Category: Science &Technology

British scientists seeking to tap more efficient forms of solar power are exploring how to mimic the way plants transform sunlight into energy and produce hydrogen to fuel vehicles.

They will join other researchers around the world studying artificial photosynthesis as governments seek to cut greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.

The research will use synthetic biology to replicate the process by which plants concentrate solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which is then released into the atmosphere.

“We will build a system for artificial photosynthesis by placing tiny solar panels on microbes,” said lead researcher Julea Butt at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

“These will harness sunlight and drive the production of hydrogen, from which the technologies to release energy on demand are well-advanced.”

Hydrogen is a zero-emission fuel which can power vehicles or be transformed into electricity.

“We imagine that our photocatalysts will prove versatile and that with slight modification they will be able to harness solar energy for the manufacture of carbon-based fuels, drugs and fine chemicals,” she added.

The 800,000 pound project will be undertaken by scientists from UEA and Cambridge and Leeds universities.

The scientists believe copying photosynthesis could be more efficient in harnessing the sun’s energy than existing solar converters.

CUTTING CO2

Many countries have deployed at least one kind of renewable energy, such as solar, wind power or biofuels, or use a mixture to see which becomes most competitive with fossil fuels.

But as carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise, some experts argue more extreme methods are needed to keep the average rise in global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius this century, a threshold scientists say would avoid the most harmful effects of climate change.

“Many renewable energy supplies, such as sunlight, wind and the waves, remain largely untapped resources. This is mainly due to the challenges that exist in converting these energy forms into fuels from which energy can be released on demand,” said Butt.

Some of the more extreme methods which are being studied are controversial, such as removing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and geo-engineering techniques such as blocking sunlight using artificial clouds or mirrors in space.

Such technology is far from being employed on a large scale and the costs are enormous.

Critics argue these techniques manipulate the climate, are too costly, take too long to prove and governments should concentrate on more mainstream renewable energy sources.

Last year, British scientists abandoned a 1.6 million pound experiment to test the possibility of spraying particles into the upper atmosphere to stem global warming.

Reuters

Indicted Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom launched a new file-sharing website that promises users greater privacy and defies the U.S. prosecutors who accuse him of facilitating massive online piracy.

The colorful entrepreneur unveiled the “Mega” site ahead of a lavish gala and news conference at his New Zealand mansion on Sunday night, the anniversary of his arrest on racketeering charges related to his now-shuttered Megaupload file-sharing site.

The site Dotcom started in 2005 was one of the most popular sites on the Web until U.S. prosecutors shut it down and accused him and several company officials of facilitating millions of illegal downloads.

In Dotcom’s typical grandiose style, the launch party featured a tongue-in-cheek re-enactment of the dramatic raid on his home a year earlier, when New Zealand police swooped down in helicopters onto the mansion grounds and nabbed him in a safe room where he was hiding.

“Mega is going to be huge, and nothing will stop Mega — whoo!” a gleeful Dotcom bellowed from a giant stage set up in his yard, seconds before a helicopter roared overhead and faux police agents rappelled down the side of his mansion.

Dotcom eventually ordered everyone to “stop this madness!” before breaking out into a dance alongside miniskirt-clad “guards” as music boomed.

Bravado aside, interest in the site was certainly high. Dotcom said half a million users registered for Mega in its first 14 hours.

U.S. authorities are trying to extradite the German-born Internet tycoon from New Zealand, where he is free on bail. Prosecutors say Dotcom made tens of millions of dollars while filmmakers and songwriters lost around $500 million in copyright revenue.

U.S. prosecutors declined to comment on the new site, referring only to a court document that cites several promises Dotcom made while seeking bail that he would not — and could not — start a Megaupload-style business until the criminal case was resolved.

“I can assure the Court that I have no intention and there is no risk of my reactivating the Megaupload.com website or establishing a similar Internet-based business during the period until the resolution of the
extradition proceedings,” Dotcom said in a Feb. 15, 2012, affidavit.

Dotcom argues that he can’t be held responsible for copyright infringement committed by others and insists Megaupload complied with copyrights by removing links to pirated material when asked.

“Our company and assets were taken away from us without a hearing,” Dotcom said. “The privacy of our users was intruded on, communications were taken offline and free speech was attacked.

