Of the things users expect their cell phones to be — address book, calendar, camera, music player — a wallet isn’t one of them, according to research by a Kansas State University marketing professor.
Cell phone users are leery of putting banking accounts, identification and other sensitive information onto a device that gets left in cars, buried in the bottoms of purses and lost between sofa cushions, said Esther Swilley, a K-State assistant professor of marketing. Continue Reading »
Physicists have taken major step forward in the development of practical phonon lasers, which emit sound in much the same way that optical lasers emit light. The development should lead to new, high-resolution imaging devices and medical applications. Just as optical lasers have been incorporated into countless, ubiquitous devices, a phonon laser is likely to be critical to a host of as yet unimaginable applications. Continue Reading »
For nearly half a century, scientists have been trying to figure out how to build a cost-effective and reasonably sized X-ray laser that could, among other things, provide super high-resolution imaging. And for the past two decades, University of Colorado at Boulder physics professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn have been inching closer to that goal. Continue Reading »
Math-based computer models are a powerful tool for discovering the details of complex living systems. John Tyson, professor of biology at Virginia Tech, is creating such models to discover how cells process information and make decisions.
“Cells receive information in the form of chemical signals, physical attachments to other cells, or radiation damage, for instance,” Tyson said. “On the basis of this information, the cells must make the correct response, such as to grow and divide, or to stop growing and repair damage, or to commit suicide.” Continue Reading »
Scientists at the University of Oxford have developed a revolutionary way of capturing a high-resolution still image alongside very high-speed video — a new technology that is attractive for science, industry and consumer sectors alike.
By combining off-the-shelf technologies found in standard cameras and digital movie projectors they have successfully created a tool that will transform many forms of detailed scientific imaging and could provide access to high-speed video with high-resolution still images from the same camera at a price suitable for the consumer market. Continue Reading »
Students can learn some science concepts just as well from computers simulations as they do from direct observation, new research suggests.
A study found that people who used computer simulations to learn about moon phases understood the concepts just as well – and in some cases better – than did those who learned from collecting data from viewing the moon. Continue Reading »
Electric cars have many merits: They are quieter and require less maintenance than cars with internal combustion engines. A network of smartly located charging stations covering the entire Harz region is bound to make electric cars a regional feature. Continue Reading »
Remote central locking is among the most convenient aspects of modern motoring. Transmission of the radio signal that activates the system is not particularly secure, however. A new encryption technique increases security without draining the key’s battery.
Most drivers love the convenience of remote central locking — the car doors are locked or unlocked just by pressing a button on the key. These systems are not particularly secure, however, as a potential car thief can, for example, use an antenna to eavesdrop on the radio signal and create a second key from the captured data on a computer. The reason for this weakness in security is that the algorithms which encrypt the signals sent from the key to the vehicle are not strong enough. Their code was broken about two years ago. Continue Reading »
Self-propagating worms are malicious computer programs, which, after being released, can spread throughout networks without human control, stealing or erasing hard drive data, interfering with pre-installed programs and slowing, even crashing, home and work computers. Now a new code, or algorithm, created by Penn State researchers targets the “stealthiest” of these worms, containing them before an outbreak can occur. Continue Reading »
An innovative computational technique that draws on statistics, imaging and other disciplines has the capability to detect errors in sensitive technological systems ranging from satellites to weather instruments.
The patented technique, known as the Intelligent Outlier Detection Algorithm, or IODA, is described this month in the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. Continue Reading »
