dabrig - Slashdot User

Foldit Player May Have Created a Useful Protein 144

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 18, 2010 @11:44PM from the know-when-to-hold-'em dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The organizers of the game Foldit, where you fold proteins for scientific research, announced that a user has found a protein that may be able to bind influenza viruses. Researchers plan to test the protein in a lab over the next few weeks to see if it might be medically useful."

Submission + - Most detailed photos of an atom yet (insidescience.org) 1

Submitted by BuzzSkyline on Monday September 14, 2009 @02:54PM

BuzzSkyline writes: Ukrainian researchers have managed to take pictures of atoms that reveal structure of the electron clouds surrounding carbon nuclei in unprecedented detail. Although the images offer no surprises (they look much like the sketches of electron orbitals included in high school science texts), this is the first time that anyone has directly imaged atoms at this level, rather than inferring the structure of the orbitals from indirect measurements such as electron or x-ray interferometry.

Submission + - Microsoft: No TCP/IP patches for you, XP (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by CWmike on Monday September 14, 2009 @02:12PM

CWmike writes: Microsoft says it won't patch Windows XP for a pair of bugs it quashed Sept. 8 in Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. The news adds Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and SP3 to the no-patch list that previously included only Windows 2000 Server SP4. "We're talking about code that is 12 to 15 years old in its origin, so backporting that level of code is essentially not feasible," said security program manager Adrian Stone during Microsoft's monthly post-patch Webcast, referring to Windows 2000 and XP. "An update for Windows XP will not be made available," Stone and fellow program manager Jerry Bryant said during the Q&A portion of the Webcast (transcript here). Last Tuesday, Microsoft said that it wouldn't be patching Windows 2000 because creating a fix was "infeasible."

Submission + - Astrophysicists find planet that should not exist (latimes.com)

Submitted by SpuriousLogic on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @09:43PM

SpuriousLogic writes: Scientists have discovered a planet that shouldn't exist. The finding, they say, could alter our understanding of orbital dynamics, a field considered pretty well settled since the time of astronomer Johannes Kepler 400 years ago. The planet is known as a "hot Jupiter," a gas giant orbiting the star Wasp-18, about 330 light years from Earth. The planet, Wasp-18b, is so close to the star that it completes a full orbit (its "year") in less than an Earth day, according to the research, which was published in the journal Nature. Of the more than 370 exoplanets — planets orbiting stars other than our sun — discovered so far, this is just the second with such a close orbit. The problem is that a planet that close should be consumed by its parent star in less than a million years, say the authors at Keele University in England. The star Wasp-18 is believed to be about a billion years old, and since stars and the planets around them are thought to form at the same time, Wasp-18b should have been reduced to cinders ages ago.

Submission + - Sun plans security coprocessor for new Ultrasparc (goodgearguide.com.au)

Submitted by

angry tapir

on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @01:37AM

angry tapir writes: "At the Hot Chips conference at Stanford University, Sun presented plans for a security accelerator chip that it said would reduce encryption costs for applications such as VoIP calls and online banking Web sites. The coprocessor will be included on the same silicon as Rainbow Falls, the code name for the follow-on to Sun's multithreaded Ultrasparc T2 processor."

Submission + - Depression May Provide Cognitive Advantages 1

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @03:11PM

Hugh Pickens writes: "Paul W. Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr. argue in Scientific American that although depression is considered a mental disorder, depression may in fact be a mental adaptation which provides real benefits. This is not to say that depression is not a problem. Depressed people often have trouble performing everyday activities, they can't concentrate on their work, they tend to socially isolate themselves, they are lethargic, and they often lose the ability to take pleasure from such activities such as eating and sex. So what could be so useful about depression? "Depressed people often think intensely about their problems," write the authors. "These thoughts are called ruminations; they are persistent and depressed people have difficulty thinking about anything else. Numerous studies have also shown that this thinking style is often highly analytical. They dwell on a complex problem, breaking it down into smaller components, which are considered one at a time." Various studies have found that people in depressed mood states are better at solving social dilemmas and there is evidence that people who get more depressed while they are working on complex problems in an intelligence test tend to score higher on the test (PDF). "When one considers all the evidence, depression seems less like a disorder where the brain is operating in a haphazard way, or malfunctioning. Instead, depression seems more like the vertebrate eye--an intricate, highly organized piece of machinery that performs a specific function.""

