FOXNews.com: Moore’s Law ends in 10 years, physicist claims

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Moore's Law ends in 10 years, physicist claims Apr 30th 2012, 20:57 Transistors inside new Intel CPUs unveiled last week are hundreds of times thinner than a human hair, thanks to a 22-nanometer manufacturing process that the company says "fuels Moore's Law for years to come." Not everyone agrees. Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku believes instead that an end to Moore's famous theory is -- at last -- in sight. "In about 10 years or so, we will see the collapse of Moore's Law," said Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at City University of New York (CUNY), in a videotaped interview on BigThink.com. "In fact, already we see a slowing down of Moore's Law. Computing power simply cannot maintain this rapid, exponential rise using standard silicon technology." Is it possible? Could the end really be in sight for Moore's Law? In 1965, an article in Electronics magazine by Gordon Moore, the future founder of chip juggernaut Intel, predicted that computer processing power would double roughly every 18 months. Or maybe he said 12 months. Or was it 24 months? Actually, nowhere in the article did Moore actually spell out that famous declaration, nor does the word "law" even appear in the article at all. 'In about 10 years or so, we will see the collapse of Moore's Law.' - Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics Yet the idea has proved remarkably resilient over time, entering the public zeitgeist and lodging hold like a tick on dog -- or maybe a stubborn computer virus you just can't eradicate. Part of that is because of Intel itself, which keeps pulling out the old saw. Last year Intel told FoxNews.com that Moore's Law was just as relevant as when it was conceived, 45 years earlier. "Yes, it still matters, and yes we're still tracking it," said Mark Bohr, Intel senior fellow and director of process architecture and integration. A section on Intel's website helps keep the story alive, explaining that "Moore's Law states that the number of transistors on a chip will double about every two years. Intel has kept that pace for over 40 years, providing more functions on a chip at significantly lower cost per function." Kaku acknowledged the latest CPUs from Intel, which use a unique three-dimensional design, do continue roughly doubling processors. He says that new design is nonetheless proof that the Law is winding down. "The two basic problems are heat and leakage," Kaku said. "That's the reason why the age of silicon will eventually come to a close. " By continuing to shrink the parts that go into processors, heat becomes concentrated. At a point in the near future, "the heat generated will be so intense that the chip will melt.  You can literally fry an egg on top of the chip, and the chip itself begins to disintegrate." Beyond that is the issue of leakage, a physics problem. "You don't know where the electron is anymore.  The quantum theory takes over.  The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle says you don't know where that electron is anymore, meaning it could be outside the wire, outside the Pentium chip, or inside the Pentium chip.  So there is an ultimate limit set by the laws of thermal dynamics and set by the laws of quantum mechanics." Wild, futuristic ideas such as quantum computing and molecular computing may someday transform our computers -- maybe even in the not-horribly-distant future, he admitted. But it won't save Moore's Law. "Sooner or later even three-dimensional chips, even parallel processing, will be exhausted," Kaku said.

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FOXNews.com: Proof global warming isn't making weather wackier?

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Proof global warming isn't making weather wackier? Apr 30th 2012, 17:15 Greenhouse gases do much more than just warm the planet, some environmentalists warn: They cause hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, droughts, and even extreme cold spells. Or do they? Steven Goddard, who runs the skeptical climate blog Real Science and has a background in geology and computer science, has spent thousands of hours studying bad weather events around the world. He found that the weather was wilder and weirder in the past than it is today.  "People are claiming there are more disasters now," Goddard said. "That's crazy. The weather was terrible in the past, back when CO2 was below 350ppm." 1) Deadly hurricanes The deadliest hurricane in U.S. history was not hurricane Katrina, but rather one that hit Galveston, Tex., more than a century ago. The Texas State Historical Association notes that, upon the first signs of the hurricane in 1900, a local weather official drove "a horse-drawn cart around low areas warning people to leave." For many, the warning was too late. 'Hurricanes have not become more frequent or intense.' - University of Alabama climate scientist John Christie "A storm wave… caused a sudden rise of 4 feet in water depth, and shortly afterward the entire city was underwater to a maximum depth of 15 feet." The hurricane destroyed most of the city, killing between 10,000 and 12,000. "Hurricanes have not become more frequent or intense," University of Alabama climate scientist John Christie told FoxNews.com. NOAA hurricane records back up that claim. "The story on hurricanes is a mixed bag," agrees Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist at the Union for Concerned Scientists. 2) Melting Glaciers Glaciers are melting around the world, and many worry that will cause flooding. But the melting is not necessarily due to greenhouse gases. Goddard points to places where glaciers nearly vanished due to natural warming. Glacier Bay, in Alaska, is one such place. The glacier was discovered in 1794, but the National Park Service reports that "by 1879… naturalist John Muir discovered that the ice had retreated more than 30 miles ... By 1916 it … had melted back 60 miles." 3) Extreme Cold It was so cold in New York City that the rivers around Manhattan froze over for five weeks -- in 1780, that is. British troops occupying the city at the time rolled cannons from Manhattan across the ice to Staten Island. They even built temporary fortifications on the ice, which stayed solid enough to support men on horseback until March 17. Throughout the 1800s, the rivers froze over at least six times. 4) Extreme Heat Many scientists argue that greenhouse gases have made extreme heat events more common. "If we keep putting heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere at current rates, we can expect a city like NYC to go from having less than 10 days over 100F to between 30 and 45 [such days] by the end of the century," Ekwurzel of the Union for Concerned Scientists told FoxNews.com, citing a government study. But Goddard notes that heat waves are nothing new. One newspaper reported that on June 5, 1921, the temperature in New York rose to 107 degrees. In Washington, DC, "an egg carefully broken ... on an asphalt pavement … as an experiment was completely fried in 9 minutes." The deadliest heat wave in U.S. history also struck long ago, in 1936, causing some 5,000 deaths nationwide. "Twenty-two of the lower 48 states set their all-time temperature records in the 1930s," Goddard said. "Just one state [Arizona] has set a new record since the turn of the millennium." That shows that U.S. weather has been more extreme in the past, but does not indicate whether climate has warmed in general. "The warmest month in U.S. history was July of 1936 -- and the coldest month in U.S. history was February of that same year," Goddard said, noting that such rapid changes were due to fluctuations in a major air current known as the jet stream. 5) Drought The worst drought in U.S. history also took place in the 1930s, destroying so many crops in the Midwest that, as a USDA report put it, "The eroding soil from once-productive range and crop lands filled the air with billowing clouds of dust that subsequently buried farm equipment, buildings and even barbed-wire fences." The disaster became known as "The Dust Bowl," as 2.5 million Americans abandoned their farms. "Climate was never safe," Goddard said. "You had horrific fires, droughts, floods, heat waves -- it hasn't gotten any worse with the CO2 increase."

