APPLE'S FIRST MACINTOSH TURNS 25

MSN UK's technology editor Jane Douglas, who also turned 25 this year, pits her PC against an early MacThe Macintosh - the first Apple computer to bear the name - turns 25 on 24 January.The machine debuted in 1984 and kicked off a product line that were Apple's flagship computers for many years.The Macintosh helped popularise the combination of graphical interface and mouse that is ubiquitous today.The machine was unveiled using a hugely expensive TV advert, directed by film maker Ridley Scott and shown during the US Superbowl on 22 January 1984 

Desktop pioneer 

The project to create the Macintosh was started by legendary computer maker Jef Raskin and the original machine had a 9in screen in an upright beige case, 128k of RAM, internal floppy drive, and came with keyboard and single-button mouse.Apple had previously produced computers using a graphical user interface (GUI), such as the Apple Lisa. But those machines cost far more than the original Macintosh.Although Microsoft had launched its operating system - MS DOS - in 1981 it was not until 1985, a year after the Macintosh made its debut, that it introduced its own GUI, Microsoft Windows. However, this did not enjoy significant popularity until the advent of Windows 3.x in 1990The Macintosh's relatively low price tag of £1,840 ($2,495) made it very affordable, said Mark Hattersley, editor in chief of Macworld UK. "It was a hugely popular machine," said Mr Hattersley."It took desktop computing away from IBM and back to Apple for a good number of years," he said. "It brought the notion of the desktop graphical interface to the mass market." The "Macintosh" moniker was reportedly taken from the name of Mr Raskin's favourite Apple - the McIntosh.However, this form of the name had to be altered to avoid legal wrangles with another company already trading under that name. Once successors to the first Macintosh were introduced by Apple, the original machine was re-badged as the 128k version.The initial production run of the first Macintosh reputedly have the signatures of the design team burned in to the inside of the case.In the UK, science-fiction author author Douglas Adams was the first to buy one of the original Macintosh machines. Second in line was Stephen Fry.Sadly, he said, he no longer possesses the early machine. 

He told the BBC: "Oh I wish I still had it. I remember giving it away in 1986 to a primary school in a village in Norfolk."Apple has retained the Macintosh name for many of its products - in particular the shortened form re-emerged in 1998 with the launch of the iMac.  
The Macintosh name re-appeared with the iMac in 1998Jason Fitzpatrick, from the Centre for Computing History in Haverhill, said that it was now hard to find a working 25-year old Macintosh. Many, he said, have suffered what is known as "bit rot" in which the memory chips inside the machine decay, leading to a gradual loss of functionality.Kevin Murrell, director of the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, said it had many working Apple machines even older than the 25-year-old Mac. 

Swap shop 

Even new, he said, the Macintoshes had their quirks. The external hard drive available for later versions of the Macintosh had to be placed on the left side of the machine to avoid interference with its power supply. The lack of hard drive meant that anyone working with the machine had save everything on a floppy disk, leading to an awful lot of disk swapping.But despite this, he said, many people had very fond memories of the time they spent with an original Macintosh.

GENETIC TEST FOR HEART DISEASE AND CANCER RISK

Customers who order DecodeMe’s genetic tests receive the kit pictured above. The black wand is scraped against the inside of the cheek to collect cells for DNA analysis.From car makers to cosmetic surgeons, everyone is scrambling to develop and market more economical products--and the consumer-genetics industry is no exception. DecodeMe, a division of Iceland-based Decode Genetics, launched two new services this week: a test that detects genetic variations associated with different cardiovascular diseases, and a screen that detects genetic variations linked to the risk of developing various cancers. At $195 and $225, respectively, the new tests are cheaper than Decode's genome-wide screen, which for $985 assesses genetic risk for 34 diseases and traits ranging from diabetes to male-pattern baldness. "We wanted to give people an opportunity to buy a test that would only address their needs," says Kari Stefansson, Decode's president and cofounder.

But the same question that has plagued direct-to-consumer genetic testing since its inception remains: the clinical utility of such screens. "We have not sorted out what the best approach is for dealing with prostate-cancer risk in the normal population, much less in those who are at some increased risk," says James Evans, a physician and geneticist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He says that the same is true for other types of cancer.

