Archive
By Twisting Light Signals into a Vortex, Researchers Create Fastest Wireless Connection Ever
By Clay Dillow 06.25.2012
By twisting radio waves into a threaded vortex, an international team of researchers has beamed data through the air at 2.5 terabits per second, creating what has to be the fastest wireless network ever created. Moreover, the technique used to create this effect has no real theoretical ceiling, ExtremeTech reports.
Facebook Purchases Israeli Facial Recognition Company
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
‘Facebook has acquired Face.com!
Our mission is and has always been to find new and exciting ways to make face recognition a fun, engaging part of people’s lives, and incorporate remarkable technology into everyday consumer products.
If you’re anything like us, Facebook is a part of your life every single day. We keep up with our friends and family, share interesting (or mundane) experiences from our daily lives, and perhaps most importantly for us, we share a LOT of photos.’
Read more: Facebook Purchases Israeli Facial Recognition Company
Apple’s iOS 6 Includes ‘Government Alerts’
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
‘Apple’s eagerly awaited iOS 6 update for iPhones and iPads will include controversial ‘government alerts’ that some fear are part of the federal government’s takeover of communications networks.
“In compliance with the National Alerting Program, the WEA will be coming to Apple devices that will run on the new mobile OS once it arrives this fall. The iOS 6-compatible devices include iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 4G, iPad 2 and the new iPad. This means that users with older iPhone will be able to receive WEA messages once they upgrade their handset to the new mobile software,” reports AMOG.
The federal government is keen to implement a centralized system of control over all communications, with last year’s announcement that all new cell phones will be required to comply with the PLAN program (Personal Localized Alerting Network), which will broadcast emergency alert messages directly to Americans’ cell phones.’
Robots Get a Feel for the World: Touch More Sensitve Than a Human’s
ScienceDaily (June 18, 2012) — What does a robot feel when it touches something? Little or nothing until now. But with the right sensors, actuators and software, robots can be given the sense of feel — or at least the ability to identify different materials by touch.
Researchers at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering published a study June 18 in Frontiers in Neurorobotics showing that a specially designed robot can outperform humans in identifying a wide range of natural materials according to their textures, paving the way for advancements in prostheses, personal assistive robots and consumer product testing.
The robot was equipped with a new type of tactile sensor built to mimic the human fingertip. It also used a newly designed algorithm to make decisions about how to explore the outside world by imitating human strategies. Capable of other human sensations, the sensor can also tell where and in which direction forces are applied to the fingertip and even the thermal properties of an object being touched.
Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120618194952.htm
Nanotechnology Used to Harness Power of Fireflies
ScienceDaily (June 15, 2012) — What do fireflies, nanorods, and Christmas lights have in common? Someday, consumers may be able to purchase multicolor strings of light that don’t need electricity or batteries to glow. Scientists at Syracuse University found a new way to harness the natural light produced by fireflies (called bioluminescence) using nanoscience. Their breakthrough produces a system that is 20 to 30 times more efficient than those produced during previous experiments.
It’s all about the size and structure of the custom, quantum nanorods, which are produced in the laboratory by Mathew Maye, assistant professor of chemistry in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences; and Rebeka Alam, a chemistry Ph.D. candidate. Maye is also a member of the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute. “Firefly light is one of nature’s best examples of bioluminescence,” Maye says. “The light is extremely bright and efficient. We’ve found a new way to harness biology for non-biological applications by manipulating the interface between the biological and non-biological components.”
Their work, “Designing Quantum Rods for Optimized Energy Transfer with Firefly Luciferase Enzymes,” was published online May 23 in Nano Letters and is forthcoming in print. Collaborating on the research were Professor Bruce Branchini and Danielle Fontaine, both from Connecticut College.
Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120615114104.htm
Out of this world, quite literally: The beautiful and mysterious Fukang meteorite
By LYLE BRENNAN
PUBLISHED: 15:45 GMT, 14 April 2012 | UPDATED: 15:45 GMT, 14 April 2012
When it slammed into the surface of Earth, there was little sign of the beauty that lay inside.
