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Robogirl - the 'most human-like robot ever created'

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:38:58 GMT

clipped by: A53GG4

Unveiled: Robogirl - the 'most human-like robot ever created'

Last updated at 4:36 PM on 08th October 2008

Japanese researchers have created a life-like robot, based on a five-year-old girl.

The robogirl, Repliee R-1, looks, moves and interacts like a human, and has silicone skin that feels almost human to the touch.

The robot can blink, look around and even nod its head. It has pigtails, which have inspired comparisons with the boy robot David in Steven Spielberg's 2001 hit Artificial Intelligence.

The team at Osaka University's robotics department, which created Repliee R-1, claim it is the most human-like robot suit ever created.

They hope that the life-like features will put people at ease, and make them more likely to interact with a robot.

[Video]

Tags: tech

asteroid wathchers score a hit

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:36:43 GMT

clipped by: doodleicious

Clip Source: sciencenow.sciencemag.org

Asteroid Watchers Score a Hit

First detected on 5 October at the University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon Observatory, the asteroid was calculated to enter the atmosphere over Sudan early on the morning of 7 October, erupting into a fireball in the sky but not damaging the ground. Although no sightings of the 2- to 3-meter-diameter rock burning itself up have come in from the ground, two other sorts of detections--one human and one instrumental--were made. Aviation meteorologist Jacob Kuiper of the National Weather Service in the Netherlands alerted KLM airliner pilots to the opportunity, and one flying 750 kilometers southwest of the predicted arrival spot reported a short flash just before the predicted time and in the predicted direction.

Storing and Disposing of Prescription Medications

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:56:42 GMT

clipped by: A53GG4

Clip Source: www.rd.com

Storing and Disposing of Prescription Medications

The smart solution to prescription drug storage and disposal.

By Ted Spiker

From Reader's Digest

Put your drugs in a box on a closet shelf, says Paul Doering of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy. That will help keep the meds out of the heat and humidity in the bathroom -- and out of the hands of kids. While you're at it, get rid of any expired or leftover medications.

Safe and smart storage tips for your prescription medications.

Expired drugs can lose their potency, so never self-medicate with an old prescription. Traces of pharmaceuticals have been detected in groundwater, so don't flush your expired pills. See if your pharmacy has a take-back program to dispose of old medications, or crush the drugs and mix them with coffee grounds in a sealed plastic bag and toss. They're less likely to get into the water supply, and there's no danger of anyone ingesting them.

From Reader's Digest - July 2008

Tags: health

gecko

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:20:04 GMT

clipped by: reelandry

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new type of dry glue designed to mimic gecko feet is 10 times stickier than the gravity-defying lizards, and three times stickier than other gecko-inspired glues, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

"Our sticky glue has a force 10 times that of gecko feet and three times more than previous sticky glues trying to mimic the gecko feet," said Dai, who also worked with teams from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory near Dayton and the University of Akron to develop the glue.

UVI student selected to Boston U. Med school

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:50:05 GMT

clipped by: gfrancis731

Clip Source: www.onepaper.com

UVI Students Selected for BU Medical Program
University of the Virgin Islands sophomores Jaurel Harley and Elisha Jno-Baptiste of St. Thomas and junior Mutahammis Kareem of St. Croix were selected to enter the Boston University Early Medical School Selection Program.
Click here for More... 2008-08-12 12:56:00

Tags: uvi student

volcanic eruptions

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:37:26 GMT

clipped by: shaor

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Deep Magma Matters: Volcanic Eruptions More Complex And Harder To Predict

Lava pours out of Montserrat during an eruption. Researchers have used observations to create a new model that better explains what happens beneath the volcano's surface. (Credit: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville)

ScienceDaily (Oct. 9, 2008) — New research by a team of US and UK scientists into volcanoes has found that they function in a far more complex way than previously thought, making future eruptions even harder to predict.

Although the Soufrière Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat exhibits cycles of eruption and quiet, the international team of researchers found that magma is continuously supplied from deep in the crust but that a valve acts below a shallower magma chamber, releasing lava to the surface periodically.

