Roland Piquepaille: SideBars

Repairing genetic mutations with lasers?

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:47:14 GMT

German researchers at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) think they've proved that genetic information can be controlled by light. The group studied the interaction between the four DNA bases -- adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T) -- by using femtosecond time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The researchers think that they've demonstrated that DNA strands differ in their light sensitivity depending on their base sequences. The team thinks that it might be possible in the future to gene mutations using laser radiation. One of the project leaders said that "it might even be possible under some circumstances to make transistors from DNA that would work through the hydrogen bonds." It's not the first time I've heard about DNA computing, but this new approach looks promising. Read more...

The Texas petawatt laser

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:14:56 GMT

According to the University of Texas at Austin in a very short news release, the most powerful laser in the world fired up last week. The researchers said that this laser is 2,000 times more powerful than all power plants in the United States. But, as in previous experiments with powerful lasers, this power lasts only for a very short period of time, a 10th of a trillionth of a second in this case -- or 0.0000000000001 second. The physicists added that this laser 'is brighter than sunlight on the surface of the Sun.' They also said that is the only operating petawatt laser in the United States. But they forgot to say that a system installed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory broke the petawatt peak power barrier back in 1996. But read more...

Exclusive images of Endeavour's damaged tiles

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:36:51 GMT

Neptec Design Group, a Canadian company and a NASA prime contractor for 25 space missions, was kind enough to send me exclusive images of Endeavour's damaged tiles during its last take-off. So here are some of these pictures provided by Neptec. For more information, please read a recent interview with Iain Christie, the Neptec's president.

A Led Zeppelin robotic fan

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 15:43:27 GMT

In a short article, RobotsDreams.com reports about MechaBonham, a Japanese musical robot based on the classic Kondo KHR-1 humanoid robot design. But even if the creators of this robot are fans of Led Zeppelin in general and of John Bonham, its drummer who died in 1980, in particular, MechaBonham, who can play guitar or piano, I doubt you will like to hear it everyday.

What's the date today? The answer is 2005-01-30

Sun, 30 Jan 2005 16:25:10 GMT

If you live in an English-speaking country, or if you're using an English-based software, chances are good that you're using "English" dates, and that today's date is displayed by default as 01/30/05 or 01/30/2005. On the contrary, in most areas of the world, the so-called "French" format will lead to something like 30/01/2005. Since 2003, the International Organization of Standardization wants us to use a single format worldwide. This ISO 8601 document, "Numeric representation of dates and time," has chosen the YYYY-MM-DD representation, going from left to right from the largest element to the smallest. So today is 2005-01-30. On this very serious topic, you also can read this funny article from the Toronto Star, "We can put a man on the moon but we can't agree on what the date is." Anyway, because of this incompatibility between different date notations, today is January 30, 2005 for me.

Nanotech News Roundup #1

Mon, 06 Dec 2004 18:44:49 GMT

Here is a selection of articles about nanotechnologywhich appeared in the last two weeks. I might post such a collection on a bimonthly basis. Enjoy!

Cold Sugar Cloud Found in Space

Wed, 22 Sep 2004 18:32:18 GMT

A cloud filled with simple molecules of sugar has been found 26,000 light-years away from us, near the middle of our Milky Way Galaxy. The 8-atom sugar molecules exist in a gas cloud named Sagittarius B2 at a temperature of only 8 degrees above absolute zero. Too far and too cold to bake your next cake! However, even if chemistry reactions on Earth and in this frigid sugar cloud are very different, astronomers think this "discovery suggests how the molecular building blocks necessary for the creation of life could first form in interstellar space." I'm not qualified to say if their claims are funded, but don't hesitate to tell me if they're right or wrong.

Howard Rheingold on 'new economic system'

Wed, 11 Aug 2004 16:55:41 GMT

The online version of BusinessWeek carries a recent interview of Howard Rheingold, the author of Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, about the "new economic system" he thinks it's emerging "from such seemingly disparate developments as Web logs, open-source software development, and Google." If you read the interview, you'll see that "Rheingold is worried that established companies could quash such nascent innovations as file-sharing." He also says that the Nokias and the HPs of our world should give prototypes of their gears to 15-year-olds to discover what these creative young people can do with them, instead on relying on marketing people. And if you haven't done it before, don't forget to visit the Smart Mobs Weblog and to read a previous interview of Rheingold about the US presidential election of 2004, "A Major Change in the Political Equation."

