| Data storage: Better hard drives ready for lift-off Aug 31st 2013, 15:06 Operating a hard disk drive is as complex as keeping a superfast car on the road. Read/write heads within the hard disk must process a huge amount of data at high speed. Controlling the motion of the slider housing these heads is crucial: if the slider crashes, it could destroy the hard disk. |  | Computer program predicts functions of bacterial gene regulators Aug 30th 2013, 13:23 Scientists have developed a computer program to predict the functions of bacterial gene regulators. This online software which is called CopraRNA could save researchers a lot of wet lab work as it precisely predicts which bacterial genes are controlled by certain regulators. | | Transparent artificial muscle plays music to prove a point Aug 29th 2013, 18:50 In a materials science laboratory at Harvard University, a transparent disk connected to a laptop fills the room with music -- it's the "Morning" prelude from Peer Gynt, played on an ionic speaker. No ordinary speaker, it consists of a thin sheet of rubber sandwiched between two layers of a saltwater gel, and it's as clear as a window. A high-voltage signal that runs across the surfaces and through the layers forces the rubber to rapidly contract and vibrate, producing sounds that span the entire audible spectrum, 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz. | | Neutron stars in the computer cloud Aug 29th 2013, 13:30 Einstein@Home discovers 24 new pulsars in archival data. The combined computing power of 200,000 private PCs helps astronomers take an inventory of the Milky Way. | | What corporations can learn from Microsoft Aug 29th 2013, 13:28 A failure to adapt to changes in mobile computing ultimately led to the most recent change at the top of Microsoft. A professor explains how the problems at Microsoft can serve as a lesson for all businesses. | | NASA'S Mars Curiosity debuts autonomous navigation Aug 27th 2013, 22:40 NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has used autonomous navigation for the first time, a capability that lets the rover decide for itself how to drive safely on Mars. This latest addition to Curiosity's array of capabilities will help the rover cover the remaining ground en route to Mount Sharp, where geological layers hold information about environmental changes on ancient Mars. The capability uses software that engineers adapted to this larger and more complex vehicle from a similar capability used by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, which is also currently active on Mars. | | New energy model offers transparency to let others replicate findings Aug 27th 2013, 15:31 Computer models are used to inform policy decisions about energy, but existing models are generally "black boxes" that don't show how they work, making it impossible for anyone to replicate their findings. Researchers have developed a new open-source model and are sharing the data they put into it, to allow anyone to check their work -- an important advance given the environmental and economic impact of energy policy decisions. | | Researchers design and build the world's smallest autopilot for micro aircraft Aug 26th 2013, 13:58 Researchers have designed, built and tested the world's smallest open source autopilot for small unmanned aircraft. A smaller – and lighter – autopilot allows these small flying robots to fly longer, fit into narrower spaces or carry more payloads, such as cameras. That makes them more suitable to be used in for example rescue operations. | |