The first test--deCODEme Cardio--detects eight genetic variations, known as single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), associated with the risk of heart attack, intracranical and abdominal aortic aneurysm, stroke and atrial fibrillation, peripherial arterial disease, and venous thromboempolism (clots in blood vessels). The second test--deCODEme Cancer--measures 29 SNPs associated with the risk of prostate, lung, bladder, colorectal, and breast cancers, as well as basal cell carcinoma.

The variations detected by the Decode tests clearly do increase risk of these diseases--in most cases, the link has been replicated numerous times. But they each boost risk of disease by a modest amount: typically 20 percent or less. In contrast, mutations in the BRCA1 gene, which physicians often screen for in women with a family history of breast cancer, boost a woman's risk of developing breast cancer to between three and seven times that of someone who lacks the mutation. While the latter can help physicians recommend preventative measures, such as a mastectomy, it's not yet clear how common variations of moderate effect can help shape an individual's plan for prevention or treatment of disease.

VIRUS REBUILDS DAMAGED NERVES

Genetically engineered viruses could form a scaffold for nerve cells.This fiber is made of billions of viruses and is being studied as a tissue-engineering scaffold. The fiber helps progenitor cells grow into neurons.Viruses that mimic supportive nerve tissue may someday help regenerate injured spinal cords. While other tissue-engineering materials must be synthesized and shaped in the lab, genetically engineered viruses have the advantage of being self-replicating and self-assembling. They can be designed to express cell-friendly proteins on their surfaces and, with a little coaxing, be made into complex tissuelike structures. Preliminary studies show that scaffolds made using a type of virus called a bacteriophage (or phage) that infects bacteria but cannot invade animal cells can support the growth and organization of nerve cells.

Researchers working on tissue engineering hope to eventually be able to use a patient's own cells to grow replacement tissue for damaged hearts, livers, and nerves. But mimicking the structure and function of the body's tissue has proved difficult. Matrices of supportive, fibrous proteins sustain the cells of the heart, lungs, and other tissues in the body. These scaffolds provide both structural support and chemical signals that enable an organ or nerve tissue to function properly.

Some biological engineers are using scaffolds made of polymers to try to mimic the supportive matrix of real tissue. Seung-Wuk Lee, a bioengineer at the University of California, Berkeley, has turned to viruses instead. "Viruses are smart materials," he says. "Once you construct the genome, you can make billions of phages, and they're self-replicating materials." The phage that Lee is working with, called M13, is long and thin like the protein fibers that make up the cellular matrices inside the body.

First, Lee and his colleague Anna Merzlyak genetically engineered M13 to display nerve-friendly proteins on their outer coats. These proteins are known to help nerve cells proliferate, adhere, and extend into long fiberlike shapes. Next, the researchers grew large numbers of the viruses in bacterial-cell hosts and dropped them into a solution containing neural-progenitor cells. These cells are more fully developed than stem cells but are still young and need coaxing to form new tissues. In the solution, the viruses align themselves like a liquid crystal, says Lee. He and Merzlyak used pipettes to inject the solution into agar, a Jell-O-like cell-culture medium, creating long, nerve-like fibers of the virus interspersed with cells. The progenitor cells then multiplied and grew the long branches characteristic of neurons. Lee says that the phage are well suited to making long, fiberlike structures such as nerve tissue but can also be made into more complex structures by varying their concentration or manipulating their position with a magnetic field.

Lee is not the first to use a virus as an engineering material. Other researchers have used the same virus to build battery electrodes. Using the virus in this way was pioneered by Angela Belcher, now a professor of materials science and engineering and of biological engineering at MIT, and was the basis of Lee's graduate work while he was in her lab. Genetically engineered phages have already been approved as an antibacterial food preservative by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for use in lunch meats like bologna, for example. Phages are also under study as a potential treatment for chronic bacterial infections.

MIT Institute Professor Robert Langer says that Lee's work is interesting from a materials perspective, but he cautions that its practicality must be established through in vivo studies.

Lee says that his group plans to establish the safety of phage scaffolds in live animals next. M13 has a good safety record and is not capable of infecting people. Still, the Berkeley researchers will need to investigate how an animal's immune system responds to the viral scaffolds and prove that they encourage nerve regeneration once inside the body. Lee hopes that the viral system will eventually be used to regenerate neurons in patients with spinal-cord injuries.

