Animal populations headed for extinction may give the same signals seen before crashes in coral reefs, the Sahara’s climate and even stock markets.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Biofeedback for Your Brain?
ScienceDaily (Sep. 10, 2010) — There is new evidence that people can learn to control the activity of some brain regions when they get feedback signals provided by functional magnetic resonance brain imaging (fMRI).
DIY Jet Ready to Resume Testing
By Jason Paur 
September 10, 2010 | 8:00 am | Categories: Air Travel, Design
The guys over at Sonex Aircraft in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, have had a very busy year so far. After starting the year with the announcement of the first engine runs on their single seat DIY jet known as the SubSonex, the company has been busy with the development of another new single-seat airplane and improvements to existing models.
Unfortunately, similar to the development of other recent jet aircraft (787 & Joint Strike Fighter), even the little guys can run into a few hiccups along the way. The SubSonex is no exception.
After firing up the tiny jet engine for the first time last winter, the team at Sonex were excited to make the first flight in their single seater. But initial taxi testing uncovered some stability issues with the ground handling and the engineers went back to the drawing board.
At Airventure in Oshkosh earlier this summer, the SubSonex was back. Now it has a more stable tricycle gear configuration as compared to the single wheel/tail dragger configuration that caused concern during the taxi testing.
Sonex founder John Monnett remains committed to the SubSonex and says the issues facing the new jet are all part of the research and development process. The company runs the project out of its “Hornet’s Nest,” the R&D side of the hangar, sort of like a small scale Skunkworks.
“The challenges we face with the SubSonex perfectly illustrate our reasoning for unveiling this project under the banner of the Hornets’ Nest Research and Development program” Monnett says. “We have been very deliberate in not publishing timetables for development of the aircraft or guarantees of kit availability because there are no guarantees in R&D, despite our best efforts.”
During much of the summer the jet project, which Monnett himself calls his “Walter Mitty” airplane, has been put on the back burner at Sonex while the company focuses on some of its other new projects including a more traditional piston powered, high-performance single seater. And a new turbo charged version of its Volkswagen based engine.
Sonex's SubSonex Jet
Like the SubSonex, the new OneX features just a single seat and promises a lot of performance. But unlike the jet, which could cost well north of $80,000 (though the company has yet to announce a price), the tiny OneX is expected to cost just $21,000 ready to fly.
Such a low price eliminates one of the main complaints of many pilots and would-be pilots, the cost of buying a fun to fly airplane. Sure there are a fair number of older, used airplanes that could be bought for the same price. But with the OneX you’re getting a brand new airplane that is fully aerobatic and capable of cruising at 140 miles per hour.
“Obviously some assembly required,” notes Sonex CEO Jeremy Monnett.
Sonex's Single Seat OneX (canopy removed)
Like all Sonex designs, the OneX falls into the experimental category of home-built aircraft and can be flown with a light sport pilot license. The younger Monnett says most of their planes are built in about 700 hours. The single-seat OneX has fewer parts and combined with its smaller size it should take less time to build. Because many of the parts come ready to assemble from the factory, the DIY airplane doesn’t require previous experience, Monnett says.
“You have to have a lot of motivation to finish a project like that, but you don’t have to have a ton of skills.”
The experimental moniker is actually a bit misleading as the airplanes aren’t really an experiment. It’s simply the term the industry uses to describe aircraft that don’t fall under the Federal Aviation Administration’s rules for factory-built and certified aircraft. There are tens of thousands of these kinds of experimental aircraft safely flying around the world.
Best of all with the Volkswagen-based Aerovee engine, the low-fuel burn keeps the cost low once you’re flying, just four gallons per hour during typical cruise.
“Our airplanes are like little roadsters,” says Jeremy Monnett.
The analogy is a good one. Like cars such as a Porsche Boxster or Mazda Miata, the Sonex airplanes are fairly minimalist and don’t have any room to bring the family. But they are really well designed to head out and have a lot of fun on your own or with a friend.
