meghan elizabeth - Slashdot User

Submission + - A Physicist Says He Can Tornado-Proof the Midwest with 1,000-Foot Walls 1

Submitted by meghan elizabeth on Wednesday June 25, 2014 @05:30PM

meghan elizabeth writes: University of Drexel physicist Rongjia Tao has a utopian proposal to build three massive, 1,000-foot high, 165-foot thick walls around the American Midwest, in order to keep the tornadoes out.

Building three unfathomably massive anti-tornado walls would count as the infrastructure project of the decade, if not the century. It would be also be exceedingly expensive. So is Tao serious? Absolutely.

Submission + - Ocean Plastic Is Home to a Surpisingly Large Variety of Life

Submitted by meghan elizabeth on Friday June 20, 2014 @01:18PM

meghan elizabeth writes: The world's oceans are turning into hellish plastic-filled soups. As it turns out, ocean plastic is now home to a surprisingly wide variety of life.

In a survey of just 68 small (1.7–24.3 mm)pieces of floating ocean plastic harvested from across Australia's coasts, researchers at the University of Western Australia found a whopping 19 genera of microorganisms that had previously not been described as living on marine plastic. Combined with dozens of other genera previously described, it's becoming ever-clearer that ocean plastic has become its own ecosystem.

Submission + - GCHQ Is Open Sourcing Some of Its Spytech

Submitted by meghan elizabeth on Tuesday June 17, 2014 @12:05PM

meghan elizabeth writes: Britain's spy agency is looking at which pieces of its technology they could release to support the development of new business ventures that are beneficial for the country. The agency plans to declassify intellectual property and share previously classified intelligence programs and innovations with UK companies.

Submission + - 3D Bioprinters Could Make Enhanced, Electricity-Generating 'Superorgans'

Submitted by meghan elizabeth on Friday June 13, 2014 @02:47PM

meghan elizabeth writes: Why stop at just mimicking biology when you can biomanufacture technologically improved humans? 3D-printed enhanced "superorgans"—or artificial ones that don’t exist in nature—could be engineered to perform specific functions beyond what exists in nature, like treating disease. Already, a bioprinted artificial pancreas that can regulate glucose levels in diabetes patients is being developed. Bioprinting could also be used to create an enhanced organ that can generate electricity to power electronic implants, like pacemakers.

Submission + - A Hacker, Not John Oliver's Trolls, Took Down the FCC Website

Submitted by meghan elizabeth on Tuesday June 10, 2014 @04:46PM

meghan elizabeth writes: When HBO host John Oliver called for internet trolls to deluge the Federal Communications Commission with comments aboutnet neutrality, he may not have expected for the FCC's site to get shut down.That, however, is exactly what happened,but it wasn’tbecause Oliver’s viewers overwhelmed the site with public comments, as was widely reported. In fact, the website was compromised by attackerswho effectively shut down the site’s commenting system using a database Denial of Service attack.

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