Engineers Create A Strong But Lightweight Isotruss Bike Using Carbon Fibers

Engineers Create A Strong But Lightweight Isotruss Bike Using Carbon Fibers

  3:14:00 AM    Science Lover

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Engineers used elements of architecture and geometry to create a strong but lightweight triangle-based isotruss bicycle frame. To make a road bike or mountain bike, the isotruss is first wound with carbon fiber using a sheet that holds the tension constant. The engineers then hand-wind Kevlar strands over the isotruss. The process creates a bike with a large strength-to-weight ratio.

Almost every kid has at one time or another asked for one for Christmas. Now, engineers have developed what may be the most technologically advanced bike to hit the road yet. It took ten years to develop a new incredibly light and strong model that will take cyclists into the future.

Karl Vizmeg has ridden his Delta 7 Arantix bike 1,700 miles. He has raced dozens of bikes, but says a new see-through model is the strongest and lightest.

"This is phenomenal," said Vizmeg. "I've had so much fun this year, particularly with the 'wow' factor, but [also] because it's such a great racing bike."

Vizmeg's $8,500 bike was handmade in Utah using geometry and architecture. To make bikes like his, workers first make an isotruss, a form made from isosceles triangles. Then, they wind carbon fiber around the form -- creating a great strength-to-weight ratio.

"We go back afterwards and hand-wind all the little Kevlar strands, inch-by-inch, over each isotruss," said Tyler Evans, program manager at Delta 7 Sports in Payson, Utah.

They then bake the bike to bond the materials. The mountain bike frame weighs 2.6 pounds. The new Ascend road bike weighs 1.8.

"This bike rides like bikes that are much heavier and stronger and built like a tank, but it's still in the featherweight category," Evans said.

You might think the open-lattice design wouldn't be aerodynamic, but Delta 7 says wind-tunnel tests prove the bikes are as aerodynamic as traditional ones. The Ascend bike has another advantage.

"You definitely feel like a rock star, like you're famous, like you belong in the Tour de France or some high-end race," cyclist Dan Weller told Ivanhoe.

Right now, that feeling requires patience. It takes about 100 hours to build each IsoTruss bike. Delta 7 produced only 200 IsoTruss models in 2008, but is working on ways to mass-produce them in the near future. To get one right now, you have to add yourself to the waiting list and put down a $1,000 deposit.

A SEE-THROUGH BIKE FRAME? The Arantix mountain bicycle and Ascend road bicycle have frames made from carbon fiber, shaped into a form called IsoTruss. The lattice structure is woven by hand into the form of pyramid-like shapes made of isosceles triangles (the kind with two sides of equal length). The design is specially designed to make the bicycle resistant to bending and twisting, with a greater ratio of strength to weight than metal frames. This technology is currently promoted as an alternative to heavier, weaker materials in everything from automobiles to building materials and utility poles.

HOW TO WEAVE A BICYCLE: To construct the bike, the artisans take a single strand of carbon fiber and wind it back and forth (by hand) over a cylindrical mandrill until it is the right size, then wrap Kevlar around the fibers to bundle it. Then they bake it in an oven, which bonds all the carbon together.

The Materials Research Society, the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report. This report has also been produced thanks to a generous grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc.

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Face Recognition: The Eyes Have It

Face Recognition: The Eyes Have It

  10:15:00 PM    Science Lover

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Our brain extracts important information for face recognition principally from the eyes.
(Credit: iStockphoto/Cristian Ardelean)

Our brain extracts important information for face recognition principally from the eyes, and secondly from the mouth and nose, according to a new study from a researcher at the University of Barcelona. This result was obtained by analyzing several hundred face images in a way similar to that of the brain.

Imagine a photograph showing your friend's face. Although you might think that every single detail in his face matters to recognize him, numerous experiments have shown that the brain prefers a rather coarse resolution instead, irrespective of the distance at which a face is seen. Until now, the reason for this was unclear. By analyzing 868 male and 868 female face images, the new study may explain why.

The results indicate that the most useful information is obtained from the images if their size is around 30 x 30 pixels. Moreover, images of eyes give the least "noisy" result (meaning that they convey more reliable information to the brain compared to images of the mouth and nose), suggesting that face recognition mechanisms in the brain are specialized to the eyes.

