Scientists Salivate Over Discovery of Earthlike Planet

Scientists Salivate Over Discovery of Earthlike Planet
"This planet will occupy us for years," says a top astronomer of the boiling, watery mass 42 light-years away.

橄欖樹的啟示(文／劉克襄)

橄欖樹的啟示

【聯合報╱文／劉克襄】 2009.12.18 04:23 am

校方清潔人員在橄欖樹下整理。 劉克襄／攝影 小而美的加州理工學院，因陸陸續續二十四位諾貝爾獎得主的加總，以及長期積累的教學聲譽，晚近成為世界諸多理工科學生的首選。後來再得知，科學奇才愛因斯坦、物理怪傑理查費曼、中國原子彈之父錢學森都曾在此研究教學，我更有走入學術殿堂朝聖的感覺。 只是沒想到，進入校園以後，最大的興趣卻是一百三十多棵，七、八十歲的油橄欖（Olea europeal）。 前些時在台灣，我一直在探究土橄欖（Canarium album Raeusch）、錫蘭橄欖（Elaeocarpus Serratusl）和油橄欖樹的差異。這三種俗稱的橄欖，不僅風味及功用不同，連植物科別亦迥異。 學校販售的橄欖油成品。 劉克襄／攝影 土橄欖，我最為熟悉，小時常在柑仔店購買。果肉啃完了，兩頭尖銳的種子仍捨不得吐棄，猶含嘴裡咀濡多時，舔其最後的餘味。年長了，在台灣中部野地查訪，偶爾巧遇一整片瘦林，稀疏沒落於偏遠的鄉野，更常有莫名的感動。 一起隨行講演的小說家朱天文，對錫蘭橄欖則有另一番情結。那是她和妹妹小時對銅鑼外公家的重要印記。每次其母劉慕沙女士返鄉，她們都會央求，買些醃過的青綠橄欖回來。桃竹苗客家鄉野，迄今仍在販售此一甘草浸漬的小果。 油橄欖在台灣並無栽種，但大家同樣不陌生。很可能，晚近還比其他二種更加嫻熟。此物來自地中海，喜愛乾旱少雨。榨出的橄欖油廣受世界的喜愛，經濟價值更高得教人稱羨，「黃金液體」之美名亦由此衍生。我們家便是大宗用戶，日常煮食，多半仰仗它的起味。 許多緯度和環境相似於地中海的區域，知其身價不菲，很早即嘗試栽種。加州油橄欖到處可見，想必也是在此一經濟誘因下大量引進，曾遍植於附近莊園。而我匆促走訪，沒想到，竟有緣一睹其真面目，那種振奮，恐怕不下於知道愛因斯坦和理查費曼在此的過往軼事。 但更讓我玩味的，無疑是發生在該校的橄欖事件。 油橄欖也是此間學院校園的主要樹種。每年十月底，油橄欖結出大量熟果，由青黃轉為熟黑，樹下常掉落滿地，影響了校園環境的清潔。三年前，此一麻煩隨即成為 新上任校長夏毛（Chameau）的棘手問題。這種情形若在台灣的校園發生，主管單位往往會採取砍樹之類杜絕源頭的政策，絕少有其他妥協，或者聰明的改善 良方。 有一回，夏毛和夫人在校園散步，巧遇二名年輕學生正在摘取果實纍纍的油橄欖。細問下才知，原來他們突發奇想，親自動手想要土法煉製新鮮的橄欖油。 