Tag: SCIENCE

Last night saw the final round of competition between Watson, the 'Jeopardy'-playing supercomputer, and the two contestants selected to represent all mankind. Our delegates performed admirably, but, at the end of the day, that bundle of neurons we call the human brain simply couldn't stand up to that room full of servers and the avatar with 42 "thought threads" (a nod to the greatest book ever ...

While much of the tech world's attention to eyewear has focused on creating non-dorky 3-D glasses, Dr. Ronald Blum has been developing an astounding -- and potentially revolutionary -- set of hi-tech specs. Now, after more than a decade of research and advancement, Dr. Blum's PixelOptics firm appears set to release emPower, "the world's first electronic focusing eyewear." These loaded, ...

An artificial retina designed to help some blind people regain their sight has already paid dividends for a few patients. Developed by the U.S. company Second Sight, the Argus II is an implant that can be surgically inserted into a patient's eye. A small camera attached to the patient's glasses captures images, and transmits them to a small wireless computer. The computer processes the images, ...

Scientists have already discovered a variety of health benefits that video games offer to elderly gamers, including heightened mental acuity and vision restoration. After performing a 10-week observational study, Dr. Patricia Kahlbaugh of Southern Connecticut State University now believes that motion control gaming alleviates other afflictions that commonly plague senior citizens, including ...

Various scientists believe Twitter possesses significant benefits as a predictive tool for cultural events. Researchers already analyze overall Twitter use in order to forecast and gauge various financial scenarios, including stock market activity and the potential box office success of movies. A group of analysts with Telefonica Research now believe they could predict potential Twitter activity ...

With the aid of revolutionary technology, archaeologists continue to expose exciting historical discoveries. According to The New Scientist, University of Western Australia professor David Kennedy has utilized Google Earth in hopes of identifying archaeological sites, and he just may have stumbled across nearly two thousand potentially significant locations. Using the satellite software from ...

The lottery's appeal stems from the fact that anyone could be a winner; it is a game of chance. But Canadian statistician Mohan Srivastava, who has degrees from MIT and Stanford, has realized one completely "duh" factor. In order to receive scratch-off lottery tickets, a machine must first print the numbers, over which the latex is pasted. "It would be really nice if the computer could just spit ...

Detecting potential skin cancer cells is an inexact process that depends on a doctor identifying a suspicious mole before waiting a few weeks for the biopsy results to come back from a lab. But according to Technology Review, scientists at the British Columbia Cancer Agency (BBCA) have developed a handheld wand that could help doctors instantly identify melanoma by scanning the molecular makeup of ...

Auburn University's Canine Detection Research Institute (CDRI) endeavors "to develop and innovate unique and novel applications for detection dogs." Well, the renowned Institute's new high-tech harness certainly seems to adhere to that innovative standard. The CDRI, whose furry bomb-sniffers and drug-detectors have been drafted by government and military organizations, reportedly equipped the ...

While surgical robots are much more precise than clunky human hands, the surgeons who use these devices aren't able to guide the 'bots with their natural sense of touch, and this can make it easier to bump into a delicate organ or artery. In response to this problem, some graduate engineering students at the University of Washington recently developed an Xbox 360 Kinect hack, which uses the ...

Share There's a good chance that young children growing up in today's world will learn how to use an iPad before learning how to tie their shoes. That's the takeaway from a new study by online security firm AVG, which found that 58-percent of kids between the ages of 2 and 5 know how to play a "basic computer game," while a full 63-percent know how to turn a computer off and on. Most young ...

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered a way to use modified LCD projectors to control the brains and muscles of small creatures such as worms -- provided they've been properly genetically modified. Using red, green and blue lights emitted by a projector, the researchers were able to activate light-sensitive proteins engineered within the subject organisms, triggering ...

Video games may detract from your child's physical activity and social life, but can they also drive your kid mental? According to a controversial new study, they can. Recently published in Pediatrics Journal, said study examined 3,000 children in Singapore over the course of two years. Researchers found that about one out of every ten children ultimately became addicted to video games, and ...

When 'Jeopardy' legends Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter face off against IBM's Watson supercomputer next month, they'll be going up against a machine that clearly knows a thing or two about... well, everything. Yesterday, Watson went head-to-head in a practice 'Jeopardy' round against Jennings and Rutter -- the Ruth and Gehrig of televised trivia. Not surprisingly, all three contestants proved ...

You can always count on 'Sesame Street' to teach our kids valuable lessons via TV, but now Cookie Monster has taken to YouTube to extend its educational reach. The show's first interactive YouTube vid teaches kids the basics of the scientific method, and asks them to guess whether objects will sink or float. It's not rocket science, but, remember, it's only 'Sesame Street.' ...