Video game sharpens seniors' brain power

A video game focussing on strategy has been found to sharpen brain power in ageing people.

A new study found that people in their 60s and 70s can improve a number of cognitive functions by playing "Rise of Nations", a game that rewards nation-building and territorial expansion.

"Rise of Nations gives gamers points for building cities and 'wonders', feeding and employing their people, maintaining an adequate military and expanding their territory. You need merchants. You need an army to protect yourself and you have to make sure you're spending some of your resources on education and food," said the authors of the study.

This is the first such study of older adults, and it is the first to find such pronounced effects on cognitive skills not directly related to the skills learned in the video game, said University of Illinois psychology professor Arthur Kramer, who co-authored the study.

Decades of lab studies designed to improve specific cognitive skills, like short-term memory, have repeatedly found that trainees improve almost exclusively on the tasks they perform in the lab - and only under lab conditions, Kramer said.

"When you train somebody on a task they tend to improve in that task, whatever it is, but it usually does not transfer much beyond that skill or beyond the particular situation in which they learned it," he said.

Specifically, the researchers wondered whether interactive video games might benefit those cognitive functions that decline most with age, said a University of Illinois release.

The study included 40 older adults, half of whom received 23.5 hours of training in Rise of Nations. The others, a comparison group, received no training in the game.

Both groups were assessed before, during and after the video game training on a variety of tests designed to measure executive control functions, and the researchers found that training on the video game did improve the participants' performance on a number of these tests.

As a group, the gamers became significantly better - and faster - at switching between tasks as compared to the comparison group.

Their working memory, as reflected in the tests, was also significantly improved. Their reasoning ability was enhanced.

The research is scheduled for publication this month's issue of journal Psychology & Aging.

Is sea-level rise underestimated?

Grim scenario: The Greenland ice sheet and the West Antarctic ice sheet would together raise sea levels 12 metres if they were to melt..............

One of the most controversial areas of climate science is how high the seas are likely to rise in a warmer world. Last year, a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that sea levels would rise by 15-59cm this century, an average of 38.5cm.
Climate sceptics said the figures were proof that the panel was downgrading the risk, as an IPCC report in 2001 had predicted 48.5cm.
Rajendra Pachauri, who chairs the IPCC, said: “Some are raising the [sea level] issue as being far more alarming than we had projected, but in the synthesis report we clearly said that we didn’t know enough and therefore we can’t place an upper limit on sea level rise this century.”
The uncertainty derives from how the Earth’s giant ice sheets will react to warmer temperatures. Of far more significance is the vast amount of water locked in the ice sheets of the polar regions.
The Greenland ice sheet and the West Antarctic ice sheet would together raise sea levels 12 metres if they were to melt. The East Antarctic ice sheet holds enough water to raise sea levels 50-60 metres, but is thought to be more resistant to global warming. Several hundred thousand small glaciers could also contribute.
The question is how quickly all that ice could crumble into the sea as global warming takes hold. Measurements on the ground and from space suggest the Greenland melt is accelerating, though scientists have struggled to recreate the process in computer models, which makes projections difficult.
In September, a team led by Tad Pfeffer at the University of Colorado at Boulder, published calculations using conservative, medium and extreme glaciological assumptions for sea rise expected from Greenland, Antarctica and the world’s smaller glaciers and ice caps.
They concluded the most plausible scenario, when factoring in thermal expansion due to warming waters, will lead to a total sea level rise of roughly 100-200cm by 2100.
Jim Hansen, of Nasa, has argued that most estimates of sea level rise are too conservative. He says that feedbacks in the climate system would accelerate ice melt, and lead to collapse. — Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008

AIKO - the female robot:

Inventor Le Trung, 33, created Aiko, said to be "in her 20s" with a stunning 32, 23, 33 figure, shiny hair and delicate features.
She even remembers his favourite drink and does simple cleaning and household tasks...
...The fem-bot has a touch-sensitive face and body so she reacts if shown affection or hurt.
"Like a real female she will react to being touched in certain ways. If you grab or squeeze too hard she will try to slap you. She has all senses except for smell," he said.
Check out video of Trung and Aiko. One minute and six seconds into the video, Trung touches Aiko's chest and she says, "I do not like it when you touch my breasts!"

Inside Intel's New Chip

With 45 million transistors and energy-saving features, the Atom processor could usher in a whole new era of mobile computing.

Array of Atoms: This image shows the processor wafer on which Atom chips are manufactured. Each chip on the wafer contains 47 million transistors.

