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When DNA from hundreds of people is pooled together, it has been impossible to identify any individuals. In what could be a boon for crime-fighters, however, a statistical technique now makes the task possible--allowing forensic detectives to determine whether a suspect handled a gun, for example. But the technique also creates a privacy concern about health data; the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, is now backpedaling on a policy mandating genetic sharing developed just 8 months ago for fear that the health information of people who participated in the studies could be identified. The authors of the...

Airlines were urged yesterday to implement safety measures to reduce the risk of ice restricting fuel flow, after the crash of a British Airways jet at Heathrow earlier this year. A report, the fifth to be released by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) into the incident, concluded that the crash, on January 17, was probably caused by ice within the fuel-feed system. Now the AAIB wants aviation regulators to introduce interim measures for all Boeing 777s powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines to prevent a similar incident. It also wants watchdogs to consider the implications of the findings for...

Google Chrome was born explicitly as a platform for web applications. From the first bits I saw I can say that Google's new creation delivers most of the promises and brings new interesting innovations in the user experience realm. Competitors will find them hard to ignore, especially when you look at the tab concept improvements. For a good review of these points, you can refer to this post on Ars Technica. Many hailed Google's move as a revolutionary step. And indeed, with Google Chrome, the web application era is getting real. Let's look beyond the technology and outline some possible...

A Canadian actress and playwright has been charged with holding a technical support member hostage after losing her internet connection. Carol Sinclair lost her connection with ISP Aliant and, by her own account, spent days trying to get the line fixed. "I was polite the first 20 times I talked to them. But each one gave me the same routine: 'Is the modem connected? Are the lights blipping?'," she told The Globe and Mail. "And then each one would say: 'It should be working. The problem must be with your computer.' I was a little stressed. I had six days...

Laser weapons may be a battlefield reality by the end of 2008 Laser weapons are an interesting subject that has been a staple of science fiction and movies for decades. Laser weapons will become a reality on the battlefield at some point -- though exactly when that point will be is a subject of debate. When it comes to laser weapons there are two basic types: chemical and solid-state. The chemical lasers are powered by chemicals that would make them hazardous on most battlefields to the soldiers deploying the weapon systems. That makes the solid-state laser a more viable option...

Creating routine, aircraft-like, low-cost access to space is not only technologically challenging, it will require enormous tenacity to overcome the inevitable bureaucratic, political and funding hiccups. These are just a few of the lessons learned by veterans of the Delta Clipper-Experimental (DC-X) rocket ship program. Created by an entrepreneurial-like pact between industry and government from 1991-1997, the DC-X project showcased the technology and operational concepts for a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle capable of supporting an array of military and commercial applications, including public space travel. The DC-X was first managed by the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, under a contract with the U.S....

RedXDefense of Rockville, Maryland has recently developed a portable kit that could provide a quick and simple visual diagnostic for detecting plastic explosives favored by terrorists. The device, which was designed to be used by in security checkpoints and under harsh conditions, is currently undergoing field tests in Iraq. While most explosives-detection methods look for vapors coming from the explosive metrical, the plastic explosives often used by terrorists such as like Richard Reid (the notorious “shoe bomber”) are not very volatile, and technologies for their detection usually require dislodging the explosive before running a chemical analysis. Unfortunately, these systems are...

Down syndromeDefinitionDown syndrome is a genetic disorder that causes mental retardation and other problems. The condition varies in severity, so developmental problems may range from mild to serious. Down syndrome is the most common genetic cause of severe learning disabilities in children, occurring in one in every 700 infants. Every year, as many as 6,000 babies are born with Down syndrome in the United States. The condition is named after John Langdon Down, the doctor who first identified the syndrome. There's no medical cure for this condition. But increased understanding of Down syndrome and early interventions make a big difference...

