Reversing Paralysis
The French neuroscientist was watching a macaque monkey as it hunched aggressively at one end of a treadmill. His team had used a blade to slice halfway through the animal’s spinal cord, paralyzing its right leg. Now Courtine wanted to prove he could get the monkey walking again. To do it, he and colleagues had […]
AI system used to improve dialysis
Scientists have used an artificial intelligence (AI) system to design a device that may ultimately improve dialysis for patients by optimising blood flow in veins. Researchers, including those from Imperial College London in the UK, used computer modelling techniques – normally employed to simulate how unsteady air pockets flow over a plane – to model […]
Phone Signal Can Be Used to Measure Rainfall
Rainfall can be a tricky thing to measure. The amount of rain falling in a given area can change from minute to minute and might be completely different from the amount falling only a few miles away. Many wealthy countries spend large sums of money to build rain gauges over populated areas, and track cloud cover using ground-based radar. But in more rural areas, or in less wealthy countries, those options can be limited or non-existent.Currently, without rain gauges or radar there many communities don’t have any way to accurately measure rainfall. This can be a serious problem in regions where flooding, monsoons, or landslides are common. To solve this problem, some researchers are suggesting a new means of detecting rainfall using devices that are already found in every corner of the world: cell towers.Cell towers made an ideal choice for a few reasons. They’re everywhere, even in relatively impoverished countries that would never be able to afford expensive rainfall-detecting equipment. And they’re pretty much always sending out signals, which means they can be used to provide real-time estimates of the amount of rainfall.
The actual process of using cell towers to measure rainfall is pretty ingenious. Rain degrades cell signals, and clever modeling can work backward from cell strength to determine how much precipitation is in the air. Using real-time data from cell towers, meteorologists can tell roughly how much rainfall a certain area is getting without any special equipment.
This isn’t the most accurate method, but it is the easiest and the cheapest, which makes it perfect for areas without traditional rainfall detection. It also makes a nice complement to those rain gauges and radar screens, because cell towers can provide a second-by-second breakdown of the amount of rain, while radar especially could take hours to update.
This concept is already being used in some regions of Africa, and it’s being trialed in Sweden. But soon, weather forecasts around the world might be using cell tower data in addition to traditional measurements in order to record more accurate rainfalls.
Source: The Economist (more…)
Quantum computing
Quantum computing is the emerging trend which is focused on the development of computer technology, based on the principles of “quantum theory”. Quantum theory was proposed in the year 1900 by Max Planck, a physicist. He explained the nature and behavior of energy and matter on the quantum level. Quantum Computer, (so far hypothetical the […]
Now, printers to be protected from malware attacks, says HP Inc
Recent global malware attacks have alerted even companies making devices which are not normally subject to virus assaults to sit up and take notice. The announcement was made at the HP Reinvent world partner forum here which goes into its main session on 12 September.HP Inc announced on 11 September embedded security features in its […]
Microsoft’s Nadella: ‘We’ll make more phones. But they won’t look like today’s devices’
Microsoft chief Satya Nadella has again denied that Windows Phone is completely dead, but there won’t be a successor device until Microsoft has a radically different concept. Don’t hold your breath if you’d like to see Microsoft release its rumored high-end Surface phone. Incremental changes in smartphone technology won’t be what reignites Microsoft’s ambitions for […]
How to Become a Microsoft Certified Solutions Engineer?
In today’s increasingly interconnected world, very few fields are as inherently necessary as information technology. In fact, due primarily to unprecedented e-commerce and software growth, it should come as no surprise that IT is one of the fastest-growing career fields in the world. If you want to stand apart from the competition and land a […]
Uber’s Kalanick hires former U.S. prosecutor ahead of Waymo deposition
Uber’s former chief executive, Travis Kalanick, has hired the former top federal prosecutor in San Francisco to represent him ahead of a deposition in a high-profile trade secrets case against Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving car unit, the attorney’s firm said on Wednesday. Melinda Haag, who served as U.S. attorney in Northern California under President Barack Obama, […]
Microsoft Wants to Use TV Frequencies for the Internet
Microsoft has a plan to bring internet to the furthest reaches of the U.S. not with cables but through the air. The plan hinges on so-called “white space” television bandwidth, which could help bring high-speed broadband internet to millions underserved Americans. “White spaces” are intentional gaps between television channels on the wireless spectrum below 700 […]