Selected by tristanhambling

• 
  PHYSORG

• Drug benefit expanded to 1 million more seniors

  8 Jan 2010 | 2:40 am

  (AP) -- In case the prospect of nearly $4,000 in prescription assistance isn't enough to perk up low-income seniors, the government is using '60s singer Chubby Checker to publicize "the twist" in the Medicare drug program.

• New smog rule could be a surprise to some counties

  8 Jan 2010 | 2:30 am

  (AP) -- Parts of the country that haven't worried about air pollution may soon be in the fight California has faced for decades: cleaning up smog.

• White House answers some questions on video chat

  8 Jan 2010 | 2:20 am

  (AP) -- The White House wanted to make sure the public asked their questions, too - at least the online public.

• Turner bid for Yellowstone bison draws protest

  8 Jan 2010 | 2:10 am

  (AP) -- Ted Turner's bid to get 74 wild bison from Yellowstone National Park is drawing stiff opposition from those who say the animals are being given up for private profit instead of conservation.

• Japanese scientists invent printable lithium battery

  8 Jan 2010 | 2:09 am

  (PhysOrg.com) -- A group of scientists in Japan have invented a lithium polymer battery that can be manufactured using only printing technologies.

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  KURZWEILAI.NET ACCELERATING INTELLIGENCE

• Scientists say dolphins should be treated as non-human persons

  6 Jan 2010 | 11:54 pm

  Scientists studying dolphin behavior have suggested they could be the most intelligent creatures on Earth after humans, saying the size of their brains in relation to body size is larger than that of our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, and their behaviors suggest complex intelligence. One scientist said they should therefore be treated as "non-human persons" and granted rights as individuals. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news181981904.html)

• Neuroengineers silence brain cells with multiple colors of light

  6 Jan 2010 | 11:49 pm

  MIT neuroscientists have developed a way to turn off abnormally active brain cells using multiple colors of light. This research could prove useful for managing disorders including chronic pain, epilepsy, brain injury and Parkinson's disease. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news182004562.html)

• UMass Amherst Researchers Develop New Microscope So Powerful It Sees Individual Molecules

  6 Jan 2010 | 11:46 pm

  A University of Massachusetts Amherst physicist is building a new microscope that allows scientists to see molecules 100 times smaller than are visible using traditional light microscopy. Using a technique called Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM), it excites only one fluorescently tagged molecule at a time, using small amounts of purple light, which allows each protein to be seen individually. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news182017431.html)

• Cell phone exposure may protect against and reverse Alzheimer's disease

  6 Jan 2010 | 11:37 pm

  Long-term exposure to cell phones signals may protect against, and even reverse, Alzheimer's disease in mice by erasing brain deposits of the harmful protein beta-amyloid, in addition to preventing the protein's build-up in younger Alzheimer's mice, a study led by University of South Florida researchers found. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news182024240.html)

• Get ready for China's domination of science

  6 Jan 2010 | 10:32 pm

  China has become the world's second-largest producer of scientific knowledge, surpassed only by the US. China's gross expenditure on R&D grew at an annual rate of 18 per cent between 1995 and 2006. If it continues on its current trajectory, China will overtake the US before 2020. China's student population has reportedly reached 25 million, up from just 5 million nine years ago, with 700 higher-education institutions. In 1998, China's research output was around 20,000 articles per year. In 2009, it exceeded 120,000 articles, second only to the US's 350,000. China produces 10 per cent of the…

• 
  Next Big Future

• Electronic Liquid Crystal States Discovery hint at common mechanism for high-temperature superconductivity in two families

  noreply@blogger.com (bw)

  7 Jan 2010 | 3:56 pm

  Schematic drawing of the surface reconstruction in Ca(CoxFe1-x)2As2. The circles indicate the As position, the gray lines indicate the surface reconstruction lines seen in the topographic images. For better visibility, we don't include possible surface dimerization (31) in this drawing. The black rectangle marks the orthorhombic unit cell with lattice parameters as reported by Ref. 32. The inset illustrates how the angle of the surface reconstruction changes relative to the Fe-Fe lattice from the tetragonal (right) to the orthorhombic phase (left). From Ref. 32, we calculate an angle of…

• Skiff E-Reader and Amazon Kindle DX

  noreply@blogger.com (bw)

  7 Jan 2010 | 3:28 pm

  The Skiff Reader, the first e-reader to integrate the upcoming Skiff Service, is a state-of-the-art device that is simple and easy-to-use. It features the largest and highest-resolution electronic-paper display yet unveiled in a consumer device, at 11.5" in size (measured diagonally) and a resolution of 1200 x 1600 pixels (UXGA). Skiff has signed a multi-year agreement with Sprint (NYSE:S) to provide 3G connectivity for Skiff’s dedicated e-reading devices in the United States. Plans are underway to have the Skiff Reader available for purchase later this year in more than 1,000 Sprint retail…

• Matrix Movie Agent Smith Was 8% Right that Humans Are a Virus

  noreply@blogger.com (bw)

  7 Jan 2010 | 3:03 pm

  Matrix movie quote: Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human…

• After 20 days of Release Avatar is the Number 2 Worldwide Box Office Movie

  noreply@blogger.com (bw)

  7 Jan 2010 | 2:32 pm

  After 20 days of release. Avatar is the 2nd highest worldwide box office movie (non-inflation adjusted)I have predicted Avatar will be the number one worldwide box office movie. Somewhat risky prediction. Counting on more "legs" in the foreign markets. Move up from the current 67% foreign to 72% or so. Avatar needs $550+ million domestic and $1.3+ billion foreign. I am thinking $580 million domestic (with some Oscar boost later this year and not counting likely re-releases). An exceptionally strong and long Imax run could help push it to $650-700 million domestic. Foreign box office of…

• IEEE Spectrum Selects Technology Winner and Losers Again

  noreply@blogger.com (bw)

  7 Jan 2010 | 1:02 pm

  IEEE Spectrum is selecting technology winners and losers againSpectrum predicted winners* Google’s Chrome operating system * Pixel Qi’s dual-mode screen provides both e-paper readability and full-color video. * Intrinsity's hot-rodded processor gives cellphones PC smarts.* IBM helps Russian Railways reinvent the railroad’s data infrastructure. * NanoGaN’s gallium nitride substrates will help manufacturers make better lasers. Spectrum predicted losers* D-Wave Systems’ quantum computers won’t outperform ordinary ones. (I disagree)* NanoUV’s extreme ultraviolet light source is…

• 
  Broader Perspective

• Top 10 technology trends for 2010

  3 Jan 2010 | 10:01 am

  Some of the freshest ideas in 2009 were botnet futures (Daemon, Daniel Suarez), a variety of neuro scanning applications (The Neuro Revolution, Zack Lynch), a systems approach to Earth (Whole Earth Discipline, Stewart Brand), accelerating economic development through charter cities (Charter Cities, Paul Romer), automatic markets for fungible resource allocation (Broader Perspective, Melanie Swan), and the notion that the next-generation of technology needed to solve intractable problems could be non-human understandable and come from sampling the computational universe of all possible…

• Advances in robotics

  27 Dec 2009 | 10:51 am

  Robotics can be defined as the integration of sensors, computation, and machine systems to manipulate matter. Some of the most important current applications are in military use, factory automation, telepresence, entertainment, and human interaction. Some contemporary trends include bipedal robots, autonomous robotics, and swarm computing. Walking, instead of navigating around on wheeled or multi-legged bases, could open up a variety of new applications for robotics. Similarly, autonomous robotics could handle tasks at a higher level of abstraction with less of a control burden. Swarm…

• Engineering life into technology

  20 Dec 2009 | 10:39 am

  Information optimization, presently known as intelligence, is a centerpiece phenomenon in the universe. It arises from simplicity, then continuously breaks symmetry and cycles through instability on its progression to increasingly dense nodes of complexity and diversity.A contemporary imbalance has arisen that exponentially growing technology is potentially poised to be a sole successor to human intelligence. A complex dynamical system is emerging in response, the engineering of life into technology. Numerous macroscopic and microscopic elements are under development which could together…

