Muhil's Cup of Tea

Top Ten Favorites:

1) "Amazing Battery Made of... Paper" (Article #52)
The battery is always known to be made of metal and battery liquid however for the first time it is being made of something completely different. A battery has been created by "a team at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York" that is solely made out of paper and is made with "an array of carbon nanotubes on a silicon surface" that is covered by an "array of dissolved cellulose [which is simply paper]." The coolest part about this invention is its dividing properties. With an ordinary battery, you can only use it as it is given. If the battery is cut, the divided units will no longer work. However, with this new paper battery, if it is cut in half the battery will still work but will simply have half the power of the original battery (the 2 pieces will contain 50% of the original power). The battery will always be functional no matter how many times it is cut and the design is very unique because it can practically fit into any crevice and bend over any object.



2) "How to Erase a Single Memory" (Article #33)
“Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux and his colleagues at New York University took an important step toward memory manipulation when they “erased” specific memories from the brains of rats.” This new procedure they’ve developed helps erase single (specific) memories out of one’ s memory. To test their research, they set up circumstance that created a memory for cats (they would use sirens and light for stimulants) and then they effectively erased memories. They might be able to take this to the next level: humans.



3) "Robots Evolve and Learn How to Lie" (Article #80)
“Dario Floreano of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology” has observed that robots have learned how to communicate effectively with each other and skillfully deceive one another. With programmed random chance mutations, researchers tested how different offspring would react with survival tests and were all surprised to see how robots would signal danger to other robots and communicate at high levels. This sort of discovery in robots brings hope for developing highly advanced robots that can emit more human like functions.

Reference link:
http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/450373B4-C266-4E7B-ABD6-59F44372F5D4/


4) "China's Syndrome" (Article #1)
Over the past year, China has been linked with numerous food recalls in America due to contamination in the products and has also been accused of harmful chemicals that have been found in toy products as well. Along with this, there is a booming rate of pollution occurring in China due to the heavy combustion of coals and various factories. Many people worry that the exponential growth rate of China’s economy is bringing along various negative side effects as a result. The country’s population is bustling with work but there is a serious global concern over whether China will contribute immensely to global warming. Stats show that China may out beat the US in emissions very soon. This is a serious concern that is extremely important to know more about.

Reference link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/pollution-in-china


5) "Food Additive Doubles Kids' Hyperactivity" (Article #89)
The common preservative, sodium benzoate, is no longer just a simple preservative but is turning out to have altering behavioral effects on children according to “a team from the University of Southampton in England.” Children who were given food or drinks with sodium benzoate showed hyperactivity compared to kids who did not. This is a eye opening discovery that may lead to a serious reevaluation about children’s diets (also this could be why there are more and more kids with ADHD nowadays).

Reference link:
http://www.naturalchild.org/research/food_dyes.html


6) "Function of Appendix Explained" (Article #96)
Researchers at Duke University explained that the appendix does have a function for the body. The appendix serves as a “storehouse” for safe bacteria that come to the body’s aid during infections. When people have all bacteria depleted with illnesses such as cholera and have intensive diarrhea, the good bacteria stored in the appendix come out to help replenish the body’s bacteria. Without the bacteria storage, people have a lower survival advantage since they cannot replenish their lost bacteria. This is amazing because almost everyone thinks that the appendix is useless.

Reference link:
http://www.livescience.com/health/060530_bad_appendix.html


7) "Created: A Glass that Bends" (Article #50)
Researchers created a glass that is opaque and made out of metals that can bend in different angles. The glass originally formed cracks from bending but soon the composition of the glass was revised containing low density and high density areas so that when the glass is bent the crack that is formed is immediately dissipated. This is glass is a useful invention that can serve in mainly buildings and devices.

Reference link:
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/309/1


8) "Calculus was Developed in Medieval India" (Article #56)
Two British researchers, Joseph and Almeida, spent years reading through ancient Indian scripts to find that Calculus was discovered in the mid 16-century. Keralese mathematician Madhava is well known for his discoveries in math but people are not sure how he directly influenced Newton and Leibniz. Both researchers however believe -based on timelines- that Jesuits came to India, learned the languages and brought mathematical knowledge from southern India to Western Europe. This is interesting because this could mean that mathematical credits could have been going to the wrong people for all these years.

Reference link:
http://www.gizmag.com/go/7800/


9) "Can Vitamin D Save Your Life?" (Article #8)
Vitamin D, found in dairy products and known to boost calcium in the body’s system has been recently researched and is claimed to help the body against different diseases. Vitamin D is known to help osteoporosis (since calcium is what helps) but now researchers have found that vitamin D also helps with defense against colon, prostrate, and breast cancer, tuberculosis, schizophrenia, and many more. Researchers say that vitamin D is important for optimal health and adults should be taking 1,500 to 2,000 IU of vitamin daily. Currently, Americans only consume an average of 230 IU a day. This is really interesting because vitamin D may hold much more potential than once expected and this sort of knowledge is important in our current day society where illnesses are becoming scarily increasing.

