martes, 2 de agosto de 2011

News and Blog Headlines
Genetic ‘conductor’ involved with new brain cell production in adults
‘Lovotics’: the new science of engineering human, robot love
The future of chip manufacturing
Are you ready for robots with sensitive skin?
Scientists use optogenetics to control reward-seeking behavior
The physics of Jackson Pollock
How electrons become entangled
Evolution of skin and ovarian cancer cells
How chronic stress causes Alzheimer’s, other brain diseases
Massive botnet ‘indestructible,’ say researchers
Norvig vs. Chomsky and the fight for the future of AI
World’s data will grow by 50X in next decade, IDC study predicts
LSD alleviates ‘suicide headaches’
Solar-powered 3-D printer prints glass from sand
Inkjet-printed solar devices promise dramatically lower cost
Drawing instant electronic circuits on paper
Singularity Summit 2011 to be held in New York City Oct. 15-16
Diabetes affects more than 300 million worldwide, but life-expectancy has increased
Brain rhythm associated with learning linked to running speed
New software advances brain image research
Ads for monkeys: sign of the end times?
Acoustic ‘cloaking device’ shields objects from sound
Pythagoras Solar turns windows into panels of energy
Subatomic quantum memory in diamond demonstrated
Hippie days
‘Orca ears’ inspire researchers to develop ultrasensitive undersea microphone
Stealth mold genes take over human genome, jump to databases and chips!
Biologists discover how yeast cells reverse aging
How to make a clock run for 10,000 years
Asteroid to buzz Earth Monday, June 27th
Power grid change may disrupt clocks
Human-genome browser now available on iPad
Full-spectrum solar cells may reach 42 percent efficiency
Hand-hacking lets you pluck strings like a musical pro
Mayo Clinic developing artificial pancreas to ease diabetes burden
Volkswagen shows off self-driving autopilot technology for cars
Cerf: streaming network crunch could be eliminated
Japanese pop star created digitally fools fans

Latest News
Genetic ‘conductor’ involved with new brain cell production in adults
July 1, 2011

A team of North Carolina State University researchers has discovered more about how the Foxj1 gene — connected to the production of new brain cells in adults — does its job. The team had previously discovered that the gene was an “off switch” that told neuronal stem cells to stop reproducing and triggered the development of … more…

‘Lovotics’: the new science of engineering human, robot love
July 1, 2011 Source Link: Technology Review Mim's Bits

 Bi-directional love between a human and a robot — realistic, genuine, biologically-inspired love — is the goal of Hooman Samani, an AI researcher at the Social Robotics Lab at the National University of Singapore. He calls this new discipline Lovotics. He has developed a comprehensive AI simulation of the emotional and endocrine systems underpinning love … more…

The future of chip manufacturing
July 1, 2011

Researchers at MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) have developed a way to get the resolution of high-speed e-beam lithography (commonly used to prototype computer chips) down from 25 to just nine nanometers, allowing for smaller, faster chips. Combined with other emerging technologies, it could point the way toward making e-beam lithography practical as a … more…

Scientists use optogenetics to control reward-seeking behavior
June 30, 2011

 Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have manipulated brain wiring responsible for reward-seeking behaviors in mice, using optogenetic stimulation targeting the path between two critical brain regions, the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens. The finding represents potential treatments for addiction and other neuropsychiatric diseases, according to the researchers. With the optogenetic … more…

How electrons become entangled
June 30, 2011

An international team of researchers from ETH Zurich, Princeton University and LMU Munich have used lasers to peek into the complex relationship between a single electron and its environment, a breakthrough that could aid the development of quantum computers. The research brings fresh insight to the study of the Kondo problem, a phenomenon first observed in … more…

Evolution of skin and ovarian cancer cells
June 30, 2011

A team of researchers led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has developed a way to uncover the evolution of human cancer cells, determining the order in which mutations emerge in them as they shift from a normal, healthy state into invasive, malignant masses. The team developed a way of teasing … more…

How chronic stress causes Alzheimer’s, other brain diseases
June 30, 2011

Chronic stress has long been linked with neurodegeneration. Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have now found a mechanism: chronic stress (physical or mental) causes overexpression of the RCAN1 gene, in turn leading to neurodegenerative disease. The mechanism involves these steps: 1. Chronic overproduction of RCAN1 causes hyperphosphorylation of tau proteins in the … more…

