The First Question - 30 March 2010

This week's panel

Curious George, Patio Plasma, Boole Allen, FutureGuru Haiku

Quotes

A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective.

-Edward Teller

The next major explosion is going to be when genetics and computers come together. I'm talking about an organic computer - about biological substances that can function like a semiconductor.

-Alvin Toffler

A satellite has no conscience.

-Edward R. Murrow

A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.

-Alan Perlis

Science has made us gods even before we are worthy of being men.

-Jean Rostand

Word-UP of the week – “Twitless” - someone who is generating not particularly smart or amusing tweets.

- Curious George

Audience Quote of the week -

“If you believe in something enough it becomes real – that is the placebo effect defined in a nutshell.”

-Petlove Petshop

Questions

For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv

1) Lots of controversy in Congress this week and tears no doubt from many corporations as a nationwide wireless public safety network as part of the FCC's National Broadband Plan. The FCC is asking many to give up control of the airwaves wholesale so that mobile and wireless companies can also provide in the spectrum. The plan will ask Congress to set aside $16-$18 billion over a 10-year period to help build and operate while recommending that the entire 700-MHz band goes public, The FCC chairman has spoken & additionally stated The private sector simply is not going to build a state-of-the-art, broadband network for public safety on its own dime," Who is Mr. FCC?

2) In 1926, P. A. Glick, a scientist from the federal Division of Cotton Insect Investigations, counted almost 36 million bugs. We know that being able to take cues from nature has contributed greatly to engineering design. I don’t offhand know how an astronaut would duplicate this but here goes: It climbs up to an exposed site (a twig or a flower, for instance), stand on tiptoe, raise its abdomen, test the atmosphere, After that, it starts releasing several silk threads which automatically form a triangular shaped parachute and launches itself into the blue, all free legs spread eagled. Most rides will end a few meters later, but some can travel high up into the upper atmosphere. Depending on mass and parachute to float traveling high up into the upper atmosphere. What insect has been found flying at 15,000 Ft?

3) You need to interact with a robot, but don’t want one of those last century static ones – use this, MIT created a semi-autonomous robot that gives a person a richer way to interact remotely with an audience than is allowed with phone and video conferencing. It’s able to communicate some body posture, a wide range of head movement and very expressive hand gestures.. And is a push toward a future where remote presence can be achieved easily in a way that saves traveling time but still achieves the same experience as "being there”. That is when you cant log into Second Life. Results showed that people felt more psychologically involved and more engaged in the interaction with their remote partners when they were embodied in a socially expressive way. I would choose my avatar - What is this robot called?

4) 37 years ago, a robotic Russian rover drove 35 kilometers on the Moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, is currently mapping the Moon in great detail from its orbit near the Moon's surface. On March 15, NASA released some images and data from the LRO. Using that information, the author of "The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration" found the tracks of the rover in one of the images. Can you name the university where that author is a professor?

5) Joe and Al were on their way to Pluto, and found themselves off-course. This might be reminiscent of Bugs Bunny taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque- but it is actually part of a book – no not how to find a habitable planet! We have mentioned this mid 20th century author before, one of Isaac Asimov’s favorite writers for his novel Space Lawyer, (which is not, unfortuantely going to be Syfy cable series) He wrote of a variety of great inventions as only Science fiction writers can – who was the author of The Emperor of the Stars which contained the Thought screen, Gravito-Statoscope, Atmosphere Tester, and my favorite the Deviatoscope A device that registered how much your course diverged from what you intended?

6) We want robots to be smarter and do our tasks and then even our thinking for us. In 1960,The magazine of Fantasy & Science fiction published a story about a robot that is able to autonomously find an electrical outlet and plug itself in to recharge- and I quote here from the story-

"...they're motivated first by a random device and then they learn. The lines of connection in the graphite-gel that turn out the most successful remain like a printed circuit and then if occasion arises, they overprint them. My whole idea is to get away from a machine with a set of prearranged instructions, and le them teach themselves by trial and error....they're supposed to have complete freedom of choice.” Name the story by Stephen Barr.

7) His father, arrived in Mexico in 1902 from Lebanon, alone at 14 years escaping from the Ottoman Empire, which at the time conscripted at 15. By the time he was 26, his net worth was $40 million. He has substantial influence over the telecommunications industry in Mexico and much of Latin America. According to The Wall Street Journal, he credits part of his ability to discover investment opportunities early to his friend, Alvin Toffler. In 1997, just before the company introduced its iMac line, he bought three percent of Apple Computer's stock. And yes he is the world’s richest man, his net worth estimated at US$53.5 billion which coming from a country Mexico whose per capita income does not surpass $14,500 a year, with nearly 17% of the population living in poverty does generate some controversy. He might buy the New York Times, (he is their leading creditor atm) or a soccer team or a formula one racing team. Who led the charge to privatize the Mexican telecommunications industry?

8) During a lecture, he noticed a compass needle deflected from magnetic north when electric current from a battery was switched on and off, confirming a direct relationship between electricity and magnetism. His initial interpretation was that magnetic effects radiate from all sides of a wire carrying an electric current, as do light and heat. Three months later he showed that an electric current produces a circular magnetic field as it flows through a wire. He was the first modern thinker to explicitly describe and name the thought experiment. He has a unit of magnetic strength, named after him, His work also represented a major step toward a unified concept of energy, - who was he?

9) They should name an ultimate unit of Troy after you - Why conduct a thought experiment, hmmm let me think? OH yes! To predict and forecast the indefinite and unknowable future - Scientists also use thought experiments when physical experiments are impossible such as Einstein's chasing a light beam, which lead to Special Relativity. Or a what if? Like If Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz had cooperated with each other, what mathematics would look like today?" possibly not much if they had got on REALLY well. Einstein had pointed out that the quantum superposition of an unstable keg of gunpowder will, after a while, contain both exploded and unexploded components. Quantum mechanics has its flaws and to illustrate the bizarreness of some of it and the mathematics necessary to describe quantum states, this famous thought experiment of a paradox, was given – It is Named after the physicist who invented it and its primary actor, a 4 legged animal = What is it known as?

10) Current computers operate using binary coding; thousands to trillions of small electrical circuits representing a binary digit of information by means of an electronic switch. The future of computing is to move this to a quantum scale, where the weird properties of subatomic particles can be used to create much faster computers. A new device developed by Harvard scientists which uses nanostructured wire made of this to provide a bright, stable source of single photons at room temperature represents a breakthrough in making this quantum technology a reality. What substance is being used, its color center containing an electron spin associated with a nitrogen vacancy that has manipulative photons?

