Feeds from thousands of Trendnet home security cameras have been breached, allowing any web user to access live footage without needing a password.

Internet addresses which link to the video streams have been posted to a variety of popular messageboard sites.

Users have expressed concern after finding they could view children’s bedrooms, among other locations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16919664

Video Gallery: The Most Amazing Movies of the Minuscule World

The winners of the Nikon Small World microvideography contest.

Every year we’re enthralled by the smallest things among us, as scientists capture stunningly beautiful and bizarre images under the microscope. For the first time, the people who bring us the annual Small World Microphotography Competition have caught the world of the tiny on tape.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/video-gallery-most-amazing-movies-minuscule-world

AA to launch sat-nav tech tracking insurance policy

The AA is set to launch a new insurance policy which uses sat-nav technology to track driver performance.

The firm said the system would allow its better drivers to receive cheaper premiums.

It follows similar efforts by smaller insurers. Larger rival Direct Line has told the BBC it is also piloting its own “black box” scheme.

Critics of the technology said that data should not be used as a reliable measure of a driver’s ability.

The system involves the installation of a small black box into the driver’s car which records how they drive.

The measures include monitoring speed, braking severity, cornering and the types of roads used during certain times of day.

This information is transmitted remotely to the insurers, and can also be accessed by users via a website which gives information on overall performance, warning them if they are likely to be moved to a higher premium.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16969509

Hydrogen from acidic water: Researchers develop potential low cost alternative to platinum for splitting water

A technique for creating a new molecule that structurally and chemically replicates the active part of the widely used industrial catalyst molybdenite has been developed by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). This technique holds promise for the creation of catalytic materials that can serve as effective low-cost alternatives to platinum for generating hydrogen gas from water that is acidic.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-hydrogen-acidic-potential-alternative-platinum.html

Spacecraft Computer Issue Resolved

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. — Engineers have found the root cause of a computer reset that occurred two months ago on NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory and have determined how to correct it.

The fix involves changing how certain unused data-holding locations, called registers, are configured in the memory management of the type of computer chip used on the spacecraft. Billions of runs on a test computer with the modified register configuration yielded no repeat of the reset behavior. The mission team made this software change on the spacecraft’s computer last week and confirmed this week that the update is successful.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120209.html

Navy to begin tests on electromagnetic railgun prototype launcher

The Office of Naval Research (ONR)’s Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program will take an important step forward in the coming weeks when the first industry railgun prototype launcher is tested at a facility in Dahlgren, Va., officials said Feb. 6.

The EM Railgun launcher is a long-range weapon that fires projectiles using electricity instead of chemical propellants. Magnetic fields created by high electrical currents accelerate a sliding metal conductor, or armature, between two rails to launch projectiles at 4,500 mph to 5,600 mph.

With its increased velocity and extended range, the EM Railgun will give Sailors a multi-mission capability, allowing them to conduct precise naval surface fire support, or land strikes; cruise missile and ballistic missile defense; and surface warfare to deter enemy vessels. Navy planners are targeting a 50- to 100-nautical mile initial capability with expansion up to 220 nautical miles.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-navy-electromagnetic-railgun-prototype-launcher.html

Explained: Sigma

It’s a question that arises with virtually every major new finding in science or medicine: What makes a result reliable enough to be taken seriously? The answer has to do with statistical significance — but also with judgments about what standards make sense in a given situation.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-sigma.html

The EU on Thursday signed contracts with German and French engineering firms to build and launch another eight satellites for its Galileo geopositioning system.

Aiming to provide rival global satellite navigation services from 2014, the contract with Germany’s OHB System AG is for 250 million euros, with France’s Arianespace and Astrium SAS sharing launch orders worth another 60 million euros.

“For Galileo, today’s signing signifies the concrete roll-out of the programme is on time and within budget,” Antonio Tajani, European Union industry commissioner, said in a statement.

The signings were in London.

Galileo satellites are currently launched in pairs aboard the Russian Soyuz rocket and the first two went up in October from the Kourou space base in EU French Guiana, South America.

That was the first time that Soyuz — a national treasure for Russia — had launched other than from Russia’s bases at Plesetsk and Baikonur.