夏毛相當欣賞學生的創意，當下鼓勵他們完成。還約定，若成功了，一定請他們吃大餐。結果二位學生不負所託，有一晚帶著提煉完成的橄欖油來報告。夏毛當然未食言，卻也因此興起一個有意義的動念：發起橄欖採收的節慶活動。 活動一推出，隨即受到師生的熱烈歡迎。隔年，全校師生和眷屬一起動手摘橄欖。再把採收下來，將近一噸重的果實交給附近的橄欖油工廠提煉。橄欖油瓶裝出廠 後，還委託附近商家寄賣，收入作為獎學金以及教職員的紅利。過去，學校的書店只擺售文具和衣飾等紀念物，如今亦出售油橄欖製的各種產品。 此後，每年十一月初橄欖成熟時，全校都列為正式的年度活動。「Olive Harvest Festival」形成一個小而美好的精緻節慶，除了採摘橄欖，校園裡還有相關的美食、音樂和文化系列活動。 一度成為公害，人人厭惡的橄欖樹，學生們轉而以它為榮，特別愛向外來的遊客推薦，敘述這一番節慶故事的來由。為了橄欖品質，學校園丁還遵照附近一家橄欖油莊園的指示，採用有機的方法施肥、修剪、除蟲，希望年年都能有好收成。 我抵達時已十一月中旬，油橄欖兀自挺立著青灰的身影。但橄欖都已摘取乾淨，地面只剩少許曬得扁乾的黑色果肉。學校園丁賣力地在橄欖樹下清理，青綠的小蜂鳥和松鼠則在樹冠上來去自如。 這些希臘文學中最常被賦予神話傳說的典雅老樹，正以分明而結實的枝幹，清楚有致地分岔著自己的生長歷史。還有如虱目魚般的厚實葉片，伸出青白交錯的色澤，堅實明亮地閃動著，刷亮了加州的陽光。 我徘徊多時，想像著愛因斯坦在此曾被拒絕聘任的有趣插曲，錢學森奔亡中國的神祕過往，還有更多理查費曼的傳奇教學。一所理工學校的嚴謹殿堂，因了這些地中海樹種的從容質樸，無端增添了諸多科學人文的美好想像。 這則校園保育樹種的美好過程，不免勾起自己回想，諸多在台灣校園邂逅的悲慘故事。遠的不說，最近居家附近的小學，就發生了教人氣結的插曲。 這所小學的操場，有一休息的涼亭處於邊角。其旁栽種了一棵多年的西印度櫻桃。秋天時，常會有數百顆豐碩的紅果一起冒出，蔚為奇觀。以前在別地，我也見過此 樹多回，它的果實擁有最豐富的維他命Ｃ，只是過於酸澀，不易單獨食用。若懂得竅門，悉心採收、清洗，再綜合其他水果，攪拌為果汁，實乃上品。 可惜多數人不知，常任腐熟的果實掉落滿地。我便看到涼亭周遭，血紅的汁液濺得台階到處都是。校方可能因此橫生諸多清潔的困擾。今秋開學時，一不作二不休，乾脆去除之而後快。 如今看到油橄欖事件，我便感慨不已。假如我們能學油橄欖的處理方式，比如在九月家長會時，同時舉辦西印度櫻桃的節慶。除了帶學童一起採摘，宣導這種果物的食用方法和生態知識，相信這種外來樹種，反而會成為一種當地特色，甚而形成美好的社區傳統，不是嗎？ 環顧台灣諸多學校，都常有隨興砍樹、恣意造景這等駭人的綠色政策，悄然地在進行著。尤其新的校長接任時，在除舊布新的理念下，學校的生態環境最常遭殃。 這所美國理工學院的橄欖樹故事，或許不盡然完美，也才嘗試不久，但學校對待樹的情感，以及衍生的良善政策，都是很精采的示範。或許，我們的校園教育也該有類似的、活潑的生活啟發吧。

