Toronto-based startup Sciencescape came about because of a problem that was significant enough to lure co-founder Sam Molyneux away from a bourgeoning career as a cancer researcher, and into a new venture that wants to tackle the bigger picture issue of fixing the entire system of academic, medical and scientific research. It’s a system that’s incredibly outdated, the Sciencescape team believes, and one that’s ripe for change.
TechCrunch
Tag Archives: research
Sciencescape Wants To Solve Academic Research Discoverability, Deal With The Noise Problem
Posted by Gsurface
on June 16, 2013
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‘Space Odyssey’ author inspires imagination research center
Posted by Gsurface
on June 13, 2013
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The creative mind behind the communications satellite and “2001: A Space Odyssey” — Arthur C. Clarke — has now inspired an academic center dedicated to studying imagination.
FOX News
Contact lens display research tips super-discrete Glass wearable future
Posted by Gsurface
on June 7, 2013
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Digital contact lenses that could eventually overlay Google Glass style data on top of the real world, while being as comfortable and discrete as traditional corrective lenses, have been developed by researchers at Samsung Display and elsewhere. The project – to develop a transparent, flexible display using graphene-metal nanowire hybrid structures to construct stretchable electrodes
The low, low lowdown on the Hsu Research VTF-3 MK4 subwoofer
Posted by Gsurface
on June 2, 2013
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Hsu Research makes great small subs, so the Audiophiliac wanted to try one of the company’s bigger (but not too expensive) subs, and wasn’t disappointed. [Read more]
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Sony and Lego collaborating on toy research
Posted by Gsurface
on May 24, 2013
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Sony and Lego are working together on creating a new generation of products that bridge the gap between toys and video games.
Computerworld News
Clawing From the Wreckage of Nokia Research
Posted by Gsurface
on May 21, 2013
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Jolla Mobile, formed by Nokia refugees, launches a phone with interchangable back-panels and the Sailfish OS
Almost one year after Nokia’s bloodletting, in which it cut 10,000 jobs and closed research and manufacturing facilities (see “Nokia Forced to Take Drastic Measures”), we’re starting to see new fruits of the startup culture that rose from the wreckage.
Google CEO Larry Page Reveals He’s Recovering From Vocal Cord Paralysis, Will Fund Research
Posted by Gsurface
on May 14, 2013
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In a post on Google+ today, Google CEO Larry Page discussed the voice problems he’s been experiencing for the first time publicly. While it doesn’t sound like Page is experiencing life-threatening medical problems, it definitely has become a topic of interest every time he speaks publicly. During the last earnings call, Page actually spoke for a long time, albeit a bit labored, even answering questions towards the end of the call. He’s addressed his fellow Googlers over the years, letting them know that nothing was “seriously wrong.” He had to skip I/O last year because of these issues, then skipping the next few earnings calls. Here’s his post, where he says that his problems started some 14 years ago: About 14 years ago, I got a bad cold, and my voice became hoarse. At the time I didn’t think much about it. But my voice never fully recovered. So I went to a doctor and was diagnosed with left vocal cord paralysis. This is a nerve problem that causes your left vocal cord to not move properly. Despite extensive examination, the doctors never identified a cause — though there was speculation of virus-based damage from my cold. It is quite common in cases like these that a definitive cause is not found. While this condition never really affected me — other than having a slightly weaker voice than normal which some people think sounded a little funny — it naturally raised questions in my mind about my second vocal cord. But I was told that sequential paralysis of one vocal cord following another is extremely rare. Fast forward to last summer, when the same pattern repeated itself — a cold followed by a hoarse voice. Once again things didn’t fully improve, so I went in for a check-up and was told that my second vocal cord now had limited movement as well. Again, after a thorough examination, the doctors weren’t able to identify a cause. Thankfully, after some initial recovery I’m fully able to do all I need to at home and at work, though my voice is softer than before. And giving long monologues is more tedious for me and probably the audience. But overall over the last year there has been some improvement with people telling me they think I sound better. Vocal cord nerve issues can also affect your breathing, so my ability to exercise at peak
TechCrunch
Tablets with Windows RT see slow sales, research firm IDC says
Posted by Gsurface
on May 2, 2013
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A Motherlode of Cell Phone Data-Mining Research
Posted by Gsurface
on April 30, 2013
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At conference starting Wednesday, huge trove of research papers point to enormous possibilities, but privacy issues remain.
