TFOT - The Future Of Things

Aftermath Of Enormous Galactic Pile-up

Anuradha Menon — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:38:36 -0600

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a new image of the galaxy NGC 1132 which is most likely to be a cosmic fossil - the aftermath of an enormous multi-galactic pile-up, where the carnage of collision after collision has built up a brilliant but fuzzy giant elliptical galaxy far outshining typical galaxies. The elliptical galaxy NGC 1132 belongs to a category of galaxies called giant ellipticals. NGC 1132, together with the small dwarf galaxies surrounding it, are dubbed a "fossil group" as they are most likely the remains of a group of galaxies that merged together in the recent past. (Source: Best of Science)

The Dark Side of Carbon

Anuradha Menon — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:34:45 -0600

As interest in Earth's changing climate heats up, a tiny dark particle is stepping into the limelight: black carbon. Commonly known as soot, black carbon enters the air when fossil fuels and biofuels, such as coal, wood, and diesel are burned.

�Wet' Computing Systems to Boost Processing Power

Ehud Rattner — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:02:52 -0600

Researchers at the University of Southampton have recently announced the development of a new kind of information processing technology. Their development is inspired by chemical processes in living systems, such as our brain, and it should enable the improvement of current information processing methods.

Hack Brings Multitouch to Nexus One Browser

Anuradha Menon — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:03:43 -0600

Google's Nexus One phone has gained kudos for its vivid OLED screen and slim design. But the lack of multitouch support for its gorgeous display has left some users frustrated. Now there's a hack for it. A developer has modified the Android 2.1 operating system running on the Nexus One to enable multitouch for the device. Though it enables the feature for the Nexus One browser, for now, it is likely to soon become a part of other applications, such as maps.

NASA Extends the Internet Out Into Space

Anuradha Menon — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:51:15 -0600

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station received a special software upgrade this week - personal access to the Internet and the World Wide Web via the ultimate wireless connection. Expedition 22 Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer made first use of the new system Friday, when he posted the first unassisted update to his Twitter account, @Astro_TJ, from the space station. Previous tweets from space had to be e-mailed to the ground where support personnel posted them to the astronaut's Twitter.

Dyson Smallest Ever Vacuum

Anuradha Menon — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:19:53 -0600

The vacuum cleaner, the first that the company has launched in Britain for two years, weighs just 3.25kg (just over 7lb) which is less than some laptops and can be held in the palm of one hand. Folded-up in a cupboard it is small enough to fit on a piece of A4 paper. However, the compay insists it is a fully-fledged vacuum and not a hand-held device. Sir James Dyson, the founder of the company, said: "It took us five years to painstakingly compress and rebuild every single component."

Space Diver to Attempt Supersonic Freefall

Anuradha Menon — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:44:29 -0600

A "space diver" will try to smash the nearly 50-year-old record for the highest jump this year, becoming the first person to go supersonic in freefall. The stunt could help engineers design escape systems for space flights. On 16 August 1960, US Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger made history by jumping out of a balloon at an altitude of some 31,333 metres. "I stood up and said a prayer and stepped off," he recalled. Since then, many have tried to break that record but none have succeeded.

High-Tech Energy 'Oasis' in the Desert?

Anuradha Menon — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:06:22 -0600

A renewable-energy "oasis" slated to be built in 2010 may serve as a proving ground for new technologies designed to bring green living to the desert. The planned research center is part of the Sahara Forest Project-but that doesn't mean it'll be built in Africa. Sahara means "desert" in Arabic, and the center is meant to be a small-scale version of massive green complexes that project managers hope to build in deserts around the globe. Experts are now examining arid sites in Australia and U.S.

Made-to-Order Heart Cells

Anuradha Menon — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 09:33:32 -0600

Last month, Madison, WI-based Cellular Dynamics International (CDI) began shipping heart cells derived from a person's own stem cells. The cells could be useful to researchers studying everything from the toxicity of new or existing drugs to the electrodynamics of both healthy and diseased cardiac cells. CDI's scientists create their heart cells--called iCell Cardiomyocytes--by taking cells from a person's own blood (or other tissue) and chemically reversing them back to a pluripotent state.

How Brain Tumors Outsmart Drugs?

Ehud Rattner — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:37:44 -0600

Researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores UCSD Cancer Center have shown one way in which gliomas, a deadly type of brain tumor, can evade drugs aimed at blocking a key cell signaling protein, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), that is crucial for tumor growth.