CHANGE RESOLUTION FOR JAVA GAMES IN YOUR MOBILE

The java games for a particular mobile have fixed resolution
But if you want to change the resolution for the different mobile application you can use the software provided here to change the resolution

This simple "hack", allows running java game developed and optimized for low resolution phones (176*208) like N70 on the high resolution phones (352*416) like N80 or phones with QVGA screens like N93 in full screen mode and its native resolution. Now a have a free PC software that allows editing and changing the screen resolution of Java applications/games to any of the stand.

DOWNLOAD

BEST SPERM FOR THE JOB

Ranking sperm cells could improve the odds of in vitro fertilization.Alistair Elfick demonstrates a technology called Raman spectroscopy, which uses laser light to identify chemical changes--in this case, it finds sperm with the best DNA.Some approaches to in vitro fertilization involve mixing sperm and egg in a test tube and letting nature take its course. But in about half of all infertility cases, a problem with the man's sperm may require a more direct method. In these cases, a different process, called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), in which a single sperm cell is injected directly into an egg, is sometimes used. With this one-shot opportunity, it's important to choose a sperm cell with the best potential for success. A team at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, has now announced a new technique to ensure that the best sperm win: analyzing their DNA for potential damage beforehand, and choosing those that are structurally sound.

"It's a new development that could be very promising," says Alan Penzias, a reproductive endocrinologist at Boston IVF and Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the research. Penzias explains that current standards for choosing a single sperm cell for an ICSI procedure usually depend on assessing how well the sperm swims; if none of the sperm can swim, a chemical test can find those that are intact and alive. "It's been really pretty crude," he says. 

Alistair Elfick, lead scientist for the Edinburgh team, explains that by choosing a single sperm rather than allowing many sperm to swim to and compete for a place in the egg, "you have very much become the arbiter of the quality of that sperm. So clearly, there's a motivation to have a more rigorous selection procedure." With this new technique, the researchers can rank different sperm and choose the one with the most intact DNA. "The endpoint we're moving towards is having a score of DNA quality," Elfick says. But he adds that the approach is an overall measure of the sperm's health; it's not sensitive enough to pick and choose traits.

The method that Elfick and his colleagues developed relies on Raman spectroscopy, a technique that measures the way that molecules scatter photons from a beam of laser light, revealing the molecules' vibrational properties. In order to probe a single sperm cell with Raman spectroscopy, the researchers first pin it down with optical tweezers--a focused laser beam that is able to "trap" a small object like a living cell. The unique scattering produced by each molecule creates a fingerprint of the contents in a sample, allowing scientists to analyze its chemical makeup. In this application, the researchers use Raman spectroscopy to look at the structure of a sperm cell's DNA and determine whether that DNA is broken or intact. Elfick explains that when DNA breaks, a chemical group forms at the ends of the breaks, and they can be detected with Raman spectroscopy. 

PRINCE OF PERSIA PC GAME RATING

OVERALL RATING:8.8/10

Gameplay: 9.0

Well set up, because you set it up, but an effective and fun combat system. Some control issues if you don't get the mouse the way you like it, but the options are there so you can have a smooth controlling game. Don't worry, you still do the Prince's patented wall runs and some other new nifty moves that make you wish you lived in a land with no real physics.

Graphics: 9.0
Gritty cel-shaded beauty. I like the new look of the franchise and I like the design of the monsters and villians. The game is sharp.

Sound: 8.5
It sounds good, the voice acting is good, but more audio options are needed for those of us surround sound-less.

Difficulty: Medium
You can choose your difficulty and depending on what kind of gamer you are, you will find some challenges, nothing horrible but just enough to keep things interesting.

Concept: 8.5
Its a given that the Prince will run afoul of some really nasty folks and other things, but the game never makes you feel bored. A decent enough plot, even if it is a rehash of many other games; still, this is what it looks like when you have a committed dev team.

Overall: 8.8
This is a heck of a good time to be had on your PC.

PRINCE OF PERSIA PC GAME REVIEW

The Prince of Persia series is something of an aberration in the gaming community. Each new title in the series seems to change things up in one way or another. The prince has taken on decidedly darker tones in some games and in others is practically a comedian. And while I have never obsessed about the series, I always associated them with some well developed talent behind the scenes who were always giving it a good try to make a fun game.So in this iteration, our man the Prince, doesn't seem too princely. He starts off the game getting lost in a sandstorm and losing his donkey that just happens to be loaded down with treasure. The Prince seems more of a vagabond adventurer than a prince, but hey, who am I to complain? The artistic new style of the game melds nicely with the look of our man the prince. Well, no sooner does the storm lift and the Prince is smack dab in a situation that has need for his particular uses.