Cell phones generate tremendous amounts of human mobility and other data that can be particularly useful in the developing world to redesign transportation networks (see “African Bus Routes Redrawn Using Cell-Phone Data”) and provide a boon to epidemiology (see “Big Data from Cheap Phones”).
Harvard To Close New England Primate Research Center
Posted by Gsurface
on April 25, 2013
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sciencehabit writes “Citing an increasingly bleak outlook for federal research funding, Harvard Medical School is shutting down its major primate center, which has recently experienced the departure of several key scientists and an investigation into its handling of animals. In the announcement, which surprised many primate researchers, the school said it will not seek to renew the New England Primate Research Center’s (NEPRC’s) 5-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will ‘wind down operations’ at the center in Southborough, Massachusetts, over the next 2 years. The center, which has a nearly 50-year history, had done groundbreaking work on an AIDS vaccine and developed animal models for diseases such as Parkinson’s, among other accomplishments.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
IBM scientists research concentrated solar radiation power source
Posted by Gsurface
on April 22, 2013
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Researchers from IBM have created a very impressive and affordable new photovoltaic system that is capable of concentrating solar radiation up to 2000 times. The system is also capable of converting 80% of incoming solar radiation into useful energy. Other than simply creating solar electricity, the system also has two other very important capabilities. Those
Research team restores monkey’s hand function with artificial neural connection
Posted by Gsurface
on April 11, 2013
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Scientists working together from Japanese and American universities may have made a pretty large leap in restoring neural function for those with non-paralyzing spinal cord injuries. The researchers applied a “novel artificial neuron connection” over lesions in the spinal cord of a partially paralyzed monkey, partially restoring its arm / brain circuit and allowing greater hand control purely by brainpower. The team also created a reverse circuit where muscle activity from the arm stimulated the spinal cord, reinforcing the signals and “boosting ongoing activity in the muscle.” There’s no word on whether it would help those with full paralysis, though for lesser “paretic” damage, “this might even have a better chance of becoming a real prosthetic treatment rather than the sort of robotic devices that have been developed recently,” according to the team. See the source and More Coverage links for more.
Filed under: Science
Let’s make this perfectly clear: ‘Stupendous’ see-through mouse brains a new research tool
Posted by Gsurface
on April 11, 2013
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New research suggests Shroud of Turin dates to Jesus’ era
Posted by Gsurface
on March 29, 2013
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Pew Research Finds Opinion Dominates MSNBC More Than Fox News
Posted by Gsurface
on March 23, 2013
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Hugh Pickens writes writes “Jack Mirkinson reports that Pew Research Center’s annual “State of the Media” study found that, since 2007, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC have all cut back sharply on the amount of actual reporting found on their airwaves. Cheaper, more provocative debate or interview segments have largely filled the void. Pew found that Fox News spent 55 percent of the time on opinion and 45 percent of the time on reporting. Critics of that figure would likely contend that the network’s straight news reporting tilts conservative, but it is true that Fox News has more shows that feature reporting packages than MSNBC does. According to Pew MSNBC made the key decision to reprogram itself in prime time as a liberal counterweight to the Fox News Channel’s conservative nighttime lineup. The new MSNBC strategy and lineup were accompanied by a substantial cut in interview time and sharply increased airtime devoted to edited packages. The Pew Research examination of programming in December 2012 found MSNBC by far the most opinionated of the three networks, with nearly 90% of MSNBC’s primetime coverage coming in the form of opinion or commentary.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
China’s Broadband Penetration Is Increasingly Lagging Behind Developed Nations, Says MIIT’s Research Head
Posted by Gsurface
on March 22, 2013
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The research chief of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said yesterday (link via Google Translate) that there is still a significant gap between China’s broadband coverage and that of developed nations, and that the lag is increasing.
