New approach to programming may boost ‘green’ computing
A Binghamton University computer scientist with an interest in “green” software development has received the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award for young researchers.
Yu David Liu received a five-year, $448,641 grant from the NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. The highly competitive grants support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research.
Liu joined Binghamton’s faculty in 2008, after earning master’s and doctoral degrees in computer science from Johns Hopkins University. He also recently received a $50,000 grant from Google for a related research project.
Computers and electronic devices, ranging from smartphones to servers, consume a steadily growing amount of energy. In recent years, computer scientists have developed an interest in paring back this consumption, though generally they’ve approached the challenge through modifying hardware or perhaps operating systems. Liu plans to tackle the problem by considering how programmers can create more energy-efficient software.
“Saving energy is an activity that should come from many layers,” said Liu, who plans to build energy-related parameters into a programming language.
A change at that level would permit and encourage programmers to express their energy-saving intentions directly when software is developed. “Saving energy is often a trade-off,” Liu said. “Sometimes you’re willing to run your program slower so your cell phone battery can last longer.” For such settings — often specific to the nature of the applications — no automated algorithms know as much as programmers.
“Programs today are not just 50 lines of code,” Liu said. They have often grown to be thousands or even millions of lines long. He hopes to employ advanced programming language technologies known as “type systems” to answer questions such as “What is the energy-consumption pattern of a large program, given the consumption patterns of its fragments?” and “Do programmers have conflicted views of the energy-consumption patterns of their software?”
Energy-efficient solutions at the level of programming languages also enjoy a high degree of platform independence, meaning they can have an impact all along the spectrum from phones to servers. “In an era when new platforms are introduced every year,” Liu explained, “an approach that’s platform-independent would be beneficial because it can be applied more broadly.”
None of the mainstream computer languages supports energy-aware programming, he said. However, language designers often create a blueprint that can be extended. Java, for instance, could be extended as EnergyJava and remain 90 percent the same. Such moderate changes would make it possible for programmers to adopt it relatively easily.
There isn’t much history in this area, Liu said, so it’s hard to say how quickly industry will react to the development of an energy-efficient language. However, new language designs have the potential to influence how millions of programmers think.
“I think every researcher wants to make the world better, and we just put it into our own perspective,” he said. “Sometime in the future, every Computer Science 101 class may include a lecture or two on energy-aware programming. As an educator, I’m excited about helping to ensure that next-generation programmers are green-conscious from the beginning of their careers.”
Reference Link
http://discovere.binghamton.edu/features/liu-3583.html
Courtesy
Binghamton University State University of New York
The Science of Bike-sharing
TAU develops a high-tech tool to improve two-wheeled public transportation
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The new environmentally-friendly concept of municipal “bike-sharing is taking over European cities like Paris, and American cities like New York are also looking into the idea. It allows a subscriber to “borrow” a bike from one of hundreds of locations in the city, use it, and return it to another location at the end of the journey. It’s good for commuters and for running short errands.
While the idea is gaining speed and subscribers at the 400 locations around the world where it has been implemented, there have been growing pains — partly because the projects have been so successful. About seven percent of the time, users aren’t able to return a bike because the station at their journey’s destination is full. And sometimes stations experience bike shortages, causing frustration with the system.
To solve the problem, Dr. Tal Raviv and Prof. Michal Tzur of Tel Aviv University‘s Department of Industrial Engineering are developing a mathematical model to lead to a software solution. “These stations are managed imperfectly, based on what the station managers see. They use their best guesses to move bikes to different locations around the city using trucks,” explains Dr. Raviv. “There is no system for more scientifically managing the availability of bikes, creating dissatisfaction among users in popular parts of the city.”
Their research was presented in November 2010 at the INFORMS 2010 annual meeting in Austin, Texas.
Biking with computers
An environmentalist, Dr. Raviv wants to see more cities in America adopt the bike-sharing system. In Paris alone, there are 1,700 pick-up and drop-off stations. In New York, there soon might be double or triple that amount, making the management of bike availability an extremely daunting task.
