Soon, You Will Be Able To Wear A Computer

It might be not long before you start wearing a computer just as you put on your shoes, watch and jacket.
"As general computing systems become smaller, we are reaching a point at which it becomes conceivable to don these devices easily," Andy Fagg of the computer science faculty at the University of Massachusetts has been quoted by online ScienceDaily as saying.
Fagg, who is developing a wearable computer, said such a device offers access to information and communication resources at any time during walking hours.
"It isn't about being able to write a paper or send an e-mail while you are grocery store. It's about having digital assistance as you go about your life," he added.
Fagg's aim, ScienceDaily said, is to teach the computer to "notice" a user's routines and offer information accordingly.
For instance, if the computer notices that he enters a conference room at a particular time, "it should figure out he is going to a meeting and pull out appropriate documents, including minutes of the last meeting, and notes from related discussions.
Another example offered by him: "I could tell the system I'm going to be cooking a certain recipe for dinner. The system will know what I have in the kitchen cabinets at home. If I drive near the grocery store, it wakes up and whispers, 'Don't forget to stop at the grocery store, and by the way, you need these three items for the dinner you want to cook tonight.'"

Asteroid May Strike Mars in January 2008

Scientists at the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory believe a newly discovered asteroid has a 1 in 75 chance of hitting Mars on January 30, 2008.
Astronomer Steve Chesley said,"These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids. We know that it's going to fly by Mars and most likely going to miss, but there's a possibility of an impact"
Halfway between Earth and Mars, the asteroid, known as 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November and initially estimated to have a 1 in 350 chance of making impact. However, as new observations were made, the odds increased and scientists expect them to grow even more next month.
2007 WD5 is similar in size to the object believed to have impacted the Tunguska River in Siberia in 1908, devastating a huge area of land. The Tunguska blast unleashed equivalent energy to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb, wiping out over 60 million trees. An impact by 2007 WD5 could create a crater on Mars roughly equal to the size of one in Arizona known as "Meteor Crater."
If a Mars impact does occur, it will most likely be near the equator, an area that the robotic rover, Opportunity, has been exploring. The rover, itself, is not in any danger because it is outside of the possible impact area.
Chesley says, "Unlike an Earth impact, we're not afraid, but we're excited."

Active Glacier Found On Mars

A probable active glacier has been identified for the first time on Mars.
The icy feature has been spotted in images from the European Space Agency's (Esa) Mars Express spacecraft.
Ancient glaciers, many millions of years old, have been seen before on the Red Planet, but this one may only be several thousand years old.
The young glacier appears in the Deuteronilus Mensae region between Mars' rugged southern highlands and the flat northern lowlands.
"If it was an image of Earth, I would say 'glacier' right away," Dr Gerhard Neukum, chief scientist on the spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), told reporters.
"We have not yet been able to see the spectral signature of water. But we will fly over it in the coming months and take measurements. On the glacial ridges, we can see white tips, which can only be freshly exposed ice."
This is found in very few places on the Red Planet because as soon as ice is exposed to the Martian environment, it sublimates (turns from a solid state directly into gas).

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2007

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2007 jointly to
Albert Fert
Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/THALES, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France,
and
Peter Grünberg
Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany

Prize amount: SEK 10 million to be shared equally between the Laureates

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2007: Peter Grünberg

Peter Grünberg, German citizen. Born 1939 in Pilsen. Ph.D. in 1969 at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. Professor at Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, since 1972.www.fz-juelich.de/portal/gruenberg_e

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2007: Albert Fert

Albert Fert, French citizen. Born 1938 in Carcassonne, France. Ph.D. in 1970 at Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France. Professor at Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, since 1976. Scientific director of Unité mixte de physique CNRS/Thales, Orsay, France, since 1995. www2.cnrs.fr/en/338.htm

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2007

Nanotechnology gives sensitive read-out heads for compact hard disks

This year's physics prize is awarded for the technology that is used to read data on hard disks. It is thanks to this technology that it has been possible to miniaturize hard disks so radically in recent years. Sensitive read-out heads are needed to be able to read data from the compact hard disks used in laptops and some music players, for instance.In 1988 the Frenchman Albert Fert and the German Peter Grünberg each independently discovered a totally new physical effect – Giant Magnetoresistance or GMR. Very weak magnetic changes give rise to major differences in electrical resistance in a GMR system. A system of this kind is the perfect tool for reading data from hard disks when information registered magnetically has to be converted to electric current. Soon researchers and engineers began work to enable use of the effect in read-out heads. In 1997 the first read-out head based on the GMR effect was launched and this soon became the standard technology. Even the most recent read-out techniques of today are further developments of GMR.A hard disk stores information, such as music, in the form of microscopically small areas magnetized in different directions. The information is retrieved by a read-out head that scans the disk and registers the magnetic changes. The smaller and more compact the hard disk, the smaller and weaker the individual magnetic areas. More sensitive read-out heads are therefore required if information has to be packed more densely on a hard disk. A read-out head based on the GMR effect can convert very small magnetic changes into differences in electrical resistance and there-fore into changes in the current emitted by the read-out head. The current is the signal from the read-out head and its different strengths represent ones and zeros.The GMR effect was discovered thanks to new techniques developed during the 1970s to produce very thin layers of different materials. If GMR is to work, structures consisting of layers that are only a few atoms thick have to be produced. For this reason GMR can also be considered one of the first real applications of the promising field of nanotechnology.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2007

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2007 to
Gerhard Ertl

Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany
"for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces".The Prize amount: SEK 10 million.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2007: Gerhard Ertl

Gerhard Ertl, German citizen. Born 1936 in Bad Cannstadt, Germany. Ph.D. in physical chemistry 1965, from Technische Universität München, Germany. Professor Emeritus at Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany.http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/pc/PCarchive2.html

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2007

Modern surface chemistry – fuel cells, artificial fertilizers and clean exhaust

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2007 is awarded for groundbreaking studies in surface chemistry. This science is important for the chemical industry and can help us to understand such varied processes as why iron rusts, how fuel cells function and how the catalysts in our cars work. Chemical reactions on catalytic surfaces play a vital role in many industrial operations, such as the production of artificial fertilizers. Surface chemistry can even explain the destruction of the ozone layer, as vital steps in the reaction actually take place on the surfaces of small crystals of ice in the stratosphere. The semiconductor industry is yet another area that depends on knowledge of surface chemistry.It was thanks to processes developed in the semiconductor industry that the modern science of surface chemistry began to emerge in the 1960s. Gerhard Ertl was one of the first to see the potential of these new techniques. Step by step he has created a methodology for surface chemistry by demonstrating how different experimental procedures can be used to provide a complete picture of a surface reaction. This science requires advanced high-vacuum experimental equipment as the aim is to observe how individual layers of atoms and molecules behave on the extremely pure surface of a metal, for instance. It must therefore be possible to determine exactly which element is admitted to the system. Contamination could jeopardize all the measurements. Acquiring a complete picture of the reaction requires great precision and a combination of many different experimental techniques. Gerhard Ertl has founded an experimental school of thought by showing how reliable results can be attained in this difficult area of research. His insights have provided the scientific basis of modern surface chemistry: his methodology is used in both academic research and the industrial development of chemical processes. The approach developed by Ertl is based not least on his studies of the Haber-Bosch process, in which nitrogen is extracted from the air for inclusion in artificial fertilizers. This reaction, which functions using an iron surface as its catalyst, has enormous economic significance because the availability of nitrogen for growing plants is often restricted. Ertl has also studied the oxidation of carbon monoxide on platinum, a reaction that takes place in the catalyst of cars to clean exhaust emissions.