Former Chinese contractor at NASA’s Langley Research Center faces hearing on lying charges
Posted by Gsurface
on March 21, 2013
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A court hearing is scheduled for a former Chinese contractor at NASA’s Langley Research Center who was arrested on a Beijing-bound plane with hard drives and a laptop.
FOX News
Obama Wants To Fund Clean Energy Research With Oil & Gas Funds
Posted by Gsurface
on March 17, 2013
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An anonymous reader writes “The Obama Administration has put forth a proposal to collect $ 2 billion over the next 10 years from revenues generated by oil and gas development to fund scientific research into clean energy technologies. The administration hopes the research would help ‘protect American families from spikes in gas prices and allow us to run our cars and trucks on electricity or homegrown fuels.’ In a speech at Argonne National Laboratory, Obama said the private sector couldn’t afford such research, which puts the onus on government to keep it going. Of course, it’ll still be difficult to get everyone on board: ‘The notion of funding alternative energy research with fossil fuel revenues has been endorsed in different forms by Republican politicians, including Alaskan senator Lisa Murkowsi. But the president still faces an uphill battle passing any major energy law, given how politicized programs to promote clean energy have become in the wake of high-profile failures of government-backed companies.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Obama Stumps for Energy Research Through Trust Fund
Posted by Gsurface
on March 15, 2013
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CASIS and the MassChallenge startup accelerator want to help you conduct research… in space!
Posted by Gsurface
on March 10, 2013
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Most folks are familiar with the International Space Station (ISS). However, what you may not know is that the national lab on board the ISS is available to anyone to conduct research, provided that research is deemed worthy enough to make the trip into orbit. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) is a non-profit tasked by NASA to find and promote those worthy proposals, and it’s teamed up with the MassChallenge startup accelerator to find the next great entrepreneurial space research project — and they want YOU, dear readers to hit them with your ideas. Want to know more? Join us after the break to find out what it takes to get your research in orbit.
Source: MassChallenge, CASIS
New Research Sheds Light On the Evolution of Dogs
Posted by Gsurface
on March 4, 2013
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Hugh Pickens writes writes “The first dogs descended from wolves about 14,000 years ago but according to Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods humans didn’t domesticate dogs — dogs sought out humans and domesticated us. Humans have a long history of eradicating wolves, rather than trying to adopt them which raises the question: How was the wolf tolerated by humans long enough to evolve into the domestic dog? ‘The short version is that we often think of evolution as being the survival of the fittest, where the strong and the dominant survive and the soft and weak perish. But essentially, far from the survival of the leanest and meanest, the success of dogs comes down to survival of the friendliest.’ Most likely, it was wolves that approached us, not the other way around, probably while they were scavenging around garbage dumps on the edge of human settlements. The wolves that were bold but aggressive would have been killed by humans, and so only the ones that were bold and friendly would have been tolerated. In a few generations, these friendly wolves became distinctive from their more aggressive relatives with splotchy coats, floppy ears, wagging tails. But the changes did not just affect their looks but their psychology. Protodogs evolved the ability to read human gestures. ‘As dog owners, we take for granted that we can point to a ball or toy and our dog will bound off to get it,’ write Hare and Woods. ‘But the ability of dogs to read human gestures is remarkable. Even our closest relatives — chimpanzees and bonobos — can’t read our gestures as readily as dogs can. ‘With this new ability, these protodogs were worth knowing. People who had dogs during a hunt would likely have had an advantage over those who didn’t. Finally when times were tough, dogs could have served as an emergency food supply and once humans realized the usefulness of keeping dogs as emergency food, it was not a huge jump to realize plants could be used in a similar way.’ This is the secret to the genius of dogs: It’s when dogs join forces with us that they become special.,” conclude Hare and Woods. ‘Dogs may even have been the catalyst for our civilization.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Facebook, Google team up to design cancer research game
Posted by Gsurface
on March 3, 2013
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Why Sequestration Could Really Hurt Long-Term Research
Posted by Gsurface
on March 3, 2013
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The U.S. budget cuts that take effect tomorrow will demoralize future inventors, researchers, and disease curers.
