17892596
submission
beschra writes:
From BBC News:The Oriental hornet has a unique ability to harvest solar energy, scientists have discovered. The large wasp species has a special structure in its abdomen that traps the sun's rays, and a special pigment that harvests the energy they contain.
Still a lot to understand, but how long until humans with brown and yellow hornet stripes?
16809038
submission
beschra writes:
"Imagine a sheet of material that's just one atom thick, yet super-strong, highly conductive, practically transparent and able to reveal new secrets of fundamental physics. That's graphene, isolated by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, 2010 Nobel Laureates in Physics."
And they're pretty young as far as Nobel laureates go. Congratulations!
15786546
submission
beschra writes:
BBC writes of "terra-forming" Ascension Island, one of the islands Charles Darwin visited. He and a friend encouraged the Royal Navy to import boat loads of trees and plants in an attempt to capture the little bit of water that fell on the island. They were quite successful. The island even has a cloud forest now.
From TA: [British ecologist] Wilkinson thinks that the principles that emerge from that experiment could be used to transform future colonies on Mars. In other words, rather than trying to improve an environment by force, the best approach might be to work with life to help it "find its own way".
Could this actually be a viable approach to terra-forming Mars?
14132268
submission
beschra writes:
Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) was developed as early as 1981. After launching in the UK 10 years ago, only 24% of listeners listen on DAB. The article credits a good part of the delay to the fact that the technology was largely developed under the Europe-wide Eureka 147 research project. How does government vs. commercial development help or hinder acceptance of new technology? From TFA:
[analyst Grant Goddard says] "If Nokia develop something, they'll be bringing out the handsets before you know it," he says. "Because DAB was a pan-European development, you had to have agreement from all sides before you could do anything. That meant progress was extremely slow." But this alone did not account for the hold-up. The sheer complexity of introducing and regulating the system was also a major factor, Mr Goddard adds.
11181958
submission
beschra writes:
In a ruling that's sure to be appealed, the DC court of appeals has ruled that the FCC doesn't have authority to enforce net neutrality rules.
5944009
submission
beschra writes:
BBC reports that Pepsi, US TV and CBS are doing a test of advertising with an embedded LCD display in Entertainment Weekly. It takes several seconds to load, is expensive and, I'm predicting, annoying. Add toxic waste to the mix and I'm wondering what the possible upside is? Is this anything more than singing Hallmark cards on steroids?
5926547
submission
beschra writes:
More advances in military robots. Now they can jump over 25' obstacles like fences and walls. Handy in urban warfare/reconaissance.
5399721
submission
beschra writes:
Satellite images from 2007 reveal the street plan of Altinum, an ancient city considered to be the precursor to Venice. It was abandoned 1,500 years ago when Attila the Hun was on the march. I really like seeing technology used to find out about stuff that's been under our feet for centuries.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1203473/The-lost-Roman-city-Altinum-precursor-Venice-rises-aerial-maps-reveal-detailed-street-plan.html
