JMH Techtronics

Is this the future of data storage? Researchers at Ohio State University have demonstrated the first plastic computer memory device that utilizes the spin of electrons to read and write data.

According to researchers, this alternative to traditional microelectronics, so-called “spintronics” could store more data in less space, process data faster, and consume less power.

At this point, the device is little more than a thin strip of dark blue organic-based magnet layered with a metallic ferromagnet and connected to two electrical leads. (A ferromagnet is a magnet made of ferrous metal such as iron. Common household refrigerator magnets are ferromagnets.) Still, the researchers successfully recorded data on it and retrieved the data by controlling the spins of the electrons with a magnetic field.

Normal electronics encode computer data based on a binary code of ones and zeros, depending on whether an electron is present in a void within the material. But researchers have long known that electrons can be polarized to orient in particular directions, like a bar magnet. They refer to this orientation as spin — either “spin up” or “spin down” — and have been working on a way to store data using spin. The resulting electronics, dubbed spintronics, would effectively let computers store and transfer twice as much data per electron.

But higher data density is only part of the story.

“Spintronics is often just seen as a way to get more information out of an electron, but really it’s about moving to the next generation of electronics,” Epstein said. “We could solve many of the problems facing computers today by using spintronics.”

What he refers to mostly is the heat generated by the moving of electrons through circuit boards. Moving electrons through them creates heat, and it takes a lot of energy to cool them. Chip makers are limited in how closely they can pack circuits together to avoid overheating.

Flipping the spin of an electron requires less energy, and produces hardly any heat at all, he explained. That means that spintronic devices could run on smaller batteries. If they were made out of plastic, they would also be light and flexible.

This is beneficial for everyone from soldiers in the field to those that have to lug a laptop around at school, or work, or even just media freaks like Casablanca fans that carry around a ton of movies, or music such as a DJ. Instead of carrying a big case with your laptop, it could literally be rolled up if it were made in a flexible polymer display.

Filed under: Computers and Internet by JMH
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Obtaining a graduate degree is as important today as it has ever been. A much larger portion of the workforce will have at least a Bachelor’s degree so having a bit of a leg up in that department is a huge benefit.

Getting a job as an employee in business is very competitive. Many corporate positions require at least a Master’s degree to e3ven get your foot in the door. Even though experience is a major factor, getting that experience may not be as easy at it once was. Just having a Bachelor’s degree doesn’t do a lot for you these days. Everyone has a bachelor’s degree, and there are a lot of people with them in the business fields. It is almost a necessity to go further in school in the competitive environment of today’s marketplace.

So…you likely are looking to take the GMAT after getting your undergraduate degree so you can proceed into even higher education. This exam is almost as big a challenge as it is finding work. Making sure you do enough gmat prep isn’t a recommendation, it is crucial. Get one-on-one attention, in and outside of class. Learn from the most dynamic instructors in the country. Engage in a class that’s a 2-way conversation, not a lecture. All important aspects for studying and it sets itself a part from most other programs.

Filed under: Fun Stuff by JMH
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If you have ever taken a psychology class in college, or even high school you are probably quite familiar with the bible of mental disorders which was called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM: DSM IV way back when I owned one). New entries into the manual tend to be a bit overboard it seems as there are going to be things for almost every person alive.

An updated edition of a mental health bible for doctors may include diagnoses for “disorders” such as toddler tantrums and binge eating, experts say, and could mean that soon no-one will be classed as normal.

Citing examples of new additions like “mild anxiety depression,” “psychosis risk syndrome,” and “temper dysregulation disorder,” they said many people previously seen as perfectly healthy could in future be told they are ill. I’m sure chicago search engine optimization will be considered a disorder at some point.

“It’s leaking into normality. It is shrinking the pool of what is normal to a puddle,” said Til Wykes of the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London.

Filed under: Psychology/Human Mind by JMH
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If you follow the claims of Global Warming at all there seem to be new factors jumping into the fray everyday. Mostly humans in some shape, or form, but I bet you never considered ancient hunters as a source of Apocalypse.