Dr. Raviv, Prof. Tzur and their students have created a mathematical model to predict which bike stations should be refilled or emptied — and when that needs to happen. In small towns with 100 stations, mere manpower can suffice, they say. But anything more and it’s really just a guessing game. A computer program will be more effective.
The researchers are the first to tackle bike-sharing system management using mathematical models and are currently developing a practical algorithmic solution. “Our research involves devising methods and algorithms to solve the routing and scheduling problems of the trucks that move fleets, as well as other operational and design challenges within this system,” says Dr. Raviv.
For the built environment
The benefits of bike-sharing programs in any city are plentiful. They cut down traffic congestion and alleviate parking shortages; reduce air pollution and health effects such as asthma and bronchitis; promote fitness; and enable good complementary public transportation by allowing commuters to ride from and to train or bus stations.
Because of the low cost of implementing bike-sharing programs, cities can benefit without significant financial outlay. And in some cities today, bicycles are also the fastest form of transport during rush hour.
The city of Tel Aviv is now in the process of deploying a bike sharing system to ease transport around the city, and improve the quality of life for its residents. Tel Aviv University research is contributing to this plan, and the results will be used in a pilot site in Israel
For more transportation news from Tel Aviv University, click here.
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Reference Link
http://www.aftau.org/site/News2/1039511600?page=NewsArticle&id=13823&news_iv_ctrl=-1
Courtesy
American Friends of Tel Aviv University
50 ideas to change science forever
We begin with the coming revolution in biology, life and Earth: ideas such as DNA origami, super-evolution, brain maps and ultrasounding the planet. Then it’s the turn of nature on its smallest and grandest scales. From new ways to probe the quirks of the quantum world to the computing technologies of the future to the latest thinking on the workings of the cosmos, what ideas, projects and trends are shaking up the worlds of physics, space and technology.
EARTH
From wipe-outs in life’s deep history to future dead oceans, Earth sciences have no shortage of apocalypses in view. Continue reading
ECOLOGY
If you think evolution is just about individuals passing on their genes to offspring, get set for a radical reweaving of the web of life – and finance.Continue reading
GENETICS
After the genome, it’s time for the next level: the interactome and phenome. Expect biotech wizardry and a stream ofJurassic Park headlines along the way. Continue reading
NEUROSCIENCE
Thanks to better brain imaging and biological insights, we’re closing in on the neurons of consciousness and the subtleties of our mental machinery. Continue reading
ARTIFICIAL LIFE
Cells, enzymes, photosynthesis – soon we’ll be remaking life our own way. Not to mention making our own spare body parts, and taming flu once and for all.Continue reading
LIGHT AND MATTER
The Nobel-winning material of the future, how to make light do our bidding, the missing link for electronic brains, why T is the new X-ray.Continue reading
COMPUTING
Wouldn’t it be great if the internet understood what you wanted? It will, and will be studying its human symbionts too, and all at ever-faster speeds.Continue reading
NANOTECHNOLOGY
Quantum mechanics will go mechanical and your computer will run on ghostly knots, or spintronics, or maybe even slowed-down light.Continue reading
COSMOLOGY
Are you ready for the massive hidden reality promised by supersymmetry? Or the evolution of quantum mechanics? How about a black hole in your tool shed? Continue reading
ENGINEERING
We’ll haul rocks from Mars, a continent-sized telescope will look back to the universe’s dark ages and we’ll make a model of everyone alive.Continue reading
Reference Link
http://www.newscientist.com/special/50-ideas-to-change-science-forever
Courtesy
Reed Business Information Ltd.
Games and science key to economic success in Dundee
There are more than a dozen video games companies based in Dundee
UK cities have been urged to follow Dundee’s example of creating a booming hi-tech economy.
A report from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) has been looking at ways of creating economic growth.
It said a revival of traditional manufacturing was unlikely but cities could encourage hi-tech development.
It cited Dundee, with its computer games and life science clusters, as a good example of a successful economy.
Nesta has put forward various scenarios for the UK and Scottish economies.
It has predicted that if there was investment in innovation and an increase in the the number of hi-tech companies, then growth and employment rates would rise.
