Science & TechnologyS


Attention

Scientists Developing Memory-Erasing Drug

David Gutierrez
Natural News
Fri, 15 May 2009 18:00 UTC
Scientists have renewed the controversy over the bounds to which psychiatric drugs should be allowed to go, with research into a drug designed to erase unpleasant memories.

"Removing bad memories is not like removing a wart or a mole," said medical ethics lecturer Daniel Sokol of St. George's, University of London. "It will change our personal identity, since who we are is linked to our memories. It may perhaps be beneficial in some cases, but before eradicating memories, we must reflect on the knock-on effects that this will have on individuals, society and our sense of humanity."

Researchers have said that the new drug could help in the treatment of phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder or other memory-related psychological distress.
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Arrow Down

Craigslist dropping 'erotic services' ads


NineMSN
Thu, 14 May 2009 13:06 UTC
Craigslist is dropping its "erotic services" ads and creating a new "adult" category that will be reviewed by employees of the online classified service, the Illinois attorney general's office said.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan was informed of Craigslist's decision to stop running "erotic services" ads in a telephone call with representatives of the San Francisco-based company, her office said in a statement.

Madigan's office said Craigslist had stopped accepting "erotic services" ads from late Tuesday and that all ads posted on the site would expire within seven days.
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Binoculars

Facebook moves to quash 'phishing' scam


NineMSN
Sat, 16 May 2009 11:44 UTC
Image
© UnknownFacebook says they are already blocking links to "phishing" sites set up by hackers.
Facebook is blocking links to bogus websites set up to look like the home page of the popular social network in a "phishing" attack by hackers.

"We're aware of the attack and are already blocking links to these new phishing sites from being shared on Facebook," the Palo Alto, California, company said on Friday.

"We're also cleaning up phony messages and wall posts and resetting the passwords of affected users," it said.

Facebook did not say how many of the 200 million users of the social network had been affected in the latest hacker attack.
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Control Panel

Google glitch disrupts search and email


NineMSN
Fri, 15 May 2009 08:20 UTC
Image
© UnknownThe Google glitch that prevented some people from using the search engine and email has been fixed.
Google says it has fixed the technical problems that have prevented an unknown number of people from using its internet search engine, email and other services.

Google hasn't provided specifics on what went wrong.

In a Thursday post on its website, the Mountain View-based company reported that a "small subset of users" weren't able to get into their email accounts and that those troubles might have affected other services as well.

Multiple messages posted on Twitter, a popular information-sharing forum, have indicated that people all over the world have had trouble with the Google search engine and email. But other Twitter users say their Google services have been running smoothly.
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Binoculars

Rocket departs on Big Bang mission


NineMSN
Sat, 16 May 2009 09:33 UTC
Image
© UnknownA rocket has blasted off carrying the largest telescope ever that will gather data on the Big Bang
A rocket has blasted off near the jungles of French Guiana carrying the largest telescope ever launched into space on a mission that European scientists hope will help unravel the mystery of the universe's creation.

The Ariane-5 rocket was loaded with the Herschel space telescope and the Planck spacecraft, carrying a payload of 4.81 tonnes when it launched from the city of Kourou on Thursday.

The Herschel will study the formation of stars and galaxies, while the Planck will gather data on remaining radiation from the Big Bang, the massive cosmological explosion that many scientists believe formed the stars and planets.

Dozens of officials with the European Space Agency, which is sponsoring the mission, clapped and hugged each other as the telescope and craft separated successfully about 25 minutes after takeoff.
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Magnify

New search tool WolframAlpha to launch


NineMSN
Sat, 16 May 2009 07:07 UTC
Image
© PingsweptStephen Wolfram
Google rules the roost when it comes to internet search and has easily brushed aside efforts by Yahoo!, Microsoft and others to knock it off its perch.

While not a traditional web search engine, a new challenger is emerging on Friday - WolframAlpha, named after the man behind the venture, British-born scientist and inventor Stephen Wolfram.

Wolfram, who earned a PhD in theoretical physics from Caltech at the age of 20, is careful not to call his latest invention a search engine, describing it instead as a "computational knowledge engine".

