Technology

“And then I was like FUUUUUU”. This is how stories end nowadays. I dare to make a claim about the flow of stories because I believe the ontology of stories follows a predictable and stable pattern and it is this: I present to you a situation in which I was involved, usually as the protagonist. The story is semantically segmented and usually sequenced in sets of 4-6, which culminate in climactic revelation of emotion. Do you know what I meme when I say emotion? I mean forever alone guy, Y U NO guy, Trollface, rage guy, and the others from the gang.   If you’re “in” in digital…

In the era of Big Science, it is often assumed that cutting-edge research can't be done cheaply.  Yet even now a piece of tape can lead to a Nobel prize.  Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov  got one that way, for their discovery of graphene, a type of carbon one atom thick but more than 100 times stronger than steel. Sure, we all know graphene will lead to bendable computer screens and ultralight materials but it turns out graphene may also revolutionize genetic sequencing.  Researchers at the University of Delaware have created new approach for ultrafast DNA sequencing…

Here is a precautionary principle two-for-one special.   Though we have been momentarily sidetracked in recent years by the LHC Ragnarok Supermoons Biblical numerology dead Mayan astrologers fracking in science-media-hyped scare journalism (when they aren't helping us with new miracle vegetable claims) we never really forget about robots.  We're always wondering when that Roomba is going to achieve sentience and overthrow us (if it happens, blame Science 2.0 scribe Sam Kenyon, since he writes code for that little fifth columnist in your closet) and nanotechnology is so scary that…

CAMBRIDGE, England, March 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --  Autonomy, an HP Company, today announced that Mimas, an academic data center based at the University of Manchester which provides researchers in the UK with key information assets, has launched a new search and discovery platform on behalf of JISC Collections - JISC Historic Books, powered by Autonomy IDOL (Intelligent Data Operating Layer).  JISC Historic Books contains the full text or page images of over 300,000 books published in Britain before 1800. The service, developed for JISC Collections and the British Library, draws…

The fatal flaw of all biometric (or cognitive) identity validation is that once its signature is stolen it is unusable for that individual again. Hence, the system eventually makes it more difficult to verify identities, particularly valuable identities, as the system’s records are progressively compromised. This flaw is not discussed (or is minimized) by purveyors of identity security systems. Informed security experts are well aware of the threat of extremely well-funded foreign national, foreign corporate and organized crime to crack into any targeted repository of identity records given…

Hermes is the son of Zeus. He is the messenger. He wears winged sandals, a winged hat,and a magic wand. He is the fastest of the gods. He is the god of thieves and he is the god of commerce. Even when he steals, he does it so gracefully. He is the guide for the dead to go to the underworld. He invented, the pipes, the musical scale, astronomy, weights and measures, boxing, gymnastics and the care of olive trees (*). Hermes most recently invented the digital technology. Internet and smart phones are the new messengers. They wear winged cases and lids so they can uplift information over…

Not a day goes by where rain doesn't fall on the Earth.  Our weather patterns have changed through the eons and there have been wetter periods and dryer periods but so far as I know the rain keeps falling and will continue to keep falling until Earth can no longer sustain a liquid water environment. The World Wide Web works much the same way.  As we add content to the Web we "hook it up" and link to something, and something often links back to us.  Even on the dark Web there are a lot of links.  But do links burst into existence at a continuous rate?  Is there a…

The basis of the computing revolution is silicon but that popularity has led to e-waste.  We are okay with iPads being made in Chinese child labor sweat shops but we don't want to damage American landfills after we replace them. A team from Tel Aviv University may have a solution; biodegradable transistors that are protein-based, essentially composed of organic materials found in...you.Working with blood, milk, and mucus proteins which have the ability to self-assemble into a semi-conducting film, the researchers have already succeeded in taking the first step towards biodegradable…

A mini-medical machine could mean a new power scheme for cardiac pacemakers. Rather than use batteries, engineering researchers at the University of Michigan say they can use vibrations from heartbeats themselves. Their new device is designed to harvest energy from the reverberation of heartbeats through the chest and convert those to electricity to run a pacemaker or an implanted defibrillator. By taking the place of the batteries that power them today, the new energy harvester could save patients from repeated surgeries - the only way today to replace the batteries, which last five to…

Japanese researchers Kazutaka Kurihara of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Koji Tsukada of Ochanomizu University have developed a portable SpeechJammer gun that can silence people from a hundred feet away. Their claim of a benefit?  It may bring world peace.  Sometimes conflicts can't be resolved peacefully because the other person just won't shut up. France, we mean you. The cultural implications go beyond the geopolitical. The number one cause for relationship violence, according to wife abusers?  "The bitch just wouldn't shut up".…