2/28/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough in face recognition bots for your pictures Both Google and Apple have released new breakthrough face matching bots for your pictures. Technology Review tested them and came to the conclusion: "both of these systems mostly work, are extremely cool, and are also kind of creepy" ... more

2/28/2009 PERMALINK
Watch Lockheed HULC exoskeleton in action Light weight, easy to put on and take off, able to run at 10 mph, lets soldier carry 200 lbs. for long distances -- demo of the HULC military exoskeleton getting put through its paces ... watch

2/27/2009 PERMALINK
Normal cells turned to stem cells without using risky viruses Normally, researchers rely on potentially harmful viruses to deliver the reprogramming factors that change normal cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). But now Austin Smith and his research team at the Center for Stem Cell Research in Cambridge have discovered a way of reprogramming cells into iPS cells using a single reprogramming factor called Klf4 ... more

2/27/2009 PERMALINK
$100 genome poised to bring about the era of personal medicine In the corner of the small lab is a locked door with a colorful sign taped to the front: "$100 Genome Room--Authorized Persons Only." BioNanomatrix, the startup that runs the lab, is pursuing what many believe to be the key to personalized medicine: sequencing technology so fast and cheap that an entire human genome can be read in eight hours for $100 or less. With the aid of such a powerful tool, medical treatment could be tailored to a patient's distinct genetic profile ... more

2/27/2009 PERMALINK
Carbon nanotubes can deliver much cheaper fuel cells Fuel cells have been hailed as saviours of the environment, because they can cleanly and efficiently turn hydrogen and other fuels into electricity. But so far this technology has been hobbled by the high cost of the platinum catalysts needed to make it work. Now a new type of fuel cell based on carbon nanotubes promises to be much cheaper, as well as more compact and more efficient ... more ... more

2/27/2009 PERMALINK
Vortex vibrations tapped for energy capture from water flows The phenomenon of Vortex Induced Vibrations (VIV), which was first observed 500 years ago by Leonardo DaVinci, can be used to efficently capture energy from ocean and stream water flows. For decades, engineers have been trying to prevent VIV from damaging offshore equipment and structures. Navy funded research at the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory at the University of Michigan has found that by maximizing and exploiting VIV rather than spoiling and preventing it, an ocean engineering problem can be transformed into a device able to extract energy from the ocean much more efficiently than today's generators using wave motion ... more

2/26/2009 PERMALINK
For disease after disease, researchers are now finding the gene mutations responsible "We found a series of mutations in a gene that interacts with biological pathways already implicated in ALS and other neurological diseases, resulting in familial ALS of differing inheritance patterns and varying severity," says Thomas Kwiatkowski, MD, PhD, of the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease (MGH-MIND), lead author of the MGH report. "This puts us closer to identifying the link between inherited and sporadic ALS as well as to new targets for drug design." ... more

2/26/2009 PERMALINK
A second lab is now reporting finding flu's Achilles' heel Scripps Research Institute says they have discovered a supermantibody, an antibody known as CR6261, that can both give humans lifelong protection against a majority of influenza viruses and also allow the development of much improved methods to treat those who go unvaccinated and come down with the flu. "This is very exciting because it marks the first step toward the Holy Grail of influenza vaccinology - the development of a durable and cross-protective universal influenza virus vaccine," says the study's senior investigator, Ian Wilson ... more ... see prior report

2/26/2009 PERMALINK
Backyard aquaponics can keep your family well fed in hard times
Most of us know about the numerous studies in recent years showing the disease prevention and lifespan extension effects of diets heavy in veggies and cold water fish. Frankly, there have been so many news reports about the beneficial health effects of such diets lately, that it seems to have driven store prices up. Fortunately, a powerful combination of small scale fish farming and hydroponics, called aquaponics, can let you produce plenty of these healthy foods for your family from a modest greenhouse in your own back yard or even in your basement using the new power-sipping LED grow lights. Aquaponics takes advantage of the natural symbiotic relationship between plants and aquatic animals in a recirculating water environment. If your system is well designed, an amazingly small amount of daily effort is necessary to produce a substantial amount of fish and veggies ... more

2/26/2009 PERMALINK
Stem cell 'fabrics' promise universal tissue Embryonic stem cells can survive being spun into polymer threads - a technique that could be used to weave flexible synthetic tissues able to be stimulated to grow into a variety of artificial organs ... more

2/26/2009 PERMALINK
Chaos filter helps navigation bot make sense of the world
As it navigates the streets of Oxford, unlike previous navigation bots, this one has the ability to cope with change and not become lost. The Oxford group's FabMap software gives it this capability by having the bot assign a visual "vocabulary" of up to a thousand individual "words" for each scene, every two seconds as it moves along Oxford's streets. This larger model lets the bot realize that multiple measured points close together can be a single object, allowing it to understand that it isn't somewhere new, but in a known location that has changed in a minor way by the arrival or departure of a parked car or bicycle ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
All drugs found to have serious side effect -- they drive politcos insane Imagine you are seated at a table with two bowls in front of you. One contains peanuts, the other tablets of the illegal recreational drug MDMA (ecstasy). A stranger joins you, and you have to decide whether to give them a peanut or a pill. Which is safest? You should give them ecstasy, of course. A much larger percentage of people suffer a fatal acute reaction to peanuts than to MDMA. This, of course, is only a thought experiment; nobody would consider doing it for real. But it puts the risks associated with ecstasy in context with others we take for granted. Sadly, perspective is something that is generally lacking in the long and tortuous political debate over illegal drugs ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
Web site uses crowd to track censorship of cloud
Internet censorship occurs worldwide, but until now the exact dimensions of the problem has been unknown. A new website is designed to solve that problem by tapping the power of "crowd sourcing" -- fielding and aggregating reports from volunteers -- to collect and provide real-time data on the activities of those trying to control your access to data ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
Bots the size of riding lawnmowers can prepare moon for human habitation
Researchers have analyzed mission requirements and designed an innovative new type of small lunar robot for NASA's Lunar Surface Systems group. Two of the 330 lbs. bots should be able to excavate a landing site and and pave it over with gathered local rocks in only about six months ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
Fossil fuel emissions can hold back the next ice age for 500,000 years
We live in a geological period of regularly recurring ice ages, but by continuing emissions of fossil fuels at a high enough level for long enough. We may be able to delay the start of the next ice age for approximately 500,000 years, according to new research from the Niels Bohr Institute at University of Copenhagen. Burn up fossil fuels too quickly, and we'll get global warming followed by an ice age that comes sooner. Stop using them completely and we'll get the onset of an ice age. But by metering fossil fuels consumption to last longer, the ice age can be delayed for half a million years. The picture shows the maximum ice distribution on the northern hemisphere during the last ice age 20,000 years ago ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
How the crash will reshape America "One thing seems probable to me," said German finance minister Peer Steinbruck, "the United States will lose its status as the superpower of the global financial system." You don't have to strain too hard to see the financial crisis as the death knell for a debt-ridden, over-consuming, and under-producing American empire. The historian Scott Reynolds Nelson has noted that in some respects, today's crisis most closely resembles the Long Depression, which stretched, by one definition, from 1873 to 1896. It began as a banking crisis brought on by insolvent mortgages and complex financial instruments, and quickly spread to the real economy, leading to mass unemployment that reached 25 percent in New York ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
AI smart bots that defend systems against network attacks Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working on the Ubiquitous Network Transient Autonomous Mission Entities program, an effort to create AI smart bots able to patrol inside computer systems and defend them from network attacks ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
Polymers that self-assemble into nanostructures can store 10 terabits per square inch Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst have found a simple way to coat square inches of substrate with block copolymers to create a highly ordered pattern that can let hard disks squeeze 10 terabits into each square inch of surface ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
Lab-made proteins can prevent the flu
Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Burnham Institute for Medical Research and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported the identification of human monoclonal antibodies (mAb) that neutralize an unprecedented range of influenza A viruses, including avian influenza A (H5N1) virus, previous pandemic influenza viruses, and some seasonal influenza viruses. These antibodies have the potential for use in combination with other treatments to prevent or treat certain types of avian and seasonal flu. ... watch ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
Never, ever feed a zombie bank An undead bank is an abomination. It will pretend good health but hide a rot. It will afflict you, over and over and over again, with harrowing near insolvencies (cf Citibank). Dead banks must be allowed to die ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
Company demos DNA speed reading technique
Oxford Nanopore has demoed a new technique that allows direct identifications of identify DNA bases with near total accuracy without the fluorescent labels and imaging equipment used for conventional high-speed sequencing. In addition to identifying the four bases of DNA, the new technique also, for the first time, makes it possible to quickly detect a modified version of one of the bases, thought to be responsible for causing many cancers and other diseases ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
Microsoft demos augmented vision RES device Microsoft researchers have developed Reality Enhancement System (RES) software that can, in real time, superimpose computer-generated information on top of a digitized view of the real world. Smart RES software that could find in the cloud, filter and present exactly the localized data we need as we travel through the real world has long been one of our dreams here at Humods.com. Imagine, for example, going house hunting and having interior pictures and floor plans automatically overlay as you look at home exteriors, along with the asking price and fair market price based on all available market data in the cloud ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
MIT Engineers use 'nano-origami' to build tiny electronic devices
A team of researchers led by George Barbastathis, associate professor of mechanical engineering, is developing the basic principles of "nano-origami," a new technique that allows engineers to fold nanoscale materials into simple 3-D structures. The tiny folded materials could be used as motors and capacitors, potentially leading to better computer memory storage, faster microprocessors and new nanophotonic devices ... more