• Progress in Aging: Secretome, mRNA and Nutrients

  13 Dec 2009 | 10:45 am

  The U.S. National Institute on Aging held a Systems Biology of Human Aging conference in Baltimore, MD on December 8-9, 2009. Several interesting topics were considered including the complexities of modeling the process of aging, the role of RNA in gene regulation, neurodegenerative disease and vascular compromise, and gene expression and signaling networks.Aging: break-down in signaling networksAging is a systems biology problem where signaling networks break down. As part of the signaling break down, senescent cells secrete inflammatory proteins which together can be thought of as the…

• Digital personas

  6 Dec 2009 | 2:02 pm

  There are more machines than humans on the internet, and more machine-to-machine traffic than human-to-human traffic despite the trillions of text messages sent every year. Perhaps the most interesting category of messaging is machine-to-human. There are many mundane examples of this such as RSS feeds, automated email notifications and status updates from entities (groups, companies and other organizations). Coming innovations in machine-human communication could be quite fun and life-enhancing. There are already fan-run Twitter accounts, FaceBook parodies and other interaction sites for…

• 
  Sentient Developments

• Five simple reasons why the Copenhagen Climate Conference failed

  George

  7 Jan 2010 | 5:55 pm

  I'm still reeling from the rather anticlimactic finish to the recent Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen. Like so many others, I was hoping for an internationally binding deal that would, at the very least, compel and motivate the nations of the world to address the climate crisis in a meaningful and precedent setting way.But it was not to be. The immediate reasons for the conference's failure are complex and laden with the political and economic realities of our time (e.g. settling on exact targets and incentives). But these reasons are part of a deeper malaise that is currently…

• On Singer and radical life extension

  Russell Blackford

  26 Dec 2009 | 4:56 pm

  Russell Blackford is a guest blogger for Sentient Developments.IntroductionThe current (December 2009) issue of The Journal of Medical Ethics contains my paper: "Moral pluralism versus the total view: why Singer is wrong about radical life extension." There, I critique an early 1990s paper by Peter Singer, which argues that we should not proceed to develop a hypothetical life-extension drug, based on a scenario where developing the drug would fail to achieve the greatest sum of universal happiness over time. I respond that this is the wrong test. If we ask, more simply, which policy would be…

• After proud knowledge

  Russell Blackford

  25 Dec 2009 | 7:51 pm

  Russell Blackford is a guest blogger for Sentient Developments. This post is cross-posted at Sentient Developments and Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.I'm currently reading a book that has been sitting on my shelves, unbroached as far as I can recall, for too many years: The Proud Knowledge: Poetry, Insight and the Self, 1620-1920, by John Holloway (London: Routledge, 1977).The Proud Knowledge has certain annoying features. One is a generally disdainful or arrogant attitude on the part of the author. He dismisses Robert Southey's then-enormously popular but now-almost-unread narrative…

• Avatar: The good, the bad and ugly

  George

  22 Dec 2009 | 4:50 pm

  Great science fiction films are few and far between, so it was with great anticipation that I went to see Avatar on opening night.I had been looking forward to this film since 2006 when James Cameron began working on the script. My expectations were significantly heightened after learning that Cameron, the director of Aliens, the first two Terminator movies and Titantic, was drawing inspiration from Japan -- namely through such directors as Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) and Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away).I was particularly interested to see if Cameron could pull of the…

• Link dump: 2009.12.15

  George

  15 Dec 2009 | 10:52 am

  From the four corners of the web:When robots have feelings their rights will need protection, too | Peter Singer and Agata Sagan If, as seems likely, we develop super-intelligent machines, their rights will need protection, too"The Most Important Number in the World" | Ronald Bailey "The most important number in the world," Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldive Islands, told an audience of hundreds of climate activists in downtown Copenhagen, "is 350." Why 350? That's the threshold for parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that will cause…

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  Accelerating Future

• Radioisotopic Food Nanobots: Freitas Response

  Michael Anissimov

  8 Jan 2010 | 1:17 am

  I recently wrote to Rob Freitas about his radioisotope-powered food nanorobot idea that, if it works, could allow people to eat at severely reduced levels for as long as a century or more. As far as I can tell, food would still be needed due to cell loss from shedding skin cells and the like, but this would likely be relatively little. As Roko pointed out, the gadolinium-powered nanobots could reconstitute ATP from waste products like urea. The gadolinium would just provide the energy for running the chemical reactions needed to produce fresh ATP. Here is the email I wrote to Rob Freitas: Hi…

• Nuclear Threat Initiative 2009 Accomplishments

  Michael Anissimov

  8 Jan 2010 | 12:56 am

  Here is the link. 2009 was a good year for nuclear threat mitigation due to the direct support of President Obama. Before, Bush was paying lip service to containing the nuclear threat but wasn’t really doing anything about it. Here’s a piece of news worth repeating: Early next year, NTI will release “Nuclear Tipping Point,” a documentary film featuring former Secretaries Shultz, Kissinger, and Perry and Senator Nunn as they share the personal experiences that led them to create the Nuclear Security Project. Introduced by General Colin Powell, the film is narrated by actor…

• Aubrey de Grey: The Role of Mitochondria DNA in Aging

  Michael Anissimov

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:07 pm

  H/t to Michael Graham Richard for the link.

• Existential Risk Reduction Career Network

  Michael Anissimov

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:45 pm

  I just found this by Googling “existential risk”, but I’ve heard of this project for a little while already… Existential Risk Reduction Career Network Here is the text on the front page: This is a career network for those interested in reducing existential risks, an existential risk being one of several events and trends that would destroy or permanently handicap all of humanity. A number of such dangerous possibilities have been with us throughout our history, primarily those of exceptionally powerful natural disasters. Obviously, no such disaster has yet occurred,…

• Jürgen Schmidhuber Interview Online at h+ Magazine

  Michael Anissimov

  6 Jan 2010 | 2:46 pm

  Prof. Jürgen Schmidhuber. Photo credit: idsia.ch My wide-ranging interview with Dr. Jürgen Schmidhuber, co-director of the Swiss AI lab IDSIA in Lugano and a professor of Cognitive Robotics at the Tech University Munich, is now online at hplusmagazine.com: “Build an Optimal Scientist, Then Retire”. Here is the video of Schmidhuber’s lively and informative talk at the Singularity Summit 2009: Jürgen Schmidhuber at Singularity Summit 2009 - Compression Progress: The Algorithmic Principle Behind Curiosity and Creativity from Michael Anissimov on Vimeo.

• 
  Open the Future

• New Fast Company: Innovation as Resource

  Jamais Cascio

  6 Jan 2010 | 1:27 pm

  I'm back to blogging at Fast Company, and my latest piece is now up: Innovation as Resource and China's New Magnetism. The U.K.'s Independent reports that China has been gradually cutting the amount of rare-earth elements it exports, now down 40% from seven years ago. China now exports only 25% of the rare-earth elements it mines. [...] So what are our options? We (as in, the non-China parts of the industrialized world) could try to pressure China to sell more, but that's unlikely to work--and China tends not to respond well to even mild criticism. We could try to rapidly reopen the…

• Sprechen sie Deutsch?

  Jamais Cascio

  4 Jan 2010 | 9:28 am

  When in Vienna a couple of months ago, I was interviewed for their newspaper Die Presse; that interview was finally published (although sadly/fortunately absent any of the pictures they took of me). Futurologe: Die Zukunft passt wie angegossen I suspect that the Austrian dialect of German is rather idiomatic, as the Google Translate version of the piece is especially nonsensical (in ways that you can't blame me for!). Anyone out there want to give a rough translation a shot? (Update: We now have one translation from Torsten Meier in the comments, and other from Carmen Tschofen in the extended…

• The Old Year

  Jamais Cascio

  1 Jan 2010 | 12:48 pm

  (Updated - I knew that I had forgotten a couple of talks...) I've spent the last week or so just... sleeping. Relaxing. Not thinking. Trying to get myself rested and ready for what looks to be another heavy year. 2009 ended on quite a high note, with my selection by Foreign Policy magazine as one of their "Top 100 Global Thinkers for 2009," and my being honored by the Institute for the Future as their second "Research Fellow," something that was previously bestowed upon Howard Rheingold -- so that's terrific company to be in. My work at IFTF continued unabated, focusing primarily upon…

• Cold War Over Warming Already Underway?

