HDMI 1.4's 3D spec publicly released

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/hdmi-1-4s-3d-spec-publicly-released/

3D's happening whether you like it or not -- but the good news is that there won't be any format war to go with the adoption of the new tech. At least that's the sense we've been getting, as most manufacturers are adopting active shutter glasses, delivery will happen on cable, satellite, and Blu-ray, and now the HDMI Licensing group has opened up the 3D portion of the HDMI 1.4 spec so non-licensees can make their gear compatible. There'll be some changes coming down the pike in HDMI 1.4a, but that's also due for public release, so really we'll all be one big dorky family in 3D glasses when this is all over.

Body World : The cycle of life review… hehe

Well, I went there with my primary school friends, Ben and Sam. I would say it is an eye-opener. At least, it is my first time to see dead people with their orgrans displayed and etc. At least it isn't so gory as those in movies. Organs have all taken the pale, grey color.

The muscles and everything are on display too. Majority of the specimens there are male... funny how.... Only some female specimens worth looking .... LOL....

We took a photo, which we print it out in A5 size. Too bad, I don't have scanner, otherwise I will put it up....

 

Update:

P.S. As promise, I managed to use my phone to take a picture. Not the best quality but it was after some editing using Gimp 2.6

 

Quantum Computing Leap Forward: Altering a Lone Electron Without Disturbing Its Neighbors

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100205162953.htm

ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2010) — A major hurdle in the ambitious quest to design and construct a radically new kind of quantum computer has been finding a way to manipulate the single electrons that very likely will constitute the new machines' processing components or "qubits."

Princeton University's Jason Petta has discovered how to do just that -- demonstrating a method that alters the properties of a lone electron without disturbing the trillions of electrons in its immediate surroundings. The feat is essential to the development of future varieties of superfast computers with near-limitless capacities for data.

Petta, an assistant professor of physics, has fashioned a new method of trapping one or two electrons in microscopic corrals created by applying voltages to minuscule electrodes. Writing in the Feb. 5 edition of Science, he describes how electrons trapped in these corrals form "spin qubits," quantum versions of classic computer information units known as bits. Other authors on the paper include Art Gossard and Hong Lu at the University of California-Santa Barbara.

Previous experiments used a technique in which electrons in a sample were exposed to microwave radiation. However, because it affected all the electrons uniformly, the technique could not be used to manipulate single electrons in spin qubits. It also was slow. Petta's method not only achieves control of single electrons, but it does so extremely rapidly -- in one-billionth of a second.

"If you can take a small enough object like a single electron and isolate it well enough from external perturbations, then it will behave quantum mechanically for a long period of time," said Petta. "All we want is for the electron to just sit there and do what we tell it to do. But the outside world is sort of poking at it, and that process of the outside world poking at it causes it to lose its quantum mechanical nature."

When the electrons in Petta's experiment are in what he calls their quantum state, they are "coherent," following rules that are radically different from the world seen by the naked eye. Living for fractions of a second in the realm of quantum physics before they are rattled by external forces, the electrons obey a unique set of physical laws that govern the behavior of ultra-small objects.

Scientists like Petta are working in a field known as quantum control where they are learning how to manipulate materials under the influence of quantum mechanics so they can exploit those properties to power advanced technologies like quantum computing. Quantum computers will be designed to take advantage of these characteristics to enrich their capacities in many ways.

In addition to electrical charge, electrons possess rotational properties. In the quantum world, objects can turn in ways that are at odds with common experience. The Austrian theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1945, proposed that an electron in a quantum state can assume one of two states -- "spin-up" or "spin-down." It can be imagined as behaving like a tiny bar magnet with spin-up corresponding to the north pole pointing up and spin-down corresponding to the north pole pointing down.

An electron in a quantum state can simultaneously be partially in the spin-up state and partially in the spin-down state or anywhere in between, a quantum mechanical property called "superposition of states." A qubit based on the spin of an electron could have nearly limitless potential because it can be neither strictly on nor strictly off.

New designs could take advantage of a rich set of possibilities offered by harnessing this property to enhance computing power. In the past decade, theorists and mathematicians have designed algorithms that exploit this mysterious superposition to perform intricate calculations at speeds unmatched by supercomputers today.

Petta's work is using electron spin to advantage.

