Swarms of Solar-Powered Microbots On the Way

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday September 01, @07:14AM
from the time-to-upgrade-the-fly-swatter dept.

robot

hardware

technology

Mike writes to tell us that Inhabitat has an interesting article, complete with some pretty pictures, about a new solar-powered swarm robot that could be used to collect data and aid in surveillance."These mini-robots are quite revolutionary, considering that they contain all that's necessary to collect data and relay it back using one single circuit board. In the past single-chip robots have presented significant design and manufacturing challenges due in part to the use of solder as an adhesive. These new microbots use conductive adhesive to attach the components to a double-sided flexible printed circuit board using surface mount technology. The circuit is then folded into thirds and wrapped around the ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). On top, a solar cell generates power for the robot and delivers 3.6 V to the unit, which is enough for it to walk. Locomotion is achieved via three vibrating legs, while a fourth horizontal vibrating leg is used as a touch sensor."

Visits To Nana's May Keep Toddlers From Developing Negative Age Stereotypes

ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2009) — It's easy to list the negative stereotypes attributed to the elderly: they are considered forgetful, hard-of-hearing, absent-minded and confused.

Read More

Robotic Mold

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday August 31, @02:28PM
from the he-slimed-me dept.

biotech

robot

hardware

Canis Lupus writes to mention that researchers from the University of West England are designing the world's first biological robot, constructed from mold. The robot, "Plasmobot," will be created using vegetative slime mold called plasmodium (Physarum polycephalum) that is commonly found in forests, gardens, and most damp places in the UK."This new plasmodium robot, called plasmobot, will sense objects, span them in the shortest and best way possible, and transport tiny objects along pre-programmed directions. The robots will have parallel inputs and outputs, a network of sensors and the number crunching power of super computers. The plasmobot will be controlled by spatial gradients of light, electro-magnetic fields and the characteristics of the substrate on which it is placed. It will be a fully controllable and programmable amorphous intelligent robot with an embedded massively parallel computer."

Dad Builds 700 Pound Cannon for Son's Birthday

Posted by samzenpus on Monday August 31, @01:19PM
from the targets-only-no-shooting-birds dept.

toy

Hugh Pickens writes"The Charleston Daily Mail reports that machinist Mike Daugherty built his son a working cannon for his birthday — not a model — a real working cannon. 'It looks like something right out of the battle at Gettysburg,' says Daugherty. The 700 pound cast iron and steel howitzer, designed to use comparatively small explosive charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories with a steep angle of descent, has a 4-inch gun barrel that is 36 inches long mounted on a wooden gun carriage with two 36- inch diameter wheels and took Daugherty about two weeks to build at a cost of about $6,000. 'I've always been interested in the Civil War and cannons, so I thought it would be a good gift,' says Daugherty's 11-year old son Logan. Daugherty said he is not worried about the federal government coming to get his son's cannon because he spoke to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and found it is legal to own such a cannon because it does not use a firing pin and is muzzle loaded so the government does not consider the weapon a threat. Two days after the family celebrated Logan's 11th birthday, father and son offered a field demonstration of the new cannon on top of a grassy hill overlooking Fairmont, West Virginia and on the third try, the blank inside the barrel went boom and a cannon was born. For a followup they popped a golf ball into the gun barrel, lit the fuse, and watched the golf ball split the sky and land about 600 yards away. 'Any rebels charging up this hill would be in trouble with a cannon like this at the top,' Logan says."

Woman Fired For Using Uppercase in Email

Posted by samzenpus on Monday August 31, @12:49PM
from the don't-type-angry dept.

tomachi writes"An accountant in NZ has been awarded $17,000 NZD for unfair dismissal after her boss fired her without warning for using uppercase letters in a single email to co-workers. The email, which advises her team how to fill out staff claim forms, specifies a time and date highlighted in bold red, and a sentence written in capitals and highlighted in bold blue. It reads: 'To ensure your staff claim is processed and paid, please do follow the below checklist.' Her boss deemed the capital letters too confrontational for her co-workers to read after they woke up from naptime."

