University of Warwick
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Astronomers find the first known exposed core of a gas giant
Scientists have discovered what's believed to be the first known exposed core of a gas giant.
Computer scientist mods Xbox 360 to detect heart attacks, girls still mysteriously elusive
We've seen so many mods around here that sometimes it's truly hard to get excited over the minor stuff. Well, this doesn't fall into that category in any way. A computer scientist at the University in Warwick has developed a method to use Microsoft's Xbox 360 to detect heart defects and help prevent heart attacks. Based on a demo created by Simon Scarle a few years back when he worked at Rare studio, it's based on a modded chip that -- instead of producing graphics for the game -- now produces data tracking how the electrical signals in the heart moves about damaged cells, creating a model of it. The model can then be used to help doctors to identify defects and disturbances in the heart's beating. This significantly decreases the costs and complications of creating a model of the heart, which is currently done by supercomputers and is very expensive. Scarle's project and findings were just published in the August issue of the Journal of Computational Biology and Chemistry. Looks like we'll all have a response the next time someone tells us that gaming is good for nothing, right?
Xbox 360 being used to detect heart defects
We've suffered our fair share of broken hearts at the hands of the Red Ring of Death -- now, the Xbox 360 is being used to mend our ailing blood-pumpers. A computer scientist at the University of Warwick in England recently did some sweet console modification to allow his 360 to calculate heart rhythms using a complex algorithm. Microsoft's console is capable of performing these calculations five times faster (and 10 times cheaper) than a lab computer, and has the added benefit of letting its users play Madden in between bursts of scientific study. To sum up, the 360 is now being used to cure heart disease, and the PS3 is being used to cure cancer. Ball's in your court, Nintendo.
