Transgenic chickens glow green, block spread of bird flu
So far, the avian flus that have proven fatal to some people haven't started spreading within the human population. But that risk, along with the flu's often fatal effects on the chickens themselves, have led governments to kill millions of chickens in order to prevent its spread. Vaccination is a possibility, but suffers from the same problems that human vaccines do: the vaccines only cover a limited number of strains, and the virus will frequently mutate to a form that is no longer recognized. Now, researchers have created a genetically modified chicken that expresses an RNA designed to block a broad range of avian flu viruses. Oddly, the antiviral transgene doesn't seem to help the birds that carry it, but somehow limits the spread of the virus. The researchers adopted a rather clever technique to target the flu virus. The virus uses its own enzyme to make copies of its genome for translating into proteins. This enzyme recognizes a short RNA sequence near each of the genes in order to start this copying process. The authors simply created a short, decoy version of this RNA sequence; if chicken cells express enough of it, it should interfere with the enzyme's ability to recognize the real thing on the virus, limiting the production of new viruses. As they point out, this makes it very hard for the virus to evolve around the decoy, since any changes to the enzyme that prevented its recognition of the decoy would also block the recognition of the viral sequences that it needs to work with.
They next inserted the decoy into the chicken genome. To track it, they added a gene for a fluorescent protein, which also meant that all the transgenic chickens would glow green when exposed to UV light. The authors bred a population of transgenic birds and exposed them to high levels of the flu virus. They all died. But, when more moderate levels of virus were used, a few of the transgenic chickens survived the challenge. Perhaps more significantly, however, those that survived shed less of the virus into the environment while infected.
This really paid off when the birds were housed with other chickens. When infected normal chickens were present, all the other birds housed with them died, even if they had the transgene. When infected transgenic chickens were present, however, the majority of the other birds in the cage survived, even if they didn't carry the transgene. Thus, although the transgene doesn't help birds survive significant exposure to the virus, it does limit the virus' ability to spread within a population.
Although this transgenic construct isn't enough to keep all birds from dying, it may significantly change the dynamics of the infection, reducing the risk to humans and the need to do wholesale culling of flocks with infections. It could also be improved on—the decoy RNA couldn't even be detected using standard techniques, so increasing its expression should be possible. The transgene was also small, so it could easily be combined with other genes that target the virus in different ways. Overall, it looks like a promising approach to limiting the bird flu.
Science, 2011. DOI: 10.1126/science.1198020 (About DOIs).
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16% of AT&T customers ready to jump ship for Verizon iPhone
Some analysts have predicted a big impact to AT&T's customer base thanks to a CDMA-compatible iPhone launching on Verizon's network next month. A recent survey by market research firm ChangeWave supports that theory, suggesting that while AT&T's network is improving, as much as 16 percent of its customers plan to switch to Verizon to use the iPhone.
ChangeWave's latest survey was conducted just a few days before this week's press conference announcing that the iPhone 4 was indeed coming to Verizon's network. The survey asked 4,050 consumers about their plans to change mobile providers in the next 90 days. A full 15 percent of AT&T customers planned to make the switch, while just 4 percent of Verizon customers said the same.
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No peeking: TSA's naked body scan images stay secret
Releasing its 2,000 item collection of naked body scans would "constitute a threat of [sic] transportation security," says the Transportation Security Authority, and a federal judge has agreed. The body scan images can remain secret.This week's ruling from a federal judge in Washington, DC comes after a 2009 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the privacy group EPIC. EPIC wanted to see the specs for the new backscatter and millimeter wave body scanners now widely deployed at airports; it also asked to see the contracts for those machines, and it wanted the images generated by the scanners.
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DoJ mulls antitrust suit to block Google-ITA deal
Google's attempt to buy airline fare search company ITA may soon run into another roadblock: an antitrust suit. The US Department of Justice is reportedly mulling such a move at Google's prompting, though a decision has yet to be made on whether the deal will be blocked.Google proposed its $700 million buyout of ITA in July of 2010—a move that immediately generated controversy with the airline industry. ITA's software is used by many of the biggest players in the airline industry, including the airlines themselves as well as travel agencies, Bing, Orbitz, CheapTickets, and others.
Google promised that it would "honor all existing agreements" if the deal went through, but that didn't impress regulators, who began debating almost immediately which agency would begin a probe into the deal.
