| | | Latest News
On the hunt for universal intelligence
| A
team of Spanish and Australian researchers have taken a first step
towards a scientific method to measure the intelligence of a human
being, an animal, a machine or an extra-terrestrial. The authors have
used interactive exercises in settings with a difficulty level estimated
by calculating the so-called “Kolmogorov complexity” (they measure the
number of … more… |
Study shows map of brain connectivity changes during development
| New
research conducted at The Scripps Research Institute shows that the
connectome (the road atlas of the brain) undergoes constant revisions as
the brain of a young animal develops, with new routes forming and
others dropping away in a matter of hours. Up until now, researchers had
focused their work primarily on determining how new … more… |
Number of Internet users worldwide reaches two billion
| The
number of Internet users worldwide has reached two billion and the
number of mobile phone subscriptions has reached five billion, according
to the secretary general of the UN’s International Telecommunications
Union (ITU). |
Grow Your Own Security: Prof Breeds Bomb-Spotting Plants
| January 27, 2011 | | Source Link: Wired |
| With
the help of the Department of Defense, a biologist at Colorado State
University has taught plant proteins how to detect explosives. |
10 things (and 4 outrages) techies need to know about President Obama’s State of the Union Address
| Writer
David Gewirtz suggests ten things technical professionals need to know
about the President’s speech, and how his policies might affect you,
your employer, and your family well into the future. |
The world can be powered by alternative energy, using today’s technology, in 20-40 years
 | | If
someone told you there was a way you could save 2.5 million to 3
million lives a year and simultaneously halt global warming, reduce air
and water pollution and develop secure, reliable energy sources – nearly
all with existing technology and at costs comparable with what we spend
on energy today – why wouldn’t … more… |
Scientists show how to erase information without using energy
 | | Until
now, scientists have thought that the process of erasing information
requires energy (heat dissipation). But a new study by physicists Joan
Vaccaro from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia and Stephen
Barnett from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow shows that,
theoretically, information can be erased without using any energy at
all. Instead, the cost … more… |
Plastic artificial retina is a hit with nerve cells
| Light-sensitive
plastic, flexible, biocompatible organic semiconductor materials might
be key to repairing damaged retinas, researchers at the Italian
Institute of Technology in Milan suggest. |
A Time-Lapse Movie Shot Inside the Brain
| A
new type of micro-endoscope developed by Stanford University
researchers lets scientists watch nerve cells and blood vessels deep
inside the brain of a living animal over days, weeks, or even months.
Dubbed the optical needle, it is 500 to 1,000 microns in diameter. |
Artificial retinas help robot balance a pencil
 | | Researchers
at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, built a pencil-balancing bot
by using a pair of silicon retinas that only react to sudden changes in
illumination, transmitting a simple “on” or “off” response that reduces
the need for complex data processing — an approach that mimics
biological vision. Placing the two sensors at a right … more… |
Kinect used to create holographic video of Princess Leia
 | | Michael
Bove’s group at the MIT Media Lab has recreated the famous holographic
projection of Princess Leia from Star Wars by hacking the camera sensor
from a Kinect gesture-recognition system for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and
crunching data with standard graphics chips. The frame rate for their
system has also jumped a factor of 30, from … more… |
Solar sail unfurled in orbit
 | | NASA’s
NanoSail-D spacecraft has become unstuck and has unfurled a gleaming
sheet of space-age fabric 650 km above Earth, becoming the first-ever
solar sail to circle our planet. NanoSail-D spent the previous month and
a half stuck inside its mothership, the Fast, Affordable, Science and
Technology SATellite (FASTSAT). FASTSAT was launched in November 2010
with … more… |
Virtual self
 | | Your
avatar may be just a virtual identity, but it can also affect how you
are in the real world. “In this world of new media, people spend a lot
of time interacting with digital versions of one another.” — Jeremy
Bailenson If you spend a lot of time online, you may even have an … more… |
‘Universal’ memory aims to replace flash and DRAM
 | | Researchers
from North Carolina State University have developed a single “unified”
device that can perform both volatile and nonvolatile memory operation,
with applications that could improve computer start times and energy
efficiency for Internet servers. “We’ve invented a new device that may
revolutionize computer memory,” says Dr. Paul Franzon, a professor of
electrical and computer … more… |
Neurons lose information at one bit per second
 | | Information