The across-the-board U.S. budget cuts scheduled to take effect on March 1, known as sequestration, will have ripple effects that hurt scientific and health research for years to come, the heads of two federal research agencies said this week.
Research Hints at Graphene’s Photovoltaic Potential
Posted by Gsurface
on March 1, 2013
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Newly observed properties mean the material could be a highly efficient converter of light to electric power.
Researchers have demonstrated that graphene is highly efficient at generating electrons upon absorbing light, which suggests that the material could be used to make light sensors and perhaps even more efficient solar cells.
Conventional materials that turn light into electricity, like silicon and gallium arsenide, generate a single electron for each photon absorbed. Since a photon contains more energy than one electron can carry, much of the energy contained in the incoming light is lost as heat. Now, new research reveals that when graphene absorbs a photon it generates multiple electrons capable of driving a current. This means that if graphene devices for converting light to electricity come to fruition, they could be more efficient than the devices commonly used today.
Previous theoretical work had inspired hope that graphene had this property, says Frank Koppens, a group leader at the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Spain, who led the research. He says the new result, described this week in Nature Physics, represents the first experimental proof.
To perform the experiment, the researchers used two ultrafast light pulses. The first sent a prescribed amount of energy into a single layer of graphene. The second served as a probe that counted the electrons the first one generated.
Nate Silver, Microsoft Research Predict the Oscars
Posted by Gsurface
on February 25, 2013
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Nerval’s Lobster writes “Nate Silver, famous for applying rigorous statistical methods to U.S. political elections, has focused his predictive powers on a somewhat more lighthearted topic: this weekend’s Academy Awards. As part of his predictive analysis, Silver rounded up the various awards that precede the Academy Awards, including those from the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild; in his calculations, he gave additional weight to those awards with a higher historical success rate, and doubled the score ‘for awards whose voting memberships overlap significantly with the academy.’ But he isn’t the only statistician predicting this year’s Oscar winners: David Rothschild, a member of Microsoft’s massive research division, has also developed a data-driven model. What does their number-crunching predict? That Argo will win Best Picture, and a bunch of people will win other things.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
How Sequestration Will Affect Federal Research Agencies
Posted by Gsurface
on February 22, 2013
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carmendrahl writes “Unless Congress and the White House act before March 1, the automatic across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester will kick in. And federal agencies are bracing for the fiscal impact. Federal agencies and the White House are releasing details about how these cuts will affect their operations. If the cuts take effect, expect fewer inspections to the food supply, cuts to programs that support cleanups at former nuclear plants, and plenty of researcher layoffs, among other things.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Willow Garage Won’t Do Research Anymore, but It’ll Sell You a Robot
Posted by Gsurface
on February 13, 2013
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The lab developed key technologies that have advanced personal robotics, but its funding wasn’t sustainable.
Willow Garage, a private laboratory that built a popular open-source operating system for robots, as well as the PR2, a capable robot for use by researchers, is rebooting itself. In a blog post published yesterday, CEO Steve Cousins said it will move away from developing new research technologies, and would “enter the world of commercial opportunities.”
Apple Tops Japan’s Handset Market For The First Time, Says Counterpoint Research
Posted by Gsurface
on February 13, 2013
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Thanks to its complicated regulatory structure and the continuing popularity of Web-enabled feature phones, Japan’s mobile market is difficult for foreign companies to penetrate–but Apple has finally managed to work its way to the top, according to a report by Counterpoint Research (h/t TNW).
