With 3D printing, a home like this could one day be made by hand (or machine). The invention
The post How 3D Printing Could Change the Home Improvement Industry has been published on Technology Org.
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Friday, 18 September 2015
How 3D Printing Could Change the Home Improvement Industry
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New Tool for Investigating RNA Gone Awry
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RNA is a fundamental ingredient in all known forms of life — so when RNA goes awry, a
The post New Tool for Investigating RNA Gone Awry has been published on Technology Org.
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ExoMars 2016 targets March launch window
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via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars_2016_targets_March_launch_window
A problem recently discovered in two sensors in the propulsion system of the entry, descent and landing demonstrator module has prompted the recommendation to move the launch of the ExoMars 2016 mission, initially foreseen in January, to March, still within the launch window of early 2016.
via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars_2016_targets_March_launch_window
NASAs Jupiter Swirls Poster
Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space
tagged with: astronomy, space, nasa, nebula, galaxy, best, unique, original, quality, custom, affordable, photography, gift, popular, science, planet, space exploration, solar system, outer space, deep space, space age, space design, space image, space travel, space shuttle, space telescope, space and time, space race, space center, space time, universe, mystical, laureen, laureenr
This close-up of swirling clouds around Jupiter's Great Red Spot was taken by Voyager 1. It was assembled from three black and white negatives.
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Surfing over simulated ripples in graphene
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Scientists elucidate the theory governing the characteristics of curved or rippled graphene using a simulation model based on an optical lattice.
via Science Daily
Scientists elucidate the theory governing the characteristics of curved or rippled graphene using a simulation model based on an optical lattice.
via Science Daily
Can these glasses read your mind? A look at the Wild West of brain gadgets.
Science Focus
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The headset I was wearing was supposed to be reading my brain.
Seated across from its inventor, I slid on the sleek wireless device, called Narbis Neurofeedback Glasses. A five-pronged sensor sat on my head, dark lenses shaded my eyes, and two arms hooked behind my ears. As I read a book, the lenses darkened and cleared, allegedly in sync with the drift of my attention.
Devon Greco, the 29-year-old founder of Narbis, wanted to make a brain-training device to help users focus. And unlike most biofeedback tools, his wireless glasses can be used far from a computer screen. Narbis recently raised \$42,997 for its Neurofeedback Glasses in a Kickstarter campaign, and plans to sell the devices at \$295 apiece. The glasses are being targeted at athletes and clinicians who treat ADHD, among others.
But do they really work?
Brain gadgets are becoming ever more popular, as techniques for stimulating or recording from the brain migrate from labs to the garages of do-it-yourself inventors like Greco. Neurofeedback tools like Narbis are one popular trend; "brain zappers" that use transcranial direct cortical stimulation, or tDCS, are another.
The much-hyped tDCS is a cautionary tale. The technique is supposed to ease everything from depression to hyperactivi ty to back pain by electrically stimulating the brain. But amidst hope and enthusiasm, many scientists and entrepreneurs have confused "claims with reality," as Dr. Vincent Walsh cautioned his colleagues in the journal Brain Stimulation. "We constantly sex up our findings for the press, and the result is an understandably overoptimistic public, because we — no one else — have misled them."
Despite a 2008 Harvard study suggesting that tDCS lessens pain, more recent research paints a different picture. In a recent analysis for Cochrane, a World Health Organization-affiliated NGO, Neil O'Connell and colleagues showed that the evidence that tDCS reduces back pain is overwhelmingly weak.
Jared Horvath, a doctoral candidate at the University of Melbourne, used tDCS to study ADHD at Harvard for two years, without success, before deciding to investigate the tool itself. In a large meta-analysis of the brain zappers, he showed that few of the reported effects survive replication by multiple groups. The few that do are small effects that shrink over time, suggesting that the early positive results were misleading outliers.
As a 2012 paper pointed out, the sensationalization of biomedical devices often starts not with entrepreneurs, but with scientists, who spin reports of new discoveries.
