Issue no. 36, 2008
Published: Nov 14, 2008 |
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 Researchers hack spam network for study |
| DNA strands become fibre optic cables |
| Optical oscilloscope is fit for high-speed studies |
| Physics can help fuel economic growth |
| EU seeks to expand energy grids |
| Google Earth revives ancient Rome |
| Obama's win was an historic day for forecasters too |
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| Researchers hack spam network for study |
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and UC San Diego
have published a report detailing how they hacked into a criminal
network to collect data on the economics of spam. The team managed to
get into the Storm botnet and configured the command and control
infrastructure so that results were sent back to them for analysis. The
team followed three spam campaigns involving 469 million pieces of spam.
'Spam-based marketing is a curious beast. We all receive the
advertisements but few of us have encountered a person who admits to
following through on this offer and making a purchase,' said the
Spamalytics report. 'And yet the relentlessness with which such spam
continually clogs inboxes, despite years of energetic deployment of
anti-spam technology, provides undeniable testament that spammers find
their campaigns profitable. Someone is clearly buying. But how many, how
often and how much?'
The researchers found that a campaign for pharmaceuticals achieved a
0.00001 per cent conversion rate from spam to sale, and that all but one
of the sales were for 'male enhancement' products. The researchers
estimate that the spammers are netting about USD 7,000 a day or more
than USD 2m per year. |
| VNUnet UK / BBC News
Nov 11, 2008 |
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| DNA strands become fibre optic cables |
Thanks to a new technique, DNA strands can be easily converted into tiny
fibre optic cables that guide light along their length. Optical fibres
made this way could be important in optical computers, which use light
rather then electricity to perform calculations, or in artificial
photosynthesis systems that may replace today's solar panels.
Both kinds of device need small-scale light-carrying 'wires' that pipe
photons to where they are needed. Now researchers at Chalmers University
of Technology in Sweden, have worked out how to make them. The wires
build themselves from a mixture of DNA and molecules called chromophores
that can absorb and pass on light. The result is similar to natural
photonic wires found inside organisms like algae, where they are used to
transport photons to parts of a cell where their energy can be tapped.
In these wires, chromophores are lined up in chains to channel photons.
Light wire
The team used a single type of chromophore called YO as their energy
mediator. It has a strong affinity for DNA molecules and readily wedges
itself between the "rungs" of bases that make up a DNA strand. The
result is strands of DNA with YO chromophores along their length,
transforming the strands into photonic wires just a few nanometres in
diameter and 20 nanometres long. That is the right scale to function as
interconnects in microchips, the researchers say. |
| New Scientist / Journal of the American Chemical Society
Nov 12, 2008 |
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| Optical oscilloscope is fit for high-speed studies |
Physicists from Cornell University in New York have made an oscilloscope
that can take snapshots of optical waveforms at a resolution fives times
better than current devices. Based on an all-optical rather than an
electronic design, the oscilloscope should be able to accurately profile
modern telecommunications signals and various ultrafast chemical and
physical phenomena.
The team from Cornell University in New York has found a way to exploit
the fine resolution of optical techniques for longer waveforms. They
make use of the fact that electromagnetic waves have a space–time
duality, in that there is a link between their spatial and temporal
wavefunctions. This means that the researchers can use a lens to convert
the temporal profile of a dispersed snapshot into a detailed, spectral
output via a so-called Fourier transformation.
In their device, an input waveform enters an optical fibre and mixes
with a pump laser pulse, which ensures the waveform matches the focal
length of the lens. As the waveform travels through the fibre it
stretches out or 'disperses'. Then, at the end of the fibre the lens - a
nano-scale silicon waveguide - converts the waveform into a spectrum
that can be measured with a spectrometer. The device can record an input
waveform at a resolution of 220 fs over lengths greater than 100 ps,
giving the largest length-to-resolution ratio (more than 450) of any
snapshot oscilloscope technique. Moreover, the technique uses components
that can easily be integrated on chips. |
| Physicsworld / Nature
Nov 06, 2008 |
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| Physics can help fuel economic growth |
Developing countries need a broad-based capacity in physics to achieve
sustainable economic growth, says Reza Mansouri in a Nature supplement
published to coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of TWAS, the
academy of sciences in the developing world. Physics is one of the most
important sciences underpinning development, yet is often ignored by
developing countries. Mansouri argues that national capacity in physics
correlates strongly with economic performance.
