#Nasa spots most luminous galaxy in the universe-shining with the light of more than 300 TRILLION suns A dazzling galaxy that shines with the light of more than 300 trillion suns has been discovered by astronomers.
heating the disk to roaring temperatures of millions of degrees and blasting out high-energy, visible, ultraviolet,
Immense black holes are common at the cores of galaxies, but finding one this big so'far back'in the cosmos is rare.
The discovery was made by Nasa as it was combing through data from its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (Wise),
'said Andrew Blain of University of Leicester.''It's like winning a hot-dog-eating contest lasting hundreds of millions of years.'
#The gadgets that give you SUPERPOWERS: Spiderman-style gloves, lenses with super sight and Iron man suits become a reality By Sarah Griffiths and Victoria Woollaston for Mailonline Published:
to implants that could give you the self-healing powers of Wolverine, researchers are putting these sci-fi notions within our grasp.
And the innovations could soon benefit the military, astronauts and even everyday consumers. Scroll down for videos A glimpse into this world of extraordinary gloves,
glasses and suits was showcased recently in an issue of How It Works magazine. IRON MAN'S HIGH-TECH SUIT Fans of Robert Downey Jnr's Iron man can buy themselves a red exoskeleton-providing they have a spare $1 million (£659,
000 A Japanese electronics firm is selling a 13ft (four metre) mechanical suit on Amazon that can be controlled by an iphone,
Another suit, designed by the US ARMY, features a high-pressure hydraulic system to enhance a soldier strength, agility and endurance.
Such exoskeletons can also help workers operate heavy machinery, carry the weight of heavy tools and work for longer between breaks.
Called the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (Talos it effectively gives its wearer superpowers, such as superhuman strength and a way of deflecting bullets,
but it is a work in progress. Two years ago, the US Special Operations Command (Ussocom) called on scientists to develop a suit reminiscent of the version seen in the Iron man films that uses nanotechnology
-and a progress report is expected soon. It is intended to function as a'practical exoskeleton 'and protect soldiers from shrapnel
and bullets using Kevlar and nanotechnology. The suit would also give people Superman-like powers,
such as being bulletproof and this is expected to build on work by an MIT professor who is currently developing'liquid armour'.
'Professor Gareth Mckinley has been working on his technology for 12 years, which is focused on the flow of unusual materials.
Once fully developed, the armour could transform from a liquid to a solid in a fraction of a second when under the influence of a magnetic field, or electric current.
It would also be able to monitor a soldier's heart rate, hydration levels and core temperature.
SPIDERMAN: CLIMBING WALLS AND SPIDER SENSEWHILE we will have to wait for suits that give humans the powers of Iron man and Superman,
technology already exists that let people climb walls like Spiderman. Scientists from Stanford university recently devised a climbing system inspired by geckos that enables humans to scale vertical glass.
During tests, an 11-stone (70kg) volunteer crawled up a 12ft (4 metre) pane using just sticky attachments on his hands and feet-just like the webbed hero.
a human of mass 70 kg (11 stone) successfully ascended a 3. 6-metre (11 ft) vertical glass wall with 140 square centimetres of gecko-inspired dry
'Of course, Spiderman has more powers than scaling towers. His'spider sense',for example, alerts him to imminent threats.
A suit invented by engineers at the University of Illinois gives wearers 360-degree awareness of the environment around their body.
When the suit's microphones pick up ultrasonic reflections from objects, the arms respond by pressing down on the wearer's body
In particular, they were designed to restore the sight of people suffering from age-related macular degeneration, or blindness.
Researchers from the University of California, San diego and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EDFL) in Switzerland fitted a traditional contact lens with a magnifying ring which,
when worn with a pair of Samsung 3d glasses, can magnify scenes by 2. 8 times. The contact lenses are 8mm in diameter,
PROFESSOR XAVIER-MIND CONTROLAND just like Professor X in X men, it is already possible to control objects with the mind.
A company called Emotiv adapted a $499 (£324) gaming headset that lets wearers control on-screen and physical objects with their brain as part of a racing game.
A riveris wired up to the electroencephalography (EEG) headset and the device is trained to read their unique brain patterns.