"The scientist and the innovative entrepreneur have similar motivations," says O'Connell, a lecturer in physiotherapy at Brunel University in England. "They all want to discover something. Whether your vested interest is academic or entrepreneurial, there is an emphasis on discovery, but not on confirmation, not on rigorous replication."
Narbis' neurofeedback technology is based on work by Devon Greco's father, the late Domenic Greco. Domenic developed a patented brain-feedback device based on a NASA prototype that he used in psychotherapy with ADHD patients. A review of such neuro-feedback technology published last year in the journal Biological Psychology confirmed that the technique may work to reduce inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness, but noted the small sample size and lack of placebo in many studies.
The review also addressed the "theta-beta ratio" on which Narbis' software is based, the measure of attention-related brainwaves developed by pioneering neurofeedback scientist Dr. Joel Lubar. According to research, this variable only affects 20 to 30 percent of ADHD children. So how the gadgets work remains unclear.
Narbis' marketing material, like that of many brain devices, makes claims both broad and specific. "By doing just two short training sessions a week, you can improve the overall performance of the brain," the website says. The company's promotional video adds, "Narbis can help you focus, sleep well, manage stress, and think clearly."
These claims are, of course, "falsifiable," as scientists say: testable hypotheses. But no such studies on the Narbis glasses have yet been done. The assertions are based on prior studies done by outside labs with similar setups, but not on the device the company is selling. The claims are, for now, more wishful marketing-speak than fact.
And while the FDA has approved commercial neurofeedback devices as safe (as long as they are not marketed to treat diseases), they don't have to meet any standard of effectiveness.
None of this means the device doesn't work, just that there is no way yet for consumers to know.
The problem, according to Brunel's O'Connell, starts with the bias toward positive results in science, along with hyperbolic terminology like "neuro-enhancement" and "brain boosting." New discoveries are published far more often than failures to reproduce previous results. These negative results, just as informative as successes, rarely see the light of day. Companies like Narbis have even less motivation to publish negative results.
"The things less incentivized are perhaps most important," O'Connell says. "When we [scientists] don't pay sufficient attention to the uncomfortable questions — low sample size, highly selected sample, loose exploratory statistics — then it isn't just the media who are responsible for hype."
"Of course, the idea of neurofeedback is incredibly intuitive and exciting, so it's no surprise that everyone wants to capitalize on it," says Todd Braver, an expert on cognitive control and a professor of psychology, neuroscience, and radiology at Washington University in St. Louis. "But we should be very wary of placebo effects — probably the most effective neurofeedback device there is: our belief system."
But that doesn't mean we should discourage companies like Narbis.
"I'm very happy for people to keep taking a crack at neurofeedback," says Braver. "That's what science is about anyway. What seem like crazy hare-brained ideas might actually work. But the main tenet of science is also: Show me the evidence. And we know what the history is with these 'neuroscience-inspired' products, software, gadgets: lots of claims and overblown arguments for support without really any direct evidence."
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» see original post http://theweek.com/articles/555637/glasses-read-mind-look-wild-west-brain-gadgets
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Ebola test results 'in 15 minutes'
Science Focus
original post »A rapid 15-minute blood test for Ebola which researchers say would increase the chances of survival from the virus, is to be trialled in Guinea.
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» see original post http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30243636#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Vote on a message to send to space about what earthlings think of the world
Science Focus
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We're not sure if there's anyone out there to receive them, but we earthlings have been sending messages into space for 40 years now. We've sent radio broadcasts, plaques engraved with pictures, and even a gold-plated record album. So far, we haven't gotten any return messages, but METI (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) enthusiasts are still coming up with new ways to tackle the two crucial questions raised by this kind of endeavor: How should we send the message? And what should it say?
The first question is technical, concerning the durability of materials, the means of transmission, and the distances to travel. The second is more complicated and far more interesting. A message like this is also a declaration: "This is what we find important. This is who we are."
The Earth Tapestry project aims to create a message that represents a shared, global answer to these questions through an online vote. Pairs of landmarks like Red Square, Machu Picchu, the Lascaux Caves, and others around the world (180 total) are presented along with the questions on eight different parameters: Which is more awe-inspiring? Information-rich? Famous? Noble? Ingenious? Delightful? Durable? Irreplaceable?
