Webcast on Finding the Missing Memristor
Posted on April 30, 2010 Comments (0)
Very interesting lecture on finding the missing memristor by R. Stanley Williams. From our post in 2008:
How We Found the Missing Memristor By R. Stanley Williams:
Related: Demystifying the Memristor – posts on computer science – von Neumann Architecture and Bottleneck
Tags: computer science,Engineering,engineering webcasts,Science,scientific inquiry,Students
Scottish Highland Wildcats
Posted on April 29, 2010 Comments (0)
Once again remote camera monitors have captured wild cats. What fun 
Cameras capture secret life of the ‘Highland tiger’
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Motion detectors and infra-red technology allow the devices to capture images of passing animals over a period of days, weeks or even months. The project is still in its early stages but the cameras have already provided images of Scottish wildcat – popularly known as the Highland tiger – and other animals, including golden eagles.
“Wildcats are very shy, secretive animals. They are active mainly at night and it’s really difficult for people to get close enough to watch them properly. These camera traps are an excellent way of us getting a much better insight into where wildcats live, when they’re active, and what habitat they’re using.”
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Experts believe the Scottish wildcat population has fallen to about 400, and work is under way to prevent the species becoming extinct.
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“The major threat to wildcats these days is hybridisation, or inter-breeding, with domestic cats. “Although they are quite different and have a completely different temperament, they are actually quite closely related genetically to domestic cats so they can produce fertile hybrids.
Related: Scottish Wildcat Association – Sumatran Tiger and Cubs Filmed by Remote Wildlife Monitoring Cameras – Bornean Clouded Leopard – Jaguars Back in the Southwest USA – Rare Chinese Mountain Cat
Evidence that Refined Carbohydrates Threaten the Heart
Posted on April 28, 2010 Comments (2)
More Evidence that Refined Carbohydrates, not Fats, Threaten the Heart
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Right now, Post explains, the agency’s main message to Americans is to limit overall calorie intake, irrespective of the source. “We’re finding that messages to consumers need to be short and simple and to the point,” he says. Another issue facing regulatory agencies, notes Harvard’s Stampfer, is that “the sugared beverage industry is lobbying very hard and trying to cast doubt on all these studies.”
The medical studies about what food to eat to remain healthy can be confusing but some details are not really in doubt. So while the exact dangers of processed carbohydrates, fat, excess calories and high fructose corn syrup may be in question their is no doubt we, in the USA, are not as healthy as we should be. And food is a significant part of the problem. Eat food, not too much, mostly plants and get enough exercise is good advice.
Related: Statistical Errors in Medical Studies – Researchers Find High-Fructose Corn Syrup Results in More Weight Gain – The Calorie Delusion – Obesity Epidemic Explained, Kind Of – Active Amish Avoid Obesity
Green Technology Innovation by College Engineering Students
Posted on April 25, 2010 Comments (3)
With prizes totaling more than $100,000 in value, this year’s Climate Leadership Challenge is believed to be the most lucrative college or university competition of its kind in the country. The contest was open to all UW-Madison students.
A device that would help provide electricity efficiently and at low cost in rural areas of developing countries took the top prize – $50,000 – this week in a student competition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for innovative ideas to counteract climate change.
The “microformer” is the brainchild of Jonathan Lee, Dan Ludois, and Patricio Mendoza, all graduate students in electrical engineering. Besides the cash prize, they will receive a promotional trip worth $5,000 and an option for a free one-year lease in the University Research Park’s new Metro Innovation Center on Madison’s east side.
“We really want to see implementation of the best ideas offered,” said Tracey Holloway, director of the Nelson Institute Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment at UW-Madison, which staged the contest for the second year in a row. “The purpose of this competition is to make an impact on climate change.”
The runner-up for the “most action-ready idea” was a proposal to promote the use of oil from Jatropha curcas plants to fuel special cooking stoves in places like Haiti. UW-Madison seniors Eyleen Chou (mechanical engineering), Jason Lohr (electrical engineering), Tyler Lark (biomedical engineering/mathematics) won $10,000 for their scheme to reduce deforestation by lowering demand for wood charcoal as a cooking fuel.
CORE Concept, a technology that would cut emissions from internal combustion engines by using a greater variety of fuels, won mechanical engineering doctoral students Sage Kokjohn, Derek Splitter, and Reed Hanson $15,000 as the “most innovative technical solution.”
SnowShoe, a smart phone application that would enable shoppers to check the carbon footprint of any item in a grocery store by scanning its bar code, won $15,000 as the “most innovative non-technical solution.” Graduate students Claus Moberg (atmospheric and oceanic science), Jami Morton (environment and resources), and Matt Leudtke (civil and environmental engineering) submitted the idea.
Other finalists were REDCASH, a plan to recycle desalination wastewater for carbon sequestration and hydrogen fuel production, by doctoral student Eric Downes (biophysics) and senior Ian Olson (physics/engineering physics); and Switch, an energy management system that integrates feedback and incentives into social gaming to reduce personal energy use, by doctoral students David Zaks (environment and resources) and Elizabeth Bagley (environment and resources/educational psychology).
Related: University of Michigan Wins Solar Car Challenge Again – Collegiate Inventors Competition – $10 Million X Prize for 100 MPG Car
Friday Fun: Amazing Goal
Posted on April 22, 2010 Comments (6)
This amazing goal illustrates what is possible with an amazing football (soccer) player and some physics.