Credit: Intel

The mobile Internet has been the next big thing for a decade. And while companies such as Nokia and Apple have made great strides with the N-series devices and the iPhone, these gadgets still don't perform as well as computers. For instance, popular sites such as MySpace and YouTube can take tens of seconds to completely load on these devices, and when they do, they sometimes don't work correctly or look right.
The problem with these gadgets, says Vijay Krishnan, a director in Intel's ultramobile group, is their microprocessor. His company's solution is a brand new lineup of small, low-power chips that play well with websites and are also designed to run media, including high-definition content. The chip line, called Atom, which was first announced in March, was displayed last week at Intel's Developer Forum in Shanghai. Company executives showed off slick-looking gadgets, called mobile internet devices (MIDs), that are expected to hit the market by the middle of the year.
"The iPhone is a great example of delivering the Internet in your pocket," says Krishnan. Apple's phone uses a processor from ARM, the company that supplies many of the chips that run on cell phones worldwide. But, he says, there are a few areas that could be improved. For instance, an Atom chip is four to six times faster than ARM chips, which translates into faster downloads and smoother video-watching experiences. In addition, he says, the chip is compatible with many Web programming languages and applications--such as JavaScript and Flash--which makes Atom more compatible with all parts of the Internet. Using a device with an Atom chip, he says, gives access to "all of the Internet, without generating errors."
To build the new chips, Krishnan says, Intel focused on power consumption. The dual-core chips in today's laptops use up to 35 watts. The Atom line, which will offer roughly the same performance as a typical chip in a four-year-old laptop, uses three watts or less. Krishnan explains that one way this is achieved is by creating six separate power states for the chip. Depending on how the device is being used, the voltage the processor uses and clock speed of its components can be varied, while certain components , such as memory cache, can be turned off when not in use. "When we use all of these power states," he says, "we're able to keep the average power on chips to 160 to 220 milliwatts." These low power requirements can noticeably extend battery life, he says.

Another power-saving trick is to change the way the chip reads instructions. For years, Intel has designed chips that can process information quickly, but by completing operations in an out-of-order manner: when a set of instructions can't be followed immediately, the chip processes information from other instructions, filling in the gaps when it can. This approach to computing is as chaotic as a "three-ring circus," says Nathan Brookwood, founder of Insight64, an analysis firm. The net result is a waste of power.
Intel streamlined the chip's instructions to use a technology called "hyperthreading," which effectively simulates multicore functions on the single-core Atom chips. In this design, all instructions have their own processing paths, or threads, within the chip. While more than one instruction can be processed at a time, specific instructions are processed in the order in which they are issued.
Atom, which has 45 million transistors and is less than one-tenth the size of a penny, will allow designers to pump out small Internet devices in novel shapes and sizes, says Brookwood. "Intel is enabling smaller form factors," he says. "This is good." However, he notes that the company is not yet able to compete with ARM chips in terms of power and thermal dissipation, two main factors that will keep Atom out of mobile phones in the near future.
Intel's Krishnan says that in 2009 the company will release a next-generation platform called Moorestown, in which the chipset will be shrunk and power will be reduced by "an order of magnitude." But right now, he says, Intel is focused on devices that send and receive data, not voice, over the airwaves. The first generation of Atom-based devices were targeted to people under 30, he says, who spend as little as 15 percent of their time on the phone and about 85 percent on text messaging, e-mail, and Web browsing. "In our view," he says, "there is a void here that 'smart' phones don't give the user the best possible experiences."

NanoRadio

Alex Zettl's tiny radios, built from nanotubes, could improve everything from cell phones to medical diagnostics.

Tiny tunes: A nanoradio is a carbon nanotube anchored to an electrode, with a second electrode just beyond its free end.

Who: Alex Zettl, University of California, Berkeley

Definition: At the core of the nanoradio is a single molecule that can receive radio signals. Impact: Tiny radio devices could improve cell phones and allow communication between tiny devices, such as environmental sensors.

Context: New nanotech tools are allowing researchers to fabricate very small devices. The nanoradio is one of the latest.

