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Peeling sticky tape generates terahertz signals
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SOLENT NEWS/REX FEATURES
TECHNOLOGY
Upset that cosy internet world IT’S a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it: for innovation to thrive on the internet, we must break up the very social networks that the web has made possible. Previous research has shown that certain patterns of social interaction make radical innovation more likely. Bold ideas are typically incompletely formed when first conceived and easily shot down by criticism. Hence, they emerge more readily in communities in which individuals work mostly in small and relatively isolated groups, giving their ideas time and space to mature. The problem, says social scientist Viktor Mayer-Schönberger of the National University of Singapore, is that today’s software developers work in social networks in which everyone is closely linked to everyone else. “The over-abundance of connections
through which information travels reduces diversity and keeps radical ideas from taking hold,” he suggests. To restore the kind of aggressive innovation needed to build the next-generation internet will require re-engineering of the social networks of software developers themselves
“The over-abundance of connections reduces diversity and keeps radical ideas from taking hold” (Science, vol 325, p 396). This could be done, for example, if funding agencies ensured that research projects were carried out by many small, competing groups over longer periods. “To enable innovation it may be necessary to reduce the number of social ties between coders,” says Mayer-Schönberger.
–Stop chatting and start innovating–
Sticky tape emits terahertz rays
Hey you, wake up at the wheel
WILL sticky tape ever cease to amaze? Peeling it can generate terahertz radiation, raising the possibility of a cheaper alternative to lasers for medical imaging. Peeling sticky tape has already been shown to produce X-rays, so Joseph Horvat and Roger Lewis of the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, tried to see if it could create lowerfrequency terahertz radiation. “We were rather pleasantly surprised to obtain a clear signal in our first attempt,” says Horvat. Strongly adhesive Scotch Magic 810 tape and weakly adhesive electrical tape both yielded strong terahertz signals, ranging from 0.1 to 10 terahertz, but only about a microwatt of power, too little for practical use (Optics Letters, vol 34, p 2195). Horvat says that refinements should increase the power by orders of magnitude.
A CAR’S judgement on the driver’s levels of alertness could be more reliable than the driver’s own perception of it. So say Eike Schmidt of car manufacturer Daimler in Böblingen, Germany, and his team, after tests on volunteers during a 4-hour drive along the autobahn. To make the drive as boring as possible, the drivers were asked not to chat or listen to the radio. Every 20 minutes, the team asked the volunteers how attentive they were feeling. They also tested the volunteers’ reaction times by
10.4
The diameter (in metres) of the world’s largest telescope, the Gran Telescopio Canarias, which opened last week
asking them to push a button attached to their thumbs every time they heard a certain tone. Each driver’s heart rate and brainwave frequency, which are indicators of attentiveness, were also recorded during these tasks. The team found that while all measures of alertness declined over the 4-hour period, in the final hour the drivers reported feeling more vigilant than the physiological tests suggested (Accident Analysis and Prevention, DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2009.06.007). It points to the importance of alertness monitoring systems, Schmidt says. “If the person’s saying, ‘Oh, I’m awake,’ and the system’s saying, ‘You’re not,’ the system might very well be right.”
“I’m determined to not lose even one prayer” Alon Nil of Israel, who started a Twitter service that allows people to send prayer “tweets” of 140 characters or fewer. Nil prints the messages and posts them on the Western Wall in Jerusalem. He has been swamped with requests (BBC Online, 24 July)
1 August 2009 | NewScientist | 17
SOLENT NEWS/REX FEATURES
TECHNOLOGY
Upset that cosy internet world IT’S a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it: for innovation to thrive on the internet, we must break up the very social networks that the web has made possible. Previous research has shown that certain patterns of social interaction make radical innovation more likely. Bold ideas are typically incompletely formed when first conceived and easily shot down by criticism. Hence, they emerge more readily in communities in which individuals work mostly in small and relatively isolated groups, giving their ideas time and space to mature. The problem, says social scientist Viktor Mayer-Schönberger of the National University of Singapore, is that today’s software developers work in social networks in which everyone is closely linked to everyone else. “The over-abundance of connections
through which information travels reduces diversity and keeps radical ideas from taking hold,” he suggests. To restore the kind of aggressive innovation needed to build the next-generation internet will require re-engineering of the social networks of software developers themselves
“The over-abundance of connections reduces diversity and keeps radical ideas from taking hold” (Science, vol 325, p 396). This could be done, for example, if funding agencies ensured that research projects were carried out by many small, competing groups over longer periods. “To enable innovation it may be necessary to reduce the number of social ties between coders,” says Mayer-Schönberger.
–Stop chatting and start innovating–
Sticky tape emits terahertz rays
Hey you, wake up at the wheel
WILL sticky tape ever cease to amaze? Peeling it can generate terahertz radiation, raising the possibility of a cheaper alternative to lasers for medical imaging. Peeling sticky tape has already been shown to produce X-rays, so Joseph Horvat and Roger Lewis of the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, tried to see if it could create lowerfrequency terahertz radiation. “We were rather pleasantly surprised to obtain a clear signal in our first attempt,” says Horvat. Strongly adhesive Scotch Magic 810 tape and weakly adhesive electrical tape both yielded strong terahertz signals, ranging from 0.1 to 10 terahertz, but only about a microwatt of power, too little for practical use (Optics Letters, vol 34, p 2195). Horvat says that refinements should increase the power by orders of magnitude.
A CAR’S judgement on the driver’s levels of alertness could be more reliable than the driver’s own perception of it. So say Eike Schmidt of car manufacturer Daimler in Böblingen, Germany, and his team, after tests on volunteers during a 4-hour drive along the autobahn. To make the drive as boring as possible, the drivers were asked not to chat or listen to the radio. Every 20 minutes, the team asked the volunteers how attentive they were feeling. They also tested the volunteers’ reaction times by
10.4
The diameter (in metres) of the world’s largest telescope, the Gran Telescopio Canarias, which opened last week
asking them to push a button attached to their thumbs every time they heard a certain tone. Each driver’s heart rate and brainwave frequency, which are indicators of attentiveness, were also recorded during these tasks. The team found that while all measures of alertness declined over the 4-hour period, in the final hour the drivers reported feeling more vigilant than the physiological tests suggested (Accident Analysis and Prevention, DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2009.06.007). It points to the importance of alertness monitoring systems, Schmidt says. “If the person’s saying, ‘Oh, I’m awake,’ and the system’s saying, ‘You’re not,’ the system might very well be right.”
“I’m determined to not lose even one prayer” Alon Nil of Israel, who started a Twitter service that allows people to send prayer “tweets” of 140 characters or fewer. Nil prints the messages and posts them on the Western Wall in Jerusalem. He has been swamped with requests (BBC Online, 24 July)
1 August 2009 | NewScientist | 17