But cutting the Fukang meteorite open yielded a breathtaking sight.
Within the rock, translucent golden crystals of a mineral called olivine gleamed among a silvery honeycomb of nickel-iron.
Cosmic wonder: Marvin Killgore of the Arizona Meteorite Laboratory lets the sun shine through a polished slice of the Fukang rock
The rare meteorite weighed about the same as a hatchback when it was discovered in 2000, in the Gobi Desert in China’s Xinjiang Province.
It has since been divided into slices which give the effect of stained glass when the sun shines through them.
An anonymous collector holds the largest portion, which weighs 925lb. in 2008, this piece was expected to fetch $2million (£1.26million) at auction at Bonham’s in New York – but it remained unsold.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2129747/The-beautiful-mysterious-Fukang-pallasite-meteorite.html#ixzz1xxGEGnk3
NASA’s black hole-hunting NuSTAR mission launched today
The black hole-hunting telescope NASA announced last month launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean today. The $165 million NuSTAR mission will spend two years scouring the universe for black holes by scanning X-ray light at higher energies than its predecessors. According to Space.com, NuSTAR will especially target high-energy regions of the universe where “matter is falling onto black holes, as well as the leftovers from dead stars after they’ve exploded in supernovas.” Head on past the break for a video of the launch and click through to the source link for more details and images.
If There’s Nothing Wrong at Fukushima, Why Won’t They Allow Outside Experts to Inspect the Plant?
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
‘If the nuclear disaster that has befallen the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant is absolutely nothing to be concerned about, as some have nonsensically maintained despite the evidence to the contrary, why on Earth would Akio Komori, an executive at Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), refuse to allow outside experts to inspect the facility?
It is quite a simple question which should be able to be easily answered by those who continue to maintain that anyone who points out the continuing dangers and potential disaster with spent fuel pool number four is blowing the situation out of proportion.’
You’re The Drive: Digital Data Can Now Be Stored In DNA
Monday, 28 May
‘Forget saving files to flash drives and cloud servers. Now, digital information can be stored in the DNA of living organisms, thanks to a breakthrough discovery by researchers at Stanford University in California.
A trio of scientists successfully demonstrated the ability to flip the direction of DNA molecules in sample E.coli bacteria in two directions, mimicking the “1s” and “0s” of binary code, which is at the root of all modern computer calculations.’
Read more: You’re The Drive: Digital Data Can Now Be Stored In DNA
In Metallic Glasses, Researchers Find a Few New Atomic Structures
“The fundamental nature of a glass structure is that the organization of the atoms is disordered-jumbled up like differently sized marbles in a jar, rather than eggs in an egg carton,” says Paul Voyles, the principal investigator on the research. (Credit: © marionbirdy / Fotolia)
Published May 11 in the journal Physical Review Letters, the findings fill a gap in researchers’ understanding of this atomic structure. This understanding ultimately could help manufacturers fine-tune such properties of metallic glasses as ductility, the ability to change shape under force without breaking, and formability, the ability to form a glass without crystalizing.
Glasses include all solid materials that have a non-crystalline atomic structure: They lack a regular geometric arrangement of atoms over long distances. “The fundamental nature of a glass structure is that the organization of the atoms is disordered-jumbled up like differently sized marbles in a jar, rather than eggs in an egg carton,” says Paul Voyles, a UW-Madison associate professor of materials science and engineering and principal investigator on the research.
Researchers widely believe that atoms in metallic glasses are arranged only as pentagons in an order known as five-fold rotational symmetry. However, in studies of a zirconium-copper-aluminum metallic glass, Voyles’ team found there are clusters of squares and hexagons-in addition to clusters of pentagons, some of which form chains-all located within the space of just a few nanometers. “One or two nanometers is a group of about 50 atoms-and it’s how those 50 atoms are arranged with respect to one another that’s the new and interesting part,” he says.
Believe nothing 