Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy
Nanotechnology may influence many areas of science as we become more adept at creating and using it, but the most important field to be affected will likely be medicine. Nanotechnology will allow medicine, such as chemotherapy, to be delivered more exactly by preventing it from entering the bloodstream until arriving at the target. Scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have proven the design of one kind of nanoparticle to be effective for chemotherapy. The particle can carry large loads of the drug oxaliplatin stably under normal physiological conditions before releasing the chemical at the site of the cancer. More research will have to be done before this can enter any clinic, but this specific kind of nanoparticle, polysilsesquioxane (PSQ), shows better abilities than most other particles.
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DLC for Battlefield 3 Hits the PS3 a Week Before Other Platforms
In this day and age, it shouldn't be real surprising to learn that some of the larger games have timed exclusives with the downloadable content. This means that a certain system will have exclusive access to the DLC for a short amount of time, be it a week or a month. This may irk some people, but it is just part of the business of late. As such, DICE has announced that the DLC for Battlefield 3 will be exclusive to the PlayStation 3 for one week before it is available anywhere else. It seems that all the DLC will be released on the PS3 a week before the PC and 360, which I am sure does not make too many people happy. The Back to Karkand expansion will be the first DLC released, with more coming later on. The Back to Karkand expansion reimagines four of the most popular maps from Battlefield 2, this time running on the new Frostbite 2 engine and with new weapons and vehicles.
Battlefield 3 launches on October 25th for the PC, PS3, and 360.
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Health Monitoring T-Shirt
Researchers at Carlos III University of Madrid have created an intelligent t-shirt for use in hospitals and possibly in patients’ homes. Built into the washable shirt are electrodes for collecting physiological data on the patient, such as heartbeat and temperature. Partnered with the t-shirt is a localization device to collect the information from the shirt before transmitting it to the information management system. There the information is processed not only to present information to the doctors and other medical staff, but also to monitor where the patient is within the hospital, as the system does not require him or her to remain in their room. The system also has alarm capabilities to alert the nearest medical staff to emergencies, such as a temperature or heart rate exceeding a doctor determined level.
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Guilds in Star Wars: The Old Republic Now Able to Choose Allies and Enemies
I know many of you are waiting for Star Wars: The Old Republic to launch, and I'm sure some of you have even joined a guild for the MMO. Today, BioWare has announced that each guild can ally with or oppose up to three other guilds. This means that if you're a guild leader, you can pick up to three other guilds to be your allies or enemies, possibly ensuring you can square off against friends in another guild or aid them in battle. Once the guilds have been allied or opposed, BioWare will try to get those guilds on the same server when the game launches. Depending on your guild's faction, you can be an Ally or Adversary of any other guild, and even fight together or against each other on the same server upon launch. This is a nice step taken by BioWare, one that I'm sure will appease many of you waiting on The Old Republic.
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From the Big Screen to Your Brain and Back
Though this item now belongs under science fact, I would understand if you think it is science fiction. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) researchers at University of California, Berkeley have successfully reconstructed signals from the brain into videos. Due to the number of hours required within an MRI machine for the experiment, members of the research team were shown video clips, such as movie trailers. The MRI machine then recorded the blood flow through the brains visual cortex as well as the neural population. This information was fed into a computer which worked to correlate the second to second status of the brain to the videos it was processing. A second set of videos were shown to the test subjects and the computer was instructed to recreate the video based on the new data from the MRI machine. By predicting how the brain would react to 18 million seconds of random YouTube videos, the computer selected 100 clips most like the video the subjects viewed. By combining the clips, a continuous, albeit blurred, reconstruction of the original video was made. The researchers do predict it will be decades before a similar system could be used to read one’s thoughts and intentions.
For a video showing what the computer combined for each subject, you can visit this link: Reconstructing visual experiences from brain activity evoked by natural movies.
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Epic Games Not Working on Unreal Series
It has been four long years since a new entry appeared in the Unreal franchise, and it appears we may have to wait even longer. While Epic Games knows it has neglected the iconic franchise, it is apparently not working on a new entry in the Unreal series. Epic Games president Mike Capps said that a new Unreal game is currently not among the developer's five current projects, which does not bode well for those hoping to get Unreal Tournament IV or Unreal III. While Capps said that the Unreal franchise continues to shape what the team does at Epic, there is no new Unreal IP project on the way. Perhaps that will change before long, since I would love to see a new entry either in the single player or multiplayer games, but it appears we won't be getting anything any time soon.
