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Smart TVs: the next tech war is in the living room
| January 13, 2012 |
 | At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s top television manufacturers are proposing a whole new approach to television: Samsung is working on integrating voice and motion control into its new TV sets, enabling users to speak commands to their TVs or change channels and other settings with just a wave. Vizio has joined with … more… |
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Rice’s ‘quantum critical’ theory gets experimental boost
| January 13, 2012 |
 | New evidence this week from Rice University scientists explains the electrical properties of several classes of materials — including unconventional superconductors. The findings uphold a theory first offered in 2006 by physicist Qimiao Si, Rice’s Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics and Astronomy. They represent an important step toward the ultimate goal … more… |
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NIH scientists identify novel approach to view inner workings of viruses
| January 13, 2012 |
 | Researchers at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have developed a new way to see structures within viruses that were not clearly seen before. Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a technique that allows scientists to image very small particles, like structures on the … more… |
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Synthetic windpipe is used to replace cancerous one
| January 13, 2012 |
 | Surgeons in Sweden have replaced the cancerous windpipe of a Maryland man with one made in a laboratory and seeded with the man’s cells. The Y-shaped scaffold, fashioned from nano-size fibers of a type of plastic called PET that is commonly used in soda bottles, was seeded with stem cells from Christopher Lyles’ bone marrow. … more… |
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Ask your question in the 2012 Google Science Fair
| January 13, 2012 |
 | Google has launched the second annual online Google Science Fair, the largest online science competition in the world, open globally to students ages 13–18. Either individually or in teams of up to three people, students pose a question at google.com/sciencefair, develop a hypothesis, and conduct science experiments to test it. The fair is produced in … more… |
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NASA video on LENR (low energy nuclear reactions), a clean form of nuclear energy
| January 13, 2012 |
| NASA Langley Research Center posted Thursday (but has not announced) a new video on NASA research on LENR (low energy nuclear reactions), entitled “Method for Enhancement of Surface Plasmon Polaritons to Initiate & Sustain LENR.” The research focuses on “another way of producing energy-efficient nuclear power,” says NASA Senior Research Scientist Joseph Zawodny, featured in … more… |
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A French autonomous car
| January 13, 2012 |
 | French researchers have developed a self-driving vehicle, IEEE Spectrum Automaton reports. IFSTTAR, a French R&D organization, and the Embedded Electronic Systems Research Institute at ESIGELEC, an engineering school in Rouen, are developing autonomous vehicle technologies to help test automotive safety systems. The researchers modified a Renault Grand Espace by adding a “robot driver” to control … more… |
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IBM Research determines atomic limits of magnetic memory
| January 13, 2012 |
 | IBM Research scientists have successfully demonstrated the ability to store one bit of information in as few as 12 magnetic atoms. Today’s disk drives use about one million atoms to store a single bit of information. The ability to manipulate matter by its most basic components — atom by atom — could lead to the … more… |
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CES 2012: 3D printer makers’ rival visions of future
| January 12, 2012 |
 | In the space of 20 minutes a plastic bottle opener has been constructed by the Replicator — a 3D printing machine capable of making objects up to the size of a loaf of bread. The device is made by the New York startup Makerbot Industries and was launched at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in … more… |
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New astronomy innovations expand our view of the universe
| January 12, 2012 |
 | Fermilab and Berkeley Lab scientists have built the biggest maps of dark matter yet, using a process called coaddition to remove errors caused by atmospheric effects and to enhance very faint signals coming from distant parts of the universe. Source: Berkeley Lab. Our Milky Way galaxy contains at least 100 billion planets, according to a detailed … more… |
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Disruption of biological clocks causes neurodegeneration, early death
| January 12, 2012 |
 | New research at Oregon State University (OSU) provides evidence that disruption of circadian rhythms can clearly cause accelerated neurodegeneration, loss of motor function, and premature death. Prior to this, it wasn’t clear if the disruption of biological clock mechanisms was the cause or the result of neurodegeneration. These studies were done with fruit flies, but the … more… |
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World’s largest quantum computation uses 84 qubits
| January 12, 2012 |
 | D-Wave Systems has carried out a calculation involving 84 qubits on its D-Wave One quantum computing system, Technology Review Physics arXiv blog reports. Their complex task was to calculate various “two-color Ramsey numbers,” connected with the emergence of order in disordered systems. Ref.: Zhengbing Bian et al., Experimental Determination Of Ramsey Numbers With Quantum Annealing, … more… |
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Google launches a more social search
| January 11, 2012 |
 | Google is launching an update to its search engine called “Search, plus Your World,” says Technology Review. Google will start adding information that has been shared publicly on Google+ to its search results (private information shared on Google+ will also show to the Google+ users sharing it). The results could include other, non-Google sources in … more… |
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How does our brain see Jesus’ face on a tortilla?