That probe has been going on for six months now with seemingly little progress, which is likely the reason why Google asked the DoJ to fish or cut bait in December, according to unnamed people speaking to Bloomberg BusinessWeek. (Google's request apparently prompted the DoJ's lawyers "to cancel Christmas holiday plans and put together a case.")
Now, the company faces a possible antitrust suit, but Google would likely rather deal with that than continue to dangle in limbo over the acquisition. Meanwhile, the group of major airline industry players behind FairSearch continue to argue that a buyout of ITA will cross the "creepy line" and will prioritize Google's own interests above all others.
Google has responded to that criticism by insisting that it just wants to build better tools to drive traffic to online travel sites and that it won't sell plane tickets directly to users. Either way, the DoJ has 30 days from the Google's request to make a decision on whether it wants to go down the antitrust route, though either party can request an extension.
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Can't stop the signal: Sony's options limited in face of PS3 jailbreak
The PlayStation 3 is a compromised system. Its master key is all over the Internet, custom firmware allowing third-party software to run on the hardware is a click away, and Sony is furiously trying to stop this information from spreading. The company asked the courts for a temporary restraining order keeping those responsible from any further sharing of the keys or information about cracking the PS3, and is suing for damages.The legal battle may be long and expensive for both sides, or it may fizzle out to nothing. The problem for Sony is that the damage has already been done, as the attorney for George Hotz, a defendant who has previously worked to unlock the iPhone, noted in a filing.
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HP admits webOS tablet is coming at February 9 event
Hewlett Packard is making no secret of its plans to announce a tablet at a big webOS event it has planned on February 9 in San Francisco. During an appearance on CNBC, HP Personal Systems Group Executive VP Todd Bradley explained that HP is "totally focused on the tablet market, totally focused on enabling that with webOS." HP acquired Palm, and by extension Palm's webOS, last summer, but so far hasn't made any big announcements about its plans for the operating system. But according to Bradley, HP is planning on running right on to the iPad's playing field—he notes that the company sees "an enormous opportunity, both for ourselves and for our customers, to get the best web experience, the best content experience that they can."
As far as tablet capability, it doesn't sound like HP wants to take its webOS device above and beyond the current conception of what a tablet should do; that is, strictly consuming content. Bradley stressed HP's position that "tablets are phenomenal for content consumption, PCs... for content creation."
The event's tagline ("Think big. Think small. Think beyond.") suggests that HP will introduce an entire line of new webOS devices, including smartphones and tablets, that will facilitate the connected experience they're espousing. One of Bradley's biggest points about webOS was its ability to do "true multitasking," so the introduction of the Motorola Xoom and the BlackBerry PlayBook, both of which have dual-core processors, may be making HP sweat more than a little.
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Pentagon declares war on rust
Rust never sleeps, and neither does the Pentagon. The Department of Defense's Armed with Science blog reminds us of this with a fresh post that offers sobering new statistics on the state of metallic decay in the United States."When reflecting on things that impact the national economy, most of us tend to think of outsourcing, the stock market, tax policy, etc." But, Armed With Science asks: "Did you think of corrosion? You should."
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We <3 voxels: why Voxatron is an exciting indie shooter
A voxel is a volumetric pixel, sort of a defined point, but with volume. They're not something you see in gaming much anymore, although the Delta Force series used a voxel-based engine to great effect. Joseph White of Lexaloffle games decided it was just about time to bring voxels to the world of arena-style shooters. Imagine a 3D, low-fi Smash TV.The video of Voxatron in action made waves around the Internet, due to the striking visual style. "If anything I think having retro visuals removes expectations in a good way," White told Ars. "If there is no literal interpretation of the game world, you're more free to design things without worrying about agreeing with thematic constraints." This is why we're excited about voxels all over again. At least in this case.
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Making ghost images by getting sunlight to act quantum
Okay, so I was wrong, what a shocker. You see, a couple of years ago, I attended a talk that made a great deal of noise about doing quantum "stuff" with classical light—classical light is the sort of light that you get from the sun. The light emitted by the sun at any time and place bears no resemblance to light emitted at any other time and place. At the time of the talk, my main objection was that the light the researchers used in their work wasn't really the sort of light that you would get from your light bulb—instead, it was just laser light that had been played with a bit. The light still had all of its laser-like properties, hence quantumness abounded. Therefore, it wasn't very surprising to me that you could play quantum tricks with that light. Obviously, I was not the only person to have this sort of objection, because more recent experiments have been more careful about how they turn laser light into a pseudo classical light source. In a plenary session at the Physics of Quantum Electronics (PQE) conference, Yanhua Shih discussed some of his recent theoretical and experimental work in getting classical light to behave like quantum light.
