Peterson Sentenced to 38 Years for 3rd Wife's Murder

Former Illinois cop Drew Peterson yelled, "I did not kill Kathleen!" during the sentencing phase of his trial today -- and then a judge sentenced him to 38 years in jail for killing her.

The sentence came after Will County Judge Edward Burmila denied Peterson a re-trial in the killing of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in 2004.

Peterson had faced as many as 60 years in prison.

At his sentencing, after Peterson shouted that he did not kill his wife, someone in the courtroom yelled in reply, "Yes you did!" according to ABC News Chicago station WLS. Burmila then ordered that person to leave the courtroom.

Peterson went on to claim that police "altered evidence" in his case and "intimidated witnesses and scared my children."

"I love Kathy," he said. "She was a good mom. ... She didn't deserve to die."

He added that he was planning to get a tattoo on his back that would say, "No good deed goes unpunished."

Peterson's defense team had requested a re-trial after he was found guilty in September of killing Savio and making it look like an accident.

READ MORE: Drew Peterson Found Guilty of Killing Wife, Making It Look Like Accident

M. Spencer Green/AP Photo

Drew Peterson Trial: Defense Rests, Son Shows Support Watch Video

The re-trial, Peterson's attorneys claimed, was warranted because his former lead trial counsel, Joel Brodsky, had "single-handedly" lost the trial last fall, according to attorney Steve Greenberg. Greenberg is a former colleague of Brodsky's, but the two have recently been embroiled in a bitter public feud.

Burmila today rejected all of the motions for a new trial and, as he said he would do, moved on to sentencing immediately.

It is the latest development in the bizarre story of Peterson, a former suburban Chicago police officer. In 2004, Peterson's third wife, Savio, was found dead in her bathtub, a death that was initially ruled an accident. But when his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in 2007, Savio's body was exhumed and her death ruled a homicide.

Drew Peterson has never been charged in connection with Stacy Peterson's case.

Drew Peterson's murder trial last fall was marred by legal battles between his attorneys and prosecutors over what evidence was allowed in court. On three separate occasions, Peterson's defense team asked for a mistrial, but it was rebuffed every time by Burmila.

A large part of the testimony in that trial was hearsay, based on comments that Savio and Stacy Peterson made to friends that portrayed Peterson as a violent and threatening husband.

Peterson said at his sentencing today that hearsay was "a scary thing" because people are not accountable for the truth, according to WLS. An emotional Peterson, his voice shaking at times, blamed the media for portraying him as a monster.

In September, a jury convicted Peterson, noting that it had reached a decision it believed was "just."

READ MORE: Drew Peterson Jury Says Hearsay Convinced Them to Convict

Savio's nephew Michael Lisak said afterwards that his aunt "can finally rest in peace."

"Today is a day for battered women, not just Kathleen Savio," Lisak said. "Your voice will be heard. My aunt's voice was heard through the grave. She would not stop. They will listen to you now."

Peterson's sister Cassandra Cales had a blunt message for the newly convicted murderer.

"Game over, Drew," she said. "He can wipe the smirk off his face. It's time to pay."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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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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US stocks dive after Fed minutes

NEW YORK: US stocks piled up losses Wednesday after Federal Reserve minutes showed divisions over asset purchases, with some officials suggesting to wind them down before the jobs market picks up.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 108.13 points (0.77 percent) at 13,927.54.

The S&P 500-stock index fell 18.99 points (1.24 percent) to 1,511.95 and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite dropped 49.18 points (1.53 percent) to 3,164.41, dragged down by heavyweight Apple, off 2.4 percent.

After opening mostly lower amid mixed housing and wholesale inflation data, the indexes hit fresh session lows after the Fed released the minutes of the January 29-30 Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

A "number" of participants said that an ongoing evaluation of the $85 billion per month asset purchases "might well lead the committee to taper or end its purchases before it judged that a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market had occurred," the minutes said.

Paul Edelstein of IHS Global Insight said in a research note that "if markets do not expect the Fed to stay the course, then expectations for economic growth and inflation will stay depressed and demand for safe assets (cash and government securities) will remain high."

Office Depot and OfficeMax meanwhile confirmed their merger after a premature announcement of the news.