2/25/2009 PERMALINK
Nanowire design offers much faster, cheaper computer memory
All previous computer memories, hard drive or flash have been two dimensional. Now IBM fellow Stuart Parkin has design a far faster and more dense memory system that is three dimensional using an array of U-shaped nanowires to both store, read and write the data. The nanowire design can theoretically pack 100 times more data into the same area as a flash-memory chip, and at the same cost ... more

2/24/2009 PERMALINK
Stem cells scientists make electrically active motor neurons from iPS cells Stem cells scientists at UCLA showed for the first time that human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be differentiated into electrically active motor neurons similar in function and efficiency to those derived from human embryonic stem cells. This discovery opens the door for new treatments for neurological disorders using patient-specific cells. In other words, cells could be taken from your body and turned into the cells necessary to fix a disease or aging related neurological disorder ... more

2/24/2009 PERMALINK
How to use COG (Cloud Organization Generation) to create a cloud crowd to solve any problem too big for you to solve alone
Here is a great talk architect Cameron Sinclair gave at the 2006 TED, where he explains how he successfully used COG (Cloud Organization Generation) to spawn an open cloud crowd organization of designers and architects covering 104 countries, dedicated to finding locally constructable and affordable habitat solutions for every part of our world. Nothing could illustrate the bankruptcy of our old institutions and the need for COG solutions any better than the story he tells of how it took the UN 20 years to add a flap to the standard tent they send to disaster areas to stop their tents from getting too hot to use inside. While the new cloud crowd that he triggered into existence was able to generate many far better tent designs, raise resources, manufacturer and started deploying a tent customized to the locality and circumstances in just a matter of days. Our old institutions are far worse than merely inept. Many have a fundamental flaw in their design that causes them to often generate immoral results. As when food relief is rushed in willie nillie after a famine, such that prices for local farmers' output collapses, they are unable to plant the next year, and the cycle of famine-rescue-famine-rescue gets forever perpetuated ... watch

2/24/2009 PERMALINK
Bernanke incentivizes banks to keep lying about their problem assets Bernanke told lawmakers at a Senate Banking Committee hearing today:

The Treasury will buy convertible preferred stock as needed in the 19 largest U.S. banks after stress tests to determine how much capital is needed to address losses in a worse case scenario. The shares will be converted to common only as the extraordinary losses happen, he said.

What this does is to incentivize banks to continue to cover up their problem assets. If banks reveal the true fall in value of their assets, they will be punished by having their equity diluted as the government takes common shares. However, if they can cover these loses up effectively, then the stock bank executives and others hold will continue to have some value.

So why is the Fed giving banks an incentive to lie rather than forcing them to come clean and actually fix their problems?

The only reason I can think of is that the magnitude of the bailout necessary to fix this mess must be so huge that the Fed and Treasury are afraid to undertake it for fear doing so might collapse investor confidence in US government debt and potentially even put the value of the dollar into a downward tailspin.

2/24/2009 PERMALINK
Could a greater than human intelligence bring about a utopia? The Accelerating Future blog looks at the idea that AI cognobots or mind expanded humods might be a singularity capable of turning the Earth into a utopia.

According to Vinge's definition, the Singularity is the creation of greater than human intelligence. Vinge says this could happen in four ways: 1. The development of computers that are awake and superhumanly intelligent. (To date, most controversy in the area of AI relates to whether we can create human equivalence in a machine. But if the answer is yes, we can, then there is little doubt that beings more intelligent can be constructed shortly thereafter.) 2. Large computer networks (and their associated users) may wake up as a superhumanly intelligent entity. 3. Computer/human interfaces may become so intimate that users may reasonably be considered superhumanly intelligent. 4. Biological science may find ways to improve upon the natural human intellect ... more

Just between us, I have a time machine and went forward to check and #3 happens long before the others. If you don't believe it, check out this link: Using light to activate brain circuits with nanoparticles. Your brain tied directly into all the cloud's data with some, good semi-smart data retrieval and evaluation bots (like where Google is becoming) working for you would be an incredibly formidable cognitive construct.

2/24/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers identify molecule that lets brain rebound from sleep-deprivation
Sleep experts know that the mental clarity lost because of a few sleepless nights can often be restored with a good night's rest. Now, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a key molecular mechanism that regulates the brain's ability to mentally compensate for sleep deprivation ... more

2/24/2009 PERMALINK
Why increased regulation can't fix our broken financial system A basic economic principal dictates that setting up a government regulator board never works in favor of consumers. This is because the regulated industry will pour far more time and resources into influencing and taking control of their regulatory board than will consumers of the product or service consumed. So the regulated industry will eventually, inevitably, gain control of their regulatory board.
Take the example of state real estate boards. You only occasionally buy a house, so you as a consumer of this service, don't pay much attention to what your state real estate board does, but real estate brokers do. Rather than protecting consumers, all these boards in every state have been protecting brokers instead. They try to limit competition and drive up prices by making it ever harder to become a broker. Brokers once had to employ large clerical staffs to keep track of listings and type out long contracts one at a time on manual typewriters. Today the computer does all that for them, but have their prices come down. No, in fact, state real estate boards have consistently abused brokers that tried to lower prices, evening taking them to court and trying to lift their licenses to practice.
These boards, created to prevent a small number of cases each year where consumers were overcharged by realty agents, now run reality cartels for brokers that insure nearly every customer of this industry gets overcharged.
So should we be surprised that regulators failed to stop the abuses that collapsed the world's economy? No, it is the nature of regulation that this will always happen.
Whenever a problem like the current financial mess arises, increase regulation seems to many like the shinny, easy solution, but in the long run it will inevitably degenerate into a systemic consumer fleecing facilitator. The only real solution is the hard work of designing new more robust markets and systems that have enough built in mechanisms for promoting sufficient transparency to allow them to truly function in a free and open way.