Reference link:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/09/cancer_vitamin_d.html


10) "Dark Matters" (Article #7)
Geha and John Simon at Caltech recently discovered eight satellite galaxies that were much fainter and smaller in mass than other galaxies. Their matter was 99 percent made up of dark matter and both researchers predict that there are other satellites that exist with 100 percent dark matter. Dark matter might be responsible for creating the black holes in the universe. Within dark matter, the formation of stars might occur as well and the ones already formed may very much be from previous dark matter. This new discovery may lead to further understanding about how galaxies and our very solar system could have been formed.

Reference link:
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/dark_matter.html

With the introduction of peer-to-peer music file networks many new inventions started spurring out of these developed modules. KaZaA creators Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis began to think of a way to allow people to make telephone-less calls to other people for free. After many months of modeling, they both introduced the program “Skype” to the general public.

Skype - The Handless Phone:

First introduced to the public in 2003, Skype is a software program that allows users to make telephone calls over the internet to other Skype users for free.^[1] There is no service charge fee as long as both users are part of Skype (the time limit for speaking is also unlimited). Skype can be connected to a landline or a cell phone however there is a charge fee. ^[1] Skype not only comes with phone services but also includes the following: file transfer, instant messaging, short message service, the ability to dodge firewalls (meaning that it will reach any computer that it tries to connect to and will not be blocked off by firewalls) and video conferencing. A Skype user can easily talk to another person while both of them can edit a document on the computer together. Both users can view the same document and see the changes that are made to it instantaneously.

An Introduction Video: "How to download & use Skype"

With the introduction of Skype to the main stream public, many people began to use the software and spread the news of this marvelous program. In the year 2005, eBay obtained Skype from Zennström and Friis and established headquarters in Luxembourg. Over the course of a few years, Skype has successfully grown in popularity with its users rising from 95 million accounts in 2006 all the way to 245.7 million accounts in 2007. ^[1]

Interview with Kathryn Fuller:

When did you first discover Skype?

"Earlier this year [referring to 2007]." Even though I started using it only this past year, it's already started to immensely develop with updates. When I began using it I was mainly familiar with the phone capabilities and instant messaging for the program. “Now you can play various games with people through Skype; you can use the video camera and also edit the documents through the computer.” It seems that Skype can only keep expanding as more and more people start using it.

What part about Skype enticed you?

“I think the main benefit that Skype projects to the public is the cost benefits.” People are drawn towards the most cost benefiting products and when something is completely free, users flood to the source. Skype also displays a very user friendly interface where “all the navigation tools are extremely self explanatory.” Overall the program is very handy and provides a great service to the general public.

Do you think Skype will grow as the years come?

“Of course.” It’s already expanding as it is now and there are still many people who don’t know about it since it has not been advertised widely. “Once people start finding out about the program through networks, the population of Skype users will grow exponentially [and Skype might even produce a larger revolution than social network programs such as Facebook, MySpace, and Live Journal].” Skype is appealing to all users of any age and can be used by anyone in the world.

If Skype monopolized the entire phone industry do you think people would mind?

“No. I doubt people would mind since is it is beneficial to them; phone companies might cause conflicts though.” Skype can virtually take over all telephone systems throughout the world with free phone service as long as there are no conflicts with phone companies. A possible compromise: phone companies and Skype merge into a single unit.

Why do you still use Skype?

“It's convenient and it's free (for long distance and international) and the signal is always clear because it's through the internet.”

On a weekly basis, how many times do you use Skype?

“At least twice a day. It’s extremely easy to access and I use it more than a landline phone."

A Timeline of Inventions:

[from the genius creators Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis]

KaZaA --> Skype --> Joost

(Music --> Telephone --> TV shows)

Future developments from the Geniuses:

With never ending creations, both Zennström and Friis have currently created a new software program called “Joost” which is a “system for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web using peer-to-peer TV technology.”^[2] It has been opened to the public on October 1, 2007 and can be used by anyone. Moving from peer-to-peer music file sharing to free phone services and then to peer-to-peer TV sharing it is inevitable that the growth of peer-to-peer networking will continue to increase. We can only begin to guess what Zennström and Friis have in store for the future along with other software creators.

References:

1) http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/08/04/whatisSkype.html

2) http://www.joost.com/support/faq/General-questions.html#Whats-Joost