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Scientists develop pair of algorithms that could enable thermal cameras to pick out drunk people
We're not sure if Georgia Koukiou and Vassilis Anastassopoulos of the University of Patras in Greece like a tipple or not, but the pair have developed two algorithms that, when used with thermal imaging, could pick out drunk people in crowds. What is it that betrays your best intentions to look sober? As always, your face. Booze causes the blood-vessels in your visage to dilate, and the researchers used this principle to compare facial scans against a database of tipple-free mug shots. Likewise the duo found that when under the influence, the nose gets warmer, while the forehead cools -- another visual check that the infrared can help identify. The hope is that using this technology, law-enforcement can make a judgement call based on more than just your wonky walk. But in our experience, the troublemakers are pretty good at outing themselves.
Max Planck Institute sequences genome of Siberian girl from 80,000 years ago, smashes DNA barriers
We've known little of the genetic sequences of our precursors, despite having found many examples of their remains: the requirement for two strands in traditional DNA sequencing isn't much help when we're usually thankful to get just one. The Max Planck Institute has devised a new, single-strand technique that may very well fill in the complete picture. Binding specific molecules to a strand, so enzymes can copy the sequence, has let researchers make at least one pass over 99.9 percent of the genome of a Siberian girl from roughly 80,000 years ago -- giving science the most complete genetic picture of any human ancestor to date, all from the one bone you see above. The gene map tells us that the brown-skinned, brown-eyed, brown-haired girl was part of a splinter population known as the Denisovans that sat in between Neanderthals and ourselves, having forked the family tree hundreds of thousands of years before today. It also shows that there's a small trace of Denisovans and their Neanderthal roots in modern East Asia, which we would never have known just by staring at fossils. Future discoveries could take years to leave an impact, but MPI may have just opened the floodgates of knowledge for our collective history.
Stanford researchers make heart implant powered by radio waves, put batteries out of a job
Batteries used to be the only way to power implantable gadgets, but additional surgeries are needed to replace the power packs once their juice runs out -- a less-than-ideal solution for patients. Recent discoveries, however, have such medgadgets being powered by photons, hip hop and now high-frequency radio waves. Electrical engineers at Stanford built a cardiac device that uses a combination of inductive and radiative transmission of power, at about 1.7 billion cycles per second, to its coiled receiving antenna. Previous prevailing opinion held that the high frequencies needed for wireless power delivery couldn't penetrate the human body deep enough, and the lower frequencies that would do the trick require antennas too large to work as implants. That conundrum was solved by getting the high-frequency signals to penetrate deeper using alternating waves of electric and magnetic fields. That allowed a 10x increase in power delivery -- up to 50 microwatts to a millimeter radius antenna coil -- to an implant five centimeters below the skin. That antenna also was also designed to pull power regardless of its orientation, making it ideal for applications inside always-moving human bodies. Of course, the implant's really just a proof-of-concept at this stage, but hopefully it won't be long before battery powered implants go the way of the dodo TouchPad.
LG Chem develops very flexible cable batteries, may leave mobile devices tied up in knots
The world is no stranger to flexible batteries, but they've almost always had to be made in thin sheets -- that doesn't amount to a long running time if you're powering anything more than a watch. LG Chem has developed a flexible lithium-ion battery that's not just better-suited to our bigger gadgets but could out-do previous bendable energy packs. Researchers found that coating copper wires with nickel-tin and coiling them briefly around a rod results in a hollow anode that behaves like a very strong spring; mating that anode with a lithium-ion cell leads to a battery that works even when it's twisted up in knots. Join multiple packs together, and devices could have lithium-ion batteries that fit many shapes without compromising on their maximum deliverable power. Some hurdles remain to creating a production-grade battery, such as a tendency for the pack to shed a small amount of capacity whenever it's put under enough stress. LG Chem is fully set on turning these cable batteries into shippable technology, however, and could ultimately produce mobile devices and wearables that really do bend to their owners' every whim.
Alt-week 9.1.12: growing bones, repairing voices, and a pair of satellites
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. There's definitely more than a touch of a biological theme to proceedings this week. In fact, so much so that we thought we might well end up with enough ingredients to make our own cyborg. Or rather, a light-responding canine cyborg with a really cool voice. Yep, science and technology is working hard to make all of these things possible -- albeit independently. If science ever does do the right thing, and pool its resources on such a project, you can thanks us for the tip off. This is Alt-week.