  Jamais Cascio

  25 Dec 2009 | 12:24 pm

  Seems like it. Mark Lynas, who worked with the Maldives group at COP15, was literally in the room when the final negotiations took place, and wrote about it for The Guardian. The key section: To those who would blame Obama and rich countries in general, know this: it was China's representative who insisted that industrialised country targets, previously agreed as an 80% cut by 2050, be taken out of the deal. "Why can't we even mention our own targets?" demanded a furious Angela Merkel. Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, was annoyed enough to bang his microphone. Brazil's representative…

• None More Black

  Jamais Cascio

  17 Dec 2009 | 4:11 pm

  An aerosol known as "black carbon," a primary component in soot, looks to be a key driver of anthropogenic global warming in tropical locations around the world -- most notably, in the Himalayan region. ...new research, by NASA’s William Lau and collaborators, reinforces with detailed numerical analysis what earlier studies suggest: that soot and dust contribute as much (or more) to atmospheric warming in the Himalayas as greenhouse gases. This warming fuels the melting of glaciers and could threaten fresh water resources in a region that is home to more than a billion people. [...]…

• 
  Nanowerk

• UK criticizes food industry for failing to be transparent about nanotechnology

  The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee today criticises the food industry for failing to be transparent about its research into the uses of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials.

• Quantum simulators

  Controllable quantum systems that allow us to better understand complex physical processes are now within reach.

• Southampton photonics centre wins part of GBP70 million boost for UK manufacturing

  The Southampton centre will focus on photonics, the science and application of light using optical fibres to revolutionise the internet and telecommunications. Other centres at the universities of Loughborough and Brunel will concentrate on regenerative medicine and liquid metals.

• Observing metastasis in real-time

  With an advanced microscopy technique, researchers headed by Frank Winkler of the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) Munich have followed the different stages of metastases formation in real time. In the course of their work, they also found the processes that lead to a 'dead end' for the cancer cells, meaning that no metastases form.

• Micro RNAs make genes shut up

  Biologists at the University of Freiburg, Germany, around Lecturer Dr. Wolfgang Frank und Professor Dr. Ralf Reski from the Chair Plant Biotechnology have discovered that such micro RNAs also come into direct contact with genes, effectively turning off the genes in the process.

• 
  Responsible Nanotechnology

• Complex Nanotube Circuits

  Chris Phoenix

  26 Dec 2009 | 5:47 pm

  A recent article in Technology Review describes a way to make multi-layer carbon nanotube circuits. Nanotubes are better than silicon transistors, but are hard to use. This approach includes several techniques: 1) Grow the nanotubes on a separate substrate, then stamp them onto the circuit. This lets the circuit stay at low temperatures. 2) Use a strong voltage pulse to "burn out" unwanted nanotubes. (I read of this idea years ago, but I guess it's more practical now, or something.) 3) Stack multiple layers of nanotubes, to make a more complex circuit. Common definitions of…

• Nanofactories In the Basement?

  Chris Phoenix

  20 Dec 2009 | 4:27 pm

  Over on Metamodern, there's a discussion of whether advanced molecular manufacturing systems could be developed by a small private effort.Drexler thinks it's not possible today, and I agree with him that it doesn't look very likely; enabling technologies are not yet at the point where a small effort can succeed. But what if special-purpose nanotechnologies become increasingly sophisticated, continually out-competing the possibilities of general-purpose manufacturing for another 20 years?Even though the cost of developing general-purpose manufacturing (where the space of products…

• 
  Metamodern

• Molecular Manufacturing: The NRC study and its recommendations

  Eric Drexler

  7 Jan 2010 | 3:00 pm

  Part 6 of a series prompted by the recent 50th anniversary of Feynman’s historic talk, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”. This is arguably the most important post of the series, or of this blog to date. A Matter of Size: Triennial Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative Committee to Review the National Nanotechnology Initiative, National Research Council (full document [pdf]) A formal, Federal-level study has examined the physical principles of high-throughput atomically precise manufacturing (aka molecular manufacturing), and has assessed its feasibility, closing with a…

• Open comment thread for “Molecular Manufacturing:  The NRC study and its recommendations”

  Eric Drexler

  7 Jan 2010 | 3:00 pm

  Comments on “Molecular Manufacturing: The NRC study and its recommendations” are invited below.

• Evolution: The concept and how we talk about it

  Eric Drexler

  3 Jan 2010 | 1:30 am

  Note: I’m in the middle of writing a series on the history and prospects of advanced nanotechnology, prompted by the recent 50th anniversary of Feynman’s historic talk, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”. The next will discuss what the U.S. National Research Council has said about advanced molecular manufacturing, including its recommendations. I’ve been asked some good, challenging questions, and would like to offer a reply. In my previous post, “For Darwin’s sake, reject ‘Darwin-ism’”, I argued that the term “Darwinism” is worse than useless, and (more boldly)…

• For Darwin’s sake, reject “Darwin-ism”  (and other pernicious terms)

  Eric Drexler

  31 Dec 2009 | 3:16 pm

  – Darwin – On this last day of the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth, I’d like to suggest that we honor Darwin by rejecting the dubious term “Darwinism”. To call something an “ism” suggests that it is a matter ideology or faith, like Trotskyism or creationism. In the evolution wars, the term “evolutionism” is used to insinuate that the modern understanding of the principles, mechanisms, and pervasive consequences of evolution is no more than the dogma of a sect within science. It creates a false equivalence between a mountain of knowledge and the emptiness called…

• “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” (Richard Feynman, Pasadena, 29 December 1959)

  Eric Drexler

  29 Dec 2009 | 5:05 am

  Richard Feynman, 1959 “Feynman’s 1959 talk, entitled ‘There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom’”, was delivered 50 years ago today, and the words I’ve quoted above are the first words in the first sentence of the first paper I wrote, almost 30 years ago, on what later became known as “nanotechnology”. Feynman read and discussed the paper with me before its publication, because it extended his ideas. Richard Feynman’s work in quantum field theory forms part of the foundation of modern concepts of physics, at its deepest levels. “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”…

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  New Scientist

• Ghost galaxies may haunt the Milky Way

  7 Jan 2010 | 1:04 pm

  Galaxies low in dark matter may be so diffuse that they float nearby, totally unseen

• 'Most beautiful' math structure appears in lab for first time

  7 Jan 2010 | 12:49 pm

  A complex form of mathematical symmetry linked to string theory has been glimpsed in the real world for the first time

• Electron-spotting could explain warm superconductors

  7 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am

  We still don't know why some materials conduct electricity without sapping its energy – a new kind of microscope is helping to clear up the mystery

• Today on New Scientist: 7 January 2010

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:00 am

  Today's stories on newscientist.com at a glance, including: why we won't find consciousness in the brain, how mobile phones were good for Alzheimer's mice, and a keyboard that knows when you're stressed

• Optogenetics: controlling brain cells with lasers

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:37 am

  Brain cells can be switched on and off like light bulbs using microbial proteins – we explain the process and its implications

• 
  ScienceDaily

• 'Lorenzo's Oil' breakthrough: Newfound mechanism could prevent or treat deadly peroxisome diseases

  8 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am

  Medical researchers have made a major breakthrough in understanding a group of deadly disorders that includes the disease made famous in the movie "Lorenzo's Oil."

• Old antidepressant offers promise in treating heart failure

  8 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am

  Researchers have found in animal experiments that an antidepressant developed over 40 years ago can blunt and even reverse the muscle enlargement and weakened pumping function associated with heart failure.

• Evolutionary surprise: Eight percent of human genetic material comes from a virus

  8 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am

  About eight percent of human genetic material comes from a virus and not from our ancestors, according to a new study. The research shows that the genomes of humans and other mammals contain DNA derived from the insertion of bornaviruses, RNA viruses whose replication and transcription takes place in the nucleus.

• H1N1 virus spreads easily by plane

  8 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am

  Researchers have developed a novel mathematical model that predicts the spread of the H1N1 virus on long airplane flights could be significant, particularly if the infected individual travels in economy class.

