quinta-feira, 15 de março de 2012

A Life Lived Online: How We Talk About Death on Social Media.

A Life Lived Online: How We Talk About Death on Social Media

By Alicia Eler / March 14, 2012 10:45 AM / 2 Comments

At http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_we_talk_about_death_on_social_media.php

Death is a part of life, both on and offline. Facebook and MySpace become gathering spaces for the living to mourn their fallen friends. What kind of language do people use to express their grief?

A new study out of the University of California at Irvine's School of Information and Computer Sciences takes a closer look at the language of bereavement and distress in social media. "Death in social media creates an entirely different kind of experience than we've ever really had before," says Jed Brubaker, a PhD Candidate at the University of California at Irvine. "Traditionally when someone dies, people come together at a certain place, certain time and grieve together - like a cemetery, wake." What types of language people use to mourn their loved one on social media, in front of other users?

Rather than take an obvious, trendy turn toward Facebook, the study looks at MySpace users, many of whom died young. Using a coding system, the researchers identifies emotionallt distressed content and an analysis of that language, which lays a foundation for natural language processing (NLP) tasks, including automatic detection of bereavement-related distress. The researchers discovered that linguistic style can also indicate messages demonstrating distress in the space of post-mortem social media content.

After a user dies, friends visit the page and express their sadness, shock and grief. Later many return and continue updating and conversing with the user, often times sharing events and feelings as if the person were still alive. It's kind of like talking with a ghost.

By examining user-generated content, the researchers were able to observe the grieving process in a naturalistic, public setting. What's more is that this study focuses on "extreme expressions of grief and mourning in SNS following the death of a friend or loved one." This means more than just a few Twitter-esque RIPs, trending topics and the dead popping up in one's Facebook friend list. The researchers sought to expand the current knowledge base around the use of language in online grieving, rather than focus on the fact that people do express their grief on social media.

A previous study took a similar linguistic approach, looking at how those in mourning reacted to the deceased on memorialized Facebook profiles. Of the post-mortem Wall posts, they discovered higher rates of negative emotion than previously, when the user was alive. Visiting a deceased user's profile is seen as both a space for people to mourn and a space of pain. Some return to the profile again and again, continuing to post. Some decide to defriend the dead all... ( more at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_we_talk_about_death_on_social_media.php )

Robots Set New World Record for Ocean Travel and Cyborg Snail Turned Into Living Battery.

Cyborg Snail Turned Into Living Battery

Jeremy Hsu, InnovationNewsDaily Senior Writer

Date: 13 March 2012 Time: 11:07 AM ET

At http://www.livescience.com/19008-cyborg-snail-living-battery.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Livesciencecom+%28LiveScience.com+Science+Headline+Feed%29

A snail transformed into a living battery has moved the world one step closer to having tiny cyborg spies underfoot.

The pioneering experiment harnessed a snail's blood sugar to "recharge" an implanted battery — the first time researchers have shown sustainable generation of electricity in a living creature's body over several months. If the snails' bodies can create enough electricity to power microelectronics, they could act as living sensors or detectors for the U.S. military and Homeland Security.

"In this [direction] the biofuel cells are expected to operate in small creatures (snails, worms, insects, etc) providing sustainable electrical power for various sensors and wireless transmitters," said Evgeny Katz, a professor of chemistry at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y.

Katz and his colleagues implanted the snail with electrodes made of thin sheets of carbon nanotubes — called Buckypaper — that could conduct electricity. Those electrodes, coupled with certain enzymes, created electricity by using glucose sugar and oxygen circulating in the snail's "hemolymph" blood.

Such a setup allowed the snails to roam freely and live life almost as normally as possible — resting and eating allowed the creatures to build up glucose levels to "recharge" the battery. A new study describing the results is detailed in the March 8 online edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

"Our snail was living for a few months with the implanted electrodes, eating, drinking, moving, etc.," Katz told InnovationNewsDaily. "The snail was fixed for a few minutes to make the electrical measurements and then it was released again to move."

The amount of electricity created was still far below that of just one AAA battery, but Katz's team and its Israeli colleagues at Ben-Gurion University hope to boost the flow of electricity in new experiments. They have also begun testing different substances in the bodies of... (more at http://www.livescience.com/19008-cyborg-snail-living-battery.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Livesciencecom+%28LiveScience.com+Science+Headline+Feed%29 )

Robots Set New World Record for Ocean Travel

InnovationNewsDaily Staff

Date: 13 March 2012 Time: 03:50 PM ET

At http://www.livescience.com/19021-wave-gliders-distance-record.html

Oceangoing robots have broken a distance record by reaching Hawaii from San Francisco, braving 26-foot waves and gale force storms along the way.

