Archive for category Albert’s Picks

Hans Rosling: New insights on poverty and life around the world

http://www.ted.com Researcher Hans Rosling uses his cool data tools to show how countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He demos Dollar Street, comparing households of varying income levels worldwide. Then he does something really amazing.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes — including speakers such as Jill Bolte Taylor, Sir Ken Robinson, Hans Rosling, Al Gore and Arthur Benjamin. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, politics and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

Date: December 23rd, 2011
Cate: Albert's Picks

Turin Shroud ‘was created by flash of supernatural light’

It couldn’t be a medieval forgery, say scientists

Turin Shroud

The image on the Turin Shroud could not be the work of medieval forgers but was instead caused by a supernatural ‘flash of light’, according to scientists.

Italian researchers have found evidence that casts doubt on claims that the relic – said to be the burial cloth of Jesus – is a fake and they suggest that it could, after all, be authentic.

Sceptics have long argued that the shroud, a rectangular sheet measuring about 14ft by 3ft, is a forgery dating to medieval times.

Scientists from Italy’s National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development spent years trying to replicate the shroud’s markings.

They have concluded only something akin to ultraviolet lasers – far beyond the capability of medieval forgers – could have created them.

This has led to fresh suggestions that the imprint was indeed created by a huge burst of energy accompanying the Resurrection of Christ.

‘The results show a short and intense burst of UV directional radiation can colour a linen cloth so as to reproduce many of the peculiar characteristics of the body image on the Shroud of Turin,’ the scientists said.

WHAT IS THE TURIN SHROUD?

The Vatican owns the Turin shroud, and hails the relic as an exploration of the ‘darkest mystery of faith’.

But the church has shied away from any definitive statement over whether the shroud – which is supposed to have formed Christ’s burial robe – is real.

The Shroud is thought to have travelled widely before it was brought to France in the 14th century by a Crusader.

It was kept in a French convent for years – by nuns who patched it, and where it was damaged by fire.

The Shroud was given to the Turin Archbishop in 1578 by the Duke of Savoy and has been kept in the Cathedral ever since.

Carbon dating tests in 1988 dated it from between 1260 and 1390 – implying it was a fake.

Scientists have since claimed that contamination over the ages from patches, water damage and fire, was not taken sufficiently into account In 1999, two Israeli scientists said plant pollen found on the Shroud supported the view that it comes from the Holy Land.

There have been numerous calls for further testing but the Vatican has always refused.

The image of the bearded man on the shroud must therefore have been created by ‘some form of electromagnetic energy (such as a flash of light at short wavelength)’, their report concludes. But it stops short of offering a non-scientific explanation.

Professor Paolo Di Lazzaro, who led the study, said: ‘When one talks about a flash of light being able to colour a piece of linen in the same way as the shroud, discussion inevitably touches on things such as miracles.

‘But as scientists, we were concerned only with verifiable scientific processes. We hope our results can open up a philosophical and theological debate.’
For centuries, people have argued about the authenticity of the shroud, which is kept in a climate-controlled case in Turin cathedral.

One of the most controversial relics in the Christian world, it bears the faint image of a man whose body appears to have nail wounds to the wrists and feet.

Some believe it to be a physical link to Jesus of Nazareth. For others, however, it is nothing more than an elaborate forgery.

In 1988, radiocarbon tests on samples of the shroud at the University of Oxford, the University of

Arizona, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology dated the cloth to the Middle Ages, between 1260 and 1390.

Those tests have been disputed on the basis that they were contaminated by fibres from cloth used to repair the shroud when it was damaged by fire in the Middle Ages.

More recently, further doubt was cast on its authenticity when Israeli archaeologists uncovered the first known burial shroud in Jerusalem from the time of the Crucifixion.

Its weave and design are completely different from the Turin Shroud, they said.

The Jerusalem shroud has a simple two-way weave – but the twill weave used on the Turin Shroud was introduced more than 1,000 years after Christ lived.

