“The Effects of Social Media on Undercover Policing”
When we tell kids that they have to be careful what they share on FaceBook, that it can affect them in the future, it seems that even we don’t realize all the possible implications.
Archive of posts filed under the Science and Technology category.
Topics pertaining to science and technology, current or future.
“Reusable Printer Paper”
In 1985, the Wall Street Journal had a quote from an unnamed Xerox executive to the effect that “we’ll have a paperless office when we have a paperless bathroom.” Well, paperless bathrooms are here, but offices still use a lot of paper. In a bid to reduce that, Xerox has come up with self-erasing reusable …
“NASA to work on approved sci-fi books”
A primary theme of this blog is that science fiction drives science. Apparently science is now directly feeding back into science fiction too. 🙂 I don’t expect this to really go anywhere. The motivation for it is pretty transparent: keeping NASA in the public eye now that there are no shuttle launches, so that Congress …
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“iPad bridesmaid attends wedding via FaceTime”
I doubt this sort of thing will become the preferred way to attend a wedding any time soon, but until recently it wouldn’t have been possible for the home-bound bridesmaid to attend at all. Telepresence will only get better — easier to use, more reliable, with more control for the remote user — over time. …
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“The Growing Harm of Not Teaching Malware”
This fellow (warning, PDF file) claims that all computer science graduates should take a course in writing Trojans, viruses, worms, and the like — “malware” — or at least that it should be offered as a regular part of an elective security course. At first, I was taken aback by the suggestion. You don’t want …
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“Bacterial nanowire discovery could revolutionize bioelectronics”
An exciting discovery: […] Similar to the flexibility of artificial nano-wires, the conducting properties of the Geobacter biofilm could be manipulated by simply changing the temperature or regulating gene expression to create a new strain, for example. By adding a third electrode, the biofilm can act like a biological transistor, able to be switched on …
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“Are Some Evangelicals Beginning to Question the Existence of Adam and Eve?”
This week, on the Colbert Report, I heard something that shocked me: some evangelical Christian scientists were beginning to publicly doubt that humanity could be descended from one man and one woman, as described in the book of Genesis. The reason it shocked me is that I couldn’t believe that someone who identified himself as …
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“Italian boffins to robo-grapple space junk”
What is this, a geek version of one-upsmanship? Now the Italians are offering their own plan for cleaning up low-Earth orbit: a robotic satellite that will slap a thruster onto larger pieces of debris and light it. This rivals the Japanese fishing-net idea and the American ground-based laser plan.
Site Moved
(If you’re reading this, then you’re on the new site. Congratulations. 😉 ) After hosting my websites with Total Choice Hosting (TCH from here on) for more than eight years, I’ve been forced to move them. The issue: lost e-mails. A few months ago, a friend of mine called to ask if I’d gotten his …
“Scientists Steer Car With the Power of Thought”
The future is getting closer. 🙂