Tracking Koalas From Space

Thu, 05 Aug 2004 14:17:58 GMT

A week ago, I told you that GPS-equipped pigeons followed highways. Now, the University of Queensland and mining company Rio Tinto Coal Australia (RTCA) are using satellite technology to track koalas from space. Their partnership, Koala Venture, started about 15 years ago to study the habitat and diet of the koalas living near the Blair Athol Mine. In a new stage of the partnership, koalas will be fitted with special satellite tracking collars. They hope to understand the way a koala sees its surroundings, and of course to better manage the koala population, their safety and security. Apparently, these koalas are lucky, because other studies say that they could be extinct in 15 years.

Forget the PDA, Here Comes the TDA

Mon, 12 Jul 2004 18:49:29 GMT

One of my readers just told me that a young French company has started to sell the Jackito, the first 'Tactile Digital Assistant' (TDA). This new kind of PDA has no stylus, doesn't offer handwriting recognition and has no keyboard. Instead, it is based on touchscreen technology and relies entirely on your thumbs for input -- which are harder to lose than a stylus. And as Jackito has two simultaneous touch points, you can operate it with your two thumbs at the same time, at least according to the company. For an entry price of $600, you'll get parallel-processing capabilities with 7 processors and plenty of brand new technology, including 3ActilOS, a multitasking OS, which is not even referenced by Google. So be warned before purchasing one! However, the approach is pretty unique and I wish them good luck. UPDATE: Even if I expressed some doubts in the above introduction, several readers think this is a scam for several reasons: the company is asking for money before accepting an order; and it accepts only money from PayPal accounts, which is more than suspicious. Please accept my apologies. And don't send any money to this company!!! NEW UPDATE on July 21, 2004: Since this column was written, I met the CEO and the CTO of the company behind the Jackito. And I used an early prototype. I don't know if this TDA will be a success, but one thing is sure: it's real. Check this new column for more, "Exclusive Interview With Jackito's Makers."

How to Save $438 Billion a Year

Wed, 26 May 2004 17:24:27 GMT

It should be easy to do, according to this report from Cornell University, "Low hydrocarbon diet." Like some of us change diet to lose some weight, we also should change the way we're using fossil fuels. David Pimentel, Cornell professor of ecology, and his students, write that stopping subsidies to the energy industries will stimulate energy conservation. They estimate that the U.S. could reduce their energy consumption by 33 percent in ten years if the policies evolve, resulting in annual savings of $438 billion.

Someone Stole My Name to Open a Slashdot Account

Sun, 23 May 2004 07:35:26 GMT

Here is a message I sent on May 23, 2004 to the Slashdot editors.

A Killer Amp -- for Your Desk Chair

Thu, 13 May 2004 13:04:19 GMT

Walter Mossberg, from the Wall Street Journal, has found a new $150 gadget to enhance video gaming and music listening. The ButtKicker Gamer is a device that you attach to the bottom of your chair and emits sound waves from your favorite games or music. These sound waves send vibrations through your body, starting from the bottom up. Mossberg gives us his impressions in this article (paid registration needed). He tells us that male testers enjoyed more the gadget than female ones. He also says that it is more an enhancement to videogames than to music.

Janet Jackson Would Also Have Been a Hit in the 1600s

Sat, 08 May 2004 17:05:52 GMT

This weekend, let's move away from future technologies and explore our past. A few weeks ago, Janet Jackson's right breast was seen during the Super Bowl TV broadcast. Big media companies and the FCC were outraged. But according to an historian from the University of Warwick, bared breasts were the height of fashion in the 1600s. In this study, Angela McShane Jones says that women showing their bared breasts in public were commonplace, from the Queen to prostitutes. She adds that bared breasts were used to illustrate ballad sheets to lure potential buyers. It's interesting to note that selling tricks haven't changed in the last 400 years.

Who's Behind the Shower Curtain?

Mon, 03 May 2004 16:34:31 GMT

No, it's not Norman Bates. Instead, hundreds of millions of yellow, pink and white bacteria are hiding on your shower curtain. According to a study by San Diego and Colorado researchers, it should be enough to push you to turn the water off and to make you grab a towel. After analyzing the vinyl shower curtains from their own bathrooms, the scientists found hundreds of thousands of potentially armful species. So what did they do? First, they wrote an article which will soon be published by Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Then, they rushed to the store to buy new vinyl curtains. Sorry to leave you here, but I also have to go and buy another shower curtain, preferably a disposable one.