And like many of the roadsters cruising the mountain roads and valleys, Sonex is no stranger to boosting the power. The company recently unveiled a turbocharged version of its Aerovee engine.
AeroVee with Turbocharger
Still in development, the new turbocharged engine should be welcome news for pilots flying at high altitude or who find themselves needing power during take off on a hot day.
The stock Aerovee engine produces 80 horsepower. No word yet on how much additional power the system will provide.
Photos: Sonex, Jason Paur/Wired.com
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Funneling Solar Energy: Antenna Made of Carbon Nanotubes Could Make Photovoltaic Cells More Efficient
ScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2010) — Using carbon nanotubes (hollow tubes of carbon atoms), MIT chemical engineers have found a way to concentrate solar energy 100 times more than a regular photovoltaic cell. Such nanotubes could form antennas that capture and focus light energy, potentially allowing much smaller and more powerful solar arrays.
Gene Discovery Could Yield Treatments for Nearsightedness
ScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2010) — Myopia (nearsightedness) is the most common eye disorder in the world and becoming more common, yet little is known about its genetic underpinnings.
Is DIY Algae Farming the Future?
hex0D points to this"interview with Aaron Baum explaining why people growing algae at home for food can help the environment and their health, and what he's doing to facilitate this. 'We'd like to create an international network of people growing all kinds of algae in their homes in a small community scale, sharing information, doing it all in an open source way. We'd be like the Linux of algae – do-it-yourself with low-cost materials and shared information.' And one of the low-cost materials is your household urine."
Friday, September 10, 2010
Frog Skin May Provide Antimicrobial Peptides Effective Against Multidrug-Resistant Infections
ScienceDaily (Sep. 8, 2010) — Antimicrobial peptides from the skin of frogs may protect against life-threatening, multidrug-resistant infections such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, say researchers from Italy.
Brain Needs to Remember Faces in Three Dimensions
ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2010) — In our dynamic 3-D world, we can encounter a familiar face from any angle and still recognize that face with ease, even if the person has, for example, changed his hair style. This is because our brain has used the 2-D snapshots perceived by our eyes (like a camera) to build and store a 3-D mental representation of the face, which is resilient to such changes.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Robots Taught to Deceive
An anonymous reader found a story that starts"We have developed algorithms that allow a robot to determine whether it should deceive a human or other intelligent machine and we have designed techniques that help the robot select the best deceptive strategy to reduce its chance of being discovered," said Ronald Arkin, a Regents professor in the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing."
Rackspace Shuts Down Quran-Burning Church's Sites
theodp writes"In response to a complaint, Rackspace has shut down the websites of the Dove World Outreach Center, a small 50-member church which has received national and international criticism for a planned book burning of the Quran on the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. The center 'violated the hate-speech provision of our acceptable-use policy,' explained Rackspace spokesman Dan Goodgame. 'This is not a constitutional issue. This is a contract issue,' said Goodgame, who added he did not know how long it had hosted the church's sites. Not quite the same thing, but would Kurt Westergaard's cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad also violate Rackspace's AUP? How about Christopher Hitchens' Slate articles? Could articles from one-time Rackspace poster child The Onion pass muster?"
Laws of Physics Vary Throughout the Universe, New Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2010) — A team of astrophysicists based in Australia and England has uncovered evidence that the laws of physics are different in different parts of the universe.
Read more
New Compound Safely Reduces Plaques in Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease
ScienceDaily (Sep. 8, 2010) — A team of scientists, led by University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers, has synthesized hundreds of new compounds with the potential of reducing the production of the A-beta 42 peptide, a primary component of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Scientists Cut Greenland Ice Loss Estimate By Half
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday September 09, @04:57AM
from the not-so-bad-after-all dept.
from the not-so-bad-after-all dept.
bonch writes"A new study on Greenland's and West Antarctica's rate of ice loss halves the estimate of ice loss. Published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the study takes into account a rebounding of the Earth's crust called glacial isostatic adjustment, a continuing rise of the crust after being smashed under the weight of the Ice Age. 'We have concluded that the Greenland and West Antarctica ice caps are melting at approximately half the speed originally predicted,' said researcher Bert Vermeeersen."
