universal

Motor moth: Scientists build insect-driven robot

Moths, despite munching on wool sweaters, are pretty innocuous for the most part. Scientists from the University of Tokyo decided to up the ante and put some moths in command of their very own robot vehicle.

The male silkmoths didn't have to pass driver's ed first, they just had to use their natural instincts for tracking down the female moth's sex pheromone. That's right, male moths do pretty much the same thing male humans do when they get their first car: go cruising for girls. … Read more

Trying to lose weight? Breathe into this gadget

Did you indulge at the Super Bowl party last night? Maybe you're still trying to work off the excesses of the holidays. Well, here's a dieting tool that's quite breathtaking -- literally.

Created by four Ph.Ds, mostly from Arizona State University, Breezing is a portable device that measures your metabolism using a method called indirect calorimetry. It analyzes your rates of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production.

You breathe into the mouse-size gadget that contains a sensor cartridge. It gauges your resting energy expenditure (REE), the metabolic rate indicating how quickly you're burning calories at rest. If you're trying to slim down, the faster the better. … Read more

Researchers create cyborg robo-battle-sparrow of doom

It's a surprisingly dangerous world out there in the trees. Sparrows sing, flit about, and fight like they're auditioning for a role on "Game of Thrones." Male swamp sparrows will even take their battles to the death. Before they get that far, though, there's a whole lot of wing-waving going on to mark their territory and signal their aggression.

Duke University biologist Rindy Anderson wanted to learn more about how these birds communicate with each other, so she and engineering undergraduate student David Piech built a cyborg robo-battle-sparrow of doom.

The Frankensparrow consisted of a miniature computer and robotics gear stuffed into the body of a dead sparrow. This allowed the researchers to control the wings. They took the Frankenstein sparrow to a breeding ground, played swamp sparrow invasion songs, and made it wave its wings at other males, the sparrow equivalent of flipping them the bird.… Read more

Udacity, San Jose State University offer online classes for credit

So you've graduated from high school and been accepted at a four-year college. But when you arrive on campus you find out that you can't pass college entry-level courses, so it's back to remedial classes. That's the fate of half of all freshman at San Jose State University, according to Provost Ellen Junn. Add to those woes decreases in funding for higher education across California, higher tuition fees, and greater competition for college admission.

Those are just some of the reasons the university has partnered with Silicon Valley startup Udacity to offer San Jose State Plus, … Read more

UPnP networking flaw puts millions of PCs at risk

Common bugs in networking systems are placing PCs, printers and storage devices at risk, according to security researchers.

According to the security team at Rapid7, technology used worldwide in both routers and standard networking equipment is making it possible for hackers to potentially infiltrate approximately 40 million to 50 million devices worldwide.

The vulnerability lies in the standard known as Universal Plug and Play (UPnP). This standard set of networking protocols allows devices such as PCs, printers and Wi-Fi access points to communicate and discover each other's presence. After discovery, devices can be connected through a network in order … Read more

Dancing baby vs. YouTube-Prince case set to go to trial

The woman who posted a video of her children dancing to the Prince tune "Let's Go Crazy" and has since waged nearly a six-year legal fight with Universal Music Group over the clip, may see her day in court.

US District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled today that a summary judgment will not decide this case, which means that if the two parties don't settle, this lawsuit will proceed to a jury trial.

The whole suit got started in 2007 when Prince asked YouTube to remove the clip of the dancing boys. When the clip got scrubbed, … Read more

Prof seeks woman to give birth to Neanderthal? Not exactly

As if pulling a storyline from the movie "Jurassic Park," a Harvard University professor says it would be possible to clone the long-extinct Neanderthal. One little hitch is that he'd need a woman willing to carry the offspring.

Contrary to a flurry of headlines following his interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, however, Harvard molecular geneticist George Church is not currently taking applications from would-be surrogate moms.

"The real story here is how these stories have percolated and changed in different ways," Church, a well-respected genetics professor at Harvard Medical School, told the Boston Herald following a slew of recent impossible-to-ignore headlines such as "I can create Neanderthal baby, I just need willing woman," and, from the Daily Mail, "Wanted: 'Adventurous woman' to give birth to Neanderthal man - Harvard professor seeks mother for cloned cave baby." … Read more

From Death Star to Disney, exploring the 'Star Wars' franchise (Q&A)

It's one of the biggest film franchises of all time. It's also one of the biggest merchandising franchises of all time. It's spawned dozens of novels, countless comic books, spoofs, video games, and even was responsible for the name of a controversial military defense system.

We're talking about "Star Wars," of course, George Lucas' mammoth empire that started back in the early-1970s as a much, much smaller creation. But don't think that Lucas didn't have big ideas. From the earliest days of working on the script of his sci-fi space opera, the &… Read more

Near-lightspeed space travel: Not as cool-looking as you think

You're onboard the Millennium Falcon. You give the command to jump to lightspeed. The stars outside turn into long streaks of light and you're off. It's one of the most memorable images of sci-fi space travel ever created. It's also likely to be pretty far from reality, according to a study by a group of students from the U.K.'s University of Leicester.

The study, titled "Relativistic Optics Strikes Back," was published in the University of Leicester's Journal of Physics Special Topics. You can indulge in all the delicious physics equations in the abstract.

The physics students started by imagining that the Millennium Falcon has accidentally wandered into our solar system, on a direct course for our sun. If it then engaged in near-lightspeed travel, the stars around it wouldn't appear to stretch out. Instead, it would look more like a disc of light.… Read more