Author Archives: curiouscat

One Laptop Per Child – Give One Get One

photo of One Child One Laptop

The laptop hardware is really impressive. This laptop is really small – dimensions are 242mm Ã— 228mm Ã— 32mm (9.5″ x 9″ x 1.25″) and weight is about 1.5KG (3.3 lbs). There is a 7.5″ 200dpi high resolution display capable of displaying 1200×900 pixels in grayscale (usable in direct sunlight!) or 800×600 in colour. The processor is relatively low-powered, but probably fine for the types of things most people will use this laptop for. There is no hard drive (storage is 1GB of flash which you could increase with USB drives or memory sticks or an SD card if you needed to), a rubber membrane water resistant keyboard, gamepad, touchpad, audio, built-in camera, integrated wireless (both 802.11b/g and 802.11s “mesh” networking support), a long-life battery (I’ve heard different stories, but it sounds like battery life will go into the double digits!), rechargeable with AC/DC power, solar or hand/foot generator, etc. On top of all this, the laptop is the most energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly laptop ever made!
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The OS is a paired-down version of Fedora Linux with a custom Sugar graphical user interface and Bitfrost security platform. There are programs for internet browsing, chat, wikis, word processing, and most other “standard” things you would need to do on a laptop (as well as “non-standard” utilities for things like music synthesis/composition, drawing, games, etc). The standard programming environment consists of Python, Javascript, Etoys (Squeak/Smalltalk), Csound, LOGO, and others.

We mentioned the Give One Get One program last month – you can buy one for yourself with the purchase of one for a child in the developing world. The cost is $400, $200 qualifies as a charitable deduction (the gift for the child). That offer is available now (for the next 12 days). One of our popular posts recounted what kids in India learned using a computer.

Remove the Identical Stretches of DNA Found in Mice, Rats, and Humans and What Happens?

A Real Genetic Headscratcher by Derek Lowe:

As you root through genomic sequences – and there are more and more of them to root through these days – you come across some stretches of DNA that hardly seem to vary at all. The hard-core “ultraconserved” parts, first identified in 2004, are absolutely identical between mice, rats, and humans.
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Even important enzyme sequences vary a bit among the three species, so what could these pristine stretches (some of which are hundreds of base pairs long) be used for? The assumption, naturally, has been that whatever it is, it must be mighty important, but if we’re going to be scientists, we can’t just go around assuming that what we think must be right. A team at Lawrence Berkeley and the DOE put things to the test recently by identifying four of the ultraconserved elements that all seem to be located next to critical genes – and deleting them.

The knockout mice turned out to do something very surprising indeed. They were born normally, but then they grew up normally. When they reached adulthood, though, they were completely normal. Exhaustive biochemical and behavioral tests finally uncovered the truth: they’re basically indistinguishable from the wild type. Hey, I told you it was surprising. This must have been the last thing that the researchers expected.

What a great example of scientists at work. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

New “Cold Cathode” Fluorescents: 4 Times Longer Life, Reduced Mercury

New “Cold Cathode” Fluorescents: 85% Less Mercury

It’s a new fluorescent bulb that could have a bright future — the cold cathode fluorescent lamp (or CCFL). These bulbs contain half the mercury of conventional “hot cathode” fluorescents. They have a thinner tube diameter, which allows them to run cooler, and last up to four times as long (a lifespan of 25,000 hours). This means that the mercury is reduced by 85% over the life of a cold cathode bulb, because a regular CFL would have to be replaced three times during that period. Another big advantage of CCFLs is that they are fully dimmable, and “on/off” cycles do not shorten their life.

Google Offers $10 Million in Awards for Google Phone Development

Android is the new Google Phone platform. The Android Developers Blog has announced Google has offered $10 million in the Android Developer Challenge:

One of our goals in releasing the Android SDK is to unleash the creativity of application developers on the platform. We’d also like to get feedback early enough that we can make changes before the first Android-powered devices are available to the public. We plan to release updates to the SDK regularly which means that there will be additions and changes to the APIs and user experience — subscribe to this blog to stay up to date.

We’re really looking forward to seeing all the amazing applications that developers will create on an open mobile phone platform. In fact, you may even want to enter your application into the Android Developer Challenge — a USD$10 million challenge sponsored by Google to support and recognize developers who build great applications for the Android platform.

The award money will be distributed equally between two Android Developer Challenges:

Android Developer Challenge I: Submissions from January 2 through March 3, 2008
Android Developer Challenge II: This part will launch after the first handsets built on the platform become available in the second half of 2008

In the Android Developer Challenge I, the 50 most promising entries received by March 3 will each receive a $25,000 award to fund further development. Those selected will then be eligible for even greater recognition via ten $275,000 awards and ten $100,000 awards. Once again Google is showing they understand how to manage in the new world.

MRSA Blows Up Defender Cells

Superbug succeeds by blowing up defender cells, scientists learn

While only 14 percent of serious MRSA infections are the community associated kind, they have drawn attention in recent months with a spate of reports in schools, including the death of a 17-year-old Virginia high school student. Both hospital-associated and community-associated MRSA contained genes for the peptides. But their production was much higher in the CA-MRSA, the researchers said.
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The compounds first cause inflammation, drawing the immune cells to the site of the infection, and then destroy those cells. The research was conducted in mice and with human blood in laboratory tests. Within five minutes of exposure to the peptides from CA-MRSA, human neutrophils showed flattening and signs of damage to their membrane, researchers said. After 60 minutes, many cells had disintegrated completely.

