Nanogenerators and Flying cars

I tried to post this last night before the power went down on LJ's servers.

New Scientist Tech - Nanotechnology

Nanotubes strengthen artificial muscles - BEST known as the ultra-strong material that might one day form the cables of a "space elevator" capable of raising people into Earth orbit, carbon nanotubes also have a springy side. The discovery that nanotubes keep bouncing back after being compressed repeatedly means this exotic form of carbon may be just the thing to give artificial muscles some extra strength

New Scientist - Energy and Fuels

Exfoliation produces lighter, cheaper solar cells - An ultra-thin solar cell that could provide a cheaper, lighter alternative to existing devices has been created by researchers in the US. James Zahler from Aonex Technologies, together with colleagues from Harry Atwater's group at the California Institute of Technology and researchers at EMCORE PhotoVoltaics made the device by replacing the relatively thick semiconductor substrate normally used in solar cells with a thin "wafer-bonded" substrate. This means the new device is considerable cheaper and lighter than conventional solar cells.

New Scientist - Genetics

Genetic variation may lower HIV load by 90% - A small genetic mutation in the section of human DNA that codes for immune proteins appears able to reduce the amount of HIV in the body by an average of 90%, new research suggests. Scientists say the finding points to new ways in which vaccines might one day help boost immune protection against the virus

Technology Review Feed - Biotech Top Stories

A Better Brain Scanner - New brain scanners promise to deliver images of higher resolution than any now available from a commercial instrument. By using multiple sensors placed close to the head, the device can generate accurate images in less time, which could ultimately aid in the diagnosis of diseases such as Alzheimer's and epilepsy. Medical imaging giant Siemens is developing a commercial version of the technology.

Saving Neurons and Memories - Scientists have shown that a gene called SIRT1 and a plant compound found in red wine called resveratrol can protect against neuron degeneration in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The researchers demonstrated that activating SIRT1 and injecting resveratrol, which have both been previously associated with life-span extension in lower organisms, can also prevent cognitive problems in the mice.

National Geographic News

Queen Bees "Brainwash" Workers With Chemicals - A new study suggests the domineering matriarch regulates her daughters' brain activity to ensure her own survival. One of the parts of the pheromone is homovanillyl alcohol (HVA). It interacts with a neurotransmitter called dopamine, which is found in the brains of insects and animals. In a mechanism that's still not understood, the pheromone may be able to block dopamine and prevent the young worker bees from avoiding negative stimuli. Worker bees - which surround and dote on the queen - are all female, and drone bees are male.

ABC News: Technology

Parents Steal Children's Identities - On paper, Randy Waldron Jr. was $2.5 million in debt and a convicted felon. He owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to credit card companies, owed back taxes to the state of Florida, and had liens and civil actions against him. In reality, Waldron was a 17-year-old high school junior living in New Hampshire, who in 1998 couldn't get a student loan for college or a credit card because his Social Security number had been stolen when he was just 1 year old. Making matters worse, the man who stole Waldron's identity was his father.

Jetson-Like Flying Car in Production - Moller International, a company founded by a UC Davis professor devoted to developing a flying car, announced in a statement recently that it has begun production for its "Jetsons-like M200G Volantor, a small airborne, two passenger, saucer-shaped vehicle that is designed to take off and land vertically."

Physics Org

Scientists work to create nanogenerator - U.S. scientists are developing a nanogenerator -- a tiny device that produces electricity from flowing blood, pulsating blood vessels, or a beating heart.

BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition

Antique engines inspire nano chip - The blueprint for a tiny, ultra-robust mechanical computer has been outlined by US researchers. The energy-efficient nano computer is inspired by ideas about computing first put forward nearly 200 years ago. Chips based on the design could be used in places, such as car engines, where silicon can be too delicate.

Another update

Most of a conference paper written. I discovered this morning that it is due the day I get back from Toronto so it absolutely must be ready for internal review by tomorrow so that it gets back in time for me to edit and submit it by Wednesday.

Also debugged the LaTeX example file helpfully supplied by the conference chair (who also happens to be on my defence committee). Seems I'm one of the few still requesting LaTeX style files for these things. After significant writing and cutting, it appears the paper will be within the 6-page deadline, although it means some applicable portions of my research will not appear in the paper. Oh well, what's there is significant and the rest can be put in the next paper (which is due on the 15th of September).

Mission Improbable

Improbable Research

Why you should hire a psychopath - It sounds like a great idea to hire a psychopath as long as they’re ambitious and will leave for another job after a couple of years.

LSD as a treatment for autism - Is LSD a good treatment for autism? There were some experiments to find out. But...

Graph: The hardness of a faux pas - Miss Conduct devised this simple graph to analyze a faux pas

How to pour ketchup - Robert Allgeyer’s "Pouring Ketchup - The full technical explanation" explains exactly that.

The British right to light - "Ancient lights" is a colloquialism for the "right to light", guaranteed under English law, whereby windows that have seen twenty years’ worth of uninterrupted daylight cannot be blocked by the construction of new buildings

ECONOMICS LESSON: supply & demand (machetes) - The price of machetes has halved in parts of Nigeria since the end of general elections in April because demand from thugs sponsored by politicians has subsided. The state-owned New Agency of Nigeria (NAN) surveyed prices in the north-eastern state of Gombe and found that a good quality machete was now selling for 400 naira ($3.50) compared with 800 naira ($7) before the elections, which were marred by politically motivated violence in many states.

The dump truck and the whale (and the squid) - Because things are only in perspective when compared to a dump truck.

Measured discovery about meetings - Of 1,037 full- or part-time workers polled, 27 percent ranked disorganized, rambling meetings as their top frustration, followed by 17 percent who said they were annoyed by peers who interrupt and try to dominate meetings.

Physics Ph.D. thesis, for children - Dr Hancock began writing children’s books on quantum physics theories last year after completing her thesis.

How to read a scientific report - E. Robert Schulman’s How To Write A Scientific Paper - (published in the Annals of Improbable Research, vol. 2, no. 5, 1996) is pretty darn funny, but funnier still is that it is cited in a published paper. See also Kaj Sand-Jensen’s recently published study How to Write Consistently Boring Scientific Literature.

ok, this was interesting

From ztrooper

Explanation and other locations