Science

A Changing Earth Is on Display in Google Timelapse
May 09, 2013

Time, Inc., together with Google, the U.S. Geological Survey and Carnegie Mellon University's Create Lab, on Thursday launched a website featuring timelapse animations depicting changes in Earth's surface from 1984 to 2012. The animations are based on satellite images collected as part of the Landsat program, conducted jointly by the USGS and NASA since 1972.

Tech Offers Web of Support for Stroke Survivors
May 09, 2013

May is National Stroke Awareness month. I like to follow the technology advancements for stroke prevention and treatment -- and the companies making them -- because I have been a stroke survivor for nine years. We don't realize it on a daily basis, but things advance as quickly in the medical and health industries as in wireless and communications.

Fitbit Flex Takes You by the Wrist
May 06, 2013

Fitbit users who frequently forget or misplace their fitness trackers now have a new option: Fitbit Flex, a version of the popular Fitbit device that's designed to be worn on the wrist, became available on Monday. Fitbit Flex, which retails for $99.95, is a bit larger than the typical silicone awareness bracelet and features a pedometer, sleep tracker, vibrating alarm and calorie tracker.

World's Smallest Movie Is IBM's Science Blockbuster
May 01, 2013

IBM has released the world's smallest movie. Company researchers moved thousands of atoms to create a miniature stop-motion movie titled A Boy and His Atom.. The movie, which has 242 frames, was made with a scanning tunneling microscope which IBM has been using to conduct research into storage. The movie has been certified as the world's smallest by the Guinness World Records.

Wanted in Healthcare: More Wireless Devices for In-Home Patients
April 27, 2013

The machine-to-machine communications industry is undergoing a period of fundamental change and significant growth. Encouraged by declining chipset and sensor costs, manufacturers are increasingly embedding their products with wireless connectivity. Mobile operators and key players in industries as diverse as automotive, oil and gas, and healthcare all have a strong interest in pursuing this growing market.

India to Get a Smartphone for the Blind
April 25, 2013

A company in India has developed a smartphone for the blind. The device will be equipped to read text messages and emails, and it will then convert the text to Braille. It will utilize shape memory alloy technology, which exploits a metal's ability to "remember" its original shape. The phone's screen is not a screen so much as a grid of pins that move up and down to form Braille characters.

Mighty Microbattery Delivers Lightning-Fast Charge
April 19, 2013

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a super-dense battery that measures only a few millimeters, but can both store and release a lot of power, resolving a problem that has long plagued consumers and electronics manufacturers. Capacitors can release power very quickly but can't store much. Fuel cells and batteries can store power but release it slowly.

Fusion Rocket Could Hurtle Astronauts to Mars in 30 Days
April 11, 2013

Scientists from the University of Washington and private company MSNW are working on a fusion-powered rocket that could slash the estimated four-year round trip from Earth to Mars to a maximum of 90 days. The technology might also make flights to Mars affordable. The launch cost alone of such a manned flight using chemical rocket fuel would be about $12 billion, according to UW.

New Robotic Data Center to Roam the World's Seas
April 09, 2013

Ocean data services provider Liquid Robotics on Monday announced the latest addition to its Wave Glider SV line, which it claims is the world's first unmanned oceangoing family of robot vessels that are both wave and solar-powered. The Wave Glider SV3 is a slightly larger update to its predecessor, the SV2, which has logged 300,000 miles on the world's oceans in all weather conditions.

Virtualization: An IT Prescription for Healthcare Providers
April 08, 2013

Healthcare providers know that technology can provide an answer to higher operating costs and ailing efficiencies within their organizations, but strict regulatory issues and other compliance matters have always proved to be tough obstacles. The security of patient health data, after all, must never be compromised in pursuit of greater efficiencies.

Relax and Sleep: Whatever Floats Your Dream Boat
March 29, 2013

Relax and Sleep Plus lets you choose and play ambient sounds that might help you sleep. I tried this app during a grueling jet-lagged visit to London. The UK has a seven-hour time difference from Los Angeles, which is my home base, so my day started there just as I normally would be going to sleep. For me, the net result of the time change was sleeplessness in the dead of local night.

Eureka! We've Found the God Particle - We Think
March 15, 2013

Nothing is official yet, but it looks like the new particle detected in July in experiments conducted at the CERN Large Hadron Collider may indeed be the Higgs boson or so-called "God particle," scientists announced Thursday at a physics conference in Geneva. The scientists have analyzed two-and-a-half times more data on their discovery than what was available last summer.

When These Chips Are Down, They Fix Themselves
March 12, 2013

The mean cyborg of Terminator 2 was unstoppable until it was immersed in a vat of molten iron. It might have survived, however, if it had self-healing processors at its core like the ones announced Monday by a team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology. The researchers said they had built tiny power amplifiers for chips that recovered functions even after many of their components had been vaporized in tests.

Hackathon's Goal: A Smartphone Game That Scores Points for Cancer Research
March 02, 2013

A UK-based charity is sponsoring a weekend hackathon, but those invited won't be using their coding talents to advance any business causes. The 40 programmers, gamers, graphic designers and other specialists will spend the time designing a smartphone game that can let average users help with cancer research.

Thruster Problem Pushes SpaceX Capsule Off Schedule
March 01, 2013

Private spaceflight company SpaceX's Friday launch of a Dragon capsule ran into problems shortly after it separated from its Falcon 9 rocket, and the resulting delays could move a planned docking with the International Space Station from Saturday to Sunday. "Issue with Dragon thruster pods," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted shortly after the morning launch.

Scientists on Unparticle Hunt Give Earth a Spin
February 23, 2013

The CERN team in Switzerland uses the Large Hadron Collider to search for the elusive Higgs-Boson. A small team of researchers led by Larry Hunter, a professor of physics at Amherst College, can top them in one aspect: It is using the entire planet as a particle detector that could open up new areas of physics.

Canon Gets Uncannily Real With New Mixed Reality Tech
February 21, 2013

Canon officially launched its new MREAL System for Mixed Reality on Wednesday. Unlike traditional virtual reality-type systems that essentially block out the real world, this new imaging solution simultaneously merges virtual objects with those of the real world at full scale and in three dimensions.

1-2 Celestial Punch Raises Questions About Space Object Defenses
February 16, 2013

A blazing meteor streaked across the skies of Russia on Thursday, leaving a large smoke trail in its wake before blowing up over the remote town of Chelyabinsk in the Ural mountains. More than 1,000 people reported injuries, and windows across the region were shattered by a deafening sonic boom.

Landsat 8 Pushes the Earth-Monitoring Envelope
February 12, 2013

Landsat 8, loaded with several technological advancements for better data-gathering, blasted off Monday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California using an Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance. The latest satellite in the 41-year-old Landsat program has enhanced capabilities to record the changes happening on the planet.

Big Blue Breaks Into Biotech With Bacteria-Blasting Hydrogel
January 29, 2013

Researchers from IBM and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology have developed what they are calling the first antimicrobial hydrogel that is biodegradable, biocompatible and non-toxic. The hydrogel, which can penetrate diseased biofilms and eradicate drug-resistant bacteria upon contact, has applications ranging from antimicrobial cleaners to therapeutic delivery agents to tissue engineering.