the-end-of-the-smartphone-era-is-coming-?

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-end-of-the-smartphone-era-is-coming-2012-11

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You've heard that Google is working on computerized glasses. They're called Google Glass, and developers can already buy them.
It turns out Microsoft is working on something similar. It filed some patents on the project and Unwired View dug them up.
There's a big difference between what Microsoft is working on and Google Glass, though.
The most recent word out of Google is that Google Glass isn't going to use "augmented reality" – where data and illustrations overlay the actual world around you.
Google Glass is actually just a tiny screen you have to look up and to the left to see.
Microsoft's glasses seem to utilize augmented reality. In a patent illustration we've embedded below, you can see that the glasses put data on top of a live action concert and a ballgame.
Both gadget concepts are very interesting.
Lots of people disagree with me, including other BI writers, but I think something like Google Glass or whatever Microsoft is working on could end up replacing the smartphone as the dominant way people access the Internet and connect to each other.
First off: something has to. Disruption is inevitable.
Secondly: The trend is obvious.
Computers have been getting smaller and closer to our faces since their very beginning.
First they were in big rooms, then they sat on desktops, then they sat on our laps, and now they're in our palms. Next they'll be on our faces.
(Eventually they'll be in our brains.)
By the way, you can bet that if Microsoft and Google are working on computerized glasses, so is Apple and Jony Ive.
And that's pretty exciting.
Here's the patent illustration from Microsoft:

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-end-of-the-smartphone-era-is-coming-2012-11#ixzz2DihWhbSh

Most genetic changes in humans occurred in past 5000 years, finds new study

Subodh Varma, TNN Nov 29, 2012, 02.55PM IST

NEW DELHI: In the past 5000 years, the human genome - the genetic code carried in our DNA - has accumulated a large number of variations, many of them potentially harmful. This has happened because of exploding human population, which causes naturally arising genetic mutations (changes) to keep collecting and getting passed on to progeny.
A study published today in the scientific journal Naturehas detailed when many of those rare variants arose. The study had a fairly large sample of 4,298 North Americans of European descent and 2,217 African Americans which enabled the researchers to gather unprecedented details from the genetic code. Study co-author Josh Akey, a genomics expert at the University of Washington in Seattle told Nature that the researchers now have "a way to look at recent human history in a way that we couldn't before."

Mercury's north pole has ice, Nasa spacecraft discovers

AP | Nov 30, 2012, 02.15 AM IST

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Mercury's north pole has ice, Nasa spacecraft discovers

Scientists announced that the orbiting probe, Messenger, has found evidence of frozen water, even though Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun.

CAPE CANAVERAL (Florida): Just in time for Christmas, scientists have confirmed a vast amount of ice at the north pole on Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.

The findings are from Nasa's Mercury-orbiting probe, Messenger, and the subject of three scientific papers released Thursday by the journal Science.

The frozen water is located in regions of Mercury's north pole that always are in shadows, essentially impact craters. It's believed the south pole harbors ice as well, though there are no hard data to support it. Messenger orbits much closer to the north pole than the south.

"If you add it all up, you have on the order of 100 billion to 1 trillion metric tons of ice," said David Lawrence of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. "The uncertainty on that number is just how deep it goes."

The ice is thought to be at least 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) deep and possibly as much as 65 feet (19.8 meters) deep.

There's enough polar ice at Mercury, in fact, to bury an area the size of Washington, D.C., by two to 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) deep, said Lawrence, the lead author of one of the papers.

"These are very exciting results," he added at a news conference.

For two decades, radar measurements taken from Earth have suggested the presence of ice at Mercury's poles. Now scientists know for sure, thanks to Messenger, the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.

The water almost certainly came from impacting comets, or possibly asteroids. Ice is found at the surface, as well as buried beneath a dark material, likely organic.

Messenger was launched in 2004 and went into orbit around the planet 1{ years ago. Nasa hopes to continue observations well into next year.

Columbia University's Sean Solomon, principal scientist for Messenger, stressed that no one is suggesting that Mercury might hold evidence of life, given the presence of water. But the latest findings may help explain some of the early chapters of the book of life elsewhere in the solar system, he said.

"Mercury is becoming an object of astrobiological interest, where it wasn't much of one before," Solomon said.