1st double arm transplant

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:25:09 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus

Clip Source: www.denverpost.com

German doing well after 1st double arm transplant

A German farmer who received the world's first complete double arm transplant said Wednesday that incredulity gave way to joy when he woke from surgery to discover he had arms again.

lost his arms in a farming accident six years ago

Munich University Clinic where he remains nearly three months after the 15-hour operation

Merk is recovering well and can perform simple tasks such as opening doors and turning lights on and off. His ultimate goals are to eat and dress himself—and ride a motorcycle.

A total of 40 surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and other support staff carried out the 15-hour operation on July 25-26 to graft the donor's arms on to the body of Merk, who lost his own just below the shoulder in a combine harvester accident.

There is also still a risk that Merk's immune system will react, though doctors said so far there was no sign of them being rejected.

Tags: health, transplantation

Virtual Reality Physiotherapy

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:48:41 GMT

clipped by: rj3sp

Clip Source: www.port.ac.uk

Virtual reality set to transform physiotherapy

Patients who need physiotherapy following a stroke or accident could soon be put through their paces in a virtual reality environment.

A researcher at the University of Portsmouth is creating a rehabilitation programme that places patients on a treadmill and into a virtual world. It works by using moving images to trick the patient’s brain into thinking he or she is walking more slowly than they are which in turn encourages them to walk faster and further.

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Virtual treatment boosts stroke patients' recovery

Wendy Powell shows stroke survivor Andy Long how to use the virtual reality physiotherapy treatment

The treatment works by using moving images to trick the patient's brain into thinking they are walking more slowly than they are

Clip Source: www.port.ac.uk

The facility was installed in conjunction with Virtalis.

Clip Source: www.virtalis.com

Tags: virtual reality, physiotherapy, medical, science, technology, vr

The world's happiest man

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:23:56 GMT

clipped by: mugofcoffee
clipper's remarks: very nice site, this!

Clip Source: www.gimundo.com

We're not just claiming that title based on the fact that Ricard is never seen without a smile, or that monks are generally a pretty beatific bunch – he's got science on his side, too. In 2004, researchers at University of Wisconsin conducted a study on the brain patterns of hundreds of volunteers from different walks of life. The bell curve of the MRI measurements fell between +0.3 (a Sylvia Plath acolyte, no doubt) to -0.3 (Richard Simmons, perhaps?). But Ricard alone achieved an astonishing score of -0.45 – a level of joy so far above the others that his score was nearly off the chart.

"The mind is malleable," Ricard told The Independent. "Our life can be greatly transformed by even a minimal change in how we manage our thoughts and perceive and interpret the world. Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time."

In his new book, Happiness, Ricard serves as your own personal cross-trainer in the art of happiness, with advice on meditative exercises

Holographic television to become reality

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:24:18 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: "It took us a while to make that first breakthrough, but as soon as you have the first element of it working the rest often comes more rapidly," he said. "What we are doing now is trying to make the model better. What we showed is just one color, what we are doing now is trying to use three colors. The original display was four inches by four inches and now we're going for something at least as big as a computer screen."

There are no more great barriers to overcome now, he said.

The breakthrough has made some long-time researchers of the technology believe that it could now come to fruition.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Picture this: you're sat down for the Football World Cup final, or a long-awaited sequel to the "Sex and the City" movie and you're watching all the action unfold in 3-D on your coffee table

It sounds a lot like a wacky dream, but don't be surprised if within our lifetime you find yourself discarding your plasma and LCD sets in exchange for a holographic 3-D television that can put Cristiano Ronaldo in your living room or bring you face-to-face with life-sized versions of your gaming heroes.

The reason for renewed optimism in three-dimensional technology is a breakthrough in rewritable and erasable holographic systems made earlier this year by researchers at the University of Arizona.

Dr Nasser Peyghambarian, chair of photonics and lasers at the university's Optical Sciences department, told CNN that scientists have broken a barrier by making the first updatable three-dimensional displays with memory.