If you own a sleek iPod Nano, you've got nothing on Alex Zettl. The physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues have come up with a nanoscale radio, in which the key circuitry consists of a single carbon nanotube.
Any wireless device, from cell phones to environmental sensors, could benefit from nanoradios. Smaller electronic component­s, such as tuners, would reduce power consumption and extend battery life. Nanoradios could also steer wireless communications into entirely new realms, including tiny devices that navigate the bloodstream to release drugs on command.
Miniaturizing radios has been a goal ever since RCA began marketing its pocket-sized transistor radios in 1955. More recently, electronics manufacturers have made microscale radios, creating new products such as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. About five years ago, Zettl's group decided to try to make radios even smaller, working at the molecular scale as part of an effort to create cheap wireless environmental sensors.
Zettl's team set out to minia­turize individual components of a radio receiver, such as the antenna and the tuner, which selects one frequency to convert into a stream of electrical pulses that get sent to a speaker. But integrating separate nanoscale components proved difficult. About a year ago, however, Zettl and his students had a eureka moment. "We realized that, by golly, one nanotube can do it all," Zettl says. "Within a matter of days, we had a functioning radio." The first two transmissions it received were "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos and "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys.
The Beach Boys song was an apt choice. Zettl's nano receiver works by translating the electromagnetic oscillations of a radio wave into the mechanical vibrations of a nanotube, which are in turn converted into a stream of electrical pulses that reproduce the original radio signal. Zettl's team anchored a nanotube to a metal electrode, which is wired to a battery. Just beyond the nanotube's free end is a second metal electrode. When a voltage is applied between the electrodes, electrons flow from the battery through the first electrode and the nanotube and then jump from the nanotube's tip across the tiny gap to the second electrode. The nanotube--now negatively charged--is able to "feel" the oscillations of a passing radio wave, which (like all electro­magnetic waves) has both an electrical and a magnetic component.

India launches first moon mission

India has successfully launched its first mission to the Moon.
The unmanned Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft blasted off smoothly from a launch pad in southern Andhra Pradesh to embark on a two-year mission of exploration.
The robotic probe will orbit the Moon, compiling a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and mapping the distribution of elements and minerals.
The launch is regarded as a major step for India as it seeks to keep pace with other space-faring nations in Asia.
Indian PM Manmohan Singh hailed the launch as the "first step" in a historic milestone in the country's space programme.


"Our scientific community has once again done the country proud and the entire nation salutes them," Mr Singh said in a message.
The launch was greeted with applause by scientists gathered at the site.
The chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Madhavan Nair, said it was a "historic moment" for the country.
"Today what we have charted is a remarkable journey for an Indian spacecraft to go to the moon and try to unravel the mysteries of the Earth's closest celestial body and its only natural satellite," Mr Nair said.
The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says there has been a lot of excitement about the event, which was broadcast live on national TV.
Competitive mission
An Indian-built launcher carrying the one-and-a-half-tonne satellite blasted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, at about 0620 local time (0050 GMT).

One key objective will be to search for surface or sub-surface water-ice on the Moon, especially at the poles.
Another will be to detect Helium 3, an isotope which is rare on Earth, but is sought to power nuclear fusion and could be a valuable source of energy in future.
Powered by a single solar panel generating about 700 Watts, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) probe carries five Indian-built instruments and six constructed in other countries, including the US, Britain and Germany.
The mission is expected to cost 3.8bn rupees (£45m; $78m), considerably less than Japanese and Chinese probes sent to the Moon last year.
The Indian experiments include a 30kg probe that will be released from the mothership to slam into the lunar surface. The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) will record video footage on the way down and measure the composition of the Moon's tenuous atmosphere.
CHANDRAYAAN 1
1 - Chandrayaan Energetic Neutral Analyzer (CENA)
2 - Moon Impact Probe (MIP)
3 - Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM)
4 - Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC)
5 - Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3)
6 - Chandrayaan 1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS)
7 - Solar Panel

It will also drop the Indian flag on the surface of the Moon. The country's tricolour is painted on the side of the probe and, if successful, India will become the fourth country after the US, Russia and Japan to place its national flag on the lunar surface.
Professor David Southwood, director of science and robotic exploration at the European Space Agency congratulated India's space agency on the launch.
He added: "While the exploration of space calls for new challenges to be overcome, joining forces is becoming more and more a key to future successes."
Barry Kellett, project scientist on the C1XS instrument, which was built at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory in the UK, said: "Chandrayaan has a very competitive set of instruments... it will certainly do good science."
C1XS will map the abundance of different elements in the lunar crust to help answer key questions about the origin and evolution of Earth's only natural satellite.
Researchers say the relative abundances of magnesium and iron in lunar rocks could help confirm whether the Moon was covered by a molten, magma ocean early on in its history.
"The iron should have sunk [in the magma ocean], whereas the magnesium should have floated," Mr Kellett told BBC News.
"The ratio of magnesium to iron for the whole Moon tells you to what extent the Moon melted and what it did after it formed."
The instrument will look for more unusual elements on the Moon's surface, such as titanium. This metallic element has been found in lunar meteorites, but scientists know little about its distribution in the lunar crust.
Chandrayaan (the Sanskrit word for "moon craft") will also investigate the differences between the Moon's near side and its far side. The far side is both more heavily cratered and different in composition to the one facing Earth.
The spacecraft will take about eight days the reach the Moon. During its lunar encounter, Chandrayaan fires its engine to slow its velocity - allowing it to be captured by the Moon's gravity.