Gargantuan black hole baffles scientists

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-huge-black-hole-20121129,0,3503352.story http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-huge-black-hole-20121129,0,3503352.story

Pong, the first successful video game, turns 40; play the classic game here

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/pong-the-first-successful-video-game-turns-40-play-the-classic-game-here/307930-11.html http://ibnlive.in.com/news/pong-the-first-successful-video-game-turns-40-play-the-classic-game-here/307930-11.html

Taking leave of our senses

Vijay Nagaswami

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When in love, we suspend rational judgement of the person, and this helps ensure that love is sustained through the years and guarantees a lasting relationship.

A recent story in The Daily Mail explained how, when in the presence of or shown a picture of someone they were passionately in love with, most people have a fairly characteristic response. An important part of their brain – the frontal lobe – that governs their capacity to make rational judgements, seems to shut down. Since its publication the story, though it has not exactly gone viral, has been echoed by a large number of news sources all over the world, both online and in print. The ironical thing is that the research study on which this story is based was first published in September 2000, by Andreas Bartels and Semir Zeki. Obviously, it was not considered hot enough then to be reported, but with the increasing interest on the part of the general public in the findings of scientific research concerning love, sex and relationships, it’s evidently more saleable now.

The leader of this and several other such neurobiological studies, Prof Semir Zeki, is the author of several scholarly books on the visual brain (the most recent being The Splendours and Miseries of The Brain), a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Professor of Neuroaesthetics (a discipline connecting science and art, that he pioneered) at the University College, London. He has done much path-breaking research on the relationship between the human brain on the one hand and beauty, art and love on the other. I understand he is scheduled to speak tomorrow on Neurobiology of Love and Beauty at the 25th Foundation Day Celebrations of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology at Hyderabad, and am sorry that I won’t be able to hear him there. But hopefully the Internet will make available the text of this talk soon enough.

Let’s try to understand what precisely Prof Zeki’s research threw up. By using the fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) technique, researchers can see which specific part of the brain is activated when we perform certain tasks, by assessing the oxygen flow to its component parts. Zeki and his co-workers studied the fMRI responses of 17 healthy male and female volunteers when they were shown pictures of their romantic partners compared to pictures of their friends. They found a distinctive difference between the way people responded to friends and to romantic partners. While both activated the expected areas in the brain that are associated with positive emotions, certain portions of the brain were significantly deactivated when pictures of the romantic partners were presented. Portions of the prefrontal cortex (which governs judgement and social behaviour) and middle temporal cortex (which regulates negative emotions) were deactivated, as is usually the case when we are happy. But, the more interesting finding was the deactivation of the amygdala which controls fear, sadness and aggression. Friends activated this part of the brain, but lovers deactivated it.

Other research has also established that people in love have some chemical changes in their brains as well. There is a surge of a neurotransmitter (chemical messenger in the brain) called Dopamine which gives us a feeling of euphoria. But there's also a depletion of another neurotransmitter called Serotonin, which is why we tend to feel easily anxious, jittery and depressed. There is also a deluge of adrenaline making our heart beat faster, our palms sweaty, and our mouths go dry in the presence of the one we love.

So, putting this all together, when in love, we temporarily take leave of our senses. We suspend rational judgement, we are fearless and we think only positive thoughts. We can swing between euphoria, anxiety and depression, within minutes. It’s almost like we’ve consumed a narcotic drug. And here’s the rub. Another interesting finding of the study was that the same portions of the brain that get activated by the narcotic drug cocaine are also activated by romantic love.

The biological explanation of all of this is that a temporary suspension of their judgement of each other is desirable to increase the likelihood of two human beings to reproduce. But in our country, we seem to be doing rather nicely without this. Which is probably the basis for the derogatory conclusion that love is blind. Or worse, that falling in love is the dumbest thing one can do. However, I suspect that this suspension of judgement is a very useful mechanism to ensure that love can sustain through the years and make for a lasting relationship. For most relationships break because we judge each other too harshly, based on our expectation that our partner should be perfect in order to cater to all our needs throughout our lives. I also suspect that if fMRIs were done on Indian mothers when it comes to their sons or Indian fathers when it comes to their daughters, a fair number of them might well show significantly deactivated prefrontal lobes.

As I write this, my wife and I have just completed 25 years of being married to each other, during which period we have kept our prefrontal cortices pretty busy – activating and deactivating them on a regular basis – to the point that they have pretty much given up now, and remain in a state of irreparable deactivation, thereby increasing the likelihood that we’re going to remain in a state of mutual happiness till death do us part.

