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Biotech

Submission + - T-Cells may help prevent Organ rejection. (garvan.org.au) 1

Submitted by Klootzak
Klootzak writes: Scientists working at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have potentially made a discovery that could help prevent Organ rejection in transplant patients.

The Research involved genetically engineering Mice to increase levels of the BAFF (B-Cell activating factor), which is utilised by the immune system to generate B-Cells (which produce antibodies). The Scientists subsequently observed that the Immune System of the Mice with the increased hormone level would alter the bodies response to cells that were not marked "self", by increasing the amount of "T" regulatory cells which are used by the body to suppress T-Cell activity (T-Cells are the body's "Killer" cells). It was also noted that the altered response did not seem to relate to a defect in the T-Cells themselves.

This discovery may lead to improved success rates in organ transplant patients by reducing the need for patients to be given immunosuppressive drugs which can sometimes have toxic affects and also prevent the body from fighting normal pathogens like bacteria and viruses.

Further Technical Detail can be found in the Journal of Immunology.
Security

Submission + - How to suck at Information Security? (sans.org)

Submitted by wiedzmin
wiedzmin writes: Great entry in today's SANS Internet Storm Center Handler's Diary — How to suck at Information Security. My favorite points include:
  • Assume the users will read the security policy because you've asked them to.
  • Assume that policies don't apply to executives.
  • Make someone responsible for managing risk, but don't give the person any power to make decisions.
  • Expect end-users to forgo convenience in place of security.
  • Say "no" whenever asked to approve a request.
  • Stop learning about technologies and attacks.
  • Hire somebody just because he or she has a lot of certifications.
  • Don't cross-train the IT and security staff.
  • Expect your users to remember passwords without writing them down.

Very entertaining and informative read with total of about 4 dozen points. Now if I could only find a way to get management to read it.
Space

Submission + - Our universe a giant hologram?

Submitted by LifesRoadie
LifesRoadie writes: New Scientist reports;

For the past seven years, this German set-up has been looking for gravitational waves — ripples in space-time thrown off by super-dense astronomical objects such as neutron stars and black holes. GEO600 has not detected any gravitational waves so far, but it might inadvertently have made the most important discovery in physics for half a century.

For many months, the GEO600 team-members had been scratching their heads over inexplicable noise that is plaguing their giant detector. Then, out of the blue, a researcher approached them with an explanation. In fact, he had even predicted the noise before he knew they were detecting it. According to Craig Hogan, a physicist at the Fermilab particle physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, GEO600 has stumbled upon the fundamental limit of space-time — the point where space-time stops behaving like the smooth continuum Einstein described and instead dissolves into "grains", just as a newspaper photograph dissolves into dots as you zoom in. "It looks like GEO600 is being buffeted by the microscopic quantum convulsions of space-time," says Hogan.

Obesa Cantavit
Space

Submission + - NASA: 2012 'space Katrina' may cripple U.S. (revolutionradio.org)

Submitted by
smilestill
smilestill writes: "A recently released NASA report warns that the U.S. has forgotten the power of the sun, creating a technological society susceptible like never before to massive infrastructure damage from solar storms. "Whether it is terrestrial catastrophes or extreme space weather incidents," writes Baker in a statement released with the report, "the results can be devastating to modern societies that depend in a myriad of ways on advanced technological systems." The study, carried out for NASA by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, doesn't predict some new solar or environmental disaster. Instead, it studies the effects of the sun's normal, cyclical behavior upon modern technology. You can read more here"
Medicine

Submission + - Coffee can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease (theage.com.au) 1

Submitted by
Amenacier
Amenacier writes: "Recent studies by Finnish and Swedish researchers have shown that drinking moderate amounts of coffee can reduce the risk of people getting Alzheimer's disease. The reason for this is as yet unknown, although it has been hypothesised that the high levels of antioxidants found in coffee may play a role in preventing dementia and Alzheimer's. Alternatively, some studies have shown that coffee can protect nerves, which may help prevent Alzheimer's. Other studies have shown that coffee may also help to protect against diabetes, another disease which has been shown to have links to Alzheimer's disease. However, researchers warn against drinking too much coffee, as 3 cups or more may cause hallucinations."
Republicans

Submission + - Illegal searches are now legal in the US (yahoo.com)

Submitted by WilyCoder
WilyCoder writes: "The Supreme Court said Wednesday that evidence obtained after illegal searches or arrests based on simple police mistakes may be used to prosecute criminal defendants. The justices split 5-4 along ideological lines to apply new limits to the court's so-called exclusionary rule, which generally requires evidence to be suppressed if it results from a violation of a suspect's Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches or seizure." Is the 4th amendment dead?
Networking

Submission + - Which certifications should I go for and why?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I'm currently a senior-level LAN support technician, and I'm considering going for some certifications. I'm not sure which ones to go for. I'm fairly safe in my current job, but I want to expand my knowledge base and also perhaps move out of the support-side of IT and move into an area such as server administration, hopefully within my current company.