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FOXNews.com: Less than 100 days before Curiosity touches down on Mars, NASA says

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Less than 100 days before Curiosity touches down on Mars, NASA says Apr 30th 2012, 15:30 After more than a decade of planning, NASA's Curiosity rover is only 97 days from touching down on Mars -- where it will search for evidence that the red planet might once have been someone's home. It's been a long journey for the  world's largest extraterrestrial explorer. By the time it lands, the 1-ton Curiosity will have traveled 354 million miles over the course of 8 1/2 months. "Every day is one day closer to the most challenging part of this mission," said Pete Theisinger, Mars Science Laboratory project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.  "Landing an SUV-sized vehicle next to the side of a mountain 85 million miles from home is always stimulating." "It's the death planet, and the United States of America is the only nation in the world that has ever landed and driven robotic explorers on the surface of Mars, and now we're set to do it again." - NASA's Colleen Hartman, assistant associate administrator for science Last week, the team went through final rounds of testing and simulations as they prepare for the big moment. "Our test rover has a central computer identical to Curiosity's currently on its way to Mars," said Eric Aguilar, the mission's engineering test lead at JPL. "We ran all our commands through it and watched to make sure it drove, took pictures and collected samples as expected by the mission planners. It was a great test and gave us a lot of confidence moving forward." As large as a car, the mobile, nuclear-powered Curiosity, equipped with 10 science instruments for analyzing the Martian surface, is NASA's most ambitious rover yet. It's "really a rover on steroids," NASA's Colleen Hartman, assistant associate administrator for science, told the Associated Press. "It's an order of magnitude more capable than anything we have ever launched to any planet in the solar system." Launched from Cape Canaveral on Nov. 26, 2011, NASA expects Curiosity's delivery on the evening of Aug. 5, 2012, to begin a two-year mission. The landing site is near the base of a mountain inside Gale Crater, which researchers believe may hold evidence of water and wet environments of early Mars. That Curiosity is so close to its final destination is in itself a small miracle. "Mars really is the Bermuda Triangle of the solar system," Hartman said. "It's the death planet, and the United States of America is the only nation in the world that has ever landed and driven robotic explorers on the surface of Mars. And now we're set to do it again."

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FOXNews.com: Wind farms are warming the earth, researchers say

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Wind farms are warming the earth, researchers say Apr 30th 2012, 15:07 New research finds that wind farms actually warm up the surface of the land underneath them during the night, a phenomena that could put a damper on efforts to expand wind energy as a green energy solution. Researchers used satellite data from 2003 to 2011 to examine surface temperatures across as wide swath of west Texas, which has built four of the world's largest wind farms. The data showed a direct correlation between night-time temperatures increases of 0.72 degrees C (1.3 degrees F) and the placement of the farms. "Given the present installed capacity and the projected growth in installation of wind farms across the world, I feel that wind farms, if spatially large enough, might have noticeable impacts on local to regional meteorology," Liming Zhou, associate professor at the State University of New York, Albany and author of the paper published April 29 in Nature Climate Change said in an e-mail to Discovery News. PHOTOS: Wind Power Without the Blades Analysts say wind power is a good complement to solar power, because winds often blow more strongly at night while solar power is only available during daytime hours. But Zhou and his colleagues found that turbulence behind the wind turbine blades stirs up a layer of cooler air that usually settles on the ground at night, and mixes in warm air that is on top. That layering effect is usually reversed during the daytime, with warm air on the surface and cooler air higher up."The year-to-year land surface temperature over wind farms shows a persistent upward trend from 2003 to 2011, consistent with the increasing number of operational wind turbines with time," Zhou said. FAA data shows that the number of wind turbines over the study region has risen from 111 in 2003 to 2358 in 2011, according to the study.The warming could hurt local farmers, who have already suffered through a killer drought over the past few years. Texas agriculture contributes $80 billion to the state's economy, second only to petrochemicals, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture. West Texas is a dry area that uses irrigation to grow wheat, cotton and other crops, as well as raise cattle. But increased warming can play havoc with plant growth, as well as change local rainfall patterns. Texas wind farms produce more than 10,000 megawatts of electricity, more than double the capacity of the nearest state, Iowa, and enough to power three million average American homes, according to the American Wine Energy Association. NEWS: Wind Farms Float Among the Clouds One solution could be to change the shape of the turbine blades, according to John Dabiri, director of the Center for Bioinspired Wind Energy at the California Institute of Technology who is an expert on wind power design. "Smaller turbines can avoid this problem," Dabiri said. "However, this presents a tradeoff, because wind speed decreases as you move closer to the ground; so the smaller turbines would experience lower incoming wind speeds on average." That means a smaller turbine makes less power. Dabiri said Zhou's findings may mean taking a second look at the trade-offs with renewable energy. "It shows that we need to think carefully about the unintended environmental consequences of any large-scale energy development," Dabiri said, "including green technologies." Zhou cautioned that his study used satellite data, which can have errors from clouds, for example, rather than temperature readings taken at the surface. He said he hopes to improve his dataset, and look at wind farms in other parts of the world.

