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AMD64 Is The Force Behind Star Wars
At Siggraph today,
AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced that AMD Opteron™ processor-based servers and workstations are providing the digital backbone for the final Star Wars prequel, Episode III: “Revenge of the Sith.” The AMD64 digital processing pipeline at JAK Films, the production company for Star Wars: Episode III, includes pre-visualization and pre-postproduction, which involves 3-D match moving, 3-D modeling, lighting, shading, texturing, compositing and rendering techniques. The AMD64 processor-based workstation systems are running Microsoft® Windows® XP Pro, Alias’ Maya and Adobe® After Effects software. AMD64 processor-based file server systems are running on clustered Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 software.
NASA supercomputer shows how dust rings point to exo-Earths
(PhysOrg.com) -- Supercomputer simulations of dusty disks around sunlike stars show that planets nearly as small as Mars can create patterns that future telescopes may be able to detect. The research points to a new avenue in the search for habitable planets.
Landmark discovery of 'engine' that drives cell movement
This research by Thomas Leung, Ph.D., and his team in the GSK-IMCB Group at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), under Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research, is fundamental to the understanding of how assembles its internal machinery required for cell movement.
Reversible 3-D cell culture gel invented
Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, has invented a unique user-friendly gel that can liquefy on demand, with the potential to revolutionize three-dimensional (3D) cell culture for medical research.
The hibernating stellar magnet: First optically active magnetar-candidate discovered
Astronomers have discovered a most bizarre celestial object that emitted 40 visible-light flashes before disappearing again. It is most likely to be a missing link in the family of neutron stars, the first case of an object with an amazingly powerful magnetic field that showed some brief, strong visible-light activity.
Malaysian blogger arrested under tough internal security law
Prominent Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, who has targeted government figures on his website, was arrested Friday under internal security laws that allow for detention without trial.
1843 stellar eruption may be new type of star explosion
Eta Carinae, the galaxy's biggest, brightest and perhaps most studied star after the sun, has been keeping a secret: Its giant outbursts appear to be driven by an entirely new type of stellar explosion that is fainter than a typical supernova and does not destroy the star.
Professor-turned-producer learns the movie biz
It's not every day that a research scientist and university professor gets to see his work on the silver screen. But in just a few months, Richard W. Siegel will get to watch his name scroll down the giant screen of a darkened IMAX theater with a new title that seems light years away from laboratory benches and lecture halls: Executive Producer.
