Quantum Setback For Warp Drives

Posted by kdawson on Friday April 03, @08:58AM

from the warp-zero-mister-sulu dept.

KentuckyFC writes"Warp drives were generally considered impossible by mainstream scientists until 1994 when the physicist Michael Alcubierre worked out how to build a faster-than-light drive using the principles of general relativity. His thinking was that while relativity prevents faster-than-light travel relative to the fabric of spacetime, it places no restriction on the speed at which regions of spacetime may move relative to each other. So a small bubble of spacetime containing a spacecraft could travel faster than the speed of light, at least in principle. But one unanswered question was what happens to the bubble when quantum mechanics is taken into account. Now, a team of physicists have worked it out, and it's bad news: the bubble becomes unstable at superluminal speeds, making warp drives impossible (probably)."

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Robot Makes Scientific Discovery (Mostly) On Its Own

Posted by timothy on Thursday April 02, @11:40PM

from the if-you-consider-that-on-its-own dept.

Hugh Pickens writes"A science-savvy robot called Adam has successfully developed and tested its first scientific hypothesis, discovering that certain genes in baker's yeast code for specific enzymes which encourage biochemical reactions in yeast, then ran an experiment with its lab hardware to test its predictions, and analyzed the results, all without human intervention. Adam was equipped with a database on genes that are known to be present in bacteria, mice and people, so it knew roughly where it should search in the genetic material for the lysine gene in baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Ross King, a computer scientist and biologist at Aberystwyth University, first created a computer that could generate hypotheses and perform experiments five years ago. 'This is one of the first systems to get [artificial intelligence] to try and control laboratory automation,' King says. '[Current robots] tend to do one thing or a sequence of things. The complexity of Adam is that it has cycles.' Adam has cost roughly $1 million to develop and the software that drives Adam's thought process sits on three computers, allowing Adam to investigate a thousand experiments a day and still keep track of all the results better than humans can. King's group has also created another robot scientist called Eve dedicated to screening chemical compounds for new pharmaceutical drugs that could combat diseases such as malaria.

MIT builds battery from bacterial virus, humans to power machines by 2012

by Thomas Ricker, posted Apr 3rd 2009 at 4:21AM

We've been tracking MIT professor Angela Belcher's attempt to build batteries and nano-electronics from viruses since 2006. Scientifically speaking, the so-called "virus" is actually a bacteriophage, a virus that preys only on bacteria while leaving humans of diminishing scientific knowledge alone to doubt that claim. Now, in a new report co-authored by Belcher, MIT research documents the construction of a lithium-ion battery (pictured after the break) with the help of a biological virus dubbed M13. M13 acts as a "biological scaffold" that allows carbon nanotubes and bits of iron phosphate to attach and form a network for conducting electricity. Specifically, MIT used the genetically engineered material to create the battery's negatively charged anode and positively charged cathode. Best of all, MIT's technique can be performed at, or below room temperature which is important from a manufacturing perspective -- a process that MIT claims will be "cheap and environmentally benign." Already MIT has constructed a virus-battery about the size of that found in a watch to turn on small lights in an MIT lab. Belcher claims that just a third of an ounce (about 10 grams) of the viral battery material could power an iPod for 40 hours. In time and with enough effort MIT expects to scale the technology to power electronic vehicles. Remember, when the time comes choose the red pill.

[Via Scientific American, Thanks James]

Drug Suppresses The Compulsion To Steal, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2009) — It appears that a drug commonly used to treat alcohol and drug addiction has a similar effect on the compulsive behavior of kleptomaniacs – it curbs their urge to steal, according to new research at the University of Minnesota.

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Google's Data Center secrets revealed!

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Apr 2nd 2009 at 2:08PM

After years of secrecy (maybe because they thought no one was interested), Google held its "Data Center Efficiency Summit" yesterday, where the company showed off one of its DCs and custom web servers -- all in a bid to evangelize for energy efficiency. The green angle means that everything has been planned for optimum power use, from the 1AAA shipping containers (sporting over a thousand servers each) that make up the core of its operations, to the servers themselves -- each containing its own 12-volt UPS. This design is said to boast a staggering 99.9 percent energy efficiency, as opposed to a standard centralized UPS setup which at best would only score 95 percent. According to CNet, these are efficiency levels that the EPA doesn't envision as practical until at least 2011. But that ain't all -- hit that read link for the whole sordid affair, but not before you check out the video of a server itself after the break.

Blood Test For Brain Injuries Gains Momentum

ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2009) — A blood test that can help predict the seriousness of a head injury and detect the status of the blood-brain barrier is a step closer to reality, according to two recently published studies involving University of Rochester Medical Center researchers.