Warren Sturgis McCulloch.

Warren Sturgis McCulloch.

Warren Sturgis McCulloch (November 16, 1898 – September 24, 1969) was an American neurophysiologist and cybernetician, known for his work on the foundation for certain brain theories and his contribution to the cybernetics movement.^[1]

Contents [hide] 1 Biography 2 Work 2.1 Neural network modelling 2.2 Reticular formation 3 Publications 4 References 5 Further reading

Biography

Warren Sturgis McCulloch was born in Orange, New Jersey, in 1898. He attended Haverford and studied philosophy and psychology at Yale, where he received an A.B. degree in 1921. He continued to study psychology at Columbia and received a M.A. degree in 1923. Receiving his MD in 1927 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, he undertook an internship at Bellevue Hospital, New York, before returning to academia in 1934.

He worked at the Laboratory for Neurophysiology at Yale University from 1934 to 1941, before moving to the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

From 1952 he worked at the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics. He also worked at Yale University and later at the University of Chicago.

He was a founding member of the American Society for Cybernetics and its second president during 1967–1968. He was a mentor to the British operations research pioneer Stafford Beer.

Warren McCulloch had a remarkable range of interests and talents. In addition to his scientific contributions he wrote poetry (sonnets), and he designed and engineered buildings and a dam at his farm in Old Lyme, Connecticut. He died in Cambridge in 1969.

Work

He is remembered for his work with Dusser de Barenne from Yale and later with Walter Pitts from the University of Chicago. Here he provided the foundation for certain brain theories in a number of classic papers, including "A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity" (1943) and "How We Know Universals: The Perception of Auditory and Visual Forms" (1947), both published in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics. The former is "widely credited with being a seminal contribution to neural network theory, the theory of automata, the theory of computation, and cybernetics".^[1]

Neural network modelling

In the 1943 paper they attempted to demonstrate that a Turing machine program could be implemented in a finite network of formal neurons, (in the event, the Turing Machine contains their model of the brain, but the converse is not true^[2]) that the neuron was the base logic unit of the brain. In the 1947 paper they offered approaches to designing "nervous nets" to recognize visual inputs despite changes in orientation or size.

From 1952 he worked at the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics, working primarily on neural network modelling. His team examined the visual system of the frog in consideration of McCulloch's 1947 paper, discovering that the eye provides the brain with information that is already, to a degree, organized and interpreted, instead of simply transmitting an image.

Reticular formation

McCulloch also posited the concept of "poker chip" reticular formations as to how the brain deals with contradictory information in a democratic, somatotopical neural network. His principle of "Redundancy of Potential Command"^[3] was developed by von Forster and Pask in their study of Self-organization.^{[citation needed]}

Publications

McCulloch wrote a book and several articles:^[4]

• 1965. Embodiments of Mind. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
• 1993. The complete works of Warren S. McCulloch. Intersystems Publications: Salinas, CA.

Articles, a selection:

• 1943. "A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity". With: Walter Pitts. In: Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics Vol 5, pp 115–133.
• 1945. "A Heterarchy of Values Determined by the Topology of Nervous Nets". In: Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics, 7, 1945, 89-93.
• 1959. "What The Frog's Eye Tells The Frog's Brain". With Jerome Lettvin, H.R. Maturana and W.H. Pitts In: Proc. of the I. R. E. Vol 47 (11).
• 1969, "Recollections of the Many Sources of Cybernetics", publiced in: ASC FORUM Volume VI, Number 2 -Summer 1974.

Papers Published by the Chicago Literary Club:

• 1945, "One Word After Another".
• 1959 "The Past of a Delusion".
• 1959, "The Natural Fit".

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Ken Aizawa (2004), "McCulloch, Warren Sturgis". In: Dictonary of the Philosophy of Mind. Retrieved 17 may 2008.
2. ^ see: S.C. Kleene, "Representations of Events in Nerve Nets and Finite Automata"
3. ^ Some Mechanisms For A Theory of the Reticular Formation
4. ^ His papers now reside in the manuscripts collection of the American Philosophical Society.

Further reading

• New York Times (1969), Obituaries, September 25.
• Crevier, Daniel (1993), AI: The Tumultuous Search for Artificial Intelligence, BasicBooks, New York, NY.

