Chad's News

Researchers have proven, using mathematical techniques and a heavy amount of computing power, that 20 is the maximum number of moves necessary to solve any Rubik’s Cube configuration by the shortest method. This value is known as God’s number. They were able to mathematically reduce the number of unique patterns from 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 to a mere 1,090,175,792,696,524,800 (one quintillion). Then they used something on the order of 35 CPU years of processing to verify that each of the remaining combinations could be solved in 20 moves or less.

Thanks to Josh for this link.

Link: http://www.cube20.org/

Here’s an interesting study by Takahiko Masuda, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He was able to prove that the cultural difference between Western individualism and East Asian collectivism goes so far as to affect perception.

Link: http://www.adbusters.org/…
(via Neatorama)

I have no idea how this is possible, and the math is beyond me, but an IBM employee named Craig Gentry has found a way to add and multiply encrypted data without first decrypting it. It’s called “fully homomorphic encryption.”

Link: http://www.technologyreview.com/…
(via Slashdot)

Scurvy is a potentially fatal illness caused by a lack of vitamin C. Historically it was a problem for sailors, who went out to sea for long periods on a restricted diet. The cure (eating citrus fruit, fresh meat, etc.) has been known since at least the 15th century, but in a tragic comedy of errors this fact was repeatedly forgotten, misapplied, or misunderstood. It wasn’t until 1932 that vitamin C was identified and definitively shown to be the “cure” for scurvy. The linked article explains the long history, with special emphasis on Robert Falcon Scott’s disastrous Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole.

Link: http://idlewords.com/…
(via Neatorama)

From the article: “A paper in the current issue of Science discusses the ability of a single-celled creature to create a robust network while foraging for food—one that mimicked the Tokyo rail system in complexity.”

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

Scientists can now make a drop of oil traverse a complex maze by itself. Be sure to watch the video.

Link: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/…
(via Neatorama)

Researchers have shown that there is a physical basis to the placebo effect. They measured pain-related nerve activity in the spinal cord and found that it vanished when a placebo was used.

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/…

In yet another case of science fiction becoming science fact, researchers have been working on nanoparticles that home in on cancer cells and destroy them, without damaging the rest of the body. Much, much better than chemotherapy. I hope this technology makes it to the mainstream.

Link: http://hplusmagazine.com/…
(via Slashdot)

Whenever I hear an expert say that life would not be possible if some physical constant or feature of the Earth had been slightly different, I remind myself that it’s really life as we know it that would not be possible.

Link: http://xkcd.com/…

Medical researchers have long wanted a generic anti-viral agent that works on most viruses, much like antibacterials (such as penicillin) work on bacterial infections. The main way we protect against viruses is to inject a vaccine consisting of a harmless or dead version of the virus. This causes the body to generate antibodies and allows it to react more quickly when exposed to the real virus. The problem is that this doesn’t work on new or mutated viruses (think SARS or the ever-changing flu virus).

Now researchers have developed a promising anti-viral drug that should work on most existing viruses as well as any new ones. Rather than prepping the body’s immune system, it works directly on the virus and prevents it from replicating. And as an added bonus, it will be quite difficult for a virus to develop an immunity to the drug. The linked article has more details.

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/…

Chad’s News has no opinion on political issues, but given the controversy surrounding the US government’s proposed health care legislation, I thought the linked article would be helpful. It provides basic information about the existing programs in various countries (including the US).

Link: http://www.mentalfloss.com/…

Japanese researchers have successfully grown replacement teeth in mice. Here’s hoping this will be a common procedure for humans when I’m old enough to need dentures.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…