for_sv's blog

Sir Richard Branson plans to start a company which will let families store stem cells from their child's umbilical cord.

Already spanning an acre in orbit, the International Space Station this year will grow faster in size, power, volume and mass than ever before, significantly expanding its capabilities and setting new records for humans in orbit.

Garlic has been hailed a wonder drug for centuries and has been used to prevent gangrene, treat high blood pressure, ward off common colds and is even believed by some to have cancer-fighting properties.

Assistant Professor John Howell and his Quantum Optics team at the University of Rochester have discovered a way to manipulate a light field while retaining all of the information it carries. A considerable advance in imaging technology, the new method detects subtle changes in an image over time. Using photons and atomic vapor in what is known as imaging with slow light, the new technique precisely slows the image while retaining all of its properties.

Cardiologists at the University of Mississippi Medical Center are among the first to use radio frequency technology to monitor the cardiovascular status of heart failure patients from their homes. By implanting a state-of-the-art cardiac resynchronization therapy device (CRT), UMC cardiologists can connect with patients directly and get up-to-the-second information about their heart status from miles away.

Heartbeat and breathing cycles can become synchronized, a new study shows. Some signs of phase synchrony have been found before, but only in small samples of a dozen or so subjects. By contrast, the study performed by scientists at Bar-Ilan University (Israel), and the Martin-Luther University and the Philipps University (both in Germany), includes 112 healthy subjects of varying ages, men and women, for a variety of sleep stages.

Sitting down to a family meal more often and cutting down on television watching can help keep children from becoming overweight, according to a new University of Missouri-Columbia study.

Africa is being torn apart. And as Ethiopia's rift valley grows slowly wider, an international team of scientists is taking a unique opportunity to plot the progress of continents on the move.

Aromatase inhibitors, a type of hormone therapy used to treat advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women, result in a small but significant increase in overall survival when compared to other hormone treatments, according to a new systematic review of studies.

A possible reason why the Northwick Park clinical trial of the drug TGN1412 in the UK caused multiple organ failure in human volunteers is revealed in research presented today at a conference near Paris. The research shows that stimulating the molecule CD28 on cells that mediate the immune response, known as T cells, can have an adverse effect if these immune cells have been activated and altered by infection or illness in the past.

A novel type of contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography is highly accurate in identifying blockages in the arteries that carry blood to the brain, according to a study in the February issue of Radiology.

University of Florida engineering student Maria Palazuelos is working on nanotechnology, but she's not seeking a better sunscreen, tougher golf club or other product -- the focus of many engineers in the field. Instead, Palazuelos, a doctoral student in chemical engineering, is probing the potentially harmful effects of nanotechnology by testing how ultra-small particles may adversely affect living cells, organisms and the environment.

Sometimes it is better to follow the advice of others rather than your own mind, even though you seem to have things under control. Not only humans but also fish follow this doctrine as shown by ecologists in Sweden, in the journal Ethology.

Associate professor Ray Truant's lab has discovered molecular "zip codes" or protein sequences in the huntingtin protein that dictate where it goes to within a brain cell.

A supplement some people turn to in hopes of losing a few pounds may have some previously unknown, unsavory side effects, suggest two new studies. Researchers studied how mice and rats responded to the supplement conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), an essential amino acid found in trace amounts primarily in beef, lamb and milk. Synthetic forms of CLA are marketed as supplements that help reduce body fat, and some manufacturers also tout CLA for reducing the risk of diabetes and certain types of cancer.

Research on mice engineered with an inducible liver clock enabled identification of some genes with expression controlled by the local clock, and other genes (including mPer2) that maintained circadian oscillations thanks to cues from the SCN.

That plants grow better if grown in a greenhouse in the correct climate is nothing new. Dutch researcher Rachel van Ooteghem has designed a control system for an improved solar greenhouse that yields more. In the new greenhouse, good climate control with sustainable energy resulted not only in an increased crop yield but also a lower gas bill.