This work complements a previously conducted study published in PLoS One, which found that artificial face recognition systems have the best recognition performance when processing rather small face images – meaning that machines should do it just like humans.
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Journal reference:

1. Keil et al. "I Look in Your Eyes, Honey": Internal Face Features Induce Spatial Frequency Preference for Human Face Processing. PLoS Computational Biology, 2009; 5 (3): e1000329 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000329

Adapted from materials provided by Public Library of Science, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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New Nanogenerator May Charge IPods And Cell Phones With A Wave Of The Hand

New Nanogenerator May Charge IPods And Cell Phones With A Wave Of The Hand

  3:18:00 AM    Science Lover

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Pictured is a schematic illustration shows the microfiber-nanowire hybrid nanogenerator, which is the basis of using fabrics for generating electricity. (Credit: Professor. Z. L. Wang and Dr. X. D. Wang, Georgia Institute of Technology.)

Imagine if all you had to do to charge your iPod or your BlackBerry was to wave your hand, or stretch your arm, or take a walk? You could say goodbye to batteries and never have to plug those devices into a power source again.

In research presented at the American Chemical Society's 237th National Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 26, scientists from Georgia describe technology that converts mechanical energy from body movements or even the flow of blood in the body into electric energy that can be used to power a broad range of electronic devices without using batteries.

"This research will have a major impact on defense technology, environmental monitoring, biomedical sciences and even personal electronics," says lead researcher Zhong Lin Wang, Regents' Professor, School of Material Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The new "nanogenerator" could have countless applications, among them a way to run electronic devices used by the military when troops are far in the field.

The researchers describe harvesting energy from the environment by converting low-frequency vibrations, like simple body movements, the beating of the heart or movement of the wind, into electricity, using zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires that conduct the electricity. The ZnO nanowires are piezoelectric — they generate an electric current when subjected to mechanical stress. The diameter and length of the wire are 1/5,000th and 1/25th the diameter of a human hair.

In generating energy from movement, Wang says his team concluded that it was most effective to develop a method that worked at low frequencies and was based on flexible materials. The ZnO nanowires met these requirements. At the same time, he says a real advantage of this technology is that the nanowires can be grown easily on a wide variety of surfaces, and the nanogenerators will operate in the air or in liquids once properly packaged. Among the surfaces on which the nanowires can be grown are metals, ceramics, polymers, clothing and even tents.

"Quite simply, this technology can be used to generate energy under any circumstances as long as there is movement," according to Wang.

To date, he says that there have been limited methods created to produce nanopower despite the growing need by the military and defense agencies for nanoscale sensing devices used to detect bioterror agents. The nanogenerator would be particularly critical to troops in the field, where they are far from energy sources and need to use sensors or communication devices. In addition, having a sensor which doesn't need batteries could be extremely useful to the military and police sampling air for potential bioterrorism attacks in the United States, Wang says.

While biosensors have been miniaturized and can be implanted under the skin, he points out that these devices still require batteries, and the new nanogenerator would offer much more flexibility. A major advantage of this new technology is that many nanogenerators can produce electricity continuously and simultaneously. On the other hand, the greatest challenge in developing these nanogenerators is to improve the output voltage and power, he says. Last year Wang's group presented a study on nanogenerators driven by ultrasound. Today's research represents a much broader application of nanogenerators as driven by low-frequency body movement.

The study was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

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Adapted from materials provided by American Chemical Society, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Goodbye Needle, Hello Smoothie: New Generation Oral Vaccine Uses Dairy Probiotics To Protect Against Disease

Goodbye Needle, Hello Smoothie: New Generation Oral Vaccine Uses Dairy Probiotics To Protect Against Disease

  1:55:00 AM    Science Lover

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The dendritic cell (green) engulfs the lactobacilli (small blue dots),
which release the vaccine. The dendritic cells will induce the
proliferation and the activation of T and B cells which will
eliminate the infected cells. (Credit: Mansour Mohamadzadeh)

Instead of a dreaded injection with a needle, someday getting vaccinated against disease may be as pleasant as drinking a yogurt smoothie.