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FOXNews.com: Is strange organism new branch on tree of life?

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Is strange organism new branch on tree of life? Apr 30th 2012, 13:00 Talk about the extended family! A single-celled organism in Norway has been called "mankind's furthest relative." It is so far removed from the organisms we know that researchers claim it belongs to a new base group, called a kingdom, on the tree of life. "We have found an unknown branch of the tree of life that lives in this lake. It is unique! So far we know of no other group of organisms that descend from closer to the roots of the tree of life than this species," study researcher Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi, of the University of Oslo, in Norway, said in a statement. SUMMARY IN THE KINGDOM: Scientists lump life as we know it on Earth into five base groups, called kingdoms, on the tree of life: animal, plant, fungi, algae or protist (little understood single-celled organisms).  A protozoan found in a lake near Oslo is similar to protists mostly based on observations of size and shape.  But it's genetically different enough that researchers argue it should be a sixth group. The organism, a type of protozoan, was found by researchers in a lake near Oslo. Protozoans have been known to science since 1865, but because they are difficult to culture in the lab, researchers haven't been able to get a grip on their genetic makeup. They were placed in the protist kingdom on the tree of life mostly based on observations of their size and shape. In this study, published March 21 in the journal Molecular Biology Evolution, the researchers were able to grow enough of the protozoans, called Collodictyon, in the lab to analyze its genome. They found it doesn't genetically fit into any of the previously discovered kingdoms of life. It's an organism with membrane-bound internal structures, called a eukaryote, but genetically it isn't an animal, plant, fungi, algae or protist (the five main groups of eukayotes). [Extreme Life on Earth: 8 Bizarre Creatures] "The microorganism is among the oldest currently living eukaryote organism we know of. It evolved around one billion years ago, plus or minus a few hundred million years. It gives us a better understanding of what early life on Earth looked like," Shalchian-Tabrizi said. Mix of features What it looked like was small. The organism the researchers found is about 30 to 50 micrometers (about the width of a human hair) long. It eats algae and doesn't like to live in groups. It is also unique because instead of one or two flagella (cellular tails that help organisms move) it has four. 'We have found an unknown branch of the tree of life. It is unique! ' - Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi, researcher The organism also has unique characteristics usually associated with protists and amoebas, two different eukaryotic kingdoms. This left researchers wondering where the microorganism fits into the tree of life. They analyzed its genetic code to see how similar it is to organisms that have already been genetically catalogued. "We are surprised," said study researcher Dag Klaveness, also of the University of Oslo, because the species is unique. They compared its genome with those in hundreds of databases around the world, with little luck. In all that looking they "have only found a partial match with a gene sequence in Tibet." New life The researchers think this organism belongs in a new group on the tree of life. Researchers can't say for certain if other organisms previously classified as protozoans are in this same branch without their genetic information. Its closest known genetic relative is the protist Diphylleia, though other organisms that haven't been analyzed genetically may be closer relatives. "It is conceivable that only a few other species exist in this family branch of the tree of life, which has survived all the many hundreds of millions of years since the eukaryote species appeared on Earth for the first time," Klaveness said. Because it has features of two separate kingdoms of life, the researchers think that the ancestors of this group might be the organisms that gave rise to these other kingdoms, the amoeba and the protist, as well. If that's true, they would be some of the oldest eukaryotes, giving rise to all other eukaryotes, including humans. Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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FOXNews.com: Australian gov't to protect koala bears

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Australian gov't to protect koala bears Apr 30th 2012, 12:03 CANBERRA –  The Australian government announced Monday that the country's most vulnerable koala populations will be protected by federal legislation. "People have made it very clear to me that they want to make sure the koala is protected for future generations," Environment Minister Tony Burke said, adding that AU$300,000 (US$314,000) was allocated to research the animal's habitats. However, the legislation only applies to koalas in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. Professor Alistair Melzer, a koala scientist at the University of Central Queensland and longtime activist, praised the move as a step in the right direction but told reporters, "This listing [as a vulnerable species] alone will not save the koala." "It's basically a label that says we've got to a point where koalas are in serious trouble and need careful management if they're going to survive," he added. The decision to extend protection for the cuddly creatures followed a multiyear national scientific assessment and a senate inquiry into koalas that led to the country's first comprehensive parliamentary report on a species. It means that developers will have to consider what effects building could have on the much-loved marsupials. The protective measures came after one of the furry-eared tree huggers was refused entry to parliament last week. Despite being admitted to the legislature last year, koala Winston and his handlers were turned away last Thursday on the grounds that the notoriously-sleepy animal could be a security threat -- forcing him to find a shady spot in a nearby tree from which to contemplate the political debate.

