Higgs may spell doom, unless supersymmetry saves us

Lisa Grossman, physical sciences reporter

(Image: CERN)

Is the Higgs boson a herald of the apocalypse? That's the suggestion behind a theory, developed more than 30 years ago, that is back in the headlines this week. According to physicists, the mass of the Higgs-like particle announced last summer supports the notion that our universe is teetering on the edge of stability, like a pencil balanced on its point.

"It may be that the universe we live in is inherently unstable," Joseph Lykken, of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, said on Monday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "At some point, billions of years from now, it's all going to be wiped out."

Physicists have been wringing their hands about this scenario since 1982, when theorists Michael Turner and Frank Wilczek published a paper about it in Nature, NBC News points out. The pair showed that the vacuum of space can be in different energy states, and it will be most stable at its lowest energy. Trouble arises if we're not there yet, and we're inhabiting a temporarily stable state that should ultimately collapse.

"The universe wants to be in a different state, so eventually to realize that, a little bubble of what you might think of as an alternate universe will appear somewhere, and it will spread out and destroy us," Lykken said at AAAS.

Enter the Higgs boson, the particle form of the field that gives mass to several fundamental particles. The Higgs field permeates the vacuum of space, which means the mass of the boson and the stability of the vacuum are closely intertwined. Theory predicted that if the Higgs boson is heavier than about 129 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), the universe should be on safe footing.

But in July 2012 physicists at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland announced that a particle closely matching the Higgs had been found by experiments in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The much celebrated particle has a mass of about 126 GeV - light enough to raise fears of instability.

There is still hope for the universe as we know it. Some theorists pointed out that the relationship between the Higgs mass and the vacuum of space depends on the mass of a particle called the top quark. If the top quark's mass is different than we think it is, stability might reign.

There are also anomalies with the Higgs measurement, like the fact that it decays into photons more often than predicted. That hints we may yet find particles from the theory of supersymmetry, which says each ordinary particle has heavier "superpartners". If the Higgs has such a relative, it might save us from destruction. But some of these predicted particles, particularly the superpartners of the top quark, can push the universe back into instability.

The worries may remain unconfirmed for a while. The LHC is shutting down for a two-year break so engineers can prepare the machine to shoot higher-energy particle beams, which are needed to probe for superpartners.

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Sony bills coming PS4 console as future of gaming

NEW YORK: Sony unveiled a new-generation PlayStation 4 (PS4) system on Wednesday and laid out its vision for the "future of gaming" in a world rich with mobile gadgets and play streamed from the Internet cloud.

At a press event in New York, computer entertainment unit chief Andrew House said PS4 "represents a significant shift from thinking of PlayStation as a box or console to thinking of the PlayStation 4 as a leading place for play."

PS4 was designed to get to know players, ideally to the point of being able to predict which games people will buy and have them pre-loaded and ready to go.

It also allows live streaming of gameplay in real-time, letting friends virtually peer over one another's shoulders and even letting game makers to act as "directors" guiding players along.

Sony has also given a "green light" to building "the most powerful network for gaming in the world", according to David Perry, chief of Gaikai cloud gaming company purchased last year by Sony.

Gaikai specialises in letting people play video games streamed from the Internet "cloud" instead of buying titles on disks popped into consoles or computers.

"By combining PlayStation 4, PlayStation Network and social platforms, our vision is to create the first social network with meaning dedicated to games," Perry said during the event.

A button on the PS4 controller will let players instantly stream in-game action to friends in real time, and even allow someone to transfer control to more capable allies when stuck, according to Perry.

He expressed a vision of letting people access and play video games old or new on the Internet using PS4, smartphones, tablets or PS Vita handheld devices.

"We are exploring opportunity enabled by cloud technology with a long-term vision of making PlayStation technology available on any device," Perry said.

"This would fundamentally change the concept of game longevity, making any game new or old available to get up and running on any device, anywhere."

Sony needs to adapt to changing lifestyles while not alienating video game lovers devoted to its hardware.

Low-cost or free games on smartphones or tablet computers are increasing the pressure on video game companies to deliver experiences worth players' time and money.

With the press event still in progress, Sony had yet to indicate availability or pricing for the PS4. New-generation consoles are typically priced in the $400 to $500 range, and blockbuster game titles hit the market at $60 each.

