Star Trek Icon Passes Away

By Jimmy Rogers
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Last Thursday, December 18th, 2008, Majel Barrett Roddenberry died at the age of 76.

Majel Barrett RoddenberryShe was the wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, but she had many roles both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.  In The Original Series, she played “Number One” (in the pilot) and “Nurse Chapel,” Dr. McCoy’s assistant.  She was also the lady behind “Lwaxana Troi,” feisty mother of  Deanna Troi,  in The Next Generation and Deep Space 9 (where she was called “Ambassador Troi”).

Roddenberry played the voice of the ship’s computer in pretty much every instance of its use.  You’ll notice that the voice remained unchanged from The Original Series all the way to the later series like Deep Space 9 and Voyager.  In fact, her work is not done.  Shortly before her death, Majel Barrett Roddenberry finished the voiceover work for the new Star Trek movie, which will open next year.

Personally I will always remember her first as Counselor Troi’s mother in TNG, since that was the first role I saw her play.  What a great character!  You’ll be missed Majel.

Here is UserFriendly.Org’s tribute to the first lady of Star Trek:

[via io9 | additional references from Wikipedia]

Pictorial: Google Holiday Season Doodles Through Time

As the #1 search engine of the Internet, Google is probably one of the most well known companies in the world. Since most of us see their logo almost every day, it stands to reason that when they change it slightly, it literally jumps in our face.

In a tradition that’s been going on since 1999, Google has been occasionally modifying their logo to celebrate specific events or people through the years. And once again this year, they changed it in honor of the holiday season. Just hit the search engine home page, you’ll see what I mean right away.

So today, in honor of all the “Google Doodles” created, I present to you a pictoral of all the holiday Google logos ever published on the search engine’s front page. Enjoy!

Continue reading ›


A Bit of Free Sci-Fi: “The end of Science”

By Jimmy Rogers
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

As a scientist (or at least a scientist-in-training), I tend to think of the physical world and human curiosity as eternal bedfellows.  As long as there are other worlds to ponder, be they huge or microscopic, we will do what we have always done: “Seek out and explore new worlds.”  

The other day, I stumbled upon a piece of science fiction that does not doubt human curiosity, but instead, the physical world. Nik Papageorgiou’s short story, “The end of Science,” is set thousands of years from now, when humans have answered all the big questions and now have only small quandries to ponder.  In fact, there is only one scientist left – sitting in an enormous bank of AI-driven computers.

After reading it, I would love to hear some feedback on what YOU think of Papageorgiou’s story and what the ending means.

[via LitLab | Picture source: Flickr]

Cell phone modded to detect diseases

If you’re a member of Generation Y, chances are you can do a lot of different things with your cell phone:  text, email, surf the web, pay for merchandise, take pictures and movies — oh, and even talk to people in real time!  But have you ever used it to test your blood for diseases?  Didn’t think so.

Dr. Aydogan Ozcan at UCLA looked at the relatively inexpensive hardware in a Sony Ericsson w810i camera phone and thought, “I could use that to detect malaria.”  By adding a filtered light source (blue in the image below), the camera is able to acquire images that can then be analyzed for the presence of distinguishing cell characteristics that indicate specific diseases such as malaria — or to count CD4+T cells to monitor the health of patients with HIV.

The process is known as LUCAS, which loosely stands for Lensfree Ultrawide-field Cell-monitoring Array platform based on Shadow imaging.  Currently, Ozcan’s software for analyzing the images must be run on a desktop computer, but his plans include loading the software into a hand-held device that could provide both imaging and analysis on the spot.  This could not only improve turn-around time for diagnosis at the doctor’s office, but could revolutionize diagnostic medicine in third-world countries where labs are as scarce as the money to equip them.

The same technology could also be used to build larger, more powerful devices that would still be much smaller and less expensive than existing laboratory test equipment.  These larger systems would be capable of providing different light frequencies to test for more markers, whereas the handheld devices would be more targeted to specific tests.

As one commenter on Slashdot said: “And thus the building blocks of the medical tricorder are laid.”  Obviously it’s got a long way to go, but this looks like a step in the right direction.

[via Wired]

Science Has Never Been So Awesome!

By Jimmy Rogers
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

I just discovered this and all I can say is WOW!

tblofawesome_500

Click the image for a larger version.

Yes, you are reading that image correctly.  It’s a list of everything that is awesome, organized on the periodic table.  In fact each major type of awesome has its own property-based group.  Here are some highlights:

  • Bacon is the atomic equivalent of Hydrogen.
  • Group I is Awesome People.
  • Group II contains Explosions, several types.
  • Groups III-XII include ways to destroy your enemy if you live in a video game (who doesn’t?) – also includes some hypothetical spaces, just in case.
  • The Yellow group is a smattering of different things including Boobs, Sex, Space, and Lightning…could probably put together a movie based on that alone!
  • The Brown group is awesome foods like Ribs and Kool Aid.
  • The Blue group is a list of delicacies.
  • Group XVII is awesome things that can be defeated (Pirates, Zombies).
  • Group XVIII is awesome things that cannot (Ninjas).
  • The first “extra” row is awesome animals.
  • The last “extra” row is how to be awesome yourself.

If you have any questions, I’m afraid you’re just not awesome, but feel free to put them in the comments below.  Hopefully someone more awesome than you will be able to help.

[Dapperstache via io9]

Ask [GAS]: Which gadget is topping your Christmas list?

Even though I’m a geek, I’ve never really been a gadget maniac. But for the first time this year, I’ve found myself wishing someone would offer me one of those little netbooks, probably a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 or an Asus Eee PC.

Oh, I know my wife won’t be getting me this, which means I’ll give one to myself soon enough, but still, this is the thing that would make me the most happy. Why? Mostly because I don’t have a laptop, and when I’m out on the road, finding a secure way to manage this blog is an endless source of hassle. Also, having a mobile device connected to the Internet to carry around the house would be very convenient. You know, change a diaper–edit an e-mail. Do the dishes–post to the blog.

But what about you, dear readers? What would YOU like to receive this Christmas? Since this is mostly a technology blog, we’ll be sticking to things that relate to this particular field of interest, so go ahead and let us know about your techy dream items in the comments section!

New Panasonic Dish Washing Robot

Researchers at Panasonic have developed a new robot designed to rinse dishes before stacking them inside a dish washer. Check it out:

Our verdict? It looks like a useless piece of junk. I mean, have you seen how this thing rinses the dishes? It certainly won’t get food off the plates by simply dumping them in water for a few seconds. And in addition to that, it’s way too slow to be effective in a restaurant, where dishes would pile up to the ceiling in no time because the robot can’t keep up. I guess we’ll have to wait a few years until they develop a faster, more effective robot to do the task. Until then, keep on washing the dishes yourselves, my friends.

[Via Engadget]

“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” Posters Hit the Web

In case you weren’t aware of it, a G.I. Joe movie is currently in production and is expected to be released in August 2009. Yes, I’m talking about the 1980 series where everyone had guns, yet nobody ever died.

Directed by Stephen Sommers and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, “G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra” will tell the tale of the origin of the Cobra Organization and their never-ending fight with the forces of good, the G.I. Joes.

Even though posters of the movie were released back in June, no one had taken the time to scan them in decent quality until now. There’s four of them: Duke, Snake Eyes, Baroness, and Ripcord. Hit the more link to see them all.

Continue reading ›