The Real "Stuff White People Like"
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 08, @11:27PM
from the taking-a-closer-look dept.
from the taking-a-closer-look dept.
Here's an interesting and funny look at 526,000 OkCupid users, divided into groups by race and gender and all the the things each groups says it likes or is interested in. While it is far from being definitive, the groupings give a glimpse of what makes each culture unique. According to the results white men like nothing better than Tom Clancy, Van Halen, and golfing.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Narcissists, Insecure People Flock To Facebook
Meshach writes"A study out of Canada claims that Facebook is a magnet for narcissists and people with low self-esteem. The theory is that these people use the site as a means of self promotion or to feel important."
Tractor Beams Come To Life
Jamie is helping bring our childhood fantasies/nightmares to life with a link that says"Andrei Rhode, a researcher involved with the project, said that existing optical tweezers are able to move particles the size of a bacterium a few millimeters in a liquid. Their new technique can move objects one hundred times that size over a distance of a meter or more."
Personality Predicts Cheating More Than Academic Struggles, Study Shows
ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2010) — Students who cheat in high school and college are highly likely to fit the profile for subclinical psychopathy -- a personality disorder defined by erratic lifestyle, manipulation, callousness and antisocial tendencies, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. These problematic students cheat because they feel entitled and disregard morality, the study found.
Unusual Feed Supplement Could Ease Gassy Cows, Reduce Their Greenhouse Gas Emissions
ScienceDaily (Sep. 8, 2010) — Cow belches, a major source of greenhouse gases, could be decreased by an unusual feed supplement developed by a Penn State dairy scientist.
Scientists Create New Process to 'Program' Cancer Cell Death
ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2010) — Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have engineered a fundamentally new approach to killing cancer cells. The process -- developed by Niles Pierce, associate professor of applied and computational mathematics and bioengineering at Caltech, and his colleagues -- uses small RNA molecules that can be programmed to attack only specific cancer cells; then, by changing shape, those molecules cause the cancer cells to self-destruct.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
The Brain Speaks: Scientists Decode Words from Brain Signals
ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2010) — In an early step toward letting severely paralyzed people speak with their thoughts, University of Utah researchers translated brain signals into words using two grids of 16 microelectrodes implanted beneath the skull but atop the brain.
Short Nighttime Sleep Duration Among Infants, Young Children Associated With Obesity in Later Life
ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2010) — Insufficient amounts of nighttime sleep among infants and preschool-aged children may be a significant risk factor for developing childhood obesity, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Additionally, napping does not appear to be an adequate substitute for nighttime sleep in terms of preventing obesity.
Compounds in Non-Stick Cookware May Be Associated With Elevated Cholesterol in Children and Teens
ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2010) — Children and teens with higher blood levels of chemicals used in the production of non-stick cookware and waterproof fabrics appear more likely to have elevated total and LDL cholesterol levels, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Insect Brains Are Rich Stores of New Antibiotics
ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2010) — Cockroaches could be more of a health benefit than a health hazard, according to scientists from the University of Nottingham who have discovered powerful antibiotic properties in the brains of cockroaches and locusts.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Risk of Marijuana's 'Gateway Effect' Overblown, New Research Shows
ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2010) — New research from the University of New Hampshire shows that the "gateway effect" of marijuana -- that teenagers who use marijuana are more likely to move on to harder illicit drugs as young adults -- is overblown.
News: Another Gulf Oil Rig Explodes
on Thursday September 02, @12:20PM
A few readers have noted that another gulf oil rig has exploded. This one is off the coast of Lousiana. So far all the workers are accounted for, but they are in immersion suits waiting for rescue.
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