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Married Couples Needed for Trip to Mars

2013-03-01T15:54:38-07:00

Married Couples Needed for Trip to Mars via NewsLook Planning on honeymooning in space A billionaire is financing a trip to Mars set to take off in 2018. He s teaming up with NASA and they re looking for married couples to take the 501 day journey. ...

Comparing online gaming between tablets and mobile phones

2013-02-27T08:44:18-07:00

If there is one thing that never stops moving it is technology with innovations happening every day that make our lives easier and more enjoyable. For the casino industry this is a great thing as it gives them more ways in which they can create and distribute fun casino games to more people than ever before. One of the main additions that online casino games companies have jumped on is the mobile phone and tablet markets this allows people to play casino games at http www.luckynuggetcasino.com au online blackjack no matter where they are. But are there any differences in the experience for the user between these two pieces of technology. The smartphone has been around for many years now however they didn’t really get started until Apple took the...

Large Hadron Collider Is Being Shut Down

2013-02-16T18:10:37-07:00

The Large Hadron Collider or LHC best known for identifying a particle that could be the Higgs boson. If the particle is it this would confirm the existence of the Higgs field to explain why some fundamental particles have mass although other theories say they shouldn t. Although it is still not certain whether the particle is the Higgs boson the discovery of the particle has been a hot topic of conversation. Unfortunately the LHC is being shut down. Try not to worry too much This shut down of the machine will last two years and is necessary to get it working at maximum capacity. Since the LHC s beginning days particle beams used by the machine caused a quench in some of the magnets. This means the magnets...

Bacteria Producing Nitric Oxide Could Prolong Human Life

2013-02-15T12:48:58-07:00

Scientists have recently conducted research using nitric oxide on roundworms in the lab. They fed the organism bacteria that could manufacture nitric oxide and found that the round worm lived for a significantly longer period of time. This news has scientists wondering about the impact of the molecule on humans and how the multitude of microbial cells within our bodies all help to contribute to our overall health. According to Dr. Evgeny Nudler a professor of biochemistry at NYU Langone Medical Center humans see a decrease in their own nitric oxide levels as they age. He goes so far as to speculate as to whether the bacteria Bacillus subtilis that produces the molecule could be supplemented in humans as they grow older to offset their natural decline. He discusses how in the roundworms...

Solar Storms Vs. Snow Storms - Space Has Us Beat

2013-02-14T15:21:07-07:00

No longer are humans condemned to worry about snowstorms or floods in their area. For NASA this year s newest hot topic is space weather which can present even more of a hassle than regional weather problems would. Consider that in comparison to snow and wind we are talking about solar wind and flares coronal mass ejections and even radiation storms. Thinking about the weather of the cosmos in relation to Earth s own weather almost makes you hate snowstorms less. Almost. The problem is that this weather doesn t only affect distant planets or orbiting comets. A strong enough solar storm has the capacity to cause power outages and disable satellites and GPS. NASA is glad to find that the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space COPUOS...

Is the Heat Making You Do Stupid Things? Researchers Have an Idea Why

2013-02-13T11:57:10-07:00

Have you ever found it unbelievably hard to concentrate in warm weather Well researchers believe that warm weather impairs this ability. The warmer the climate the harder it is for us to make complex decisions. Conversely cooler weather seems not to have much of an affect on decision making skills. An individual will have a harder time choosing what to do in Florida s heat than in Alaska s cold. One of the reasons for this is based on the fact that our bodies require glucose to function. Glucose is an energy source that powers physical and mental processes. Our bodies work to regulate their own temperature to keep us safe and they use up glucose which is rather limited as it is in this effort. Warming our bodies up...