Galileo, budgeted at 5.4 billion euros (7.2 billion dollars), is intended to give Europe independence in satellite navigation, a vital component of the 21st-century economy, from the US Global Positioning System (GPS).

When completed in 2020, the EU-funded system will comprise 27 operational satellites and three spares.

They will orbit at a height of 23,200 kilometres (14,400 miles) in three orbital planes, providing accuracy to within a metre (3.25 feet), compared to three to eight metres (10 and 26 feet) for GPS, according to official websites.

According to the European Commission, the market for geopositioning services will grow from 130 billion euros ($180 billion) in 2010 to 240 billion euros by 2020.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-eu-galileo-space-satellites.html

New super-earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby star

An international team of scientists has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. With an orbital period of about 28 days and a minimum mass 4.5 times that of the Earth, the planet orbits within the star’s “habitable zone,” where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface. The researchers found evidence of at least one and possibly two or three additional planets orbiting the star, which is about 22 light-years from Earth.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-super-earth-habitable-zone-nearby-star.html

Self-steering bullet researched by US weapons experts

The bullet uses tiny fins to correct the course of its flight allowing it to hit laser-illuminated targets.

It is designed to be capable of hitting objects at distances of about 2km (1.24 miles). Work on a prototype suggests that accuracy is best at longer ranges.

A think tank says the tech is well-suited to snipers, but worries about it being marketed to the public.

Work on the project is being carried out by an Albuquerque-based subsidiary of defence contractor Lockheed Martin on behalf of the US government.

The current prototype involves a 4in (10cm) bullet which includes an optical sensor in its nose to detect the laser. This information is then processed and used to move motors within the bullet which steer tiny fins, altering the ammunition’s path.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16810107

‘Supergiant’ crustacean found in deepest ocean

A huge crustacean has been found lurking 7km down in the waters off the coast of New Zealand.

The creature – called a supergiant – is a type of amphipod, which are normally around 2-3cm long.

But these beasts, discovered in the Kermadec Trench, were more than 10 times bigger: the largest found measured in at 34cm.

Alan Jamieson, from the University of Aberdeen’s Oceanlab, said: “It’s a bit like finding a foot-long cockroach.”

“I stopped and thought: ‘What on Earth was that?’ This amphipod was far bigger than I ever thought possible.”

The strange animals were found using a large metal trap, which had been equipped with a camera, housed in sapphire glass to keep it safe from the high pressures of the deep sea.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16834913

Instead of analyzing one set of solar-storm conditions, as is the case now, Goddard forecasters will be able to simultaneously produce as many as 100 computerized forecasts by calculating multiple possible conditions or, in the parlance of Heliophysicists, parameters. Just as important, they will be able to do this quickly and use the information to provide alerts of space weather storms that could potentially be harmful to astronauts and NASA spacecraft.

As part of its 11-year cycle, the sun is entering solar maximum, the period of greatest activity. It is expected to peak in 2013. During this time, more powerful CMEs, often associated with M- and X-class flare events, become more numerous and can affect any planet or spacecraft in its path. In the past, solar storms have disrupted power grids on Earth and damaged instrumentation on satellites. They can also be harmful to astronauts if they are not warned to take protective cover.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/ensemble-forecasting.html

The largest solar particle event since 2005

The largest solar particle event since 2005 has been detected by the radiation-monitoring instrument aboard the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, on its way from Earth to Mars.

The Radiation Assessment Detector, inside the mission’s Curiosity rover tucked inside the spacecraft, is measuring the radiation exposure that could affect a human astronaut on a potential Mars mission. It has measured an increase resulting from a Jan. 22 solar storm observed by other NASA spacecraft. No harmful effects to the Mars Science Laboratory have been detected from this solar event.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120127.html

Leaner, greener flying machines for the year 2025

Teams from The Boeing Company in Huntington Beach, Calif., Lockheed Martin in Palmdale, Calif., and Northrop Grumman in El Segundo, Calif., have spent the last year studying how to meet NASA goals to develop technology that would allow future aircraft to burn 50 percent less fuel than aircraft that entered service in 1998 (the baseline for the study), with 75 percent fewer harmful emissions; and to shrink the size of geographic areas affected by objectionable airport noise by 83 percent.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/greener_aircraft.html

FBI plans social network map alert mash-up application

The FBI is seeking to develop an early-warning system based on material “scraped” from social networks. It says the application should provide information about possible domestic and global threats superimposed onto maps “using mash-up technology”. The bureau has asked contractors to suggest possible solutions including the estimated cost.

