Butterfly wings are the key to glare-free phone displays

Butterflies have proven to be a surprising source of inspiration for technology, and that trend isn’t about to slow down any time soon. German researchers have discovered that irregular, nanoscopic structures on the glasswing butterfly’s namesake transparent wings eliminate most reflections at any angle — perfect for phones, camera lenses and most any other device where display glare is a problem. The scientists have yet to completely recreate this surface in the lab, but they foresee a future where you’re not struggling to read your smartphone outdoors. And the kicker? Prototypes are already self-cleaning and water-repellant, so you wouldn’t need extra coatings to keep your screens largely smudge-free.

[Image credit: Radwanul Hasan Siddique, KIT]

Filed under: Displays, Science, Mobile

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Via: EurekAlert

Source: KIT, Nature

‘Plunder Pirates’ sets sail for Android devices

Put on your eye patches and grab a map. Rovio Stars, a publishing division of Rovio Entertainment, has brought Plunder Pirates to the Play Store. This game from Midoki has players building island strongholds and ravaging enemy lands, taking whatever they can wherever they can. Players have to put together crews to carry out attacks and fight for their islands. For assistance, players can join or create guilds and share rewards after completed attacks. Plunder Pirates is exactly what you would expect from a pirate-inspired multiplayer game.

Hit the break for the trailer, gallery, and download links.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Play Store Download Link

Come comment on this article: ‘Plunder Pirates’ sets sail for Android devices

Germany rules that using ad-blocking software is legal

The ability to silence the constant braying of advertising is great, unless you’re a publisher who relies upon the cash that it generates to keep running. This tension between media outlets and ad-blocking agencies has finally spilled over into a courtroom punch-up after some German newspapers took AdBlock Plus to court. The outlets, which include Die Zeit and Handelsblatt, claim that the browser plugin was an anti-competitive product that threatened their businesses. Judges in Hamburg, however, ruled in favor of the company, saying that software that saves you from watching that awful Kate Upton advert for the thousandth damn time this week is perfectly legal.

That said, questions have been asked about AdBlock Plus’ controversial whitelisting service, which has been described as a racket. Advertisers whose content isn’t obnoxious can apply to be exposed to web users, but one unnamed party claimed that it was asked for 30 percent of its revenue to remain on the list. Naturally, the company’s Ben Williams refuted this claim to BBC News, saying that if the accusation was true they’d be “terrible racketeers because 90 percent of the people on the whitelist don’t pay anything.” Smarting from their courtroom loss, the German newspapers are already gearing up for an appeal, so expect to hear plenty more about the moral quandaries of using ad blocking software in the near future.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: BBC News, AdBlock Plus

Scientists create first genetically modified human embryo

For the first time in history, a team of researchers have successfully edited the genes of a human embryo. The researchers from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou reportedly used the CRISPR/Cas9 technique to knock a gene called HBB, which causes the fatal blood disorder β-thalassaemia, out of donor embryos. This marks the first time that the CRISPR technique has been employed on an embryonic human genome. The CRISPR/Cas9 method utilizes a complex enzyme (aka a set of “genetic scissors”) to snip out and replace faulty gene segments with functional bits of DNA. The technique is well-studied in adult cells, but very little published research has been done using embryonics. And it’s the latter application that has bioethicists up in arms.

On one hand, advocates for genetic modification argue that it could lead to medical techniques that eliminate devastating genetic disorders like Parkinson’s, Down syndrome or Sickle-Cell Anemia before a person is even born. On the other hand, critics warn that tinkering with the blueprints of life to prenatally destroy disease could lead to unintended genetic consequences that are even worse than whatever disease we’re trying to cure.

Then there’s also a whole other argument as to whether this technique crosses ethical boundaries. “We are humans, not transgenic rats,” Edward Lanphier, president of Sangamo and chairman of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, recently wrote in a Nature op-ed. “We believe there is a fundamental ethical issue in crossing the boundary to modifying the human germ line.”

Still, the potential for future misuse has rarely slowed the development of a new technology — just look at the automobile, assault rifle or atom bomb. According to the Sun Yat-sen research team, they eventually called off the study, not because they created genetic monstrosities, but because the technique failed so often. Out of the 86 total embryos utilized in the study, 71 survived the initial CRISPR snips, only 28 successfully spliced in the new DNA and a small fraction of those splices actually generated a functional protein. “If you want to do it in normal embryos, you need to be close to 100 percent,” lead researcher Junjiu Huang told Nature. “That’s why we stopped. We still think it’s too immature.” The researchers published their findings in a recent issue of the journal Protein & Cell.

Filed under: Science

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Via: Nature

Source: Protein & Cell