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NYU synthesizes crystals with lifelike behavior under light
Scientists have long surmised that inorganic life is possible. New York University hasn't created any at this stage, but it just produced an uncannily close imitation through a recent experiment. When exposing hematite particles (iron and oxygen in a polymer) to specific wavelengths of blue light, researchers got the particles to form crystals that metabolize and move together like a flock. If it weren't for the lack of reproduction, the crystals would technically qualify as life -- and one upcoming test will trade mobility for that self-replication. Accordingly, NYU sees the crystals not just as having possible uses for electronics, but also as illustrating that a finer line might exist between living creatures and synthetic objects. Whether or not the university ever meets all three conditions for life at once, we may have to reset our expectations for what chemicals can do when they get together.
Phone Halo shows off the Cobra Tag and more at WWDC 2012
We talked about Phone Halo a couple of years ago, when the accessory company was making its own product: A little tracking tag that connected up to your keys or anything else you wanted to hang on to and used a free iPhone app to alert you whenever you needed to find them or whenever they wandered out of range. Since we last talked to them, Phone Halo was able to cut a deal with popular accessory manufacturer Cobra (best known for making speedtrap detectors) and has released the Cobra Tag, a branded and updated version of Phone Halo's original device. The company showed the model off to us at WWDC, and it was suitably impressive: The tag is small, well-designed and works over Bluetooth, with any combination of alerts available. You can search for the tag from the phone or vice versa, and you can have alerts set up for "disconnects" (when the tag leaves the iPhone's Bluetooth range). The app, available for free from the App Store, even tracks the GPS location of the disconnect when you flip it into recovery mode. So while you can't track your keys directly, you can at least see where it was you lost them. There's a lot of impressive things being done here: The tag has an LED light built in, so you have audio and visual feedback when you need to track it. And you can completely customize the iPhone's alerts, even down to choosing a song to play when a disconnect happens. The app runs in the background all of time, and it will even override your mute settings so you'll never miss an alert. Facebook and Twitter are integrated as well, If you consistently need to track keys or anything else around your iPhone, the Cobra Tag is a great solution. There is one major issue with the product, and that is battery life. The tag lasts for quite a while, but the biggest drain is on the phone, which needs to keep up a Bluetooth connection constantly, as well as GPS tracking. As you might imagine, that's a solid drain on the hardware. Now, if you really need to track your keys, that might not be a problem. If you usually keep your iPhone plugged in all day, like at the office or while sleeping at home, you probably won't have a big issue keeping your battery going. And if you absolutely need to track something, the extra battery use will probably be worth it. So while battery life can be a concern, it shouldn't rule out everyone on a product like this. The Cobra Tag is available now for about $60 at retail. Phone Halo also showed us something else they're working on: An app that will be able to track any Bluetooth device, not just the Cobra Tag. Using a generic Bluetooth headset or any Bluetooth device, the new app will be able to do all of the same things that the Cobra tag can do. It's very impressive. Phone Halo is still working on that app. It's hoping to team up with a sponsor of Bluetooth products or someone else to be able to provide the functionality to users for free, and still be able to make money off of the product. But however this tech reaches consumers like us, it certainly seems like Phone Halo is working hard on making it as cheap and easy as possible to track external devices from your iPhone.
Steve Jobs subject of new children's book
The Loop spotted a new book over at Amazon called "Who Was Steve Jobs?" that appears to be a children's book, of all things. It's part of a series of books designed to tell kids about famous historical figures and why they're so admired or well-known. Looking inside the book shows that it talks about Steve's life and times, all the way from the garage in California, up through the NeXT days, and to "Think Different" and "Insanely Great." There's also a detailed timeline included, and even a bibliography of sources. This might be just the thing for any little ones who could use a primer on Jobs and his life.
NASA looks to send landers to Europa in 2020, wants to break the ice
There's still a lot of mystery surrounding Jupiter's moon Europa, but researchers at NASA seem fairly certain that there's a watery ocean lurking beneath its icy exterior. Their theories may finally be put to the test later this decade, thanks to a concept mission crafted by astronomers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. According to Space.com, JPL researchers have come up with a plan that would send a pair of landers to Europa by 2026, in the hopes of finding out whether the rock has ever supported life forms. The endeavor certainly wouldn't be easy, since Jupiter blankets its moon in heavy radiation, but researchers think they can mitigate these risks by sending in an extra lander as backup, and by keeping the mission short and sweet. Under the plan, each 700-pound robot would use a mass spectrometer, seismometers and a slew of cameras to search for any organic chemicals that may be lodged within the moon's ice. Neither craft will sport a protective shield, so they'll only stay around the planet for about seven days, so as to avoid any radiation damage. At this point, the mission is still in the concept phase, though the JPL is hoping to launch both landers by 2020. JPL researcher Kevin Hand was quick to point out, however, that this would be a "habitability mission," and that NASA doesn't expect to find any signs of current life on Europa. Lars von Trier was unavailable for comment.
