36786623
submission
grouchomarxist writes:
Physicists at the University of Michigan claim that they have made the first detection of dark matter. 'Dark matter, whose composition is still a mystery, doesn't emit or absorb light, so astronomers can't see it directly with telescopes. They deduce that it exists based on how its gravity affects visible matter. Scientists estimate that dark matter makes up more than 80 percent of the universe. To "see" the dark matter component of the filament that connects the clusters Abell 222 and 223, Dietrich and his colleagues took advantage of a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. They were able to determine the extent to which the supercluster distorted galaxies, and with that information, they could plot the gravitational field and the mass of the Abell 222 and 223 clusters. "It looks like there's a bridge that shows that there is additional mass beyond what the clusters contain, the clusters alone cannot explain this additional mass," Dietrich said.' Article in nature is here.
8836240
submission
grouchomarxist writes:
Amazon has announced that there will be a limited beta next month for a Kindle Development Kit (KDK) that supports "active content running on a Kindle". No word so far on what the development language will be (Javascript?). Some people are skeptical of the value of such a kit.
125569
submission
grouchomarxist writes:
Microsoft is considering selling the Zune subsidized like a cellphone, according to this excerpt on MarketWatch from a PC World magazine interview with Microsoft's Zune marketing director, Jason Reindorp. According to the article: "The spokesman said that Microsoft first considered the cellphone-like distribution plan after seeing interest in its Zune Pass subscription service, which offers monthly paid access to songs on the Zune Marketplace, a competitor to Apple's iTunes store. Though he declined to say how many subscribers currently use Zune Pass, the spokesman said subscriptions rose 65% during January." The PC World interview doesn't appear to be available yet online.
39682
submission
grouchomarxist writes:
According to this article, Bill Gates has said that the Zune will soon connect to the Xbox 360 and the PC. So while the Zune's current wireless functionality has been highly criticized, perhaps it will be more useful in the next generation.
