Windows 8 New Features Sneak Peak

Microsoft unveiled their new operating system, Windows 8, earlier this month. This new OS comes with many new features. One of the most striking ones is the new interface that has been added alongside the traditional Windows 7 one. The Windows 7 interface is designed for mouse and keyboard use with small icons and what not. The new interface is designed for touch screen, with tiles instead of icons and an overall cleaner and simpler appearance, perfect for the finger.

You might be wondering what’s the difference between a ‘Tile’ and an ‘Icon’ so a tile is basically a larger icon in which the app can show some of its contents and function even before clicking on it. For example, a tile for a weather app might show the temperature, humidity, and weather of the day. This is great for a tablet as it looks good and is large enough for the bulky finger (compared to the mouse pointer).

Although the two different interfaces are designed for different control methods, the touch can be operated by mouse and keyboard and the classic Windows 7 interface can be operated by touch, as seen in the touch screen desktops they’re selling nowadays. Also, users can easily switch between the two.

Microsoft added this new feature to bridge the gap between a PC and a tablet. Windows 8 will be able to run on both a tablet and a PC, which means that apps designed for the PC will be able to run on a tablet as well. This will be great for laptops with detachable screens that will act as a tablet once detached, such as Dell Inspiron Duo. It is very likely that such laptops will be commonplace in the near future.

There are currently no solid dates for when the beta will be released or when Windows 8 will be

available in stores. However, it is rumoured that the the beta will be released sometime this fall and the full product, sometime next fall.

For a detailed list of Windows 8's new features, click here.

Giant Globe Made Of Over 10 000 OLED Panels

Tokyo's National Musuem of Emerging Science and Innovation recently unveiled a 20-foot globe made of exactly 10 362 OLED panels displaying the surface of our planet as seen from Space. The displays are constantly updated with satellite footage.

Built by Mitsubishi in commemoration of the musuem's 10th anniversary, this globe is in fact a replacement to the museum's earlier LED version. The new OLED "Geo-Cosmos" globe, as it is called, will provide 10 times the resolution (10 million pixels) compared to its predecessor.

The Geo-Cosmos globe currently hangs 60 feet (18 m) above the museum floor and is certainly an impressive sight to see.

Worm Can Regenerate Entire Body With One Cell

You might have heard of stem cells being the future for medicine. This is because certain types of stem cells, called pluripotent stem cells, can generate into an kind of cell in the body. However, these cells are only found in embryos and therefore, are extremely rare. Stem cells found on adults have more specificity. For example, blood stem cells can generate into any cell type that constitutes blood but cannot generate into, for example, a nerve cell.

In a recent discovery, scientists in MIT and Howard Hughes Medical Institute found that flat worms, or planarians, have pluripotent stem cells in adults. This is first time any such cells have been found in an adult animal.

Flat worms have been known to regenerate themselves from a just a chunk of tissue. This amazing regenerative ability resulted in a study by scientists to figure whether this is attributed to a bunch of specialized stem cells working together or just an "all purpose" cell. To do this, scientists exposed several worms to radiation that stops their cells from diving. A certain type of cell, called the cNeoblast, was spared of the radiation exposure to see if this is the cell responsible for regeneration. As the other cells slowly died out because they cannot reproduce, the scientists watched as the cNeoblasts took over and generated a new batch of healthy, replacement tissue.

However, even with this information in hand, it did not stop the scientists from doing something truly weird. They implanted a single cNeoblast cell from one type of planarian in another type which did not have its own cNeoblasts. The latter worm, was exposed to a lethal dose of radiation beforehand that stopped reproduction in all its cells. As the worm started to die, the cNeoblast cell started multiplying and specializing into different cells and "ultimately replaced all the host's tissues" with new healthy ones. The resulting worm was an exact genetic copy of the original cNeoblast donor.

Scientists hope that some day, they can figure out how these cells work and possibly study ways to use these cells for human tissue regeneration.

Reversing Marine Dead Zones

Marine dead zones are areas where little or no marine life reside. This is the result of overgrown algae from fertilizer and biowaste run offs enter the oceans. When the algae dies and decomposes, it takes up a lot of oxygen from the water and suffocates or asphyxiates marine life. This is a process called eutrophication. Today, there are up to 405 marine dead zones in the world. The good news is, marine dead zones are not permanent and can be reversed.

What we can do today to reduce eutrophication is by having improved wastewater treatment to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous entering the oceans. However, what would greatly help in reducing eutrophication is by farmers adopting "no-till" methods. These farming methods skip plowing altogether. Instead, farmers using this method plant new seeds using modern seed drills and deposit fertilizer beneath the soil using fertilizer injectors. This reduces fertilizer run off greatly as the fertilizer is beneath the surface instead of on the soil, which is easily washed off by rainwater.

Stats show that "no-till" methods can reduce phosphorous run off by 40%, half the amount of nitrogen released, as well as reduce overall erosion by 98%. The best part of "no-till" methods is that it produces the same yield while using half the energy.

Unfortunately, most of the world have not adopted this method yet. However, these methods are relatively new and involve advanced equipment that not every farmer has access to. Still, it is great to know that it is possible to reverse the hundreds of marine dead zones that exist in the world today.

Marine Dead Zones - Fertilizer's Effect On Marine Life

Our oceans nowadays are polluted with a myriad of harmful chemicals, as well as the crude oil from the oil spills. These pollutants are killing marine creatures as well as destroying their habitat. One kind of pollutant that I find surprising is fertilizer and biowaste from agricultural run off. These substances, which mainly consists of nitrogen and phosphorous, can actually boost algae growth. However, even though algae provides shelter and is a source of food for many marine creatures, they can also drastically harm marine ecosystems. This happens when large amounts of overgrown algae dies and decomposes. This takes up a lot of oxygen from the waters and suffocates or asphyxiates marine life. This process is called eutrophication.

Areas affected by eutrophication are called dead zones and at least 405 of such areas have been located. In first world nations, the main culprit for eutrophication is human sewage while in third world nations, where agriculture is prevalent, agricultural run off is the main culprit.

Dead zones, fortunately, are not permanent. They can be reversed by reducing the amount of waste entering the oceans. One example is in the Soviet Union in the 1980's. The Black Sea at that time contained the world's largest dead zone. However, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the farmers there could not obtain synthetic fertilizers and as a result, by 1996, the dead zone in the Black Sea is almost non-existent.

Click here to learn more about ways we can reduce marine dead zones.