Stanford computer scientists have developed an artificial intelligence system that enables robotic helicopters to teach themselves to fly difficult stunts by watching other helicopters perform the same maneuvers. The result is an autonomous helicopter than can perform a complete airshow of complex tricks on its own. The stunts are "by far the most difficult aerobatic maneuvers flown by any computer controlled helicopter," said Andrew Ng, the professor directing the research of graduate students Pieter Abbeel, Adam Coates, Timothy Hunter and Morgan Quigley. The dazzling airshow is an important demonstration of "apprenticeship learning," in which robots learn by observing an expert,...

The virtual worlds in computer games provide a realistic backdrop to the action. But step too close and the effect is lost – you'll see that textures and patterns are usually displayed on flat surfaces that look dull and artificial. A simpler way to add depth to textured surfaces could change that. The new technique can reconstruct the depth of a surface simply by taking two photos of it – one with a flash and one without (see video, right). Merely analysing the resulting shading patterns can capture the surface's 3D texture. Until now making realistic textures required the use...

Related Links Relevant Reading: Optoelectronics of Solar Cells Solar & Alternative Energy in the SPIE Digital Library Career Solutions: spieworks.org Solar & Alternative Energy Toward textile-based solar cells Max Shtein A fiber-based organic photovoltaic may form the building block of cost- effective, energy-harvesting textiles. A 100km2 area covered with 10% efficient solar cells can produce enough electricity to satisfy the national requirement.1 Unfortunately, the total area of cells produced and installed to date is 1,000 times smaller than needed. Despite the high annual growth rate of the photovoltaic (PV) industry, current manufacturing methods face a scalability barrier that makes fulfilling...

A website which maps global surnames has been launched to help people find the origins of their name and how far it may have spread. The Public Profiler site plots eight million last names using data from electoral rolls and phone directories. The site covers 300 million people in 26 countries, showing the origins of names and where families have moved to. David Beckham, for example, has an English name, but there are more Beckhams in the US than Britain. But the region of the world with the highest concentration of people called Beckham was even further from the footballer's...

Engineers at Georgia Tech have used skin cells to create artificial bones that mimic the ability of natural bone to blend into other tissues such as tendons or ligaments. The artificial bones display a gradual change from bone to softer tissue rather than the sudden shift of previously developed artificial tissue, providing better integration with the body and allowing them to handle weight more successfully. The research appears in the August 26, 2008, edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "One of the biggest challenges in regenerative medicine is to have a graded continuous interface, because anatomically...

In the days leading up to Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate announcement, political junkies glued to broadcasts and blogs for clues of McCain's veep choice might have done better to keep a sharp eye on each candidate's Wikipedia entry. Just hours before McCain declared his veep choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, her Wiki page saw a flurry of activity, with editors adding details about her approval rating and husband's employment. Perhaps more tellingly, some of the same users editing her page were almost simultaneously updating McCain's Wiki entry, adding information dealing with accuracy, sources and footnotes to...

SALT LAKE CITY — The best deal on fuel in the country right now might be here in Utah, where people are waiting in lines to pay the equivalent of 87 cents a gallon. Demand is so strong at rush hour that fuel runs low, and some days people can pump only half a tank. It is not gasoline they are buying for their cars, but natural gas. By an odd confluence of public policy and private initiative, Utah has become the first state in the country to experience broad consumer interest in the idea of running cars on clean...

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have set a world record in solar cell efficiency...

A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station (ISS). Nasa has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG. The worm was first detected on Earth in August 2007 and lurks on infected machines waiting to steal login names for popular online games. Nasa said it was not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space and it was investigating how the machines were infected. Orbital outbreak Space news website SpaceRef broke the story about the virus on the laptops that astronauts took to the ISS....

Enlarge ImageSensitive ears. Mice that received extra copies of a protein during fetal development produced more of a key hearing cell (bottom) than control mice did.Credit: David Woessner, John Mitchell, and John V. Brigande A cure for hearing loss could be closer, now that a team of scientists has produced key ear cells in mice--and for the first time verified that the cells work just like natural ones. The inner ear turns sound waves into electrical signals inside the organ of Corti, which is lined with rows of 15,000 to 20,000 hairlike cells. The cells respond to vibrations by...