-AFP/gn

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Sony mum on PlayStation Vita price drops for U.S., Europe

Sony breathed new life into its PlayStation Vita portable alongside the introduction of the PlayStation 4 today.

The gist of the news: The Vita can be used as a full screen and controller for your PS4, similar to what Nintendo's done with the
Wii U. The idea is that you can continue to play a game on the PS4 through your Vita, even if someone needs to use the TV for something else. The only catch for now is that the two devices need to be on the same Wi-Fi network.

That should make the handheld gaming device more attractive to would-be buyers who are looking for more utility from the $249 or $299 entry price, and who plan on buying Sony's upcoming console.

But smart buyers know a price drop is coming, something that could stall already tepid sales. Earlier this week Sony announced plans to cut the price of the Vita in Japan, bringing both the Wi-Fi and 3G models down to the same price in an effort to boost sales. In the past, those types of price cuts have trickled down to other markets, and such an announcement was anticipated by some today.

Since its launch in in early 2012, sales of the Vita have proven to be lackluster compared to Sony's predecessor, the PSP. In a recent interview with Famitsu magazine, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan president Hiroshi Kawano admitted that the portable gaming system still has "a ways to go," and that it was "a little behind the numbers we originally pictured," adding that the price cut was intended to make the device more accessible.

While much of the attention during today's press conference was on the PlayStation 4 -- which was not shown on stage, or given a price or release date beyond "Holiday 2013" -- the Vita got some attention. To show off the new remote play feature, the company demoed Knack, an upcoming title for the PS4 that uses streaming technology Sony acquired from Gaikai.

Sony Computer Entertainment president and group CEO Andrew House today also stressed the company's "unwavering commitment to phenomenal play experience," that would "continue to unlock the PlayStation Vita's potential." That would come in additional features arriving later this year, House teased, but he did not provide specifics.

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NASA's Mars Rover Makes Successful First Drill

For the first time ever, people have drilled into a rock on Mars, collecting the powdered remains from the hole for analysis.

Images sent back from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Wednesday confirmed that the precious sample is being held by the rover's scoop, and will soon be delivered to two miniature chemical labs to undergo an unprecedented analysis. (Related: "Mars Rover Curiosity Completes First Full Drill.")

To the delight of the scientists, the rock powder has come up gray and not the ubiquitous red of the dust that covers the planet. The gray rock, they believe, holds a lot of potential to glean information about conditions on an early Mars. (See more Mars pictures.)

"We're drilling into rock that's a time capsule, rocks that are potentially ancient," said sampling-system scientist Joel Hurowitz during a teleconference from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

A Place to Drill

The site features flat bedrock, often segmented into squares, with soil between the sections and many round gray nodules and white mineral veins.

Hurowitz said that the team did not attempt to drill into the minerals or the gray balls, but the nodules are so common that they likely hit some as they drilled down 2.5 inches (6.3 centimeters).

In keeping with the hypothesis that the area was once under water, Hurowitz said the sample "has the potential of telling us about multiple interactions of water and rock."

The drill, located at the end of a seven-foot (two-meter) arm, requires precision maneuvering in its placement and movement, and so its successful initial use was an exciting and welcome relief. The rover has been on Mars since August, and it took six months to find the right spot for that first drill. (Watch video of the Mars rover Curiosity.)

The flat drilling area is in the lower section of Yellowknife Bay, which Curiosity has been exploring for more than a month. What was previously identified by Curiosity scientists as the dry bed of a once-flowing river or stream appears to fan out into the Yellowknife area.

The bedrock of the site—named after deceased Curiosity deputy project manager John Klein—is believed to be siltstone or mudstone. Scientists said the veins of white minerals are probably calcium sulfate or gypsum, but the grey nodules remain something of a mystery.

Triumph

To the team that designed and operates the drill, the results were a triumph, as great as the much-heralded landing of Curiosity on the red planet. With more than a hundred maneuvers in its repertoire, the drill is unique in its capabilities and complexities. (Watch video of Curiosity's "Seven Minutes of Terror.")

Sample system chief engineer Louise Jandura, who has worked on the drill for eight years, said the Curosity team had made eight different drills before settling on the one now on the rover. The team tested each drill by boring 1,200 holes on 20 types of rock on Earth.

