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POPSHow much information is there in the world? Scientists calculate the world's total technological capacity "We live in a world where economies, political freedom and cultural growth increasingly depend on our technological capabilities," said lead author Martin Hilbert of the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. "This is the first time-series study to quantify humankind's ability to handle information." "Put another way, if a single star is a bit of information, that's a galaxy of information for every person in the world. That's 315 times the number of grains of sand in the world. But it's still less than one percent of the information that is stored in all the DNA molecules of a human being."
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POPSToo much hysteria over cyber attacks: US experts Security analysts at the National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) talk about cyber attacks, cyber espionage and cyber war. Cyber war - just a matter of time? "The government cannot protect our nation alone," Lynn said. "It is going to take a public-private partnership to secure our networks."
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POPSWhat causes chest pain when feelings are hurt? Well, that's nothing actually new, but then they say: "(...)activity in a brain region that regulates emotional reactions called the anterior cingulate cortex helps to explain how an emotional insult can trigger a biological cascade. During a particularly stressful experience, the anterior cingulate cortex may respond by increasing the activity of the vagus nerve"the nerve that starts in the brain stem and connects to the neck, chest and abdomen. When the vagus nerve is overstimulated, it can cause pain and nausea." And that explains it better. Though I still think saying "you broke my heart" is better than saying "you made my cingulate cortex increase the activity of my vagus nerve and now my chest is on pain". Yup, definitely.
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POPSGoogle invests into quantum computers technology. And there is more: "It’s highly likely that Google Venture’s recent investment into Adimab was made with a computer antibody identifier in mind. Adimab, a New Hampshire-based biotech company, has already developed a simulated human immune system, composed of engineered yeast cells, that produces antibodies in response to drug molecules. This process obviates the need for testing engineered mice, as well as other animal testing, and produces therapeutic outcomes in less than eight weeks." Now that is an awesome thing.
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POPSHunting Hidden Dimensions They say: "What makes either of these ideas even plausible is a bold theory put forth just over 10 years ago that purports to explain the weakness of gravity by supposing that some of it is leaking out into extra dimensions." Now, that does sound a little crazy, doesn't it? Well, turns out that as pointed by theoretical physicists Nima Arkani-Hamed, Savas Dimopoulos and Gia Dvali, gravity had never been measured below a distance of about a millimeter and they suggest that gravity differs from Newtonian expectations at distances smaller than a millimeter and that in such distances, gravity could leak into extra dimensions, as large as a millimeter and even trillions and trillions of times smaller as string theory predicts. Now, to understand the relation between that and the back holes shrinking speed, I recommend you to read the article. That'd make this comment rather long if I was to explain it here.
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POPSSimple tips to avoid falling for social engineering attacks. This is an oldie, but it's never bad to remind people of taking simple security measures like these. Social engineering is more active than many people think and may cause as much damage as a technical attack. Social engineering attacks can come in many different ways compromising your company's information, your personal identity and even leading to bigger and technical attacks. It is important to beware of the information you or your staff is giving and to whom.
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POPSPrivacy group files FTC complaint on Google Buzz It's funny how I've seen the "Google Buzz" name around so much lately and most of the times it's not in a very good context. I haven't had time or interest in using it yet but seems like Google got it wrong this time. Or am I wrong?
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POPSPhysicists play Lego with photons Again we have a great breakthrough that may lead technology to a new era. It's nice to wonder how it's going to be 7, 9 yeras from now by taking in consideration scientific developments like this.
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POPSHome Computers Around the World Unite to Map the Milky Way "This is truly public science," said Desell, who began working on the project as a graduate student and has seen the project through its entire evolution. "This is a really unique opportunity to get people interested in science while also allowing us to create a strong computing resource for Rensselaer research." All of the research, results, data, and even source code are made public and regularly updated for volunteers on the main MilkyWay@Home Web site found at: http://MilkyWay.cs.rpi.edu/. This is a really nice initiative. And it's great for everyone who wants to be part of a great scientific project. It's the new volunteering way, overcoming barriers and developing science and technology.
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POPSAcoustic Levitation Could Work on Mars. Next step: Earth. Makes me wonder what our friends from the 1800's would say about this... Still, with all the controversy behind subjects like this, I'd like to see if - and if - they manage to make it work on Earth, how they would actually implement this technology if not on our daily basis, then on industrial or military areas. Seems like we're going to live a 70's movie story very soon.
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POPSGetting Closer to String Theory Without string theory, physicists need two theories to explain how the universe works. General relativity explains gravity, while the other three basic forces are explained by the “standard model.” Moreover, gravity has been very difficult to reconcile with quantum theory, a problem for which string theory offers a solution.
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POPSNew quantum algorithm helpes solving big problems. “Large-scale linear systems of equations exist in many fields, such as weather prediction, engineering, and computer vision”, says Harrow. “Quantum computers could supply serious improvements for these and many other problems. For example, a trillion-variable problem would take a classical computer at least a hundred trillion steps to solve, but using the new algorithm, a quantum computer could solve the problem in just a few hundred steps”. The solution could also be applied to other complex processes such as image and video processing, genetic analyses and even Internet traffic control. Sounds pretty good to me!