It says the application should collect “open source” information and have the ability to:

• Provide an automated search and scrape capability of social networks including Facebook and Twitter.
• Allow users to create new keyword searches.
• Display different levels of threats as alerts on maps, possibly using colour coding to distinguish priority. Google Maps 3D and Yahoo Maps are listed among the “preferred” mapping options.
• Plot a wide range of domestic and global terror data.
• Immediately translate foreign language tweets into English.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16738209

The unlikely winner of CES 2012: Windows Phone

It’s clear from market statistics that Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android are currently the predominant mobile platforms. However, if the buzz at CES is anything to go by, Windows Phone will soon emerge as a strong contender to sit alongside these brands.

http://www.techday.co.nz/netguide/news/the-unlikely-winner-of-ces-2012-windows-phone/21864/

Opportunity rover still going strong after eight years on Mars

Eight years after landing on Mars for what was planned as a three-month mission, NASA’s enduring Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is working on what essentially became a new mission five months ago.

Opportunity reached a multi-year driving destination, Endeavour Crater, in August 2011. At Endeavour’s rim, it has gained access to geological deposits from an earlier period of Martian history than anything it examined during its first seven years. It also has begun an investigation of the planet’s deep interior that takes advantage of staying in one place for the Martian winter.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20120124.html

Are humans hardwired to cheat?

A successful affair has two components: meeting someone to engage in the act with, and not getting caught. This wisdom comes care of Ashley Madison website founder, Noel Biderman.

The American entrepreneur created the website a decade ago after discovering a quarter of online daters weren’t actually single. So he built an online community where people could sign-up for extra-marital affairs.

The site has members from over 18 countries, speaking seven different languages – including 54,000 in New Zealand. This figure has doubled in the last year – making NZ one of the fastest growing countries for infidelity.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10781361

Last week we asked readers for their predictions of life in 100 years time. Inspired by ten 100-year predictions made by American civil engineer John Elfreth Watkins in 1900, many of you wrote in with your vision of the world in 2112.

Many of the “strange, almost impossible” predictions made by Watkins came true. Here is what futurologists Ian Pearson (IP) and Patrick Tucker (PT) think of your ideas.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16536598

Wikipedia joins blackout in protest at US privacy moves

Wikipedia has taken its English-language site offline as part of protests against proposed anti-piracy laws in the US.

The user-generated news site Reddit and the blog Boing Boing are also taking part in the “blackout”.

However, Twitter has declined to take part in the shutdown.

Wikipedia is opposed to the US Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa) being debated by Congress.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16590585

World IPv6 launch day set to aid net address switchover

Leading internet firms have set 6 June as the World IPv6 launch day.

Web companies participating in the event have pledged to enable IPv6 on their main websites from that date.

Facebook, Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo are the inaugural web firms involved.

Internet service providers (ISP) taking part have promised that by the launch date they will have enabled at least 1% of their fixed line subscribers to visit IPv6-enabled websites. The ISPs involved include the US firms AT&T and Comcast, and the Dutch firm XS4all.

The home networking equipment manufacturers Cisco and D-Link say they aim to enable IPv6 on all their home router products by the date.

And Akami and Limelight – two firms that help improve third parties’ delivery of content over the net – have also promised to allow their customers to join the list of firms participating in the scheme by enabling the new protocol throughout their infrastructure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16601636

Sounds of the sea: Listening online to the ocean floor

Pressure-sensitive microphones pick up the live sounds of everything from whales and shipping to seismic activity and the movement of tectonic plates, and this audio is shared with scientists all over the world.

It’s also now available to anyone else with an internet connection.

For decades, the sounds of the deep sea were considered highly sensitive military data.

During the Cold War, the US Navy set up a network of underwater microphones in many parts of the world to track Soviet submarines.

Now the US Navy says it’s not too concerned about friendly civilian scientists listening in, but it is nervous about the opening up of real time ocean sound to the general public.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-16555916

Study Shows Our Galaxy Has at Least 100 Billion Planets

Our Milky Way galaxy contains a minimum of 100 billion planets, according to a detailed statistical study based on the detection of three planets located outside our solar system, called exoplanets.

