Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Science

Plants 'Recognize' Their Siblings 331

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the family-tree dept.
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that according to a recent study, Biologists have found that plants are able to recognize their own relatives. "Researchers at McMaster University have found that plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species, but they're accommodating when potted with their siblings. [...] Though they lack cognition and memory, the study shows plants are capable of complex social behaviours such as altruism towards relatives, says Dudley. Like humans, the most interesting behaviours occur beneath the surface."
Space

Submission + - Europe unveils new space plane for tourist market (space.com)

Submitted by
mrminator
mrminator writes: "Space.com is reporting that EADS's Astrium division, prime contractor for Ariane 5 rockets and for Europe's contribution to the international space station, announced just a few hours ago that a group of its engineers has spent two years quietly designing a space tourism vehicle that looks like a business jet with exceptionally long wings and a rocket engine. The round trip would last about 90 minutes and carry four passengers and a pilot, with the passengers each paying about 200,000 euros ($267,000) for the experience."

Feed UK's Lightning to build all-electric GT sports car (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Transportation

Adding its name to the ever-growing list of all-electric cars that never seem to seep onto lots is Lightning, which is apparently developing a 700bhp whip that unashamedly rips styling cues from quintessential British cars of the past and present. Designed to "compete with premium market sport cars," the GT is hoping to "combine high performance electric motive power with an advanced regenerative energy system that recharges the car's batteries under braking by capturing lost friction energy." Additionally, motorists can expect a sub-four second 0-60 time, and better yet, just a ten minute charge time to sustain a 250 mile range. As expected, Lightning would love to secure your deposit on the not-yet-launched car right now for a 2008 delivery, but we'd recommend checking with its shipping department before you place an order from outside of Britain.

[Via Autoblog]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Microsoft

Submission + - MS attempts to challenge Adobe's Web design suite (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "Computerworld has published an analysis of Microsoft's challenge to Adobe's suite of Web-design and development software. The MS products are part of the $600 Expression Studio, which includes a bunch of different tools such as the successor to FrontPage (Expression Web) and a competitor to Adobe Illustrator (Expression Design). The reviewer found the functionality of the individual tools to be "not bad", and the price is great, but pointed to two major shortcomings: A lack of an image editing program and the failure of the Expression Studio products to really work together:

It's hard not to see Expression Studio as less a true 'suite' than a collection of products that have been co-branded after the fact — partly because Microsoft's other suite, Office, is so tightly knit in comparison. It's tough to see how the products in Expression Studio fit into a single integrated workflow or how they can all be used together, aside from creating XAML applications for Web sites.
The review also notes that these programs support Silverlight, the partially open-source technology that is meant to go up against Flash."
Google

Submission + - EBay pulls from Google AdWords (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
InfoWorldMike
InfoWorldMike writes: "EBay has pulled all of its paid search ads from Google AdWords network in the U.S in an eyebrow-raising move likely to be interpreted in the industry as a sign of deteriorating relations between the two Internet giants. An eBay spokesman characterized the decision to pull the U.S. Google ads as an instance in a continued experiment eBay does to determine the best allocation of its advertising and marketing budget. But a source familiar with the situation said the move is an angry reaction by eBay's management to Google's decision to hold a protest party concurrent with the start of eBay Live, the company's annual conference for merchants."
Microsoft

Submission + - What the Microsoft/Xandros deal means for Linux (linux-watch.com)

Submitted by
AlexGr
AlexGr writes: "In a Linux-Watch story, Steven Vaughan-Nichols compiles opinions of industry experts and analysts regarding the recent agreement between Microsoft and Xandros. One of the OSS insiders quoted in the article was Linspire's president, Kevin Carmony, who approved the deal. "It would be hypocritical of me to say Xandros shouldn't be able to work with Microsoft, when Linspire offers options from dozens of proprietary companies every day. Choice is rarely a bad thing. Bottom line, I think this was a smart move on their part, even though many in 'the community' won't understand that, at least not right away," Carmony added. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS4862361523.html"

Feed Important Secret In Gene Replication Uncovered (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
A team of geneticists has uncovered a major secret in the mystery of how the DNA helix replicates itself time after time. It turns out that it is not just the sequence of the bases -- building blocks -- in the DNA, but also how loosely or tightly the chromatin -- the material that makes up chromosomes -- is packed at different points of the chromosome that is critical.

Feed Astronomers Find Most Distant Black Hole (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
A team of astronomers from Canada, France and the United States is announcing the discovery of a record-breaking black hole located nearly 13 billion light years from the Earth. Details of the discovery, made with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, are being presented today by Dr Chris Willott, of the University of Ottawa, to astronomers and astrophysicists during the annual conference of the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA 2007) in Kingston, Ontario. Future observations of this black hole will shed light on the early evolution of the Universe.
Software

Submission + - OSS becomes OSS - Too Late? (4front-tech.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: 4Front Technologies [http://www.opensound.com/] will finally license [http://www.4front-tech.com/hannublog/] their Open Sound System (the commercial version of the Linux kernel's old OSS audio drivers) under the GPL and CDDL. Maybe a little too late as ALSA has taken its place now. Developers may eventually change that again as OSS's API is much nicer to program for. The system setup is easier, too. But it will be a hard fight.

Official announcement tomorrow.
Displays

Submission + - A look at DisplayPort and CMOS photonics (beyond3d.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Beyond3D has taken a look at how CMOS photonics is shaping the future of hardware interconnects. Hybrid devices, which use CMOS photonics to transmit signals over fiber optic cable at a much lower cost than traditional methods, will make their mainstream debut next year as part of the DisplayPort standard. The net impact for consumers is that they will be 1/10 the size of traditional copper cables with none of the range problems associated with HDMI (where a 1080p signal won't travel more than 15 meters). And there's no reason why they should cost more than copper cables...

Slashdot Top Deals

Don't panic.

Close