Let me be clear to those who use copyright law as a weapon to drown innovation and stifle competition: You will be left on the side of the road of history.”

Mega, like Megaupload, allows users to store and share large files. It offers 50 gigabytes of free storage, much more than similar sites such as Dropbox and Google Drive, and features a drag-and-drop upload tool.

The key difference is an encryption and decryption feature for data transfers that Dotcom says will protect him from the legal drama that has entangled Megaupload and threatened to put him behind bars.

The decryption keys for uploaded files are held by the users, not Mega, which means the company can’t see what’s in the files being shared.

Dotcom argues that Mega — which bills itself as “the privacy company” — therefore can’t be held liable for content it cannot see.

“What he’s trying to do is give himself a second-string argument: ‘Even if I was wrong before, this one’s all right because how can I control something if I don’t know that it’s there?’” said Sydney attorney Charles Alexander, who specializes in intellectual property law.

“I can understand the argument; whether it would be successful or not is another matter.”

To Dotcom, the concept is very simple.

“If someone sends something illegal in an envelope through your postal service,” he says, “you don’t shut down the post office.”

The Motion Picture Association of America, which filed complaints about alleged copyright infringement by Megaupload, was not impressed.

“We are still reviewing how this new project will operate, but we do know that Kim Dotcom has built his career and his fortune on stealing creative works,” the MPAA said in a statement.

“We’ll reserve final judgment until we have a chance to take a closer look, but given Kim Dotcom’s history of damaging the consumer experience by pushing stolen, illegitimate content into the marketplace, count us as skeptical.”

Still, as much as Dotcom’s new venture might enrage prosecutors and entertainment executives, it shouldn’t have any impact on the Megaupload case.

“All it might do is annoy them enough to say, ‘We’re going to redouble our efforts in prosecuting them’,” said Alexander, the attorney. “But I don’t think it makes any practical difference to the outcome.”

Dotcom denied the new site was designed to provoke authorities, but got in plenty of digs at their expense, saying that their campaign to shutter Megaupload simply forced him to create a new and improved site.

“Sometimes good things come out of terrible events,” Dotcom said. “For example, if it wasn’t for a giant comet hitting earth, we would still be surrounded by angry dinosaurs — hungry, too. If it wasn’t for that iceberg, we wouldn’t have a great Titanic movie which makes me cry every time I see it. And if it wasn’t for the raid, we wouldn’t have Mega.”

Associated Press

Although Rwanda and other countries have future plans of acquiring the Dreamliner Planes, recent reports indicate that the world’s most advanced jetliner has safety problems.

The US federal government has declared that U.S. airlines cannot fly the 787 again until the risk of battery fires is addressed.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s emergency order affects only United Airlines, the lone U.S. carrier to operate 787s.

United said it would put passengers on other aircraft and work closely with the FAA and Boeing to review its fleet of six Dreamliners.

Agencies

On Tuesday Facebook made headlines with the announcement of its new social search tool called Graph Search, And while Facebook insists that Graph Search is in no way another web-search-engine or a Google copycat, the company clearly intends to make optimum use of all that it knows about you and your friends.

So here’s looking at what Graph Search is all about, along with snapshots from the big launch.

The tool, which the company calls graph search, is Facebook’s most ambitious stab at overturning the Web search business ruled by its chief rival, Google.

It is also an effort to elbow aside other web services designed to unearth specific kinds of information, like LinkedIn for jobs, Match for dates and Yelp for restaurants.

Facebook has spent over a year honing graph search, said Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, at an event here at Facebook’s headquarters introducing the new product.

He said it would enable Facebook users to search their social network for people, places, photos and things that interest them.

That might include, Zuckerberg offered, Mexican restaurants in Palo Alto that his friends have “liked” on Facebook or checked into – though not status updates as yet. It might be used to find a date, a dentist or job, other Facebook executives said.

“Graph search,” Zuckerberg said, “is a completely new way to get information on Facebook.”

Graph search will be immediately available to a limited number of Facebook users – in the “thousands,” Zuckerberg said – and gradually extended to the rest.

There’s few greater challenges in the automotive realm than redesigning an iconic car with a devoted following.