Which certifications would you recommend for those means? I'm looking at the following:
  • A+ — I wouldn't need to study much for this, since it appears I know most of it already
  • Network+
  • Linux+

I'm also thinking about MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional), since it would look good for my current position...but I want to eventually move away from Microsoft...

Programming

Submission + - Can we create fun games automatically? (blogspot.com) 1

Submitted by
togelius
togelius writes: "What makes games fun? Some (e.g. Raph Koster) claim that is fun is learning — fun games are those which are easy to learn, but hard to master, with a long and smooth learning curve. I think we can create fun game rules automatically through measuring their learnability. In a recent experiment we do this using evolutionary computation, and create some simple Pacman-like new games completely without human intervention! Maybe this is the future for game design? (Blog post, paper)."
Social Networks

Personality Testing For Employment 581

Posted by kdawson from the strongly-disagree dept.
Thelasko writes "While I was in college, I had the opportunity to take an elective course in Industrial Psychology. One section of the course covered hiring practices and the validity of 'personality testing' to screen applicants (Google link for non-subscribers). The Wall Street Journal has a long article discoursing on how such tests are used in today's economy. While personality tests may be designed to uncover underlying personality traits such as honesty, critics claim that the tests instead reward cheaters." The article talks mostly about the tests' use in winnowing candidates for retail positions — deciding whom to interview. Anybody encountered them in an IT or more technical context?
The Military

Submission + - US Air Force Seeks Air Force One Replacement

Submitted by Tyketto
Tyketto writes: The United States Air Force has taken the first public step in the search for a replacement of the Boeing VC-25, also known as Air Force One, saying that it is no longer cost effective to operate and modernize the two 19 year old VC-25s, which are converted Boeing 747-200s. Airbus has already submitted data for the A380, and while Boeing has had the Air Force One contract for nearly 50 years, delays with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Boeing 747-8, and the KC-X Tanker competition may see the USAF look to Europe for its next presidential aircraft.
Communications

Submission + - Development 2.0 Challenge Winners Announced

Submitted by
Katie
Katie writes: "Yesterday Columbia University and UNICEF received the first-place award in the 'Development 2.0 Challenge' of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The award was for an innovative system that uses low-end mobile phones to monitor children's health and nutritional status in Malawi. The project is part of UNICEF's new strategy for using mobile and web-based technology to facilitate communication in Africa and around the world. Runner-ups of the Challenge include two other mobile projects: Ushahidi and Click Diagnostics."
Transmeta

Submission + - Largest particle collider conducts successful test (weather.com)

Submitted by
mercutioviz
mercutioviz writes: "If the economy doesn't destroy the world, maybe CERN will, as they've conducted their first successful test. From the article: The world's largest particle collider successfully completed its first major test by firing a beam of protons around a 17-mile underground ring Wednesday in what scientists hope is the next great step to understanding the makeup of the universe.
After a series of trial runs, two white dots flashed on a computer screen at 10:36 a.m. indicating that the protons had traveled the full length of the $3.8 billion Large Hadron Collider."
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Synchrotron gets sci-fi writer in residence (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by
kandela
kandela writes: "CBC News is reporting that Nebula and Hugo award winning author Robert J. Sawyer is to become the first ever writer in residence at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron facility (see also their media release).

Sayer will spend two months at the facility, where he is hoping to be inspired by the everyday grind of scientists, "I spent a lot of time visiting science labs over the years, but it's always the VIP tour," he said in an interview Wednesday. "You are in and you are out in a couple of hours, and everyone has shown you all the things they want you to see but none of the day-to-day grind of the work as well. I want to get the flavour of that."

As a scientist who has worked at synchrotron facilities (and occasional sci-fi writer myself (page 4)), I'm excited to see what a professional can do with that environment for inspiration."

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Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

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