Modern digital chips operate are two-state machines, working only with 0s and 1s. These states are normally electric currents/charge, where some value below a (pre-determined) threshold (say 3 Volts) would be a 0, and above would be a 1. Chips spend a lot of energy ensuring that a 0-state is indeed a 0-state (and not a 1-state with a large negative error in the voltage), and vice-versa. For handheld devices (PDAs, MP3 players) that run on batteries/solar-power, this is a problem, because a) efficient power management allows such devices to run for longer time, and b) smaller devices have problems dissipating the excess heat.

PCMOS based on the PBITS framework (Courtesy: Georgia-TechDr. Krishna Palem of Georgia Tech has now produced a device that does not guarantee an exact 0 or a 1. Instead, the device makes sure that the probability that the bit is a 0 (or a 1) is at least p (0≤p≤1, where p=0: the bit is definitely not 0, p=1: the bit is definitely not 1).
This PBITs model is now backed by measurements of an actual probabilistic CMOS device which the researchers call PCMOS (Probabilistic Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor). Supported by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research team estimates that 100-fold improvements are possible to the energy consumed and performance of complex applications such as neural networks, which are used for pattern recognition and other applications such as spoken alphabet recognition programs used on cell phones.
According to the vice-president of Research Operations (Dr. Ralph K. Cavin III) at Semiconductor Research Corporation, The most striking thing about the work is the idea that we can utilize a phenomena normally viewed as unwanted (noise on the chip) as a vehicle to address an important and limiting problem (reducing heat dissipation). There is something powerful and appealing about turning a problem into a feature!

Scientists have discovered the smallest star (to date). Using the 8.2m Very Large Telescope (VLT) telescope at ESO Paranal Observatory, Chile, the star (named OGLE-TR-122b) which is only 16% larger than Jupiter, was identified during analysis of data gathered during the planet-hunting OGLE project. The star has a sun-like companion, OGLE-TR-122, which dims as the smaller star passes in front of it once a week. This allowed the scientists to measure the mass, radius, and other properties of this small star.

Smallest of them all (Courtesy: The Register)The star weighs at 96 times Jupiter's mass, whereas a minimum of 75 times Jupiter is required for nuclear fusion to begin, and a star to form. This is the first time scientists have observed a star with a radius comparable to a planet. But it isn't the least massive. That honour goes to a star (AB Doradus A, 48 light years away, 50 million years old) just 93 times Jupiter's mass, announced early in 2005 by the University of Arizona. But, because that lightweight's transit of a companion object is not visible from Earth, its size is unknown.

According to Purdue University scientists, a newly discovered plant protein complex that apparently switches on plants' growth machinery, has opened a scientific toolbox to learn about both plant and animal development. Results are published in the February issue of the journal The Plant Cell.
The protein complex (ARP2/3) controls the production of actin filaments, which are necessary for cellular growth and movement. These filaments organize the inside of the cell and allow it to grow, and also determine where certain structures in a cell are positioned and how plants respond to gravity and light. Similar structures (myosin), exist in animal muscles.

Hair-like Trichomes on leaves (Courtesy: Purdue)The research showed that a another protein called DISTORTED3 (DIS3) turns on ARP2/3, which in turn triggers formation of new, growing actin filaments(e.g. in trichomes, which are hair-like structures on leaves). Because some genes have survived through time as multicellular life evolved, they have been conserved in both plants and animals. So, some of the plant proteins that comprise the ARP2/3 and the WAVE complexes are interchangeable with proteins in animals, for example, DIS3 has two ends that are common in both plant and animal proteins!
Scientists are now studying these protein complexes to study biochemical reactions (in both plants and animals). This process eventually may allow researchers to design plants better able to protect themselves from insects and disease.

A mysterious object is sending out powerful radio signals from near the center of our galaxy. As reported by NewScientist, the pulses are coming from a spot just to one side of the galactic centre. Each pulse lasts about 10 minutes, and they repeat regularly every 77 minutes. If the source is near the centre of the Milky Way, it would be one of the most powerful emitters in the galaxy. The shape and timing of the pulses rules out most known sources, such as radio pulsars.

