Category: Cool

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From MAKE: 15-Year-Old Maker Astronomically Improves Pancreatic Cancer Test

Maryland young maker Jack Andraka isn’t old enough to drive yet, but he’s just pioneered a new, improved test for diagnosing pancreatic cancer that is 90% accurate, 400 times more sensitive, and 26,000 times less expensive than existing methods. Andraka had gotten interested in pancreatic cancer, and knew that early detection is a challenge. He gleaned information on the topic from his “good friend Google,” and began his research. Yes, he even got in trouble in his science class for reading articles on carbon nanotubes instead of doing his classwork. When Andraka had solidified ideas for his novel paper sensor, he wrote out his procedure, timeline, and budget, and emailed 200 professors at research institutes. He got 199 rejections and one acceptance from Johns Hopkins: “If you send out enough emails, someone’s going to say yes.” Andraka was recently awarded the grand prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his groundbreaking discoveries. [via Fast Company]

Watch Andraka talk about his improved test:

from MAKE

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From Ars Technica: Your very own ARM-based Ubuntu servers in the cloud… for free

Not content with dominating the world of smartphones and tablets, makers of low-power ARM chips are setting their sights on the server market. While x86 servers are still the norm, there have been hints for some time that ARM might become a presence in the data center. Another small, early step toward an ARM future was taken this week as the makers of an infrastructure-as-a-service testbed added ARM servers as a free option for developers.

The free cloud service is called TryStack. It works a lot like Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud, except that it runs on the open source OpenStack software, and is intended as a sandbox, not to run production code. Although OpenStack supports ARM, TryStack was initially set up to run just x86 servers, and is powered by 156 cores, 1,040GB memory, and 59.1TB of disk storage. What’s being added now is free access to HP’s Calxeda-based Redstone servers running Ubuntu Linux, ARM chipmaking startup Calxeda announced today.

In addition to HP and Calxeda, the hardware, software, and hosting is being provided by OpenStack, Canonical, Core NAP, and Rackspace. The servers use Linux containers, or LXC, a form of virtualization that improves server efficiency but allows only one operating system instance per processor core (akin to Solaris containers and FreeBSD “jails”). The shared, virtualized nature of the resources makes TryStack unsuitable for benchmarking and power measurements, but dedicated hardware access is planned for the end of this year.

 

from Ars Technica

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From Ars Technica: NASA partners with Microsoft to launch its first console game

NASA / Microsoft

In the past, NASA has used everything from websites and mobile apps to coverage on its own TV network to get the public excited about its space exploration efforts. But the run-up to the planned August 5 landing of the Mars rover “Curiosity” includes the organization’s first foray into the world of console game development.

Mars Rover Landing, available this week as a free download on the Xbox 360, was inspired by “the entirely factual and amazing sequence of events to land Curiosity on Mars,” Jeff Norris told Ars (Norris is the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab manager for planning and execution systems). Using the Kinect, players help adjust the landing module’s angle as it enters the Martian atmosphere, handle timed explosive charges to discard the heat shield, and deploy a parachute before applying thrusters to gently touch the rover down on the Martian surface (that last bit is in a mini-game somewhat reminiscent of the arcade classic Lunar Lander). It’s not the most complicated game on the market, but it does a good job of showing just how many things have to go exactly right to land a robot on another planet.

In real life, that entire automated process takes place during what NASA engineers refer to as “seven minutes of terror” when the Rover is unable to communicate with Earth. While NASA had previously detailed that sequence in a dramatic video from earlier this year, the organization felt there might be better ways to get the public involved in the story.

 

from Ars Technica

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From Engadget: DARPA fights fire with sound and electricity, hopes ‘ionic wind’ could save lives in the field

DARPA develops method of extinguishing fire with sound and electricity, hopes 'ionic wind' could save lives in the field

Fire, frenemy of humanity since time immemorial. Typical extinguishing methods have involved water, chemicals and even blankets, but DARPA wanted to see if there was another, more pragmatic way. Starting with the understanding of fire actually being a cold plasma, DARPA then explored fire’s electromagnetic and acoustic qualities, and discovered two potential ways to quell the flame, one using electrons, the other, sound. The electron technique creates an oscillating field that separates the fire and fuel dubbed “ionic wind,” the other method creates an acoustic field that increases the air velocity (thinning the the flame boundary) and causes the flames to widen and drop in temperature, dispersing the fire’s energy. The concepts have been proven, but scaling these up to real world solutions is a whole different matter. Light up the videos after the break to see them in action.

Continue reading DARPA fights fire with sound and electricity, hopes ‘ionic wind’ could save lives in the field

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from Engadget