Love may be blind. It may be dumb. But whatever anyone else says, there’s nothing quite like it.

www.vijaynagaswami.com

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I was right about Higgs Boson particle all along, says Peter Higgs

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#CERN #Higgs Boson particle #Large Hadron Collider #NewsTracker

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Brussels: The physicists who theorised the existence of a basic subatomic particle half a century ago are confident recent data is proving they were right all along.
Peter Higgs, whose eponymous “Higgs boson” is the long-sought target of the $10 billion Large Hadron collider in Switzerland, told reporters on Tuesday he was sure a particle detected last July was one he had predicted in 1964.
“I think it will turn out to be (the Higgs boson), but it’s just a question of getting out the additional information.”

The Large Hadron Collider. AP.

Data so far from CERN’s LHC particle accelerator seemed unlikely to reveal a more exotic set of particles, Higgs said, and “fit too well” with a single particle that gives mass to matter envisaged by the Standard Model of physics.
“As far as I can see from the results now it’s not yet totally confirmed, but it’s practically sure – I’m ready to bet on it,” Belgian physicist Francois Englert, who also theorised the particle, said before giving a speech to the European Parliament in Brussels.
Although the scientists predicted the presence of the particle years earlier, it took a multinational effort of over 100 countries to build the LHC, which two years into its operation yielded a result.
Higgs said that this type of collaborative research helped not only science, but the economy as a whole, and he was worried about proposed cuts to European Union science funding.
“What you do by cutting the science budget is to reduce your supply of young trained scientists who will do other things which are obviously more useful for your economy,” he said.
“You may be cutting down on things which will provide a stimulus for your economy in the not too distant future.”
For Higgs, who at 83 has retired from active research, the sudden attention brought on by the LHC discovery last July has been a little overwhelming.
“It has resulted in piles of piles of letters and emails on my floor at home,” he said, explaining he had needed to enlist help from a team of colleagues just to sort through it.
The bashful professor has no hard feelings that he’s not yet been tapped for the Nobel Prize in physics, saying he “was reprieved” and “got a stay of execution”.
Touted by some as a possible winner in 2013, Higgs said that winning the Nobel for his work might leave the prize committee the unenviable task of having to choose between a number of co-discoverers, but he acknowledged he was in the running.
“As for what happens next year, I certainly feel vulnerable.”
Reuters

App by Indians top iPad grosser in Asia

Bangalore: Magzter,an online magazine store developed by two Chennai-based entrepreneurs Girish Ramdas and Vijayakumar Radhakrishnan,has become the top grosser on the Apple iPads app stores across much of Asia.
Since last Thursday,Magzter has overtaken international favourites and long standing grossers like Angry Birds,Clash of Clans,NY Times,Frontline Commando,FIFA 13,Need for Speed and Quick Office Pro HD.On Tuesday,Clash of Clans had briefly recovered its No 1 spot,but when TOI last looked at the list of top grossers (those making the most money ) on the iPad,Magzter was back at the top.The iPad has over 700,000 apps.Even in the number of daily downloads,Magzter has crossed other reading apps like Flipboard,Pulse and Zite, Ramdas,CEO of Magzter,said.The newsstand,which was launched just 17 months ago,already has 4.5 million users globally.
India-made apps have previously seen success on the downloading side.Rohit Singals NightStand alarm clock app for the iPhone was downloaded three million times in a few days in 2007.But these have been primarily free apps.Magzter is perhaps the first Indian app to feature in the top grosser list across many app stores.The majority of Magzters users are in the US,the market that the company is most focused on.New York is the worlds biggest publishing hub.So that is where we have registered our headquarters, Ramdas said.
But Ramdas has never worked in the US.He grew up and has worked throughout in Chennai.He graduated from the College of Engineering,Guindy,in Chennai.In 2000,he founded an IT services company called Dot Com Infoway in the city and later started a magazine called Galatta focused on the south Indian film industry.In 2009,he created an iPhone app for the magazine and followed it up with an iPad app.These apps later inspired him to create the global online magazine newsstand.
Magzter has more than 1,500 magazines in its store.About 400 of them are Indian magazines.We have readers from all over the world who buy magazine subscriptions every day.Cross border selling is helping the digital magazine industry by generating more global readers, Radhakrishnan,president of Magzter said.Radhakrishnan did a Bachelor's degree in computer science from Madras University and a Master's degree in management from BITS,Pilani.He later worked with Ramdas in Dot Com Infoway.
Magzter has received massive traction over the past 45 days thanks to the addition of some Facebook sharing features.Sales have risen by 80% in November,compared to October.
Magzters popularity is also because of the ease with which publishers can use it to publish replica versions of physical magazines or even to create highly interactive magazines.We give complete control to publishers and they get to decide what they want to give to their readers, Radhakrishnan said.Magazine prices are also heavily discounted,by as much as 50% in many cases,because of the cost effectiveness of the online medium.Magzter,compared to some of its other online newsstand competitors,has another big advantage.It allows you to buy a magazine on one platform,say Apples iOS,and read it on another one of your devices that runs on,say,the Android or Windows 8 platform.Magzter is now trying to quickly build on its success.