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How fair use brought us VCRs, copiers—and nude Barbie enchiladas
Don't mess with Barbie—especially not in a vaguely sexual way that also involves enchiladas or a vintage Hamilton Beach malt machine.Thomas Forsythe learned this lesson the hard way during his years-long fair use fight against Barbie's maker, Mattel. Back in 1997, the self-taught Utah photographer created a set of 78 pictures of Barbie in, as a court later described it, "various absurd and often sexualized positions."
Forsythe called the series "Food Chain Barbie"; it was meant as a commentary on female objectification and consumer culture. The series included Barbie heads in a fondue pot, Barbies on the half shell, and three Barbies floating in a bed pan. Most of the dolls were nude.
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Verizon's "New Every Two" program going the way of the dodo
It's official: Verizon is ditching its "New Every Two" program and changing its early upgrade policy. Rumors began spreading earlier this week that Verizon had told sales reps to stop pushing the services, and Verizon has now confirmed with SmartMoney that this is indeed the case, and it will affect both new and old customers.New Every Two allowed Verizon subscribers to cash in on up to $100 in credit towards a new handset every two years after the already-subsidized price, resulting in some pretty significant discounts. The early upgrade program, on the other hand, allowed customers to pay a partially discounted price for new phones when they were only part-way into their two-year contract.
As of January 16, Verizon plans to stop offering New Every Two to new customers, and existing customers will no longer have the option of using it after their next upgrade. The options for early upgrades are being pushed back as well—previously, one could qualify for an early upgrade as early as 13 months into a contract, but that will be changing to 20 months. (For comparison's sake, AT&T's early upgrade system isn't much different than the one Verizon will be moving to.)
The decision comes just days after Verizon announced that it would begin carrying a CDMA version of the iPhone in February, leading many to believe that the carrier's decision to heavily subsidize the device is what led to the cutting of other programs. In truth, it's likely that Verizon has been mulling this change for a while now—after all, giving every customer a $100 credit every two years can add up fast.
Whatever the reason, Verizon customers are certainly displeased with the changes. And something gives us a feeling that Verizon won't be backing down like T-Mobile UK did when its existing customers complained about that carrier's recent policy changes, either.
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Capcom "saddened" by its own apparent theft of 'Splosion Man
Seeing iPhone and portable game developers copy from well-known releases on game consoles is nothing new, but Capcom's newest iPhone game—called MaXplosion—went a little further than taking themes and aesthetics from a well-known game. It copied nearly everything from the Xbox Live Arcade hit 'Splosion Man, created by Twisted Pixel. We've embedded some videos so you can see for yourself, and the situation is serious enough that both Capcom and Twisted Pixel have released statements.As of now it seems like no legal action will be taken, but this has become a minor controversy across gaming message boards and Twitter. Is copying a well-known game on another device worth the bad press?
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Microsoft releases free WebMatrix Web development tool
Today Microsoft released WebMatrix, a free Web development tool designed to give students and beginners an easy introduction to Web development. It has been in beta since July.WebMatrix is designed as a one-stop-shop for simple Web development needs, supporting both PHP and ASP.NET development. It includes support for a wealth of open source Web frameworks (including Drupal, Joomla and WordPress), a local Web server and database for development and testing, and easy deployment to third-party hosts. It also includes a number of "Web Helpers": components providing easy integration with, for example, Twitter and PayPal. A total of some 40 open source projects are installable, customizable, and deployable through WebMatrix.
The goal of WebMatrix is to make it easy for people to get up and running with any of these frameworks; to take out the Web server configuration, database creation, and so on. They do this while still providing full access to the software if you should want it, so that extensive customizations and modifications are still possible—something that might not be the case with a traditional hosted implementation of a CMS or blog platform.
With WebMatrix's simple front-end and extensive support for open source projects, Microsoft is hoping that the product will appeal to a wide cross-section of developers. It should offer a gentle introduction to development and customization to beginners and students, and time-saving and convenience to more experienced developers. For those who outgrow WebMatrix, migrating to one of the free or paid versions of Visual Studio is also an option, providing a natural progression as needs become more complex.
As well as providing access to these existing ASP.NET and PHP open source frameworks, WebMatrix ships with ASP.NET Razor, a new streamlined templating language for ASP.NET development. This is likely to appeal to ASP.NET developers even as they move beyond WebMatrix, as it's a much cleaner, tidier syntax than the mix of markup used in "traditional" ASP.NET.