Prince of Persia takes the series into a whole new visual and gameplay direction. The game has a cel-shaded look to it but with an almost gritty feel to it. The clothing worn on our characters has seen some time under the sun and in the sand. A battle hardened claw glove good for fighting and navigating the terrain gives the Prince a look of somebody who should probably not be messed with. In fact, once the sand storm dissipates and the Prince is face to face with his new partner, Elika, we learn how to use the combat system and exactly what sort of trouble our newly formed pair needs to deal with. And it all looks really cool; the smooth fluid motion of both the Prince and the different enemies is well mapped; the Prince's acrobatic movements as well as Elika's magic, which really lets the sprite effects pop, comes together really nicely. Combined with some genuinely wicked-looking bad guys complete with body parts merged with light in lieu of muscle, and this is shaping up to be a real kick in the pants. 

It seems Elika is a member of a magic-wielding family who has been charged with keeping the Tree of Life temple safe and the mystical tomb of Ahriman in place because, as luck would not have it, the seal has been broken and Ahriman escapes infecting his evil across the four lands. Further death and destruction will occur unless you and Elika restore the lands and Ahriman put back into place. Not an easy task but somehow these things never are. Fortunately for all of us, once you get things going you and Elika work as one, taking on enemies with a combination of sword, clawed hand, acrobatics and Elika's magic. Controlling this is surprisingly easy once you have mapped all the keys to your liking but when applied into actual combat, you can daisy chain combat moves from here to the bottom of a grave (you enemies, that is) and so things don't become boring or repetitive, you can mix and match these moves as well creating even more stunning attacks.

When you aren't in combat, Elika acts as your de facto guardian angel, always snatching you if you miss a jump and begin falling, or in some cases adding to your jumping ability. She is the perfect partner, never in the way but only a button push from aiding you. In all my Prince adventures, this has never worked better, as far as a combat and adventuring control scheme goes. Nice to see a high-octane adventure on the PC working as well as it does here.

Now I did have some problems with the audio portion of the game, I am only running a stereo setup on my PC and with the limited amount of options on the in-game audio, could only hear the voice acting minimally and had to turn down the sound effects and music substantially to do so. I know, I used to have a surround setup on my PC, and clearly this game is designed for that, but there should have been more audio options for those gamers who have a average sound setup. I would probably be praising the audio to no end had I had the 5.1 setup, but in this case I can't, even thought the voice acting was actually quite good, if I did not have the subtitles to read as the characters spoke, I would have been lost in terms of the plot. Other then that hiccup in not having enough options, the sound effects and adventurers score sound loud and well made. Good hard clangs when swords meet and a full lush sounding music theme.

Interestingly enough, the game really scratches that itch for those players out there looking for some big time adventure. I have always thought that the Prince series was a sort of Indiana Jones style adventure only made into a video game. The mystical cities, the magic, the locations filled with danger, yeah, I know that sounds cheesy, but I always thought of it in that way. My current version of the game was downloaded from Steam and I have never been happier with a game from those folks than this time. I've got plenty in my library, but this one is top dog now.

CHINA CLOSES THE CLEAN COAL GAP

The United States and China are both focusing on technologies to clean up coal power.An artist’s concept of China’s first integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant, which is being constructed in LinGang Industrial Park in the Tianjin Binhai New Development Zone.China looks set to overtake the United States in the application of technologies to clean up coal-fired power generation, if several proposed projects come to fruition. GreenGen--a joint venture established by Chinese utilities--has broken ground on China's first integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant and signed agreements to build two more. 

At the same time IGCC is stalled in the US. In February, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) canceled an advanced IGCC technology demonstration project called FutureGen, and climate concerns have paralyzed all but one of 30-plus IGCC projects proposed by U.S. utilities since 2000. 

GreenGen is now the most advanced project of its kind in the world, according to Ming Sung, Beijing-based Asia/Pacific representative for the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit environmental consulting firm based in Boston. "They are ahead because they have completed engineering [and] design, major equipment is selected and on order, and site preparation and foundation [work] has begun," says Ming. 

