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Submission + - Plants Near Chernobyl Adapt to Contaminated Soil

Submitted by lbalbalba
lbalbalba writes: In April 1986, a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine exploded and sent radioactive particles flying through the air, infiltrating the surrounding soil. Despite the colossal disaster, some plants in the area seem to have adapted well, flourishing in the contaminated soil.
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Businesses

Submission + - FCC set to finalize rules for next-gen wireless (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: The FCC's agenda for Thursday include a vote on the final rules for unlicensed devices making use of unused TV spectrum known as "white spaces." Industry and lawmakers have predicted the opening up of the white spaces could result in the biggest leaps forward in wireless technology in the past 25 years. Among the benefits is so-called "WiFi on Steroids" which allows a large number of users within a 50-mile radius to tap into a single high-speed broadband connection for the same price as a traditional WiFi router. The FCC is expected to approve the move, but Google and other companies warn that the devil is in the technical details of the rules.

Submission + - Scientists find new target for Alzhiemer's (medicaldaily.com)

Submitted by GarryFre
GarryFre writes: Neurological researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found a new therapeutic target that can potentially lead to a new way to prevent the progression of Alzheimer's disease. The target called neutral sphingomyelinase (N-SMase) is a protein that when activated, can cause a chain of reactions in the cell leading to neuronal death and memory loss. Already a substance has been found that shows some promise in halting the progression of the disease.
NASA

Submission + - Martian meteorite gets NASA Mars rover's attention (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: NASA's Mars rover Opportunity will take a small detour on its current journey to check out what could be a toaster-sized iron-based meteorite that crashed into the red planet.NASA scientists called the rock "Oileán Ruaidh," which is the Gaelic name for an island off the coast of northwestern Ireland. The rock is about 45 centimeters (18 inches) wide from the angle at which it was first seen on September 16.
Government

Submission + - UK Goverment IT chief backs open source suppliers (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Blacklaw
Blacklaw writes: The UK government’s deputy Chief Information Officer has outlined plans to hand public sector IT contracts over to small businesses and suppliers of open-source and cloud-based solutions in an attempt to balance the books.
Speaking at the 360IT conference in London on Wednesday, Bill McCluggage also promised greater transparency over IT procurement, with tenders and contracts published online. Outlining a commitment to “simplify, standardise and automate”, McCluggage said the government would make it easier for open-source suppliers to compete for contracts, making the public sector less reliant on individual suppliers, or locked into proprietary systems.

Submission + - 2011: The Year of the Tablet (technorati.com) 1

Submitted by frontwave
frontwave writes: After the huge success of the iPad, with over 4 million units sold since its introduction, all mayor hardware vendors of PCs and mobile devices are coming with new tablets in the next few months, including Apple with a smaller version of the popular product. Analysts estimate the market for tablet devices (over 6” screen size) to be around 25 million units for 2011.

Read more: http://technorati.com/technology/article/2011-the-year-of-the-tablet/
Security

Submission + - Are desktop firewalls overkill? (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by Barence
Barence writes: Should you be running firewalls on your desktop and server machines? PC Pro's Jon Honeyball argues the case for switching off Windows firewalls and handing over responsibility for security to server-based solutions. "I’d rather have security baked right into my network design than scattered willy-nilly around my desktops and servers," Honeyball argues. "It seems to me that there’s much sense in concentrating your security into a small number of trusty gatekeepers rather than relying on a fog of barely managed faux security devices. Of course, it puts your eggs into fewer baskets, but it does mean these gatekeepers are easier to control and manage: monitoring them in real-time becomes routine."

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