Parking sensors to take pain out of finding a space
A "parking patch" could bring together wireless sensors and mobile apps to steer drivers towards vacant spots, and lead traffic wardens to parking offenders
Japan's Hayabusa 2 probe will use brute force to collect samples from an asteroid in an attempt to avoid the pitfalls of its problem-plagued predecessor
DNA 11, the company that brought DNA Art to the masses, is going back in history for its latest art from life masterpiece ? the DNA Ancestry Portrait.?DNA Ancestry Portraits combine the science of genealogy with the technology of the mobile and social web to create a new form of augmented art.
They begin with a ...
Darpa is sick and tired of waiting around for Mother Nature. Instead, it wants to take the life-making business into its own hands ? and manufacture new biological forms in a factory of mix-and-match bio-bits.
Synthetic Biologists Use DNA to Calculate Square Roots
A new form of biological computing uses up to 130 different types of DNA molecules to do math. The system is so flexible that it's also possible to use compilers and include debugging circuitry.
An artist named Noah Scalin has built a giant skull made out of slices of brain encased in acrylic. What do you mean, "Why?"
Scalin shot to fame a few years back when he created a blog that chronicled his creation of a skull every single day of a year. Since then he's kept up his ...
A study that combines experimental observations of spider webs with complex computer simulations has shown that web durability depends not only on silk strength, but on how overall web design compensates for damage and the response of individual strands to continuously varying stresses.
Magnetic random-access memory based on new spin transfer technology achieves higher storage density by packing multiple bits of data into each memory cell.
Risk-based passenger screening could make air travel safer
Intensive screening of all airline passengers actually makes the system less secure by overtaxing security resources, while risk-based methods increase overall security, according to new research. The researchers developed three algorithms dealing with risk uncertainty in the passenger population. Then, they ran simulations to demonstrate how their algorithms could estimate risk in the overall passenger population and how errors in this estimation procedure can be mitigated to reduce the risk to the overall system.
Speed limit on the quantum highway: Physicists measure propagation velocity of quantum signals in a many-body system
A quantum computer based on quantum particles instead of classical bits, can in principle outperform any classical computer. However, it still remains an open question, how fast and how efficient quantum computers really may be able to work. A critical limitation will be given by the velocity with which a quantum signal can spread within a processing unit. For the first time, a group of physicists has succeeded in observing such a process in a solid-state like system.
Researchers in Italy have used two high-speed computer algorithms to analyze the connections between a large sub-set of the more than half a billion users of the social networking site Facebook to reveal that the system has a very strong structure. The study shows that Facebook has a well-defined community structure that follows a statistical power law in which there are a huge number of people with few connections and a much smaller number with a large number of connections.
Researchers have succeeded in combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography and have shown that perfectly secure cloud computing can be achieved using the principles of quantum mechanics. They have performed an experimental demonstration of quantum computation in which the input, the data processing, and the output remain unknown to the quantum computer.
Ian Woolf , Julie-Anne Popple and Therese Chen diuscuss:
Hormones that give the weight-loss benefits of exercise,
the internet blackout protest,
what is the youngest age for owning a mobile phone?
Presented and produced by Ian Woolf
From the dusty vaults of 2003:
Christine Baker interviews Kip Williams from Macquarie University about courtroom psychology,
Keir Smith looks at retinal displays, and finds his Uncle John's sense of direction,
Adam Mark explains why pain can be a good thing,
Chris Stewart explores the weirdness of Physicists.
Presented and produced by Ian Woolf
Tim Baynes speaks to Eva Ferados about using brain magnets to switch off HIS brain functions, during the interview,
Amanda Hamilton interviews Dr Malcom Simons about patenting junk DNA,
Adam Mark investigates what happens when people become addicted to sex,
Chris Stewart explains the psychology of MP3s.
Presented and produced by Ian Woolf
Memory pill research from 2011 by Ian Woolf
Unearthed from 2003 are:
Tim Baynes reporting on the strange tale of Anti-gravity and the disappearing researchers,
an interview by Tim Baynes with Dr Boyd Dent about his 2003 PhD into the geochemistry of cemeteries,
An investigation from Marian Curruthers on the role of the male armpit in human sexual attraction,
Keir Smith explores the mystery of how sap reaches the tops of trees.
Presented and produced by Ian Woolf
The ghost of Diffusions Xmas past! Listen to a classic from the vaults: the 2005 Christmas special!
It was an eventful time - we were served a "Cease and Desist order" from using the name "Discovery", and we discovered we had an audience in an Alaskan community radio station.
Quiz-master Chris Stewart plays the Schroedinger Cats against the Pavlov's dogs, with everything to win in a game of science trivia.
Playing are: Ian Woolf, Noel Hannah, Natalie Staib, Matt Clarke, Phil Dooley, Jacqui Hayes, Jacqui Pfeffer, Matt Francis and Adam Richardson.
Ian Woolf asks Dr Andrew McDonagh about making molecules,
Ian Woolf reports on the latest presentation of people doing strange things with electricity,
Therese Chen describes abusive boobies,
Ian Woolf reports on hacking your brain with light.
Presented and produced by Ian Woolf
Julie-Anne Popple speaks with Dr James Gilbert about cricket testicles,
Ian Woolf speaks with Professor Ann Henderson-Sellers about the Climate Fix Flicks competition,
News by Larissa Savvas and Julie-Anne Popple:
- Solar paint
- Wasp to know
Presented and produced by Ian Woolf
Brigid Mullane interviews Professor Brian Morris about the genes for Hypertension,
Larissa Savvas explores human corpses as renewable energy,
Julie-Anne Popple talks timed turtles,
Ian Woolf reports on printed bones and wireless sperm.
Produced and presented by Ian Woolf
