As time goes on, does the Earth lose mass or gain it?
A physicist has calculated that the planet sucks in tonnes of space dust every year due to gravity, but it's still losing mass.
From BBC News:
]]>For instance, the Earth's core is like a giant nuclear reactor that is gradually losing energy over time, and that loss in energy translates into a loss of mass.
US scientists have demonstrated that the brain decodes sounds into patterns of electrical currents and based on the correlation between sound and electric activity in brain's temporal lobe they were able to predict the words the person heard.
However any practical use in case of patients who cannot talk is a long way of because this research is based on what a person actually hears, rather than thinks of...
From The Guardian:
]]>Experiments on 15 patients in the US showed that a computer could decipher their brain activity and play back words they heard, though at times the words were difficult to recognise.
"This is exciting in terms of the basic science of how the brain decodes what we hear," said Robert Knight, a senior member of the team and director of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.
In a move that is seen widely as another attack on free speech the agency is also planning to target individuals to build up an interactive map enabling it to trace users daily routine.
From ZDNet:
]]>The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is looking to develop a Web app that can continuously monitor social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, as well as various news feeds. The organization’s goal is to improve its real-time intelligence when it comes to current and emerging security threats.
Global warming is one of the most controversial issues of our time.
Now 16 scientists have publishing an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that casts doubt on the orthodox view of climate change.
From The Wall Street Journal:
]]>In September, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ivar Giaever, a supporter of President Obama in the last election, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) with a letter that begins: "I did not renew [my membership] because I cannot live with the [APS policy] statement: 'The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth's physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.' In the APS it is OK to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?"
The Mars rover Opportunity has just marked eight years on the red planet.
While its companion rover Spirit bit the dust long ago, Opportunity has managed to keep on trucking as it searches for signs of life.
From Time:
]]>It was on January 25, 2004 that the rover Opportunity — swaddled in its cocoon of shock-absorbing air bags — bounced down on Mars for a mission designed to last a minimum of three months and a maximum of just a year or two. Eight years later, Opportunity is slower, creakier and much, much dirtier, and yet it's still at work, hunkering down on the crater rim as it prepares to ride out another bitter Martian winter. When the relative warmth and sunlight of spring return, the golf-cart-sized rover will resume its wanderings, adding to the mass of data it's already collected about Mars's wet, balmy, and perhaps biologically active past.
In spite of the failure of the recent Phobos-Grunt mission, Russia's space programme is still forging ahead with ambitious ideas.
One possible way forward might be a joint base on the Moon in cooperation with Nasa.
From The Register:
]]>"We don’t want the man to just step on the Moon,” agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said in an interview with Vesti FM radio station. “Today, we know enough about it. We know that there is water in its polar areas," he added. "We are now discussing how to begin [the Moon’s] exploration with NASA and the European Space Agency."
If you were ever wondering if you had what it takes to be a secret agent than, courtesy of MI5, you can finally put your abilities to the test.
Fortunately you can practice your wits online in case of abysmal failure.
From Spy Blog:
"The United Kingdom Security Service MI5 has an interesting little Quiz, to help pre-screen potential Intelligence Officer recruits...
This fictional scenario involves some alleged foreign intelligence officers operating from their Embassy in London"]]>
Its the third most popular destination on the net and it seems that there nothing more satisfying for millions of users than watching and uploading or vice versa...
From New Scientist:
People who complain about some of the racier content on YouTube are often told that the sheer rate at which that content is uploaded makes it impossible to moderate. That claim would seem to be more than borne out by the figures released by Google, YouTube's owner, today.
]]>
Biofuels have been controversial as they have caused the prices of crops such as corn to rise.
But researchers may have found a way to turn abundant seaweed into ethanol using genetically engineered E.coli bacteria -- which could eventually be used to manufacture other substances such as plastics.
From Scientific American:
The microbe could turn out to be useful for making molecules other than ethanol, such as isobutanol or even the precursors of plastics, Yoshikuni says. "Consider the microbe as the chassis with engineered functional modules," or pathways to produce a specific molecule, Yoshikuni says. "If we integrate other pathways instead of the ethanol pathway, this microbe can be a platform for converting sugar into a variety of molecules."
]]>
A coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun is heading for Earth but don't panic just yet.
Whilst the CME was originally predicted to head straight for us, it now looks like we're in for a near miss.
From The Washington Post:
“At first glance, it was, ‘Oh my God, it’s at the center of the [sun’s] disk, it ought to go right to the Earth,’ ” Kunches said. But upon further review and “head-scratching” Thursday, NOAA’s space weather team calculated that most of the plasma blob should pass harmlessly over the top of our planet.
]]>
Methods to defeat counterfeiters such as holograms often don't take long to be circumvented.
So the US Department of Defense are turning to DNA as a way of embedded invisible 'barcodes' that are impractical to replicate.
From Wired:
]]>“DNA is beyond what the bad guys can copy,” Hayward says. “You can counterfeit your way through visual inspection, through X-Rays. DNA is easily the strongest platform for authentication in the world.”
The Church of Kopimism was founded by the group of around 3,000 Swedish file sharers and approved as a spiritual movement before Christmas last year.
The name is derived from "Kopimi" pronounced "copy me" and its followers hold sharing information as a sacred act and believe that monitoring and eavesdropping on people is wrong.
From BBC News:
]]>"The church, which holds CTRL+C and CTRL+V (shortcuts for copy and paste) as sacred symbols, does not directly promote illegal file sharing, focusing instead on the open distribution of knowledge to all.
It was founded by 19-year-old philosophy student and leader Isak Gerson. He hopes that file-sharing will now be given religious protection.."
Blackberry maker RIM has been in financial trouble for some time, but salvation may be on the horizon.
Rumours indicate that Samsung may be interested in acquiring the Canadian smartphone manufacturer.
From The Globe and Mail:
]]>The Boy Genius Report blog said on Tuesday, citing “a trusted source with knowledge of the situation,” that RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie was pushing for a sale to Samsung, but that talks had so far led nowhere, given the large difference between what RIM executives think their company is worth and what potential suitors are willing to pay.
Most popular encyclopedia in the world and immensely popular guide to what is quirky on the net are joining forces in protest at looming SOPA regulation slowly making its way through US House and Senate and will be unaccessible for the next 24 hours for English speaking users.
They will be joined in the blackout - symbolising what the SOPA may allow content creators to do to sites they accuse of copyright infringement - by thousands of other popular sites including Reddit, Wired, browser pioneer Mozilla and photo-sharing favorite Twitpic.
From Wikipedia:
]]>Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States – the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate – that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.
Scientists have developed the smallest microphone ever created, using gold nanoparticles and lasers.
The tiny microphone could record the sound of activity inside the smallest cells.
From ScienceNOW:
]]>Feldmann's team recorded and analyzed the movements of this particle in response to acoustic vibrations caused by the laser-induced heating of other gold nanoparticles in the water nearby. As well as having unprecedented sensitivity, their nano-ear could also calculate the direction the sound had come from. They suggest three-dimensional arrays of nano-ears working together could be used to listen in on cells or microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses, all of which emit very faint acoustic vibrations as they move and respire. "There are definitely medical opportunities which we can tackle together with the right people," Feldmann says, "but we just have to see how it works first."