For example, China, which authors 14 per cent of peer-reviewed physics
papers — up from four per cent a decade ago — ranks first in the
developing world in the physical sciences. It also accounts for three
per cent of the world's trade in high-technology goods and services.
This is no surprise, says Mansouri, as most of these are based on
research and development in the physical sciences.
The lesson from China, Mansouri says, is to focus on condensed matter
physics, optics and nuclear physics. Developing scientific hardware is
also important - China is home to the latest physics instruments, which
has helped the country transform its physics capacity into technology
products and services, which have, in turn, helped fuel China's growth. |
| SciDev / Nature
Nov 11, 2008 |
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| EU seeks to expand energy grids |
The European Commission has unveiled plans to diversify the EU's energy
imports and reduce dependence on Russia, the main gas supplier.
The EU will remain dependent on imported fossil fuels for many years to
come, the Strategic Energy Review says. It urges the EU to develop
energy infrastructure in the Baltic states and the Mediterranean region.
It also wants the EU to build a North Sea offshore grid, to link up
national electricity grids in north-western Europe and plug in the
numerous planned offshore wind farms.
'It should become, together with the Mediterranean Ring and the Baltic
Interconnection project, one of the building blocks of a future European
supergrid,' the strategy paper says. A Mediterranean energy ring -
interconnecting electricity and gas networks - 'is essential to develop
the region's vast solar and wind energy potential,' it says.
Currently imports account for 61% of EU gas consumption - and 42% of
those imports come from Russia. By 2020, the commission says, gas
imports are expected to grow to 73% of consumption. So another priority
is to get firm commitments from gas suppliers in the Middle East and
Central Asia, including their involvement in gas pipeline construction. |
| BBC News
Nov 13, 2008 |
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| Google Earth revives ancient Rome |
Google has added a new twist to its popular 3D map tool, Google Earth,
offering millions of users the chance to visit a virtual ancient Rome.
Google has reconstructed the sprawling city - inhabited by more than one
million people as long ago as AD320. Users can zoom around the map to
visit the Forum of Julius Caesar, stand in the centre of the Colosseum
or swoop over the Basilica. Researchers behind the project say it adds
to five centuries of knowledge. Also involved was Past Perfect
Productions, which reconstructs archaeological and historical sites
through virtual reality.
Ancient Rome is the first historical city to be added to Google Earth.
The model contains more than 6,700 buildings, with more than 250 place
marks linking to key sites in a variety of languages. Within ancient
Rome there are some 200 buildings scholars know a lot about - classified
as Class 1 -which Google says have been rendered as faithfully as
possible. The 3D models are based on a physical model of the city called
the Plastico di Roma Antica. The model was created by archaeologists and
model-makers between 1933 to 1974 and housed in a special gallery in
Rome's Museum of Roman Civilisation. |
| BBC News
Nov 12, 2008 |
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| Obama's win was an historic day for forecasters too |
Barack Obama's win was as much a triumph for mathematicians. For all the
inherent uncertainties in electoral outcomes, the 2008 contest may be
the one that established election forecasting as a powerful predictive
science.
Even pollsters who predicted Barack Obama's smooth ride to the White
House were aware of a possible problem: the so-called Bradley effect, in
which white voters say they will vote for a black candidate for fear of
seeming racist if they admit otherwise. Statisticians say that only a
weak effect has emerged. Pollsters say this is because voters could cite
valid reasons for preferring John McCain - such as Obama's relative lack
of experience.
Harvard historian Allan Lichtman predicted Obama's win back in 2006 on
the basis of previous election trends, such as a tendency for voters to
favour the opposition in hard economic times. It is the seventh
consecutive election that Lichtman has correctly forecast. Meanwhile
Nate Silver, a baseball statistician turned political pundit, called the
result to within 1 per cent. Silver relied on poll data, using a variety
of statistical techniques to smooth out the errors that plague survey
results. The winning statisticians? The PollyVote website combined
Lichtman's and Silver's methods, plus predictions made by political
scientists, to produce a perfect 53 per cent forecast. |
| New Scientist
Nov 13, 2008 |
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