This is the first video in a new feature from HuffPost Books in association with Book Expo America‘s blog, Book Bliss. We’re calling it Have Your (Cup)cake And Read It, Too.
This series of videos features Zoë Triska, the HuffPost Books Associate Editor, and Cassandra Lobo, who blogs for Book Bliss.
They will choose books to read, and then Cassandra will create a recipe and a cupcake that plays up the themes of each book.
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By: Clara Moskowitz
Published: 02/18/2013 09:48 AM EST on SPACE.com
BOSTON — Big news in the search for dark matter may be coming in about two weeks, the leader of a space-based particle physics experiment said today (Feb. 17) here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
That’s when the first paper of results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle collector mounted on the outside of the International Space Station, will be submitted to a scientific journal, said MIT physicist Samuel Ting, AMS principle investigator.
Though Ting was coy about just what, exactly, the experiment has found, he said the results bear on the mystery of dark matter, the invisible stuff thought to outnumber regular matter in the universe by a factor of about six to one.
"It will not be a minor paper," Ting said, hinting that the findings were important enough that the scientists rewrote the paper 30 times before they were satisfied with it. Still, he said, it represents a "small step" in figuring out what dark matter is, and perhaps not the final answer. [Photos: AMS Hunts Exotic Particles In Space]
Some physics theories suggest that dark matter is made of WIMPS (weakly interacting massive particles), a class of particles that are their own antimatter partner particles. When matter and antimatter partners meet, they annihilate each other, so if two WIMPs collided, they would be destroyed, releasing a pair of daughter particles — an electron and its antimatter counterpart, the positron, in the process.
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer has the potential to detect the positrons and electrons produced by dark matter annihilations in the Milky Way. The $2 billion machine was installed on the International Space Station in May 2011, and so far, it has detected 25 billion particle events, including about 8 billion electrons and positrons. This first science paper will report how many of each were found, and what their energies are, Ting said.
If the experiment detected an abundance of positrons peaking at a certain energy, that could indicate a detection of dark matter, because while electrons are abundant in the universe around us, there are fewer known processes that could give rise to positrons.
"The smoking gun signature is a rise and then a dramatic fall" in the number of positrons with respect to energy, because the positrons produced by dark matter annihilation would have a very specific energy, depending on the mass of the WIMPs making up dark matter, said Michael Turner, a cosmologist at the University of Chicago who is not involved in the AMS project. "That’s the key signature that would arise."
Another telling sign will be the question of whether positrons appear to be coming from one direction in space, or from all around. If they’re from dark matter, scientists expect them to be spread evenly through space, but if they’re created by some normal astrophysical process, such as a star explosion, then they would originate in a single direction.
"There is a lot of stuff that can mimic dark matter," said theoretical physicist Lisa Randall of Harvard University, who is also not involved in the project but said she’s eagerly awaiting the AMS results. "In these experiments the question is when do you have antimatter that could be explained by astrophysical sources, and when do you have something that really could be an indication that you have something new?"
Regardless of whether AMS has found dark matter yet, the scientists said they expected the question of dark matter’s origin to become clearer soon. In addition to AMS, other experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, and underground dark matter detectors buried around the world, could also make a discovery in the near future.
"We believe we’re on the threshold of discovery," Turner said. "We believe this will be the decade of the wimp."
Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.
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The Hotel Del Coronado, a travel industry icon, is celebrating the big 1-2-5.
Completed in 1888, the Del (as its affectionately known) is an example of the wooden Victorian beach resort architectural style. Back in the day, it took seven days to reach the hotel from the east, which is where most of its wealthy clientele originated. (It even had its own rail spur to accommodate the private coaches of the wealthy.)
The hotel was originally billed as a fishing and hunting resort, though it also included all the amenities that gentlemen and ladies of leisure would expect: men and women’s billiards facilities, bowling, croquet, swimming, boating, bicycling, archery, golf, and fine dining. Special rooms were also set aside for smoking, reading, writing, cards, chess, and music — you know, in case that chess game got really rowdy. Of course, it was also a remarkably modern retreat, featuring electric lights, shared telephones and elevators. Oh, and a newfangled fire alarm and state-of-the-art fire fighting equipment.
