2007 December

Ever since the early news came out that Google was working on some sort of mobile phone (or gPhone, if you will), there’s been a lot of speculation about what it would actually be like. Google has pretty much been involved in every type of technology project known to mankind, so it only makes sense […]

You may have already considered serving locally produced, organic foods to your holiday guests, but what about the beer and wine? Significant amounts of water and fossil fuels are used to grow conventional grapes, barley, and hops, and to transport the finished products to market, but a growing number of beer and wine makers have […]

Keyboards are a necessary part of today’s computers, right? Maybe not for much longer. A group of European scientists have used acoustic sensors to turn wooden tabletops and even three-dimensional objects into a new type of computer interface.
Sound vibrating a windowpane or through a tabletop is something most people experience daily. Sound waves travel well […]

The growing strength of the movement to discredit evolution and promote the teaching of intelligent design and other non science-based views of biological diversity in public science classrooms is of great concern. Please see the UCS position statement on this alarming trend. UCS has not developed a comprehensive program or set of actions on this […]

The number of airline mishaps attributed to pilot error significantly declined between 1983 and 2002, according to an analysis conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While the overall rate of airline mishaps remained stable during that time, the proportion of mishaps involving pilot error decreased 40 percent. The rate […]

Laser surgery to correct vision problems has been in use since the early 1990s. Photorefractive Keratotomy (PRK) is typically used to correct low to moderate myopia, while laser in-situ keratomileusis (LASIK) is preferred for high myopia corrections. Although over 18 million LASIK procedures have been performed worldwide, there is still some controversy regarding the maximum […]

A mechanism which can lead to hay fever and other allergic reactions, by preventing the immune system from regulating itself properly, has been discovered by scientists. Researchers hope their finding, published today in the journal PLoS Biology, will allow therapies to be developed that treat allergies by stopping this mechanism.
The new research shows that a […]

University of Minnesota Center for Drug Design and Minneapolis VA Medical Center researchers have discovered a new fast-acting antidote to cyanide poisoning. The antidote has potential to save lives of those who are exposed to the chemical — namely firefighters, industrial workers, and victims of terrorist attacks.
Current cyanide antidotes work slowly and are ineffective when […]

Human factors researchers at Florida State University have identified ways to improve electronic voting accuracy among older voters while also shortening waiting time at the polls. The results of their study were published in the fall 2007 issue of Ergonomics in Design.
During the 2000 presidential election in Palm Beach County, Florida, voting machines and ballot […]

Gnomie Ray Wilmoth of Memphis, Tennessee writes:
Didn’t know where to start with this; tried Wikipedia, but couldn’t find any way to post a link to the main story.
The Puppy Grows And Knows Your Name Poodle, on the surface, appears to be a great toy for kids. But only about 3,000 names are programmable, and if […]

A new study suggests the largest fish in the sea is thriving under regulated ecotourism.
Up to 20 meters long and weighing as much as 20 tons, its enormous size gives the whale shark (Rhincodon typus) its name. Known as the ‘gentle giant’ for its non-predatory behavior, this fish, with its broad, flattened head and minute […]

Research in the Department of Biology at the Faculty of Science and Science Education of the University of Haifa has discovered a substance that may become an oral treatment for diabetes and its complications. The substance, which is derived from yeast, is called Glucose Tolerance Factor (GTF). “The research is now at the stage where […]

A chair that undulates, a mouse that vibrates, a monitor suspended over a desk on a movable arm. These are some of the kinds of newfangled ergonomic products that Alan Hedge, international authority on office ergonomics, studies to see if they can prevent repetitive motion injuries among the estimated 100 million people who now use […]

As astronomers become more adept at searching for, and finding, planets orbiting other stars, it’s natural to wonder if anybody is looking back. Now, a team of astronomers that includes a professor from MIT has figured out just what those alien eyes might see using technologies being developed by Earth’s astronomers.
According to their analysis, among […]

Hydrogen is the fuel of the future. Unfortunately, one problem remains: Hydrogen is a gas and cannot easily be pumped into a tank like gasoline. Storage in the form of solid hydrides, chemical compounds of hydrogen and a metal or semimetal, are good storage materials in principle, but have not been well suited to automotive […]

If you’ve been following the whole third-party iPhone applications debacle (and I’m sure that you have), then you know that the whole situation up until this point had just become completely ridiculous. Apple may not have been officially supporting the applications, but the hacks were plentiful, and oh so easy to take advantage of.
As I’ve […]

A thin polymer bio-film that seals surgical wounds could make sutures a relic of medical history.
Measuring just 50 microns thick, the film is placed on a surgical wound and exposed to an infrared laser, which heats the film just enough to meld it and the tissue, thus perfectly sealing the wound.
Known as Surgilux, the device’s […]

Every advance in memory storage devices presents a new marvel of just how much memory can be squeezed into very small spaces. Considering the potential of nanolasers being developed in Sakhrat Khizroev’s lab at the University of California, Riverside, things are about to get a lot smaller.
As reported in the latest issue of Technology Review, […]

Should we drink at least eight glasses of water a day? Does shaving hair cause it to grow back faster or coarser? Does reading in dim light ruin your eyesight?
These are just some of the common medical myths that are unproven or untrue, according to a study in this week’s Christmas issue of the British […]

Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is emitted in great quantities as bubbles from seeps on the ocean floor near Santa Barbara. About half of these bubbles dissolve into the ocean, but the fate of this dissolved methane remains uncertain. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered that only one percent of this […]