Emperor penguins endure their incubation and fast for four dark and bitterly cold months each year. The tight huddling among these South Pole penguins is a key energy-saving mechanism that allows them to endure the extremely harsh conditions. Huddling and a drop in metabolism allow penguins to survive the biting South Pole cold.

A new study examined direct medical costs of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and found that the economic impact was substantial.

Current UK tax plans are unlikely to curb the growth in greenhouse gas emissions from travel, a study says.

Symptoms of prion diseases, such as the human form of mad cow disease, can be reversed, a study suggests.

Next week the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) meets in Washington, D.C. - a group that provides independent advice directly to NASA Administrator, Mike Griffin, on the long-term implementation of national space policy.

One item on the NAC plate is a potential recommendation that NASA consider establishing a Thermal Protection System (TPS) Technology Consortium, meshing space agency research work in this arena with the Department of Defense and others.

Leading the look into some sort of TPS sharing of critical technology needs, ideas and programs is NAC member Neil Armstrong. He is chair of the Council’s Aeronautics Committee.

One of the questions being probed by Armstrong and fellow members of his committee is what are clear synergies between the Air Force “Operationally Responsive Space” needs and such activities as NASA’s Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) heat shield program.

An early finding of Armstrong’s fact-finding group is that it was not clear the Air Force is aware of where NASA is currently going in the CEV effort. Furthermore, Air Force capabilities have synergies for NASA in the future, but they have not been harmonized as well as they could be.

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Dogs are to get a beach of their own on the sun-kissed Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

The European Commission announces plans to force energy companies to produce greener fuels.

KARACHI (Reuters) - Predominantly Muslim Pakistan, where most people are banned from drinking alcohol, is set to get a domestically produced, 20-year-old single malt whisky, an official at the company making the drink said Wednesday.

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - A woman who told police she had been raped was taken to jail because of an outstanding warrant and denied use of a morning-after pill to prevent a potential pregnancy, the woman's lawyer said on Tuesday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A U.S. retailer has been deluged with angry messages since an employee sent an e-mail to an American soldier in Iraq saying "if you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq."

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Dogs are to get a beach of their own on the sun-kissed Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

TOKYO, Jan 31 (Reuters Life!) - Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said on Wednesday it would recall thousands of massage chairs for free tests and repairs, saying the chairs could catch fire.

TOKYO, Jan 31 (Reuters Life!) - Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said on Wednesday it would recall thousands of massage chairs for free tests and repairs, saying the chairs could catch fire.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Immigrants wishing to live in the small Canadian town of Herouxville, Quebec, must not stone women to death in public, burn them alive or throw acid on them, according to an extraordinary set of rules released by the local council.

A WWF report claims that the UK is the world's third largest importer of illegal timber and calls for a Europe-wide ban.

OK, show of hands: who got a new HDTV-ready flat-screen this year – maybe just in time for the Big Game? Yeah, me too. Too bad. If only Santa, the FCC, you and me had done our physics homework…

High Def, it turns out, actually isn’t. It’s just a tiny bit higher than low; and, sadly, not nearly high enough at all.

As Galileo showed, nearly 300 years before the birth of television, what you see depends on entirely where you sit. I’m not referring to the saleman-celebrated off-axis viewing performance of your new electronic fireplace. This is about something bigger and deeper. As with other forms of recreation, size actually does matter – but only up to a point. And it’s not, by any stretch, the whole story.

At about the same time Robert Laird was inventing (some would say simply improving upon) television, Albert Einstein was dismantling Isaac Newton’s Universe. Einstein, you see, was anti-gravity. He cut the rotten spot out of Newton’s apple – namely, that the force of gravity should operate over large distances, but doesn’t seem to. This force, Einstein showed, is really farce. It doesn’t exist. We’re simply seeing the effect of the curvature of space around massive objects. Even to the point of gravitationally lensing the images of things on those massive objects’ far-sides (relative to you) right round to where you can see them, albeit stretched-out and broken up into bits and pieces.

