"Venus Flytrap" The Robot that Could Eat bugs

ROBOTS that mimic the Venus flytrap could run on live insects and spiders, snatching and digesting them for fuel. Now two prototypes have been developed that employ smart materials to rapidly ensnare their prey.

Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) catch insects using two specially adapted leaves. When a bug lands it brushes tiny hairs on the surface, triggering the trapping mechanism. The leaves snap shut in a mere 100 milliseconds, and the plant kills and digests its quarry (see diagram).

Recreating this method means finding materials that can not only detect the presence of an insect but also close on it quickly. At Seoul National University in South Korea, Seung-Won Kim and colleagues have done this using shape memory materials. These switch between two stable shapes when subjected to force, heat or an electric current.

Nokia : Nokia Lumia the first Windows Phone smartphone

Nokia Lumia 800

 Windows Phone, especially with its newest update, is a damn fine mobile operating system, but also one lacking a truly killer phone. We were holding out hope that Nokia's first Windows Phone smartphone would be the one to get, and it just might be--the Lumia 800 is the first Windows Phone that's as eye-catching as the OS inside. Nokia also announced the 800's little brother, the 710, which is no slouch either.

Manufacture of Semiconductors Future of the Diamond

 After ages of controlling the international market for natural diamonds, the diamond cartel De Beers is starting to spread its tentacles into Silicon Valley, where the hardest form of carbon is prized for much more than glitter. De Beers is investing heavily in convincing IT pros that lab-grown diamonds — not long ago, the bane of diamond dealers’ existence — are the semiconductor substrate of the future.

During the past several years, a few firms have honed the process of manufacturing synthetic diamonds, using anvil cells to supplant billions of years of crustal compression and building diamond crystals atom-by-atom using chemical vapor deposition. These gemstones appear flawless and are chemically identical to the roughs mined from Africa and other places.

The Monster Keyboards For Gamers, Best Solution And Water Resistant

Aimed at heavy combat gaming, AZiO's new Levetron Mech4 is a modular keyboard design that enables the numeric keypad and macro D-pad with six programmable keys to be configured to suit your style. Mech4 also has comes special seals and drainage gutters that prevent spills from ending your virtual battle and the keyboard's life.

The Last Night The Beautiful Auroras Appeared

If you saw it firsthand then you had no choice but to notice it, but for the rest of us who weren’t so lucky, here’s the deal: yesterday a coronal mass ejection, a.k.a. a CME, a.k.a. a solar storm or a huge burst of solar wind emanating from our sun slammed into our atmosphere at about 2 p.m. EDT. That mass of charged particles compressed Earth’s magnetic field and sparked a pretty intense geomagnetic storm, resulting in what you see here: breathtaking auroras that are usually confined to high latitudes spilled out across North America, reaching as far south as New Mexico and Alabama.

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Nintendo the Wii U Console's amazing Controller and Big,Touchscreened.

Nintendo just announced their successor to the revolutionary Wii, to be called the Wii U, at this year's E3 conference in Los Angeles. We've only gotten snippets and tidbits of information, but we do know that the--as in the original Wii--the most important part of the Wii U will be the controller. This time, it's a giant, tablet-like, touchscreened beast that packs an accelerometer, camera, gyroscope, and a full array of Wii buttons.

The Wii U will be a new console, looking something like a beefed-up version of the Wii. We do know it'll be fully HD-ready, unlike the Wii--that means 1080p resolution and (finally) an HDMI-out port. Nintendo says the console will be released sometime between April and December of 2012, and...that's about all we know about the console itself.

race and gender could detected by Iris scanner

IRIS images may soon be able to do more than just verify your identity - they may confirm your race and gender too.

The iris controls the size of the pupil and gives a person's eyes their colour. It grows into a complex and unique pattern as a fetus develops and remains the same throughout a person's life. This fact has been successfully exploited in iris-based biometric systems, which work on the principle that each iris is completely different to any other.