The survey results show that our galaxy contains, on average, a minimum of one planet for every star. This means that it’s likely there is a minimum of 1,500 planets within just 50 light-years of Earth.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/micro20120111.html

Planck’s HFI completes its survey of early Universe

16 January 2012
The High Frequency Instrument on ESA’s Planck mission has completed its survey of the remnant light from the Big Bang. The sensor ran out of coolant on Saturday as expected, ending its ability to detect this faint energy.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Planck/SEMXWNMXDXG_0.html

NASA Finds 2011 Ninth-Warmest Year on Record

The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2011-temps.html

Could a ‘Death Star’ really destroy a planet?

Mirroring many late night caffeine-fueled arguments among Sci-Fi fans, a University of Leicester researcher asks the question: Could a small moon-sized battle station generate enough energy to destroy an Earth-sized planet? A paper by David Boulderston (University of Leicester) sets out to answer that very question. First, for the uninitiated, just what the heck is a Death Star?

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-death-star-planet.html

Mapping Earth’s surface in 3D

The German satellite radar twins – TanDEM-X and TerraSAR-X – are a year through their quest to make the most precise, seamless map of varying height on Earth.

They’ve now acquired data across the entire globe at least once. However, some tricky sampling areas, such as tall mountains and thick forests, will require several passes and so we don’t expect to see a fully finished product before 2014.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16578176

Samsung shows transparent 46-inch LCD panel

Samsung Electronics announced today that it is expanding the transparent display market with production of a 46-inch transparent LCD panel, beginning this month.

Younghwan Park, senior vice president of LCD marketing, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics, said, “Transparent panels, an exciting application of next-generation display technology, have unlimited potential to change our viewing habits over the next several years. As a strong supporter of the transparent display market, Samsung plans to develop this technology into a new growth engine for our LCD business.”

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-samsung-transparent-inch-lcd-panel.html

T-rays technology could help develop star trek-style hand-held medical scanners

Researchers from the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), a research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore, and Imperial College London in the UK have made T-rays into a much stronger directional beam than was previously thought possible, and have done so at room-temperature conditions. This is a breakthrough that should allow future T-ray systems to be smaller, more portable, easier to operate, and much cheaper than current devices.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-t-rays-technology-star-trek-style-hand-held.html

NZ residents on internet piracy charges denied bail

“Mega Conspiracy” accused Kim Dotcom, 37, who founded the Megaupload.com site and ran it from his $30 million Auckland mansion, appeared in the North Shore District Court this afternoon, following an early-morning raid.

Indictment documents from the United States Court for the Eastern District of Virginia list five counts against the seven defendents, which it calls the “Mega Conspiracy”.

They include conspiring to commit racketeering, conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering, criminal copyright infringement by distributing material and by electronic means.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/6288082/NZ-residents-on-internet-piracy-charges-denied-bail

Scientists from IBM and the German Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) have built the world’s smallest magnetic data storage unit. It uses just twelve atoms per bit, the basic unit of information, and squeezes a whole byte (8 bit) into as few as 96 atoms. A modern hard drive, for comparison, still needs more than half a billion atoms per byte.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-world-smallest-magnetic-storage.html

Russia Mars probe ‘crashes into Pacific Ocean’: military

Russia believes fragments of its Phobos-Grunt probe which spiralled back to Earth after failing to head on a mission to Mars crashed Sunday into the Pacific Ocean, a spokesman for its space forces said.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-russia-mars-probe-pacific-ocean.html

Fermi telescope explores new energy extremes

Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT) scans the entire sky every three hours, continually deepening its portrait of the sky in gamma rays, the most energetic form of light. While the energy of visible light falls between about 2 and 3 electron volts, the LAT detects gamma rays with energies ranging from 20 million to more than 300 billion electron volts (GeV).