The all-stock merger would create an $18 billion office supplies retailer. Office Depot shares slumped 16.7 percent and OfficeMax shed 7.0 percent.

Hotel chain Marriott fell 2.7 percent after posting quarterly results that missed expectations.

Luxury home builder Toll Brothers also suffered from disappointing earnings, losing 9.1 percent.

Dell, which reported a 32 percent profit fall in 2012 that was nevertheless slightly better than expected, rose 0.2 percent.

Yahoo! fell 1.7 percent after unveiling a new homepage.

Sony slid 1.2 percent ahead of its PlayStation 4 news conference

The bond market was mixed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond fell to 2.02 percent from 2.03 percent late Tuesday, while the 30-year edged up to 3.21 percent from 3.20 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.

-AFP/ac

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FCC takes first step toward allocating more Wi-Fi spectrum

FCC Commissioners L to R: Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioner Robert M. McDowell, Chairman Julius Genachowski, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Commissioner Ajit Pai.

(Credit:
FCC)

The Federal Communications Commission took the first steps today toward freeing up more wireless spectrum to boost Wi-Fi data speeds and ease congestion on Wi-Fi networks in hotels, airports, and homes.

During its meeting today, the five-member commission approved a proposal that will allow 195 megahertz of additional wireless spectrum in the 5GHz band to be used for unlicensed Wi-Fi use. This will increase the amount of available unlicensed spectrum by 35 percent. This is the largest block of wireless spectrum the FCC has freed up for unlicensed use in 10 years.

The commission also agreed to create rules that would streamline the process to use more devices in this upper 5GHz band of spectrum.

What this additional spectrum means for average consumers is that they will eventually get faster uploads and downloads in Wi-Fi hot spots. And the additional capacity will also help alleviate congestion in major hubs, such as airports, convention centers, and other places where large numbers of people congregate.

The 5GHz band of spectrum that the FCC has targeted for unlicensed use is already being used by federal and non-federal users. And the agency will have to work with these other agencies to either free up the spectrum or share it with these other users.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski talked about freeing up this spectrum for unlicensed use last month at the Consumer Electronics Show. Today's vote means that the proposal is now open for public comment. At the end of the process, the FCC will write up official rules and regulations, which the agency will once again vote on.

The FCC has been working the past few years on freeing up additional wireless spectrum for wireless broadband use. The agency is currently writing rules for a wireless spectrum auction of lower frequency spectrum that broadcasters are voluntarily giving up. And the commission has also worked to reclassify spectrum designated for satellite use so that it could be used for wireless broadband services.

Chairman Genachowski has said several times publicly that it's also important to free up more unlicensed wireless spectrum. The commission has already taken steps in recent years to free up unlicensed spectrum in lower frequency bands. Lower frequency spectrum allows signals to travel longer distances and to penetrate obstacles like walls more easily.

In 2010, the FCC allocated unused spectrum between broadcast TV channels, called white spaces, for unlicensed use. And as part of the upcoming incentive broadcast wireless auctions, the FCC has also proposed to set aside some low-band spectrum for unlicensed use.

But the idea of setting aside spectrum for unlicensed use has been controversial. Some lawmakers would like to see the FCC auction as much spectrum as possible instead of allocating it for free unlicensed use. The thinking is that this spectrum can generate revenue to help pay off the national debt or fill budget deficits.

But FCC commissioners believe that freeing up more spectrum for unlicensed use will lead to innovation, as it has in the past. Commissioner Ajit Pai said:

Flexible unlicensed spectrum use was one of this country's great innovations in the 1980s...The Commission expanded several so-called junk bands to permit additional unlicensed uses and streamlined the Part 15 rules accordingly. Unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands is now some of the most valuable spectrum in the world for broadband. And consumers are the ultimate beneficiaries of unlicensed-use technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

The commission also approved new regulation that will allow consumers to use approved and licensed signal boosters to fill gaps in wireless coverage. The new rules create two classes of signal boosters. One will be for consumer use while the other will be used by businesses. Each will have their own set of requirements to minimize interference with other wireless networks. The move is expected to alleviate dead spots in cellular wireless coverage.

