for_sv's blog

Invisibility Shields Planned by Engineers

In popular science fiction, the power of invisibility is readily apparent. Star Trek fans, for example, know that the devious Romulans could make their spaceships suddenly disappear.

But is the idea really so implausible? Not according to new findings by scientists who say they have come up with a way to create cloaking device.

Electronic engineers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia are researching a device they say could make objects "nearly invisible to an observer." The contrivance works by preventing light from bouncing off the surface of an object, causing the object to appear so small it all but disappears.

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March 12, 2005 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 11, 2005

Cebit 2005: First day round-up

Cebit 2005, one of the world's most important technology fairs, has opened its doors in Hanover, Germany.

The fair showcases many of the consumer electronics and technology products that will be released to the market in the coming months.

Perhaps you might find this interesting...day by day account...

March 11, 2005 in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

photography Chinese style

March 11, 2005 in Humor, Photography | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 10, 2005

Need milk? Study says no

A new medical review suggests there is little evidence that current calcium recommendations help protect bones in children. Instead, experts recommend both exercise and calcium-rich foods.

Children who drink more milk do not necessarily develop healthier bones, researchers said Monday in a report that stresses exercise and modest consumption of calcium-rich foods such as tofu.

Other ways to obtain the absorbable calcium found in one cup of cow’s milk include a cup of fortified orange juice, a cup of cooked kale or turnip greens, two packages of instant oats, two-thirds cup of tofu, or 1-2/3 cups of broccoli, the report said.

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March 10, 2005 in Food and Drink, Info, Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 09, 2005

Prognosticate

Here's a fun little time waster for wordies and newshounds alike. Prognosticate is a word game that's literally ripped from the headlines. Here's the deal: You pick a current news article from CNN or the BBC. Then the article appears as a slowly scrolling series of words. Every few sentences the scrolling text stops, and it's up to you to supply a key missing word. For example, "Robert Blake testified in court today that he was BLANK." Playing at the Easy level, you have a list of words to choose from. On the Hard level, you get a dictionary definition of the missing word. Personally, we're not sure that Easy is any easier than Hard -- we would call them both Difficult. Regardless, this nifty word teaser is a fun way to pretend you're a harried journalist on a tight deadline.

March 9, 2005 in Fun | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 08, 2005

Finally, humans may conquer cockroaches

With the fake promise of, guess what, sex.

Could it be the scientific breakthrough of the century? After decades of trying, scientists have identified and isolated the chemical that gives female German cockroaches their sex appeal - offering humankind a chance of victory over perhaps its most indestructible foe.

In varying sizes and colours, cockroaches are to be found in every corner of the planet, blamed for the spread of almost every pestilence known to man. The most widespread species is the German cockroach - half an inch long and light brown in colour, and famed for its speed.

Humans have tried to gas them and poison them with ingenious combinations of chemicals. Especially popular in the US are lethally baited sticky traps called "roach motels", sold under the slogan "They Check In but They Don't Check Out". But as anyone who has had a roach problem knows full well, nothing works for long. The creatures have been around for 200 million years, and are reputedly capable of emerging unscathed from nuclear armageddon.

But now they may be about to meet their match. According to the journal Science, US researchers have produced a synthetic version of the female cockroach's sex pheromone - the magic ingredient that makes male cockroaches drop everything in the interest of helping their ladies to produce some 350,000 offspring per breeding season. Coby Schal, professor of entomology at North Carolina State University and an author of the study, says the faintest whiff will have the most starving roach come running. "The male will choose the sex pheromone over food, even though he may die on the way." The study found that when a minuscule quantity of the artificial pheromone was placed in one branch of a forked plexiglass tube, 60 per cent of a sample of cockroaches chose that branch and made their way to the sample in less than 10 seconds.

For designers of coachroach traps, the substance is potentially the most most potent bait yet, capable of luring roaches by the millions to their doom. But there is one small problem. In the lab test, 40 per cent of male roaches failed to respond to the pheromones, for reasons unclear. It seems man's battle with the roach is not yet won.

March 8, 2005 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 07, 2005

Their Circular Life

We're not sure what to call this one. Interactive time lapse photography? Visual urban ambience? Regardless, it's clever, evocative, and strangely calming. Here's the premise: stationary cameras took several hundred images throughout 24-hour periods in five urban settings in Italy. Using a tool akin to a virtual iPod click wheel, you can scroll through the day's events in a train station, two public parks, a traffic intersection, or a canal in Venice. This soothing meditation on urban life is as much about sound as it is pictures; depending on the time of day, you hear birds twittering, traffic roaring, children playing, etc. Feel free to speed things up, slow things down, or stop time altogether. Can we settle on "visual haiku"?

March 7, 2005 in Photography | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 06, 2005

is this it?

Bubble Chambers are used to observe the tracks of subatomic particles at extremely high resolution. The photographs taken of these tracks are often stunningly beautiful and elegant. This website contains a java applet which simulates a bubble chamber, to gorgeous effect.

March 6, 2005 in Tech/Science | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack