Scientific American

Google CEO s Condition Spotlights Vocal Cord Paralysis and Its Treatment

Wed, 22 May 2013 07:30:00 EST

When Google CEO Larry Page blogged about his struggles speaking and, at times, breathing last week on his Google+ page he spotlighted a rare condition, bilateral vocal cord paralysis , which leaves sufferers short of breath and with few viable treatment options. This is likely to change in coming years. Page has deep pockets and has promised to fund research into the disorder via the Voice Health Institute . In the meantime scientists are experimenting with electrical stimulation technologies to enhance existing voice therapy as well as surgical treatments. [More]

Why Google Glass Is Creepy

Tue, 21 May 2013 07:15:00 EST

Every new technology causes initial public discomfort. It took society a long time to accept cell phones as commonplace. Before that, television. And before that, tractors.

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No-Kill, High-Resolution 3-D Movies of Cells Now Possible [Video & Infographic]

Tue, 21 May 2013 07:00:00 EST

Lillian Fritz-Laylin is observing a strain of leukemia cell that zips along at about 10 to 20 microns per minute. She’s looking for the motive secret of how these speed demons of the cellular world get around, and she’s doing it by making a high-resolution 3-D micro movie.

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Stress Makes Gorilla Glass Stronger

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:22:00 EST

This story was originally published by Inside Science News Service .

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Can Patents Keep Up with Technology?

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:00:00 EST

The U.S. patent system is a popular target. Recently we have heard that big portfolios of large companies pose a threat to small inventors, “patent trolls” who exist solely to sue real companies have hijacked the marketplace for new ideas and colossal lawsuits prove that America's patent system is broken.

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Very Fine Art: 6 Stunningly Beautiful Nanoscale Sculptures [Slide Show]

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:00:00 EST

Artists and material scientists alike bend, melt and mold materials into useful and aesthetically pleasing forms. But nothing human hands have made can match the intricacy of convoluted corals or the delicate and unique geometry of a snowflake. In a study published yesterday in Science researchers exploited nature’s sculpting methods to create visually stunning 3-D structures that may change the way nano- and micro-materials are made.

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Google and NASA Snap Up Quantum Computer D-Wave Two

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:50:00 EST

From Nature magazine

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Grifters Increase Their Internet Attacks

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:22:08 EST

Internet scams have been around almost a long as the Internet itself, but that doesn’t stop people from falling for them. The latest report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center says consumers were victims of nearly 290,000 online frauds and lost more than $525 million in 2012. That’s up 8 percent from 2011.

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Obama Administration Announces 3 Advanced-Manufacturing Innovation Institutes

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:15:00 EST

From Nature magazine

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Big Data Needs a Big Theory to Go with It

Wed, 15 May 2013 07:30:00 EST

As the world becomes increasingly complex and interconnected, some of our biggest challenges have begun to seem intractable. What should we do about uncertainty in the financial markets? How can we predict energy supply and demand? How will climate change play out? How do we cope with rapid urbanization? Our traditional approaches to these problems are often qualitative and disjointed and lead to unintended consequences. To bring scientific rigor to the challenges of our time, we need to develop a deeper understanding of complexity itself.

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The Mathematics of Juggling [Video]

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:10:00 EST

From Simons Science News ( find original story here ).

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An Emotionally Intelligent GPS System

Sun, 12 May 2013 12:00:00 EST

Human emotion metrics for navigation plans and maps: Imagine choosing not just the quickest path to your destination but the one that is most likely to lift your mood. Patent no. 8,364,395 fuses advances in mapping and traffic data with those in mood detection to form an emotionally intelligent navigation system.

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Bullies Turn Cyberspace Sour

Sat, 11 May 2013 13:20:08 EST

Getting picked on is an unfortunate part of childhood. While many adults took their lumps the old-fashioned way--in person--today’s kids face an altogether different antagonist: the cyber bully.

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Quantum Meld Brings Photons Together

Thu, 09 May 2013 17:00:00 EST

Encoding information in quantum particles such as photons, the quanta of light, could lead to powerful new technologies, such as ultrafast quantum computers and unbreakable quantum cryptography. A method for loading the information carried by two photons into a single photon, described in Nature Photonics , suggest a way to boost the efficiency of data transmission in such systems.

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Science Tackles Twitter Talents

Mon, 06 May 2013 20:28:08 EST

Justin Bieber has nearly 39 million followers on Twitter--eight million more than the president . But for those of us who aren't as #blessed as Bieber, researchers have come up with a few tips to racking up more followers--based on an analysis of over 500 active tweeters and their half million tweets, over a 15-month period.

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Now Hear This! Most People Stink at Listening [Excerpt]

Fri, 03 May 2013 10:00:00 EST

Editor's note: This excerpt of a chapter from The Plateau Effect describes a study that authors Bob Sullivan and Hugh Thompson conducted with Carnegie Mellon University into the nature of “digital distractions.” Listeners in general are terrible at comprehension, but the authors found that the mere possibility that one’s phone may ring diminishes a person’s cognition skills up to 20 percent. The authors’ research adds to a growing body of work that suggests attention is becoming an increasingly rare commodity, thanks to the proliferation of gadgets, not to mention people, vying for our limited time. [More]

A New NASA Mission Propels Detailed Investigations of Nearby Exoplanets

Thu, 02 May 2013 02:00:00 EST

NASA's Kepler mission has been a smash hit. It has discovered thousands of probable exoplanets--worlds orbiting stars other than the sun--more than 100 of which have already been vetted and confirmed. Many of those planets are among the most nearly Earth-size planets known: of the 25 smallest-diameter exoplanets discovered to date, all but one were spotted by Kepler. There is just one asterisk tacked to Kepler's immensely productive haul: the planets are hundreds or even thousands of light-years away, too distant to investigate in any detail.

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When Will Smartglasses and Other Wearable Computers Hit the Mainstream?

Wed, 01 May 2013 11:30:00 EST

Google has stoked our collective imagination via relentless promotion of its Google Glass wearable computer in recent months. Thanks to a campaign of Web videos, trade show appearances and blog posts, the search giant has positioned its smartglasses as a hands-free augmented reality gadget that will allow us to share our personal experiences in real time, whether we are skydiving, skiing or handling snakes . [More]

Cool It: The Internet May Be Too Hot For Data Centers to Handle

Wed, 01 May 2013 01:00:00 EST

The Internet may not consume nearly as much environmentally unfriendly fossil fuel as airplanes or automobiles, but the growth of cloud-based services offered by Apple, Netflix and others is forcing data centers to provide greater speed and more storage capacity. All of this size and speed comes at a price. Data centers generate a lot of heat that has to be whisked away by power-hungry air- and liquid-cooling systems to keep the Internet's engines from burning themselves out.

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Soft Circuits May Lead To 'Cyborg Tissues'

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:00:00 EST

Seamlessly integrating powerful, 3-D computer circuits into soft materials such as rubber has been an elusive goal in engineering. Now researchers say they have developed a type of circuit that is soft and porous--more like a net than a chip. Manufacturers could weave these circuits into an extraordinary range of materials to create “smart matter” that scans and reacts to its surroundings or even “cyborg tissues”--human skin and organs that could report on their own health.

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