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Suitcase-size Satellite to Patrol for Dangerous Asteroids

Earth received a wakeup call last week with a double shot of incoming space rocks—the near miss of asteroid DA14 and the Russian meteor explosion. Our planet is in a cosmic shooting gallery and more work needs to be done to survey menacing asteroids, astronomers say.

Now the Canadian Space Agency is stepping up to the plate to help do just that with the launch of a new sentinel to detect and track near-Earth objects (NEOs). The pint-size space telescope is hitching a ride into orbit aboard an Indian rocket on February 25.

Even though the Near-Earth Object Space Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat) might find it challenging to hunt down relatively smaller size meteors, like the one that crashed in Russia last week, it will be the first telescope in orbit dedicated to keeping tabs on what's buzzing around Earth. ("Pictures: Meteorite Hits Russia.")

In addition to keeping an eye out for space rocks, NEOSSat will pull double duty by monitoring traffic among the increasing crowd of orbiting satellites—guarding against collisions between wayward space junk. (Learn about how satellite collisions create dangerous debris.)

In recent years there have been a few head-on collisions between orbiting satellites and several near misses with the International Space Station, making this a concern for satellite providers and space agencies.

Suitcase-size Sentinel

Weighing in at a mere 143 pounds (65 kilograms), this $12 million suitcase-size satellite will spend half its time pinpointing asteroids. Researchers say it could find at least a hundred new ones during its first year of operation—some of which currently have undetected orbits between the Earth and the sun.

"This spacecraft is designed to be able to search the sky near the sun, which is difficult for Earth-based telescopes to do, and so it therefore complements ground-based search programs," said Alan Hildebrand, planetary scientist at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and lead scientist for the NEOSSat mission.

Outfitted with a special sunshade, the telescope will be pointed precisely within a 45 degree angle of the sun in order to continuously snap hundred-second-long exposures that the team hopes will eventually reveal at least 50 percent of the asteroids half a mile (one kilometer) across or larger within Earth's orbit around the sun.

Asteroids from far out in the solar system sometimes swing past Earth, but the most dangerous ones are those that continually cross Earth's orbit—like the inner-Earth objects (IEOs), or Atira class asteroids, which shuttle between our planet and the sun.

NEOSSat's six-inch-wide (15-centimeter-wide) telescope is no larger than those used by many backyard astronomers. But when observing space from Earth, there is simply too much scattered sunshine and atmosphere, making it difficult to spot IEOs, added Hildebrand.

Flying in a polar orbit some 435 miles (700 kilometers) above the blurring effects of the atmosphere, the tiny spacecraft will be on duty around the clock, "so it should be able to spot asteroids that are even fainter than what some of the current ground-based surveys are capable of," he said.

Celestial Hide-and-Seek

Robert Jedicke, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii, who is not involved with the mission, calls Atira asteroids the champions in the hide-and-seek-game of NEO surveying. (Learn how the University of Hawaii is monitoring asteroids.)

Some NEOs hide in plain sight, said Jedicke. They move like asteroids much farther away from Earth, fooling observers into thinking the NEO is more distant than it actually is. And we can't spot some IEOs simply because they're hidden in the sun's glare, he added.

"Finding them will allow us to fine-tune the calculations of the risk of Earth impact and to test our theories that govern the evolution of asteroid orbits out of the main belt into the region near Earth."

While the technology for finding potentially dangerous asteroids has matured over the past couple of decades, most of the asteroids—larger than the Russian meteor—that can cause serious damage haven't been discovered yet, warned Jedicke.

"Just like the Chelyabinsk meteor, right now, the most likely warning time we have of an asteroid impact is zero," he said.

"While NEOSSat will make an important contribution to the goal of reducing the NEO impact risk, there will still be much left to be done."

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Armstrong Snubs Offer From Anti-Doping Officials

Lance Armstrong has turned down what may be his last chance at reducing his lifetime sporting ban.

Armstrong has already admitted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey to a career fueled by doping and deceit. But to get a break from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, all he had to do was tell his story to those who police sports doping. The deadline was today, and Armstrong now says he won't do it.