• Airport full-body scanners expose passengers to less harmful radiation than most flights, experts say

  8 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am

  Amid concerns regarding terrorists targeting airliners using weapons less detectable by traditional means, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is ramping up deployment of whole body scanners at security checkpoints in US airports. These systems produce anatomically accurate images of the body and can detect objects and substances concealed by clothing.

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  Slashdot

• France Considers 'Pirate Tax' For Online Ads

  samzenpus

  8 Jan 2010 | 1:36 am

  angry tapir writes "A report commissioned by the French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand urges the introduction of a tax on online advertising such as that carried by Google, which would be used to pay the creators of artistic and other works that lose out to online piracy."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• M.U.L.E. Is Back

  Soulskill

  8 Jan 2010 | 12:04 am

  jmp_nyc writes "The developers at Turborilla have remade the 1983 classic game M.U.L.E. The game is free, and has slightly updated graphics, but more or less the same gameplay as the original version. As with the original game, up to four players can play against each other (or fewer than four with AI players taking the other spots). Unlike the original version, the four players can play against each other online. For those of you not familiar with M.U.L.E., it was one of the earliest economic simulation games, revolving around the colonization of the fictitious planet Irata (Atari spelled…

• Full Body Scanners Violate Child Porn Laws

  samzenpus

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:33 pm

  gandhi_2 writes "The Guardian has a story about an ongoing legal battle over the use of full body scanners in the UK. The Protection of Children Act 1978, includes provisions in which it is illegal to create an indecent image or a "pseudo-image" of a child....which a full body scanner does."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• The 9 Most Tested Lab Animals

  samzenpus

  7 Jan 2010 | 8:20 pm

  An anonymous reader writes "Discover Magazine has this odd photo gallery in which they explain why certain animals are used in scientific research. Why are high-tech contact lenses always tried out in rabbits? Why do we study monogamy in prairie voles? Etc. They say of the 9 animals: 'Taken (or stitched) together, they form a kind of laboratory doppelganger for humans.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Mexico Wants Payment For Aztec Images

  samzenpus

  7 Jan 2010 | 7:44 pm

  innocent_white_lamb writes "Starbucks brought out a line of cups with prehistoric Aztec images on them. Now the government of Mexico wants them to pay for the use of the images. Does the copyright on an image last hundreds of years?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• 
  Mind Hacks

• The evolution of projectile weapons

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:00 am

  American Scientist has a fascinating podcast on the evolution of the human capacity for killing at a distance - in other words, the cultural evolution of projectile weapons. The talk is by anthropologist Steven Churchill who looks at what motivated the development of projectile weapons - initially rocks, slings and spears and - and what effect these developments had on the culture of ancient peoples. He starts as far back as the time when neanderthals and modern humans were both in existence and discusses how the development of these weapons may have influence the competition between the two…

• The chopstick: reloaded

  7 Jan 2010 | 4:00 am

  The New York Daily News reports on a 14-month old Chinese boy who survived brain surgery to remove a chopstick that accidentally ended up in his brain after entering through the nose. If your jaw has dropped, amazed at such a freaky and unusual accident, you may comfortably close your mouth - there is a surprisingly large medical literature on stray chopsticks that have become lodged in the brain. In fact, there are no less than 13 published articles on this serious neurological condition. Here are some of the more notable ones: A case of unusual difficult airway because of an intracranial…

• A clarion call for a decade of disorder

  7 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am

  This week's Nature has an excellent editorial calling for a greater focus on the science of mental illness and summarising the challenges facing psychology and neuroscience in tackling these complex conditions. It's generally a very well-informed piece, but it does make one widely repeated blunder in the last sentence of this paragraph: Frustratingly, the effectiveness of medications has stalled. Nobody understands the links between the symptoms of schizophrenia and the crude physiological pathologies that have so far been documented: a decrease in white brain matter, for example, and altered…

• Thoughtography

  6 Jan 2010 | 10:00 am

  The Fortean Times has a delightful article about a period at the turn of the 20th century where there was a brief but intense interest in the possibility of 'the psychic project­ion of images directly onto film'. This was sort of thing was much less of a fringe interest then and it drew in some serious scientific and academic heavyweights interested in whether thoughts could be imprinted onto photographic material. In 1893, the no less enterprising Nicola Tesla came up with a plan for a Gedankenprojektor (‘thought projector’) [pictured]. As he recalled 40 years later: “I became…

• Not your usual memento

  6 Jan 2010 | 4:00 am

  Probably not everyone's definition of what might be included in the "personal effects" of a recently departed loved one. From a brief article in Las Cruces Sun-News: ALBUQUERQUE - Members of a New Mexico family are suing an Espanola funeral home after their grandmother's brain was sent home in a bag of personal effects given to them after her death. The discovery was made the day after interment, when relatives "smelled a foul odor coming from the bag" they received from DeVargas Funeral Home and Crematory of the Espanola Valley, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of four family members…

• 
  Institute For The Future

• Jamais Cascio joins circle of IFTF Research Fellows

  Lisa Mumbach

  22 Dec 2009 | 3:00 pm

  teaser:  We are pleased to announce the appointment of Jamais Cascio as Research Fellow at IFTF. This honorary title is reserved for a few select individuals who have shaped IFTF research in significant ways. Promote to what's new on front page:  Promote to what's new on front page We are pleased to announce the appointment of Jamais Cascio as Research Fellow at IFTF. This honorary title is reserved for a few select individuals who have shaped IFTF research in significant ways. image:  JamaisCascio_New.jpg IFTF Staff Posts read more

• Mike Liebhold named IFTF Distinguished Fellow

  Lisa Mumbach

  22 Dec 2009 | 2:58 pm

  teaser:  IFTF is honoring the extraordinary career-long contributions that Mike Liebhold has made to IFTF and to the evolution of digital technology worldwide by conferring on him the title of IFTF Distinguished Fellow. Promote to what's new on front page:  Promote to what's new on front page IFTF is honoring the extraordinary career-long contributions that Mike Liebhold has made to our organization and to the evolution of digital technology by conferring on him the title of IFTF Distinguished Fellow. image:  MikeLiebhold_square.jpg IFTF Staff Posts read more

• Our next chapter on Neurocentric Health

  Vivian Distler

  22 Dec 2009 | 6:49 am

  teaser:  As the Health Horizons Program continues to explore the role of neuroscience in health, a key forecast from our Health and Health Care 2020 work, we are pleased to announce our sponsorship of the Sharp Brains Summit, January 18-20. Promote to what's new on front page:  Promote to what's new on front page As part of our work on Health and Health Care 2020, we forecast that the brain will become a common site for treatment, preventions, and enhancements over the next decade.  In 2010, the Health Horizons Program will continue to explore this emerging trend, which we…

• A Message from Marina Gorbis: Think The Unthinkable

  Marina Gorbis

  14 Dec 2009 | 9:51 am

  teaser:  Can you envision a society without money? Can you conceive of a functioning economic system without corporations or in which corporations as we have come to know them play a much-diminished role? Promote to what's new on front page:  Promote to what's new on front page Can you envision a society without money? Can you conceive of a functioning economic system without corporations or in which corporations as we have come to know them play a much-diminished role? Can you imagine a truly participatory governance system beyond Congress, Parliament, or Duma? The mere…

• IFTF Researcher Testifies at Senate Hearing on Research Parks and Job Creation

  Lisa Mumbach

  14 Dec 2009 | 9:45 am

  teaser:  Last week, IFTF Research Director Anthony Townsend, traveled to Washington to testify at a hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on "Research Parks and Job Creation."   Promote to what's new on front page:  Promote to what's new on front page Last week, IFTF Research Director Anthony Townsend, traveled to Washington to testify at a hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on "Research Parks and Job Creation." He shared some highlights from the recent forecast IFTF developed with…

• 
  Ethical Technology

• Mike Treder So much for high tech—what about high touch?