The plan is to create a laser engraved disc of a map of the earth along with a legend giving coordinates of these places and what we think about them. It will be sent to the moon on an Astrobotic Technology lander next year.
The director of Earth Tapestry, William Alba of Carnegie Mellon University, says the moon, being "the border between the terrestrial and celestial, between us and the rest of the universe" is a good place to put this information capsule. Not only might extra-terrestrial beings discover it, but humans from the future might as well.
There is also an art installation planned. Alba says they "will continue to take votes over the next year and a half. We plan to fill a space with images of the locations so people can get a sense of what's important to them and people around the world." Earth Tapestry images will be displayed for durations that accord with their rankings in the voting.
There are many other ways to give a sense of what humans find important, of course, but for Alba, landmarks of the world is a good arena for a trial run, to make "a kind of playground or sandbox to think about what do we think is important about ourselves as human beings and how do we decide that together. Place draws people's attention to the globe as a whole. They'll think about where they are and where other people are."
You can cast your vote at earthtapestry.org.
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» see original post http://theweek.com/articles/549449/vote-message-send-space-about-what-earthlings-think-world
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Mystic Mountains - Carina Nebula Astronomy Image Wrapping Paper
Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!
tagged with: mystic mountain, star forming activity, star nurseries, stellar winds, young hot stars, carina nebula, galaxy stars, hubble space photography, gas clouds, outer space sculpture, hrbstslr cnbigc
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A beautiful space photograph featuring the 7500 light year distant Carina Nebula. This Hubble image shows rich, interstellar gas clouds feeding the formation of new stars. As a proto star forms, the gas clouds get dragged to its surface and some gets emitted as tight jets of material travelling at hundreds of miles per second. These in turn help sculpt the gas clouds into weird and grotesque shapes, some looking like strange worms, swimming through space.
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Image credit: NASA, the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) and ESA
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Funky light signal from colliding black holes explained
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Entangled by gravity and destined to merge, two candidate black holes in a distant galaxy appear to be locked in an intricate dance. Researchers using data from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have come up with the most compelling confirmation yet for the existence of these merging black holes and have found new details about their odd, cyclical light signal.
via Science Daily
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Entangled by gravity and destined to merge, two candidate black holes in a distant galaxy appear to be locked in an intricate dance. Researchers using data from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have come up with the most compelling confirmation yet for the existence of these merging black holes and have found new details about their odd, cyclical light signal.
via Science Daily
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Pillars of Dust, Orion Nebula Rectangular Sticker
Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space
tagged with: awesome hubble images, cygsb, new star s106ir, constellation cygnus, the swan, glowing hydrogen, interstellar gas clouds, star nurseries, star birth, envelope sealers, star forming activity
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous deep space photogrpah featuring dark pillars of dust doing their best to resist erosion by the intense ultraviolet radiation from the most massive of Orion's stars.
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image code: podoneb
Image credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team
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A Plutonian Landscape
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This shadowy landscape of majestic mountains and icy plains stretches toward the horizon of a small, distant world. It was captured from a range of about 18,000 kilometers when New Horizons looked back toward Pluto, 15 minutes after the spacecraft's closest approach on July 14. The dramatic, low-angle, near-twilight scene follows rugged mountains still popularly known as Norgay Montes from foreground left, and Hillary Montes along the horizon, giving way to smooth Sputnik Planum at right. Layers of Pluto's tenuous atmosphere are also revealed in the backlit view. With a strangely familiar appearance, the frigid terrain likely includes ices of nitrogen and carbon monoxide with water-ice mountains rising up to 3,500 meters (11,000 feet). That's comparable in height to the majestic mountains of planet Earth. This Plutonian landscape is 380 kilometers (230 miles) across.
