Group items tagged

I've visited Singapore a few times in recent years and been impressed with its wealth and modernity. I was also quite aware of its world-leading programs in mathematics education and naturally noted that one of the candidates for president was Tony Tan, who has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics. Tan won the very close election and joined the government of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who also has a degree in mathematics.

Six U.S. government agencies will spend more than $200 million to help the government better organize and analyze large volumes of digital data, in a new "big data" research and development effort announced by President Barack Obama's administration Thursday.

The brain appears to be wired in a rectangular 3D grid structure, suggests a new brain imaging study funded by the National Institutes of Health. "Far from being just a tangle of wires, the brain's connections turn out to be more like ribbon cables - folding 2D sheets of parallel neuronal fibers that cross paths at right angles, like the warp and weft of a fabric," explained Van Wedeen, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and the Harvard Medical School.

A report in the New Journal of Physics shows how the quest for an invisibility cloak is leading to cleverer ways to use and manipulate light. The trick could aid the analysis of complex samples or even communications.

US experts have developed what they say are the most biologically-accurate robotic legs yet. Writing in the Journal of Neural Engineering, they said the work could help understanding of how babies learn to walk - and spinal-injury treatment. They created a version of the message system that generates the rhythmic muscle signals that control walking. A UK expert said the work was exciting because the robot mimics control and not just movement.

interesting - bet law enforcement uses it to reverse engineer energy high spots - possible labs or growing dens

Complexity scientists have made great strides in understanding the behaviour of single networks. Now they want to know what happens when networks become connected to each other

A new biologic logic gate based on proteins can perform binary calculations, serving as the first "cellular calculator," researchers say. Various combinations of components can be arranged into circuit elements, leading to specific metabolic processes inside a cell. The setup can answer mathematical questions in a similar fashion to a computer. Bioengineers led by Martin Fussenegger at ETH Zurich built a molecular logic gate using two substances as the transistor elements: the molecule phloretin, which is used to activate nerve fibers and comes from apples, and the widely used antibiotic erythromycin. The substances work as Boolean switches.

With the arrival of its OLED lighting panel, the Lumiblade GL350, Philips Lighting is attempting to quietly usher in the era of practical OLED lighting. The diminutive squares, 3.3mm thick with edges not even five inches (they're precisely 124.5mm) in length, put out 120 lumens each. As organic light-emitting diodes go, that's really rather punchy. It's this higher output that has led the Dutch electronics giant to declare the GL350 "the first OLED that is suitable for general lighting purposes" in its product catalog.

From disrupting the peer-reviewed journal publishing tradition to utilizing a dispersed model to test code, the academy has been trying out new ways of innovating an overburdened scholarly apparatus using technology. One of the latest areas to see this sort of experimentation is that of IP, or intellectual property. Marblar, a startup launched by three British PhD students, is hoping to successfully crowdsource the resurrection of "dormant" IP, to flatten and widen the process of tech transfer. A major British venture capital firm, IP Group, has invested about $600,000 in the startup.

To honor Alan Turing, we built a simple LEGO Turing Machine, to show everyone how simple a computer actually is. Primary goals were to make every operation as visible as possible and to make it using just a single LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT set. The LEGO Turing Machine is part of the exhibition  Turing's Erfenis  at CWI.

"Are more people doing wrong or are more people speaking up? Retractions of scientific papers have increased about tenfold during the past decade, with many studies crumbling in cases of high-profile research misconduct that ranges from plagiarism to image manipulation to outright data fabrication. When worries about somebody's work reach a critical point, it falls to a peer, supervisor, junior partner or uninvolved bystander to decide whether to keep mum or step up and blow the whistle. Doing the latter comes at significant risk, and the path is rarely simple. Some make their case and move on; others never give up. And in what seems to be a growing trend, anonymous watchdogs are airing their concerns through e-mail and public forums. Here, Nature profiles three markedly different stories of individuals who acted on their suspicions. Successful or otherwise, each case offers lessons for would-be tipsters."