  7 Jan 2010 | 6:59 am

  In a recently concluded poll, IEET readers showed a mix of attitudes toward the “scientific discoveries and technological accomplishments” of the last ten years. Now we want to know what you think about the social and political developments of that same period. It was a decade that saw a spike in religiously inspired terrorism, an increasing polarization of political positions, disputes over the teaching of “creation science” alongside evolution, strong gains in the fight for gay rights, a largely unpopular and highly controversial U.S. President (George W. Bush) who…

• Differing Opinions of Tech Progress

  7 Jan 2010 | 6:59 am

  IEET readers have a decidedly mixed view of the scientific and technological accomplishments of the past ten years, according to a recently completed poll.

• Kristi Scott Big hairy hobbit feet are OK by me

  7 Jan 2010 | 5:27 am

  I always like watching movies I haven’t seen in a while. Life changes you and your perspectives, so when you watch a movie again later you bring something new to the viewing experience. Potentially a perspective you didn’t think about the first time you went. This is what happened recently when I watched The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King (2003) again while obsessively cleaning out my cabinets. (I might note as well that it’s best not to look for the cues, but inadvertently to discover them.) Anyhow, I was watching the movie and observing the interactions between…

• J. Hughes Problems of Transhumanism: Introduction

  6 Jan 2010 | 1:52 pm

  What are the current unresolved issues in transhumanist thought? Which of these issues are peculiar to transhumanist philosophy and the transhumanist movement, and which are more actually general problems of Enlightenment thought? Which of these are simply inevitable differences of opinion among the more or less like-minded, and which need decisive resolution to avoid tragic errors of the past? Now that Mike Treder and I have both decided to step back after eight years of serving on the Board of Directors of the World Transhumanist Association (presently known as Humanity+), we want to take…

• Good Magazine Asks Jamais about the Pace of Modern Life

  6 Jan 2010 | 5:36 am

  GOOD magazine asked “some of the world’s most prominent futurists”—including Esther Dyson, Bruce Sterling, and Jamais Cascio—“to explain why slowness might be as important to the future as speed.”

• 
  NANODOT NEWS AND DISCUSSION

• Autogenous or autopoietic?

  J. Storrs Hall

  7 Jan 2010 | 5:46 am

  Back in April, I wrote: Nanotechnology, the revolutionary technology, was always about the power of self-replication and never only about the very small. The ability of a machine system to make more of itself, or more generally, make its own parts and be able to assemble or replace them as needed, is called autogeny.  There’s a very related concept in wider use called autopoiesis, which is essentially a description of certain biological or ecological systems. An autopoietic machine is a machine organized (defined as a unity) as a network of processes of production (transformation and…

• Civilization, B.S.O.D.

  J. Storrs Hall

  6 Jan 2010 | 7:29 am

  The other day I got a worried call from my mother-in-law.  My wife usually calls her during her commute but that day she neither called or answered her phone. Turns out my wife’s iPhone had crashed — the software had wedged and there was no way to reboot.  The amusing, if you can call it that, fact was that her (employer-required) Windows PC had done the same thing the same day.  For the PC, which also ignored any attempt to reboot, we took the battery out and back in, forcing a cold start. We are rapidly turning our civilization into software. As we do that, and as we build…

• Auto-ATC for flying cars edges closer

  J. Storrs Hall

  5 Jan 2010 | 5:49 am

  Roboplane tech can deal with air-traffic control directly • The Register. Flying cars – or personal aircraft anyway – have moved a step nearer, as ongoing trials using robot aeroplanes and next-gen air traffic equipment in America are said to offer the option of “reduced crews” on commercial cargo flights. US aerospace firm GE Aviation has been participating in joint trials with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aimed at letting unmanned aircraft fly safely in civil controlled airspace, Flight International reports. An early option offered by the technology…

• End of the World

  J. Storrs Hall

  5 Jan 2010 | 5:32 am

  Aunt Polly: Tom, it’s time for your bath.  And make sure to wash behind your ears. Tom: But gosh, Aunt Polly, I couldn’t do that.  It might cause the end of the world. Aunt Polly: Land sakes alive, child, what on earth are you talking about? Tom: Well, pouring water in to a tub releases several foot-pounds of energy as extra motion in the water.  Because thermal velocities are Gaussian-distributed, there will be some molecules with sufficient energy to be ionized, both producing free protons and causing the generation of photons as the molecules recombine.  Now if those…

• Software responsibility as model for nanotech?

  Christine Peterson

  4 Jan 2010 | 6:22 pm

  Foresight ally Jeff Ubois has a new book out, published by Fondazione Giannino Bassetti, Conversations on Innovation, Power, and Responsibility.  Yours truly is quoted.  An excerpt: Peterson suggests that a closer look at the software developers might provide some clues about responsible cultures of innovation. “If you really want to know how to create a sense of responsibility, look at the software development community,” she says. “They see their work as political. They see it as ethics-based. They think of the ethical consequences of their decisions. They’re very…

• 
  Nanotechnology Now

• NanoRegulation Conference 2009 "No Data, no Market" Conference Report Available Now

  8 Jan 2010 | 3:27 am

  The 5th Int. NanoRegulation Conference took place from 25th to 26th of November in Rapperswil, Switzerland, and revealed an urgent need for coordinated information transfer of relevant nanospecific da...

• Mariner's Choice Expands Strong 2010 Outlook

  8 Jan 2010 | 3:27 am

  Mariner's Choice International, Inc. (Pink Sheets: MCII), a North American manufacturer of eco-safe products, is set to expand the introduction of their biodegradable, "green" technologies into multip...

• Record Demand for Ionfab Ion Beam Tools

  8 Jan 2010 | 3:27 am

  Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology (OIPT) announces a significant boost in the demand for its Ionfab® Ion Beam Etch and Deposition tools, with 2009 being the best year ever for sales of these syste...

• CTI's Nano Degumming System Completed Testing and Performed Above Expectations

  8 Jan 2010 | 3:27 am

  Cavitation Technologies, Inc. (CTI) (OTC Bulletin Board: CVAT; Berlin: WTC) is pleased to announce a successful testing of its first commercial scale nano-degumming skid system, the Green D+.

• Dr. S.V. Sreenivasan Recognized with O'Donnell Award in Technology Innovation for Pioneering Work in Imprint Lithography

  8 Jan 2010 | 3:27 am

  Award Highlights Molecular Imprints and University of Texas at Austin Partnership as a Model of Public and Private Sector Collaboration

• 
  Scientific American

• Talking Down Roadkill?: Ford Expands Sync for Drivers Unable to Leave the Internet at the Curb

  7 Jan 2010 | 3:00 pm

  LAS VEGAS--Pretty soon, car buyers will make their decisions about which vehicle to buy based not on styling, horsepower or color but rather on software. That is the vision that Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally laid out here Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show  (CES) when he and several company executives demonstrated new components of Ford Sync technology that will allow drivers hands-free access to modern necessities, including text messages and the Internet. [More]

• Another Reason to Save Coral? Reefs Are Responsible for Ocean Biodiversity

  7 Jan 2010 | 12:01 pm

  The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth. It might also represent the most prolific cradle for new types of animals on the planet, according to new research published in the January 8 edition of Science . [More]

• Microsoft Counting on Xbox, Bing and Windows 7 to Drive Growth in 2010

  7 Jan 2010 | 8:00 am

  LAS VEGAS--On the eve of this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) here, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer delivered a wide-ranging, if unspectacular, keynote, updating (rather than announcing new) endeavors in the areas of entertainment, automotive and search technology. The address Wednesday evening was a sign of the times for Microsoft, and for CES, as the company has reserved its biggest news of the past year for other trade shows--for example unveiling its Bing search engine at the All Things Digital conference in May while introducing its Project Natal Xbox 360 controller-free technology at…

• Autism Clusters Found in California's Major Cities

  6 Jan 2010 | 11:50 am

  California scientists have discovered clusters of autism , largely in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, where children are twice as likely to have autism as children in surrounding areas. [More]

• Charge 'Er Up: OnStar's New Mobile App Keeps Tabs on Chevy Volt Recharge System

  6 Jan 2010 | 9:45 am

  LAS VEGAS--With its much-anticipated Chevy Volt set to hit the streets by the end of the year, General Motors is beginning to provide a more detailed (although by no means complete) picture of life with an electric car. Focusing on the daily logistics of making sure your electric car has enough juice to get you from point A to point B, Chevy and GM subsidiary OnStar have now introduced a smart phone application to help drivers remotely manage the charging process . The announcement came here late Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). [More]

• 
  NYT: Science

• E.P.A. Seeks Stricter Rules to Curb Smog

  By JOHN M. BRODER

  8 Jan 2010 | 2:06 am

  If adopted, the standard will impose large costs on local governments and industry but will also bring substantial health benefits.

