research

9 percent would have sex with a robot

The good thing is that we're a dying species.

This allows us to have a more rounded perspective on life, the world, and every little thing that's coming to replace us.

We know that we are generally incapable of making the right decisions at the right time. So we invented humor to take the edge off it.

We also know that we're increasingly incapable of efficiency and, well, work in general. So we invented robots. Now, we have to decide what we're going to do with them before they do away with us.

In a survey conducted -- with, presumably, entirely straight faces -- by the Huffington Post and YouGov, real human beings offered their more profound thoughts on the robotic future.… Read more

Shopping is therapy, say more than half Americans

A decent shrink costs at least $100 an hour.

A decent pair of shoes can cost you the same and they last a lot longer. They understand you better too.

Surely, therefore, we shouldn't be surprised that more than half of all Americans admit that if they want to feel better, shopping is their chosen Xanax.

With just a click or two, you can be clicking your heels and forgetting the awful lover who told you that this was surely forever before becoming surly last night.

I have on my screen the results of a survey performed by TNS … Read more

With a drop of liquid, IBM develops a new microchip switch

IBM has come up with a new technique for making the tiny switches and memory cells at the heart of computer chips: a drop of ionic liquid.

The technique converts a metal oxide on a computer chip from a conducting to an insulating state and back again, a transition that, using a different approach, is at the heart of conventional semiconductor chips today. Insulators don't conduct electricity and conductors do, so changing a material's state is instrumental to how it performs the logical operations of computer processing.

Today's semiconductor chips work by applying electrical voltage to a &… Read more

Heart study uses mobile tech to try to enroll 1M participants

If researchers at the University of California at San Francisco have their way, their new heart disease study won't suffer from a small sample size. Using online and mobile phone tools, they hope to get 1 million people from around the world to participate.

Launched this week, their Health eHeart Study (yes, very cute) enables participants to use their smartphones to frequently monitor heart rate, blood pressure, and pulse rate, and submit the resulting data via a secure online portal. The researchers, in turn, will use fancy algorithms to crunch that massive volume of data.

The goal? To use the super sample size to better understand -- and thus predict and prevent -- heart disease.… Read more

Use Annotary for efficient online research

The Internet is a valuable tool in today's research for papers and other projects. However, bookmarking endless Web pages is not the most efficient way to keep track of the information you need. Sure, it points you to the source where you found useful information, but you still have to go digging through the Web page to find it again.

Instead of adding to your endless bookmark collection, you should try using a service like Annotary. This service is dedicated to helping you do online research more efficiently, and it's free for individual users. If you want to … Read more

Sex in space may be dangerous, study says

I've always imagined that being up in space isn't really so much fun.

Yes, the views are nice, but the claustrophobia must be entirely stifling. What are you supposed to do up there, for days on end? You can't just work all the time.

The temptation, then, might be to occasionally enjoy a little recreation in the procreative sphere.

Sex would surely offer a touch of vigorous exercise and a little human community.

However, now research has emerged suggesting that sex up there could be dangerous.… Read more

Scientists link rats to real-world 'Matrix' via the Internet

There is officially a Wachowski Brothers-style "Matrix" for rodents.

Scientists in North Carolina and Brazil have connected the brains of two rats using "brain-to-brain interfaces" that can connect directly or via the Internet. These allow the rodents to share sensory information, collaborate on tasks to earn rewards, and fight back against the shadowy and cyber-apocalyptic forces that have enslaved them.

There's actually no evidence of the latter, but I'd still suggest researchers watch out for any rats that start displaying a propensity for martial arts.… Read more

Patent suit takes aim at Apple, Dell, others over encryption

A security group has taken aim at some of the biggest computer and software makers, claiming their products infringe on one or more of its patents.

Maz Encryption Technologies, a Delaware company made up of two former employees of Maz Technologies, filed suits last week against Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Lenovo, and Research In Motion (now BlackBerry).

In seven separate complaints, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, Maz accuses the companies of infringing on one or more of its three patents covering encryption and user authentication technologies -- low level security found in … Read more

Tweets study says Hawaii happiest, Louisiana not so much

Being a long-suffering admirer of research, I am always delighted when a new piece of academic thought comes along to subvert my idiosyncratic suspicions.

This is not one of those times.

For my excitement is slightly muted on hearing that people in Hawaii are happier than those anywhere else in the U.S.

This quite astounding conclusion comes from an analysis of 10 million geotagged tweets from 2011, pored over by squinting eyes and expanded brains at the University of Vermont.

As CNN reports it, Hawaii is a ha-ha-happy place, while the greatest volume of the most miserable people in America is to be found in Louisiana. … Read more

Ex-BlackBerry co-CEO Jim Balsillie dumps entire stake

Jim Balsillie, the former co-CEO of BlackBerry, has sold off his entire stake in the company, according to a regulatory filing.

A year ago, Balsillie was one of the largest individual shareholders in BlackBerry (formerly known as Research In Motion) with 26.8 million shares in the company. But in a document filed today, BlackBerry disclosed that Balsillie no longer holds any shares in the company.

Balsillie and fellow former co-CEO Mike Lazaridis stepped down last March amid shareholder criticism over the way the company was being run and a stunning drop in its share price. Current CEO Thorsten Heins … Read more