The oil and gas giant BP reinforced China's position as a clean-coal technology leader last month, by establishing a $73 million research center in Shanghai with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to help commercialize technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and gasification. In another sign of the country's suddenly bold role in green technology, China's battery giant BYD launched the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid vehicle yesterday.

Underpinning China's potential leadership in carbon-neutral coal power is broad expertise with gasification. By 2010, China will have installed 29 gasification projects since 2004, compared with zero in the United States, according to the Gasification Technologies Council, a trade group based in Arlington, VA. Most of these Chinese projects turn coal into synthesis gas (or syngas)--a blend of carbon monoxide and hydrogen--to feed catalysts that synthesize chemicals and fuels. IGCC technology uses the same syngas to drive turbines and generate electricity with far less pollution than conventional coal plants. For example, mercury and soot levels are close to those seen at natural gas-fired plants, while carbon dioxide comes out in a pure stream that should be easier to capture and sequester. 

Until recently, Chinese power firms ignored IGCC technology because conventional coal plants are cheaper to build and operate. But Guodong Sun, a technology policy expert at New York's Stony Brook University, says that GreenGen and a few other IGCC projects are gathering momentum thanks to a blend of government incentives, tighter environmental regulation, and emerging concern for corporate self-image among China's leading power producers. Sun says that GreenGen, for example, is important to the national government as a symbol of homegrown Chinese technology.

The project plans to start up a 250-megawatt IGCC plant in Tianjin in 2010 using a novel gasifier designed by the Thermal Power Research Institute in Xi'an; the plant will also supply some syngas and heat to local chemical plants. GreenGen plans to catapult the output of the gasifier design, from a 36-tons-per-day pilot plant, directly to commercial scale of 2,000 tons per day. 

And GreenGen is already preparing to scale up further: in April, GreenGen and Tianjin officials signed an agreement for two 400-megawatt IGCC units. Meanwhile, Chinese utility firm Huaneng, GreenGen's majority stakeholder, started up a CCS pilot project at its Beijing coal power plant this summer.

While municipal air-quality concerns support GreenGen's plans, Sun says that they are central to another IGCC project that he believes will be built: a 200-megawatt IGCC plant in Hangzhou proposed by Chinese utility company Huadian Power International. "For the Huadian project, the most important factor is sulfur dioxide and acid-rain regulations," says Sun. "SO2 emissions are capped in Hangzhou, and . . . IGCC is an excellent solution."

SPOTTING CATARACTS EARLIER

A device developed for the space program could provide earlier cataract detection.

Cataracts are the single biggest cause of blindness and are responsible for almost half of all cases worldwide. A new laser probe, originally developed for the U.S. space program, has been shown to detect the condition earlier than is otherwise possible. Its developers say that the technique can tell that a cataract is forming even when an eye looks perfectly clear.Cataracts are caused by the buildup of damaged proteins within the eye's lens, clouding it over and impairing vision. "The proteins start to unravel when they are damaged, and stick together to form clumps," says Manuel Datiles, a medical officer and senior clinical investigator at the National Eye Institute, in Bethesda, MD, who has been assessing the new technique.The protein buildup that causes cataracts can be triggered by age, but various stress factors, such as exposure to cigarette smoke and poor blood-sugar management in diabetics, contribute to the problem. Once cataracts have developed, the most common treatment is replacing the impaired lens with an artificial one. But if cataracts can be detected early enough, then it may be possible to slow or stop the accumulation of damaged proteins by reducing relevant factors, says Datiles.

Normally, diagnosis is carried out by looking for protein buildup in the eye with a slit-lamp microscope--a standard ophthalmological device that illuminates the eye with a beam of light so that it can be examined with a microscope. However, slit-lamp microscopes can only detect cataracts once they have formed, Datiles says. "This new method detects cataracts even before they can be detected normally, and before they are symptomatic," he notes.The new technique uses dynamic light scattering (DLS) to detect small proteins called alpha crystallins in the eye's lens. These are known to play a natural role in preventing cataracts from forming by sticking to larger proteins and stopping them from unraveling. If the larger proteins cannot unravel, then they cannot stick together.

Cataracts can still form because there are only a finite number of these proteins in the eye, and they are gradually depleted. So these alpha crystallins can be a useful biomarker, Datiles says: "If the amount of alpha-crystallin proteins has dwindled, then you know something is happening."Alpha-crystallin proteins are between one and three nanometers in diameter--too small to detect using conventional equipment. But DLS can spot them by measuring the way that light is reflected by particles in a liquid.