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Apple Launching Multiple iPhones? Al Gore Thinks So
Al Gore is famous for being one of the founders and most ardent supporters of the green energy movement, as well as being the former Vice President of the United States. He also happens to be a board member for tech behemoth Apple, which makes this bit of news particularly interesting; the former VP let slip that next month’s rumored iPhone launch may include more than one model. While speaking at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in South Africa, Mr. Gore said "Not to mention the new iPhones coming out next month." This little slip gives us two important bits of info; the iPhone launch is definitely coming next month, which is less important than the fact that the word "iPhones" was plural. While it is entirely possible that Gore’s grammar needs work, the errant comment has spun the Apple rumor mill back into full swing. Either way, it will be interesting to see exactly what’s coming next month from Apple, and the direction its flagship handset is going.
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Adobe Bringing Full Hardware-Accelerated 2D and 3D Graphics to Flash and AIR
When the new versions of Adobe Flash and AIR arrive in October, each will have a pretty significant improvement. You see, Adobe is adding full hardware-accelerated 2D and 3D graphics to Flash and AIR, hopefully giving the two a "console-like quality." The new versions will be Flash 11 and AIR 3, and Adobe says the full hardware-acceleration will render graphics up to 1,000 times faster than the previous versions. Adobe will even add the ability to display 1080p videos in Flash-based apps for iOS devices with H.264 decoding, plus APIs for use with accelerometers and near-field communcations chips. The company hopes to work with Microsoft to get Flash support added to Windows Phone, but no date for that has been set. Adobe is also working with Google to get Flash better supported on Android devices. The big news, however, is the full hardware-acceleration for graphics, which should help improve the quality of Flash-based PC games and even mobile games.
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Battlefield 3 Beta System Requirements Revealed
Yesterday, we told you when the beta for Battlefield 3 would launch. Today, we get the system requirements for that beta, and it would be a pretty safe bet to say these will be the system requirements for the retail copy. The minimum specifications require a 2GHz dual-core CPU, a DirectX 10/10.1 video card, 2GB of RAM, and 20GB of hard drive space. The recommend specifications start off with Windows 7 64-bit, a quad-core CPU, a DirectX 11 video card, and 4GB of RAM. The minimum says the video card should have at least 512MB of VRAM and be at the performance of an AMD Radeon HD 3870 or NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT, while the recommend says 1GB of VRAM and performance equal to that of a GeForce GTX 560 or Radeon HD 6950. Pretty beefy requirements, especially that 20GB of hard drive space. The full requirements are below.
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
- OS: WINDOWS VISTA (SERVICE PACK 2) 32-BIT
- PROCESSOR: 2 GHZ DUAL CORE (CORE 2 DUO 2.4 GHZ OR ATHLON X2 2.7 GHZ)
- MEMORY: 2 GB
- HARD DRIVE: 20 GB
- GRAPHICS CARD (AMD): DIRECTX 10.1 COMPATIBLE WITH 512 MB RAM (ATI RADEON 3000, 4000, 5000 OR 6000 SERIES, WITH ATI RADEON 3870 OR HIGHER PERFORMANCE)
- GRAPHICS CARD (NVIDIA): DIRECTX 10.0 COMPATIBLE WITH 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 OR 500 SERIES WITH NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT OR HIGHER PERFORMANCE)
- SOUND CARD: DIRECTX COMPATIBLE
- KEYBOARD AND MOUSE
- DVD ROM DRIVE
- OS: WINDOWS 7 64-BIT
- PROCESSOR: QUAD-CORE CPU
- MEMORY: 4 GB
- HARD DRIVE: 20 GB
- GRAPHICS CARD: DIRECTX 11 COMPATIBLE WITH 1024 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 OR ATI RADEON 6950)
- SOUND CARD: DIRECTX COMPATIBLE
- KEYBOARD AND MOUSE
- DVD ROM DRIVE
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Black Wing Foundation's Dystopian Future: Scivelation
Today we have a look at a new game from the folks at Black Wing Foundation called Scivelation. Formerly called Salvation, the game is a third-person shooter, and the best way to sum it up is the phrase "God bless the Regime." The game's narrative is fairly complex and deals with "religion and belief, utopia and dystopia, post-apocalyptic confusion, and genetic and mechanical enhancement." The game is much more than your typical cover-based, third-person shooter, as it deals with a range of topics not generally covered by the likes of a Gears of War. Scivelation has two main Resistance characters, a male and female, that believe in God but not so much in the abusive Regime that dominates the 22nd century in Scivelation's universe.