Chandrayaan will then slip into a near-circular orbit at an altitude of 1,000km. After a number of health checks, the probe will drop its altitude until it is orbiting just 100km above the lunar surface.
India, China, Japan and South Korea all have eyes on a share of the commercial satellite launch business and see their space programmes as an important symbol of international stature and economic development.
Last month, China became only the third country in the world to independently carry out a spacewalk.
But the Indian government's space efforts have not been welcomed by all.
Some critics regard the space programme as a waste of resources in a country where millions still lack basic services.

Watch the video here>>>>

GPS Technology

The development of communications technology has been progressing at an astounding rate. Today, mobile communication devices are becoming much more technologically advanced and offer more than the ability to just carry on a conversation. Cell phone GPS tracking is one of those advances. GPS or Global Positioning System tracks your location by interpreting the data received from 3 or more satellites. This has made GPS a popular feature in cars as a navigational aid.
All cell phones constantly broadcast a radio signal, even when not on a call. The cell phone companies have been able to estimate the location of a cell phone for many years now, using triangulation information from the towers receiving the signal. However, the introduction of GPS technology into cell phones has meant that cell phone GPS tracking now makes this information a lot more accurate.
With GPS technology now more commonplace in many new cell phones, this means that the location of anyone carrying a compatible cell phone can be accurately tracked at any time. Cell phone GPS tracking can therefore be a useful feature for business owners and fleet managers who need to be able to keep track of their vehicle movements.
Cell phone GPS tracking can also be a useful feature to the emergency services or police when responding to a 911 call from a GPS cell phone. For this reason, the FCC has legislated that wireless networks provide location information for 911 calls made from cell phones. These are known as E911 calls.
As technology advances even further, future features may be even more powerful. Imagine GPS cell phones used as a navigational device. Based on the cell phone GPS tracking signal, they can be used to find your way to a location, calculate your speed based on your location change over time. From this you can calculate your estimated arrival time, suggest an alternative route and even phone the person you are calling to see with your estimated time of arrival. Of course in cars, GPS navigation systems can already perform many of these tasks. However, it is the portability of cell phones that makes them so useful for this technology.
Cell phone GPS tracking could also be used to locate the whereabouts of your children and offer protection to elderly relatives should something happen and they need urgent assistance. Such features are extremely useful and may add to the widespread nature of GPS-enabled phones in the future.

ASIMO-The Humanoid Robot

December 5, 2002 – Honda added intelligence technology to ASIMO which is capable of interpreting the postures and gestures of humans and moving independently in response. ASIMO’s ability to interact with humans has advanced significantly—it can greet approaching people, follow them, move in the direction they indicate, and even recognize their faces and address them by name. Further, utilizing networks such as the Internet, ASIMO can provide information while executing tasks such as reception duties. ASIMO is the world’s first humanoid robot to exhibit such a broad range of intelligent capabilities.

The key features of the new Intelligence Technology:
1. Recognition of moving objects

2. Posture/gesture recognition

3. Environment recognition

4. Sound recognition

5. Face recognition.
6. Integration with user's network system

7. Internet connectivity

Nano-Batteries Look Like Paper

Nano battery stores power on sheet of paper
A new energy storage device you could mistake for a sheet of black paper, may soon be able to power up almost any type of electronic device.
The nanoengineered battery is lightweight, ultra thin, completely flexible, and should be able to power devices not even created yet, like implantable medical equipment and transportation vehicles, said researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y.
Along with its ability to function in temperatures up to 300°F and down to 100 below zero, the device is completely integrated, and they can print it like paper. The device can function as a high-energy battery and a high-power supercapacitor, which are generally separate components in most electrical systems, the researchers said. Another key feature is the capability to use human blood or sweat to help power the battery.
More than 90% of the device consists of cellulose, the same plant cells used in newsprint, loose leaf, lunch bags, and nearly every type of paper.

