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Medicine

UK Docs Perform First Remote-Control Heart Surgery 142

Posted by timothy from the a-a-b-up-down-a-b-no-wait dept.
ByronScott writes "Doctors at a British hospital have just carried out the world's first surgery using a remote-controlled robot. The procedure fixed a patient's irregular heart rhythm, and although the doctor was in the same hospital as the patient — just through the wall in another room — developers of the RC surgery technology believe this is the first step toward long-distance operations. Imagine a doctor in London performing surgery on your heart in New York!"
Role Playing (Games)

ArenaNet's MMO Design Manifesto 178

Posted by Soulskill from the not-the-crazy-person-kind dept.
An anonymous reader writes "ArenaNet studio head Mike O'Brien has posted his vision for a new type of MMORPG, which they used in developing Guild Wars 2. Quoting: 'MMOs are social games. So why do they sometimes seem to work so hard to punish you for playing with other players? If I'm out hunting and another player walks by, shouldn't I welcome his help, rather than worrying that he's going to steal my kills or consume all the mobs I wanted to kill? ... [In Guild Wars 2], when someone kills a monster, not just that player's party but everyone who was seriously involved in the fight gets 100% of the XP and loot for the kill. When an event is happening in the world – when the bandits are terrorizing a village – everyone in the area has the same motivation, and when the event ends, everyone gets rewarded.'"
NASA

Submission + - NASA expands role of International Space Station (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: NASA is looking for a few good experiments to run in space. The space agency this week said it was seeking research ideas from private entities to want to do research on board the International Space Station. NASA said it was looking to expand the use of the ISS by providing access to the lab for the conduct of basic and applied research, technology development and industrial processing to private entities — including, but not limited to, commercial firms, non-profit institutions, and academic institutions. NASA said using the ISS as a national lab could help develop a number of applications in areas such as biotechnology, energy, engineering and remote sensing.

Submission + - Bridging the digital divide in Africa

Submitted by jtrust27
jtrust27 writes: An innovative new approach is allowing citizens of Uganda, a developing nation in the heart of Africa, to access online goods and services for the first time.

Slow or non-existent internet connections have meant that the people of Uganda for the last three decades have not been able to harness the many advantages of the online economy. This social and economic exclusion of the poorest of the poor was further accentuated by the impossibility for a Ugandan to obtain a credit card or make paypal payments — a simple requirement to be able to pay for goods and services online. Most merchants and payment gateway providers automatically block all credit cards from Africa and it is not possible to get a verified paypal account in many African Nations.

A big ray of Hope was the arrival of the first submarine fibre-optic cable on the African coastal port of Mombasa Kenya. This revolutionary event has started a data revolution, for the first time enabling Ugandans to watch online videos and access secure sites without timing out. The final step in bridging the digital divide has now been provided by an innovative service of a Ugandan company. EasyPayUganda (http://www.easypayuganda.com) is providing the first service of its kind in the region, allowing customers to make online payments by proxy in order to pay for services and goods. EasyPayUganda is also providing a logistics solution, forwarding customers shipments to Uganda as most online merchants will not ship to Africa. By taking this revolutionary approach, recognizing that there is demand for products and services in Africa, the company is for the first time allowing Africans to purchase online and drastically improve their standard of living.
Space

Submission + - The Mystery of the Missing Methane

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Astrobiology Magazine reports that NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered something odd about GJ 436b a distant planet about the size of Neptune located 33 light-years away circling the star Gliese 436. The mystery? GJ 436b lacks methane, an ingredient common to many of the planets in our solar system. Methane is present on our life-bearing planet, manufactured primarily by microbes living in cows and all of the giant planets in our solar system have methane too, despite their lack of cows. “In this case, we expected to find methane not because of the presence of life, but because of the planet’s chemistry,” says Joseph Harrington of the University of Central Florida. "This type of planet should have cooked up methane. It’s like dipping bread into beaten eggs, frying it, and getting oatmeal in the end." Spitzer was able to detect the faint glow of GJ 436b by watching it slip behind its star, an event called a secondary eclipse. As the planet disappears, the total light observed from the star system drops and the drop is then measured to find the brightness of the planet at various wavelengths. Eventually, a larger space telescope could use the same kind of technique to search smaller, Earth-like worlds for methane and other chemical signs of life, such as water, oxygen and carbon dioxide. Adam Showman, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, says the "provocative result" raises questions about the evolution of this planet, as well as the possibility that its atmosphere might represent an entirely new class of atmospheres that has never been explored. “It’s a big puzzle,” says Kevin Stevenson. “Models tell us that the carbon in this planet should be in the form of methane. Theorists are going to be quite busy trying to figure this one out.”"

Submission + - Branson Says Flight Ban an Overraction (yahoo.com) 1

Submitted by HaymarketRiot
HaymarketRiot writes: Richard Branson has claimed that the flight ban, due to the eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajokull, was an overraction on the part of the authorities. Britain's government has even called for the airlines to be compensated. This does look like a perfect excuse for already greedy airlines to try and get more money...any experts care to comment on the effect of volcanic ash on planes?

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