Deep Thought' - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy dream computer - to be realised by British scientists

British scientists have taken the first steps towards building a real-life version of Deep Thought, the supercomputer programmed to solve the "ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything" in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

The team has come up with the first practical blueprint for constructing a giant quantum computer, a thinking device capable of rapidly providing answers to problems that would take an ordinary computer billions of years to solve.

A proof-of-concept early prototype is planned within two years at the University of Sussex.

For many years, people said that it was completely impossible to construct an actual quantum computerProfessor Winfried Hensinger, University of Sussex

But the ground-breaking modular design could theoretically pave the way to a machine as large as a football field with undreamed of levels of computing power.

While Deep Thought's solution to the meaning of life was "42", the Sussex scientists hope their creation will prove a lot more useful than the supercomputer in Douglas Adams's comic space opera.-read more

Scientists find a gene that makes some people taller

The first gene linked to tallness, one of the most heritable of traits, has been discovered by scientists, a finding that is expected to shed light on human development and further understanding of cancer. An international team including researchers at Oxford and Exeter analysed DNA from 35,000 people and found that a single letter in the human genetic code was responsible for making some people taller than others.

The scientists zeroed in on a gene called HMGA2, of which we inherit two copies, one from each parent. Inheriting a form of the gene that has a C written into the genetic code instead of a T adds about half a centimetre to a person's height, the scientists found, while inheriting two copies adds nearly a full centimetre.

The discovery is the first to identify a single gene that directly influences natural variation of height. Around a quarter of white Europeans will carry two versions of the "tall" version of the gene, with another quarter carrying two "short" versions.

The Guardian's Science Weekly Cross Section: Uta Frith – Science Weekly podcast

Nicola Davis sits down with Professor Uta Frith to talk autism, passion, rebellion and the role of women in science

 

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Scientists at Harvard University and Children's Hospital Boston joined British researchers at Oxford University and the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter to scour the genomes of 5,000 white European patients who had volunteered DNA samples and details of their height and weight for medical studies into diabetes -read more

Children with no shoes on 'do better in classroom', major study finds

Children who learn with no shoes on are more likely to behave better and obtain good grades than peers with footwear, a decade-long study has revealed.

Researchers at the University of Bournemouth found that pupils who leave their shoes outside the classroom are more likely to arrive to school earlier, leave later and read more widely – ultimately resulting in better academic achievement over-read more

Sleep and me.

Its odd that yor hearing is the last sense to go before you drift into sleep this may be due to our hunter gathers days but i may be wrong.I never know when i have gone asleep but somehow my brian wkes me up to do bodyly functions or lets worries or stress of day come forward so i have a restless night and i get the inbeween sleeep time -half asleep and part awake and world seems less real.Irelax by puting on radio and keeping warm or col to aid sleep.

The Road to Wigan Pier

The Road to Wigan Pier is a book by the British writer George Orwell, first published in 1937. The first half of this work documents his sociological investigations of the bleak living conditions among the working class in Lancashire and Yorkshire in the industrial north of England before World War II. The second half is a long essay on his middle-class upbringing, and the development of his political conscience, questioning British attitudes towards socialism. Orwell states plainly that he himself is in favour of socialism, but feels it necessary to point out reasons why many people who would benefit from socialism, and should logically support it, are in practice likely to be strong opponents.

According to Orwell biographer Bernard Crick, publisher Victor Gollancz first tried to persuade Orwell's agent to allow the Left Book Club edition to consist solely of the descriptive first half of the book. When this was refused Gollancz wrote an introduction to the book. "Victor could not bear to reject it, even though his suggestion that the 'repugnant' second half should be omitted from the Club edition was turned down. On this occasion Victor, albeit nervously, did overrule Communist Party objections in favour of his publishing instinct. His compromise was to publish the book with [an introduction] full of good criticism, unfair criticism, and half-truths."^[2]

The book grapples, "with the social and historical reality of Depression suffering in the north of England, – Orwell does not wish merely to enumerate evils and injustices, but to break through what he regards as middle-class oblivion, – Orwell's corrective to such falsity comes first by immersion of his own body – a supreme measure of truth for Orwell – directly into the experience of misery."^{[3]wiki link}

The Black Female Mathematicians Who Sent Astronauts to Space

On November 24, 2015, President Barack Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, considered the nation’s highest civilian honor, to 17 men and women. Among them was 97-year-old retired African-American NASA mathematician Katherine G. Johnson, selected for her contributions to the space program, starting with the Mercury missions in the ‘50s and early ‘60s, through the Apollo moon missions in the late ’60s and early ‘70s, and ending with the space shuttle missions in the mid '80s. Among other things, she calculated the trajectories of America's first manned mission into orbit and the first Moon landing.

Awarding Johnson this well-deserved honor doesn't just shine a spotlight on a single black female STEM pioneer. It also illuminates an obscure but important piece of history. Johnson was just one of dozens of mathematically talented black women recruited to work as “human computers” at the Langley Memorial Research Laboratory in the ‘40s and ‘50s. (Many of whom, including Johnson, are the subject of Theodore Melfi's Oscar-nominated film, Hidden Figures.)

They were so named because before machines came along, they crunched the numbers necessary for figuring out everything from wind tunnel resistance to rocket trajectories to safe reentry angles. 

In fact, all of Langley’s hundreds of “human computers,” whether black or white, were women. It was an era when, as Johnson put it, “the computer wore a skirt.”-read more

Rare' freshwater fish filmed in Lake District

The UK's "rarest freshwater fish" which dates back to the ice age has been caught on camera in the Lake District.

A vendace was filmed by a remote-controlled yellow submarine which was measuring sediment 20m (66ft) deep on the bottom of Derwentwater.

Dr Andy Gowans, from the Environment Agency (EA), said it was "a unique moment".

"Seeing the vendace is a good indication of the lake's health," he added.The vendace's only UK habitat is in Derwentwater and is an "international conservation priority", the EA added.

Dr Ian Winfield, from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said: "This was an amazing moment for a scientist, I was not expecting to see one, never mind film one."

The agency said the vendace - or Coregonus albula - is the UK's rarest freshwater fish.

It was thought to be locally extinct for 12 years until it was re-discovered in 2013.