Showing posts with label Science and Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science and Technology. Show all posts


The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), which houses the world's most powerful particle accelerator - the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)- has just announced that scientists have found a new subatomic particle that could be the Higgs boson, the basic building block of the universe.
"I can confirm that a particle has been discovered that is consistent with the Higgs boson theory," said John Womersley, chief executive of Britain's Science & Technology Facilities Council, at an event in London.
''Higgs within reach. Our understanding of the universe is about to change…'' says CERN's official website (http://public.web.cern.ch/public/).
Several websites carried live streaming of the announcement today. According to media reports, speculation on 'God Particle' started when a 'leaked video' was briefly made public yesterday on the website of CERN, confirming that physicists at the LHC have most likely discovered the long-sought particle.



Wouldn't it be great to be able to travel without the hassle of packing your luggage and going through airport customs? Switzerland-based designer Timon Sager has an innovative idea for solving those pesky traveling pet peeves — build a flying house! While Sager's project known as Wolke 7 is still a concept design, it is an ideal notion that seems very plausible in the not-too-distant future. Like a more conceivable version of Disney's Up, the modern yacht-like home is suspended by over a dozen durable cables affixed to two sardine-like giant zeppelins.

The elegantly styled home features multiple decks with several amenities any modern homeowner would want — from a sleek entertainment room to a lavish bedroom. The house also features immense windows that would make every beautiful angle visible. If you have a paralyzing fear of heights, this may not be the home for you, but then again, who could pass up the greatest benefit of traveling in the comfortable confines of one's home? Wolke 7 would also eliminate the arduous task of packing light and researching for a hotel at your destination. Instead of hectic worrying, flying-homeowners can relax and sail the skies to their favorite vacationing spot.














Timon Sager website

LEFT your phone at home again? A solution is at hand: make sure it is with you at all times by having it implanted in your arm.
But given the opportunity, would you want your gadget to be a permanent part of you? The question may need answering sooner than you think.

Researchers at Autodesk, a software company in Toronto, Canada, checked to see whether the methods we currently use to interface with our gadgets work when the device is implanted in human tissue. The answer was a resounding "yes".

A button, an LED and a touch sensor all functioned appropriately when embedded under the skin of a cadaver's arm. The team was even able to communicate transcutaneously using a Bluetooth connection and charge the electronics wirelessly.

Would anyone want a piece of consumer electronics inside their body? There is something intrinsically creepy about the idea. Plus there is a risk that the device could malfunction and need to be removed, or that it could infect the surrounding tissue, not to mention the dystopian vision of a society in which our phones become tracking devices that we can never be free of.

Yet there are reasons for thinking that the cyborg future will come to be. The team, who worked with University of Toronto anatomist Anne Agur, says that medical risks such as infection need to be better understood before a device can be implanted into a living person. But it is a problem that manufacturers of existing implants, such as stents and replacement hips, have successfully tackled.
There are also clear benefits to implanted electronics. "The device is always there," says Holz. "You cannot lose it." And implants provide new interface methods. A gadget similar to a smartphone could provide a calendar alert by means of a gentle sub-skin vibration, for example.

And that creepy feeling? It is a common reaction now, but may lessen as people become familiar with the technology. The idea of using a machine to assist a human heart was once deemed unnatural, for example, but the insertion of a pacemaker is now a routine procedure.



