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Submission + - Butterfly Wings Could Lead To Better Solar Cells (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers have developed a technique to replicate biological structures, such as butterfly wings, on a nano scale. They focused on the tiny nano-sized photonic structures that are found in the insects’ cuticle, and which give insects their iridescence — that slightly metallic sheen that also seems to shift in color depending on the viewing angle. By replicating the biotemplate of butterfly wings, the researchers hope to be able to make various optically-active structures, such as optical diffusers or coverings that maximize solar cell absorption.
Science

Submission + - Startup Publishes Mathematics of Brain Circuits 2

Submitted by braingal
braingal writes: The brain’s core algorithm for intelligent thought and action is closer to being cracked, thanks to a new mathematical model of cortical function. The model, developed by the Silicon Valley startup company Numenta, is described in a paper entitled “Towards a Mathematical Theory of Cortical Micro-circuits” in the October issue of PLoS Computational Biology . The model provides detailed, testable predictions about many enigmatic features of cortical circuitry. It also makes predictions about the systematic errors and illusions that living brains exhibit and has implications for understanding mental disorders. There are technological ramifications as well: an accurate model of the cortical algorithm may accelerate the creation of intelligent machines ( Singularity...here we come!!) by revealing which details of the neural circuitry are functionally relevant.

Comment Re:Apples and Oranges (Score 1, Informative) 250

by milgr (#29646731) Attached to: Is Cloud Computing the Hotel California of Tech?
According to wikipedia, Facebook and MySpace are cloud applications. On the other hand, I usually just consider them web applications.

I usually think of Cloud Computing in terms of places to run virtual machines - Like Amazon's EC2, or a private cloud. There should be no problem getting data off of a cloud infrastructure.
Patents

Red Hat Files Amicus Brief In Bilski Patent Case 219

Posted by kdawson from the shut-'em-down dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Red Hat has filed a friend of the court brief with the Supreme Court in regards to the In Re Bilski case, which has become incredibly important due to the possibility that it could redefine the scope of patentable subject matter in a way that affects software patents. In the brief, Red Hat argues that software should not be considered patentable subject matter because it causes economic harm due to patents being granted with vague subject matter, which makes it impossible to say that a given piece of software doesn't arguably infringe upon someone's patent. They also point out Knuth's famous quote that you can't differentiate between 'numeric' and 'non-numeric' algorithms, because numbers are no different from other kinds of precise information." Read below for the submitter's thoughts on an earlier amicus brief filed in the Bilski case by Professor Lee Hollaar.
Medicine

Alzheimer's Disease Possibly Linked To Sleep Deprivation 164

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the justification-for-more-sleep dept.
sonnejw0 writes "NewScientist is reporting a link between sleep deprivation and Alzheimer's Disease via an increased amyloid-beta plaque load thought responsible for a large part of the symptoms of the disease, in mice. Medication to abrogate insomnia reduced the plaque load. Also discussed is a recently discovered sleep cycle of amyloid-beta deposition in the brain, in which levels decrease while asleep. 'Holtzman also tried sending the mice to sleep with a drug that is being trialled for insomnia, called Almorexant. This reduced the amount of plaque-forming protein. He suggests that sleeping for longer could limit the formation of plaques, and perhaps block it altogether.'"

Submission + - Ice Satellite Maps Profound Polar Thinning (spacefellowship.com)

Submitted by
xp65
xp65 writes: "Researchers have used NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite to compose the most comprehensive picture of changing glaciers along the coast of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The new elevation maps show that all latitudes of the Greenland ice sheet are affected by dynamic thinning — the loss of ice due to accelerated ice flow to the ocean. The maps also show surprising, extensive thinning in Antarctica, affecting the ice sheet far inland. The study, led by Hamish Pritchard of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, England, was published September 24 in Nature."
Education

One Telescope Per Child 63

Posted by samzenpus from the baby-wants-a-microscope-too dept.
An anonymous reader writes "It seems one-<object>-per-child goes beyond laptops. A project from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has designed a high-quality, $20 telescope they're calling the Galileoscope, hoping to spark interest in astronomy among kids and make good scopes available to many who otherwise could not afford one. But as OLPC learned, it's not that easy; they are struggling to get enough volume to get production ramped up and costs down, resorting to tricks like auctioning off a few autographed ones, and trying Give-One-Get-One."
Biotech

Gene Therapy Cures Color-Blind Monkeys 197

Posted by samzenpus from the hope-for-uriah dept.
SpuriousLogic writes "After receiving injections of genes that produce color-detecting proteins, two color-blind monkeys have seen red and green for the first time. Except in its extreme forms, color blindness isn't a debilitating condition, but it's a convenient stand-in for other types of blindness that might be treated with gene therapy. The monkey success raises the possibility of reversing those diseases, in a manner that most scientists considered impossible. 'We said it was possible to give an adult monkey with a model of human red-green color blindness the retina of a person with normal color vision. Every single person I talked to said, absolutely not,' said study co-author Jay Neitz, a University of Washington ophthalmologist. 'And almost every unsolved vision defect out there has this component in one way or another, where the ability to translate light into a gene signal is involved.' The full-spectrum supplementation of the squirrel monkeys' sight, described Wednesday in Nature, comes just less than a year after researchers used gene therapy to restore light perception in people afflicted by Leber Congenital Amaurosis, a rare and untreatable form of blindness."
Image

Fungivarius Beats $2 Million Stradivarius Violin 210

Posted by samzenpus from the dinner-and-a-song dept.
Fluffeh writes "Violins made by the Italian master Antonio Giacomo Stradivarius are regarded as being of unparalleled quality even today, with enthusiasts being prepared to pay millions for a single example. Stradivarius himself knew nothing of fungi which attack wood, but he received inadvertent help from the Little Ice Age which occurred from 1645 to 1715. During this period Central Europe suffered long winters and cool summers which caused trees to grow slowly and uniformly ideal conditions in fact for producing wood with excellent acoustic qualities. Now scientists are turning to fungi to recreate some of these amazing sounding instruments."

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