New research suggests playing action video games that involve firing guns such as "Gears of War," Lost Planet," and "Halo" can improve your eyesight.
Most aspects of vision are physical and depend on the the size of one's eye and the thickness and shape of the cornea and lens. But some visual defects are neural in nature, said Daphne Bevelier of the University of Rochester and author of the new study on vision and video games published in the journal Psychological Science.
Science & Technology
Scientists studying pictures from Nasa's Odyssey spacecraft have spotted what they think may be seven caves on the surface of Mars.
The candidate caves are on the flanks of the Arsia Mons volcano and are of sufficient depth their floors mostly cannot be seen through the opening.
Details were presented here at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas.
The candidate caves are on the flanks of the Arsia Mons volcano and are of sufficient depth their floors mostly cannot be seen through the opening.
Details were presented here at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas.
The soprano Joan Sutherland has never been convinced that much can be accomplished in a "so-called master class," as she explained in a 1998 interview. What can a visiting master say in just a half-hour or so of working with a young musician?
Still, that year, at the behest of the foundation run by her friend and colleague Marilyn Horne, Ms. Sutherland offered a master class to several young singers at the Juilliard Theater.
Naturally, before hearing each vocalist, she wanted to learn something of their backgrounds and training. Only with that personal and professional context could she know how to evaluate their work.
So Ms. Sutherland was miffed when she asked the age of an Asian soprano who was up next, and the young woman demurred, laughing nervously and explaining that she preferred not to reveal it.
Still, that year, at the behest of the foundation run by her friend and colleague Marilyn Horne, Ms. Sutherland offered a master class to several young singers at the Juilliard Theater.
Naturally, before hearing each vocalist, she wanted to learn something of their backgrounds and training. Only with that personal and professional context could she know how to evaluate their work.
So Ms. Sutherland was miffed when she asked the age of an Asian soprano who was up next, and the young woman demurred, laughing nervously and explaining that she preferred not to reveal it.
I'm online wrapped up on the ESP Game, and I'm finding it hard to stop. As each round ends, I'm eager to try again to rack up points. The game randomly pairs players who have logged on to the game's Web site (www.espgame.org). Both players see the same image, selected from a large database, but they can't communicate directly. Each player types in words that describe the image. When the words match, both players earn points and move to the next image. Each round lasts 150 seconds and displays up to 15 images. I keep hoping that my invisible, anonymous partner's thoughts are in sync with mine-all the better to rise on the list of top players.
I'm having fun, but there's more to this game than meets the eye. To its inventor, computer scientist Luis von Ahn of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and his colleagues, the game provides an innovative way to label images with descriptive terms that make them easier to find online.
Most of the billions of images on the Web have incomplete captions or no labels at all, von Ahn says. Accurate labels would improve the relevance of image search results and make the information in images accessible to blind users. However, computers aren't good at looking at images and determining what's in them, and it's boring for a person to label images.
I'm having fun, but there's more to this game than meets the eye. To its inventor, computer scientist Luis von Ahn of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and his colleagues, the game provides an innovative way to label images with descriptive terms that make them easier to find online.
Most of the billions of images on the Web have incomplete captions or no labels at all, von Ahn says. Accurate labels would improve the relevance of image search results and make the information in images accessible to blind users. However, computers aren't good at looking at images and determining what's in them, and it's boring for a person to label images.
By using a laser beam to focus and push particles against a substrate, scientist Lars Helseth of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has designed and built a unique type of colloidal printer. Taking advantage of the electrical and paramagnetic properties of tiny beads, Helseth's printer provides a new printing method that may have applications in printing chemical and biological patterns.
"To the best of my knowledge, this is the first printer based on the laser-pushing of colloids," Helseth told PhysOrg.com. "I got the idea after reading about some fascinating experiments done by Arthur Ashkin and coworkers in the 1970s and 1980s. He demonstrated how one can push colloids around using optical forces. I have recently been working a lot with methods for trapping colloidal particles using nanomagnets, and during the last year been able to combine optical and magnetic tweezers in order to probe small (femtonewton) forces in particle systems."