She called the successful drilling "historic" because it gives scientists unprecedented access to material that has not been exposed to the intense weathering and radiation processes that affect the Martian surface.

Mini-laboratories

The gray powder will be routed to the two most sophisticated instruments on Curiosity—the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin).

SAM, the largest and most complex instrument onboard, operates with two ovens that can heat the sample up to 1,800°F (982°C), turning the elements and compounds in the rock into gases that can then be identified. SAM can also determine whether any carbon-based organic material is present.

Organics are the chemical building blocks of life on Earth. They are known to regularly land on Mars via meteorites and finer material that rains down on all planets.

But researchers suspect the intense radiation on the Martian surface destroys any organics on the surface. Scientists hope that organics within Martian rocks are protected from that radiation.

CheMin shoots an X-ray beam at its sample and can analyze the mineral content of the rock. Minerals provide a durable record of environmental conditions over the eons, including information about possible ingredients and energy sources for life.

Both SAM and CheMin received samples of sandy soil scooped from the nearby Rocknest outcrop in October. SAM identified organic material, but scientists are still trying to determine whether any of it is Martian or the byproduct of organics inadvertently brought to Mars by the rover. (See "Mars Rover Detects Simple Organic Compounds.")

In the next few days, CheMin will be the first to receive samples of the powdered rock, and then SAM. Given the complexity of the analysis, and the track record seen with other samples, it will likely be weeks before results are announced.

The process of drilling and collecting the results was delayed by several glitches that required study and work-arounds. One involved drill software and the other involved a test-bed problem with a sieve that is part of the process of delivering samples to the instruments.

Lead systems engineer Daniel Limonadi said that while there was no indication the sieve on Mars was malfunctioning, they had become more conservative in its use because of the test bed results. (Related: "A 2020 Rover Return to Mars?")

Author of the National Geographic e-book Mars Landing 2012, Marc Kaufman has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including the past 12 as a science and space writer, foreign correspondent, and editor for the Washington Post. He is also author of First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth, published in 2011, and has spoken extensively to crowds across the United States and abroad about astrobiology. He lives outside Washington, D.C., with his wife, Lynn Litterine.

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Newtown Shooter Had Sensory Processing Disorder

From the time he was little, Adam Lanza couldn't bear to be touched. By middle school, the chaos and noise of large, bustling classrooms began to upset him. At 20, just before the Newtown shootings, he was isolated and, the world would later learn, disturbed.

All this was revealed in "Raising Adam Lanza," an investigative report by the Hartford Courant in partnership with the PBS news program FRONTLINE, which aired Tuesday night.

Before the age of 6, Lanza had been diagnosed with a controversial condition, "sensory integration disorder" -- now known as sensory processing disorder, according to the report.

Those with sensory processing disorder or SPD may over-respond to stimuli and find clothing, physical contact, light, sound or food unbearable. They may also under-respond and feel little or no reaction to pain or extreme hot and cold. A third form involves sensory motor problems that can cause weakness and clumsiness or delay in developing motor skills.

In Photos: Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, Mourning

Whether SPD is a distinct disorder or a collection of symptoms pointing to other neurological deficits, most often anxiety or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has been debated by the medical community for more than two decades.

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No one will know why the withdrawn Lanza shot his mother four times in her own bed, then went to Sandy Hook Elementary School to slaughter six women and 20 first-graders before taking his own life on Dec. 14, 2012.

But this report, the most detailed account to date on his troubled life, paints a picture of a child coping with special needs and a mother, "devoted but perhaps misguided," struggling unsuccessfully to help.

"The most surprising thing for me was this sort of inwardness of Adam, a world view of someone that was afraid of the world," said show producer Frank Koughan. "He just reacted badly to the whole world and didn't want to be part of it. He was not some violent monster, except on one particular day, when he was exceedingly monstrous."

The investigative team interviewed family and friends of the shooter's parents, Nancy and Peter Lanza, and reviewed a decade's worth of messages and emails from his mother to close friends, describing her son's socially awkward behavior.

"Adam was a quiet kid. He never said a word," Marvin LaFontaine, a friend of Nancy Lanza, told them. "There was a weirdness about him and Nancy warned me once at one of the Scout meetings … 'Don't touch Adam.' She said he just can't stand that. He'd become teary-eyed and I think he would run to his mother."

