Tag Archives: puzzle

Ways Google Glass Would Be Great for Gaming

By Guest PostMay 27, 2013Technologyboard game, education, first person shooting, fps, freelance writer, gaming industry, genres of gaming, google glass, marcela de vivo, medicine, multiplayer system, puzzle, role playing, rpgs, smartphone, social media, southern california, Technology, trivia, virtual gaming world

Many are speculating the possibilities for the new Google Glass – a wearable computer that displays a screen in front of your eye that you can control by voice command – in industries, such as medicine and education.

One industry in particular that has people excited about the possibilities for using the device is the gaming industry. The Google glass can take gaming to a completely different level in all genres of gaming.

Multiplayer system, role-playing (RPGs) and first-person shooting (FPS) games could potentially be more efficient to play and participate in. The glass right in front of your eye places you in the hub of the action, allowing players to nearly be face-to-face and eye-to-eye with the opponents in their games. What’s more, there is the potential of better accuracy when shooting, with the glass serving as your pinpoint target. (more…)

Interstellar Travelers of the Future May be Helped by MU Physicist’s Calculations

By Guest PostOctober 12, 2012Scienceastrophysicists, bill clinton, expansion, future, gravity, heat, human expansion, interstellar travel, light, mechanical explanation, missouri, movement, newtonian law, photon, physics, pioneer spacecraft, puzzle, radio wave, research project, researcher, sergei kopeikin, Space, spaceship symposium, star system, theory, time, universe, university

University of Missouri’s Sergei Kopeikin may have solved the Pioneer anomaly

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Former President Bill Clinton recently expressed his support for interstellar travel at the 100 Year Spaceship Symposium, an international event advocating for human expansion into other star systems. Interstellar travel will depend upon extremely precise measurements of every factor involved in the mission. The knowledge of those factors may be improved by the solution a University of Missouri researcher found to a puzzle that has stumped astrophysicists for decades.

“The Pioneer spacecraft, two probes launched into space in the early 70s, seemed to violate the Newtonian law of gravity by decelerating anomalously as they traveled, but there was nothing in physics to explain why this happened,” said Sergei Kopeikin, professor of physics and astronomy in MU’s College of Arts and Science. “My study suggests that this so-called Pioneer anomaly was not anything strange. The confusion can be explained by the effect of the expansion of the universe on the movement of photons that make up light and radio waves.” (more…)

Evolution is as Complicated as 1-2-3

By Guest PostSeptember 20, 2012Scienceanalysis, bacteria, bacterial evolution, biological function, citrate, citrate molecule, DNA, e coli, evolution, function, genomics, glucose, jeff barrick, michigan, module, mutation, mutational piece, organism, oxygen, potentiation, puzzle, richard lenski, state university, traditional diet, zachary blount

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A team of researchers at Michigan State University has documented the step-by-step process in which organisms evolve new functions.

The results, published in the current issue of Nature, are revealed through an in-depth, genomics-based analysis that decodes how E. coli bacteria figured out how to supplement a traditional diet of glucose with an extra course of citrate. (more…)

Why are There so Many Species of Beetles and So few Crocodiles?

By Guest PostAugust 29, 2012Nature, Scienceadaptive zone, alligators, beetles, biodiversity, bird, cichlid fish, crocodile, daniel rabosky, diversity tree, ecological limits, eukaryote, evolutionary biology, evolutionary detectives, factor, fish, fungi, graham slater, life, lizard, mammal, michael alfaro, multi cellular, new zealand, planet, puzzle, reptile, snake, species, species diversity, species richness, theoretical model, tree of life, tuatara

Answer may be ‘adaptive zones’ that limit species number, life scientists report

There are more than 400,000 species of beetles and only two species of the tuatara, a reptile cousin of snakes and lizards that lives in New Zealand. Crocodiles and alligators, while nearly 250 million years old, have diversified into only 23 species. Why evolution has produced “winners” — including mammals and many species of birds and fish — and “losers” is a major question in evolutionary biology.