Proof-of-concept system could lead to ultra-secure international communication. Entangled photons of light could help to create ultra-secure communication systems.Punhstock Physicists have built a communication network, secured by quantum cryptography, that could one day work on a global scale. Quantum cryptography scrambles data using the laws of quantum mechanics, relying on a concept known as entanglement to ensure absolutely security. Entanglement allows two particles to be quantum-mechanically connected even when they are physically separated. Although the specific condition of either particle cannot be precisely known, taking measurements of one will instantly tell you something about the other. The trick can't be...

Scientists have transformed one type of fully developed adult cell directly into another inside a living animal, a startling advance that could lead to cures for a variety of illnesses and sidestep the political and ethical quagmires associated with embryonic stem cell research. Through a series of painstaking experiments involving mice, the Harvard biologists pinpointed three crucial molecular switches that, when flipped, completely convert a common cell in the pancreas into the more precious insulin-producing ones that diabetics need to survive. The experiments, detailed online yesterday in the journal Nature, raise the prospect that patients suffering from not only diabetes...

Acknowledging that a NASA authorization bill is unlikely to be enacted this year, three Republican senators – including presidential candidate John McCain (R-Ariz.) – have written President George W. Bush imploring him to direct NASA to hold off for at least a year taking any action that would preclude the agency from flying space shuttles beyond 2010. McCain, joined by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and David Vitter (R-La.), also cited Russia's recent military incursion into neighboring Georgia earlier this month as evidence that Russia's continued cooperation on the international space station program should not be taken for granted. Once...

By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET's Technology Voters' Guide.... After taking over the Foreign Relations committee, Biden became a staunch ally of Hollywood and the recording industry in their efforts to expand copyright law. He sponsored a bill in 2002 that would have make it a federal felony to trick certain types of devices into playing unauthorized music or executing unapproved computer programs.......

Face transplant 'double success' Successful results from two more face transplants will speed progress towards similar operations in other countries, say experts. The Lancet journal reported operations involving a bear attack victim in China, and a French patient with a massive facial tumour had taken place. The Chinese patient was given not just the lip, nose, skin and muscle from a donor, but even some facial bone. Specialists in London are working towards the UK's first transplant. Frenchwoman Isabel Dinoire became the world's first face transplant patient in 2005 after being savaged by a pet dog. She described the results...

Last week we discovered that some Fedora servers were illegally accessed. The intrusion into the servers was quickly discovered, and the servers were taken offline. Security specialists and administrators have been working since then to analyze the intrusion and the extent of the compromise as well as reinstall Fedora systems. We are using the requisite outages as an opportunity to do other upgrades for the sake of functionality as well as security. Work is ongoing, so please be patient. Anyone with pertinent information relating to this event is asked to contact fedora-legal redhat com One of the compromised Fedora servers...

Dan wanted to know if there was a legitimate claim behind those companies that offer better gas mileage through water-based contraptions in your car. Here's what he said: Recently I was introduced to a "Water4Gas" system that claims it can boost an internal combustion engine's gas mileage by 10 to 100 percent. The person trying to push/sell this innovative system (that I hear has been around already for quite some time) is named: Ozzie Freedom' (probably not his real name). It's being marketed as an "experimental add-on" that eliminates carbon deposits in the cylinders, boosts performance, and prevents smog. It's...

Defense Strategy – Counterinsurgency – Southern Afghanistan – August 2008Counterinsurgency – Count on it : Future Forces Require Agile, Manoeuvre Warfare against Non-State CombatantsEdited excerpts from the Defense Strategy paper by US Secretary Robert Gates [1] Introduction : The New Strategic Environment facing the US Department of DefenseOver the next twenty years, physical pressures such as population growth, rivalry over resources, a race for energy reserves, chaotic climate change, and continuing environmental degradation [ will likely ] combine with social, cultural, geo - political, and technological changes, to create a growing sense of uncertainty. It will be exacerbated by the...