That massive new flat-screen on your wall draws you near and shows you images and events from the far-side of human imagination and of the actual universe too. And it claims to do so at between two and six times the resolution of your old tube TV (if you’re looking at a true HDTV signal). Trouble is: the screen’s larger. 42 inches diagonal; maybe 50 inches… Oh no, did you go even bigger??

But dude, your couch and your recliner are still in the same place! And your room didn’t magically expand. So, instead of a better picture, you now stand a better chance of seeing individual pixels – at the expense of a cohesive image. Despite it’s supposedly higher resolution, your new magic window could actually be showing you a fragmented Universe.

The problem is the HDTV spec itself. It’s way too low. It’s not really “high definition” at all. It was conceived decades ago in the ancient, analog, Asian world of last century where apartments were petite and viewers sat right up close to their diminutive TVs. Today’s “HDTV” of 1080 viewable lines is actually a small-screen spec. Too bad yours is bigger.

Worse, most of the programming you’ll be watching isn’t even true HD. And much of it may come to you clipped, crunched and noise-ridden courtesy of your pre-HD analog coaxial cable or via badly blasted broadcast.

Despite (in fact because of) its big size, there’s a shockingly narrow window of distance at which your new monitor will be tolerable. I suggest you stay within 6 to 7 feet of a 42-incher; 7 to 9 feet of a 50-inch; no closer than 8 feet but no further than 12 feet of a 62, etc. Plot the curve for yourself to get values for larger or smaller screens. Any way you view it; it’s a damn small sweet spot.

Should old acquaintance be forgot? Maybe now you’re feeling nostalgic for the way your old 27 inch CRT’s picture took a few moments to congeal – giving your left hemisphere a chance to downshift into full couch-potato stupidity. Gonna miss the warm, cheery glow. Not to mention its actual warmth: CRTs are so bright in the infrared that they make pretty good space heaters. That oft-overstated threat of stray X-ray radiation; That always-unstated but ever-present threat of vacuum tube implosion…

Just over the event horizon – say 4 years from your electronics showroom –HDTV screen-resolution will at least double, maybe quadruple. Your computer’s monitor is halfway there already. A few high-end digital cinema cameras are as well. Gordon Moore’s Law has seen to it that the cost (so perhaps the price) will drop like a stray proton into a black hole. And energy efficiencies will improve; we’ll all be green-guilt marketed into buying them.

One likely implication of all this: both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray (based on the 1080 spec) are doomed before they get off the ground. Your cable, phone, wireless and computer providers are all conspiring to kill them. Leave Earth for a few days on the Starship Einstein at close to the speed of light, and time slows down for you. Come back in a few decades Earth time and you’ll see that box-packaged, disc-delivered video became the 8-Track cartridge of the 21st century.

So it’s: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me!” Those bastards got us with a screen size that’s too big, based on a resolution that’s too low. Let’s not let them sell us the matching set of coasters, shall we?

Humans never encountered the giant carnivorous "terror bird" Titanis walleri, research suggests.

A UK government laboratory says it has shown how to detect counterfeit medicines through their packaging.

"Sweden is to become the first country to establish diplomatic representation in the virtual reality world of Second Life..."

"We are planning to establish a Swedish embassy in Second Life primarily as an information portal for Sweden," Swedish Institute (SI) director Olle Wästberg told AFP.

The embassy would not provide passports or visas but would instruct visitors how to obtain such documents in the real world and act as a link to web-based information about the Scandinavian country.

(Via Metafilter.)

Private spaceports are popping up all over the place.

"Top 10 Foods for a Good Night's Sleep". Unfortunately, my wife's latest food obsession isn't on the short list. (Via Cynical-C.)

"Why Chicks Don't Dig The Singularity". (Via Rand Simberg.)

The race to determine who the most obscure Democratic contender for president is took a nasty turn today, with both Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and former Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa laying claim to that title. Much has been made of the competition at the top of the Democratic heap between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, but less coverage has been devoted to the Kucinich-Vilsack death-match, which has grown increasingly ugly in recent days. ?I g