Karl H. Pribram

Neuropsychology

Topics Brain-computer interface Traumatic brain injury Brain regions Clinical neuropsychology Cognitive neuroscience Dissociation Human brain Misconceptions Neuroanatomy Neurophysiology Optogenetics Phrenology

Brain functions Arousal Attention Consciousness Decision making Executive functions Natural language Learning Memory Motor coordination Sensory perception Planning Problem solving Thought

People Arthur L. Benton David Bohm António Damásio Phineas Gage Norman Geschwind Elkhonon Goldberg Patricia Goldman Rakic Pasko Rakic Donald O. Hebb Kenneth Heilman Edith Kaplan Muriel Lezak Benjamin Libet Rodolfo Llinás Alexander Luria Brenda Milner Karl H. Pribram Oliver Sacks Mark Rosenzweig Roger W. Sperry H. M. K. C.

Tests Bender-Gestalt Test Benton Visual Retention Test Clinical Dementia Rating Continuous Performance Task Glasgow Coma Scale Hayling and Brixton tests Johari window Lexical decision task Mini-mental state examination Stroop effect Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Wisconsin card sorting

Mind and Brain Portal

v • d • e

Karl H. Pribram (born February 25, 1919 in Vienna, Austria) is a professor at Georgetown University , and an emeritus professor of psychology and psychiatry at Stanford University and Radford University. Board-certified as a neurosurgeon, Pribram did pioneering work on the definition of the limbic system, the relationship of the frontal cortex to the limbic system, the sensory-specific "association" cortex of the parietal and temporal lobes, and the classical motor cortex of the human brain. To the general public, Pribram is best known for his development of the holonomic brain model of cognitive function and his contribution to ongoing neurological research into memory, emotion, motivation and consciousness. American best selling author Katherine Neville is his significant other.

Contents [hide] 1 Holonomic model 2 Other contributions 3 Bibliography 4 References 5 External links

Holonomic model

Main article: Holonomic brain theory

Pribram's holonomic model of brain processing states that, in addition to the circuitry accomplished by the large fiber tracts in the brain, processing also occurs in webs of fine fiber branches (for instance, dendrites) that form webs. This type of processing is properly described by Gabor quanta of information, wavelets that are used in quantum holography, the basis of fMRI, PET scans and other image processing procedures.

Gabor wavelets are windowed Fourier transforms that convert complex spatial (and temporal) patterns into component waves whose amplitudes at their intersections become reinforced or diminished. Fourier processes are the basis of holography. Holograms can correlate and store a huge amount of information - and have the advantage that the inverse transform returns the results of correlation into the spatial and temporal patterns that guide us in navigating our universe.

David Bohm had suggested that were we to view the cosmos without the lenses that outfit our telescopes, the universe would appear to us as a hologram. Pribram extended this insight by noting that were we deprived of the lenses of our eyes and the lens like processes of our other sensory receptors, we would be immersed in holographic experiences.

Other contributions

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Pribram's neurobehavioral experiments established the composition of the limbic system and the executive functions of the prefrontal cortex. Pribram also discovered the sensory specific systems of the association cortex, and showed that these systems operate to organize the choices we make among sensory stimuli, not the sensing of the stimuli themselves.

