Friday, July 17, 2009

OLED Breakthrough Yields 75% More Efficient Lights

Posted by kdawson on Friday July 17, @10:23AM
from the mehr-licht dept.

Mike writes"Researchers at Korea's Advanced Institute of Science and Technology recently announced a breakthrough in OLED technology that reduces the ultra-thin lights' energy consumption by 75%. The discovery hinges upon a new method of creating 'surface plasmon enhanced' organic light emitting diodes that boast 1.75 times increased emission rates and double the light intensity."OLEDnet notes: "The finding was published in the April issue of Applied Physics Letters and the June 25 issue of Optics Express. It will be also featured as the research highlight of the August issue of Nature Photonics and Virtual Journal of Ultrafast Science."

Hydrogen Technology Steams Ahead

ScienceDaily (July 17, 2009) — Could the cars and laptops of the future be fuelled by old chip fat? Engineers at the University of Leeds believe so, and are developing an energy efficient, environmentally-friendly hydrogen production system. The system enables hydrogen to be extracted from waste materials, such as vegetable oil and the glycerol by-product of bio-diesel. The aim is to create the high purity hydrogen-based fuel necessary not only for large-scale power production, but also for smaller portable fuel cells.

ScienceDaily (July 17, 2009) — Stirling Energy Systems (SES) and Tessera Solar recently unveiled four newly designed solar power collection dishes at Sandia National Laboratories’ National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF). Called SunCatchers™, the new dishes have a refined design that will be used in commercial-scale deployments of the units beginning in 2010.

ScienceDaily (July 17, 2009) — A daily dose of sodium bicarbonate—baking soda, already used for baking, cleaning, acid indigestion, sunburn, and more—slows the decline of kidney function in some patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD), reports an upcoming study in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). "This cheap and simple strategy also improves patients' nutritional status, and has the potential of translating into significant economic, quality of life, and clinical outcome benefits," comments Magdi Yaqoob, MD (Royal London Hospital).

Australian Police Plan Wardriving Mission

Posted by timothy on Friday July 17, @05:00AM
from the village-green-preservation-society dept.

bfire writes"Police officers in the Australian state of Queensland plan to conduct a 'wardriving' mission around select towns in an effort to educate citizens to secure their wireless networks. When unsecured networks are found, the Police will pay a friendly visit to the household or small business, informing them of the risks they are exposing themselves to. Officers also hope to return to surveyed areas within a month to see if users have fixed their security settings. The idea is modeled on another campaign where officers walk around railway stations checking cars have been locked, and leaving notes warning people of the dangers involved with leaving their vehicles unsecured."

Invisible flash produces photos without glares

by Laura June, posted Jul 17th 2009 at 6:47AM

Dilip Krishnan and Rob Fergus at New York University have developed a dark or invisible flash which uses infrared and UV light to take photos in dark places without the nasty glare of a standard flash. Their dark flash camera is made by modifying a flashbulb so that it emits light over a wider range of frequencies and filters out the visible light, and removes filters that prevent the silicon image sensor from detecting IR and UV rays. This flash results in a crisp image which does not have correct color balance, and looks like night vision photography. To correct the colors of the image, the camera also takes a quick color image sans flash right after the dark flash image. The image produced in this second image is predictably grainy and unclear, but the colors are correct. Software is then used to combine the information from the photos to produce the final image (an example of which you see above). There are some minor problems with the method -- objects that absorb UV light (such as freckles!) do not show up using this method. The pair will present their work at the Siggraph conference in New Orleans in August.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Radiation Dose, Cancer Risk From Coronary Artery Calcium Screening Estimated

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — A study based on computer modeling of radiation risk suggests that widespread screening for the buildup of calcium in the arteries using computed tomography scans would lead to an estimated 42 additional radiation-induced cancer cases per 100,000 men and 62 cases per 100,000 women, according to a new report.