Samsung introduces Advanced LED light bulbs, preps for zombie apocalypse
Samsung is going to make sure your light bulbs use as little energy as possible, last literally decades and sort of look like a heat sink to boot. The company, which just released its Advanced LED Light Bulbs for the US, has put forth the A19, the PAR and the MR16, each bulb being designed for a specific purpose. The AR19, which is engineered to replace conventional incandescent bulbs, is dimmable and can shine directionally from vanity lights, wall sconces, assorted lamps and more. The PAR, which is also dimmable, is designed with a variable beam angle between 25 and 40 degrees in mind and slated around track and recessed lighting. Finally, the MR16 Bulb is designed to be used in recessed, vanity, and track lighting and arrives in two different base types with adjustable brightness levels. Samsung has priced the bulbs from $19.98 all the way up to $59.98 with a life expectancy between 27 and 36 years; they're currently available at your local Lowe's location, although if Philips gets wind of it, that could change post-haste.
Hideo Kojima talks life, influences at USC presentation
Legendary game developer Hideo Kojima took the stage at the University of Southern California last night to talk about his life as a game developer, and give a few thoughts on the current state of gaming and game development. During an interview moderated by Geoff Keighley, the creator of Metal Gear Solid spoke honestly about his past as the son of two pharmaceutical executives, his current work/life balance, and what he thinks the future of gaming looks like. Kojima told a few cute stories from his past -- he said that he started writing as a young man, and early on wrote a long story called "Survival Battle" that had everyone in its world fight at the age of 14, earning extra time in their lifespan for each victory. He said that in college, he was an economics major, and thus the "only oddball in my class that wanted to make movies or novels." His economics thesis even included a short story "to surprise my professor, and he was very surprised," said Kojima through a translator, "but it didn't help my grade much." Kojima also talked about his gaming influences, starting with the original Famicom, and mentioned titles like Super Mario Brothers, Xevious, and the Japanese text adventure Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken as early influences on his work. "I felt great potential in the medium," Kojima said about discovering video games, adding that the interactivity was what really drew him in early on.
SETI comes back from the financial dead, gets a check from Jodie Foster
Roswell devotees, dry those tears -- the search for alien overlords frenemies is back on. Four months after going into financial "hibernation," SETI's Allen Telescope Array has been temporarily resuscitated thanks to an infusion of publicly raised funds from the SETIStars program, and Ms. Jodie Foster. The web campaign for those-who-believe raised over $200,000 in just 45 days, enough cash to get the Paul Allen-funded dishes scanning the skies for at least five more months. Tom Pierson, the institute's CEO, is hoping to secure long-term funding for the project from the U.S. Air Force, which could use the array during the daytime "to track orbital objects that otherwise might pose a threat to the International Space Station and other satellites." However Pierson manages to keep the fleet of skyward-facing ears afloat, one thing's for sure -- the truth is out there and tracking it's a hustle.
NASA finds DNA components in meteorites, says they originated in space (video)
So, this is kinda wild: scientists at NASA have uncovered new evidence that DNA components found in meteorites can originate in space, lending new credence to the theory that life on Earth may have arisen from a pre-existing "kit" of materials delivered via asteroid. The discovery is outlined in a new paper from Dr. Michael Callahan, whose team of researchers closely analyzed samples from 12 different meteorites, using a mass spectrometer and liquid chromatography. In their samples, they found traces of adenine, guanine, and a variety of molecules known as nucleobase analogs -- including three that are rarely found on Earth. Scientists have long known that meteorites can contain DNA elements, but were unsure whether these materials actually originate in space. The presence of these three molecules, however, suggest that they do, potentially raising new questions about the dawn of life on Earth, and beyond. It's all quite heady, but steam ahead for a NASA video that might help clarify things, after the break.
NASA asteroid mission could explain how life began (and how ours might end)
There's a slight chance that the Earth could get hit by an asteroid in about 170 years, but don't you worry -- NASA's all over it. This week, the agency announced a new mouthful of a mission known as Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, for short. The $800 million initiative, part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, will send a spacecraft to link up with 1999 RQ36 -- a nearby asteroid that's likely rich in carbon and other organic molecules that could explain how life forms originated. After about four years of space travel, the craft should get close enough to map the asteroid's surface, before using its robotic arm to extract at least two ounces of material and return it to Earth by 2023. Scientists will also pay close attention to something known as the Yarkovsky effect, which determines how an asteroid's path changes as it absorbs and emits energy from the sun. OSIRIS-REx will attempt to measure this affect for the first time, perhaps allowing NASA to predict the trajectories of potentially hazardous asteroids -- including the RQ36. The 1,900-foot wide rock is expected to approach Earth by the year 2182 and, according to recent estimates, there's a one in a thousand chance that it could actually strike our planet. Now if you excuse us, we have to go prepare a bunker for our great-great-grandchildren. Head past the break for a video and full press release.