"For several reasons, Lance will not participate in USADA's efforts to selectively conduct American prosecutions that only demonize selected individuals while failing to address the 95 percent of the sport over which USADA has no jurisdiction," said Tim Herman, Armstrong's longtime lawyer. "Lance is willing to cooperate fully and has been very clear: He will be the first man through the door, and once inside will answer every question, at an international tribunal formed to comprehensively address pro cycling."

But the "international tribunal" Armstrong is anxious to cooperate with has one major problem: It doesn't exist.

The UCI, cycling's governing body, has talked about forming a "truth and reconciliation" commission, but the World Anti-Doping Agency has resisted, citing serious concerns about the UCI and its leadership.

READ MORE: Armstrong Admits to Doping

Livestrong, Elizabeth Kreutz/AP Photo

READ MORE: Lance Armstrong May Have Lied to Winfrey: Investigators

WATCH: Armstrong's Many Denials Caught on Tape

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency officials seemed stunned by Armstrong's decision simply to walk away.

"Over the last few weeks, he [Armstrong] has led us to believe that he wanted to come in and assist USADA, but was worried of potential criminal and civil liability if he did so," said Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. "Today, we learned from the media that Mr. Armstrong is choosing not to come in and be truthful and that he will not take the opportunity to work toward righting his wrongs in sport."

Armstrong's ongoing saga plays out amid a backdrop of serious legal problems.

Sources believe one reason Armstrong wants to testify to an international tribunal, rather than USADA, is because perjury charges don't apply if Armstrong lies to a foreign agency, they told ABC News.

While Armstrong has admitted doping, he has not given up any details, including the people and methods required to pull off one of the greatest scandals in all of sport.

Armstrong is facing several multimillion-dollar lawsuits right now, but his biggest problems may be on the horizon. As ABC News first reported, a high-level source said a criminal investigation is ongoing. And the Department of Justice also reportedly is considering joining a whistleblower lawsuit claiming the U.S. Postal Service was defrauded out of millions of dollars paid to sponsor Armstrong's cycling team.

READ MORE: 10 Scandalous Public Confessions

PHOTOS: Olympic Doping Scandals: Past and Present

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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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BP vows to "vigorously defend" itself at US oil spill trial

CHICAGO: British energy giant BP vowed Tuesday to "vigorously defend" itself in court next week against US government claims for "excessive" fines in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.

Prosecutors shot back with a warning that they will be fighting for the stiffest penalties possible at a blockbuster trial which opens Monday with tens of billions of dollars at stake.

"The United States is fully prepared for trial," Wyn Hornbuckle, a spokesman for the US Department of Justice, told AFP.

"We intend to prove that BP was grossly negligent and engaged in willful misconduct in causing the oil spill."

The mammoth trial in a New Orleans, Louisiana federal courthouse consolidates scores of remaining lawsuits stemming from the worst environmental disaster to strike the United States.

The first phase of the trial will focus on liability for the April 20, 2010 explosion that sank the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana.

The blast killed 11 people and unleashed millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf, blackening beaches in five states and crippling tourism and fishing industries.

It took 87 days to cap BP's runaway well in a tragedy that riveted the nation.

BP is fighting civil penalties which could amount to as much as $21 billion if gross negligence is found.

"Gross negligence is a very high bar that BP believes cannot be met in this case," Rupert Bondy, group general counsel at BP, said in a statement.

"This was a tragic accident, resulting from multiple causes and involving multiple parties."

In addition to fighting the federal government over environmental fines, BP is also seeking to shift some of the liability to its subcontractors, drilling rig operator Transocean and Halliburton, which was responsible for the well's faulty cement job.

BP pleaded guilty in November to criminal charges -- including felony manslaughter -- and agreed to pay a record $4.5 billion in criminal fines.

It reached a $7.8 billion settlement early last year that will cover the bulk of the outstanding private claims for economic loss, property damage and medical problems.

It has paid out $10 billion to businesses, individuals and local governments impacted by the spill and spent more than $14 billion on the response and cleanup.

BP also remains on the hook for billions in additional damages, including the cost of environmental rehabilitation.