TechCrunch
Futuristic Antarctic research station can walk on ice
Posted by Gsurface
on February 3, 2013
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The Antarctic is a crazy place. The ice on the cold continent slowly moves toward the ocean at a rate of a quarter-mile every year, so establishing fixed structures isn’t necessarily feasible. However, a new kind of research station that’s set to open on February 5 has legs, and it can walk over the ice
New Antarctic research lab has extendable legs, can crawl over the ice
Posted by Gsurface
on February 3, 2013
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Cold, frosty nights on the Antarctic continent are about to get a lot more cosy. The newly designed Halley VI Antarctic research station is set to open next week, and contains a few neat little tricks. Fixed structures typically struggle on the frigid continent due to moving ice and the threat of snow-burial. The Halley VI, however, has extendable legs that not only allow it to keep rising above snow level, but also mean it can be towed to a new location as required. There are eight pods in total which connect together, and are made up of research areas and living quarters. The larger, central red cabin provides a communal living area that houses its own special tricks — such as specially selected shades, a climbing wall and a herb garden — to fend off the intense winter blues. Whether the architects had been watching Star Wars Episode 5 at time of conception is unclear.
Via: io9
Source: Architectural Record
With MS Research Help, UN Attempts To Model All of Earth’s Ecosystems
Posted by Gsurface
on January 27, 2013
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An anonymous reader writes “Microsoft Research and UN scientists have teamed up to build the first general-purpose computer model of whole ecosystems across the entire world. The project was detailed in a recent Nature article [note: yet another expensively paywalled original article] titled ‘Ecosystems: Time to model all life on Earth.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Research firm pegs 2012 global phone shipments at 1.6 billion
Posted by Gsurface
on January 25, 2013
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Research firm Strategy Analytics has published its global phone shipments for 2012, and the results showing a total of 1.6 billion units shipped. Samsung dominated the list, followed closely by Nokia, with Apple coming in third with a fairly steep drop below its competition despite experiencing a record year. Chinese manufacturer ZTE came in fourth
Moratorium Over, Scientists Will Restart Avian Flu Research
Posted by Gsurface
on January 23, 2013
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Understanding how the virus passes between mammals is a critical public health issue, they say.
Scientists studying avian influenza, a potentially deadly disease that can sometimes infect other animals, including humans, announced today that their work will resume following the moratorium that began last year amid safety concerns.
The Statistical Puzzle Over How Much Biomedical Research is Wrong
Posted by Gsurface
on January 23, 2013
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Bad Grammar Make Bestest Password, Research Say
Posted by Gsurface
on January 21, 2013
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An anonymous reader writes “NewScientist reports, ‘Along with birthdays, names of pets and ascending number sequences, add one more thing to the list of password no-nos: good grammar.’ Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University seem to have developed a password cracking algorithm that targets grammatically correct passwords. Can bad grammar really make your password secure?”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Turkey’s Science Research Council Stops Publication of Evolution Books
Posted by Gsurface
on January 18, 2013
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An anonymous reader writes “The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK) has put a stop to the publication and sale of all books in its archives that support the theory of evolution, daily Radikal has reported. The books have long been listed as “out of stock” on TÜBTAK’s website, but their further publication is now slated to be stopped permanently. Titles by Richard Dawkins, Alan Moorehead, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Levontin and James Watson are all included in the list of books that will no longer be available to Turkish readers. In early 2009, a huge uproar occurred when the cover story of a publication by TÜBITAK was pulled, reportedly because it focused on Darwin’s theory of evolution.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
You Can Donate Your Genome For Medical Research, But Not Anonymously
Posted by Gsurface
on January 18, 2013
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An anonymous reader writes “Dozens of volunteers who anonymously donated their genomic data to a public database for medical research have been identified by a team led by Yaniv Erlich, a former computer security researcher turned geneticist. Erlich’s team matched Y chromosomal markers in genomes compiled by the 1000 Genomes Project with non-anonymous genomic databases, for example some assembled from contributions by family tree enthusiasts (abstract). After finding a match on a presumed relative of the study participant, the researchers pieced together the relative’s family tree through search engines and the like, until they were able to identify the participant based on gender, age, place of birth, and other supposedly ‘non-identifying’ information associated with the genome. The names of the identified participants have not been released.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