NASA abandons Mars rover Spirit, chooses to remember the good times
More than a year after it first lost contact with its Mars rover Spirit, NASA has finally decided to throw in the towel. Yesterday, the agency confirmed that it will end all planned communications with the robot on May 25th, effectively ending the craft's seven-year mission. NASA was hoping that the approaching Martian spring would allow the Spirit to recharge its solar panels and re-establish radio contact, but it now appears that the craft sustained irreparable damage last winter, when it was forced to endure brutally cold temperatures. NASA executive David Lavery, however, says the rover team will remember the Spirit more for its achievements than its slow demise: "I think we'll all sit around and have a sip of Guinness and reminisce about when Spirit was a wee small little rover and look back at the accomplishments and successes rover had over its entire lifetime." So the Spirit's spirit will live on, but what about NASA's mission to Mars? Well, the Opportunity is still in good health and, later this year, will be joined by the next-generation, nuclear-powered rover Curiosity, which will investigate whether or not Mars ever supported life forms. Meanwhile, NASA's network of orbiting spacecraft will continue to passively listen for signals from the Spirit, just in case it miraculously comes back to life. Full PR after the break.
Wheego needs more cash to produce LiFe EVs, 'living hand-to-mouth' for now
Oh, how the winds of fortune can swirl. Just a few weeks after finally selling its first LiFe electric car to a happy couple in Atlanta, Wheego appears to have suddenly fallen on hard financial times. Very hard times. Speaking to Automotive News, CEO Mike McQuary claimed that his startup's coffers are bare enough to jeopardize future production of Wheego's flagship, battery-powered two-seater: "My constraint is primarily capital. We'll be living hand-to-mouth as we try to get the first cars built. The next 200 will creep out as we raise money." McQuary didn't say how far behind schedule Wheego is at the moment, but part of the problem seems to be finding enough money to buy parts for its $32,995, 100-mile range EVs. The company's plant in California was supposed to produce 200 vehicles a month starting in January, in the hopes of eventually churning out 60,000 a year. Those plans, however, were soon derailed, due to unexpectedly delayed approval from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration -- a setback that also hurt the company's capital raising campaigns. The company is hoping to raise some $15 million with the help of a VC firm in Connecticut, but until it does, Wheego may not be going anywhere.
Wakfu shows off ecosystem mechanics in newest trailer
The trailers continue to surface for Wakfu as potential players in the U.S. anxiously await word on an official beta date. For those players in other regions already participating in the beta, that wait is a bit less pressing. But whether you've been enjoying the game for some time in its testing phase or you're just looking forward to finally getting your hands on it, the latest trailer should provide you with plenty of eye-candy and features to look forward to. This time around, the highlight is on the game's ecological systems. One of the major selling points has always been players having a substantive impact on the game, with the landscape changing and reacting based upon player actions. This ecosystem trailer gives a look at the ways in which players can either help or harm the surrounding environment, providing new life in barren areas or destroying ambient plant life. The latest Wakfu video can be found just past the cut, a worthy diversion for anyone interested in this anticipated strategy MMO.
SETI suspends search for alien life, E.T. weeps in the silent dark of space
Our progress toward intergalactic fellowship has suffered another blow, as SETI suspended operations of its Allen Telescope Array. Funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the array is a collection of radio dishes that scan the skies for signs of life; now it'll be in "hibernation" mode until 2013, when the institute's new round of funding begins. SETI hopes to raise $5 million to bring the Array back online before then, while it continues to use other telescopes around the world, including the Hubble Space Telescope. The budget woes are especially bitter given the number of recently identified alien planets – NASA's Kepler mission found 1,235. If any of them are broadcasting the next Wow! signal, let's hope it doesn't fall on deaf earthling ears.
Couple in Atlanta finally gets a LiFe, courtesy of Wheego
Wheego has, at long last, let its first $32,995, 100-mile range LiFe electric two-seater loose on the public, and added another cute little electric car to the US EV collective. By either stroke-of-luck or sheer coincidence (no way is it intentional), the first of the breed was delivered today, otherwise known as Earth Day, to a couple of lucky owners in the ATL. Good to see Dixieland drivers (who often prefer something with a lift kit and Super Swampers to fuel-efficient subcompacts) bringing cleaner motoring to the derrrty South.