Given recent trends, the famous phrase “fast cat just born” in the near future will continue with the words “and the Chinese are building hotels.” The fact that the builders of the Broad Group Corporation established its next record – built 30-storey hotel Ark Hotel is just 15 days !
ark hotel broad group 1 A Chinese Miracle. 30 storey hotel in 15 days...
ark hotel broad group 2 A Chinese Miracle. 30 storey hotel in 15 days...
A year ago the world watched with amazement at the Youtube video in which Chinese construction workers are building a 15-storey hotel in the city of Changsha, a little less than six days. And now the company Broad Group, responsible for the case raises a new record. It is just two weeks is building a skyscraper!
ark hotel broad group 3 A Chinese Miracle. 30 storey hotel in 15 days...
At a time when the entire Western world already being prepared for the Christmas and New Year, Chinese builders are just beginning your project, which is planned to finish exactly to the end of 2011 – December 31. However, before this was a serious work of preparing for construction – were depressed piles future hotel Ark Hotel, as well as prefabricated elements made of this facility.
ark hotel broad group 4 A Chinese Miracle. 30 storey hotel in 15 days...
As the carrying base 30-storey skyscraper Ark Hotel used a steel core to which are attached and all the rest of the building. Panels that were mounted on a metal frame, already had all the required for the operation of the hotel communication – pipes, wiring, ventilation. So the builders did not have to spend time alone at their pad.
ark hotel broad group 5 A Chinese Miracle. 30 storey hotel in 15 days...
Moreover, during the 15 days has been created not just a building and completely ready for operation and Breakfast – the workers, communications and even furniture in all rooms. Ark Hotel skyscraper height of 30 floors has an area of 17 thousand square meters. By using the most advanced energy saving technologies, the building will consume about 5 times less resources than similar facilities it. And the air in the Ark Hotel is 20 times cleaner than the other skyscrapers. For this indicator will meet high-tech cleaning system, controlled by a computer. Despite the apparent unreliability quickly erected structures of a skyscraper, he relies on the amplitude of the earthquake to withstand up to 9 on the Richter scale.
The polygraph instrument has undergone a dramatic change in the last decade. For many years, polygraphs were those instruments that you see in the movies with little needles scribbling lines on a single strip of scrolling paper. These are called analog polygraphs. Today, most polygraph tests are administered with digital equipment. The scrolling paper has been replaced with sophisticated algorithms and computer monitors. ­ 

Digital Lie Detector­

­When you sit down in the chair for a polygraph exam, several tubes and wires are connected to your body in specific locations to monitor your physiological activities. Deceptive behavior is supposed to trigger certain physiological changes that can be detected by a polygraph and a trained examiner, who is sometimes called a forensic psychophysiologist (FP). This examiner is looking for the amount of fluctuation in certain physiological activities. Here's a list of physiological activities that are monitored by the polygraph and how they are monitored: 
            
                                              
                                                                                        The basic components of a lie detector system
  • Respiratory rate - Two pneumographs, rubber tubes filled with air, are placed around the test subject's chest and abdomen. When the chest or abdominal muscles expand, the air inside the tubes is displaced. In an analog polygraph, the displaced air acts on a bellows, an accordion-like device that contracts when the tubes expand. This bellows is attached to a mechanical arm, which is connected to an ink-filled pen that makes marks on the scrolling paper when the subject takes a breath. A digital polygraph also uses the pneumographs, but employs transducers to convert the energy of the displaced air into electronic signals.
  • Blood pressure/heart rate - A blood-pressure cuff is placed around the subject's upper arm. Tubing runs from the cuff to the polygraph. As blood pumps through the arm it makes sound; the changes in pressure caused by the sound displace the air in the tubes, which are connected to a bellows, which moves the pen. Again, in digital polygraphs, these signals are converted into electrical signals by transducers.
  • Galvanic skin resistance (GSR) - This is also called electro-dermal activity, and is basically a measure of the sweat on your fingertips. The finger tips are one of the most porous areas on the body and so are a good place to look for sweat. The idea is that we sweat more when we are placed under stress. Fingerplates, called galvanometers, are attached to two of the subject's fingers. These plates measure the skin's ability to conduct electricity. When the skin is hydrated (as with sweat), it conducts electricity much more easily than when it is dry.
Lie Detector Results­
­Some polygraphs also record arm and leg movements. As the examiner asks questions, signals from the sensors connected to your body are recorded on a single strip of moving paper. You will learn more about the examiner and the test itself later. 

Detractors of the polygraph call lie detection a voodoo science, saying that polygraphs are no more accurate at detecting lies than the flip of a coin. "Despite claims of 'lie detector' examiners, there is no machine that can detect lies," reads a statement from the American Civil Libertiaes Union (ACLU). "The 'lie detector' does not measure truth-telling; it measures changes in blood pressure, breath rate and perspiration rate, but those physiological changes can be triggered by a wide range of emotions."­