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This shadowy landscape of majestic mountains and icy plains stretches toward the horizon of a small, distant world. It was captured from a range of about 18,000 kilometers when New Horizons looked back toward Pluto, 15 minutes after the spacecraft's closest approach on July 14. The dramatic, low-angle, near-twilight scene follows rugged mountains still popularly known as Norgay Montes from foreground left, and Hillary Montes along the horizon, giving way to smooth Sputnik Planum at right. Layers of Pluto's tenuous atmosphere are also revealed in the backlit view. With a strangely familiar appearance, the frigid terrain likely includes ices of nitrogen and carbon monoxide with water-ice mountains rising up to 3,500 meters (11,000 feet). That's comparable in height to the majestic mountains of planet Earth. This Plutonian landscape is 380 kilometers (230 miles) across.Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old
Large Magellanic Cloud Superbubble in Nebula N44 Wall Stickers
Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space
tagged with: awesome astronomy images, interstellar hydrogen clouds, sbsblmc, n44 nebula, star cluster ngc 1929, supernovas, dust clouds, superbubble, star nursery, new born stars
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series An awesome photograph from deep space featuring a super bubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a small satellite of our Milky Way galaxy around 160000 light years from us.
The massive stars of this nebula produce intense radiation, expelling matter at high speeds, and race through their main stage finally to explode as supernovas. The stellar winds of charged hydrogen and other particles and the supernova shock waves carve out huge cavities called superbubbles in the surrounding gas. Blue shows hot regions created by these winds and shocks, while red shows where the dust and cooler gas are found. Yellow regions show where ultraviolet radiation from hot, young stars is causing gas in the nebula to glow.
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Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Mich./S.Oey, IR: NASA/JPL, Optical: ESO/WFI/2.2-m
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Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) Cover For iPad Air
Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!
tagged with: hubble, extreme, deep, field, xdf, hubble extreme deep field, galaxy, space, universe, stars, planets, travel, exploration, science, sun, astronomy, the milky way, telescope images, moons, phenomena, supernovas, cosmos, cosmology, nebula, star cluster, solar system, space shuttle, nasa, space images
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Making Better Bacon—Yes, it’s Possible
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A K-State meat scientist is looking for ways to improve bacon's shelf life for restaurants. Just when you
The post Making Better Bacon—Yes, it's Possible has been published on Technology Org.
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Planets and dwarf planets poster
Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space
tagged with: astronomy, space, nasa, nebula, galaxy, best, unique, original, quality, custom, affordable, photography, popular, planet, space exploration, solar system, outer space, deep space, space age, space design, space image, space travel, space shuttle, space telescope, space and time, space race, space center, space time, universe, space gifts, laureen, laureenr
Planets and dwarf planets of the solar system
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Merging Galaxies - The Antennae Galaxies Square Sticker
Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space
tagged with: envelope sealer, stretch frame, awesome astronomy images, super star clusters, agmcssc, antennae galaxies, merging galaxies, star cluster formation, best hubble photos, ngc4038 ngc4039, dust clouds, new born stars
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A stunning outer space picture featuring two merging galaxies, known as the Antennae Galaxies - NGC4038 and NGC4039. As these galaxies hurtle through each other, billions of new stars are forced to precipitate out of the gas and dust clouds by the bunching and heating that's caused by the massive gravitic interactions. These tend to occur in clusters, the brightest and most condensed of them being known as super star clusters.
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image code: agmcssc
Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgement: B. Whitmore ( Space Telescope Science Institute) and James Long (ESA/Hubble).
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Pillars of Dust, Orion Nebula Wall Sticker
Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space
tagged with: awesome astronomy images, interstellar hydrogen clouds, sbsblmc, n44 nebula, star cluster ngc 1929, supernovas, dust clouds, nebulae, star nursery, new born stars
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous deep space photogrpah featuring dark pillars of dust doing their best to resist erosion by the intense ultraviolet radiation from the most massive of Orion's stars.
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image code: podoneb
Image credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team
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A Cosmic Holiday Ornament, Hubble-Style iPad Cases
Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!
tagged with: cosmic, holiday, ornament, hubble-style, a cosmic holiday ornament, galaxy, space, universe, stars, planets, travel, exploration, science, sun, astronomy, the milky way, telescope images, moons, phenomena, supernovas, cosmos, cosmology, nebula, star cluster, solar system, space shuttle, nasa, space images, themilkyway
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