MAG MAGIC

Magzter,developed by Girish Ramdas (left) and Vijayakumar Radhakrishnan,has more than 1,500 magazines in its store The majority of Magzter users are in the US Magazine prices are discounted by as much as 50%

Mechanism behind origin of life on Earth found

Washington: Researchers have found that a molecular network with self-perpetuating capability may have triggered a possible mechanism by which life got a foothold on the early Earth.It sheds light on a possible mechanism by which life may have gotten a foothold in the chemical soup that existed on early Earth.
Researchers have proposed several theories for how life on Earth could have gotten its start,even before the first genes or living cells came to be.One theme all theories have in common is a network of molecules that have the ability to work together to jumpstart and speed up their own replication two necessary ingredients for life.
However,many researchers find it hard to imagine how such a molecular network could have formed spontaneously from the chemical env ronment of early Earth.
Some say its equivalent to a tornado blowing through a junkyard and assembling the random pieces of metal into a Boeing 747, said co-author Wim Hordijk from the National Evolutionary Synthesis Centre in Durham,North Carolina.If you look at the structure of the networks of molecules,very often theyre composed of smaller subsets of molecules with the same self-perpetuating capabilities, he said.PTI

Too much or too little activity bad for knees: study

Press Trust of India / Washington November 26, 2012, 16:25

Both very high and very low levels of physical activity can accelerate the degeneration of knee cartilage in middle-aged adults, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) previously had found an association between physical activity and cartilage degeneration.

For the new study, the UCSF researchers looked at changes in knee cartilage among a group of middle-aged adults over a four-year period. They used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based T2 relaxation times to track the evolution of early degenerative cartilage changes in the knee.

T2 relaxation times generated from MR images allow for analysis of the biochemical and molecular composition of cartilage," said researcher Wilson Lin.

"There is increased water mobility in damaged cartilage, and increased water mobility results in increased T2 relaxation time," Lin said.

The researchers analysed 205 patients, age 45 to 60, from the UCSF-based Osteoarthritis Initiative, a nationwide study.

Participants used a questionnaire to record their physical activity. The researchers measured T2 values of cartilage at the patella, femur and tibia of the right knee joint at baseline and at two- and four-year visits.

According to the results of the study, participating frequently in high-impact activities, such as running, appears associated with more degenerated cartilage and potentially a higher risk for development of osteoarthritis.

"When we compared the scores among groups, we found an accelerated progression of T2 relaxation times in those who were the most physically active," said Thomas M Link, professor of radiology and chief of musculoskeletal imaging at UCSF.

"Those who had very low levels of activity also had accelerated progression of T2 values. This suggests that there may be an optimal level of physical activity to preserve the cartilage," Link said in a statement.

The study also highlighted the potential of T2 relaxation times as an early indicator of cartilage degeneration.

"Standard MRI shows cartilage defects that are irreversible. The exciting thing about the new cartilage T2 measurements is that they give us information on a biochemical level, thus potentially detecting changes at an earlier stage when they may still be reversible," Link added.

Link noted that people who have a higher risk for osteoarthritis (such as family history of total joint replacement, obesity, history of knee injury or surgery) can reduce their risk for cartilage degeneration by maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding strenuous, high-impact exercise.