In 1998, the Lanzas left their home in New Hampshire for Connecticut with Adam, who had already been diagnosed with the sensory disorder and was "coded" with an individual education plan, according to a family member who did not want to be identified by FRONTLINE.

"It was somebody well-placed who was completely in a position to know," said Koughan, 45, a veteran journalist who produced the film, "Drop-Out Nation."

Lanza didn't recognize pain, another feature of some types of SPD. He couldn't cope with loud noise, confusion or change, which would cause him to "shut down," according to the report.

"He'd almost go into a catatonic kind of state, which is another reason why in hindsight, he didn't seem like a threat to anybody," said Koughan. "He didn't lash out or beat up kids. He went within himself, until one day he didn't."

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Today on New Scientist: 19 February 2013

Doctors would tax sugary drinks to combat obesity

Hiking the price of fizzy drinks would cut consumption and so help fight obesity, urges the British Academy of Medical Royal Colleges

Space station's dark matter hunter coy about findings

Researchers on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which sits above the International Space Station, have collected their first results - but won't reveal them for two weeks

Huge telescopes could spy alien oxygen

Hunting for oxygen in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets is a tough job, but a new wave of giant telescopes should be up to the task

Evolution's detectives: Closing in on missing links

Technology is taking the guesswork out of finding evolution's turning points, from the first fish with legs to our own recent forebears, says Jeff Hecht

Moody Mercury shows its hidden colours

False-colour pictures let us see the chemical and physical landscape of the normally beige planet closest to the sun

LHC shuts down to prepare for peak energy in 2015

Over the next two years, engineers will be giving the Large Hadron Collider the makeover it needs to reach its maximum design energy

Insert real news events into your mobile game

From meteor airbursts to footballing fracas, mobile games could soon be brimming with news events that lend them more currency

3D-printing pen turns doodles into sculptures

The 3Doodle, which launched on Kickstarter today, lets users draw 3D structures in the air which solidify almost instantly

We need to rethink how we name exoplanets

Fed up with dull names for exoplanets, Alan Stern and his company Uwingu have asked the public for help. Will it be so long 2M 0746+20b, hello Obama?

A shocking cure: Plug in for the ultimate recharge

An electrical cure for ageing attracted the ire of the medical establishment. But could the jazz-age inventor have stumbled upon a genuine therapy?

Biofuel rush is wiping out unique American grasslands

Planting more crops to meet the biofuel demand is destroying grasslands and pastures in the central US, threatening wildlife

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Retinal implants clear new hurdle

PARIS: German-designed implants aimed at restoring vision to patients blinded by retinal disease have succeeded in the second phase of trials, researchers reported on Wednesday.

The device was tested for up to nine months among nine people with retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease in which light receptors on the back of the eyeball degenerate and eventually cease to function.

"Of the nine patients observed in the study, three patients were able to read letters spontaneously," Retina Implant AG, a nine-year-old technology startup company that invented the device, said in a press release.

"During observation in and outside the laboratory, patients also reported the ability to recognise faces, distinguish objects such as telephones and read signs on doors."

The study appears in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a journal published by Britain's de-facto academy of sciences.

The device consists of a tiny light-sensitive chip measuring 3mm by 3mm (0.11 x 0.11 inches), which sends electrical signals down the optic nerve to the brain, providing a "diamond-shaped" black-and-white image with a field of 15 degrees.

Attached to the retina, the implant is powered via a thin cable which connects to a small coil fitted under a fold of skin behind the ear.

The coil is charged when a handheld battery unit is brought up close to it -- the same principle of wireless charging that is used, for instance, in electrical toothbrushes -- and thus means it can be used outdoors.

The battery unit also has two knobs, enabling the user to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image.

The patients received the implant in one eye, the one with the worst visual function.

One of the nine had to drop out of the experiment after the optic nerve was damaged during the implant operation, and another experienced a buildup in eyeball pressure which was successfully treated with drugs.

New drugs and revolutionary medical devices typically undergo a three-phase process of trials on human volunteers.

The number of patients and the scope of the test gradually widens, in a bid to ensure that the innovation is both safe and effective.

The first trial of the implant, published in 2010, used a cable, rather than wireless technology, to power the device.

There are several other entrants in the field for retinal implants, reflecting big advances in electronic miniaturisation and microsurgery in the past decade.