11) I don’t mean rhinestones! Scientists have discovered that a moving pulse of heat traveling along these miniscule wires can cause powerful waves of energy. These "thermopower waves" can drive electrons along like a collection of flotsam propelled along the surface of ocean waves, creating an electrical current. The previously unknown phenomenon opens up a new area of energy research and could lead to a new way of producing electricity. Nanotubes made of this were coated with a layer of reactive fuel that produces heat by decomposing. It was then ignited at one end and the result was a fast-moving thermal wave. With a temperature of 3,000 kelvin, this ring of heat sped along the tube 10,000 times faster than normal. The amount of power released, was much greater than that predicted by It’s being called electron entrainment, since part of the current appears to scale with wave velocity.” What were the nanotubes made of?

12) With digital clocks all around us you have to be pretty important to actually wear a watch these days. I would ask for a show of hands from our panel as to who is actually wearing a watch right now but the time on my computer indicates we are running a bit late – suffice it to say that most watches are built to withstand varying degrees of water pressure and shocks . But a new watch from Seiko has been built to withstand the harsh environments found during an afternoon spacewalk. It is the first watch ever designed for use in outer space, and that might restrict the market so Seiko will only make 100 of these watches at $28,000 USD.. Who was the original Spring Drive Spacewalk watch built for?

13) We have discussed breakthroughs in science in technology and in undergarments – Tonight is no exception – This company invented the Konkatsu Bra which played a marriage waltz and stopped the self destruct timer when an engagement ring was fed to it. Now this company has come up with something even more interesting- The latest bra is designed to appeal to the growing numbers of female golfers in Japan looking for a unique way to practice their putting. The “Nice Cup In Bra” consists of a putting green colored top that unfurls into a 1.5-meter-long putting mat. If things get too unruly then the pink skirt with the words “Be Quiet” emblazoned across the rear can be used as a flag. Upon sinking a putt into either of the cups a speaker will congratulate the user with a cry of “nice shot.” What is the name of this inventive Japanese company?

The First Question - 16 March 2010

This week's panel

Curious George, Patio Plasma, Boole Allen, FutureGuru Haiku

Quotes

A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective.

-Edward Teller

The next major explosion is going to be when genetics and computers come together. I'm talking about an organic computer - about biological substances that can function like a semiconductor.

-Alvin Toffler

A satellite has no conscience.

-Edward R. Murrow

A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.

-Alan Perlis

Science has made us gods even before we are worthy of being men.

-Jean Rostand

Word-UP of the week – “Twitless” - someone who is generating not particularly smart or amusing tweets.

- Curious George

Audience Quote of the week -

“If you believe in something enough it becomes real – that is the placebo effect defined in a nutshell.”

-Petlove Petshop

Questions

For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv

1) Lots of controversy in Congress this week and tears no doubt from many corporations as a nationwide wireless public safety network as part of the FCC's National Broadband Plan. The FCC is asking many to give up control of the airwaves wholesale so that mobile and wireless companies can also provide in the spectrum. The plan will ask Congress to set aside $16-$18 billion over a 10-year period to help build and operate while recommending that the entire 700-MHz band goes public, The FCC chairman has spoken & additionally stated The private sector simply is not going to build a state-of-the-art, broadband network for public safety on its own dime," Who is Mr. FCC?

2) In 1926, P. A. Glick, a scientist from the federal Division of Cotton Insect Investigations, counted almost 36 million bugs. We know that being able to take cues from nature has contributed greatly to engineering design. I don’t offhand know how an astronaut would duplicate this but here goes: It climbs up to an exposed site (a twig or a flower, for instance), stand on tiptoe, raise its abdomen, test the atmosphere, After that, it starts releasing several silk threads which automatically form a triangular shaped parachute and launches itself into the blue, all free legs spread eagled. Most rides will end a few meters later, but some can travel high up into the upper atmosphere. Depending on mass and parachute to float traveling high up into the upper atmosphere. What insect has been found flying at 15,000 Ft?

3) You need to interact with a robot, but don’t want one of those last century static ones – use this, MIT created a semi-autonomous robot that gives a person a richer way to interact remotely with an audience than is allowed with phone and video conferencing. It’s able to communicate some body posture, a wide range of head movement and very expressive hand gestures.. And is a push toward a future where remote presence can be achieved easily in a way that saves traveling time but still achieves the same experience as "being there”. That is when you cant log into Second Life. Results showed that people felt more psychologically involved and more engaged in the interaction with their remote partners when they were embodied in a socially expressive way. I would choose my avatar - What is this robot called?

4) 37 years ago, a robotic Russian rover drove 35 kilometers on the Moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, is currently mapping the Moon in great detail from its orbit near the Moon's surface. On March 15, NASA released some images and data from the LRO. Using that information, the author of "The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration" found the tracks of the rover in one of the images. Can you name the university where that author is a professor?

5) Joe and Al were on their way to Pluto, and found themselves off-course. This might be reminiscent of Bugs Bunny taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque- but it is actually part of a book – no not how to find a habitable planet! We have mentioned this mid 20th century author before, one of Isaac Asimov’s favorite writers for his novel Space Lawyer, (which is not, unfortuantely going to be Syfy cable series) He wrote of a variety of great inventions as only Science fiction writers can – who was the author of The Emperor of the Stars which contained the Thought screen, Gravito-Statoscope, Atmosphere Tester, and my favorite the Deviatoscope A device that registered how much your course diverged from what you intended?

6) We want robots to be smarter and do our tasks and then even our thinking for us. In 1960,The magazine of Fantasy & Science fiction published a story about a robot that is able to autonomously find an electrical outlet and plug itself in to recharge- and I quote here from the story-

"...they're motivated first by a random device and then they learn. The lines of connection in the graphite-gel that turn out the most successful remain like a printed circuit and then if occasion arises, they overprint them. My whole idea is to get away from a machine with a set of prearranged instructions, and le them teach themselves by trial and error....they're supposed to have complete freedom of choice.” Name the story by Stephen Barr.

7) His father, arrived in Mexico in 1902 from Lebanon, alone at 14 years escaping from the Ottoman Empire, which at the time conscripted at 15. By the time he was 26, his net worth was $40 million. He has substantial influence over the telecommunications industry in Mexico and much of Latin America. According to The Wall Street Journal, he credits part of his ability to discover investment opportunities early to his friend, Alvin Toffler. In 1997, just before the company introduced its iMac line, he bought three percent of Apple Computer's stock. And yes he is the world’s richest man, his net worth estimated at US$53.5 billion which coming from a country Mexico whose per capita income does not surpass $14,500 a year, with nearly 17% of the population living in poverty does generate some controversy. He might buy the New York Times, (he is their leading creditor atm) or a soccer team or a formula one racing team. Who led the charge to privatize the Mexican telecommunications industry?

8) During a lecture, he noticed a compass needle deflected from magnetic north when electric current from a battery was switched on and off, confirming a direct relationship between electricity and magnetism. His initial interpretation was that magnetic effects radiate from all sides of a wire carrying an electric current, as do light and heat. Three months later he showed that an electric current produces a circular magnetic field as it flows through a wire. He was the first modern thinker to explicitly describe and name the thought experiment. He has a unit of magnetic strength, named after him, His work also represented a major step toward a unified concept of energy, - who was he?

