Research

To those of us who are human, a lack of empathy from others can be quite startling.

A lover says to us: "Oh, your mother's death made you sad? Why didn't you say?" We look at them and think: "You should never have studied engineering. Or math. Or business."

Now presumably uncaring scientists have delved into the roots of this issue and emerged, tousle-haired, with a fascinating conclusion: Empathy represses analytic thought.

This explains so much -- especially Google.

As Science Daily feels it out, research led by an unfeeling brain at Case Western … Read more

In the effort to find a replacement for today's silicon chips, IBM researchers have pushed carbon nanotube technology a significant step ahead.

Carbon nanotubes are very small structures made of a lattice of carbon atoms rolled into a cylindrical shape, and a team of eight researchers have figured out a way to precisely place them on a computer chip, IBM announced today. That development allows them to arrange the nanotubes 100 times more densely than earlier methods, a key step in economical chipmaking, and IBM has built a chip with more than 10,000 carbon nanotube-based elements.

The new … Read more

Prepare to witness a tantalizing glimpse at our future robot overlords.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency yesterday released a stunning video showing how an autonomous robot can navigate and jump over obstacles with great ease.

In the clip, the Pet-Proto robot -- a predecessor to DARPA's Atlas robot -- traverses a simulated hallway containing a very tall step and a thin walkway. Pet-Proto easily uses its strong arms to balance itself as it climbs a step, then perfectly leaps down with a thud. The highly agile walker stretches its legs to continue its journey along the thin edges of a gutted hallway floor. … Read more

Intelligence gets you nowhere. Being right is as overrated as A-Rod.

That has, at least, been my impression of the world as we know it. I feel uplifted, therefore, that this view -- so often derided as cynical -- has now been confirmed by economists.

Large brains from as far apart as Chicago and the U.K.'s Essex (under the guise of the National Bureau of Economic Research) have concluded that the mere idea that nerds will have their revenge and soar like Shrek into money and love is just so much Hollywood bunkum.

I am indebted to The Atlantic … Read more

Android applications are once again in the hotseat over possible security vulnerabilities.

Security researchers at the Leibniz University of Hanover in Germany recently released a study (PDF) examining the way in which legitimate Android applications in the Google Play marketplace respond to attacks on security protocols known as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS). In eight percent of those cases, the researchers found that apps used the security protocols improperly, leaving sensitive data open to hackers with some know-how.

The security team, however, didn't suggest that anyone has yet deliberately exploited these vulnerabilities.

SSL and TLS … Read more

There might be hope for those who suffer from BlackBerry shame after all.

Once the de rigueur instrument of business communications, Research In Motion's smartphone has taken a beating lately. RIM's market share of mobile traffic has plummeted from 25 percent in September 2011 to just barely 1 percent in July, according to a recent Chitika study. Last month, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer practically declared the BlackBerry dead when she told her employees that she would buy them the smartphone of their choice, as long as it wasn't a BlackBerry.

Now comes word that some BlackBerry owners avoid using their RIM devices in public for fear of humiliation (see CNET's Friday poll on the subject). CBS' Bob Schieffer said he learned of the affliction from The New York Times while studying up on foreign policy to moderate the upcoming presidential debate. … Read more

U.S. Marines may have a reputation for persevering in primitive conditions and dealing with whatever comes their way, but they like their electricity just like everyone else.

Yet bringing fuel-guzzling generators with them when on forward deployment is inefficient work, requiring carting around heavy loads of diesel and taking a toll on the local environment.

But not for much longer. Today, the Office of Naval Research awarded Raytheon a contract to develop a hybrid power generator for the Marines, a system that when completed should help Marines in the field consume as much as 40 percent less fuel than … Read more

Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook is playing hard to get at several retailers.

The tablet either doesn't appear or is listed as out of stock among several major vendors, including Best Buy, Staples, RadioShack, OfficeMax, and Wal-Mart.

Amazon and OfficeDepot still have stock.

RIM's own online store lists the 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB editions as available. But the "Where to buy" drop-down list on its retail page steers you to some of the vendors who are out of stock. The current lineup also is in short supply at retailers in RIM's home base of … Read more