University of Victoria's Mano underwater robot to prowl Arctic waters for legendary ships
Canadians well-versed in their history are very aware of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage: a British voyage that set out to establish a sailing route through the Arctic and ended with the untimely, mysterious deaths of its two ship crews. No human ever found the abandoned ships, which makes it all the more fitting that the next best shot at discovery might come through a just-launched autonomous underwater vehicle from the University of Victoria and Bluefin Robotics. Meet the Mano, a new sonar-toting robot that can produce detailed undersea maps all by its lonesome while keeping a steady altitude above the ocean floor. It can only operate for 12 hours at a time, which will keep humans in the area, but its ability to run untethered below storms and cold Arctic winds should dramatically expand the territory that researchers can cover during their share of a larger five- to six-week journey. There's no guarantee that the Mano will hit the jackpot, or find something recognizable even if it does. Still, any mapping should improve navigation for modern boats -- and hopefully prevent others from sharing Sir Franklin's fate.
Scientists investigating AI-based traffic control, so we can only blame the jams on ourselves
Ever found yourself stuck at the lights convinced that whatever is controlling these things is just trying to test your patience, and that you could do a better job? Well, turns out you might -- at least partly -- be right. Researchers at the University of Southampton have just revealed that they are investigating the use of artificial intelligence-based traffic lights, with the hope that it could be used in next-generation road signals. The research uses video games and simulations to assess different traffic control systems, and apparently us humans do a pretty good job. The team at Southampton hope that they will be to emulate this human-like approach with new "machine learning" software. With cars already being tested out with WiFi, mobile connectivity and GPS on board for accident prevention, a system such as this could certainly have a lot of data to tap into. There's no indication as to when we might see a real world trial, but at least we're reminded, for once, that as a race we're not quite able to be replaced by robotic overlords entirely.
Pioneering astronaut Neil Armstrong dies at 82
It's a story that we hoped we'd never have to report. Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on Earth's Moon, has died at the age of 82 after complications from heart surgery three weeks earlier. His greatest accomplishment very nearly speaks for itself -- along with help from fellow NASA astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, he changed the landscape of space exploration through a set of footprints. It's still important to stress his accomplishments both before and after the historic Apollo 11 flight, though. He was instrumental to the Gemini and X-series test programs in the years before Apollo, and followed his moonshot with roles in teaching aerospace engineering as well as investigating the Apollo 13 and Space Shuttle Challenger incidents. What more can we say? Although he only spent a very small portion of his life beyond Earth's atmosphere, he's still widely considered the greatest space hero in the US, if not the world, and inspired a whole generation of astronauts. We'll miss him. [Image credit: NASA Apollo Archive]
Video of protein movement within a neuron shows how our brains renew themselves
If, like us, you spend most of your time wondering exactly what's going on in other people's heads, then this video is for you. Okay, so it might not reveal the reason why that jerk cut you off at the junction, or why that co-worker didn't show up to your date exactly, rather, it's a little more literal than that. This is video footage of proteins moving within a single neuron. The USC researchers were able to capture this video by using bioluminescent proteins from a jellyfish to visually track their movement. Not only is this mind-boggling to the layperson (just think how small these things are) it's also mind-revealing. By that, we mean it gives scientists an opportunity to observe how these tiny, yet vital, cerebral elements restore themselves. Which, when you're constantly worried about the amount of grey matter you were blessed with in the first place, can only be a good thing.
Harvard makes distortion-free lens from gold and silicon, aims for the perfect image (or signal)
Imaging has been defined by glass lenses for centuries, and even fiber optics haven't entirely escaped the material's clutch. Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences might have just found a way to buck those old (and not-so-old) traditions. A new 60-nanometer thick silicon lens, layered with legions of gold nanoantennas, can catch and refocus light without the distortion or other artifacts that come with having to use the thick, curved pieces of glass we're used to -- it's so accurate that it nearly challenges the laws of diffraction. The lens isn't trapped to bending one slice of the light spectrum, either. It can range from near-infrared to terahertz ranges, suiting it both to photography and to shuttling data. We don't know what obstacles might be in the way to production, which leads us to think that we won't be finding a gold-and-silicon lens attached to a camera or inside a network connection anytime soon. If the technology holds up under scrutiny, though, it could ultimately spare us from the big, complicated optics we often need to get just the right shot.
