Baby brain

New study shows that babies can perform sophisticated analyses of how the physical world should behave.

Source: MIT News

This post is dedicated to Artur Mota :)

Useful Google Bookmarklets

A bookmarklet is a very small program that is stored as a web browser bookmark (or favorite) and is executed when you select it.

There are many useful ones, like these for Delicious, and these for Google.

Excellent time savers!

There Be Dragons

There Be Dragons

Robot talk

Robots are creating their own language as part of a project involving the University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology. Researchers have taught two robots how to speak, but have not given them a specific language. Instead, the robots are making up words for each new place they visit and thing they see.

Source: Physorg.com via ACM Tech News

Which technologies get better faster?

Some forms of technology — think, for example, of computer chips — are on a fast track to constant improvements, while others evolve much more slowly. Now, a new study by researchers at MIT and other institutions shows that it may be possible to predict which technologies are likeliest to advance rapidly, and therefore may be worth more investment in research and resources.

Source: MIT News via ACM Tech News

IST Centennial

Today Técnico celebrates 1100100 years! Congratulations!

http://100.ist.utl.pt/

Hold the Call, Watch the Road

An in-car warning system being developed by Microsoft researchers could help prevent accidents by automatically putting calls on hold when the road demands more attention. The researchers found that the system could significantly reduce the risk of an accident while driving.

Source: MIT Technology Review via ACM Tech News

A World Full of Sensors

Computer scientists, electrical and computer engineers, and mathemati­cians at the TU Darmstadt and the University of Kassel have joined forces and are working on implementing the vision of "Smart Cities" under their “Cocoon” project.

Source: Alpha Galileo via ACM Tech News

Portuguese Software Enables Automatic Analysis of Mammograms

This software, developed by a research team from INESC Porto and FEUP, can automatically analyse and validate cases of breast cancer using similar cases when the results are clear.

Source: INESC Porto via ACM Tech News

Faster transistors

MIT physicists discover a new physical phenomenon that could eventually lead to the first increases in computers’ clock speed since 2002.

Source: MIT via ACM Tech News