Electric Fish Equipped With 'dimmer' Switch

Fish that generates electric fields to navigate, fight and attract mates are equipped with a dimmer switch of sorts that can turn their signals to save energy, a new study finds.


Electric fish, such as some sharks and eels, emit weak electrical signals from a battery like organ in their tails. The fish studies, called Sternopygus macrurus, are active at night and must avoid predators, such as catfish, that can sense their electric feild.

Generating such impulses can be ergetically costly.

Now, researchers have located a dimmer switch in the membranes of cells called electrolytes within this electric organ. The switch takes a form of sodium channels that the fish can insert and remove from the electrolytes membranes. More sodium channels mean a stronger electric impulse.

The fish can turn their electric bursts up or down at a moment's notice. That's likely because a reservoir of sodium channels is stored in the electric cells. When serotonin is released in the fish brain, it initiates the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone from the pituitary gland, This triggers the mechanism that puts more sodium channels in the membrane.
"This is happening within a matter of two or three minutes," said study researcher Michael Markham of the University of Texas at Austin. " The mahinery is there to make this dramatic remodeling of the cell, and it does so within minutes from the time that some sort of stimulus is introduced in the environment."

When the fish are inactive, they remove the sodium channels from the cell membranes to reduce the intensity of the electric impulse.

"By adding new ion channels to the electrolyte membrane only during periods of activity or social encounters and removing these channels during inactive periods, these animals can save energy and reduce predation risks associated with communication," the researchers write in Sept. 29 issue of the journal PloS Biology.

Source: Sun Star Post Friday, October 2, 2009

Nissan's robot cars mimic fish to avoid crashing

Nissan has developed a mini robotic car that can move autonomously in groups while avoiding crashing into obstacles (including other cars).


The Eporo, Nissan says, is the first robot car designed to move in a group by sharing its position and other information. The aim is to incorporate the technology into passenger cars to reduce accidents and traffic jams.
Although a group of Eporos may look like a gang of cybernetic Jawa, Nissan says the cars' design was inspired by the way fish move in schools.

An evolution of the bumblebee-inspired BR23C robot car unveiled last year, the Eporo uses Nissan's collision avoidance technology to travel in groups. Check out BR23C trying to get away from a Japanese lady in this video.

Eporo can dodge obstacles just like fish.

The automaker studied how large schools of fish can move without colliding. It says Eporo imitates three rules of fish movement: avoiding crashes, traveling side by side, and keeping close to other members of the school.

The robots use laser range finders and ultra-wideband radio to determine distance to obstacles. They also communicate with each other to form the most efficient group formation to maneuver through tight spots.

Eporo stands for "Episode O (Zero) Robot." That zinger of a mouthful means zero episodes, as in zero accidents and zero emissions.

Nissan intends to show off Eporo at the Ceatec trade show next week in Tokyo. 


Credit Tim Hornyak of Cnet.com

Daft Punk: Technologic

I don't know why I am drawn towards everything that is related to technology, I guess it's chemistry. Okay, since this is a technology blog I am going to post this video here, because I like it. There is something about it that makes me boogie. Haha!

Wikipedia Information is not so accurate

New York - WikiePedia, the online encyclopedia that has drawn some decidedly juvenile pranks, is looking to impose more discipline with new restrictions on the editing of articles.

The latest changes come Wikipedia tries to balance a need for credibility and a desire for openness.

While anyone can still edit entries, the site is testing pages that won't register changes until they are approved by an experienced Wikipedia editor.

If the site's users respond well to the test run, the new restrictions will apply to all entries for living people in the next few weeks.

The idea is to block the kind of high profile vandalism that has marred some pages.

In one of the most recent embarrassments, Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd and Edward Kennedy were prematurely declared dead by rogue editors.

Still, Wikipedia risks discouraging legitimate editing if restrictions on changes or additions become too burdensome, keeping articles from getting better or keeping up with events. That maybe especially true on more obscure pages with fewer active volunteers to approve edits in a timely way.

Aware of the risks, Wikipedia has set the criteria for "experienced editors" status relatively low. Users who are registered for a few days can give changes the OK, said Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the site.

A more uniform system for filtering changes on Wikipedia represents a step back from the site's original philosophy, which is called for harnessing the collective knowledge of volunteer editors without any major restrictions.