IBM alliance sets efficiency record for solar power cells using common materials
There have been more than a few solar power efficiency records set in the past few months, let alone years. What makes IBM, DelSolar, Solar Frontier and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo think they can just waltz in and claim a record of their own? By using more commonplace elements in the periodic table, that's how. The partnership's new photovoltaic cell based on copper, zinc and tin (CZTS for short) can convert light rays to electric power with a 11.1 percent efficiency rate -- still nothing to upset traditional silicon power, but a large 10 percent more efficient than anything else in the class. In its early form, CZTS can already be manufactured through ink printing and could be produced in quantities equivalent to about 500 gigawatts of power per year, or five times more than some of the next-closest alternatives. The group wants to improve CZTS' efficiency over the course of the next several years, ideally reaching the point where it's useful as a truly cheap, ubiquitous source of power. We're looking forward to the day when there's a little slice of solar energy in just about everything, hopefully including a few more hybrid cars and private aircraft.
NASA maps out proposed travel plans for Curiosity, decides to head for the hills
As the vista on Mars gradually gets ever clearer, and the system checks continue to show that the rover is in good stead, the team behind Curiosity will be increasingly eager to stretch its legs wheels. The first trip might be just a cautious few meters, but plans for a more adventurous jaunt have just been revealed. The first location in Curiosity's sights is an area referred to as Glenelg, which, based on initial pictures, offers three different geological characteristics, as well as potentially being an area where water used to be present. The site is only 1,300 feet (400 meters) from where the rover landed, but it could still take several weeks to get there. This is merely a quick dash compared to the next leg of its journey, which sees Curiosity heading out to an area called Mount Sharp -- a large mound of layered rock which is hoped to contain visible geology potentially dating back millions of years. With seven kilometers (4.4 miles) lying between the rover and the mountain's foothills, it'll be a much longer journey, but one that could provide the first real evidence of the planet's ability to host, or have hosted, life.
Georgia Tech develops self-charging battery that marches to the owner's beat
One of the last times we saw the concept of a self-recharging battery, it was part of a high-minded Nokia patent whose ideas still haven't seen the light of day. Researchers at Georgia Tech are more inclined to put theory into practice. Starting from a regular lithium-ion coin battery, the team has replaced the usual divider between electrodes with a polyvinylidene difluoride film whose piezoelectric nature produces a charging action inside that gap through just a little pressure, with no outside voltage required to make the magic happen. The developers have even thumbed their noses at skeptics by very literally walking the walk -- slipping the test battery under a shoe sole gives it a proper dose of energy with every footstep. At this stage, the challenge mostly involves ramping up the maximum power through upgrades such as more squeezable piezoelectrics. Georgia Tech hasn't progressed so far as to have production plans in mind; it's nonetheless close enough that we could see future forms of wearable computing that rarely need an electrical pick-me-up.
Harvard stores 704TB in a gram of DNA, may have us shopping for organically-grown storage (video)
Early research has had DNA making circuits and little factories. We haven't really seen DNA used as a storage medium, however, and it's evident we've been missing out. A Harvard team led by George Church, Sriram Kosuri and Yuan Gao can stuff 96 bits into a DNA strand by treating each base (A, C, G, T) as though it's a binary value. The genetic sequence is then synthesized by a microfluidic chip that matches up that sequence with its position in a relevant data set, even when all the DNA strands are out of order. The technique doesn't sound like much on its own, but the microscopic size amounts to a gigantic amount of information at a scale we can see: about 704TB of data fits into a cubic millimeter, or more than you'd get out of a few hundred hard drives. Caveats? The processing time is currently too slow for time-sensitive content, and cells with living DNA would destroy the strands too quickly to make them viable for anything more than just transfers. All the same, such density and a lifespan of eons could have us turning to DNA storage not just for personal backups, but for backing up humanity's collective knowledge. We're less ambitious -- we'd most like to know if we'll be buying organic hard drives alongside the fair trade coffee and locally-sourced fruit.
Alt-week 8.18.12: Graphene sponges, zero-g athletics and tweets in space
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. We see a lot of crazy stories here at Engadget, especially when we spend our week poking around in dark and scary corners of the internet specifically in search of them, just so you don't have to. We consider it a service almost. One that we're delighted to provide, we must add. When else would we be able to share such delights as an astronaut triathlete, soft, color-changing robots and a recent response to a thirty-year-old alien broadcast? Exactly. This is alt-week.
