Applied Physics

Managing Power Grids Using Brain Cell Technology

In old movies we were going to improve society by making everything think like a computer. Now the goal is to make computers think like brains. Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology say they can make power network management more eff ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 3 2008 - 8:58am

Space-Tech Prosthetic Leg Helps Set Paralympics Long Jump World Record

German athlete Wojtek Czyz, running with a space-tech enhanced prosthetic leg, set a new world record at the Paralympics 2008 in Beijing, reaching 6.50 m and beating the previous world record by 27 cm. In spring 2004, ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme (T ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 4 2008 - 11:49pm

Fungus Can Remove Sulfur From Crude Oil

Researchers in Iran are publishing what they describe as the first study on a fungus that can remove sulfur, a major source of air pollution, from crude oil more effectively than conventional refining methods. The finding could help reduce air pollution an ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 6 2008 - 1:18am

Wireless Networking Using Light Instead Of Radio Waves

Your next wireless network could use light instead of radio waves. Researchers funded by a National Science Foundation grant expect to piggyback data communications capabilities on low-power light emitting diodes, or LEDs, to create "Smart Lighting&qu ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 6 2008 - 1:25pm

Edward O. Wilson On Darwin 'The Revolutionary'

Edward O. Wilson is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and Harvard research professor emeritus and has pioneered seminal works in evolution of social behavior and organization; and a commitment to conservation that has shaped the face of science, philosophy, ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 9 2008 - 1:00am

Mystery tonne of He- Real Science

Who needs to read science fiction when you have real science mystery in your hands? Mystery began on 19 September 2008 according to the news on 22 September: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was shut down last Thursday owing to a fault with its cooling syst ...

Blog Post - Hatice Cullingford - Oct 19 2008 - 2:13pm

CarTel 'Hive' Approach Can Swarm Over Congestion Problems

ozens of cars in the Boston area are testing the latest generation of an MIT mobile-sensor network for traffic analysis that could help drivers cut their commuting time, alert them to potential engine problems and more. In the CarTel project, Professor Har ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 9 2008 - 10:57am

Mucus Propulsion- Controlling Displacement, Water Snail Style

Biomimetics is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature that could be used to design engineering systems and modern technology. Proponents of bionic technology believe that the transfer of technology between life forms and syntheti ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 9 2008 - 1:50pm

Heavy Industry To The Rescue? Steel Slag May Absorb Carbon Dioxide

Heavy industry takes a lot of blame for greenhouse gas emissions but at least one segment may be able to do something to give a little back. Steelworks around the world emitting large quantities of carbon dioxide but scientists report that a byproduct of s ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 13 2008 - 11:43am

Machine Almost Passes The Turing Test, Comes Close To Human Communication

At a major Artificial Intelligence competition at the University of Reading on 12 October, machines have come close to imitating human communication. As part of the 18th Loebner Prize, all of the artificial conversational entities (ACEs) competing to pass ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 13 2008 - 11:41pm