August 29, 2008 (Friday)

• Internet
  Internet
  The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
  
   traffic bypassing the United States
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   continues. In 1998, 70 percent of traffic went through the U.S. Now, only 25 percent does, causing economic, social, military, and intelligence consequences. (NYTimes)
• Google
  Google
  Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
  
   announces winners of the Android Developer Challenge, with the 10 top prizes going to applications using GPS. (InfoWeek)

August 28, 2008 (Thursday)

• Images taken from Hubble
  Hubble
  Hubble is a surname and may refer to:* Brian Hubble , American painter and illustrator* Eddie Hubble , American Jazz trombonist* Edwin Hubble , American astronomer* Jack Hubble , English cricketer...
  
   of two colliding galaxies
  Galaxy
  A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
  
   provide new insights into the behavior of dark matter
  Dark matter
  In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and so cannot be directly detected via optical or radio astronomy...
  
  . (Reuters)

August 27, 2008 (Wednesday)

• Gene therapy
  Gene therapy
  Gene therapy is the insertion, alteration, or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological tissues to treat disease. It is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for disease development...
  
   has successfully regrown ear
  Ear
  The ear is the organ that detects sound. It not only receives sound, but also aids in balance and body position. The ear is part of the auditory system....
  
   hairs in deaf mice. This could lead to new treatments of deafness. (NewScientist)

August 26, 2008 (Tuesday)

• An analysis of stone tool
  Stone tool
  A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric, particularly Stone Age cultures that have become extinct...
  
  s developed by Neanderthal
  Neanderthal
  The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
  
  s indicates that the tools were as efficient as tools created by Homo sapiens, contradicting the conventional wisdom that Neanderthals were significantly less intelligent. (ScienceDaily)
• Low pressure caused by spinning wind turbine
  Wind turbine
  A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...
  
  s kills bat
  Bat
  Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
  
  s as a result of burst blood vessels in the lung. (SciAm)

August 25, 2008 (Monday)

• An analysis of Google Earth
  Google Earth
  Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency funded company acquired by Google in 2004 . It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite...
  
   images show that herds of cattle
  Cattle
  Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
  
   and deer
  Deer
  Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
  
   align themselves according to Earth
  Earth
  Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
  
  's North-South axis, indicating they have an innate ability to detect magnetic field
  Magnetic field
  A magnetic field is a mathematical description of the magnetic influence of electric currents and magnetic materials. The magnetic field at any given point is specified by both a direction and a magnitude ; as such it is a vector field.Technically, a magnetic field is a pseudo vector;...
  
  s. (Reuters)
• A sponge-like nanoparticle "trojan horse" has been created to protect antioxidant
  Antioxidant
  An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons or hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals. In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions. When...
  
  s in food from being destroyed in the gut
  Gut (zoology)
  In zoology, the gut, also known as the alimentary canal or alimentary tract, is a tube by which bilaterian animals transfer food to the digestion organs. In large bilaterians the gut generally also has an exit, the anus, by which the animal disposes of solid wastes...
  
  , permitting greater absorption in the digestive tract. (PhysOrg)

August 22, 2008 (Friday)

• Scientists find appetite
  Appetite
  The appetite is the desire to eat food, felt as hunger. Appetite exists in all higher life-forms, and serves to regulate adequate energy intake to maintain metabolic needs. It is regulated by a close interplay between the digestive tract, adipose tissue and the brain. Decreased desire to eat is...
  
   control neurons (POMC
  Proopiomelanocortin
  Pro-opiomelanocortin is a precursor polypeptide with 241 amino acid residues. POMC is synthesized from the 285-amino acid long polypeptide precursor, pre-pro-opiomelanocortin , by the removal of a 44-amino acid long signal peptide sequence during translation.The POMC gene is located on chromosome...
  
  ) in the brain
  Brain
  The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
  
   degenerate over time because of free radicals; explaining why people overeat as they age. (EurekAlert)
• NASA
  NASA
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
  
   destroys a prototype rocket made by Alliant Techsystems
  Alliant Techsystems
  Alliant Techsystems Inc., most commonly known by its ticker symbol, ', is one of the largest aerospace and defense companies in the United States with more than 18,000 employees in 22 states, Puerto Rico and internationally, and 2010 revenues in excess of an estimated...
  
   when it veered off course. (AP)
• The first Vertical farms start to be built http://www.popsci.com/cliff-kuang/article/2008-09/farming-sky

August 21, 2008 (Thursday)

• Jerry Seinfeld
  Jerry Seinfeld
  Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and television and film producer, known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the situation comedy Seinfeld , which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, and, in the show's final two seasons,...
  