At higher energies, gamma rays are rare. Above 10 GeV, even Fermi’s LAT detects only one gamma ray every four months.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-fermi-telescope-explores-energy-extremes.html

Belle discovers new heavy ‘exotic hadrons’

Two unexpected new hadrons containing bottom quarks have been discovered by the Belle Experiment using the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK)’s B Factory (KEKB), a highly-luminous, electron-positron collider. These new particles have electric charge and are thought to be “exotic” hadrons — non-standard hadrons, containing at least four quarks. Previously, a series of new and unexpected exotic hadrons containing charm and anti-charm quarks have been observed. This latest discovery from Belle demonstrates the existence of exotic hadrons containing at least four quarks in a particle system including bottom quarks.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-belle-heavy-exotic-hadrons.html

LG presents large-screen cinema 3D Smart TV line-up

LG Electronics unveiled an entourage of 3D excitement at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Led by the 55-inch 3D OLED TV and the 84-inch 3D Ultra Definition (UD) TV, LG will present a wide variety of new products, technologies and features catered to please consumers worldwide. An upgraded CINEMA 3D experience awaits, as LG’s new CINEMA 3D Smart TVs, monitors and projectors have been optimized with new and upgraded technologies and features, including LG’s fully matured Smart TV ecosystem which contains over 1,200 apps and premium 3D content.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-lg-large-screen-cinema-3d-smart.html

Scientists gear up to take a picture of a black hole

By imaging the glow of matter swirling around the black hole before it goes over the edge of the point of no return and plunges into the abyss of space and time, scientists can only see the outline of the black hole, also called its shadow. Because the laws of physics either don’t apply to or cannot describe what happens beyond that point of no return from which not even light can escape, that boundary is called the Event Horizon.

“So far, we have indirect evidence that there is a black hole at the center of the Milky Way,” Psaltis said. “But once we see its shadow, there will be no doubt.”

Even though the black hole suspected to sit at the center of our galaxy is a supermassive one at four million times the mass of the Sun, it is tiny to the eyes of astronomers. Smaller than Mercury’s orbit around the Sun, yet almost 26,000 light years away, it appears about the same size as a grapefruit on the moon.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-scientists-gear-picture-black-hole.html

NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor to power Audi’s next-gen infotainment and digital instrument clusters

NVIDIA announced that Audi AG has selected the NVIDIA Tegra 3 mobile processor to power in-vehicle infotainment systems — as well as new digital instrument clusters that replace traditional dashboard gauges — across its full line of vehicles worldwide, beginning in 2013.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-nvidia-tegra-processor-power-audi.html

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-belle-heavy-exotic-hadrons.html

The Pentagon’s premiere research agency has chosen a former astronaut to lead a foundation that is designed to take humanity to the stars.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and Nasa are sponsoring the project, known as the 100-Year Starship.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16427876

X-37B spaceplane ‘spying on China’

The unpiloted vehicle was launched into orbit by the US Air Force in March last year and has yet to return to Earth.

The Pentagon has steadfastly refused to discuss its mission but amateur space trackers have noted how its path around the globe is nearly identical to China’s spacelab, Tiangong-1.

There is wide speculation that the X-37B is eavesdropping on the laboratory.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16423881

Hackers plot DIY Sputniks for Internet freedom

Hackers at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, which wrapped up over the weekend, are toasting the New Year with a newly announced plan for a hacker-owned satellite communications network. The anti-censorship allies want to counter the spate of legislative and government efforts that seek to interfere with Internet freedoms.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-hackers-plot-diy-sputniks-internet.html

Apple’s Jonathan Ive gets knighthood in honours list

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s head of design, has been awarded a knighthood in the New Year Honours list.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16367022

Facebook going public this New Year

“The Facebook IPO will be the biggest financial event in the tech industry for 2012,” Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff said, and one of the biggest initial public offerings ever in the United States.

Nick Einhorn, an analyst at Renaissance Capital, said he expects Facebook to file its IPO paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the first quarter and start trading on Wall Street later in the year.

With an expected deal size of $10 billion, Facebook would slip into sixth place on the list of largest US IPOs between AT&T Wireless Group ($10.62 billion) and Kraft Foods ($8.68 billion), according to Renaissance Capital.

A market capitalization of $100 billion would put Facebook on a par with McDonald’s ($103 billion), well ahead of Boeing ($54 billion) but behind Apple ($376 billion) and another Internet giant, Google ($209 billion).