But that is not strictly true, as Kevin Bowyer at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana and his colleagues have found. They have developed a system that can pick out similarities between irises, instead of differences. Initial tests show it can distinguish between people of two different racial backgrounds and shows promise in determining gender.

How to Improve Your Video-Streaming

Your ISP can be slowing your speeds down because it thinks you've used up too much bandwidth. This is common if you are using a mobile broadband connection -- the kind that's provided through a USB stick. Currently Sprint is the only major U.S. mobile operator that doesn't cap. In many places, the data caps are euphemistically called "Fair Use Policies." T-Mobile doesn't cap, but does have "Fair Use" limits.

The stuttering and freezing that can occur when you're streaming video are indicative of issues related to bandwidth. Commercial hosted solutions like Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) and Hulu can suffer from degraded performance.

Rather than simply calling your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and requesting a faster, more expensive pipe, there are some steps you can take first to optimize your existing environment for video streaming.

Step 1 Turn off your modem, router, computer and add-ons, wait a minute, and then turn them all back on starting with the modem, then the router and then the other gear.
Allow the equipment to stabilize by leaving it for a minute or so.

Heartbeat counter with bluetooth

Sports Tracker is now shipping its Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor, a chest-worn unit that pairs with a smartphone app for viewing stats in real-time as well as storing your data on the company website or sharing it with others through social media.

The heart rate monitor works via a Bluetooth belt that you must first wet before wrapping around your chest (under your shirt). Wetting the back of the monitor ensures that the electrodes read your heart rate properly. Once connected, grab your smartphone and choose "settings" and then "heart rate belt" on the Sports Tracker app. Once it finds the heart rate belt, click "connect" and then enter the pin code "0000" to begin tracking data. Once you see your heart rate on your phone, you are ready to go.

Motor Sport Suzuki GW 250, Akan Meramaikan Pasar di Indonesia?

SPORTKU.COM - Baru-baru ini Suzuki Motor mulai memasarkan motor sport Suzuki GW 250 di Cina. Kehadiran motor tersebut di pasar global bakal berhadapan dengan Kawasaki Ninja 250R, Honda CBR 250R, dan KTM Duke 250.

Suzuki GW 250 dipamerkan di gelaran China International Motorcycle Trade Exhibition 2011 pada (13-16 Oktober 2011). Namun, Suzuki menyebutkan pada tahap awal bahwa GW 250 diproduksi di Cina, setelah itu akan diekspor ke Eropa, Indonesia, dan Amerika. Seperti yang terlansir motorcycle.com, 16 Oktober 2011.

Mobil Tertua Dilelang Rp 41,07 Miliar

TEMPO Interaktif, Pennsylvania - Berapa menurut Anda harga yang pantas untuk mobil tertua di dunia? Anda mungkin tak percaya. Mobil uap De Dion Bouton et Trepardoux Dos-a-Dos Steam Runabout produksi tahun 1884 berhasil dijual rumah lelang RM Auctions seharga US$ 4.62 juta atau sekitar Rp 41,07 miliar.

Laman autoevolution.com, Minggu, 9 Oktober 2011 menulis, rumah lelang di Hershey, Pennsylvania, Amerika Serikat itu tak percaya bisa menjual mobil di angka tersebut. Awalnya, rumah lelang membuka harga mobil di angka US$ 500 ribu.

ALMA terbuka untuk bisnis: gambar pertama dari teleskop astronomi paling rumit di dunia

Dalam waktu yang lama ditunggu-tunggu oleh ribuan astronom dari seluruh dunia, sekelompok presisi teleskop radio yang terletak di Dataran Tinggi Chajnantor tandus Chile utara akhirnya telah beroperasi. Meskipun hanya sebagian selesai, ALMA, atau Atacama Array Milimeter / submillimeter besar, sudah dianggap sebagai teleskop paling canggih dari jenis. Tentu saja, itu yang tertinggi, dengan ketinggian dasar 16.500 kaki (5000m).


