Computing

Science, technology, invention, and innovation, aeronautics, astronomy, space, biology, computers and communication, earth and ocean sciences, energy and energy conservation, mathematics, physics and chemistry.

DNA Profiles Link Dope to Its Source - July 10, 2003

09 Jul 03 Forensic scientists in the U.S. are applying DNA fingerprinting methods to the cannabis plant. They say the technique, which is being used to create a database of DNA profiles of different marijuana plants, will help them to trace the source of any sample. 'It links everybody together: the user, the distributor, the grower,' says the database's creator, Heather Miller Coyle of the Connecticut State Forensic Science Laboratory in Meriden. 'That's the real intent of it, to show it's not.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993919

Mathematics: Does the Proof Stack Up - July 6, 2003

by George Szpiro 03 Jul 03 Just under five years ago, Thomas Hales made a startling claim. In an e-mail he sent to dozens of mathematicians, Hales declared that he had used a series of computers to prove an idea that has evaded certain confirmation for 400 years. The subject of his message was Kepler's conjecture, proposed by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler, which states that the densest arrangement of spheres is one in which they are stacked in a pyramid - much the same way as...
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v424/n6944/full/424012a_fs...

Scientists Discover Planetary System Similar to Our Own - July 6, 2003

The image shows an impression by David A. Hardy of a possible scene from a moon orbiting the extra-solar planet in orbit around the star HD70642. Photo Credit: David A. Hardy. Photo of Siding Spring Mountain and associated telescopes. Photo Credit: Paul Butler, Carnegie Institution of Washington. by Josh Camot 03 Jul 03 ARLINGTON, Va. An international team of scientists has discovered a planet and star that may share the same relationship as Jupiter and our Sun, the closest comparison...
http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/pr0373.htm

Hacker How-To Good Summer Reading - July 4, 2003

by Michelle Delio 27 Jun 03 Stealing the Network: How to Own the Boxby Ryan RussellSyngress, 330 pp., $49.95 Stealing The Network: How to Own the Box, a compendium of tales written by well-known hackers, is a perfect summer read. The stories are fictional. The technology and techniques described are very real. A warning: Those who believe in the theory of 'security through obscurity' -- keeping information on hacking techniques under wraps so that fewer people might exploit them --...
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59340,00.html