The Orange Goo That Could Save Your Laptop

Posted by timothy on Monday August 31, @04:51AM
from the non-newtonian-novelty dept.

technology

Barence writes"A British company has patented what can only be described as an orange goo that could save your laptop or iPod after a nasty fall. The amazing material is soft and malleable like putty, but the substance becomes solid instantly after impact. You can punch your fist into a ball of the material sitting on a desk and not feel a thing, according to the staff at PC Pro who have been testing the material, called 3do. It's being used by the military, the US downhill ski team, and motorcycle clothing manufacturers to provide impact protection in the event of a crash. However, it's also appearing in protective cases for laptops and MP3 players."

A Breathalyzer For Cancer

Posted by timothy on Monday August 31, @01:40AM
from the your-breath-smells-like-carcinoma dept.

medicine

biotech

Tiger4 writes"Cancer researchers in the UK have come up with a way to sniff for lung cancer on the breath. 'From the results, the researchers identified 42 "volatile organic compounds" (VOCs) present in the breath of 83% of cancer patients but fewer than 83% of healthy volunteers. Four of the most reliable were used to develop a nine-sensor array made from tiny gold particles coated with reactive chemicals sensitive to the compounds.' Other sources have picked up the story as well. Obviously, this would be a big breakthrough for rapid screening, and early detection significantly improves outcomes."

No More Robocalls

Submitted by Shawn on Sunday, 30 August 2009

No Comment

Starting on September 1, 2009 the Federal Trade Commission has decided to make automated marketing robocalls illegal. Telemarketers that violate this policy may face penalties up to $16,000 per call.

So which robocalls will still be permitted. The Federal Trade Commission will allow the following.

“The rule amendments going into effect on September 1 do not prohibit calls that deliver purely “informational” recorded messages – those that notify recipients, for example, that their flight has been cancelled, an appliance they ordered will be delivered at a certain time, or that their child’s school opening is delayed. Such calls are not covered by the TSR, as long as they do not attempt to interest consumers in the sale of any goods or services. For the same reason, the rule amendments also do not apply to calls concerning collection of debts where the calls do not seek to promote the sale of any goods or services.”

“In addition, calls not covered by the TSR – including those from politicians, banks, telephone carriers, and most charitable organizations – are not covered by the new prohibition. The new prohibition on prerecorded messages does not apply to certain healthcare messages. The new rule prohibits telemarketing robocalls to consumers whether or not they previously have done business with the seller.”

I know ever one is glad that we can still receive automated calls from our politicians. [Federal Trade Commission]

Rejected Watermelons: The Newest Renewable Energy Source

ScienceDaily (Aug. 27, 2009) — Watermelon juice can be a valuable source of biofuel. Researchers have shown that the juice of reject watermelons can be efficiently fermented into ethanol.

Read More

Steam-powered Batmobile choo choos to world record 140mph (updated with video)

by Vladislav Savov posted Aug 27th 2009 at 5:29AM

We'll burst that bubble right quick and say it's not actually a Batmobile, but it sure reminds us of one. The British Steam Car Challenge might not have reached its original goal of 200mph, but it has finally succeeded in becoming the world's fastest boiler on wheels. We noted preparations for the world record attempt back in April and, somewhat surprisingly, all has gone to plan and pilot Charles Burnett III now has broken a 100 year old record to go with his flamboyant pair of spectacles. That's the Brits for you -- break records in the morning, have tea and crumpets in the afternoon.

Saying 'I'm Sorry' Influences Jurors

ScienceDaily (Aug. 25, 2009) — Apologizing for negative outcomes—a practice common even with children—may lead to more favorable verdicts for auditors in court, according to researchers at George Mason University and Oklahoma State University. The results of the study will be available in a forthcoming issue of Contemporary Accounting Research.

Read More

UK ATMs use cockney slang, we don't Adam 'n Eve it

by Vladislav Savov posted Aug 25th 2009 at 6:13AM

If you're trying to innovate and be more inclusive, it's fine to have a local dialect -- as ATMs run by Bank Machine are doing in East London over the next few months -- but for the love of uncle Fred, don't use a lingo associated with wide boys and notorious criminals. For our American audience, imagine your reaction if your ATM asked if you'd like to "withdrizzle yo' monizzle, homie." Of course, in a world that already includes a Cockney Bible (not a joke), this sort of thing seems positively tame, and it is after all just an option.