2/23/2009 PERMALINK
Using light to activate brain circuits with nanoparticles Traditionally, stimulating nerves or brain tissue involves cumbersome wiring and a sharp metal electrode. But a unique collaboration between chemists and neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University has led to the discovery of a remarkable new way to use light to activate brain circuits with nanoparticles. By using semiconductor nanoparticles as tiny solar cells, the scientists can excite neurons in single cells or groups of cells with infrared light. This eliminates the need for the complex wiring by embedding the light-activated nanoparticles directly into the tissue. This method allows for a more controlled reaction and closely replicates the sophisticated focal patterns created by natural stimuli. Say hello to the ultimate mind/computer interface ... more

2/23/2009 PERMALINK
The big joint lie from the Treasury, FDIC, OCC, OTS and Federal Reserve A joint statement from the Treasury, FDIC, OCC, OTS and Federal Reserve issued this big lie: "Currently, the major U.S. banking institutions have capital in excess of the amounts required to be considered well capitalized." The reality is that America's banks are nothing like "well capitalize," they are essentially bankrupt.

To understand why, reduce the American banking system to one single small bank called, Rupt Bank. Rupt Bank holds exactly $1 million in assets all invested in a single house mortgage in California. The house appraised for $1.2 million when the loan was made, giving Rupt Bank a nice $200,000 cushion against a loan default. Rupt Bank got that $1 million to loan by selling $50,000 in stock to investors and then opening up an office in that strip mall near your house and getting $950,000 worth of deposits from you and your neighbors.

Unfortunately for us all, since the 1990's, both the FED under Alan Greenspan and Congress pursued policies that diverted enormous amounts of cheap capital from other investments into home ownership. This caused house prices, adjusted for inflation, which had remained fairly stable in America for over a century, to soar up to more than double the inflation adjusted norm.

When this credit bubble popped, Rupt Bank's $1,200,000 house in California fell in value to just $600,000. The owner cut out, leaving the bank to resell the house and take a loss on that sale of $400,000. With capital of only $50,000, this means that Rupt Bank lost $350,000 of their depositor's money right out of your and your neighbors' bank account.

This is exactly what has happened to thousands of banks all across America including all of America's largest banks like Citi and BOA. Each of them has lost ALL of their capital and quite a lot of their depositors' money as well.

Banks don't want you to know this and neither does the US Treasury, FDIC, OCC, OTS or Federal Reserve, and thus we are given lies. They are lying to us because in a situation of this kind a run on a bank could start at anytime and spread like wildfire to other banks, perhaps to all American banks, since nearly all are, in fact, insolvent. If a general bank run should begin, you will eventually get your dollars up to the $250,000 insured by the FDIC, but by the time you get them, they are likely to be worth much less than on the day before the bank run began.

A radical reboot of our civilization is going on, and wars for oil, a collapsing world economy, runs on banks, collapsing currencies and bankrupt governments are the sort of things you should be prepared to survive.

2/23/2009 PERMALINK
Putting a completely digital human head on Brad Pitt's body Watch Ed Ulbrich, the digital-effects guru from Digital Domain, explain how his new Oscar-winning digital technology was able to put a younger and older head on Brad Pitt's body for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Some of the technology developed could also allow bots to speak with faces that seem totally human ... watch

2/23/2009 PERMALINK
Why your hair will eventually turn gray finally discovered A team of European scientists have finally solved the mystery, our hair turns gray is caused by a massive build up of hydrogen peroxide. By examining cell cultures of human hair follicles, researchers found that the build up of hydrogen peroxide was caused by a reduction of an enzyme that breaks up hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen (catalase). They also discovered that hair follicles could not repair the damage caused by the hydrogen peroxide because of low levels of enzymes that normally serve this function (MSR A and B) and the high levels of hydrogen peroxide and low levels of MSR A and B disrupt the formation of an enzyme (tyrosinase) that leads to the production of melanin in hair follicles ... more

2/23/2009 PERMALINK
Switching on a single gene suppresses cancers in humans, mice and flies In tiny fruit fly, mice and humans, the expression of the same gene suppresses cancer and switching off that gene -- called Ato in flies and ATOH1 in mammals -- leads to cancer. Their research also shows, scientist say, that there is a good chance that the ATOH1 gene can be switched on again in those human with a switched off ATOH1 gene, making them far less prone to cancer ... more

2/23/2009 PERMALINK
Boston best bot boutique's bodacious bots Boston Dynamics, the makers of our favorite bot the amazing Big Dog, has added three new bots to its product line:


RHex


Little Dog


RiSE the also amazing wall climbing bot.

And here's the latest clip of the amazing Big Dog, destine to be the GI's best friend, out taking a load off the troops on patrol at Ft. Benning ... watch

2/23/2009 PERMALINK
Now even the Pentagon is starting to worry about all those urban warfare bots with guns
"There is a common misconception that robots will do only what we have programmed them to do," Patrick Lin, the chief compiler of a new report for the Office of Naval Research, said. "Unfortunately, such a belief is sorely outdated, harking back to a time when programs could be written and understood by a single person." Eventually, the report notes, robots could come to display significant cognitive advantages over Homo sapient soldiers ... more

2/23/2009 PERMALINK
Producing hydrogen from bio-waste without the expensive platinum catalyst Bruce Logan and his colleagues at Pennsylvania State University have used a stainless-steel cathode high-density bristle brush as the catalyst in the microbial electrolysis cell. With increased surface area, hydrogen production rates increased to values that matched or even exceeded those of an expensive platinum cathode. The new technique promises to cut the costs of converting bio-waste into hydrogen fuel with a microbial fuel cell by about 80% ... more

2/23/2009 PERMALINK
Gene test can flag bankers likely to take excessive risks with your money A study, for the first time, has linked specific variants of two genes that regulate dopamine and serotonin neurotransmission to risk-taking in financial investment decisions. Northwestern students were given real money to make a series of investments, in each trial deciding how to allocate money between a risky and a risk-free asset. People with the short serotonin transporter gene, 5-HTTLPR (two copies of the short allele), relative to those with the long version of that polymorphism (at least one copy of the long allele), invested 28 percent less in a risky investment. Similarly, people who carry the 7-repeat allele of the DRD4 gene in the dopamine family, relative to those carrying other versions of that gene, invested about 25 percent more in a risky investment ... more ... watch

2/23/2009 PERMALINK
Muscle-driven biomechanical electricity nanogenerator You have numerous sources of mechanical energy, such as muscle stretching, arm/leg swings, walking/running, heart beats, and blood flow. We demonstrate a piezoelectric nanowire based nanogenerator that converts biomechanical electric energy ... more

2/23/2009 PERMALINK
Reserchers define more lifemods for life extension Eating tuna, sardines, salmon and other so-called cold water fish, generally rich in omega-3 fatty acids, appears to protect people against clogged arteries. It has previously been shown to delay or prevent the onset of cognitive impairment and other disabilities associated with aging ... more ... more ... more

2/23/2009 PERMALINK
Making adult stem cells act like embryonic made easier Single factor can now convert adult stem cells into brain and body rejuvenating embryonic-like stem cells. Neural stem cells taken from adult mice can be give the characteristics of embryonic stem cells with the addition of a single transcription factor ... more

2/22/2009 PERMALINK
Moore's Law can continue for decades thanks to nano breakthroughs New developments in nano technology will let computer power continue to double every 18 months or so for decades to come, as two US groups announce transistors almost 1000 times smaller than those in use today, and a version of flash memory that could store all the books in the US Library of Congress in a 4 inch (10 cm) square ... more