The female character, Elisha Amano, is better suited to stealth and melee skills, and even has a genetic enhancement that lets her become invisible to better sneak past guards. The male character, Mikhail Ivanov, specializes in heavy weapons and brute force, as his mechanical and armor enhancements let him better absorb damage. The game is a fairly linear affair but should give ample playtime for each main character, hopefully with a good balance between the two. Certain parts of the game will have you choose a character to play as, giving you a character-specific level to complete. Scivelation makes use of the Unreal Engine 3, so it should look really good on most systems.
When the Regime took power, it sought to rebuild society by means of creating cities in the sky over various religious centers. The game has you traveling to locales like London, Moscow, and Bethlehem, or rather, the sky cities over those locations. The surface of the Earth seems to be in ruins, with the people living on the surface literally living in the underbelly of the floating cities. The developers did not say whether any parts of the game would take place on the ground, but it would be interesting to see at least a few levels there. The game has been in production for only four months, but it was in preproduction for a year and a half. Scivelation is still a ways away from launching, but it is looking good so far.
Scivelation will launch on the PC, PS3, and 360.
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Major Upgrade for Pandora
If you have signed into Pandora today for listening to some tunes then you were likely treated to a pleasant surprise, just as I was. The new HTML5 interface has been completely redesigned, and some new features have also made their way into the site. Improved station creation and control make customizing and listening to music even easier. More information will also be included for the music, with more lyrics and artist information. Social media aspects have also been added, including a music feed and a share button for users to share stations using Facebook and Twitter. And most importantly, the 40 hour cap has been removed for users not using the premium service.
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Recovering Waste Heat Cheaply Thanks to Microwave Ovens
A quick search on YouTube for "microwave" yields thousands of videos of just what happens when you put things into a microwave oven. Though those videos are cool (and the stunts potentially dangerous) Oregon State University has possibly found the most awesome thing to microwave, short of food; metal dust. It is not just any dust but an indium cobalt antimonite compound that will transition into a skutterudite, a kind of thermoelectric material. Normally, skutterudites take days to make but with a microwave oven, the procedure can be finished in a few minutes. With as much as 60% of the energy produced by various kinds of technologies, including cars, being lost to waste heat the desire for effective thermoelectrics is large. This discovery opens the door to cheap and efficient systems to reclaim some of the energy we have never had before.
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Proton Based Transistor to Connect to Human Body
Computers use electricity, the flow of negatively charged electrons, to send signals and the human body uses ions, including positively charged protons, to do the same. This difference can be quite an issue when attempting to connect circuitry to the human body, such as prosthetics. Researchers at the University of Washington have created a novel solution to solve this issue; instead of using electronics, use proton based circuitry. This allows for a simpler interface to the body as there would not need to be a conversion of signal media. Already the team has created a proton-based transistor, one of the key building blocks of modern circuitry. Though to begin with, proton based technology will only be able to sense the signals of the human body, in the future the circuitry may be able to sends directions to cells.
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Improved Photovoltaic Paint
University of Toronto researchers have set the world record for largest current from colloidal-quantum-dot solar cells thanks to inorganic liquids. Quantum dots are practically synthetic molecules which can be used to both emit and absorb light. Researchers can create the quantum dots to respond to specific frequencies of light and, because of how small they are, can then pain them onto a surface. Being able to paint these onto a surface makes them very interesting when compared to brittle, silicon-based solar cells. To paint the dots onto a surface however requires suspending them in a liquid, creating a colloid (hence the name, colloidal-quantum-dots). Previously, organic compounds were used for the liquids, but these would add a nanometer or two to every dot, and impair their efficiency. The closer the dots are to each, the more able electrons are to flow from one to another. By using an inorganic compound, only a single layer of atoms would surround the dots, allowing for much tighter packing. Hopefully this research will enter the marketplace soon, were efficient solar power systems are in demand.
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