NASA used cadavers to test Orion moonship
NASA officials recognized last week that dead bodies were used to develop Orion landing systems. According to NASA, 'three human bodies were used in the tests at Ohio State University Medical Center' in 2007. Even if the results of the experiments helped NASA, one of its spokesman said that the space agency followed widely accepted ethical standards for using cadavers donated for research. He added that 'it's a socially awkward topic. The bodies are all carefully handled through all of the tests. We follow ethical medical procedures with these bodies that have been donated for science.' In fact, NASA relies more on computer simulations than on experiments with cadavers , but read more… | Read Full Post »
Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 7/24/2008
Physical Theories As Women In other news, Stephen Hawking has decided to become a relationship counselor. Deliberate Practice And I thought the only way to get to Carnegie Hall was on the N train. Ode To Joy Beaker breaks the laws of physics in the name of musical genius. No, no, no, no, no no! On why lime should be used in mojitos, and not to deacidify the oceans. Could IMF Loans Be Causing TB Deaths? How loan stipulations can fundamentally change health care. Got something for Seed's Daily Zeitgeist? Email the Zeitgeister. | Read Full Post »
Dear Irrational (an experiment with toilet paper)
One of the positive side effects of writing Predictably Irrational is that sometimes people try their own versions of these experiments. Here is one email describing an experiment on cheating and toilet paper - demonstrating the wide range of application of behavioral economics…. Dear Professor Ariely, I am a fan of your research. I particularly liked your […] | Read Full Post »
Relationship Providers
Businesses spend a great deal of time and money trying to identify their customers. By "identify" I mean not just get a name and credit card number, but find, learn about, and discover the attributes, preferences, and even desires of customers. They spend millions of dollars on "customer relationship management" (CRM) systems that are really "customer dossier systems" in a quest to manage the identity data they collect about customers. In the same way, customers spend a great deal of effort identifying businesses. Which business sells the product that will meet my needs at a price I'm willing to pay? Which business will give me the best shipping, the best service, or even the most emotional lift when I buy from them? Doc Searls has been talking about the need for the one-way "CRM" systems to become more truly about relationships for years–ever since I first met him. He's set up Project VRM at Harvard to focus on that effort. VRM, which stands for "vendor relationship management" was meant as a play on CRM, but is maybe too "user-centric" at this point. The real idea is relationships. When Bob Blakely spoke at IIW about relationships, … | Read Full Post »
Ultra-light micro air vehicles
Dutch engineers have built the third generation of the DelFly autonomous air vehicle. The DelFly Micro made its first public flight earlier today in Delft. This micro air vehicle weighs only 3 grams and has a wingspan of 10 centimeters. This very small remote-controlled aircraft carries a 0.4 gram camera. The DelFly Micro, which looks like a dragonfly, can fly for 3 minutes at a maximum speed of 5 meters/second. It could be used for observation flights in difficult-to-reach or dangerous areas. But read more… | Read Full Post »
Thinking Before You Think
Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain Nature Neuroscience 13 April 2008 Whether or not one subscribes to the doctrine of free will, it is difficult to imagine that we're not responsible for most of life's little choices. We can accept the fact that we have unconscious yearnings and desires, upon which we act, without this ever impinging upon the idea that we are ultimately in conscious control of our actions. In the 1980s, however, Benjamin Libet performed an experiment that seemed to show that areas of the brain responsible for certain body movements activate before we are conscious of our decision to move. Researchers in Europe recently decided to test Libet's conclusion again. A group of 14 volunteers was asked to press either of two buttons, one with the left hand and one with the right, whenever they wanted, so long as they noted the time when they made their decision. Watching the patterns of activity in the volunteers' brains, researchers could predict which button the individuals would pick up to 10 seconds before they had consciously made their choice. | Read Full Post »
Using the iPhone Plugin for Movabletype
The iPhone apps for Typepad and Wordpress made me jealous. But I found that there's a plugin for MovableType that provides a servicable interface for the iPhone. Typing HTML on the iPhone keyboard isn't easy. But if you have to blog remotely, here it is. Tags: | Read Full Post »
Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 7/23/2008
Mystery science eater The products of the industrial kitchen, at a fancy restaurant near you. Domino's Scientists Test Limits Of What Humans Will Eat According to these (Onion spoofs of) Domino's Scientists, "People willingly ate everything our lab created."Vaccine fearmongers versus Steve Novella Steve Novella vs. David Kirby, in a battle between science and….something else. Thom Mayne's U.S. Federal Building The famous architect attempts to create a federal building that is both secure and environmentally friendly. Dent, I've found you! A blogger looks back on a cartoon tailor-made for entry-level scientists. Got something for Seed's Daily Zeitgeist? Email the Zeitgeister. | Read Full Post »
First paper-based transistors
Portuguese researchers have created the first paper-based transistors. To be more precise, they've made the first field effect transistors (FET) with a paper interstrate layer. According to the research team, these new transistors offer the same level of performance as 'state-of-the-art oxide based thin film transistors (TFTs) produced on glass or crystalline silicon substrates.' Possible applications for these paper-based transistors include new disposable electronics devices, such as paper displays, smart labels, bio-applications or RFID tags. But read more… | Read Full Post »
Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 7/22/2008