2/22/2009 PERMALINK
Bots learning to use gestures so they can communicate better with humans
Because huumans constantly use gestures when communicating, bots must be able to learn to do so as well ... watch

2/21/2009 PERMALINK
An autonomous A.I. science-bot that does its own research A scientist bot that can make informed guesses about how effective different chemical compounds will be at fighting different diseases could revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry by developing more effective treatments more cheaply and quickly than current methods. The bot, known as Eve, uses advanced artificial intelligence combined with innovative data mining and knowledge discovery techniques to analyse the results of pharmacological experiments it conducts itself. ... more

2/21/2009 PERMALINK
Make solar cells that are as efficent as the ones plants use Researchers say they have developed a powerful new laser technique that for the first time has been able to take pictures showing how the sun's energy actually moves inside plants to drive the process of photosynthesis. Until now, quantum effects have made it difficult for scientists to explain how photosynthetic molecules are able to transport energy with such a remarkably high efficiency. Scientists can use this data to duplicate in solar power cells the most efficient solar energy capturing system on Earth ... more

2/21/2009 PERMALINK
Coordinated quantum dance discovery could revolutionize computing In addition to electrical charge, electrons possess rotational properties, which could be used to better store data. Now scientists have actually recorded swarms of electrons spinning in a synchronized quantum dance, a coordinated behavior involving a strange form of rotation. "This quantum weirdness -- a coordinated twist in the spin of electrons even though there is no magnetic field around -- is what we've been searching for by fine tuning our experiments over the last few years," said Zahid Hasan. "We believe this discovery is not only an advancement in the fundamental physics of quantum systems but also could lead to significant advances in electronics, computing and information science." ... more

2/21/2009 PERMALINK
On the road to a successful electric mobile pod design
The new Zero electric city car concept from Tazzari appears to be on the road towards what would seem an optimum design for this class of vehicles. Small and light but designed with safety in mind, offering enough room for people and groceries, sharp looks (no one wants to drive a golf cart to work), simple to charge, easily maintainable, with enough range to easily handle a day's commute plus after work errands ... watch

2/20/2009 PERMALINK
Effort seeks to turn your mobile phone into doctor in your pocket "When you consider that there are 2.2 billion mobile phones in the developing world, but only 11 million hospital beds you can instantly see how mobiles can create effective solutions to address health care challenges," said Terry Kramer, strategy director at Vodafone. The Vodafone Foundation has joined with the UN Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation to form the Mobile Health (mHealth) Alliance to help foster the development of doctor in your pocket services. What is really need to solve this problem is an open source community dedicated to building a really capable voice recognizing and synthesizing medical advice bot that anyone, anywhere could access by phone ... more

2/20/2009 PERMALINK
Humankind's ultimate quest begins
On Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida sits a Delta 2 launch vehicle being prepared for launch. Its mission is the beginning of a solemn and difficult quest we are required to undertake to insuring the salvation of humankind.

The cosmos, astronomers have learned, is a violent and dangerous place. A place that enforces a stark law of survival on every species spawned within it. The law is that a species must develop the intelligence, organization and will to move outward or face inevitable extinction.

If humans are foolish and falter. If we allow dogmas, wars or intellectual laziness to prevent us from moving quickly enough outward to colonize other worlds around other stars. Our universe will punish this failure by exacting an unthinkably horrible price. It will deny millions of future generations of our offspring the chance to ever look up at the night's sky and contemplate its majesty.

Ridding inside the belly of that Delta 2 on Pad 17-B at Canaveral is the Kepler spacecraft. Humanity's first effort to survey nearby stars for the purpose of discovering other worlds that might be suitable for human habitation. Worlds that we must discover and find a way to inhabit, if millions of generations of humanity's children unborn are ever to receive that single most precious of all gifts, existence ... more ... more

2/20/2009 PERMALINK
Restore America's economic strength by becoming the world's electric utility
The main problem with solar power is that it won't work when the sun isn't shining. But this isn't a problem if you put the solar collector up in space and beamed the power down to Earth. The sun never stops shining in space. By creating a space-based solar industry, America could solve our own energy problem, eliminate the problem of global warming, restore our economy by becoming the world's electric utility, and insure that we will never again need to send our young men and women to die to maintain the flow of oil. For less than we have spent on the Iraq war, we could turn ourselves into the world's new OPEC and live rich and free by making energy instead of war ... watch ... more

2/20/2009 PERMALINK
Solar concentrator delivers cost-effective solar power
A number of labs around the world, including one at MIT, have been looking into the possibility of revolutionizing the cost-effectiveness of solar power by using low-cost concentrators able to collect the sun's energy over a larger area and focus it onto smaller solar cells. The idea is that instead of making a one meter square solar cell, you find a cheap material that could focus all the energy from that square meter to a very thin and cheap solar cell around its edge. Now a company called Moran Solar says they have a commercial version of this promising technology ready to go ... more

2/20/2009 PERMALINK
Dark comets could put humanity at more extinction risk than asteroids
Dark comets lack the reflectivity that makes normal comets easy to spot, allowing a large one to impact earth with no warning. Our solar system periodically passes through the galactic plane, causing periodic comet showers that appear to correlate with the dates of ancient impact craters found on Earth. This suggests that most impactors in the past were not asteroids, but comets, and that many dark comets could still be zipping through Earth's orbit. The rate that bright comets enter the solar system implies there should be around 3000 dark comets buzzing around the solar system, yet only 25 have been detected. Thousands of extinction level event capable dark comets could be zipping around undetected in our neighborhood. A very good reason to stop keeping all our eggs in one basket. It is estimated that the asteroid belt has more available metals and minerals than are recoverable on Earth, since most of ours are inaccessible in the Earth's molten core. By moving out to colonize and mine the asteroid belt, we could both vastly increase the wealth and insure the survival of our species ... more ... more ... more

2/20/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough allows imaging of the position of atoms in a quantum dot A new imaging technique developed by researchers at the University of Illinois overcomes the limit of diffraction and can reveal the atomic structure of a single nanocrystal with a resolution of less than one angstrom ... more

2/19/2009 PERMALINK
New method to assemble nanoscale elements could transform data storage
An innovative and easily implemented technique in which nanoscale elements precisely assemble themselves over large surfaces could soon open doors to dramatic improvements in the data storage capacity of electronic media, according to scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst). "I expect that the new method we developed will transform the microelectronic and storage industries, and open up vistas for entirely new applications," said co-lead investigator Thomas Russell, director of the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at UMass Amherst ... more

2/19/2009 PERMALINK
Nanoscale fab can create near single-atom scale electronics University of Pittsburgh researchers have created a nanoscale versatile fab platform for creating electronics at a nearly single-atom scale. The fab can yield high-density memory devices, transistors and computer processors. "We've demonstrated that we can make important technologies that are significantly smaller than existing devices and all from the same material," said physics Professor Jeremy Levy ... more

2/19/2009 PERMALINK
Liquid water photographed on Mars
Liquid droplets were photographed on the leg of the Phoenix Mars lander on days 8, 31, and 44. Scientists have concluded that it is water that is able to remain liquid in the frigid Martian arctic due to a high concentration of perchlorate salts that act as an antifreeze ... more

2/19/2009 PERMALINK
Like race car drivers, congress members should have to wear jerseys showing their top corporate sponsors
We see a lot of breakthrough ideas here at Humods.com, it is after all what our site is all about. But none better than the suggestion of a retired California Highway Patrol officer that just like race car drivers, our politicians should be required to wear uniforms showing their sponsors. So Humods.com formerly calls for a constitutional amendment requiring all congress members to wear uniforms showing the logos of their largest corporate sponsors whenever they appear on the media. Help our democracy avoid national bankruptcy, email this poster to everyone your know ... more