Related: The Science of the Football Swerve – Engineering a Better Football
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A single Liter of Seawater Can Hold More Than One Billion Microorganisms
Posted on April 20, 2010 Comments (0)
Mat of microbes the size of Greece discovered on seafloor
These tiny creatures can join together to create some of the largest masses of life on the planet, and researchers working on the decade-long Census of Marine Life project found one such seafloor mat off the Pacific coast of South America that is roughly the size of Greece.
A single liter of seawater, once thought to contain about 100,000 microbes, can actually hold more than one billion microorganisms, the census scientists reported. But these small creatures don’t just live in the water column or on the seafloor. Large communities of microscopic animals have even been discovered more than one thousand meters beneath the seafloor. Some of these deep burrowers, such as loriciferans, are only a quarter of a millimeter long.
“Far from being a lifeless desert, the deep sea rivals such highly diverse ecosystems as tropical rainforests and coral reefs,”
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Microbes help to turn atmospheric carbon dioxide into usable carbon, completing about 95 percent of all respiration in the Earth’s oceans…
Related: Iron-breathing Species Isolated in Antarctic for Millions of Years – Life Far Beneath the Ocean – Life Untouched by the Sun
Tags: extremophile,life,Life Science,microbes,nature,ocean,Research,science facts
Robot Built Largely From Old TV Parts
Posted on April 19, 2010 Comments (3)
Unfortunately I can’t find any additional information – other than what is in the webcast. Sam Todo,
a student in Lome, Togo, Africa, built this robot almost entirely from old TV parts.
Related: Making Robots from Trash in China – Moth Controlled Robot – more home engineering posts – Robot Finds Lost Shoppers and Provides Directions
Non-infectious Prion Protein Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease
Posted on April 18, 2010 Comments (0)
‘Harmless’ prion protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease
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normal prion proteins produced naturally in the brain interact with the amyloid-β peptides that are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. Blocking this interaction in preparations made from mouse brains halted some neurological defects caused by the accumulation of amyloid-β peptide. It was previously thought that only infectious prion proteins, rather than their normal, non-infectious counterparts, played a role in brain degeneration.
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Alzheimer’s disease has long been linked to the build-up of amyloid-β peptides, first into relatively short chains known as oligomers, and then eventually into the long, sticky fibrils that form plaques in the brain. The oligomeric form of the peptide is thought to be toxic, but exactly how it acts in the brain is unknown.
Related: Soil Mineral Degrades the Nearly Indestructible Prion – Prion Proteins, Without Genes, Can Evolve – Clues to Prion Infectivity
Tags: human health,medical research,prion,protein,Science
Friday Fun: Cats and Kids with iPads
Posted on April 16, 2010 Comments (5)
So usable 2 year olds and cats can use them. Fun. Apple sold 500,000 in the first week and demand has outstripped their capacity to produce so they are delaying the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. Google is rumored to have a similar device based on their open Android operating system. Let the games begin. I must admit the iPad seems fun but it seems mainly like hype to me. But I can believe tablet-netbooks could evolve into very cool and popular devices.
Related: Hammer and Feather Drop on Moon – Dolphin Plays with Air Bubble Rings – Chimpanzee Riding a Segway
Read more
Why Planes Need to Avoid Fine Volcanic Ash
Posted on April 15, 2010 Comments (3)
Volcanic ash: why it’s bad for planes
That, in turn, can be catastrophic – as the crew of two aircraft, including a British Airways Boeing 747, discovered in 1982 when they flew through an ash cloud from the Galunggung volcano in Indonesia. On both planes, all four engines stopped; they dived from 36,000ft (11km) to 12,000ft before they could restart them and make emergency landings.
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The Icelandic plume has been thrown to between 6km and 11km into the atmosphere – exactly the height that aircraft would be flying.
Passengers on the BA flight that hit the cloud in 1982 said the engines looked unusually bright: soon after all four flamed out. “I don’t believe it – all four engines have failed!” said the flight engineer. The crew were prepared to ditch, and the captain told the passengers: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress.”
Luckily, three of the engines could be restarted. The plane landed safely, and nobody was injured.
Related: Why Planes Fly: What They Taught You In School Was Wrong – Successful Emergency Plane Landing in the Hudson River – Engineering Quiet, Efficient Planes – Engineering the Boarding of Airplanes
Growing Lettuce in My Backyard
Posted on April 14, 2010 Comments (4)
photo of lettuce in my garden
I planted lettuce in my backyard for the first time this year. I have enjoyed growing food in my backyard for the last several years. First it is very convenient. I want something to eat I can just go grab it out of the garden. Also it is healthier that many of the other things I might snack on. In addition, you can save money by growing your own food. And it is good for the environment (granted individuals don’t have much of an impact, but millions of people growing some of their own food does – reducing the amount of food transportation on the environment).
Also, I just find it cool to grow food in my yard to feed myself.
I don’t use anything to fertilize the soil or pesticides or anything. I just plant and let it grow (sometimes I water the garden). I just have a compost pile that is mainly leaves that I stir into the garden soil. It has worked fine for years now. I will grow tomatoes, berries, peppers, beans, peas and cucumbers again this year.
Related: Rethinking the Food Production System – Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. – Backyard Wildlife: Birds – Pesticide Laced Fertiliser Ruins Gardens – First Flowers of Spring
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