| First Map of Universe's Earliest Stars Unveiled and Blog - CES 2012: A New Era of Simpler Gadgets |
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The evolution of galaxies is one of the the great outstanding mysteries of astrophysics. And in recent years, astronomers have taken great strides in tackling the problem.The latest generation of telescopes peer back in time to within a few hundred million years of creation. They clearly show the first galaxies shining brightly only 600 million years after the Big Bang. These galaxies form clusters which themselves stretch out across the cosmos in a vast filamentary-type structure known as the cosmic web.This structure corresponds more or less exactly to the differences in the density of matter that must have arisen in the instants after creation. Cosmologists think they understand this structure well and have accurately simulated how it came into being.The only wrinkle in their models is the stars from which galaxies are made, which must obviously have formed earlier. [Read the full article] People power: This eight-inch tablet is designed to bring education to poor regions of the world.Technology ReviewMore than 50 new tablet computers are expected to debut at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. But only one is meant for people in the poorest regions of the world, and comes with a hand crank as an accessory.Known as the XO 3.0, the rugged green and white device has an eight-inch screen and was designed by the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child, which in 2008 launched the XO laptop, a device for people who are normally far from the minds of most computing companies.At a press preview held before the official opening of CES on Tuesday, OLPC's chief technology officer, Edward McNierney, told Technology Review that the new device could be used by children as young as five."We're trying to provide a low-power, low-cost environment for education," he said. [Read the full article] Mining, textiles, retail -- these are the industries that are most likely to violate worker's rights, right? Nope -- turns out the electronics industry is worse, according to a recent report from Oekom, a sustainable investment research firm. (For more on that report, check out the breakdown of its findings at GreenBiz.)The appearance of monologist / investigative reporter / anti-Apple agitator Mike Daisey on the most recent episode of This American Life is leading to a whole new wave of awareness of a stark fact of electronics manufacturing: There is no "Fair Trade" standard for our electronics, even though industry watchers have been calling for one ever since the well-publicized suicides at FoxConn, China's largest manufacturer of electronics. [Read the full article] 
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