Technology

THE US National Security Agency may have to go back to asking permission before snooping on international calls.

A federal judge ruled last week that the agency’s programme of wiretapping telephone calls and online communications without a warrant, approved by President Bush in 2001, is unconstitutional. Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled that the practice violates the fourth amendment, the constitutional separation of powers, and a 1978 law requiring intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant from a secret court before wiretapping people in the US.

Taylor ordered the programme be shut down, although both sides in the case – the Department of Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union – have agreed the order will not be enforced until a hearing on 7 September.

DISNEY may have allowed us to see Dumbo the elephant fly, but observing how real elephants run could be far more useful for vets and the designers of robots.

Using motion-capture technology, John Hutchinson and his colleagues at the Royal Veterinary College in London have recorded the three-dimensional movements of elephants’ bones

420scientists applied to test a “free-energy” generator within 36 hours of Irish firm Steorn placing an advert on 18 August

“If it is such a good idea, why has evolution not built us that way?” That is the question two philosophers say we must ask before we attempt to enhance our human capabilities.

We already augment our minds with drugs such as Ritalin and modafinil, our sexual performance with Viagra and our immune systems with vaccines. These are nothing compared with what might be on the way, from brain implants for a better memory to genetic modifications for sports performance (New Scientist, 13 May, p 32).

Before we consider forging ahead with these technologies, we need to consider why we haven’t already evolved that way, say Nick Bostrom and Anders Sandberg of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. This will allow us to identify

when it is feasible for us to outdo nature, they say, and when it is not.

Before anyone considers giving humans greater brain power, for example, they should first show that the only reason we don’t already have more mental capacity is that the resulting energy demands would have been a disadvantage for our hunter-gatherer ancestors when food was scarce. Now food is more plentiful, it might be OK to forge ahead, but if there is no convincing guarantee that this enhancement no longer poses a problem, it might be wiser to steer clear of it. “The human organism is enormously complex,” says Bostrom. “If we go in blindly and change things at random, we are likely to mess up.” He presented the idea last week at the Transvision conference in Helsinki, Finland.

AS EVOLUTION INTENDED

and joints as they walk at various speeds. While Hutchinson’s immediate goal is a better understanding of elephant locomotion, learning more about their joints and coordination should help roboticists design more agile walking robots capable of carrying large loads.

The elephants themselves could also benefit. Vets may be able to use the motion-capture technique to diagnose health problems in the animals, such as osteomyelitis or arthritis.

Worried about your online privacy in the wake of AOL’s release of 20 million search queries? A tool to prevent anyone identifying you from your web searches has been created by privacy campaigner Matt Prince. Just open your search engine and bookmark his site, www.lostinthecrowd.org. When you click on the bookmark, your “cookie” for the search engine will be sent to a computer that runs random searches on your behalf. This jumble of searches disguises your own.

A new speed record has been set for a cheap type of transistor used in cellphones. A team led by Peter Ashburn of the University of Southampton, UK, compressed the central layer of a silicon bipolar junction transistor, letting electrons to flow more freely. The transistor can switch on and off nearly twice as fast as the previous record holder.

GIZMO

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Percentage increase for June 2006

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ONLINE BOOMInternet usage is growing faster in India than any other country

A post on the blog “Baby Panda Home”, describing the daily life of a yet-to-be-named female panda cub, born on 13 August. The blog, hosted by the Sina website, was set up by the Giant Panda Breeding and Research Centre, near Chengdu, China, to raise awareness about protecting the animal (AFP, 21 August).

“Mummy says it will be very hot outside today, so we’ll stay inside”

–Why don’t we look like this?–

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Curbs placed on phone tapping

Elephants teach robots to walk

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