2/19/2009 PERMALINK
Discovery of gene could feed millions A new gene that provides resistance to a fungal disease responsible for millions of hectares of lost wheat yield annually has been discovered by scientists from the US and Israel. "This is the first step to achieving more durable resistance to a devastating disease in wheat," said Dr Cristobal Uauy the John Innes Centre in Norwich. "This gene makes wheat more resistant to all stripe rust fungus races tested so far." ... more

2/19/2009 PERMALINK
Powerful new technique for complex nano-device assembly discovered
By manipulating the magnetization of a liquid solution, Duke University researchers have for the first time coaxed magnetic and non-magnetic materials to form intricate nano-structures. The resulting structures can be fixed, meaning they can be permanently linked together. Changing the levels of magnetization of the fluid controls how the particles are attracted to or repelled by each other. By appropriately tuning these interactions, the magnetic and non-magnetic particles form around each other much like a snowflake forms around a microscopic dust particle. This technique has the potential to make possible efficient commercialization of complex nano-device assembly ... more

2/19/2009 PERMALINK
Fixing governments by forcing them to compete for citizens
With the nation state concept of government, the level of services seems to constantly decline over time, while the level of taxation and national debt constantly rise. Waste and corruption seem endemic to nation states, whether democratic or dictatorial. We need a new design for government that promotes improvement, rather than insuring a steady decline.

If it were possible to easily move yourself and your home to another government's jurisdiction, then all governments would be forced to keep taxes low and service levels high to continue their existence. They would have to compete for citizens.

There are 4,000 oil rigs that will be abandoned in the Gulf of Mexico over the next 50 or so years as the oil is all pumped out. Morris Architects has a plan to turn these rigs into luxury hotels.

"There are approximately 4,000 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico varying in size, depth and mobility that will be decommissioned within the next century. If a deck on one of these rigs is about 20,000 square feet, then there is potentially 80 million square feet of programmable space just off the coast of the United States. The current method for rig removal is explosion, which costs millions of dollars and destroys massive amounts of aquatic life. What if these rigs were recommissioned as exclusive resort islands? Could the Gulf be America's Dubai and the rig the artificial island on which to build it? This project examines the possibilities of creating a self-sufficient, eco-friendly high-end resort experience in our own backyard -- the Gulf of Mexico."

But consider this possibility for a moment. It is possible to build apartment towers with modular apartments that can easily be detached and moved to another similar tower. What if instead of luxury hotels, those Gulf of Mexico oil rigs were turned into 4,000 competitive proprietary communities designed just like those modular Tokyo residential apartments. Imagine living in a small city state that HAD to provide you with good value for your tax money or you could simply have your habitat lowered onto a barge and floated over to another proprietary community that was willing to treat you fairly. Ending the tyranny over their citizens exercised by our ever more bloated and inefficient nation states would change the world ... more ... more

2/19/2009 PERMALINK
A bot that can print you a house out of concrete A bot that function just like an ink jet printer might come to your lot to print your next house out of concrete ... more

2/19/2009 PERMALINK
Sun-powered device converts carbon dioxide directly into fuel Powered only by natural sunlight, an array of nanotubes is able to convert a mixture of carbon dioxide and water vapor into natural gas at unprecedented rates. Such devices offer a new way to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and convert it directly into fuel or other chemicals cutting the effect of fossil fuel emissions on global climate, says Craig Grimes, from Pennsylvania State University, whose team designed and built the device ... more

2/19/2009 PERMALINK
May the best bot win Ever wonder what would happen if around a dozen autonomous bots were allowed to fight it out in a sumo ring? The Robotic Society of Southern California decided to find out ... watch

2/18/2009 PERMALINK
Scientists are reading minds with fMRI and infrared imaging techniques Researchers are using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to open a window into your mind. Researchers at Vanderbilt University report that from fMRI data alone, they could distinguish which of two images subjects were holding in their memory ... more
And University of Toronto scientists have demonstrated the ability to decode a person's preference for one of two drinks with 80 per cent accuracy by measuring the intensity of near-infrared light absorbed in brain tissue ... more

2/18/2009 PERMALINK
Is the campus obsolete - students learn better from podcast lectures than live ones New psychological research shows that university students who download a podcast of a lecture achieve substantially higher exam results than those who attend the lecture in person. Podcast lectures offer students the chance to replay difficult parts and therefore take better notes, explained Dani McKinney, a psychologist at the State University of New York and leader of the study ... more

Now consider that this study compared live vs. podcast using the same instructor. While as every student knows well, the reality is that there are only a handful of great lecturers at any university. A precious few, like the late Richard Feynman, who's legendary lectures could teach quantum mechanics to a fifth grader. While all the other lecture halls are filled with legions of mediocre to pathetically bad hacks, who may have tenure but lack any actual talent for teaching.

In the world of the cloud, campuses are nothing more than enormous, obsolete money pits. Pits that students and their parents are forced to go billions more into debt refill annually. Instead of filling brains with wondrous knowledge that makes a bright future possible. Campus-based education needlessly mortgages the output of those brains under a crushing pile of debt. It is time for something better, an open source university system.

Imagine if podcasts of all the best lecturers in the world, on every subject, were routinely posted in the cloud. Available to any student, anywhere who wants to listen to any one of them. Students could register in the cloud for any course they want, for only a nominal fee. Then listen or watch podcast lectures and get any other course materials free in the cloud. Tutors could be available for those that need a little extra help over a skype two-way vid-link. Then the student goes in to a local supervised center to take the exams.

An open source university system could do a better job than our current campus-based system for only a small fraction of the cost. It would free our kids from being saddled at the very start of their careers with the enormous loads of debt it takes to maintain our pathetically obsolete campus-based system. Parents would no longer need to see their retirement funds being consumed to pay for their kid's college expenses.

Kids win, parents win, taxpayers win, competent professors win. And even the incompetent professors can win, by grasping the simple truth, that there is far more satisfaction to be gained from a job you can actually do well, than one you will always do poorly.

2/18/2009 PERMALINK
The secret to modding your cells for a longer, healthier life could come from a mole rat
Mole rats are amazing creatures. Not only do they live ten times longer than other rodents, but they also seem to experience more healthy aging than other animals. They suffer little incidence of cancer and show few signs of bodily degeneration with age. Indeed, mole rat females can breed right up until their death. Now researchers are beginning to uncover the mole rats' secrets, which includes cells with more efficient mechanisms for getting rid of improperly folded or oxidized proteins ... more

2/18/2009 PERMALINK
Can fool's gold save the world from an energy crisis?
Today's solar cells are made from exotic and expensive materials like crystalline silicon and thin films of rare elements like cadmium and tellurium. This has the effect of preventing solar panels from ever supplying any significant amount of the world's power needs. But now researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have found that iron pyrite, commonly known as fool's gold, offers a solution. Although cells made with fool's gold are somewhat less efficient than those made with the exotic, costly minerals, their significantly lower cost and potentially unlimited supply, makes fool's gold a key to producing enough solar power to have any significant impact on supplying global energy needs ... more

2/18/2009 PERMALINK
Pentagon bugging bugs to create cyborg insects to bug the enemy (or you) DARPA, the Pentagon's dream machine that funded the research that created the internet, has recently developed a fascination with research into implanting devices into living animals' brains that turn the animals into remotely controllable cyborgs, essentially creating a living RC car or airplane model. They are funding a number of labs to work on this research. First it was ground-based bugs such as beetles and now they've gone airborne by creating moth living radio controlled cyborgs ... more

2/18/2009 PERMALINK
Scientists focus in on the genes that let you see the world around you A new study identifies specific chromosomal regions linked to auditory visual synaesthesia, a neurological condition characterized by seeing colors in response to sounds. The research is a major step towards identifying the genes that make possible your sense of sight ... more

2/18/2009 PERMALINK
NY Times notices the possibilities of a RES enabled cell phone After pushing the idea of a RES (Reality Enhancement System) -- a smart, location-aware, personal digital assistant that layers a data-rich reality model over the actual reality as you move through it -- it is great to see the mainstream press finally talking about this. The NY Times has a print and audio story by John Markoff talking about how much more useful a RES-enabled cell phones can be.