Bibliography

• Miller, George; Galanter, Eugene, & Pribram, Karl (1960). Plans and the structure of behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 0030100755.
• Pribram, Karl H. (1969). Brain and behaviour. Hammondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140805214.
• Pribram, Karl (1971). Languages of the brain; experimental paradoxes and principles in neuropsychology. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0135227305.
• Pribram, Karl; Gill, Morton M. (1976). Freud's "Project" re-assessed: preface to contemporary cognitive theory and neuropsychology. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0465025692.
• Pribram, Karl (1991). Brain and perception: holonomy and structure in figural processing. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0898599954.
• Globus, Gordon G.; Pribram, Karl H., & Vitiello, Giuseppe (2004-09-30). Brain And Being: At The Boundary Between Science, Philosophy, Language, And Arts (Advances in Consciousness Research, 58). John Benjamins Publishing Co.. ISBN 158811550X.
• Pribram, Karl (ed.) (1969). On the biology of learning. New York: Harcourt Brace & World. ISBN 0155675206.
• Pribram, Karl, & Broadbent, Donald (eds.) (1970). Biology of memory. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0125643500.
• Pribram, K. H., & Luria, A. R. (eds.) (1973). Psychophysiology of the frontal lobes. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0125643403.
• Pribram, Karl, & Isaacson, Robert L. (eds.) (1975). The Hippocampus. New York: Plenum Press. ISBN 0306375354.
• Pribram, Karl (ed.) (1993). Rethinking neural networks: quantum fields and biological data. Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum. ISBN 0805814663.
• Pribram, Karl (ed.) (1994). Origins: brain and self organization. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. ISBN 0805817867.
• King, Joseph, & Pribram, Karl (eds.) (1995). Scale in conscious experience: Is the brain too important to be left to the specialists to study?. Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0805821783.
• Pribram, Karl, &K ing, Joseph (eds.) (1996). Learning as self-organization. Mahwah, N. J.: L. Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 080582586X.
• Pribram, Karl (ed.) (1998). Brain and values: is a biological science of values possible. Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0805831541.
• Pribram, Karl (2004). "Brain and Mathematics". Pari Center for New Learning. http://www.paricenter.com/library/papers/pribram01.php. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
• "Like Bohm, Karl Pribram sees the holographic nature of reality". The Ground of Faith. October 2003. http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~thegroundoffaith/issues/2003-10/pribram.html. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
• Mishlove, Jeffrey (1998). "The Holographic Brain with Karl Pribram, MA; Ph.D.". TWM.co.nz. http://twm.co.nz/pribram.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-25.

References

External links

• "The Holographic Brain" - Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove interviews Karl Pribham
• "Comparison between Holographic Brain Theory and conventional models of neuronal computation" – academic paper on Pribham's work
• "Pribram Receives Havel Prize For His Work in Neuroscience" – news article
• Global Lens Interview (Video)
• [1] quantum mind

See also: Pribram (surname)

skin cancer/ lung cancer

Scientists at the University of Bath have made a significant breakthrough in the treatment of skin cancer.

2009 lung cancer

****
Tuesday, June 1, 1999 Published at 08:58 GMT 09:58 UK


Health

Lung cancer breakthrough

Lung cancer can be treated if caught early

Scientists have discovered a tell-tale genetic change in cells that could take them a step closer to cutting deaths from lung cancer.

Professor John Field of the Roy Castle centre discusses the findings

Researchers at the Roy Castle International Centre for Lung Cancer Research in Liverpool say the discovery could help to identify those most at risk from the disease.

The breakthrough could - in the long term - lead to a screening programme similar to that for breast and cervical cancer.

The findings, published on Tuesday in the Cancer Research Journal, are part of a major 10-year project looking at Liverpool's high incidence of lung cancer.

The city has the highest number of people with lung cancer anywhere in England and Wales.

Figures for lung cancer among women in the city are way above the national average, with lung cancer now a more common cause of death among women on Merseyside than breast cancer.

Scientists have discovered that genetic markers in fluid taken from the lungs of lung cancer patients were also present in fluid taken from the lungs of a number of individuals without the disease.

The second group of individuals will be closely monitored to see whether or not they develop cancer.

Deadly disease

In Britain 42,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer each year and 50% will be dead within four months because the disease has already progressed too far. The five-year survival rate is only five in 100.

However, most lung cancer deaths are preventable if the disease is diagnosed at an early stage.

Currently the only way to diagnose lung cancer is with invasive techniques, such as taking a sample of flesh or cells from the inside of the lung for analysis. By the time a diagnosis is made, the disease is often untreatable.

The institute scientists are working on a non-invasive test using a nebuliser-inhaler. The patient breathes in a saline mist which induces a cough.

