Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid – Auto Shows – “This hybrid is unlike anything you’ve previously heard called a hybrid. Rather than the bulky battery pack associated with roadgoing hybrids, Porsche’s racing hybrid system utilizes an electrical flywheel generator to capture and store kinetic energy. Sitting where the passenger would be in a road car, the flywheel generator is charged by a pair of 60-kW motors in the front wheels and stores its energy mechanically as it spins up to 40,000 rpm. When fully charged, the generator can send bursts of 161 hp back to the front-wheel motors for periods of up to six to eight seconds. The rear wheels have full-time, exclusive access to the naturally aspirated flat-six’s 480 hp…”

Breaking: Mexican meteorite impact? – “Reports are a bit sketchy right now, but apparently a bright flaming object was seen coming down about 100 miles northeast of Mexico City on Wednesday around 18:30 local time. There was a roar that was loud enough to shake buildings. Another news article is reporting a crater 30 meters in diameter was found…”

Coming soon: Postage stamp-sized 1TB SSDs – “SSDs haven’t found their way into the mass market yet, but a team of Japanese researchers is already trying to make them more worthwhile. The team claims it has developed a technology that helps to shrink the size of SSDs by no less than 90%, makes them cheaper and boosts energy efficiency by 70%…

Dell Mini 5: we have it (update: new pics and video!) – ” That’s right! After all those quick and dirty appearances, we’ve finally got our own Dell Mini 5 (aka “Streak” or “M01M”) prototype for a more in-depth look…”

No Humans, Just Robots – Amazing Videos of the Modern Factory – “Modern manufacturing isn’t based on human labor, it’s based on the robot. Still, most people cannot grasp the breadth of automation in factories. We still picture plants full of human workers toiling to make our cars and furniture, just as we imagine our meat comes from animals in a barn. The truth is much more awe-inspiring, perhaps even frightening. The factories of today have some human workers, but huge portions of assembly lines are 100% mechanized. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics expects automotive jobs to decline 18% by 2018 despite expected increases in production. Robots eliminate the need for more workers. Before you lament the loss of jobs, take a moment and watch how robots earn their role every day in the workplace. Incredible!”

Doctors Go Crazy Over New Psychiatric Manual – “Psychotic risk syndrome is the worst idea in the whole thing,” First says. “Only 10% to 20% of people who meet the criteria for risk will actually become psychotic. That means that eight in 10 will get no benefit — and what is the benefit? There is no way to prevent schizophrenia. And then there is the stigma. … And the potential for normal people being captured under this rubric is high…”

YouTube Dashboard Compares Your Experience to Others’ – “Ever wonder how your internet service provider, home network, processor speed, and other factors affect the speed and quality with which you can watch videos on YouTube?”

Chicago 2010: Bridgestone’s new tires can improve fuel economy by four percent – “Tires can really suck gas. Overcoming rolling resistance can account for anywhere between five and 15 percent of a light-duty vehicle’s fuel consumption, and standard tires don’t put a priority on reducing that resistance. But, low-rolling resistance tires, at their name implies, do. At the Chicago Auto Show this week, Bridgestone unveiled two new tires – called the Ecopia EP422 and the Dueler H/L 422 Ecopia – that bring the company’s fuel efficient tires to a new class of vehicles…”

Autonimously Automated Automobiles – “Future forms of highway transport could be driven on current roads, without changing any existing infrastructure! Whatif this Change started within each car instead…Starting with each Driver’s behaviour!”

Liquid Galaxy project is Google’s glass elevator – “GOOGLE has unveiled one of the greatest toys ever – a virtual glass elevator that lets you fly around the world…”

Genetic Doping Next Athletic Cheat – “Researchers writing in the journal Science discuss the threat to athletic integrity posed by genetic doping–gene therapy to enhance performance–as well as efforts to test for it…”

Efficient Solar Cells from Cheaper Materials – “IBM researchers have greatly increased the performance of a novel thin film solar cell…”

North America’s Greenest Building? – “The University of British Columbia is claiming the title of North America’s greenest building for its impressive $37 million Center for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), currently under construction and to be completed in 2011. What makes this building the greenest?”

PCs around the world unite to map the Milky Way – “At this very moment, tens of thousands of home computers around the world are quietly working together to solve the largest and most basic mysteries of our galaxy…”

Magnesium: The Most Powerful Relaxation Mineral Available – “A deficiency in this critical nutrient makes you twice as likely to die as other people, according to a study published in The Journal of Intensive Care Medicine.(i) It also accounts for a long list of symptoms and diseases — which are easily helped and often cured by adding this nutrient. In fact, in my practice, this nutrient is one of my secret weapons against illness. Yet up to half of Americans are deficient in this nutrient and don’t know it. I’m talking about magnesium….”

Brain surgery boosts spirituality – “Removing part of the brain can induce inner peace, according to researchers from Italy. Their study provides the strongest evidence to date that spiritual thinking arises in, or is limited by, specific brain areas…”

Optimal Waist-to-Hip Ratios in Women Activate Neural Reward Centers in Men – “Secondary sexual characteristics convey information about reproductive potential. In the same way that facial symmetry and masculinity, and shoulder-to-hip ratio convey information about reproductive/genetic quality in males, waist-to-hip-ratio (WHR) is a phenotypic cue to fertility, fecundity, neurodevelopmental resources in offspring, and overall health, and is indicative of “good genes” in women. Here, using fMRI, we found that males show activation in brain reward centers in response to naked female bodies when surgically altered to express an optimal (~0.7) WHR with redistributed body fat, but relatively unaffected body mass index (BMI)…”

Brain Waves Show Patterns for Deciding Which Faces We Prefer – “Faces play a very important role in our social life. We make complex social decisions based on facial appearance. Extensive research has been made to identify a set of facial features which make a face attractive. Possibly no research is needed to predict which face a heterosexual male would prefer when asked to choose between Megan Fox (voted as one of the sexiest celebrities) and Jocelyn Wildenstein (voted as one of the ugliest celebrities)….”

Genetic differentiation in modern humans

Ancient Street Found in Jerusalem’s Old City – “Take a step into the past along an ancient road that provides a fresh glimpse into commercial life during the time of the Byzantines…”

How to Reform the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – “Recent scandals have undermined the credibility of the international scientific body, yet the scientific evidence for climate change remains as strong as ever…”

Smart-Phone Advertising Helps Small Firms Grab Business – “Services that target ads and offers to customers around the corner offer a new inroad…”

Changing Landscapes, Changing Wing Shapes – “A new study shows how North American birds have changed the shape of their wings in the past century as the landscapes around them have been fragmented by clear-cutting…”

Researchers create drug to keep tumor growth switched off – “A novel — and rapid — anti-cancer drug development strategy has resulted in a new drug that stops kidney and pancreatic tumors from growing in mice. Researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, have found a drug that binds to a molecular “switch” found in cancer cells and cancer-associated blood vessels to keep it in the “off” position…”

Intense Sweets Taste Especially Good to Some Kids – “New research from the Monell Center reports that children’s response to intense sweet taste is related to both a family history of alcoholism and the child’s own self-reports of depression…”

New Russian botnet tries to kill rival – “‘Kill Zeus’ removes rival software from PCs, giving Spy Eye access to usernames, passwords…”

Sub 30-second boot – “Can we use Windows 7′s new fast-boot capability and BIOS optimizations to get to the desktop in less than 30 seconds?”

[[[Jump to - Interesting Reading #415 – Robot helicopters, Amphibious buses, iceman DNA, amazing sailboats and much more...]]]