Comment Re:Physical Review Letters (Score 2) 240
That wouldn't explain the galaxy rotational speed anomaly, which is the primary evidence for existence of dark matter.
Comment Re:Why hasn't anyone wondered... (Score 1) 60
An internal source would heat up to the surface uniformly.
Comment Optogenetics (Score 5, Interesting) 23
Another approach called optogenetics is developed at the University of Otago: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories...
Comment Re:Unuseful Definition (Score 1) 233
My point, exactly.
Comment Re:Unuseful Definition (Score 1) 233
Because you don't know what the word "breeding" means?
Comment Already known (Score 2, Interesting) 233
It was already known that evolution by natural selection could be triggered by human activity. Industrial melanism (e.g. the Peppered Moth) is a famous example.
Comment Re:But they're still the same species fish, right? (Score 2, Insightful) 233
Evolution does not have to be visible to naked eye. Developing resistance to a toxin is evolution, because the trait is passed to the offspring.
Intel, Toshiba, Samsung To Form Chip Alliance 57
Lucas123 writes "According to a report from a Japanese news agency, semi-conductor leaders Intel, Samsung and Toshiba are forming a development alliance to halve the size of chip circuitry in order to create more dense NAND flash chips and more powerful processors. The vendors would not confirm the news report, but the Nikkei Daily said they hope to reduce lithography technology from the 20 nanometer size used today to something below 10nm. The news agency also said Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry may fund up to half the project's cost, or roughly $61 million."
Fun With an Induction Cooktop? 147
fishfrys writes "Besides generating heat quickly and efficiently in ferromagnetic pans, what sorts of fun things can you do with an induction cooktop? This seems like a pretty serious piece of electromagnetic equipment — boiling water can't be the only thing it's good for. I went to YouTube, expecting to find all sorts of crazy videos of unsafe induction cooktop shenanigans, but found only cooking. What sort of exciting, if not stupid, physics experiments can be performed with one? Hard drive scrubber? DIY Tesla coil? There's got to be something."
US Objects To the Kilogram 538
Velcroman1 writes "For 130 years, the kilogram has weighed precisely one kilogram. Hasn't it? The US government isn't so sure. The precise weight of the kilogram is based on a platinum-iridium cylinder manufactured 130 years ago; it's kept in a vault in France at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. Forty of the units were manufactured at the time, to standardize the measure of weight. But due to material degradation and the effects of quantum physics, the weight of those blocks has changed over time. That's right, the kilogram no longer weighs 1 kilogram, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. And it's time to move to a different standard anyway. A proposed revision would remove the final connection to that physical bit of matter, said Ambler Thompson, a NIST scientist involved in the international effort. 'We get rid of the last artifact.'"
James Cameron Commissions Submarine To Visit Challenger Deep 285
frank249 writes "In January, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Trieste descent, the X Prize Foundation announced a $10 million prize for the first privately funded craft to make two manned descents to the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest surveyed point in the oceans. Now, James Cameron has announced he has commissioned a submarine capable of surviving the tremendous pressures at a depth of seven miles, from which he will not only try for the X prize but also shoot 3D footage that may be incorporated in Avatar's sequel."
Open Source Renderer Aqsis 1.0 Released 16
cgTobi writes "I am very pleased to announce that the stable 1.0 release of Aqsis - The Open Source Renderman Renderer, has been released. This release will remain stable in terms of publicly visible interface, no new features, only bug fixes. This will allow users who have been concerned in the past about things changing underneath them to use Aqsis in the confidence that it will not change. We have branched the CVS repository to allow 1.0 to be maintained in terms of bug fixes, while work goes ahead on new exciting features, including performance and memory optimisation, ray tracing/global illumination, and deep shadow maps."