Scientists can then analyse the sputum.

But Professor John Field, director of the Centre, said medics were still years away from an early detection system for the disease and a national screening programme.

But he said the results of preliminary work were very encouraging.

Common malignancy

Prof Field said: "Lung cancer is the most common malignancy in men in the UK.

"Sadly, many patients have progressed to advanced disease before their tumours are detected by conventional diagnostic techniques.

"The presence of the same genetic markers in material obtained from the lungs of cancer patients and from the lungs of people who are not cancer patients suggest that a combination of sophisticated genetic techniques and a non-invasive examination in a health centre, could identify individuals who are at risk of developing the disease.

"Early identification of such individuals would greatly improve the effectiveness of treatment."

The Liverpool Lung Project is one of the largest population-based studies in lung cancer in the world.

It is monitoring a selected group of 7,500 individuals on Merseyside between 1998 and 2008.

The aim of the project is to use genetic techniques in conjunction with lifestyle data to identify individuals who are at risk of developing the disease.

The best way to avoid lung cancer is to quit smoking. However, even if all smokers gave up immediately lung cancer is likely to be a major public health problem for decades as the disease can take up to 20 years to become apparent.

chip for brain wave

《中英對照讀新聞》Intel wants to stick chips in your brain 英特爾要在你腦中植晶片

◎陳成良

By the year 2020, you won’t need a keyboard and mouse to control your computer, say Intel Corp. researchers. Instead, users will open documents and surf the Web using nothing more than their brain waves.

到了2020年，你無需鍵盤及滑鼠來控制電腦，英特爾公司研究人員說。取而代之的是，使用者將只需用腦波即可開啟文件並上網。

Scientists at Intel’s research lab in Pittsburgh are working to find ways to read and harness human brain waves so they can be used to operate computers, television sets and cell phones. The brain waves would be harnessed with Intel-developed sensors implanted in people’s brains.

英特爾匹茲堡研究實驗室的科學家，正致力找出讀取並駕馭人類腦波的方法來操控電腦、電視機及手機。這些腦波將由植入腦中、由英特爾研發的感應器來駕馭。

Intel research scientist Dean Pomerleau and his research teammates from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, are currently working on decoding human brain activity.

英特爾研究科學家波默洛及其來自卡內基美隆大學及匹茲堡大學的研究團隊夥伴，目前正致力為人類腦部活動解碼。

Pomerleau said the team has used Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging （FMRI） machines to determine that blood flow changes in specific areas of the brain based on what word or image someone is thinking of. People tend to show the same brain patterns for similar thoughts, he added.

波默洛說，該團隊利用「功能性核磁共振機」，來判定腦部特定部位的血流，會根據一個人想到什麼字眼或影像而有什麼變化。人們傾向於對類似的想法展現出相同大腦模式，他補充說。

Pomerleau said researchers are close to gaining the ability to build brain sensing technology into a head set that could be used to manipulate a computer. The next step is development of a tiny, far less cumbersome sensor that could be implanted inside the brain.

波默洛說，研究人員已快要具備將腦部偵測科技內建在頭罩中的能力，這種頭罩可用來操縱電腦；接下來要研發的是一種可以植入腦中的小型、一點也不笨重的偵測器。

新聞辭典：

harnes：動詞，利用；控制；駕馭。例句：The skills required to harness new technical innovations are growing every day. （利用新科技創新生產的技能每天都在增長。）

implant：動詞，植入；移植；灌輸；注入。例句：Teachers implant sound principles in the mind of children. （老師把健全的原則灌輸到兒童心中）

cumbersome ：形容詞，麻煩的；笨重的。例句： his cumbersome writing style.（他沉重的寫作風格。）

Adventures in 15th-Century Italy

Video Game Review | Assassin’s Creed II

On the Scenic Trail of Intrigue: Adventures in 15th-Century Italy

Ubisoft Screen

Assassin’s Creed II, by Ubisoft, shifts the fight between Templars and Assassins to Renaissance Italy.