PDF Tribute to Aaron Swartz Attracts Roughly 1,500 Links To Copyright-Protected Research
Posted by Gsurface
on January 14, 2013
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An online tribute to Aaron Swartz, the 26-year-old activist who helped create RSS and committed suicide this past week, has attracted more than 1,500 links to research and academic papers. The site with the full list of links and research is here. It’s an effort to honor Swartz, who faced up to 35 years in prison and $ 1 million in fines after he downloaded 4.8 million documents from JSTOR. He had wanted to make them more freely available before he took his life this week. Micah Allen, who researches brain plasticity, cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive science, suggested the idea on Reddit earlier this weekend: “A fitting tribute to Aaron might be a mass protest uploading of copyright-protected research articles. Dump them on Gdocs, tweet the link. Think of the great blu-ray encoding protest but on a bigger scale for research articles.” Two acquaintances of Swartz, Eva Vivalt and Jessica Richman, picked up the call and ran with the idea. “Open access is something he was and we are really passionate about,” said Richman, who also co-founded Science Citizen, a non-profit that encourages academic scientists to include citizen science in their research. “Imagine you’re a musician and you have to pay someone to produce your music, and then your can’t even access your own music unless you pay them again,” she added. Swartz wrote a Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto five years ago, in which he criticized research journals for locking up valuable scientific knowledge and history and urged people to engage in civil disobedience to make these works more widely available. “The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations,” he wrote. “Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.” Richman says she hopes that maybe this nascent effort to help lead to the creation of a repository, where research that is funded with public money and grants be available and openly accessible. JSTOR said four days ago that it was making the archives of more than 1,200 journals available for limited free reading by the public. This didn’t happen in connection with Swartz death, however.
TechCrunch
Toyota releases sneak-peek of the Lexus advanced active safety research vehicle
Posted by Gsurface
on January 4, 2013
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On December 20, Toyota announced that it will show off its advanced active safety research vehicle on January 7, one day before the CES 2013 tech event. To get enthusiasts ready, the company has just released a sneak-peek of the car with promises of more to come during the press event it has scheduled for
Imagining The Future: Ray Kurzweil Has “Unlimited Resources” For AI, Language Research At Google
Posted by Gsurface
on January 4, 2013
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Last month, famed inventor, entrepreneur and futurist, Ray Kurwzeil, announced that he was joining Google as a director of engineering. Many have wondered what Kurzweil’s new position would mean for Google and the billions of people its global reach directly or indirectly touches. Would they be uploading Kurzweil’s brain into their datacenters? Become the next Skynet?
Speaking at an event at Singularity University today, X Prize Chairman Peter Diamandis and Kurzweil shared in a dialogue that sheds a bit more light on just what Kurz-Google will mean.
TechCrunch
Microsoft research lead Craig Mundie announces 2014 retirement
Posted by Gsurface
on December 30, 2012
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We’re learning that Microsoft will soon be losing another of its key players, as Research lead Craig Mundie has announced that he will retire from the company in 2014. Before he does that, though, he’ll be stepping down from his current position at Microsoft to become an adviser to CEO Steve Ballmer. Previously, he served
Microsoft Research head Craig Mundie to retire in 2014
Posted by Gsurface
on December 29, 2012
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Microsoft Research boss Craig Mundie will step down in 2014, after working over 20 years in both Microsoft’s security and R&D departments. The research arm has been run by Mundie since 2008, where he’s been responsible for some pretty interesting projects, from early glimpses of Redmond’s future to real-time multilingual translation. The day-to-day running of the department will be transferred to former chief technical strategy officer Eric Rudder, while Mundie will continue to advise CEO Steve Ballmer. According to the Seattle Times, the move is line with Microsoft’s plans to focus on mobile and web-based developments, while the new role might give the veteran Mundie a little more time to work on his Japanese.
