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Mars

Mars Rover Ready for Risky Descent into Crater 156

Posted by Zonk from the go-opportunity-do-your-best dept.
Riding with Robots writes "After months of scoping out the terrain, the robotic geologist Opportunity is ready to drive down into Victoria Crater on the Meridiani Plains of Mars. Mission managers acknowledge the hardy rover may never come back out, but say they think the potential for discovery is worth it. 'The rover has operated more than 12 times longer than its originally intended 90 days. The scientific allure is the chance to examine and investigate the compositions and textures of exposed materials in the crater's depths for clues about ancient, wet environments. As the rover travels farther down the slope, it will be able to examine increasingly older rocks in the exposed walls of the crater. '"
Programming

Submission + - Social Information Processing as AI (physorg.com)

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "An interesting research project has led to a new kind of AI. It hinges on social networks tied together by popular websites, the discussions they have and the meta data in the form of tags that labels sites. The research is kind of all over the place, looking at this from both a problems solving and internet search engine viewpoint. Will we see social networks powering next generation artificially intelligent agents & search engines?"
Power

Submission + - Nano-scrolls could be ideal for hydrogen storage

Submitted by NSTipster
NSTipster writes: Scientists believe that rolled-up sheets of carbon could store hydrogen with unprecedented efficiency and without extremely low temperatures or high pressures. Computer simulations, performed by a team in Greece, reveal that adding impurities to rolled-up carbon sheets should improve their ability soak up hydrogen, potentially overcoming one of the biggest problems facing the hydrogen fuel economy — how to store and transport it easily and safely.
Space

The United States Space Arsenal 297

Posted by samzenpus from the Q-36-explosive-space-modulator dept.
ntmokey writes "When China tested a missile on its own satellite in January, the nation's aggressive statement immediately raised eyebrows among the world's other space-faring nations. Popular Mechanics looks at the implications of a conflict in space — including debris that could render space unusable for decades — and examines the United States' own space arsenal."
Biotech

Submission + - I actually had lenses implanted in my eyes-video (frontiernet.net)

Submitted by halokinq
halokinq writes: With a prescription of almost -900 since about 5th grade, poor eyesight (near blindness) has always been a battle for me. Without correction (glasses or contacts) I would get a headache within the hour trying to focus. I have been considering LASIK for years and finally decided to do something about it. When I found out that I wasn't eligible (one of the reasons I hadn't tried sooner). The the doctors office offered to correct my eyes by implanting lenses... Check out this page on my personal website that includes hi-res photos of the lens in my eye. BTW- you can't see the lens when you are looking at or talking with me. I have also included video of the surgery for those that are brave. James' cool surgery
Biotech

Submission + - Autism symptoms reversed in lab (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by DoctorPhish
DoctorPhish writes: A study, by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows symptoms of mental retardation and autism have been reversed for the first time in laboratory mice.
The researchers, based at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, targeted an enzyme called PAK which affects the number, size and shape of connection between brain cells. They found that inhibiting the enzyme stopped mice with Fragile X Syndrome behaving in erratic ways.
"This implies that future treatment may still be effective even after symptoms are already pronounced" according to Dr Susumu Tonegawa of the research group.
Space

Submission + - A quicker path to outer space? (newscientist.com) 1

Submitted by
xaositects
xaositects writes: "Scientists were able to fire a plasma rocket based on VASIMR (Variable Specific-Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) technology for more than four hours, far exceeding previous testing times. (Previously, they only been able to test for 2 minutes before the rocket began overheating.) The rocket works by ecause the plasma rocket continuously accelerates, instead of firing at lift-off, then gliding to its destination as current propulsion systems do, the rocket promises to decrease travel times in space. Scientists say there are significant challenges ahead but hope to have a working application by 2010."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Correlation Implies Causation After All? (netspace.net.au) 5

Submitted by
thetan
thetan writes: "That hoary old chestnut — "correlation does not imply causation" — is frequently trotted out in arguments about science and causality. The adage is put under the microscope by a new meta-analysis of published research. Surprisingly, it seems that (statistically speaking, at least) correlation does imply causation. Where to now for amateur debaters and Slashdot flame-warriors?"
Security

Submission + - Hero Rats Employed in Land Mine Disposal (herorat.org)

Submitted by Nethemas the Great
Nethemas the Great writes: Every 20 minutes someone somewhere is hurt or killed by a landmine. In Africa Hero Rats are being trained up to tackle the task of detection. Traditional methods using metal detectors can hit on anything from sardine cans to nails and still miss the plastic cased mines. In each case though they have to be treated as if they're the real deal. The hero rats however, sniff out the explosives with a sense of smell roughly 1 million times stronger than a human and can clear a 100 square meter area in just 30 minutes. What's more unlike their human counter part these guys are so light they don't accidentally set off the mines.
Space

Submission + - Existence of black holes in doubt (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by
mrbluze
mrbluze writes: "Science magazine has an article suggesting that the existence of black holes is mathematically impossible because matter is able to escape the black hole too easily, preventing its formation.

If black holes radiate away their mass over time, as Hawking showed, then they should evaporate before they even form, Krauss says. It would be like pouring water into a glass that has no bottom. In essence, physicists have been arguing over a trick question for 40 years.
"
Space

Submission + - Why is the past different from the future?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: This is a set of slides from CalTech talking about life, entropy, the universe and why the past is different from the future.
Programming

Submission + - Model Driven Engineering : Free Software catch up (acceleo.org)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Model Driven Engineering refers to the systematic use of models as primary engineering artifacts throughout the engineering lifecycle, the set of tools needed to apply such an approach is made of graphical modelers (UML), interoperability layers (XML/XMI imports and exports) and tools to take advantage of this models using "Model to Text" transformations.

IT companies used to buy expensive proprietary solutions for these needs, thanks to the Eclipse project and some high quality free software plugins one may now have a full featured IDE with modeling support.

The EMF project brings the common compatibility for all these tools, high quality UML modelers are now available: UML tools from the Eclipse project but also Topcased or Papyrus as independent projects.

Acceleo takes care of the "model to text" transformation, in its 2.0.0 release this Eclipse-integrated MDA code generator bundle modules targeting JEE, CSharp, Java, Php or Python. These modules are the result of a growing community mixing pragmatic principles with a model driven approach.

All These plugins share the same basis: the Eclipse platform, providing a consistent and efficient software development cycle. Other needs arise and are going to be covered with incubating projects: model comparison and merge support is being covered by the emf compare project and reverse engineering through modisco.

The modeling world is very active: Acceleo has just been released, Topcased and Papyrus are near a stable release and Eclipse 3.3 brings exciting new technologies, what else do we need ?
Censorship

Submission + - Software authorisation, another kind of drm (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by ehanuise
ehanuise writes: In a Register article on the death of antivirus software, Robin Bloor highlights a very scary future, indeed :

"However, software authentication is necessary for many reasons; to prevent people from running the wrong versions of software, to prevent them loading their own favourite software without permission, to prevent people from running software for which your company has not bought a license, or to prevent them running it on a machine for which it is not licensed. Software authentication IS the issue. If you have effective software authentication, it stops malware stone dead AND it helps manage the corporate software resource in a productive way."

Of course the aforementioned reasons are valid for some people and do hold ground in a corporate environment, but what is scary is the consequences a generalisation of this would have. Small independent software writers might not be able to afford getting their software certified/authorised. Whom will be the authority, anyway ? (don't expect it to be the computer/OS user). Also as this would becore a standard operating system feature, we're in TCPA joy again — free software would also effectively stopped 'stone dead' for either the unability to get certified/authorized, or the unwilingless to do so for obvious ethical reasons.

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