Hunters who took out the last of the whoolly mammoths are being held accountable for a piece of it now. Too bad they didn’t have access to diet supplement reviews back then. Maybe they would have known better…

The demise of the leaf-chomping woolly mammoths contributed to a proliferation of dwarf birch trees in and around the Arctic, darkening a largely barren, reflective landscape and accelerating a rise in temperatures across the polar north, researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science concluded.

The northward march of vegetation affected the climate because of the “albedo effect,” in which replacement of white snow and ice with darker land surfaces absorbs more sunlight and creates a self-repeating warming cycle, the study found.

Filed under: Environment by JMH
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If you watch enough Forensic Files, CSI, or any other A&E murder investigation show, you most definitely have noticed that arsenic is the favorite poison of housewives and husbands. Does arsenic serve a possible use for humans though? Most definitely.

A form of arsenic called arsenic trioxide has been used as a therapy for a particular type of leukemia for more than 10 years. Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown that it may be useful in treating a variety of other cancers. Like phentermine helps you lose weight.

Combining arsenic with other therapies may give doctors a two-pronged approach to beating back forms of the disease caused by a malfunction in a critical cellular signaling cascade called the Hedgehog pathway. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already approved arsenic trioxide for use in humans, which could pave the way for clinical trials of this approach.

“Many pharmaceutical companies are developing anticancer drugs to inhibit the Hedgehog pathway,” said Philip Beachy, PhD, professor of developmental biology and the Ernest and Amelia Gallo Professor in the School of Medicine. In addition, Beachy recently identified an antifungal drug commonly used in humans, itraconazole, as a Hedgehog pathway inhibitor. “However, these compounds target a component of the pathway that can be mutated with patients then becoming resistant to the therapy. Arsenic blocks a different step of the cascade.”

What about side effects? I can’t find any information on this. Surely it isn’t exactly side-effect free.

Filed under: Biology, Science by JMH
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A funny study recently suggests that great apes like to play tag too. A paper published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters suggests that apes like to play tag to keep their competitive advantage just like children do.

The research was carried out by behavioral biologist Dr Marina Davila Ross of the University of Portsmouth and colleagues lead author Edwin van Leeuwen from the Free University of Amsterdam and Dr Elke Zimmerman from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Germany. She says:

“This study shows a new opportunistic side to apes.

“Our findings on gorilla play show important similarities with the children’s game of tag. Not only did the gorillas in our study hit their playmates and then run away chased by their playmates, but they also switched their roles when hit so the chaser became the chased and vice versa.

“Experimental research has already demonstrated that animals with the disadvantage in an unfair situation show an aversion to the unfairness so with that knowledge and our own study we can conclude that humans are not unique in their ability to change their behavior in social situations depending on whether they have the advantage or disadvantage in an unfair situation. ”

Wonder if they will play tag with a human. Surely a natural way to avoid the need for best weight loss products…lol

Couple of pretty interesting studies I’ve noticed the last week involving the intelligence of animals. This one of course, but the study of cats mimicking monkey calls a few days ago is pretty fascinating.

Filed under: Animals, Biology by JMH
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If escaping a predator in the wild wasn’t hard enough…they are evolving into hunters like humans. Like humans who use all sorts of trickery to fool animals like duck calls, wild cats have been observed making monkey calls to lure and trap their intended prey.

Until now the legend of cats pretending to be monkeys was only that. Legend. Now a report in the June issue of Neotropical Primates include an amazing observation.

“Cats are known for their physical agility, but this vocal manipulation of prey species indicates a psychological cunning which merits further study,” said WCS researcher Fabio Rohe.

Researchers first recorded the incident in 2005 when a group of eight pied tamarins were feeding in a ficus tree. They then observed a margay emitting calls similar to those made by tamarin babies. This attracted the attention of a tamarin “sentinel,” which climbed down from the tree to investigate the sounds coming from a tangle of vines called lianas. While the sentinel monkey started vocalizing to warn the rest of the group of the strange calls, the monkeys were clearly confounded by these familiar vocalizations, choosing to investigate rather than flee. Four other tamarins climbed down to assess the nature of the calls. At that moment, a margay emerged from the foliage walking down the trunk of a tree in a squirrel-like fashion, jumping down and then moving towards the monkeys. Realizing the ruse, the sentinel screamed an alarm and sent the other tamarins fleeing.

