Technology
BBC News - ‘Artificial life’ breakthrough announced by scientists
Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first living cell to be controlled entirely by synthetic DNA.
The researchers constructed a bacterium’s “genetic software” and transplanted it into a host cell.
The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species “dictated” by the synthetic DNA.
The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a [...]
Spiders at the nanoscale: Molecules that behave like robots
Spiders at the nanoscale: Molecules that behave like robots
ScienceDaily May 12, 2010 — A team of scientists from Columbia University, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, and the California Institute of Technology Caltech have programmed an autonomous molecular “robot” made out of DNA to start, move, turn, and stop while following a DNA track.
BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Girls ‘becoming Facebook addicts’
Parents fear their daughters are becoming addicted to social networking sites, a girls’ school leader says.
Girls seem to be “permanently connected” to sites like Facebook and Bebo, president of the Girls’ Schools Association Jill Berry said.
This issue now tops the list of parents’ worries by some way, she told the association’s annual conference.
Mrs Berry also [...]
Can robots ever be like humans?
BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click | Can robots ever be like humans?
Simple tasks such as walking and picking up objects are part of everyday life for people, but such mundane tasks still present major challenges for today’s robots.
Researchers are using sensors, cameras and recognition to teach the machines to interact in a way that [...]
Robot Fish!
A school of these fish that synchronize their movements would be really cool!!
CLick here for Video
Kindle DX
Amazon’s launch of its first dedicated e-reader for newspapers and magazines points to a future when digital and analogue publishing begins to merge.
Nearly double the size of the book giant’s existing e-reader, Amazon’s wireless Kindle DX has adopted a tabloid-like format for ease of reading newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times and [...]
Hubble’s new superpowers
When astronauts from the shuttle Atlantis open up the Hubble Space Telescope for its final extreme makeover, much of the work will be aimed at fixing what’s been ailing the world’s premier orbiting observatory. It’ll get fresh batteries and brand-new gyros, and if all goes well, Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Space Telescope [...]
9May2009 | Admin | 0 comments | Continued
Inventor turns cardboard boxes into eco-friendly oven
(CNN) — When Jon Bohmer sat down with his two little girls for a simple project they could work on together, he didn’t realize they’d hit upon a solution to one of the world’s biggest problems for just $5: A solar-powered oven.
The ingeniously simple design uses two cardboard boxes, one inside the other, and an [...]
Bruce Sterling - Prophet and loss
Author Bruce Sterling is one of the most respected writers of science fiction. He is also a web activist, columnist, teacher and one of the most anticipated speakers at the South by South West Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, at which he will give a talk entitled: The state of the Cybersphere.
The difficulty with interviewing [...]
Virus battery could ‘power cars’
Viruses have been used to help build batteries that may one day power cars and all types of electronic devices.
The speed and relatively cheap cost of manufacturing virus batteries could prove attractive to industry.
Professor Angela Belcher, who led the research team, said: “Our material is powerful enough to be able to be used in a [...]
How scientists really feel about God
WASHINGTON - Scientists hate God. Or find God very disturbing. In fact, modern science has found no evidence of God and so it’s stupid anymore to think God exists.
The above statements are often presented as conventional wisdom, but are they true?
A new collection of short essays, discussed here Thursday at an event at the American [...]
Big questions, short answers
How did the universe begin? How did life arise? How did evolution make us the way we are today? How would you answer these big questions. Oh, and by the way, keep your answers shorter than 140 characters.
That’s the kind of experiment I’ll be conducting this weekend at the Origins Symposium, presented by Arizona State [...]
‘Star Wars’ scientists create laser gun to kill mosquitoes
LONDON, England — Scientists in the U.S. are developing a laser gun that could kill millions of mosquitoes in minutes.
The laser, which has been dubbed a “weapon of mosquito destruction” fires at mosquitoes once it detects the audio frequency created by the beating of its wings.
The laser beam then destroys the mosquito, burning it on [...]
Eyeball Cam
New “Eyeball Cam” Aims to Stream Man’s Entire Life Online
Move over all you Webcasters who stream your life on Justin.tv. Now, 36-year-old filmmaker Rob Spence claims to have a better way of filming his life — he wants to implant a wireless video camera in his eye socket, to record (and reveal to the whole [...]