By SETH SCHIESEL

Published: December 7, 2009

Whatever the Italian tourism board is paying Ubisoft for making the spectacular new game Assassin’s Creed II, it isn’t enough.

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O.K., that’s a joke. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that any secret payments are flowing from Rome to Ubisoft’s headquarters in a Paris suburb.

But perhaps there should be. That’s because Assassin’s Creed II may interest more young men around the world in visiting Italy than any advertising campaign or entertainment sensation since Sophia Loren.

Over the next few semesters some teachers of Italian history will be surprised — not altogether pleasantly, I’m sure — as some of their new students confess that they have already explored 15th-century Florence and Venice in a video game. (The progressive professors will then find a way to incorporate the game into their lectures.)

Much like the other superlative third-person action game of the season, Sony’s Uncharted 2, the new Assassin’s Creed is an order of magnitude more polished, engaging and sophisticated than its progenitor. As with Uncharted 2, the new Assassin’s Creed conveys the unmistakably buoyant sense of a team of developers maturing as artists and growing into the full flower of their creativity and craft. In a field as vibrant as video games, titles like Assassin’s Creed II demonstrate just what wonder this relatively new form of entertainment can evoke.

There, perched atop the highest spire of Santa Maria del Fiore, I can see Florence stretching into the mist below me. Down in the clamorous streets, I am surrounded by merchants, nobles, thieves, clerics, guards, artists and courtesans going about their business. I flit over rooftops like a zephyr, skirt balconies and dance along clotheslines as I try to avenge the betrayal and killing of my father and brothers by the powerful cabal known as the Templars. I save Lorenzo de’ Medici from certain death and he becomes my benefactor. I befriend Leonardo da Vinci as he decodes the secrets in ancient codices I discover.

On the trail of the Templars I travel from Florence to San Gimignano in Tuscany and my family’s palazzo in the walled town of Monteriggioni, then through the Apennine Mountains and Forlì in Romagna and to Venice. I pilot Leonardo’s glider over the City of Bridges at night, soaring from atop one huge bonfire to the next as I infiltrate the ducal palace. Eventually I confront the chief of the Templars, the vulpine Rodrigo Borgia, also known as Pope Alexander VI, within the Sistine Chapel and its ancient vaults.

In all, Assassin’s Creed II provides an unparalleled historical adventure along the lines of an interactive Dan Brown or James Clavell novel, melding historically accurate locations, personages and events with pseudoplausible conspiracy theories rooted in antiquity.

The conceit of the game is that you are actually in the near future as the epochs-long struggle between the evil Templars and the antihero Assassins continues to rage. You are using an advanced machine to explore the memories of your historical ancestors. In the first game in the series that ancestor was an Assassin in the Levant during the Third Crusade in the late 12th century. This time the ancestor is unraveling the mystical secrets of the Renaissance.

I’m not an architecture expert, but the luscious detail and natural, ennobling proportions and styling of the environments in Assassin’s Creed II suggest that Ubisoft employed more than a few. The voice acting in most of the game is convincing (though the few, thankfully brief, scenes set in the modern day are mostly atrocious).

In its structure, perhaps the fairest way to describe Assassin’s Creed II is as the best open-world game this side of the Grand Theft Auto series. The main plotline is always available, but it is quite easy to spend hours on side quests, delving through optional crypts and simply exploring cities and countryside. (For the record, both games feature prostitutes.) If one wanted to be uncharitable one could even say that Assassin’s Creed is basically a Grand Theft Auto knockoff with gondolas instead of sports cars.

But that is not a bad thing at all because Ubisoft clearly recognized that what makes Grand Theft Auto so fabulous isn’t merely the openness of the world, but the depth and richness of the production behind it. Grand Theft Auto IV’s Liberty City is so compelling because the people who made it so obviously love New York. Likewise, Assassin’s Creed II betrays an infectious enthusiasm for the wonders of the Italian Renaissance.