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FOXNews.com: B&N, Microsoft team up on Nook, college businesses

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B&N, Microsoft team up on Nook, college businesses Apr 30th 2012, 11:54 NEW YORK –  Barnes & Noble Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are teaming up to create a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary that will house the digital and college businesses of the bookseller and include a Nook application for Windows 8. The companies said Monday that they are exploring separating those businesses entirely. That could mean a stock offering, sale, or other deal could happen. The deal gives Barnes & Noble ammunition to fend off shareholders who have agitated for a sale of the Nook business or the whole company. For Microsoft, it represents a move into the e-book business, which has been targeted by Amazon.com, Apple Inc. and Google Inc. "Our complementary assets will accelerate e-reading innovation across a broad range of Windows devices, enabling people to not just read stories, but to be part of them. We're on the cusp of a revolution in reading," Andy Lees, president at Microsoft, said in a statement. Shares of Barnes & Noble jumped $10.82, or 79.1 percent, to $24.50 in premarket trading. Microsoft's stock shed 12 cents to $31.86. The partnership with Microsoft will see the Redmond, Wash. company make a $300 million investment in the subsidiary for an approximately 17.6 percent stake. Barnes & Noble will own about 82.4 percent of the subsidiary, which has yet to be officially named. 'We're on the cusp of a revolution in reading.' - Andy Lees, president at Microsoft The companies said that the subsidiary will have an ongoing relationship with Barnes & Noble's retail stores, but what that relationship will be is unclear. Barnes & Noble, based in New York, currently runs 691 bookstores in 50 states. A representative for the company could not be immediately reached for comment. The possibility of a separation of Barnes & Noble's digital and college businesses has been brewing recently. In March private investment firm G Asset Management, a Barnes & Noble shareholder, offered $460 million for a 51 percent stake in the company's college bookstore unit, Banes & Noble College Booksellers LLC. Under that plan, the college bookstore unit was proposed to begin as a private business but become public within a "reasonable" amount of time. G Asset's offer was contingent upon Barnes & Noble keeping current management in place and separating its Nook e-business from the rest of the company. At the time the offer was made, Barnes & Noble declined to comment. In 2009, Barnes & Noble Inc. bought the college bookstore unit from Chairman Leonard Riggio in a deal worth $596 million. The deal ended up costing Barnes & Noble $460 million after accounting for the unit's cash on hand at the closing date. Barnes & Noble is looking to maximize the potential of its Nook e-book readers. The New York company has tried to adjust to a noticeable shift in book reading habits, with e-book readers becoming increasingly popular with consumers over traditional hardcover or paperback books. But Barnes & Noble is dealing with tough competition on that end from the likes of Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle and others. "The formation of Newco and our relationship with Microsoft are important parts of our strategy to capitalize on the rapid growth of the Nook business, and to solidify our position as a leader in the exploding market for digital content in the consumer and education segments," Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said. The Nook app will make Barnes & Noble's catalog of e-books, magazines and newspapers available to Windows customers in the U.S. and abroad. The subsidiary also will include Barnes & Noble's Nook Study software.

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FOXNews.com: Secretive spaceflight company Blue Origin shoots for reusable rockets