9) They should name an ultimate unit of Troy after you - Why conduct a thought experiment, hmmm let me think? OH yes! To predict and forecast the indefinite and unknowable future - Scientists also use thought experiments when physical experiments are impossible such as Einstein's chasing a light beam, which lead to Special Relativity. Or a what if? Like If Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz had cooperated with each other, what mathematics would look like today?" possibly not much if they had got on REALLY well. Einstein had pointed out that the quantum superposition of an unstable keg of gunpowder will, after a while, contain both exploded and unexploded components. Quantum mechanics has its flaws and to illustrate the bizarreness of some of it and the mathematics necessary to describe quantum states, this famous thought experiment of a paradox, was given – It is Named after the physicist who invented it and its primary actor, a 4 legged animal = What is it known as?

10) Current computers operate using binary coding; thousands to trillions of small electrical circuits representing a binary digit of information by means of an electronic switch. The future of computing is to move this to a quantum scale, where the weird properties of subatomic particles can be used to create much faster computers. A new device developed by Harvard scientists which uses nanostructured wire made of this to provide a bright, stable source of single photons at room temperature represents a breakthrough in making this quantum technology a reality. What substance is being used, its color center containing an electron spin associated with a nitrogen vacancy that has manipulative photons?

11) I don’t mean rhinestones! Scientists have discovered that a moving pulse of heat traveling along these miniscule wires can cause powerful waves of energy. These "thermopower waves" can drive electrons along like a collection of flotsam propelled along the surface of ocean waves, creating an electrical current. The previously unknown phenomenon opens up a new area of energy research and could lead to a new way of producing electricity. Nanotubes made of this were coated with a layer of reactive fuel that produces heat by decomposing. It was then ignited at one end and the result was a fast-moving thermal wave. With a temperature of 3,000 kelvin, this ring of heat sped along the tube 10,000 times faster than normal. The amount of power released, was much greater than that predicted by It’s being called electron entrainment, since part of the current appears to scale with wave velocity.” What were the nanotubes made of?

12) With digital clocks all around us you have to be pretty important to actually wear a watch these days. I would ask for a show of hands from our panel as to who is actually wearing a watch right now but the time on my computer indicates we are running a bit late – suffice it to say that most watches are built to withstand varying degrees of water pressure and shocks . But a new watch from Seiko has been built to withstand the harsh environments found during an afternoon spacewalk. It is the first watch ever designed for use in outer space, and that might restrict the market so Seiko will only make 100 of these watches at $28,000 USD.. Who was the original Spring Drive Spacewalk watch built for?

13) We have discussed breakthroughs in science in technology and in undergarments – Tonight is no exception – This company invented the Konkatsu Bra which played a marriage waltz and stopped the self destruct timer when an engagement ring was fed to it. Now this company has come up with something even more interesting- The latest bra is designed to appeal to the growing numbers of female golfers in Japan looking for a unique way to practice their putting. The “Nice Cup In Bra” consists of a putting green colored top that unfurls into a 1.5-meter-long putting mat. If things get too unruly then the pink skirt with the words “Be Quiet” emblazoned across the rear can be used as a flag. Upon sinking a putt into either of the cups a speaker will congratulate the user with a cry of “nice shot.” What is the name of this inventive Japanese company?

The First Question - 9 March 2010

This week's panel

Zen Paine, Kit Guardian, Madcow Cosmos, Emmo Wei

Quotes

Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be.
-Jose Ortega y Gasset

The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
-William James

There is no wealth but life.
-John Ruskin

Word-UP of the week – Was a tie!!
“Primaholic” - Someone who shops too much and wants to have too many fancy detailed things in there home and on their avatar. . I am a primaholic.
-Kit Guardian
“Koalalumper” - Not the Malaysian city but what happens after a brutal opening act for the 1st question
-Emmo Wei

Audience Quote of the week-
Sunman Loring: I eat food fast not fast food

Questions

For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv

1) You or someone you know has wanted one of these since they saw James Bond's Thunderball, Developed by the U.S. military in 1961 with the aim of producing an all-terrain vehicle to move military commanders around a battlefield, the Bell Rocket Belt could only maintain flight for 26 seconds on a full tank of fuel. Sadly it’s limits meant consignment merely to film work and TV appearances. Now this country’s Martin Aircraft has announced production of 500 units a year whisking a pilot along at 63 mph and at 8,000 ft. with no pilot license required. It will set you back Roughly $75,000. Currently air traffic control technology is not yet advanced enough to cope with jetpacks, but the US Federal Aviation Administration is developing "highways in the sky" technology - 3D highways based on GPS tracks. Which country just might be delivering the JetPack of tomorrow today?

2) A finalist in the Greener Gadgets Design Competition, a kinetic mouse made from recycled materials has been unveiled –and wait there’s more - the energy to use it is captured form the clicking and scrolling of the mouse as it has an element within the body to harvest energy from movement, a similar setup is fitted to the scroll wheel and a piezoelectric element stores energy from each click of the left and right buttons. Regional material sourcing and assembly and end of life recycling add more green points to its credentials. The concept just missed the bronze medal in the audience category, but it is a winner in our mouse jockey race – what is it called?

3) By the age of six, he could exchange jokes in Classical Greek, memorize telephone directories, and displayed advanced mental calculation abilities, I was reading MAD magazine by the age of six myself, I recall. He was originally Hungarian, and is generally regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians in modern history who delved into quantum mechanics, game theory and computer science. A principal member of the Manhattan Project he worked out key steps in the nuclear physics involved in thermonuclear reactions and the hydrogen bomb.& one of the first 4 people with Einstein selected for the Institute for Advanced Study – His first major contribution to economics was the minimax theorem of 1928. & His last book published was The Computer and the Brain. Who was this genius who bridged many systems and branched knowledge with mathematical theory?

4) Oh those pesky Paparazzi ! Sometimes you just can’t avoid them. What are outlets to do when they need fresh images all the time? Enter the Papraazzi Bot! Autonomous robotic camerabots, designed at Ohio State University are a tech-hybrid both camera, and cameraman. They move at the speed of a walking human, avoiding walls and obstacles. As the robots work the room, infrared sensors move them toward humans, with the single goal of taking photos of people, mimicking the frenzied paparazzi. Later the images of those they’ve chosen to stalk are published to the web, where did they recently make their debut, and no it wasn’t at a Lady Gaga concert?

5) "M3" is short for "man-made man & are robot babies are under development with Osaka University. And no the Japanese aren’t trying to develop robot babies to alter the low birthrate in that country……not yet at any rate- M3-neony has been developed to research the development of fine motor skills like crawling thus hoping to gain knowledge on how humans develop physical skills . M3-synchy is used to understand verbal and non-verbal communication, primarily with its expressive face and arm gestures. Of course when your computer can learn to walk off your desk it might go straight to hell. There might not be any robot babies (gosh I love saying that,) in science fiction literature but robot children did exist in the 1967 short story Supertoys Last All Summer Long. Who wrote that?

