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Issue no. 18, 2007 Published: Jun 01, 2007
Open-source search engine gangs up on Google
Starch diet could power car of the future
Scientists store memories in live neurons
Researchers show off virtual human in 4D
Web registration tool digitises books
How the brain can hear shapes
Microsoft rethinks computer with coffee-table design

Open-source search engine gangs up on Google
Hundreds of software engineers are combining in an unlikely attempt to overturn Google's domination of the search market. Their weapon? The transparency provided by open source software. The idea underpinning their search engine - dubbed Wikia Search - is that its search algorithm will be made public. Wikia's search engineers think this will elicit the trust of users in a way that Google, which keeps its algorithm a closely guarded secret, never will. Open source search results will also be more relevant, as the algorithm will continually be tweaked by its users, keeping it up to date with new technologies as they are deployed, according to Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, who leads the project. The Wikia Search team believes this process of continual improvement will also make it better than Google at dodging the efforts of the spammers who constantly try to 'game' Google's search algorithms to put their own nefarious web pages top of the list of search results. Google is the top search engine today thanks to an innovative way of determining which pages are the most relevant to a web user's query. These algorithms form the heart of the company's intellectual property and so are kept secret. But that is their Achilles' heel, because it means no one knows why search results appear in the order they do, says Wales.
New Scientist magazine May 30, 2007	back to top

Starch diet could power car of the future
Green cars of the future could run on a syrupy mixture of starch and water. Researchers at Virginia Tech, US, have found a cocktail of enzymes that converts starchy syrups to hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen can then be fed into a fuel cell to run an electric car. The team says its technology is the solution to three major hurdles that stand between us and a hydrogen economy: safe and cheap production, storage and transportation of hydrogen. The method hinges on a mixture of 13 enzymes, normally found separately in plants, rabbits, bacteria and yeast, but never together in nature. When the enzymes are added to starch and water, the enzymes use the energy in the starch to break up water into CO2 and hydrogen. The CO2 is separated from the hydrogen by a membrane and returned to the atmosphere. Because the starch is from biomass the same amount of CO2 is released by the conversion as was taken out of the atmosphere by plants to produce the starch in the first place. So the process is carbon neutral. The hydrogen can then be used to run a fuel cell, and power an electric car. It could also be used to run an ordinary combustion engine, although this option is less energy efficient.
New Scientist / PLoS One May 24, 2007	back to top

Scientists store memories in live neurons
Israeli researchers have demonstrated that it is possible to store multiple rudimentary memories in an artificial culture of live neurons. The Tel Aviv University scientists note that the ability to record information in a manmade network of neurons is a step toward a cyborg-like integration of living material into memory chips. They said that the advance also might help neurologists better understand how our brains learn and store information. The researchers used an array of electrodes to monitor the firing patterns in a network of linked neurons. As previous studies showed, simply linking the neurons together leads them to spontaneously fire in coordinated patterns. In the latest study, the researchers found that they could deliberately create additional firing patterns that coexist with the spontaneous patterns. They said that the new firing patterns essentially represent simple memories stored in the neuron network. In addition to producing the first chemically operated neuro-memory chip, the researchers propose their work implies that chemical stimulation might be crucial to learning and memory formation in living organisms.
Middle East Time / UPI / Physical Review E. May 31, 2007	back to top

Researchers show off virtual human in 4D
Canadian researchers say they have developed the most detailed model of a human yet, a movable '4D' image that doctors can use to plan complex surgery or show patients what ailments look like inside their bodies. Called Caveman, the larger-than-life computer image encompasses more than 3,000 distinct body parts, all viewed in a booth that gives the image height, width and depth. Caveman also plots the passage of time. Scientists can layer on the unique visuals of patients, such as magnetic resonance images, CAT scans and X-rays, giving physicians high- resolution views of the inner workings of the body while it appears to float within arm's reach. It will help researchers study the genetics of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, muscular sclerosis and Alzheimer's. Caveman, seen through 3D glasses in a booth, appears to stand in front of the viewer. As in a video game, the controller can manipulate it and focus on body parts - skin, bones, muscles, organs and veins. The closer the image gets, the further into the body the viewer appears to travel. The image can also be loaded on to regular computers, to be viewed off site.
ZDNet / Reuters May 24, 2007	back to top

Web registration tool digitises books
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered a way to enlist people across the globe to help digitise books every time they solve the simple distorted word puzzles commonly used to register at websites or buy things online. The word puzzles, known as CAPTCHAs, cannot be deciphered by computers, ensuring that real people and not automated programs are using the websites. Researchers estimate that about 60 million of those nonsensical jumbles are solved everyday around the world, taking an average of about 10 seconds each to decipher and type in. Instead of wasting time typing in random letters and numbers, the researchers have come up with a way for people to type in snippets of books to put their time to good use, confirm they are not machines and help speed up the process of getting searchable texts online. They are now working with the Internet Archive, which runs several book-scanning projects. Internet Archive scans 12,000 books a month and sends the researchers hundreds of thousands of files that are images that the computer does not recognise. Those files are downloaded onto a server and split up into single words that can be used as CAPTCHAs at sites all over the internet. If enough users decipher the CAPTCHAs in the same way, the computer will recognise that as the correct answer.
CNN / AP May 29, 2007	back to top

How the brain can hear shapes
When you identify an object's shape, a particular part of your brain called the LOtv 'lights up'. At first this area was thought to be purely visual, but several years ago Amir Amedi, now at Harvard Medical School, showed that touch could also activate it. Now Amedi and his team have shown that even 'hearing' a shape can activate the area. They taught seven sighted volunteers to use a device called The vOICe, which converts visual details into sound, using pitch to represent up and down, and volume to reflect brightness. The team then performed fMRI scans of the volunteers' brains, plus those of two expert blind users of the device, as they listened to these soundscapes. They also scanned seven controls, who had been taught to associate specific soundscapes with certain shapes, but not how to interpret them. The LOtv only lit up in the skilled users who were actually decoding the soundscapes, not in those just associating them with shapes. Sounds made by the objects, such as the sound of a bouncing ball, produced no such effect. The finding suggests the brain may not care about the mode of input as much as people assumed. The LOtv is clearly driven by the presence of shape, but it does not care whether the input is visual, tactile or auditory, Amedi says. He hopes The vOICe might one day help blind people 'see'.
New Scientist / Nature Neuroscience May 28, 2007	back to top

Microsoft rethinks computer with coffee-table design
Microsoft Wednesday trumpeted an unorthodox coffee-table computer design that it predicts will become a multibillion dollar portion of the hardware market. Microsoft Surface machines are built into tabletops and have 30-inch screens that can recognize objects placed on them and are controlled by touch instead of keyboard strokes or mouse movements. Unlike standard touch-screen computers, Microsoft Surface allows more than one person at a time to drag icons or give commands to allow collaborative efforts 'just like in the real world', Microsoft said. The surface computer is the brainchild of Microsoft's hardware and research teams. In a move unusual for Microsoft, which traditionally licenses its technology to partners, the company is contracting to have the computers made. Microsoft is initially targeting stores, hotels, and casinos with the technology.
Middle East Times / AFP May 30, 2007	back to top