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Secretive spaceflight company Blue Origin shoots for reusable rockets Apr 30th 2012, 12:30 Blue Origin wants to fly under the radar -- all the way into space. The secretive private spaceflight firm, which was established in 2000 by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is developing systems to launch astronauts to both suborbital and orbital space. While Blue Origin releases details about its plans and progress sparingly, the company's basic business model has come out. It all revolves around reusable rockets and spacecraft, developed in incremental steps. "It's really about developing and using vertical powered landing to drive reusable systems that can increase reliability and lower cost," Rob Meyerson, the company's president and program manager, said in a rare public presentation last September at a conference in Long Beach, Calif. "We believe our incremental, long-term approach is going to develop the systems and technologies and vehicles that'll result in safe and affordable human spaceflight," added Meyerson, who spoke at Space 2011, a meeting organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. [Photos: Blue Origin's Secretive Spaceship] Working with NASA Blue Origin is one of four companies that have received funding through NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, which seeks to spur the advancement of American private spaceflight capabilities. The other three firms are Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. 'Our approach is going to develop the vehicles that'll result in safe and affordable human spaceflight.' - Rob Meyerson, Blue Origin president CCDev's goal is to help get a handful of companies up and running as soon as safely possible, so the United States has its own way to send astronauts to the International Space Station and other destinations in low-Earth orbit. Since NASA's space shuttle fleet was grounded in 2011, the nation has relied on Russia's Soyuz vehicles to perform this taxi service. Blue Origin got $3.7 million in 2010 in the first round of grants, called CCDev-1, and another $22 million last year under CCDev-2. The company is  designing, developing and testing systems for both suborbital and orbital human spaceflight. [Blue Origin's Secretive Space Vehicle Explained (Infographic)] Suborbital comes first. "We're beginning with suborbital as a means to gain that experience, gain that practice that'll lead on to orbital human spaceflight," Meyerson said. Suborbital: New Shepard Blue Origin's suborbital vehicle is called New Shepard. The name is a nod to NASA astronaut Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space when he launched on a brief suborbital flight on May 5, 1961. New Shepard consists of two reusable parts: a crew capsule and a propulsion module. A few minutes after liftoff, the propulsion module separates and heads back to Earth, eventually making a vertical, rocket-powered landing near the launch site (Blue Origin's private spaceport about 25 miles north of tiny Van Horn, Texas). The crew module, which is designed to carry three or more people, coasts on to the edge of space before returning to Earth as well, its descent slowed by parachutes. Blue Origin envisions multiple uses for New Shepard. It could carry tourists interested in experiencing microgravity and seeing the curvature of Earth against the blackness of space. The company also hopes scientists will book flights on the vehicle to take experiments up to space. When it's fully developed, New Shepard should allow people to get to space relatively quickly and efficiently, according to company officials. "The system design is optimized for rapid turnaround with a very small ground crew," Meyerson said. "We're talking tens of people, as opposed to thousands in previous reusable vehicles." Blue Origin has conducted a handful of flights with suborbital test vehicles since 2006, including two in 2011. The second of last year's flights, which took place on Aug. 24, resulted in failure; the "PM2" vehicle crashed after reaching an altitude of about 45,000 feet (14,000 meters). Orbital: The Space Vehicle Blue Origin is also working on a manned vessel for orbital flight, a biconic craft called the Space Vehicle (SV). "This development builds on our suborbital New Shepard crew capsule development," Meyerson said. "The lessons we learn in that program roll directly into the SV, the orbital system development." The Space Vehicle is designed to transport up to seven astronauts to low-Earth orbit, though it can also carry a mix of cargo and crew, Meyerson said. When the spaceship comes back to Earth, Blue Origin wants it to touch down on land, with water landings as a backup. Blue Origin is designing a reusable first-stage booster to help get the Space Vehicle to orbit. Like New Shepard's Propulsion Module, this rocket will return to Earth and make a vertical, powered landing. "Then the orbital booster can be refueled and launched again, allowing improved reliability and lowering the cost of human access to space," Blue Origin officials write on the company's website. Blue Origin doesn't release schedules or timelines of its projected progress. But Meyerson said the Space Vehicle might be ferrying astronauts to and from the space station in less than five years if all goes well. "In our proposal with the government funding that we laid out, we believe [operations could begin] between 2016 and 2018," he said.

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FOXNews.com: Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive -- What does moving to the cloud mean?

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Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive -- What does moving to the cloud mean? Apr 28th 2012, 16:30 What does it even mean when people talk about storing things in the cloud? It sounds so…nebulous. Pun intended. But don't worry, I'm going to break it down for you. When people talk about "cloud storage," they are talking about putting documents, pictures, and videos online so that they can be stored and accessed whenever you have an online connection. You need this.  Anyone who has ever lost files due to a computer crash will vouch for this. Storage to a hard-drive or physical device is important but you want to back up to the cloud too. And now we have options. Google and Microsoft both rolled out their own cloud-based storage lockers this week, Google Drive, and Microsoft's SkyDrive. They're both competing with the gold standard of cloud storage, Dropbox. Let me breakdown the differences. Dropbox has long been my go-to service and they have really defined the category. It is a simple Web site that lets you upload your documents from any computer or mobile device and access them wherever you can get online. The first 2GB of space is free and for most folks that's plenty. The service integrates flawlessly with Mac and Windows and works seamlessly on your mobile phone too.  Here's a real world example of how I use Dropbox: Mom wants those 50 vacation photos I shot. I upload them to a Dropbox in a folder I call "Vacation Photos". I share the folder with my mom's email and she opens the folder on her computer 900 miles away. It's magic. Google Drive is similar. It shows a folder on your desktop just like Dropbox but it's integrated with your entire Google experience. You get 5GB of storage for free, which is a pretty good deal, and when you log into Google Documents you'll notice that all your documents, photos, and attachments have become a part of Google Drive.  If you're a heavy Google user than there's no reason you wouldn't want to use Drive plus it's a great supplement to Dropbox. I personally back up all my photos to Google so now it's an easier experience for me. If you're a dedicated Windows user and you can't live without Office then look no further than Microsoft's SkyDrive. You get more free storage than Google or Dropbox with a nice 7GB and the cost for an upgrade is cheaper too. SkyDrive integrates perfectly with all of your Office documents, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations whether you're at your desktop or on the go.  No more emailing yourself the latest version of your PowerPoint presentation. What a pain! Now you can just save the version you're working on in one place and call it up in another when you're ready to work on it again. Using each service is a matter of personal preference so pick the one that works for you. Just don't wait for a fire or flood before you start backing up your personal goodies to the cloud. Far too many people learn this lesson the hard way. Clayton Morris is a Fox and Friends host. Follow Clayton's adventures online on Twitter @ClaytonMorris and by reading his daily updates at his blog.

