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NASA Spinoff for Android is packed with information, purple

Vlad Bobleanta — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:30:00 EST

NASA has released an Android application, called NASA Spinoff. The app is very purple, as you can see from the screenshots above, and it basically intends to be a mobile version of the NASA Spinoff publication, which features successfully commercialized NASA technology.

Inside the app, you can glance at a timeline of NASA innovations, all the way from 1958, when the agency was founded, to the present. The Map tab shows where many NASA inventions can be found around you, overlaid onto a Google Map for convenience. The News tab contains a news feed of the latest NASA technology news. The Search tab lets you discover how NASA-derived technologies have contributed to products around you. Finally, the License tab lets you search for or browse through NASA patents, to discover licensing opportunities.

NASA Spinoff is available for free. You can search for it in the Android Market, download it from AppBrain here, or scan the QR code after the break.

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NASA Spinoff for Android is packed with information, purple originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google sends Android astronauts into space

Sebastian Anthony — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:10:00 EST

Google, with the aid of some weather balloons and Nexus S handsets, has successfully launched the Android OS into the stratosphere, all in the name of science.

Well, ostensibly in the same of science. Yes, there were some interesting findings -- the Nexus S only works below 60,000 ft (18km) and above -50C -- but really it was all about the photos and videos. There's a Picasa album with a bunch of photos, both of the set up and from space, and there are two videos (both after the break).

Of course, Android is only the second smartphone OS to make it into space; iOS was first, way back in October.

Yes, I know 100,000 ft isn't quite 'space', but it's still pretty damn high.

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Google sends Android astronauts into space originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IBM supercomputer 'Watson' to compete against humans in $1,000,000 Jeopardy! showdown

Sebastian Anthony — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:00:00 EST

Watson, an artificial intelligence powered by IBM's latest, disgustingly-powerful POWER7 processors and the DeepQA natural language parser, will play Jeopardy against flesh-and-blood humans in February, for a $1,000,000 grand prize.

Accurate, computerized natural language processing is a killer technology, and perhaps the last cornerstone in the creation of a Skynet-like entity. Search engines such as Google have made great strides, but their emphasis has always been on finding the right results, rather than understanding your query perfectly. DeepQA's sole purpose is to create a system that understands spoken natural language perfectly; from your literal, spoken or written words, down to the exact meaning of those words. To do this, it needs to understand sarcasm, irony, and a world of other linguistic constructs and inflections. Check the IBM FAQ for tons more information about Watson and DeepQA.

Needless to say, once a computer understands the meaning of our utterances, a wealth of possibilities are opened up. We will finally see Star Trekesque computers! Computer, plot a course to the office. We will be able to dim the lights, or turn the music up, just by talking.

The human vs. computer Jeopardy showdown will air in 2011, February 14-16, with the two all-time most successful contestants being pitted against IBM Watson to win $1,000,000. Watson has already beat former Jeopardy winners in internal testing, so it could be a very close battle indeed. Also worth noting is that PBS will air a documentary about the creation of Watson on February 9, just a few days before the game show.

I for one welcome our new computer overlords...

IBM supercomputer 'Watson' to compete against humans in $1,000,000 Jeopardy! showdown originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google now monitoring Earth's environment with Google Earth Engine

Jay Hathaway — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST

Google is now using its Google Earth technology, including satellite imagery and historical data, to help scientists monitor changes in the Earth's environment. Google Earth Engine, now in Google Labs, combines Google Earth's data and Google's cloud computing infrastructure into a powerful environmental analysis package.

Google Earth Engine can be used to measure all kinds of data about the Earth, including the extent of its forests and water. Google's cloud computing resources (thousands of computers at once!) help speed up processing time for scientists, and the software makes things easier with pre-processing features like automatically removing haze and clouds from the satellite images. Google is donating a whopping 10 million CPU hours to researchers who want to use Google Earth Engine, which should do plenty to help track deforestation and measure the world's water resources.

Google now monitoring Earth's environment with Google Earth Engine originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phylo: crowdsourcing genetic analysis through gaming

Samuel Gibbs — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:00:00 EST

Projects like Stanford's Folding@Home have utilized your games console's free cycles for biological research for a few years, and with great success. But now a team from the Bioinformatics department of McGill University in Canada has put gaming itself to an even better use: matching DNA, RNA or protein sequence alignments in an effort to help biologists better understand the link between different species and find important sections of the genome. They've developed a puzzle game called 'Phylo: A Human Computing Framework for Comparative Genomics' or just Phylo for short, which crowdsources the odious task of genetic analysis. The idea is that by matching color coded blocks in a timed, score-based game, players will actually be helping match sections of genetic code between two species, aiding researchers attempting to find genetic links, common ancestors and the sources of genetic diseases.