A researcher from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has developed a new oral vaccine using probiotics, the healthy bacteria that are found in dairy products like yogurt and cheese. He has successfully used the approach in a preclinical study to create immunity to anthrax exposure. He also is using the method to develop a breast cancer vaccine and vaccines for various infectious diseases.

This new generation vaccine has big benefits beyond eliminating the "Ouch!" factor. Delivering the vaccine to the gut -- rather than injecting it into a muscle -- harnesses the full power of the body's primary immune force, which is located in the small intestine.

"This is potentially a great advance in the way we give vaccines to people," said Mansour Mohamadzadeh, the lead author and an associate professor of medicine in gastroenterology at the Feinberg School.

"You swallow the vaccine, and the bacteria colonize your intestine and start to produce the vaccine in your gut," Mohamadzadeh said. "Then it's quickly dispatched throughout your body. If you can activate the immune system in your gut, you get a much more powerful immune response than by injecting it. The pathogenic bacteria will be eliminated faster."

Most vaccines consist of protein and won't maintain their effectiveness after being digested by the stomach. However, the lactobacillus protects the vaccine until it is in the small intestine.

The Northwestern study was reported in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

There are other advantages to the new oral vaccine. Probiotics, which are natural immune stimulators, eliminate the need for a chemical in traditional vaccines that inflames the immune system and triggers a local immune response. The chemical, called an adjuant, may cause side effects such as dizziness, arm swelling and vomiting. Probiotic vaccines also are inexpensive to produce.

The specially engineered vaccine gives more immune bang for the buck than an injected one because it induces a local and a systemic immune response. The vaccine targets the first line of gut immune cells called dendritic cells -- the commanders-in-chiefs of the immune system.

They engulf the vaccine then instruct the immune system's foot soldiers -- killer T-cells and B-cells -- to seek out and destroy any cells in the body infected with a particular bacterium or virus.

In the study, Mohamadzadeh fed mice the new oral anthrax vaccine, and then exposed them to anthrax bacteria. Eighty percent of the mice survived, which is comparable to the results when mice were injected with anthrax vaccine, he said.

"Their immune response was higher and more robust than with the injected vaccine," Mohamadzadeh said. The mice generated a much higher T and B immunity against the pathogenic bacteria.

Mohamadzadeh's vaccine technology can be applied to many other diseases. He is developing an oral vaccine for breast cancer using probiotics. The vaccine would use the Her2/neu breast cancer antigen, a protein highly produced by breast tumor cells, and train the immune system to destroy any cells producing Her2/neu, he said.

In addition, Mohamadzadeh has developed a "multi-tasking" cancer vaccine against breast, colon and pancreatic cancer that soon will be tested in mouse models.

The technology also can be used to develop a probiotic vaccine for HIV, hepatitis C and the flu, he said.

Terrence Barrrett, M.D., chief and professor of gastroenterology at the Feinberg School, said delivering a vaccine to the gut is the most logical route.

"Nature isn't used to seeing antigens injected into a muscle," said Barrett, who also is a physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "The place where your immune system is designed to encounter and mount a defense against antigens is your gut."

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Journal reference:

1. M. Mohamadzadeh, T. Duong, S. J. Sandwick, T. Hoover, and T. R. Klaenhammer. Dendritic cell targeting of Bacillus anthracis protective antigen expressed by Lactobacillus acidophilus protects mice from lethal challenge. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0900029106

Adapted from materials provided by Northwestern University.

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Streaming games look to make consoles, PC upgrades obsolete

Streaming games look to make consoles, PC upgrades obsolete

  10:12:00 PM    Science Lover

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A screenshot of the OnLive ‘Arena’ of games

A new technology service called OnLive claims to have developed a way to stream video games over the Internet, without any lag that humans can notice.

The on-demand service would allow users to play games on any TV and nearly any personal computer – even stripped-down netbooks and PCs without graphics processors, said founder and chief executive Steve Perlman.

“When you want to play a game, you just click a button and it plays instantly. It’s that simple,” said Perlman. “So the instant you press a button to shoot something on the screen, the gun goes off.”

