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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 1483 declined, 477 accepted (1960 total, 24.34% accepted)

Robotics

Submission + - SPAM: A robotic Cyberknife to fight cancer

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "The Cyberknife is not a real knife. This is a robot radiotherapy machine which works with great accuracy during treatment, thanks to its robotic arm which moves around a patient when he breathes. According to BBC News, the first Cyberknife will be operational in February 2009 in London, UK. But other machines have been installed in more than 15 countries, and have permitted to treat 50,000 patients in the first semester of 2008. And the Cyberknife is more efficient than conventional radiotherapy devices. The current systems require twenty or more short sessions with low-dose radiation. On the contrary, and because it's extremely precise, a Cyberknife can deliver powerful radiation in just three sessions. Read more for additional details and references."
Power

Submission + - SPAM: Batteries to store wind energy

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "Scientific American reports that Xcel Energy, a Minneapolis-based utility company, has started to test a new technology to store wind energy in batteries. The company is currently trying it in a 1,100 megawatts facility of wind turbines in Southern Minnesota. The company started this effort because 'the wind doesn't always blow and, even worse, it often blows strongest when people aren't using much electricity, like late at night.' It has received a $1 million grant from Minnesota's Renewable Development Fund and the energy plant should be operational in the first quarter of 2009. And if this project is successful, the utility expects to deploy many more energy plants before 2020 to avoid more polluting energy sources. Read more for additional details and pictures of the batteries used to store wind energy."
Medicine

Submission + - SPAM: Sexy objects stimulate our brain

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "According to researchers at the University of California at San Diego, visual areas of our brain respond more to valuable objects than other ones. In other words, our brain has stronger reactions when we see a diamond ring than we look at junk. Similarly, our brain vision areas are more excited by a Ferrari than, say, a Tata new Nano car. In this holiday season, I'm sure you've received gifts that excited your brain — and others that you already want to resell on an auction site. Read more for additional details, references and a picture of hot spots showing our brain's neural activity when we're excited."
Earth

Submission + - SPAM: Inside an active volcano on Montserrat

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "An international team of researchers has started to collect imaging data on the Soufriere Hills Volcano in Montserrat which erupts regularly since 1995. They're using the equivalent of a CAT scan to understand its internal structure and how and when it erupts. Several years ago, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the CALIPSO project ('Caribbean Andesitic Lava Island Precision Seismo-geodetic Observatory'). The new experiment is dubbed SEA-CALIPSO ('Seismic Experiment with Air-gun source') and 'will use air guns and a string of sensors off the back of a research ship combined with sensors on land to try to image the magma chamber.' Early results are surprising, as said one of the leading scientists: 'The interesting thing is that much more magma is erupting than appears represented by the subsiding bowl.' Read more for many additional references and for an aerial photo of the erupting volcano on Montserrat taken two days ago."
Space

Submission + - SPAM: A sixth region in the magnetosphere?

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "As you probably know, Earth's magnetosphere, 'the invisible bubble of magnetic fields and electrically charged particles that surrounds and protects the planet from the periodically lethal radiation of the solar wind,' was discovered in 1958. Until now, it was composed of five regions, including the ionosphere or the Van Allen radiation belts. Now, a U.S. research team has discovered a sixth region, called the warm plasma cloak. Read more for additional details and references."
Space

Submission + - SPAM: Ultra-sensitive camera to measure planet sizes

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "U.S. astronomers and engineers have built a new camera to precisely measure the size of planets moving around distant stars. This camera has been dubbed OPTIC — short for 'Orthogonal Parallel Transfer Imaging Camera.' According to the research team, it is 'so sensitive that it could detect the passage of a moth in front of a lit window from a distance of 1,000 miles.' I'm not sure if this analogy is right, but the team said it was able to precisely define the size of a planet called WASP-10b which is orbiting around the star WASP-10, about 300 light-years from Earth. Read more for additional details and references."
Space

Submission + - SPAM: A telescope in a cubic kilometer of ice

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "University of Delaware (UD) scientists and engineers are currently working at South Pole under very harsh conditions. This research team is one of the many other ones working on the construction of IceCube, the world's largest neutrino telescope in the Antarctic ice, far beneath the continent's snow-covered surface. When it is completed in 2011, the telescope array will occupy a cubic kilometer of Antarctica. One of the lead researchers said that 'IceCube will provide new information about some of the most violent and far-away astrophysical events in the cosmos.' The UD team has even opened a blog to cover this expedition. It will be opened up to December 22, 2008. I guess they want to be back in Delaware for Christmas, but read more for additional details and references, including a diagram of this telescope array built inside ice."
NASA

Submission + - SPAM: NASA and DoE team on dark energy research

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) have teamed up to operate the future Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM). As you probably know, recent astronomical measurements have showed that about 72% of the total energy in the universe is dark energy, even if scientists don't know much about it, but speculate that it is present almost since the beginning of our Universe more than 13 billion years ago. The JDEM 'mission will make precise measurements of the expansion rate of the universe to understand how this rate has changed with time. These measurements will yield vital clues about the nature of dark energy.' The launch of a spacecraft for the JDEM mission is not planned before 2015. Read more for additional details and pictures describing the timeline and the contents of the Universe."
Music

