Science & TechnologyS


Einstein

Grandma's moistening kettle may have held off flu


AP - Comcast News
Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:45 UTC
Grandma may have been right about keeping a teakettle warming on the stove in winter to moisten the air. Studies of seasonal influenza have long found indications that flu spreads better in dry air. Now, new research being published Tuesday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, indicates that the key is the absolute humidity - which measures the amount of water present in the air, regardless of temperature - not the more commonly reported relative humidity.

Relative humidity varies depending on air temperature; absolute humidity doesn't.

"The correlations were surprisingly strong. When absolute humidity is low, influenza virus survival is prolonged and transmission rates go up," said Jeffrey Shaman, an Oregon State University atmospheric scientist who specializes in ties between climate and disease transmission
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Telescope

Lunar Eclipse in Indian Mythology


Khanbrein
Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:00 UTC
Lunar eclipse was observed today in India. It was the first lunar eclipse of the year.

In India mythology lunar eclipses are thought to be a hugely important events, for they so suddenly reveal certain truths. They are non-negotiable too, so once you learn what you do, there's no going back. What's done is done.

It is said that lunar eclipses are extremely powerful events and often bring on life-changing events. Eclipses are never subtle, but rather they shout their news. Another hallmark of an eclipse is that they move up timetables dramatically. No matter what you thought you'd do, you'll probably have to revise your scheme.

The vedas are considered to be the ultimate authority by the Hindus, much like the New Testament and the Quran by the Christians and Muslims, respectively. The Rigveda is generally believed to be the oldest of all the four Vedas.
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Eye 1

Keep an Eye on the TV - With the TV in Your Eye

Fiona Macrae
The Daily Mail
Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:13 UTC
Contact
© Dejak/AP
It sounds like science fiction - contact lenses that transmit TV shows and tattoos that let us feel the emotions of the actors on screen.

Yet experts believe both could be reality within ten years.

They say the constant miniaturisation of technology will lead to TV sets being shrunk to the size of contact lenses and powered by body heat.

Channels could be changed by voice commands or a wave of the hand, says a report on the future of home entertainment.
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Robot

IRobot Co-Founder Greiner Launches Stealth Robotics Company, The Droid Works

Robert Buderi
xconomy.com
Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:24 UTC
Massachusetts' growing robotics cluster just got bigger. For the second time in less than six months, an iRobot co-founder has launched a robotics startup. Helen Greiner told me in an e-mail yesterday that she has formed a stealth company called The Droid Works. "Our first project is in the UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] space, and a team of people from around the country are working on this project today," her short note said.
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Robot

Robot Mini-Me Looks Like You, Speaks With Your Voice

Steve Levenstein
inventorspot.com
Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:21 UTC
If humans will someday be replaced by robots, then thanks to a Japanese company that day is drawing nearer. Don't say "Hasta la vista, baby" yet though. Little Island's talking "Look A Like Doll" robots don't look for Sarah Connor, they just look cute.

Robotics in Japan, the world leader in the field, seems to bring us new and improved cybernetic sensations on a near-daily basis. The latest is a sort of "Mini-Me", in either static doll or enhanced robotic form. These little guys (or gals) look like you, talk with your voice and even plug into your computer to access the latest weather and news: told to you in your own voice!
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Meteor

Asteroid bound for Earth! Warn your grandchildren?


New Scientist
Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:26 UTC
asteroid would effectively sterilize the planet
© Don Davis, NASAArtist's concept of a catastrophic asteroid impact with the early Earth. An impact with a 500 kilometre diameter asteroid would effectively sterilize the planet. The Earth may have experienced such gigantic impacts in its youth, but fortunately today there are no projectiles this large to threaten our planet.

An asteroid that had initially been deemed harmless has turned out to have a slim chance of hitting Earth in 160 years. While that might seem a distant threat, there's far less time available to deflect it off course.

Asteroid 1999 RQ36 was discovered a decade ago, but it was not considered particularly worrisome since it has no chance of striking Earth in the next 100 years - the time frame astronomers routinely use to assess potential threats.

Now, new calculations show a 1 in 1400 chance that it will strike Earth between 2169 and 2199, according to Andrea Milani of the University of Pisa in Italy and colleagues.

With an estimated diameter of 560 metres, 1999 RQ36 is more than twice the size of the better-known asteroid Apophis, which has a 1 in 45,000 chance of hitting Earth in 2036 (New Scientist, 12 July 2008, p 12). Both are large enough to unleash devastating tsunamis if they were to smash into the ocean.