6) This might come as a shock to our audience but there is pornography on the internet. The use of tricky or confusing URLs mean sometimes opening or downloading inappropriate images again VERY accidentally . And in some cases this material still exists on our computers…. Well folks fear no longer – this new USB stick is loaded with software designed to find and remove illicit images from your PC will protect your family, business or organization using a series of algorithms to analyze flesh tones, shapes, curvatures, and more What is this called?

7) More meatricity from the Greener Gadgets 2010 Conference... whose founder challenged designers to "put the sexy back into green. This won 2nd place – and is basically a portable rocking chair comprised of tubes and a sling seat that folds out to a bench-style glider seat. The rocking mechanism is linked to a gearbox, DC generator, voltage controller and lithium battery. it shows that kinetic energy is stored & that power is being generated. The energy is converted by means of a DC/AC inverter and accessed by a USB or standard power outlet so it can be hooked up to a laptop, mobile, MP3 player or other gadget. Perhaps it should have been called “Rocktricity” what is the name of this award winning char?

8) Cisco Systems, which is often referred to as the plumber of the Internet, announced today, a next-generation router for the world's largest ISP, the CRS-3. After weeks of hype about a major announcement that would change the Internet forever, it turns out the new product is basically an upgrade. The new router, which is sold to major Internet service providers, offers 12 times the traffic capacity and much faster too. John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, said this new router will serve as the foundation of the next-generation Internet that will see tremendous growth due to what?

9) The optical laser was deemed next to useless shortly after being invented 50 years ago. Two separate research groups have independently made important steps toward making - a type of laser that emits very high-frequency, coordinated sound rather than light waves. Despite some fundamental differences, light and sound waves are both formed by quanta, meaning that sound lasers are also possible. Sound propagates at a speed that is about 100,000 smaller than the speed of light, and therefore has a smaller wavelength & lower energy levels. Meaning sound lasers would allow extremely precise imaging of living tissue without damaging it in the process (as is often the case with optical imaging). What are high frequency sound lasers also referred to as?

10) The United Nations says that dirty water causes 80 percent of diseases in the developing world, killing 10 million people a year. What many people don’t realize, is that there are already naturally-occurring water filtration supplies available & remarkably In the form of a tree. Seeds from this tree, used as a paste will bind with impurities and can reduce bacteria in water over 90% . It also produces cooking and lighting oil, soil fertilizer, and highly-nutritious food in the form of its pods, leaves, seeds and flowers. It is drought-resistant & grows in Africa, India, South East Asia and Central and South America. What is the “world’s most useful” tree's name?

11) We spoke of Pranav Mistry’s breakthrough sixth sense last week and here is an outgrowth of that technology. A skin-based interface that effectively turns your body into a touchscreen. The system uses two technologies to turn your biggest organ into a workable input device with the ability to detect the ultralow-frequency sound produced by tapping the skin with a finger, and the microchip-sized "pico" projectors now found in some cellphones. The system beams a keyboard or menu onto the user's forearm, and hand from a projector housed in an armband.. Different combinations of the sensors are activated depending on where the arm is tapped. What is this system called which will be presented in April at the ACM Computer-Human Interaction meeting ?

12) It cost 5 Billion but oh dear missed its mark. Last May, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress that the Airborne laser's range was well short of the minimum requirement of 200 km. Future tests will try longer shots, but it looks like the chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) used just can't deliver death rays through the atmosphere. The laser's bulk has limitations and the nose on this transport only had Room for 6 of the 8 to 14 laser modules the design asked for. Oops. The project began in 1996 but just does not deliver. What was used to blast two missiles out of the sky?

13) A 4,000-year-old Greenland man just entered the scientific debate over the origins of prehistoric populations in the Americas. A nearly complete sequence of nuclear DNA extracted from strands of the long-dead man’s hair — the first such sequence obtained from an ancient person — highlights a previously unknown and relatively recent migration of northeastern Asians into the New World about 5,500 years ago, scientists say. His remains were found at a site from this culture, the earliest known people to have inhabited Greenland. What was this ancient Artic culture called?

The First Question - 2 March 2010

This week's panel

Koach Ditko, Valiant Westland, Gus Plisskin, KarenKate Sands

Quotes

The secret of living in peace with all people lies in the art of understanding each one by his own individuality. -Friedrich Ludwig Jahn

Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't. -Richard Bach

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact. -William James

Word-UP of the week – “Damnitol” -- A prescription drug that I take when things just get too awful to bear and I just want to give up. -Koach Ditko

Questions

For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv

1) The company slogan is” Saving the earth- one Beer at a time” And if you want to feel good about yourself while tossing back a brewski but can’t always manage to separate the recyclables, this might just be for you, Eric Fitch believes he’s found a way to brew success by turning the waste grain used to make beer into clean energy. . This company is in the midst of constructing a 2 billion BTU digester adjacent to the The Magic Hat Brewing Co. in South Burlington, Vt., where it will take the remnants of the beer fermentation process and break it down into methane. What is the name of this 2 year old start up?

2) Google been compared to Wal-mart – but Wal-Mart does not have a green energy czar, and Google does – so there. They also have developed a prototype for a new mirror technology that could cut by half the cost of building a solar thermal plant, and have an internal prototype as of this writing. Google has been investing in companies and doing research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy, and wants to cut the cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that track the sun. They might even be sold at Wal-marts one day, if this man can bring down the costs sufficiently enough - who is the green man at Google?

3) We had mentioned the use of UAV drones used in the military to help police find dangerous criminals in the UK now one has made its first arrest - Nicknamed "the flying saucepan" The drone was deployed to try to find an alleged offender who escaped in thick fog. Using the on-board camera and thermal-imaging technology, the operator was able to pick up the suspect through his body heat and direct foot patrols to his location hiding in bushes in Merseyside The battery-powered device is designed to hover almost silently above crime scenes and send live footage to officers on the ground, – how old was the culprit the police captured with military style reconnaissance?

4) This 1000-day mark might just be achievable, since this mission will be simpler & cheaper than one with a human onboard as there wont be life support systems, the spacecraft will therefore be a lot less complex. NASA has a cool video showing a robot landing on the moon which will be controlled by all kind of scientists using telepresence suits down here, all looking for interesting things using high definition visors, and able to move just like they would move on planet Earth. It won't work for Mars, but the communication delay of only three seconds will work beautifully on the Moon. What is the mission that will land a robotic telepresence on the moon in 1000 days?

