neurogenesis, University of Queensland researchers have found. Then finding may lead to improved treatments for depression, as well as for dementia, which appears to be related to a decrease in neurogenesis, especially in the aging population. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news185727145.html)

Near-threshold computing could enable up to 100x reduction in power consumption

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:46:41 GMT
University of Michigan researchers have found that near-threshold computing (using lower voltages than normal to reduce energy consumption) could overcome the largest barrier to meaningful increases in chip density and enable Moore's law to continue. Without lowering power consumption, improvements made in other areas of electronic devices could be useless, because there isn't enough power to support them (more gates can now fit on a die, but a growing fraction cannot actually be used, due to power limits in portable devices). Near-threshold computing could also be useful in sensor-based systems, which have applications in biomedical implants, among other areas. Transistor density vs. energy efficiency (Dreslinski, et al. ©2010 IEEE) (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news185621560.html)

Random fluctuations give rise to odd genetic phenomenon

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:22:13 GMT
MIT biophysicists have demonstrated that some cases of incomplete penetrance* are controlled by random fluctuations in gene expression, which could influence the mutations that can cause cancer. Knowing the specific points in cellular pathways that are most important in controlling a cell's response to mutation could give drug designers better targets for new therapies. * Not every person who carries a mutated gene expresses the trait or condition associated with the mutation. Some of this variation may be due to environmental factors and the influence of other genes, but not all: It has been shown that genetically identical organisms living in the same environment can show variability in some incompletely penetrant traits. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news185632250.html)

Looks can't kill but might control your phone

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:12:17 GMT
NTT DoCoMo has created headphones that sense eye movements. For instance, you can look from right to left to pause your music. Look right, then right again, to skip to the next track. Roll them clockwise to raise the volume. The device uses "electroculograms" (EOG), which detect tiny difference in the electrical potential of the eyes as they move. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news185631087.html)

IBM develops promising contender for cheaper solar cells

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:02:11 GMT
To reduce the costs of solar cells, IBM Research has developed a prototype photovoltaic cell using common, cheap elements (tin, zinc, copper, selenium, and sulfur) to replace expensive rare elements indium and tellurium, and an inexpensive manufacturing process. IBM's solar cell device (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news185093054.html)

Intel lab explores nanoscale power storage

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:49:49 GMT
Intel researchers are exploring nanoscale materials that could be used to create ultracapacitors with a greater energy density than today's lithium ion batteries. If successful, the new materials could be mass-produced to power systems for applications including mobile devices, energy sensing, interconnects for plug-in electric vehicles, and smart grid storage units. (Source: http://www.eetimes.com/rss/showArticle.jhtml)

Malicious Software Infects Corporate Computers

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:32:50 GMT
A malicious software program, the "Kneber botnet," has infected the computers of more than 2,500 corporations around the world. The purpose appears to be to gather login credentials to online financial systems, social networking sites and e-mail systems, and then transmit that information to the system's controllers. The investigation by NetWitness determined that the botnet has been able to compromise both commercial and government systems, including 68,000 corporate log-in credentials. It has also gained access to e-mail systems, online banking accounts, Facebook, Yahoo, Hotmail and other social network credentials, along with more than 2,000 digital security certificates and a significant cache of personal identity information. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/technology/19cyber.html)

Rewinding the Clock for Aging Cells

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:21:44 GMT
Researchers from Children's Hospital Boston found that reprogramming skin cells from patients with a premature aging disease (dyskeratosis congenita) to an embryonic state lengthened the telomeres* in the cells. The researchers found that the induced pluripotent cell reprogramming appeared to activate a specific component of the telomerase enzyme, a discovery that they hope to use to develop new treatments for this and other telomerase-related diseases. Reprogrammed skin cells from patients with a premature aging disease (Suneet Agarwal) * A region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome that protects it from destruction (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/24604/)

FCC's 100 Megabits to the Home: What It Means To You

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:05:02 GMT
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing a "100 Squared" initiative, which would bring 100-megabit-per-second broadband to 100 million U.S. households by 2020. (Source: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/021610-fccs-100-megabits-to-the.html?page=2)

Cyberattack Drill Shows U.S. Unprepared

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:38:59 GMT
"Cyber Shockwave," which simulated a a massive cyberattack -- mobile phone worm and power grid attack -- on Tuesday, found that the U.S. is ill-prepared to handle a large-scale cyberattack. (Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222900723&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News)

10 Year Documentary To Follow Bluebrain Project (Video)

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:34:13 GMT
Filmmaker Noah Hutton has released a mini-documentary on the first year of IBM's Bluebrain Project to simulate a brain in a computer.
Bluebrain | Year One from Couple 3 Films on Vimeo.
(Source: http://singularityhub.com/2010/02/12/10-year-documentary-to-follow-bluebrain-project-video/)

New Material Mimics Bone To Create Better Biomedical Implants

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:19:20 GMT
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a lightweight "metal foam" with an elasticity similar to bone. It could mean a new generation of biomedical implants that avoid the bone rejection that often results from more rigid implants. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news185537540.html)