WASHINGTON — Two months after completing his five-plus years as an Army medic, Dan Huber is still looking for a job. And while he’s had some promising interviews, he has no assurances the search will end soon.
That’s given him some insight that he shares with some of his buddies back at Fort Polk in Louisiana: Don’t wait until you’ve left the military to determine how you’ll make ends meet as a civilian.
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By: Wynne Parry, LiveScience Contributor
Published: 02/18/2013 11:55 AM EST on LiveScience
NEW YORK — The increasing power and accessibility of genetic technology may one day give parents the option of modifying their unborn children, in order to spare offspring from disease or, conceivably, make them tall, well muscled, intelligent or otherwise blessed with desirable traits.
Would this change mean empowering parents to give their children the best start possible? Or would it mean designer babies who could face unforeseen genetic problems? Experts debated on Wednesday evening (Feb. 13) whether prenatal engineering should be banned in the United States.
Humans have already genetically modified animals and crops, said Sheldon Krimsky, a philosopher at Tufts University, who argued in favor of a ban on the same for human babies. "But in the hundreds of thousands of trails that failed, we simply discarded the results of the unwanted crop or animal."
Unknown consequences
Is this a model that society wants to apply to humans, making pinpoint genetic modifications, only to "discard the results when they don’t work out?" Krimsky asked during an Intelligence Squared Debate held in Manhattan. He added that assuming no mistakes will occur would be sheer hubris.
He and fellow ban proponent Lord Robert Winston, a professor of science and society and a fertility expert at Imperial College in London, focused on the uncertainty associated with the genetic underpinnings of traits. The two also addressed the consequences of manipulating genes. [5 Myths About Fertility Treatments]
"Even [for] height, one of the most heritable traits known, scientists have found at least 50 genes that account for only 2 to 3 percent of the variance in the samples," Krimsky said. "If you want a tall child, marry tall."
Mother Nature doesn’t care
Meanwhile, their opponents, who opposed the ban, talked of empowering parents to give their children a healthy life, even if it meant giving their offspring traits they themselves could not pass down.
Lee Silver, a professor of molecular biology and public policy at Princeton University, urged the audience members to look at someone sitting next to them.
"That person and you differ at over 1 million locations in your DNA [deoxyribonucleic acid]. Most [of these variations] don’t do anything," Silver said. "[But] even if you are a healthy adult, 100 [of these] can cause deadly childhood disease in your children or grandchildren."
"Mother Nature is a metaphor," he continued. "And it is a bad metaphor, because in reality inheritance is a game of craps … It won’t have to be that way in the future."
His fellow ban opponent, Nita Farahany, a professor of law and of genome sciences and policy at Duke University, attacked the idea that uncertainty should prevent the use of the technology, pointing out that reproduction, completely unaided by technology, involves much uncertainty.
"We are not going to ban natural sex," Farahany said.
Already possible
A significant portion of the debate focused on a particular technology known as mitochondrial transfer. While the majority of DNA resides in a cell’s nucleus, a small amount is contained in the cell’s energy factories, called mitochondria. This mitochondrial DNA is passed from mother to child. In rare cases, women have mitochondrial defects they can pass down to their children, causing devastating problems or even death.
Mitochondrial transfer can replace such defective mitochondrial DNA with that from a donor, allowing affected mothers to avoid passing these defects on to their children, who then carry genetic material from three parents (the father and two mothers, including the donor).
Opponents of a ban argued it would prevent women with mitochondrial disorders from having healthy children of their own.
"I am not here to defend every type of genetic engineering. I don’t think we are ready as a society to embrace it all," Farahany said.
Rather than an outright ban, she and Silver argued for a middle ground, which would allow for certain procedures once they had been shown to be safe and effective. An emerging scientific consensus says mitochondrial transfer would fit into this category, she said.
Winston disagreed.
"We know fiddling with mitochondrial DNA may make a massive difference to what happens to nuclear DNA. … Abnormal children have been born as result of mitochondrial transfer," he said. "I think, in preventing one genetic disease, you are likely to cause another genetic disease." [The 10 Most Mysterious Diseases]
Society should instead focus on the enormous importance of environmental influences in health, Winston said. "What we should be trying to do, rather than risk making abnormal babies, is to improve the environment so the DNA functions in the best possible ways."
