NASA scours E-Bay to fix broken rocket ships

NASA is looking for ancient computer parts as spares for its ageing fleet of space shuttles. The shuttles operate on 20-year-old computer systems, using parts that are no longer made. The agency is looking for old computers and parts anywhere they can, including Internet auction sites. Especially needed are Intel 8086 processors and 8-inch floppy disks, dating from the early 1980s.
Source: BBC News

Telephone thief

Scottish innovator Alexander Graham Bell was not the inventor of the telephone, according to a recent U.S. Congress proclamation. Congress credits Antonio Meucci, an Italian immigrant to New York, with the original innovation. The inspiration came to Meucci in the 1830s when he was experimenting with electroshock therapy in Cuba—he noticed that sound could be communicated electrically by wire when he heard the screams of a patient from another room through the electric equipment. Meucci demonstrated a working prototype of the telephone in 1860 in New York, but could not afford the money to patent his idea. When he tried to sell it to Western Union, the company wasn’t interested. However, in 1876, Bell (who had worked for Western Union) patented and publicized the telephone.
Sources: CBC Radio, The Guardian

Shrinkage

New research from Finland suggests that microwave radiation from cellular phones can damage cells that make up blood vessels by interfering with certain structural proteins, causing the cells to shrink. Previous speculation that microwave radiation could harm mobile phone users had been dismissed in recent years because the radiation is too weak to induce heating or to break molecular bonds. The shrinkage effect is thought to be a normal reaction when cells are injured, but it could allow toxins from the blood to enter brain tissue.
Source: NewScientist.com

Always in touch

Students at the Royal College of Art in London have proposed a miniature telephone receiver small enough to be implanted in a person’s tooth during a simple dental procedure. Although the model does not actually work, its designers say the technology exists today to make such a device receive wireless signals and communicate sounds to the wearer’s ear by inducing vibrations in the jaw bone.
Source: BBC News

ANNOUNCEMENT!

Astronomy lecture and tour
July 4, 9:00 p.m.
McClennan Physical
Laboratories
Rm. 134