A tangle of spidery filaments stretches outward from the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1275 as if they were dendrites of an intergalactic nerve cell. NGC 1275, located 235 million light-years from Earth near the center of a clump of galaxies known as the Perseus cluster, has posed a puzzle: How have these filaments, which are made of gas much cooler than the surrounding intergalactic cloud, persisted for perhaps 100 million years? Why haven’t they warmed, dissipated or collapsed to form stars? Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, with 10 times the resolution of earlier photographs, reveal that the filaments,...

A judge's ruling today is a major victory for free speech and fair use on the Internet, and will help protect everyone who creates content for the Web. In Lenz v. Universal (aka the "dancing baby" case), Judge Jeremy Fogel held that content owners must consider fair use before sending takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). Universal Music Corporation ("Universal") had sent a takedown notice targeting a 29-second home movie of a toddler dancing in a kitchen to a Prince song, "Let's Go Crazy," which is heard playing in the background. Because her use of the song...

stylemessiah writes "The winner of several Eureka Science Awards in Australia is a crafty chick who devised a way to create solar cells cheaply using a pizza oven, nail polish and an inkjet printer. This was developed to address the high cost of cells and in particular for the worlds poorest regions. She wanted to give the @2 billion people around the world who dont have electricity the gift of light and cheap energy. This could have profound (and a good profound) implications for education and health in those in the poorest regions in the world. And it all started...

FORT WORTH, Texas, August 18th, 2008 -- With one F-35 Lightning II aircraft in structural testing, two in flight test, six in final assembly and another 14 in various stages of production, Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] added to the program’s momentum on Saturday by finishing assembly of the fourth F-35 aircraft, a short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B. “The completion of our fourth F-35 – and the growing line of aircraft now forming behind it – shows an emerging rhythm in our production line,” said Dan Crowley, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-35 program general manager. “In just a few...

For the families of soldiers on the front lines in Afghanistan, the announcement that Canada is sending helicopters and beefed-up unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the theatre of operations must surely have brought a huge sense of relief. That aspect of the announcement was front and centre August 7 when Defence Minister Peter MacKay spoke to Air Force personnel and reporters inside the hangar at 438 Tactical Helicopter Squadron in Saint-Hubert, Quebec. “This equipment will improve the safety and effectiveness of our troops,� he said. “These helicopters will mean less use of convoys to move and re-supply our troops and...

Scientists may one day be able to destroy viruses in the same way that opera singers presumably shatter wine glasses. New research mathematically determined the frequencies at which simple viruses could be shaken to death. "The capsid of a virus is something like the shell of a turtle," said physicist Otto Sankey of Arizona State University. "If the shell can be compromised [by mechanical vibrations], the virus can be inactivated." Recent experimental evidence has shown that laser pulses tuned to the right frequency can kill certain viruses. However, locating these so-called resonant frequencies is a bit of trial and error....

Washington, August 20 : UC Riverside researchers have devised a way to grow human embryonic stem cells in the lab without using animal derived materials, bringing the use of embryonic stem cells for medical purposes closer to reality. Noboru Sato, an assistant professor of biochemistry, that the new method may revolutionise cell therapy to treat diseases like Parkinson's and diabetes mellitus. This advancement attains significance because the majority of researchers presently culture the cells using animal-based materials that can transmit viruses other pathogens to the stem cells, making them unsuitable for medical use. Sato insists that his method is cleaner...

Confronted by multi-dimensionsal changes in its underlying ecosystem, automakers should focus on five key areas of differentiation to position themselves for success in 2020 and beyond. Summary The automotive ecosystem is in the midst of significant change, with increasing challenges in consumer demands, technology development, globalization, integration and collaboration. A new era is rapidly approaching in which the very definition of personal mobility will change. Multi-modal transportation will become increasingly common, and intelligent vehicles will cater to diverse consumer needs for information, environmental responsibility and safety. Automotive companies are racing to develop new business models to help them maintain responsible...

