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Swedish Ambulances can hijack your in-car tunes during emergencies
When people tell you not to play music at full blast in your car, they're not necessarily raining on your parade -- there's a real concern that you might not hear an emergency vehicle until the last moment. You might not have to worry quite so much if a Swedish experiment proves successful, though. Ambulances in Stockholm are testing a KTH-made system (EVAM) that interrupts in-car audio with a voice warning when they're close by and responding to a crisis. The only requirement is that your car's FM tuner support the Radio Data System format, which is common in the cars you see on the road. The interruptions are speed-sensitive, too, so you'll get notices at greater distances when you're on the highway.
Stephen Hawking believes he knows how information escapes black holes
Stephen Hawking announced during a lecture at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden on Tuesday that he has potentially solved the Information Paradox. The paradox a conflict between the quantum mechanics and general relativity models that has vexed physicists for more than four decades. The Information Paradox arises from black holes -- specifically what happens to information about the physical state of objects that fall into one. The quantum mechanical model posits that the information remains intact while general relativity argues that it is indeed obliterated under the black holes immense gravitation. But Hawking has developed a third opinion: the information never actually makes it into the black hole. "I propose that the information is stored not in the interior of the black hole as one might expect, but on its boundary, the event horizon," he said.
Algae-based thread will keep your clothes odor-free
If you're worried that the silver ions in antibacterial and anti-odor clothing might also pose serious health risks, like destroying genetic material, you'll be glad to hear that there should soon be a safer alternative. The KTH Royal Institute of Technology has developed an antibacterial thread that uses a mix of bio-compatible plastics and lanosol, a bacteria-fighting compound that you normally find in red algae. The material should not only be a less contentious germ-killer than silver, but more effective. Because it's woven into super-thin fibers through electrospinning (which uses electrical charges to draw thread from liquid), the antiseptic element doesn't clump up and leave some areas unprotected.