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From Stress To Financial Mess: Acute Stress Affects Financial Decision Making

ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2009) — It is not surprising that as our economy continues its freefall, we are feeling increasingly more stressed and worried. Many of us are feeling extreme unease about the security of our jobs and being able to make our next mortgage payment. However, according to new a report in Psychological Science, stress could make our financial troubles even worse.

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Microsoft Asks Fed For Bailout

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday April 01, @08:41PM

from the too-big-to-fail dept.

snydeq writes"Microsoft requested on Tuesday some $20 billion in bailout funds from the federal government, claiming that as the company controls an overwhelming share of the OS market, it is too big to fail. Low adoption rates for Vista, the ensuing ad campaign trying to convince people that they really do like Vista, and the increased need for development resources to rush Windows 7 to market to make people forget about Vista have necessitated the bailout, the company said. "We want to make it absolutely clear that this is not a crisis of mismanagement," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a prepared statement. "This is simply a crisis of dollars — a crisis of not having enough dollars coming our way.""

Hints of a Link Between Autism and Vinyl Flooring

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 01, @04:55AM

from the and-that's-vinyl dept.

SpuriousLogic sends in a link from Scientific American to a study by Swedish and US researchers that reaches the surprising conclusion that theremay be a link between autism and vinyl floors."Children who live in homes with vinyl floors, which can emit chemicals called phthalates, are more likely to have autism, according to research by Swedish and US scientists published Monday. ... The scientists were surprised by their finding, calling it 'far from conclusive.' ... The researchers found four environmental factors associated with autism: vinyl flooring, the mother's smoking, family economic problems, and condensation on windows, which indicates poor ventilation. Infants or toddlers who lived in bedrooms with vinyl, or PVC, floors were twice as likely to have autism five years later... than those with wood or linoleum flooring. ... Several scientists who did not participate in the study cautioned that it has too many limitations to draw conclusions, but they suggested that new studies be designed to look for a connection between autism and indoor air pollutants."

NASA In Colbert Conundrum Over Space Station

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 01, @07:54AM

from the doing-the-right-thing dept.

After Stephen Colbert won the vote in NASA's contest to name a new module on the International Space Station, NASA found itself in a tough spot. According to Reuters, "Contest rules stipulate that the agency retains the right to basically do whatever it wants," but it may not be all that easy. At first NASA floated the idea of naming the new module's toilet "Colbert." But Last Thursday Congressman Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., urged the agency to respect the people's wishes. And Colbert turned up the heat on yesterday's weekly show: "So NASA, I urge you to heed Congressman Fattah's call for democracy in orbit. Either name that node after me, or I too will reject democracy and seize power as space's evil tyrant overlord. Ball's in your court."

New Way To Produce Electronic Components Can Lead To Cheap And Flexible Electronics

ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2009) — Flexible display screens and cheap solar cells can become a reality through research and development in organic electronics.  Physicists at Umeå University in Sweden have now developed a new and simple method for producing cheap electronic components.

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Star Trek Sequel Already Planned

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 01, @01:46AM

from the boldly-going-again dept.

bowman9991 writes"Paramount Pictures are so confident about the box office potential of the upcoming Star Trek reboot directed by J. J. Abrams that they're already working on a sequel. They've hired Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof to write the screenplay. We're looking at a possible 2011 release for the next Star Trek movie with the same cast. Now that they've committed themselves, let's hope it lives up to expectations."

Task Force Questions the Volt's Commercial Viability

by JOSH LOPOSER
Mar 31st 2009 @ 6:30PM

Filed under: Cars and Transportation, Polit-eco, GreenTech

Ouch. The news just keeps getting worse for GM. Even though the Volt has enjoyed unprecedented hype for the last 2+ years, and Jay Lenothinks its a superior ride, President Obama's new car task force is not super impressed by the long-range hybrid. They've begun questioning the Volt's commercial prospects as they take a good hard look at GM's sustainability plan. From their report:

 "GM is at least one generation behind Toyota on advanced, "green" powertrain development. In an attempt to leapfrog Toyota, GM has devoted significant resources to the Chevy Volt. While the Volt holds promise, it is currently projected to be much more expensive than its gasoline-fueled peers and will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become commercially viable.

One of the biggest concerns is that GM's 'leapfrog' strategy relied on selling the Volt at a loss, not exactly great for sustainability in the near term. While no official price has been set for the Volt just yet, all signs seem to indicate a price tag right at $40K. At that price, the Volt will be competing with the very sporty, very classy-looking Tesla Model S all-electric sedan. What do you think about the Volt's commercial appeal?