5) It was way before ET was asked to call home, but this novel series from the late 50’s won a Retro Hugo Award. James Blish’s “Earthman, Come Home” describes the political and social conditions in the near future where entire cities could fly. The book is notable for the detailed way in which it handles technology, providing a mathematical explanation of the principles behind this anti-gravity device, the name of which became popular and was used subsequently. It was based on principles contained in an equation of a British physicist of the mid-20th century. Blish's take was that if rotation + mass produce magnetism via gravity, then rotation + magnetism could produce anti-gravity. The field created by it is described as altering the magnetic moment of any atom within its influence. What is this device called?

6). In James Cameron's hit movie Avatar, the Na'avi people of Pandora are able to "bond" with other creatures on their world, through the fine fibers at the end of what looks like a ponytail There is some research to suggest that bacteria living in ocean sediments connect to each other by a network of microbial nanowires, In a similar process discovered and called "electrical symbiosis". Researchers believe that these fine protein filaments move electrons back and forth, allowing a community of organisms to act like a single entity. . Where has this magic discovery been made?

7) This vehicle converts the rowing motion of the driver and any passengers into rotational thrust to charge a battery and power the vehicle in conjunction with an electric motor.Row row row your car! And as an added bonus can also be used to store energy and act as a backup power generator. The brainchild of Charles Samuel Greenwood who first hit upon the idea for a human powered car some 40 years ago. Sitting in a traffic jam in Silicon Valley.. While it is capable of reaching higher speeds it is limited to 25mph to comply with the Neighborhood electric vehicle classification. A report on CNN showed four people rowing for a couple of minutes generated enough electricity to power a PC for well over an hour. What is it called?

8) You live in a Western country and you feel charitable, but you want to feel that your contribution is going to go towards the good You want it to -On this site you're able to look through a list of dozens of projects and put your money directly into the ones that interest you the most, whether it's delivering solar-rechargeable digital hearing aids or getting solar study lanterns to students in Nigeria. It's quite an amazing array of emerging survival and sustainable living tools - It’s mission statement is to "connect breakthrough technologies with the people who need them the most" – and the website links producers with potential distribution organizations, while financing the buying through donations. What is the name of this brilliant philanthropic portal?

9) A United States Navy report recently indicated that, as military robots become more complex, there should be greater attention to implications of their ability to make autonomous decisions. This conversation started over 50 years ago. And In 1965, I. J. Good first wrote of an "intelligence explosion", suggesting that if machines could even slightly surpass human intellect, they could improve their own designs in ways unforeseen by their designers, and thus recursively augment them into far greater intelligences. In 2009, leading computer scientists, artificial intelligence researchers, and roboticists met to discuss the hypothetical possibility that robots could become self-sufficient and able to make their own decisions. What is the 5 syllable word describing robots becoming more capable than the humans who made them?

10) He is a thought leader whose interests in humanity and science run deep. He was a student of Alvin Toffler in New York City, where he was born. He is the developer of Trend Trakker, a systems-approach to geospatial data mining and forecasting . He is CEO & Chairman of the Institute for Global Futures He has advised three White House administrations. And worked on nanotechnology with the National Science Foundation. He is the founder of FutureLab, and also a part of the Singularity University, He is author of the books Technofutures and The Extreme Future. When Pooky recently read an interview with him about Surrogates their importance and future in our modern society, she knew he had to be an answer on the show. Who is “one of the world’s greatest minds” also known as Dr. Future?

11) Dr Canton continues to inspire through the next question- Fujitsu programmed 'independence.' And using "A-Life" technology, and it’s advanced computer research center a few years ago, created a computer pet for children ages six and older, a dolphin-bird creature who inhabits the beautiful and mystical planet Teo. No mere point-and-click cartoon figure; this has his own thoughts and feelings, and responds to others in his own unique way through the SmartSensor device, a small sphere which sits on top of the computer monitor and captures audio and motion commands. He is a unique creature which lives in a virtual world in the computer, has intelligence, emotions and personality, deepening his relationship with those who care for him What is this advanced surrogate pet called?

12)Using interpretation of "ambiguous designs" to assess an individual's personality is an idea that goes back to Leonardo da Vinci

The First Question - 23 February 2010

This week's panel

DrM Magic, TributeTim Kwak, Saxet Uralia, Shock Soderstrom

Quotes

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.
-Henry Ward Beecher

Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals.
-Agnes Repplier

Word-UP of the week – “Saxadent Urina” - It's the wet spritz you get in your pants when laughing at Sax. I may have just had a saxadent urnina.
-Saxet Uralia -

Questions

For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv

1) As you might know I have a background in baking and once had in fact a cookie company, and although I got my start with Aunt Lee Millions of girls baked their first cookies, cupcakes and brownies because of this man who just passed. Upon returning to Cincinatti, this toy salesman wondered aloud whether his company could develop a toy version of the chestnut roasters seen in New York City. Much of his experimentation was conducted in his own kitchen before he finally settled on the concept that made the idea both safe and practical by deciding to use a light bulb to heat the oven. The Easy-Bake Oven entered the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2006. About 20million Easy-Bake Ovens have been sold – who invented it?

2) This has been swiftly and secretly negotiated by most of the first world and more Documents from these talks have leaked online, appropriately enough. Internet service providers could be compelled to constantly sift through their customers' data looking for copyright transgressions. ISPs told New Scientist in December that such technology will not only slow downloads, but puts in place technology that could be used for snooping and censorship. In France, the government has already introduced a measure along these lines. It was declared unconstitutional, but the government then amended it and introduced it again. What is the name of this International Act?

3) Billiards has a long and rich history from the wrapping of the body of Mary, Queen of Scots in her billiard table cover to the dome on Thomas Jefferson's home Monticello, which conceals a billiard room he hid, as this was illegal in Virginia when he lived there- now, The Dynasty is a very 21st Century take on the billiard table. At $100,000 It’s a very sharp looking centerpiece for the games room. And at that price should sharpen your cue stick for you -The owner of the first known indoor billiard table if he was alive today- would undoubetdly have one – who would that have been?

4) A tweeting tree has been presented at Sony Erisson and though we have done questions on plants that tweet when they need water before – this is a bit different. This Twittering Tree senses changes in the electromagnetic field around it as people pass, and sends Tweets that reflect its mood directly to its account, ConnectedTree “This tree also reacts to people’s presence and movements by playing music, speaking and turning on and off lights.” Where did the tree make its debut?

5) A case has been filed by Blake J Robbins against his childs school district in Pennsylvania - accusing School-issued laptops of spying on children both at school and at home. The suit states that Administrators were able to activate the laptop's webcam at will, and take pictures of children and their families. The issue came up when the Robbins' child was disciplined by the school for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. If this is the case, we were made aware of this by Cory Doctorow, writing in his 2008 book of what name?

6) Amazing visuals and they don’t only come out at night – MIT's SENSEable City Lab and Aerospace Robotics and Embedded Systems Laboratory otherwise known as ARES has created remotely-controlled, self-organizing micro-helicopters and each one has small LEDs and can act as a "smart pixel". They can be digitally synchronized to perform elaborate and synchronized choreographies" in three-dimensional space. According to the leader of the project E. Roon Kang - It's like when Winnie the Pooh hits a beehive: a swarm of bees comes out and chases him while changing its configuration to resemble different things- What is the name of the micro helicopters who create the big pictures?