TOYOTA TO DELIVER PLUG-IN HYBRIDS

Toyota will roll out 500 plug-in hybrid cars later this year by adding lithium-ion batteries to the 2010-model Prius unveiled yesterday at the Detroit auto show. Toyota is a full year ahead of GM’s schedule for the Chevy Volt plug-in but behind China’s BYD, which launched its F3DM plug-in sedan in China last month.Today at the North American International Automotive Show, in Detroit, Toyota announced that later this year, it will release a version of the Prius hybrid car whose battery can be recharged from an ordinary power outlet. By moving up the delivery data of the plug-in vehicle--originally scheduled for 2010--Toyota has slipped ahead of GM, whose Chevy Volt plug-in is promised for late 2010.Toyota's fidelity to hybrid technology marks a sharp contrast with rivals such as Renault and Mitsubishi, which are planning to leapfrog the hybrid in favor of fully battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs). At the auto show, several U.S. automakers appear to be leaning in the same direction, with Ford Motor, in particular, vowing to release an EV commercial van next year and an EV commuter car in 2011. Even Toyota is hedging its bets, presenting a battery-powered EV based on its four-seat iQ and promising to begin selling a similar EV commuter car in the United States by 2012. But Toyota explicitly ruled out abandoning hybrid technology anytime soon, issuing a definitive statement on the eve of the Detroit show calling hybrids its "long-term core powertrain technology."
The 2010 Prius available to consumers will still come equipped with a nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery pack and no plug, but Toyota says that it is "plug-in ready"--designed and engineered to accept a lighter and more energy-dense lithium-ion battery pack that can be charged from the grid. Toyota will also produce 500 lithium-powered plug-in Priuses for its commercial and government leasing customers starting later this year. Toyota-Panasonic joint venture Panasonic EV Energy will supply the lithium batteries.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE:MINES OF MORIA PC GAME RATING

OVERALL RATING:9/10

Gameplay: 8.8
There is a linear progression that you must go through that is not too well explained at times. And the new upper-level content is fraught with cut scenes, but if you enjoy the fantasy the lore of Tolkien, you will likely eat this up.

Graphics: 9.0
The halls are magnificent to behold, and the lighting effects are very well rendered.

Sound: 9.0
The musical score is sweeping and grand, epic in nature, and the voice work is very good.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard

Concept: 9.0
The overall design does not deviate from what has been seen before in other dungeons, but the graphical realization of this region and these mines is – at times – breathtaking.

Multiplayer: 8.3
The community seems relatively sparse and while reasonably helpful, it too seems to be exploring this new region.

Overall: 9.0
Ok, it is a tad linear, and there are a fair amount of run here and talk to this person quests, but if you are a LotRO player, this is a must-have expansion. There is a lot to do here and Turbine has done a very good job in expanding the game.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE:MINES OF MORIA PC GAME REVIEW

The moment you ride up alongside the Black Pool (that body of water near the gateway to the mines of Moria) and see those dwarves throwing pebbles into the water, you may feel the need to yell at them, in a very commanding voice …“What do you think you are doing?!? Don’t you know what’s out there?? Haven’t you read the book or seen the movies??”But alas, they are unresponsive to the screaming at the computer monitor and rather dense when it comes to the danger lurking beneath the surface of that dark water. Of course, you know the creature is going to attack and when it does, you don’t stand and fight, you take a cue from Monty Python’s Holy Grail and “run away.” Not really. You are going to find weapons that stand a chance of standing up to this beast, and perhaps other monsters you will find lurking in the darkened tunnels of what was once the great dwarven city of Kazad-dum. Moria, for those wanting to know, means the ‘black pit,’ and it houses the balrog, which is also known as Durin’s Bane.Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria is an expansion that does exactly what an expansion should do. It caters to the upper-level characters with quest lines that are very linear, and not very well explained in places, but that pull you along and immerse the player in the story that was key to J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic work.

