Tags: body germs, health, human bacteria, microbes, microbial zoo
For the first time, scientists have cataloged human germs, determining that more than 10,000 species of microbes can be found in and on a healthy person.
These bugs — mostly benign but occasionally causing illness — occupy just about every part of the body, living on the skin, in the stomach and intestines, up the nose (and every other other orifice), according to the Human Microbiome Project.
Tags: android, intel, olpc, os, studybook, tablet
Companies have been trying to transform education with computers for decades, with mixed results. But there is new enthusiasm for the possibilities represented by tablets, and Intel has a new entry.
The chip giant on Tuesday is introducing what it calls the studybook, a portable device with a seven-inch touchscreen that is encased in particularly rugged plastic. Like its prior entries in education, Intel designed the device but expects it to be branded, customized and sold by hardware companies to reach students in emerging and industrialized countries.
Pricing is expected to be established by those partners, and may depend on factors such as software and hardware add-ons. But the tablets should start at less than $200 each, says Kapil Wadhera, general manager of Intel’s education market platforms group.
Tags: browser, browser update, firefox 5, mozilla firefox
In shifting gears to a faster pace of development and release, Mozilla has opted to abandon security support for Firefox 4 immediately upon the release of version 5, which came out this week. This could be a risky move, since many users neglect to update their browsers immediately for various reasons, despite the pop-up reminders Firefox periodically displays.
Mozilla released Firefox 5 earlier this week, just three months after rolling out Firefox 4 and a month after it released version 5 in beta.
Version 5 has “more than 1,000 improvements,” which include the “Do Not Track” privacy feature and support for the CSS Animations standard, among other things.
More here
Tags: gaming console, hottest console, motion-control tech, wii cut price, wii nintendo
To help push dusty Nintendo Wii’s off the shelves, Nintendo is reportedly dropping the price of its console to $150, from $199.
Citing an unnamed source, Engadget reported on Monday that the new price will take effect on May 15.
A spokesman for Nintendo said, “Nintendo does not comment on speculation or rumor.” Engadget pointed to a March interview between Nintendo America president Reggie Fils-Aime and Gamasutra, in which Fils-Aime discussed re-pricing the console.
Tags: astronomers, binocular, chabot planetarium, lunar, monday eclipse, moon
If rain, clouds or fog don’t obscure the midnight sky Monday night, a dramatic total eclipse of the moon will be well worth staying up late to watch – in the Bay Area and across the nation.
Lunar eclipses are by no means uncommon, but during this one the moon will be high in the sky, so it should be easily observable from everywhere, said Andrew Fraknoi, chairman of astronomy at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills.
“It’s a really democratic event,” he said, “because you don’t need an expensive telescope or any other sophisticated equipment to enjoy the spectacle – just your eyes or, if you like, a pair of binoculars.”
Tags: cannibal, dinosaurs, Paleontologists, t-rex, Tyrannosaurus
Paleontologists from the United States and Canada have claimed that Tyrannosaurus Rex was a cannibal. The paleontologists analyzed marks and gouges on the fossils of the Tyrannosaurus Rex to conclude that the T-Rex was a cannibal. Researchers predicted that it was likely due to the scavenging rather than active hunting.
The T. Rex was the only large, late Cretaceous carnivore in Western North America, said the paleontologists. The findings were published in study titled “Cannibalism in Tyrannosaurus rex.” The research was done by Nicholas R. Longrich (Yale), John R. Horner (Montana State), Gregory M. Erickson (Florida State), and Philip J. Currie (University of Alberta).
Read more: LA News Monitor
Tags: geneva auto show, hybrid cars, porsche 918, spyder hybrid, v-8
Porsche brought its 918 Spyder supercar to America last night, showing off the amazing car under the glare of bright lights in a hanger at the airport in Monterey, Calif. Today, the 918 is going to run up and down roads around here just to show off its performance, and an amazing throaty purr from its V-8 engine with those side-pipe exhaust tips.
More on USAToday
Tags: Archaeologist, Arsinoe, gold coins, Ptolemy II, Queen Arsinoe II Philadelphus, Tel Kedesh
A rare gold coin dating back 2,200 years was discovered by a combined university research team in Israel, a top Israeli antiquities official said Thursday.
Dr. Donald T. Ariel, head of the Coin Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), said the coin ranked in the top five of the rarest finds in that country’s history.
“Intrinsically, for coin research, it’s a very exciting find,” Ariel told CNN. “This is an amazing numismatic find. The coin is beautiful and in excellent preservation. It is the heaviest gold coin with the highest contemporary value of any coin ever found in an excavation in Israel.”
Ariel said the coin weighs almost one ounce (27.71 grams), while most ancient gold coins weighed about 4.5 grams. It was minted in Alexandria, Egypt, by Ptolemy V and dates to 191 BCE. It is only the second gold Ptolemaic coin ever found in Israel.
More on CNN
Tags: heat wave, NASA, solar flare, solar storm, solar tsunami, space weather, sun fireworks
The solar fireworks at the weekend were recorded by several satellites, including Nasa’s new Solar Dynamics Observatory which watched its shock wave rippling outwards.
Astronomers from all over the world witnessed the huge flare above a giant sunspot the size of the Earth, which they linked to an even larger eruption across the surface of Sun.
The explosion, called a coronal mass ejection, was aimed directly towards Earth, which then sent a “solar tsunami” racing 93 million miles across space.
Images from the SDO hint at a shock wave travelling from the flare into space, the New Scientist reported.
Experts said the wave of supercharged gas will likely reach the Earth on Tuesday, when it will buffet the natural magnetic shield protecting Earth.
Tags: appliances, samsung, south korea, technology, television, tv set
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics on Monday unveiled what it says is the world’s slimmest LCD (liquid crystal display) TV.
The new product, measuring only 6.5 millimetres (0.26 inch) thick, is thinner than any other existing TV set, and even slimmer than most mobile handsets, Samsung said in a statement.
Its thickness is one seventh of Samsung’s “Bordeaux 850″ LCD TVs, which is currently the thinnest on the market, the company said.
The new product, which adopts an LED (light emitting diode) backlighting system, will be on display at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from January 8 to 11, Samsung added.