Writing Style Fingerprint Tool Easily Fooled

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 20, @05:08AM
from the is-that-your-signature dept.

court

privacy

science

Urchin writes"Some of the techniques used by literary detectives and courts of law to identify the authorship of text are easily fooled, say US researchers. They found that non-professional writers could hide their identity from 'stylometric' techniques by writing in the style of novelist Cormac McCarthy. Stylometric methods have been used in a number of high-profile legal cases in recent decades, including the 'Unabomber' trial. 'We would strongly suggest that courts examine their methods of stylometry against the possibility of adversarial attacks,' say the researchers."

NVIDIA hopes you'll be better able to distinguish its products if it renames them all

by Tim Stevens posted Aug 20th 2009 at 8:33AM

What's in a name? Very little if you're buying computer hardware lately. Back in the day, you could easily compare two CPUs because their names were simply how fast they were -- now you've got series of processors and graphics cards with naming conventions dreamed up by marketing gurus who don't know a front side bus from a school bus. NVIDIA had been shooting for something simple with its G, GT, and GTX lines, but it looks like last year's talk of a re-tooling of its lineup are coming true; all those seemingly straightforward letter prefixes seem set to be dropped in favor of "GeForce" followed by a number. The first to bear this re-branding will be the 40nm, DirectX 10.1 GeForce 210, set to hit the retail channels in October, followed later by the GeForce 230 and GeForce 300. How exactly they all will compare remains to be seen, but we're going to go ahead and speculate that bigger number probablyequals higher cost.

DNA-coated Nanotubes Help Kill Tumors Without Harm To Surrounding Tissue

ScienceDaily (Aug. 20, 2009) — Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have destroyed prostate cancer tumors in mice by injecting them with specially-coated, miniscule carbon tubes and then superheating the tubes with a brief zap of a laser.

Read More

US Navy Tries To Turn Seawater Into Jet Fuel

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 20, @01:52AM
from the ocean-in-the-tank dept.

power

military

science

Hugh Pickens writes"The New Scientists reports that faced with global warming and potential oil shortages, the US Navy is experimenting with making jet fuel from seawater by processing seawater into unsaturated short-chain hydrocarbons that with further refining could be made into kerosene-based jet fuel. The process involves extracting carbon dioxide dissolved in the water and combining it with hydrogen — obtained by splitting water molecules using electricity — to make a hydrocarbon fuel, a variant of a chemical reaction called the Fischer-Tropsch process, which is used commercially to produce a gasoline-like hydrocarbon fuel from syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen often derived from coal. The navy team have been experimenting to find out how to steer the CO2-producing process away from producing unwanted methane by finding a different catalyst than the usual cobalt-based catalyst. 'The idea of using CO2 as a carbon source is appealing,' says Philip Jessop, a chemist at Queen's University adding that to make a jet fuel that is properly 'green', the energy-intensive electrolysis that produces the hydrogen will need to use a carbon-neutral energy source; and the complex multi-step process will always consume significantly more energy than the fuel it produces could yield. 'It's a lot more complicated than it at first looks.'"

Apple sells 25% of music in America

Submitted by Shawn on Wednesday, 19 August 2009

No Comment

The NPD Group latest market research shows that one in four songs purchased in America is sold on iTunes. Compared to Wal-Mart (including Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads) which sold 14 percent of music in America. Best Buy came in third. Something else that is interesting. iTunes sold 69 percent of all digital music sold in America, with Amazon ranking second at 8 percent.

“The growth of legal digital music downloads, and Apple’s success in holding that market, has increased iTunes’s overall strength in the retail music category,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for The NPD Group. “But the importance of the big box retailers shouldn’t be dismissed, as long as the majority of music consumers continue to buy CDs.”

It is still hard to believe that the CD still dominates the way music is delivered.

Marine Corps Wants A Throwable Robot

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 19, @09:11PM
from the goblin-bomb-dispenser dept.

military

robot

technology

coondoggie writes"The US Marine Corps has a request — build and rapidly deploy more 10lb-or-under robots its personnel can throw into dangerous situationsthat can quickly gather information without endangering Marines. The throwable robot is part of a family of robots that would range from the 10lb version to one that would act as a central controlling device and weigh close to 300lbs. Marine commanders are demanding ever lighter robots so that troops don't have to offload critical equipment from their rucksacks to accommodate them."

