Fighting obesity with nanofoods - will the public swallow?

New Scientist - 5.27.10 (by Emma Davies)

It's a small food revolution (Image: Hulton Archive/Getty.

NOTHING says summer holidays quite like ice cream. On a hot afternoon by the sea, there's little to beat the simple pleasure of a cooling scoop of your favourite flavour. Can food get much more satisfying than this?

Vic Morris thinks it can, with the help of nanotechnology. He is part of a team tweaking foods to trick the body into feeling pleasantly full long after the final mouthful - and without overeating.

Ice cream that makes you feel full could be just the beginning. Nanotechnology promises even saltier-tasting salt, less fattening fat, and to boost the nutritional value of everyday products. Nanofood supplements could even tackle global malnutrition.

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LittleDog Robot - Watching it move will creep you out

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X-51A Kicks Some Sonic Ass

MSNBC - 5.27.10 by Tariq Malik

The X-51A is powered by a Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne SJY61 scramjet engine, which is designed to ride on its own shockwave and accelerate to about Mach 6. U.S. Air Force.

An experimental aircraft has set a new record for the longest hypersonic flight after streaking across the sky Wednesday for more than three minutes while flying at Mach 5 — five times the speed of sound — the United States Air Force has announced.

The vehicle, called the X-51A Waverider, dropped from a B-52 Stratofortress mother ship while flying over the Pacific Ocean just off the southern California coast. It successfully ignited an air-breathing scramjet engine than accelerated up to Mach 5, Air Force officials said in the announcement.

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Smart radiation leaves no collateral damage

PhysOrg.com - 5.25.10 by John Messina

Varian's TrueBeam is the latest automated radiation system that can kill tumors with sniper-like precision. Credit: Varian Medical Systems.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Traditional radiation therapy has been used for years to kill cancer cells. The disadvantage of using this method is that healthy cells are also destroyed along with the cancer cells. In the past ten years radiation blasting robotic systems have been introduced that can target and fire with millimeter precision.

These new super-accurate radiation-blasting robotic systems have been used in a wide range of cancer treatment and have proven their effectiveness in killing cancer cells while leaving the healthy cells untouched.

Accuray and TomoTherapy have been the two big names for years in providing state-of-the-art cancer treatment. Now a med-tech giant Varian has just released their automated radiation-blasting system called TrueBeam. This system provides more accurate targeting of cancer cells than the other two.

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Augmented reality navigation (with video)!

Wikitude - 5.20.10

Wikitude Drive, the first mobile Augmented Reality (AR) satellite navigation system with global coverage, launches for test drivers.

Salzburg, May 20, 2010. Wikitude Drive, the Grand Prize Winner of the Global Navteq LBS Challenge 2010 at Mobile World Congress last February in Barcelona, transforms your Android smartphone into a mobile navigation system looking a bit like something out of a science fiction movie…



Driving directions not only appear on screen, they are overlaid on the live video stream of the very street you are driving on. As a result, you are seeing the real world and real road in front of you, while being directed by a digital route on top of it.

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Debating the Singularity (Video)

For anyone who wants to know what the fuss is about and grasp both sides of the argument.



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Teleportation - Look Ma, no signal!

PhysOrg.com - 5.20.10 (by Lin Edwards)

A birds-eye view of the 16-km free-space quantum teleportation experiment. Charlie sends photon 1 to Alice for BSM. Classical information, including the results of the BSM and the signal for time synchronization, is sent through the free-space channel with photon 2, to Bob, before decoding and triggering of the corresponding unitary transformation. b, Sketch of the experimental system. See the original paper for more details. Image copyright: Nature Photonics, doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.87

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in China have succeeded in teleporting information between photons further than ever before. They transported quantum information over a free space distance of 16 km (10 miles), much further than the few hundred meters previously achieved, which brings us closer to transmitting information over long distances without the need for a traditional signal.

Quantum teleportation is not the same as the teleportation most of us know from science fiction, where an object (or person) in one place is “beamed up” to another place where a perfect copy is replicated. In quantum teleportation two photons or ions (for example) are entangled in such a way that when the quantum state of one is changed the state of the other also changes, as if the two were still connected. This enables quantum information to be teleported if one of the photons/ions is sent some distance away.