7) It started as a solar powered device to make oxygen for breathing and hydrogen to power vehicles on Mars. It created a lot of buzz on 60 minutes too – It is electricity generating fuel cell box designed to sit in the back yard and provide enough power to reliably, more cleanly and cheaply power a house. it’s fuel cell is built from an extremely cheap ceramic material – sand. The ceramic disks that form the core of the Box are painted with special “inks” –. As the ions are pulled through the solid core, the resulting electrochemical reaction creates electricity. What is the name of this fuel cell that has been powering a Google data-center for the past 18 months, and which eBay claims have saved them over $100,000 in electricity costs .?

8) This is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backwards onto a track that is meant to be played forwards. It has been a controversial topic in the United States since the 1980s, when allegations from Christian groups of its use for Satanic purposes were made against prominent rock musicians, leading to record-burning protests and proposed legislation by state and federal governments. Whether these messages exist is in debate, as is whether it can be used subliminally to affect listeners. what kind of technique is this called?

9) We spoke of d3o’s use in the Olyimpics and Spyders use of this remarkable material which actually is soft and flexible throughout the day, but hardens up instantly under impact. d3o's claim to fame is that it's made from a dilatant substance - that is, one in which viscosity increases with the rate of shear. it's highly flexible when moved slowly, but if you try to move it fast - for example, by banging it with a hammer, it hardens up. What is the very common household substance which when mixed with water shows the same principles, when stirring it slowly is easy, but as you try to stir it faster, it becomes very thick and viscous.

10)A company in Japan has developed a machine that shreds paper and then converts the waste into readily usable toilet paper. Shred paper, add water, and in about 30 minutes it is thinned out enough to provide you with one roll of toilet paper. It might not be Charmins- but it is a significant step towards a greener office space. The entire process is automated, so it's definitely a big convenience. Not the easy make or shake and bake Toilet paper house as it is kind of large in size-It's set to go on sale this summer in Japan for a price of about US$100,000. What is the name of this very promising piece of office equipment?

11) Hand sanitizers just took another leap forward - plasma quickly inactivates not only bacteria but also viruses and fungi... Plasmas engineered to zap microorganisms aren’t new. But use on human tissue took a leap of faith -Many thousands of volts drive the generation of plasma,” and normally one doesn’t want to touch thousands of volts.” During the last decade, they have come into use to sterilize some medical instruments. A researcher at the Max Planck Institute for what kind of physics put his thumb into a jet of microbe-destroying plasma at the lab to test & survived ?

12) Currently cornstarch is fermented and converted into ethanol, but ethanol derived from corn produces more greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline does. A recent breakthrough which can break down turn fruit peels using a plant – derived enzyme cocktail is proving very promising. Breaking orange peels down into sugar than ethanol could create about 200 million gallons In Florida alone. This Florida professor has as his goal gasoline as a secondary fuel. His team cloned genes from wood-rotting fungi and produced enzymes in tobacco plants . instead of manufacturing synthetics reduces the costs by a thousand times. Who is this ethanol visionary?

13) the greenest Olympics ever". Is what can be boasted because this waterfront building is housing the media hub for the Winter Olympics. When Vancouver won the competition to host the games, one of the most awe-inspiring initiatives has to be the redesign of this building- environmentally sustainable, boasting green electricity a seawater heating and cooling system and the largest "living roof" in Canada populated with 40,000 plants and grasses and its own colony of bees. It hopes to generate more than $2 billion in economic activity and to boost Vancouver's tourism industry. What is the first convention center in the world to be awarded Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®)? (the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Center

The First Question - 16 February 2010

Point of Interest

I would like to make a statement of the rules regarding show policy for The 1st Question - This is the section: Attendance Policy - We are a closed access - if you wish to bring someone onto the show in the audience please submit the name to Zoe Hexicola enolazoe@aol.com. The show is available to watch on the Internet live, but we need to screen our live audience.

Thank you so much for supporting the show and being a part of this. The Best Audience Anywhere!

This week's panel

Sonicity Fitzroy, Rhett Linden, RamonaPringle Avon, Roxxor Foxley

Quotes

All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgerize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level. -William Bernbach

Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations; reality is therefore abandoned. -Emile Durkheim

Word-UP of the week - Reminiscience -- the science of fabricating and "inserting" memories for those who suffer amnesia or would like to replace personal, painful memories, with original, custom crafted narrative histories.-RamonaPringle Avon

Questions

For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv

1) Advertising Research found that very few people are satisfied with the amount of family-oriented programming, And most parents would go out of their way to find better. In a marriage made in Family moment heaven, which is aptly enough the campaign title, two huge companies teamed up to produce "Secrets of The Mountain," a movie set to debut on NBC in April. . Name one or both of the two household names who are launching a marketing, in-store and digital initiative designed to promote family entertainment options, including a family game night - which of course The 1st Question hopes to be a part of.

2) This toy might ruin your life - but I sure wish I had it when I was a kid -Soon your every move can be captured Pre-loaded with three apps including night vision- kids can park the remote-controlled vehicle in a strategic location and lie in wait for unsuspecting family members. When the motion alarm app is downloaded the camera can be used as a sensor and they can also capture the person's photo, trigger the alarm and set off an audio alert Like "BUSTED!!" . The vehicle will then automatically return to the driver before it can be seized by the enemy. It be released in October of this year so you have until then Name this toy...

3) It is a six legged robot and was recently a star at The Emotibot exhibit running at the London Science Museum, as it has remarkable software that allows it to interact with human beings in an emotionally expressive way. If aggressively confronted, it backs away but If a person hold's it's gaze for a few seconds, their picture is uploaded to its website. Prototypes were used in the making of two Harry Potter films; they co-starred as Hagrid's pets. It is a six-legged robot invented by Matt Denton. What is its name?

4) It is an online publication with a low tech name though it is focused on anything but. Founded in 1996 by Dr. Thomas Pabst it is owned by Bestofmedia Group company, one of the top three online publishers for technology in the world. It provides articles, and a lot more on high tech The site features coverage on CPUs, motherboards, and computer peripherals.. Pooky learned how to build an LED nightlight from it. Though I don't think you used the "Build your Own computer" section Its readers are top of the line tekkies too - It is Published in several languages what is the name of it?

5) The ability to speak one language and have it instantly translated is a dream of tourists the world over - especially anyone visiting France. This company has something to help us in the works; they are building on their text translation software, which covers 52 languages, and on their voice recognition software. Progress in machine translation and voice recognition will make this happen sooner than later. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy had the babel fish - & even The original Star Trek series featured a universal translator. What company might very well have a translator phone soon?

