Google has admitted that its data centers are pieced together using intermodal shipping containers pre-packed with servers and cooling equipment.
As reported by our friends at Data Center Knowledge, the search giant dropped its long-standing data-center wall of secrecy this morning during a company event in Mountain View. Confirming an October report from The Register, Google said it has used containers in its live data centers since 2005.
Famously, Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive publicly pitched the container idea in the fall of 2003, and that December, Google filed for a patent describing a modular data center of its own. According to Kahle and a well-known 2005 expose from Robert X. Cringely, Google co-founder Larry Page was in the audience for one Internet Archive pitch a little more than a month before the patent filing.
Science & Technology
Dark matter remains elusive despite strong evidence for its role
This is thought to make up 23% of the Universe, but can only be detected through its effects on "normal" matter.
Writing in the journal Nature, scientists relate how a satellite-borne instrument found an unexplained source of positrons in space.
But the researchers say their mysterious signal must be further investigated before they will know if they have "discovered dark matter".
© Keith Bruns
This illustration of a long-lived spin helix shows green electrons with arrows indicating spin direction.
This illustration of a long-lived spin helix shows green electrons with arrows indicating spin direction.
The wild spins of electrons in a semiconductor can be tamed by guiding their collective motions into a synchronized helix, new research shows. The study, published April 2 in Nature, uncovers new principles of physics and holds promise for the development of new information-carrying gadgets.
"The experiment is a fundamental discovery - a discovery with a device potential," comments Jaroslav Fabian, of the University of Regensburg in Germany.
© Focus
The slab represents an ancient king on a horse heading Macedonian cavalry and Macedonian phalanx at the background.
February's brutal chimpanzee attack, during which a pet chimp inflicted devastating injuries on a Connecticut woman, was a stark reminder that chimps are much stronger than humans - as much as four-times stronger, some researchers believe. But what is it that makes our closest primate cousins so much stronger than we are? One possible explanation is that great apes simply have more powerful muscles. Indeed, biologists have uncovered differences in muscle architecture between chimpanzees and humans. But evolutionary biologist Alan Walker, a professor at Penn State University, thinks muscles may only be part of the story.
In an article to be published in the April issue of Current Anthropology, Walker argues that humans may lack the strength of chimps because our nervous systems exert more control over our muscles. Our fine motor control prevents great feats of strength, but allows us to perform delicate and uniquely human tasks.
In an article to be published in the April issue of Current Anthropology, Walker argues that humans may lack the strength of chimps because our nervous systems exert more control over our muscles. Our fine motor control prevents great feats of strength, but allows us to perform delicate and uniquely human tasks.
© Swedish Research Council
Modells of robot Roony and the cottage. The mechanical design of the cottage has not yet been completed, the aim is a mass of 5kg and transport size about 6 liters, with a final living space of 10 square meters. Swedish Research Council)
Modells of robot Roony and the cottage. The mechanical design of the cottage has not yet been completed, the aim is a mass of 5kg and transport size about 6 liters, with a final living space of 10 square meters. Swedish Research Council)
"We want to teach students who think creatively, work together, use the very latest technology, and dare to set their sights high. The most important thing is not always to reach the goal. If you aim for the stars, at least you'll reach the treetops or even the moon," says Lars Asplund.
Archaeologists in northern France have stumbled upon two mass graves dating back to the years of civil strife unleashed after the French Revolution of 1789, officials said Monday.
Located in a park in the city of Le Mans, the graves contain the bodies of some 30 people including several women, two male teenagers and a child, the INRA archaeology institute said in a statement.
All were identified as victims of a massacre that took place on Dec. 12 and 13, 1793, as republican forces repelled royalist Catholic rebels from the city of Le Mans, during the first War of the Vendee.
The first grave contained nine or 10 bodies, some still wearing shirt buttons and boot buckles, or carrying knives, while the second, sealed shut with a thick layer of lime, contained some 20 bodies.
Located in a park in the city of Le Mans, the graves contain the bodies of some 30 people including several women, two male teenagers and a child, the INRA archaeology institute said in a statement.
All were identified as victims of a massacre that took place on Dec. 12 and 13, 1793, as republican forces repelled royalist Catholic rebels from the city of Le Mans, during the first War of the Vendee.
The first grave contained nine or 10 bodies, some still wearing shirt buttons and boot buckles, or carrying knives, while the second, sealed shut with a thick layer of lime, contained some 20 bodies.
A man uses Honda thought-control helmet to beam instructions to an Asimo robot. Photograph: PR
An elaborate electronic helmet that allows the wearer to control a robot by thought alone has been unveiled by researchers in Japan.
Scientists at the Honda Research Institute demonstrated the invention today by using it to move the arms and legs of an Asimo humanoid robot.
To control the robot, the person wearing the helmet only had to think about making the movement. Its inventors hope that one day the mind-control technology will allow people to do things like turn air conditioning on or off and open their car boot without putting their shopping down.
The helmet is the first "brain-machine interface" to combine two different techniques for picking up activity in the brain. Sensors in the helmet detect electrical signals through the scalp in the same way as a standard EEG (electroencephalogram). The scientists combined this with another technique called near-infrared spectroscopy, which can be used to monitor changes in blood flow in the brain.
Some of the newfound relics add to evidence that the ship belonged to the pirate. ""We feel pretty comfortable that that's what this is," said Marke Wilde-Ramsing, director of the Queen Anne's Revenge project for the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology.
© Reuters
Bust of Nefertiti displayed in Berlin's Altes Museum.
Bust of Nefertiti displayed in Berlin's Altes Museum.
The delicately sculpted face on the interior, revealed when the bust underwent a computed tomography (CT) scan, indicates that Nefertiti may not have been the flawless beauty depicted on the bust's exterior.
Compared to the outer stucco face, the hidden limestone visage had less depth in the corners of the eyelids, laugh lines around the corners of the mouth and cheeks, less prominently regal cheekbones and a tiny bump on the ridge of the nose.