They first clear their mind to train the headset to their neutral state and then think of a repetitive task that will be associated with driving the car.
Once the headset has been calibrated, the game begins and the driver can control the shoebox-sized vehicle by thinking about their repetitive task.
The Emotive headsets are embedded with sensors that record electrical activity along the wearer scalp, forehead and above the right ear.
These sensors measure and monitor brain waves and these patterns are converted to commands using a brain-computer interface.
The technology is currently a proof-of-concept and there are no immediate plans to release the game and headset.
However, the EPOC Emotiv headset is available from $499 (£324) and it will work with existing brain-computer interface games and software that work with EEG readings.
The Emotiv headset used for the demonstration is called Insight and is available to buy now. WOLVERINE-SUPER-HEALING POWERSIN the X men films, Wolverine has mutant powers
which mean he can heal himself-even when he shot, or is thrown from a building. And researchers in the US are working on an implant that would make this useful superhuman ability to heal a reality.
The Electrx-pronounced'electrics'-concept involves implanting tiny devices into patientsbodies that use electric impulses to monitor
and fix vital organs. The program is being sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa.
As it is sits inside the body, the implant would use electric impulses to monitor the health of the body organs.
If it spots that an organ is infected, injured or failing, it would stimulate the nerves needed to get the affected organ functioning effectively again.
The idea behind the implant is based on the body natural monitoring system known as neuromodulation. In the body peripheral nervous system, neuromodulation monitors the status of organs and manages how they respond to disease.
But, when a person is injured sick or, this process can be weakened and doesn work as well as it should.
In some cases it can cause people to become more ill as the body fails to fight the infection.
The implant being proposed by Darpa would give this natural process a boost, and prevent it from going wrong.
Current medical neuromodulation devices are large and difficult to implant, but Darpa's implant would be small enough to target precise nerve endings m
#Iris scanners can identify you in REFLECTIONS: Minority report-style tech can be used up to 40ft away Biometric technologies are on the rise.
By electronically recording data about individual's physical attributes such as fingerprints or iris patterns, security and law enforcement services can quickly identify people with a high degree of accuracy.
The latest development in this field is the scanning of irises from a distance of up to 40ft (12 metres) away.
Researchers from Carnegie mellon University in the US demonstrated they were able to use their iris recognition technology to identify drivers from an image of their eye captured from their vehicle's side mirror.
The developers of this technology envisage that as well as improving security, it will be more convenient for the individuals being identified.
By using measurements of physiological characteristics, people no longer need security tokens or cumbersome passwords to identify themselves.
and public anxiety around having such sensitive data captured, stored, and accessed. We have researched this area by presenting people with potential future scenarios that involved biometrics.
We found that, despite the convenience of long-range identification (no queuing in front of scanners), there is a considerable reluctance to accept this technology.
when their biometrics are being read.''I feel negatively about a remote iris scan because
For example, implementing biometric identification in smart phones and other everyday objects such as computers or cars could make people see the technology as useful and easy to operate.
This may increase their willingness to adopt such systems.''I could imagine this becoming normalised to a point where you don't really worry about it,
and governmental usage of biometric identification than the average citizen might be comfortable with. As one participant put it:'
'The implementation of biometric systems is not just dependent on user acceptance or resistance. Before iris-scanning technology could be introduced in the EU,
major data protection and privacy considerations would have to be made. The EU has a robust legal framework on privacy and data protection.
These are recognised as fundamental rights and so related laws are among the highest ranking. Biometric data, such as iris scans, are treated often as special due to the sensitivity of the information they can contain.
Our respondents also acknowledged this:''I think it's a little too invasive and to
The very fact that long-range iris scanners can capture data without the collaboration of their subject also creates legal issues.
and the existence of their rights surrounding the data. Another issue is how the data is kept secure, particularly in the case of iris-scanning by objects such as smart phones.
Scans stored on the device and/or on the cloud for purposes of future authentication would legally require robust security protection.
Data stored on the cloud tends to move around between different servers and countries, which makes preventing unauthorised access more difficult.