"In the quest to build a quantum computer with electron spin qubits, nuclear spins are typically a nuisance," said Guido Burkard, a theoretical physicist at the University of Konstanz in Germany. "Petta and coworkers demonstrate a new method that utilizes the nuclear spins for performing fast quantum operations. For solid-state quantum computing, their result is a big step forward."

Petta's spin qubits, which he envisions as the core of future quantum logic elements, are cooled to temperatures near absolute zero and trapped in two tiny corrals known as quantum wells on the surface of a high-purity, gallium arsenide chip. The depth of each well is controlled by varying the voltage on tiny electrodes or gates. Like a juggler tossing two balls between his hands, Petta can move the electrons from one well to the other by selectively toggling the gate voltages.

Prior to this experiment, it was not clear how experimenters could manipulate the spin of one electron without disturbing the spin of another in a closely packed space, according to Phuan Ong, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Princeton and director of the Princeton Center for Complex Materials.

Other experts agree.

"They have managed to create a very exotic transient condition, in which the spin state of a pair of electrons is in that moment entangled with an almost macroscopic degree of freedom," said David DiVencenzo, a research staff member at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

Petta's research also is part of the fledgling field of "spintronics" in which scientists are studying how to use an electron's spin to create new types of electronic devices. Most electrical devices today operate on the basis of another key property of the electron -- its charge.

There are many more challenges to face, Petta said.

"Our approach is really to look at the building blocks of the system, to think deeply about what the limitations are and what we can do to overcome them," Petta said. "But we are still at the level of just manipulating one or two quantum bits, and you really need hundreds to do something useful."

As excited as he is about present progress, long-term applications are still years away. "It's a one-day-at-a-time approach," Petta said.

Quantum Mechanics at Work in Photosynthesis: Algae Familiar With These Processes for Nearly Two Billion Years

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100203131356.htm

ScienceDaily (Feb. 4, 2010) — A team of University of Toronto chemists have made a major contribution to the emerging field of quantum biology, observing quantum mechanics at work in photosynthesis in marine algae.

"There's been a lot of excitement and speculation that nature may be using quantum mechanical practices," says chemistry professor Greg Scholes, lead author of a new study published in Nature. "Our latest experiments show that normally functioning biological systems have the capacity to use quantum mechanics in order to optimize a process as essential to their survival as photosynthesis."

Special proteins called light-harvesting complexes are used in photosynthesis to capture sunlight and funnel its energy to nature's solar cells -- other proteins known as reaction centres. Scholes and his colleagues isolated light-harvesting complexes from two different species of marine algae and studied their function under natural temperature conditions using a sophisticated laser experiment known as two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy.

"We stimulated the proteins with femtosecond laser pulses to mimic the absorption of sunlight," explains Scholes. "This enabled us to monitor the subsequent processes, including the movement of energy between special molecules bound in the protein, against a stop-clock. We were astonished to find clear evidence of long-lived quantum mechanical states involved in moving the energy. Our result suggests that the energy of absorbed light resides in two places at once -- a quantum superposition state, or coherence -- and such a state lies at the heart of quantum mechanical theory."

"This and other recent discoveries have captured the attention of researchers for several reasons," says Scholes. "First, it means that quantum mechanical probability laws can prevail over the classical laws of kinetics in this complex biological system, even at normal temperatures. The energy can thereby flow efficiently by -- counter intuitively -- traversing several alternative paths through the antenna proteins simultaneously. It also raises some other potentially fascinating questions, such as, have these organisms developed quantum-mechanical strategies for light-harvesting to gain an evolutionary advantage? It suggests that algae knew about quantum mechanics nearly two billion years before humans," says Scholes.

Scholes' colleagues in the research at the University of Toronto include Elisabetta Collini, Cathy Y. Wong, and Paul Brumer. Other team members include Paul Curmi and Krystyna Wilk of the University of New South Wales. The research was funded with support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, in part by a Steacie Fellowship

Jupiter's Moons: Explanation for the Differences Between Ganymede and Callisto

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100124162151.htm

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2010) — Differences in the number and speed of cometary impacts onto Jupiter's large moons Ganymede and Callisto some 3.8 billion years ago can explain their vastly different surfaces and interior states, according to research by scientists at the Southwest Research Institute appearing online in Nature Geoscience Jan. 24, 2010.

Ganymede and Callisto are similar in size and are made of a similar mixture of ice and rock, but data from the Galileo and Voyager spacecraft show that they look different at the surface and on the inside. A conclusive explanation for the differences between Ganymede and Callisto has eluded scientists since the Voyager Jupiter encounters 30 years ago.