One of Japan's largest sake manufacturers, Gekkeikan, has announced the development of a new "super yeast" able to produce cellulosic ethanol from non-edible parts of plants, such as paddy straw and chaff. The super yeast that produces alcohol was created with genetic engineering, by integrating koji mold genes that produce cellulolytic enzymes into sake yeast. These enzymes become densely displayed on the surfaces of the yeast cells. Since this super yeast has the functions of the standard koji mold, it achieves one-step production of ethanol from pretreated cellulose. The company claims the whole process is completed with a new easier...

Overview of the Byogy process. Start-up Byogy Renewables has licensed processes for the direct conversion of biomass to hydrocarbon fuels such as high-octane gasoline or jet fuel from the Texas A&M University System. Byogy is planning to have plants up and running within 18 months to two years. Byogy’s initial plans are to produce only gasoline—a 95 octane fuel with an energy content of 130,000 Btu/gallon—according to Benjamin Brant, Byogy’s President and Chief Operating Officer. Conventional retail gasoline is about 125,000 Btu/gallon. Brant said that Byogy may involve strategic partners in the near future that will help support the...

Only a quarter of Americans now pick up a newspaper daily - whereas 37 per cent go online for news, according to a study The web is now a more important source of news for most Americans than either newspapers or free-to-air television. Only just over a quarter of Americans - 27 per cent - picked up a newspaper on any given day, whereas well over a third - 37 per cent - regularly go online for news, according to a report. Only cable television remains more popular, with 39 per cent regularly tuning in to bulletins on a subscription...

NASA announced on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 that it has worked out a solution to the excessive-vibration problem in its yet-to-be developed Ares 1 launch vehicle. The Ares 1 rocket will take astronauts into space inside their Orion crew capsule as part of the new Project Constellation for the United States. The first manned flight is due around 2015. However, early in the design phase of the Ares 1, NASA engineers found that combustion in the solid-fuel motor would spread excessive vibration throughout the multi-stage Ares 1 rocket and the Orion crew capsule. Although the larger-than-desired vibrations would only appear...

The SCO Group 's US$5 billion threat against Linux is effectively finished. On Friday, Aug. 10, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball ruled that SCO doesn't actually own the copyrights that it was using to threaten -- and in some cases, sue -- Linux users. Of course, you already got that news, thanks to everyone from The Wall Street Journal to IT news sources. And they all got it thanks to Groklaw. It was the Web site Groklaw.net that broke the news and posted the complete 102-page ruling; after that, it was picked up by mainstream media and trade press. In...

Extraordinarily lifelike characters are to begin appearing in films and computer games thanks to a new type of animation technology. Emily - the woman in the above animation ^ - was produced using a new modelling technology that enables the most minute details of a facial expression to be captured and recreated. She is considered to be one of the first animations to have overleapt a long-standing barrier known as 'uncanny valley' - which refers to the perception that animation looks less realistic as it approaches human likeness. Researchers at a Californian company which makes computer-generated imagery for Hollywood films...

Missile Defense Agency director, announced today that testing of a key propulsion system component for the Agency’s Multiple Kill Vehicle-L (MKV-L) payload has been successfully completed. During an engagement with the enemy, this high-performance propulsion system maneuvers the carrier vehicle and its cargo of kill vehicles into the threat complex to intercept the targets. This technology will negate more advanced countermeasures that could be aboard hostile ballistic missiles. In the event of an enemy launch, a single interceptor equipped with this payload destroys not only the re-entry vehicle but also all credible threat objects,including countermeasures the enemy deploys to try...

