[tt] KurzweilAI.net Daily Newsletter

Tue Aug 19 14:44:11 UTC 2008

KURZWEILAI.NET NEWSLETTER

NEWS
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Algae: Biofuel of the future?
PhysOrg.com Aug. 19, 2008
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University of Virginia researchers
have a plan to greatly increase
algae oil yields by feeding the
algae extra carbon dioxide (the main
greenhouse gas) and organic material
like sewage, meaning the algae could
simultaneously produce biofuel and
clean up environmental...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9242&m=40924

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Lifelike animation heralds new era
for computer games
Times Online Aug. 18, 2008
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Researchers at Image Metrics, which
makes computer-generated imagery for
Hollywood films, have created facial
animation that enables the minute
details of facial expression to be
captured and recreated. The company
says "Emily" is considered to be one
of the first animations to have
bypassed the "uncanny valley" --
which refers to the...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9241&m=40924

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Debate rages over free wireless
spectrum
CNET News.Com Aug. 18, 2008
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The debate over new unlicensed
spectrum the FCC is considering
opening up is heating up with
Google's launch of a new site called
FreetheAirWaves.com. Google and
other technology companies such as
Intel, Microsoft and Motorola have
been lobbying the FCC to open up the
"white space" spectrum (slivers of
spectrum between TV channels) for...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9240&m=40924

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Using a Poison to Turn Sunlight
into Food
ScientificAmerican.com Aug. 18, 2008
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Red slime mat made up of an
extremophile bacteria in hot springs
in Mono Lake, California use arsenic
rather than water to carry energy
during photosynthesis, U.S.
Geological Survey researchers have
found. By analyzing the genetic
material of the microbe, the
researchers have determined that
this is a primitive process, going
back at least...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9239&m=40924

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Researchers link cocoa flavanols to
improved brain blood flow
KurzweilAI.net Aug. 19, 2008
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Cocoa flavanols, the unique
compounds found naturally in cocoa,
may increase blood flow to the
brain, according to research by
Harvard medical scientists. Study
participants who regularly drank a
cocoa flavanol-rich beverage had an
eight percent increase in brain
blood flow after one week, and 10
percent increase after two weeks.
When the...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9238&m=40924

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Oldest Elders Surprisingly Spry
WebMD Aug. 18, 2008
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A study of 2,262 Danish adults aged
92 to 100 found that extreme age
didn't bring extreme disability
overall, and they avoided a "frail
... vegetative state." The elders
did have a slight decline in their
ability to perform routine
activities, mental skills test
scores, grip strength, and other
measures, and fewer were independent
at 100 than...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9237&m=40924

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New Speed Record for Magnetic
Memories
KurzweilAI.net Aug. 19, 2008
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An experiment carried out at the
Physikalisch-Technische
Bundesanstalt (PTB) has realized
spin-torque switching of a
nanomagnet as fast as the
fundamental speed limit allows.
Using this "ballistic switching,"
future MRAMs (Magnetic Random Access
Memory) magnetic memories could be
programmed by current pulses shorter
than 1 nanosecond (compared...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9236&m=40924

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Researchers Build World's Smallest
SRAM Memory Cell
PhysOrg.com Aug. 18, 2008
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IBM and its development partners --
AMD, Freescale, STMicroelectronics,
Toshiba and the College of Nanoscale
Science and Engineering (CNSE) --
have announced the first working
static random access memory (SRAM)
for the 22 nanometer technology
node. The new SRAM cell (basic
building block) has an area of 100
square nanometers, breaking the...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9235&m=40924

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Threading Light Through the Opaque
ScienceNOW Daily News Aug. 18, 2008
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University of Twente physicists
have have shown how to find open
channels for light in opaque
material by using constructive
interference to control the shape of
incoming light waves. (A. Mosk and I
Vellekoop/University of Twente) They
focused a laser beam onto an opaque
layer of granular zinc oxide and
used a digital camera to measure the...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9234&m=40924

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Virus helps to build tiny battery
Nature News Aug. 18, 2008
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MIT scientists have designed a
quick method to build a microbattery
using a genetically engineered virus
called M13, the first time a battery
device has been stamped. (Nam et
al/PNAS) Each virus is a semi-rigid
fiber a few nanometers in diameter
and about a micron long, which tends
to pack tightly into a whorl that
looks similar to a...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9233&m=40924

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Brain's counting skill 'built-in'
BBC News Aug. 19, 2008
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Humans have an innate ability to do
mathematics even if they do not have
the language to express it, a
research team has suggested. A study
in Australian Aboriginal children,
whose languages lack number words,
found they did just as well as
English-speaking children in number
skills, contradicting other research
that found having "counting...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9232&m=40924

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A Blueprint to Regenerate Limbs
Technology Review Aug. 18, 2008
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To find clues to the salamander's
remarkable ability to regrow damaged
limbs and organs, researchers at the
Salk Institute for Biological
Studies have sequenced the genes
most highly expressed during
limb-bud formation and growth. They
found that at least 10,000 genes
were transcribed during
regeneration, with a few thousand
that don't resemble...
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9231&m=40924

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