Dr. Amy C. Barr and Dr. Robin M. Canup of the SwRI Planetary Science Directorate created a model of melting by cometary impacts and rock core formation to show that Ganymede and Callisto's evolutionary paths diverged about 3.8 billion years ago during the Late Heavy Bombardment, the phase in lunar history dominated by large impact events.

"Impacts during this period melted Ganymede so thoroughly and deeply that the heat could not be quickly removed. All of Ganymede's rock sank to its center the same way that all the chocolate chips sink to the bottom of a melted carton of ice cream," says Barr. "Callisto received fewer impacts at lower velocities and avoided complete melting."

In the Barr and Canup model, Jupiter's strong gravity focuses cometary impactors onto Ganymede and Callisto. Each impact onto Ganymede or Callisto's mixed ice and rock surface creates a pool of liquid water, allowing rock in the melt pool to sink to the moon's center. Ganymede is closer to Jupiter and therefore is hit by twice as many icy impactors as Callisto, and the impactors hitting Ganymede have a higher average velocity. Modeling by Barr and Canup shows that core formation begun during the late heavy bombardment becomes energetically self-sustaining in Ganymede but not Callisto.

The study sheds new light on the "Ganymede-Callisto dichotomy," a classical problem in comparative planetology, a field of study that seeks to explain why some solar system objects with similar bulk characteristics have radically different appearances. In particular, the study links the evolution of Jupiter's moons to the orbital migration of the outer planets and the bombardment history of Earth's moon.

"Similar to Earth and Venus, Ganymede and Callisto are twins, and understanding how they were born the same and grew up to be so different is of tremendous interest to planetary scientists," explains Barr. "Our study shows that Ganymede and Callisto record the fingerprints of the early evolution of the solar system, which is very exciting and not at all expected."

New Studies Highlight Needs of Boys in K-12, Higher Education

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100126091733.htm

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2010) — Boys face high rates of a variety of mental health issues, in addition to lagging behind girls in academic performance and college attendance, according to two new papers by University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Judith Kleinfeld.

The studies, recently published in the journal Gender Issues, note that boys have higher rates of suicide, conduct disorders, emotional disturbance, premature death and juvenile delinquency than their female peers, as well as lower grades, test scores and college attendance rates.

The first paper, "The State of American Boyhood," offers a status report on the academic, mental and social health of boys in the United States. Her conclusion: There is neither a "girl crisis" nor a "boy crisis."

"Rather, boys and girls suffer from different types of characteristic problems," Kleinfeld wrote, noting that girls have higher rates of depression, suicide attempts and eating disorders. "Schools need to pay attention to the difficulties of both girls and boys and bring these problems to the attention of families, teachers and mental health professionals."

Still, boys are in far more serious trouble, she argues. The gender gap in reading and writing at the end of high school, for example, is far wider than the gap in math and science ever was. More than a quarter of American male high school graduates can't understand a newspaper article, compared to about 10 percent of girls.

Kleinfeld's second study, "No Map to Manhood: Male and Female Mindsets Behind the College Gender Gap," drew on in-depth interviews with 99 high school seniors in the Fairbanks area, as well as national statistics on college attendance. She aimed to shed light on why boys are less likely than girls to seek postsecondary education.

"Males who do not have a college education are far more vulnerable to unemployment and the wages of men without a college education are plummeting," Kleinfeld said.

She notes that nearly 60 percent of college students are female, but that most studies don't ask graduating seniors why they are making the choices they do. Kleinfeld chose to focus her interviews on Alaska students because Alaska has one of the highest college-attendance gender gaps in the nation.

Through her interviews, she found several reasons why boys are less apt to go to college. Some mistakenly thought they could earn high wages right away without a college education, deciding they would rather get paid for working than pay for college. Some had limited knowledge of the job market and little concept of how much it costs to live a middle-class lifestyle. Many simply disliked school and didn't want more of it.

Her interviews also showed that high school students, both boys and girls, are stereotyping boys. Kleinfeld notes that when she asked students about the gender gap in education, their explanations centered on three themes: young men are lazy, they don't plan ahead and they are prone to peer pressure.

"Boys are getting little respect," Kleinfeld said. "These negative stereotypes may well further depress boys' academic achievement."