• Video Views of a Violent Clash Over Whaling

  By ANDREW C. REVKIN

  7 Jan 2010 | 7:50 pm

  A collision wrecks an anti-whaling speedboat, and the whale wars heat up once again.

• Rare Breeds, Frozen in Time

  By BARRY ESTABROOK

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:35 am

  A group in Rhode Island has created a fertility bank for heritage livestock, freezing embryos in preparation for an outbreak of disease — or the next food trend.

• A Drug’s Second Act: Battling Jet Lag

  By ANDREW POLLACK

  7 Jan 2010 | 3:43 am

  Nuvigil from Cephalon could become the first medicine specifically approved by the F.D.A. to combat jet lag.

• Hospitals Could Stop Infections by Tackling Bacteria Patients Bring In, Studies Find

  By PAM BELLUCK

  6 Jan 2010 | 11:55 pm

  The studies suggest relatively simple ways to kill bacteria before surgery using screening, scrubbing and pretreating.

• 
  TechCrunch

• Yahoo BOSS To Survive Microsoft Deal In Some Form; Details Still Hazy

  Jason Kincaid

  7 Jan 2010 | 11:53 pm

  After months of silence, Yahoo’s BOSS team is opening up to frustrated third party developers about the future of the powerful search platform. A few hours ago, Yahoo’s Ashim Chhabra left a post on the BOSS group forum, offering an explanation for why it has taken so long for Yahoo to relay information to developers, and giving them some idea of BOSS’s fate. The good news? BOSS will continue to live on in some form, but it’s unclear exactly how things will be changing and which services will be powered by Microsoft technology — and there may be fees involved. That…

• Apple And Verizon: Are Two Star-Crossed Lovers Ready To Consummate?

  MG Siegler

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:59 pm

  Apple and Verizon. Two star-crossed lovers. A few years ago, when Apple originally set out with the idea of giving the iPhone to one carrier exclusively in the U.S., they first went to Verizon. But the network balked at some of Apple’s demands, which at the time of complete and utter carrier dominance in this country, must have seemed like a joke. So instead, Apple with with AT&T, and the rest is history. And while Apple is getting a very sweet deal from AT&T in the form of huge payments for each iPhone sold, which is pulling in billions of dollars in revenues each quarter for…

• Watch CrunchGear live at ShowStoppers in Las Vegas

  John Biggs

  7 Jan 2010 | 8:44 pm

  Watch live streaming video from crunchgear at livestream.com CrunchGear is live from ShowStoppers in Las Vegas and we’ll be interviewing folks from Plastic Logic, MadKatz, Iomega and more. We’ve got a nice table, some cool gadgetry, and lots of bandwidth so you can expect some quality stuff. We’ll be bringing folks up to our area for about five minutes each so take a gander and keep checking CrunchGear for more CES 2010 coverage. Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

• Anxious Yahoo BOSS Developers To Speak With DOJ About Microsoft Deal

  Jason Kincaid

  7 Jan 2010 | 7:56 pm

  In July 2008, Yahoo announced a radical new product called BOSS, or “Build Your Own Search Service” that lets developers tap into Yahoo’s core search index with an unprecedented amount of flexibility. Now, in light of the Microsoft/Yahoo search deal that was announced last summer, the future of BOSS is uncertain. That’s bad news for the many developers who have built projects on the BOSS APIs, some of whom are building businesses off of the service. Now, after being met with months of silence and uncertainty, some BOSS developers are taking action: they’ve…

• CrunchBase Funding Digest: Wisair, Sunlight Photonics, Carbonite, Packlate.com

  David Diaz

  7 Jan 2010 | 7:16 pm

  Every day I troll SEC Form D Filings to discover new startups, fundings and investments. I put everything I find into CrunchBase. For everyone else I give you the daily digest, a quick hit of the latest and greatest SEC Form D filings in the TechCrunch sphere: Wisair - UWB and Wireless USB Products Sunlight Photonics - Solar Power Technologies Carbonite - Data Backup Provider packlate.com- Last-minute Vacation Rentals

• 
  NYT > Technology

• One Reason the Nexus One Will Succeed

  By NICK BILTON

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:38 pm

  The Nexus One has the best product placement in the world.

• Google Applies to Become Power Marketer

  By MIGUEL HELFT

  7 Jan 2010 | 5:30 pm

  Google formed an energy subsidiary and applied for government permission to buy and sell power directly.

• Driven to Distraction: Despite Risks, Internet Creeps Onto Car Dashboards

  By ASHLEE VANCE and MATT RICHTEL

  7 Jan 2010 | 4:02 pm

  Even as concerns rise about technology distractions for drivers, automakers are rapidly bringing PC features to the dashboard.

• Sony's Green Laptop (Literally)

  By STEPHEN WILLIAMS

  7 Jan 2010 | 3:51 pm

  Sony shows off new laptops, including one made of recycled CDs and plastic bottles.

• State of the Art: Google Shakes but Doesn’t Upend the Cellphone Market

  By DAVID POGUE

  7 Jan 2010 | 1:46 pm

  The Nexus One has cool features and clunky ones, but in the end, we should root for the success of the Google Store.

• 
  Wired Top Stories

• Jan. 8, 1942: Birthday of a First-Rate Mind, and a Medical Marvel

  Tony Long

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Stephen Hawking defies the medical odds by continuing to live with ALS, but it's how he lives that makes the story so compelling.

• Battered Automakers Hope to Shine at Detroit Auto Show

  Chuck Squatriglia

  7 Jan 2010 | 5:00 pm

  The industry is coming off its worst year since 1970, and this year's show is as much about its future as its cars.

• How Terry Gilliam Weathered Loss of Heath Ledger to Finish Fanciful 'Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'

  Hugh Hart

  7 Jan 2010 | 5:00 pm

  The director has faced many challenges over the years, but none quite as difficult as the loss of a leading man during filming. The Monty Python alum whose eccentric creativity taught us The Meaning of Life and took us to Brazil discusses his latest flight of fancy.

• Curiously Strong Mininets Are Small Without Sacrificing Performance

  Steven Leckart

  7 Jan 2010 | 5:00 pm

  We may all be computing on the same worldwide cloud, but Japanese mininets are higher fliers. They manage to be even smaller than American models without sacrificing a lick of performance.

• Video: IdeaPad U1 Notebook-Tablet Hybrid Caters to Road Warriors

  Wired.com Video Team

  7 Jan 2010 | 4:00 pm

  Wired.com gets a hands-on look at Lenovo's new IdeaPad U1 notebook-tablet combo. It sports a solid-state hard drive and Windows 7, and converts into a tablet that allows you to watch movies, read newspapers and browse photos on the go.

• 
  BBC: Technology

• Privacy threatened by online life

  8 Jan 2010 | 3:08 am

  Online exhibitionists who share intimate photos and life stories affect the privacy of everyone, claims an academic.

• Hi-tech 'stifled' by government

  8 Jan 2010 | 2:50 am

  To spur innovation in the digital economy, the US government is told to stop getting in the way.

• 3D TV to be 'saviour' of industry

  8 Jan 2010 | 2:46 am

  TV manufacturers hammered by the recession pin their hopes on 3D TV as a way to boost sales

• Old TVs ditched over digital fear

  7 Jan 2010 | 4:41 pm

  TV viewers are throwing away their sets in the belief that they could stop working when the analogue signal is turned off.

• UK e-reader to challenge Kindle

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:42 am

  UK firm Plastic Logic has launched its Que e-reader in a bid to challenge the dominance of Amazon's Kindle.

