significant step in the development of hydrogen-powered cell phones.

Hydrogen-Powered Cell Phone Doubles Battery Lifetime

Canadian company has taken a significant step in the development of hydrogen-powered cell phones. Unlike previous attempts at hydrogen-powered phones, Angstrom Power´s prototype allows the fuel cell to fit comfortably inside the phone, and can last twice as long between refueling than phones powered with lithium ion batteries.

Angstrom Power's hydrogen-powered Motoslvr cell phones were on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. The fuel cell version looks identical to the battery version, but another advantage of the new technology is that it can refuel in as little as 10 minutes.

As Paul Zimmerman of Angstrom Power explains, the key advantage of the technology is the ability to fit the fuel cell into the phone itself, rather than being hooked up to an exterior device for power. With the design of "Micro Hydrogen" technology, Zimmerman hopes that the company will launch its first commercial fuel cell phones in 2010, and grow from there. If fuel cell phones live up to their promise of better power, the market could be in the hundreds of millions of devices.

However, there are a few obstacles confronting fuel cell phones, including safety and convenience. Angstrom Power - and other companies in the market - will have to provide strong evidence that the phones are not vulnerable to explosions. Angstrom Power says it has tossed its phones into a burning barbecue, and they were able to survive the heat intact.

Another concern about fuel cell phones is the fact that users can´t simply plug in their phones to recharge them. Rather, they´ll have to buy hydrogen fuel - meaning stores will have to sell it. Or, convenience stores and gas stations would have to provide hydrogen kiosks. Angstrom is trying out another idea, though. The company is developing a home-based water-powered unit, where users simply pour in water to activate the refueling.

Angstrom is currently collaborating with world-leading battery manufacturers, portable electronic device makers, and mobile service providers toward the commercialization of its Micro Hydrogen technology.

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Hydrogen Powered Cell Phones By Year 2010
Two days ago at the 2007 Korea Electronics Show at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, Samsung Electro Mechanics announced that it has found a way to power a Cell phone with water by using a micro fuel cell and an Hydrogen generator that can turn water into Hydrogen gas and in the end into 3 watts of electricity, enough to power a mobile gadget like a Cell phone for about 10 hours. This is definitely a step forward, since most of the micro fuel cells need methanol to create Hydrogen, but now Samsung has found a way to use water instead.

Samsung is expecting to release these next generation Cell phones sometime in the year 2010, But the early versions will require their users to replace Hydrogen cartridges within the phones every 5 days if they use their phones for 4 hours a day. However, the later versions will in the end enable their users to pour water in, instead of replacing the cartridges.

Columbus brought syphilis to Europe from New World

New study suggests Columbus brought syphilis to Europe from New World

Did Columbus and his men introduce the syphilis pathogen into Renaissance Europe after contracting it during their voyage to the New World? Or does syphilis have a much longer history in the Old World? The most comprehensive comparative genetic analysis conducted on the family of bacteria (the treponemes) that cause syphilis and related diseases such as yaws, published Tuesday, January 15 in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, supports the so-called “Columbian theory” of syphilis’s origins.
Kristin Harper (Emory University, Atlanta, USA) approached this centuries-old debate by using phylogenetics — the study of the evolutionary relatedness between organisms — to study 26 geographically disparate strains of treponemes. The venereal syphilis-causing strains originated most recently, and their closest relatives were strains collected in South America that cause the treponemal disease yaws.

“That supports the hypothesis that syphilis — or some progenitor — came from the New World,” Harper says.

While it is generally agreed that the first recorded epidemic of syphilis occurred in Europe in 1495, controversy has raged ever since over the origin of the pathogen.
Most of the evidence in recent years has come from bones of past civilizations in both New World and Old World sites, since chronic syphilis causes skeletal lesions. In many cases, however, skeletal analysis is inconclusive, due to problems with pinpointing the age of the bones and the lack of supporting epidemiological evidence.