Schneier On a Generation Gap In Privacy

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 19, @10:17AM
from the get-off-my-lawnbook dept.

privacy

communications

social

internet

goompaloompa writes"In the Japan Times, Bruce Schneier writes that a passing conversation online is not what it may seem and that maintaining your privacy is becoming even more difficult as social media and cloud computing become the norm. Furthermore, while users in Japan may think they are secure, their level of protection may vary when the computers that store their data are overseas. At the root of the problem is a new generation gap: old laws incapable of covering current-day scenarios. Quoting: 'Twenty years ago, if someone wanted to look through your correspondence, they had to break into your house. Now, they can just break into your ISP. Ten years ago, your voicemail was on an answering machine in your office; now it's on a computer owned by a telephone company. ... We need comprehensive data privacy laws, protecting our data and communications regardless of where it is stored or how it is processed. We need laws forcing companies to keep it private and delete it as soon as it is no longer needed, and laws giving us the right to delete our data from third-party sites. And we need international cooperation to ensure that companies cannot flaunt data privacy laws simply by moving themselves offshore."

Average Gamer Is 35, Fat and Bummed

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 19, @11:42AM
from the fun-also-causes-cancer dept.

medicine

kamapuaa writes"According to a study published in the upcoming October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the average US video game player is 35 years old, overweight, and tends toward depression. Specifically, female video game players tended towards depression, while males tended towards large BMIs. While the study itself points to several conclusions, one researcher noted: '... habitual use of video games as a coping response may provide a genesis for obsessive-compulsive video-game playing, if not video-game addiction.'"On the flip side, the Washington Post is running a story about the mental health benefits of playing video games.

Neural Pathway Missing In Tone-deaf People

ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2009) — Nerve fibers that link perception and motor regions of the brain are disconnected in tone-deaf people, according to new research in the August 19 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. Experts estimate that at least 10 percent of the population may be tone deaf – unable to sing in tune. The new finding identifies a particular brain circuit that appears to be absent in these individuals.

Read More

Heathrow Driverless Taxi

Submitted by Shawn on Tuesday, 18 August 2009

No Comment

Heathrow Airport’s is going to have 18 personal rapid transport (PRT) vehicles. The driver-less taxis will move passengers around Heathrow Airport.

“The four-passenger personal rapid transport (PRT) vehicles, unveiled this week at the Science Museum in London, take airport-goers on a special narrow road from Heathrow’s Terminal 5 to various parking lots. Passengers use a touch screen to type in their destination, press a start button, and the battery-powered vehicle zips along at 25 mph to their destination. There’s a reason the pods look so futuristic–they were designed by Mark Lowson, who worked on the Saturn Rocket that launched Apollo missions.”

Windows 7 will cost half as much in the UK as in the US, crikey!

by Vladislav Savov posted Aug 19th 2009 at 6:28AM

Happy news for our British readers today -- Microsoft is selling Windows 7 Home Premium in the UK at the bargain price of £65 for the full (non-upgrade) version. Converted to $107, that's less than Americans have to shell out just for an upgrade ($120) and about half the price of the full thing ($200). The Professional and Ultimate varieties are also cheaper by about $40 each. With Windows 7 E now out of the picture (though seemingly still available for pre-order from the MS online store), it looks like Microsoft has chosen to match its lower price (listed with an £80 MSRP) with the new SKUs that will actually see retail shelves -- a price on-line retailers are now undercutting. Jolly good. CNET was first to the story and was told by an Amazon UK rep that the current pricing is expected to be indefinite, but previous intel on the matter has indicated that Microsoft will be hiking UK prices from January 1, 2010. So if you wanna be safe, better get that brand spanking new OS before Christmas rolls around.

Window Into The Brain: Diffusion Imaging MRI Tracks Memories And May Detect Alzheimer's At Early Stage

ScienceDaily (Aug. 17, 2009) — When we absorb new information, the human brain reshapes itself to store this newfound knowledge. But where exactly is the new knowledge kept, and how does that capacity to adapt reflect our risk for Alzheimer's disease and other forms of senile dementia later in our lives?

Read More

'Green' Energy From Algae

ScienceDaily (Aug. 17, 2009) — In view of the shortage of petrochemical resources and climate change, development of CO₂-neutral sustainable fuels is one of the most urgent challenges of our times. Energy plants like rape or oil palm are being discussed fervently, as they may also be used for food production. Hence, cultivation of microalgae may contribute decisively to tomorrow’s energy supply. For energy production from microalgae, KIT scientists are developing closed photo-bioreactors and novel cell disruption methods.

Read More