IBM's Supercomputer Watson Beats Miles O'Brien at Jeopardy
Friday, February 11, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Brain Zapping : Bring Out The Genius In You
7:23 AM
Arun
Ever wished you could have thought more laterally to solve a problem? Well, you will now be able to do so by using a new mind-boosting technology — zapping your brain with mild electricity.
Researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia have shown that a blast of gentle electrical current to the brain helps one discard preconceptions and think outside the box. Donning such a "thinking cap" , the scientists said, could help us solve infuriating problems from balancing budgets at work to cracking the final crossword clue, the Daily Mail reported.
For their study, researchers recruited 60 university students happy to have a gentle electrical current passed through their brain in name of science. The men and women were shown a series sums in which the numbers were replaced by Roman numerals made out of matchsticks. Each sum contained a mistake that could be corrected by moving just one matchstick.
After solving numerous problems containing the same sort of error, a weak current was passed through a region —called the anterior temporal lobe — which lies just in front of the ears. The students were then given another set of matchstick problems to solve, this time with a different type of error. Those who were zapped on the right side of the head did three times as well at solving the problems as the others, the researchers reported in the journal Plops ONE.
This is likely as electricity boosted the activity of brain cells key to insight. In addition, the activity of the cells on the left side of the brain we usually use to quickly process the familiar may have been inhibited , the researchers said.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
54 Earth Like Planets Discovered : NASA
7:23 AM
Arun
Using a huge telescope orbiting the sun, scientists just found 1,200 new planets. 68 of them are about Earth's size. 54 of them are Earth's size AND temperature – meaning they are potentially habitable.
The last time humanity discovered habitual masses across an unknown abyss it was North America. In the 500 or so years since, we've experienced an unprecedented flowering of commerce, science, and culture. Back then, the average life span was 30 to 40 years.
Sure, some bad things happened as a result of this adventuring and colonization. Peoples disappeared. Disease spread. Buffallo died.
But on the whole, it looks like the Spaniards, Dutch, and Portugese were pretty smart to pack entreprenuers onto ships and send them into the unknown.
Let's do it again! It'll be dangerous, slow-going, technically difficult, and not immediately fruitful, but that was the case last time too.
(If humanity wants to keep going, by the way, we're going to have to find a new home eventually anyway. The sun won't last forever.)