None claims to be a cure but rather an aid to distinguish between light and darkness and ascertain the shape of objects.

"Although the restoration of vision described here is limited, blind persons with no alternative therapy options regard this type of artificial vision as an improvement in everyday life," the German doctors said.

Last week the US firm Second Sight Medical Products gained US regulatory approval in addition to the green light from Europe for its Argus II retinal prosthesis.

There is also a 24-electrode device made by Bionic Vision Australia, which has so far been tested on one patient.

-AFP/gn

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6 tech features that should be standard in every new car

Air bags, anti-lock brakes, and stability control. CD players, power locks and windows, and air conditioning. These are all features that at some point or other were optional (and sometimes costly) vehicle features, but over time we've come to expect them in every new
car on the road -- whether that's due to legislation or changing buyer tastes. As cars continue to evolve, so grow our expectations of what should be included in the sticker price. I've rounded up a few optional car tech features that I'd like to see become make the jump to standard equipment.

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Early Bluetooth hands-free systems were often included in expensive, optional tech packages.

(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)

Bluetooth connectivity

Let's start with the most obvious answer: Bluetooth. The best way to keep phone-toting drivers from plowing into things is by keeping their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road by making use of the ubiquitous Bluetooth connection that nearly every phone has. Unfortunately, early Bluetooth connectivity was pretty clunky and had traditionally been bundled as part of expensive technology packages. Drivers and lawmakers complained loudly and, by and large, automakers have started to make Bluetooth standard on their 2012 and 2013 model year vehicles. There are still a few stragglers who haven't jumped on the standard hands-free connectivity train, but I guess that within a year or two nearly every new car will be hands-free ready down to the most spartan models.

But this is a wish list of sorts, so why stop there? I want the
hands-free calling to be as easy and safe to interact with as possible, so good voice command is a must. If an automaker doesn't want to develop a good voice dialer, the option to allow the phone to handle its own spoken commands with Siri and Google Voice Search would be welcome additions. I also want Bluetooth audio streaming to be standard since the hardware will already be in place.

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Hyundai has been making USB connectivity standard across its line, but the new Apple Lightning connector has caused issues with its iPod connectivity.

(Credit:
Antuan Goodwin/CNET)

USB/iPod connectivity

Just like the mighty 8-track and compact cassette tapes that came before it, the CD player is on its way out of the dashboard. Chevrolet has already ditched the disc with the Spark subcompact and I doubt that they'll be the last to do so.

Any automaker that doesn't offer USB connectivity for digital media as a standard feature across its line is already behind the tech curve. Why? It's because no one buys physical media anymore. The success of digital music stores, such as
iTunes and Amazon, and the availability of cheap flash media and digital media players means that the USB port is the new CD slot. Who wants to carry around a binder full of compact discs when you can shove an entire music library into your pocket on a USB key or iPod device?

While we're at it, put two USB ports on the dashboard and give them 1-amp or better, high-powered outputs to double their functionality as a fast-chargers for today's power thirsty smartphones, eliminating the need to purchase 12-volt car chargers.

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Rear view cameras increase both safety and convenience when reversing.

(Credit:
Nissan)

Rear view camera

This is another obvious choice, because the U.S. government has been saying that it is going to make rearview cameras a required safety featuure since about 2008. However, the deadline keeps getting pushed back and currently sits sometime beyond 2014. The simple acts of checking mirrors and turning your head shouldn't be downplayed, but automakers have continued to build cars with ever decreasing rear visibility thanks to high belt-lines and thick rear pillars. Nearly everyone can benefit from the increased visibility afforded by a rear camera.

Suburban families with young children or outdoor pets gain the additional safety of not backing over someone or something important to them. Urbanites who often park parallel on the street gain an edge when squeezing into a tight spot thanks to the camera's unique bumper-level view. (Maybe these standard cameras will stop San Franciscans from marring their and others' cars by using their bumpers to gauge parking distance.)

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Most Blind Spot Monitoring systems manifest as lights located on the side mirrors that illuminate to indicate an obstruction.

