Nov 01 2005
LiveScience.com has a summary of a study published this week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that provides additional evidence of the phenomenon known as blindsight, residual visual sensitivity experienced in the brain even when one is blind or otherwise unable to see. While the results of the study …
Nov 01 2005
Title: How To Survive a Robot Uprising Author: Daniel H. Wilson Genre: Humor Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Release Date: November 1, 2005 Pages: 176 There’s a discussion on Slashdot today regarding this article by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about a new book by first-time author and full time roboticist, Daniel H. Wilson, entitled “How to Survive …
Oct 29 2005
After some delays forced by last minute bug reports, kernel 2.6.14 has been released. Linus Torvalds said in September when he first froze the code for 2.6.14 that there were changes “all over the place,” and that is definitely the case. LinuxDevices.com has a good summary, and the announcement from Linus himself is available at …
Oct 28 2005
According to Nature.com, researchers have discovered that an injection of a drug used to promote the growth of new brain cells also has the effect of causing weight loss, as much as 15%, in laboratory mice. Scientists are hoping that they can harness this side-effect, which lasts for at least several weeks, to fight obesity …
Oct 28 2005
Nobel prize winner Richard Smalley, co-discoverer of fullerene and one of the most prominent and well-respected nanotechnology researchers in the world, passed away today after a six year battle with cancer. He was 62 years old. Dr. Smalley shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of buckminsterfullerene with Robert Curl, another Rice …
Oct 28 2005
Only last week we learned about a nanoscale car developed by researchers at Rice University. Today BoingBoing points us to this news release from the University of California at Riverside about a molecule that scientists there have developed that can move in a straight line in a manner that mimics human walking. The research team, …
Oct 27 2005
Gizmodo’s got a brief summary today of an article in the Korea Herald that outlines the government of South Korea’s desire to have commercially available intelligent robots by next year. The “intelligent service robot” project as it is being called by the Ministry of Information and Communication states that intelligent robots for entertainment, education, home …
Oct 26 2005
CNET News.com published an article today about NaturalNano, a New York nanotech company that has taken the unique approach of using clay as a carrier in it’s nanotube applications. Halloysite is a naturally occurring clay mineral made up of primarily aluminum, silicon, oxygen, and hydrogen. Historically used for making porcelain, bone and fine china, researchers …
Oct 25 2005
AP Reporter Yuri Kageyama has written a summary published at LiveScience.com of the day she was “remote-controlled” while visiting a research center in Japan. Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., a Japanese telephone company, has created a headset that delivers a low voltage electric current that can be controlled remotely and affects the balance and movement …
Oct 24 2005
Engadget.com has a brief post today about this Mac mini robot. The developer’s site, kulturtechnik.twoday.net, is in German, but the translated page does yield some details about the project including the fact that the robot’s vision is provided by, fittingly enough, an iSight mounted on the mini’s case and that it’s AI is based on the …