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POPSPhysicists Calculate Number of Parallel Universes
Think it's crazy? Check this out, then: To work these numbers out, Linde and Vanchurin looked back to the time shortly after the Big Bang, which they view as a quantum process that generated lots of quantum fluctuations. Then during the period of inflation, the universe grew rapidly and these quantum fluctuations were "frozen" into classical perturbations in distinct regions. Today, each of these regions could be a different universe, having its own distinct laws of low energy physics. By analyzing the mechanism (called "slow roll inflation") that initially generated the quantum fluctuations, the scientists could estimate the number of resulting universes at 10^10^10^7 (a number which is dependent on the model they used). However, this number is limited by other factors, specifically by the limits of the human brain. Since the total amount of information that one individual can absorb in a lifetime is about 10^16 bits, which is equivalent to 10^10^16 configurations, this means tha
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POPSInvisible hand in invisible matter. Dark matter might not exist. Dr Famaey added, "If we account for our observations with a modified law of gravity, it makes perfect sense to replace the effective action of hypothetical dark matter with a force closely related to the distribution of visible matter." The implications of the new research could change some of the most widely held scientific theories about the history and expansion of the universe. Lead researcher Dr. Gianfranco Gentile at the University of Ghent concludes, "Understanding this puzzling conspiracy is probably the key to unlock the formation of galaxies and their structures." What about NASA's direct proof on dark matter's existance? Broken study? This is actually makes sense, but so far is a little hard to accept. Does anyone have any ideas about this?
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POPSDid you know? This is a great video everyone should take some time to watch. We see daily many different advances on science, technology, internet... Everywhere, journals, blogs, radio, TV, here, on Clipmarks, reading some very interesting clips about many new creations, advances, innovations, new things that we just find awesome. But at the end of the day, putting everything together, do we ask ourselves what does all this means in a more general context?
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POPSInfant pain, adult repercussions Continuation: To test this hypothesis, LaPrairie and Murphy gave adult animals that were injured at the time of birth a drug called naloxone. This drug blocks the actions of endogenous opioids. After animals received an injection of naloxone, they behaved just like an uninjured animal. The scientists then focused on the periaqueductal gray region to see if inflammation at birth altered the natural opioid protein expression in this brain region. Using a variety of anatomical techniques, the investigators showed that animals that were injured at birth had endogenous opioid levels that were two times higher than normal. While it's beneficial to decrease pain sensitivity in some cases, it's not good to be completely resilient to pain. ------------------------------------------- Wow, I had now idea of that. The feeling of pain fascinates me. It's just so interesting how important it is and to think how it works... Sometimes we may not even pay attention to it, but many of
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POPSHearing Voices – Underpinnings of Auditory Hallucinations What exactly is going on in the brain during auditory hallucinations? And is the act of hearing voices inside one’s head always incontrovertible evidence of psychosis? In recent years, the use of MRIs, PET scans and other imaging technologies has given researchers some specific clues about these and other questions. This is very interesting, so far there was nothing that confirmed that there are any kinds of brain tissue abnomalities in schizophrenic people, this research, done by a group of researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway can help in the development of new therapy techniques on people with auditory hallucinations. They spotted an abnormal activity on a brain's area which is related to external speech (the right middle temporal gyrus), which can be the cause of language processing dysfunctions. Most notably, the group of British researchers hypothesized that if such language dysfunction “has its origins in early brain development, it might be possible to dete
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POPSNanodiamonds Advance Anticancer Gene Therapy Dr. Ho and his research team engineered surface-modified nanodiamond particles that successfully and efficiently delivered DNA into mammalian cells. The delivery efficiency was 70 times greater than that of a conventional standard for gene delivery. That's just great! :D
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POPSCould we create quantum creatures in the lab? By impinging on the virus, it forces it into a superposition of both its ground state and next vibrational energy state. Now the virus should be doing two different things at once " the equivalent of you simultaneously mowing the lawn and doing the shopping. "They have come up with a really neat experiment " inventive and I think feasible," says Peter Knight of Imperial College London. You can read the full article for more details on the process. It's worth reading if you care enough or are just curious. :)
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POPSEarly Risers Crash Faster Than People Who Stay Up Late More important, these regions included the suprachiasmatic area, which is home to the body’s circadian clock. This area sends signals to boost alertness as the pressure to sleep mounts. Unlike night owls, early risers didn’t get this late-day lift. Peigneux says faster activation of sleep pressure appears to prevent early birds from fully benefiting from the circadian signal, as evening types do. Wait wait, did he just say the night owls showed no difference in attention-related brain activity and instead, after 10 hours they had grown more alert? This is great! I always worried about that, now seems like I don't have to, anymore. :D
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POPSTrapped girls raised alarm on Facebook Now come on, it is a nice story and everything but as said, if they had access to facebook, why not just dial 000 for the Fire Service? Endangering their lives just for a story to tell their friends?
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POPSPhysicist unlocking the mysteries of neighboring galaxies "...Our observations also suggest that the Triangulum Galaxy is being ripped apart by Andromeda." Andromeda, and our own galaxy the Milky Way, are the two largest members of a small cluster of galaxies known as the Local Group. Triangulum, the third largest member of the Local Group, is about one-tenth the size of Andromeda. "Within a few billion years Triangulum will be completely destroyed by Andromeda and its stars will be dispersed throughout the Andromeda halo," says Dr. Widrow. "And a few billion years after that, Andromeda and the Milky Way will collide and merge together to form a giant elliptical galaxy."
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