WebMatrix seems to be a neat tool, especially for hobbyists and others who want to publish a blog but want to go further with their customizations than is typical. What is harder to see is how much usage it will garner outside this niche; professionals are likely to outgrow it rapidly.
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Rumors: iPad 2 coming in April, CDMA iPhone prepares to hit Asia
The next-generation iPad is expected to be released in April, while the CDMA iPhone may soon find itself making its way over to Asia. Those are the latest emanations from the Apple rumor mill, and neither of them are particularly surprising.First, MacNotes cites "reliable sources" saying that the iPad 2 will be available to US buyers the first or second Saturday in April, and will supposedly remain a US-exclusive for three months. The device is expected to come with a high-resolution "retina" display, front- and rear-facing cameras, and possibly a USB port. These predictions match previous rumors about the second-generation iPad, though another report said that the device would also be flatter and sport better speakers.
In other iOS device news, the sometimes-reliable DigiTimes claims that the CDMA iPhone introduced by Verizon this week is set to make its way to China, Japan, and South Korea. Because of this, "[Apple's] iPhone shipments in 2011 are expected to reach a new record," DigiTimes wrote.
Both predictions make sense; Apple tends to stick to a yearly release schedule when it comes to things like the iPhone and iPods, so an April release of the next-gen iPad would be right on target. As for the CDMA iPhone, Asia is practically the only other market (besides the US) where such a thing would make sense, so why not?
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Hands-on: 3D without the glasses comes into focus at CES
Consumer electronics heavyweights are betting big on 3D technology to help drive sales of new televisions and other hardware. Aside from the considerable cost of the hardware, one of the most significant impediments to broader 3D adoption at home is the glasses.Active shutter glasses, the dominant glasses technology for consumer-oriented 3D-enabled televisions, come with a number of serious drawbacks. They are still relatively expensive and they use batteries that have to be replaced or recharged. There are also still a number of troubling interoperability issues that prevent some active shutter glasses from being fully compatible with products from different vendors.
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Why Apple won't yet ditch the home button on the iPhone and iPad
iOS 4.3 has gained new four- and five-finger multitouch gestures for the iPad, which have great potential to replace some functionality of the device's "home" button. The rumor mill now suggests that these new gestures are designed to make it possible to eliminate the home button from the iPad altogether, and perhaps also on the iPhone and iPod touch. We don't see Apple going this route, however—at the very least not in the near term.BGR got the ball rolling by citing a source claiming that Apple is already testing iPads and iPhones without home buttons. It also reported that "it's possible we will see this new change materialize with the next-generation iPad and iPhone devices set to launch this year."
There are at least a couple reasons why Apple dropping the home button won't happen this year, though. One reason is that the new multitouch gestures introduced in iOS 4.3 beta are still being tested for compatibility and are considered a developer "preview" of new functionality.
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Adobe to finally give users better control over Flash cookies
Flash cookies: the bane of Internet users' experience ever since it became public that companies were using them to track users—completely separate from normal browser cookies. It's not easy for regular users to go digging around to delete Flash cookie data, but that may change soon thanks to Adobe. The company has been working with developers from Microsoft and Google to implement a new browser API that will make it easier for browser users to get rid of the local shared objects (LSOs, also known as Flash cookies) used by the Flash Player. In fact, the new API (NPAPI ClearSiteData, for the curious) has already been approved for implementation, and is expected to appear in Firefox sometime in the near future.
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Blackberry Dakota to have touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard
Some details about the BlackBerry Dakota, an upcoming smartphone from Research in Motion, have emerged on Boy Genius Report. The still-keyboarded BlackBerry appears to be an evolution of the BlackBerry Bold, and will have a capacitive touchscreen along with bumps in memory and storage.The phone will be the first BlackBerry to have both a full physical QWERTY keyboard and a 2.8 inch VGA capacitive touchscreen sharing real estate on its front face. Among other things, this will be a relief for those of us who, when borrowing our friends' BlackBerries, ignore the buttons and uselessly jab at the screen with our fingers.
The Dakota will pack 768MB of RAM and 4GB of storage in its 0.4-inch thick body, along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and mobile hotspot support. It will run BlackBerry OS 6.1 and work on both quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE as well as 3G networks (no mention of 4G) and has a magnetometer, acclerometer, and proximity sensor.
