Scientific American - Technology

New Radar May Help U.S. Draw the Line on Burrowing Under the Mexico Border

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST

Underground tunnels crisscross the border between the U.S. and Mexico, and the U.S. government is looking for better ways to stop the smugglers who build and use them. [More]

Sponsored Topics: Mexico - United States - Federal government of the United States - US-Mexico Border - Smuggling

Students imitate penguins to set people-powered sub records

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:00:00 EST

University of Quebec's Team OMER found inspiration in nature--penguins, actually--as they set two international speed records last week at the International Human-Powered Submarine Races held at the U. S. Naval Surface Warfare Center's Carderock test tank in Bethesda, Md. [More]

Sponsored Topics: Bethesda Maryland - Naval Surface Warfare Center - Sports - Bethesda - Submarine

Space Show Takes Viewers on a Stellar Journey

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:00:00 EST

As moviegoers make plans to watch summer blockbusters this weekend, there is an additional choice for New Yorkers: Journey to the Stars, the new space show opening July 4 at the Hayden Planetarium in the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) Rose Center for Earth and Space. [More]

Sponsored Topics: American Museum of Natural History - Hayden Planetarium - New York - Museums - Rose Center for Earth and Space

Tennessee physicist sentenced to 4 years for sharing drone plans with foreign students

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:00:00 EST

John Reece Roth, 71, a prominent plasma physicist was sentenced to four years in prison for 18 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and violations of the Arms Export Control Act, after he allowed a Chinese graduate student to see sensitive information on Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. [More]

Sponsored Topics: Unmanned aerial vehicle - Tennessee - Unmanned Air Vehicles - Arms Export Control Act - Aircraft

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter snaps its first images of the moon

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:20:00 EST

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which reached its destination just last week, is already showing its stuff.

The space agency switched on the LRO's cameras two days ago and today released the first images from the orbiter's mission, which is intended to pave the way for the return of astronauts to the moon. [More]

Sponsored Topics: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter - Moon - Space - NASA - Technology

Green Dam Web filter delayed, but not dropped

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:00:00 EST

Although China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) earlier this week granted PC makers a reprieve from having to include the Green Dam-Youth Escort Internet filtering software with every PC sold in the country, the government today made clear that it's only a matter of time before the mandate is reinstated. [More]

Sponsored Topics: China - Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China - Personal computer - Content-control software - Technology

Plastic Not-So-Fantastic: How the Versatile Material Harms the Environment and Human Health

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:00:00 EST

From cell phones and computers to bicycle helmets and hospital IV bags, plastic has molded society in many ways that make life both easier and safer. But the synthetic material also has left harmful imprints on the environment and perhaps human health, according to a new compilation of articles authored by scientists from around the world.

More than 60 scientists contributed to the new report, which aims to present the first comprehensive review of the impact of plastics on the environment and human health, and offer possible solutions.

[More]

Sponsored Topics: Mobile phone - Plastic - Synthetic fiber - Science and Technology - Hospital

Do Brain Trainer Games and Software Work?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST

The market for brain-training software continues to grow, but evidence of the programs’ ability to boost memory or intelligence in a broadly applicable way (rather than simply making people better at the task they are practicing) remains scarce. New studies offer a tantalizing suggestion that certain programs may work--but the bulk of the research is murky.

Neuroscientist Peter Snyder of Brown University reviewed nearly 20 software studies and concluded that, as a group, they were underwhelming. They are marred by flaws that induce confounding factors, such as a lack of control groups and follow-up, Snyder warns. More than a third of those he reviewed were too shoddy even to include in the analysis he printed early this year in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. “You’d be surprised at what gets published,” he says. Although some products claimed to treat dementia, Snyder did not find any evidence to back such claims.

[More]

Sponsored Topics: Dementia - Alzheimer's disease - Research - Health - Brown University

Turbines Spin in Antarctica

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST

Wind energy is being harnessed everywhere, even Antarctica. [More]

Sponsored Topics: Antarctica - Energy - Business - blogging - contest

The Wonderful World of Transgenic Animals

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:08 EST

[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]

Since Dolly the sheep was cloned back in July of 1996, the world of manipulating animal DNA has come a long way. In Massachusetts, goats now produce milk with drugs embedded. There are monkeys whose DNA glows green to enable scientific study. [More]

Sponsored Topics: DNA - Massachusetts - Dolly - Podcast - Cloning

DNA Sudoku

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:30:00 EST

A 2,000-year-old math theorem, along with Sudoku, may soon help researchers untangle DNA at blazing speeds. [More]