"Kami pergi ke salah satu lokasi yang paling ekstrim di Bumi untuk membangun array terbesar di dunia teleskop milimeter / sub-milimeter, memiliki tingkat teknis kecanggihan yang dipikir hanyalah mimpi dalam satu dekade yang lalu," kata Dr Mark McKinnon, Proyek Manajer program Amerika Utara ALMA di Observatorium Astronomi Radio Nasional (NRAO) di Charlottesville, Virginia.

(The New PSP) Sony reveals pricing and new name for next-gen handheld: the PlayStation Vita

 At its E3 press conference Sony finally revealed that its next generation handheld - previously codenamed the NGP - will carry the official moniker of the "PlayStation Vita". Most of the details of the Vita - which is Latin for "life" - have already been revealed, leaving the price and name as the only real new information, along with the announcement of some of the upcoming titles heading to the device when it is released from the end of the year.

Melihat video Ketangguhan dari Motor BMW S1000RR

Suka atau tidak, merek motor yang memiliki reputasi untuk menarik jenis tertentu pengendara. Dalam kasus pengendara BMW, stereotip memiliki sentuhan pasti dari "Kakek yang paham" tentang hal itu ... setidaknya, itulah bagaimana segala sesuatunya bekerja sampai saat ini. Selama lima tahun terakhir atau lebih, produsen Jerman telah merilis banyak sepeda yang benar-benar dapat  menyenangkan dengan serius meskipun dalam semacam cara yang sadar. Tapi tidak ada yang sadar tentang bom yang mereka jatuhkan pada tahun 2010 dengan merilis S1000RR tersebut. Dalam tes jalan terbaru kami video, Loz Blain dan Noel kas  McKeegan pensiunan mereka dan menunggangi Motor BMW Superbike tangguh.

10 the biggest laptops for the real gamers

Everything's Bigger...If You're a Gamer 

The trend toward small, svelte laptops isn't for everyone. That's especially true for gamers, whose mission is more about being immersed in massive virtual worlds and winning battles than word processing. Make no mistake about it: Gaming laptops are typically big, hulking machines that push the limits of computer hardware (and, perhaps, your budget).

The ten "big rig" laptops featured here, in order of overall size, are built to accommodate your most epic adventures.

Wow...Peneliti Kembangkan Mouse Pendeteksi Stress

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, TOKYO - Peneliti dari Tokyo Metropolitan University tengah mengembangkan alat pengukur tingkat stres yang akan disisipkan dalam sebuah mouse. Melalui alat ini, setiap pekerja dapat mengukur tingkat stres yang dialami.

IPhone 4S Handphone Terbaru dari Apple

Dalam peluncuran produk pertama sejak menjadi CEO, Apple Tim Cook telah mengumumkan versi baru dari iPhone di Apple HQ di Cupertino, California. IPhone 4S mempertahankan teknologi layar Retina dan kaca belakang dari pendahulunya, tapi telah mengalami sesuatu dari perbaikan internal. Smartphone baru Apple mendapatkan merek baru prosesor dual-core, sebuah kamera 8 megapiksel yang mampu shooting video definisi tinggi penuh, dan aplikasi asisten pribadi baru yang menggunakan pengenalan suara. Para 4S juga menjanjikan hingga dua kali lipat kecepatan download sebelumnya dan akan tersedia pada lebih dari 100 operator di seluruh dunia.

Diumumkan di ruang yang sama seperti saat iPod asli 2001, iPhone baru 4S Apple memiliki platform IOS 5 baru  dan didukung oleh perusahaan baru chip dual-core A5,  dikatakan itu dua kali lebih cepat dari pendahulunya. Gamer Mobile tidak akan diragukan lagi dan senang mendengar bahwa dual-core grafis yang ada sampai tujuh kali lebih cepat dari sebelumnya. Baterai smartphone baru ini diklaim menawarkan delapan jam waktu bicara 3G, enam jam browsing, sembilan jam pada Wi-Fi, sepuluh jam pemutaran video, atau 40 jam musik.

