Denisova Cave and the Mystery of the mtDNA Phylogenetic Tree « Rokus Blog Nobody expected a great surprise. Genetic testing of the little finger of an early hominin child found in the Siberian Denisova Cave, Kostenki, in the middle of archeological remains pertaining to Upper Paleolithic culture, would almost for sure confirm DNA similar to ours. There was a slim change that the pinky belonged to a Neanderthal from the neighborhood that got lost, but everything pointed at a an unequivocal member of the advanced group of hominins responsible for introducing symbolic art all over the world, the so-called anatomically modern humans (AMH). The collection of personal adornments and artifacts suggestive of symbolic behavior from the Early Upper Paleolithic deposits of Denisova Cave, Altai, is one of the earliest and the most representative of the Upper Paleolithic assemblages from Northern and Central Asia. Humans spend more time gathering around the campfire to celebrate their victory on Nature, only to challenge evolution in an entirely new way. Dr.
Liquid universe Public release date: 13-Oct-2004 [ Print | E-mail Share ] [ Close Window ] UK CONTACT - Claire Bowles claire.bowles@rbi.co.uk 44-207-611-1210New Scientist Press Office, London US CONTACT – Toni Marshalltoni.marshall@newscientist.com617-558-4939New Scientist Boston office The cosmos was born in a churning fluid 300 million times hotter than the sun. In QCD, it is the vacuum that imprisons the quarks. A pair of virtual particles from the vacuum are given enough energy that they become real, and fly apart in opposite directions. "There's no doubt. This makes the plasma more similar to a liquid than a gas. This is part of a Feature article that appears in New Scientist issue: 16 October 2004. [ Print | E-mail AAAS and EurekAlert!
Hidden Video Courses in Math, Science, and Engineering » Data Wrangling Blog Hidden Video Courses in Math, Science, and Engineering Over the last few years, a large number of open courseware directories and video lecture aggregators have popped up on the web. These sites often include introductory courses and research seminars, but it can be difficult to find full courses covering advanced topics. For budgetary and copyright reasons, most upper level and smaller attendance courses are not recorded, or are only offered online for a fee. Many schools provide access-restricted videos of advanced courses to current students, but do not make them available to the wider community. What motivated me to pull this together? It is difficult to find advanced math and physics courses that fit into a full time work schedule. The approach I came up with was to load an Archos video player with video lectures from the web (an iphone would probably work just as well). Enough motivation, on with the links: Links to Advanced Courses with Complete Video Lectures: Physics Mathematics
Nanotechnology Basics Home > Introduction > Nanotechnology Basics Nanotechnology Basics Last Updated: Friday, 14-Jun-2013 09:28:04 PDT What is Nanotechnology? Answers differ depending on who you ask, and their background. Broadly speaking however, nanotechnology is the act of purposefully manipulating matter at the atomic scale, otherwise known as the "nanoscale." Coined as "nano-technology" in a 1974 paper by Norio Taniguchi at the University of Tokyo, and encompassing a multitude of rapidly emerging technologies, based upon the scaling down of existing technologies to the next level of precision and miniaturization. Foresight Nanotech Institute Founder K. In the future, "nanotechnology" will likely include building machines and mechanisms with nanoscale dimensions, referred to these days as Molecular Nanotechnology (MNT). Click image for larger version. This image was written using Dip-Pen Nanolithography, and imaged using lateral force microscopy mode of an atomic force microscope. "We know it's possible.
Nanotech breakthrough: get ready for graphene The exciting one-atom thick super material can now be produced in ample quantities and high quality. Rapid improvements in nanotechnology are now expected. Technology improvements are about to get dramatically ultra-fast. Exciting sustaining and disruptive innovations are on the way for just about every digital appliance, from touchscreen tablet computing to solar cells, according to a Science Daily report. Graphene is a new form of carbon, one atom in thickness, extremely strong and highly conducive. High performance can be achieved with graphene transistors that can operate at much faster speeds and in higher heat conditions compared to current silicon chip technology. Read more... The result?
Penn study shows why sleep is needed to form memories PHILADELPHIA – If you ever argued with your mother when she told you to get some sleep after studying for an exam instead of pulling an all-nighter, you owe her an apology, because it turns out she's right. And now, scientists are beginning to understand why. In research published this week in Neuron, Marcos Frank, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, postdoctoral researcher Sara Aton, PhD, and colleagues describe for the first time how cellular changes in the sleeping brain promote the formation of memories. "This is the first real direct insight into how the brain, on a cellular level, changes the strength of its connections during sleep," Frank says. The findings, says Frank, reveal that the brain during sleep is fundamentally different from the brain during wakefulness. "We find that the biochemical changes are simply not happening in the neurons of animals that are awake," Frank says. A molecular explanation is emerging.
A Robot's Body of Knowledge Photo: Humanoids and Intelligence Systems Lab/Karlsruhe Institute for Technology Click on the image for a larger view. 15 November 2010—Early risers may think it’s tough to fix breakfast first thing in the morning, but robots have it even harder. Even grabbing a cereal box is a challenge for your run-of-the-mill artificial intelligence (AI). Frosted Flakes come in a rectangular prism with colorful decorations, but so does your childhood copy of Chicken Little. Do you need to teach the AI to read before it can grab breakfast? Maybe not. The robot’s thinking is not separated from its body, because it must use its body to learn how to think. Embodied cognition also requires sophisticated two-way communication between a robot’s lower-level sensors—such as its hands and camera eyes—and its higher-level planning processor. The PACO-PLUS system’s masters tested it in a laboratory kitchen.
Artificial Robotic Hand Transmits Feeling To Nerves Astro Teller has an unusual way of starting a new project: He tries to kill it. Teller is the head of X, formerly called Google X, the advanced technology lab of Alphabet. At X’s headquarters not far from the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., Teller leads a group of engineers, inventors, and designers devoted to futuristic “moonshot” projects like self-driving cars, delivery drones, and Internet-beaming balloons. To turn their wild ideas into reality, Teller and his team have developed a unique approach. The ideas that survive get additional rounds of scrutiny, and only a tiny fraction eventually becomes official projects; the proposals that are found to have an Achilles’ heel are discarded, and Xers quickly move on to their next idea. The moonshots that X has pursued since its founding six years ago are a varied bunch.