Can Math Predict the Rise and Fall of Empires? Two maps are side by side. Both depict Africa, Europe, and Asia in a time lapse: As centuries pass in seconds, red splotches emerge like blood stains spreading across continents, signifying the growth of empires. One map is the progression of actual history. The other, a computer's best guess at how and where on Earth empires should emerge, based on a few key assumptions. To the surprise of Sergey Gavrilets, both simulations are incredibly close. In a study out today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Gavrilets and his colleagues sought to create computer model that could predict the locations where empires would rise based on just three criteria.
"All hard sciences like physics, chemistry, biology and economics all have an important mathematical component," he tells PopMech, As an evolutionary biologist, Gavrilets developed models to explain biological process. The computer model begins with 2600 small societies. Robots trained as carers and security guards. Google Glass: Surgery Tool Of The Future? Watch A Professor Control Another Professor's Mind From Across Campus. Infrared Car System Spots Wildlife On The Road From 500 Feet Away. World first as woman gets pregnant seven years after ovaries removed | Science. Australian doctors and scientists have achieved a world first, helping a woman to become pregnant seven years after her ovaries were removed during cancer treatment, by grafting frozen tissue on to her abdominal wall. Researchers from Melbourne IVF and the Royal Women's hospital have given hope to cancer survivors who develop menopause after treatment, after achieving the world's first pregnancy from the process.
Just before surgery removed her second ovary, Brisbane woman Vali, 24, whose surname was not released, asked doctors to preserve some of her ovarian tissue in case it was possible to graft it back in the future. She said it had been "pretty confronting" to have found out at a young age that she might not have been able to have children.
"It didn't really hit me until I was ... 24 and I had to make some serious decisions about my healthcare then," she said. She and her partner, Dean, moved to Melbourne so she could undergo the treatment. "[We're] having two girls. Heartbeats to replace traditional passwords. Reports Say Tesla Is Developing A Self-Driving Car. World's First 3D Scanner for iPad Triples Kickstarter Goal in One Day. Yesterday morning San Francisco-based Occipital launched Structure Sensor—the world’s first 3D scanner for iPad—on Kickstarter with a fundraising goal of $100,000. By this morning, they had not only met their goal, but surpassed it to reach a whopping $323,321 (and counting)! So just what is it about the Structure Sensor that’s captivating so many people?
In the wake of the past year’s massive 3D printing boom, 3D scanners are, invariably, the next big prosumer gadget. The scanners are pretty much what they sound like: they allow one to capture the dimensions of an object so as to print out a precise replica on your 3D printer. MakerBot is set to release their Digitizer scanner later this month, and Matterform is just beginning to roll out their affordable scanners. But these scanners are tethered to a desk—not great for capturing items while traveling or objects that are fixed in awkward location. Occipital’s Structure Sensor is even cheaper. . + Structure Sensor on Kickstarter. 'Invisibility cloak' scientist wins Isaac Newton Medal.
Solar-powered 'family car' of the future prepares to race across the Outback. It's not quite a stylish sedan, but a team of students from the Netherlands' Eindhoven University of Technology have put together what they believe is the world's first solar-powered car that can tote around the whole family. The team debuted the "Stella" solar car today, which they intend to race over 1,800 miles across the Australian outback as part of the World Solar Challenge. If a vehicle built for four with a trunk in back doesn't sound like a traditional race car, it shouldn't: Stella will be raced in a new class of the Solar Challenge that's meant to encourage the creation of practical solar vehicles — the kind you could one day drive to work.
Stella will be judged on speed, energy use, weight carried, and simple practicality. A race for practicality, not just speed Though the car is entirely powered by solar energy, it doesn't quite have what it takes to make it through the eight-day-long race without a charge. How algorithms rule the world | Science. On 4 August 2005, the police department of Memphis, Tennessee, made so many arrests over a three-hour period that it ran out of vehicles to transport the detainees to jail. Three days later, 1,200 people had been arrested across the city – a new police department record. Operation Blue Crush was hailed a huge success. Larry Godwin, the city's new police director, quickly rolled out the scheme and by 2011 crime across the city had fallen by 24%.
When it was revealed Blue Crush faced budget cuts earlier this year, there was public outcry. "Crush" policing is now perceived to be so successful that it has reportedly been mimicked across the globe, including in countries such as Poland and Israel. In 2010, it was reported that two police forces in the UK were using it, but their identities were not revealed. Crush stands for "Criminal Reduction Utilising Statistical History". The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives.
This Microbial Battery Makes Power And Water From Poop And Pollution. The idea of sewage-powered devices is not new. In fact, it’s existed for more than a century. But finding a particularly efficient (and cost-effective) version of microbial fuel cell technology has been an ongoing challenge for engineers. A new “microbial battery,” however, looks like a breakthrough on the efficiency side of the equation. Researchers at Stanford University say they’ve developed a battery that can convert some 30% of the energy of dissolved organic matter in wastewater into electricity, the same proportion of energy that solar cells can harvest from sunlight. The difference between the battery and a regular microbial fuel cell, researchers say, lies in an electrode made up of silver oxide. Here's the science: Researchers Yi Cui, Craig Criddle, Xing Xie, and their team realized that the oxygen in their microbial fuel cell design was causing problems.
So the researchers got rid of the membrane setup. Still, there’s a couple of caveats. [Image: Electricity via Shutterstock] World's First £250,000 Stem Cell Burger to be Served in London Next Week. Next week, someone at a yet undisclosed location in London will get to eat the most expensive burger ever made – which cost a whopping £250,000! We’re talking about the world’s first lab-grown burger, which is made from 20,000 strips of cultured meat grown from cow’s stem cells. Combined with lab-grown fat, the burger is said to look and taste like the real thing – except no cows had to die to make it. Image via Shutterstock Funded in part by the Dutch government and an anonymous $396,000 donation, Mark Post’s research at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands is aimed at developing solutions to a burgeoning demand for meat.
The World Health Organization has warned that in the next four decades, meat demand will double, but current production methods are not only unsustainable environmentally, given the amount of methane released by cows, but also involve serious animal welfare violations. “The whole presentation next week will be a proof of concept,” Post said.
Via KDVR.