Submission + - Apple Allegedly Sought Non-Poaching Deal with Palm

Submitted by

theodp

on Thursday August 20, 2009 @10:11PM

theodp writes: "A Bloomberg report that Apple CEO Steve Jobs proposed a possibly illegal truce with Palm against poaching their respective employees is sure to pique the interest of the U.S. Department of Justice, which already is investigating whether Google, Yahoo, Apple, Genentech and other tech companies conspired to keep others from stealing their top talent. 'Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other's employees, regardless of the individual's desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal,' former Palm CEO Ed Colligan reportedly told Jobs in August 2007. That same summer, Google lectured Congress on why constraints must not be placed on hiring: 'Google's success — like that of technology companies across our nation — absolutely depends on attracting the best and the brightest employees,' testified Google VP for People Operations Laszlo Bock. 'Hiring and retaining the most talented employees,' Bock added, 'is essential to the United States' ability to compete globally.' Good points — be interesting if they come back to haunt Google and the other under-investigation tech giants."

Submission + - Wired writer disappears, find him and make 5k. (atavistic.org) 5

Submitted by carp3_noct3m on Tuesday August 18, 2009 @10:51PM

carp3_noct3m writes: A freelance Wired magazine journalist has decided to see what it is like to disappear from normal life, all while staying on the grid. The catch, is that he is challenging anyone and everyone to find him, take a picture, and speak a special codeword to him. If you can do that, you can make 5000 dollars, which happens to come out of his paycheck for the article he'll be writing. Oh, and to top it all off, whoever gets him gets pictures and interviews in Wired. He has been posting to his Twitter, has been apparently using TOR for internet, and the Wired website will be posting his credit card transactions. So Slashdot, do we have what it takes to show this guy we know our stuff? Hop to it my minions.

Green Cement Absorbs Carbon 213

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 11, 2009 @09:13PM from the do-not-like-green-cement-and-ham dept.

Peace Corps Online writes "Concrete accounts for more than 5 percent of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions annually, mostly because cement, the active ingredient in concrete, is made by baking limestone and clay powders under intense heat that is generally produced by the burning of fossil fuels. Now Scientific American reports that British start-up company Novacem has developed a 'carbon-negative' cement that absorbs more carbon dioxide than it emits over its life cycle. The trick is to make cement from magnesium silicates rather than calcium carbonate, or limestone, since this material does not emit CO2 in manufacture and absorbs the greenhouse gas as it ages. 'The building and construction industry knows it has got to do radical things to reduce its carbon footprint and cement companies understand there is not a lot they can do without a technology breakthrough,' says Novacem Chairman Stuart Evans. Novacem estimates that for every ton of Portland cement replaced by its product, around three-quarters of a ton of CO2 is saved, turning the cement industry from a big emitter to a big absorber of carbon. Major cement makers have been working hard to reduce CO2 emissions by investing in modern kilns and using as little carbon-heavy fuel as possible, but reductions to date have been limited. Novacem has raised $1.7M to start a pilot plant that should be up and running in northern England in 2011."

Submission + - Adjustable Focus Glasses Can Replace Bifocals

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Monday August 03, 2009 @07:12PM

Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that inventor Stephen Kurtin has developed glasses with a mechanically adjustable focus which he believes can free nearly two billion people around the world from bifocals, trifocals and progressive lenses. Kurtin has spent almost 20 years on his quest to create a better pair of spectacles for people who suffer from presbyopia — the condition that affects almost everyone over the age of 40 as they progressively lose the ability to focus on close objects. The glasses have a tiny adjustable slider on the bridge of the frame that makes it possible to focus alternately on the page of a book, a computer screen or a mountain range in the distance. "For more than 140 years, adjustable focus has been recognized as the Holy Grail for presbyopes," says Kurtin. "It's a blazingly difficult problem." Each "lens" is actually a set of two lenses, one flexible and one firm. The flexible lens (near the eye) has a transparent distensible membrane attached to a clear rigid surface. The pocket between them holds a small quantity of crystal clear fluid. As you move the slider on the bridge, it pushes the fluid and alters the shape of the flexible lens. Kurtin is introducing his product into the market slowly, but he is hopeful that his new fashion look will catch on. He notes that when the members of one of his investor's families get together they like to joke that they look a little bit like a Devo fan club meeting."