   will anchor a $300 million dollar Windows Vista
  Windows Vista
  Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
  
   campaign in an attempt to renew the OS's poor public image. (ArsTechnica)
• By creating brown fat that burns calories and increases the metabolism, unlike white fat which simply stores calories, researchers hope to combat obesity
  Obesity
  Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
  
  . (ScienceDaily)
• Using new algorithms called P4P
  Proactive network Provider Participation for P2P
  P4P, or Proactive network Provider Participation for P2P, is a method for internet service providers and peer-to-peer software to optimize peer-to-peer connections...
  
   researchers have shared files over the internet 20% faster and using 5 times less bandwidth than current P2P
  File sharing
  File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
  
   programs. (Forbes)

August 20, 2008 (Wednesday)

• Intel showcases its next generation processor platform codenamed Nehalem at the Intel Developer Forum
  Intel Developer Forum
  Intel Developer Forum , is a gathering of technologists to discuss Intel products and products based around Intel products. The first IDF was in 1997...
  
  . Nehalem will provide equal or better performance for less power, improved memory management with QuickPath and completing the tick-tock
  Intel Tick-Tock
  "Tick-Tock" is a model, of Jones Farm 5 and adopted by chip manufacturer Intel Corporation since 2007 to follow every microarchitectural change with shrinking of the process technology. Every "tick" is a shrinking of process technology of the previous microarchitecture and every "tock" is a new...
  
   45 nm development cycle. (InformationWeek)

August 19, 2008 (Tuesday)

• The Max Planck Research Group has identified a group of protein
  Protein
  Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
  
  s that can reveal the biological age of a person. This could assist in fine tuning therapies for individuals. (PhysOrg)
• A new method of creating gasoline
  Gasoline
  Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
  
   from biomass
  Biomass
  Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or converted into other energy products such as biofuel....
  
   could see it be cost competitive with traditional sources. (PhysOrg)
• The first functional red blood cell
  Red blood cell
  Red blood cells are the most common type of blood cell and the vertebrate organism's principal means of delivering oxygen to the body tissues via the blood flow through the circulatory system...
  
  s have been successfully grown in a lab from stem cell
  Stem cell
  This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
  
  s. It may allow mass production of O-type blood
  Blood
  Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
  
   for universal transfusion
  Blood transfusion
  Blood transfusion is the process of receiving blood products into one's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used in a variety of medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood...
  
  . (NewScientist)
• Contradicting previous research it was found language
  Language
  Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
  
   is not necessary to do mathematics
  Mathematics
  Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
  
  . (BBC)

August 18, 2008 (Monday)

• Google
  Google
  Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
  
   launches FreetheAirWaves.com which lobbies with the White Spaces Coalition on behalf of technology giants to have the white space
  White space (telecommunications)
  In telecommunications, white spaces refer to frequencies allocated to a broadcasting service but not used locally.-Summary:National and international bodies assign different frequencies for specific uses, and in most cases license the rights to broadcast over these frequencies...
  
  s between TV channels turned into a national internet network. TV broadcasters are resisting as they believe it will interfere with their channels. (CNet)
• An animation process able to replicate minute facial movements has bridged the uncanny valley
  Uncanny Valley
  The uncanny valley is a hypothesis in the field of robotics and 3D computer animation, which holds that when human replicas look and act almost, but not perfectly, like actual human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers...
  
   and created lifelike animated faces. (Times)

August 17, 2008 (Sunday)

• Scientists replicate a stage of photosynthesis
  Photosynthesis
  Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...
  
   with manganese clusters, creating a method of splitting water for hydrogen fuel
  Hydrogen fuel
  An ecologically-friendly fuel which uses electrochemical cells or combusts in internal engines to power vehicles and electric devices. It is also used in the propulsion of spacecraft and can potentially be mass produced and commercialized for passenger vehicles and aircraft.In a flame of pure...
  
   using sunlight. (PhysOrg)

August 14, 2008 (Thursday)

• Intel releases the 0.9 draft specification for USB 3.0
  USB 3.0
  USB 3.0 is the second major revision of the Universal Serial Bus standard for computer connectivity.USB 3.0 has transmission speeds of up to 5 Gbit/s, which is 10 times faster than USB 2.0 . USB 3.0 significantly reduces the time required for data transmission, reduces power consumption, and...
  