Submission + - SPAM: A computer composing and playing jazz

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has some unusual teaching programs. One PhD student, Øyvind Brandtsegg, is a graduate of the jazz program and this article describes how has developed a computer program and a musical instrument for improvisation. The PhD student is 36 years old and is at the same time a composer, a musician and computer programmer. His 'computer instrument' can take any recorded sound as input and split it into a number of very short sound particles that can last for between 1 and 10 milliseconds. 'These fragments may be infinitely reshuffled, making it possible to vary the music with no change in the fundamental theme.' But read more for additional details and a picture of Brandtsegg giving a public demonstration of his 'computer instrument.'"
The Internet

Submission + - SPAM: Towards a World Wide Grid?

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "In recent months, the concept of 'cloud computing' was all the buzz. European researchers think about another name, the World Wide Grid, which could run on top of the Internet. In an article to appear soon, ICT Results will report about the g-Eclipse project. As the scientists said, 'the g-Eclipse project aims to build an integrated workbench framework to access the power of existing Grid infrastructures. The framework will be built on top of the reliable eco-system of the Eclipse community to enable a sustainable development.' The project started in July 2006 and was successfully completed in June 2008 for a total cost of 2.5 million including a EU contribution of 1.96 million. You can submit today jobs to this grid, but read more for additional details and a diagram describing the g-Eclipse architecture."
Robotics

Submission + - SPAM: The world's heaviest robot

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "This distinction goes to a future autonomous version of the 700-tons Caterpillar mining truck. In this article, Discovery News reports that Caterpillar engineers and computer scientists from Carnegie Mellon University have teamed up to develop this autonomous truck. Japan-based Komatsu already has already delivered autonomous mining trucks to its customers, but these are smaller than the Caterpillar ones. Both companies are transforming their trucks into 'robots' for three reasons. Improvements in safety, efficiency and productivity will reduce costs and increase availability. But read more for additional references and a picture of the gigantic Caterpillar 797B mining truck."
Privacy

Submission + - SPAM: Duplicating your keys without your knowledge

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "Some clever computer scientists at UC San Diego (UCSD) have developed a software that can perform key duplication with just a picture of the key — taken from up to 200 feet. One of the researchers said 'we built our key duplication software system to show people that their keys are not inherently secret.' He added that on sites like Flickr, you can find many photos of people's keys that can be used to easily make duplicates. Apparently, some people are blurring 'numbers on their credit cards and driver's licenses before putting those photos on-line,' but not their keys. This software project is quite interesting, but don't be too afraid. I don't think that many of you put a photo of their keys online — with their addresses. But read more for additional details, references and pictures showing how this software works."
The Internet

Submission + - SPAM: Optical fibers with a silicon core?

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "According to the Optical Society of America, U.S. researchers have been able to create a practical optical fiber with a silicon core. As they were able to use the same commercial methods that are used to develop all-glass fibers, this might pave the way for future silicon fibers as viable alternatives to glass fibers. The scientists note that this should help increase efficiency and decrease power consumption in computers and other systems that integrate photonic and electronic devices. Here is a good summary by the lead researcher: 'In the past, we've needed one structure to process light and another to carry it. With a silicon fiber, for the first time, we have the ability to greatly enhance the functionality in one fiber.' But read more for additional details, references and an electron microscopy image of the silicon core of an optical fiber."
Data Storage

Submission + - SPAM: Improving chip density by a factor of 100

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "According to the semiconductor industry, maskless nanolithography is a flexible nanofabrication technique which suffers from low throughput. But now, engineers at the University of California at Berkeley have developed a new approach that involves 'flying' an array of plasmonic lenses just 20 nanometers above a rotating surface, it is possible to increase throughput by several orders of magnitude. The 'flying head' they've created looks like the stylus on the arm of an old-fashioned LP turntable. With this technique, the researchers were able to create line patterns only 80 nanometers wide at speeds up to 12 meters per second. The lead researcher said that by using 'this plasmonic nanolithography, we will be able to make current microprocessors more than 10 times smaller, but far more powerful' and that 'it could lead to ultra-high density disks that can hold 10 to 100 times more data than today's disks.' But read more for additional details, references and figures describing this high-throughput maskless nanolithography using plasmonic lens arrays."
Security

Submission + - SPAM: Exchanging pictures to generate passwords?

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "Today, Ileana Buhan, a Romanian computer scientist, is presenting her PhD Thesis at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. She is using biometrics to protect confidential information when it is exchanged between two mobile devices. This is a very innovative approach to security. Buhan's biometric application will generate almost unbreakable passwords from photos taken by the connected users. Here is how it works. 'To do this, two users need to save their own photos on their PDAs. They then take photos of each other. The PDA compares the two photos and generates a security code for making a safe connection.' But read more for additional details and pictures showing how this technology works."

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