stored in the activity patterns of cerebral cortex neurons is discarded
at the surprisingly high rate of one bit per active neuron per second,
scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and
Self-Organization at the University of Gottingen and the Bernstein
Center for Computational Neuroscience Gpttingen have found. The new
results obtained by … more… |
Making light work of artificial muscles
 | | A
new form of self-assembling polymer film that bends and stretches when
hit by light is pointing the way to a new family of functional
materials. The film was developed at RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in
Wako and The University of Tokyo This flexing film is the first
material to have been made by coaxing … more… |
Beaming Rockets into Space
 | | NASA
is conducting a study to examine the possibility of using beamed
energy propulsion for space launches. A beamed thermal propulsion system
would involve focusing microwave or laser beams on a heat exchanger
aboard the rocket. The heat exchanger would transfer the radiation’s
energy to the liquid propellant, most likely hydrogen, converting it
into a hot gas … more… |
Mindfulness meditation training changes brain structure in 8 weeks
| Participating
in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable
changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy
and stress. In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue
of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts
General Hospital (MGH) researchers report the results of their study,
the first … more… |
New BLOG POSTS
The Questionable Observer Detector
 | | Exclusive
| Kevin W. Bowyer, Chair of the Department of Computer Science and
Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana is out to create a
tool to reliably identify criminals who may be hanging out at the crime
scene after the event. Their Questionable Observer Detector (QuOD) can
process any available video clips of … more… |
Book review | Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
| In
1938, existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre wrote “Hell is other
people.” Sartre may never have cobbled together his existential
philosophy that viewed human individuals as utterly alone — alienated,
atomized beings in a vast meaningless universe — if he had grown up
playing with social robots and holding others at a discreet
psychological distance … more… |
New EVENTS
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation and Variety: The 2011 TV Summit
Dates: Feb 15, 2011 – Jan ,
Location: Los Angeles, California
more...
International Symposium on Wireless and Pervasive Computing 2011
Dates: Feb 23 – 25, 2011
Location: Hong Kong, China
more...
PerCom 2011
Dates: Mar 21 – 25, 2011
Location: Seattle, Washington
more...
6th International Conference on Grid and Pervasive Computing
Dates: May 11 – 13, 2011
Location: Oulu, Finland
more...
Suspended Animation Conference 2011
Dates: May 20 – 22, 2011
Location: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
more...
ICAIL 2011: The Thirteenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law
Dates: Jun 6 – 10, 2011
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
more...
Pervasive 2011
Dates: Jun 12 – 15, 2011
Location: San Francisco, California
more...
International Conference on Mobile, Ubiquitous and Pervasive Computing 2011
Dates: Oct 26 – 28, 2011
Location: Bali, Indonesia
more...
New VIDEOS
Kinect-controlled robot
Colorado State University develops artificial tissue for training
Colorado State University biologist rewires plants to detect pollutants, explosives
Geoffrey
Beene Foundation’s “Rock Stars of Science” campaign raises funds,
profiles cutting edge R&D in critical areas of medical research
Keynote: Don Tapscott – Zeitgeist Europe 2010
Macrowikinomics murmuration: swarming, dynamic self-organization
New books
The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality
 | |
Amazon | In the past few years, a handful of scientists have been
racing to explain a disturbing aspect of our universe: only 4 percent of
it consists of the matter that makes up you, me, our books, and every
planet, star, and galaxy. The rest — 96 percent of the universe — is
completely unknown. Richard … more… |
The
Winter of Our Disconnect: How Three Totally Wired Teenagers (and a
Mother Who Slept with Her iPhone)Pulled the Plug on Their Technology and
Lived to Tell the Tale
 | |
Amazon | The wise and hilarious story of a family who discovered that
having fewer tools to communicate with led them to actually communicate
more. When Susan Maushart first announced her intention to pull the plug
on her family’s entire armory of electronic weaponry for six months
— from the itsy-bitsiest iPod Shuffle to her son’s … more… |
The Next Decade: Where We’ve Been . . . and Where We’re Going
 | |
Amazon | The author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller The Next
100 Years now focuses his geopolitical forecasting acumen on the next
decade and the imminent events and challenges that will test America and
the world, specifically addressing the skills that will be required by
the decade’s leaders. The next ten years will be a … more… |
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