But it is not the first time Wikipedia has attached some strings.

The same flagging process, for example, has been imposed on all entries in the German-language Wikipedia for more than a year.

On the English site, too, high-profile pages that are likely to be defaced, such as Michael Jackson's, have been tightly restricted.

Some observers believe Wikipedia must continue tightening editing policies if it wants to gain credibility.

"I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop," said Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at the Santa Clara University School of Law.

Goldman envisions a future Wikipedia curated by relatively small group of dedicated editors. Under the current model, he said, there are simply aren't enough volunteers to catch all errors.

"My hope is that Wikipedia still exists and is still considered a useful site," Goldman said. "But it will be at the point a very tightly controlled site. It won't have that veneer of a site that anyone can contribute to. They haven't closed the drawbridge. People can still get in. But it keeps going up and up and up."

Separately, the Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment group started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyarm said Tuesday it is committing $2 million over 2 years to the Wikimedia Foundation. Omidyar Network's grant will support Wikimedia's goals of bringing free educational content to people around the world supporting more people to help create that content.

It follows last week's announcement of a $500,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to make Wikipedia's software more user friendly and to develop training materials to engage new potential volunteer editors.

Brain Controlled Wheelchair

Here is another invention from Japan. This time it's a wheelchair. It is a wheelchair controlled by the brain. This is a big leap for humanity indeed. Well, take a look.

The Ultimate Luxury Phone

Okay, so I have stumbled on this info just recently and I was stunned because I had not imagined that there would be a cellphone so expensive. This is a phone made by Vertu.

This phone is priced at, hold on to your pants guys.......$4,484.oo

This phone like every phone that they produce is hand made at the company's headquarters in London. The Vertu constellation series pictured here was created by Frank Nuovo as a "handset of sophistication and substance".

In this collection, you'll find burgundy leather with satin stainless steel keys, rich dark brown leather set in 18-carat yellow gold, or other luxurious combinations - the choice is yours.

Mobile phone models come and go, but when they are made of quality materials and designed with style, they last forever. Think of it as the triumph of style over silicon.

Some Of The Things We Don't Know

I find this video very interesting. I hope you would do too.

Well, some of the facts here are exxagerated I think. But the video was done

really well.

China Source of Spam

China is responsible for for most of the world's email spam, according to new unpublished research. Nearly three-quarters of the Web sites advertised in computer spam studied by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Spam Data Mine so far in 2009 are tied to China, said Gary Warner, UAB's director of research in computer forensics.
Warner has dubbed the trend the "Spam crisis in China."
"China has become a safe heaven for Web site operators that use spam to promote their products because of the willingness of some Chinese Web-Hosting companies to ignore spam complaints about those sites, which are hosted on their servers for a fee," Warner said. "The hosting companies don't create the spam, but rather declare themselves bullet-proof hosting sites - meaning that regardless of the illegal activities being reported, they will not terminate their customer's spam-related Web sites or domains."
Computer spam refers to unsolicited commercial advertisements distributed online via e-mail, which can sometimes carry viruses and other programs that harm computers.
For the year to date, the UAB Spam Data Mine has reviewed millions of spam e-mails and successfully connected to the hundreds of thousands of advertised Web sites in the spam to 69,117 unique hosting domains, Warner said.
Of the total reviewed domains, 48,552(70 percent) had Internet domains, or addresses, that ended in "cn" - the Chinese country code. Also, 48,331 (70 percent) of the sites were hosted on Chinese computers.
Further encouraging the Chinese spam epidemic is the widespread availability of cheap domain names.
Domain names based in China can cost as little as one yuan, or 15 cents in US currency.
In contrast, US domain names can costs as much as $35 a year, with a portion of the fees goes to efforts to detect fraud and abuse like spam. The low domain rates in China encourage Web page operators to buy numerous domains, leading to a continuous stream of spam promoting those various sites.
"Not only is it cheap to operate spam promoted Web sites through the Chinese technology infrastructure, there is not enough revenue being generated to pay for the creation of programs or entities that could prevent such abuses from taking place," Warner said.
Warner said that while China are responsible for perpetuating the illegal spam activity, they risk the reputation of their entire nation's Internet presence.