Like more recent Bold versions, the Dakota will have a 5 megapixel camera with a flash, but it will also be able to record HD video. Unlike many other planned smartphones, it appears the Dakota won't be riding the video-chatting wave, as there's nothing in the release about a front-facing camera. No official prices or release dates have been set.
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Dead Space 2 gets new trailer, and why the first game mattered
The first Dead Space was an almost underground project at EA until the upper management began pumping promotional dollars into the game near the end of its production schedule. At least that was the story fed to the press, but it makes sense. It's a high-concept game about Isaac Clarke, a man named after two science-fiction masters who dresses like a cathedral and fights monsters that have to be torn apart piece by piece.Dead Space starred a silent protagonist who was trying to survive in an oppressive, unforgiving environment, fighting monsters that seemed way too hard to kill. (Your main weapon was a repurposed construction tool, after all.) The new trailer shows a character-driven, talking Clarke, and offers a few hints about his new environment. The choice of music may be a little odd, but the themes of the first game are expanded upon, which will be enough to get fans excited.
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Weather so severe it generates antimatter
It turns out thunderstorms pack a much bigger punch than most people think. In the mid-1990s, we found that lightning and the associated electric field above a thunderstorm can be strong enough to produce a gamma ray blast detectable from space. These terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) are believed to occur all over the world at a rate of about 500 per day. Researchers using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have discovered a similar, but previously undetected phenomena: the production of an antimatter beam from the top of these storms.
Fermi is built to observe and measure gamma rays from anywhere in the Universe, but it has also been used to look at terrestrial events as well. Over its first three years, Fermi has identified 130 TGFs. These TGFs have included gamma rays with an energy of 511 keV—the energy signature of an electron-positron annihilation event.
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Scared of the dark: a look at the audio game Papa Sangre
With touchscreens and motion controls, we're seeing a steady stream of incredibly creative and inventive games. Even still, an experience that almost entirely consists of audio is novel. And that's exactly what the team at Somethin' Else has created with Papa Sangre: a terrifying horror experience that is portrayed to the player solely through sound. In the iPhone game, only your ears can guide you as you explore a land covered in darkness and full of horrible monsters.Ars spoke with Somethin' Else's Paul Bennun to learn just how hard it is to create a game made of sound.
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Fractals plus quantum mechanics equals chaos
The real joy of conferences is meeting with people who understand so much more than you do. Eric Akkerman presented ideas at the Physics of Quantum Electronics conference that definitely falls into the category of "going over Chris' head"—no great achievement there—and moved into the category of "baffling an entire room full of people who all understand more than Chris."
Akkerman has been investigating the properties of light when it is confined to a fractal object. The thing to realize is that this really combines the worst of both worlds: fractals, though visually beautiful, are basically highly abstract mathematics. As such, they are mind-bendingly hard to deal with. Light, on the other hand, is quantum in nature, where the mathematics is not too difficult, but the physical concepts can be used to stress-test neurons to the point of breaking. Bringing these two together is not something any sane person would choose to do for fun.
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Verizon shows off four smartphones hot to trot for 4G
Smartphone manufacturers are raring to get onboard with Verizon's 4G LTE network, if the Consumer Electronics Show last week was any indication. Four new handsets from HTC, Samsung, LG, and Motorola are set to debut by the middle of this year and will be fully enabled for the 4G network. The four upcoming phones—the HTC Thunderbolt, LG Revolution, Motorola Bionic, and an unnamed Samsung phone—all share some solid features: they have front and back cameras, run Android 2.2, will come with Skype preinstalled for video chatting on their 4.3 inch screens, and can function as mobile hotspots. Many features, like video out and storage options, will likely guide customers to one or the other.
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Feature: Google's dropping H.264 from Chrome a step backward for openness
The promise of HTML5's Google's justification doesn't really add up, and there's a strong chance that the decision will serve only to undermine the use of the
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Feature: Digging into Pandora's Music Genome with musicologist Nolan Gasser
"It's hard to believe that it was ten years ago," Pandora radio's Chief Musicologist Nolan Gasser confided to me in a recent interview. "I was completing my doctorate in musicology at Stanford, and was at a crossroads—between going into academia, and exploring my options as an independent musician.”It was in that context that Gasser, now an accomplished composer, pianist, and musicologist, heard that Pandora online radio founder Tim Westergren was looking for graduate students to help analyze music for a start-up music technology company.
"This was early 2000, and the words 'music' and 'technology' were just beginning to be used in the same sentence," Gasser noted.
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