Posts Tagged ‘research’

A  major breakthrough in remote wave sensing by a team of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers opens the way for detecting hidden explosives, chemical, biological agents and illegal drugs from a distance of 20 meters.

A sophisticated new analysis of team tactics predicts a Spanish win in Sunday’s FIFA World Cup final and also shows why England were beaten by Germany.

A research group from the UAB Department of Telecommunications and Systems Engineering at the School of Engineering, led by José López Vicario and Antoni Morell, took part in the development of a new system which locates unoccupied car park spaces and guides users to the nearest one.

Two recent international studies may change the way scientists view the crucial relationship between Earth’s climate and the carbon cycle. These reports explore the global photosynthesis and respiration rates—the planet’s deep “breaths” of carbon dioxide, in and out—and researchers say that the new findings will be used to update and improve upon traditional models that couple together climate and carbon. Scientists believe that the temperature sensitivity of the natural exhalation of carbon dioxide from ecosystems has been overestimated and should be reevaluated.

Most educational websites in the U.S. are using Flash applications that fail to adequately secure these pages. This is a growing problem for the Internet as vulnerable sites can be hijacked for malicious and criminal activity, according to a paper published in the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics this month.

Researchers from the Washington State University said they have found the most condensed form of energy storage outside of nuclear energy, which could lead to much more capable batteries than we know today.

Solar power remains one of the promising key technologies to take advantage of clean energy generation, but the low efficiency of solar cells, which reaches only 30-40% in the highest quality units money can buy today, is a major hurdle in commercializing the technology on a broad basis. Scientists are now suggesting a new way to improve the efficiency: Simply transfer the generated heat.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is now in its 55^th day and there is no solution in sight to prevent more oil from polluting more water, beaches and killing more wildlife. At least we are seeing now attempts from BP to control the flow of information by pumping money into every major search engine as well as social networks such as YouTube.

If you have plans traveling to or from Europe in the near future, you may want to have a plan B.  This morning, ESA’s Envisat satellite showed evidence of a monstrous ash cloud that has set sail towards central Europe.

It seems that we never get tired of research that tells us that talking on a cell phone and driving simply do not mix very well. Yet, if you firmly believe that you can do both, then here is the reason why: You fall into a category of “supertaskers”, which would be an elite group that represents only 2.5% of the population.