"Lower impact sports, such as walking or swimming, are likely more beneficial than higher impact sports, such as running or tennis, in individuals at risk for osteoarthritis," he said.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Acidic oceans are dissolving sea creatures’ shells leaving them defenceless against predators Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2238302/Acidic-oceans-dissolving-sea-creatures-shells-leaving-defenceless-predators.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2238302/Acidic-oceans-dissolving-sea-creatures-shells-leaving-defenceless-predators.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2238302/Acidic-oceans-dissolving-sea-creatures-shells-leaving-defenceless-predators.html

Cambridge to study risks posed by robots

PTI | Nov 27, 2012, 05.52 AM IST

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LONDON: The Cambridge University is set to open a centre for 'terminator studies' where leading academics will study the danger that robots pose, with experts saying in future machines may be an existential threat to humans.

Its purpose will be to study the four greatest threats to the human species, artificial intelligence, climate change, nuclear war and rogue biotechnology.

The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) will be co-launched by Lord Rees, the astronomer royal and one of the world's top cosmologists, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

Rees's 2003 book 'Our Final Century' had warned that the destructiveness of humanity meant that the species could wipe itself out by 2100. The idea that machines might one day take over humanity has featured in many science fiction books and films, including the Terminator, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as a homicidal robot.

In 1965, Irving John 'Jack' Good wrote a paper for New Scientist called 'Speculations concerning the first ultra-intelligent machine'.

A key that lets parents apply brakes on kids’ speeding cars

PTI | Nov 26, 2012, 05.56 AM IST

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LONDON: In a good news for protective parents, they can now limit the speed of their reckless kids' cars by using a new control key system to be available in the market soon.

The system called MyKey, which will be on shelves in the UK from next month, interfaces with the computer systems on board its latest cars to place restrictions on drivers using the special keys. It works by recognizing different keys for the same car and then adjusting the vehicle settings according to the owner's requirements , with the capacity to limit the top speed to 128 kmph, the Daily Mail said.

The limits are linked to the specific key, so parents concerned about their inexperienced children can limit top speed and stereo volume for youngsters while retaining full functionality for themselves.

"MyKey allows parents to tailor vehicle performance and driver environment to suit individual users," the company said.

"Permanent enabling of safety and driver aids and speed and audio limiting give parents greater control without impacting on young drivers' independence," it said.

Manufacturers claim the MyKey system can also be programmed to alert the driver that fuel is running low.

Drug that can halt cancer spread

LONDON: Scientists have developed a new drug which they claim can put cancerous cells to sleep to stop them from multiplying.

The drug called Aflibercept tricks tumours into becoming dormant by flipping molecular switches in the structure of the cancer so it cannot spread.

Positive results are being seen already in the UK, where trials have seen patients enjoy a "significant" extension of life, the Daily Mail reported. More than 1,400 patients were involved in trials, with some participants with advanced bowel cancer who had already had chemotherapy prolonged life by two years.

Scientists think the drug could be used across a range of different cancers in future studies.

A report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology said Aflibercept had a 'statistically significant survival benefit' compared to conventional drug regimes treating bowel cancer that had spread after initial treatment.

"The trial results were positive . Around 10,000 patients a year die from bowel cancer and most of them are having some form of chemotherapy so it is theoretically applicable to those," said Dr Rob Glynne Jones, Macmillan Clinical Lead for Gastrointestinal Cancer at Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood, Middlesex, said.

"I am sure this drug will have a research programme and they will be extending it to all other cancers. Maybe they will find other cancers where it may be more effective," Jones said.

Aflibercept is administered as a 30-minute infusion alongside chemotherapy. It is available in the US, and European approval is expected soon, the paper said.

Protein tied to breast cancer growth found

Scientists have discovered a protein "partner" used by breast cancer cells to unlock genes needed for spreading the disease around the body. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University found that "the protein JMJD2C is the key that opens up a whole suite of genes needed for tumours to grow and metastasize".

the-end-of-the-smartphone-era-is-coming-?

Most genetic changes in humans occurred in past 5000 years, finds new study

Mercury's north pole has ice, Nasa spacecraft discovers

Gargantuan black hole baffles scientists

Pong, the first successful video game, turns 40; play the classic game here

Taking leave of our senses

TOPICS

I was right about Higgs Boson particle all along, says Peter Higgs

App by Indians top iPad grosser in Asia

Mechanism behind origin of life on Earth found

Acidic oceans are dissolving sea creatures’ shells leaving them defenceless against predators Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2238302/Acidic-oceans-dissolving-sea-creatures-shells-leaving-defenceless-predators.

Cambridge to study risks posed by robots

A key that lets parents apply brakes on kids’ speeding cars

Drug that can halt cancer spread