With the dominance of the cellphone, a new metaphor is emerging for how we organize, find and use information. New in one sense, that is. It is also as ancient as humanity itself. That metaphor is the map.

RES IS the killer app for mobile computing and the faster everyone realizes that, the faster the future will happen. Click the labels link below to learn more about why ... more (reg req)

2/18/2009 PERMALINK
Convert any RC aerial model into a autonomous bot
Geek dad and Wired's The Long Tail blogger Chris Anderson developed for his 11 year old son and has now released for sale a $25 device that turns any radio controlled (RC) model into an autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) bot. The ArduPilot is compatible with Arduino, an inexpensive and easily programmed general-purpose open-source computing platform ... more

2/18/2009 PERMALINK
Hacking the Earth ~ geoengineering
What do we do if our best efforts to limit the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere fall short? According to a growing number of environmental scientists, we may be forced to try an experiment in global climate management: geoengineering. Geoengineering would be risky, likely to provoke international tension, and certain to have unexpected consequences. It may also be inevitable. Environmental futurist Jamais Cascio explores the implications of geoengineering in this collection of essays. Is our civilization ready to take on the task of re-engineering the planet? ... more

2/18/2009 PERMALINK
Thankfully, most are not yet autonomous, but military bots are now often heavily armed
MAARS TM (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System) introduces a new modular design to its popular family of TALON and SWORDS remotely operated bots for military and first responders. MAARS uses the more powerful M240B medium machine gun and has significant improvements in command and control, situational awareness, maneuverability, mobility, lethality and safety compared to its SWORDS predecessor. ... watch ... more

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
Watch as Rad51 protein actually repairs a DNA strand
A key phase in the repair process of damaged human DNA has been observed and visually recorded by a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis. Watch as a filament composed of a fluorescently-labeled DNA molecule and the repair protein Rad51 grows progressively brighter and longer as more and more Rad51 molecules assemble onto the DNA. ... watch ... more

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
Robot playmates monitor emotional state of children with autism The average cost of caring for one person with autism for life is $3.2 million. In total, autism currently costs the U.S. more than $90 billion per year, and that cost is projected to double by 2017 due to the growing population of those affected. Autistic kids respond well to robots and a new system that allows a robot to monitor a child's emotional state, could allow robots to assume much of this work load and reduce costs .... more

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
Bots and Mods are the way to reboot the world's failing economy "If we don't start paying attention to the deficit, we are going to lose the dollar and start to look like Iceland," warned Juan Enriquez at the TED conference. But Enriquez promises that even though all our too-big-to-fail mega-banks appear to be collapsing around our ears, there is a way to do a big reboot on our economy. A vibrant economic future will NOT come from anything done in government offices in Washington or on New York's financial exchanges. It will come from research in science labs going on today on bots and mods. Our kids are going to be humods ... watch

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
Lab cultrued brain stem cells can be used to repair brain Scientists have succeeded in modding embryonic stem cells into stable neural stem cell lines that can be cultured in unlimited quantities and returned to the brain to treat neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's. "This is the first direct evidence that neural cells derived from human stem cells are capable of synaptic integration in the brain", declares Dr. Philipp Koch ... more

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
Is the BugEV the Model T of 21st century mobile pods?
The designer calls this electric bike kit, an electric Model T for the 21st century. And indeed it does appear to provide reasonably priced, basic transportation, which is both function and very easy to work on yourself. And those are exactly the traits that caused the Model T to revolutionize the horseless carriage market. Could this little electric bike, rather than those fancy but tremendously costly vehicles like the Tesla and the Volt, be the true model for the electric city vehicles of tomorrow? As we watch the world's economy sinking at an unprecedented pace and see many traditional auto companies facing bankruptcy, I wonder if that might not just turn out to be the case ... watch ... more

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
Evolving MEAN bots (Modular Evolutionary Artificial Neural Networks)
Artificial intelligence engineer Christopher MacLeod colleagues at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, UK, are building bots with the ability to adapt to changes in their environment using code that enables them to mimic the process of biological evolution. "If we want to make really complex humanoid robots with ever more sensors and more complex behaviors, it is critical that they are able to grow in complexity over time," says MacLeod ... more

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
Military working on powerful RES (Reality Enhancement System)
A company called MNB Technologies is working on a powerful RES (Reality Enhancement System) for the military. The display is a great looking pair of glasses that lets the user see reality with a location aware information overlay from a wearable super computer. A true RES would always provide you with location specific, filtered and highly useful data. It would also have powerful object and face recognition code tied into multiple cloud databases, allowing you to identify and obtain relevant data on anything or anyone you observe. One day, everyone will wear a RES and MNB has taken one of the most impressive steps towards our RES future ... more

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
Stem cells used to reverse paralysis in animals A new study has found that transplantation of stem cells from the lining of the spinal cord, called ependymal stem cells, reverses paralysis associated with spinal cord injuries in laboratory tests. The results open a new window on spinal cord regenerative strategies ... more

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
With enough orexin in the brain -- eat hearty while staying thin Mice with increased levels of a natural brain chemical don't gain weight when fed a high-fat diet, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. The chemical, orexin, works by increasing the body's sensitivity to the weight-loss hormone, leptin, the researchers report ... more

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
Lab creates circuits & logic gates made of living nerves Scientists have hooked brains to computers with metal electrodes to measure what goes on inside but metal electrodes aren't well accepted long term. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science are seeking to create a better brain/computer interface based on nerve cells grown for that purpose. Towards this end, Prof. Elisha Moses and colleagues have now created circuits and logic gates made of live nerves grown in the lab ... more

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
Teaching a bot how to learn to use tools
Image shows assistant professor Alexander Stoytchev and graduate student Jivko Sinapov working to develop software so a robot can learn to use tools. One example of such learning is maneuvering a hockey stick around a puck ... more

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough nano-fabbing technique molds like plastic but stronger than steel
Yale engineers have created a process that may revolutionize the manufacture of nano-devices from computer memory to biomedical sensors by exploiting a novel type of metal. The material can be molded like plastics to create features at the nano-scale and yet is more durable and stronger than silicon or steel. All of the variety of nano devices shown were fabbed using the new technique ... more

2/17/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough nano-fabbing technique molds like plastic but stronger than steel
Yale engineers have created a process that may revolutionize the manufacture of nano-devices from computer memory to biomedical sensors by exploiting a novel type of metal. The material can be molded like plastics to create features at the nano-scale and yet is more durable and stronger than silicon or steel. All of the variety of nano devices shown were fabbed using the new technique ... more

2/16/2009 PERMALINK
Bots deployed on the side of antibiotics in their never-ending arms race with germs A research team has brought powerful software to the never-ending arms race between antibiotics and germs. Working together, computer scientists and biochemists have developed and laboratory-tested a computer program that can show experimentalists how to change the machinery that bacteria use to make natural antibiotics. "It really excites us that we can redesign enzymes on a computer, make them in the laboratory and have them work as planned," said Duke Professor Bruce Donald ... more