New Stem Cell Breakthrough for Replacing Brain Tissue
Previous research in injecting stem cells into rats with stroke damage has had some success but, because they lack structural support, the cells end up migrating into surrounding healthy tissue, the researchers said.
To try to overcome this problem, the researchers developed tiny polymer balls, a tenth of a millimetre across, and loaded them with neural [...]
Winged luxury submarines ‘fly’ underwater
What better toy to have on the end of your 200-foot yacht than a submarine capable of diving to 1,500 feet below the sea’s surface?
Whoops. Did we say submarine? It’s a submersible that can “fly” underwater.
The Deep Flight Super Falcon looks like a fighter jet, with its thin body, two seats, two sets of wings [...]
Darwin, Britain’s Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S. : NPR
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, and to say Darwin mania is gripping England does not overstate the case.
The Royal Mint has created a Darwin coin, the Royal Mail has made a Darwin stamp set, and there are countless lectures and exhibitions throughout the country.
Bob Bloomfield is in charge of Darwin200, [...]
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Russian and US satellites collide
US and Russian communications satellites have collided in space in what is thought to be the biggest incident of its kind to date.
The US commercial Iridium spacecraft hit a defunct Russian satellite at an altitude of about 800km (500 miles) over Siberia on Tuesday, Nasa said.
The risk to the International Space Station and a shuttle [...]
Mother of Octuplets Already Has 6 at Home - Lives With Her Parents
(BELLFLOWER, Calif.) The woman who gave birth to octuplets this week has six other children and never expected to have eight more when she took fertility treatment, her mother said.
Angela Suleman said her daughter expects a big challenge raising 14 children. The good news, she said, is all the babies appear healthy.
“I looked at those [...]
Weird Science Awards for 2009
Far out, man! The top vote-getter in the 2009 Weird Science Awards is the story about the 2,700-year-old marijuana stash. Archaeologists found the still-green plant material in a grave uncovered in China’s Gobi Desert. They believe that the marijuana was buried along with an ancient shaman as a mark of high respect. And speaking of [...]
9Jan2009 | Admin | 0 comments | Continued
Atheism conference calls for promotion of science
Vijayawada , Jan 6 Science faces a serious threat from religious institutions and these have always hampered scientific research, eminent scientist P M Bhargava has said.” Unlike religion which is static and harps on the age- old belief system, science is dynamic and provides reasoning to everything,” Bhargava [...]
8Jan2009 | Admin | 0 comments | Continued
First flight of algae-fuelled jet
A US airline has completed the first test flight of a plane partly powered by biofuel derived from algae.
The 90-minute flight by a Continental Boeing 737-800 went better than expected, a spokesperson said.
One of its engines was powered by a 50-50 blend of biofuel and normal aircraft fuel.
Wednesday’s test is the latest in a series [...]
Solar Powered, USB Charger
Solar Powered USB Charger - Cheap And Easy To Make! - video powered by Metacafe
6Jan2009 | Admin | 0 comments | Continued
UK housewives rule in online time
A survey of more than 27,000 web users in 16 countries has shown that the Chinese spend the largest fraction of their leisure time online.
However, UK housewives spend even more than China’s average - 47%.
Germans are the most likely to meet someone in real life that they first met online; more than three quarters have [...]
Regenerating Tissue
ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) — Regrowing a fingertip cut off in an accident sounds like something from a futuristic movie. But with innovative technology developed by the U.S. Army, such regrowth is possible today.
This research project and a hundred others were on display this month at the 26th Army Science Convention. Some the greatest minds in [...]
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A Chameleon Sky
The sands of time are running out for the central star of this the Hourglass Nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected and its core becomes a cooling, fading white dwarf. In 1995, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to make a series of images of planetary nebulae, including the one above. Here, delicate rings of colorful glowing gas (nitrogen-red, hydrogen-green, and oxygen-blue) outline the tenuous walls of the 'hourglass.' The unprecedented sharpness of Hubble's images revealed surprising details of the nebula ejection process and may resolve the outstanding mystery of the variety of complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulae. Image Credit: NASA, WFPC2, HST, R. Sahai and J. Trauger (JPL)
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