Date: December 23rd, 2011
Cate: Albert's Picks

Mexico to cash in on 2012 Mayan end of the world apocalypse prophecy

By Nick Allen

2012 Mayan end of the world

Mexico is planning to capitalize on predictions of an apocalypse next year by encouraging a tourism boom in areas occupied by the ancient Mayans.

Inscriptions found on two Mayan tablets have been interpreted by some as heralding a cataclysmic event on Dec 21, 2012.

The country’s tourism agency, which stressed it does not itself believe the world will end, hopes to attract 52 million visitors to southeastern areas that were the heart of Mayan territory over the course of next year. The whole of the country usually attracts 22 million visitors annually.

More than 500 Mayan-themed events have been planned including ceremonies with Mayan priests performing rituals, burning incense and chanting.

In the jungle near Cancun messages and photographs will be placed in a “time capsule” and buried.

The town of Chiapas, on the Guatemalan border, is installing an 8ft digital clock in its main park which will count down to the much anticipated date.

Experts including archaeologists at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology say Mayan thinking has been misinterpreted and the world will not end. They say the Maya saw time as a series of cycles and 2012 merely marks the end of one of those cycles.

But suggestions of an apocalypse have been fuelled by the Hollywood blockbuster film “2012,” which in turn has helped Mexico become more intriguing for tourists.

Yeanet Zaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the state of Quintana Roo, which includes Cancun, said: “People who still live in Mayan villages will host rites and burn incense for us to go back in time and try to understand the Mayan wisdom.”

The Mayan calendar begins in 3,114BC and splits time into 394-year periods known as Baktuns. The 13th Baktun ends around Dec 21, 2012.

According to a 1,300-year-old stone tablet Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with both war and creation, will “descend from the sky” at that time.

Archaeologists revealed recently that they had found a second possible reference to the date on a brick fragment.

But Miss Zaldo said she was confident tourism would continue into 2013. She said: “The world will not end. It is an era.”

Date: December 20th, 2011
Cate: Albert's Picks, Modern Technology, Smart Technology

The Chinese solar machine

China's production of solar cells is far outpacing everyone else's (credit: GTM research)

Source: Technology Review

China’s production of solar cells is far outpacing everyone else’s (credit: GTM research)

Chinese manufacturers make about 50 million solar panels a year — over half the world’s supply in 2010 — and include four of the world’s top five solar-panel manufacturers.

The industry elsewhere has been doubling in size every two years, and Chinese manufacturers have done even better, doubling their production roughly every year.

They have succeeded in large part because it’s faster and cheaper for them to build factories, thanks to inexpensive, efficient construction crews and China’s streamlined permitting process. The new factories have the latest, most efficient equipment, which helps cut costs. So do the efficiencies that come with size.

From now on, the best way for Chinese manufacturers to lower the cost per watt of solar power may not be by lowering manufacturing costs but, instead, by increasing the number of watts each panel generates.

In 2010, when the U.S. secretary of energy, Steven Chu, gave a speech to the National Press Club laying out his case that the United States was falling behind in advanced manufacturing, Suntech Power was his Exhibit A. He had toured its factory, and he was impressed by what he’d seen. “It’s a high-tech, automated factory,” he said. “It’s not succeeding because of cheap labor.” Not only that, he noted, but Suntech had developed a type of solar cell with world-record efficiencies.

Also see: Can We Build Tomorrow’s Breakthroughs? Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That’s bad news not just for the country’s economy but for the future of innovation.

Date: December 20th, 2011
Cate: Albert's Picks, Modern Technology, Smart Technology

AI to predict Sun’s next attack on Earth

Source: New Scientist

Solar flares (credit: SOHO/NASA/ESA)

Piet Martens of Montana State University and colleagues have developed 15 programs that use data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and image-processing techniques such as contour or edge recognition to automatically identify features on the sun’s surface.

To make the process generic, Martens’ team is using techniques developed to identify breast tumors. This involves splitting a 1.6-million-pixel image into 1024 blocks. For each block, the software calculates the values for various mathematical parameters, such as the entropy (a measure of the chaos in the image).

