May 02 2002 -
Laser peashooter fires tiny
particles -
NewScientist.com news service,
A highly efficient method
for using lasers to transport
particles along hollow optical
fibres has been developed in the
UK. The technique could
eventually lead to minute
biomedical devices that could
diagnose disease and engineer
individual cells...
May 02, 2002 -
LCD paint licked
- Walls and curtains could sport liquid-crystal digital displays, HELEN
PEARSON, Nature.com, Homes of the future could change
their wallpaper from cream to cornflower blue at the touch of a button,
says Dirk Broer. His team has developed paint-on liquid crystal displays
(LCDs) that offer the technology. Liquid crystals are peculiar liquids:
their molecules spontaneously
line up, rather than being
randomly orientated as in a
normal liquid. Passing a voltage
across the molecules switches
their alignment, blocking the
transmission of light so a
display changes from light to
dark...
May 31, 2002 -
A Challenge to Science and
Nature - By Kendra
Mayfield, WiredNews, Only a
handful of prestigious journals
dominate the world of scholarly
publishing. But only those who
can afford to pay hefty
subscription fees can gain
access to research published in
these journals. That may soon
change...
May 29, 2002 -
Earthgazing, NASA-style
- NASA News, Earth
scientists love it when
astronauts gaze through the
space station's extraordinary
Destiny Lab window. Astronaut
Dan Bursch glanced at a map,
checked his watch, and literally
flew to the window. He didn't
want to miss what would soon
pass by: Mt. Everest. The
highest place on Earth. The sun
was just rising over Tibet when
he spotted the Himalayas 350 km
below his spacecraft. "The low
sun angle gave tremendous relief
to the mountains," he recalled.
"Mt. Everest seemed to jump out
at me! It was just one of those
sights that will be forever
burned into my brain." He
captured the scene using a
digital camera and emailed it to
Earth -- a breathtaking postcard
from the International Space
Station (ISS)...
May 16, 2002
-
Virus hoax pulls in victims - By Robert Lemos, Special to
ZDNet News, An e-mail hoax posing as a virus advisory is surfing
across the Internet on a wave of PC user naivete. The fake advisory
warns users of the file "jdbgmgr.exe," purportedly a virus that damages
a victim's computer system two weeks after first infecting the PC. The
hoax has been forwarded by users who believe they have been infected and
need to tell other victims to clean out the virus...
May 17, 2002
-
When e-mail comes back to haunt you - By Stefanie Olsen,
Special to ZDNet News, You'd think Bill Gates would learn. The
Microsoft chairman, who's been stung by e-mail several times, got caught
yet again discussing schemes against a corporate enemy in e-mail
messages admitted as evidence in antitrust testimony last week. In one
note to top executives, Gates said he approved of Microsoft's
association with the Web Services Interoperability Group (WS-I),
code-named "foo," as long as Sun Microsystems was kept on the
sidelines...
May 18, 2002
-
X-Files: Science Fact or Fiction? - By Kristen Philipkoski
and Brad King, WiredNews, This Sunday, FBI agents Fox Mulder and
Dana Scully hang up their badges after nine tumultuous years on the The
X-Files, where the dynamic duo helped thwart a government conspiracy to
help aliens recolonize the Earth, oftentimes at great personal peril...
May, 2002 -
Automatic Networks - By Erika Jonietz, Devices that
connect themselves could change networking. You’ve spent the last
several weekends hunting for the perfect lamp to brighten up that
shadowy corner of the living room. When you finally bring it home and
plug it in, the network of motion sensors and light meters in the
house immediately senses the torchičre and turns it on—but only if
it’s dark and you’re in the room. And if you decide to swap it with
the lamp in the bedroom, no problem: the network figures that out as
soon as you’re done...
May 15, 2002 -
Revisiting ‘Star Wars’ science
- Science Editor Alan Boyle discusses "Star Wars" with MSNBC's
David Gregory, By Alan Boyle, MSNBC, OK, so maybe lightsabers couldn’t
work the way they seem to work for Obi-Wan Kenobi ... maybe those
landspeeders rely on a technology that’s on the very edge of
believability ... and the starfighters certainly wouldn’t make zooming
noises in space. But scientists say there’s still a lot to be learned
from the “Star Wars” sagas, even if the science isn’t quite right...
May 14, 2002 -
Research takes on a new dimension
- By Bob Sullivan, MSNBC,
Technician Robert Putnam, and student
Ben Spear view an educational depiction
of the wave qualities exhibited by
particles in the quantum world. Boston
University's virtual reality chamber
will be used by both students and
scientists. Boston University professors
will soon be able to stroll through
comet tails and tip-toe around human
genes, thanks to a new “virtual reality
chamber” that will generate
three-dimensional depictions of
science’s great mysteries. The room will
be put to use right away studying “space
weather,” pesky particles from the sun
that interfere with technology here on
Earth, as well as scores of other
projects, including Alzheimer’s
research...
May 02, 2002 -
The Robots Are Coming -
"The Net Effect, By Simson Garfinkel, Robots that can climb
stairs, crawl over ditches, survive three-story falls - and pester
people who ignore your e-mails. Morticia is quite the capable robot. She
can scramble over the outback at about 15 kilometers per hour, climb
stairs, survive a 10-meter drop onto a concrete floor and even navigate
underwater. Not bad for a little critter that’s less than 20 centimeters
high and 65 centimeters long - about the size of a small suitcase..."
