Speeding up electronics to light frequencies

Speeding up electronics to light frequencies: New results on the interaction of femto- and attosecond light pulses with a solid insulator hold promise for reaching electronic switching rates up to the petahertz domain.

Fastest light-driven process ever

Fastest light-driven process ever: A discovery that promises transistors -- the fundamental part of all modern electronics -- controlled by laser pulses that will be 10,000 faster than today's fastest transistors has now been made.

Mitigating our carbon footprint

Mitigating our carbon footprint: Scientists keep producing increasingly complex modelling tools to evaluate urgently needed mitigating strategies of our carbon footprint. However, it is policy makers who have to decide on measures to curb our CO2 emissions. Therefore the science of carbon emissions needs to be translated into useful information to serve their needs.

If Tech Is So Important, Why Are IT Wages Flat?

If Tech Is So Important, Why Are IT Wages Flat?: dcblogs writes "Despite the fact that technology plays an increasingly important role in the economy, IT wages remain persistently flat. This may be tech's inconvenient truth. In 2000, the average hourly wage was $37.27 in computer and math occupations for workers with at least a bachelor's degree. In 2011, it was $39.24, adjusted for inflation, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute. That translates to an average wage increase of less than a half percent a year. In real terms, IT wages overall have gone up by $1.97 an hour in just over 10 years, according to the EPI. Data from professional staffing firm Yoh shows wages in decline. In its latest measure for week 12 of 2012, the hourly wages were $31.45 and in 2010, for the same week, at $31.78. The worker who earned $31.78 in 2010 would need to make $33.71 today to stay even with inflation. Wages vary by skill and this data is broad. The unemployment rate for tech has been in the 3-4% range, but EPI says full employment has been historically around 2%."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Swimming Robot Reaches Australia After Record-Breaking Trip

Swimming Robot Reaches Australia After Record-Breaking Trip: SternisheFan writes "A self-controlled swimming robot has completed a journey from San Francisco to Australia. The record-breaking 9,000 nautical mile (16,668km) trip took the PacX Wave Glider just over a year to achieve. Liquid Robotics, the US company behind the project, collected data about the Pacific Ocean's temperature, salinity and ecosystem from the drone. The company said its success demonstrated that such technology could 'survive the high seas.' The robot is called Papa Mau in honor of the late Micronesian navigator Pius 'Mau' Piailug, who had a reputation for finding ways to navigate the seas without using traditional equipment. 'During Papa Mau's journey, [it] weathered gale-force storms, fended off sharks, spent more than 365 days at sea, skirted around the Great Barrier Reef, and finally battled and surfed the east Australian current to reach his final destination in Hervey Bay, near Bundaberg, Queensland,' the company said in a statement. Some of the data it gathered about the abundance of phytoplankton -plant-like organisms that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and provide food for other sea life -could already be monitored by satellite. However, the company suggested that its equipment offered more detail, providing a useful tool for climate model scientists."

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Star Trek: TNG Season 3 Blu-ray trailer appears, PADD iOS app gets an update

Star Trek: TNG Season 3 Blu-ray trailer appears, PADD iOS app gets an update:

If you're a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan who bypassed seasons one and two waiting for the pivotal third season to arrive on Blu-ray, you can finally get a taste of the experience in high definition. While you're enjoying memories of the Borg, season-ending cliffhangers and all the other highlights of season three with this new trailer, you can also check out an updated version of the PADD app that's out on iPhone and iPad. Originally launched in 2011 to bring home a database of Star Trek info in true TNG form, version 2.0 brings an additional 170 entries, Siri-powered voice search, messages from Starfleet, a smaller size and the ability to live update content in the future. Check after the break for the trailer and beyond the source link for the apps (still $4.99 on iPad / $1.99 on iPhone.)
Continue reading Star Trek: TNG Season 3 Blu-ray trailer appears, PADD iOS app gets an update
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
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Source: Star Trek.com (1), (2), iTunes

Breath test could possibly diagnose colorectal cancer

Breath test could possibly diagnose colorectal cancer: A new study has demonstrated for the first time that a simple breath analysis could be used for colorectal cancer screening.

Geomapping Racism With Twitter

Geomapping Racism With Twitter:
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Megan Garber writes that in the age of the quantified self, biases are just one more thing that can be measured, analyzed, and publicized. The day after Barack Obama won a second term as president of the United States, a group of geography academics took advantage of the fact that many tweets are geocoded to search Twitter for racism-revealing terms that appeared in the context of tweets that mentioned 'Obama,' 're-elected,' or 'won,' sorting the tweets according to the state they were sent from and comparing the racist tweets to the total number of geocoded tweets coming from that state during the same time period. Their findings? Alabama and Mississippi have the highest measures followed closely by Georgia, Louisiana, and Tennessee forming a fairly distinctive cluster in the southeast. Beyond that cluster North Dakota and Utah both had relatively high scores (3.5 each), as did Missouri, Oregon, and Minnesota. 'These findings support the idea that there are some fairly strong clustering of hate tweets centered in southeastern U.S. which has a much higher rate than the national average,' writes Matthew Zook. 'But lest anyone elsewhere become too complacent, the unfortunate fact is that most states are not immune from this kind of activity. Racist behavior, particularly directed at African Americans in the U.S., is all too easy to find both offline and in information space.'"