| January 11, 2012 |
 | Objects that resemble faces are everywhere. Whether it’s New Hampshire’s erstwhile granite “Old Man of the Mountain,” or a face on Mars, our brains are adept at locating images that look like faces. However, the normal human brain is almost never fooled into thinking such objects actually are human faces. “You can tell that it … more… |
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Cooking nanomaterials in a microwave oven to make tomorrow’s solid-state air conditioners and refrigerators
| January 11, 2012 |
 | Here’s how to make highly efficient refrigerators and cooling systems requiring no refrigerants and no moving parts: simply cook nanoscale thermoelectric materials with sulfur in a standard microwave oven, according to engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Thermoelectric refrigerators using solid-state cooling systems have been available for more than 20 years, but they are … more… |
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NEC demonstrates first terabit/s superchannel transmission over 10,000 km
| January 11, 2012 |
 | NEC Corporation (NEC) has demonstrated 1.15 terabits/s (trillion bits per second) ultra-long-haul optical transmission over 10,000 kilometers using optical superchannel technology. This is the first instance that a terabit/s channel generated from a single laser source has been transmitted over such a distance. The results demonstrate that practical high-capacity transmission for transoceanic communication can be … more… |
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Doomsday Clock moves 1 minute closer to midnight
| January 11, 2012 |
 | Faced with inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and proliferation, and continuing inaction on climate change, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) announced today that it has moved the hands of its famous “Doomsday Clock” to five minutes to midnight. The last time the Doomsday Clock minute hand moved was in January 2010, when … more… |
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Science fiction’s predictions for the year 2012
| January 11, 2012 |
 | Science fiction predictions for the year 2012 range from apocalyptic to upbeat: An evangelical preacher will be elected President of the United States. The U.S. economy will collapse. The zombie apocalypse will begin. The zombie apocalypse will end. The Doctor (as in Doctor Who) will light the Olympic Flame. Conan O’Brien will lose his freakishly … more… |
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It’s time to start 3D scanning the world
| January 11, 2012 |
 | Imagine if a robot could promptly recognize any object in a home or office or factory. That’s a goal of a large hacker community formed around the Kinect sensor, and startups like MatterPort are enabling quick 3D rendering of objects just by taking images with the Kinect at a few angles, IEEE Spectrum Automaton reports. |
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Sequencing a human genome in one day for $1,000
| January 11, 2012 |
 | Life Technologies Corporation announced Tuesday that it is taking orders for its new benchtop Ion Proton Sequencer, designed to sequence the entire human genome in a day for $1,000. Up to now, it has taken weeks or months to sequence a human genome at a cost of $5,000 to $10,000 using optical-based sequencing technologies. The … more… |
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Tricorder X Prize competition: develop a handheld medical diagnostic device and win $10 million
| January 11, 2012 |
 | The X Prize Foundation and Qualcomm Foundation today announced the launch of the $10M Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, a global competition to revolutionize healthcare. In this competition, teams will leverage technology innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence and wireless sensing — much like the medical Tricorder of Star Trek fame — to make medical … more… |
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Simpler, smarter consumer-electronics interfaces
| January 10, 2012 |
 | Several products that eliminate remote controls and other awkward interfaces are being shown at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, or are in the labs. LG Electronics has developed a voice recognition remote for TVs. Ubuntu, embedded in your TV, will combine online streaming, television channels, and apps (see video below). Kinect for Windows (available Feb. 1) … more… |
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Seeing quantum mechanics with the naked eye
| January 10, 2012 |
 | A University of Cambridge team has built a semiconductor chip that converts electrons into a quantum state that emits light and can be seen with a simple optical microscope. Their quantum superfluid is simply set up by shining laser beams on the device; it can lead to practical ultrasensitive detectors. Quantum mechanics normally shows its … more… |
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Chinese crunch human genome with videogame chips
| January 10, 2012 |
 | The world’s largest genome sequencing center once needed four days to analyze data describing a human genome. Now it needs just six hours. The trick is servers built with graphics processing units (GPUs). This fall, BGI — a mega lab headquartered in Shenzhen, China — switched to servers that use GPUs built by Nvidia, and … more… |
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Resurrecting extinct proteins shows how a machine evolves
| January 10, 2012 |
 | By bringing long-dead proteins back to life, researchers have worked out the process by which evolution added a component to a cellular machine, Nature News Blog reports. The result, they say, is a challenge to proponents of intelligent design who maintain that complex biological systems can only have been created by a divine force. Cells … more… |
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Former astronaut to lead starship effort
| January 9, 2012 |
 | DARPA, the Pentagon’s premiere research agency, has chosen Mae Jemison, a former astronaut, to lead the 100-Year Starship project,designed to take humanity to the stars. Her organization, the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence, has been awarded $500,000. It is partnered on the project with Icarus Interstellar, a non-profit organization dedicated to interstellar travel, and the Foundation … more… |
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Photoacoustic device finds cancer cells before they become tumors
| January 9, 2012 |