Facebook’s current annual revenue, mostly from online advertising, is estimated to be around $5 billion compared to $108 billion for Apple and $36 billion for Google.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-long-awaited-facebook-ipo-looms-year.html

Two Earth-sized planets have been discovered circling a dying star that has passed the red giant stage. Because of their close orbits, the planets must have been engulfed by their star while it swelled up to many times its original size.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-earth-sized-planets-survive-star-expansion.html

New particle discovered by ATLAS

Researchers from the University of Birmingham and Lancaster University, analysing data taken by the ATLAS experiment, have been at the centre of what is believed to be the first clear observation of a new particle at the Large Hadron Collider. The research is published today on the online repository arXiv.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-cb3p-particle-large-hadron-collider.html

Self-cleaning cotton nanoparticle coating invented

Efforts to create self-cleaning cotton fabrics are bearing fruit in China.

Engineers have created a chemical coating that causes cotton materials to clean themselves of stains and remove odours when exposed to sunlight.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16225050

MIT researchers have created a new imaging system that can acquire visual data at a rate of one trillion exposures per second. That’s fast enough to produce a slow-motion video of a burst of light traveling the length of a one-liter bottle, bouncing off the cap and reflecting back to the bottle’s bottom.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-trillion-frame-per-second-video.html

NASA Planning for Possible Landings on Europa

Two landers are being proposed which would launch in 2020 and land about six years later. As stated by Kevin Hand of JPL, ”Europa, I think, is the premier place to go for extant life. Europa really does give us this opportunity to look for living life in the ocean that is there today, and has been there for much of the history of the solar system.”

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-nasa-europa.html

NASA Mars-Bound Rover Begins Research in Space

NASA’s car-sized Curiosity rover has begun monitoring space radiation during its 8-month trip from Earth to Mars. The research will aid in planning for future human missions to the Red Planet. The rover carries an instrument called the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) that monitors high-energy atomic and subatomic particles from the sun, distant supernovas and other sources. “RAD is serving as a proxy for an astronaut inside a spacecraft on the way to Mars,” said Don Hassler, RAD’s principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. “The instrument is deep inside the spacecraft, the way an astronaut would be. Understanding the effects of the spacecraft on the radiation field will be valuable in designing craft for astronauts to travel to Mars.”

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20111213.html

Money

A chart of almost all of it, where it is, and what it can do.

http://xkcd.com/980/huge/#x=-11068&y=-7318&z=5

Japan PM declares ‘cold shutdown’ at Fukushima

Engineers have brought the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to a “cold shutdown condition”, nine months after the earthquake and tsunami, Japan has confirmed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16212057

Internet Explorer: Microsoft plans ‘silent’ updates

From January, Internet Explorer (IE) users will be automatically updated to the latest version of the browser. Microsoft said it was starting the project to update millions of machines to improve security online. Future updates to the browser would be applied without a user’s knowledge to help beat scammers catching people out with fake updates. Those who did not want their browser updated could opt out or uninstall the software, said Microsoft.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16214912

Intel, Micron introduce world’s first 128Gb NAND device and mass production of 64Gb 20nm NAND

World’s Highest-Capacity NAND flash memory die — New 20nm NAND from Intel and Micron provides unprecedented storage density. The industry’s first monolithic 128 gigabit (Gb) part can store 1 terabit of data in a single fingertip-size package with just eight die—a new storage benchmark that meets the ongoing demand for slim, sleek products.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-intel-micron-world-128gb-nand.html

HP today announced it will contribute the webOS software to the open source community.

HP plans to continue to be active in the development and support of webOS. By combining the innovative webOS platform with the development power of the open source community, there is the opportunity to significantly improve applications and web services for the next generation of devices.

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2011/111209xa.html

First-ever private launch to the International Space Station

Space Exploration Technologies Corp, a private California company, will attempt the first-ever commercial cargo run to the International Space Station in February.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-nasa-oks-feb-private-space.html

Debate over Armageddon super virus recipe

To publish or not to publish?