This has not been possible before, because unlike with music and movies – which can be compressed for easy online transfers before being streamed – video games are interactive and require instant responses.

OnLive’s technology gets around that limitation with a new form of compression that lets its game servers communicate with players over broadband connections in real time.

Thus, the service can also work on older computers, even those without a graphics processing unit – an essential component of gaming.

For a standard definition TV, a broadband connection of at least 1.5 megabits per second (mbps) is required. And for HDTV resolution, a connection of at least 5 mbps is needed.

Through a “MicroConsole” gadget, OnLive’s service will also be available for television sets.

In a demonstration on Tuesday at the Game Developers Conference in San Diego, Perlman played Crysis – a game notorious for its demanding graphical processing needs – on a TV set and on a Mac laptop through OnLive.

Leading game publishers, such as Electronic Arts, Take-Two and Eidos, have already signed on. OnLive has also incorporated social networking elements for multiplayer gaming, such as letting users share ‘brag clips’, which save the last 10 seconds of your game.

Perlman has a lot of confidence in OnLive: “It’s the last console you’ll need.”

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'Ice That Burns' May Yield Clean, Sustainable Bridge To Global Energy Future

'Ice That Burns' May Yield Clean, Sustainable Bridge To Global Energy Future

  9:46:00 AM    Science Lover

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Gas hydrates, known as "ice that burns," may provide a clean,
sustainable fuel source in the future.
(Credit: J. Pinkston and L. Stern/US Geological Survey)

In the future, natural gas derived from chunks of ice that workers collect from beneath the ocean floor and beneath the arctic permafrost may fuel cars, heat homes, and power factories. Government researchers are reporting that these so-called "gas hydrates," a frozen form of natural gas that bursts into flames at the touch of a match, show increasing promise as an abundant, untapped source of clean, sustainable energy.

The icy chunks could supplement traditional energy sources that are in short supply and which produce large amounts of carbon dioxide linked to global warming, the scientists say.*

"These gas hydrates could serve as a bridge to our energy future until cleaner fuel sources, such as hydrogen and solar energy, are more fully realized," says study co-leader Tim Collett, Ph.D., a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Denver, Colo. Gas hydrates, known as "ice that burns," hold special promise for helping to combat global warming by leaving a smaller carbon dioxide footprint than other fossil fuels, Collett and colleagues note.

Last November, a team of USGS researchers that included Collett announced a giant step toward that bridge to the future. In a landmark study, the USGS scientists estimated that 85.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could potentially be extracted from gas hydrates in Alaska's North Slope region, enough to heat more than 100 million average homes for more than a decade.

"It's definitely a vast storehouse of energy," Collett says. "But it is still unknown how much of this volume can actually be produced on an industrial scale." That volume, he says, depends on the ability of scientists to extract useful methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, from gas hydrate formations in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Scientists worldwide are now doing research on gas hydrates in order to understand how this strange material forms and how it might be used to supplement coal, oil, and traditional natural gas.

Although scientists have known about gas hydrates for decades, they've only recently begun to try to use them as an alternative energy source. Gas hydrates, also known as "clathrates," form when methane gas from the decomposition of organic material comes into contact with water at low temperatures and high pressures. Those cold, high-pressure conditions exist deep below the oceans and underground on land in certain parts of the world, including the ocean floor and permafrost areas of the Arctic.

Today, researchers are finding tremendous stores of gas hydrates throughout the world, including United States, India, and Japan. In addition to Alaska, the United States has vast gas hydrate deposits in the Gulf of Mexico and off its eastern coast. Interest in and support of hydrate research is now growing worldwide. Japan and India currently have among the largest, most well-funded hydrate research programs in the world.

"Once we have learned better how to find the most promising gas hydrate deposits, we will need to know how to produce it in a safe and commercially-viable way," says study co-author Ray Boswell, Ph.D. He manages the National Methane Hydrate R&D Program of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, W. Va. "Chemistry will be a big part of understanding just how the hydrates will respond to various production methods."

One of the more promising techniques for extracting methane from hydrates involves simply depressurizing the deposits, Boswell says. Another method involves exchanging the methane molecules in the "clathrate" structure with carbon dioxide. Workers can, in theory, collect the gas using the same drilling technology used for conventional oil and gas drilling.