(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)

Blind-spot monitoring

Blind-spot monitoring makes the list largely for the same reasons that rear view cameras do: automakers are building cars with fairly poor visibility, making it difficult for even a good driver to do a simple over-the-shoulder check when changing lanes. On the other hand, those not-so-good drivers who don't even bother with the over-the-shoulder check could definitely use a flashing light or audible alert to let them know that they're about to merge into me on the freeway. Either way, all of us could benefit from an extra set of electronic eyes watching our tails.

Nissan's latest generation of blind spot monitoring technology is very interesting. The 2013 Altima doesn't use side sonar sensors like most systems do. Rather, it makes use of the ultra-wide angle rearview camera to provide optical monitoring of the vehicle's rear corners. Since we're already making the rear camera standard, this tech would hit two driver safety birds with one stone.

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Ford's Sync App Link gives users access to their favorite apps with good voice command.

(Credit:
Antuan Goodwin/CNET)

Car-centric app integration

I'm sure that this is the feature that the "zero-tolerance for phones" contingency of CNET readers and commenters will take the most issue with, but bear with me.

A large number of drivers are already using apps in the car, sometimes illegally, for simple functions such as listening to music, podcasts, and audiobooks, navigating to their destination, getting around traffic, and letting loved ones know where they are. Third-party technologies, such the Car Connectivity Consortium's MirrorLink and Livio Connect are already making strides to make interacting with these apps as easy as tuning a radio station. Automakers are also making similar strides with their own technologies -- Toyota's Entune and Ford Sync AppLink, for example.

Since we can't put the smartphone apps cat back into the mobile technology bag, let's instead focus on trying to the current situation safer. A good app integration system should allow me to quickly access my favorite streaming radio app, give me the fasted directions home using my favorite navigation app, and share my ETA with my friends using my favorite location sharing app, using the large dashboard or touchscreen buttons (good), steering wheel controls (better), or voice commands (best), all while my phone remains tucked away in my pocket.

We see again here that these technologies are already making their way into cars, but as parts of expensive tech bundles that include overpriced navigation systems and premium audio rigs that could discourage many drivers from bothering. Since, I'm already using my own phone and data plan, app integration should be cheap or free.

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The MyFord Touch system features a Do Not Disturb feature, but its elective nature limits its usefulness.

(Credit:
Ford)

Do Not Disturb mode

Sometimes, even with today's best app integration systems, the temptation to check that incoming text message on the phone can be just too much for some drivers. So, it's not enough that app integration systems simply not support non-car apps; they'll have to actively suppress those other apps and their notifications with a Do Not Disturb mode.

Some infotainment systems, such as MyFord Touch, already offer a Do Not Disturb feature that silences calls and texts, automatically responding via SMS that you're driving. However, this system is totally optional and defeatable, which limits its usefulness to the very type of distracted driver it attempts to protect. I propose that, in order to access the easy-to-use app integration that I asked for in the previous section, the phone should be required to enter a Do Not Disturb mode of sorts, silencing notifications for text messages, twitter tweets, facebook posts, and other apps you should probably not be fooling with until the car is parked. This could be as simple as putting the phone into a silent, no-vibration mode, only funneling car-relevant information through the vehicle's own interface, or as complex as totally locking down the phone at the OS level.

Since we're speculating, I'd like to see my amazing Do Not Disturb feature used as a parental lock for young and inexperienced drivers, requiring that teenager's smartphone be paired to the car's hands-free system for emergency phone calls, but locked-out for apps and texts when the vehicle is in motion.

I may be asking for a lot here and no doubt the truly foolhardy will still find a way to circumvent my proposed Do Not Disturb feature, but I think that by incentivising drivers to give up their texts and tweets for a while to gain easy app integration access to the music and navigation apps that they love can go a long way toward improving vehicle safety -- certainly much further than simply finger-wagging about what people shouldn't be doing behind the wheel. Make both systems standard and you've got a one-two punch for managing driver distraction.

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So, what did we miss? What favorite car tech feature would you like to see made standard on tomorrow's cars? Sound off in the comments and let us know.

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Florida Python Hunt Captures 68 Invasive Snakes

It's a wrap—the 2013 Python Challenge has nabbed 68 invasive Burmese pythons in Florida, organizers say. And experts are surprised so many of the elusive giants were caught.

Nearly 1,600 people from 38 states—most of them inexperienced hunters—registered for the chance to track down one of the animals, many of which descend from snakes that either escaped or were dumped into the wild.

