Gizmorama
July 28, 2010
------------------------------------------------------------
Keep Your Furry Friends Safe at Night with Pet Blinkers!
http://pd.gophercentral.com/u/3551/c/186/a/474
------------------------------------------------------------
Good Morning,
Some very exciting--in my opinion--news has surfaced in the
world of space travel. Prices have been estimated, ration-
ally, for commercial trips into space! Read all the details
including how much you will have to pay and when to expect
lift off.
Until Next Time,
Erin
Questions? Comments? Email me at: mailto:gizmo@gophercentral.com
Email your comments
P.S. You can discuss this issue or any other topic in the new
Gizmorama forum. Check it out here...
http://gizmorama.gophercentral.com
------------------------------------------------------------
Researchers making fusion energy steps
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - U.S. researchers say they've made a
discovery that could bring nuclear fusion reactors and the
possibility of clean, almost limitless power one step closer.
Scientists at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., have
made discoveries critical to understanding reactions between
hot plasma inside a fusion reactor and surfaces facing the
plasma, a university release said Tuesday. Their aim is to
eventually create coatings capable of withstanding the ext-
reme conditions where the lining comes into contact with the
extreme heat of the plasma, the release said. Researchers are
using nanotechnology to modify tiny features in the coating
in an effort to create new "plasma-facing" materials tolerant
to radiation damage, Jean Paul Allain, an assistant professor
of nuclear engineering at Purdue, said. A major challenge in
finding the right coatings to line fusion reactors is that
materials change due to extreme conditions inside, where tem-
peratures can reach millions of degrees. A fusion power plant
would produce 10 times more energy than a conventional nu-
clear fission reactor, and because its fuel, deuterium, is
contained in seawater, a fusion reactor's fuel supply would
be virtually inexhaustible, researchers say.
Conversations can 'couple' brain patterns
PRINCETON, N.J. - Some people in conversation with each other
truly have a meeting of the minds as their brain patterns
fall into step with each other, researchers say. Scientists
at Princeton University in New Jersey performed MRI brain
scans of volunteers as they listened to a woman recounting a
story and discovered a "coupling" phenomenon, a study pub-
lished by the National Academy of Sciences said. The scans
showed that the listeners' brain patterns tracked those of
the storyteller almost exactly, though trailing 1 to 3 sec-
onds behind. "We found that the participants' brains became
intimately coupled during the course of the 'conversation,'"
Princeton's Uri Hasson said, "with the responses in the
listener's brain mirroring those in the speaker's." Hasson
and his colleagues monitored the strength of this "coupling"
by measuring the extent of the pattern overlap. Listeners
with the best overlap were judged to be the best at retelling
the tale. "The more similar our brain patterns during a con-
versation, the better we understand each other," Hasson said.
Disabled could use 'sniffing' for control
REHOVOT, Israel - Israeli researchers say they've developed
a device to allow severely disabled people to communicate and
control a wheelchair -- by simply breathing in and out. Based
on sniffing -- inhaling and exhaling through the nose -- the
device will allow paraplegics and other disabled persons
suffering extreme paralysis to exert control over wheel-
chairs, computers and other appliances, a release from the
Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel said Monday. The new
system identifies changes in air pressure inside the nostrils
and translates these into electrical signals. Sniffing is a
precise motor skill controlled in part by the soft palate
directing air in or out through the mouth or nose. The soft
palate is controlled by nerves connecting to it directly
through the brain case, and this close link led Professor
Noam Sobel and fellow Weizmann researchers to believe the
ability to sniff -- to control soft palate movement -- might
still be present even in the most acute cases of paralysis.
Sniffs can be in or out, strong or shallow, long or short,
and this gives the device's developers the opportunity to
create a complex "language" with multiple signals, the Insti-
tute release said. The system is relatively inexpensive to
produce, and simple and quick to learn to operate in compar-
ison with other brain-machine interfaces, its developers said.
Panel considers cost of space tourism
SUNNYVALE, Calif. - U.S. space tourists hoping to buy a
ticket for a suborbital flight could expect to pay between
$50,000 and $100,000 by 2014, analysts say. For prices to
drop that low, the commercial space tourism industry would
have to reach the point of offering thousands of flights per
year, SPACE.com reported Tuesday. Some in the field are opt-
imistic the industry could be offering that many flights in
the near future, while others take a more pessimistic view.
"People have put down money to fly on [Virgin Galactic's]
SpaceShipTwo, but what is the long-term viability of the
market?" A.C. Charania, president of the SpaceWorks Commer-
cial consulting firm, asked. "After those pioneers fly, is
this a sustainable service? We have a question on that from
the analysis we've done." The future of the industry was
discussed by a panel of experts at the Space Frontier Foun-
dation's annual conference in Sunnyvale, Calif., SPACE.com
said.
------------------------------------------------------------
Check out Viral Videos on the Net at EVTV1.com
http://www.evtv1.com/
EVTV1.com