 |  |
 |
Viruses are nasty little buggers that sap lots of productivity out of the world.
Some companies have estimated that just the common cold drains away some $25 billion in productivity loss. Let’s not mention the horrors of STDs, including the lethal HIV virus.
So far science has been all but powerless to stop these little buggers in their tracks. Research being done by a physicist and his biologist son, however, is promising some respite from the seasonal assault of many viruses.
Ultra fast pulse lasers have been used in the lab setting in physics for a while. They pulse over a quadrillion times per second.
However, Kong-Thon Tsen, a professor of physics at Arizona State University, has turned them against viruses.
[ Read More... ]
 The International Space Station has had an exciting week.
A guide wire in one of the huge solar panel arrays got caught on a snag while it was being unfurled, and ripped a two-foot tear in the delicate panel. The damage forced astronaut Scott Parazynski to attempt a highly-dangerous spacewalk on Saturday to repair the panel and save the space station.
[ Read More... ] |
 Linux, the free operating system that’s a perpetual underdog in the desktop market, is showing up on computers in Wal-Mart stores this week for the first time.
About 600 Wal-Mart stores will carry the $199 Linux-powered “Green gPC” made by Everex of Taiwan, Wal-Mart said.
It was available online on Wednesday.
A comparable Everex PC that comes with Windows Vista Home Basic and more memory costs $99 more, or $298, partly because the manufacturer has to pay Microsoft Corp. for a software license.
[ Read More... ] |
Science is getting a grip on people’s fears.
As Americans revel in all things scary on Halloween, scientists say they now know better what’s going on inside our brains when a spook jumps out and scares us. Knowing how fear rules the brain should lead to treatments for a major medical problem: