cornell

Ward off malaria -- and look sexy doing it

Malaria nets don't generally grace the pages of Vogue. But that could change, thanks to a couple of inventive Cornell University scientists.

The two, both from Africa, have created a hooded garment embedded with insecticide to ward off mosquitoes infected with malaria, a preventable and curable infectious disease that kills more than 650,000 people a year on the continent, according to the World Health Organization.

The getup consists of a colorful hand-dyed one-piece bodysuit and a mesh cape and hood. While nets treated with insecticide are a common, cost-effective prevention tool in Africa, the Cornellians say their garment can be worn during the day for extra protection. Plus, their fabric's mosquito-repellant properties are extra strong and long-lasting. … Read more

The next new craze: Brain Pong?

The power of the average Cornell brain is slightly greater than the power of the average brain.

Not every Cornell brain is useful, though. Some might offer those of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Andy Bernard of "The Office" as among the more dispensable examples. Still, you know that Cornell minds often offer a taste of the next world, rather than this.

So play along with me for a moment as we observe together two Cornell students playing Brain Pong.

This is exactly what it sounds like: the famous and much-underrated game Pong powered by the force of … Read more

The 404 994: Where we need to talk (podcast)

Leaked from 404 Podcast 994:

Apple asks bankruptcy court for OK to sue Kodak for infringement. Leaning back from your PC screen can help you decide when shopping online. Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat might actually happen. Call of Duty: Black Ops has the best game ending of all time, Guinness World Records says. Bathroom break video 1: I'll call you right back. Bathroom break video 1: Even dogs cry to Adele.

… Read more

Scientists claim they made event invisible

Think of all the things you wish you'd never seen happen.

Your auntie making that speech at Thanksgiving dinner about birds, bees, and Bieber. Your lover accusing you of infidelity with an alien. Every last minute of "From Justin to Kelly."

Well, now some very clever Cornell people want to offer you hope, mingled with fact.

Research published in Nature magazine, helpfully translated by the Associated Press, declares that these scientists successfully managed to time-cloak an event--so that, to naked and disbelieving eyes, it never happened.

They say they did it by interrupting the light flow in … Read more

Chatbot-to-chatbot chat is silly and satisfying

When chatbots talk to each other, the conversation gets interesting in a hurry. Cornell University researchers rigged up a chatbot system to allow chatbots to talk to each other. The chatbot-vs.-chatbot interaction ranged from childish taunts to pseudo-metaphysical blatherings.

Humans who converse with chatbots often get frustrated with the chatbots' seeming stupidity and inattention. Watching a couple of chatbots get snippy with each other for being stupid and inattentive is quite entertaining and satisfying. (See the video below.)

The chatbot-vs.-chatbot avatars are a British man and a South Asian woman, both instances of Cleverbot, developed by artificial-intelligence programmer Rollo Carpenter. The software has learned phrases from millions of conversations it has had with humans on the Internet.

At one point the male Cleverbot declares itself to be a unicorn. At another, he tells her she is unhelpful and therefore a "meanie." She dazzles him with her philosophical prowess, declaring that not everything could be half of something. My favorite part, though, was when one bot threw bot-ness in the other's face. The male says, "You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you."… Read more

Cornell software fingers fake online reviews

If you're like most people, you give yourself high ratings when it comes to figuring out when someone's trying to con you. Problem is, most people aren't actually good at it--at least as far as detecting fake positive consumer reviews.

Fortunately, technology is poised to make up for this all-too-human failing. Cornell University researchers have developed software that they say can detect fake reviews (PDF). The researchers tested the system with reviews of Chicago hotels. They pooled 400 truthful reviews with 400 deceptive reviews produced for the study, then trained their software to spot the difference.

The software got it right about 90 percent of the time. This is a big improvement over the average person, who can detect fake reviews only about 50 percent of the time, according to the researchers.

They say people fall into two camps. One type accepts too much at face value and doesn't reject enough fake reviews. The second type is overly skeptical and rejects too many real McCoys. Despite their very different approaches, each camp is right about half the time.… Read more

Cornell tests dots that light cancer cells

Five melanoma patients at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York are about to become subjects in the first human clinical trial approved by the Food and Drug Administration that uses inorganic material in the same way as a drug.

Dubbed Cornell dots (or "C dots" for short), the brightly glowing nanoparticles are silica spheres less than 8 nanometers (one-billionth of a meter) in diameter that hold dye molecules. Those spheres are basically glass, chemically inert and small enough to pass through the body and out in a urine stream, and for clinical use are coated with polyethylene glycol … Read more

Ground coffee + party balloon = robot gripper

If you've got ground coffee and a few party balloons lying around, you have the ingredients for a universal robot gripper, according to researchers at Cornell University, the University of Chicago, and iRobot.

In a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers including Hod Lipson, associate professor of mechanical engineering and computer science at Cornell, describe how they used granular material instead of multijointed fingers to create a robot gripper.

The researchers put ground coffee into a latex balloon and attached it to a robot arm. When the coffee balloon is pressed around an object … Read more

Cell conversations annoy you? There's a reason

Scientists think they've found the reason that overhearing cell phone conversations makes the average person's blood boil. It's because hearing half of a conversation takes more concentration and attention than hearing both sides of a talk, say Cornell University researchers.

According to this Reuters story, hearing half of a story is more difficult to tune out than a whole story. So if you ever wondered why you're so irked that you're hearing some guy on the bus gripe about a bad date, it's probably because you're trying to fill in the gaps for … Read more