Science & TechnologyS


Laptop

More computer brands chase the '$100 laptop'

Gregory M. Lamb
The Christian Science Monitor
Thu, 01 May 2008 05:30 UTC
The laptop computers most people haul around are underutilized. They hardly break a sweat to read e-mail, stream video, view photos, browse the Web, or run word-processing or spreadsheet programs. Their powerful processors are rarely tested except by heavy-duty gamers, scientific researchers, or other specialized users.

So while some PCs continue to bulk up and tout their speed and raw power, others represent a new trend: slimming down. Way down. These smaller, simpler machines are aimed at a potentially lucrative market: the next 1 billion PC users around the planet.
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Hourglass

Iran: Jiroft is the ancient city of Marhashi - U.S. scholar


Tehran Times
Wed, 07 May 2008 05:22 UTC
Tehran -- Piotr Steinkeller, professor of Assyriology in Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of Harvard University, believes that the prehistoric site of Jiroft is the lost ancient city of Marhashi.

Jiroft
©Tehran Times
A team of archaeologists work on a prehistoric site near Konar-Sandal in the Jiroft region in an undated photo. This site was previously believed to be a ziggurat.
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Einstein

German Invents Radar Camouflaging Paint

Bernhard Zand
Der Spiegel
Fri, 02 May 2008 20:16 UTC
A German inventor has created a radar-evading camouflage paint in the deserts of the United Arab Emirates. An institute back in Germany tested the paint and discovered -- to everyone's surprise -- that it actually works. The German defense industry is starting to take an interest.
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Telescope

Asteroid Impact 65 Million Years Ago Triggered A Global Hail Of Carbon Beads


ScienceDaily
Mon, 05 May 2008 20:10 UTC


Carbon Beads
©Mark Harvey
Carbon cenospheres are tiny, carbon-rich particles that form when coal and heavy fuel are heated intensely. Scientists have now learned that cenospheres can form in the wake of asteroid impacts, too.

The asteroid presumed to have wiped out the dinosaurs struck the Earth with such force that carbon deep in the Earth's crust liquefied, rocketed skyward, and formed tiny airborne beads that blanketed the planet, say scientists from the U.S., U.K., Italy, and New Zealand in this month's Geology.
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Battery

Photovoltaic Revolution: Focusing on Solar's Cost

Tyler Hamilton
Technology Review
Wed, 07 May 2008 19:33 UTC
A Hollywood-based solar startup says that it will soon be able to produce electricity from the sun at costs that are competitive with fossil-fuel generation. The key is the company's dramatic improvement in the performance of concentrated photovoltaic technology.

Sunrgi array
©Sunrgi
Intense array: Sunrgi hopes that arrays of its concentrated photovoltaic module can produce electricity for as little as five cents per kilowatt-hour, while occupying one-sixteenth of the land required for a conventional solar park.
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Telescope

Jupiter's Rings Made in the Shade


Space.Com
Wed, 07 May 2008 19:02 UTC


Jupiter in the shade
©Space.com

Jupiter has a thin set of nearly imperceptible rings with features that have long puzzled scientists. A new study reveals how light and shadow are at work there, solving several mysteries at once.
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Magnify

Are There Missing Pieces to the Human Genome Project?

Nikhil Swaminathan
Scientific American Magazine
Wed, 07 May 2008 18:30 UTC
A new study finds up to 250 regions where the reference genome sequenced over 13 years may be missing information.

Human Genome 2003
©DAVID MARCHAL
STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION?: A new study finds that there could be hundreds of genes missing from the "complete" human genome that was assembled in 2003.
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Evil Rays

Digital Tattoo Interface

Jim Mielke
Core77: Greener Gadgets Design Competition 2008
Thu, 01 May 2008 09:07 UTC
Her cell phone is ringing, but the display is turned off. She lightly pushes a small dot on the skin on her left forearm to suddenly reveal a two by four inch tattoo with the image of the cell phone's digital display, directly in the skin of her arm. She answers the call by pushing a tattooed button on her arm. While she's talking, the tattoo comes to life as a digital video of the caller. When she finishes, the tattoo disappears.

Tattoophone
©Jim Mielke
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Rocket

Nasa plans landing on 40m-wide asteroid travelling at 28,000mph

Ian Sample
Guardian
Wed, 07 May 2008 15:10 UTC
· US eyes 2000SG344 for Armageddon-type mission
· Rock seen as stepping stone to deep space

It was once considered the most dangerous object in the universe, heading for Earth with the explosive power of 84 Hiroshimas. Now an asteroid called 2000SG344, a lump of rock barely the size of a large yacht, is in the spotlight again, this time as a contender for the next giant leap for mankind.

asteroid
©Science Photo Library / Guardian
Initial calculations showed that there was a chance that the asteroid Apophis would strike Earth at its close approach on April 13 2029.

Nasa engineers have identified the 1.1m tonne asteroid, which in 2000 was given a significant chance of slamming into Earth, as a potential landing site for astronauts, ahead of the Bush administration's plans to venture deeper into the solar system with a crewed voyage to Mars.
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Telescope

Part of cosmos' missing matter is found


United Press International
Tue, 06 May 2008 14:12 UTC
The European Space Agency says its orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has uncovered part of the missing matter in the universe.
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