$900 Million Spent Yearly to Treat Deadly Chagas Disease

2013-02-12T13:01:39-07:00

It turns out that a rather obscure disease is responsible for costing the American economy more than other common illnesses each year. This disease is called Chagas. An illness like Lyme disease which is rather well known in the US costs the economy 2.5 billion a year according to a study done in 1998. Not lagging far behind is Chagas costing the economy 900 million a year. Chagas is also responsible for about 7 billion a year being spent throughout the world on treatment while less than 5 billion is spent on cervical cancer. Just what is Chagas disease to begin with If you re an American living in the northern states it s likely you ve never encountered the word. Chagas is caused by a ...

Facebook Being Sued Yet Again

2013-02-11T13:05:26-07:00

For anyone up to date on the current trends of the Internet it may be hard to believe that the social networking website Facebook is being challenged. In fact the site has recently been sued over the use of its like button along with other features that have made it the most popular place on the web for social media. The company has no comments to share in regard to the lawsuit. Rembrandt Social Media a company whose sole purpose is to hold patents is responsible for taking up this case. The company is acting on behalf of a now deceased Dutch programmer. The programmer named Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer filed two patents that Rembrandt claims Facebook has used without any of his permission. Since...

Egypt Bans YouTube Services for a Month

2013-02-10T14:41:28-07:00

The film Innocence of Muslims a video mocking Islamic beliefs continues to bring upset to the Islamic community. An Egyptian court recently decided to ban use of YouTube in the country. This rule was based on the fact that the video was uploaded and distributed through the popular video sharing website. For those of you who aren t familiar with the video it runs for a total of 13 minutes. In it the prophet Mohammed is shown as being a sexual deviant who is neither enlightened nor respectable. This is particularly a problem because Islamic peoples believe any depiction of Mohammed to be blasphemous in the first place. When you take into consideration that not only was the prophet depicted in the video but he was also mocked it...

App Turns Boring Newspaper Articles into Fun & Interactive Stories

2013-02-09T16:35:28-07:00

Another application has been released that uses augmented reality to translate newspapers for children. This app developed in Japan by Tokyo Shimbun can be used on a smartphone and held over the adult newspaper text. The smartphone then displays a version of the text that is more friendly to children. Basically this app allows children to turn a boring old regular newspaper into one that targets their age group and is much more interactive. Tokyo Shimbun worked with the advertising firm Dentsu to create the software. Augmented reality technology is used by the app in order to make the pages of the newspaper come to life in a way that appeals more to the youth. Not only is the children s version more visually creative it also features...

Researchers Produce a Model Spaceship Using a 3D Printer

2013-02-08T17:40:44-07:00

The power of 3D printers is once again put on display as Nanoscribe GmbH has released photographs of the tiny spaceship they ve created. This spaceship with a mere length of 70 microns is a model of the Wing Commander Hellcat. The organization that was able to print this tiny model is part of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT which means that KIT campuses everywhere are now using this technology. This printer uses a 3D laser lithography system that was developed by Nanoscribe. As for how the printer actually works it uses two photon polymerization. Photosensitive materials are activated by short laser pulses to dissolve either the exposed or unexposed parts whichever is preferred for the printing job. The organization aims to produce micro and nanostructures using the...

Discovery of Gene Potentially Involved in Depression Therapy

2013-02-07T18:31:58-07:00

According to a study published in the February 7 edition of Cell Stem Cell scientists at Johns Hopkins University have identified a common mechanism underlying the therapeutic effects of antidepressants and electroconvulsive also known as “electroshock” therapy ECT . Professor Hongjun Song Ph.D. and his team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine s Institute for Cell Engineering identified reductions in the activity of a specific gene as the underlying factor in the efficacy of both sets of treatments. The sFRP3 “secreted frizzled related protein 3” gene is responsible for producing a protein that inhibits a chemical reaction that results in the division of neural stem cells suppressing the activity of this gene results in the formation of new neurons. Through comparisons of normal mice...