Tags: holographic tv

Scientists adapt economics theory to trace brain's information flow

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:01:19 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Scientists believed the frontoparietal cortex was influencing the visual cortex, but the brain scanning approach they were using, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), can only complete scans about once every two seconds, which was much too slow to catch that influence in action. When researchers applied Granger causality, though, they were able to show conclusively that as volunteers waited for the stimulus to appear, the frontoparietal cortex was influencing the visual cortex, not the reverse.

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Scientists have used a technique originally developed for economic study to become the first to overcome a significant challenge in brain research: determining the flow of information from one part of the brain to another.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Florida Atlantic University report the new capability in The Journal of Neuroscience. It will provide important insights into brain organization and function, advancing efforts to help patients recover from brain injuries and mental disorders.

The approach involves comparisons of streams of data known as time series, such as fluctuations in the stock market index and changes in employment levels.

author Steven L. Bressler, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Florida Atlantic University, suspected the technique might help reveal if one brain area was passing data to or influencing another brain area.

Tags: brain, information flow in the brain

Sweden Obesity Studies

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:05:40 GMT

clipped by: yiduozhang

Clip Source: www.itrim.sk

Martin Neovius has a PhD in Medicine from Karolinska Institute (2005), where he worked at the Obesity Unit, Karolinska University Hospital, and a degree in business administration from the Stockholm School of Economics. Martin joined the Scientific Advisory Board during the spring of 2008. Dr Neovius has, for example, been an expert auditor for the WHO. Current research priorities include obesity trends in Sweden, productivity costs associated with obesity and overweight (early retirement, sick leave, premature death), as well as economic assessments (cost effectiveness analyses) of obesity surgery and medication.

Dancing Shrimp Fossil Shows Earliest Animal Group Behaviour

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:05:48 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Fossilised shrimp show earliest group behaviour

19:00 09 October 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Ewen Callaway

The conga was the world's first dance, it seems. A newly discovered caravan of crustaceans from half a billion years ago shows that group behaviour evolved not long after animals themselves.

Palaeontologists led by Hou Xian-Guang, of Yunnan University, China, discovered fossilised chains of up to 20 crustaceans linked head-to-toe, the earliest record of any collective animal behaviour and perhaps an adaptation to a migratory ocean lifestyle.

"It's showing that, 525 million years ago, we've got really quite sophisticated and potentially complex interaction between different animals," says Derek Siveter, of the University of Oxford, who analysed the fossil along with colleagues at the University of Leicester, UK.

The fossilised chains of up to 20 crustaceans linked head-to-toe is the earliest record of any collective animal behaviour (Image: Science)

Hateful, dangerous McCain supporters

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:06:22 GMT

clipped by: lifecyce1898
clipper's remarks: Guilty by association?

Clip Source: www.suntimes.com

NEWBERG, Ore. — Officials of a small Christian university say a life-size cardboard reproduction of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was hung from a tree on the campus, an act with racial undertones that outraged students and school leaders alike.

George Fox University President Robin Baker said a custodian discovered the effigy early Tuesday and removed it. University spokesman Rob Felton said Wednesday that the commercially produced reproduction had been suspended from the branch of a tree with fishing line around the neck.

The message read, ‘‘Act Six reject.’’

Obama is widely considered to be ahead in Oregon. In the run-up to the state’s May primary, he drew a crowd of about 75,000 people in Portland.

Effigy of Barack Obama hung from tree at George Fox University in Newberg, Ore.

Even When You Sleep, Your Brain Is Awake

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:05:15 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.scientificblogging.com

Sleep in man is divided in two main phases : non-REM sleep, which occupies most of our early sleep night, and REM sleep, during which our dreams prevail. Non-REM sleep is usually considered as a compensatory ‘resting’ state for the brain, following the intense waking brain activity. Indeed, previous brain imaging studies showed that the brain was less active during periods of non-REM sleep as compared to periods of wakefulness.

Although not rejecting this concept, researchers from the Cyclotron Research Centre of the University of Liège in Belgium and from the Department of Neurology of Liege University Hospital demonstrate that, even during its deepest stages (also called ‘slow-wave-sleep’), non-REM sleep should not be viewed as a stage of constant and continuous brain activity decrease, but is also characterized by transient and recurrent activity increases in specific brain areas.

Tags: neuroscience, sleep