Issue no. 21, 2008
Published: Jun 27, 2008 |
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 Earth 'not at risk' from collider |
| C60 memory on the horizon |
| PC population reaches a billion as e-waste piles up |
| Smart binoculars tell soldiers where the danger lies |
| CCTV cameras 'taught to listen' |
| Man-made tornadoes could power the future |
| Cold calculation predicts death row executions |
| Dubai 'shape-shifting skyscraper' unveiled |
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| Earth 'not at risk' from collider |
Our planet is not at risk from the world's most powerful particle
physics experiment. A new report addresses fears that the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) is so energetic, it could have unforeseen consequences.
Critics are worried that mini-black holes made at the soon-to-open
facility on the French-Swiss border might threaten the Earth's very
existence. But the report, issued by the European Organization for
Nuclear Research (CERN), says there is 'no conceivable danger'.
CERN will operate the collider underground in a 27km-long tunnel near
Geneva. The LHC is a powerful and complicated machine, which will smash
together protons at super-fast speeds in a bid to unlock the secrets of
the Universe. Six 'detectors' - individual experiments - will count,
trace and analyse the particles that emerge from the collisions.
Most physicists believe the risk of a cataclysm lies in the realms of
science fiction. But there have been fears about the possibility of a
mini-black hole - produced in the collider - swelling so that it gobbles
up the Earth. Critics have previously raised concerns that the
production of weird hypothetical particles called strangelets in the LHC
could trigger the mass conversion of nuclei in ordinary atoms into more
strange matter - transforming the Earth into a hot, dead lump. |
| BBC News
Jun 23, 2008 |
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| C60 memory on the horizon |
A new type of non-volatile memory in which single molecules of C60
(buckyballs) are integrated in flash memory cells has been put forward
by US researchers. The buckyballs with well-defined energy levels are
embedded in silica to form the tunnel barrier between a floating gate
and a silicon channel. The C60-embedded memories have a retention:
program/erase ratio that is much higher than metal nanocrystal memories,
which makes them promising for next-generation data storage devices.
Metal nanocrystal memories are often touted as being the best candidates
for improving next-generation memory chips. However, data retention
times - which need to be more than 10 years - are still much lower than
desired. One solution is to form more effective tunnel barriers, or
resonant tunnel barriers, that consist of a 1 nm layer of silicon
nanocrystals sandwiched between two silica layers. Unfortunately, this
is difficult to achieve.
Now, researchers at Cornell University have found a solution by
utilising self-assembled C60 molecules instead of silicon nanocrystals.
They liken the quantum mechanical phenomenon of electrons tunnelling
through the silica barrier to crossing a river: the probability for
electrons to jump over a wide river is very low. To increase this
probability, some stepping-stones – C60 – are placed in the middle of
the river. Applying a program/erase voltage is like controlling the
water level of the river – at appropriate voltages, the water level goes
down and the stepping stones become accessible. During retention without
bias, the water level rises and the stones are submerged again to
prevent electrons jumping back across the silica barrier. |
| NanoTechWeb / Applied Physics Letters
Jun 19, 2008 |
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| PC population reaches a billion as e-waste piles up |
The number of personal computers in use around the world has surpassed
one billion, research firm Gartner reports.
Mature markets such as Western Europe and the US account for 58% of the
first billion installed PCs, but will only account for about 30% of the
next billion the report says. Emerging markets such as India and Brazil
are driving rapid growth that will see the number of PCs double to 2bn
by 2014, thanks to both continually falling prices and the perception
that computers are indispensable for economic advancement, says Gartner.
But the rapid growth in the number of new PCs also translates into
fast-growing numbers of obsolete computers. Gartner estimates more than
180 million will be replaced this year. Some will be sold on or recycled
but large numbers will simply be buried.
Seventy per cent of the world's discarded phones and computers are
exported to China. Earlier this year it was shown that dust in areas
near Chinese e-waste recycling centres had raised levels of lead, with
some school grounds harbouring levels that would be illegal in Western
countries. Last year it was found that dioxins from Chinese electronics
recycling centres were finding their way into breast milk. |
| New Scientist
Jun 23, 2008 |
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| Smart binoculars tell soldiers where the danger lies |
When it comes to spotting signs of danger on the horizon, soldiers beat
computers hands down. But soldiers with binoculars have only a limited
field of view, so can easily miss events elsewhere. Now the Pentagon's
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) believes it can help
by equipping soldiers with a wide-angle imaging system.