“This elegant work helps reveal the complex strategy that S. aureus has developed to evade our normal immune defenses,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, NIAID director, said in a statement. “Understanding what makes the infections caused by these new strains so severe and developing new drugs to treat them are urgent public health priorities.”

Math and Science Education Assessment

Science Friday podcast (NPR radio programming) on the urban institute study mentioned a few weeks ago in: The Importance of Science Education.

Conventional wisdom says that U.S. students don’t measure up well against students in many foreign countries when it comes to math and science skills. But is that really true? A team of researchers have re-assessed the results of several common measures of science education success, and they say the true picture may not be as gloomy as some analysts have said.

“When it comes to math and science, American students are no worse, and often score better, than students from many leading countries,” said Harold Salzman, one of the authors of the new Urban Institute report “Into the Eye of the Storm: Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education, Quality, and Workforce Demand.” The researchers argue that some of the rankings produced by measures such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) are due to statistically insignificant differences in scoring.

Read the actual report – Into the Eye of the Storm, Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education, Quality, and Workforce Demand by B. Lindsay Lowell, Harold Salzman.

Sandwich Brick – Reusing Waste Material

A brick-through, Malaysia

at the British Invention Show 2007 held in London recently, waste material bagged Universiti Malaya (UM) researcher Asrul Mahjuddin Ressang Aminuddin a Diamond (Special Award for Earth Science). The lecturer, from UM’s Built Environment faculty, designed a “sandwich brick” that incorporated unwanted plastic, wood particles and other waste material at its core. Helping to save about 26% to 30% on construction costs, the sandwich brick promotes green architecture in the built environment.

“I first came up with the idea when I was assisting the tsunami victims in Thailand and Indonesia,” said Asrul Mahjuddin Ressang. “There was a lot of debris lying around and I wondered how if any could be used for rebuilding purposes.” The brick design has been well received by British construction companies as it is not only environmental friendly but is also entitled to tax incentives across Europe.

It also provides a solution to Britain’s hard-pressed construction industry following the ban on sand mining from riverbeds and waste accumulation that stands at 15 million tonnes in 2007 alone. The innovation impressed judges as it had better heat insulation compared to ordinary bricks and encouraged industries to rethink recycling at minimal costs.
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Meanwhile, engineering faculty senior lecturer Dr Mohd Hamdi Abd Shukor received a Double Gold (Special Award for Industry) – for his work on tough synthetic bio-ceramic for bone implant technology and a minimal cutting fluid application in a pulse jet form.

Engineering Innovation in Manufacturing and the Economy

Editorial: Engineering Innovation, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

They are the invisible heroes in business, the men and women who make innovation possible. They are people like Mary Ann Wright at Johnson Controls in Milwaukee, the former chief engineer for the Ford Escape hybrid who is leading a team bent on establishing world leadership in hybrid battery systems.

Or Werner Zobel, a Modine Manufacturing engineer working in Germany who hatched the idea for a new cooling system that the Racine-based company believes could be revolutionary. The system uses ultra-thin layers of aluminum to dissipate heat, a breakthrough that has potential for car and truck radiators and air conditioning condensers.

Intellectual candlepower will fire the regional economy, the Milwaukee 7 regional economic development group believes. Its strategic plan relies on innovation-driven manufacturers that are heavy with engineers. But across the region, those companies say they can’t recruit enough engineers, and they worry that shortages will worsen as baby boomers retire. Complicating the picture is a shortage of visas for foreign-born engineers and increased competition from rapidly developing economies in China and India for those students even when they complete their studies in the United States.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Marquette University and the Milwaukee School of Engineering are racing to fill the pipeline. Marquette and UWM are promising expansive new buildings and increased enrollment of both undergraduate and graduate students.

The USA continues to be by far the largest manufacturing in the world. And one important reason is the contributions provided by science and engineering (fed by strong science and engineering schools). In addition to other smart economic policies (The World Bank’s annual report on the easiest countries to do business in ranks the USA 3rd – after Singapore and New Zealand).

Scientists Chart Record Rise in Yellowstone Caldera

Scientists chart record rise in Yellowstone caldera

The floor of Yellowstone National Park’s gigantic volcano has been rising at a record rate in recent years, probably due to an underground blob of molten rock more than 14 times the size of Billings, according to a new study. The Yellowstone caldera rose nearly 3 inches a year for the past three years, faster than anyone has ever recorded. “These are rates three times (greater) than previous historic rates,” said University of Utah seismologist Bob Smith, a lead author of the study to be published in the journal Science today.

But that rapid rising isn’t an indication of an imminent volcanic eruption or hydrothermal explosion at Yellowstone, he said. It appears in line with behavior at other volcanic craters that rise and fall for thousands of years without large-scale, catastrophic eruptions. “These things go up and down,” Smith said. “That’s very common for calderas globally.”

The researchers believe the 463-square-mile slab formed from molten rock in the magma chamber beneath Yellowstone, causing the surface of the caldera to rise.

HP Technology for Teaching Grant Initiative

The value of the grant award to each school is approximately $40,000. Based on the outcomes of those projects, some recipients may have the opportunity to receive additional, higher-value grants from HP in 2009. The HP Technology for Teaching Grant is targeted to K–12 public schools in the United States, including Puerto Rico.

HP will select teams of five teachers from approximately 110 schools to receive the equipment and professional development support they need to effectively integrate technology into their instruction. Preference will be given to projects that address mathematics and/or science. Preference will also be given to schools that serve a high proportion of low-income students, relative to their district or state’s free and reduced price lunch percentages.

Proposals must be completed in an online grant application system HP Technology for Teaching website (which will open 8 January 2008) and must be submitted no later than 5 PM Pacific time on Thursday, February 14, 2008.