Massive botnet ‘indestructible,’ say researchers
June 30, 2011 Source Link: Computerworld

A new and improved botnet that has infected more than four million PCs is “practically indestructible,” security researchers say. “TDL-4,” the name for both the bot Trojan program that infects machines and the ensuing collection of compromised computers, is “the most sophisticated threat today,” said Kaspersky Labs researcher Sergey Golovanov in a detailed analysis Monday. TDL-4 infects … more…

Norvig vs. Chomsky and the fight for the future of AI
June 29, 2011

Linguist Noam Chomsky has derided researchers in machine learning who use purely statistical methods to produce behavior that mimics something in the world, but who don’t try to understand the meaning of that behavior, points out Kevin Gold, an Assistant Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. Google’s Director of Research Peter Norvig has argued that … more…

World’s data will grow by 50X in next decade, IDC study predicts
June 29, 2011

 In 2011, the amount of information created and replicated will surpass 1.8 zettabytes (1.8 trillion gigabytes), growing by a factor of 9 in just five years, according to the fifth annual IDC Digital Universe study released Tuesday. By 2020 the world will generate 50 times the amount of information and 75 times the number of “information … more…

LSD alleviates ‘suicide headaches’
June 29, 2011 Source Link: Science Now

 Six patients treated with 2-bromo-LSD, a nonhallucinogenic analog of LSD, showed a significant reduction in cluster headaches per day; some were free of the attacks for weeks or months, according to a presentation by Harvard Medical School and Hannover Medical School researchers. 2-bromo-LSD (BOL) was developed by Sandoz, the Swiss company that discovered the psychedelic … more…

Solar-powered 3-D printer prints glass from sand
June 29, 2011

 Markus Kaiser’s  solar sintering project explores the potential of desert manufacturing, where energy and material occur in abundance. In this experiment, sunlight and sand are used as raw energy and material to produce glass objects using a 3D printing process, combining natural energy and material with high-tech production technology. His work with solar-sintering aims to … more…

Inkjet-printed solar devices promise dramatically lower cost
June 29, 2011

Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered how to create successful “CIGS” (copper, indium, gallium and selenium) solar devices with inkjet printing, reducing raw material waste by 90 percent and significantly lowering the cost of producing solar energy cells. The process could lead to high-performing, rapidly produced, ultra-low cost thin film solar electronics, according to … more…

Drawing instant electronic circuits on paper
June 29, 2011

 University of Illinois engineers have developed a silver-inked rollerball pen capable of writing electrical circuits and interconnects on paper, wood and other surfaces. After writing, the liquid in the ink dries to leave conductive silver pathways — in essence, paper-mounted wires. The ink maintains its conductivity through multiple bends and folds of the paper, enabling … more…

Singularity Summit 2011 to be held in New York City Oct. 15-16
June 28, 2011

 Singularity Summit 2011 will be a TED-style two-day event on October 15–16 featuring futurist Ray Kurzweil and Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings on IBM’s Watson, economist Tyler Cowen on the economic impacts of emerging technologies, and PayPal founder Peter Thiel on innovation and jump-starting the economy. Other speakers include neuroscientist Christof Koch, MIT cosmologist Max Tegmark, … more…

Diabetes affects more than 300 million worldwide, but life-expectancy has increased
June 28, 2011

Researchers at Imperial College London and the Harvard School of Public Health have found that the number of adults worldwide with diabetes reached 347 million in 2008, more than double the number in 1980. Seventy per cent of the rise was due to population growth and aging, with the other 30 per cent due to higher … more…

Brain rhythm associated with learning linked to running speed
June 28, 2011

Rhythms in the brain that are associated with learning become stronger as the body moves faster, neurophysicists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have found. The experiment was performed by measuring electrical signals from hundreds of mice neurons using microwires, the researchers said. Nearly a hundred gigabytes of data was collected every day. Analysis … more…

New software advances brain image research
June 28, 2011

A new software program that allows neuroscientists to produce single brain images pulled from hundreds of individual studies has been developed by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, trimming weeks and even months from the research process. The new software can be programmed to comb scientific literature for published articles relevant to a particular topic, … more…