The four wave gliders made by Liquid Robotics traveled more than 3,200 nautical miles on the first leg of their 9,000-mile journey across the Pacific. Their arrival on the big island of Hawaii four months after leaving the West Coast shattered the Guinness World Records mark of 2,500 miles for the longest distance traveled by unmanned wave power vehicles.

"We are proud our PacX Wave Gliders have reached their first destination and broken the world record," said Edward Lu, chief of innovative applications at Liquid Robotics, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. "PacX represents a new model for providing widespread and easy access to environmental monitoring of the world's oceans, one in which Liquid Robotics operates fleets of mobile, autonomous ocean robots across previously inaccessible areas."

Each of the four drones consists of an underwater glider connected by a cable to a floating section. The wave gliders convert the endless motion of the ocean's waves into forward thrust, which would allow them to travel thousands of miles without fuel during... ( more at http://www.livescience.com/19021-wave-gliders-distance-record.html )

quarta-feira, 14 de março de 2012

Space is bad for astronauts' eyes and nanotrees' energy.

Space is bad for astronauts' eyes

11:26 14 March 2012 by Andy Coghlan
For similar stories, visit the Spaceflight Topic Guide

At http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21585-space-is-bad-for-astronauts-eyes.html

Space flight may be bad for your eyesight. Changes found in astronauts' eye tissue may cause vision problems, and possibly even blindness. As well as threatening the health of astronauts, this could jeopardise long-haul missions into space.

Larry Kramer of Texas Medical School in Houston and colleagues carried out MRI scans on 27 NASA astronauts after they had spent an average of 108 days in space. Four had bulging of the optic nerve, three had kinks in the nerve sheath, and six had flattening of the eyeball.

The changes match those seen in people with idiopathic intracranial hypertension, a rare condition in which the pressure of blood and other fluids is abnormally high in the brain. People with the condition experience headaches, nausea, vomiting and visual problems including blindness.

In space, the alterations are probably caused by living in free-fall. "One potential mechanism is that blood which normally pools in the legs is shifted toward the skull, raising pressure," says Kramer.

The findings tally with the results of a survey of 300 astronauts carried out last year. Deteriorations in vision were reported by 29 per cent of astronauts on short-term missions, and 60 per cent on long-term missions.

Mission to Mars

"If astronauts are exhibiting these changes after only 100 days in space, what will happen on a three-year flight to Mars?" asks Jason Kring, who studies human performance in extreme conditions at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in( more at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21585-space-is-bad-for-astronauts-eyes.html )

Nanotrees mimic nature to harvest the sun's energy

Tiny forest uses sunlight to turn water in hydrogen fuel without greenhouse gas emissions

At http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46705416/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.T2CFtXmAq1e

By Alyssa Danigelis

updated 3/12/2012 11:59:37 AM ET

If humans are going to mimic nature's unique way of converting sunlight into energy, we're going to need to build some very extraordinary trees.

Electrical engineers in California want to do just that. Their new "nanotree" device is made from cheap, abundant materials and uses sunlight to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen atoms that can be used in fuel cells to produce energy.

Hydrogen fuel cells could power everything from houses to cars. But hydrogen doesn't exist alone in nature. The atoms have to be separated from other molecules, like water.

Doing that requires energy and at present, about 90 present of hydrogen gas is created using fossil fuels, causing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, said Ke Sun, an electrical engineering Ph.D. student at U.C. San Diego who worked with Deli Wang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, to produce the nanotree.

PHOTOS: Supercharged! Battery Power from the Future

Their nanotrees could potentially use sunlight to ultimately generate an electrical current for a controlled reaction without greenhouse gas emissions.

Basically it's just like a tree, said Wang, who along with Sun published an article about the nanotrees in the journal Nanoscale.

The nanotrees were several years in the making. Wang had worked on branched nanostructures before but they didn't resemble trees, and they weren't intended to ( more at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46705416/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.T2CFtXmAq1e )

segunda-feira, 12 de março de 2012

For Creators of Games, a Faint Line on Cloning.

For Creators of Games, a Faint Line on Cloning

At http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/technology/for-creators-of-video-games-a-faint-line-on-cloning.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

By BRIAN X. CHEN
Published: March 11, 2012

In any commercialized art form, be it movies, literature or fashion, the creators often tread a fine line between inspiration and shameless copying. Some small video game makers say that line seems to have all but disappeared.

Vlambeer, a small start-up based in the Netherlands, made a free online game in 2010 called Radical Fishing. The game involved catching fish with a hook, reeling them in and tossing them in the air, and then shooting them with a gun. Radical Fishing became popular, so Vlambeer planned a sequel, Ridiculous Fishing, for Apple's iPhones and iPads.

But then a new game appeared in Apple's store: Ninja Fishing, made by a company called Gamenauts. This game involved catching fish with a hook, reeling them in and tossing them in the air, but then slashing them with a katana sword. Ninja Fishing became a top app in Apple's App Store.