 | University of Missouri researchers are one step closer to melanoma cancer detection at the cellular level, long before tumors have a chance to form. Early detection of melanoma, the most aggressive skin cancer, is critical because melanoma will spread rapidly throughout the body. Commercial production of a device that measures melanoma using photoacoustics, or laser-induced … more… |
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Most Americans say research and development are key to building US economy
| January 9, 2012 |
| A new edition of America Speaks, a compilation of public opinion polls commissioned by Research!America, demonstrates increasing public support for research and innovation to improve health, create jobs and boost the economy. However, nearly 60% of Americans don’t believe we are making enough progress in medical research, and 54% don’t believe the U.S. has the … more… |
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An inexpensive DNA information-storage device
| January 9, 2012 |
 | Researchers from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany have created a DNA-based memory device that is “write-once-read-many-times” (WORM), and that uses ultraviolet (UV) light to encode information. The device consists of a thin film of salmon DNA that has been embedded with silver nanoparticles and then sandwiched … more… |
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A new dimension in breast cancer research
| January 9, 2012 |
 | A new imaging technology under investigation at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University may help researchers pinpoint subtle aberrations in cell nuclear structure, the molecular biosignature of cancer, thus significantly improving diagnostic accuracy and prognosis by providing early detection of breast cancer, a leading worldwide health concern. The team has examined normal, benign and … more… |
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The hot tech gig of 2022: data scientist
| January 9, 2012 |
| By the end of the decade, 50 billion devices will be emitting information nonstop. The deluge of data will create demand for “data scientists” — one part mathematician, one part product-development guru, one part detective — who will help manage it all. |
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Graphene’s piezoelectric promise
| January 9, 2012 |
| By merely by punching triangular holes in a semiconducting or insulator form of graphene, engineers at the University of Houston calculate they can coax graphene into behaving like a piezoelectric material. Piezoelectric substances generate electricity in response to physical pressure, and vice versa, and scientists can use these materials for applications such as energy harvesting … more… |
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One Laptop Per Child to launch tablet at CES
| January 9, 2012 |
 | One Laptop Per Child, a non-profit that has been on a multi-year crusade to bring inexpensive computers to developing countries, says a tablet will be announced at CES, Wall Street Journal Digits reports. Made by Marvell Technology, it is designed to stand up to rugged classroom use in places where sunlight is plentiful but electricity … more… |
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An ultra-high-res 100 nm microscope on your cell phone?
| January 9, 2012 |
 | A superlens (a perfect lens) would let you see a virus in a drop of blood and open the door to better and cheaper electronics. It might, says Durdu Guney, make ultra-high-resolution microscopes as commonplace as cameras in our cell phones. Optical lenses are limited by the diffraction limit of light, so even the best … more… |
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Congress considers paywalling science you already paid for
| January 9, 2012 |
 | Should you be able to read research you’ve helped to fund? A few years ago, Congress approved an access policy that makes most taxpayer-funded research freely available online within 12 months of publication. It has proven a huge boon to researchers and the public. Now, however, as UC Berkeley evolutionary biologist Michael Eisen relates, a … more… |
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15 big ways the Internet is changing our brain
| January 9, 2012 |
 | With much of human knowledge now our fingertips, the Internet is rewiring our brains in various ways, Online College finds: The Internet is our external hard drive Children are learning differently We hardly ever give tasks our full attention We don’t bother to remember We’re getting better at finding information Difficult questions make us think about … more… |
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Top 1% of mobile users consume half of world’s bandwidth, and gap is growing
| January 9, 2012 |
| The world’s congested mobile airwaves are being divided in a lopsided manner, with 1 percent of consumers generating half of all traffic. The top 10 percent of users, meanwhile, are consuming 90 percent of wireless bandwidth. The heaviest users of mobile data, according to Ericsson, watched videos 40 percent of the time, and surfed the … more… |
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The man who saves Stephen Hawking’s voice
| January 9, 2012 |
| Stephen Hawking’s rate of speech is down to about one word per minute, and the nerve decay has now reached the point where he needs to move to some new technology, says Sam Blackburn, who has been responsible for the technology which allows Stephen Hawking to communicate for the past five years (he has recently … more… |
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The virtual anatomy, ready for dissection
| January 9, 2012 |
 | The New York University School of Medicine is using 3D digital technology for teaching anatomy, a “Google Earth for the human body.” BioDigital, the developer, plans to develop the virtual cadaver further on its new medical education Web site, biodigitalhuman.com, with the aim of providing a searchable, customizable map of the human body. It will be … more… |
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Domestic robots failed to ride to rescue after No. 1 plant blew
| January 9, 2012 |
 | After the March 11 tsunami slammed into the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and wrecked three reactors, why weren’t Japanese robots, such as Honda Motor Co.’s Asimo humanoid, sent to the power plant to assist firefighters and workers trying to bring the crippled reactors under control? The answer, according to experts: their vulnerability to high … for more… | Visit KurzweilAI.net  |
