Post-Standard, The (Newspaper) - December 26, 2005, Syracuse, New York I THE December SCIENCE FOR THE FUN OF SCIENTISTS APPLY TECHNOLOGY TO LEONARDO'S LEGENDARY MONALISA By Toby Sterling The Associated Press Netherlands The mysterious half-smile that has intrigued viewers of the Mona Lisa for centuries isn't really that difficult to Dutch researchers She was smiling because she was happy 83 percent to be according to from the University of In what they viewed as a fun demonstration of technology rather than a serious the researchers scanned a duction of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece and subjected it to developed in col- laboration with the University of The result showed the ing's famous subject was 83 cent 9 percent 6 percent fearful and 2 percent She was less than 1 cent and not at all Leonardo began work on the painting in 1503, and il now hangs in the Louvre in The also known as is believed to have portrayed the wife of Francesco del The tille is a play on her husband's also means jolly in Hairo a professor at the University of Amsterdam involved in the said the researchers knew the results would be unscientific the ware isn't designed to register subtle So it couldn't hint of sexual tion or disdain many have rend into Mona Lisa's In the technology is designed for use with modern digital films and and sub- first need to be scanned in a neutral emotionless state to rately detect their current emo- Lead researcher Nicu Sebe took the challenge as as he using the faces of 10 women of Mediterranean ancestry to create a composite image of a neutral He then compared that to the face in the scoring it on the basis of six fear and it's like casting a spider web over the face to break it down into tiny Stokman you look for minute differences in the flare of the nostril or depth of the kles around the Stokman said with a ing of 83 it's clear happiness was the woman's main Biometrics experts not involved with the ment said the results were interesting even if they aren't the last word on the Mona recognition nology is advancing but emotional recognition is really still in its said Larry director of the Center for tion Technology Research at West Virginia sounds like they did try to use a data even if it was and that's typical of work in an area like this that's relatively It's an interesting he Stokman said he knew the University of Amsterdam effort won't prove or dis- prove controversial theories about the One is that it was actually a self- portrait of Leonardo himself as a who in 30, 40, 50 maybe they'll be able to tell what was on her Stokman Hornak agreed the idea was always fun to apply technology to areas of public and sometimes you can come up with results that arc very he Jim a biometrics researcher at San Jose State hocus not ous Wayman it's good for a and it doesn't hurt Sky Watch THE STARS AT P.M. DEC. 25 International Atomic Time is a highly accurate anil stable It is a weighted average of the time kept by about 200 atomic clocks in more than 50 national laboratories Atomic time is measured through vibrations of atoms in metal isotope that resembles mercury and can keep time to within a 1 Oth of a billionth of a second a The result is extremely accurate time that can be transmitted by radio out North America where atomic watches and clocks can receive the Improved time and frequency standards have many For ultraprecise clocks can be used to improve synchronization in precision navigation and positioning telecommunications works and But from their careful tions of the positions of the astronomers have deduced that relation is ever so slightly slowing down at a nonuniform As a Earth falls out of step with atomic When the difference between the two amounts to one a is inserted into the ic time This will happen Saturday when the final minute of 2005 measured at the Greenwich will last 61 The will be added at p.m. EST. To use the hold it vertically before with the direction you are facing positioned at the The outer circle represents the the the spot directly Is near the center of the The map is accurate for p.m. by Saturday it will be accurate for 7 p.m. An archive of Sky Watch columns is available online at Joe Hayden Planetarium The New York Times 25 QUESTIONS FOR 25 YEARS World's scientists try their hand at prediction By Ronald Kotulak Chicago Tribune Chicago To celebrate the 125th anniversary of its ing by Thomas the journal Science asked more lhan 100 of the world's top scientists what they thought were the 25 most important scientific questions likely to be answered in the next 25 The 25 big questions range from what is consciousness mysterious interplay of brain cells and neurotransmitters that conjures up awareness and the ability to ask to what is the universe made of. What distinguishes humans from all other species is that capacity to formulate questions and to find answers that lead to more Children start asking almost as soon as they learn to Why is the sky Do mosquitoes go to the Asking the right question is the driving force behind amazing run of successes in explaining how the world ask the most natural and the most difficult tions because they really do want explanations in which they can understand relationships between cause and said Donald executive editor in chief of proceed in much the same he see some complicated outcome and they What produced I'm not going to be satisfied with just describing that it I want to know what put it in Questions are more important than answers in shaping the future of Kennedy wrote in an editorial in adding that science is about questions while research is about In 1943 Erwin Schrodinger posed one of the most famous questions ever recorded when he is Enough tantalizing clues are he to begin looking for the molecules of Schrodinger's and slim book by the same inspired a generation of young including James Watson and Francis who won the race to decipher the chemical structure of many the answers are going to have a big impact pn human and not just in the medical Kennedy who explore the cosmos try to put our solar Earth and everybody on it in some kind of grander context in terms of our When Michael Faraday was demonstrating his equipment for generating the newly discovered phenomenon of ty in the early 1800s, British chancellor of the exchequer William is very Mr. But what practical worth is Faraday you may tax The ancient Greeks were masters at asking questions and coming up with philosophical answers thai were ly satisfying but usually not It wasn't until the Age of Enlightenment starting in the 1600s that the scientific method form a test it took hold. The flood of discoveries that followed changed the Every now and particularly after a surge of great dis- often a would say that science has learned all there is to The most recent pessimistic forecast is a 1996 End ot by John that claimed all the big questions have been asked and What's he is simply filling in the Most believe that there may be no end to big questions and that they will lead to big Besides the small number of human genes and what the universe is made the other big questions on Science's list of 25 To what extent are genetic variation and personal health Can the laws of physics be How much can the human life span be What controls organ How can a skin cell become a nerve How does a single somatic cell become a whole How does interior work? Are we alone in the How and where did life on Earth What determines species What genetic changes made us uniquely How are memories stored and How did cooperative behavior How will big pictures emerge from a sea of biological How far can we push chemical What are the limits of conventional Can we selectively shut off the immune Do deeper principles underlie quantum uncertainty and non- Is an effective HIV vaccine How hot will the greenhouse world can replace cheap and Will Thomas Malthus predicted that overpopulation could lead to a global continue to be wrong?