NimbleBit, another game start-up, had a similar situation. Its Tiny Tower, in which players added floors to a building and made the little residents happy with good jobs and lots of recreation, became the Apple App Store's game of the year. Along came Zynga, the big game developer, with a game called Dream Heights, in which players added floors to a tower and made the little residents happy with good jobs and lots of recreation.

Cloning the soul of a game — its gameplay mechanics, design, characters and storyline — is now commonplace in digital marketplaces like Apple's iOS App Store and Google's Android Market.

And while the app stores have offered an unparalleled opportunity for independent software makers to reach customers and make money with an innovative game, they are learning it is just as easy for another game studio to compete with a very similar ( more at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/technology/for-creators-of-video-games-a-faint-line-on-cloning.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all )

quinta-feira, 8 de março de 2012

Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel? And 'Twisted' waves.

Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel?

At http://www.livescience.com/18808-invention-wheel.html

by Natalie Wolchover

Date: 02 March 2012 Time: 06:24 PM

Wheels are the archetype of a primitive, caveman-level technology. But in fact, they're so ingenious that it took until 3500 B.C. for someone to invent them. By that time — it was the Bronze Age — humans were already casting metal alloys, constructing canals and sailboats, and even designing complex musical instruments such as harps.

The tricky thing about the wheel is not conceiving of a cylinder rolling on its edge. It's figuring out how to connect a stable, stationary platform to that cylinder.

"The stroke of brilliance was the wheel-and-axle concept," said David Anthony, a professor of anthropology at Hartwick College and author of "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language" (Princeton, 2007). "But then making it was also difficult."

To make a fixed axle with revolving wheels, Anthony explained, the ends of the axle had to be nearly perfectly smooth and round, as did the holes in the center of the wheels; otherwise, (...) ( more at http://www.livescience.com/18808-invention-wheel.html )

'Twisted' waves could boost capacity of wi-fi and TV.

At http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17221490

By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News

A striking demonstration of a means to boost the information-carrying capacity of radio waves has taken place across the lagoon in Venice, Italy.

The technique exploits what is called the "orbital angular momentum" of the waves - imparting them with a "twist".

Varying this twist permits many data streams to fit in the frequency spread currently used for just one.

The approach, described in the New Journal of Physics, could be applied to radio, wi-fi, and television.

The parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that are used for all three are split up in roughly the same way, with a spread of frequencies allotted to each channel. Each one contains a certain, limited amount of information-carrying capacity: its bandwidth.

As telecommunications have proliferated through the years, the spectrum has become incredibly crowded, with little room left for new means of signal transmission, or for existing means to expand their bandwidths.

But Bo Thide of Swedish Institute of Space Physics and a team of colleagues in Italy hope to change that by exploiting an entirely new physical mechanism to fit more capacity onto the same... ( more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17221490 )

sexta-feira, 2 de março de 2012

About evolution (Feb. 27, 2012).

Protein Identified That Can Lengthen Our Life?

ScienceDaily (Feb. 27, 2012) — Cells use various methods to break down and recycle worn-out components -- autophagy is one of them. In the dissertation she will be defending at Umeå University in Sweden, Karin Håberg shows that the protein SNX18 is necessary for cells to be able to perform autophagy.

In animal experiments on both simple organisms like fruit flies and in more complex animals like mice, researchers have seen that stimulating autophagy leads to increased longevity. It is still unclear whether these results are directly translatable to humans. However, there are theories that calorie restriction, which is a relatively well-established way of increasing longevity, induces higher levels of autophagy, which would help delay aging. Cells metabolize their old proteins and cell organelles by ... (more at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120227111202.htm )

Immortal Worms Defy Aging

ScienceDaily (Feb. 27, 2012) — Researchers from The University of Nottingham have demonstrated how a species of flatworm overcomes the aging process to be potentially immortal.

The discovery, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is part of a project funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) and may shed light on the possibilities of alleviating aging and age-related characteristics in human cells. Planarian worms have amazed scientists with their apparently limitless ability to regenerate. Researchers have been studying their ability to replace aged or damaged tissues and cells in a bid to understand the mechanisms underlying their longevity.

Dr Aziz Aboobaker from... ( more at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120227152612.htm )

Glow and be eaten – marine bacteria use light to lure plankton and fish

domingo, 26 de fevereiro de 2012 Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Jerusalem, February 27, 2012 – Not all that glitters is gold. Sometimes it is just bacteria trying to get ahead in life.

Many sea creatures glow with a biologically produced light. This phenomenon, known as bioluminescence, is observed, among others, in some marine bacteria which emit a steady light once they have reached a certain level of concentration (a phenomenon called "quorum sensing") on organic particles in ocean waters.

Though this was a known occurrence, the benefits of producing light remained unclear.

Now, in an article published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS), researchers... ( more at http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=117844&CultureCode=en )