Zinken

It's 2014, and life is the same. Only better

July 13, 2004 - 20:06

By Robert J. Sawyer

As a science-fiction writer, my job is predicting the future. And that’s gotten harder with each passing year. Moore’s law tells us that computing power doubles every 18 months. If that holds up — and i believe it will, with breakthroughs in nanotechnology, new techniques of producing three-dimensional circuits, and new substrates for microprocessors — then in 10 short years, we will have computers 128 times more powerful than those that exist today. Can anyone guess how that much computing muscle, widely available and inexpensively priced, will affect our day-to-day lives? Well, let’s find out ...

'Stonerowing' experiment by the Stonehengineers

The Stonehengineers are a group of archaeologists, scientists and antiquarians investigating how Neolithic communities may have transported and erected large stones to produce megalithic monuments. They will be attempting a large-scale experiment this weekend 14/15 May at the National Tramway Museum, Crich, Derbyshire (England) ... Stone Pages Archaeo News

New Findings May Help Preserve Rare Gutenberg Bibles

Using non-invasive analytical techniques, a team of researchers in England say they have for the first time precisely identified the pigments used to illustrate seven Gutenberg Bibles located in Europe. The findings provide chemical data that could ultimately help preserve and restore these rare historic treasures as well as provide insights into the printing practices of early Europe ... Science Daily

Gene 'Archeology' Gets Easier Using Carnegie Mellon University Software

Comparing genomes of different species can tell you when new genes evolved and what they do for their respective hosts. But pinpointing the ancestry of any given gene is a complex computational task. Now, powerful new software makes gene "archeology" considerably easier ... AScribe

Teamwork will beat the spammers

More than two-thirds of all email traffic is spam, but the problem could be reduced if our computers work together to control it ... New Scientist

Face of Tutankhamun reconstructed

Scientists have carried out the first facial reconstructions of Egypt's most famous ancient king, Tutankhamun.

Three teams of forensic artists - French, Egyptian and American - built separate but similar models of the king's face using scans of his skull.

The French and Egyptians knew who they were recreating, but the Americans were not told where the skull came from.

The models of the boy king, who died 3,300 years ago, reveal a young man with plump cheeks and a round chin ... BBC NEWS

Augmenting the Animal Kingdom

Natural evolution has produced the eye, butterfly wings and other wonders that would put any inventor to shame. But who's to say evolution couldn't be improved with the help of a little technology?

So argues James Auger in his controversial and sometimes unsettling book, Augmented Animals. A designer and former research associate with MIT Media Lab Europe, Auger envisions animals, birds, reptiles and even fish becoming appreciative techno-geeks, using specially engineered gadgets to help them overcome their evolutionary shortcomings, promote their chances of survival or just simply lead easier and more comfortable lives.

On tap for the future: Rodents zooming around with night-vision survival goggles, squirrels hoarding nuts using GPS locators and fish armed with metal detectors to avoid the angler's hook ... Wired News

Deciphering DNA, Top Speed

A few companies are close to commercializing technologies that could reduce the high cost of decoding genomes.

Helicos's technology eliminates many of the expensive and time-consuming steps in conventional DNA sequencing. The machine works, in essence, by photographing the process of DNA replication.

The commerical version will sequence a whole genome in three days for $5,000 ... Technology Review

Time Travelers to Meet in Not Too Distant Future

Suppose it is the future - maybe a thousand years from now. There is no static cling, diapers change themselves, and everyone who is anyone summers on Mars.

What's more, it is possible to travel back in time, to any place, any era. Where would people go? Would they zoom to a 2005 Saturday night for chips and burgers in a college courtyard, eager to schmooze with computer science majors possessing way too many brain cells?

Why not, say some students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who have organized what they call the first convention for time travelers.

Actually, they contend that theirs is the only time traveler convention the world needs, because people from the future can travel to it anytime they want ... New York Times

Artefact tag scheme is expanding

A scheme to protect Dartmoor's ancient artefacts from thieves is to be expanded.
The project which uses electronic tags to make items like granite crosses less attractive to criminals is to be used more widely across the South west ... BBC News