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Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What stands in the way of a truly solar-powered airplane? (gizmag.com) 2

Submitted by centre21
centre21 writes: So I've been reading about solar-powered aircraft all over the Interwebs, as well as solar power in general, but I'm wondering, is it more than just solar cell efficiency that's preventing the creation of a solar-powered airliner? Conspiracy views aside (which may be valid) it seems to me that if I were running an airline the size of United or American, eliminating the need for jet fuel as a cost would be HIGHLY appealing. So I'm asking: what stands in the way of creating true solar-powered airliners?
Education

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Next career steps for developer turning engineer

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I currently work as a "practice lead" at a medium-sized consulting firm, which is to say I manage a team of 6-10 PHP/LAMP programmers to build enterprise CMSs and applications. While I enjoy what I do, I've recently been considering a second bachelors degree and really a new career in engineering. Specifically I'm interested in the combination of mechanics, electronics, and computing, which is currently pointing me towards the mechatronics field of engineering. My goal is to be able to understand, from start to finish, how an "electronic" product is designed, manufactured, and brought to market. My challenge is finding the right program; I have 2 masters degrees (statistics and an MBA) but lack the core math/physics knowledge that any engineering student should grasp. I have 10+ years experience programming (Perl, Python, PHP, VB, nothing in C or C++) and needless to say would like to learn more CS theory. So my question /.: What programs/disciplines do you recommend? What should I study on my own vs. what to study in the university? What skills should I expect to learn on-the-job vs. in the university?
Businesses

Submission + - Google-Like Interview Questions May Be Costing Employers Their Best Hires Read (businessinsider.com)

Submitted by
concealment
concealment writes: "The "puzzle interview is being used with greater frequency by employers in a variety of industries," wrote Chris Wright, associate professor of psychology at San Francisco State University, in a recent study.

After examining 360 participants, the researchers found that brain teaser questions are "discouraging otherwise qualified workers" because many candidates feel the potential employer is treating them unfairly or setting them up for failure.

"If candidates give one bad answer, it could change their entire career trajectory,” Heidi Golledge, CEO and co-founder CareerBliss.com, told Martha C. White at Time magazine. “Candidates should have the ability to shine without putting them through questions designed to scare."
Supercomputing

Submission + - Titan: World's Fastest Supercomputer at 20 petaflops Unveiled (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has unveiled a new supercomputer – Titan, which it claims is the world’s most powerful supercomputer that is capable of 20 petaflops of performance. The Cray XK7 supercomputer contains a total of 18,688 nodes and each node is based on a 16-core AMD Opteron 6274 processor and an Nvidia Tesla K20 Graphical Processing Unit (GPU). To be used for researching climate change and other data-intensive tasks, the supercomputer is equipped with more than 700 terabytes of memory.
Science

Submission + - Israeli Scientists Find Way to See Through Frosted Glass (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Taking a shower while secure in the knowledge that no one can see through the curtains may soon be a thing of the past. Researchers Ori Katz, Eran Small and Yaron Silberberg of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, have developed a method for de-scattering light to form coherent images in real time. In other words, they have found a way to look through shower curtains, frosted glass and other image-blurring materials. The technique may one day aid scientists in seeing through living tissue or around corners.
Education

Submission + - Are teachers headed for obsolescence: OLPC children teach themselves (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by dstates
dstates writes: One Laptop Per Child reports encouraging results of a bold experiment to reach the millions of students worldwide who have no access to primary school. OLPC delivered tablets to two Ethiopian villages in unmarked boxes without instructions or instructors. Within minutes the kids were opening the boxes and figuring out how to use the Motorola Zoom tablets, within days they were playing alphabet songs and withing a few months how to hack the user interface to enable blocked camera functionality. With the Kahn Academy and others at the high school level and massive open online courses at the college level, the teaching profession is under assault as never before.
Math

Submission + - Maths and nature link 'proven' by Manchester scientists (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
hessian
hessian writes: "The largest ever research project into mathematical patterns in flowers has proved a link between number sequences and nature, Manchester scientists said.

Data from 557 sunflowers from seven countries was collected for the Turing's Sunflowers project, set up to celebrate the centenary of the mathematician's birth, and growers kept video diaries about their flowers' progress.

