Science & TechnologyS


HAL9000

IBM Watson starts using swear words, gets hard-drive wiped by creators

Michal Lev-Ram
Fortune Magazine
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:46 UTC
Eric Brown of IBM inside Watson
© Robyn TwomeyEric Brown of IBM inside Watson
Getting supercomputers like IBM's Watson to understand slang may be the final frontier in machine intelligence.

The scientific test to gauge if a computer can "think" is surprisingly simple: Can it engage in small talk? The so-called Turing test says a computer capable of carrying on a natural conversation without giving itself away can be considered intelligent. So far, no machine has made the cut.

Eric Brown, a research scientist with IBM (IBM), is charged with changing that. The 45-year-old is the brains behind Watson, the supercomputer that pummeled human opponents on Jeopardy! in 2011. The biggest difficulty for Brown, as tutor to a machine, hasn't been making Watson know more but making it understand subtlety, especially slang. "As humans, we don't realize just how ambiguous our communication is," he says.
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Fireball

Rock solid proof of extra-terrestrial life? Scientists find fossilized algae inside meteorite


RT
Sat, 19 Jan 2013 05:04 UTC
example of a supposedly fossilized diatom
© www.journalofcosmology.comAn example of a supposedly fossilized diatom
Fossilized algae recently discovered inside a Sri Lankan meteorite could finally prove the existence of extra-terrestrial life, claim the authors of the new paper.

­In a recently published article in the Journal of Cosmology titled Fossil Diatoms in a New Carbonaceous Meteorite, scientists from the UK and Sri Lanka claim to have found fossilized algae in a meteorite.

The paper alleges that "microscopic fossilized diatoms were found in the sample," which fell in Sri Lanka in December last year. The finding, the work suggests is a "strong evidence to support the theory of cometary panspermia."The theory argues that life across planets is spread by meteorites and asteroids. Panspermia suggests that life could have existed on another planet and moved to Earth.

The scientists concluded the paper by saying "the presence of structures of this kind in any extra-terrestrial setting could be construed as unequivocal proof of biology."

Samples from the rock were collected immediately after a large meteorite disintegrated and fell in the village of Araganwila in Sri Lanka on 29 December 2012.
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Sun

Spotted salamander first solar-powered vertebrate discovered

Samantha Kimmey
Raw Story
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:06 UTC
Image
While scientists have known about multiple animals that can turn sunlight into energy, they haven't been sure that any vertebrate could do so - until now.

As far back as 1888, a biologist found that the eggs of a spotted salamander contained a kind of green algae, but now firm evidence now exists that the animal is powered by the sun, reported the New Scientist and according to research published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

The process takes place inside the eggs.
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Windsock

Japan to start building world's biggest offshore wind farm this summer


RT.com
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:52 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Soeren BidstrupThe world's largest offshore windmill farm, Middelgrunden Windmill Farm, located in the Oeresund, three km from Copenhagen harbour.
Japan is to start building its ambitious wind farm project off the Fukushima coast in July. The farm is expected to become the world's largest and produce 1GW of power once completed in 2020.

The power-generating facility will be built 16 kilometers off the coast of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was critically damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

The 143 wind turbines, which are to be 200 meters in height, will be built on buoyant steel frames stabilized with ballast and anchored to the continental shelf.

Once completed in 2020, the project will generate 1 gigawatt of renewable electrical power.

The project is part of Japan's national plan to increase renewable energy resources following the nuclear disaster at Fukushima. After the quake, Japan shut down its 54 nuclear reactors, but due to energy shortages it has had to restart two reactors.
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Gold Bar

GOLD! Huge $315K nugget unearthed in Australia

Ian O'Neill
Discovery News
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:52 UTC
Image
© YouTubeScreenshot of the Ballarat nugget.
An Australian amateur prospector has hit the proverbial jackpot: he unearthed a huge gold nugget weighing 5.5 kilograms (12 pounds). The current market value of the precious metal puts this nugget at a whopping value of around US$315,000.
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Wolf

Study may explain why wolves are forever wild, but dogs can be tamed

Janet Lathrop
UMass Amherst
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:50 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Dogs and wolves are genetically so similar, it's been difficult for biologists to understand why wolves remain fiercely wild, while dogs can gladly become "man's best friend." Now, doctoral research by evolutionary biologist Kathryn Lord at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggests the different behaviors are related to the animals' earliest sensory experiences and the critical period of socialization. Details appear in the current issue of Ethology.

