This week, engineer Adam Wilson made global headlines by updating Twitter using his brainwaves. "USING EEG TO SEND TWEET" he explained.
Wilson's achievement was actually pretty trivial. He used a system called BCI2000, found in hundreds of laboratories across the globe, that can do the job of a keyboard for any software program. But it was significant precisely because it was trivial: mind-reading tech is going to have a massive impact this year.
In the coming months, cheap headsets that let you control technology with the electrical signals generated by your firing neurons will go on sale to the general public. Our relationship with technology - and our brains - will never be the same again.
Science & Technology
Geneva - Technology allowing parents to choose the genetic characteristics of their babies threatens to breed new forms of racism, the Vatican told a United Nations race conference on Wednesday.
Pope Benedict earlier this week said the heated U.N. forum, which several Western powers are boycotting to avoid giving legitimacy to criticism of Israel, was an important initiative to confront all forms of modern discrimination.
Pope Benedict earlier this week said the heated U.N. forum, which several Western powers are boycotting to avoid giving legitimacy to criticism of Israel, was an important initiative to confront all forms of modern discrimination.
London - Spider silk is already tougher and lighter than steel, and now scientists have made it three times stronger by adding small amounts of metal.
The technique may be useful for manufacturing super-tough textiles and high-tech medical materials, including artificial bones and tendons.
"It could make very strong thread for surgical operations," researcher Seung-Mo Lee of the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany, said in a telephone interview.
The technique may be useful for manufacturing super-tough textiles and high-tech medical materials, including artificial bones and tendons.
"It could make very strong thread for surgical operations," researcher Seung-Mo Lee of the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany, said in a telephone interview.
A solar-powered mobile phone that can be entirely operated by exposure to sunlight is to be launched this summer in Japan.
The new phone is a waterproof, sunlight-powered device which will be sold by the Japanese mobile phone company KDDI from June.
Ten minutes of explosure to sunlight is sufficient for a one minute call or to power the handset in standby mode for two hours.
The new phone is a waterproof, sunlight-powered device which will be sold by the Japanese mobile phone company KDDI from June.
Ten minutes of explosure to sunlight is sufficient for a one minute call or to power the handset in standby mode for two hours.
© NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Saturn's Ring Rhythm
Saturn's Ring Rhythm
The regularly spaced yellow grid depicts the harmonic structure in Saturn's inner Ring A, and the image on the bottom right shows an actual observed frequency pattern (spectrogram). Color represents the observed signal strength. The structure acts like an enormously extended natural diffraction grating that separates the signal frequency into the three distinct components shown. The frequencies determine the regular spacing of the diffraction grating, 160 meters (500 feet) in this case. The image of Saturn was taken with Cassini's cameras and is shown here to illustrate the occultation. For additional information on the radio observations see PIA10233.
During its close fly-bys of the ring system, instruments on Cassini have been able to determine that the environment around the rings is like an atmosphere, composed principally of molecular oxygen. This atmosphere is very similar to that of Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede.
The finding was made by two instruments on Cassini, both of which have European involvement: the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) has co-investigators from USA and Germany, and the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) instrument has co-investigators from US, Finland, Hungary, France, Norway and UK.
Saturn's rings consist largely of water ice mixed with smaller amounts of dust and rocky matter. They are extraordinarily thin: though they are 250 000 kilometres or more in diameter they are no more than 1.5 kilometres thick.
The finding was made by two instruments on Cassini, both of which have European involvement: the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) has co-investigators from USA and Germany, and the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) instrument has co-investigators from US, Finland, Hungary, France, Norway and UK.
Saturn's rings consist largely of water ice mixed with smaller amounts of dust and rocky matter. They are extraordinarily thin: though they are 250 000 kilometres or more in diameter they are no more than 1.5 kilometres thick.
Washington--They have no fear, they never tire, they are not upset when the soldier next to them gets blown to pieces. Their morale doesn't suffer by having to do, again and again, the jobs known in the military as the Three Ds - dull, dirty and dangerous.
They are military robots and their rapidly increasing numbers and growing sophistication may herald the end of thousands of years of human monopoly on fighting war. "Science fiction is moving to the battlefield. The future is upon us," as Brookings scholar Peter Singer put it to a conference of experts at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania this month.
Singer just published Wired For War - the Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, a book that traces the rise of the machines and predicts that in future wars they will not only play greater roles in executing missions but also in planning them.
Numbers reflect the explosive growth of robotic systems. The U.S. forces that stormed into Iraq in 2003 had no robots on the ground. There were none in Afghanistan either. Now those two wars are fought with the help of an estimated 12,000 ground-based robots and 7,000 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the technical term for drone, or robotic aircraft.
They are military robots and their rapidly increasing numbers and growing sophistication may herald the end of thousands of years of human monopoly on fighting war. "Science fiction is moving to the battlefield. The future is upon us," as Brookings scholar Peter Singer put it to a conference of experts at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania this month.
Singer just published Wired For War - the Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, a book that traces the rise of the machines and predicts that in future wars they will not only play greater roles in executing missions but also in planning them.
Numbers reflect the explosive growth of robotic systems. The U.S. forces that stormed into Iraq in 2003 had no robots on the ground. There were none in Afghanistan either. Now those two wars are fought with the help of an estimated 12,000 ground-based robots and 7,000 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the technical term for drone, or robotic aircraft.
© Timothy Weaver and Jean-Jacques Hublin
Twist and shout. This virtual reconstruction of a Neandertal pelvis suggests that Neandertal babies didn't rotate during birth.
Twist and shout. This virtual reconstruction of a Neandertal pelvis suggests that Neandertal babies didn't rotate during birth.
At 12.9 billion light-years away, the blob - dubbed Himiko after a legendary Japanese queen - is the fourth most distant object ever discovered, said lead study author Masami Ouchi, a Carnegie Institution fellow.
Because of the time it takes light from so far away to reach Earth, astronomers are seeing the blob as it was when the universe was just 800 million years old, about 6 percent of its current age.
But "the most significant feature of this object is the size," said Ouchi, who describes the find in the May 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
A gang of hackers which has hijacked 1.9 million computers around the world is being hunted by the Metropolitan Police and the FBI.
The Ukrainian network has taken control of hundreds of large corporations and 77 government departments.
It is at least four times larger than previous hi-jackings of usually around 200,000 to 500,000 computers.
In the UK alone, more than 500 companies were caught in the network of infected machines, including both large and small businesses, the Financial Times reported.
The Ukrainian network has taken control of hundreds of large corporations and 77 government departments.
It is at least four times larger than previous hi-jackings of usually around 200,000 to 500,000 computers.
In the UK alone, more than 500 companies were caught in the network of infected machines, including both large and small businesses, the Financial Times reported.
