Science & TechnologyS


Info

Smart Chimp Gets Speech Like a Human

Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:00 UTC
Panzee
© Carolyn Richardson, Division of University RelationsThis 25-year-old chimpanzee named "Panzee" understands more than 130 English language words.

A 25-year-old chimpanzee named "Panzee" has just demonstrated that speech perception is not a uniquely human trait.

Well-educated Panzee understands more than 130 English language words and even recognizes words in sine-wave form, a type of synthetic speech that reduces language to three whistle-like tones. This shows that she isn't just responding to a particular person's voice or emotions, but instead she is processing and perceiving speech as humans do.

"The results suggest that the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans may have had the capability to perceive speech-like sounds before the evolution of speech, and that early humans were taking advantage of this latent ability when speech did eventually emerge," said Lisa Heimbauer who presented a talk today on the chimp at the 162nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in San Diego.

Heimbauer, a doctoral candidate and researcher at Georgia State University's Language Research Center, and colleagues Michael Owren and Michael Beran tested Panzee on her ability to understand words communicated via sine-wave speech, which replicates the estimated frequency and amplitude patterns of natural utterances. "Tickle," "M&M," "lemonade," and "sparkler" were just a few of the test words.
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Binoculars

Big Brother: Britain Police Tracking Mobile Phones with New Surveillance System

Tiffany Kaiser
Daily Tech
Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:04 UTC
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© telegraph.co.uk
Critics say the new system is not proportionate under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA)

The UK has committed some Big Brother-like acts in the recent past, such as collecting citizens' email, phone and Web history. The Metropolitan police are now continuing such acts by launching a new technology that tracks all mobile handsets in a set area.

This surveillance system is referred to as "Listed X" under government protocol, and was made by Leeds-based compant Datong plc, which specializes in surveillance technology for law enforcement, military, special forces and security agencies.

The system has the ability to emit a signal over an area of up to 10 sq km. This signal returns the IMSI and IMEI identity codes of all mobile handsets in that area by acting like a mobile phone network, and the recipient of these codes is able to track the devices. Those with these uniqie codes can also intercept SMS messages and phone calls, collect information about the user and even turn phones off remotely.
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Sheriff

US, Indiana State Police will use new license plate reading technology to crack down on suspended drivers

Andrew Walker
The Star Press
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:49 UTC
Image
© photo providedThe Indiana State Police is now using the License Plate Reader (LPR) system on its vehicles, which can read the license plates of nearby vehicles at a rate of up to 1,800 per minute. ISP hopes the LPR will reduce the number of people driving with suspended licenses or no license
More than 5 percent of Indiana motorists currently have a suspended driver's license.

And though local law enforcement can't catch every person driving while suspended or with a revoked license, the Indiana State Police is banking on a developing piece of technology to improve upon these efforts.

By buying and installing a new License Plate Reader (LPR) system on troopers' vehicles, ISP officials say those driving illegally on the state's roadways now stand a much better chance of being caught.

"It's just another tool in our tool belt for us to use to help catch violators of the law," said Sgt. John Bowling with the ISP Pendleton District. "It's another new piece of technology, and we're excited to have it."

According to an ISP news release, the LPR system -- which is mounted to the trunk of a state police cruiser -- can scan license plates at a rate of 1,800 per minute as the cruiser passes by vehicles while parked or when vehicles pass the state police vehicle on the highway.
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Network

Dennis Ritchie Day

Historian
I Programmer
Sun, 30 Oct 2011 07:56 UTC
Today we celebrate Dennis Ritchie Day, an idea proposed by Tim O'Reilly and one that we fully support. Ritchie, who died earlier this month, made contributions to computing that are now so deeply woven into the fabric that they impact all of us.
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Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie
September 9, 1941 - October 12, 2011
Tim O'Reilly's initiative was prompted by the fact that Sunday, October 16 had been declared Steve Jobs Day in the State of California. So there is every reason to accord Ritchie, whose work underpinned every aspect of Jobs' achievements, a similar honor.
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Info

Life's Extremes: Smart vs. Dumb

Adam Hadhazy
Live Science
Sun, 30 Oct 2011 08:02 UTC
Smart vs Dumb
© Karl Tate, LiveScience Infographic ArtistWhere are you on the spectrum of savant to egghead?

Legendary feats of intelligence - Ken Jennings winning 74 consecutive "Jeopardy!" games - have their match in astonishing acts of stupidity, like a would-be robber who dons a mask without remembering to cut eyeholes.

Quite a gulf exists between the extremes in innate human intelligence. Yet establishing a clear biological basis for why some people are smarter than others has so far proven tricky. Even the concept of intelligence as a quantifiable, explainable phenomenon has only been recently settled.

"A generation ago, people were arguing over the definition of intelligence, and that argument is now done," said Richard Haier, professor emeritus in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine. "Intelligence is something that's real and exists, and it can be measured."

To this end, neuroscience has made great strides in illuminating the brain structures and mechanisms that account for intelligence. As progress continues, the differences that underlie brilliance and its opposite should come to light.
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Magnify

Brain DNA "Changes Through Life"

Lynsey Bews
The Independent, UK
Sun, 30 Oct 2011 05:00 UTC
New research on brain cells could shed more light on neurological diseases, scientists have discovered.