Since being introduced, these Asian behemoths have flourished in Florida's swamps while also squeezing out local populations of the state's native mammals, especially in the Everglades. (See Everglades pictures.)

To highlight the python problem, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and its partners launched the 2013 Python Challenge, which encouraged registered participants to catch as many pythons as they could between January 12 and February 10 in state wildlife-management areas within the Everglades.

The commission gave cash prizes to those who harvested the most and longest pythons.

Frank Mazzotti, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Florida and scientific leader for the challenge, said before the hunt that he would consider a harvest of 70 animals a success—and 68 is close enough to say the event met its goals.

It's unknown just how many Burmese pythons live in Florida, but catching 68 snakes is an "exceptional" number, added Kenneth Krysko, senior herpetologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.

Snakes in the Grass

Finding 68 snakes is impressive, experts say, since it's so hard to find pythons. For one, it's been unusually warm lately in Florida, which means the reptiles—which normally sun themselves to regulate their body temperature—are staying in the brush, making them harder to detect, Krysko said.

On top of that, Burmese pythons are notoriously hard to locate, experts say.

The animals are so well camouflaged that people can stand right next to one and not notice it. "It's rare that you get to see them stretched out—most of the time they're blending in," said Cheryl Millett, a biologist at the Nature Conservancy, a Python Challenge partner.

What's more, the reptiles are ambush hunters, which means they spend much of their time lying in wait in dense vegetation, not moving, she said.

That's why Millett gave the hunters some tips, such as looking along the water's edge, where the snakes like to hang out, and also simply listening for "something big moving through the vegetation."

Even so, catching 68 snakes is "actually is a little more than I expected," said Millett.

No Walk in the Park

Ruben Ramirez, founder of the company Florida Python Hunters, won two prizes in the competition: First place for the most snakes captured—18—and second place for the largest python, which he said was close to 11 feet (3.4 meters) long. The biggest Burmese python caught in Florida, nabbed in 2012, measured 17.7 feet (5.4 meters).

"They're there, but they're not as easy to find as people think," said Ramirez. "You're not going to be stumbling over pythons in Miami." (Related blog post: "What It's Like to Be a Florida Python Hunter.")

All participants, some of whom had never hunted a python before, were trained to identify the difference between a Burmese python and Florida's native snakes, said Millett. No native snakes were accidentally killed, she said.

Hunters were also told to kill the snakes by either putting a bolt or a bullet through their heads, or decapitating them-all humane methods that result "in immediate loss of consciousness and destruction of the brain," according to the Python Challenge website.

Ramirez added that some of the first-time or amateur hunters had different expectations. "I think they were expecting to walk down a canal and see a 10-foot [3-meter], 15-foot [4.5-meter] Burmese python. They thought it'd be a walk in the park."

Stopping the Spread

Completely removing these snakes from the wild isn't easy, and some scientists see the Python Challenge as helping to achieve part of that goal. (Read an opposing view on the Python Challenge: "Opinion: Florida's Great Snake Hunt Is a Cheap Stunt.")

"You're talking about 68 more animals removed from the population that shouldn't be there—that's 68 more mouths that aren't being fed," said the Florida museum's Krysko. (Read about giant Burmese python meals that went bust.)

"I support any kind of event or program that not only informs the general public about introduced species, but also gets the public involved in removing these nonnative animals that don't belong there."

The Nature Conservancy's Millett said the challenge had two positive outcomes: boosting knowledge for both science and the public.

People who didn't want to hunt or touch the snakes could still help, she said, by reporting sightings of exotic species to 888-IVE-GOT-1, through free IveGot1 apps, or www.ivegot1.org.

Millett runs a public-private Nature Conservancy partnership called Python Patrol that the Florida wildlife commission will take on in the fall. The program focuses not only on eradicating invasive pythons but on preventing the snake from moving to ecologically sensitive areas, such as Key West.

Necropsies on the captured snakes will reveal what pythons are eating, and location data from the hunters will help scientists figure out where the snakes are living—valuable data for researchers working to stop their spread.

"This is the most [number of] pythons that have been caught in this short of a period of time in such an extensive area," said the University of Florida's Mazzotti.

"It's an unprecedented sample, and we're going to get a lot of information out of that."