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — Ask middle-school students if they are popular or make friends easily, they likely will depend on social comparisons with their peers for an answer. Such reliance on the perceived opinions of others, or reflected self-appraisals, has long been assumed, but new evidence supporting this claim has now been found in the teen brain.

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — A team of researchers has mapped patterns of illicit drug use across the state of Oregon using a method of sampling municipal wastewater before it is treated.

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — Paleontologists have made the most important discovery to date at the Arlington Archosaur Site, a prolific fossil site in North Arlington, Texas. The disassembled skull of a crocodile with two and a half inch long teeth that lived nearly 100 million years ago has been unearthed.

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — Coral reef survival is balancing on a knife edge as the combined effects of ocean acidification and ocean warming events threaten to push reefs to the brink of extinction this century, warned a meeting of leading scientists.

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — The accidental discovery of a bowl-shaped molecule that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air suggests exciting new possibilities for dealing with global warming, including genetically engineering microbes to manufacture those CO_2.

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — UCLA scientists and colleagues from UC Riverside and the Human BioMolecular Research Institute have found that a form of vitamin D, together with a chemical found in turmeric spice called curcumin, may help stimulate the immune system to clear the brain of amyloid beta, which forms the plaques considered the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

by Vladislav Savov, posted Jul 16th 2009 at 3:41AM

On a long enough timeline, all gadgets, white goods, furniture and consumables end up in the trash bin, and the latest tech from MIT is designed to track their subsequent journey from your porch to the great beyond. Partnering with the New Scientist magazine, researchers are hoping that by mapping where garbage ends up, they can awaken that atrophied muscle of environmental awareness in us all. The project will attach SIM cards to particular items of trash, which will beep out their location information every 15 minutes. You might think this somewhat underwhelming -- given all the bells, whistles and bomb-proofing that garbage cans have been adorned with over the years -- but interest appears high enough to justify exhibitions of the project in New York and Seattle starting this September.

New Scientist and MIT track your trash for the good of the planet

by Vladislav Savov, posted Jul 16th 2009 at 3:41AM

Hybrid2 public bike concept promises to help power city buses

by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 16th 2009 at 1:38AM

Hybrid bikes are one thing, but designer Chiyi Chen looks to have something far grander in mind for his Hybrid2 bike concept, which he says could one day help power fleets of city buses. To do that, the hybrid part of the bike (a regenerative braking system) wouldn't be used to help power the bike itself at all, but would instead store the energy in an ultracapacitor that'd then feed the energy back into the grid when its parked at a special bike stand, which would in turn be used to help charge the hybrid electric buses. Not one to overlook an ingenious little detail, Chen has also devised a special card RFID card that would not only be used to unlock the bike, but keep track of the energy that each rider generates -- build up enough credits and you can ride the bus for free. Intrigued? Head on past the break for a video overview from the man himself.

[Via Inhabitat]

MJ Gamer Tribute

This was pretty cool.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

New Doubts About Fasting Leading To Longer Lives Based On Study In Flies

ScienceDaily (July 15, 2009) — They're called "fruit flies" for a reason, and it sure isn't for lack of appetite. But like most animals, the pests typically lose their appetite when they get infected. We humans go them one better: Even when bug-free and hungry, some of us are tempted to do some serious fasting, in hopes of living longer, healthier lives.

ScienceDaily (July 15, 2009) — Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus's southern hemisphere at infrared wavelengths. The new map hints that our neighbouring world may once have been more Earth-like, with both, a plate tectonics system and an ocean of water.

ScienceDaily (July 15, 2009) — No one knows exactly how much Earth's climate will warm due to carbon emissions, but a new study suggests scientists' best predictions about global warming might be incorrect.

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2009) — Rising levels of smokestack emissions from oceangoing ships will cause an estimated 87,000 deaths worldwide each year by 2012 — almost one-third higher than previously believed, according to the second major study on that topic. The study says that government action to reduce sulfur emissions from shipping fuel (the source of air pollution linked to an increased risk of illness and death) could reduce that toll.