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FOXNews.com: Pacific reef sharks are vanishing near populated islands

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Pacific reef sharks are vanishing near populated islands Apr 28th 2012, 16:30 As many as 90 percent of reef sharks have disappeared from reefs near populated islands, a new study finds. The research is the first to provide a large-scale estimate of reef sharks in the Pacific, a group of species that includes the gray reef shark, the whitetip reef shark and the tawny nurse shark. "We estimate that reef shark numbers have dropped substantially around populated islands, generally by more than 90 percent compared to those at the most untouched reefs," said study leader Marc Nadon, a doctoral candidate at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science. "In short, people and sharks don't mix." Nadon and his colleagues pulled shark sighting data from more than 1,607 dives at 46 reefs in the central-western Pacific, which included reefs near the Hawaiian islands and American Samoa as well as extremely isolated reefs nearly devoid of human influence. Though eight species of shark were seen on the dives, the researchers excluded sharks, such as hammerheads, that aren't dependent on reefs. That left them with five shark species to tally: gray reef sharks, blacktip reef sharks, whitetip reef sharks, Galapagos sharks and tawny nurse sharks. [On the Brink: A Gallery of Wild Sharks] 'We estimate that reef shark numbers have dropped substantially ... generally by more than 90 percent.' - Study leader Marc Nadon Combining that data with information on human population, habitat complexity, availability of food and sea-surface temperatures, the researchers created models comparing the numbers of sharks at pristine versus human-impacted reefs. "Around each of the heavily populated areas we surveyed — in the main Hawaiian Islands, the Mariana Archipelago, and American Samoa — reef shark numbers were greatly depressed compared to reefs in the same regions that were simply [farther] away from humans." Nadon said in a statement. "We estimate that less than 10 percent of the baseline numbers remain in these areas." The devastation of sharks in areas near human civilization could be the result of illegal fishing, incidental killing or fishing for sport, the researchers report Friday (April 27) in the journal Conservation Biology. Human impact on the reef fish that sharks call dinner could also play a role. Human influences were shown to outweigh natural influences, such as warmer water temperatures, the researchers found. "Our findings underscore the importance of long-term monitoring across gradients of human impacts, biogeographic, and oceanic conditions, for understanding how humans are altering our oceans," said Rusty Brainard, head of the coral reef ecosystem division at NOAA's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, which conducted the shark surveys. Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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FOXNews.com: Newly discovered non-stinging bees generate buzz in US

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Newly discovered non-stinging bees generate buzz in US Apr 28th 2012, 14:59 NEW YORK -- A new bee is buzzing in New York City. The tiny insect, the size of a sesame seed, sips the sweet nectar of the city -- sweat, The Wall Street Journal reports. "They use humans as a salt lick," according to entomologist John Ascher, who netted the first known specimen of the species in 2010 while strolling in Brooklyn's Prospect Park near his home. "They land on your arm and lap up the sweat." North America is home to thousands of species of native bees. But they have long been overshadowed by imported honeybees, prized for their honey and beeswax since the time of the Pharaohs and a mainstay of commercial agriculture. Now, native bees are generating serious buzz. So puzzling was the greenish-blue city bee he netted, though, that it took 41-year-old Ascher -- who oversees a digital catalog of 700,000 bee specimens at the American Museum of Natural History -- months to pinpoint its proper place in the insect kingdom. In the end, only DNA testing by sweat bee specialist Jason Gibbs at Cornell University could identify its niche. Last November, they announced the discovery of Lasioglossum gotham, in a peer-reviewed journal called Zootaxa. The newbie joined the growing catalog of easily-overlooked wild native bees. Sweat bees do not have a high profile outside academic circles. Unlike honeybees, which originally were imported from Europe, native bees do not make much honey. To their credit, though, sweat bees rarely sting; their occasional pinprick registers a one on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, the lowest on the four-point scale. These bees prefer sweaty people -- over most animals -- because the human diet usually is so salty that their perspiration is saturated with the essential nutrient, experts said. Yet most people never notice when the tiny bees alight on a bare arm or leg. By the latest count, about 250 species of native bees are known to nest in New York City's sidewalk cracks, traffic median strips, parks and high-rise balcony flower pots -- more perhaps than any other major city in the world, several entomologists said. "For certain species, the city is as good as or better than a natural area," Ascher said. Click here for more on this story from The Wall Street Journal.

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FOXNews.com: Amazing video of Saturn stitched together from old NASA photos

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Amazing video of Saturn stitched together from old NASA photos Apr 28th 2012, 12:00 A spectacular new video combines NASA images of the Saturn and Jupiter systems into an eye-popping montage of moons, rings and swirling otherworldly storms. The video strings together photos snapped by NASA's Voyager and Cassini spacecraft, according to its creator, Netherlands-based freelance editor Sander van den Berg. He posted the black-and-white piece, called "Outer Space," earlier this month on the video-sharing site Vimeo. "Outer Space" begins with close-up shots of Saturn's iconic rings, then pans out to show them whirling in space like a gigantic cosmic buzzsaw. Some of Saturn's many moons occasionally zip through the field of view as they journey around the huge planet. The video focuses for a few seconds on one of the most intriguing of these moons, the ice-encrusted Enceladus. Icy plumes of water vapor, salts and carbonates spew from the south polar region of Enceladus, which many researchers think harbors a deep subsurface ocean of liquid water. Outer Space from Sander van den Berg on Vimeo. "Outer Space" also shows huge storms racing through the atmospheres of both Jupiter and Saturn, cosmic hurricanes that dwarf anything we experience here on Earth. The twin Voyager spacecraft launched a few weeks apart in 1977, tasked primarily with studying Saturn, Jupiter and the gas giants' moons. The probes made many interesting discoveries about these far-flung bodies, including spotting live volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io — the first time such current geophysical activity had been observed beyond Earth. And then the spacecraft just kept going, checking out Uranus and Neptune on their way toward interstellar space. Both are now actively observing the strange environment at the edge of the solar system; Voyager 1 is about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from Earth, and Voyager 2 is 9 billion miles (15 billion km) from home. The $3.2 billion Cassini mission launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. The spacecraft has been studying the ringed planet and its many moons ever since, and will continue to do so for years to come. Last year, NASA extended the probe's mission to at least 2017. Watch the "Outer Space" video on Vimeo.