Leopard Attacking Crocodile It may not be very scientific, but it sure is awesome. Mirrors Don't Lie. Mislead? Oh , Yes. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most deluded of them all? You are hereby sentenced eternally to wander the newspapers, fruitlessly mocking nutriwoo The danger of baseless nutritional claims and the bad science behind them. Cambridge Manufacturing Engineering Design Show 2008 Interesting design solutions for strange problems. Rational Voters? Is there anything about politics that is rational? Got something for Seed's Daily Zeitgeist? Email the Zeitgeister. | Read Full Post »
A Day Without a Laptop
I forgot my laptop at home today. Just drove off without it. Left it sitting in the garage. Ugh. Fortunately, today wasn't a day that I was planning on spending the day coding. My development environment runs in Fusion on my MBP, so that would have been tough. I had a day of meetings and discussion and for that, my iPhone worked just fine. For the most part, I take my laptop everywhere I go. This mistake has taught me that I could take it fewer places and get by. What suffered? I couldn't pusblish today's show on IT Conversations from my iPhone very easily. I couldn't blog easily. As I mentioned, I was without my development environment. Other than that, life went on. Tags: | Read Full Post »
Lillian Lee AAAI Talk on Subjectivity
Briefly, Lillian Lee’s invited talk at AAAI 2008 on subjectivity is available online. I’ve not yet had time to look through it, but am hoping it looks beyond the simple lexical approaches that have been the mainstay of this field… | Read Full Post »
ICML/UAI/COLT 2008 Retrospective
I know it's a bit delayed, but better late than never, eh? I have to say: I thought ICML/UAI/COLT this year was fantastic . The organizers all did a fantastic job. I can't possibly list everything I liked, but here are some highlights: The tutorials were incredible. I'm reaching that point where I often skip out on tutorials because there's nothing new enough. This time, there was an embarrassment of riches: I couldn't go to everything I wanted to. In the end, I went to the Smola+Gretton+Fukumizu tutorial on distributional embeddings and the Krause+Guestrin tutorial on submodularity. Both were fantastic. My only complaint is that while all the plenary talks at ICML/UAI/COLT were video taped, the tutorials were not! Anyway, I will blog separately about both of these tutorials in the near future; also check out their web pages: the slides are probably reasonably self-explanatory. The first day began with an invited talk by John Winn, who does (at least used to do) probabilistic modeling for computer vision. I'm not sure if this was the intended take-away message, but the thing I liked best about the talk is that he listed about a dozen things that you … | Read Full Post »
Toward the end of the dentist drill?
If you're as afraid as I am when you enter your dentist's office, I have some excellent news. The London-based Society of Chemical Industry reports that UK researchers have developed a new technology that spots tooth decay almost as soon as it's begun. This new technology is based on Raman spectroscopy, a method often used to distinguish between different chemicals. According to the researchers, 'the new technique would mean that dentists could simply shine a laser on a tooth to determine whether it was healthy or not.' Human trials should start soon and it's highly possible that your dentist will use this technology in about five years. But read more… | Read Full Post »
The Surprise of Success
I was intrigued by this comment captured by Wired writer David Germain: "We knew it would be big, but we never expected to dominate the marketplace like we did," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released… | Read Full Post »
And Now For Something Completely Different
The print version of Wired magazine points to GraphJam – the equivalent of LOLCats for data miners? | Read Full Post »
Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 7/21/2008
In Vitro We Trust The first test-tube baby turns 30. Software to video meteors (and other stuff in the sky) Long nights with the telescope will soon be a thing of the past. EPOXI: Clues to Terrestrial Worlds New images show just how useful looking at Earth can be to learning more about other Earth-like planets. Psychopharmaparenting Vaughan takes a look back at a 2006 Stephen Colbert segment. The ideal energy crop Let's put the corn ethanol debate aside for now. What would a better energy crop look like? Got something for Seed's Daily Zeitgeist? Email the Zeitgeister. | Read Full Post »
Towards low-cost LED lighting
You all know that incandescent bulbs are pretty inefficient, converting only 10% of electricity into light — and 90% into heat. Light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, could soon replace incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs in our homes. They are more efficient and environmentally friendly. But LED lights are currently too expensive because they are using a sapphire-based technology. Now, Purdue University researchers have found a way to build low-cost and bright LEDs for home lighting. According to the researchers, the LED lights now on the market cost about $100 while LED lights based on their new technology could be commercially available within a couple of years for a cost of about $5. It would also help to cut our electricity bill by about 10% , but read more… | Read Full Post »
Paying too much attention to the price of gasoline
AS I stand at the gas station filling my tank, the meter tallies how much it’s going to cost me. At this station, a gallon is $4.26, and as the meter passes the $20 mark, then the $30, I realize that I am paying too much attention to the price of gasoline. I bet you […] | Read Full Post »
Looking at single atoms of hydrogen
As you probably know, graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms packed in a dense two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. And it recently became very popular recently as a basis for future ultra-fast transistors. Now, according to Science News, U.S. researchers are using graphene to image individual hydrogen atoms via a standard transmission electron microscope (TEM) technology. Until now, heavy atoms, such as carbon, could be detected by electron microscopy. But the physicists from Berkeley, California, have shown it's possible to track the smallest atoms, hydrogen ones. But read more… | Read Full Post »