The game itself is quite fun and gets harder as you progress. You can even compete against a computer or other players for the best score, and while there are no prizes for winning, there's a certain amount of satisfaction in playing and beating a game where you're actually doing something productive. Once you've solved a puzzle the information is sent to the University of California Santa Cruz for analysis and storage in their genome browser project, which catalogs and collates billions of genetic sequences into a user-friendly interface for scientists. The hope is that the more we know about the links between species, the more that can be done about genetic diseases and their causes. Cancer, for instance, is a serious threat to humans -- but some species have an innate ability to suppress it, and it's all down to their genetic code. You can even choose to solve puzzles related to a specific disease, bringing in a more personal edge to the game if you've got a particular hatred or interest in a certain disease.

So if you fancy playing a game during your lunch break today, why not substitute a turn of Bejeweled for a bit of Phylo, and help biologists around the world solve inter-species genetic problems and fight disease.

Phylo: crowdsourcing genetic analysis through gaming originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Open a new tab and forget what you were about to do? Brain-stimulating skull electrodes may be the solution

Sebastian Anthony — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fun

In recent months I've been losing my mind. I don't know if I actually have something wrong upstairs, but I have been finding it increasingly hard to keep things -- ideas, snippets, variables -- in short-term memory. I think, though, that it's just a symptom of Information Overload. I sit here, hour after hour, day upon day, scanning RSS feeds, IRC rooms and forums. The amount of new data, videos and funny cat photos is simply overwhelming; I can't keep it all in my head! I guess it's inevitable that some things spill over the edge.

But it turns out that there might be some help on the horizon for Information Brokers like myself. With the help of brain-stimulating skull electrodes -- or, more succinctly, a thinking cap -- both the capacity and accuracy of your visual short-term memory can be doubled.

I'll try and break down the complex biotechnological stuff. We have two anterior temporal lobes (ATL) in our brain, by our left and right temples. The left ATL is for context processing (where have I seen that face or heard that sound before?), while the right ATL is where a lot of visual memory takes place. It's already been found that those with damaged left ATLs (weaker context processing) have better visual memories (very similar to autists), so the researchers decided to stimulate the right ATL to see if a similar effect could be achieved, without the need to damage the brain!

Sure enough, during testing, stimulating the right ATL improved visual memory by an astonishing 110%! To put it another way, by running a weak non-invasive electrical current across a part of the brain, the participants of this test were granted something similar to photographic memory.

Of course, I don't know whether memorising shapes (faces, objects, tools) without their context is particularly useful. But I'm interested in the short-term capabilities of such technology. When you forget what you were going to search for in the time it takes to switch to Firefox and open a new browser tab... well... I'll take what I can get!

Open a new tab and forget what you were about to do? Brain-stimulating skull electrodes may be the solution originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Backing up your brain is becoming a reality

Sebastian Anthony — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fun, Op-Ed

New Scientist is running a story this morning about immortality -- not the physiological, philosopher's stone variety, though: digital immortality. What if, rather than dying, you could live on... inside a computer?

Physically we might die, but if an accurate representation of our brain and all of its associated memories can be recreated inside a digital computer, stored in digital memory, can we live forever?

In theory it's simple enough, argue a variety of 'real avatar' research groups. If you answer thousands of questions and submit millions of photos, a believable model can be created. But it isn't a quick process: "If you spent an hour a day answering questions, it would take five years to complete them all," says a representative of CyBeRev, a 'personal cyberconsciousness' project.

The better solution is lifecasting, or 'lifelogging'. Strap an always-on camera to your head. Give some mind profiling software access to your blog, your Facebook page, your Twitter account. Over time, an accurate representation of your mind could be generated (unless you tweet bullshit, of course!) Ultimately, we'll simply sit down, plug in and have our brains and psyches scanned by a computer, a la Dollhouse -- but sadly that's still some way off.

Imagine the implications of digital immortality, though: Imagine having a digital avatar that could share its wisdom with your great-great-great grandchildren! Imagine having an enigmatic, digital Steve Jobs acting as CEO for every company!

Better yet, imagine having a personal clone of yourself that thinks and acts just like you. You could task him or her (or it?) to manage your online presence, leaving you free to do interact in the real world. Heck, why stop at one digital clone? I want an army of Sebastians...

Backing up your brain is becoming a reality originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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pElement is an awesome periodic table app for Windows

Lee Mathews — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Utilities, Education

Whether you're a hard-working chemistry student or a megalomaniacal mad scientist bent on taking over the world, a copy of the periodic table is a good thing to keep on hand.

Even better is pElement, a free application for Windows that packs loads of information into an easy-to-use interface. Click an element and the info window appears, displaying its abbreviation, full name, periodic number, and atomic weight. Need more info? Click an icon to display its physical properties, crystal structure, electron information, and more. Everything from half life to boiling point is within easy reach.

Back to the main window -- pElement also allows you to view elements by their class and form and includes a search function. The extras window includes a handful of useful info like a list of universal constants and superconductors, metric prefixes -- even a unit conversion tool!

pElement is a free download from Crystal Mountain Software.

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pElement is an awesome periodic table app for Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Escape Pod - Download Pod

Michael Schleifstein — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Audio, Podcasting, Podcasts

Last time we told you about a science podcast that was all about getting to the truth, now let's look at a podcast that covers the other side of science. Escape Pod is a weekly short story podcast hosted by Stephen Eley released every Thursday. The three-year-old podcast will stretch your mind with all types of sci-fi including space, time, technology, hard science, and even weird psychological science fiction. Each episode features some of the best science fiction from the present and the past with some stories from the great digests being read as well as this years Hugo nominees.

