Wikipedia³

Wikipedia³ is a conversion of the English Wikipedia into RDF. It’s a monthly updated dataset containing around 47 million triples. The creation of the dataset is motivated by several factors, one being the desire to have more real-world RDF datasets of reasonable size. Wikipedia assembles a wealth of information created and maintained by people all over the globe – opening up that rich pool of data or even only a small part of it to the semantic web seems like a worthy pursuit. The Wikipedia³ dataset currently combines structural information like link and category relationships with basic per-page metadata. The dataset is based on the Wikimedia dump of the English Wikipedia (enwiki, currently from 2006-03-26) and consists of roughly 47 million triples (47′054′407). We provide Wikipedia³ in all major RDF serialization formats: RDF/XML, Turtle and N-Triples.

Site – http://labs.systemone.at

A view of the universe before the big bang

WHAT happened before the big bang? Cosmologists have long speculated that a universe much like ours could have collapsed in a big crunch and then bounced back into the universe we know. Now a theory that tries to reconcile the incompatible theories of general relativity and quantum physics has provided the first physically plausible model of how this could have happened. General relativity explains gravity as being caused by distortions in the fabric of space-time. But physicists have struggled to also explain gravity in terms of quantum mechanics, leaving it the only force that still lacks a clear quantum description.

Site – http://www.newscientistspace.com

Software lets programmers code hands-free

A new speech recognition tool promises to let programmers write clean code without ever having to lay a finger on their keyboard. The tool, called VoiceCode, has been developed to help programmers with repetitive strain injury (RSI). This is a common affliction for people who spend a lot of time using a keyboard or mouse and causes pain in muscles, tendons and nerves in a sufferer’s arms and back. Some estimates suggest 22% of all US computer programmers, or 100,000 people, suffer from the condition.

Site – http://www.newscientisttech.com

‘Starquake’ explosion rips neutron star open

Astronomers have measured the thickness of the crust of a neutron star for the first time. The technique, which involves studying how the dense stellar corpse reverberates during a “starquake”, may one day reveal the nature of the exotic matter thought to lie at the star’s core. Neutron stars form when stars up to 40 times the mass of the Sun explode at the end of their lives and leave behind super-dense, spinning corpses. The corpses are thought to be made of neutrons, although their incredible densities have led some researchers to propose their centres contain a state of matter found nowhere else in the universe.

Site – http://www.newscientistspace.com

A great day for 3D

Last month we told you that @Last Software had joined the Google fold. Today we’re releasing Google SketchUp, a free version of our 3D modeling software, which makes our long-time vision of making 3D accessible to everyone a reality. We’re still offering SketchUp Pro 5 for design professionals like architects, designers, builders, art directors and game developers. Both Google SketchUp and SketchUp Pro 5 enable you to place models in Google Earth; Pro users get some additional features.

Site – http://googleblog.blogspot.com

Micro-pump is cool idea for future computer chips

Purdue University engineers have developed a “micro-pump” cooling device small enough to fit on a computer chip that circulates coolant through channels etched into the chip. “Our goal is to develop advanced cooling systems that are self-contained on chips and are capable of handling the more extreme heating in future chips,” said Suresh Garimella, director of Purdue’s Cooling Technologies Research Center. The prototype chip contains numerous water-filled micro-channels, grooves about 100 microns wide. The channels are covered with a series of hundreds of electrodes that receive varying voltage pulses in such a way that a traveling electric field is created in each channel. The traveling field creates ions, which are dragged along by the moving field, causing the water to flow and inducing a cooling action.

Site – http://www.kurzweilai.net

Japanese researcher shows robot legs that could replace wheelchairs

A Japanese researcher demonstrated in Tokyo Wednesday a pair of robotic legs that can negotiate stairs and could eventually find use as a wheelchair substitute. “Elderly people using wheelchairs cannot get up and down stairs,” said Atsuo Takanishi, an engineering professor at Tokyo’s Waseda University. “We wanted to create a robot that could do that and walk around rough surfaces.”

Site – http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp

Weather Forecasters Set to Send Satellite

Ready for the launch of a new weather satellite next month, government forecasters also are turning their attention a decade ahead to plan for what their eyes in the sky will need to be like in the future. The GOES-N satellite is scheduled for launch in May, with two more launches over the next two years to complete that series of satellites. That means it’s time to plan for future satellites, expected to go up in 2014 or later, and the effort gets under way next week with a meeting of some 200 weather satellite experts in Broomfield, Colo.

Site – http://www.newsvine.com

Hubble’s Sweet 16

Celebrating the Hubble Space Telescope’s 16 years of service, NASA and the European Space Agency have issued new high-resolution photos of the starburst Messier 82 galaxy. The images show the birth of hundreds of young stars at the core of the so-called Cigar Galaxy. Wired News’ Hubble’s Sweet 16 gallery also contains some of the most spectacular Hubble shots from recent years. All images are courtesy of NASA. Visit the ESA’s Hubble site for more info.

Site – http://blog.wired.com

Water and Nanoelectronics Will Mix to Create Ultra-Dense Memory Storage Devices

Excessive moisture can typically wreak havoc on electronic devices, but now researchers have demonstrated that a little water can help create ultra-dense storage systems for computers and electronics. A team of experimentalists and theorists at the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and Harvard University has proposed a new and surprisingly effective means of stabilizing and controlling ferroelectricity in nanostructures: terminating their surfaces with fragments of water. Ferroelectrics are technologically important “smart” materials for many applications because they have local dipoles, which can switch up and down to encode and store information. The team’s work is reported in the April issue of Nano Letters.

Site – http://www.upenn.edu

Iran has missiles that put Europe in range

Iran has received a first shipment of missiles from North Korea that are capable of reaching Europe, Israel’s military intelligence chief was quoted on Thursday as saying. Known in the West as BM-25s, the Russian-designed missiles have a range of around 1,500 miles, giving them a longer reach than the Iranian-made Shihab-4 missiles which are capable of hitting Israel.

Site – http://today.reuters.com

Scientific breakthrough a step toward quantum computing

Light is the solution. It’s also the problem. That’s the paradox HP Labs’ Quantum Information Processing Group is beginning to unravel with its research into optical quantum computing. The group has been investigating ways to use photons, or light particles, for information processing, rather than the electrons used in digital electronic computers today. Their work holds promise for someday developing faster, more powerful and more secure computer networks.

Site – http://www.physorg.com