MIT 'microthrusters' are the size of a penny, could reposition tiny satellites
Bus-sized satellites require massive engines for even the slightest movements, but as far smaller structures become a possibility, a tiny driving mechanism can offer usable thrust. To serve this next-gen tech, MIT saw a need to develop "microthrusters," which are each the size of a penny and can be mounted to tiny cubed satellites. With thruster components measuring a few microns each, the magnetic levitation system is able to accommodate 500 microscopic tips that emit ion beams in a very small package, serving to push two-pound structures through space. The tiny devices have not made their way into orbit yet, but they have been tested in a vacuum chamber. Because of their size, it's possible to add several to each satellite, then enabling sophisticated movements for more precise turns. There are currently two dozen "CubeSats" in orbit, each measuring only slightly larger than a Rubik's cube, but without any thrusters to power them, positioning can't be adjusted once they're released. Because of their current location, CubeSats eventually burn up in the atmosphere, but once they're released farther from Earth, they won't be able to enter the atmosphere on their own, remaining in orbit as "space junk" even after completing their missions -- micro thrusters could also serve to move these satellites closer to the planet so they can burn up during re-entry. There's no word on when, or even if, MIT's invention will make its way to the launchpad, but you can take a closer look in the demo video after the break.
Campaign to build Nikola Tesla museum hits $500k in less than 48 hours, hopes to raise $850k
Nikola Tesla may not have gotten all the credit he was due in his lifetime, but his stature has grown considerably since, and many of the inventions he dreamed up are now finding new life in today's technology. Now, a new effort is underway to truly cement his place in history -- even moreso than having David Bowie play him in a movie. Two days ago, Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal comic strip launched an Indiegogo campaign to help fund a Tesla museum at the site of Nikola Tesla's laboratory in Shoreham, New York, and it's now already raised over $500,000. That money will go directly to the non-profit Tesla Science Center, which has been attempting to buy the property for $1.6 million, half of which will be covered by a matching grant from the state of New York (meaning the goal for the campaign is $850,000, although anything raised above that will go toward the actual building of the museum). As Inman notes, however, even raising "just" $850k will ensure that the property isn't sold to someone else and demolished, as others have been looking to do. Those interested in contributing can find all the details at the links below.
Scientists create simulation of the universe, reenact 14 billion years in a few months (video)
Are animations of Curiosity's Mars landing not enough to feed your space exploration appetite? Try this on for size: a group of scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies have generated what's billed as a full-fledged simulation of the universe. Arepo, the software behind the sim, took the observed afterglow of the big bang as its only input and sped things up by 14 billion years. The result was a model of the cosmos peppered with realistically depicted galaxies that look like our own and those around us. Previous programs created unseemly blobs of stars instead of the spiral galaxies that were hoped for because they divided space into cubes of fixed size and shape. Arepo's secret to producing accurate visualizations is its geometry; a grid that moves and flexes to mirror the motions of dark energy, dark matter, gasses and stars. Video playback of the celestial recreation clocks in at just over a minute, but it took Harvard's 1,024-core Odyssey super computer months to churn out. Next on the group's docket is tackling larger portions of the universe at a higher resolution. Head past the jump for the video and full press release, or hit the source links below for the nitty-gritty details in the team's trio of scholarly papers.
NPL, Imperial College create room-temperature maser, promise more sensitive beams
Masers, or microwave lasers, have rarely been as viable as their regular counterparts; they need temperatures near absolute zero, exotic vacuum chambers or strong magnets just to run at all, which safely rules out carrying a maser as a pocket pointer. The National Physical Laboratory and Imperial College London might put that gap in practicality to bed after developing a maser that can run at room temperatures. Instead of using ruby to boost the microwave strength, the scientists rely on a less pronounceable p-terphenyl crystal treated with pentacene that can handle ordinary amounts of heat. There's still much work left in refining the technology: it has yet to stay active for sustained periods, only works in a narrow bandwidth and chews through an ample amount of power. Once it's given the appropriate polish, however, the extra sensitivity of the improved maser could be a boon for medical scanning, bomb disposal or even future space communication that could punch through the atmosphere.
Korean carbon-coated lithium-ion battery could cut recharge times down to minutes
Anyone who's had to recharge an EV -- or, for that matter, any mobile device with a very big battery -- knows the pain of waiting for hours while a lithium-ion pack tops up. South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology has developed a conduction technique that could cut that charging time down to less than a minute. By dousing the nanoparticle materials of the battery in a graphite solution that's then carbonized, the researchers make a web of conductors that all start charging at once; current batteries have to charge towards the center slowly, like a not-very-edible Tootsie Pop. The immediate goal is to develop a secondary battery for an EV that could provide extra mileage in a matter of seconds. Here's hoping that the Ulsan team's fast-charging battery is more viable than others and spreads to just about everything -- we'd love to have EVs and laptops alike that power up in as much time as it takes to fill a traditional car at the pump. [Image credit: iFixit]