While there is new areas to explore, Mines offers new material for younger players as well – like two new classes that may appeal to the veteran MMO games. Not recommended for new players, the Rune-Keeper and the Warden are spell-casters and melee, respectively. There are three zones to explore – Eregion and Lothlorien as well as the crowning glory that are the mines themselves. Seriously, Moria is one of those environments that will have you stopping, staring and then (occasionally) picking your jaw up off the desk. Before you actually get to enter the Mines of Moria, there are several prerequisite quests you have to undertake. And there are some side quests, like entering the Brackwater caves in search of missing dwarves. And with regards to the Brackwater, the caves are menacing with great theme music. Just as it is in Filgogan. Sooner or later, though, you get back to the main quest line that will drive you along the path to enter the mines.To enter Moria, you have to replay the fall of Moria session, and this is the first treat of the interior of the once-proud dwarven hold. You play the part of Nafni, called before Durin VI on the eve of a visit from the elves in Kazad-dum. This is the beginning of the grandeur that is the Mines of Moria expansion. It tells how Kazad-dum became known as Moria, the Black Pit. Sure, there is lots of running back and forth, but the reasoning is to create the sense of the scope of the Tolkien work. This is not just about running about and shooting or stabbing things. Oh, don’t worry, there is plenty of room for that. But most of the entry quest is obeying instructions and being treated to a visual display that is quite impressive – even up to and including the death of Durin at the hands of the balrog.In addition to the quest load that is the prelude to the mines, the quests also help you upgrade armor, equipment and adornments. And you will need them all. Moria is a deadly adventure, full of twisting tunnels that can have you turned around and completely lost in minutes. The denizens of this dark kingdom are plentiful and very deadly, especially when they attack in a pack.

Turbine should be extremely proud of what it has created here. This is a visual treat that sparks dreams and nightmares. Yes, there may well be things that go bump in the night, but usually that bump means its getting closer and hunting you. It is wise to not venture too far into this cavernous kingdom without a group.The vision of the dev team is truly impressive and it is backed up with a musical score that is magnificent and totally in tune with the surroundings and circumstances. Yes, there are a lot of cut scenes, but LotRO is one of those games that does have numerous side quests, but the main goal is to make you a part of the living adventure that comprised Tolkien’s classic trilogy. In that regard, the cut scenes are bliss.The Mines of Moria expansion is a great reason to play LotRO – more so if you are a Tolkien fan. Sure, there have been other expansions for existing MMOs that have gotten a lot of hype, but Mines of Moria certainly has to rank up there with the best MMO expansions of 2008.

GM TO BUILD ITS OWN BATTERIES

Just as the company makes engines, it will now make battery packs for electric cars:General Motors (GM) is getting into the battery-making business. On Monday, the company confirmed early speculation that LG Chem, based in Korea, will supply lithium-ion batteries for its Volt electric vehicle, which is due out next year. But GM also announced that it intends to start manufacturing battery packs itself, noting that battery manufacturing will be central to its business going forward.The Chevrolet Volt is an electric vehicle that runs on batteries charged from an ordinary power outlet for trips shorter than 40 miles. For longer journeys, an onboard gasoline or ethanol-powered generator will recharge the battery. Two battery companies, LG Chem and A123 Systems, based in Watertown, MA, have been in the running to supply the key component of a battery pack--the individual battery cells--for the Volt. Hundreds of such cells must be wired together and paired with control electronics to create the car's 16-kilowatt-hour battery pack.

Initially, cells from LG Chem will be assembled into battery packs by a subsidiary of LG Chem: Compact Power, based in Troy, MI. But once a new manufacturing plant is built, GM itself will assemble cells into battery packs, according to Monday's announcement. Bob Kruse, GM's executive director of North American Engineering Operations, says that the decision to make batteries is much like GM's decision to make its own engines because the technology is vital to the company's future success.

BASKING IN BIG DATA

Visualization software makes viewing and interacting with enormous data sets practical without a supercomputer.This image shows an experiment in which aerogel, a porous material, is bombarded by a micrometeroid traveling at five kilometers per second. Aerogels are commonly used to shield electronic equipment in satellites because they are both durable and extremely light. The Morse-Smale complex identifies the structure of the porous solid as the micrometeroid enters it, providing detailed information about the filament structure of the material.In some ways, science is suffering from too much data. Experiments and computer simulations analyzing everything from the dynamics of climate change to the precise details of folding proteins can churn out billions of numbers describing these physical phenomena. Making sense of all this data remains a challenge.