Acoustic ‘cloaking device’ shields objects from sound
June 28, 2011 Source Link: BBC News

 Scientists at Duke University have developed a cloaking device using metamaterials that makes objects invisible to sound waves. The device uses stacked sheets of plastic with regular arrays of holes through them. The exact size and placement of the holes on each sheet, and the spacing between the sheets, has a predictable effect on incoming sound … more…

Pythagoras Solar turns windows into panels of energy
June 28, 2011

 Pythagoras Solar, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, is working on creating “solar windows” that could generate power for office buildings and shield offices from sunlight, thus reducing air conditioning costs, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Thin horizontal rows of silicon cells embedded between dual panes of glass catch light from above. And through … more…

Subatomic quantum memory in diamond demonstrated
June 28, 2011

Physicists at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Konstanz in Germany have developed a breakthrough in the use of diamond in quantum physics, marking an important step toward quantum computing. The physicists were able to coax the quantum information contained within a single electron in diamond to move into an adjacent … more…

Hippie days
June 27, 2011

 Every Friday afternoon for several years in the 1970s, a group of underemployed quantum physicists met at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, in Northern California, to talk about a subject so peculiar it was rarely discussed in mainstream science: entanglement. Did subatomic particles influence each other from a distance? What were the implications? Many of these scientists, … more…

Biologists discover how yeast cells reverse aging
June 27, 2011

 Researchers at MIT have discovered a gene called NDT80 that can double yeast lifespan when turned on late in life. The gene is activated when yeast cell rejuvenation occurs. When they turned on this gene in aged cells that were not reproducing, the cells lived twice as long as normal. The MIT team found that … more…

How to make a clock run for 10,000 years
June 27, 2011 Source Link: Wired

 Billionaire Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has a long-term plan: to build a clock that runs for 10,000 years. The idea for the clock has been around since Danny Hillis first proposed it in WIRED magazine in 1995. Since then, Hillis and others have built prototypes and created a nonprofit, the Long Now Foundation, to work on the clock … more…

Asteroid to buzz Earth Monday, June 27th
June 26, 2011 Source Link: Sky & Telescope

 Asteroid 2011 MD, a chunk of rock estimated to be 25 to 55 feet across, is estimated to pass less than 8,000 miles above the Earth’s surface around 4:30 p.m. EDT (20:30 UT) on Monday, June 27th. The actual event will be observable only from South Africa and parts of Antarctica, but the approach will … more…

Power grid change may disrupt clocks
June 26, 2011 Source Link: Associated Press

A yearlong experiment by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with the nation’s electric grid could mess up traffic lights, security systems, and some computers — and make plug-in clocks and appliances like programmable coffeemakers run up to 20 minutes fast. Officials say they want to try this to make the power supply more reliable, save … more…

Human-genome browser now available on iPad
June 26, 2011

 Genome Wowser provides an iPad-enabled view of the human genome, according to iFreeware . The app provides a functional presentation of the popular University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) Genome Browser that is intuitive, highly portable, and allows a “Google Maps”-like navigation experience. Users can view genomic annotation tracks; zoom in, out, and across a … more…

Full-spectrum solar cells may reach 42 percent efficiency
June 26, 2011

 University of Toronto engineering researchers have developed the first efficient tandem solar cell based on colloidal quantum dots (CQD). It may lead to inexpensive coatings that efficiently convert the sun’s rays to electricity. The device is a stack of two light-absorbing layers — one tuned to capture the sun’s visible rays, the other to harvest … more…

Hand-hacking lets you pluck strings like a musical pro
June 26, 2011 Source Link: New Scientist Tech

 PossessedHand, being developed jointly by the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Sony Computer Science Laboratories, electrically stimulates the muscles in the forearm that move your fingers. A belt worn around that part of the subject’s arm contains 28 electrode pads that flex the joints between the three bones of each finger and the two bones … more…

Mayo Clinic developing artificial pancreas to ease diabetes burden
June 24, 2011

Mayo Clinic endocrinologists are developing an artificial pancreas that will deliver insulin automatically and with an individualized precision never before possible. The “Closed Loop System” under development includes a blood sugar monitor, an automatic insulin pump, a set of activity monitors that attach to the body, and a central processing unit. In related research, they … more…

