Several lines of evidence point to the possibility of a past ocean on Mars, from apparent ancient shorelines to chemicals in the soil.

Add to the list a new map of the red planet’s valleys. The map shows extensive valley networks around the equator and in the southern hemisphere, suggesting a warmer Mars long ago, with extensive rainfall that would have fed an ocean in the northern hemisphere.

“All the evidence gathered by analyzing the valley network on the new map points to a particular climate scenario on early Mars,” Northern Illinois University geography professor Wei Luo said. “It would have included rainfall and the existence of an ocean covering most of the northern hemisphere, or about one-third of the planet’s surface.”

The valley networks are more than twice as extensive (2.3 times longer in total length) than had been previously mapped out.

“The presence of more valleys indicates that it most likely rained on ancient Mars, while the global pattern showing this belt of valleys could be explained if there was a big northern ocean,” said Tomasz Stepinski of the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Luo and Stepinski published their findings in the current issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research — Planets. more>>>

November 23, 2009

IBM Researchers are helping to break the language barrier with the advent of technology dubbed “n.Fluent” — smart software that translates text between English and 11 other languages. IBM employees use it to instantaneously translate electronic documents and Web pages — even live, instant messages exchanged on smartphones.

At the heart of n.Fluent, a remarkably successfully internal IBM crowdsourcing project, is the wisdom of IBM’s nearly 400,000 employees in more than 170 countries, where IBM volunteers submit, update and continuously refine word translations. Every time it’s used, n.Fluent “learns” and improves its translation engine. To date, the tool has been used by IBMers to translate more than 40 million words.

During a two-week period this past summer, volunteer linguists at IBM crowdsourced approximately 1.3 million words, averaging contributions of approximately 100,000 words per business day. Subsequent campaigns are currently underway across the company to generate and hone more language-related data.

While used exclusively within IBM right now, there is evidence that the technology would be welcomed as a product or service. Companies must enter new markets easily and quickly, and collaborate securely with far-flung employees, partners and suppliers. However, communicating effectively in spite of language differences can be time consuming, awkward, complex and costly. more>>>

Q: If I am 95 years old, do I have any cells in my body that were present when I was 3 years old? What about at conception? Also, could you expand on your earlier statement, “stem cells live a lifetime?” In a nutshell, I am curious if I am a completely “new” person or if there is anything “in” me that has been with me since birth…or conception.Jonathan, Los Angeles, California, USA

A: Nope, we’re not completely new people. In fact, most of our cells are a good seven-to-ten years old, as biologist Jonas Frisén, professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, reported in July 2005. For example, we grow a new skeleton over about a 10-year period.

Moreover, at 95 we will have three kinds of cells we’ve had since three years of age and, indeed, since before birth. They last a lifetime:

• cerebral cortex neurons

• heart muscle cells

• cells in the inner portion of the crystalline lens of our eyes.

“I wouldn’t necessarily single out cerebral cortex neurons as lasting a lifetime because it’s probably true that most neurons in the entire adult brain were generated during development,” e-mails neuroscientist Elizabeth Gould professor of psychology at Princeton. more>>>

The Portal simply takes links for websites at CERN and put them into a nice easy way to browse them.

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

This is a guided tour down to the CERN LHC ATLAS in Geneva Switzerland, filmed around the 7th of February, 2007

Emue Technologies has unveiled the next generation of its anti-fraud credit card. The device combines a world first embedded 14-segment E Ink display with a 12-button numeric keypad, microprocessor and, despite being the same size as a conventional card, a battery designed to last for three years.

To authenticate a phone or online transaction, the user enters the transaction information and their PIN with the keypad to generate a one-time-only authentication code that appears on the E-Ink display. more>>>

Dear Blogging the Singularity Readers,

Since it’s inception in March 2007 Blogging the Singularity has logged over 1,500,000 page views. Thank you for making BTS one of the best destinations in the world for cutting-edge scientific news and breakthrough information. I believe that logging these events truly helps give one a real sense of where humanity stands in relationship to our technological accomplishments. Keep reading, stay informed, and never stop looking at the world in amazement!!!