Further complicating the research is the fact that the family of Treponema bacteria causes different diseases that share some symptoms but have different modes of transmission. Syphilis is sexually transmitted, but yaws and endemic syphilis are tropical diseases that are transmitted through skin-to-skin or oral contact. One hypothesis is that a subspecies of Treponema from the warm, moist climate of the tropical New World mutated into the venereal, syphilis-causing subspecies to survive in the cooler and relatively more hygienic European environment.

The phylogenetic analysis indicated that yaws is an ancient infection in humans while venereal syphilis arose relatively recently. The study results are especially significant due to the large number of different strains analyzed, including two never-before-sequenced strains of yaws from isolated inhabitants of Guyana's interior. At Harper's request, the Guyana samples were collected during a medical mission by Ve’ahavta, the Canadian Jewish Humanitarian and Relief Committee.

“Syphilis was a major killer in Europe during the Renaissance,” says co-author George Armelagos, a skeletal biologist whose research put him at the forefront of the syphilis debate 30 years ago. “Understanding its evolution is important not just for biology, but for understanding social and political history. It could be argued that syphilis is one of the important early examples of globalization and disease, and globalization remains an important factor in emerging diseases.”

About Columbus
Christopher Columbus (1451 – May 20, 1506) was a navigator, colonizer, and explorer and one of the first Europeans to explore the Americas after the Vikings. Though not the first to reach the Americas from Europe, Columbus' voyages led to general European awareness of the hemisphere and the successful establishment of European cultures in the New World. It is generally believed that he was born in Genoa, although other theories exist. The name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicization of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. Also well known are his name's rendering in modern Italian as Cristoforo Colombo and in Spanish as Cristóbal Colón.

Columbus' voyages across the Atlantic Ocean began a European effort at exploration and colonization of the Western Hemisphere. While history places great significance on his first voyage of 1492, he did not actually reach the South American mainland until his third voyage in 1498. Instead, he made landfall on an island in the Bahamas Archipelago that he named San Salvador while trying to find a sea route to India, hence the indigenous inhabitants being called "Indians". Likewise, he was not the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas, and there are accounts of European transatlantic contact prior to 1492. Nevertheless, Columbus's voyage came at a critical time of growing national imperialism and economic competition between developing nation states seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. The term Pre-Columbian is sometimes used to refer to the peoples and cultures of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and further European influence.

The anniversary of the 1492 voyage (vd. Columbus Day) is observed throughout the Americas and in Spain.

HD player prices cut in Blu-ray fight

Consumer electronics update shows result that in the Blu ray up growing demand effect forced to cut price for HD players. 24hoursnews :Consumer electronics maker Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it is slashing prices of its HD DVD format players by between 40 to 50 percent as major Hollywood studios move to embrace Sony Corp's (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) Blu-ray format high definition DVDs.

Toshiba America Consumer Products said it cut prices of its HD DVD players effective January 13 to boost market adoption of its next-generation DVD players by mainstream consumers after what it said was a successful fourth quarter in unit sales.

"While price is one of the consideration elements for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer," said Toshiba executive Yoshi Uchiyama in a statement.

Toshiba's players will now start as low as $149 going up to $399 for the top-of-range player.

The company said it is also stepping up its marketing drive with major initiatives including joint advertising campaigns with studios and extended pricing strategies. Toshiba said it will continue with on-going promotions including five HD DVD titles for free with any of its HD DVD player.

The battle to dominate the next generation of DVD players appeared to have tipped in Sony's favor earlier this month when the biggest Hollywood studio Warner Bros, a unit of Time Warner Inc (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research), said it would exclusively support Blu-ray disc. It had previously supported both next-generation formats.

Analysts saw Warner Bros's move as an end to the next generation DVD war that they say has confused consumers and delayed the development of a multibillion-dollar market.

So far Toshiba has secured agreements with studios including Universal Home Video, Viacom Inc's (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG.

But Blu-ray has support from News Corp's (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Co (DIS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (LGF.N: Quote, Profile, Research). In addition Sony's PlayStation 3 video game system can play Blu-ray movies while Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Xbox 360 works with HD DVD. But Microsoft said at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month that it could consider supporting Blu-ray technology should consumers want it.