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2009) — A flavonoid derived from citrus fruit has shown tremendous promise for preventing weight gain and other signs of metabolic syndrome which can lead to Type 2 Diabetes and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The study, led by Murray Huff of the Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario looked at a flavonoid (plant-based bioactive molecule) called naringenin.

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2009) — When cells experiencing DNA damage fail to repair themselves, they send a signal to their neighbors letting them know they're in trouble. The discovery, which shows that a process dubbed the DDR (DNA Damage Response) also controls communication from cell to cell, has implications for both cancer and aging.

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Jul 14th 2009 at 5:54AM

New Scientist has recently published an article that discusses the memristor, the long theorized basic circuit element that can generate voltage from a current (like a resistor), but in a more complex, dynamic manner -- with the ability to "remember" previous currents. As we've seen, HP has already made progress developing hybrid memristor-transistor chips, but now the hubbub is the technology's applications for artificial intelligence. Apparently, synapses have complex electrical responses "maddeningly similar" to those of memristors, a realization that led Leon Chua (who first discovered the memristor in 1971) to say that synapses are memristors, "the missing circuit element I was looking for" was with us all along, it seems. And of course, it didn't take long for DARPA to jump into the fray, with our fave DoD outfit recently announcing its Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics Program (SyNAPSE -- cute, huh?) with the goal of developing "biological neural systems" that can "autonomously process information in complex environments by automatically learning relevant and probabilistically stable features and associations." In other words, they see this as a way to make their killer robots a helluva lot smarter -- and you know what that means, don't you?

Read - New Scientist: "Memristor minds: The future of artificial intelligence"
Read - DARPA: "Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics"

Major Breakthrough With Water Desalination System

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2009) — Concern over access to clean water is no longer just an issue for the developing world, as California faces its worst drought in recorded history. According to state's Department of Water Resources, supplies in major reservoirs and many groundwater basins are well below average. Court-ordered restrictions on water deliveries have reduced supplies from the two largest water systems, and an outdated statewide water system can't keep up with population growth.

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2009) — The number of people with Alzheimer's and dementia – both new cases and total numbers with the disease – continues to rise among the very oldest segments of the population in contradiction of the conventional wisdom, according to research reported at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna.

osted by kdawson on Wednesday July 15, @08:08AM

from the if-only-they-knew-what-it-is dept.

gehrehmee writes"A recent Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll on ISPs' use of traffic shaping suggests that 60% of survey respondents find the practice reasonable as long as customers are treated fairly, while 22% believe Internet management is unreasonable regardless. The major Canadian Internet and phone service provider Rogers, meanwhile, compared 'person-to-person file-sharing to a car that parks in one lane of a busy highway at all times of the day or night, clogging the roadways for everyone unless someone takes action.' Is there a lack of education about the long-term effects of traffic shaping on free communication? Or are net neutrality advocates just out of touch?"The poll found that only 20% of respondents had ever heard of traffic shaping. The article is unclear on whether the "60%" who found the practice "reasonable" are 60% of all respondents — most of whom don't know what they are talking about — or 60% of the minority who know. If the former, then the exact phrasing of the question is the overwhelming determinant of the response. At the CTRC hearings, which wrapped up today, Bell Canada executives revealed that the company "slows certain types of downloads [P2P] to as little as 1.5 to 3 per cent of their advertised speed during 9-1/2 hours of the day."

Monday, July 13, 2009

$500 Acceleglove promises to finally bring Rad Racer to life

by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 13th 2009 at 2:16PM

Data gloves may have come a long way since the days of the Power Glove, but they've also tended to get pretty expensive as more and more tech found their way into 'em. The folks at AnthroTronix look to be doing their small part to change that with their new Acceleglove, however, which packs a not too crazy price tag of $500 and, according to the company, all the features you'd expect to find on a $5,000 glove. Chief among those features are accelerometers on each finger, which can track precise gestures like pinching and, as you can see in the video after the break, are more than up to all-important the task of controlling a robotic arm. Best of all, the glove comes complete with an open source SDK to let you get as much out of the glove as you're willing to put into it.

