April 4, 2012

Good Morning,

We don't think about it very often, but it is incredible to consider that today's personal computers are capable of. Any desktop you can buy for seven or eight hundred bucks has about 500,000 times as much capacity as the computers that took the Apollo missions to the moon.

Now flash drives are making storage devices even smaller.

Flash drives so small and convenient you can carry a 4GB drive around on your wrist in a little silicone bracelet. You can get one as cheap as 20 bucks. Imagine carrying around 800 songs or hundreds of images in a bracelet. One of the girls here in the office is diabetic and she keeps her complete medical records on one.

I thought that was pretty brilliant.

If you want to take a look we have this exact product on our site. Just click the link below and you can watch Anisa describe it in detail.

See the Koi 4GB Memory Band Here

Enjoy this weeks articles!

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Black holes make meals of binary stars

SALT LAKE CITY - U.S. scientists say supermassive black holes in the center of galaxies grow by repeatedly capturing and consuming single stars from pairs that wander too close. Combining observations of our own Milky Way and other galaxies with new calculations, "we found black holes grow enormously as a result of sucking in captured binary star partners," University of Utah physics and astronomy Professor Ben Bromley said. "I believe this has got to be the dominant method for growing supermassive black holes," he said. "There are two ways to grow a supermassive black hole: with gas clouds and with stars. "Sometimes there's gas and sometimes there is not. We know that from observations of other galaxies. But there are always stars." Black holes are more likely to find binary stars within range than single stars, he said. "It's really hard to target a single star at a black hole. It's a lot easier to throw a binary at it," just as it's more difficult to hit a target using a slingshot that hurls a single stone than with a bola that hurls two weights connected by a cord, he explained. A binary pair of stars orbiting each other "is essentially a single object much bigger than the size of the individual stars, so it is going to interact with the black hole more efficiently," he said. "The binary doesn't have to get nearly as close for one of the stars to get ripped away and captured." As many as half of all stars are in binary pairs so they are plentiful in the Milky Way and other galaxies, he said.


Spy robot can jump 30 feet straight up

WALTHAM, Mass. - The U.S. Army has tested a reconnaissance robot that can jump 30 feet into the air, high enough to vault into a second story window, its maker says. Developed by Massachusetts firm Boston Dynamics, with U.S. Army funding, the tiny robot -- looking something like a radio-controlled model car minus its body -- can stop, stand up and launch itself with a CO2-powered piston, The Christian Science Monitor reported. Dubbed the Sand Flea, the robot can jump 25 times on a single charging with CO2, its developers said. The Sand Flea is an updated version of the Precision Urban Hopper, which was developed by Sandia National Laboratories. Unlike it predecessor, the Sand Flea has a gyroscopic stabilization system to keep it oriented as it jumps, making for steadier video in mid-flight. After evaluation by the Army Test and Evaluation Command, the Army could ship nine of the robots to Afghanistan to join about 2,000 others already being used by U.S. forces, CNET reported.


'Smart' uniforms ahead for U.K. soldiers

LONDON - Electricity-conducting yarn could soon be woven directly into the clothing of British soldiers, replacing cumbersome batteries and cabling, researches said. Uniforms made out of so-called e-textiles could function as a single, central power source for a soldier's equipment, Intelligent Textiles, based in Surrey, said. "We have built-in conductive yarns that then take power and data to where it needs to be," Asha Thompson, Intelligent Textiles director, told BBC News. Soldiers would have to recharge only one battery instead of many and would not be hampered by numerous cables, the company said. "One of the problems with conventional cables is that breakages can be catastrophic," Thompson said. "What we do here is build in redundancy, so that if the fabric gets cut, damaged or torn, we still have a way of re-routing the data. "We've got the fabric integrated into the vest, into the shirt, into the helmet, the backpack, and into the glove and weapons platform," she said. Field trials will be held in May, the company said, and the system could be in limited use by the end of the year.


Marine algae seen as ideal biofuel source

FAIRFAX, Va. - As part of a project to find the best algae species for producing biodiesel fuel, U.S. researchers say they've assembled the genome of a marine algae species. While various sources have been considered for alternative, renewable fuel sources to prevent an energy crisis and reduce greenhouse gas production -- corn and soybeans for biodiesel, for example -- researchers say algae is a prime candidate for producing as much biofuel as possible in the smallest amount of space using the least amount of resources. Algae can use various water sources ranging from wastewater to brackish water and can be grown in small, intensive plots on otherwise unusable land, scientists say. With that in mind, researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech have assembled the genome of Nannochloropis gaditana, a marine alga that may be capable of producing the yields necessary for a viable fuel source. With fairly straightforward genetic modification, N. gaditana should be capable of producing biofuel on an industrial scale, Virginia Tech reported Tuesday.

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