Neither Farahany nor Silver argued in favor of allowing parents to modify their children to ensure other traits that are less medically necessary, but nevertheless desirable, such as higher intelligence or blue eyes.
"What I think parents care about most is promoting the health of their children," Silver said.
Leading to eugenics?
Both sides referred to the specter of eugenics, an idea embraced by the Nazis, which holds that selective breeding can be used to improve the human race.
Winston and Krimsky pointed out that genetically modifying children to choose desirable traits evoked this approach. Meanwhile, Farahany noted that some of the worst abuses of government in recent history involved attempts to control reproduction. How would a ban on the genetic modification of children be enforced, she asked, would all babies be forcibly tested?
An audience votedeclared the opponents of the ban the winners.
Follow LiveScienceon Twitter @livescience. We’re also on Facebook & Google+
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb 18 (Reuters) – The Republican-controlled Arkansas state Senate approved a measure on Monday to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy except in the case of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life.
The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act passed the Senate, 25-7, with amendments that allowed for the exemptions in the case of rape or incest. An earlier version of the bill that passed the Republican-controlled House allowed exemptions only for pregnancies that threatened the mother’s life.
The bill, which shortens the existing limit of 25 weeks, now returns to the House for consideration of the Senate amendment.
Democratic Governor Mike Beebe has not said whether he would sign the bill into law.
Seven U.S. states have laws that restrict or ban abortion after the 20-week mark and similar laws approved in Arizona and Georgia are facing legal challenges.
Late-term abortions remain relatively rare. Most of the recent state laws banning most abortions after 20 weeks are based on hotly debated medical research suggesting a fetus feels pain starting at 20 weeks of gestation. (Reporting by Suzi Parker; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Dale Hudson)
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.
LONDON (AP) — BP says it has failed to reach a settlement in advance of next week’s civil trial on the Deepwater Horizon accident and is ready to defend itself vigorously against allegations of gross negligence in the U.S.’s biggest environmental disaster.
Rupert Bondy, the group’s general counsel, said in a statement Tuesday that settlement demands were “not based on reality or the merits of the case.”
Billions are at stake in the Feb. 25 trial in New Orleans to determine BP’s civil liability. BP already agreed to a $4.5 billion settlement of federal criminal charges.
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LG might not have too much luck in the world of tablets or notebooks, but it seems that they intend to do something of the situation and make good of it. LG Electronics has just announced that they will be showing off their own take on a tablet-notebook hybrid device at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) which is happening in Barcelona, Spain. Simply known as the LG Tab-Book, it will come equipped with Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in order to deliver a high speed Internet experience, enabling users to hook up to the Internet regardless of where they are. Of course, this is all theoretical, since we do know that a whole lot of its connectivity depends on the area of coverage.
The LG Tab-Book is a beauty to behold for sure, where it boasts of a hidden slide-out physical keyboard, making it a whole lot more functional compared to a conventional tablet, delivering greater levels of productivity when it comes to creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations, especially when you are on the move.
Microsoft’s Windows 8 is the operating system of choice for the LG Tab-Book, and it will be powered by an Intel Core i5 processor, sporting a precise 5-point multi-touch screen and a superb slide-out keyboard which helps differentiate it from other hybrids. Press the Auto-Sliding button and the keyboard will magically emerge from behind the screen for instant touch typing action.
Your eyes will also be most pleased with the Tab-Book’s In-Plane Switching (IPS) display, where it is said to deliver a premium picture with lifelike color expression and a wide 178-degree viewing angle. Out in Korea later this week, confirmation in other markets remains to be known. Pricing details remain sketchy at best, but you can be sure that it is not going to come under the entry-level price tiers. Would you pick this over the Dell XPS 12, or the Lenovo Yoga 13?
Press Release
[ LG Tab-Book announced copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
VIENNA — These museum goers didn’t just leave their coats at the coat check. They handed over their shirts, trousers and underwear.
Everything, in fact, except their shoes and socks. After all, the stone floor can get chilly when you’re touring an art exhibit in the nude, which was what more than 60 art lovers did in a special after-hours showing at Vienna’s prestigious Leopold museum.
