Science

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Twisted Tale of our Galaxy's Ring

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In a strange twist of science, astronomers using the Herschel Space Observatory have discovered that a suspected ring at the center of our galaxy is warped for reasons they cannot explain.

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Smarter AIs Start to Read the Manual

Artificial intelligence has made great strides in solving particular problems, such as IBM's Watson, which learned to beat humans at the game Jeopardy. Unfortunately, dozens of human experts needed to read and digest rules of the game in order to code them into algorithms. Now a group at MIT wants to change the hand coding of algorithms by allowing an AI to read and digest the rules all by itself.

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Researchers are applying their new AI learning approach to Sid Meier's Civilization V.

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Visualization Analytics Writ Large

An 80 foot wide visualization display simultaneously tracks data streams from thousands of sensors to provide the real-time analytics necessary to balance a statewide electric grid, with telecommunications the next challenge.

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California ISO uses new 80-foot wide visualization display driven by Space-Time Insight's analytics.

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NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Enters Orbit Around Asteroid Vesta

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NASA's Dawn spacecraft, illustrated in this artist's concept, is propelled by ion engines.

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'Carmageddon' Drivers Could Find Relief From Crowd-Sourcing GPS App

A major highway shutdown, ominously dubbed "Carmageddon," is about to happen in L.A., where local officials and news agencies fear the worst. A smart GPS app, however, could provide some relief for drivers by tracking traffic conditions and suggesting alternative routes in real time.

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Closed routes are highlighted in red.

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Desktop Virtualization Growing to $5B by 2016

Virtualization will seep into every aspect of business computing over the next five years, growing tenfold as recession cost-cutting fades and mobilization of the workforces increase.

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Virtualization enables business partners to provide more comprehensive solutions to new and existing customers, as well as allowing companies to optimize IT investments, infrastructure and resources.

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Smart Monitors Benefit from RF Energy Harvesting

Radio-frequency energy from television, AM, FM, cellular, WiFi, WiMax, Long-Term Evolution and more can now be harvested to power smarter electronic devices for security, environmental sensing, structural monitoring (bridges/buildings), food spoilage and wearable bio-monitoring devices.

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Georgia Tech professor Manos Tentzeris holds a sensor (left) and an ultra-broadband spiral antenna for wearable energy-scavenging applications, both of which were inkjet printed on paper.

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Dawn Team Members Check out Spacecraft

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NASA's Dawn spacecraft, illustrated in this artist's concept, is propelled by ion engines.

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Eight Touch-Screen Gestures That Increase Comprehension

In the age of information overload, business agility requires optimal knowledge-acquisition techniques that psychologists call "active learning." These eight touch-screen gestures optimize active-learning techniques for electronic media and will be available in an app this fall.

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Smarter touch-screen gestures let users add highlights, insert comments, excerpt content, create groupings/outlines, zoom in for details or zoom out for overviews, aggregate so only highlights are visible, pinch a document together to see disparate sections at once or to hide irrelevant content, and manipulate multiple text elements with both hands.

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First-Ever View of a Sungrazer Comet In Front of the Sun

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A "sun grazing" comet as caught by SOHO's LASCO C2 camera as it dived toward the sun on July 5 and July 6, 2011. SOHO is the overwhelming leader in spotting sungrazers, with over 2000 spotted to date, aided by the fact that the sun's bright light is itself blocked out by a coronograph.