“At a time when the UK needs to look for new sources of growth, providing the right conditions for hi-tech companies should be a priority”
Jonathan Kestenbaum Nesta
It has advised traditional manufacturing areas across the UK to follow the example of cities such as Dundee.
It plays host to two leading European clusters, in video games and life sciences.
There are more than a dozen video games companies based in the city.
Dundee University is rated among the best in the world for life sciences.
Jonathan Kestenbaum, Nesta’s chief executive, said: “At a time when the UK needs to look for new sources of growth, providing the right conditions for hi-tech companies should be a priority.”
He added: “We only need look at successful clusters across the UK such as the life sciences and video games cluster in Dundee to see what can be accomplished when policy works in the interest of enterprise and innovation.”
Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/10253221.stm
Courtesy
BBC News
Scientists create synthetic life
Scientists in the United States have announced they have developed the world’s first synthetic living cell.
Led by Dr Craig Venter, the Maryland-based research team says it is the first time synthetic DNA has been in complete control of a cell.
Venter says the first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell could unlock countless possibilities to produce new fuels or vaccines.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to have something that actually blocked common colds or more importantly HIV, where the virus evolves so quickly the vaccines that are made today can’t keep up with those evolutionary changes,” he says.
The creation of the synthetic cell began on a computer. Venter says his team assembled it and transplanted it into a recipient cell and converted that to a new species.
“We built the DNA chromosome from scratch from four bottles of chemicals, chromosomes over 1 million letters long. We did the final assembly in yeast that people are familiar with [from] making beer and bread,” he says.
Venter says the new bacteria replicated over 1 billion times and researchers say the cells cannot survive independently.
Microscopic images of artificial life (Science/AAAS)
A bio-technician demonstrates the beginning of the sequencing procedure. (Reuters: Larry Downing, file photo)
Multiple uses
Maryland biophysicist Dr David Thirumalai says it could be used to create synthetic cells to heal particular parts of the body or to create synthetics bugs to clean up an oil spill.
“Let’s use it in an oil spill for example. You could create synthetic bugs that will just consume this oil at a rapid rate.”
Venter’s institute is already talking to pharmaceutical companies about designing new vaccines, but ethicists and critics of genetic engineering warn the risks are unparalleled.
The researchers acknowledge the technology could be used by bioterrorists to make dangerous new pathogens.
In awe
Thirumalai says it is impossible to predict all the consequences, but he is also in awe of what the Venter team has achieved.
“It is a marriage of minds, imagination and God’s creation of life itself,” he says.
Venter says this was only a proof-of-concept cell; the next stage is to create synthetic algae.
And he is not shying away from the philosophical debates this also unlocks.
His research team inserted watermarks in the synthetic DNA to be decoded, including a James Joyce quotation: “To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life.”
Venter talks to ABC TV’s Catalyst about his research next Thursday.
Reference link : http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/05/21/2905640.htm
Courtesy: Science News Daily & ABC Science
Scientists in sleeping sickness 'breakthrough'
Scientists say they have identified a potential treatment for sleeping sickness, a killer disease that infects about 60,000 people in Africa a year.
British and Canadian experts say drugs could attack an enzyme the parasite causing the illness needs to survive.
They say the orally-administered drug could be ready for human clinical trials in about 18 months.
The disease, spread by the bite of a tsetse fly, is caused by a parasite attacking the central nervous system.
It has similar symptoms to malaria, making it difficult to diagnose. Left untreated, it moves to the spinal column and brain, resulting in mental confusion and eventual death.
Fatal side effects
The deadly parasite survives inside the gut of tsetse flies
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The “breakthrough” came at the University of Dundee in Scotland, where scientists were funded to research diseases neglected by major drugs companies.
Professor Paul Wyatt, director of the programme, said: “This is one of the most significant findings made in recent years in terms of drug discovery and development for neglected diseases.”
He said the research, published in the journal Nature, represented “significant strides” in the development of a full blown drug against the disease.
The World Health Organization estimates there are between 50,000 and 70,000 cases of the disease a year, with a further 60 million people at risk of infection.