Geolocation app appeals to your inner good samaritan, makes you an amateur EMT
When you go into cardiac arrest, you've got about ten minutes to live if you don't receive medical attention, and the average emergency response time is seven minutes after you dial 911. In an effort to get folks help more quickly and leverage the iPhone's life saving abilities, the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District in California has created the FireDepartment app to enlist the help of the citizenry in fighting the (unfortunate) results of a lifetime of eating tacos. The iPhone app -- Android and BlackBerry versions are currently in the works -- allows emergency dispatchers to notify users via text of a nearby crisis. For those feeling heroic, the app displays a map with the victim's location and any nearby automatic electronic defibrillators, and provides "resuscitation reminders" in case you're the CPR teddy-toting type. For now, the service only works in San Ramon but there are plans to port it for use elsewhere. That means we can look forward to a nation of amateur EMTs, which makes us thankful that mouth-to-mouth is no longer a part of CPR. Check the video after the break to see the app in action.
BlackBerry Balance announced, gives your phone a split personality
You might recall that VMware has teamed up with LG to separate the "work" and "life" environments on your Android phone into two distinct, secure platforms, which has some pretty obvious benefits -- as more people want smartphones in their personal lives, IT departments can still manage the content on their work phones without necessitating two separate devices. Seriously, who wants to carry around two phones? (Don't answer that.) Anyhow, RIM's getting into the game with today's announcement of BlackBerry Balance at an enterprise-focused event in Boston, a tool that'll allow the computer nerds in your office to manage, wipe, and encrypt the work-related content on your BlackBerry while leaving your personal content unscathed. Of course, not everyone wants a BlackBerry as their personal smartphone -- but for those that do, this should make you feel a little more confident that the IT dude isn't going to spontaneously delete your mom's contact record. No word on availability just yet.
Wheego Whip LiFe grabs up EPA certification
Yes! Another reason to write about the darling and awesomely-named Wheego Whip LiFe! This time, it's good news indeed, as the all electric micro-car has received EPA certification. The cars, which are priced at a reasonably affordable $32,995 (or $25,495 after the Federal tax credit), are now simply waiting for final approval from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration before they can roll into dealerships. It looks like the cars will ship at the beginning of the year now, with production well underway for the past few months. We'll take two, please.
NASA makes 'astrobiology discovery,' schedules press conference for Thursday to discuss alien life
So NASA seems to have made some hot new astrobiology discovery, but just like the tech companies we're more used to dealing with, it's holding the saucy details under embargo until 2PM on Thursday. That's when it's got a press conference scheduled to discuss its findings, which we're only told "will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life." It's unlikely, therefore, that little green (or brown, or red, or blue) men have been captured somewhere on the dark side of the moon, but there'll definitely be some impactful news coming within only a couple of days. NASA promises a live online stream of the event, which we'll naturally be glued to come Thursday.
Scientists discover planet capable of supporting life, Richard Branson calls dibs on it
A team of planet hunters from UC Santa Cruz (not to be confused with Dog The Bounty Hunter) have found a planet three times the size of our own that might support life. Scientists have been using the HIRES spectrometer on the Keck I Telescope to keep an eye on the Gliese 581 red dwarf star in the constellation Libra for about 11 years now, and among its many virtues have learned that the planet Gliese 581g has the potential for life. Indeed, it is being billed as "the first potentially habitable exoplanet," meaning that it's in "the zone" where it's neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water. Although it's rather Earth-like in some respects, there are some stunning differences: for instance, the planet doesn't spin on its axis, so one side is always dark (and probably 25 degrees below zero) while the other side is probably rather pleasant, or "shirt-sleeve weather," as one of the discoverers, Steven Vogt, put it. Indeed, he goes on to estimate that "chances for life on this planet are 100 percent." Those are pretty good odds! There's no word on when Virgin Galactic will be offering vacation packages to this hit destination, or even when it will be feasible to make the 20 light year voyage. Artist's rendition after the break.
Get Him to the Greek Blu-ray includes a free streaming copy -- of a different movie
Universal's added a new wrinkle to persuade people to buy Get Him to the Greek on Blu-ray -- throw in a copy of an entirely different movie. Sure, during the MTV Video Music Awards we imagined not having to watch Russell Brand was a feature that should be included more often, but we didn't expect to see it tucked in among these other Blu-ray exclusive extras -- karaoke, the Pocket BLU iPhone remote control app, social BLU access, Mobile-To-Go support for taking bonus content with you and keyboard support. Anyone who buys the flick between September 28 and March 31, 2011 can also gain access to one of the following movies streamed to the player over BD-Live or directly to their mobile phone: Uncle Buck, Dazed & Confused or Life (Eddie Murphy & Martin Lawrence, not David Attenborough.) The flicks are notable not only because they appear to have been randomly chosen, but also since they're not available on Blu-ray yet. Unlike The Office, there's no promise of HD resolution here so the quality is still in question, but really, what Blu-ray release couldn't use an extra dose of John Candy? Check out all the details and extras in the press release after the break.