Milky Way Galaxy (Courtesy: NASA)According to the researchers (led by Scott Hyman of Sweet Briar College), who detected the object using the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico, the object could be a magnetar (a neutron star with a very powerful magnetic field). A pulse from another powerful magnetar collided our atmosphere in December.
The team is currently studying the phenomenon using the Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, and also plan to use the orbiting Chandra X-Ray telescope to see if the object is also spewing X-Rays.

I have to stop here... my friends are calling again from the center of the galaxy...

Solar flares often lash out at outer space from the surface of the Sun, releasing huge amounts of matter and energy in the process. When in the direction of the Earth, such energy release often causes exotic displays of aororae at Earth's magnetic poles. During such flares, mysterious, tadpole like features are often seen "swimming" towards the surface of the Sun, against the tide of hot matter rising from the Sun. These features are huge (several time larger than the Earth) with dark heads (cooler than the average solar surface temperature), and wiggly tails, and have puzzled astrophysicists for several years, as they are so unlike any other phenomena observed on the Sun.

Solar corona (Courtesy: University Of Warwick)Researchers Dr Valery Nakariakov and Dr Erwin Verwichte (from University Of Warwick) might have discovered the physics behind the process. By analyzing the observations obtained with NASA's Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE) mission, they propose that the wiggles of the tadpoles' tails are huge waves. The tadpoles are optical illusions, similar to a fast rotating car-wheel that often looks like rotating backwards. As the solar matter is constantly being thrown upwards, the starting point of this rising material moves deeper into the solar surface. To us, it looks as if material is falling back into the Sun!

Do we have a sixth sense? During the tsunami disaster in the Indian ocean region, the ancient tribespeople inhabiting there were somehow able to sense danger, and move to higher grounds. Animals were also able to do the same, and in Sri Lankan forests, not one animal died due to the tsunami. There have been no solid proof one way or other, but now researchers from the Washington University in St. Louis have identified a brain region (Anterior Cingulate Cortex, or ACC) that clearly acts as an early warning system. This region a) monitors environmental cues, b) weighs possible consequences and c) helps us adjust our behavior to avoid dangerous situations.

ACC lights up (Courtesy: Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, UCLA)The research is presented in the Feb. 18 issue of the journal Science. The ACC is a brain area located near the top of the frontal lobes and along the walls that divide the left and right hemispheres, and is involved in a lot of the executive control processes of the brain.
In the past, scientists detected activity in the ACC, when people have to weigh options and make a decision. This region is also active when a person recognizes he/she has made a mistake. Now scientists have found that ACC can recognize when we might make a mistake, and take appropriate action. So the ACC operates as an early warning system, and warns us when there might be a potential danger nearby. The most interesting part of the study: scientists found that the ACC warning often reaches us unconsciously; we might decide to avoid danger, without necessarily (or vaguely) being aware of it!
Scientists are now trying to create a model of the ACC using computers, and that should help in creating early warning systems that can learn from mistakes, and make predictions that are more like intuition, than a logical decision.

The deep-sea tube worm, Lamellibrachia Luymesi, is among the longest-lived of all animals. It has a lifespan of 250 years, and now scientists from Penn State (Erik E. Cordes, Prof. Katriona Shea, Prof. Michael A. Arthur) and Rice (Rolf S. Arvidson) might have found out why. In a paper just published in the online journal PLoS Biology, the biologists say that the tubeworm releases its waste (sulfates) not up into the ocean but down into the ocean sediments. This stimulates the growth of sulfide-producing microbes, thus ensuring the tubeworm's long-term survival.

Close-up photo of tubeworms at 550 meters depth (Courtesy: Penn State)The worm needs sulfides to survive, which is created by a consortium of bacteria and archaea that live in the cold deep-sea sediments surrounding the seep where the worm lives. The bacteria use energy from hydrocarbons to reduce sulfate to sulfide, which the tubeworm absorbs through tube-like extensions that are rooted into the sediments. The tubeworms also use the same extensions to return its waste (sulfates) into the sediment.
The scientists used a colony of 1000 tubeworms, and found that without this return of wastes back to the sediments, the average age of the tubeworms reduce to 39 years, with it, it goes up to 250 years as observed in nature. Thus, there exists a symbiotic relationship between the tubeworm and its surrounding microbes, that ensures a long life for the worms.
Other scientists are doing studies on the tubeworm's genetic development (here, and here), and the goal is to learn the secret of their long life, and perhaps use it to better our chances of a long life.