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Wednesday March 13, 2013 Daily edition   News and Blog Headlines Untangling life’s origins Expanding beyond 3D printed guns Google Glass apps revealed at SXSW Protein adaptations in Antarctica may explain strategies for survival on Mars Google wants to replace all your passwords with a ring Researchers peek at the structure of the viral Internet NASA rover finds conditions once suited for ancient life on Mars Designing interlocking building blocks to create complex tissues A high-resolution endoscope as thin as a human hair Sleep discovery could lead to therapies that improve memory Latest News Untangling life’s origins March 13, 2013   Researchers in the Evolutionary Bioinformatics Laboratory at the University of Illinois in collaboration with German scientists have been using bioinformatics techniques to probe the world of proteins for answers to questions about the origins of life. Proteins are formed from chains of amino acids and fold into three-dimensional structures that determine their function. According to … more… Expanding beyond 3D printed guns March 13, 2013   At a panel discussion at SXSW Monday, Defense Distributed (DEFCAD) founder Cody Wilson unveiled that DEFCAD is working on plans to expand its efforts beyond just firearms to any controversial object users feel like uploading, including grenades and patented ones, VentureBeat reports. Cody: Can 3D printing be subversive? If it can, it will be because it allows us to … more… Google Glass apps revealed at SXSW March 13, 2013   At the SXSW Interactive Festival, Timothy Jordan, Google’s Senior Developer Advocate, showed off how you navigate Google Glass and how apps like Gmail, the New York Times, and Evernote work on the glasses, ABC News reports. The glasses have a small screen visible over your right eye. The right arm of the glasses, which contains … more… Protein adaptations in Antarctica may explain strategies for survival on Mars March 13, 2013   Research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine has revealed key features in proteins needed for life to function on Mars and other extreme environments. The researchers, funded by NASA, studied organisms that survive in the extreme environment of Antarctica. They found subtle but significant differences between the core proteins in ordinary organisms and … more… Google wants to replace all your passwords with a ring March 13, 2013   As part of research into doing away with typed passwords, Google has built rings that not only adorn a finger but also can be used to log in to a computer or online account, MIT Technology Review reports. At the RSA security conference in San Francisco last month, Mayank Upadhyay, a principal engineer at Google,  said … more… Researchers peek at the structure of the viral Internet March 13, 2013   At Microsoft Research’s annual technology demo day this week, researchers showed off a tool called Viral Search that attempts to measure virality in its more literal sense. That means not overall traffic over time, but the mechanics by which it passes from person to person over many generations, MIT Technology Review reports. The software looked … more… NASA rover finds conditions once suited for ancient life on Mars March 13, 2013   An analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes. Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon — some of the key chemical ingredients for life — in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale … more… Designing interlocking building blocks to create complex tissues March 13, 2013   Columbia University researchers have developed a new “plug-and-play” method to assemble complex cell microenvironments in a scalable, highly precise way to fabricate tissues with any spatial organization or interest — such as those found in the heart or skeleton or vasculature. The lock-and-key technique can be used to build cellular assemblies using a variety of … more… A high-resolution endoscope as thin as a human hair March 13, 2013   Engineers at Stanford University have developed a prototype single-fiber endoscope that is as thin as a human hair, with a resolution four times better than previous devices of similar design. The “micro-endoscope” is a significant step forward in high-resolution, minimally invasive bioimaging, with potential applications in research and clinical practice. Micro-endoscopy could enable new methods … more… Sleep discovery could lead to therapies that improve memory March 13, 2013   A team of sleep researchers led by UC Riverside psychologist Sara C. Mednick has confirmed the mechanism that enables the brain to consolidate memory and found that a commonly prescribed sleep aid enhances the process. Those discoveries could lead to new sleep therapies that will improve memory for aging adults and those with dementia, Alzheimer’s, … more… New VIDEOS   Masked Frame Pictures | Project Kronos trailer   Engadget | Leaked video on YouTube alleges Google Now for iOS Latest Kurzweil Collection posts Apple’s iWatch and the law of accelerating anticlimax   Source: Complex — March 12, 2013 | Michael Thomsen The advent of wearable computers was one of Ray Kurzweil’s early predictions about the ever nearing Singularity, the moment when computer intelligence will surpass human intelligence and slowly slip out of our control. At the time he said it, the prediction was as strange sounding as the idea we might all one day be wearing phone … more… Read full article here Visit KurzweilAI.net You are currently subscribed to the KurzweilAI.net newsletter as *|EMAIL|* To unsubscribe, please click here. To change your email preferences, please click here. *|LIST:ADDRESS|*.