Researchers at Oxford University have found that an electrical current applied to the brain could improve mathematical performance. It doesn’t mean we’ll all be zapping our brains and retraining as mathematicians, but it could bring new ways to treat the effects of strokes and degenerative conditions. The study involved passing a one milliamp current through […]
“Geosocial” services such as Foursquare may get a lot of buzz, but they aren’t getting a lot of use. A new study finds that on an average day, only one in a hundred internet users access such a service. The Pew Internet & American Life Project interviewed 3,000 internet users about location-based services, those which […]
A German company has produced a battery pack that allows an ordinary car to travel 375 miles on a single charge. It’s not a record, but is arguably the most impressive overall performance. The record for a single charge appears to be 623 miles, achieved by a converted Daihatsu van. However, that only averaged 27 […]
A United States agency is calling for the abolition of the kilogram. That’s not to say the National Institute of Standards and Technology wants to get rid of the unit of measurement itself. Instead it believes it’s time to stop using the physical object (or “artifact”) that determines the precise mass that makes up a […]
With all the sniping and griping on social networks, it’s rare that somebody posts to say they are feeling on top of the world. But that’s exactly what climbers at Mount Everest will soon be able to do. Ncell, a subsidiary of a Swedish phone company, has set up eight 3G phone masts (four powered […]
Chinese websites are claiming the country has overtaken the US as the home of the world’s fastest supercomputer. The official result is scheduled to be announced next week. The rankings in question are the TOP500 project, which has published a list twice a year since 1993. It measures the maximum speed achieved in a standard […]
Researchers at the University of Maryland have discovered that the lung has similar bitter taste receptors to the tongue — and that this knowledge could help treat conditions such as asthma. Dr Stephen Liggett says his team found the taste receptors by accident during a previous study into muscle receptors. Unlike those in the tongue, […]
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has funded some strange projects in its work to develop new technology for the United States military. But perhaps none quite so strange as using coffee grains to pick up an egg. DARPA provided some of the money for a newly published study involving researchers at universities in […]
Last year I wrote a celebratory article to mark the 30th anniversary of the first Sony Walkman going on sale. Today I write with a heavier heart as I bring you the sad news that the last cassette Walkman has left Sony’s Japanese factories. The company has now revealed that it has not made any […]
If you read this article’s headline and were expecting the greatest B movie ever made, I’m sorry to tell you, but you’re in for a dissapointment. It’s in fact a reference to a discussion on a technical solution to the problems of copyright law for those who support filesharing without restrictions. The discussion comes from […]