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FOXNews.com: Why technology is great for your health

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Why technology is great for your health Apr 28th 2012, 12:00 After Barbara Pivarnak had a bone marrow transplant last year, she faced a long recovery. For many weeks, she was -- in her words -- "a blob in a bed." As soon as she could sit up, though, occupational therapists at the Mayo Clinic began taking her to what they called "Wii-hab." She became absorbed in Wii bowling. What she didn't realize was that she was also getting good physical workouts. Her strength and coordination rapidly improved. Daily headlines can make us forget that technology is often used for "good." Among all the reports of hackers stealing sensitive information from government agencies -- and individuals -- it's easy to forget the other side of the story. Well beyond paying our bills online or playing Words With Friends with that girl you barely remember from high school, there's a seriously positive side to technology. It improves the health of thousands of people everyday. Sure, the games are fun. When Nintendo launched the Wii in 2006, it was a runaway hit for kids and families. The unique wireless controller, dubbed the Wii-mote by fans, allowed players to use body movements to bowl, box and play tennis. It didn't take long for elder care professionals to see that the Wii would be a great way to get aging patients up and moving. Soon after that, therapists were using the console to help stroke patients and accident victims get back on their feet again. Studies indicate that using the Wii can improve the physical abilities of Parkinson's sufferers. And therapists at Walter Reed Army Medical Center have successfully used the Wii to help our brave soldiers recover from combat injuries. At $150, the Wii may be the cheapest piece of medical equipment in a clinic. Originally sold for $250, the Wii has been dropping in price because of the expected release of Wii U later this year. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles offer similar motion-control technology and have been used in rehabilitation, too. These examples are just a part of the story. Other researchers are hard at work developing software for smartphones and tablets that will make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities. At Stanford's summer course on high-performance computing, students created a Braille writer that works on a tablet's touchscreen. Blind and visually impaired persons no longer need to find the buttons on this virtual keyboard. They touch eight fingertips to the tablet's glass screen - and the keys find their fingers! By contrast, a traditional Braille writer, which looks like a laptop keyboard, can cost more than $6,000. And it only does one thing. That makes a $500 multimedia tablet seem like quite a bargain! Similarly, apps and iPads are helping kids with autism communicate, convey feelings and break out of their shells of isolation. Mobile medical apps - called mHealth - are now so ubiquitous that it's easy to take them for granted. They give doctors and patients access to up-to-date information anytime, anywhere on smartphones and tablets. Someone in your family probably already relies on an app several times a day to monitor blood pressure, heart rate or their blood glucose levels. These medical apps let patients track their conditions. After falling off his roof and breaking his leg, Damon Lynn's experience with chronic pain inspired him to design the My Pain Diary app. The app now helps thousands with arthritis, fibromyalgia and other painful maladies track symptoms and improve communication with their doctors. In fact, my store is full of tech solutions. I compare and choose the best options just for you, so be sure to check out this simple affordable blood pressure monitor that works with your cell phone. You'll find it along with several other health solutions in my store right now. Four out of five doctors now use mobile devices to call up patient records and consult treatment guidelines. Some apps even turn mobile gadgets into remote monitors, allowing high-risk patients to stay in their homes while also cutting down on pricey office visits. It's really quite amazing how much technology is now being used in doctor's offices and clinics. Why, just a few years ago, it was strictly forbidden to even use those newfangled cell phones inside a hospital! That's why I love technology and the digital lifestyle. I can't wait to see what they think up next. Kim Komando hosts the nation's largest talk radio show about consumer electronics, computers and the Internet. Get the podcast or find the station nearest you at www.komando.com/listen. Subscribe to Kim's free e-mail newsletters at www.komando.com/newsletters. Copyright 1995-2012, WestStar TalkRadio Network. All rights reserved.

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FOXNews.com: Ancient Egyptian mummy suffered rare and painful disease