But while it was willing to settle the civil charges on "reasonable terms" BP said it will not accept the US government's assertion of gross negligence, or its estimation of how much oil was spilled.

"Faced with demands that are excessive and not based on reality or the merits of the case, we are going to trial," Bondy said in the statement.

"We have confidence in our case and in the legal team representing the company and defending our interests."

In a preview of an argument that will not reach trial until the second phase begins later this year, BP said the official US government estimate that 4.9 million barrels of oil was unleashed from the runaway well was "overstated" by at least 20 percent.

"BP believes that a figure of 3.1 million barrels should be the uppermost limit of the number of barrels spilled that should be used in calculating a Clean Water Act penalty," it said.

Meanwhile, the judge overseeing the consolidated trial on Tuesday approved a $1 billion settlement for civil penalties against rig operator Transocean.

The decision came after a $400 million settlement of criminal penalties against the Swiss drilling giant was approved last week.

Transocean pleaded guilty to one criminal count of violating the Clean Water Act and agreed to pay the $400 million fine for negligence that led to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

The $1 billion civil penalty is for fines related to the oil spilled into the Gulf.

It is also responsible for implementing measures to improve operational safety and emergency response capabilities at all their drilling rigs working in waters of the United States.

-AFP/ac

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PlayStation 4 should go all-in on cloud-streaming games

Based on the steady stream of rumors about Sony's upcoming next-gen living room console, it's widely expected that gamers will be spending at least part of their time playing games streamed directly over the Internet.

According to the Wall Street Journal and others, Sony's acquisition of streaming game provider Gaikai in 2012 set the stage for streaming game content, and the new Sony console, whatever it's called, will offer both streamed games and games played via traditional optical disc, purportedly older catalog titles for the former, and newer games via the latter.

A move to streaming games is a far-thinking idea, and one that would reduce the need for large amounts of local storage for fully downloaded games, as well as the need to manufacture, transport, and store physical game discs -- with games joining music and movies as media types moving away from being distributed through retail stores on disc.

The idea of streaming game content is one we've been playing with for some time. The best-known player in this space is OnLive, a PC-based service that runs game software on a remote server farm and then streams the action, in real time, to players interacting via a controller or mouse/keyboard combo. Since that service launched in 2010, we've been reasonably impressed with it, although it works better for some games than others (for example, casual or third-person action games work better than first-person games, which are more sensitive to even the slightest lag).

The biggest pushback (besides the fact that OnLive has struggled to succeed) is that streaming games are far too reliant on your broadband Internet connection, which can be flaky, slow, or sometimes out altogether. This, coupled with the lag already built into live cloud game delivery, is enough to potentially turn off consumers.

Legitimate concerns, to be sure, and I have no illusion that today's A-list games could all be converted to cloud streaming right now and deliver the same high level of visual quality. But, the discussion about Sony and Gaikai reminds me of a conversation I had at the 2011 E3 video game trade show with John Carmack, a PC gaming legend and the lead programmer behind classics such as Doom and Quake. I asked him about streaming games in general, and OnLive specifically, and this is what he said:

I've played the OnLive stuff and a lot of people have just enough technical knowledge to count it out for the wrong reasons. When you talk about having a 50ms ping, that does not invalidate the process. One of the points that I make is that if you take a lot of the console games out there, and you're playing with your wireless controller, going through your post-process TV, the games themselves often have multiple frames of latency.

You get an event, you pipeline an animation, and it goes to the render thread and the GPU. A lot of games have over 100ms of latency in them right now. Now it's true that adding latency is always bad, and with OnLive, you're adding a compression step and two transmit steps.

But the laws of physics do not guarantee this to be a bad idea. I don't necessarily think any of the current players will live to see the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, but I'd say it's almost a foregone conclusion that five or ten years from now, that's going to be a significant marketplace.

From a raw technical standpoint, it has too many positives going for it. There are negatives, but a lot of times, people will accept a big negative for a much bigger win. And the win for convenience and managing your library is huge. And the win for publishers and developers -- zero piracy, instant patching, all that data gathering -- are strong advantages. I don't think it's the big thing next year, but I think it's coming.