Gallery: The Volt Unmasked

Komodo Dragons Kill Trespasser, Not Fooling Around

by CAT LINCOLN
Mar 27th 2009 @ 6:26PM

Filed under: News, Plants and Wildlife

You know why Komodo Dragons are called dragons? It's not because they're fuzzy, cuddly and furry. It's because they're mean lizards who will kill you if they get a chance.

Last summer some Indonesian villagers protested when foreign aid workers forbade the traditional goat and deer sacrifices that appease the dragons. 

You know what happened? A nine year old boy got eaten! Komodo dragons mean business!

This week a fisherman was mauled by Komodo dragons and bled to death before he could reach the hospital. He was trespassing on an island where there are a ton of Komodo dragons. Well, not a ton, because they're endangered and there are only about 4,000 left in the world. 

Still, as this fisherman discovered, it only takes one angry dragon to mess you up. 

Knights, eco-tourists and fisherman beware! Komodo dragons have a taste for human blood, and they're not shy about taking it from you.

Gallery: Beware of Komodo Dragons!

Video: ultrasonic water level dish pings owner when kitty needs a drink

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 31st 2009 at 9:07AM

Given that most cats aren't really the talkative type, we can definitely understand scoopmycatbox's desire to rig up a water dish (vid's after the break) that does the yapping for his dearest kitty. Put as simply as possible, the ultrasonic water level cat dish combines an Arduino, Parallax range finder, some scrap wood and a good deal of wires in order to measure when the water bowl needs to be refilled. He's still working to get the contraption to send him a Tweet when the level gets below a certain point, and we can only assume that part II will see an automatic refilling toolhooked in to said alerting system. And you thought pets had it good before the advent of technology...

[Via MAKE]

Supreme Court Lets Virginia Anti-Spam Law Die

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday March 31, @05:20AM

from the escaping-from-the-can dept.

SpuriousLogic sends in a CNN report that begins"The Supreme Court has passed up a chance to examine how far states can go to restrict unsolicited e-mails in efforts to block spammers from bombarding computer users. The high court without comment Monday rejected Virginia's appeal to keep its Computer Crimes Act in place. It was one of the toughest laws of its kind in the nation, the only one to ban noncommercial — as well as commercial — spam e-mail to consumers in that state. The justices' refusal to intervene also means the conviction of prolific commercial spammer Jeremy Jaynes will not be reinstated."Jaynes remains behind bars because of a federal securities fraud conviction unrelated to the matter of spamming.

Game Companies Face Hard Economic Choices

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday March 31, @02:32AM

from the competition-is-a-good-thing dept.

Hugh Pickens writes"The NY Times reports that the proliferation of free or low-cost games on the Web and for phones limits how high the major game publishers can set prices, so makers are sometimes unable to charge enough to cover the cost of producing titles. The cost of making a game for the previous generation of machines was about $10 million, not including marketing. The cost of a game for the latest consoles is over twice that — $25 million is typical, and it can be much more. Reggie Fils-Aime, chief marketing officer for Nintendo of America, says publishers of games for its Wii console need to sell one million units of a game to turn a profit, but the majority of games, analysts said, sell no more than 150,000 copies. Developers would like to raise prices to cover development costs, but Mike McGarvey, former chief executive of Eidos and now an executive with OnLive, says that consumers have been looking at console games and saying, 'This is too expensive and there are too many choices.' Since makers cannot charge enough or sell enough games to cover the cost of producing most titles, video game makers have to hope for a blockbuster. 'The model as it exists is dying,' says McGarvey."As we discussed recently, OnLive is trying to change that by moving a big portion of the hardware requirements to the cloud. Of course, manydoubt that such a task can be accomplished in a way that doesn't severely degrade gameplay, but it now appears that Sony is working on something similar as well.

Videogame training may improve eyesight, no word on the health benefits of Mind Flex

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Mar 30th 2009 at 11:29AM

You know, the benefits of videogames just keep adding up. According to a study published in Nature Neuroscience, video game training may help people improve contrast sensitivity, or the ability to differentiate between shades of gray. Among the two groups studied, the most improvement was noted among folks who played games which required precise, visually guided aiming actions, such as Call of Duty 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004. "When people play action games," said Daphne Bavelier, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, "they're changing the brain's pathway responsible for visual processing. These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it, and we've seen the positive effect remains even two years after the training was over." Now that we've established that the Xbox can be part of a healthy lifestyle, it would be irresponsible of us not to play it more often.