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© domain-b
Researchers from The Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh have found brain cells alter their genetic make-up during a person's lifetime.

They have identified genes - known as retrotransposons - responsible for thousands of tiny changes in the DNA of brain tissue.

Researchers, whose work is published in the journal Nature, found that the genes were particularly active in areas of the brain linked to cell renewal.

By mapping the locations of these genes in the human genome, scientists could identify mutations that impact on brain function and that may cause diseases to develop.
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Info

Insects are scared to death of fish: Presence of predators leads to stress and potentially death


University of Toronto
Sat, 29 Oct 2011 05:48 UTC
Image
© Fawn McNeill
The mere presence of a predator causes enough stress to kill a dragonfly, even when the predator cannot actually get at its prey to eat it, say biologists at the University of Toronto.

"How prey respond to the fear of being eaten is an important topic in ecology, and we've learned a great deal about how these responses affect predator and prey interactions," says Professor Locke Rowe, chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) and co-principal investigator of a study conducted at U of T's Koffler Scientific Reserve.

"As we learn more about how animals respond to stressful conditions - whether it's the presence of predators or stresses from other natural or human-caused disruptions - we increasingly find that stress brings a greater risk of death, presumably from things such as infections that normally wouldn't kill them," says Rowe.

Shannon McCauley, a post-doctoral fellow, and EEB professors Marie-Josée Fortin and Rowe raised juvenile dragonfly larvae (Leucorrhinia intacta) in aquariums or tanks along with their predators. The two groups were separated so that while the dragonflies could see and smell their predators, the predators could not actually eat them.
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Question

Observing Alert: Bright Spot On Uranus Reported

Tammy Plotner
Universe Today
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:30 UTC
Uranus Spot
© Universe TodayThe bright spot on Uranus observed with Gemini.

There's nothing like a dynamic solar system... and right now another planet is being heard from. According to various sources, a bright spot - possibly a developing storm - has been spotted on Uranus.

"Professional observers this morning (October 27) reported a very bright cloud on Uranus, using the Gemini telescope, and need amateur confirmation if possible, to obtain a rotation period." says John H. Rogers, Jupiter Section Director, British Astronomical Association. "Near-infrared filters may have the best chance of detecting it. It was recorded in the 1.6 micron band, which is further into the IR than amateurs can reach, but your usual near-IR filters might be successful. I think that methane filters are not especially promising, as these clouds on Uranus are overlaid by a methane-rich layer of atmosphere, but would be worth trying anyway. Anyone who has a 1-micron filter should have a go too."

At this point in time, information is limited, but professional images taken using the 8.1-metre Gemini Telescope North on Hawaii have recorded a region said to be ten times brighter than the planetary background. The bright spot is believed to be attributed to methane ice. ""This is an H-band image, centered at 1.6 microns, close to the wavelength of maximum contrast for such features. Its contrast will decrease with decreasing wavelength, and will likely not be detectable by amateur astronomers, except possibly at the longer CCD wavelengths where the Rayleigh scattering background can be suppressed." says Larry Sromovsky, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Looking with a methane band filters at 890 nm might be productive, especially if the feature continues to brighten."
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Igloo

Facebook unveils massive new data center near Arctic circle

Rob Waugh
Mail Online
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
Facebook's new server farm in the northern Swedish city of Lulea is the firm's first outside the U.S. - in a location chosen because the fierce cold will help to keep the company's racks of high-performance computers cool.

Facebook looked at several sites across Europe, and picked Lulea for its cold climate. The move will see Facebook become faster for users across Europe.

'Facebook has more users outside the U.S. than inside,' Facebook director of site operations Tom Furlong said. 'It was time for us to expand in Europe.'
face book new arctic data center
© UnknownFacebook confirmed that it had picked the northern Swedish city of Lulea for the data centre partly because of the cold climate - crucial for keeping racks of high-performance computers cool
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Igloo

Facebook Builds Data Center Near Arctic Circle

Douglas Perry
TomsGuide.com
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:00 UTC
Facebook will be constructing a gigantic datacenter in Lulea, Sweden.
Image
© Unknown

The city is located near the Arctic Circle and will be home to Facebook's first European data center. Lulea's sub-arctic climate will enable the company to take advantage of natural cooling resources with a climate that has short, mild summers and long, cold winters.

The data center will have a floor space of more than 900,000 square feet, which exceeds the size of 15 football fields. According to the town of Lulea, the facility will be built in three phases and eventually consist of three separate server rooms that are designed to handle a substantial portion of Facebook's data traffic. The completion date is targeted for 2014.

Facebook has been frequently criticized, especially by Greenpeace, that it does not make enough effort to achieve an efficient use of energy in its data centers and draw most of its power from coal power plants. The Lulea data center will consume power that is exclusively produced by water power plants and the natural climate should help bring down the power consumption quite a bit. Competitors, such as Google, use similar concepts: Google recently opened a data center in Hamina, Finland, which uses sea water for cooling its servers.
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