Even if the next-gen PlayStation kicks off with only a nod to streaming games, the era of the physical disc is still winding down. The current
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and
Wii U all offer full game downloads (even if many of these consoles have limited onboard storage for full games), and a whole generation of media consumers already thinks of video and music as streaming products from Netflix, Spotify, and others, as opposed to something you get on a plastic disc.

The game publishers themselves would like nothing more than to kill disc-based gaming. Think of the fixed hard costs associated with manufacturing an optical disc, putting it in a box, loading it in a gas-guzzling truck, driving it to a store, placing it on a shelf, and waiting for a consumer to march in and buy it (to say nothing of the resale of used games, something game publishers hate). Many of these costs can be reduced in the future by digital distribution, both download and streaming -- not that gamers can expect to see any of the savings passed along to them.

Whatever new hardware is being announced by Sony later this week will surely include an optical drive, as will the inevitable Microsoft Xbox upgrade expected later this year. But if we take a look at the current state of laptops, there's something similar going on. Many popular models, from the
MacBook Air to almost every ultrabook, omit the once-ubiquitous DVD drive. Taken to its logical conclusion, this may be the last generation of living-room consoles that include support for physical game discs.

Sony's PlayStation event will be held in New York on February 20, starting at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET. You can tune in to the live blog here:

CNET's live coverage of Sony's event on Wednesday

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New Study Analyzes Heavy Metal Dancing

Parents may never understand their rock 'n' roll loving children, but scientists might. A study published online in arXiv this week seeks to explain the "mosh pit"—using physics.

To most scientists, heavy metal refers to elements on the lower end of the periodic table. But to Jesse Silverberg and Matt Bierbaum, doctoral students at Cornell University's department of Condensed Matter Physics, the aggressive music—and the violent dancing that accompanies it—could be a key to understanding extreme situations such as riots and panicked responses to disasters.

For the past two years, Silverberg and Bierbaum have studied "moshing," at heavy metal concerts, using theories of collective motion and the physical properties of gasses to better understand the chaos of metal fans' dancing.

Moshing, for those who have never attended a heavy metal show, is a form of dancing in which participants bump, jostle, and slam into one another. It's a form of social ritual that anthropologists have likened to spirit possession in its uncontrolled, dynamic, and often violent nature.

Silverberg and Bierbaum say it can also be understood by applying models of gaseous particles. As these particles float in groups, they too run, bash, and slam into each other, sending the elements flying in chaotic patterns.

"We are interested in how humans behave in similar excited states," said Silverberg, "but it's not exactly ethical to start a riot for research."

Extreme Physics

Mosh pits provided the scientists with a way to observe excited collective movement without causing undue injury or death. Analyzing hours of recorded footage from concerts and making multiple field trips to music clubs, Silverberg and Bierbaum recognized the particulate physical patterns in the mosh pit.

Further, they differentiated two distinct forms of heavy metal dancing: the "mosh pit" itself, which follows the gaseous pattern, and the "circle pit" (where dancers run, smash, and dance in a circular rotation) within it, which adheres to a vortex pattern of particulate behavior.

Based on these observations, they created an interactive computer model depicting the behavior.

Animal Instincts

"Herd animals behave in very similar spirit—what physicists call 'flocking' behavior," said Bierbaum. (See "The Genius of Swarms," from the July 2007 issue of National Geographic magazine.)

As with groups of flying birds or schooling fish, simple rules can be applied to individuals in large groups—like moshers—to understand what seems to be very complex behavior. This makes modeling possible, allowing computers to re-create immense numbers of actions in a matter of seconds. These models can then be used to design spaces that would minimize trampling or injury, or to tailor responses to disasters like fires.

"The lessons we've learned in mosh pits [could be used] to build better stadiums, or movie theaters," Silverberg said.

James Sethna, one of the researchers' advising professors, hastened to add that his students' forays into heavy metal science "didn't start out for reasons of creating safer stadiums. We did it because it was cool and we wanted to know if we could explain human behavior—albeit slightly intoxicated behavior—without having to use complex [models]."

A longtime heavy metal fan himself, Silverberg shared which band produced the best results: "Killswitch Engage ... always gets the crowd nuts. Although of course everyone has their own favorites."

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