Not a castaway but a stowaway

A portable keyboard that's no larger than my phone, that's theiGo Stowaway.     

Off-axis detection and characterization of laser beams in the maritime atmosphere

Remote detection and characterization of laser beams propagating in maritime atmospheres is discussed. A model for off-axis scattered laser light based on Mie scattering from maritime aerosols is presented and compared with angle and time-resolved measurements from a pulsed laser source. We demonstrate that the direction of the source can be determined from the angle-resolved intensity and that the beam direction can be determined from arrival times of the scattered signals if the position of the laser source is known.     

Space Solar Power: Environmental Questionsand Future Studies

Many environmental issues surrounding space solar power (SSP), with impacts and benefits to the environment, must be addressed. The environmental issues surrounding SSP affect factors such as people, landscape, equipment, and pollution, including physical safety for people and for equipment, social questions connected with aesthetics, politics, and economics, as well as the more general issues of global change and sustainability of energy supply. Wireless power transmission is a key component of SSP systems, and the Grand Bassin wireless power transmission project, currently under development in La Réunion (France), will be a valuable test site for many environmental issues. The facility will allow one to study the environmental integration of the facility, which is the No. 1 priority of the project, and the actual effects of an operational microwave power beam.     

Preliminary studies on the in silico evolution of biochemical networks

Due to the variety and importance of roles performed by signalling networks, understanding their function and evolution is of great interest. Signalling networks allow organisms to process and react to changes in their internal and external environment. Current estimates suggest that two to three percent of all genomes code for proteins involved in signalling networks. The study of signalling networks is hindered by the complexities of the networks and difficulties in ascribing function to form. For example, a very complex dense network might comprise eighty or more densely connected proteins. In the majority of cases there is very little understanding of how these networks process signals. Unlike in electronics, where there is a broad practical and theoretical understanding of how to construct devices that can process almost any kind of signal, in biological signalling networks there is no equivalent theory. Part of the problem stems from the fact that in most cases it is unknown what particular signal processing circuits would look like in a biological form. This paper describes the evolutionary methods used to generate networks with particular signal- and computational-processing capabilities. The techniques involved are described, and the approach is illustrated by evolving computational circuits such as multiplication, radicals and logarithmic functions. The experiments also illustrate the evolution of modularity within biochemical reaction networks.