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Submission + - CERN announces discovery of Higgs Boson (theverge.com)

Submitted by
Diggester
Diggester writes: "Scientists at CERN say they've found the Higgs particle with 5-sigma accuracy — about 1 in 3 million. Evidence of the particle's existence in the 126GeV mass range was gleaned from the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva."

Comment interesting but... (Score 1) 210

by gruntkowski (#40539073) Attached to: Headlights That See Through Rain and Snow
A very interesting approach and quite cool. But I have some doubts. For me, the most annoying during rain is the glare from the wet road itself. When very wet, you can't see the markings (because of glare) which can lead to dangerous situations. The article does not mention this. And a second thing: shouldn't we be ditching headlights completely and go for a more sci-fi approach like HUD's, sensors...? Predator did quite a good job...

Submission + - Texas college take over drone by GPS spoofing (rt.com)

Submitted by Simon321
Simon321 writes: A group of researchers led by Professor Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas at Austin Radionavigation Laboratory recently succeeded in raising the eyebrows of the US government. With just around $1,000 in parts, Humphreys’ team took control of an unmanned aerial vehicle owned by the college, all in front of the US Department of Homeland Security. Iran has claimed to use a similar technique to capture a US surveillance drone last year. The US military denied this and claimed 'Iran had nothing to do with the UAV crash landing'.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot:How to add new tech to old van? 1

Submitted by
Dslice_allstar
Dslice_allstar writes: "I have a '77 GMC Van that I would like to take into the 21st century with some good tech. I have several large LCD monitors, and I want to hook at least one up for watching movies and doing some mild PC gaming. I am concerned about power, i.e. using an inverter and not frying the computer every time the van starts/stops, and I'm worried about whether the alternator will support a computer/monitor setup as well as LEDs and the like. Would a UPC backup be a good idea? I would also like to be able to play music over the sound system, preferably off the computer. Should I be thinking mini ITX HTPC, or would a netbook better serve my purposes? How would you all pimp out an old conversion van?"

Comment advice from a graduated psychology student (Score 1) 265

by gruntkowski (#40436659) Attached to: Teaching Natural Sciences To Social Science Students?
As a graduated psychology student, I can tell you how my professor did his statistics classes: He was almost desperate because of the small percentage of students who seemed to grasp what he was teaching. I mean, a lot of psychologists are really 'out there' (I'm a psychologist myself, so I'm allowed to make this statement :-) So he used any visual aid a man can think of: puppets, jars with marbles, excellent chalking skills on a blackboard,... That worked very well! For a small percentage of the students, it was kinda infantile. But for the major part, this approach was really necessary! You have to know that lots of psychology students think there's no place for 'hard' science in psychology. They couldn't be more wrong of course (as they will also have to learn genetics and some basic neurology). Now, I don't know if they are freshmen or not ,but in the former case an extensive approach may be necessary. For senior students, well, teach like you already do. They now how to handle it, or at least they should. Oh yeah, it's already mentioned before, but please: do point out the difference between correlation and causality!
Space

Submission + - Missing Matter, Parralel Universes ? (universetoday.com)

Submitted by
Phoghat
Phoghat writes: "Could mirror universes or parallel worlds account for dark matter — the ‘missing’ matter in the Universe? In what seems to be mixing of science and science fiction, a new paper by a team of theoretical physicists hypothesizes the existence of mirror particles as a possible candidate for dark matter. An anomaly observed in the behavior of ordinary particles that appear to oscillate in and out of existence could be from a “hypothetical parallel world consisting of mirror particles,” says a press release from Springer. “Each neutron would have the ability to transition into its invisible mirror twin, and back, oscillating from one world to the other.”"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Unveils it's own Surface tablets (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Necroloth
Necroloth writes: Microsoft has unveiled Surface — its own-brand family of tablets.

It aims to challenge the iPad with a device that can run standard applications such as its own Office programs and Photoshop.

However other hardware makers are likely to feel aggrieved by the news as Microsoft can offer a competitive price as it doesn't need to pay itself a licence for the Windows 8 software which other manufacturers will have to do.

The devices have 10.6 inch (26.9cm) displays, built-in kickstands and are housed in magnesium cases — which the company described as the first of their kind.

The ARM-based tablets are 9.3mm (0.4 inches) thick — slightly less than the iPad — and run the Windows RT version of the new system. The Verge reported that the chipset will be built by Nvidia.

The versions using Intel's x86 technology run Windows 8 Pro and are 13.5mm (0.5 inches) thick.

A variety of accompanying covers can be attached using built-in magnets. They double as keyboards with trackpads. One version is flat while the other offers keys that can be depressed.

The devices are also designed to work with a pen accessory using what the firm dubbed "digital ink". When the stylus is held close to the screen of the tablet it ignores touch-input from the users' hands.
Science

Submission + - Scientist Prove a link between IQ and heigh gene (newscientist.com) 1

Submitted by HJED
HJED writes: NewScientist is reporting that a study of fMRI scans and DNA samples from 20,000 people has shown that the gene HMGA2 can effect the size of the brain by approximately .58% and a smaller study of 1642 people has found that it also increases IQ by 1.29.

This kind of science is very interesting, but it also has some dangerous implications which could be used as justification by racists groups and individuals. It also has interesting implications for the nature vs. nurture debate, I'd be interested to know what the /. crowds take on this is?/p?
Mars

Submission + - Life on Mars found – in 1976 by Viking Lander (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by djl4570
djl4570 writes: "The USA’s Viking mission found life on Mars, says a new paper that has re-analysed data collected by the two probes." Using advanced mathematical techniques to treat the old experimental data as complex system could reveal a signal that was not previously detected. Time will tell if we actually get to see the rat-bat-spider-crab live in 1080p.
Mars

Submission + - Scientists Claim Viking Mars Missions have Proof of Life (msn.com)

Submitted by
Fluffeh
Fluffeh writes: "New analysis of 36-year-old data, resuscitated from printouts, shows that NASA found life on Mars, an international team of mathematicians and scientists conclude in a paper published this week. The new study took a different approach. Researchers distilled the Viking Labeled Release data, provided as hard copies by the original researchers, into sets of numbers and analyzed the results for complexity. They found close correlations between the Viking experiment results' complexity and those of terrestrial biological data sets. They say the high degree of order is more characteristic of biological, rather than purely physical, processes."

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