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Ancient Egyptian mummy suffered rare and painful disease Apr 27th 2012, 19:30 Around 2,900 years ago, an ancient Egyptian man, likely in his 20s, passed away after suffering from a rare, cancerlike disease that may also have left him with a type of diabetes. When he died he was mummified, following the procedure of the time. The embalmers removed his brain (through the nose it appears), poured resin-like fluid into his head and pelvis, took out some of his organs and inserted four linen "packets" into his body. At some point the mummy was transferred to the 2,300 year-old sarcophagus of a woman named Kareset, an artifact that is now in the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, Croatia. The mummy transfer may have been the work of 19th-century antiquity traders keen on selling Kareset's coffin but wanting to have a mummy inside to raise the price. Until now, scientists had assumed a female mummy was inside the Egyptian coffin. The new research reveals not only that the body does not belong to Kareset, but the male mummy inside was sick. His body showed telltale signs that he suffered from Hand-Schuller-Christian disease, an enigmatic condition in which Langerhans cells, a type of immune cell found in the skin, multiply rapidly. [See Photos of the Sick Male Mummy] "They tend to replace normal structure of the bone and all other soft tissues," Dr. Mislav Cavka, a medical doctor at the University of Zagreb who is one of the study's leaders, said in an interview with LiveScience. "We could say it is one sort of cancer." Scientists still aren't sure what causes the disease, but it is very rare, affecting about one in 560,000 young adults, more often males. "In ancient times it was lethal, always," said Cavka, who added that today it can be treated. [Top 10 Mysterious Diseases] Cavka and colleagues examined the mummy using X-rays, a CT scan and a newly developed technique for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. The disease seems to have taken a terrible toll on the ancient man's body, with images revealing it destroyed parts of his skeleton, leaving lytic lesions throughout his spine and skull. The scans also showed what looks like a giant hole in his skull's frontal-parietal bone, and destruction of a section of one of his eye sockets, known as the "orbital wall." The mummy-embalming procedure may have worsened some of the disease-caused damage, ?avka said. Even so,the effects of the disease would have been "very, very painful," and would have affected the man's appearance, particularly in the final stage, Cavka told LiveScience. In addition, it may have led him to suffer from a form of diabetes. The scans show that his sella turcica, part of the skull that holds the pituitary gland, is shallow, which suggests that this gland was also affected by the disease. "That could have lead to diabetes insipidus," the researchers write in their paper. The condition would have made it difficult for his kidneys to conserve water, something that would have worsened the man's predicament. "Probably he was all the time thirsty, hungry and had to urinate," Cavka said. Perhaps cold comfort for him now, but his death does offer clues to the ancient world. Scientists have long debated whether or not cancer was common in ancient times. Some believe that with lower life expectancies and fewer pollutants cancer's prevalence was very low. On the other hand, some scholars believe cancer was more common than thought, but simply very hard to detect in ancient remains. The researchers point out this mummy is the third known case of Hand-Schuller- Christian's disease from ancient Egypt, suggesting the condition was as common among the ancients as it is today. "Tumors are not diseases of the new age," Cavka said. The new findings are detailed in the most recent issue of the journal Collegium Antropologicum. Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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FOXNews.com: Counter-terror expo: panic rooms in a box, among other pre-Olympic fare

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Counter-terror expo: panic rooms in a box, among other pre-Olympic fare Apr 27th 2012, 16:30 London is on high alert ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games this summer -- and the Counter Terror Expo, held in the city this week, showcased the explosive detectors, location trackers, and other high tech tools that might keep Londoners safe. Among the more interesting items: The panic room in a box. Like the safety facility featured in the 2002 Jodie Foster film, a panic room is a fortified area in a home or office designed to provide secure shelter. But how many rooms come in boxes? This setup can be ordered online for about $18,000 (excluding tax and delivery) and will arrive on your doorstep delivered in a flat-pack box -- just like an Ikea cabinet. It can be tailored to withstand mechanical attacks, shotgun fire and more powerful weapons, the company claims. Also new this year are sandless sandbags. Known as BlastSax and filled with water rather than sand or dirt, they are intended to stop bullets and mitigate explosions. Over at the Expo's vehicle zone, meanwhile, armored and support vehicles, as well as retro-fit armor solutions for your current ride, were on display.  From very lightweight and maneuverable vehicles to those designed for on-scene emergency medical, command post, communication and surveillance, a number of companies showed off their wares. Land Rover Jaguar was the clear stand-out here, for the expertise reflected in their highly maneuverable vehicles. In addition to robot vehicles designed to eliminate IEDs (improvised explosive devices) - Northrop Grumman continues to lead the pack, though the field hasn't really advanced this year - the showcase featured jamming technologies to prevent remote control devices being detonated as well as body armor designed to protect the operator from shrapnel and flying debris. Access control, including technologies that can help limit or monitor access to a facility or home, was the third featured theme this year, with five companies standing out. To control who is where, when and for what purpose, there are a range of methods available from simple badges familiar to many office workers to far more complex solutions using iris readers or other biometric devices to limit access to the most restricted areas. An Access Control Suite at the event showcased a series of doors, windows and other points of entry so that buyers could gain a first-hand experience testing things far different from what they may have at home or work. Ordinary locks have come a surprisingly long way, for example; lock-maker Abloy featured a pick-proof lock that could easily outsmart your average attempt bobby pin. Crooks usually pick locks by moving one variable. Abloy's lock reacts to such clumsy efforts by relocking itself. Want to unlock a conference room from Cambodia? No problem. The company picked up the Counter Terrorism and Specialist Security award for its Abloy Cliq Remote, which combines a mechanical key with high security electronics to create a web-based electromechanical system. Access from anywhere in the world is possible utilizing secure encryption, thanks to a hosted server that provides a secure platform for a web management platform. Shield's security doors -- some of which are available to the public -- were a very cool item as well.  The company demonstrated house and safe doors that opened with "ekey" finger scanning. An integrated scanner analyzes each fingerprint swipe to provide a unique thermal signature and special code to open the door. Up to 99 different fingerprints can be stored, the company said. The scanner only recognizes fingerprints at a normal body temperature and no fingerprints remain on its surface. Finally, the stand out for unexpected perimeter protection was CPM Group's Redi-Rock Hostile Vehicle Mitigation System -- think of it as LEGOs for adults. Available in three finishes, cobblestone, ledgestone and limestone, these LEGO-like blocks are removable and relocatable and use their own weight rather than a ground anchor. The blocks link together like a necklace to aborb the impact of a truck. A 7.5-ton truck travelling at 30mph that rams these man size building blocks will only move them 1.6 meters, CPM said. Despite the London Olympics looming in the near future -- the Games are set to begin on July 27 --, the Counter Terror show was surprisingly sedate. But interesting technologies like these promise to keep the games safe and fun. Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has travelled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie.

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