While this specific instance of mimicry was unsuccessful, researchers were amazed at the ingenuity of the hunting strategy.

What’s next? They are going to get caught grooming with hair care products, acne face wash, and putting on perfume?

Filed under: Animals, Biology, Science by JMH
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Unless you have lived in a concrete jungle your entire life where you have never even seen the countryside, you have been amazed by the phenomenon known as the Firefly at some point in your life. Blinking green lights in the night have entertained kids for ages. It was always a curious sight and we always wanted to know what they were all about. Even trapping them in jars to try and see if we could create our very own light source. That is those that realized bugs needed oxygen too . The more murderous type really were amazed when they realized that the insides of them still glowed in the dark when they were dead!

So what is all that blinking about? There have never really been studies on whether this blinking served a real function. The first experiments on the function of this phenomenon suggest that synchronous flashing preserves female fireflies’ recognition of suitable mates. The results are reported in the July 9 issue of Science (This is the scientificy jargon read).

“There have been lots of really good observations and hypotheses about firefly synchrony,” says lead author Andrew Moiseff of the University of Connecticut. “But until now, no one has experimentally tested whether synchrony has a function.”

Fireflies are actually a type of beetle. They produce bioluminescence as a mating tool, in which males display a species-specific pattern of flashes while “cruising” through the air, looking for females, says Moiseff. These patterns consist of one or more flashes followed by a characteristic pause, during which female fireflies, perched on leaves or branches, will produce a single response flash if they spot a suitable male. Kind of like trying sell merchant account to a prospective buyer .

“We had the technology to design something that we thought would create a virtual world for these females,” says Moiseff.

Their results showed that females responded more than 80 percent of the time to flashes that were in perfect unison or in near-perfect unison. But when the flashes were out of synch, the females’ response rate was 10 percent or less.

Filed under: Biology, Science by JMH
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This may sound like a good thing for someone. I guess it may be for the person that originally got fine $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing THIRTY songs.

Judge Nancy Gertner on Friday cut the damage award to $67,500 — three times the statutory minimum — and said the new amount “not only adequately compensates the plaintiffs for the relatively minor harm that Tenenbaum caused them; it sends a strong message that those who exploit peer-to-peer networks to unlawfully download and distribute copyrighted works run the risk of incurring substantial damages awards.”

Everything about these cases are a failure. The damages are outrageous. Nobody is losing any money. The people that share these files never would have bought them in the first place. They may go to a concert though. Nobody that is stealing music is ever gonna be able to afford to pay these fines. It just doesn’t do anything except lead them towards a natural treatment for depression and bankruptcy.

Filed under: Computers and Internet by JMH
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More evidence that short sample sizes can be skewed to look like anything. Oh wait…did I just say that? This is always my first thought when I read a title such as this. That the sample size is way too small to draw very conclusive results. I don’t disregard them mind you, but I definitely have the thought in my mind before I delve into the study and their conclusions.

So…what do we have on tap in this study?

Stanford University climate scientists say:

“Using a large suite of climate model experiments, we see a clear emergence of much more intense, hot conditions in the U.S. within the next three decades,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, an assistant professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford and the lead author of the study.

Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Diffenbaugh concluded that hot temperature extremes could become frequent events in the U.S. by 2039, posing serious risks to agriculture and human health.

“In the next 30 years, we could see an increase in heat waves like the one now occurring in the eastern United States or the kind that swept across Europe in 2003 that caused tens of thousands of fatalities,” said Diffenbaugh, a center fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment. “Those kinds of severe heat events also put enormous stress on major crops like corn, soybean, cotton and wine grapes, causing a significant reduction in yields.”

You can read more about the study here. I will say that this study revolves around no date mentioned before 1850. Most f the data stems from the 1950s to present from a quick glance. You probably don’t need any depression treatment for these results I would guess.

Filed under: Environment, Global Warming by JMH
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