Filed under: Science, Microsoft
Source: BBC, Seattle Times
Former research analyst charged in IBM insider trading case
Posted by Gsurface
on December 27, 2012
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U.S. authorities have charged a former research analyst at a financial services firm with insider trading offenses related to the 2009 acquisition of software vendor SPSS by IBM.
Computerworld News
MIT Research Shows New Magnetic State That Could Aid Quantum Computing
Posted by Gsurface
on December 21, 2012
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alphadogg writes “Researchers at MIT and other institutions have demonstrated a new type of magnetism, only the third kind ever found, and it may find its way into future communications, computing and data storage technologies. Working with a tiny crystal of a rare mineral that took 10 months to make, the researchers for the first time have demonstrated a magnetic state called a QSL (quantum spin liquid), according to MIT physics professor Young Lee. He is the lead author of a paper on their findings, which is set to be published in the journal Nature this week. Theorists had said QSLs might exist, but one had never been demonstrated before. ‘We think it’s pretty important,’ Lee said, adding that he would let his peers be the ultimate judges.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
MIT research shows new magnetic state that could aid quantum computing
Posted by Gsurface
on December 19, 2012
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Researchers at MIT and other institutions have demonstrated a new type of magnetism, only the third kind ever found, and it may find its way into future communications, computing and data storage technologies.
Computerworld News
Peanut Labs Launches Samplify, Promising A DIY, Flexible Approach To Market Research
Posted by Gsurface
on December 6, 2012
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Social media research company Peanut Labs is launching a new product today called Samplify, which co-founder and CEO Noman Ali described as a “DIY” approach to the company’s core sampling product.
Normally, setting up a sampling project (i.e., surveying a representative sample of the population for market research) with Peanut Labs or another company requires a lot of back-and-forth, Ali said, often over email — “from delivery feasibility to cost estimates to project set up to soft launch and then continuous monitoring while the project is in field.”
TechCrunch
SAP retools research strategy; now focused on internal startups
Posted by Gsurface
on December 6, 2012
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SAP has turned heads in recent years with a number of high-profile acquisitions, scooping up SuccessFactors, Sybase and Ariba for more than $ 13 billion collectively. But company executives also maintain they intend to increase revenues through aggressive organic growth.
Computerworld News
Research Discovery Could Revolutionize Semiconductor Manufacturing
Posted by Gsurface
on November 29, 2012
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New submitter arobatino writes “A new method of manufacturing semiconductors which eliminates the substrate (in other words, no wafer) could be much faster and cheaper. From the article: ‘Instead of starting from a silicon wafer or other substrate, as is usual today, researchers have made it possible for the structures to grow from freely suspended nanoparticles of gold in a flowing gas. “The basic idea was to let nanoparticles of gold serve as a substrate from which the semiconductors grow. This means that the accepted concepts really were turned upside down!” Since then, the technology has been refined, patents have been obtained and further studies have been conducted. In the article in Nature, the researchers show how the growth can be controlled using temperature, time and the size of the gold nanoparticles.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Disney Research Robot Can Juggle, Play Catch
Posted by Gsurface
on November 25, 2012
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Zothecula writes “With the aim of providing some physical interaction between entertainment robots and guests at its theme parks, while still maintaining a safe distance between the two, Disney Research has created an animatronic robot that can play catch and juggle balls with a human partner. Caught balls are thrown back 2.5 meters (8 ft) to the thrower, while the developers have given the robot several different animations that play out when it drops a ball. These include a shaking of the head, looking behind, looking down, or a shrug of the shoulders.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Research Suggests Apes and Humans Separated By a Single Gene
Posted by Gsurface
on November 23, 2012
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An anonymous reader writes “Researchers believe that they have found the definitive difference between humans and other primates, and they think that the difference all comes down to a single gene.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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