Play it too safe, and only the die-hards keep buying; go too far, and the enthusiasts can feel alienated without a new audience developing.

There’s no more iconic American car than the Corvette, and the 2014 Corvette Stingray unveiled Sunday has already sharply divided fans around the world.

One person’s affordable supercar is another’s reminder of the Pontiac Aztek.

That Corvette fans themselves would raise the name of the Aztek, the ugliest vehicle ever developed by General Motors, demonstrates the passions involved with the Corvette.

In 60 years, the car has only been redesigned seven times, and the 196os editions ranks as the most beautiful American sports car ever created.

Chevy designers knew this going in; GM design chief Ed Wellburn commissioned 300 potential designs for the car, and vowed that he wouldn’t let it use the historic Stingray name if it wasn’t worthy.

Every new generation of the Corvette sparks a debate among the faithful, and the so-called C7 has done so more than ever before.

On the most popular Corvette Forum, the debate over the direction chosen by GM began as soon as the first photos appeared, and hasn’t stopped since. One fan summed up the case for the new car thusly:

The new Corvette is awesome, in looks and performance. The exterior is nicely evolved, and the interior is revolutionary, especially the Lamborghini inspired optional track seats. Love the extreme chopped rear end and hood scoop. Side profile is nicely carved…All parameters have been incrementally and necessarily increased to maintain the car’s promise of supercar performance at a Chevy price. Resurrection of the Stingray moniker is a nice touch. This car delivers.

But the critics emerged quickly.

While the front-end treatment received some mild criticism, the rework of the rear which removed the traditional Corvette round taillamps in favor of vent-surrounded polygons, sharp creases and four exhaust pipes led some Vette owners to consider pitchfork and fire, accusing GM designers of slighting its heritage by making the Corvette look like a lowly Camaro:

wirestory

Korean Air has been ranked among the most dangerous airlines in the world.

South Korea’s flag carrier was placed in the bottom fifth in terms of safety among 60 global airlines, according to 2012 data by Germany-based Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre.

The JACDEC safety index showed that Korean Air, established in 1962, had nine flight disasters with 687 fatalities since 1983 when the center began its safety evaluations of the airline industry.

Korean Air’s worst disaster was in 1983, when one of its airplanes was shot down by the former Soviet Union amid heightened tension between the U.S. and the communist country.

The incident led to the death of 269 passengers and Korean Air staff.

Korea Air’s rival Asiana was ranked 46th on the list with one accident and 68 casualties.

Finnair was picked the safest airliner in the world, with China Airlines the most dangerous on the index.

Astronomers have discovered the largest known structure in the universe, a clump of active galactic cores that stretches 4 billion light-years from end to end.

The structure is a large quasar group (LQG), a collection of extremely luminous galactic nuclei powered by supermassive central black holes.

This particular group is so large that it challenges modern cosmological theory, researchers said.

“While it is difficult to fathom the scale of this LQG, we can say quite definitely it is the largest structure ever seen in the entire universe,” lead author Roger Clowes, of the University of Central Lancashire in England, said in a statement.

“This is hugely exciting, not least because it runs counter to our current understanding of the scale of the universe.”

Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe. For decades, astronomers have known that they tend to assemble in huge groups, some of which are more than 600 million light-years wide.

But the record-breaking quasar group, which Clowes and his team spotted in data gathered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, is on another scale altogether.

The newfound LQC is composed of 73 quasars and spans about 1.6 billion light-years in most directions, though it is 4 billion light-years across at its widest point.

To put that mind-boggling size into perspective, the disk of the Milky Way galaxy — home of Earth’s solar system — is about 100,000 light-years wide.

And the Milky Way is separated from its nearest galactic neighbor, Andromeda, by about 2.5 million light-years.

The newly discovered LQC is so enormous, in fact, that theory predicts it shouldn’t exist, researchers said.

The quasar group appears to violate a widely accepted assumption known as the cosmological principle, which holds that the universe is essentially homogeneous when viewed at a sufficiently large scale.

Calculations suggest that structures larger than about 1.2 billion light-years should not exist, researchers said.

“Our team has been looking at similar cases which add further weight to this challenge, and we will be continuing to investigate these fascinating phenomena,” Clowes said.

The new study was published (Jan. 11) in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.