5686993
submission
SpuriousLogic writes:
Scientists have discovered a planet that shouldn't exist. The finding, they say, could alter our understanding of orbital dynamics, a field considered pretty well settled since the time of astronomer Johannes Kepler 400 years ago.
The planet is known as a "hot Jupiter," a gas giant orbiting the star Wasp-18, about 330 light years from Earth. The planet, Wasp-18b, is so close to the star that it completes a full orbit (its "year") in less than an Earth day, according to the research, which was published in the journal Nature.
Of the more than 370 exoplanets — planets orbiting stars other than our sun — discovered so far, this is just the second with such a close orbit.
The problem is that a planet that close should be consumed by its parent star in less than a million years, say the authors at Keele University in England. The star Wasp-18 is believed to be about a billion years old, and since stars and the planets around them are thought to form at the same time, Wasp-18b should have been reduced to cinders ages ago.
5597127
submission
carp3_noct3m writes:
A freelance Wired magazine journalist has decided to see what it is like to disappear from normal life, all while staying on the grid. The catch, is that he is challenging anyone and everyone to find him, take a picture, and speak a special codeword to him. If you can do that, you can make 5000 dollars, which happens to come out of his paycheck for the article he'll be writing. Oh, and to top it all off, whoever gets him gets pictures and interviews in Wired. He has been posting to his Twitter, has been apparently using TOR for internet, and the Wired website will be posting his credit card transactions. So Slashdot, do we have what it takes to show this guy we know our stuff? Hop to it my minions.
5584307
submission
ewlslash writes:
Scientists in Israel have demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate DNA evidence, undermining the credibility of what has been considered the gold standard of proof in criminal cases.
The scientists fabricated blood and saliva samples containing DNA from a person other than the donor of the blood and saliva. They also showed that if they had access to a DNA profile in a database, they could construct a sample of DNA to match that profile without obtaining any tissue from that person.
"You can just engineer a crime scene," said Dan Frumkin, lead author of the paper, which has been published online by the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics. "Any biology undergraduate could perform this."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/science/18dna.html
5573139
submission
fastsynaptic writes:
I found out today the reason that my mifi download speed has been drastically reduced and has been no higher than 200kb/s for the past couple of weeks is that a "feature" has been added to my account by Verizon that limits my data transfer rate. The Verizon tech support person I spoke with today informed me that there is an "account investigations team" that throttles accounts that reach some secret threshold or data usage pattern that he could only vaguely explain. I have come close, but not exceeded 5Gb/month, and regardless of data usage I have an unlimited data agreement through my University with Verizon. I laughed at him when he told me it was a "feature" that had been added to my account. He kept repeating that I still had unlimited data usage, I just have a new feature...it would be funny if it wasn't so Orwellian. It's reminiscent of the word game they tried to play before, advertising "unlimited" data plans that were unlimited as long as you didn't exceed 5Gb. I thought that after they had their hand slapped over that they would be more ethical (or at least careful) next time. Apparently there is no way to know they are doing this unless you call and ask, for all I know the support person I talked to wasn't authorized to tell me (he did seem sorry and embarrassed). He told me he had no power to remove my new feature, and that I had to contact the secret team, M-F at 866 221 3979. I don't know how widespread this is and I am going to call first thing Monday.
5571367
submission
timothykimball writes:
I am an iPhones application developer, and a friend who is a professor at a local university has asked me to teach this course to grad students. I want to look beyond the iPhone and look more broady at the problems of mobile computation — such as hardware constraints, new technologies, how software development is different. How user scenarios are different etc.
What I am looking for are ideas or concepts that slashdotters would like to see in such a course. What should these grads learn?
5547463
submission
An anonymous reader writes:
In a modest building on the west side of Salt Lake City, a team of specialists in advanced materials and electrochemistry has produced what could be the single most important breakthrough for clean, alternative energy since Socrates first noted solar heating 2,400 years ago.
The prize is the culmination of 10 years of research and testing — a new generation of deep-storage battery that's small enough, and safe enough, to sit in your basement and power your home.
http://www.heraldextra.com/news/article_b0372fd8-3f3c-11de-ac77-001cc4c002e0.html
5521025
story
Peace Corps Online writes
"Concrete accounts for more than 5 percent of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions annually, mostly because cement, the active ingredient in concrete, is made by baking limestone and clay powders under intense heat that is generally produced by the burning of fossil fuels. Now Scientific American reports that British start-up company Novacem has developed a 'carbon-negative' cement that absorbs more carbon dioxide than it emits over its life cycle. The trick is to make cement from magnesium silicates rather than calcium carbonate, or limestone, since this material does not emit CO2 in manufacture and absorbs the greenhouse gas as it ages. 'The building and construction industry knows it has got to do radical things to reduce its carbon footprint and cement companies understand there is not a lot they can do without a technology breakthrough,' says Novacem Chairman Stuart Evans. Novacem estimates that for every ton of Portland cement replaced by its product, around three-quarters of a ton of CO2 is saved, turning the cement industry from a big emitter to a big absorber of carbon. Major cement makers have been working hard to reduce CO2 emissions by investing in modern kilns and using as little carbon-heavy fuel as possible, but reductions to date have been limited. Novacem has raised $1.7M to start a pilot plant that should be up and running in northern England in 2011."
5430489
submission
Moritu writes:
It seems like Apple is having some more serious problems with its UBS implementation, least for its more recent premium priced laptops...
There are lots of reports with the hardware implementation in at least last three models of MacBook Pros (unibody as well as previous designs) that range from devices only working on left or right port or not at all or only with poor performance.
On top of that Apple seems to have issues with USB disks randomly disconnecting and no answer in sight ranging from 10.5 to 10.5.7 and its not entirely clear whether thats a hardware or software issue....I myself for example can not use USB as a relaible storage on my 4,1 MacBook Pro. No help so far from support besides the typical "please send in your system.log". One would think that for the preium price one get a premium product...sigh. Seems Apple doesn't care to fix it....
See:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9631008#9631008
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1032615&tstart=0 ...describing intermittent problems.
And the following describing more hardware related issues:
http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/07/04/low-power-usb-ports-haunt-my-macbook-pro/
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=491154
Do other readers have similar experiences?