Friday 21 June 2013

NET GLEANINGS 021

Are blind, starving cheetahs the new symbols of climate-change?
'The world's fastest land animal is in trouble. The cheetah, formerly found across much of Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, has been extirpated from at least 27 countries and is now on the Red List of threatened species.'

Beyond silicon: transistors without semiconductors:
A new nano-techology exploits quantum tunnelling at room temperature.

The gene associated with getting old also regulates the body's circadian clock:

Why jumping genes do not cause meltdown:
'The study reveals for the first time how the movement and duplication of segments of DNA known as transposons, is regulated. This prevents a genomic meltdown, and instead enables transposons to live in harmony with their hosts -- including humans.'

New method of magnifying images 700 times faster:
Aránzazu Jurío-Munárriz, a graduate in computer engineering from the NUP/UPNA-Public University of Navarre, has in her PhD thesis presented new methods for improving two of the most widespread means used in digital image processing: magnification and thresholding. Her algorithm to magnify images stands out not only because of the quality obtained but also because of the the fact that it executes 700 times faster than other methods that obtain the same quality.