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Comment Re:New species? (Score 1) 51

by DaemonDan (#42534357) Attached to: Carrion Flies Used To Find New Species
No. That's why sequencing DNA that doesn't match to any known species would reveal a previously unknown species. Based on sequence homology scientists could probably then figure out the genus of the new species, since the majority of the DNA would be similar.

Submission + - Adobe's "Mystery" CS2 Software Giveaway (adobe.com)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: Yesterday, Adobe put up a mysterious webpage from which it's now 7 year old CS2 line of products (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Premiere and others) could be freely downloaded by anyone. (http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html) The page even included valid serial numbers that will unlock the CS2 apps for anyone who wants to. This strange "giveaways" page at Adobe.com quickly went viral on the internet after a few tech bloggers reported on it. An Adobe spokesman said initially that the CS2 downloads are for existing owners of Adobe CS2 software only, who may not be able to activate their software anymore, due to the CS2 activation servers having been shut down by Adobe. But the internet at large took this webpage as meaning "Free Adobe CS2 Software for Everyone", which was probably not what Adobe had in mind initially. It seems that at this point, hundreds of thousands of people have downloaded their "free" CS2 products and installed them, and started using them. So Adobe is in a bit of a PR "pinch" now because of this — Do you tell all the thousands of people who have downloaded CS2 products in the last 48 hours that "you cannot use these products without paying us". Or do you accept that hundreds of thousands of people now have free access to 7 year old Adobe CS2 products, and try to encourage some of them to "upgrade to the new CS6 products"?
Privacy

Submission + - Disney Wants to Track You With RFID (nbcnews.com) 3

Submitted by Antipater
Antipater writes: Disney parks and resorts have long had a system that combined your room key, credit card, and park ticket into a single card. Now, they're taking it a step further by turning the card into an RFID wristband (called a "MagicBand"), tracking you, and personalizing your park experience, targeted-ad style.

"Imagine booking guaranteed ride times for your favorite shows and attractions even before setting foot in the park," wrote Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, in a blog posting on Monday. "With MyMagic+, guests will be able to do that and more, enabling them to spend more time together and creating an experience that’s better for everyone."

Disney does go on to talk about all the things you can opt out of if you have privacy concerns, and the whole system seems to be voluntary or even premium.
Hardware

Submission + - Ultrathin, flexible PaperTab redefines tablet form and function (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Despite their portability and popularity, the slab of glass form factor of tablets has its downsides. Most notably for the less coordinated among us is the propensity for the display to crack or shatter when dropped. A team at Canada’s Queen’s University working in collaboration with Intel Labs and Plastic Logic is looking not only to redefine the tablet's form, but the way people use them with the development of a flexible touchscreen computer called the PaperTab. Featuring plastic transistor technology developed by Plastic Logic, the PaperTab is powered by a second generation Intel core i5 processor and boasts a 10.7-inch, high resolution E-ink touchscreen display that is flexible, shatterproof and looks and feels like a sheet of paper.

Submission + - Record Temperature Set: Colder than Absolute Zero (discovery.com)

Submitted by
DaemonDan
DaemonDan writes: "Some German researchers have recently published in the journal Science a method for taking atoms to a negative absolute temperature, below 0 Kelvin.
"They first cooled about 100,000 atoms to a positive temperature of a few nanokelvin, or billionth of a kelvin. They cooled the atoms within a vacuum chamber, which isolated them from any environmental influence that could potentially heat them up accidentally. They also used a web of laser beams and magnetic fields to very precisely control how these atoms behaved, helping to push them into a new temperature realm."

The scientists theorize that an understanding of absolute negative temperature could essentially allow us to escape the constraints of entropy and create engines that are more than 100% efficient.

Here's the link to the Science article (paywalled): http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6115/52"

Submission + - Global Warming Really Just a Statistical Fluke? (statisticsblog.com)

Submitted by J Story
J Story writes: Matt Asher, a statistics wonk, in a blog posting (The surprisingly weak case for global warming) claims that: "Based solely on year-over-year changes in surface temperatures, the net increase since 1881 is fully explainable as a non-independent random walk with no trend."

For the programmer/statistics junkie, R code is provided.
AI

Submission + - Virtual brain simulates human behaviour (nature.com)

Submitted by
ananyo
ananyo writes: "Spaun, a simulated brain containing 2.5 million virtual neurons, can recognize lists of numbers, do simple arithmetic and solve reasoning problems. Described for the first time in Science, Spaun — the Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network — stands apart from other attempts to simulate a brain, such as the ambitious Blue Brain Project, because it produces complex biological behaviors with fewer neurons.
A pure computer simulation, Spaun simulates the physiology of each of its neurons, from spikes of electricity that flow through them to neurotransmitters that cross between them. The computing cells are divided into groups, corresponding to specific parts of the brain that process images, control movements and store short-term memories. These regions are wired together in a realistic way, and even respond to inputs that mimic the action of neurotransmitters. The researchers also killed off Spaun's virtual neurons at the same rate as those in an ageing brain, and saw the same cognitive decline."
Biotech

Submission + - Polymer implants could help heal brain injuries (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Using implants made from porous biocompatible materials, scientists have recently been successful in regrowing things such as teeth, tendons and heart tissue, plus bone and cartilage. The materials act as a sort of nanoscale three-dimensional scaffolding, to which lab-cultivated cells can be added, or that the recipient’s own cells can colonize. Now, a Spanish research team has used the same principle to grow new brain tissue – the technique could ultimately be used to treat victims of brain injuries or strokes.
Power

Submission + - Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell generates electricity from living plants (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Wetlands are estimated to account for around six percent of the earth’s surface and a new Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell technology developed at Wageningen University & Research in The Netherlands could see some of these areas become a viable source of renewable energy. More than that, the developers believe that their technology could be used to supply electricity to remote communities and in green roofs to supply electricity to households. Unlike biogas, which is produced by the anaerobic digestion or fermentation of biomass, the Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell generates electricity while the plants continue to grow. Importantly, the researchers say the system doesn’t affect the plant’s growth of harm its environment.

Comment Re:Why not just use the letter? (Score 2) 75

by DaemonDan (#42081239) Attached to: Implant Translates Written Words To Braille, Right On the Retina
According to the article this only works with people who have had a degenerative eye disease called retinal pigmentosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinitis_pigmentosa), which slowly destroys the person's peripheral vision. It wouldn't work with people who didn't have functional optic nerves to begin with. I think it's more a case of braille being simpler to transmit via electrodes (number and position of dots compared to the entire shape of a letter) as other commenters have mentioned.

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