This turns the image into a series of numbers. In breast imaging, this technique highlights regions of breast tissue with specific values that are known to be characteristic of tumors. Martens’s team is doing this with SDO images, training the software to learn the defining characteristics of sunspots, filaments and other solar features.

Each program is looking for a different aspect of solar activity. This include flares and CMEs, as well as other features that might indicate that flares or eruptions are imminent, such as filaments, which are bundles of plasma held down by magnetic field lines, coronal loops and sunspots.

Solar storms can wreak havoc on Earth, but if we can predict them, vital infrastructure could be saved.

Ref.: David Pérez-Suárez et al., Automated Solar Feature Detection for Space Weather Applications,arxiv.org/abs/1109.6922

Date: December 16th, 2011
Cate: Albert's Picks, Modern Technology, Smart Technology

A super-memory smart drug?

suppressionofpkr

Could this be the “Limitless” breakthrough we’ve been looking for?

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) have discovered that when the activity of PKR — a molecule normally elevated during viral infections — is inhibited in the brain, mice learn and remember dramatically better.

“The molecule PKR (the double-stranded RNA-activated protein kinase) was originally described as a sensor of viral infections, but its function in the brain was totally unknown,” said Dr. Mauro Costa-Mattioli, assistant professor of neuroscience at BCM. But the activity of PKR is altered in a variety of cognitive disorders, so Costa-Mattioli and colleagues decided to take a closer look.

Super memory

“We found that when we genetically inhibited PKR, we increased the excitability of brain cells and enhanced learning and memory in a variety of behavioral tests,” said Costa-Mattioli.

For instance, they tested the mice ability to use visual cues for finding a hidden platform in a circular pool. Normal mice had to repeat the task multiple times over many days to remember the platform’s location. Mice lacking PKR learned the task after only one training session.

Memory-enhancing drug

The BCM researchers also found that this process could be mimicked by a PKR inhibitor — a small molecule that blocks PKR activity and thus acts as a “memory-enhancing drug.” The next step is to use what we have learned in mice and to try to improve brain function in people suffering from memory loss, said Costa-Mattioli.

There are roughly 6 million Americans and 35 million people world-wide with Alzheimer’s disease and more than 70 million Americans over the age of 60 who may suffer from aged-associated impairment of memory. (Not counting the millions who just want to be smarter, which would be just about everybody.)

Unfortunately, there’s a secret government conspiracy to keep this drug out of your hands. OK, I made that part up.

But note the figure above: in mice that have been genetically engineering to inhibit PKR (right), the result is to lower GABA release. We know that GABA, the brain’s major inhibitory neurotransmitter, has an anti-anxiety or calming effect, which is why tranquilizers increase GABA production. So could using the PKR inhibitor drug also lead to increased anxiety?

Also, PKR is not just elevated during viral infections. PKR is thought to be a key player in cellular response to different kinds of stress: PKR activation leads to inhibited protein synthesis and transcription of genes involved in an inflammatory response. So you get smarter, but also get sicker if you have the flu or some other stressor? Or maybe just take it when you’re not under stress?

I have an email into Dr. Costa-Mattioli find out more.

Ref.: Ping Jun Zhu et al. Suppression of PKR Promotes Network Excitability and Enhanced Cognition by Interferon-γ-Mediated Disinhibition, Cell, 2011 [DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.11.029]

Date: December 16th, 2011
Cate: Albert's Picks, Modern Technology, Smart Technology

Google’s Majel Voice Recognition Technology

Google's Majel

A couple days ago we posted about Majel, and now some more tips are starting to come in. We compared Majel to Apple’s Siri voice assistant because that’s how it was described to us, but the project could be much larger than we initially imagined. Read on for new details and some interesting quotes from Google employees.

First we had a tip from “Ted,” who described his experience with an early release of Majel on an Android tablet. Even though this tip was sent from an anonymous IP, we believe it to be accurate since it matched an earlier description we received.

