MIT team plumbs mystery of spider webs

Spider webs, it turns out, are hardened goo.

A team of researchers studying the golden silk spider have found that spider webs start out as a thick gel of silk solution (a teaspoonful can make 10,000 webs) that the spiders then manipulate with their hind legs and body weight and to turn it into a long fibers.

In some ways, the process is similar to what happens to egg whites when fried. The protein white starts out liquid, but after heat is applied, it hardens irreversibly into a mass. With spiders, the protein molecules in the silk solution slip … Read more

Technology aims to take the grainy out of cell phone video

If it's good enough for the army, it should be good enough for your phone, figures Motion DSP.

The company, which came out of research conducted at UC Santa Cruz, has created a system that enhances the resolution of grainy video, like those taken with a cell phone. The technology basically takes information from several low resolution frames and combines them intelligently to make a more viewable video.

Software and imaging chips for better video have been a growing business for the past few years. Video--both from consumers and security cameras-- is exploding, but a lot of it is … Read more

Ice age onset tied to declining CO2 levels

Ancient geological formations are giving further evidence that the temperatures on the surface of the earth are controlled by the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Around 460 million years ago, the Appalachian mountains had just pushed up volcanic soils from beneath the ocean to the surface. The silicate rock reacted with air and moisture and captured CO2 in the atmosphere. The result? In 7 to 8 million years, the Ordovician ice age began.

"We are seeing a mechanism that changed a greenhouse state to an icehouse state, and it's linked to the weathering of these unique … Read more

Rocket Racing League gets a boost

Before this weekend's X Prize Cup, only one group of pilots had signed up to be regular contestants in the Rocket Racing League (RRL), an aerospace outfit that plans to host live rocket-racing events around the country in the mold of the Grand Prix.

Now, after a delay in the league's debut, the RRL has signed on two more teams and unveiled its first official rocket--the Mark-1 X-Racer ceremoniously named "Thunderhawk" this weekend at its headquarters in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Originally, the RRL had planned to fly its rockets at the 2006 X Prize Cup, … Read more

$100 million for biomed research to Technion

Biomed billionaire Alfred Mann has agreed to donate $100 million to the Israel Institute of Technology, or the Technion to set up the second of a planned series of twelve institutes at major research universities.

The Technion institute, like the others, will seek to develop new drugs. Mann picked the university in part because the university is trying to match doctors with engineers and other scientists to come up with medical and drug breakthroughs.

Mann, who is estimated to be worth over $2 billion, has already donated $100 million to USC.

The university, which has been the core core of Israel's tech industry … Read more

Can a gene turn water into energy?

Trent Nguyen says he's sitting on one powerful gene.

Nguyen, CEO of Genexinh, says his company has discovered a gene that produces a protein that can split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The electron can subsequently be stripped from the hydrogen molecules. In other words, it's a gene that can make electricity with very little energy and expense.

One of the big knocks against using hydrogen as a fuel source is the cost and energy required to produce it. Currently, manufacturers mix methane and oxygen at high temperatures. For every 1 kilogram of hydrogen produced, the reaction … Read more

Spacecraft falters at X Prize Cup

In the end, Pixel crashed.

The lunar spacecraft engineered by Armadillo Aerospace, and known as Pixel, bit the dust Saturday, catching fire in its final try at winning the Northrop Grumman Lunar Challenge, a NASA-funded contest to build a next-generation vehicle that could simulate landing on the moon.

Armadillo made three attempts at the challenge during a two-day space festival, the Wirefly X Prize Cup, held in Las Cruces, New Mexico, but it only completed half of the requirements. Those were flying for 90 or more seconds to an altitude of 50 meters and over a distance of 100 meters. … Read more

Father of Word and Excel to try space flight

Charles Simonyi, one of the principal figures behind Microsoft Word and Excel, will try to be the next space tourist.

Space Adventures, the company that books tourists on Russian space flights to the International Space Station, will later this month announce Simonyi's training schedule and launch date, as well as discuss what exactly he will do up in space.

Simonyi was once romantically linked to Martha Stewart, so there's a slim chance he may try to see if it's possible to assemble a collection of monogrammed napkins from hotels in the 1930s in a zero-gravity environment.

The … Read more

Leave suburb, pass moon, move on to asteroid

Sick of traffic jams? Had enough with the neighbor's barking dog? No place to park? War on crime. War on terror. War on poverty. War on drugs. Worn out with war? Could be time to move off and move on.

The folks at space.com have a plan. Now that we've trashed our first planet with overcrowding, nuclear waste, global warming and tribalism, try someplace new. Their suggestion? Asteroid.

And they promise plenty of resources on these handy chunks of more than rock. And think of the peace and quiet. No lawn, no rats, no TV reception, no … Read more