Guest Post – Page 795 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

New ‘Brandon Generator’ Adventure Fueled by Espressos, HTML5

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Technologybrandon generator, brandons problems, forms of storytelling, power of html5, random adventure, saga of brandon, the next web

Internet Explorer launches the second episode of “The Random Adventures of Brandon Generator,” an interactive animated Web series created by luminaries from the film and comic worlds – with a big assist from the audience.

REDMOND, Wash. – May 17, 2012 – A blocked writer, haunted by the cursor blinking cruelly on his blank laptop screen, blacks out in the midst of an epic espresso binge. He awakes to find prose, sketches and story ideas on his Dictaphone – none of which he can remember creating. (more…)

Microbe That Can Handle Ionic Liquids

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Scienceanthropogenic chemicals, biofuel production costs, ionic liquid, ionic liquid solvents, sugar fermenting microbes

New Find From Joint BioEnergy Institute Could Help Reduce Biofuel Production Costs

In the search for technology by which economically competitive biofuels can be produced from cellulosic biomass, the combination of sugar-fermenting microbes and ionic liquid solvents looks to be a winner save for one major problem: the ionic liquids used to make cellulosic biomass more digestible for microbes can also be toxic to them. A solution to this conundrum, however, may be in the offing. (more…)

Study Shows Link Between Prepregnancy Obesity and Lower Child Test Scores

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Healthchild test scores, cognitive function, obesity, obesity during pregnancy, prepregnancy, prepregnancy obesity

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Women who are obese before they become pregnant are at higher risk of having children with lower cognitive function – as measured by math and reading tests taken between ages 5 to 7 years – than are mothers with a healthy prepregnancy weight, new research suggests. (more…)

People with Paralysis Control Robotic Arms using Brain-Computer Interface

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Health, Technologybrain computer interface, braingate neural interface, braingate system, brainstem stroke, deka prosthetic arm, people with paralysis, people with tetraplegia

A new study in Nature reports that two people with tetraplegia were able to reach for and grasp objects in three-dimensional space using robotic arms that they controlled directly with brain activity. They used the BrainGate neural interface system, an investigational device currently being studied under an Investigational Device Exemption. One participant used the system to serve herself coffee for the first time since becoming paralyzed nearly 15 years ago.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — On April 12, 2011, nearly 15 years after she became paralyzed and unable to speak, a woman controlled a robotic arm by thinking about moving her arm and hand to lift a bottle of coffee to her mouth and take a drink. That achievement is one of the advances in brain-computer interfaces, restorative neurotechnology, and assistive robot technology described in the May 17 edition of the journal Nature by the BrainGate2 collaboration of researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Brown University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). (more…)

China Takes Action to Stop Software Counterfeiting

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Technologychinese coas, fake microsoft products, intellectual property crime, microsoft software piracy, software counterfeiting

Counterfeiter sentenced to more than seven years for manufacturing and distributing fake Microsoft products

REDMOND, Wash., and BEIJING — The Chinese government has dealt a strong blow against intellectual property crime, penalizing counterfeiter Shang Yajun for copyright infringement and the sale of illegally manufactured registered trademarks. The 1st Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing upheld the Haidian District Court’s decision that sentenced Shang to seven years and six months imprisonment, representing the longest-ever criminal sentence in China for selling and distributing counterfeit software products. (more…)

Increasing Predator-Friendly Land Can Help Farmers Reduce Costs

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Environmentcrop pests, crops, doug landis, farmers, farming areas, insecticides, ladybugs, landscape scale, megan woltz, michigan state university, natural habitat, natural killer, pest control, pests, predatory insects, rufus isaacs, soybean aphids, soybean fields, soybean pest, united states

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Having natural habitat in farming areas that supports ladybugs could help increase their abundance in crops where they control pests and help farmers reduce their costs, says a Michigan State University study.

Ladybugs and other predatory insects eat crop pests, saving farmers an estimated $4.6 billion a year on insecticides. Non-crop plants provide these predatory insects with food and shelter, helping them to survive and thrive in areas where they are needed. In an attempt to increase benefits from predatory insects, researchers have often planted strips of flowers along the edges of crop fields. (more…)

Counting Horseshoe Crabs

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Nature, Sciencecensus, crab line, crab population, delaware bay, dover, eadoh reshef, fertilization, field research, horseshoe crab, joanna york, jonathan dinman, kayla krenitsky, marine science, megan nogan, migration, pvc pipe, st jones reserve, tammy beeson, teresa messmore, university of delaware, will goldman

Marine science majors conduct field research with horseshoe crab census

Wearing sneakers and rain boots, University of Delaware freshmen got their feet wet as marine biologists recently while counting horseshoe crabs along the Delaware Bay. The students participated in a monitoring effort to gain firsthand experience in field research with their fellow marine science majors.

“Where else can you go on a Saturday night to count horseshoe crabs?” freshman Will Goldman said. (more…)

Largest Meteorite Hunt in History Yields Treasure for UA

By Guest PostMay 16, 2012Sciencean ounce, california, carbonaceous chondrites, daniel stolte, dante lauretta, dolores hill, ed beshore, greg hupe, hiroshima bom, meteorite, meteorite hunt, michael farmer, NASA, nevada, nuclear explosion, osiris rex mission, planetary science, robert ward, scientists, sierra nevada, sky, solar system, spacecraft, sutters mill, university of arizona

Thanks to the generosity of three professional meteorite hunters, the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory will own three samples of a rare kind of meteorite leftover from the earliest beginnings of the solar system.

To the untrained eye, the black, smooth-edged lump that is sitting under a glass cover looks similar to a piece of charcoal. But to scientists Dante Lauretta and Ed Beshore from the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, it is one of the most intriguing stones they have ever seen.

“This meteorite is the oldest rock you’ll ever find on Earth. In fact, it formed 50 to 60 million years before the Earth even existed,” said Lauretta, who is a professor of planetary science and principal investigator of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which will send a spacecraft to return a sample from an asteroid in 2023. (more…)

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