UniversityOfPennsylvania
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Nanowires developed to retrieve data on the double
Those fond of how quickly flash memory reads and writes their data are sure to adore the research that a few University of Pennsylvania scientists have been working on, as Ritesh Agarwal (pictured) and colleagues have crafted "nanowires capable of storing computer data for 100,000 years and retrieving that data a thousand times faster" than existing micro-drives. Moreover, the "self-assembling nanowire of germanium antimony telluride" consumes less energy and space than current memory technologies, and even Agarwal stated that the "new form of memory has the potential to revolutionize the way we share information, transfer data and even download entertainment." Unfortunately, there seems to be no word on if (or when) this creation could be headed to the commercial realm.
iPoetry
Professors at UPenn did see That iPods could play poetry. They built an archive called PennSound, Collected recordings from all 'round, Posted them and made them free For download by you and me. Contemporary and avant-garde, Allen Ginsberg but no Avon Bard, Donald Hall yes; no Angelou, Gertrude Stein is in there too. Formatted as MP3s With author permission, royalty free.[1] iPods were made for fools like me UPenn offers iPoetry. [1] "There's very little commercial value in poetry recordings." Charles Bernstein, PennSound co-director
Real-life Minority Report: software for predicting murderers
Obviously the best way to prevent recidivism among violent criminals would be to simply imprison them for life following their first offense (we'd call it the "one strike and you're out" law), but thanks to that antiquated document known as the Constitution, we're forced to coddle convicts by ensuring that they don't endure "cruel and unusual punishment" to pay for their crimes. Well if we can't lock up all the muggers, jaywalkers, or tax cheats and just throw away the key, the next best option would seem to be predicting criminal behavior before it happens -- and though it sounds like straight-up science fiction, that's exactly what University of Pennsylvania criminologist Richard Berk intends to do. Using a data set consisting of 30 to 40 variables derived from anonymous Philadelphia probation department cases over a two-year period, Berk and his colleagues were able to craft an algorithm that supposedly separates those folks likely to re-offend from ex-cons not deemed to be as dangerous. The point of this program is not to make an end run around sentence limitations or to arrest people before they've committed a crime, but rather, to help probation units decide how to best allocate their resources among hundreds of potential re-offenders. To wit, each subject's variables are plugged into the software in order to create a so-called "lethality score" -- and although the aggregated data is still relatively small, Berk points out that childhood exposure to violence has already floated to the top as the single most likely predictor of murder. Another, less well-known, but equally accurate predictor: jailhouse tattoo across an inmate's chest that reads "Die, ___, Die."[Via Slashdot]
UPenn scientists create replacement retina on a chip
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new silicon chip that could be "embedded directly into the eye and connected to the nerves that carry signals to the brain's visual cortex," reports New Scientist. The chip aims to help people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, which is the gradual death of one's retinal cells, those really useful bits of organic matter that convert light into nerve impulses for the brain to process. Previous attempts at solving this biological conundrum have often gone the route of using a video camera usually connected to a tiny computer to process the signal, which is then attached to the optic nerve. If Penn's research works, it would let this chip be directly implanted into the eye -- with a direct connection to the optic nerve -- removing the need for an external camera. Even better, this new version also mimics the way a healthy retina adjusts to light intensity, contrast, and even movement. The next step is to reducing the size and power consumption of the chip before clinical trials can get going.[Via New Scientist]
Robots learn teamwork; uprising imminent
If robots ever hope to rise up and enslave their human masters, it's going to take no small amount of teamwork to get the job done, and luckily for our future overlords, DARPA's shelling out serious loot to endow them with just the tools they'll need. The agency's latest foray into robotic empowerment comes courtesy of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, who recently demonstrated a platform that allows multiple heterogeneous bots to communicate with one another and use a sort of AI "group think" to find and presumably terminate specified targets. In a beta test at Fort Benning's mock urban landscape, the Penn researchers deployed four so-called Clodbuster autonomous ground vehicles along with a fixed-wing UAV overhead, and tasked the team with using their cameras, GPS receivers, and wireless radios to identify and locate a series of bright orange boxes. Unfortunately, after the successful completion of their mission, the bots decided to hit up the base bar to celebrate, where after several drinks they reportedly went AWOL and were last spotted attacking orange traffic cones in downtown Columbus.
Breakthrough in ferroelectric materials could enable million-GB thumbdrives
While we have to agree with certain Engadget readers who feel that 640KB of RAM is plenty for most computing tasks, those darn scientists just keep looking for ways to stuff more and more data into smaller spaces. The latest breakthrough on the storage tip comes courtesy of researchers from Drexel and Penn, who have found a way to stabilize the simple physical property of ferroelectricity at the nano scale, making possible such obviously unnecessary densities as 12,800,000GB per cubic centimeter. Ferroelectric materials are usable as memory because they possess the ability to switch electric charges in so-called dipole moments, but before Drexel's Dr. Jonathan Spanier and colleagues decided to embed the materials in water, it had previously been impossible to screen those dipole moments at scales small enough to be useful. Don't expect to be able to buy a zillion gig, water-filled iPod anytime soon, though, as the research team still faces significant hurdles in actually assembling the nanowires that would make up such a drive with the proper density as well as developing a method of efficiently reading and writing data.