[Via OhGizmo!]

Artificial Leaf Development: Structure Of Artificial Light Harvesting Antenna Determined

ScienceDaily (July 13, 2009) — An international team of researchers has modified chlorophyll from an alga so that it resembles the extremely efficient light antennae of bacteria. The team was then able to determine the structure of these light antennae. This is the first step to converting sunlight into energy using an artificial leaf.

ScienceDaily (July 13, 2009) — Researchers from Keele University’s School of Psychology have determined that swearing can have a ‘pain-lessening effect’, according to new study published in the journal NeuroReport.

ScienceDaily (July 13, 2009) — Anyone who has ever had cats knows how difficult it can be to get them to do anything they don't already want to do. But it seems that the house cats themselves have had distinctly less trouble getting humans to do their bidding, according to a report published in the July 14th issue of Current Biology.

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2009) — By the year 2050, about 30 million Americans are expected to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Experts in the field are trying to determine if sophisticated imaging equipment can help predict the development of the disease.

ScienceDaily (July 13, 2009) — Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and collaborators have discovered and analyzed several new compounds, collectively called the ''EUK-400 series,'' which could someday be used to prevent radiation-induced injuries to kidneys, lungs, skin, intestinal tract and brains of radiological terrorism victims. The findings, which appear in the June issue of the Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, describe new agents which can be given orally in pill form, which would more expedient in an emergency situation.

My Skydiving trip

Why oh why did I sky dive? It was fun and terrifying all at the same time.

I discovered something up there, I cannot afford to die right now. Not that I think I'll do it again but if I ever do, I'll wait until the kids are gone etc. I hacked up the vid they gave me to fit it into 1.5 minutes so excuse the rough cuts. I wanted to get something posted today.

Friday, July 17, 2009

by Laura June, posted Jul 17th 2009 at 6:47AM

Thursday, July 16, 2009

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — A team of researchers has mapped patterns of illicit drug use across the state of Oregon using a method of sampling municipal wastewater before it is treated.

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — Coral reef survival is balancing on a knife edge as the combined effects of ocean acidification and ocean warming events threaten to push reefs to the brink of extinction this century, warned a meeting of leading scientists.

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — The accidental discovery of a bowl-shaped molecule that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air suggests exciting new possibilities for dealing with global warming, including genetically engineering microbes to manufacture those CO2.

by Vladislav Savov, posted Jul 16th 2009 at 3:41AM

by Vladislav Savov, posted Jul 16th 2009 at 3:41AM

by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 16th 2009 at 1:38AM

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

ScienceDaily (July 15, 2009) — Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus's southern hemisphere at infrared wavelengths. The new map hints that our neighbouring world may once have been more Earth-like, with both, a plate tectonics system and an ocean of water.

ScienceDaily (July 15, 2009) — No one knows exactly how much Earth's climate will warm due to carbon emissions, but a new study suggests scientists' best predictions about global warming might be incorrect.

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Jul 14th 2009 at 5:54AM

osted by kdawson on Wednesday July 15, @08:08AM

Monday, July 13, 2009

by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 13th 2009 at 2:16PM

ScienceDaily (July 13, 2009) — Researchers from Keele University’s School of Psychology have determined that swearing can have a ‘pain-lessening effect’, according to new study published in the journal NeuroReport.

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2009) — By the year 2050, about 30 million Americans are expected to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Experts in the field are trying to determine if sophisticated imaging equipment can help predict the development of the disease.

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ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — The accidental discovery of a bowl-shaped molecule that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air suggests exciting new possibilities for dealing with global warming, including genetically engineering microbes to manufacture those CO_2.