Under the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of 2000, the U.S. government has already spent several million dollars, in collaboration with universities and private companies, to investigate gas hydrates as an alternative energy source. Scientists are particularly optimistic about the vast stores of gas hydrates located in Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico. Research is also accelerating under the U.S. Department of Energy and USGS to better understand gas hydrate's role in the natural environment and in climate change.

"Gas hydrates are totally doable," Collett says. "But when and where we will see them depends on need, motivation, and our supply of other energy resources. In the next five to ten years, the research potential of gas hydrates will be more fully realized."

* They will present research on gas hydrates in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 23, 2009 at the American Chemical Society's 237th National Meeting. It is among two dozen papers on the topic scheduled for a two-day symposium, "Gas Hydrates and Clathrates," March 23-24.

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'Cold Fusion' Rebirth? New Evidence For Existence Of Controversial Energy Source

'Cold Fusion' Rebirth? New Evidence For Existence Of Controversial Energy Source

  2:40:00 AM    Science Lover

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ScienceDaily (2009-03-23) -- Researchers are reporting compelling new scientific evidence for the existence of low-energy nuclear reactions, the process once called "cold fusion" that may promise a new source of energy. Scientists describe what they term the first clear visual evidence that LENR devices can produce neutrons, which scientists view as tell-tale signs of nuclear fusion reactions.

Source : ScienceDaily
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Shifting Sound To Light May Lead To Better Computer Chips

Shifting Sound To Light May Lead To Better Computer Chips

  1:29:00 AM    Science Lover

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A plasma is generated by a laser pulse similar to how sound is converted to light.
(Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)

By reversing a process that converts electrical signals into sounds heard out of a cell phone, researchers may have a new tool to enhance the way computer chips, LEDs and transistors are built.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have for the first time converted the highest frequency sounds into light by reversing a process that converts electrical signals to sound.

Commonly used piezo-electric speakers, such as those found in a cell phone, operate at low frequencies that human ears can hear.

But by reversing that process, lead researchers Michael Armstrong, Evan Reed and Mike Howard, LLNL colleagues, and collaborators from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Nitronex Corp., used a very high frequency sound wave - about 100 million times higher frequency than what humans can hear - to generate light.

“This process allows us to very accurately ‘see’ the highest frequency sound waves by translating them into light,” Armstrong said.

The research appears in the March 15 edition of the journal Nature Physics.

During the last decade, pioneering experiments using sub-picosecond lasers have demonstrated the generation and detection of acoustic and shock waves in materials with terahertz (THz) frequencies. These very same experiments led to a new technique for probing the structure of semiconductor devices.

However, the recent research takes those initial experiments a step further by reversing the process, converting high-frequency sound waves into electricity. The researchers predicted that high frequency acoustic waves can be detected by seeing radiation emitted when the acoustic wave passes an interface between piezoelectric materials.

Very high-frequency sound waves have wavelengths approaching the atomic-length scale. Detection of these waves is challenging, but they are useful for probing materials on very small length scales.

But that’s not the only application, according to Reed.

“This technique provides a new pathway to generation of THz radiation for security, medical and other purposes,” he said. “In this application, we would utilize acoustic-based technologies to generate THz.” Security applications include explosives detection and medical use may include detection of skin cancer.

And the Livermore method doesn’t require any external source to detect the acoustic waves.

“Usually scientists use an external laser beam that bounces off the acoustic wave – much like radar speed detectors – to observe high frequency sound. An advantage of our technique is that it doesn’t require an external laser beam – the acoustic wave itself emits light that we detect,” Armstrong said.

Article source : ScienceDaily

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Hi-tech walking stick brings wind-up torch and alarm for elderly

Hi-tech walking stick brings wind-up torch and alarm for elderly

  12:23:00 AM    Science Lover

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The new Slik-Stik walking stick is fitted with a torch, one-button alarm, and a magnet, and is powered by simply winding up a crank in the handle (inset)

A walking stick that uses wind-up technology to power a built-in torch and safety lights has been unveiled by a 70-year-old British inventor.