RPI researchers infused this paper with aligned carbon nanotubes, which give the device its black color. The nanotubes act as electrodes and allow the storage devices to conduct electricity. The device, engineered to function as a lithium-ion battery and a supercapacitor, can provide the long, steady power output comparable to a conventional battery, as well as a supercapacitor’s quick burst of high energy.
The device can roll, twist, fold, or cut into any number of shapes with no loss of mechanical integrity or efficiency. The paper batteries can also be stacked, like a ream of printer paper, to boost the total power output.
“It’s essentially a regular piece of paper, but it’s made in a very intelligent way,” said Robert Linhardt, the Ann and John H. Broadbent Senior Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering at Rensselaer and a co-author of a paper on the subject.
“We’re not putting pieces together—it’s a single, integrated device,” he said. “The components are molecularly attached to each other: The carbon nanotube print is embedded in the paper, and the electrolyte is soaked into the paper. The end result is a device that looks, feels, and weighs the same as paper.”
The creation of this unique nanocomposite paper drew from a diverse pool of disciplines, requiring expertise in materials science, energy storage, and chemistry.
Researchers used ionic liquid, essentially a liquid salt, as the battery’s electrolyte. It is important to note ionic liquid contains no water, which means there is nothing in the batteries to freeze or evaporate. “This lack of water allows the paper energy storage devices to withstand extreme temperatures,” said Ashavani Kumar, a postdoctoral research associate.
Along with use in small handheld electronics, the paper batteries’ light weight could make them ideal for use in automobiles, aircraft, and boats. They could also mold the paper into different shapes, such as a car door, which would enable important new engineering innovations, the researchers said.
“Plus, because of the high paper content and lack of toxic chemicals, it’s environmentally safe,” said Shaijumon M. Manikoth, postdoctoral research associate.
Paper is also extremely biocompatible, and these new hybrid battery/supercapcitors have potential as power supplies for devices implanted in the body. The team printed paper batteries without adding any electrolytes and demonstrated naturally occurring electrolytes in human sweat, blood, and urine can activate the battery device.
“It’s a way to power a small device such as a pacemaker without introducing any harsh chemicals, such as the kind that are typically found in batteries, into the body,” said Victor Pushparaj, a senior research specialist.
The materials required to create the paper batteries are inexpensive, but the team has not yet developed a way to inexpensively mass produce the devices, said Saravanababu Murugesan, a postdoctoral research associate. The end goal is to print the paper using a roll-to-roll system similar to how a newspaper prints.
“When we get this technology down, we’ll basically have the ability to print batteries and print supercapacitors,” said Pulickel M. Ajayan, professor of materials science and engineering. “We see this as a technology that’s just right for the current energy market, as well as the electronics industry, which is always looking for smaller, lighter power sources. Our device could make its way into any number of different applications.”
The team of researchers has filed a patent protecting the invention.

The iphone

The iPhone is an internet-connected multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a flush multi-touch screen and a minimal hardware interface. The device lacks a physical keyboard, so a virtual keyboard is rendered on the touch screen. The iPhone's functions include those of a camera phone and portable media player (equivalent to the iPod) in addition to text messaging and visual voicemail. It also offers Internet services including e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. The first generation phone hardware was quad-band

GSM with EDGE; the second generation also adds UMTS with HSDPA.

Apple announced the iPhone on January 9, 2007. The announcement was preceded by rumors and speculation that circulated for several months. The iPhone was initially introduced in the United States on June 29, 2007 and is in the process of being introduced worldwide. It was named Time magazine's Invention of the Year in 2007. On July 11, 2008, the iPhone 3G was released and supported faster 3G data speeds and Assisted GPS.

The good:

The Apple iPhone 3G offers critical new features including support for high-speed 3G networks, third-party applications, and expanded e-mail. Its call quality is improved and it continues to deliver an excellent music and video experience.

The bad:

The iPhone 3G continues to lack some basic features that are available on even the simplest cell phone. Battery life was uneven, and the 3G connection tended to be shaky. Also, the e-mail syncing is not without its faults.

The bottom line:

The iPhone 3G delivers on its promises by adding critical features and sharper call quality. The iTunes App Store is pretty amazing, and the 3G support is more than welcome. Critical features still are missing, and the battery depletes quickly under heavy use, but the iPhone 3G is a big improvement over the original model.

Specifications:

OS provided: Apple MacOS X; Band / mode: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900; Wireless connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0;

Microsoft Surface: Behind-the-Scenes First Look

The software giant has built a new touchscreen computer—a coffee table that will change the world. Go inside its top-secret development with PopularMechanics.com, then forget the keyboard and mouse: The next generation of computer interfaces will be hands-on.
Click to watch the video........
http://video.popularmechanics.com/services/link/bcpid932579976/bclid932553050/bctid933742930