Scientists have often posited that because some animal and plant lineages are much older than others, they have had more time to produce new species (the dearth of crocodiles notwithstanding). This idea — that time is an important predictor of species number — underlies many theoretical models used by biologists. However, it fails to explain species numbers across all multi-cellular life on the planet, a team of life scientists reports Aug. 28 in the online journal PLoS Biology, a publication of the Public Library of Science. (more…)

Diamond in The Rough: Half-Century Puzzle Solved

By Guest PostJuly 25, 2012Sciencecold compressed, conduct, Diamond, electricity, experiment, graphite, hard material, high pressure, industrial application, joseph panzik, m carbon, oakland university, optical technique, puzzle, raman spectroscopy, structure, symmetry, synthesize, university, xray diffraction, yale, yuejian wang

A Yale-led team of mineral physicists has for the first time confirmed through high-pressure experiments the structure of cold-compressed graphite, a form of carbon that is comparable in hardness to its cousin, diamond, but only requires pressure to synthesize. The researchers believe their findings could open the way for a super hard material that can withstand great force and can be used — as diamond-based materials are now — for many electronic and industrial applications. The study appears in Scientific Reports, a Nature journal.

Under normal conditions, pure carbon exhibits vastly different physical properties depending on its structure. For example, graphite is soft, but diamond is one of the hardest materials known. Graphite conducts electricity, but diamond is an insulator. (more…)

Anxious Women’s Brains Work Harder

By Guest PostJune 14, 2012Healthanxiety disorders, anxious girls, anxious women, brain activity, brain games, brain response, brains, danielle taylor, dopamine, error, estrogen, front part, hormone, hormone differences, identification, jason moser, mental health, neurotransmitter, puzzle, sex, tim p moran, treatment, worrisome female

EAST LANSING, Mich. — In a discovery that could help in the identification and treatment of anxiety disorders, Michigan State University scientists say the brains of anxious women work much harder than those of men.

The finding stems from an experiment in which college students performed a relatively simple task while their brain activity was measured by an electrode cap. Only women who identified themselves as particularly anxious or big worriers recorded high brain activity when they made mistakes during the task.

Jason Moser, lead investigator on the project, said the findings may ultimately help mental health professionals determine which girls may be prone to anxiety problems such as obsessive compulsive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder. (more…)

Imagine Cup Turns 10: A Decade of Inspiring Students to Dream Big

By Guest PostApril 20, 2012Technologyabhinav aj jambulingam, andrew dicken, annie ryu, australia, brazil, david gonzalez, digital infinity, egypt, evangelism group, final, france, imagine cup, imagine cup 2012, immunization checkup, Japan, jared wong, joy ming, karnataka, mark hindsbo, Microsoft, MIT, new york, nicaragua, pat yongpradit, puzzle, redmond, ronny ortiz, rural housing, silver spring, springbrook high, sydney, tablet pc, team remindavax, text message, tohoku earthquake, tsunami, visual studio 2010, windows phone

Heading into the U.S. national finals, Microsoft’s signature technology competition has reached 1.25 million students worldwide over the past 10 years.

REDMOND, Wash. — April 20, 2012 — Across every industry — from healthcare to transportation and agriculture to infrastructure — the world has a never-ending need for inspired minds to find creative solutions that solve tough challenges. Yet it’s been estimated that 1 million science and engineering jobs will go unfilled in the U.S. alone over the next three to five years.

According to Mark Hindsbo, vice president of Microsoft’s U.S. Developer & Platform Evangelism Group, that’s why programs like the Imagine Cup are so important. Encouraging students to develop technology-based solutions for real-world issues, and inspiring them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, has been the mission of Microsoft’s signature technology competition for the past decade. Hindsbo has been involved with the competition since its beginnings. Every year, he says, the judges are amazed by the contestants’ projects and enthusiasm. (more…)

Yale Scientists Find Molecular Glue Needed To Wire the Brain

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2010Sciencealzheimer, autism, brain cells, Germany, mental retardation, nerve pulses, neurological disorders, neuron, plasticity, puzzle, researchers, single molecule, synapses, synaptic plasticity, syncam 1, thomas biederer, valentin stein, ways to improve memory, yale university

Yale University researchers have found that a single molecule not only connects brain cells but also changes how we learn. The findings, reported in the December 9 issue of the journal Neuron, may help researchers discover ways to improve memory and could lead to new therapies to correct neurological disorders.

The junctions between brain cells over which nerve pulses pass — called synapses — are crucial for regulating learning and memory and how we think. Aberrations in the structure and function of synapses have been linked to mental retardation and autism, while synapses are lost in the aging brains of Alzheimer’s patients. (more…)