Hot chips and Smart Paper

SPACE.com

Peru Links Illness to Supposed Meteorite - A supposed meteorite that crashed in southern Peru over the weekend has caused hundreds of people to suffer headaches, nausea and respiratory problems, a health official said Tuesday. But meteor expert Ursula Marvin, cast doubt on that theory, saying, "It wouldn't be the meteorite itself, but the dust it raises."

Technology Review Feed - Tech Review Top Stories

Solar-Powered Laser - A new kind of efficient, solar-powered laser has been developed by researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, in Japan. They hope to use the laser to help them realize their goal of developing a magnesium combustion engine. The idea, says Takashi Yabe, a professor of mechanical engineering and science at the Tokyo Institute, is to make a powerful laser capable of combusting the magnesium content of seawater. In the process, large amounts of heat and hydrogen are given off.

New Scientist Tech - Technology

'Pulp-based computing' makes normal paper smart - Boxes that sense the weight of their contents and books that talk back when pages are turned could be developed using technology being tested by researchers at MIT in the US. They are making paper with wires, sensors, and computer chips embedded, a technology dubbed 'Pulp-based' computing.

The Globe and Mail - Science News

Men may have personal stem-cell trove - It is an idea that may make many men cross their legs. But researchers in the United States say stem cells harvested from a man's testicles could one day be used to repair his damaged heart, kidneys or even his brain. The scientists have found a way to easily identify stem cells in the testicles of adult mice, and to coax them to become brain cells, muscle cells, heart cells, blood cells and even blood vessels. The next step is to see if they can do the same thing in humans.

BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition

Northwest Passage opens - The most direct shipping route from Europe to Asia is fully clear of ice for the first time since records began, the European Space Agency (Esa) says.

Physics Org

Artists 'draw on air' to create 3D illustrations - By putting on a virtual reality mask, holding a stylus in one hand and a tracking device in the other, an artist can draw 3D objects in the air with unprecedented precision. This new system is called “Drawing on Air,” and researchers have designed the interface to be intuitive and provide the necessary control for artists to illustrate complicated artistic, scientific, and medical subjects.

Can't Take My Eyes Off You: New Study Shows The Power Of Attraction - Whether we are seeking a mate or sizing up a potential rival, good-looking people capture our attention nearly instantaneously and render us temporarily helpless to turn our eyes away from them, according to a new Florida State University study.

Chronic fatigue syndrome linked to stomach virus - Chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as ME (myalgic encephalitis), is linked to a stomach virus, suggests research published ahead of print in Journal of Clinical Pathology.

Micro-dust could tame hurricanes: study - Seeding a hurricane with microscopic dust could sharply reduce its force, according to a study which calculated that the technique might have spared New Orleans from the devastating power of Katrina in 2005.

Slashdot

NASA Building Massively Heat-Resistant Chips - Silicon Carbide (SiC) chips can operate in 600 degrees Celsius or 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit where conventional silicon-based electronics -- limited to about 350 C -- would fail.In the past, integrated circuit chips could not withstand more than a few hours of high temperatures before degrading or failing. This chip exceeded 1,700 hours of continuous operation at 500 degrees Celsius - a breakthrough that represents a 100-fold increase in what has previously been achieved, NASA said.

A collection from the Ricker Mercer Report

From Rick Mercer Report

Man boobs' a growing problem - Men who don't mind packing on a beer belly are failing to realize that the weight is also building up on another part of their bodies. The number of men with breasts is increasing along with the incidence of obesity, according to the author of an article in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

CN Tower no longer world's tallest - The United Arab Emirates' upstart Burj Dubai, still under construction, has reached 555 metres, two metres taller than Canada's pride and joy. When it's finished late next year, Burj Dubai will top 800 metres, with 165 storeys of apartments, shops, hotel rooms and office space.

Skip work, make babies, governor says - The governor of a central Russian province urged couples to skip work Wednesday and make love instead to help boost Russia's low birth-rate. And if a woman gives birth in exactly nine months time -- on Russia's national day on June 12 -- she will qualify for a prize, perhaps even winning a new home.

Americans most heavily armed citizens on Earth - report - U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

Tunnels to prevent carnage of Canadian salamanders - The federal parks agency plans to install tunnels under a stretch of highway at a cost of about C$40,000 ($38,000) to end years of carnage among the long-toed salamander of Waterton Lakes National Park in southern Alberta.

Boys read better when they're taught by a woman, study finds - Young boys have a better chance of learning to read when they are taught by women rather than men, suggests a new study that calls into question an international drive to recruit more male teachers into elementary schools to improve boys' literacy. While they do not make sweeping conclusions on the wisdom of hiring male teachers in elementary schools, the results suggest that a general drive to attract more men as a way to improve boys' documented under-achievement in reading could be misguided, said Laura Sokal, an education professor at the University of Winnipeg and another one of the study's authors.

3 coffees a day keep memory loss at bay for older women: study - Researchers in France found women aged 65 and older who drank at least three cups of coffee or tea a day were able to retain memory and thinking skills better than women who drank less than one cup. But men didn't experience the same benefits.

Middle-class students caught in tuition crunch - Too rich to qualify for full student loans but too poor to pay the tab themselves, Canada's middle-class students are being squeezed into troubling debt and daunting work schedules to cover the cost of higher learning, a new study shows. With a $10,000 gap between what the average post-secondary student earns each year and what they pay for their education, middle-income students often must take out pricey bank loans and jobs that eat into their studies, warns the study by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation on the cost of higher education in Canada.

Loonie hits par with the U.S. dollar - A strong oil price and the faltering U.S. economy have enabled the Canadian dollar to surpass the greenback in value for the first time in nearly 31 years. The Canadian dollar rose as high as US$1.0001 just before 11 a.m. on Thursday -- something that hasn't happened since Nov. 25, 1976. The dollar fell back in later trading. By 1:40 p.m., it was selling for US99.80 cents.