In previous experiments the photons were confined to fiber channels a few hundred meters long to ensure their state remained unchanged, but in the new experiments pairs of photons were entangled and then the higher-energy photon of the pair was sent through a free space channel 16 km long. The researchers, from the University of Science and Technology of China and Tsinghua University in Beijing, found that even at this distance the photon at the receiving end still responded to changes in state of the photon remaining behind. The average fidelity of the teleportation achieved was 89 percent.

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Artificial life created?

FoxNews - 5.20.10 (Associated Press)

Scientists have developed the first cell (shown here) controlled by a synthetic genome -- a revolution some are calling artificial life.

WASHINGTON -- Scientists announced a bold step Thursday in the enduring quest to create artificial life. They've produced a living cell powered by manmade DNA.

While such work can invoke images of Frankenstein-like scientific tinkering, it also is exciting hopes that it could eventually lead to new fuels, better ways to clean polluted water, faster vaccine production and more.

Is it really an artificial life form?

The inventors call it the world's first synthetic cell, although this initial step is more a re-creation of existing life -- changing one simple type of bacterium into another -- than a built-from-scratch kind.

But Maryland genome-mapping pioneer J. Craig Venter said his team's project paves the way for the ultimate, much harder goal: designing organisms that work differently from the way nature intended for a wide range of uses. Already he's working with ExxonMobil in hopes of turning algae into fuel.

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Be there without having to be there - Remote Presence Robots

PCWorld - 5.19.10 by Harry McCracken

It’s called QB, and if startup Anybots is successful, it could be coming soon to the conference rooms, offices, and hallways of businesses everywhere.

It looks sort of like a Segway that’s developed anthropomorphic characteristics. It’s really a high-quality videoconferencing system on wheels. It’s called QB, and if startup Anybots is successful, it could be coming soon to the conference rooms, offices, and hallways of businesses everywhere.

QB is a “remote presence robot”–a remote-controllable puppet designed to be the eyes and ears of telecommuters, workers in branch offices, and others who collaborate with people in an office when they aren’t in the office. As with Willow Garage’s experimental Texai robots, a telecommuting worker can use QB as an in-office doppelganger, maneuvering it around to attend meetings, drop into the offices of colleagues, and otherwise interact in ways that go beyond what’s possible with ordinary videoconferencing equipment or speakerphones.

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Mission to Mars: Bring us back some dirt while you're there

AP - 5.18.10 by Alicia Chang

MONROVIA, Calif. — If NASA's exploration of Mars were summed up in a bumper sticker, it would read: "Follow the water."

Well, we've found the water — ice was discovered by the Phoenix lander in 2008. Now what?

It's time to search again for signs of life, scientists say, something they haven't done since 1976. This time, they want to bring Martian rock and soil samples back to Earth. Here, they could be analyzed for fossilized traces of alien bacteria, or chemical or biological clues that could only be explained by something that was alive.

Such a venture as now outlined would be a three-part act, cost as much as $10 billion and take several years to complete. NASA can't afford it on its own so it recently joined the European Space Agency to map out a shared project.

Space policy experts think the timing is right despite the risks and hefty price tag.

"We're about out of things to do on Mars other than a sample return," said George Washington University space scholar John Logsdon. "It is an extremely expensive undertaking, probably the most expensive robotic mission to Mars and clearly the most complex."

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Robot stealth fighter jet ready to take off

MSNBC - 5/14/10 by Ned Smith

The Phantom Ray is the first unmanned fighter drone that doesn't need a pilot on the ground controlling it. Boeing.

Boeing’s sleek fighter-size Phantom Ray stealth jet will make its first flight by year’s end. This unmanned airborne system is designed for a variety of warfighter roles ranging from reconnaissance and surveillance to aerial refueling, electronic attack and hunter/killer missions.

The 36-foot-long aircraft, which will serve as a test bed for advanced technologies, was rolled out May 10 at the Boeing Defense, Space & Security plant in St. Louis, Mo. With its 614-mph (0.8 Mach) cruising speed, operating altitude of 40,000 feet and 50-foot wingspan, the 36,5000-pound Phantom Ray advances the state of the art for unmanned aircraft. The bat-shaped flying wing has a combat radius of 1,200 nautical miles. Power comes from a General Electric F404-102D engine.

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Get the goods on "Singularity"

Post Humanity - 5.10.10

If you read any science fiction or futurism, you've probably heard people using the term "singularity" to describe the world of tomorrow. But what exactly does it mean, and where does the idea come from? We answer in today's backgrounder.

What is the singularity?