Ted wrote: “It’s definitely as good, or better, than Siri. At least on the tablet you can sort through different answers with these swipe-able trays. Like, if you say “show me the Statue of Liberty” it’ll automatically take you to Google Image results, but another tray beneath it might be its location on Google Maps and then another tray might have a Wikipedia page. It’s also pretty good at giving you succinct answers if you ask it a question. The UI is definitely more powerful than Siri’s, even if a little harder to navigate.

At least at one phase of the development you would activate it by saying “Computer…” It was hard not to use a Jean Luc Piccard accent when doing it!”

As you can see, the first release of Majel might be rather simple and focus solely on natural language questions with answers from Google Search.

Next up we have some comments posted to Reddit from an ex-employee of Google who claims to have worked at the secret Google X Lab.

The anonymous Googler wrote: “This is in total violation of the NDA, but I don’t care anymore. Sue me.

The central focus of Google X for the past few years has been a highly advanced artificial intelligence robot that leverages the underlying technology of many popular Google programs. As of October (the last time I was around the project), the artificial intelligence had passed the Turing Test 93% of the time via an hour long IM style conversation. IM was chosen to isolate the AI from the speech synthesizer and physical packaging of the robot.

The robot itself isn’t particularly advanced because the focus was not on mechanics, but rather the software. It is basically a robotish looking thing on wheels. Speech recognition is somewhat better than what you would get with normal speech input, mostly because of the use of high quality microphones and lip-reading assistance.

I have had the chance to interact with the robot personally and it is honestly the most amazing thing that I have ever seen. I like to think of it like Stephen Hawking because it is extremely smart and you can interact with it naturally, but it is incapable of physically doing much. There is a planned phase two for development of an advanced robotics platform.“

This sounds more along the lines of the shoot-for-the-stars ideas that the NYTimesdescribed when they wrote about Google X. Obviously, Google has been working on artificial intelligence for many years.

Moving along, we return to some comments from Mike Cohen, Google’s Manager of Speech Technology and co-founder of Nuance Communications (the company that powers some of the technology behind Siri).

Google's federation computer

Mike Cohen wrote: “In Star Trek, they don’t spend a lot of time typing things on keyboards—they just speak to their computers, and the computers speak back. It’s a more natural way to communicate, but getting there requires chipping away at a range of hard research problems.

We’ve recently made some strides with speech technologies and tools that take voice input. But what about when the computer speaks to you—in other words, voice output?

That’s why we’re pleased to announce we’ve acquired Phonetic Arts, a speech synthesis company based in Cambridge, England. Phonetic Arts’ team of researchers and engineers work at the cutting edge of speech synthesis, delivering technology that generates natural computer speech from small samples of recorded voice.

We are excited about their technology, and while we don’t have plans to share yet, we’re confident that together we’ll move a little faster towards that Star Trek future.”

Many readers joked in the comments of our previous article that they wish Majel Barrett-Roddenberry’s voice could be used for Google’s project, and it turns out they have the technology to do it. They would still need to license the rights to Majel’s voice samples, but Google could essentially replicate any voice they want.

Keeping with the Star Trek theme, we have more comments from Google’s Amit Singhal found in The Evolution of search video posted in November.

Amit Singhal says: “My dream has always been to build the Star Trek computer, and in my ideal world, I would be able to walk up to a computer, and say, ‘Hey, what is the best time for me to sow seeds in India, given that monsoon was early this year?’ And once we can answer that question (which we don’t today), people will be looking for answers to even more complex questions. These are all genuine information needs. Genuine questions that if we – Google – can answer, our users will become more knowledgeable and they will be more satisfied in their quest for knowledge.”

Finally, we have the comments of Matias Duarte, the computer-interface designer and user-experience lead for Android, from an interview with The Daily Beast.

Matias Duarte said: “Voice is absolutely going to be an essential part of user interfaces. I mean Google and Android have been working on Voice for years. Even in Ice Cream Sandwich we released significant improvements to the way Voice dication works. What I think is going to be interesting about Voice is trying to treat Voice as something that is universally accessible in every application and not confine it to just a gimmick or something you only use when you are in the car or on the go.

