Links for 24-07-2007
OpenLibrary launches, diamond space elevators, dolphin voice recognition software, gene therapy and eugenics, Editors interview…
-
1 – Open Library goes online with public domain book collection
“The Internet Archive has hosted texts for quite some time, but the Open Library makes fully-searchable, high-quality scans of books available, along with downloadable PDFs.”
-
2 – Is a space elevator worth its weight in diamonds?
“Diamonds have a big advantage over carbon nanotubes. [...] Substrates as wide as 15 centimeters have been reported as a base for diamond growth. That’s hundreds of times the area that’s needed for a space elevator cable.”
-
3 – Chips: High Tech Aids or Tracking Tools?
“… the news that Americans had, for the first time, been injected with electronic identifiers to perform their jobs fired up a debate over the proliferation of ever-more-precise tracking technologies …” Arphidophobia.
-
4 – Software recognises dolphins by their whistles
“Most whistles are made up of frequencies between 2 and 30 kilohertz, with each species combining the frequencies in its own way.”
-
5 – Walking With A Computer Chip In Your Body
“The body temperature will be measured during the walking event by means of a chip inserted into a pill. The volunteers will be asked to swallow the chip that will eventually leave the body in a natural way.” How prissy?
-
6 – A New Planet and Its Implications
“… the correlation between stellar mass and the likelihood of finding giant planets seems to be firming up, but as the authors note, we need a larger star sample to really understand the relationship.”
-
7 – Gene Therapy: A Form of Eugenics?
“Is there any difference between repairing or removing a disability, as opposed to preventing one genetically?” Ethics come in many shades of grey.