The system will be able to focus light from a 120-degree field onto
high-resolution detectors, which feed signals to image-processing
software. Scalp electrodes in a helmet will record how soldiers' brains
react to various objects as they look through the goggles, training the
system in what constitutes a threat.
The system will ultimately scan scenes automatically and identify
threats while the soldier investigates individual targets. |
| New Scientist
Jun 24, 2008 |
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| CCTV cameras 'taught to listen' |
CCTV cameras which use artificial intelligence software are being
developed by researchers from the University of Portsmouth, UK, to
'hear' sounds like windows smashing. The scientists are working on
adapting the software so it can also react to crowd noise. Crimes would
be captured on camera faster and response times improved.
The existing software is sophisticated enough to identify minor visual
cues such as whether a car aerial is up or more complex activity such as
violent behaviour, researchers said.
By the end of the three-year surveillance study, the researchers hope to
have generated algorithms that can be used inside existing CCTV
software. Then each successive generation of algorithms would become
more sophisticated as they 'learn' what they are looking and listening
out for. |
| BBC News
Jun 24, 2008 |
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| Man-made tornadoes could power the future |
Coiled up in a tornado is as much energy as an entire power plant and
Canadian engineer Louis Michaud has a plan to spin up his own twister
and extract energy from its tethered tail. The idea depends on heating
the air near the surface so that it is much warmer than the air above
creating convective air currents. Michaud proposes using a tornado as a
kind of drinking straw between the warm ground below and the cold sky
above. Wind turbines placed at the bottom could generate electricity
from the sucked-up air.
Tornadoes and hurricanes form when sun-heated air near the surface rises
and displaces cooler air above. As outside air rushes in to replace the
rising air, the whole mass begins to rotate. Michaud calls the man-made
tornado an Atmospheric Vortex Engine (AVE). The AVE structure is a
200-metre-wide arena with 100-metre-high walls. Warm humid air enters at
the sides, directed to flow in a circular fashion. As the air whirls
around at speeds up to 200 mph, a vacuum forms in the centre, which
holds the vortex together as it extends several miles into the sky.
With wind turbines at the inlets to the arena, Michaud calculates that
as much as 200 megawatts of electricity - enough for a small city -
could be extracted without draining the vortex of its power. Michaud
imagines the AVE could get its warm air from the exhaust of a power
plant. |
| MSNBC / LiveScience.com
Jun 25, 2008 |
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| Cold calculation predicts death row executions |
Which inmates on death row will eventually be executed? A new computer
system developed by researchers at Loyola University in New Orleans,
Louisiana, can predict which death row prisoners will live and which
will be killed - with chilling accuracy. Its analysis has confirmed
suspicions that the people most likely to be executed are those who have
had the least schooling, rather than those who have committed the most
heinous crimes.
The US, the only western democracy to retain the death penalty, executes
only a small proportion of the people it sentences to death. The
researchers turned to an artificial neural network (ANN) to find out how
they are chosen. The researchers first 'trained' their ANN by entering
the profiles of 1000 death row inmates between 1973 and 2000. Half of
this sample of prisoners had been executed and the other half had
survived. Each profile contained 18 factors, including sex, age, race,
marital status, educational level and information on the capital
offences. They then fed in profiles for 300 more inmates and ANN
correctly predicted the fates of more than 90% of those inmates.
Gender turned out to be the most significant factor - women are rarely
executed. Race was not found to be an important factor when it came to
the decision to execute. The most striking factor was educational level.
This may be crucial because it indicates how well an inmate can manage
their appeal process. |
| New Scientist / Int. Journal of Law and Information Technology
Jun 25, 2008 |
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| Dubai 'shape-shifting skyscraper' unveiled |
Ambitious plans to build a revolutionary 420-metre shape-shifting
skyscraper in Dubai have been unveiled by architects. The 80-story
Dynamic Tower, described as the 'world's first building in motion', will
also be the first skyscraper constructed from prefabricated units,
according to architect David Fisher's Dynamic Group. Each floor would be
capable of rotating independently, powered by wind turbines fitted
between each floor.
Apartments will sell for about USD3,000 per square foot, making each
unit range in price from about USD4m to USD40m. Work on the tower is to
be completed by 2010.
Fisher has called prefabricated construction techniques the 'future of
architecture' and says they will radically transform 4,000-year-old
"brick-on-brick" building methods. By using preconstructed parts, Fisher
said each story could be built in just seven days, resulting in
environmentally cleaner building methods. He said that just 600 people
on an assembly site and 80 technicians on the construction site would be
needed to build the tower, compared with about 2,000 workers for a
traditional project of a comparable scale. |
| CNN
Jun 25, 2008 |
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