6) This new building material would be right at home in any Shire- Mushroom tissue will eagerly devour pasteurized wood chips. As the fungus digests and transforms, it solidifies into a mass of interlocking cells, slowly becoming denser and taking form. Like plaster or cement, mushrooms can be cast into almost any shape. Mushrooms digest cellulose and transform it into chitin, the same material that insect shells are made from. The skin itself is incredibly hard, shatter resistant, and can handle enormous amounts of compression. PS it is also nontoxic, fireproof and mold-resistant. What is the name of this architectural forms with fungus

7)They zap mosquito's don't they? Assembled technology used in printers, digital cameras and projectors can now shoot down mosquitoes by the hundreds in mid-flight. This was demonstrated at a TED talk by the way. After hundreds of mosquitoes were released into a glass tank, a laser tracked their movements and slowly shot them down anywhere between 50 to 100 mosquitoes per second. The laser detection is so precise that it can specify the gender. The company's head Nathan Myhrvold credits a 2008 brainstorming session on killing malaria-bearing mosquitoes with the idea for a 'Star Wars-style' anti mosquito weapon. what is the name of his enterprise?

8) Many magazines in the 19th century published series about that mythic time known as "the Future" germinating the genre which would become science fiction. This was published in 1898 intending to be a sequel to "Fighters from Mars",where it's hero travels- his inventions include the first dis-integrator ray This was perhaps the first space opera, although the term did not yet exist The book contains some notable "firsts" in science fiction: alien abductions, spacesuits (called "air-tight suits"), aliens building the Pyramids, space battles and oxygen pills. Written by Garrett P. Serviss what was it called?

9) Last year's winner was The Automist a major advance in home safety basically. A sprinkler system delivered through the faucet in your kitchen. The world's most prestigious student competition and though not a recruiting exercise, many entrants have gone on to work for its founder. and many others have quickly established new design practices as a result.- What is the name of this award which is currently accepting entries?

10) More data, faster computers Moores law and the need for more bandwidth has seen conventional wires impractical at higher frequencies. A possible solution is to use optics not just for sending data, but also to store information and perform calculations. If this to have a future, researchers will need to find a cheap and effective way to integrate optical and electronic components onto silicon chips. Disproving previous beliefs in the matter, MIT researchers have demonstrated the first laser built from this which can perform optical communications... This substance can be manipulated to work - what has been discovered to be "optics-friendly" possibly advancing out digital age?

11) Imagine being able to check your email on any blank wall, simply by drawing an @ sign in the air with your finger or Just put your thumbs and forefingers together to make a picture frame & snap. The inventor who presented at TEDIndia in 2009 was given last years Invention Award by Popular Science The latest prototype of 6th sense is a small camera which acts as a digital eye and projector combination (about the size of a cigarette pack) worn around the neck of the user. An accompanying smartphone handles the connection to the internet. "You can turn any surface around you into an interactive one, it is a wearable, gesture-driven computing platform that can continually augment the physical world with digital information. Who is behind this?

12)When giants collide - Facebook is clearly leading the pack in the mobile Internet race. Google likes to compete with a very clear elephant in the room mentality. And so the first salvo has been fired in the brewing war between Google and Facebook for social media dominance - Google has unleashed this real time, privacy killing, real time sharing, Picasa filling, conversation enabling and mega new user alert blaring service. It hasn't debuted to the best of press- what is it called?

13) The Economist described his influence 5 years ago and it still holds true but more so now-because he has become a major celebrity among geeks worldwide, who read his blog religiously. & Impressively, he has also succeeded where small armies of more conventional public-relations types have been failing - He is a legend, he is a measurable unit on twitter, an egoblogger and a genius- he helped his mother build mac computers starting at age 11. He launched fastcompany.tv and is the greatest technical evangelist there is - Who is in the top 5 of The 1st Question's most wanted?

14) The game, created originally in 1860 simulates a person's travels through his or her life, from college to retirement, with jobs, marriages and children (or not) along the way. This was the first game created by Milton Bradley, Like many from the 19th century, such as the The Mansion of Happiness it had a strong moral message. Essentially a modified checkerboard, The Game of Life in 1963 had some differences. and It was advertised as a "A Full 3-D Action Game." Sounds familiar - the original version however did not include dice, (to discourage any notions of gambling) but instead used a a six sided top called what?

15) In 1957, a market researcher claimed that quickly flashing messages on a movie screen, influenced people to purchase more food and drinks thus coining the term subliminal advertising. 5 years later he admitted to lying, the story itself being a marketing ploy. However, before the confession, his claims led to a public outcry, and to many conspiracy theories so the practice of subliminal advertising was banned. In 2007, to mark the 50th anniversary of the original experiment, it was recreated. As part of a "Hypnosis, subconscious triggers and branding" presentation for marketers. 1,400 delegates were exposed to 30 subliminal cuts over a 90 second period. When asked to choose one of two fictitious brands, 81% of the delegates picked the brand suggested. Who was the original Subliminal man, the market researcher who started it all?

The First Question - 9 February 2010

This week's panel

Kenny Hubble, Charlene Trudeau, Arkowitz Jonson & Blotter Republic

Quotes

Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance. -W. Clement Stone

Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living. -Nicholas Negroponte

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. -Emo Philips

Word-UP of the week -“Impromptubleep.” A swear word or string of swear words created on the fly to fit a given situation -Charlene Trudeau

Questions

For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv

1) By 2030, a third of all Japanese citizens will be over 65. they're developing an astounding array of robotics to keep the country producing and are light years ahead of the West where all trends point to similar demographic trends. When you also need something to love, create a robot pet. and they have one that behaves as much as possible like a real animal, enjoying cuddles and pats, complaining for attention or 'food' (a battery charge), and reacting with fear and anger to being hit. Gradually learning to respond to whatever name you keep calling him, as well as various other audio cues. But without all the muss. Which animal not a cat or dog, was chosen to make your heart melt and keep you company?

2)It is a compound of almost pure silicon dioxide; the spray forms a layer that can be cleaned with water alone. It creates a film and over a sterile surface can provide complete protection. The patent for the technology is owned by a German company, Nanopool. It provides an easy-clean coating hundreds of times thinner than a human hair, protecting the surface against water, dirt, bacteria, heat and UV radiation. What is this substance the National health Service, a designer clothing company and a German branch of a hamburger chain are all investigating for use

3)Jim Morrison sang 'Come on come on and touch me baby” he might have been singing about the new multi touch technology which is both prevalent and popular. This Portuguese company has just announced the development of a “skin” based on capacitive technology, a thinner-than-paper polymer film that turns about any surface, into an interactive touch screen display. The technology works by a grid of nanowires placed throughout the film. These input signals are then passed to a microprocessor that analyzes the data and determines the exact location where the contact took place. What is the name of the company that has created hypersensitive lightweight “skin” with a transparency rate of 98% able to locate 16 fingers at a single time.?