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Arias Says Violent Sex Preceded Killing

Jodi Arias and her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander,, had increasingly violent sex in which he tied her to his bed, twisted her arm, bent her over a desk for anal sex, and made sex videos with her in the hours leading up to the stabbing and shooting frenzy that left Alexander dead.

It was a day in which Arias, 32, inched closer to telling the court how the killing of Alexander took place, but after several hours of increasingly emotional testimony the court was adjourned until Wednesday.

In her sixth day on the stand, Arias tearfully described the sex-filled hours that led to Alexander's death on June 4, 2008. She is charged with murder for killing her former boyfriend, but claims she was forced to kill him self-defense. She could face the death penalty if convicted.

"He tied me up, (on) the bed. It's not my favorite but it's not unbearable," Arias told the court.

She said he used a kitchen knife in the bathroom to cut the rope to the proper length, but she didn't remember whether he left the knife in the bathroom or brought it back to the nightstand in the bedroom.

"There are a lot gaps that day... a lot of things I don't remember that day," she said.

Arias and Alexander then took graphic sexual photos of one another and made a sex video, both of which Arias said were Alexander's ideas. Arias has girlish braids in the pictures.

But the mood of the afternoon turned, she said, when Alexander became angry over a scratched computer disk of photos she gave him. He threw the CD and Arias said she became "apprehensive" of his rising temper.

"I know he's getting angry because Napoleon [Alexander's dog] got up and left the room and he always leaves the room when he gets mad." she testified.

"I don't know that I was consciously thinking (of violence) but I was more tense. I stood up, went to walk over to him, to rub his back and make sure he was okay," she said. "But he grabbed me on the upper arms, spun me around and grabbed my right arm and twisted it behind my back, and bent me over the desk, and pressed up against me."

Charlie Leight/Pool/The Arizona Republic/AP Photo

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"I was scared he was going to throw me or something, kick me," she continued. "He pressed his groin up against my butt, did a few thrusts and then started pulling my pants down."

The pair then had anal sex, which Arias said pacified Alexander.

"I was very relieved. I felt like we had avoided catastrophe. It could have led to another fight," she said.

Instead of a fight, Alexander, who was 27 and a devout Mormon, and Arias decide to go upstairs and take more nude photos of one another. Arias said she hoped the photos would satisfy Alexander over his frustration with the scratched CD.

Evidence introduced earlier in the trial show that Alexander was killed while Arias was photographing Alexander in the shower.

Catching Up on the Trial? Check Out ABC News' Jodi Arias Trial Coverage

Timeline of the Jodi Arias Trial

Earlier, Arias explained that she wasn't planning to visit Alexander during her roadtrip from her home in California, but was convinced by him to spontaneously take a detour to his house for sex and to hang out.

"The very last time I called Travis it was kind of like, I don't know how to describe it, he had been very sweet and was guilting me and making me feel bad that I was taking this big trip without going to see him," Arias said this afternoon.

"When I called him last time it was just like all right, I'm going," she said. "(Sex) was our thing at that time. I wasn't going to go there, stay the night and not do that."

Arias' attorney, Kirk Nurmi, asked her repeatedly on the stand if Arias brought a gun or knife with her on the roadtrip and to Alexander's house. She said that she did not.

She also denied a series of allegations made by the prosecution that she dyed her hair, rented an inconspicuous car, borrowed gas cans, turned off her cell phone, and switched money around her bank accounts as she left for Alexander's house because she was planning to murder him when she got there.

Arias said that her hair remained the same color, auburn-brown, throughout May and June, that she rented a car because her own car was not stable enough for highway travel, that she requested a white car instead of a red one because police pull red ones over more often, and that she transferred money to a business banking account for a tax write-off to classify it as a business trip.

The testimony about the road trip and Arias' planning could be key to the jury as they decide whether the killing was pre-meditated, as the prosecution claims. Arias could face the death penalty if convicted of murder with aggravating factors such as pre-meditation.

Arias said that she "didn't sleep at all last night" before testifying about the dramatic incident today. Her comment was stricken from the record.

Arias also described a barrage of threatening text messages sent by Alexander in which he told her he would exact "revenge" on her soon and called her a "sociopath."

She told the court that Alexander's temper would make her "cower."

The messages show a growing discord between the pair in April 2008, less than two months before Arias killed Alexander.

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