Although 1999 RQ36's potential collision is late in the next century, the window of opportunity to deflect it comes much sooner, prior to a series of close approaches to Earth that the asteroid will make between 2060 and 2080.

Comment: More likely the earth will be hit by a comet or cometary debris. For a more in-depth look, read Laura Knight-Jadczyk's Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction! or Tunguska, the Horns of the Moon and Evolution.

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Control Panel

Cognitive Computing Project Aims to Reverse-Engineer the Mind

Priya Ganapati
Wired Blog
Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:31 UTC
Modha Brain
© Modha
Imagine a computer that can process text, video and audio in an instant, solve problems on the fly, and do it all while consuming just 10 watts of power.

It would be the ultimate computing machine if it were built with silicon instead of human nerve cells.

Compare that to current computers, which require extensive, custom programming for each application, consume hundreds of watts in power, and are still not fast enough. So it's no surprise that some computer scientists want to go back to the drawing board and try building computers that more closely emulate nature.

"The plan is to engineer the mind by reverse-engineering the brain," says Dharmendra Modha, manager of the cognitive computing project at IBM Almaden Research Center.
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Laptop

Project Uses Cell Phones as Computers in the Classroom


PhysOrg
Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:00 UTC
Educational software for cell phones, a suite of tools developed at the University of Michigan, is being used to turn smart phones into personal computers for students in two Texas classrooms.

Their Mobile Learning Environment includes programs that let students map concepts, animate their drawings, surf relevant parts of the Internet and integrate their lessons and assignments. It also includes mini versions of Microsoft Word and Excel. It is currently licensed through Soloway's company GoKnow! to 40,000 users around the world for larger palm-sized computers. Cell phones change the game, though.

The software developers are Elliot Soloway, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the School of Information, and the School of Education, and Cathleen Norris, a regents professor at the University of North Texas.

"This is the beginning of the future," Soloway said. "The future is mobile devices that are connected. They're going to be the new paper and pencil."

Comment: Cook appears to be encouraging students to use cell phones for so-called "education."

See the following for more on dangers of cell phones:

Cell phone use linked to brain tumors - Russian scientist

Cell Phone may Perk up Brain Cancer Risk among Kids

Dumbing and Numbing Down: Mind Control by Cell Phone

Mobile phone radiation wrecks your sleep

The Hidden Health Risk of Cell Phones

The Hidden Dangers of Cell Phone Radiation

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Magnify

India: Burial Chamber Unearthed at Dutch Cemetery

Melvyn Thomas
Times of India
Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:54 UTC
Archaeologists have uncovered an underground burial chamber of one of the ancient mausoleums at the Dutch cemetery at Katargam. This is the second discovery of the burial chamber at the cemetery here, after the tomb of Baron Adrian Van Reede, who was the director of the Dutch company in the Indies.

The chamber was found few days ago during the excavation of debris accumulated due to the floods that ravaged the city in 2006.

The Dutch designed this chamber to withstand tons of pressure from the top of the mausoleum consisting of a single cupola of great size and supported by the handsome columns of stone. The chamber, covered by impressive blocks of stone, helped contain the room from crumbling inward and keeping it upright.
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Pharoah

30 Mummies Found in Newly Discovered Tomb in Egypt


The Associated Press
Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:54 UTC
newly-discovered Egyptian mummy
© AP Photo/Supreme Council of AntiquitiesIn this photo released Monday, Feb. 9, 2009 by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, a newly-discovered Egyptian mummy in a sarcophagus is seen in a tomb at Saqqara, south of Cairo, in Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009. Egyptian archaeologists say they have discovered 30 mummies inside a 2,600-year-old tomb, discovered at an even more ancient site dating back to the 4,300-year-old 6th Dynasty, in the latest round of excavations at the vast necropolis of Saqqara south of Cairo.
Egyptian archaeologists say they have discovered 30 mummies inside a 4,600-year-old tomb, in the latest round of excavations at the vast necropolis of Saqqara 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Cairo.

Egypt's chief archeologist, Zahi Hawas, says the new tomb was found Sunday at the bottom of a 36 foot (11-meter) deep well. Eight of the mummies were in sarcophagi and the rest had been placed in niches in the wall. Hawas has described the new site as a "storeroom for mummies."

His assistant Abdel Hakim Karar said Monday the use of such niches was rare during that period of time.

Excavations have been ongoing at Saqqara for 150 years, uncovering a vast cemetery dating mostly from the Old Kingdom, but including sites as recent as the Roman era.
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