Sponsored Topics: Sudoku - Puzzle - Games - DNA - iPhone Application

Happy birthday, Walkman! You don't sound a day over 30

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:30:00 EST

On this day three decades ago, Sony's original blue-and-silver Walkman went on sale in Japan, launching an era of personal, portable music and generations of oblivious subway riders and pedestrians. [More]

Sponsored Topics: Japan - Sony - Walkman - Asia - Holidays

Catch you later, BlackBerry-toting skier

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:26:00 EST

Advances in memory and processing power have transformed mobile phones from bricklike boxes to gadgets about the size of a deck of cards. [More]

Sponsored Topics: BlackBerry - Mobile phone - Smartphone - IPhone - Handhelds

Band of Bots Don't Play Musical Instruments--They Are the Instruments

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:00:00 EST

GuitarBot couldn't keep a tune. "It's too high at the top, and too low at the bottom," Michael Hearst complained as he hopped onto the platform, giving the tuning knob a hopeful quarter-turn. But when he climbed down again and hit a button on his keyboard, the mechanical bridge slid back up the track, thumbing a note before wailing off-pitch once again.

[More]

Sponsored Topics: Michael Hearst - Music - Instruments - Keyboard instrument - Arts

Calendar: Mind events in July and August

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:59:00 EST

JULY

9 On this day in 1934, Canadian scientist Herbert Jasper of Brown University made the first electrical tracing from a human brain. Jasper, considered to be one of the founders of modern neuroscience, pioneered the use of the electroencephalogram (EEG) to study electrical activity associated with fundamental brain functions such as consciousness and learning. He and his collaborator, neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, also elucidated the mechanism underlying epilepsy and invented a highly successful procedure to treat seizures. Their work has contributed largely to our understanding of functional anatomy and lateralization of the human brain.

[More]

Sponsored Topics: Epilepsy - Wilder Penfield - Seizure - Electroencephalography - Canada

Ocean researchers developing robotic laser network to map the seabed

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:00:00 EST

When it comes to mapping the ocean floor, lasers can capture fine details even better than the sonar. However, while sound waves excel at cutting through dense materials, light waves move best through empty space, making it difficult for lasers to penetrate the ocean's murky depths. [More]

Sponsored Topics: Laser - Light - Sonar - Physics - Business

Flood of objections to China's Internet policing holds back Green Dam software

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EST

The Chinese government is retreating from a controversial requirement that every PC sold in the country be equipped with Internet filtering software. [More]

Sponsored Topics: China - Content-control software - Government of the People's Republic of China - Green Dam - Chinese government

Stuck Mars rover passing its time as an observatory

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:30:00 EST

The hobbled Spirit rover, stuck in a tricky patch of Martian soil, is whiling away the hours with a little stargazing. From its stationary post in an area known as Troy, the rover has been turning its cameras to the skies to act as an ad hoc observatory on Mars, as noted by Universe Today. [More]

Sponsored Topics: Mars - Space - Mars rover - Troy - NASA

Heads up! Tap Twitter for alerts when space station is overhead

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:28:00 EST

The International Space Station (ISS) is a big bird, boasting nearly an acre of solar panels along its backbone. Those panels make the ISS reflective enough so that the station can sometimes be seen from the ground as it passes roughly 220 miles (350 kilometers) above. But where and when to look? [More]

Sponsored Topics: International Space Station - Space - Solar panel - Twitter - Technology

Grassoline: Biofuels beyond Corn

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:00:00 EST

By now it ought to be clear that the U.S. must get off oil. We can no longer afford the dangers that our dependence on petroleum poses for our national security, our economic security or our environmental security. Yet civilization is not about to stop moving, and so we must invent a new way to power the world’s transportation fleet. Cellulosic biofuels--liquid fuels made from inedible parts of plants--offer the most environmentally attractive and technologically feasible near-term alternative to oil.

Biofuels can be made from anything that is, or ever was, a plant. First-generation biofuels derive from edible biomass, primarily corn and soybeans (in the U.S.) and sugarcane (in Brazil). They are the low-hanging fruits in a forest of possible biofuels, given that the technology to convert these feedstocks into fuels already exists (180 refineries currently process corn into ethanol in the U.S.). Yet first-generation biofuels are not a long-term solution. There is simply not enough available farmland to provide more than about 10 percent of developed countries’ liquid-fuel needs with first-generation biofuels. The additional crop demand raises the price of animal feed and thus makes some food items more expensive--though not nearly as much as the media hysteria last year would indicate. And once the total emissions of growing, harvesting and processing corn are factored into the ledger, it becomes clear that first-generation biofuels are not as environmentally friendly as we would like them to be.

[More]

Sponsored Topics: Biofuel - Ethanol - Brazil - United States - Sugarcane