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FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE
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The research in Dundee was backed by partners at the University of York in England and the Structural Genomics Consortium in Toronto, Canada.
The two drugs currently available to treat sleeping sickness both have associated problems.
One is arsenic-based with side effects that kill one in 20 patients and the other – eflornithine – is costly, only partially effective and requires prolonged hospital treatment, the scientists said.
Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8597774.stm
Courtesy
BBC News
Scavenging energy waste to turn water into hydrogen fuel
(PhysOrg.com) — Materials scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have designed a way to harvest small amounts of waste energy and harness them to turn water into usable hydrogen fuel.
The process is simple, efficient and recycles otherwise-wasted energy into a useable form.
“This study provides a simple and cost-effective technology for direct water splitting that may generate hydrogen fuels by scavenging energy wastes such as noise or stray vibrations from the environment,” the authors write in a new paper, published March 2 in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. “This new discovery may have potential implications in solving the challenging energy and environmental issues that we are facing today and in the future.”
The researchers, led by UW-Madison geologist and crystal specialist Huifang Xu, grew nanocrystals of two common crystals, zinc oxide and barium titanate, and placed them in water. When pulsed with ultrasonic vibrations, the nanofibers flexed and catalyzed a chemical reaction to split the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
When the fibers bend, asymmetries in their crystal structures generate positive and negative charges and create an electrical potential. This phenomenon, called the piezoelectric effect, has been well known in certain crystals for more than a century and is the driving force behind quartz clocks and other applications.
Xu and his colleagues applied the same idea to the nanocrystal fibers. “The bulk materials are brittle, but at the nanoscale they are flexible,” he says, like the difference between fiberglass and a pane of glass.
Smaller fibers bend more easily than larger crystals and therefore also produce electric charges easily. So far, the researchers have achieved an impressive 18 percent efficiency with the nanocrystals, higher than most experimental energy sources.
In addition, Xu says, “because we can tune the fiber and plate sizes, we can use even small amounts of [mechanical] noise — like a vibration or water flowing — to bend the fibers and plates. With this kind of technology, we can scavenge energy waste and convert it into useful chemical energy.”
Rather than harvest this electrical energy directly, the scientists took a novel approach and used the energy to break the chemical bonds in water and produce oxygen and hydrogen gas.
“This is a new phenomenon, converting mechanical energy directly to chemical energy,” Xu says, calling it a piezoelectrochemical (PZEC) effect.
The chemical energy of hydrogen fuel is more stable than the electric charge, he explains. It is relatively easy to store and will not lose potency over time.
With the right technology, Xu envisions this method being useful for generating small amounts of power from a multitude of small sources — for example, walking could charge a cell phone or music player and breezes could power streetlights.
“We have limited areas to collect large energy differences, like a waterfall or a big dam,” he says. “But we have lots of places with small energies. If we can harvest that energy, it would be tremendous.”
-By Jill Sakai
Reference Link : http://www.physorg.com/news187536794.html
Courtesy : Science News Daily and PHYSORG
Publication of research papers goes up
TIRUCHI, India: There has been a 12 per cent increase in publication of scientific research papers in the country over the past three years against the global average of four per cent, according to T. Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology.
Only China has a higher growth rate, at 18 per cent, in terms of research papers but its investment in R&D was much higher, he pointed. India has started increasing its investment in R&D and the results were showing.
The country had already improved its position globally in terms of publication of scientific papers, he said on the sidelines of the inaugural ceremony of the Centre for Nano Science and Nano Technology and Centre for High Pressure Research at the Bharathidasan University here on Saturday.
Increase in number of Ph.Ds
There was also an increase in the number of Ph.Ds awarded annually in the country.
From 4,000 in 1985, it has increased to 8,800 on an average a year. Efforts were under way to increase the number of Ph.Ds in science and technology/engineering disciplines to 10,000 annually by strengthening the research base.
Public investment in R&D
Answering a query, Dr. Ramasami said the Prime Minister has committed to double the quantum of public investment in R&D in five years and the investments were keeping pace with this. However, the major challenge was to stimulate private sector investment for R&D, he observed.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/28/stories/2010022859570300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
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