Text Messaging Company Offers to Pay Customers

2013-02-06T13:50:57-07:00

A new mobile phone service for texting has become popular in Spain. This service called Chad2Win is free for its customers and actually pays them. The only condition is that the users will have to deal with ads regularly. They can earn up to 34 a month by viewing these ads or clicking on them. The company pays a cent for every advertisement the person views and three cents for every advertisement that they click on. The company operates out of Barcelona currently and has gotten quite a few people interested. Free messaging services have become all the rage with one service called WhatsApp in particular handling 10 billion messages a day across the world. SMS messages that cost money only handle 21 billion so as you can see the free...

Study Claims UV-B Radiation Can Prevent Rheumatoid Arthritis

2013-02-05T14:37:58-07:00

New research that suggests a link between arthritis and lack of sunlight has come out. U.S. researchers published their study in Annals of the Rheumatic Disease recently. In the study over 200 000 women were followed. These women were split into two different groups. The first group s monitoring began in 1976 while the second s began in 1989. Harvard Medical School headed this research which compared levels of UV B radiation of the groups based on where they lived i.e. participants living in sunnier areas vs. those living in climates with less sun exposure. The results of the first group were that those living in the sunniest regions of the U.S. were less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis by 21%. The results of the second group however showed...

Fracking: A Godsend or Another Way to Foul Up the Food Supply?

2013-02-04T13:58:57-07:00

To some people the concept of fracking is a blessing and is seen as a great way to keep the nation s fuel coming. Fracking is merely hydraulic fracturing of rock formations in order to extract natural gas. Many people policymakers included are very happy that scientists have discovered a way to drive gas prices down. The problem is that fracking uses fluid with chemicals in it to extract the natural gas. In the process any water exposed to these chemicals becomes polluted. The pollution of the water in these areas is significant because it can affect the crops grown using aforementioned water. It can also affect any animals who happen to drink the water and in turn any humans who consume these animals. While this negative connection between fracking and...

The Electric Ferry Replaces the Gas Guzzling Ferry

2013-02-03T12:31:01-07:00

Electric batteries are no longer only being used by cars. Right now the first electric car ferry called ZeroCat is being developed in Norway. The ferry currently in use between Lavik and Oppedal requires 264 000 gallons of fuel per year. As you can see that is quite a bit of fuel to have to pay for and use up in the process. ZeroCat will use an 800 KWh battery weighing 11 tons. While the battery is rather heavy the ZeroCat will weigh less than a normal ferry by half because of its design which has been tailored for efficiency. Instead of requiring a fuel up the new ferry will simply need to be charged in between its crossings. This at first created a problem for the electrical grids at...

Colliding Asteroids to Learn About the Moon

2013-02-02T15:46:41-07:00

Have you ever wanted to design your own while learning about it in the process There currently exists such a game. It s called Selene A Lunar Construction GaME. This game allows users to learn about our own moon s formation while constructing their own moons. As humans living on this planet the moon is one of our few glimpses at a celestial body using only the naked eye. Many people who look at the moon are still at a loss however to understand what the darker spots or grooves on it are. When playing this game the user is able to see how these different aspects of the moon have formed and what they are. Developers of the game have designed it to consist of...

Augmented Reality Glasses and What the Future Holds

2013-02-01T16:31:31-07:00

The future is here. All those science fiction books and the awe inspiring technologies they spoke of are starting to manifest in reality. Today s prominent example of this is Google s Project Glass. This project centers on a display unit in the form of a headset. The headset is able to show video and play audio and merely has to be to plugged into the computing unit on the side of the glasses by a power connector to be recharged. This means the device can be recharged at any point wherever you are. Several other companies are launching similar products. Motorola Solutions has announced a headset to be used by maintenance engineers and emergency services. Oakley came out with Airwave which is a pair of ski goggles that are able to judge the person s...

The Quality of Netflix and LoveFilm

2013-01-31T19:23:48-07:00

Many television shows and movies can be accessed online today using streaming services like Netflix and LoveFilm. By taking advantage of internet connectivity these forms of entertainment can easily be brought into one’s home. This makes it more convenient to watch movies and TV shows at home or on the go. Both of these popular services offer 1080p full HD streaming. However the ability to actually obtain 1080p depends on three different variables. For one the type of content selected to be watched is a factor. Secondly the devices on which the content will be watched plays a role in determine picture quality. Lastly the speed of one’s internet connection is also key. When using the LOVEFiLM service 1080p can be obtained on both PCs and Macs. However...