Volkswagen shows off self-driving autopilot technology for cars
June 24, 2011 Source Link: Motor Authority

Volkswagen has presented its “Temporary Auto Pilot” technology. Monitored by a driver, the technology can allow a car to drive semi-automatically at speeds of up to 80 mph on highways. It works using a combination of existing technology such as adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist, rolling them all into one comprehensive function. In the … more…

Cerf: streaming network crunch could be eliminated
June 24, 2011 Source Link: Computerworld

While Internet carriers may fret about Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming media services saturating their bandwidth, Internet forefather Vint Cerf has a simple answer for this potential problem: increase bandwidth exponentially. With sufficient bandwidth, streaming video services of prerecorded content wouldn’t be necessary, explained Cerf, who is now a technology evangelist at Google. With sufficient … more…

Japanese pop star created digitally fools fans
June 24, 2011

 Japan’s latest pop sensation, Aimi Eguchi — the newest member of the Japanese band AKB48 — is a virtual composite of six other band members. The fake pop star first appeared in an ad for Japanese candy, but also has an online profile and has been featured in a magazine photo shoot using faked pictures. … more…
New BLOG POSTS
Are you ready for robots with sensitive skin?
June 30, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica

Robots have just taken another (slightly weird) step toward becoming our overlords. Technische Universität München (TUM) scientists are developing an artificial skin for robots that will provide tactile information to the robot to supplement information from cameras, infrared scanners, and gripping hands. The idea is to let the robot know when it touches an object … more…

The physics of Jackson Pollock
June 30, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica

 Can you tell the difference between a painting by an elephant and Jackson Pollack? (Take this test before reading further.) A mathematician at Harvard University and a physicist-art historian at Boston College think they can. Pollock was an “intuitive master” of laws that govern the flow of liquids under gravity, they believe. The researchers examined the … more…

Ads for monkeys: sign of the end times?
June 28, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica

 This is not an Onion story. No, really. Turns out Laurie Santos gave a TED talk last year on “monkeynomics” — the realization that monkeys understood an abstract idea like currency. Unfortunately, two advertising executives happened to be in the audience, New Scientist reports today. The result: a monkey ad campaign (shown at the Cannes Lions … more…

‘Orca ears’ inspire researchers to develop ultrasensitive undersea microphone
June 27, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica

 Imagine a miniature microphone that responds to ocean sounds from 1 to 100kHz (a deep inaudible rumble to ultrasonic sounds) with a dynamic range of 160 dB (a whisper in a quiet library to the sound from 1 ton of TNT exploding 60 feet away) and operates at any depth. An amazing microphone that does … more…

Stealth mold genes take over human genome, jump to databases and chips!
June 27, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica

“Earlier this year, molecular biologists announced that 20 per cent of nonhuman genome databases are contaminated with human DNA, probably from the researchers who sequenced the samples,” Technology Review‘s The Physics ArXiv blog said on Thursday. “Now, the human genome itself has become contaminated. Bill Langdon at University College London and Matthew Arno at Kings College … more…
New EVENTS
Singularity Summit 2011
Dates: Oct 15 – 16, 2011
Location: New York, New York
more...

New books
Virolution
author Frank Ryan

 Amazon | From an acclaimed scientific thinker and writer comes the most exciting advance in evolution since Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene — how the extraordinary role of viruses in evolution is revolutionizing biology and medicine. Combining Darwin, the double helix, the genome project, and viruses to explain the last great mystery of evolution, this book is the … more…

Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future — and Locked Us In
author Brian X. Chen

 Amazon | Even Steve Jobs didn’t know what he had on his hands when he announced the original iPhone as a combination of a mere “three revolutionary products” — an iPod, a cell phone, and a keyboard-less handheld computer. Once Apple introduced the App Store and opened it up to outside developers, however, the iPhone became … more…

War of the Worldviews: Science Vs. Spirituality
author Deepak Chopra, Leonard Mlodinow

 Amazon | Two bestselling authors first met in a televised Caltech debate on “the future of God,” one an articulate advocate for spirituality, the other a prominent physicist.  This remarkable book is the product of that serendipitous encounter and the contentious — but respectful — clash of worldviews that grew along with their friendship.


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