That is the question gripping scientists after virologists said they had developed a bird flu virus – with a 60 per cent human mortality rate – that could spread as easily as the common cold.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/6095183/Debate-over-Armageddon-super-virus-recipe

NASA’s Kepler Mission Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star

The newly confirmed planet, Kepler-22b, is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star similar to our sun. The planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth. Scientists don’t yet know if Kepler-22b has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition, but its discovery is a step closer to finding Earth-like planets.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepscicon-briefing.html

NASA’s Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space. Data obtained from Voyager over the last year reveal this new region to be a kind of cosmic purgatory. In it, the wind of charged particles streaming out from our sun has calmed, our solar system’s magnetic field has piled up, and higher-energy particles from inside our solar system appear to be leaking out into interstellar space.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/voyager20111205.html

Sharp to introduce industry’s thinnest CMOS camera module with optical image stabilization for smartphones

Sharp Corporation has developed a 12.1-Megapixel, 1/3.2-inch CMOS camera module with optical image stabilization that features the industry’s thinnest profile (5.47 mm in height). The new RJ63YC100 is intended for use in mobile devices such as smartphones. Sample shipments will begin from December 2, 2011.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-sharp-industrys-thinnest-cmos-camera.html

Researchers hope to build universal human age estimator

(PhysOrg.com) — As humans, we have a knack for estimating another person’s age quite accurately just by glancing at their face. Although age estimation may seem relatively simple to us, computers have a much more difficult time performing the task. In one of the latest attempts to build a computer that can accurately estimate a person’s age, researchers have taken a bottom-up approach to the challenge, collecting hundreds of thousands of images and videos from the Internet to train the system. Their goal is to build a universal human age estimator that is applicable to all ethnic groups and various image qualities.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-universal-human-age.html

(PhysOrg.com) — Visitors to the 42nd Tokyo Motor Show are to witness a new breed of airless tires from Bridgestone. Interest in the general press is already humming because of the material, design, and features of the Bridgestone debut on show. The concept tires use recycled thermoplastic, outside tread included. Fittingly colored green, the tires are being promoted for their green advantage of being completely recyclable.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-bridgestone-airless-concept-tokyo.html

Court denies Apple’s motion for preliminary injunction against Samsung products

In April of 2011, Apple kicked off what would soon become a global and complex series of litigation disputes when it sued Samsung in the US claiming that its line of Galaxy smartphones and tablets infringed upon Apple’s intellectual property and were nothing more than “slavish” copies. As part of its suit, Apple requested a preliminary injunction that would bar Samsung from selling said products in the US.

This past Friday, Judge Lucy Koh denied Apple’s motion for a preliminary injunction.

http://www.edibleapple.com/2011/12/03/court-denies-apples-motion-for-preliminary-injunction-against-samsung-products/

Physicists propose search for fourth neutrino

(PhysOrg.com) — Physicists know that neutrinos (and antineutrinos) come in three flavors: electron, muon, and tau. In several experiments, researchers have detected each of the neutrino flavors and even watched them “oscillate” back and forth between flavors. But starting in the early ‘90s, some experiments have also revealed a nagging anomaly: muon antineutrinos oscillate into electron antineutrinos at a 3% higher rate than predicted. Physicists can reconcile this discrepancy by adding a fourth neutrino with a specific mass, although such a move would require modifying the Standard Model, the theory of subatomic particles that has taken decades to build. In a new study, a team of physicists thinks it’s time to put the question of the fourth neutrino’s existence to the test.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-physicists-fourth-neutrino.html

HP slams ‘sensational’ reports about LaserJet printer hack vulnerability

(PhysOrg.com) — Columbia University researchers have demonstrated how hackers can use printers not only to infect computer systems and steal information but to set printers on fire. Their claims were made this week in a demo at Columbia University’s Intrusion Detection Systems Laboratory for msnbc. They report a security flaw in Hewlett-Packard (HP) printers open for exploit. While their experiments were only on HP printers, they said that they are just starting to sample other manufacturers’ printers too.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-hp-slams-sensational-laserjet-printers.html

A year-long time-lapse study of the sky by Ken Murphy.

http://www.notcot.org/post/44711/

http://www.murphlab.com/hsky/

Nanosail-D ‘Sails’ Home — Mission Complete

After spending more than 240 days “sailing” around the Earth, NASA’s NanoSail-D — a nanosatellite that deployed NASA’s first-ever solar sail in low-Earth orbit — has successfully completed its Earth orbiting mission.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/11-148.html