The Increasing Scarcity of Water

2013-01-31T19:20:23-07:00

Based on demands for fresh water right now the International Energy Agency IEA estimates that this strain will double by the year 2035. According to the agency much of this strain is the result of water being used in the production of power using coal. By 2035 they believe that more than half of the world s water usage will be from coal fired power plants. The IEA also maintains that biofuel production will come second using up 30% of the supply. The agency s projections center on the fact that coal plants powered by steam require massive amounts of water. This along with an increase in coal power throughout the world is the reason for the IEA s fears. Although improvements have been made in the coal industry...

DNA: The Gift that Keeps on Giving

2013-01-30T14:47:01-07:00

Scientists have found that not only does DNA store genetic information but that it can store other types of information as well. This is not the first time that this feat has been attempted but the scientists have devised a new technique. Researchers at the European Bioinformatics Institute EBI were able to use synthetic DNA molecules to store digital information. These researchers were then able to recreate the information from the DNA without any problems. The files that they used consisted of 154 of Shakespeare s sonnets along with a color digital photo scientific paper and an excerpt from a Martin Luther King Jr. speech. In total the data was 739 kilobytes. This new technique that researchers are using includes software that corrects errors. Their...

Google Urges Users to Protect Themselves

2013-01-29T17:09:04-07:00

According to Google it has become increasingly easier for others especially the U.S. government to access its users information. In the past three years the company has received 70% more requests for this personal information than in previous years and they claim that the majority of these requests come from the United States government. Google has been forced to comply with two thirds of these requests for personal data. The company itself is trying to inform users of this for their own protection. A privacy advocate at the Electronic Frontier Foundation Trevor Timm hopes to remind people that the Electronics Communication Privacy Act ECPA is still active and that electronic communication is not protected by the Fourth Amendment. He states that many people believe that police have...

Watch Out, Internet: Here Comes the Cyber Command

2013-01-28T14:37:17-07:00

The Pentagon has decided enough is enough and that they are going to take things a step further when dealing with cyber terrorism. Three years ago they established the U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade in order to protect their computers against all sorts of attacks. The U.S. government has approved an expansion for the agency. According to what Defense officials told the Washington Post within the next few years the Pentagon expects to go from 900 to 4900 staff members. The reason for this projected expansion is that lately computers all across the world have been vulnerable to attacks. One example is the virus used to wipe data from over 30 000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company. Realizing any number of computers in the U.S. could face this...

Justice for Aaron Swartz

2013-01-27T15:28:30-07:00

Zoe Lofgren a Democrat congresswoman has proposed a law to make changes in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act CFAA . This law is named Aaron Law after Aaron Swartz a computer programmer and activist who recently committed suicide under pressure from prosecutors. For those of you unfamiliar with this story here s a rundown Aaron Swartz was an individual who felt very strongly about freedom of information. He helped in the development of multiple websites including Reddit using his wiki platform Infogami. Swartz was also crucial to the prevention of the Stop Online Piracy Act SOPA being passed. The reason Swartz was the subject of multiple felony charges is that he walked into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT and accessed their open network...

A Look Into the Sun's Corona

2013-01-26T12:55:46-07:00

NASA recently spent 5 million to send its Hi C telescope into space for 300 seconds. While most people might think this sounds ridiculous NASA scientists consider this to be quite the bargain for a mission that has relayed so much information. The data received within this 300 seconds might not seem like a lot but the truth is that for a telescope to capture so much about an active region of the sun it is a feat. The Hi C telescope which stands for High Resolution Coronal Imager successfully completed its job. This job was to capture data about the hottest part of the sun the corona. The 300 seconds of observation revealed magnetic braids of plasma which had never yet been seen in the...