The term singularity describes the moment when a civilization changes so much that its rules and technologies are incomprehensible to previous generations. Think of it as a point-of-no-return in history.

Most thinkers believe the singularity will be jump-started by extremely rapid technological and scientific changes. These changes will be so fast, and so profound, that every aspect of our society will be transformed, from our bodies and families to our governments and economies.

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Want a virtual body? Here's some proof of concept

PLoS ONE - 5.12.10 (Editor: Mark A. Williams, Macquarie University, Australia)

Normally when something strikes our body we feel it at the same place that we see it. When normal correlation between two sensory streams is changed, for example, by seeing a plausibly located rubber hand touched while simultaneously feeling the touch on our out-of-sight real hand, the brain apparently engages in a re-evaluation of probabilities and assigns ownership to the visible rubber limb.

These methods have also been used to produce illusions of body morphing, adding supernumery limbs to the body, and out-of-the-body experiences. In conjunction with brain-imaging techniques these manipulations can provide insight into the brain areas involved in body representation. While the vast majority of work in this field has shown that it is possible to incorporate physical objects or video images of these into the body representation, it has also recently been shown that the same methods work with entirely virtual objects.

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World's first working DNA nanobots

WSJ - 5.13.10

A computer-generated artist's conception of nanorobots, microscopic machines made from DNA molecules that mimic the work of living cells. (Photo Researchers)

For the first time, microscopic robots made from DNA molecules can walk, follow instructions and work together to assemble simple products on an atomic-scale assembly line, mimicking the machinery of living cells, two independent research teams announced Wednesday.

These experimental devices, described in the journal Nature, are advances in DNA nanotechnology, in which bioengineers are using the molecules of the genetic code as nuts, bolts, girders and other building materials, on a scale measured in billionths of a meter. The effort, which combines synthetic chemistry, enzymology, structural nanotechnology and computer science, takes advantage of the unique physical properties of DNA molecules to assemble shapes according to predictable chemical rules.

Until now, such experiments had yielded molecular novelties, from smiley faces so small that a billion can fit in a teaspoon to molecule-size boxes with lids that can be opened, closed and locked with a DNA key.

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Stitching wounds with lasers and nanotech

Wired - 5.5.10 (by Katie Drummond)

Forget stitches and old-school sutures. The Air Force is funding scientists who are using nano-technology and lasers to seal up wounds at a molecular level.

It might sound like Star Trek tech, but it’s actually the latest in a series of ambitious Pentagon efforts to create faster, more effective methods of treating war-zone injuries.

Last year, the military’s research agency, Darpa, requested proposals for instant injury repair using adult stem cells, and Pentagon scientists are already doing human trials of spray-on skin.

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Turing Into Gods (video trailer) - Jason Silva's coming film

TURNING INTO GODS - 'Concept Teaser' from jason silva on Vimeo.

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Understand - A short story exploring greater-than-human intelligence

Editor's Note: This is a reposting, for those who missed it the first go-round, of one of my favorite short stories. It explores the workings of the human mind by imagining the creation of a greater-than-human intelligence. It's definitely worth reading.

Understand - a novelette by Ted Chiang

A layer of ice; it feels rough against my face, but not cold. I've got nothing to hold on to; my gloves just keep sliding off it. I can see people on top, running around, but they can't do anything. I'm trying to pound the ice with my fists, but my arms move in slow motion, and my lungs must have burst, and my head's going fuzzy, and I feel like I'm dissolving--

I wake up, screaming. My heart's going like a jackhammer. Christ. I pull off my blankets and sit on the edge of the bed.

I couldn't remember that before. Before I only remembered falling through the ice; the doctor said my mind had suppressed the rest. Now I remember it, and it's the worst nightmare I've ever had.

I'm grabbing the down comforter with my fists, and I can feel myself trembling. I try to calm down, to breathe slowly, but sobs keep forcing their way out. It was so real I could feel it: feel what it was like to die.

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Try to avoid this bullet - The XM-25 Laser-Guided Smart-Bullet

POPSCI - 5.7.10 (by Jeremy Hsu)

XM-25 Deployment It's hard to get out of this weapon's way PEO Soldier.

U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers will deploy with the XM-25 weapon this summer, so that they can shower enemies hidden inside buildings with lethal smart rounds. Veterans of the Afghanistan conflict who tried the weapon predicted it would be a "game changing" gun capable of taking out insurgents hidden behind cover, Military.com reports.