Enryu, the Rescue Dragon Robot

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 11:09:45 GMT

Three weeks ago, I told you about Banryu, a robot to guard your home and designed to look like a dragon. Today, in "Japanese firm unveils large robot for disaster rescue work," the Agence France-Presse says that the Japanese company behind Banryu, Tmsuk, has built another dragon robot. This robot is intended to help rescue workers after a disaster, such as an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. But this robot doesn't play in the same league. The T-52 Enryu is 3.5 meters high and weighs 5 tons.

How High the Heels?

Tue, 23 Mar 2004 20:09:13 GMT

The Institute of Physics of London has devised a mathematical formula to compute the maximum height of high-heels that someone can wear. The result can be seen in this news release, "Scientists calculate how high heels can go." The formula, h = Q.(12+3s/8), is quite simple, and integrates elements such as the number of alcohol *units* the high-heel wearer has taken or her number of years of experience. It even adds elements such as the time since the shoe was the height of fashion. The U.K. scientists said that a particular woman could wear 12.5 centimeters high-heel shoes when sober, but only 2 centimeters after consuming 6 units of alcohol (and don't ask me what is the unit, it's not said).

Meet PaPeRo, Personal Robot and Interpreter

Thu, 04 Mar 2004 13:07:41 GMT

Yesterday, Dan Gillmor mentioned in his eJournal a new Japanese cell phone equipped with a very useful GPS system. He wished that the service was translated into other languages and that these phones were available for rent. A somewhat similar service is just being launched at Narita Airport, where you will be able to rent PDAs which can translate your language into Japanese. The application is based on speech-to-speech technology developed by NEC and implemented in small robots named PaPeRo (Partner-Type Personal Robot), according to BBC News Online.

Can an Hallucinogen Cure Drug Addiction?

Sun, 29 Feb 2004 17:45:27 GMT

Are you a drug addict? I hope you aren't. But if your answer is yes, some relief might come from a counter-culture hallucinogen made from a shrub found in West Africa, and named ibogaine. However, you're out of luck if you live in the U.S. because it's completely illegal there, as reports KRON 4, a Californian TV news station, in this article. Apparently, it's amazingly effective for heroin, crack cocaine and even alcohol addicts. [And thanks to Robin for the pointer to this story.]

The Shortest Time Interval Ever Measured

Thu, 26 Feb 2004 16:52:01 GMT

Austrian scientists have measured the shortest time interval ever, according to Nature in "Snapshot taken of the tiniest time interval."

Weighing an Attogram

Wed, 25 Feb 2004 14:17:32 GMT

Researchers at Cornell University have reached a new level of precision by measuring objects with a mass of less than an attogram (10^-18 gram). This level of sensitivity exceeds by several orders of magnitude the one reached last year when scientists at Oak Ridge National Lab. measured objects with a mass of a femtogram (10^-15 gram). Harold Craighead and his colleagues at Cornell used the same technology, a silicon cantilever oscillator, to measure small dots of gold. But their real goal is to detect and identify viruses.

A New Guardian For Your Home

Sun, 22 Feb 2004 15:36:55 GMT

Its name is "iRobi" and it is manufactured by Yujin Robotics, a South Korean company. This robot will keep your house while you're away, with its built-in sensors allowing to move into your house and to detect intruders.

DNA Origami: Clonable structures for nanotechnology

Mon, 16 Feb 2004 13:01:43 GMT

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have constructed a single strand of DNA that spontaneously folds into a highly rigid, nanoscale octahedron. These clonable structures represent a breakthrough because they can be manipulated with the standard tools of molecular biology and can easily be cloned, replicated, amplified, evolved, and adapted for various applications. This opens the way to future nanotools and to the minuscule computers of tomorrow.

Should Robots Have Human Faces?

Tue, 03 Feb 2004 17:41:31 GMT

A robotics designer named David Hanson, who lives in Dallas, Texas, says yes, according to this story from the Associated Press. But can you imagine that this guy gave his latest robot, designed to resemble his girlfriend, a name like Hertz? Does he think his girlfriend is for rent? Quite amazing! Many people disagree with his approach.

These Robots Fly Like Hummingbirds

Tue, 27 Jan 2004 17:27:29 GMT

Sunil K. Agrawal, a robotics expert at the University of Delaware, is working on small robotic devices that mimic the flight of birds, such as the hummingbird. He chose the hummingbird because it can hover, a key characteristic for the goal of these devices, which is surveillance. In fact, these robots will carry miniature cameras and fly in groups, while sending their surveillance data wirelessly to a central computer. They will be used in industrial and military applications as well as in rescue operations.