Unlike Google, which takes a query and uses algorithms to return a series of links to relevant websites, WolframAlpha.com takes a query and crunches through its databases to return answers.
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Display

Software to track our emotional outbursts

Tom Simonite
New Scientist
Mon, 11 May 2009 16:50 UTC
Image
© Fotex/Rex FeaturesThere isn't always someone there to temper your online outbursts, but software might help.
The internet allows anyone with the appropriate hardware to freely express themselves to the world at large using a website or blog. But we are not sharing our thoughts with only other humans: web pages are read by software agents all the time, including search engine spiders and spambots.

Now a new kind of agent is starting to roam the web that can understand the emotional content of what we write - and they could soon arrive on your desktop too.

These "sentiment analysis" tools are a branch of a wider area of computer science that is trying to teach computers to understand the feelings expressed in text just as well as humans do, and the commercial applications of such technology are already starting to be realised.

The early adopters of these tools are the owners of big brand names in a world where company reputations are affected by customer blogs as much as advertising campaigns. A small but growing group of firms is developing tools that can trawl blogs and online comments, gauging the emotional responses brought about by the company or its products.
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Evil Rays

Radiation Review: Some People May be 'Allergic' to Cell Phones, Computers


Physorg.com
Fri, 15 May 2009 21:35 UTC
Cell phone tower
© Wikimedia CommonsCell phone tower in Nyakrom, Agona District, Ghana
How exactly does the radiation from electromagnetic fields (EMF) affect the human body? Is it possible that cell phones, computer monitors, TVs, and other electronic devices - which operate within current EMF safety standards - cause illnesses, or are the people who claim to be sensitive to these devices just paranoid? The topic is one of the most controversial subjects in technology today, having important consequences in politics, consumerism, human rights, and health costs.

Olle Johansson, an associate professor and head of the Experimental Dermatology Unit, Department of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, has been investigating the effects of electromagnetic fields on human physiology since the early '80s. Johansson's research has led him to become an outspoken supporter of the view that the dangers of EMF radiation from our gadgets are real, and that existing safety standards, which are based on acute thermal effects only, do not adequately protect public health.
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Magnet

Researchers closer to the ultimate green 'fridge magnet'


Physorg.com
Fri, 15 May 2009 21:41 UTC
Scientists are a step closer to making environmentally-friendly 'magnetic' refrigerators and air conditioning systems a reality, thanks to new research published today in Advanced Materials.

Magnetic refrigeration technology could provide a 'green' alternative to traditional energy-guzzling gas-compression fridges and air conditioners. They would require 20-30% less energy to run than the best systems currently available, and would not rely on ozone-depleting chemicals or greenhouse gases. Refrigeration and air conditioning units make a major contribution to the planet's energy consumption - in the USA in the summer months they account for approximately 50% of the country's energy use.

A magnetic refrigeration system works by applying a magnetic field to a magnetic material - some of the most promising being metallic alloys - causing it to heat up. This excess heat is removed from the system by water, cooling the material back down to its original temperature. When the magnetic field is removed the material cools down even further, and it is this cooling property that researchers hope to harness for a wide variety of cooling applications.
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Satellite

Astronauts have trouble with repair work at Hubble

Marcia Dunn
Physorg.com
Fri, 15 May 2009 21:35 UTC
astronauts work on hubble
© Associated Press/NASA TVIn this image from NASA TV astronauts Mike Good, left, and Mike Massimino work to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope during a spacewalk, Friday, May 15, 2009
The struggle had NASA on edge for about two hours. The gyroscopes are needed to point the 19-year-old observatory, and getting them in was the top priority of the repair mission.

It was the second spacewalk in as many days for the Atlantis astronauts. On Thursday, another two-man team installed a powerful new camera and a computer data unit, after struggling with a stubborn bolt. NASA had hoped for an easier, less stressful spacewalk, but instead had to endure more drama.

Michael Massimino, who was working from inside Hubble, and his partner, Michael Good, had no problem removing all six of Hubble's 10-year-old gyroscopes. They easily plugged in the first new set of two gyroscopes, but despite repeated efforts, could not get the second set properly mounted.
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