• 
  ReadWriteWeb

• TwitAlbums: Private, Collaborative Content Sharing Via Twitter

  7 Jan 2010 | 11:24 pm

  Have you ever wanted to share a set of memories with some of your Twitter friends, keeping the content private while still allowing for collaboration between certain folks? It's not anything we thought we wanted, either, but after playing with TwitAlbums, we find the concept charming. Here's how it works: Using Twitter's OAuth function, users log in and create collections or "albums" containing multimedia content and text comments. They can invite whatever users they like to join them in adding files, and only the users they invite can see the content or comments. Best of all it looks like…

• Make Your Own Online Magazine From Your Flickr/Facebook Photos With YouTellYou

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:05 pm

  We love site-building and story-telling applications, and social webizens love sharing their content - particularly multimedia content - in new and compelling ways. YouTellYou is a fun and simple tool that allows users to grab, annotate, tag and share their pictures in an online magazine-type format. Users can pull in photos from Smugmug, Facebook, Flickr or one's own computer, then go to town in a frenzy of sequences, captions and true pictorial story-weaving. Sponsor In about 10 minutes, we created this story about SxSW 2009. We were able to get access to all the needed Flickr photos…

• Open Thread: Should Tech Get a Turn-Off?

  7 Jan 2010 | 7:55 pm

  Being a technology blogger is like having a license for an around-the-clock gadget and Web addiction. No one expects you to leave your house during the day. You're allowed to spend the majority of your life in front of a glowing screen, and flipping out over WiFi issues is par for the course. And you're never far from the Web, since your mobile is always in hand when you have to leave your laptop behind for some incomprehensible reason. But even with such a license in hand, I have to make a case for periodically disconnecting. What do you think? Sponsor More and more, I am trying to set aside…

• How Chris Messina Got a Job at Google

  7 Jan 2010 | 6:28 pm

  Chris Messina grew up in New Hampshire, the Live Free or Die state. As a high-schooler in the early 90's he held his school's website hostage after being suspended for running an ad on it for a controversial gay rights group. Now Chris is nearing 30, today was his 29th birthday, and he just announced that he's taken a job at one of the biggest, most powerful corporations in the world. The latest chapter in the fascinating story of Chris Messina's life ends with one of the most high-profile young proponents of an Open and Distributed Web joining Google, a company that aims to organize all the…

• Are You Hiring the Right People at the Right Time?

  7 Jan 2010 | 6:19 pm

  The most important component of a startup is the team. Not only do you need to hire the right people for the job, you also have to hire them at the right time. Polaris Venture Partners' Mike Hirshland wrote a great post entitled, How to Kill a Startup: Hire Executives instead of Entrepreneurs. After investing in companies like Automattic and Quantcast Hirshland believes that companies go through a distinct life cycle and often the right people for the job change over time. Sponsor Says Hirshland, "One of the hardest things about building a startup organization is that a successful startup is…

• 
  BBC: Video: Sci-Tech

• Galileo satellite contracts awarded

  7 Jan 2010 | 4:47 pm

  A UK/German consortium has been awarded the contract to build the satellites needed for Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system.

• Footprints of first land-walkers

  6 Jan 2010 | 4:12 pm

  The earliest evidence of a four-legged animal walking on land is discovered in a disused Polish quarry.

• New gadgets unveiled at tech show

  6 Jan 2010 | 9:37 am

  Click uncovers new ways to watch video and power devices at the Consumer Electronics Show's opening.

• Chief defends Met Office record

  6 Jan 2010 | 3:52 am

  John Hirst, head of the Met Office, defends the record of the weathermen after they predicted a mild winter.

• Google phone to protect ad empire

  6 Jan 2010 | 2:09 am

  Google has said the Nexus One phone will protect its advertising base.

• 
  NYT Health: Research

• National Briefing | Science: Flu Shot Study

  By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

  7 Jan 2010 | 12:08 am

  Flu shots do not protect arthritis patients who are being treated with the intravenous drug rituximab, according to a new study by Dutch researchers.

• Hospitals Could Stop Infections by Tackling Bacteria Patients Bring In, Studies Find

  By PAM BELLUCK

  6 Jan 2010 | 11:55 pm

  The studies suggest relatively simple ways to kill bacteria before surgery using screening, scrubbing and pretreating.

• Study Says Women With Mate Get Heavier

  By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

  6 Jan 2010 | 9:30 am

  A large Australian survey found evidence that even among childless women, those who lived with a mate put on more pounds than those who lived without one.

• Popular Drugs May Help Only Severe Depression

  By BENEDICT CAREY

  5 Jan 2010 | 11:37 pm

  New findings indicated that some widely prescribed medications like Paxil might not provide much relief for most patients seeking treatment.

• Personal Health: Options for Bone Loss, but No Magic Pill

  By JANE E. BRODY

  4 Jan 2010 | 10:06 pm

  Medications can help treat osteoporosis, but there is no guaranteed cure or a sure way to prevent all fractures.

• 
  Brains On Purpose

• About the vast left-brain conspiracy and those driven to ecstasy by all things neuro

  StephanieWestAllen

  3 Jan 2010 | 3:41 pm

  A little less than enthusiasm is contained in a recent blog post at New Scientist about The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (My earlier post about the book.) I am mentioning the post not so much because of the book review but because I very much appreciate a term the writer...

• Talk by Richard Davidson: Transform Your Mind, Change Your Brain

  StephanieWestAllen

  3 Jan 2010 | 1:48 pm

  Click to watch this talk given by Richard Davidson at Google. From YouTube: In this talk, Richard J. Davidson will explore recent scientific research on the neuroscience of positive human qualities and how they can be cultivated through contemplative practice. Distinctions among different forms of contemplative practices will be introduced and they will be shown to have different neural and...

• The brain and culture: "The mind's great conflict spills over onto the world stage"

  StephanieWestAllen

  31 Dec 2009 | 3:59 pm

  Do the hemispheres of the brain influence culture? Do cultures favor, or even represent, either the right or left brain? Can the hemispheres cause conflict? Iain McGilchrist has a novel take on these questions, plus a warning. Take a look at his essay "The Battle of the Brain" (Wall Street Journal) adapted from his new book The Master and His...

• Retreat: "Zen Brain: The Self and Selflessness in Neuroscience, Buddhism, and Philosophy" (plus some neuroscience articles)

  StephanieWestAllen

  29 Dec 2009 | 1:02 pm

  From the Upaya Web page for the retreat: Buddhist practice involves the cultivation of the realization of selflessness and interdependence and, as well, powerful insights into how we create the illusion of a separate and unchanging self. In recent years, philosophy, cognitive science, and neuroscience have contributed new and important perspectives on these core teachings of Buddhism. In this retreat,...

• Video of magicians discussing attention, perception, and memory at Neuroscience 2009

  StephanieWestAllen

  17 Dec 2009 | 7:08 am

  From the Society for Neuroscience Web page: On Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009, internationally known magicians Apollo Robbins and Eric Mead joined attendees at Neuroscience 2009 for an interactive discussion on Magic, the Brain, and the Mind. As the featured Dialogues Between Neuroscience and Society lecture, the magicians explored how attention, memory, and perception inform the art and practice of illusion...

• 
  NYT: Health

• Arrest of a Pediatrician Followed Years of Complaints

  By IAN URBINA

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:55 pm

  The Delaware pediatrician who prosecutors say may have molested more than 100 patients showed a pattern of inappropriate touching, according to court documents.

• The Official Word to All, Get a Swine Flu Vaccination Now

  By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:36 pm

  The swine flu vaccine is now plentiful across the country, and most states are encouraging people of all ages to get shots to prevent another wave of illness and deaths.

• Hospital Cuts Dialysis Care for the Poor in Miami

  By KEVIN SACK

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:24 pm

  The decision by Jackson Health System affects 175 patients, and leaves some to rely on emergency rooms for life-sustaining treatments.

• Deal Made to Monitor Brooklyn Hospital

  By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:07 pm

  The settlement came after bitter litigation over conditions at the hospital’s psychiatric unit, which the suit called a “chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger.”

• Doctor and Patient: Are Doctors Ready for Virtual Visits?

  By PAULINE W. CHEN, M.D.

