• Apple May Show Interest in WiTricity Wireless Charging


    Last week, the WSJ reported that Apple was experimenting with “a new way of charging” the 2012 iPhone. Of course, wireless charging isn’t a new technology though the current implementations of it have been somewhat limited.

    The original Palm Pre launched with an induction charger which allows users to charge their device when it is laid on a special charging mat. The disadvantages of such inductive chargers is the need for near physical contact in order for the power to be transferred as well as heat/power limitations.

    A 2007 startup company called WiTricity, however, has been working on some significant advances in wireless electricity that has gotten the attention of much of the industry including Apple. WiTricity is based on the research from MIT’s labs where scientists showed a new method for transferring larger amounts of power wirelessly over more practical distances (up to a couple of meters) than traditional induction.

    The magnetic fields of two properly designed devices with closely matched resonant frequencies can couple into a single continuous magnetic field. Prof. Soljačić’s team showed how to use this phenomenon to enable the transfer of power from one device to the other at high efficiency and over a distance range that is useful for real-world applications.

    WiTricity has already received a significant amount of industry attention. The CEO of WiTricity demoed the technology at TED in 2009. Intel has been experimenting with the technology in their labs. Toyota has even collaborated with and invested in the company to develop automotive wireless charging systems.

    The link to Apple comes by way of a international patent application from Apple called “Wireless power utilization in a local computing environment.” The application was first published in May of this year and specifically details the same resonance technology and refers to the original paper published by the MIT researchers.

    Apple describes a scenario where your iMac could be the source of this resonance power to provide a virtual charging area in front of your computer. Keyboards, mice and even mobile electronic devices like the iPhone or iPad could be charged simply be being in a 1 meter proximity to your computer. In typical Apple fashion, they describe that “by doing away with clumsy and annoying cables and eliminating the need to replace batteries, an easy to use and efficient local computing environment can be provided to the user.”

    The technology is said to be safe, relying on magnetic fields. WiTricity CEO is seen below presenting the technology at the 2009 TED and even shows it wirelessly powering a modified Apple iPhone.

    [via macrumors]

  • Different sections of tongue do NOT actually detect different types of tastes!


    This myth is commonly proliferated by diagrams (like the one on the right) which depict a tongue’s primary senses of taste: sourness, sweetness, bitterness, saltiness, and savoriness (umami). These pictures typically show a tongue separated into quadrants by taste, but each of its 10,000 taste buds are identical! Every one of these buds contains 50-100 specialized receptor cells, each with a specialized taste hair that sticks out and detects food chemicals in saliva. Each test hair is programmed to respond to one of the five basic tastes, and when a hair is stimulated, it sends nerve impulses to the brain.Check what this BBC science article had to say about the matter:

    Your mouth contains around 10,000 taste buds, most of which are located on and around the tiny bumps on your tongue. Every taste bud detects five primary tastes:

    * Sour
    * Sweet
    * Bitter
    * Salty
    * Umami – salts of certain acids (for example monosodium glutamate or MSG)

    Each of your taste buds contains 50-100 specialised receptor cells. Sticking out of every single one of these receptor cells is a tiny taste hair that checks out the food chemicals in your saliva. When these taste hairs are stimulated, they send nerve impulses to your brain. Each taste hair responds best to one of the five basic tastes.

    Tastes and flavours

    For you to enjoy the full flavour of a sizzling Sunday roast or a rich chocolate mousse, you need more than your basic tastes. You also require your sense of smell. If you have a cold, the lining of your nose swells and you temporarily lose your sense of smell. Even though your tongue is still able to identify the basic tastes, the food you eat will taste bland.

    Additionally, temperature and texture influence how much you appreciate foods. When you eat ‘hot’ foods like chilli peppers, you actually excite the pain receptors in your mouth.

  • Top Ten Unexplained Phenomena


    lsphenomintromain465×26dk4.jpg

    Science has the power to harness energy, allow human flight, help cure the sick, and explain much about the world. But as amazing and beneficial as science is, it cannot explain everything. Scientists may never know exactly how the universe began, or help to settle matters of faith. The same is true for the paranormal world. Though science can explain many strange phenomena, some mysteries remain to be solved–often because there is simply not enough information to reach a definitive conclusion. Some of these phenomena may one day be fully understood, as many things that were once mysterious or unexplained (such as the causes of disease) are now.

    • The Taos Hum

    top10phenomenataoshumxd7.jpgSome residents and visitors in the small city of Taos, New Mexico, have for years been annoyed and puzzled by a mysterious and faint low-frequency hum in the desert air. Oddly, only about 2 percent of Taos residents report hearing the sound. Some believe it is caused by unusual acoustics; others suspect mass hysteria or some secret, sinister purpose. Whether described as a whir, hum, or buzz–and whether psychological, natural, or supernatural- -no one has yet been able to locate the sound’s origin.

    • Bigfoot

    2.jpgFor decades, large, hairy, manlike beasts called Bigfoot have occasionally been reported by eyewitnesses across America. Despite the thousands of Bigfoot that must exist for a breeding population, not a single body has been found. Not one has been killed by a hunter, struck dead by a speeding car, or even died of natural causes. In the absence of hard evidence like teeth or bones, support comes down to eyewitness sightings and ambiguous photos and films. Since it is logically impossible to prove a universal negative, science will never be able to prove that creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster do not exist, and it is possible that these mysterious beasts lurk far from prying eyes.