Submission + - Star Wars Tech: True Green Laser Developed.

Submitted by

dusty

on Monday July 27, 2009 @08:47PM

dusty writes: "Remember those green lasers from Star Wars? Turns out that faking green lasers has been easy for years , but making true green laser diodes has been the stuff of science fiction. Until recently that is. Now researchers from Japan have created the world's first true green laser diode. Until now only red and blue laser diodes were available and now with the addition of green new TV's and projectors that are more efficient can be produced. And if you were wondering how green lasers pointers are already produced, it is a hack that involved doubling the frequency of an infrared laser. The new true green laser diodes have much higher efficiency than the current 6% leading many to expect big time laser display breakthroughs in the near future. Ars Technica has a well written article on this breakthrough, and although the current lasers are no where near the power of the Death Star or Luke's lightsaber, seems anything can happen given enough research and time."

Submission + - Sandia Studies Botnets in 1M OS Digital Petri Dish

Submitted by

Ponca City, We love you

on Monday July 27, 2009 @06:49PM

Ponca City, We love you writes: "The NY Times reports that researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are creating what is in effect a vast digital petri dish able to hold one million operating systems at once in an effort to study the behavior of botnets. To stalk the botnets, Sandia Scientist Ron Minnich, the inventor of LinuxBIOS who specializes in computer security and his colleague Don Rudish have converted a Dell supercomputer to simulate a mini-Internet of one million computers. The researchers say they hope to be able to infect their digital petri dish with a botnet and then gather data on how the system behaves. "When a forest is on fire you can fly over it, but with a cyberattack you have no clear idea of what it looks like," says Minnich. "It's an extremely difficult task to get a global picture." The Dell Thunderbird supercomputer, named MegaTux, has 4,480 Intel microprocessors running virtual machines with Wine, making it possible to run 1 million copies of Windows without paying licensing fees to Microsoft. MegaTux, a reference to Tux, the penguin character that is the official mascot of the Linux operating system, is an example of a new kind of computational science, in which computers are used to simulate scientific instruments that were once used in physical world laboratories. "One of the advantages of such a system is that we can stop the simulation at any point and look for patterns," says Rudish. "It's one of the neat things you can do when you crash a simulation of a 747 on a supercomputer.""

Submission + - Classified evidence of global warming revealed (thinkprogress.org)

Submitted by on Monday July 27, 2009 @03:06PM

An anonymous reader writes: The Obama administration has released more than a thousand intelligence images of Arctic ice, following a declassification request by the National Academy of Sciences. These high-resolution spy photos of rapid sea ice loss off the northern coast of Alaska, kept classified by the Bush administration, show the devastating impact of global warming in the Arctic. The newly-declassified images also reveal the retreat of glaciers in Washington and Alaska.

Submission + - Tron Legacy exposed (kingofgng.com) 1

Submitted by

KingofGnG

on Sunday July 26, 2009 @12:40PM

KingofGnG writes: "As already occurred during the past year, Disney has chosen the San Diego Comic-Con International to present its new sci-fi project. The sequel to Tron, the classic movie from 1982 dealing with videogames, virtual reality and 3D graphics when none of these three things was widely popular, has got an official title and synopsis now while the major has released (and this time without silly censorship) the very first trailer from the movie together with some concept art and the teaser poster."

Submission + - Stallman Says Pirate Party Hurts Free Software (gnu.org)

Submitted by bonch on Friday July 24, 2009 @02:00AM

bonch writes: Richard Stallman has written an article on the GNU website describing the effect the Swedish Pirate Party's platform would have on the free software movement. While he supports general changes to copyright law, he makes a point that many anti-copyright proponents don't realize--the GPL itself is a copyright license that relies on copyright law to protect access to source code. According to Stallman, the Pirate Party's proposal of a five-year limit on copyright would remove the freedom users have to gain access to source code by eventually allowing its inclusion in proprietary products. Stallman suggests requiring proprietary software to also release its code within five years to even the balance of power.

Slashdot Top Deals