And processing data accurately is another principle of EU data protection law. Even if we do find ourselves subject to unwanted iris-scanning from 40ft (12 metres),
#Nasa joins US government project to create'Google for the deep web'that could uncover cyber criminals,
paedophiles and drug dealers in the online underworld The deep web is a hive of illegal activity,
But because it is buried'so deep it is considered out of the reach of mainstream search engines and many law enforcement agencies-until now.
'When you do a simple Web search on a topic, the results that pop up aren't the whole story,
The Internet contains a vast trove of information-sometimes called the'Deep Web'-that isn't indexed by search engines:
sex trafficking and the spread of diseases. According to Nasa, scientists could also use it to search for images and data from spacecraft.
Memex could, for example, help catalog the vast amounts of data NASA spacecraft deliver on a daily basis.'We're developing next-generation search technologies that understand people, places,
things and the connections between them,'said Chris Mattmann, principal investigator for JPL's work on Memex.
'We're augmenting Web crawlers to behave like browsers-in other words, executing scripts and reading ads in ways that you would
'This information is catalogued normally not by search engines, 'Mattmann said. Additionally, a standard Web search doesn't get much information from images and videos,
but Memex can recognize what's in this content and pair it with searches on the same subjects.
The video and image search capabilities of Memex could one day benefit space missions that take photos, videos and other kinds of imaging data with instruments such as spectrometers.
Searching visual information about a particular planetary body could greatly facilitate the work of scientists in analyzing geological features.
Scientists analyzing imaging data from Earth-based missions that monitor phenomena such as snowfall and soil moisture could similarly benefit.
Memex would also enhance the search for published scientific data, so that scientists can be better aware of
which makes NASA's ocean and climate data accessible and meaningful. Memex would make PDF documents more easily searchable
and allow users to more easily arrive at the information they seek. Awareness of existing publications also helps program managers to assess the impact of spacecraft data.
All of the code written for Memex is open-source. JPL is one of 17 teams working on it as part of the DARPA initiative.
Memex is related to DARPA's previous Big data initiative called XDATA, managed by DARPA Program Manager Wade Shen.
and analyzing large amounts of data, with defense, government and civilian applications. JPL was one of 24 groups involved.'
'We are developing open source, free, mature products and then enhancing them using DARPA investment and easily transitioning them via our roles to the scientific community,
'Mattmann said. Darpa said:''Today's web searches use a centralised, one-size-fits-all approach that searches the internet with the same set of tools for all queries.'
'But common search practices miss information in the deep web-the parts of the web not indexed by standard commercial search engines
-and ignore shared content across pages.''Memex was designed to overcome these challenges by extending'the reach of current search capabilities
and quickly and thoroughly organise subsets of information based on individual interests.''It looks behind standard search results for patterns, links and similar behaviours.
The software scours all aspects of the web-including those hidden in the dark net-to create data maps that might reveal clues about illegal activity.
or porn sites featuring the same email addresses or phone numbers. These patterns could reveal links that human investigators could miss,
search results and interface tools to individual users and specific subject areas, and not the other way around,'said Chris White, Darpa program manager.'
Ease of use for non-programmers is essential.''The Memex program gets its name from a hypothetical device described in'As We May Think'-a 1945 article for The Atlantic Monthly.
It would store and automatically cross-reference all of the user's books, records and other information.
'would let users quickly search large amounts of information, and gain insights from it. Targeting the deep web is also an initiative being developed in the UK.
In December the UK government said a specialist unit was being set up to hunt down paedophiles using the dark net to share child pornography.
and communications to trace the'digital footprints'left by the users who share them. Prime minister David cameron said the new unit is aimed at'shining a light on the web's darkest corners'as he announced a package of measures to tackle online child abuse.
The National Crime Agency estimates that around 20,000 people from the UK use secret or encrypted networks each day.
The dark net consists of a network of encoded websites that sit behind the publicly available websites
and cannot be found with normal search engines. It came to prominence in 2012 when the FBI made a series of raids on Silk road-an online marketplace described as the'ebay for illegal drugs'.
'Figures compiled by the National Crime Agency suggest that use of the dark net rose by two thirds in 2012.
Hidden capabilities that let users email and host file storage through encrypted and anonymous networks are provided by services the The Onion Router (Tor).
Tor users currently represent 0. 18 per cent of the total number of internet uses in the UK.