The XM-25 resembles a highly sophisticated grenade launcher that fires laser-guided smart rounds. The laser gauges a distance to target and allows the warfighter to set where the round will detonate, adding or subtracting increments of 3 meters from the laser-spotted point. Then the scope tells a microchip inside the round how far it should travel before exploding.

Each Heckler & Koch-made 25mm round actually holds two warheads that pack more punch than the current 40mm grenade launchers. Warfighters would basically have immediate, long-distance explosive firepower in rifle form, as opposed to having to wait on mortar strikes, artillery or airstrikes.

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Meet Mr. Singularity - Ray Kurzweil

The Boston Phoenix - 5.3.10 (by Chris Faraone)

EVERYTHING UNDER THE SON: Kurzweil dreams up many of his seemingly fantastical inventions at his office in Wellesley Hills. Here, he stands in front of a portrait of his father, Fredric, whom Kurzweil hopes to someday reanimate.


No disrespect to the man who let there be electric light, but Ray Kurzweil is Thomas Alva Edison on steroids.

That might not be evident on a visitor’s first trip to his Kurzweil Technologies, a sleek yet modest office in Wellesley Hills, which is rather ordinary looking for the headquarters of a futurist who’s striving to live forever.

Still, the 62-year-old inventor is aware of the Edison comparisons, and flirts with them himself. In the second-floor lobby of this building overlooking I-95 South is an early 20th century Ediphone — essentially the world’s first tape recorder (as well as a hulking piece of office furniture).

“Edison’s a model of the way I like to work,” says Kurzweil, a lean and tan tech kingpin, who, in his spare time, collaborates with Google co-founder Larry Page on finding feasible ways to convert the whole planet to solar power. “He’s the best example of a saying I like to repeat: ‘Failure is just success deferred.’ Edison didn’t give up [on the light bulb] after a thousand filaments didn’t work, or after a thousand failures. He learned that persistence pays off. People actually declare their own failures — they give up at some point. But if you have the right goal — if you persist with it, and the goal is worth pursuing — then generally you can succeed.”

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Chalmers on Simulation and Singularity

David Chalmers at Singularity Summit 2009 -- Simulation and the Singularity from Singularity Institute on Vimeo.

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Simulating a human brain with smartphone chips

NewScientist - 5.4.10 (by Paul Marks)

IF YOU have a smartphone, you probably have a slice of Steve Furber's brain in your pocket. By the time you read this, his 1-billion-neuron silicon brain will be in production at a microchip plant in Taiwan.

Computer engineers have long wanted to copy the compact power of biological brains. But the best mimics so far have been impractical, being simulations running on supercomputers.

Furber, a computer scientist at the University of Manchester, UK, says that if we want to use computers with even a fraction of a brain's flexibility, we need to start with affordable, practical, low-power components.

"We're using bog-standard, off-the-shelf processors of fairly modest performance," he says.

Furber won't come close to copying every property of real neurons, says Henry Markram, head of Blue Brain. This is IBM's attempt to simulate a brain with unsurpassed accuracy on a Blue Gene supercomputer at the Swiss Institute for Technology, Lausanne. "It's a worthy aim, but brain-inspired chips can only produce brain-like functions," he says.

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Will the first artificial intelligence be a cat brain?

MSNBC - 4.30.10 (by Jeremy Hsu)

Pentagon-backed scientists aim to create a human-like machine, at some point. But they are starting out with the goal of crafting artificial intelligence on the level of a cat's brain. Still there are vast challenges.

If they get far enough, however, one scientist says that they could theoretically achieve feline intelligence with a mouse-sized artificial brain and an even smaller body.

That's because bigger brains by themselves don't necessarily mean greater intelligence or more complex behavior — for instance, cats show more smarts than cows despite having a feline brain 10 times smaller than a bovine brain. What might really matter is that humans and some other species have bigger brains for their body size.

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Living Earth Simulator - Are you living in one of these?

Technology Review - 4.30.10

The 'Living Earth Simulator' will mine economic, environmental and health data to create a model of the entire planet in real time.

When it comes to global crises, we're not short of complex systems that look close to the edge: the climate, the food supply, energy security, the banking system and so on. Add to this the threat of war in many parts of the world and the possibility of global pandemics and it's a wonder that anybody gets out of bed in the morning.

Science has certainly played an important role in understanding aspects of these systems but could it do more?

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