  . (CRN)

August 13, 2008 (Wednesday)

• A new type of MRAM
  MRAM
  Magnetoresistive Random-Access Memory is a non-volatile computer memory technology that has been under development since the 1990s. Continued increases in density of existing memory technologies – notably flash RAM and DRAM – kept it in a niche role in the market, but its proponents...
  
   is shown that is 10 times faster than previous MRAM prototypes that were already faster than conventional RAM
  Ram
  -Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
  
  . (NewScientist)
• Cyber attacks echoing the war
  2008 South Ossetia war
  The 2008 South Ossetia War or Russo-Georgian War was an armed conflict in August 2008 between Georgia on one side, and Russia and separatist governments of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the other....
  
   between Georgia
  Georgia (country)
  Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
  
   and Russia
  Russia
  Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
  
   appear to be the work of Russian youth. (CNet)
• Facebook
  Facebook
  Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
  
   becomes the No. 1 social networking site with 153% growth in the last year overtaking MySpace
  MySpace
  Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
  
  . (TechNews)
• The University of South Australia
  University of South Australia
  The University of South Australia is a public university in the Australian state of South Australia. It was formed in 1991 with the merger of the South Australian Institute of Technology and Colleges of Advanced Education. It is the largest university in South Australia, with more than 36,000...
  
   has found a simple and cheap alternative to cleaning water
  Water
  Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
  
   using silica particles covered in an active hydrocarbon. (Nanowerk)

August 12, 2008 (Tuesday)

• Using metamaterial
  Metamaterial
  Metamaterials are artificial materials engineered to have properties that may not be found in nature. Metamaterials usually gain their properties from structure rather than composition, using small inhomogeneities to create effective macroscopic behavior....
  
  s Berkeley
  Berkeley, California
  Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
  
   researchers been able achieve negative refraction
  Negative refraction
  Negative refraction is the name for an electromagnetic phenomenon where light rays are refracted at an interface in the reverse sense to that normally expected...
  
  ; effectively creating a cloaking device
  Cloaking device
  Cloaking devices are advanced stealth technologies still in development that will cause objects, such as spaceships or individuals, to be partially or wholly invisible to parts of the electromagnetic spectrum...
  
  . While a 2D version has worked well, creating a 3D version is still problematic. (SciAm)

August 10, 2008 (Sunday)

• Yeshiva University
  Yeshiva University
  Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...
  
   researchers have prevented mice liver
  Liver
  The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
  
  s from aging by preventing the cleaning machinery of the cell from breaking down. With its continuing function damaged proteins are removed instead of building up and reducing the cells functionality. (NewScientist)

August 8, 2008 (Friday)

• Kite
  Kite
  A kite is a tethered aircraft. The necessary lift that makes the kite wing fly is generated when air flows over and under the kite's wing, producing low pressure above the wing and high pressure below it. This deflection also generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind...
  
  s may be a cost effective wind power
  Wind power
  Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
  
   alternative, with their heights being able to tap into faster wind speeds, potentially delivering power at the same cost as coal
  Coal
  Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
  
  . (PhysOrg)

August 6, 2008 (Wednesday)

• Sputnik a virus that propagates at the expense of other viruses has been found, possibly the first in a group of previously unknown species. Called a virophage it may be useful for combating viral infections. (NewScientist)
• A system called Visualizing Energy Resources Dynamically on Earth (VERDE) is a real time data mash between weather patterns and the national electric grid on Google Earth
  Google Earth
  Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency funded company acquired by Google in 2004 . It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite...
  
  . It's hoped the system will provide better understanding and coordination for power outages and other large scale events. (NetworkWorld)

August 5, 2008 (Tuesday)

• Obscura Digital demonstrate an interactive holographic display similar to The Minority Report
  Minority Report (film)
  Minority Report is a 2002 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on the short story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. It is set primarily in Washington, D.C...
  
  . (PCPro)
• OneGeology
  OneGeology
  OneGeology is an international collaborative project in the field of geology supported by 113 countries, UNESCO and major global geoscience bodies. It is an International Year of Planet Earth flagship initiative that aims to enable online access to dynamic digital geological map of the world for...
  
   project officially launches the first online digital geologic map
  Geologic map
  A geologic map or geological map is a special-purpose map made to show geological features. Rock units or geologic strata are shown by color or symbols to indicate where they are exposed at the surface...
  
   of the world. Its managers say it could guide oil and gas exploration and mining, help mitigate geohazard
  Geohazard
  A geohazard can be defined as a geological state that represents or has the potential to develop further into a situation leading to damage or uncontrolled risk. This definition implies that geohazards are widespread phenomena that are related to geological and environmental conditions and involve...
  
  s such as landslides and earthquakes, or pinpoint sites for burying greenhouse gas
  Greenhouse gas
  A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
  
  es. (Reuters)

August 4, 2008 (Monday)

• The world's smallest snake, Leptotyphlops carlae
  Leptotyphlops carlae
  Barbados Threadsnake is a species of blind threadsnake. It is the smallest snake species currently known to exist. This member of the Leptotyphlopidae family is found on the Caribbean island of Barbados....
  
  , is described. The length is about 10 cm (4 in) and it is as thin as spaghetti. (Zootaxa), (Reuters)