    • Intuition

    4.jpgWhether we call it gut feelings, a “sixth sense,” or something else, we have all experienced intuition at one time or another. Of course, gut feelings are often wrong (how many times during aircraft turbulence have you been “sure” your plane was going down?), but they do seem to be right much of the time. Psychologists note that people subconsciously pick up information about the world around us, leading us to seemingly sense or know information without knowing exactly how or why we know it. But cases of intuition are difficult to prove or study, and psychology may only be part of the answer.

    • Mysterious Disappearances

    5.jpgPeople disappear for various reasons. Most are runaways, some succumb to accident, a few are abducted or killed, but most are eventually found. Not so with the truly mysterious disappearances. From the crew of the Marie Celeste to Jimmy Hoffa, Amelia Earhart, and Natalee Holloway, some people seem to have vanished without a trace. When missing persons are found, it is always through police work, confession, or accident never by “psychic detectives”). But when the evidence is lacking and leads are lost, even police and forensic science can’t always solve the crime.

    • Ghosts

    6.jpgFrom the Shakespeare play “MacBeth” to the NBC show “Medium,” spirits of the dead have long made an appearance in our culture and folklore. Many people have reported seeing apparitions of both shadowy strangers and departed loved ones. Though definitive proof for the existence of ghosts remains elusive, sincere eyewitnesses continue to report seeing, photographing, and even communicating with ghosts. Ghost investigators hope to one day prove that the dead can contact the living, providing a final answer to the mystery.

    • Dejà vu

    7.jpgDejà vu is a French phrase meaning “already seen,” referring to the distinct, puzzling, and mysterious feeling of having experienced a specific set of circumstances before. A woman might walk into a building, for example, in a foreign country she’d never visited, and sense that the setting is eerily and intimately familiar. Some attribute dejà vu to psychic experiences or unbidden glimpses of previous lives. As with intuition (see #3), research into ,human psychology can offer more naturalistic explanations, but ultimately the cause and nature of the phenomenon itself remains a mystery.

    • UFOs

    8.jpgThere is no doubt that UFOs ( Unidentified Flying Objects ) exist–many people see things in the skies that they cannot identify, ranging from aircraft to meteors. Whether or not any of those objects and lights are alien spacecraft is another matter entirely; given the fantastic distances and effort involved in just getting to Earth from across the universe, such a scenario seems unlikely. Still, while careful investigation has revealed known causes for most sighting reports, some UFO incidents will always remain unexplained.

    • Near-Death Experiences and Life After Death

    9.jpgPeople who were once near death have sometimes reported various mystical experiences (such as going into a tunnel and emerging in a light, being reunited with loved ones, a sense of peace, etc.) that may suggest an existence beyond the grave. While such experiences are profound, no one has returned with proof or verifiable information from “beyond the grave.” Skeptics suggest that the experiences are explainable as natural and predictable hallucinations of a traumatized brain, yet there is no way to know with certainty what causes near-death experiences, or if they truly are visions of “the other side.”

    • Psychic powers and ESP

    10.jpgPsychic powers and extra-sensory perception (ESP) rank among the top ten unexplained phenomena if for no other reason than that belief in them is so widespread. Many people believe that intuition (see #3) is a form of psychic power, a way of accessing arcane or special knowledge about the world or the future. Researchers have tested people who claim to have psychic powers, though the results under controlled scientific conditions have so far been negative or ambiguous. Some have argued that psychic powers cannot be tested, or for some reason diminish in the presence of skeptics or scientists. If this is true, science will never be able to prove or disprove the existence of psychic powers.

    • The Body/Mind Connection

    11.jpgMedical science is only beginning to understand the ways in which the mind influences the body. The placebo effect, for example, demonstrates that people can at times cause a relief in medical symptoms or suffering by believing the cures to be effective–whether they actually are or not. Using processes only poorly understood, the body’s ability to heal itself is far more amazing than anything modern medicine could create.

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  • Drink Water -> Lose Weight


    water.jpgJust replace some of the high calorie foods you eat with fruits, vegetables and other water dense foods that keep you just as full.

    We know it sounds too good to be true, but new research conducted at Pennsylavania State University suggests it is possible to lose weight by making small changes in your diet.

    The rationale behind eating water dense foods is that whatever you eat can go out of the system very fast. Example an apple which has 98 per cent liquid and very few calories. A sweet of the same size will have 20 times more calories.

    People tend to eat the same amount of food each day, regardless of the calories. Adding vegetables to that pizza, lasagna or casserole will increase the food’s volume and result in fewer overall calories consumed since portion sizes tend to stay the same

    Another study on obesity shows a link between lack of sleep and gaining weight —
    skimping on sleep may make you vulnerable to obesity.

    The finding is based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in the US. The study discovered that people who reported getting less than seven hours of sleep a night were more likely to be obese on initial evaluation.

    Why water is necessary?

    • Our bodies contain over 70 percent water.
    • You can go longer without food than water.
    • Our bodies need a lot of water to function efficiently.
    • Water helps flush out harmful toxins and thus readies the body for fat loss.

    When your body is not getting enough water?

    • It tries to hold on to the water it has. Since over 70 percent of our muscle is made of water, the lack of it makes our body use the existing water for other functions, leaving you bloated.

    How do you get rid of that excess water?

    • By drinking enough water!

    Hot or cold water?

    • Many experts tend to advocate cold water, because the stomach absorbs it more quickly. They believe that cold water might enhance fat burning.
    • Warm water is, however, easier to drink in large quantities and you might drink more of it without even realising it. Do whatever suits you, here. Just drink more!

    How much water?

    • You must drink at least seven to eight glasses (1.9 litres) of water a day.