En Masse Entertainment's Zombies Monsters Robots Entering Closed Beta in May
Back in March, TERA publisher En Masse Entertainment announced that it was bringing free-to-play, third-person shooter Zombies Monsters Robots (ZMR) to PC this summer. The publisher has now announced that ZMR will be entering closed beta in May and has also released a Closed Beta Announce Trailer showing all new gameplay footage:
Source: YouTube
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Improved Imitation of Gecko-Foot-Like Adhesive Device
Being able to securely connect two surfaces is fairly important in many situations, and in many other situations it is equally important to be able to disconnect the surfaces. Instead of using nails, screws, or chemical adhesives, scientists have been working to mimic the feet of geckos, which can naturally adhere to a wide variety of surfaces. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have already developed such an adhesive device, but by returning to the gecko for inspiration, have recently made it better.
For a long time biologists did not know how it was that geckos could grip as many surfaces as they can, including very smooth surfaces such as glass. Eventually it was confirmed that microscopic hairs on gecko toes exploit van der Waals forces to hold it to a surface. This force is a relatively weak bond between two adjacent molecules, but because of the number of hairs, it is enough to bear the weight of a gecko. Already the researchers mimicked these hairs with their Geckskin reusable adhesive device, but to improvement they are mimicking the gecko's skin-tendon-bone system.
This natural system allows the feet of geckos to conform to a surface, making maximum use of the hairs. By adding soft elastomers and ultra-stiff fabrics, the researchers have recreated the foot's ability to conform, while maintaining the stiffness required to stay pressed against the surface. When tested, one of the new Geckskin versions actually surpassed a gecko's ability to adhere to a surface.
Source: University of Massachusetts at Amherst
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Kingston Adds mSATA SSDNow Solid State Drives
Kingston is adding a pair of drives to its SSDNow line of drives with the mSATA form factor. Drives will now be available with capacities of 240GB and 480GB with read and write speeds up to 550MB/s and 520MB/s, respectively. Previously this line was limited to a maximum capacity of 120GB. The drives are controlled by the LSI SandForce 2241 controller and support Intel Smart Response Technology, TRIM, and S.M.A.R.T. drive monitoring. The mSATA drives have a standard PCB only design with no case and are targeted at small form factor systems including notebooks, tablets, and Ultrabooks.
Source: Press Release
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G.SKILL Announces DDR3L SO-DIMM Memory
G.SKILL has announced its latest memory kit, the F3-2133C11Q-32GRSL, available as four 8GB sticks. The 32GB DDR3L SO-DIMM memory set operates at 2133MHz with timings of 11-11-11-31. Marketing Director at MSI Sam Chern proclaimed his excitement about the set, saying "This time, G.SKILL’s F3-2133C11Q-32GRSL DDR3L memory kit clearly raises the bar for high performance gaming laptops and proves to be unbelievably stable on the MSI GT70 2OC gaming laptop, one of the best performance gaming laptops from MSI."
Source: Press Release
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Google Reportedly Considering HTC Partnership for Nexus 8
Although ASUS and Google have been good friends in regards to their partnership involving the first two generations of the Nexus 7, Google may be looking elsewhere for its new tablet. According to sources within the supply chain, Google is considering a partnership with HTC for its new Nexus 8 tablet that is rumored to be released during the third quarter of this year. The change in partners for Google is due to the technology giant considering a new design for the Nexus 8, along with ASUS not being as aggressive with the next generation Nexus tablet due to partnership restrictions put in place by Google.
According to the sources, Google approached HTC prior to its cooperation with ASUS in order to push the Nexus 7, but was denied partnership due to HTC attempting at the time to build its smartphone business.
Source: DIGITIMES
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Samsung Services Suffer Outage Due to Fire
Samsung services, to include the Samsung website and Smart Hub service, were unavailable to users on Sunday due to a fire that broke out at a Samsung facility in South Korea. According to a Samsung SDS blog, the fire was the result of a power supply failure in which one person was injured in the blaze attributed to debris. The fire occurred at a subsidiary of Samsung Group, which provides consulting, outsourcing, and software services. Samsung SDS is transferring data services that were affected to other facilities and in the meantime is working with authorities to investigate the incident.
Samsung Electronics noted that the company did indeed detect and experience a brief service disruption that lasted roughly four and a half hours.
Source: PCWorld
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Improving our Understanding of Material Interfaces
Sometimes when you put two things together you can get something greater than the sum of its parts, because of how the two pieces interact. In materials science the interface of two materials can actually have completely different properties from those of the component materials. Curiously though these properties can be significantly different than theory predicts, but researchers at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron have finally found out why that may be.
For this research, the researchers examined strontium titanate and lanthanum aluminate, which are insulators on their own, but the interface between them is conductive. This comes from the materials affecting each other when in close proximity, actually causing some rearrangement. The problem is that it is only a tenth as conductive as it should be, according to Maxwell's theory. By using the DORIS III synchrotron radiation source, the DESY researchers used ultraviolet light to find why this is. It turns out the problem has been that only a tenth of the expected electrons actually came to the interface to form a conductive layer. How many come depends on the number of unit cells within the crystal lattice of the lanthanum aluminate, which means that by altering the structure of the material, the conductance can also be controlled.
Though the research was only done with a specific pairing of materials, it could be applied to any interface between different materials. Eventually that could give us a way to produce and control special properties for use in solar panels, hard drives, superconductors, and more.
Source: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron
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