light

It may not be the first smartphone-microscope combo, but creators of the SkyLight adapter say their device is different: it doesn't use any optics.

Attach the base of SkyLight to a microscope and slide in a smartphone--most any smartphone actually, thanks to the mount's adjustable clips. Users -- whether students or scientists -- can then capture microscopic images and send them via e-mail or to the Web.

SmartPlanet visits with SkyLight creators Andy Miller and Tess Bakke for a hands-on look at the device.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "SkyLight starts selling combo smartphone-microscope mount.&… Read more

In a famous surgery in the early 1900s, Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, trying to treat epilepsy, found that stimulating specific neurons while patients were under local anesthesia caused them to vividly recall complex events. The mind, then, is based on matter, Penfield concluded.

Now researchers at MIT say they put this observation to the test in a rigorous study showing that the direct reactivation of specific hippocampus neurons can lead to very specific memory recall. And to do this, all they used was light.

"We demonstrate that behavior based on high-level cognition, such as the expression of a specific … Read more

Has the Federal Communications Commission finally learned its lesson on spectrum management?

The FCC began proceedings yesterday that could OK Dish Network's plan to use existing spectrum to build a terrestrial 4G LTE mobile broadband network. The rulemaking follows the agency's earlier rejection of Dish's request for a waiver of license conditions, which prohibit using the spectrum for anything other than satellite-based applications.

The decision to proceed with the slower but more formal process was certainly motivated in part by the recent fiasco involving LightSquared. In January 2011, the FCC granted LightSquared a waiver similar to the … Read more

LightSquared says it's not yet giving up its fight to build a nationwide 4G LTE network.

The company, which is backed by Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital, has invested more than $4 billion into the network, which it hoped would be a wholesale alternative to wireless broadband networks run by AT&T and Verizon wireless. For the past year, the company has been fighting an uphill battle in Washington, D.C., where the GPS industry has rallied political support around its claims that LightSquared's network interferes with its receivers and therefore cannot be built.

So far, the … Read more

New experimental evidence is helping disprove last year's highly surprising finding of neutrinos breaking established physics laws by traveling faster than light.

The finding involved clocking the neutrinos--tiny, nearly massless subatomic particles--as they traveled from the CERN particle accelerator near Geneva to the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy, about 730km away. An experiment called Opera found the neutrinos taking less time to arrive than light would, but now another Gran Sasso experiment, Icarus, showed neutrinos making the journey at a more sedate pace under light speed, CERN said.

That finding comes after news in February that a fiber-optic connection problem … Read more

A worldwide zombie invasion is the perfect hypothetical setting for survivalist tips, and Jeff and I can't help but explore a few of them after watching this week's episode of "The Walking Dead."

After we get that out our system, the rest of today's rundown consists of AOL laying off the majority of its AIM unit, waving goodbye to the printed Encyclopedia Britannica, and a city in the U.K. shaming away loitering youth with pink lighting that exposes acne.… Read more

The Galaxy Nexus has a hidden LED near the bottom of the glass on the front of the phone. Normally, you'll see it blink white for notifications, but what if you want more information than "you missed something, *blink blink*"? With one app, you can adjust the color of the LED so you can see what you missed at a glance. Additionally, you'll be able to set audible reminders that repeat as often as you tell them to. Here's how to get started:

Step 1: Download and install Light Flow from the Google … Read more

Here's one of those bizarro products that's just waiting for some genius to come along and help it realize its no doubt substantial potential.

As you can see, it's a light in the guise of a hospital IV drip bag. That's odd enough (unless you're some sort of hypochondriac with a fetish for hospital gear). But it gets even more unusual. As you can also see, it's an LED light with a USB hookup for a plug. Of course, that means you plug it in to your laptop to fire it up.

Now, conceptually speaking, what could that possibly mean? That your laptop is ill and in need of an infusion of energy? OK, that's kind of cute. But it's odd that it actually seems to be the laptop that's energizing the drip bag, isn't it? So, hmmm, maybe this is a statement about things working the other way 'round? About technology and computers somehow being the ultimate drug?… Read more

Looking a little bit like the light cycles from Tron, but without the glowy bits, the E-Tracer 7009 placed in the top three of the Progressive Automotive X Prize competition in 2010.

Now the two-wheeled, two-seater has been renamed the MonoTracer MTE-150 and is headed to production, according to Auto Blog Green.

The MonoTracer MTE-150 has a Kevlar cabin and runs on a third-generation 150 kW (200 horsepower) drivetrain from AC Propulsion in California.

While the X Prize competitors were challenged to create a vehicle that could reach 100 mpge (miles per gallon equivalent), the MonoTracer could see about 350 … Read more