Developed by Trevor Baylis – who invented the wind-up radio almost two decades ago – the lightweight ‘Slik-Stik’ carries a personal alarm, can collapse to become tiny, and has a magnet to solve the tricky issue of picking up dropped keys.

His firm, Trevor Baylis Brands, recently launched the walking stick at an exhibition in London.

The Slik-Stik is the brainchild of Baylis’ 44-year-old protégé Denise Anstey, a disabled lady who was dissatisfied with the poor ergonomics and basic function of conventional walking sticks.

“When I was walking, I felt very vulnerable – a walking target. I thought it would be good for the elderly to have something they could immediately press to alert people to help,” she said.

The hi-tech walking stick is fitted with an induction generator system, with which a minute’s winding of the retractable handle is sufficient to provide several minutes of emergency illumination.

The front of the ergonomic hand-grip incorporates an LED torch light which shines a forward beam, and a foot-fall floodlight to ensure safe footing at night. The rear of the handle is fitted with a built-in panic alarm that can be activated to alert for help.

Finally, one further frustration for Denise has been addressed by the handy inclusion of a strong pick-up magnet in the handle. So in case she drops a set of keys, all she needs to do is flip the stick around.

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Spinal cord stimulator could treat Parkinson’s

Spinal cord stimulator could treat Parkinson’s

  1:22:00 AM    Science Lover

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In studies on mice, led by neurologist Miguel Nicolelis, boffins have found that electrical stimulation of the spinal cord, rather than the brain, could provide an easier and cheaper way to treat Parkinson’s disease

A spinal cord stimulator has helped rodents with Parkinson’s disease move more easily, thus offering the hope of a less invasive way of treating the disease in humans, US-based researchers said on Thursday.

“We see an almost immediate and dramatic change in the animal’s ability to function when the device stimulates the spinal cord,” said Dr Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University, whose study appears in the journal Science.

If it works in humans, Nicolelis said, the device could be used to treat the disease early on, reaching far more patients than current stimulators, which are implanted deep in the brain and can benefit only about one third of Parkinson’s patients.

“It would be easier and safer to install a stimulator in the spinal cord than in the brain,” said Nicolelis. “Both devices use pulses of electricity to control the tremors and stiffness caused by Parkinson’s.”

Parkinson’s progressively kills brain cells that produce dopamine, a message-carrying chemical associated with movement. Dopamine replacement drugs can delay symptoms for a while but there is no good treatment and no cure.

“This technique is much easier, cheaper and can be done in conjunction with a much smaller dose of medication,” said Nicolelis. “It addresses Parkinson’s disease in a very different way.”

In healthy people, neurons fire at different rates as information is sent between the brain and the body to initiate motion. Nicolelis said the problem in Parkinson’s disease is that neurons become scrambled and begin firing all at once.

IMPROVING DRUG EFFECTS

“You create this beating pattern that prevents the neurons from actually producing the motor commands that animals and patients need to behave normally,” he said. “What we did was find a way to disrupt that.”

The new technique involves implanting two paper-thin metal probes into a small slit in the spine so they touch the outside of the spinal cord. Current is then passed over the area to deliver an electrical pulse, stimulating peripheral nerves that pass information between the brain and the body.

The researchers tested the device on mice with a form of Parkinson’s, in combination with different doses of a dopamine replacement drug known as L-dopa.

When they tried the device without the drug, the animals were 26 times more active. When used with the drug, only two doses were needed to produce movement, compared to five when used with only medication.

L-dopa tends to lose its effect over time, but Nicolelis said the treatment may help patients stay on the medication longer.

His team plans to begin testing the device in primates this year, and in humans by 2010.

Manufacturers such as St Jude Medical and Medtronic Inc in the US have devices for deep brain stimulation to treat movement disorders including Parkinson’s, essential tremor and dystonia, and are studying their use in obsessive-compulsive disorders and depression.

Miguel Nicolelis

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Fossil puzzle reveals 505 million-year-old monster predator

Fossil puzzle reveals 505 million-year-old monster predator

  10:03:00 PM    Science Lover

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The Hurdia Victoria

The fossils of a monster predator with a circular jaw and a pair of claws on its head has been discovered in the old collections of the Smithsonian museum in Washington, a team of researchers said on Thursday.