4)In 1995 Sandia National Laboratories, bought one of the world's first commercial 3D haptic devices, and began developing software for it. Tom Anderson led the project until 2000 at which point he founded Novint which acquired an exclusive license and began commercialization. Novint developed the Falcon -which can be used to feel objects and events in video games, giving the player a more immersive experience. Now it has developed something ithat will track your spatial hand movements in 3D and activate your fave apps and media with a wave of your hand. The result is an intelligent product concept with unlimited possibilities. What is it called?

5)200 megabits per second for wireless data transfer was faster than what your grandfather might have seen however we have a whole new level of expectation today. This Electronic engineering company just broke their own record by achieving 500 Mbps using white LED light. Although invisible to the human eye, they can be read by a photodetector receiver, which converts them into electrical pulses. This type of data transfer is known as Visible Light Communication, or VLC. And when it comes to highly-sensitive data, VLC would be a good choice because its signal can’t be tapped. What company has broken its own record?

6) People in some developing countries have been known to walk for three hours just to find an outlet from which to charge a mobile phone, electricity is that scare . This four-girl team began as one of many groups in an engineering sciences class at Harvard. They created a prototype soccer ball that captures kinetic energy through an inductive coil mechanism when it is kicked or thrown, then stores it in an internal battery and makes that energy available for a myriad of small but useful purposes. In other words, it’s a fun, portable energy-harvesting power source What is the name of the team or the ball which will created energy?

7) Elysia chlorotica is unusual. Not content to eat algae that have mastered the art of photosynthesis, it actually appears to have stolen the genes that make it possible. It converts sunlight to energy all by itself. They can make their energy-containing molecules without having to eat anything, Under study for 20 years it has been determined that these multicellar animals have been able to produce chlorophyll. As long as a light is shined on them for 12 hours a day, they can survive without food. What kind of creature are they?

8)NASA and General Motors have partnered up before -in the '60s developing navigation systems for the Apollo missions, and also in the development of the first vehicle to be used on the moon – the Lunar Rover. Now they team up to build a new robot dexterous enough to use the same tools as humans, allowing them to work safely alongside humans on Earth or in space. Love the word safely. It can use its hands to do work beyond the scope of prior humanoid machines. Working side by side with humans, or going where the risks are too great for people, machines will expand our capability for construction and discovery. This is version 2. What is this robot called?

9) Hybrid cars and EVs rely on batteries for power, but batteries are bulky and heavy, causing the car to use up more energy. But what if a car's bodywork was made of a strong, lightweight material that could store and discharge electrical energy like a battery does? In pursuing this goal we could think wafer thin mobile phones and laptops that don't need a separate battery because they draw power from their casing. The prototype material is a composite of carbon fibers and a polymer resin which can store and discharge large amounts of energy much faster than conventional batteries. What college has its researchers all aglow on this new skin?

10) Colony Collapse disorder is potentially life threatening and not just to the bees- So the introduction of this bee might be a life saver. These bees are unaffected by CCD and they're better at pollinating than honeybees so you need less of them. Because they're fast fliers, and remain active in poor weather, instead of living in colonies with assigned roles, each bee lives an independent existence, and all the females lay eggs. And a great number of bees will gladly cohabitate in a relatively small bee house. Because they don't form societies, or produce wax, they don't live in hives. Instead, each bee finds an already-existent tubular hole and moves in with their Nirvana CD collection and begins to rock out. Sorry no, its not a dorm room – its a bee house, who lives there?

11)The worlds largest thought controlled experiment will be at the Olympics this year. And no its not a rematch of Tonya Harding trying to stare down Nancy Kerrigan. A Toronto-based company has used mind control technology to turn on the lights and is having a special display of this technology for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Their display allows visitors to control lights at Niagara Falls as well as Ottawa’s Parliament building and the CN Tower. Visitors will have to wear a headset to measure the brain’s alpha and beta waves, associated with relaxation, and concentration respectively. And these mental signals are then transmitted over the Internet to change the light patterns..This company is very interested as are we, in using thought control for all kinds of applications. Who are they?

12)For the second year in a row, Dunkin Donuts is inviting us to create our own personal donut, win $12,000 doing so and have this unleashed nationwide. Visitors to the company's website can create a virtual donut masterpiece from a variety of donut flavors, shapes, toppings and fillings now through March 8. Somehow I am not too interested in eating a virtual doughnut, but wait there is more! A dozen finalists will be chosen by a panel of Dunkin' Donuts judges to travel to Dunkin' Donuts University (where they teach sprinkleology) and even more! The Public will also be invited to vote for its favorite finalist &. The grand prize winner will be unveiled on National Donut Day. I know you all have it marked in your calenders- what day is it?

13) It is supposedly the most important number in the world – what scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. (not the number of donuts you can safely eat at one sitting) Two years ago, after leading climatologists observed rapid ice melt in the Arctic and other frightening signs, they issued a series of studies showing that the planet faced both human and natural disaster if atmospheric concentrations of CO2 remained above this many part parts per million. Everyone from Al Gore to the U.N.’s top climate scientist has now embraced this goal as necessary for stabilizing the planet and preventing complete disaster. what number is it?

14) It is a network of smell sensors that are attuned to particular chemical molecules. If a person walks past them with some sort of hazardous material - let's say, an explosive device - this tracks that person's movement and will alert security personnel . There are oscillating crystals on the sensor chips, and whenever the electronic noses capture chemical molecules, their frequency changes. . What is this smell system called that is capable of tracking hidden explosives?

15)Sonitus Medical is creating a revolutionary new hearing aid - This hearing system transmits sound to the inner ear via the teeth and consists of a small unit worn behind the ear and an in-the-mouth hearing device that is custom made to fit. The ear unit captures the sound and wirelessly transmits the signals to the mouth device, which sends imperceptible vibrations via the teeth. After the sound has been processed it uses a wireless chip to transmit the signals to the in the mouth device – what is this product being marketed as?

16) Commander Shepard, leads a crew of operatives from around the entire galaxy on a potentially suicidal mission. Its not a movie its Electronic Art's new game. BioWare had been promoting the event through its 5 million registered users, as well as through Twitter and Facebook. These kinds of titles have broadened the appeal and relevance of gaming overall within pop-culture while demonstrating that some game releases can even surpass the revenues generated by the movie industry. As competition heats up for consumer share-of-mind, bigger splash is needed to announce new gaming titles – which sequel debuted recently from BioWare?

17) A one-of-a-kind "personal Internet viewer," this device is designed to let you pull all sorts of information from its 7-inch touch screen. Not portable: it's designed to be placed in your bedroom, kitchen or office, where you can choose among 1,000 (and counting) completely free applications using your Wi-Fi Internet connection It also supports multiple user profiles and channels, so different household members can create and maintain their own customized views of the Internet and check for them in an easy way. Unveiled at CES 2010 by SONY what is it called?