Kleinfeld hopes her current work will offer more insight on the reasons why boys are struggling. Her newest study focuses on pressures on men in American society and changing concepts of manhood. In addition to her position on the UAF faculty, Kleinfeld is director of The Boys Project, a national program that aims to promote discussion and action on the educational and cultural needs of boys.

The full text of both papers is available online at http://www.boysproject.net/resources.html.

Intertwined Fate: Downfall Of Earth - Basic Summary

Here, I will write a very simple summary of what is my current novel about. It is my dream project and had been working on it for nearly a year plus. It is still a ongoing process. Due to my weakness in aspect of grammars, it took me a much longer time to work out the kinks.

Prior to 2131 A.D., humanity had progress far beyond the limits of the sky. Colonies were built across the solar system and mankind considered themselves to have entered a period of golden age. Prosperity reigned. However, that was shattered in in the year 2131 A.D. An alien race, calling themselves the Valerians, invaded the solar system and mounted a solar system-wide war. Humanity’s hard work and advancements were dismantled almost overnight. A month later, another group of aliens, calling themselves the Federalists, intervened by destroying all Valerians ships within Solar system. It gave the humans a fighting chance against the Valerian ground forces, winning the war a month later.

Five years on, humanity was still reeling from the effects of the war. Billions had died but humans nonetheless moved on, worked harder. However, what the humans didn’t know was the Valerians did not leave their home planet. A group of humans had allied themselves with the Valerians and working to destroy the rest of humanity for their crimes. Meanwhile, across the galaxy, a much wider conflict was brewing and the Federalists suddenly found themselves busied once again with the Valerians and the super AI of the Federation, Eva, found a threat much worse than the Valerians.

It may sound nice here but I know when compared to the other written works by other established authors, it seemed amateurish. Nonetheless, I am working hard to make it a successful endeavor.

NVIDIA and University of Illinois Join Forces To Release World’s First Textbook On Programming Massively Parallel Processors

Source:  http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1264656303008.html
By: Nvidia

SANTA CLARA, Calif. —Jan. 28, 2010—The first textbook of its kind, Programming Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on Approach launches today, authored by Dr. David B. Kirk, NVIDIA Fellow and former chief scientist, and Dr. Wen-mei Hwu, who serves at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Coordinated Science Laboratory, co-director of the Universal Parallel Computing Research Center and principal investigator of the CUDA Center of Excellence.

The textbook, which is 256 pages, is the first aimed at teaching advanced students and professionals the basic concepts of parallel programming and GPU architectures. Published by Morgan-Kauffman, it explores various techniques for constructing parallel programs and reviews numerous case studies.

With conventional CPU-based computing no longer scaling in performance and the world’s computational challenges increasing in complexity, the need for massively parallel processing has never been greater. GPUs have hundreds of cores capable of delivering transformative performance increases across a wide range of computational challenges. The rise of these multi-core architectures has raised the need to teach advanced programmers a new and essential skill: how to program massively parallel processors.

“I’d like to personally congratulate David and Wen-mei for writing this landmark book and enabling generations of student programmers to understand and exploit the massively parallel architecture of GPUs,” said Bill Dally, chief scientist at NVIDIA and former chairman of Stanford University’s computer science department. “As a former professor, I have seen firsthand how seminal texts like this can transform a field. I look forward to seeing the transformation of computing as students are inspired and guided to master GPU computing by this book.”

Among the book’s key features:

• First and only text that teaches how to program within a massively parallel environment
• Portions of the NVIDIA-provided content have been part of the curriculum at 300 universities worldwide
• Drafts of sections of the book have been tested and taught by Kirk at the University of Illinois
• Book utilizes OpenCL™ and CUDA™ C, the NVIDIA® parallel computing language developed specifically for massively parallel environments

For more information on Programming Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on Approach, please visit the microsite. The book is available to purchase directly from Elsevier or Amazon.

About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) awakened the world to the power of computer graphics when it invented the graphics processing unit (GPU) in 1999. Since then, it has consistently set new standards in visual computing with breathtaking, interactive graphics available on devices ranging from portable media players to notebooks to workstations. NVIDIA’s expertise in programmable GPUs has led to breakthroughs in parallel processing which make supercomputing inexpensive and widely accessible. Fortune magazine has ranked NVIDIA #1 in innovation in the semiconductor industry for two years in a row. For more information, see www.nvidia.com.