Recently, however, researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that they have developed software that makes analysis and visualization of huge data sets possible without the aid of a supercomputer. The researchers' algorithm slices up data into more manageable chunks, then stitches it back together on the fly, so that the data can be manipulated in three dimensions, all on a computer with the power and capacity of a high-end laptop. The team's algorithm offers a practical way to get structural information about materials, proteins, and fluids, says Attila Gyulassy, the researcher at UC Davis who led the project. It allows users to "interactively visualize, rotate, apply different transfer functions, and highlight different aspects of the data," he says.

NANO TUBE SUPERBATTERIES

Pure thin films of carbon nanotubes can store and carry large amounts of electrical charge, making them promising electrode materials. This scanning-electron-microscope image shows a film made up of 30 layers of the nanotubes on a silicone substrate.Researchers at MIT have made pure, dense, thin films of carbon nanotubes that show promise as electrodes for higher-capacity batteries and supercapacitors. Dispensing with the additives previously used to hold such films together improved their electrical properties, including the ability to carry and store a large amount of charge.

Carbon nanotubes can carry and store more charge than other forms of carbon, in part because their nanoscale structure gives them a very large surface area. But conventional methods for making them into films leave significant gaps between individual nanotubes or require binding materials to hold them together. Both approaches reduce the films' conductivity--the ability to convey charge--and capacitance--the ability to store it.

ROBOTICS FOR PERSONAL ASSISTANCE,MEDICAL

Biomedical robots performed less invasive and more complex experimental surgeries, winged robots copied each other to perform potential military maneuvers, and researchers began work on robots that may even be able to travel through the blood to zap a tumor. Some highlights:

Grab and Grasp:

Robotic grasping and learning is becoming sophisticated enough that people may soon be able to simply gesture to any object that they want and, without needing to program specifics, rely on a robot to retrieve it. A robot demonstrated this year at Georgia Tech, El-E (pronounced "Ellie"), a wheeled, one-armed robot, follows a green laser pointer to retrieve objects.  Later in the year, the group gave El-E new abilities based on how dogs respond to humans.  Another grasper, the UMass Mobile Manipulator--UMan, for short--demonstrated that it could learn how to use new objects.  Just as humans learn by testing an object, UMan is able to experiment and learn by playing with objects, including scissors, shears, and wooden toys.

Stomach Explorers:

While doctors have used capsule cameras for the past few years to image the insides of patients, they hope for ways to control such a camera so that it pauses at areas of interest. A group in Germany uses a magnetic device outside the body to control the movement of a pill camera  while researchers at Carnegie Mellon University created a robot capsule that can anchor on delicate internal tissue without damaging it.

STEM CELLS UNDO BIRTH DEFECTS

By injecting stem cells directly into the brain, scientists have successfully reversed neural birth defects in mice whose mothers were given heroin during pregnancy. Even though most of the transplanted cells did not survive, they induced the brain's own cells to carry out extensive repairs.

Transplanted stem cells have previously shown promise in reversing brain damage caused by strokes, as well as by neurological diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's. But their use in treating birth defects is relatively new. In recent years, a handful of research teams have been developing stem-cell-based therapies for rodents with real or simulated birth defects in the brain.

EVOLUTION OF TECHNOLOGY

Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its environment. "Technology" can refer to material objects of use to humanity, such as machines, hardware or utensils, but can also encompass broader themes, including systems, methods of organization, and techniques. The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include "construction technology", "medical technology", or "state-of-the-art technology".

The human race's use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The prehistorical discovery of the ability to control fire increased the available sources of food and the invention of the wheel helped humans in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact on a global scale. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapons of ever-increasing destructive power has progressed throughout history, from clubs to nuclear weapons.

Technology has affected society and its surroundings in a number of ways. In many societies, technology has helped develop more advanced economies (including today's global economy) and has allowed the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-products, known as pollution, and deplete natural resources, to the detriment of the Earth and its environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and new technology often raises new ethical questions. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, a term originally applied only to machines, and the challenge of traditional norms.

Philosophical debates have arisen over the present and future use of technology in society, with disagreements over whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar movements criticise the pervasiveness of technology in the modern world, claiming that it harms the environment and alienates people; proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and techno-progressivism view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and the human condition. Indeed, until recently, it was believed that the development of technology was restricted only to human beings, but recent scientific studies indicate that other primates and certain dolphin communities have developed simple tools and learned to pass their knowledge to other generations.