  7 Jan 2010 | 1:56 pm

  Telemedicine has the potential to improve care, but many doctors fear it will jeopardize the doctor-patient bond.

• 
  WSJ: Today's Most Popular

• Famed Eatery Forced to Sell the Silver

  7 Jan 2010 | 8:50 pm

  Lacking a license and loaded with debt, shuttered New York eatery Tavern on the Green is forced to auction off the relics of its history.

• Medicare and the Mayo Clinic

  7 Jan 2010 | 7:49 pm

  The famous hospital will no longer take some senior patients.

• U.S. Now a Renters' Market

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:35 am

  Apartment vacancies hit a 30-year high of 8% last year, and landlords cut rents 3% to attract tenants.

• How to Crash Restricted Shopping Sites

  7 Jan 2010 | 8:30 am

  Members-only Web sites that offer huge discounts on designer goods are booming. But are they as exclusive as they claim? We test four leading sites.

• Obama's Fiscal Fantasy World

  7 Jan 2010 | 7:48 am

  Spending is up nearly 24% since Bush's last full budget year, writes Karl Rove.

• 
  Technology Review Feed - Tech Review Top Stories

• Silicon Microwires Could Have a Sunny Future

  7 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am

  New solar cells show gains in efficiency.

• Blog - Apple and Google Vie for Mobile Ads

  7 Jan 2010 | 6:00 am

  Google and Apple are positioning themselves as major competitors in mobile Web advertising.

• Blog - Quantum Darwinism and the Nature of Reality

  6 Jan 2010 | 9:10 pm

  Quantum Darwinism can explain the nature of classical reality. But is it really a form of natural selection or just an imposter?

• Upgrading the Laptop's Touch Pad

  6 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm

  A company says sophisticated gestures will reduce dependence on keyboards.

• Plastic Logic Device Showcases Organic Transistors

  6 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm

  New e-reader is the first product to use them.

• 
  New Scientist - The Human Brain

• Optogenetics: controlling brain cells with lasers

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:37 am

  Brain cells can be switched on and off like light bulbs using microbial proteins – we explain the process and its implications

• The psychological tricks that scammers use

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:34 am

  TV show The Real Hustle contains a lot of lessons for avoiding scams in real life, as Frank Stajano can tell you

• You won't find consciousness in the brain

  7 Jan 2010 | 7:25 am

  We have failed to explain how consciousness equates to neural activity inside the skull because the task is self-contradictory, argues Ray Tallis

• Cellphone radiation is good for Alzheimer's mice

  7 Jan 2010 | 4:16 am

  After years of demonisation, mobile phones might actually do us more good than harm

• Sugar-free satisfaction: Finding the brain's sweet spot

  27 Dec 2009 | 2:00 am

  Don't rely on zero-calorie drinks to offset that festive feast. Sugar-free sweeteners might fool your taste buds, but your brain knows better

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  Livescience.com

• Arthur C. Clarke - To Plan For A Century

  7 Jan 2010 | 1:19 pm

  In his own words, Sir Arthur's inspirational launch of International Space University Credit: 1987 ISU / Dave Brody

• As Elvis Turns 75, Celebrity Worship Alive and Well

  7 Jan 2010 | 12:10 pm

  Elvis Presley would be 75 Friday, at a time when celebrity worship is soaring.

• Fish Punish Fish For Bad Manners

  7 Jan 2010 | 11:05 am

  cleaner fish will punish females when the females misbehave at mealtime, a new study finds.

• How Earth Survived Birth

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:59 am

  Earth should have fallen into the sun shortly after it formed 4.6 billion years ago. But here we are.

• Rare Wild Tiger and Cubs Captured on Video

  7 Jan 2010 | 8:25 am

  Scientists capture first video of elusive Sumatran tiger with cubs.

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  ScienceDaily: Biotechnology News

• Evolutionary surprise: Eight percent of human genetic material comes from a virus

  8 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am

  About eight percent of human genetic material comes from a virus and not from our ancestors, according to a new study. The research shows that the genomes of humans and other mammals contain DNA derived from the insertion of bornaviruses, RNA viruses whose replication and transcription takes place in the nucleus.

• Protein dynamics: Hidden, transient life of a protein between active states illuminated

  8 Jan 2010 | 2:00 am

  Understanding the incredibly speedy atomic mechanisms at work when a protein transitions from one shape to another has been an elusive scientific goal for years, but an essential one for elucidating the full panoply of protein function. How do proteins transition, or interconvert, between distinct shapes without unfolding in the process? Until now, this question has been a hypothetical one, approached by computation only rather than experimentation.

• Epigenetics: Protein linked to leukemia 'bookmarks' highly active genes during cell division

  7 Jan 2010 | 5:00 pm

  Scientists have discovered how some epigenetic instructions get stably transferred from one generation of cells to the next. They report that newly formed cells learn which genes need to become highly active right away thanks to a helpful protein that "bookmarks" these genes during the division of their parent cell.

• Researchers pin down long-elusive protein that's essential to 'life as we know it'

  7 Jan 2010 | 2:00 pm

  A team of researchers is being recognized for devising a new way to study a human protein that long has evaded close scrutiny by scientists investigating its role in the communication of important genetic messages inside a cell's nucleus to workhorse molecules found elsewhere.

• Stomach-cancer bug linked to cancer-promoting factor

  7 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am

  Researchers report that Helicobacter pylori, the only bacterium known to survive in the harsh environment of the human stomach, directly activates an enzyme in host cells that has been associated with several types of cancer, including gastric cancer.

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  On Singularity

• Antibody finds, wipes out prostate cancer in mice

  The antibody, called F77, was found to bond more readily with cancerous prostate tissues and cells than with benign tissue and cells, and to promote the death of cancerous tissue, said the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).[link]

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  Holy Kaw!

• 25 epic faceplants #fail

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:55 pm

  Are you ROFL yet? I review nearly every site listed on Alltop and today, I was literally LOL as I scrolled through these 25 epic faceplants. Oh, I know it was painful for the person involved, but it's my Samoan sense of humor. :) Why stop laughing? Check out our Humor shelf. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Want to be healthier? Have more sex

  7 Jan 2010 | 10:38 pm

  A soon-to-be published article in the Journal of Sexual Medicine will detail the health benefits of sex. But, the article doesn't need to be published for there to be proponents of frequent sex as a means of staying healthy. Yoga Instructor, Sadie Nardini and her husband had sex everyday during the month of December to combat each other's bad habits. In addition to curbing their bad habits, the couple discovered that they slept better and had more energy the next day. Nardini also did not have her usual winter cold. Other benefits include: A longer life In a British study, men who had…

• 10 sustainability trends for the next decade

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:45 pm

  While we can’t be certain of the environmental events that will transpire over the next decade, we can be sure that 2010 through 2020 will one day be regarded as either 1. the turning point for addressing climate change by using effective urban management strategies, or 2. that time we collectively fumbled the big blue ball. Here are the ten sustainability trends we will likely see in the next decade. 1. Bike culture 2.0. Bicycles are quickly becoming a potent alternative method of transportation worldwide. Look out for businesses (both corporate and commercial) introducing indoor…

• Community building lessons from Threadless

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:37 pm

  Chicago-based Threadless has built a thriving t-shirt empire one quirky tee at a time and the company’s community-centered business model has a lot to do with that success. Cam Balzer, the vice president of marketing at Threadless, sat down with Forbes to discuss the company’s community-centric business approach. Forbes: What advice do you have for other companies looking to build their social media strategies? Balzer: The secret isn’t growing a huge fan base. We have 100,000 Facebook fans, but those fans have all come to us organically. We believe the more organic the…

• 10 ways Google Wave can improve in 2010

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:25 pm

  In May of 2009, Google Wave was launched to much deserved fanfare. But like any over-hyped technological development, its release was met with less than stellar reviews. Of course, Google Wave is a promising platform full of great features, but most people haven’t quite found a significant use for it yet. Now that they’ve had time to de-bug their pre-Alpha (preview) version, the time has come for Google to show that their revolutionary application is much more than a glorified chat program with a few neat extensions. Here are ten ways Google can improve Google Wave in 2010.