All stories come with an introduction that helps guide the listener into the work and gives fair warning to parents about the content of the work. Each episode even carries a rating similar to movies (G to R) to help determine whether you want your kids to listen. This week's PG episode features a 2008 Hugo nominee that was published in Asimov's Science Fiction short story magazine last year. The story took our minds on an Outer Limits type journey that included a main character living out the end of his life and discovering someone who may have been the reincarnation of someone very close to him.

Escape Pod is part of a network of short story podcasts including the horror podcast, Pseudopod, and the fantasy podcast, PodCastle.

Download Pod is an occasional series about our favorite podcasts. If you have suggestions for podcasts you think we should check out, let us know in the comments or via our tips page.

Escape Pod - Download Pod originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 08 May 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe - Download Pod

Kristin Shoemaker — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Audio, Podcasting, Podcasts

We'd never, ever turn down a good ghost story. Aliens, even the abducting kind (especially the abducting kind!) are incredibly cool. Still, we are pretty sure that T. Rex existed and didn't use those huge incisors for gnashing hellaciously into cantaloupes and mangoes. And we have enough acquaintances who act a little too similarly to lower primates to believe Darwin was too terribly far off.

We really dig people who can talk about the Drake Equation. We dig people who can speak articulately about science, sound extra intelligent, and still be accessible enough that we are able to follow along.

Feel the same? Check out The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. The weekly podcast is produced by the New England Skeptical Society and the James Randi Educational Foundation. Each week the panel takes on news from fringe science and takes a scientific look at controversial issues from a number of scientific fields.

Scientific podcasts are a funny thing. There are many out there that remind us way too much of our college days when we sat for two or three hours in a hot lecture hall listening to a professor full of even hotter air drone on about weather patterns. But there are gems like The Skeptic's Guide, which feel much more like you're sitting a table in a restaurant having a conversation with your smartest friends.

And these guys (and girls!) are smart. The host, Dr. Stephen Novella, is a neurologist teaching at Yale Medical School. Rebecca Watson is the resident Skepchick on the panel, and has the unique claim to fame that there's an asteroid named after her. Jay and Robert Novella are regular contributors and leaders in the New England Skeptical Society. And the weekly guest, James Randi, is the most interesting of the bunch: He's a magician. He's a world famous escape artist. And he's ready to expose, explain, and share with the layman the very scientific explanations for the magical things that go on in the paranormal and pseudoscientific world.

The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe is available from their site, or through iTunes.

The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe - Download Pod originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Launchball- Today's Time Waster

Todd Ritter — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fun, Games

Launchball is a fun, smart, and polished game courtesy of the Science Museum in London. The game uses a common premise: coax a ball into a goal. The objects you can use to accomplish this task though are based generally on electricity, magnetism, and mechanics.

There are basic shapes like "ski jumps" and ramps, but there are also batteries and steam generators (which also require a water tank and fire) to power magnets and fans. There are switches, springs, cushions, and rubber blocks. Each level provides you with a certain set and quantity of objects to help you get the ball in the goal (not all objects need to be used though).

If you take a few seconds to create a free account, you'll be emailed a code so that you can login at a later time and resume where you left off. Otherwise you have to play through all of the levels each time. There are three main categories of levels: tricky, sneaky, and crafty.

You can even create your own levels and share them. In the "Extras" section, you can play levels that were created by players.

[Via toddkedwards]

Launchball- Today's Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ScienceHack: YouTube gets smart

Kristin Shoemaker — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Video, Beta, Search

Ah, YouTube. Your first stop for prime footage of dogs driving cars and prairie dogs with gravitas. There are more educational things on there. Where else can you see a live demonstration (or ten, or twenty) on the effects of Mentos and carbonated soda?

Unbeknownst to many (maybe even your eighth period biology teacher), buried in all the hilarity and drama on YouTube, there is - gasp - educational content. The first trick is finding it. The second trick: Evaluating if it's actually any good.

If you're looking for science-related videos, your search just got a little bit easier. Enter ScienceHack, the science video search engine. These are your standard videos hosted on sites like YouTube or MetaCafe, but they are hand submitted and reviewed for their scientific content and value.

ScienceHack is still in alpha, and doesn't have a whopping amount of content (yet). It is geared toward the general public (so if you're studying for your doctorate in quantum physics, you won't find this site terribly useful). If you're a younger student, or someone with a casual interest in science, though, this will be right up your alley.

Our wish list with ScienceHack: we'd love to know a little more about who is reviewing the videos. Original sources and/or citations would also make the videos much more useful to the student. We really hope these things will come in time.

For now, though, ScienceHack is a great starting point for gathering information on a number of science topics. No sifting through the (somewhat entertaining) distractions of YouTube required.

[Thanks Rami Nasser!]

ScienceHack: YouTube gets smart originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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