It showed 82% of the flowers conformed to complex structures including the mathematical Fibonacci sequence — where each number is the sum of the previous two."
Science

Submission + - Hurricane Sandy Is 'Meteorologically Mind-Boggling,' Scientists Say

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists have been following and projecting Sandy's path with all the tools at their disposal: ocean buoys, radar and satellite imagery, and computer modeling. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also gathers information from special reconnaissance aircraft, which fly over hurricanes and can drop instruments into them to measure wind speeds, air pressure, temperature, and altitude. The latest data gathered on Hurricane Sandy point to an unprecedented and mighty tempest, scientists say.
Education

Submission + - Michael E. Mann Sues for Defamation Due to Comparison to Jerry Sandusky (scientificamerican.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: The global warming debate has left much to be desired in the realms of logic and rationale. One particular researcher, Michael E. Mann, has been repeatedly attacked for his now infamous (and peer reviewed/independently verified) hockey stick graph. It has come to the point that he is now suing for defamation over being compared to convicted serial child molester Jerry Sandusky. Articles hosted by defendants and written by defendant Rand Simberg and defendant Mark Steyn utilize questionable logic for implicating Michael E. Mann alongside Jerry Sandusky with the original piece concluding, 'Michael Mann, like Joe Paterno, was a rock star in the context of Penn State University, bringing in millions in research funding. The same university president who resigned in the wake of the Sandusky scandal was also the president when Mann was being (whitewashed) investigated. We saw what the university administration was willing to do to cover up heinous crimes, and even let them continue, rather than expose them. Should we suppose, in light of what we now know, they would do any less to hide academic and scientific misconduct, with so much at stake?' Additionally, sentences were stylized to blend the two people together, 'He has molested and tortured data in the service of politicized science that could have dire economic consequences for the nation and planet' and one of the defendants admits to removing "a sentence or two" of questionable wording. Still, as a public figure, Michael E. Mann has an uphill battle to prove defamation in court.
Medicine

Submission + - A 3D Printer for Vaccines (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Geneticist J. Craig Venter told attendees at the recent Wired Health Conference in New York City that his scientific team is working on what he calls “a 3D printer for DNA, a 3D printer for life.” Such a device—which Venter also refers to as a “biological teleporter”—could be used to instantly produce vaccines, medications or biological materials anywhere in the world simply through the transfer of a digital file.
Robotics

Submission + - New Entrants to Robot Hall of Fame (i-programmer.info) 1

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: Nao, BigDog, PackBot and Wall-E are the newest members of the Robot Hall of Fame. Previously new members were elected by an international jury of researchers, writers and designers but this year voting was open to all and over 17,000 votes were collected online.
The announcement of this year's new members took place at an awards ceremony on October 23, 2012 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh which began with the induction of five previous winners. The real robots honoured were the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, the da Vinci Surgical System, and iRobot's Roomba. Inductees from science fiction were the Terminator and Huey, Dewey and Louie, the trio of robots from 1971's Silent Running.
Personally I think Huey, Dewey and Louie are the most neglected robot stars of all and it good that they have received this recognition.
Of this years winners my only disappointment was that the insufferable Wall-E won over the cool Johnny 5.
Science

Submission + - AT&T Operators Recall "War of the Worlds" (att.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On October 30th, 1938, as Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" broadcast convinced a nation that the world was under assault by angry Martians, thousands of people turned to a perfectly logical source of authority: AT&T's telephone operators. On that evening, operators acted as news sources (they knew nothing), comforting voices and calm advisors to their panicked callers. This film, made in 1988 for the fiftieth anniversary of the broadcast, features interviews with actual operators who were on duty that night. Their accounts, now told with a smile, still reflect the grave position that the operators were put in as they fielded calls that night.
Wine

Submission + - Winemaking Waste Could Become Biofuel Starter (acs.org)

Submitted by Tator Tot
Tator Tot writes: Grape pomace, the mashed up skins and stems left over from making wine and grape juice, could serve as a good starting point for ethanol production, according to a new study (from the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry).

Due to growing interest in biofuels, researchers have started looking for cheap and environmentally sustainable ways to produce such fuels, especially ethanol. Biological engineer Jean VanderGheynst at the University of California, Davis, turned to grape pomace, because winemakers in California alone produce over 100,000 tons of the fruit scraps each year, with much of it going to waste.
Technology

Submission + - Muse Lets Users Monitor Their Brain Waves on Mobile Devices (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Want to know what your brain is up to? Soon, it may be as simple as slipping on a wireless headband, then accessing an app. That’s the idea behind Muse, a wearable device developed by Toronto-based tech company InteraXon. Essentially a lightweight portable EEG (electroencephalography) machine, it lets users monitor their neural activity in real time via their mobile device.
Medicine

Submission + - Scientific Study: Brits are terrible at washing their Hands (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The BBC reports the finding of a scientific study on the washing of hands in the UK. The result? 'Faecal bacteria are present on 26% of hands in the UK, 14% of banknotes and 10% of credit cards. 11% of hands are so 'grossly contaminated' they are carrying as many germs as a dirty toilet bowl. It's the same for 8% of cards and 6% of notes. Faecal matter can be found on one in six mobile phones. 99% of people interviewed at motorway service stations toilets claimed they had washed their hands after going to the toilet. Electronic recording devices revealed only 32% of men and 64% of women actually did wash their hands.

  99% of people interviewed at motorway service stations toilets claimed they had washed their hands after going to the toilet. Electronic recording devices revealed only 32% of men and 64% of women actually did.

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What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite. -- Bertrand Russell, "Skeptical Essays", 1928

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