Marvell made waves last year with its 802.11ac wireless chips, but the company’s looking to make a splash in 2013 with a new quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 SoC. Called the PXA1088, the new silicon’s calling card — other than those four CPU cores — is its ability to beam 3G data to mobile devices anywhere in the world thanks to auto-roaming and compatibility with 21Mbps HSPA+, TD-HSPA+, EDGE, and WCDMA networks. In addition to those cellular radios, it also has an Avastar 88W8777 chip that brings WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and FM radio, plus it has a GPS and GLONASS location processor on board.
Worldwide connectivity isn’t the PXA1088’s only trick, either. It’s got some serious video chops thanks to a hardware 1080p encoder and decoder, and a GPU from Vivante compliant with OpenGL ES 2.0 and 1.1 as well as OpenVG 1.1. Can’t wait to get your grubby mitts on a phone packing Marvell’s latest? The company tells us that several well-known OEMs will be rolling out devices with the PXA1088 in the first half of the year. Of course, we’re hoping to see a few of them ourselves next week at Mobile World Congress, so stay tuned.
Marvell Announces Industry’s Most Advanced Single-chip Quad-core World Phone Processor to Power High-performance, Smartphones and Tablets with Worldwide Automatic Roaming on 3G Networks
Expecting commercial device production in 2013
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (Feb. 19, 2013) – Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL) today announced the Marvell(R) PXA1088, a highly integrated quad-core application and communications mobile System-on-Chip (SoC) that provides high performance, low-power mobile computing; support for all global broadband standards, enabling seamless global roaming; and the latest wireless connectivity technology. Marvell’s PXA1088 is the industry’s most advanced single-chip solution to feature a quad-core processor with support for 3G field-proven cellular modems including High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+), Time division High Speed Packet Access Plus (TD-HSPA+) and Enhanced Data for GSM Environment (EDGE).
“Marvell is proud to deliver our single-chip quad-core world-mode mobile platform. This is a testament of our great technology innovation capabilities and engineering prowess to bring our unified platform from dual-core to quad-core to the smart device marketplace with multi-mode capabilities and automatic roaming on 3G networks around the world. We’re very excited that global OEM/ODM partners have embraced and committed to this platform,” said Weili Dai, Co-Founder of Marvell. “I believe our industry leading single-chip platform will drive mass market adoption of high-quality, high-performance, very affordable smartphone and tablet solutions worldwide to enrich people’s connected lifestyle.”
The Marvell PXA1088 solution incorporates the performance of a quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 with Marvell’s mature and proven WCDMA and TD-SCDMA modem technology to provide a low-cost 3G platform for both smartphones and tablets. The advanced application processor technology of the PXA1088 enables a breakthrough end user experience for multimedia and gaming applications with universal connectivity. Marvell’s complete mobile platform solution includes the Avastar(R) 88W8777 WLAN + Bluetooth 4.0 + FM single-chip SoC and the L2000 GNSS Hybrid Location Processor, and an integrated power management and audio codec IC.
Marvell’s PXA1088 is backward pin-to-pin compatible with its dual-core single-chip Unified 3G Platform, the PXA988/PXA986, enabling device partners to upgrade their next-generation mobile devices to quad-core without additional design cost.
Marvell will showcase the PXA1088 alongside a range of mobile devices powering the Connected Lifestyle at booth 6C44 (in Hall 6) at Mobile World Congress, February 25-28, at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona.
Additional PXA1088 Features:
o. Support for advanced WCDMA Release 7, TD-SCDMA HSPA+ Release 8, and class 12 EDGE
o. 3G protocol stack certified on all major carrier networks and validated via extensive IOT, GCF and field trail testing
o. Support for popular full-feature operating systems and industry-standard development tools
o. Multi-radio platform capabilities with WLAN/Bluetooth solutions
o. Integrated power management and audio Codec IC
o. High-performance graphics engine for OpenGL ES 2.0 and 1.1, as well as OpenVG 1.1
o. Hardware 1080p decoder and 1080p encoder
o. 12mm x 12mm JEDEC standard package-on-package stacked memory option or discrete package option
o. Supports the latest Android OS
Currently, the PXA1088 platform is sampling with leading global customers. Products based on this platform are expected to be commercially available in 2013.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile
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