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John Yancey leans against his truck in a field outside his home, his face contorted in anger and pain. John Yancey doesn't like the Maple Ridge Wind Farm turbines and the deal his father signed for them. "Listen," he says. The rhythmic whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of wind turbines echoes through the air. Sleek and white, their long propeller blades rotate in formation, like some otherworldly dance of spindly-armed aliens swaying across the land. Yancey knows the towers are pumping clean electricity into the grid, knows they have been largely embraced by his community But Yancey hates them.

Let me say first of all, I love the environment. In fact, I spend most of my time in some environment or other. My family lives the low-packaging, low carbon, tedious recycling lifestyle. My wife is so committed to recycling that I'm convinced that when I'm gone, my body will be dragged to the curb on Wednesday night. So I have to say in a quiet voice that I'm sick and tired of hearing about carbon footprints, offset credits, green shift and global warming. Don't get me wrong -- I think looking after the Earth is a good thing. I...

A federal appeals court has overruled a lower court ruling that, if sustained, would have severely hampered the enforceability of free software licenses. The lower court had found that redistributing software in violation of the terms of a free software license could constitute a breach of contract, but was not copyright infringement. The difference matters because copyright law affords much stronger remedies against infringement than does contract law. If allowed to stand, the decision could have neutered popular copyleft licenses such as the GPL and Creative Commons licenses. The district court decision was overturned on Wednesday by the United States...

Graves Found From Sahara’s Green Period By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD When Paul C. Sereno went hunting for dinosaur bones in the Sahara, his career took a sharp turn from paleontology to archaeology. The expedition found what has proved to be the largest known graveyard of Stone Age people who lived there when the desert was green. The first traces of pottery, stone tools and human skeletons were discovered eight years ago at a site in the southern Sahara, in Niger. After preliminary research, Dr. Sereno, a University of Chicago scientist who had previously uncovered remains of the dinosaur Nigersaurus there,...

Security researchers claim to have uncovered evidence pointing to a link between Russian state-run businesses and cyber-attacks against Georgia. Denial of service attacks against Georgian web-sites started a day before Georgian and Russian military units began fighting over the disputed region of South Ossetia. SecureWorks researcher Don Jackson said that logs showed that portions of the attack were run from command and control servers located on the networks of Russian state-operated firms Rostelecom and Comstar. These servers were not linked to previous botnet activity. "We know that the Russian government controls those servers theoretically, if they have not been 'pwned'...

Although it is the home of hulking C-130 cargo planes and scorching F-16 fighter jets, I headed out to the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in St. Clair, Michigan, for a drive in something more green than mean: electric Chevrolet S10 pickups. The transportation department at Selfridge has been constantly tinkering with alternative fuel vehicles (including a hybrid-electric tow tractor, CNG-fueled pickups and hydrogen fuel cell-powered SUVs), but the use of the electric S10s came by chance. When other military installations were finished with the trucks, they offered them up to Selfridge, who happily placed them on active duty around...

New technology helps gun troop fight and protectWednesday, August 13, 2008Project Number:08-0557KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – On the modern battlefield, weapons and technology go hand-in-hand. With state-of-the-art howitzer orientation devices and data computation transfer methods, 1 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (1 RCHA), B Battery´s Field Artillery gun troops are prepared to face a formidable, yet lesser equipped opponent. "The technology is good. Teamwork and well-trained soldiers make the equipment operate effectively," says Gunner Bellehumeur when asked about the many new technological additions to the gun line. "Most of this work is done when the heat is not so intense. Daily maintenance is...

Mad Cow Rules Hit Sperm Banks' Patrons By Rob Stein Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, August 13, 2008; Page A01 When Julie Peterson decided to have a baby on her own two years ago, she picked a tall, blond, blue-eyed Danish engineer as a sperm donor to match her own Scandinavian heritage. But when she went back to the sperm bank to use the same donor to have another child, she was stunned to discover that the federal government had made it impossible. "I just cried," said Peterson, 43, who lives in North Carolina. "I was in complete shock. I...