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Music

Band Uses Nuclear Isotopes To Make Music 37

Velcroman1 writes "Every second in your body, thousands of tiny isotopes are bursting with radioactive decay. And, all around you, imperceptible gamma rays explode in a brilliant but invisible lightshow. And they've just formed a live band. Yes, you read that correctly. But it's all for science: The Radioactive Orchestra 2.0 is part of a Swedish project to help us understand how low-energy radiation works, by showing the energy patterns of nuclear isotopes. Swedish musician Kristofer Hagbard conceived of the orchestra about a year ago and released an album last spring, but the new 2.0 version of 'the band' allows him to perform live in front of an audience. 'This can be looked at as a piano for high energy photons, so every detection gives us a note,' Hagbard said. 'The musical instrument is as good as the gamma spectrometer we are using.'"

Comment A&A (Acronyms&Abbreviations) (Score 2) 45

I had to look up "C&C" (for those who don't know, it stands for "Command and Control"). It's easy for me to blame the editors, submitter, etc, for necessitating this, but then again, it took just seconds to look it up. Still, it's a nuisance, and honestly in the end I think it's an art on the part of the editors/submitter to know whether or not explaining them is necessary. So, for what it's worth, as far as I'm concerned: FAILURE!
Medicine

Rare Sharing of Data Led To Results In Alzheimer's Research 159

jamie passes along a story in the NY Times about how an unprecedented level of openness and data-sharing among scientists involved in the study of Alzheimer's disease has yielded a wealth of new research papers and may become the template for making progress in dealing with other afflictions. Quoting: "The key to the Alzheimer's project was an agreement as ambitious as its goal: not just to raise money, not just to do research on a vast scale, but also to share all the data, making every single finding public immediately, available to anyone with a computer anywhere in the world. No one would own the data. No one could submit patent applications, though private companies would ultimately profit from any drugs or imaging tests developed as a result of the effort. 'It was unbelievable,' said Dr. John Q. Trojanowski, an Alzheimer's researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. 'It's not science the way most of us have practiced it in our careers. But we all realized that we would never get biomarkers unless all of us parked our egos and intellectual-property noses outside the door and agreed that all of our data would be public immediately.'"

Comment Dome? Why not call it a "box"? (Score 1) 565

Dome

...having a circular plan and usually in the form of a portion of a sphere...
...a domical roof or ceiling.
...any covering thought to resemble the hemispherical vault of a building...
...anything shaped like a hemisphere or inverted bowl.

Maybe 1.c.?

a polygonal vault, ceiling, or roof.

Still, "box" would get the point across better, IMO.

Comment Re:Great, more distractions for drivers... (Score 1) 307

I'm no expert, but when I think about the consequences of a pilot getting momentarily distracted, and he, say, doesn't make a turn when he otherwise would have, most of the time the result will be his aircraft will run into.... air. This is in contrast to a driver where, most of the time, the same situation results in the vehicle running into something.
Intel

Submission + - Intel and AMD settle lawsuits (nytimes.com) 1

Kohenkatz writes: "Intel has agreed to pay $1.25 billion to AMD. In return, AMD will drop its lawsuits about patent and anti-trust complaints. The two companies released a joint statement: "While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development.""
Toys

Wikipedia In Your Pocket, $99 412

An anonymous reader notes the announcement by Sean Moss-Pultz (Openmoko, Inc.) of a new geek device: The $99 WikiReader. All of Wikipedia in your pocket with no Internet connection required. Works in bright sunlight. 3-button interface. You can update the information in the WikiReader either by mail (they ship a microSD card) or by downloading a 4+ GB file.
Transportation

GPS-Based System For Driving Tax Being Field Tested 891

An anonymous reader writes "Apparently, since gas consumption is going down and fuel efficient cars are becoming more popular, the government is looking into a new form of taxation to create revenue for transportation projects. This new system is a 'by-the-mile tax,' requiring GPS in cars so it can track the mileage. Once a month, the data gets uploaded to a billing center and you are conveniently charged for how much you drove. 'A federal commission, after a two-year study, concluded earlier this year that the road tax was the "best path forward" to keep revenues flowing to highway and transportation projects, and could be an important new tool to help manage traffic and relieve congestion. ... The commission pegged 2020 as the year for the federal fuel tax, currently 18.5 cents a gallon, to be phased out and replaced by a road tax. One estimate of a road tax that would cover the current federal and state fuel taxes is 1 to 2 cents per mile for cars and light trucks.'"
Image

New Food-Growth Product a Bit Hairy 243

MeatBag PussRocket writes "An article from Marketplace.org reports, 'A Florida company has developed an all-natural product that it says could revolutionize how food is grown in the US. It's called Smart Grow, but it might be a tough sell. It's inexpensive. It eliminates the need for pesticides, so it's environmentally friendly, but it's human hair. Plant pathologists at the University of Florida have found the mats eliminate weeds better than leading herbicides and can also make plants grow up to 30 percent larger.'"

Comment Re:Could be great news for those of us who homebre (Score 1) 135

If I could ask for a set of perfect yeasts, some would result in making the beer fit a lager profile without the need for cold-fermenting (as a matter of fact, none of them would produce tastes that don't fit their profile despite the temperature they fermented at), they would all have a lag-time of 0, some would result in a high attenuation (to make something like barley wine) without requiring a starter, and none of them would require refrigeration when stored in liquid suspension... or how about they just always work great when they're packaged as "dry yeast"? Also, I would like two hours in the holodeck with 7 of 9.
The Military

Nuclear Subs 'Collide In Ocean' 622

Jantastic noted a BBC report saying "A Royal Navy nuclear submarine was involved in a collision with a French nuclear sub in the middle of the Atlantic. It is understood HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant were badly damaged in the crash earlier this month. Despite being equipped with sonar, it seems neither vessel spotted the other, the BBC's Caroline Wyatt said."

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