Fragments of the creature were unearthed in 1912 in Canada’s 505 million-year-old Burgess Shale site, but scientists initially thought they were part of a crustacean-like animal.

It was not until the discovery of better specimens in the 1990’s that they realised fossils previously classified as jellyfish, sea cucumbers and other anthropods were actually pieces of an entirely new beast.

Called the Hurdia victoria, it has a segmented body covered with gills and a huge three-part carapace (or shell) that projects out from the front of its head, according to the study published in the journal Science.

“This structure is unlike anything seen in other fossil or living arthropods,” said lead author Allison Daley, who has been studying the fossils for three years as part of her doctoral thesis at Uppsala University in Sweden.

“The use of the large carapace extending from the front of its head is a mystery. In many animals, the shell is used to protect the soft-parts of the body, as you would see in a crab or lobster, but this structure in Hurdia is empty and does not cover or protect the rest of the body. We can only guess at what its function might have been,” she said.

The specimen discovered in the Smithsonian’s collection was first classified as an anthropod in the 1980’s and then as an unusual specimen of the predator Anomalocaris.

But Daley and a team of researchers from Canada, Britain and the US were able to reclassify it after studying several specimens recovered from the Burgess Shale.

Hurdia and Anomalocaris are both early offshoots of the evolutionary lineage that led to arthropods – a large modern group that contains spiders, crustaceans, insects, millipedes and centipedes.

The fossils reveal details of the origins of features that define the modern arthropods, such as their limbs and head structures.

The Hurdia specimens reveal exquisite details of its gills – some of the best preserved in the fossil record.

“Most of the body is covered in the gills, which were probably necessary to provide oxygen to such a large, actively swimming animal,” Daley said.

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To send mail, talk to your dash as you drive

To send mail, talk to your dash as you drive

  10:00:00 AM    Science Lover

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Image via Wikipedia

Imagine shooting an email to an office colleague just by giving verbal instructions to a device fitted in your car as you drive to work. Cut to reality. It’s now very much possible, thanks to scientists who have developed the world’s first hands-free and eyes-free email for in-vehicle use only which can talk to you while you drive.

According to them, it’s actually a portable smartphone-compatible device, known as iLane, that alerts its user when a new email is received and reads out the message and draft a reply on voice command. The new gadget, developed by Intelligent Mechatronic Systems, can be mounted on a dashboard, sun visor or air vent, at an initial installation cost of £400 plus a monthly subscription, the Daily Telegraph reported.

It connects wirelessly to BlackBerry smartphones, and users wear a Bluetooth headset to issue voice commands and read, delete or reply to emails. It is powered through the car’s cigarette lighter. In fact, users can choose to send from two stock email responses - “I am in transit and will respond shortly” or say “Call me if it’s important” - or they can record a 15-minute voice memo which the iLane will send as an email attachment to the correspondent.

In addition to handling email messages, the iLane also allows people to make phone calls simply by calling out the name of someone in their address book, and can also read out the latest news and sport headlines, weather forecasts and traffic reports, according to the scientists.

However, the device is only compatible with BlackBerry phones at the moment and is currently available only in the US and Canada but its manufacturers hope to introduce it to other parts of the world soon. The demonstration video at ilane.com is an honest representation of the experience. That video lets you know what Syntho-Lady’s voice sounds like, what her wording is and what kinds of responses you’re supposed to supply. Here is a typical transcript.

She: “You have six new messages. Message from Chris Robinson about ‘The restaurant incident last night.’ Say, ‘Read’ to read this message. You can Reply, Forward, Call Back or Delete. To read the next message, say ‘Next message.’ ”

You: “Read message.”

She: “ ‘Hey, David. Don’t worry about last night. I spoke to the headwaiter, and he said that he managed to get most of the wine stains out of the carpet. He did ask if you’d take your family reunions elsewhere in the future. Regards, Chris.’ Would you like to Reply, Forward, Delete or Read this message again?”

You: “Reply.”

The voice now gives you the option of sending a canned email message back to the sender (either “I am in transit and will respond shortly” or “Call me if it is important”) or recording a 15-second MP3 message that gets sent to your correspondent as an email attachment.

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