Paul Rincon
BBC NewsWed, 20 Jun 2007 22:01 UTC
The European Space Agency (Esa) is seeking volunteers for a simulated human trip to Mars, in which six crew spend 17 months in an isolation tank.
They will live and work in a series of interlocked modules at a research institute in Moscow.
Once the hatches are closed, the crew's only contact with the outside world is a radio link to "Earth" with a realistic delay of many minutes.
"Nothing there," is what Case Western Reserve University physicists concluded about black holes after spending a year working on complex formulas to calculate the formation of new black holes. In nearly 13 printed pages with a host of calculations, the research may solve the information loss paradox that has perplexed physicists for the past 40 years.
Case physicists Tanmay Vachaspati, Dejan Stojkovic and Lawrence M. Krauss report in the article, "Observation of Incipient Black Holes and the Information Loss Problem," that has been accepted for publication by Physical Review D.
"It's complicated and very complex," noted the researchers, regarding both the general problem and their particular approach to try to solve it.
The question that the physicists set out to solve is: what happens once something collapses into a black hole" If all information about the collapsing matter is lost, it defies the laws of quantum physics. Yet, in current thinking, once the matter goes over the event horizon and forms a black hole, all information about it is lost.
GizmagWed, 20 Jun 2007 14:14 UTC
From side air bags to anti-lock braking systems and traction control, technology has delivered a raft of safety enhancing features for motor vehicles, but sometimes accidents occur because of much simpler deficiencies in our driving preparedness - namely our choice of shoes. This issue is especially relevant to women's shoes where the latest fashion may not be the ideal choice when it comes to controlling a motor vehicle. The solution offered by UK based car insurance company Sheilas' Wheels is to combine two types of shoe into one - a safe, flat driving shoe that transforms into a stylish pair of heels at the a push of a button.
Though not the first time we have encountered the concept of a convertible high heel, the Sheila Driving Heel' is designed specifically to give women a safe flat when in transit and a fashionable heel at the end of the journey. The design seeks to eliminate several deficiencies caused by driving in heels including their lack of grip, tendency to get caught under the pedal and the uncomfortable driving position that results from wearing them. The flat shoe option lessens pressure on the knee and lower back to improve comfort behind the wheel and a discrete tread on the sole aids grip on the pedals.
A device that mimics the naturally disinfecting quality of fresh air could be used to purge hospital wards of superbugs, its makers claim.
The Air Disinfector, launched in London, UK, on 19 June pumps a continual stream of reactive hydrogen radicals into the atmosphere, killing microbes within minutes.
"The same results could be obtained simply by opening all the windows of hospital wards, but that's not practical," says David Macdonald, co-inventor of the device and chief scientific officer of Inov8 Science, which developed it.
A Bridgewater company is betting the road to success goes through some of the world's poorest countries.
With $100,000 in funding from the World Bank, a group of graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a solar energy system that generates electricity, heating, and cooling -- using little more than sheet metal and automobile parts. They hope to turn their invention into a viable business, under the name Promethean Power.
"Can this be a multi-hundreds of millions of dollars company? The potential is there," said Sorin Grama, an immigrant from Romania who just completed a master's degree in system design and management at MIT's Sloan School of Management.
Grama created Promethean Power's business plan, and it was good enough to win a $10,000 prize in MIT's annual entrepreneurship competition.
Archaeologists in Peru have uncovered the human skeleton of what they conclude is the earliest known gunshot victim in the New World.
Digging in an Inca cemetery in the suburbs of Lima, they came on well-preserved remains of an individual with holes less than an inch in diameter in the back and front of the skull. Forensic scientists in Connecticut said the position of the round holes and some minuscule iron particles showed that the person most likely was shot and killed by a Spanish musket ball.
Ceramics and other artifacts in the 72 examined graves established the approximate time of the burials, archaeologists said, and this indicated that these were casualties of combat between Inca warriors and Spanish invaders, who seized the Andean empire in 1532. Spanish chronicles describe a pitched battle, a last stand of the Incas that was fought in the vicinity in 1536.
Dan Sabbagh
The TimesWed, 20 Jun 2007 13:41 UTC
News Corporation has discussed swapping MySpace, its internet social networking unit, with Yahoo! in return for a 30 per cent stake in the enlarged group.
The discussions remain tentative and could collapse after the departure of Terry Semel as Yahoo!'s chief executive and his replacement by Jerry Yang this week. Mr Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! and incoming chief executive, yesterday pledged to "dig in" to his new role, and acknowledged the difficult task he faces to arrest the decline in the internet portal's shares.
News Corp, the parent company of The Times, is interested in a deal even if it means losing some control of MySpace because it would give the media group exposure to a far larger internet-based business.
Other News Corp digital assets, including the games network IGN, bought in 2005 for $650 million (£326 million), are also thought to have been offered to Yahoo!.
Seamus Byrne takes a look at some extraordinary technologies that are just around the corner.
G
oodbye, Dolly...Hello, Synthia!
J. Craig Venter Institute Seeks Monopoly Patents on the World's First-Ever Human-Made Life FormETC Group Will Challenge Patents on "Synthia" - Original Syn Organism Created in Laboratory
A Roman road has been found by workers building a controversial £840m natural gas pipeline across Wales.
The historic roadway was discovered in the Brecon Beacons, on the path of the 190-mile (320km) National Grid pipe from Milford Haven to Gloucestershire.
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| Richard Field on the Roman road found on the pipeline's route.
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