Drugstore of the Future: A 3D printer for medicine
From creating intricate guitars to delicious pieces of chocolate, 3D printing is moving beyond the realm of making simple models and into the realm of creating useful things. And thanks to researchers at University of Glasgow, this cutting-edge technology could take an incredible new turn that could save millions of lives: A 3D printer capable of creating drugs. Read more...
NEC develops 0.3mm thick organic battery
Organic batteries are an exciting area of research at the moment due to the benefits and potential they have to power our gadgets in the future. One of the companies at the forefront of organic battery development is NEC, which has been working on these polymer-based batteries since 2001 and had its first major release in 2005. Read more...
Is email about to be deleted? Five predictions for the technology’s future
People now receive on average 110 emails per day, according to a study from research company Radicati. My own figures suggest the European trend is nearer 70 emails.
Whatever the precise number of emails you receive daily, the chances are it's still far too high and you end up failing to process them all properly.
Add to this problem the expectation of 25 per cent of business users for an email response within an hour, and it's little wonder that last year held its usual share of email disasters.
For example, in June the Information Commissioner fined Surrey Council £120,000 for breaching the Data Protection Act by sending sensitive emails to the wrong people. And of course famously we had the mother-in-law's email to her future daughter-in-law which, while not involving business email, highlights how quickly hate email can go viral.
Then we had the Blackberry Crumble server problems in October, which left many users bereft of email and climbing up the wall in frustration.
These are just some of the more prominent email disasters, some of which have cost organisations dearly. In addition over the past year I have seen organisations losing up to 75 minutes per day per person simply through trying to process too much unnecessary email. Read more...
Jolting the brain with electricity could reverse damage caused by Alzheimer’s
According to the American Health Assistance Foundation, approximately 5.4 million Americans are suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and it's also the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Those numbers have prompted medical researchers to explore treatments for the illness. A study by Andres Lozano from Toronto Western Hospital in Ontario, Canada suggests jolting the brain with electrical impulses in a process known as deep brain stimulation. And results indicate that doing so reverses brain shrinkage brought about by the illness, thereby reducing the effects of the disease. Read more...
Mass. schools team up for supercomputer center
At a gritty industrial site occupied a century ago by a textile mill, five universities are collaborating to install supercomputers that will recreate the start of the universe and perform other research.
The developers of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, which is being built and is expected to be operating by the end of next year, were drawn to Holyoke for the same reason industrialists flocked to the city in the 19th century: cheap water power from the Connecticut River.
"It's coming full circle for us," said John Goodhue, executive director of the project. Read more...
Online crime costs more than drugs – but the real losses go beyond dollars
Online crime is now costing more than the global drugs trade, according to some new research, which puts the amount stolen by online criminals - plus the cost of putting things right again - at about $114bn annually.
Adding in the value victims surveyed placed on time lost due to online crime, this figure hits $388bn - significantly more than the global black market in drugs, including marijuana, cocaine and heroin.
Getting down to some UK specifics, every second 19 people fall victim to some form of online crime, with viruses, credit card fraud and social network hacking the most common forms of abuse, according to the Norton Cybercrime Report in the UK.
As a result, online crime is costing the UK about £474m a year. Add the value of time wasted and the overall cost passes the £1bn mark. Read more...
Freezers, hot water and hard work: Could you handle IT in Antarctica?
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has been leading the UK's scientific research efforts in Antarctica for more than 60 years.
From research into geology, glaciology, marine biology and meterology to the study of local lakes and wildlife, the BAS' Antarctica team are expanding scientific knowledge in difficult conditions.
Although the organisation is based in Cambridge, some of its 400 staff can spend months at a time working and living in five research bases in Antarctica and nearby South Georgia.
Along with the bases, the organisation operates two ice-strengthened ships in the Southern Ocean - the RRS James Clark Ross and RRS Ernest Shackleton - as well as running five planes.
silicon.com spoke to BAS head of technology and engineering David Blake to find out how technology supports the organisation's operations and how the BAS overcomes the challenges of working on the icy continent. Read more...
Internet Explorer is best at protecting against drive-by downloads
Internet Explorer is better at defending against drive-by downloads than competitors' browsers and the contest isn't even close, according to a worldwide test of browsers by security research firm NSS Labs.
Internet Explorer scored a 99.2 percent protection score in the firm's most recent test of socially engineered malware distribution, with Google Chrome coming in a distant second with 13.2 percent.
Trailing behind it were Safari and Firefox tying with 7.6 percent each, and Opera pulling up last with 6.1 percent. Read more...
Facebook use linked to teen psych disorders
Using Facebook and other social networks can have some significant negative effects on teenagers and young adults, says a California State University researcher.
Actually, using sites like Facebook can be linked to some serious psychological disorders, like narcissism for teenagers, and antisocial behaviors, mania and aggressive tendencies with young adults, says Dr. Larry Rosen, professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Rosen presented his findings, which he pointed out are new and not yet ready for publication, at an American Psychological Association conference in Washington, D.C. last week. Read more...
Researcher follows RSA hacking trail to China
Malware used in the attack against RSA Security earlier this year was controlled from China, a well-known botnet researcher said Wednesday.
Joe Stewart, director of malware research for Dell SecureWorks, traced the command-and-control (C&C) servers used to oversee the RSA attack to networks in Beijing and Shanghai.
"This gives us the where, but not the who," said Stewart when asked whether his work had come up with clues about the attack's architects.
In mid-March, RSA confirmed that it had been targeted by hackers who had breached its network defenses and stole proprietary information. Although RSA has never detailed what was stolen, it has admitted that information related to the company's SecurID two-factor authentication products was part of the haul. Read more...
BI: ‘Voice of the customer’ programs combine feedback in one place
About 18 months ago, Charming Shoppes launched a customer insights project to "deliver actionable customer and market research and analysis to the business," according to Jeffrey H. Liss, who headed up the initiative. Liss is now senior vice president of corporate strategy at the plus-size women's clothing retailer.
Before that time, the company collected and disseminated customer feedback in a less than organized way, Liss recalls. Various departments and brand groups received input from customer emails and online product reviews, and store personnel received verbal comments from shoppers. Anything deemed relevant was "passed up the command chain" to top executives via email distribution lists, Liss says. As a result, "We had a lot of anecdotal information floating around," and executives had no way to distinguish important data from rumor, he reports. Read more...