Until now, little was known about sensory development in wolf pups, and assumptions were usually extrapolated from what is known for dogs, Lord explains. This would be reasonable, except scientists already know there are significant differences in early development between wolf and dog pups, chief among them timing of the ability to walk, she adds.

To address this knowledge gap, she studied responses of seven wolf pups and 43 dogs to both familiar and new smells, sounds and visual stimuli, tested them weekly, and found they did develop their senses at the same time. But her study also revealed new information about how the two subspecies of Canis lupus experience their environment during a four-week developmental window called the critical period of socialization, and the new facts may significantly change understanding of wolf and dog development.
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Question

Do fewer trees mean more death?

Sheila M. Eldred
Discovery News
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:11 UTC
Fewer Trees
© Corbis
When a forest service researcher realized that the loss of 100 million trees infested by the emerald ash borer could present a unique opportunity to learn more about the value of trees, he probably didn't expect to find such dramatic effects of treeless streets.

But in the neighborhoods hit by the beetle that kills ash trees, researchers noticed a stark rise in human mortality from cardiovascular and lower respiratory disease: there were 15,000 more deaths from cardiovascular disease, or 16.7 additional deaths per year per 100,000 adults, and 6,000 more deaths from lower respiratory disease than in unaffected areas, or 6.8 additional deaths per year per 100,000 adults.

The deaths were reported in 18 years of data from 1,296 counties in 15 states, between 1990 and 2007, and are published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
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Attention

Now, where did I put that Ebola?

Helen Shen
Nature
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 14:12 UTC
Pathogens
© CDCAfter a series of anthrax attacks in 2001, the US tightened regulations on research using many pathogens, including Ebola, pictured in a transmission electron micrograph.
In the first study of its kind, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) unveiled statistics on problems related to the handling of hazardous biological agents, such as Ebola, SARS and anthrax, at hundreds of academic and government research centres.

Laboratories that work with biological select agents and toxins - materials highly regulated for their potential to cause human disease - reported that pathogens were inadvertently released 639 times between 2004 and 2010. During the same period, laboratories also reported losing 88 samples, although bookkeeping errors accounted for all but one. The remaining lost sample was accidentally destroyed by a commercial courier.

The study, published in the current issue of Applied Biosafety, says that no occurrences of theft were reported.

Over the 7-year period, laboratories reported 11 lab-acquired infections, at an average annual rate of 1.6 per 10,000 authorized workers. Ten of the infections were traced to bacterial sources, and one was due to fungal exposure. None of the infections were fatal, and none were reported to have spread to other people.
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Laptop

A supercomputer fit to dominate the cosmos

Nicole Gugliucci
DiscoveryNews
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:10 UTC
Supercomputer_1
© European Southern Observatory
It may not be self-aware (yet) but this computing monster is ready to take over the world. Well, at least a telescope in Chile.

Say hello to the correlator for the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submilimeter Array, or ALMA. The correlator is the computer that runs at the backend of an array of radio telescopes called an interferometer. It, very basically, combines all the signals of the antennas so that it can function as one single telescope.

The correlator was largely constructed in the building right across from where I did a lot of my graduate work at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia. I used to take any excuse, usually a visiting tour group, to gaze at the supercomputing monstrosity, although they were only working on it in sections. The picture above gives you a better sense of its full size.
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Info

Stain-proof material can repel virtually any liquid

Jeremy Hsu
TechNewsDaily
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:48 UTC
Superomniphobic Surface
© University of Michigan | Journal of the American Chemical SocietyLiquids rolled or bounced off a new superomniphobic surface.
Military leaders and laundry-plagued mothers both have reason to rejoice over an improvement in the development of liquid-repelling surfaces. For the first time, lab researchers have created a "superomniphobic" coating that resists not only water and juice but everything from blood to hydrochloric acid.

Past coatings focused on resisting Newtonian fluids such as water or apple juice but had more trouble with oils and alcohols. The new coating can handle both Newtonian fluids and non-Newtonian fluids such as blood, yogurt and gravy - paving the way for truly stain-free clothing, suits that shrug off bacteria, even protective garments resistant to corrosive acid.

The new coating combines silicone with an organic-inorganic polymer to become virtually impenetrable by a huge array of liquids. Droplets bead up and roll off the surface. Jets of various liquids simply bounce off at an angle.
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