However, in a recent investigation, GCHQ and the NCA were able to track down a British man who had been maintaining chat rooms
and websites in the Far east and Eastern europe that were used to share child pornography around the world.
He was also offering advice to other paedophiles about how to hide their behaviour and was using software to keep himself anonymous.
Analysis by experts at GCHQ allowed them to trace the man and he was sentenced later to three years in prison for making
and distributing indecent images of children n
#Flawed science triggers U-turn on cholesterol fears For decades they have been blacklisted as foods to avoid, the cause of deadly thickening of the arteries, heart disease and strokes.
But the science which warned us off eating eggs along with other high-cholesterol foods such as butter, shellfish,
bacon and liver could have been flawed, a key report in the US has found. Foods high in cholesterol have been branded a danger to human health
since the 1970s a warning that has divided long the medical establishment. A growing number of experts have been arguing there is no link between high cholesterol in food and dangerous levels of the fatty substance in the blood.
Now in a move signalling a dramatic change of stance on the issue, the US government is to accept advice to drop cholesterol from its list of'nutrients of concern'.
'The US Department of agriculture panel, which has been given the task of overhauling the guidelines every five years,
The U-turn, based on a report by the committee, will undo almost 40 years of public health warnings about eating food laden with cholesterol.
US cardiologist Dr Steven Nissen, of the Cleveland Clinic, said:''It's the right decision.
'Doctors are now shifting away from warnings about cholesterol and saturated fat and focusing concern on sugar as the biggest dietary threat.
'London-based cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, science director of campaign Group action On Sugar, wrote in The british Medical Journal that it was time to'bust the myth of the role of saturated fat in heart disease'.
'He added that the food industry had contributed effectively to heart disease by lowering saturated fat levels in food and replacing it with sugar.
and saturated fat in food to heart disease were tinged with scandal'.
#NSA testing smartphones that can tell who you are by the way you write: Handwriting recongition system The NSA is set to begin using smartphone software that can recognise a person by the way they write.
The software, called Mandrake and developed by Lockheed martin, verifies a user's identity based on the swiftness and shape of the individual's finger strokes on a touch screen.
Experts say it could be far more reliable than traditional passwords, and it virtually impossible to fake.'
'Nobody else has the same strokes,'John Mears, senior fellow for Lockheed IT and Security Solutions, told Nextgov. com.'People can forge your handwriting in two dimensions,
but they couldn't forge it in three or four dimensions.''Mears explains that in addition to the two dimensions on paper,
the third dimension is pressure and the fourth is time.''The most advanced handwriting-type authentication tracks you in four dimensions,
'he told Nextgov.''We've done work with the NSA for secure gesture authentication as a technique for using smartphones,
'Mears said.''They are actually able to use it.''The ecure Gesturecapability was revealed first in 2013.
The firm says it is a'defense-grade secure workspace solution for ios and Android devices that keeps all corporate email, browsing,
documents and applications encrypted, contained, and UNDER IT control no matter who owns the device.''It will enable smartphone
and tablet users to authenticate into Fixmo Safezone with a simple, user-defined gesture, which has been proven to be more secure and far easier to use than a 14-character complex,
randomly generated password.''The system potentially could be used for emergency responders who often don't have the time
climb walls and even transform into a TANK Researchers have unveiled the nearest thing yet to a real-life transformer-a human sized robot that can walk,
climb walls and even turn into a tank to move across tough terrain. The Carnegie mellon University Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform,
or CHIMP, is designed to primarily move like a tank using tracks to cover tough terrain.
However, when it needs to, it can simply stand up -and even use built in'claws
scale buildings and even hold a car's steering wheel. CHIMP is roughly the size of a human,
It weighs 443 pounds. CHIMP arms are 4. 3 feet long long enough to reach the ground,
or more with its battery pack The robot is set to compete in the US government's robo olympics next month.'
'CHIMP needs to master many skills for the DRC Finals,'its creators said.''During the past several months, it spent long hours crossing block piles and climbing stairs.'
'Now it's learning how to drive!''The finals will see 25 robots will traverse rubble, saw through walls,
and drive a vehicle through a simulated disaster zone in the DARPA Robotics Challenge final showdown-with a'mystery'round thrown in.
