In the News
Exercise Helps Sustain Mental Activity As We Age, May Prevent Dementia
Based on a review of studies on exercise and its effect on brain functioning in human and animal populations, researchers find that physical exercise may slow aging's effects and help people maintain cognitive abilities well into older age. Animals seem to benefit from exercise too and perform spatial tasks better when they are active. Furthermore, fitness training -- an increased level of exercise -- may improve some mental processes even more than moderate activity, say the authors of the review. War, Genocide 'Difficult Knowledge' To Teach Younger Studentshttp://fe
Quest for Fire: Look for Searing FX on the Next Harry Potter
Movie studios spend billions to morph strings of code into giant robots, flying superheroes, and apocalyptic mushroom clouds. Still, the toughest f/x challenge turns out to be the most elemental: re-creating Mother Nature. "There are not enough CPU cycles in the day to capture the complexity found in the environment," says Industrial Light & Magic visual effects supervisor Tim Alexander. That hasn't stopped him and his Oscar-winning team from trying. They crafted near-perfect CG waves for the Pirates of the Caribbeantrilogy. But their assignment for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Princeset the bar higher than ever: Mix fire with water. The clash of elements transpires when Harry Potter is rescued from sea-dwelling beasts by Dumbledore, who sets the ocean ablaze with a bolt of fire. Harry bobs to the surface only to find himself surrounded by a fiery tornado.  2009 Warner Bros. Ent., Harry Potter Publishing Rights J.K.R.
Prepping the sequence, ILM first did some real-world homework by studying wildfires, fire "art" vortices, and magma. "We did a lot of research on molten volcanoes, which have a lot of heat going on but no actual flames," Alexander says. "We collected a bunch of other references, including flares that burn underwater, and showed them to the Potterfolks." Once Half-Blood Princedirector David Yatessigned off on a visual template, ILM deployed supercharged Linux machines, each loaded with 16 processors and 4 gigs of RAM. "We emulated all these fire parameters: heat ripples, smoke, buoyancy, viscosity, opacity, and brightness," Alexander says. Processing the massive particle simulations for the 100- by 300-foot firewall was burning up days of data crunching for each frame. So computer graphics artist Chris Horvathspent eight months obsessing over a faster way to conjure impressive flames. "Chris figured out that a lower-resolution particle set still had a fluidy flow," Alexander says. "The effect looks as if you sprayed propane and then lit it." For CG geeks, that's hot stuff.
 [Stupid] Darkness' thongs pay for new album
The Darkness have sold enough official band thongs to pay for their new album. Don't Advertise During Sexy Programmes -- The Viewer Won't Remember
People are less able to recall the brand of products advertised during programmes with a lot of sexual content, than if the advert is placed in similar programme that has no sexual content. This was the key message that came from research carried out at the Department of Psychology at University College London by Ellie Parker and Adrian Furnham. The research is published in this month's edition of Applied Cognitive Psychology. Promising New Targets For Antibiotics Found
Researchers have identified new sites on the bacterial cell's protein-making machinery where antibiotics can be delivered to treat infections. They tested many options. Of the thousands of mutations tested, 77 were detrimental to the function of the ribosome. The regions where those mutations lie can be targeted by new antibiotics, which may be used to treat such diseases as tuberculosis and pneumonia, one of the scientists said. Dominant Cholesterol-metabolism Ideas Challenged By New Research
A team of researchers investigating cholesterol and lipid transport has performed experiments that cast serious doubt on the dominant hypothesis of how the body rids its cells of "bad"cholesterol and increases "good"cholesterol. Cholesterol metabolism is an area of intense inquiry because high levels of LDL cholesterol or total cholesterol put about half of all Americans at significant risk of heart disease. $82 Buys E-Voting Secrets
Five Sequoia electronic voting machines sold at on online auction? $82. A chance for a researcher to dissect the embedded software that the company refused to make public? Priceless. By Kim Zetter. NASA Offers A Real-time 3-D Look At The Inside Of Hurricanes
Seeing how rain falls from top to bottom and how heavy the rain falls throughout parts of a tropical cyclone is very important to hurricane forecasters. NASA has sped up the process of getting this data within three hours, and making it appear in 3-D. The new process now gives information quickly enough for forecasters to use. Road Salt Affects Mitigation Wetlands
Sacrificing one wetland for the sake of five others may be the way to go when planning constructed wetlands to replace those destroyed during road building, but a Penn State Erie biologist is monitoring the salinity of the wetlands to see how the salt affects animals and insects.
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