Jalan - jalan yuk dengan Helikopter Google

Membayangkan untuk bisa terbang diatas udara dan melihat pemandangan yang indah, merupakan impian semua orang untuk bisa melakukannya. Dengan berjalan kaki mungkin hanya sekedar batas pandangan visual yang terbatas. Tapi sekarang Google dapat membantu anda dengan fasilitas Helikopter yang disediakan untuk anda yang ingin melihatnya secara langsung

Dengan tampilan 3D yang memukau dari Helikopter Google semua terlihat seperti nyata. sungai, lereng bukit - bukit serta perjalanan yang tidak membosankan. Sepintas kita dibawa untuk mengetahui hal - hal yang baru disekelilingnya. Dan itu semua gambaran yang lebih realitis untuk melihat seluruh dunia secara horizontal maupun vertikal.

Beberapa Kamera Terbaru Sony Akhirnya Hadir di Indonesia

TEMPO Interaktif, Jakarta- Sony Indonesia memperkenalkan sejumlah produk barunya yang akan segera mengisi pasar Indonesia. Produk baru tersebut mulai dari kamera saku tertipis Cyber-shot TX55 hingga handycam NEX-VG20E, yang ditujukan bagi pembuat film.

Cyber-shot TX55 dengan ketebalan hanya 12,2 milimeter diklaim sebagai kamera tertipis di dunia saat ini. TX55 mampu mengambil gambar video full high definition AVCHD serta 16.2 megapixel gambar diam.

Bagian belakang kamera terdapat layar sentuh 8.3 centimeter atau 3.3 inci Xtra fine OLED yang bisa menunjukkan foto dan hasil rekaman dengan sangat detail. Meski tipis, TX55 adalah kamera cyber-shot pertama yang mempunyai slot untuk memory stick micro dan kartu memori flash microSD/SDHC.

VW's 260-MPG Diesel Hybrid Concept May Actually Get Built

VW XL1 VW

Volkswagen's latest eye-catching creation, the ultra-efficient diesel-hybrid XL1, debuted at the Qatar Auto Show, immediately garnering attention both for its looks and its specs. But according to German publication Automobilwoche (warning: German), VW actually intends to bring the XL1 to market, albeit in a (very) limited run. 

Usai UARS ada Satelit ROSAT Berbobot 1,6 Ton akan Jatuh

TRIBUNNEWS.COM, JAKARTA - Sampah antariksa bekas satelit UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite) telah menghujam bumi pada Sabtu 19 September 2011 lalu. Namun ancaman bangkai satelit yang jatuh ke bumi masih belum berakhir.

Situs berita ABC News menulis UARS memang jatuh  di lautan Pasifik dan tak membahayakan nyawa manusia. Namun Oktober ini bumi kembali terancam oleh jatuhnya sampah satelit bernama ROSAT.

ROSAT adalah satelit Jerman pengamatan X-ray dari Jerman. Misi ROSAT dimulai pada 1 Juni 1990 untuk mengawali era baru teknologi X-ray dalam disiplin ilmu astronomi. Satelit ini dilengkapi dengan teleskop X-ray raksasa untuk menangkap gambar obyek di luar angkasa.

FYI: Dapatkah Listrik Wireless Membunuh Orang ?

Gambar : Shock and Awe Nikola Tesla dalam bukunya Lab Air Terjun Niagara dengan koil-koil nya, yang dapat melepaskan jutaan volt dan mengirim listrik melalui udara Bettmann / Corbis

Mungkin tidak. Bahkan ketika jari-jari kaki sedang terjepit, listrik wireless cukup aman. Pada tahun 1899, insinyur Serbia Nikola Tesla membangun sebuah kumparan listrik dengan tinggi 142-kaki, 12-juta-volt di Colorado Springs dan listrik ditransmisikan secara nirkabel sepanjang 25 mil, menerangi 200 lampu dengan aliran muatan tersebut. Setelah ia menyalakan saklar, kilatan petir melompat dari kumparan, tapi tidak ada yang dirugikan.