acid

Police say Samsung acid leak seeped into environment -- report

Hydrofluoric acid that leaked in a Samsung chip plant seeped into the environment and was not contained, police in Korea said today, directly contradicting a statement made by the company, according to Yonhap News.

The Korea-based news outlet reported that police released their findings on last month's acid leakage and found that the acid had leaked outside the plant. The police discovered the external leak by analyzing closed-circuit television footage captured within the plant.

A Samsung plant last month experienced a hydrofluoric acid leak that caused more questions than answers. The timeline surrounding the leak has been the subject of much debate, … Read more

Samsung to be fined $900 over fatal gas leak -- report

Samsung will be fined for belatedly reporting a fatal hydrofluoric gas leak at one of its Korean facilities to authorities, according to a new report.

The gas leak reportedly occurred sometime on Sunday (the exact timeline isn't clear, due to conflicting reports out of Korea) at a Samsung semiconductor facility south of Seoul. Several hours later, Samsung contacted crew members from a maintenance company to clean up the leak. Five crew members arrived on the scene and started to clean up the spill. However, one of the individuals, who was reportedly not wearing a full hazmat suit, died due … Read more

DNA decay rate makes 'Jurassic Park' impossible

Countless childhood dreams dissolved today upon the news that the calculated half-life of DNA figures out to around 521 years, all but invalidating the chances of a real-life "Jurassic Park."

The DNA fact-finding project involved a team of palaeogeneticists testing 158 leg bones belonging to three species of extinct giant moa birds ranging from 600 to 8,000 years old.

After running a series of comparisons between the age of the various bones and DNA degradation within each specimen, the researchers estimated that DNA's half-life works out to about 521 years after being kept in a swamp with an average temperature of 13.1 Celsius (55 Fahrenheit). Even a more ideal preservation temperature of minus 5 Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) would only result in readable DNA from specimens up to 1.5 million years old, meaning there is no possible way we can see a 65-million-year-old T-Rex waving its tiny arms about in this time frame. … Read more

Oceans are acidifying faster than ever

The burning of fossil fuels and the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere don't affect just the air--it also impacts the Earth's oceans, according to U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Oceans absorb the carbon dioxide, which in turn changes the water's pH acidity levels. What this means is that coral reefs are growing at a slower rate and the survival of marine species is decreasing, according to NOAA.

Now, the speed at which ocean pH level is changing is faster than any time in the last 300 million years, according to a new … Read more

The 404 920: Where we're on a 7-second delay (podcast)

Wilson's out sick today so CNET Labs' Joseph Kaminski fills in with a 7-second delay, just in case.

Today we're discussing the controversial details of Steve Jobs' use of psychedelic drugs, what's being taught at Cupertino's Apple University, pre-crime becoming a reality, and this morning's speedbumps for iPhone 4S preorders.

The 404 Digest for Episode 920

Pre-crime might become a reality. Unlocked iPhone 4S coming in November. Galaxy Nexus launch delayed due to Jobs' death. Sprint to cover 120M people with 4G LTE next year (scoop). Did dropping acid make Steve Jobs more creative? Steve Jobs' virtual DNA to be fostered in Apple University. Superman fan turns to surgery to become Man of Steel. Florida school district taking attendance by scanning students' fingers. Google-designed Nikes prove Google has no taste. Fear abounds in images from Nightmares Fear Factory.

Episode 920 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

HTML gurus modernize Acid3 browser test

Two browser experts have pared back Acid3, a test that browser standards fans held up to spotlight Internet Explorer's shortcomings, so the test won't hold back development of those standards.

Ian Hickson, editor of the HTML specification, and Håkon Wium Lie, chief technology officer of browser maker Opera, decided to make the change, and Hickson announced it on Google+ on Saturday.

"Håkon Wium Lie and I are announcing that we have updated the Acid3 test by commenting out the parts of the test that might get changed in the specs," Hickson said. &… Read more

VoIP battles and music creation

Last week, the two biggest VoIP services got a chance to hash it out in a CNET Prizefight. Skype and new kid on the block Google Voice duked it out in five bone-crushing rounds, and although both are communication powerhouses that bring you free or cheap phone calls over the Web, only one can come out on top. Find out which one did.

We also took a close look at some music production software from Sony. ACID Music Studio 8 builds upon the already robust music recording, mixing, and creation tools with several new features and enhancements. It's not … Read more

Sony launches updated multimedia suite

Fans of Sony's multimedia production and editing tools get some happy news today with the release of updated versions of Vegas, ACID, and Sound Forge. Vegas Movie Studio HD 10 Platinum ($99.95) is a user-friendly video-editing application packed with all the features of the previous version as well as some handy new tools. Worth noting is Image Stabilization, which allows anyone with shaky footage to quickly and simply even out the shot with a selection of optimized presets. There's also a slideshow creator, new color correction tools, GPU-accelerated AVC rendering, and a feature that lets you burn … Read more

New surgical bone screw biodegrades in two years

For years, people with broken bones have had to suffer through not only the pain of the break, but also the long process of healing, often with the help of titanium screws. Typically, patients must then undergo more surgery to remove the titanium.

When my mom broke her knee in the '90s, they rigged her with so many screws and bars that her X-rays looked more robot than human. She predicted rain with eerie accuracy.

This month, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials Research (IFAM) in Bremen, Germany, are unveiling a new type of screw … Read more