Technology

Tony La Russa, manager of baseball team the St. Louis Cardinals, recently sued Twitter, claiming that an unauthorized page using his name damaged his reputation and caused emotional distress.   It's true, anyone can sign onto Twitter and claim to be a celebrity but it can happen anywhere in the world of social media. Media personality Keith Olbermann also was a victim of Twitter fraud - yes, someone out there said things so ridiculously partisan even Keith Olbermann was concerned about his portrayal and CNN recently acquired the rights to CNNbrk (CNN Breaking News), the largest Twitter…

Want to know how gravestones will weather due to pollution?   Can you help measure hailstones?   If so, or you are wondering what else one person can contribute to solving global climate issues, controlling the spread of invasive plant species or managing severe weather risk, EarthTrek is for you. EarthTrek is a new worldwide program developed by the Geological Society of America and an array of national and international partners to provide a new tool allowing concerned citizens  to collect data that will provide answers in understanding our planet Communities everywhere are…

The thinking, talking robots of Isaac Asimov science fiction are nothing like what we actually have - programmed machines that do the simplest things.   European researchers in robotics, psychology and cognitive sciences say they have developed a robot that can predict the intentions of its human partner; this ability to anticipate (or even question) actions could make human-robot interactions more natural. You cannot make human-robot interaction more natural unless you understand what 'natural' actually means. But few studies have investigated the cognitive mechanisms that are the basis…

An ultra-broadband, low-power radio chip, modeled on the human inner ear could enable wireless devices capable of receiving cell phone, Internet, radio and television signals.   Rahul Sarpeshkar, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and graduate student Soumyajit Mandal designed the chip to mimic the inner ear, or cochlea. The chip is faster than any human-designed radio-frequency spectrum analyzer and also operates at much lower power.  Sarpeshkar and his students describe their new chip, which they have dubbed the "radio frequency (RF) cochlea," in a…

In two hours, under my guidance, a small group of 5th and 6th graders built a drawbridge. We were operating using a plan essentially sketched on the napkin, with the napkin left at home. We had a stack of wood, rope, 2 hammers, a drill, a hacksaw, and a box of nails. I had access to as many kids as we needed as labor. And, again, we built a portable, freestanding, working drawbridge in under 2 hours. And assembled it outside a classroom 'medieval museum' to serve as its entrance for the rest of this week. Just which skills of a computational astrophysicist made me especially suited for such a…

I’ve written about network neutrality before. It’s a difficult topic because of its different aspects, and because there are vehement opinions on all sides of it. Before I left the Internet Architecture Board, I started the process of setting up a network neutrality talk as the technical topic of the plenary session at the upcoming Stockholm IETF meeting — my IAB colleague Marcelo Bagnulo has taken over the planning for that, and is getting a great program lined up. Writer and BoingBoing editor Cory Doctorow has long been an outspoken advocate of net neutrality, and he’s recently written a…

Electronic memory chips may soon gain the ability to bend and twist, thanks to  engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)(1).   Not too exciting, right?   You probably don't spend a lot of time bending memory chips now but electronic components that can flex without breaking are coveted by portable device manufacturers for less Stretch Armstrong-type reasons; people have a tendency to drop their mp3 players and they could lead to small medical sensors that can be worn on the skin to monitor vital signs such as heart rate or blood sugar, benefitting…

ELAD, the Extracorporeal Liver Assist Device,  is a bedside system that treats blood plasma, metabolizing toxins and synthesizing proteins just like a real liver does. Artificial livers have been attempted since the 1960s but because previous designs didn't use human liver cells, they couldn't adequately filter toxins or create chemicals essential to metabolism and blood-clotting.  ELAD is the first artificial organ for liver patients that uses immortalized human liver cells. In cell biology, 'immortalization' is when a genetically engineered cell line can reproduce indefinitely.…

Sequence gaps in human chromosome 15 have been closed by the application of 454 technology. Researchers writing in Genome Biology have described a simple and scalable method for finishing non-structural gaps in genome assemblies. Manuel Garber worked with a team of researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts, USA, to develop an approach for closing class III gaps, those non-structural gaps that are refractory to clone-based approaches, using 454 sequencing. He said, “While clone-based methods remain an effective means of attacking structural gaps, they will not…

The first batch of newly designed Scientific Blogging logo stuff arrived today.   What do we have?   For biology writers, an excellent 'Lysis To Kill' logo.   For generally awesome people, a 'Certified Jenius' adornment let's everyone know how smart you really are and for chemists, a Science 2.0 approved caffeine mug (of course). But we also have new stuff that's done and even I haven't ordered yet, like one for our space section contributors: And we sponsored a team for the Sacramento Race for the Cure so we made this shirt for the event: Seguing aptly from breasts, due to…