2/16/2009 PERMALINK
Is the currency that Europe built, about to wilt, as predicted by Milt? Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman famously predicted that the Euro would not last past their first economic crisis. Well, that crisis has now arrived, in spades, and it is starting to look a lot like Milt was right. Euro-zone banks are sitting on around $5 trillion in loans to failed companies and countries that appear almost certain now to wind up in default. These include not only USA sub-prime mortgage(defaulted)-backed securities, but also trillions sent to the now serious troubled and fast sinking economies of eastern Europe. As well as to other places with economies also now sinking like stones, such as Latin America, Africa and Asia. If a honest accounting were made of America's largest banks -- the gov is doing one for the top 18 but will keep it secret -- banks have probably lost all their capital plus perhaps as much as 20% of their depositors' money. This may sound bad, but next to the probable losses coming at Europe's banks, America's could start to seem solid. If America's banks are toast, Europe's are more like post nuclear explosion fused-glass cinders ... more

2/16/2009 PERMALINK
Boosting its infectivity turns benign virus into good gene therapy carrier for curing cystic fibrosis Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Iowa have turned a relatively benign virus into a highly infectious form that is ideal as a carrier for gene therapy. In its first gene therapy test, it completely cured human cystic fibrosis lung tissue in culture ... more

2/16/2009 PERMALINK
Look out viruses, humans now know all your defensive moves
High-energy X-ray diffraction has been used to image the exact structure of the five million atoms that make up the protective protein coat used by hundreds of different viruses. "Because many viruses use this type of capsid, understanding how it forms could lead to new approaches for antiviral therapies," said lead researcher Jane Tao, assistant professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice University. "It could also aid researchers who are trying to create designer viruses and other tools that can deliver therapeutic genes into cells." ... more

2/16/2009 PERMALINK
A confederacy of cons and marks A sure sign that the social order of a nation is unraveling is when citizens start allowing their politicos to con them out of their rights, incomes and property with dire warning that if you don't give us this money or power immediately, civilization as we know it will end -- no time to think about it careful -- it is do or die.
Look at what just happened. The old gang of confidence tricksters conned Americans into handing over the better part of a trillion dollars to URGENTLY buy up toxic assets to save our financial system from collapse. Then promptly spent our money on something entirely different than the thing we were told MUST be done IMMEDIATELY to save us all. Next, just a few months later, another gang of tricksters conned us out of the better part of yet another trillion dollars, using exactly the same now or catastrophe no time to think ploy. You really have to wonder if a nation full of people clueless enough to fall for two almost identical trillion dollar scams only a few months apart has much of a future. Maybe making governments much smaller and forcing them to compete for citizens is the only answer ... more ... more

2/16/2009 PERMALINK
LEDs + great designer + legos = awesome lights
Not only can the bulbs last 10 times longer and the electric bill be 80% less, but in the hands of a talented designer, LEDs can also be way cooler (in both meanings of that word) ... more (and while you are at the Design blog, check out the chess board design, absolutely silly, but fun)

2/16/2009 PERMALINK
The body's bad boy that causes it to break down with age
Evidence is fast accumulating that malfunctioning mitochondria could be responsible for many, if not most, of the degenerative diseases associated with aging. Diseases like Parkinson's, diabetes, Alzheimer's, most forms of heart disease, and even disease like obesity and cancer ... more

2/16/2009 PERMALINK
Daemon - a tecnho thriller that takes a realistic look at how bots in the cloud might be used to bring down civilization
What with hulu, netflix, all the audio fiction and other available diversions out in the cloud these days, my use of the public library as a source of entertainment has dropped to almost zero. With all of the library's utility as a research tool having long ago evaporated into the cloud, most of my library visits lately aren't visits at all. Just quick stops in their parking lot to check my feeds, email and perhaps do a post or two over their wifi. But purely out of nostalgia last week I went inside and spotted something there that the cloud had not yet told me the signifcance of. On the new books shelf was an novel called Daemon by Daniel Suarez, which speculates in a fairly realistic way, on just what could happen if someone turned lose a destructive AI into the cloud. No far out and unreal notion in this novel, like the one in Snowcrash of a cloud-spread mind virus. Nope, the enemy in Daemon is much more really than that. It is a very limited AI derived from a very good one developed to control all the enemies in a video game. This is an enemy that you can well imagine a clever coder actually being able to cook up tomorrow, which for me anyway, made this book far more interesting, exciting and disturbing than that previous look at how the cloud might one day byte the hand that feeds it ... more

2/16/2009 PERMALINK
Rules and regulations are the weapons in our society's war on wisdom Rules supplant thinking, rules preclude innovation, dogmas are death. Barry Schwartz explains in this TED talk how too many rules are destroying our civilization by putting an end to wisdom ... watch ... see also Memes for the Humods Era

2/15/2009 PERMALINK
Artificial Intelligence tests human brain response Queen Mary, University of London scientists have, for the first time, created a computer artificial intelligence designed to test human brain response. The AI is a genetic algorithm that breeds a range of visual stimuli for the testing of people's brain performance ... more

2/15/2009 PERMALINK
Nanogenerators produce electricity from running or tapping fingers
Nanogenerators could soon power our wearware and implants. "Using nanotechnology, we have demonstrated ways to convert even irregular biomechanical energy into electricity," said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regent's professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. "This technology can convert any mechanical disturbance into electrical energy." Image shows a hamster wearing a tiny jacket containing nanogenerators ... more

2/15/2009 PERMALINK
Defending against the new Mumbai model for terror attacks Experts say we should look for many more terror attacks patterned after the recent attacks in Mumbai and Kabul. These swarm attacks employ small groups of men coordinating multiple fast moving urban attacks at numerous locations throughout a city, with teams moving on rapidly before any effective response can be mounted. Encouraging firearms-trained citizens to always go armed, like the Israelis have done, is probably the only way to successfully defend against swarm attacks.

2/15/2009 PERMALINK
Smart sensor bot lets a surveillance drone follow you through a city Scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology are designing a new kind of optical sensor bot able to fly in unmanned air vehicles, or surveillance drones, automatically tracking suspects on foot or traveling in vehicles identified as a threat ... more

2/15/2009 PERMALINK
I want to hi-RES my life with a Reality Enhancement System I'm in a strange place, my RES knows where I am and all the foods I like to eat for lunch. As lunch time approaches it looks around the web and finds some deals at nearby restaurants on the foods I like and pops a little notice onto my RES screen, which now, thanks to MIT I can make appear at will on any surface or even on the empty palm of my hand ... watch ... more

2/15/2009 PERMALINK
Chemists create two-armed nanobot able to assemble DNA devices Chemists at New York University and China's Nanjing University have developed a two-armed nanorobotic device that can manipulate molecules within a device built from DNA. "The aim of nanotechnology is to put specific atomic and molecular species where we want them and when we want them there," said NYU Chemistry Professor Nadrian Seeman. "This is a programmable unit that allows researchers to capture and maneuver patterns on a scale that is unprecedented." ... more

2/15/2009 PERMALINK
Easy to install, cheap home wind power The Jellyfish Wind Appliance is a small 36-inch tall vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) with a solid-state controller and a variable-speed induction generator that plugs directly into an existing wall socket and automatically generates power whenever the wind blows. The Jellyfish can generate up to 40 kWh per month in moderate winds enough to light an average home using energy efficient light bulbs ... watch ... more

2/15/2009 PERMALINK
Molecular machines drive plasmonic nanoswitches Plasmonics, a possible replacement for current computing approaches, may pave the way for a new generation of computers that operate faster and store more information than electronically-based systems and are smaller than optically-based systems, according to a Penn State engineer who has developed a plasmonic switch ... more

2/15/2009 PERMALINK
Which is the more cooperative & social - women or men? Women have traditionally been viewed as being more social and cooperative than men. However, new research reveals that males are more tolerant than females of unrelated same-sex individuals ... more

2/14/2009 PERMALINK
Does becoming a super power dooms a nation to inevitable collapse? I think America has made two critical mistakes, that if not reversed, will eventually destroy our democracy: 1. The switch from gold backed money to fiat currency, which erodes the fiscal sanity of politicians and the public alike, and 2. Trying to police the entire world like an empire, which will corrupt any democracy. Leaders and soldiers taught to torture foreigners, will eventually wind up torturing their own citizens. This has happened often in history from the Greek and Roman empires right up into our own times. Dmitry Orlov gave a recent talk on the dangers of empire to democracy that is worth reading.