I spent 18 hours of solid play getting through the main story in Assassin’s Creed II while making an effort to avoid distraction. I easily left another dozen hours — for full excavation of the nooks and crannies still to discover — on the table. Just as I hope that the Grand Theft Auto team now turns to its hometown, London, I hope that the Ubisoft Assassin’s Creed team soon comes home to the incredible moments and settings of the French Revolution.

I’m sure the tourism officials won’t complain.

QR Code

Putting a Bar Code on Places, Not Just Products
By NICK BILTON
Google is tagging thousands of real-world businesses with QR Codes, similar to product bar codes, to make it easier for mobile-phone users to look up additional information about those places.

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

QR Codes are common in Japan, where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional codes. Moreover, most current Japanese mobile phones can read this code with their camera.

Contents [hide] 1 Overview 2 Standards 3 License 4 Storage 5 Variants 6 Use as artwork 7 See also 8 References

Overview

Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used in a much broader context, including both commercial tracking applications and convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users (known as mobile tagging).

QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or just about any object that users might need information about. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone's browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL. This act of linking from physical world objects is known as a hardlink or physical world hyperlinks.

Users can also generate and print their own QR Code for others to scan and use by visiting one of several free QR Code generating sites.

Standards

A giant QR Code linking to a website, to be read with a mobile phone.

There are several standards documents covering the physical encoding of QR Code:^[1]

• October 1997 — AIM International^[2]
• January 1999 — JIS X 0510
• June 2000 — ISO/IEC 18004:2000 Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — Bar code symbology — QR Code (now withdrawn)
  Defines QR Code Model 1 and QR Code Model 2 symbols.
• 1 September 2006 — ISO/IEC 18004:2006 Information technology — Automatic identification and data capture techniques — QR Code 2005 bar code symbology specification
  Defines QR Code 2005 symbols, an extension of QR Code Model 2. Does not specify how to read QR Code Model 1 symbols, or require this for compliance.

At the application layer, there is some variation between implementations. NTT docomo has established de facto standards for the encoding of URLs, contact information, and several other data types.^[3] The open-source "zxing" project maintains a list of QR Code data types.^[4]

Wood ovens go high-tech

Spectrum | 01.12.2009 | 17:30

Wood ovens go high-tech

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Scrap wood is dried and pressed into pellets to make a better fuel

Wood can be a sustainable, eco-friendly way to heat your home. But it can also be horrible for your health.

In many parts of the world, heating with wood is not out of the ordinary. But in industrialized, Western countries, relying on wood for heat has been seen as old-fashioned for a very long time.

But that sentiment has been changing in recent years. Increased oil and gas prices have brought wood back into vogue - and back into fireplaces.

Ideally, burning wood for heat would also be more environmentally friendly than using oil or gas, since wood releases only as much carbon dioxide as it takes in. However, wood burning may release environmentally toxic methane gas, which is 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

There's a second problem with wood, albeit a microscopic one. Burning wood releases an ultra-fine dust that can give people cancer or lead to lung disease. But the answer to that problem could be as simple as a modernized fireplace.

Report: Richard Fox

Swine flu vaccine remains controversial

Spectrum | 01.12.2009 | 17:30

Swine flu vaccine remains controversial

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The H1N1 vaccine still the best shot, experts say

According to the World Health Organization, countries from around the globe have confirmed 7,800 fatalities due to the H1N1 flu. But even the virus' vaccine is plagued with controversy.

In Germany the Robert Koch Institute is reporting that the number of new cases of H1N1 is on the decline. Though across the border in France, the government has called out the army's health services to help with vaccinations.

Roughly 65 million people worldwide have now been vaccinated against swine flu, but it seems that controversy over the new vaccine is also spreading like a disease, with reports of dangerous side effects, a medical community at odds with itself, and officials trying to cope with confused and concerned citizens.

Report: Laura Schweiger