I really want computers to be multimodal. When you watch a science fiction show like Star Trek, someone walks up to a wall and starts touching things and speaking to a computer at the same time. That’s the way that I think our interfaces need to evolve. You need to be able to start using email, touching things on screen, speak to it, touch more things, and not really have to think about ‘am I using Voice now or not using Voice.’ You just use the computer input that is most natural at that time.”

That sounds a little more advanced than how we described the first release of Majel, but Matias said they were already working on the user interface for the next version of Android, codenamed Jelly Bean, and the next version after that.

We’re just in the early stages of comprehending how large a project Majel has become, but we still expect some kind of release on Android devices early next year. Google engineers are already testing a version of Majel that might be released as an upgrade to Google’s Voice Actions application, but we fully expect it will be a core part of Android’s next major release.

Hopefully, we will have some concrete details to share in the coming weeks.

Date: November 29th, 2011
Cate: Albert's Picks, Smart Technology

Free software activists to take on Google with new free search engine

Source: Network World

YaCy, a new free, open-source search engine, takes a distributed approach to search. Its search results come from a network of independent “peers” — users who have downloaded the YaCy software.

No single entity gets to decide what gets listed, or in which order results appear. The network does not store user search requests and it is not possible for anyone to censor the content of the shared index. More at Network World.

Search demo (actual search is done on your own computer)

Open Source Search Engine

Date: November 29th, 2011
Cate: Albert's Picks, Smart Technology

Educational robots to introduce children to robotics, physics, programming

Thymio II robot (credit: EPFL)

EPFL scientists have developed an educational robot called Thymio II, designed to introduce children to technology in school and priced inexpensively (about 99 francs, or $110 U.S.).

Thymio II has sensors and associated LEDs, and can exhibit a wide range of behaviors that can be used in teaching physics and other subjects. Sensors include proximity sensors, ground-directed sensors (it can detect the edge of a table around which it’s circulating, or a line to follow), accelerometers, microphone, and temperature sensor. It also has a memory card for recording sound.

Basic behavior modes include “friend” (follows an object in front of it), “explorer” (avoids obstacles), “coward” (detects impacts and empty space), and “investigator” (follows a line on the ground). By hooking it up to a computer via USB cable, users can invent and program other behaviors, using open-source EPFL-developed software called Aseba .

No word if iOS and Android interfaces are planned, or about its availability in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Date: November 29th, 2011
Cate: Albert's Picks, Smart Technology

Ultrafast, nanoscale, energy-efficient data transmission

November 29, 2011 by Editor

nanoscale data transmission

A new ultrafast, nanoscale light-emitting diode (LED) device developed at Stanford’s School of Engineering transmits data at ultrafast rates while using 2,000 times less energy than laser-based systems in use today,” The nanophotonic device is a major step forward for on-chip data transmission, the researchers say.

The device can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second. The researchers say it is a major step forward in providing a practical ultrafast, low-power, room-temperature light source for on-chip data transmission.

The LED is a “single-mode LED,” a special type of diode that emits light more or less at a single wavelength, similar to a laser. Traditionally, engineers have thought only lasers can communicate at high data rates and ultralow power.

Nanophotonics is key to the technology. In the heart of their device, the engineers have inserted quantum dots using the light-emitting material indium arsenide, which, when pulsed with electricity, produce light. These quantum dots are surrounded by a photonic crystal — an array of tiny holes etched in a semiconductor. The photonic crystal serves as a mirror that bounces the light toward the center of the device, confining it inside the LED and forcing it to resonate at a single frequency.

Existing devices are actually two devices: a laser coupled with an external modulator. Both devices require electricity. The diode combines light transmission and modulation functions into one device, drastically reducing energy consumption.

Ref.: Gary Shambat et al., Ultrafast direct modulation of a single-mode photonic crystal nanocavity light-emitting diode,Nature Communications, 2011 [doi:10.1038/ncomms1543]