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Ballmer says Microsoft Surface RT sales off to 'modest' start

Ballmer says Microsoft Surface RT sales off to 'modest' start:

Microsoft's been holding Surface for Windows RT sales figures close to its chest so far, but CEO Steve Ballmer has allowed in an interview with Le Parisien that the much ballyhooed tablet is off to a "modest" start. The bombastic exec gave that appraisal while touting the imminent arrival of the tab's higher-powered sibling, Surface for Windows 8 Pro, though he didn't elaborate further. After all the cake it's no doubt lavished marketing the slate, we'll have to see if the software giant finds the hardware game tough to swallow.
Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

Ballmer says Microsoft Surface RT sales off to 'modest' start originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Nov 2012 10:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Making a better invisibility cloak

Making a better invisibility cloak: The first functional "cloaking" device reported by electrical engineers in 2006 worked like a charm, but it wasn't perfect. Now a member of the same laboratory has developed a new design that ties up one of the major loose ends from the original device.

It's not just what you eat, but when you eat it: Link between fat cell and brain clock molecules shown

It's not just what you eat, but when you eat it: Link between fat cell and brain clock molecules shown: Fat cells store excess energy and signal these levels to the brain. Deletion of the clock gene Arntl, also known as Bmal1, in fat cells, causes mice to become obese, with a shift in the timing of when this nocturnal species normally eats. These findings shed light on the complex causes of obesity in humans.

Using rust and water to store solar energy as hydrogen

Using rust and water to store solar energy as hydrogen: How can solar energy be stored so that it can be available any time, day or night, when the sun shining or not? Scientists are developing a technology that can transform light energy into a clean fuel that has a neutral carbon footprint: hydrogen. The basic ingredients of the recipe are water and metal oxides, such as iron oxide, better known as rust.

Lower-income patients fare better than wealthier after knee replacement

Lower-income patients fare better than wealthier after knee replacement: Patients who make $35,000 a year or less report better outcomes after knee replacement surgery than people who earn more, research shows.

Timing of rehabilitation after total knee replacement surgery may hurt patients’ ability to regain and improve function

Timing of rehabilitation after total knee replacement surgery may hurt patients’ ability to regain and improve function: While more than 900,000 total knee replacement surgeries were performed in the U.S. in 2011 to treat debilitating knee osteoarthritis, the success rate of post-operative functional gains vary widely, according to new research findings.

Weekly soft drink consumption bubbles up knee osteoarthritis; especially in men

Weekly soft drink consumption bubbles up knee osteoarthritis; especially in men: Sugary soft drink consumption contributes not only to weight gain, but also may play a role in the progression of knee osteoarthritis, especially in men, according to new research findings.

X-Ray Laser For Creating Supercharged Particles

X-Ray Laser For Creating Supercharged Particles:
William Robinson writes "Scientists have found way to use X-Ray Lasers to create supercharged particles. The specific tuning of the laser's properties can cause atoms and molecules to resonate. The resonance excites the atoms and causes them to shake off electrons at a rate that otherwise would require higher energies. This could be used to create highly charged plasma."

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Global Warming Felt By Space Junk and Satellites

Global Warming Felt By Space Junk and Satellites:
An anonymous reader writes in with a story about another side effect of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. "Rising carbon dioxide levels at the edge of space are apparently reducing the pull that Earth's atmosphere has on satellites and space junk, researchers say. The findings suggest that man made increases in carbon dioxide might be having effects on the Earth that are larger than expected, scientists added... in the highest reaches of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide can actually have a cooling effect. The main effects of carbon dioxide up there come from its collisions with oxygen atoms. These impacts excite carbon dioxide molecules, making them radiate heat. The density of carbon dioxide is too thin above altitudes of about 30 miles (50 kilometers) for the molecules to recapture this heat. Cooling the upper atmosphere causes it to contract, exerting less drag on satellites."

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NSA Outs Top-Secret Report That Missed the Future of Supercomputing

NSA Outs Top-Secret Report That Missed the Future of Supercomputing: The mid-1990s were dark years for the National Security Agency. Its budget had been slashed, top technical talent was seeping out, and the company that made its supercomputers was in trouble.

You can get a sense of the agency's worry -- and its myopia -- in a top-secret report on the state of supercomputing that the ...

New way of making glass

New way of making glass: A new way to make glass has been discovered using a method that controls how the atoms within a substance are arranged around each other.

Scientific explanation to why people perform better after receiving a compliment

Scientific explanation to why people perform better after receiving a compliment: Scientists have found scientific proof that people doing exercises appear to perform better when another person compliments them.

Motorcycle App Helps You Ride Faster, Turn Sharper, Brake Harder

Motorcycle App Helps You Ride Faster, Turn Sharper, Brake Harder:
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Alexander George writes about a new app that takes the data from a smartphone's accelerometers, GPS, and inclinometer to plot information for braking force, lean angles, speed, and on-track location onto Google Maps to shave precious milliseconds off each lap time in motorcycle races. Race Sense is designed to be a useful tool for someone who races for a living and a very fun toy for those who just like to brag about what lean angle they got at their ride day, and what top speed they reached down the main straight. Australian Grand Prix motorcycle road racer Anthony West provided much of the R&D that went into tweaking the app. 'With sponsorship's so hard to find and I need another way to survive. I spent some of my own money developing it with an Italian guy who also likes to ride himself, and who writes programs,' says West who designed Race Sense to fulfill the needs of a genuine MotoGP racer. 'Sometimes it's one second [separating] 20 people. If you adjust one little thing thinking about something in one corner you can lose four places.'"

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Habitable planet: New super-Earth in six-planet system may be just right to support life

Habitable planet: New super-Earth in six-planet system may be just right to support life: A new super-Earth planet that may have an Earth-like climate and be just right to support life has been discovered around a nearby star by an international team of astronomers.