Networked surveillance minicopters can’t be kept down – “The helicopter in this video may weigh only 30 grams, but it carries a compass and motion sensors, can change course and warn fellow craft of obstacles it bumps into, and could even carry a small camera. It can also resist what might be called a King Kong attack – if swatted out of the air the tiny craft soon recovers and takes off again…”

Making the first computer virus – “If you’ve ever had to spend a lot of money on antivirus software, you’d be forgiven for wanting to take Dr Fred Cohen aside for, to put it politely, a few choice words…”

Murdoch’s wink – “Of course, there has always been a way to break out of the prison: If a critical mass of newspapers were to opt out of Google’s search engine simultaneously, they would suddenly gain substantial market power. Newspapers are struggling, but they remain, by far, the world’s dominant producers of hard news. That gives them, as a group, a great deal of leverage over companies like Google who depend on a steady stream of good, fresh online content. Google needs newspapers at least as much as newspapers need Google – a fact that’s been largely hidden up to now…”

How the Large Hadron Collider Works:

Paper-thin Batteries Made from Algae – “Imagine wrapping paper that could be a gift in and of itself because it lights up with words like “Happy Birthday.” That is one potential application of a new biodegradable battery made of cellulose, the stuff of paper…”

Blind man fitted with ‘bionic’ eye sees for first time in 30 years – “A blind man who thought he would never be able to read again has had his vision partially restored after being fitted with a ‘bionic’ eye. Peter Lane, 51, is one of the first people in the world to have electronic receivers implanted into his eye which send signals mounted in a pair of glasses to the brain….”

Causes of death

I should say it is the most complicated photograph I have ever made… – “Between August 30th 1998 and August 19th 1999 I have photographed the Sun 36 times on a single frame of 60-mm film…”

The advantage of superconducting cables

Weight loss drug targets body not brain – “Medical researchers in Sydney say they have developed a weight loss drug that could change the way the body uses fat. Scientists from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research say the new drug can control weight gain in mice by stopping the body from receiving certain signals from the brain…”

Which chart should I use?

From solar energy to hydrogen: there’s no step two – “Researchers have figured out how to directly couple a cheap and simple photovoltaic system to an equally cheap and simple catalyst that can split water, releasing hydrogen that can be used as fuel…”

Spin success for silicon – “Replacing electron charge with electron spin paves the way for a new mode of computing…”

8-bit device quenches iPhone envy – “The demo video embedded after the break details the device playing video, rendering 3D objects, and displaying pictures and ebooks with touch scrolling. All of this is running at 60 fps for a smooth picture. The whole thing is no larger than the 320×240 LCD that he salvaged from a broken MP3 player. An Atmel AVR ATmega644 microcontroller ties together the display, a resistive touch screen, and a microSD card for storage. The chip also controls the backlight, a Lithium Polymer battery, and uses USB for PC connectivity, charging, and even a mouse or keyboard interface. He etched the PCB himself for surface mount components and managed to do it with just four jumpers needed on the underside…” Demo:

Solar Power Costs 50% Lower than Last Year – “New research by leading alternative energy research firm New Energy Finance finds that solar power will cost less by about 50% at the end of 2009 compared to the end of 2008…”

50 Style Thoughts – “With any rule, there is at least one exception, except for #1, #3 and #8 above…”

The Billion-Year Technology Gap: Could One Exist – “Are we the lone sentient life in the universe? So far, we have no evidence to the contrary, and yet the odds that not one single other planet has evolved intelligent life would appear, from a statistical standpoint, to be quite small. There are an estimated 250 billion (2.5 x 10¹¹ ) stars in the Milky Way alone, and over 70 sextillion (7 x 10²² ) in the visible universe, and many of them are surrounded by multiple planets…”

Tracking a trail of trash in the Pacific Northwest – “O’Connor and Shannon Cheng are volunteers in a study tracking their trash — and giving them the opportunity to reflect on what they use and discard. The tracking devices are about the size of small cell phones and allow for near-real-time tracking of thousands of pieces of garbage…”

Smartphones Could Form Chemical Detection Networks -”A NASA scientist has unveiled a postage-stamp-sized sensor that can plug into an iPhone and convert Apple’s beloved product into a mobile chemical detector…”

The ’00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade From Hell – “Bookended by 9/11 at the start and a financial wipeout at the end, the first 10 years of this century will very likely go down as the most dispiriting and disillusioning decade Americans have lived through in the post–World War II era…”

Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades – “With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children…”

Are We Going to Let John Die? – “John’s story is not so unusual. A Harvard study, to be published next month in the American Journal of Public Health, suggests that almost 45,000 Americans die prematurely each year as a consequence of not having insurance. John may become one of them…”

Why the hammerhead shark got its hammer – “It’s one of evolution’s most eccentric creations: a head shaped like a hammer. Now, a study suggests that the hammerhead shark may have evolved its oddly shaped snout to boost the animal’s vision and hunting prowess…” See also: Hammerhead shark mystery solved

Oceans Absorbing Carbon Dioxide More Slowly, Scientist Finds – “The world’s oceans are absorbing less carbon dioxide (CO2), a Yale geophysicist has found after pooling data taken over the past 50 years. With the oceans currently absorbing over 40 percent of the CO2 emitted by human activity, this could quicken the pace of climate change, according to the study…”

Kiss my cytomegalovirus! – “Mouth to mouth sexual kissing is seen in more than 90% of human cultures. Various theories have been put forward to account for this but none offer a full explanation within an evolutionary framework…”

Pics of the flu virus and some its components – “We talk so much about the flu virus we thought we’d show you some nice pics that CDC has just put up…”

High-fat diet reduces anxiety and depression – “According to an Australian study performed on young rats, the eating of ‘comfort foods’,–that is, high-fat foods–can likely reverse the damaging effects of early trauma, such as stress, anxiety, and depression, in humans…”

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