Regards,
Chris Williamson & Frank Whittemore
BTS Bloggers

Brain waves will replace keyboard and mouse, dial phones and change TV channels
By Sharon Gaudin
November 19, 2009 02:40 PM ET

Computerworld – By the year 2020, you won’t need a keyboard and mouse to control your computer, say Intel Corp. researchers. Instead, users will open documents and surf the Web using nothing more than their brain waves.

Scientists at Intel’s research lab in Pittsburgh are working to find ways to read and harness human brain waves so they can be used to operate computers, television sets and cell phones. The brain waves would be harnessed with Intel-developed sensors implanted in people’s brains.

The scientists say the plan is not a scene from a sci-fi movie — Big Brother won’t be planting chips in your brain against your will. Researchers expect that consumers will want the freedom they will gain by using the implant. more>>>

(CNN) — A team of South Korean scientists have produced the polymers used for everyday plastics through bioengineering, rather than through the use of fossil fuel-based chemicals.

It is believed that the technique may now allow for the production of environmentally-friendly plastic that is biodegradable and low in toxicity.

The research focused on Polylactic Acid (PLA), a bio-based polymer which holds the key to producing plastics through natural and renewable resources. Polymers are molecules found in everyday life in the form of plastics and rubbers.

“The polyesters and other polymers we use everyday are mostly derived from fossil oils made through the refinery or chemical process,” Professor Sang Yup Lee, who lead the research, said in a press statement.

“The idea of producing polymers from renewable biomass has attracted much attention due to the increasing concerns of environmental problems and the limited nature of fossil resources. PLA is considered a good alternative to petroleum-based plastics, as it is both biodegradable and has a low toxicity to humans.” more>>>

Next year “looks like an unavoidable bloodbath for a multitude of ‘zombie’ borrowers, investors and lenders” and the shakeout could continue for “several years,” says a recent report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute drawn from confidential interviews with industry experts. more>>>

ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2009) — In recent years, scientists have decoded the DNA of humans and a menagerie of creatures but none with genes as complex as a stalk of corn, the latest genome to be unraveled.

A team of scientists led by The Genome Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis published the completed corn genome in the Nov. 20 journal Science, an accomplishment that will speed efforts to develop better crop varieties to meet the world’s growing demands for food, livestock feed and fuel.

“Seed companies and maize geneticists will pounce on this data to find their favorite genes,” says senior author Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., director of Washington University’s Genome Center, who led the multi-institutional sequencing effort. “Now they’ll know exactly where those genes are. Having the complete genome in hand will make it easier to breed new varieties of corn that produce higher yields or are more tolerant to extreme heat, drought, or other conditions.” more>>>

SEE MORE HERE

Oldie but Goodie:

* 12:23 14 March 2002 by Eugenie Samuel

A new Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies was created on Wednesday at MIT, with a US Army grant of $50 million over five years. The institute has a remit to produce fabrics that can morph to improve camouflage, stiffen to provide splints for broken limbs and store energy that can be tapped later to increase the wearer’s strength.

Ned Thomas of MIT’s Department of Materials Science says many existing nanotechnologies already have the potential to be scaled up into full suits of armour. “Our goal is to help greatly enhance the protection and survival of the infantry soldier using nanoscience,” he says.

One example could be weaving fabrics out of nanoscale hollow fibres that Thomas hopes to fill with an existing technology called a ferrofluid. Ferrofluids contain magnetic particles that can be made to align in rows forming a stiff gel when exposed to an external magnetic field. more>>>

It started off innocently enough. Personal transporters, they told us, just robots to make life easier. Now look at them — Toyota’s Partner Robots are set for upgrades that include back-mounted solar chargers, spring-loaded jumping mechanisms, and a design hardy enough to withstand lunar temperature drops. Intended for the performance of exploratory missions on the moon — alongside a four-wheeled robotic rover — the new designs were introduced by Toyota in a presentation titled “Realization of Moon Exploration Using Advanced Robots by 2020.” So, if the world doesn’t actually end in 2012, by 2020 we’ll have extraterrestrial robots plotting our demise anyway. More pictures of lunar colonization can be found after the break. more>>>