"To the best of my knowledge, this is the first printer based on the laser-pushing of colloids," Helseth told PhysOrg.com. "I got the idea after reading about some fascinating experiments done by Arthur Ashkin and coworkers in the 1970s and 1980s. He demonstrated how one can push colloids around using optical forces. I have recently been working a lot with methods for trapping colloidal particles using nanomagnets, and during the last year been able to combine optical and magnetic tweezers in order to probe small (femtonewton) forces in particle systems."
The day after Valentine's Day, flower bouquets from sweethearts around the world begin to fade. A rose's vibrant red dulls to dried-out brown, and flowers begin to droop. Some say adding a citrus-flavored soda, such as 7-Up or Sprite, or an alcohol like vodka to the vase of water will lengthen the time these flowers remain beautiful.
According to floriculturists, they are right; if the mixture of soda and water is in the correct proportion, a bouquet will remain bright, because the combination provides the flowers with the water and food they need. "The 7-Up formula works really well," says Susan Han, a professor in the plant, soil and insect science department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Vodka also works as a flower preservative by interfering with the plant's ripening process but it is less practical to use.
According to floriculturists, they are right; if the mixture of soda and water is in the correct proportion, a bouquet will remain bright, because the combination provides the flowers with the water and food they need. "The 7-Up formula works really well," says Susan Han, a professor in the plant, soil and insect science department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Vodka also works as a flower preservative by interfering with the plant's ripening process but it is less practical to use.
A physicist in Australia has come up with an experiment that could potentially reveal a flaw in Newton's law of gravitation. If the flaw exists, it would be the first evidence in support of theories that explain the movement of galaxies without having to introduce "dark matter".
For the past 70 years or so, physicists have been bothered by a nagging question: why do the centres of galaxies rotate too fast for the amount of mass we can see through telescopes? The most popular answer is that most of the mass is hidden in large bands of "dark matter", a substance that is invisible because it doesn't interact strongly with light. If it exists, dark matter could account for 95% of the mass in galaxies, and would explain many other aspects of the universe.
For the past 70 years or so, physicists have been bothered by a nagging question: why do the centres of galaxies rotate too fast for the amount of mass we can see through telescopes? The most popular answer is that most of the mass is hidden in large bands of "dark matter", a substance that is invisible because it doesn't interact strongly with light. If it exists, dark matter could account for 95% of the mass in galaxies, and would explain many other aspects of the universe.
Cockroaches are infamous for their tenacity, and are often cited as the most likely survivors of a nuclear war. Some even claim that they can live without their heads. It turns out that these armchair exterminators (and their professional brethren) are right. Headless roaches are capable of living for weeks.
To understand why cockroaches - and many other insects - can survive decapitation, it helps to understand why humans cannot, explains physiologist and biochemist Joseph Kunkel at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who studies cockroach development. First off, decapitation in humans results in blood loss and a drop in blood pressure hampering transport of oxygen and nutrition to vital tissues. "You'd bleed to death," Kunkel notes.
To understand why cockroaches - and many other insects - can survive decapitation, it helps to understand why humans cannot, explains physiologist and biochemist Joseph Kunkel at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who studies cockroach development. First off, decapitation in humans results in blood loss and a drop in blood pressure hampering transport of oxygen and nutrition to vital tissues. "You'd bleed to death," Kunkel notes.
Mars's southern polar ice cap contains enough water to cover the entire planet approximately 36 feet (11 meters) deep if melted, according to a new radar study.
It's the most precise calculation yet for the thickness of the red planet's ice, according to the international team of researchers responsible for the discovery.
Using an ice-penetrating radar to map the south pole's underlying terrain, the scientists calculated that the ice is up to 2.2 miles (3,500 meters) thick in places, said the study's leader, Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
It's the most precise calculation yet for the thickness of the red planet's ice, according to the international team of researchers responsible for the discovery.
Using an ice-penetrating radar to map the south pole's underlying terrain, the scientists calculated that the ice is up to 2.2 miles (3,500 meters) thick in places, said the study's leader, Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
FOR a century, they have been on display in the Louvre museum in Paris, labelled as Canopic jars holding the embalmed innards of the great Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II. But the four pots, covered in hieroglyphs, are not what they seem.