The three-year competition, inspired by the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident, is motivating the development of robotic technologies for use in hazardous environments,
and winning comes with a $2m prize. CHIMP's normal mode of locomotion will be much like that of a tank, with the tracks of all four limbs on the ground,
the team says. This configuration would offer a particular advantage when moving over debris and rough terrain.
a CMU research professor of robotics and leader of the Tartan Rescue Team.''We are making steady progress,
or turning a steering wheel without step-by-step direction from the human controller, circumventing the lag between command and execution.'
Climbing ladders and driving vehicles are among the obstacles robots will face in environments engineered for people.
which each team will develop its own hardware and software. CHIMP is designed with static stability;
even if it experiences a computer glitch or power failure.''When we walk or stand, our brains are actively controlling our balance all of the time,
#Google confirms Buy button is'imminent':'Search giant to take on Amazon and ebay with shopping from search results Google is set to allow people to buy directly from search results.
The search giant's chief business officer Omid Kordestani confirmed the move at the Code Conference today.'
'90%of commerce is still offline, mobile devices are perfect for guiding people, 'Kordestani described the product launch as a way to remove friction for users
so they buy more things onlinereports in the Wall street journal suggested earlier this month the search giant was planning to rollout a'Buy'button on its Shopping tab.
Purchases would still be made from the original retailer, and Google won't reportedly receive any commission,
but it has been designed to streamline the process. According to the report, the buttons would appear alongside paid search results on mobile in the'Shop on Google'section.
When a potential shopper clicks the button they will be taken to a specially designed product page
within the Google search engine. The buttons will be rolled out on a'small number of searches, 'although details about which retailers-and what the partnerships will entail-have not been released.
whether payment details will be stored in Google Wallet, for example, or need to be entered each time. If it is the former,
when the user is signed into their Google account on the browser being used. The service may also take advantage of the site's same-day delivery service
Google Shopping Express. It is only currently available in Boston, Chicago, Manhattan, San francisco, WASHINGTON DC, West Los angeles. An overnight option is additionally available in Northern California.
Google is not commenting on the news, but it follows Facebook's plans to rival ebay with its latest secondhand selling tools.
Earlier this year Facebook made it easier to get rid of unwanted secondhand goods by adding official Sell buttons to its site.
And now the social network is helping buyers find these goods by expanding its search tool
and adding category filters. Similar to how categories appear on ebay Facebook now lets users sort
and find'For sale'posts across multiple groups based on the item being sold. These categories include Appliances, Event Tickets, Household Items, Mobile phones, Real estate and Rentals and more. e
#Chinese researchers at Tzekwan Technology unveil face-recognition ATM MACHINE By Edward Chow For Mailonline Published: 13:02 GMT, 1 june 2015 Updated:
13:48 GMT, 1 june 2015 Chinese engineers have developed a cash machine that uses facial features-instead of the traditional PIN number-to identify card owners.
The device, which is developed jointly by Tsinghua University and Hangzhou-based Tzekwan Technology, is able to scan the users'faces to ensure they are the genuine holders of the bank account.
The cutting-edge technology was unveiled during a press conference on Saturday, reported the People's Daily Online.
Scroll down for video When a user inserts a bank card into the device, the built-in camera will immediately start scanning his or her facial features.
A small window will pop up on the upper left corner of the screen to show the process.'
'If the face of the user does not match the ID photo that is used to open the account,
then the user will not be able to withdraw funds from the account, 'says a bank spokesman to Shanghai-based Dragon TV.
However, this also means only the owner of the card-not even their friends or family-will be able to get money from these cash machines.
Gu Zikun, Chairman of Tzekwan Technology, claims the device is the world's first cash machine to be equipped with the facial recognition function.
Gu says:''Our facial recognition technology has passed the certification by authoritative industry experts and is authorised to be used in the financial services industry.'
'The cash machine also represents China's first independent intellectual property rights in financial security protection. Apart from the innovative recognition system, the device can also exchange Chinese Yuan to as many as 256 foreign currencies.
China's central government has placed an emphasis on information and financial security. Gu Zikun says this new machine has passed its certification
and will soon be used in the market place. e
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011