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A Light Bulb that Breathes
The perfect light bulb. But at $50?
Maybe you’re one of those people who thinks it’s hard to get excited about a light bulb. Then you’re also one of those people who hasn’t heard about General Electric’s new 100-watt equivalent LED bulb, just introduced at the Light Fair conference in Las Vegas....
Will Apple's TV Have Face-Recognition Technology?
More (rumored) details emerge about the iTV.
Some new details are trickling in about the rumored Apple HDTV, courtesy of the blog
The Quantum Biology Conundrum
If quantum mechanics plays an important role is biology, we'll want to copy it. If it doesn't, we'll want to know why not
One of the biggest questions in biology is whether the processes of life are able to exploit quantum effects to improve their lot. ...
MONDAY 7. MAY 2012
Radio-Controlled Genes
Radio waves can be used to activate calcium-sensitive genes by heating injected nanoparticles.
Nature News
The Single Theory That Could Explain Emergence, Organisation And The Origin of Life
Biochemists have long imagined that autocatalytic sets can explain the origin of life. Now a new mathematical approach to these sets has even broader implications
One of the most puzzling questions about the origin of life is how the rich chemical landscape that makes life possible came into existence. ...
SATURDAY 5. MAY 2012
Grief in the Time of Facebook
Is mourning what social media does best?
The drained expanse of McCarren Park Pool, August 9, 2007. That's the last time I saw Beastie Boy MCA alive. Not like I knew him; not like I wasn't sharing the experience with 5,000 other people....
Boom 'n' Bust
The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week
Could Technology Tame the Internet Meme?
Jonathan Zittrain calls for a technological solution to the ethical questions raised by Internet culture.
Zittrain’s message: Internet meme creators and remixers can be a force for good, in that they “look for a pathos in the world and try to capture it,” thereby exposing absurd aspects of commercialization and mass media; but it is increasingly important that those who love memes...
FRIDAY 4. MAY 2012
Five Hints on Our Facebook Future
Based on its pre-IPO video, expect more ads, changes to its mobile offerings, and a world where all software links to Facebook.
As Facebook heads for an expected $100 billion debut on the stock market two weeks from today, many users of the site may be wondering what this means for their experience of the social network. The...
Shelved Drugs Become a New Research Resource
The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, which is the newest branch of the National Institutes of Health, is partnering with big pharma to give academic researchers access to more than 20 drugs that have passed some safety testing in humans but for some reason have been iced by the drug makers....
Microsoft Carves Out a Nook
What to make of Redmond's $300 investment?
I’ve called Microsoft’s alliance with Facebook a “
THURSDAY 3. MAY 2012
Is Automation the Handmaiden of Inequality?
The odd coincidence of stagnating wages and a measure of productivity that excludes machines.
We've all heard it before: Americans are more productive than ever, but hourly compensation has stagnated for decades....
Horse Racing Gets Futuristic
With giant multi-touch gaming tables at a Hong Kong racecourse.
Think of it as “
RIM's Hail Mary
Prototypes of the BlackBerry 10 phone are given to developers
On Tuesday, Research in Motion unveiled prototypes of the BlackBerry 10 phone and operating system--a product more or less unanimously considered to be the company’s last chance (if that moment hasn’t already passed). Emphasis on the...
How A Private Data Market Could Ruin Facebook
The growing interest in a market for personal data that shares profits with the individuals who own the data could change the business landscape for companies like Facebook
To justify its sky-high valuation, Facebook will have to increase its profit per user at rates that seem unlikely, even by the most generous predictions. Last...
Fine-tuning Nanotech to Target Cancer
Programmable nanoparticles have shown promise in early cancer trials, and may finally fulfill the promise of nanomedicine.
The results of the human trials are startling. Even at a lower-than-usual dose, multiple lung metastases shrank or even disappeared after one patient received only two-hour-long intravenous infusions of an experimental cancer drug. Another patient saw her cervical...
Microsoft's New Lab Hunts for Value in User Data
The New York lab will search for patterns in aggregated user data, and suggest new revenue sources for Microsoft's existing products.
Microsoft has begun a new effort to understand how people interact and spread information online—and how such social interactions could be valuable to the company. ...
WEDNESDAY 2. MAY 2012
A Glimpse of Glasses-Free 3-D
So I was curious but skeptical when MasterImage 3D, whose 3-D offerings include digital 3-D projectors for movie theaters, asked me to check out its take on it. It has built its technology into an Android-running Qualcomm tablet that it first showed off at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, and it hopes to include the technology in smart phones starting late this year and tablets...
A $100 Million Boost for Competition in Health Care
Castlight Health aims to shed light on the costs of medical procedures.
Castlight Health, a startup that lets self-insured employers and their employees comparison shop for medical...
Harvard and MIT Offer Online Education for Free
The joint venture builds on an existing MIT platform that serves 120,000 students worldwide.
Harvard has joined with MIT to deliver courses over the Internet, for free, to anyone in the world. The new joint venture, called...
Twitter Cannot Predict Elections Either
Claims that Twitter can predict the outcome of elections are riddled with flaws, according to a new analysis of research in this area
It wasn't so long ago that researchers were queuing up to explain Twitter's extraordinary ability to predict the future. ...
Five Reasons Robot Sex Partners Won't End Human Trafficking
Power, economics and the Uncanny Valley.
"Robots, Men and Sex Tourism," a paper in the journal
TUESDAY 1. MAY 2012
Microsoft's Smart House
Microsoft Research presents "HomeOS."
You’ve got a lot of smart things in your home. There’s your smartphone, of course. There’s your
Who Needs a Remote-Controlled Car?
Besides James Bond, that is.
At the
Ancient Egyptians Recorded Algol's Variable Magnitude 3000 Years Before Western Astronomers
A statistical analysis of a 3000-year old calendar reveals that astronomers in ancient Egyptian must have known the period of the eclipsing binary Algol
The Ancient Egyptians were meticulous astronomers and recorded the passage of the heavens in extraordinary detail. The goal was to mark the passage of time and to understand the will of the Gods who kept the celestial machinery at...