It seems that I am enjoying my moment in the limelight, because I am one of the very few people who several years ago unequivocally predicted the demise of the United States as a global superpower. I started to see Soviet/American Superpowerdom as a sort of disease that strives for world dominance but in effect eviscerates its host country, eventually leaving behind an empty shell: an impoverished population, an economy in ruins, a legacy of social problems, and a tremendous burden of debt ... more

2/14/2009 PERMALINK
Collapsing world economy now biggest national security threat The old system's unraveling continues with worldwide job loses approach 50 million and the new United States director of national intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, informing Congress that instability caused by the global economic crisis has eclipsed terrorism as the nation's number one national security threat.

2/14/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers create primative artificial cells
The images show a primitive artificial cell created with lipid membrane and two large molecules. Top images are when cells form. The bottom images are after fluid is removed via osmotic stress. "We are taking a materials chemistry approach in developing simple experimental models for cytoplasm organization," said Christine Keating, associate professor of chemistry ... more

2/14/2009 PERMALINK
India is improving the design of fast breeder reactors Breeder reactor are the only kind of electric generation plant that can actual produce more fuel than they consume. Worries over nuclear proliferation have limited their use in the west, but India is going strong. In the west, we just keep building more carbon spewing fossil fuel power plants instead. Yes, some rouge group will doubtless blow up a city one day with a nuke, but if we don't stop putting carbon into the atmosphere at the current rate, all the world's coastal cities and towns will wind up under 100 meters of water. There is no such thing as risk free, everything is a trade off ... more

2/14/2009 PERMALINK
Iowa student engineers develop hand-held water sanitizer for a thirsty world Nearly one billion people, according to UNICEF, lack clean water on a daily basis, so 15 student engineers at the University of Iowa rolled up their sleeves and designed a $5 hand-held device to solve this problem. The old obsolete economic system incentivizes the best and the brightest to go off to Wall Street and wreck the world's financial system by building in opaqueness to let certain people prosper at the expense of others and removing all redundancy. In the Humods Era, that won't be profitable anymore, and the best and the brightest will tend to take on open source projects to solve problems like this one ... more

2/14/2009 PERMALINK
Tweaking cellular molecules to self assemble and eliminate neural disease By tailoring peptide amphiphiles, small synthetic molecules developed at Northwestern University, and combining them with other molecules, Northwestern researchers can make a wide variety of structures that may provide new treatments for medical issues including spinal cord injuries, diabetes and Parkinson's disease ... more

2/14/2009 PERMALINK
Spotless mind drug propranolol erases fearful part of bad memories "Anytime you can reduce the emotional component of a memory while leaving the other content intact is very exciting," says Seth Norrholm, a neuroscientist at Emory University, in Atlanta, who was not involved in the research. "We want patients to understand what triggers their fear without feeling the anxiety." ... more

2/14/2009 PERMALINK
The slow motion train wreck of the old order continues to unfold Taiwan's exports plunged 42.9 percent last month from a year ago, the steepest plunge in Asia. Globalization is a fundamentally flawed concept that seek to put all of the world's eggs in one basket, eliminating the level of redundancy that is absolutely essential to a stable system.

2/14/2009 PERMALINK
The inevitable, politicos promise no protectism, then put it in place Even as European heads of state pledge to avoid protectionism, French President Sarkozy tries to shift unemployment elsewhere in Europe by agreeing to supply low-interest loans of 3 billion euros each to PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault in exchange for promises not to lay off any French workers. (source NY Times) A perfect example of how the basic structure of our old failing institutions makes effective action impossible.

2/13/2009 PERMALINK
In a shocking & absorbing development - MIT students invent pot hole power
A team of MIT undergraduate students has invented a shock absorber that harnesses energy from small bumps in the road, generating electricity while it smooths the ride more effectively than conventional shocks. Turning the old obsolete and failing infrastructure into energy - how ingenious ... more

2/06/2009 PERMALINK
Chemical allows more stem cells to be grown
Scientists at the Universities of Bath and Leeds have discovered a chemical that stops stem cells from turning into other cell types, allowing researchers to use these cells to develop new medical treatments more easily. "We've identified a chemical that will put this process on hold for several weeks so that we can grow large numbers of them in their unspecialized state," said Professor Melanie Welham, who led the research. "This is reversible, so when you take it away from the cells, they still have the ability to change into specialized cells." ... more

2/06/2009 PERMALINK
Researchers make progress on designing bots for the home
Because of Japan's rapidly aging population and the unavailability of human maid service due to serious labor shortages, Japanese researchers are very interested in developing bots that are capable of performing basic household chores for those needing assistance with these tasks. Designing bots that are smart enough to be capable of working in the unstructured environment of a home is an extremely challenging design task, but progress is slowly being made at University of Tokyo's JSK Lab ... watch ... more

2/05/2009 PERMALINK
Breakthrough brings quantum dot computing closer
Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have recently demonstrated the ability to control the spin population of the individual quantum shell states of self-assembled indium arsenide quantum dots (QDs). These results are significant in the understanding of QD behavior and scientists' ability to utilize QDs in active devices or for information processing. Semiconductor QDs are nanoscale circular disks of one semiconducting material, typically 3 nm high by 30 nm in diameter, embedded within layers of a second material.

2/05/2009 PERMALINK
Record encrypted data today, decode with quantum computer in 5 years The RSA cryptographic system used today to transmit secure information such as bank and online transactions could be easily broken by quantum computers. "You don't want this information to remain secure for just 5 or 10 years until quantum computers are built," says Prof. Regev, who is developing a new encryption system able to defeat quantum hackers. "You want it to be safe for the next century. We need to develop alternatives to RSA now, before it's too late." ... more

2/05/2009 PERMALINK
Gene therapy successfully fixes a defective gene Researchers have reported the first clinical evidence that gene therapy, implanting a normal gene to compensate for a defective gene in the patient, reduces symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, an important milestone for this breakthrough technique. "This study helps extend gene therapy research to nongenetic, nonlethal diseases," explains principal investigator Christopher Evans, PhD, Director of the Center for Advanced Orthopaedic Studies at BIDMC. ... more

2/05/2009 PERMALINK
Powerful new technique to measure asteroids' sizes & shapes
The future of humankind lies in the asteroid belt. Because most of Earth's valuable minerals are inaccessible in our planet's core, more valuable minerals are recoverable in the asteroid belt than on Earth. It is a vast treasure of wealth waiting to power the human colonization of our Galaxy. Now in a step towards humanity's greatest adventure, a team of French and Italian astronomers have devised a new method for measuring the size and shape of asteroids that are too small or too far away for traditional techniques, increasing the number of asteroids that can be measured by a factor of several hundred. This method takes advantage of the unique capabilities of ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) ... more