Feed aggregator

Microsoft has released Robotics Developer Studio 2008, a software program that enables users to create applications for robots. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news146295165.html)

NASA has successfully tested the first deep space communications network modeled on the Internet, using software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, developed with Google vice president Vint Cerf. Unlike TCP/IP on Earth, the DTN uses a store-and-forward method to deal with long delays between hops. In the next few years, the Interplanetary Internet could enable many new types of space missions. Complex missions involving multiple landed, mobile and orbiting spacecraft will be far easier to support through the use of the Interplanetary Internet. It also could ensure reliable communications for astronauts on the surface of the moon. Source: NASA news release (Source: )

University of Michigan researchers have coated conventional cotton thread with highly conductive, biosensing carbon nanotubes. The threads can be woven into fabrics that are lightweight and wearable but act as simple, sensitive sensors that can, among other functions, detect human blood. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/21689/?a=f)

The book Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong offers six strategies that could reduce the danger from our own computers and robots: Keep them in low-risk situations, do not give them weapons, give them rules like Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics," program robots with principles, educate robots like children, and make machines master emotion. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16068-six-ways-to-build-robots-that-do-humans-no-harm.html)

A new approach to calibrating quantum mechanical measurement has allowed scientists to calibrate a detector that can sense the presence of multiple individual photons. This means that devices that rely on information being transmitted via light, such as the fiber-optic technologies used in everyday communications, could detect the safe arrival of that light energy with an unprecedented level of accuracy, leading to ultra-secure communications technologies in the future via long-distance quantum communication networks. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news146150726.html)

A real-world analysis of a controversial prediction made 30 years ago in the book Limits to Growth concludes that economic growth cannot be sustained and we are on track for serious economic collapse this century. Graham Turner at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia has compared the book's predictions with data from the intervening years. Changes in industrial production, resource depletion, population growth, food production, and pollution are all in line with the book's predictions of collapse in the 21st century, he found. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16058-prophesy-of-economic-collapse-coming-true.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news)

Rats with breathing problems caused by damage to their nerves have had normal breathing restored by bursts of visible light aimed onto the spinal cord. This achievement raises hopes that a miniature light source implanted near the spine might one day allow people with similar injuries to breathe normally. A similar device might be used to relieve constriction of the bladder caused by nerve damage. (Source: New Scientist Health)

Recently discovered tunneling nanotubes may be responsible for the spread of HIV and prion infectivity from cell to cell, scientists have found. At 50 to 200 nanometers thick, they are wide enough to allow proteins to pass through, and can span distances of several cell diameters, wiggling around obstacles to connect the insides of two cells some distance apart. Nanotubes may also play a role in tumors becoming resistant to chemotherapy, so a drug that inhibits the growth of nanotubes could reduce the resistance to chemotherapy. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026821.400-tunnelling-nanotubes-lifes-secret-network.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news)

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have found a simple way to make large pieces (tens of micrometers wide) of the carbon material graphene that can be deposited on sheets on silicon wafers to make prototype field-effect transistors. Electrons flow through graphene sheets tens of times faster than they flow in silicon, so graphene could lead to electronic devices that are smaller, faster, and less power-hungry than those made of silicon. Thin and transparent, graphene is also a promising replacement for the indium tin oxide electrodes and the silicon thin-film transistors used in flat-panel displays. (Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/21683/?a=f)

The multiverse may well be the only viable non­religious explanation for what is often called the "fine-tuning problem" (or the anthropic principle)-- the baffling observation that the laws of the universe seem custom-tailored to favor the emergence of life. Stanford physicist Leonard Susskind thinks the various versions of string theory may describe different universes that are all real. He believes the anthropic principle, the multiverse, and string theory are converging to produce a coherent, if exceedingly strange, new view in which our universe is just one of a multitude--one that happened to be born with the right kind of physics for our kind of life. (Source: http://discovermagazine.com/2008/dec/10-sciences-alternative-to-an-intelligent-creator)

The I-Ball, a portable, wireless, projectile camera from Scotland-based Dreampact using real-time video with a 360-degree view, gives troops a better view of what lies ahead of them. Artist's impression (Ministry of Defence) (Source: http://www.itpro.co.uk/608331/i-ball-technology-to-give-troops-eye-on-the-ground)

IBM's Roadrunner, a 1.105 petaflop/s supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, retained the top spot as the world's fastest supercomputer in the 32nd edition of the list of the world's TOP500 supercomputers, released Friday. A close second place went to the Cray XT5 supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, called Jaguar. The system, only the second to break the petaflop/s barrier, posted a top performance of 1.059 petaflop/s in running the Linpack benchmark application. The No. 3 system, Pleiades, is a new SGI Altix ICE system installed at NASA Ames, with 487 teraflop/s. One petaflop/s represents one quadrillion floating point operations per second. Nine of the top 10 supercomputers are located in the United States. The most powerful system outside the U.S. is the Chinese-built Dawning 5000A at the Shanghai Supercomputer Center, with 180 teraflops/s. (Source: )

Lawrence Livermore National Labs scientists have created the largest number yet of anti-matter positrons (anti-electrons), using a short-pulse laser to accelerate electrons through a gold target. "By creating this much anti-matter, we can study in more detail whether anti-matter really is just like matter, and perhaps gain more clues as to why the universe we see has more matter than anti-matter," said Peter Beiersdorfer, a lead Livermore physicist. Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory news release (Source: )

Researchers at at the Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology (IEMN) in France and Sharp Corporation have pushed the state of the art in methanol fuel cells with micro-sized direct methanol fuel cells (microDMFC), achieving significantly improved fuel efficiency at room temperature. In microDMFC, methanol and air circulate in microscopic microchannels etched in silicon wafers (Steve Arscott) The energy density (measured in watt-hours per liter) of the new fuel cells is 385 Wh/L, compared to lithium ions batteries' 270 Wh/L. While previous fuel cells have achieved higher power density, they haven't operated at room temperature, which is essential for a commercial product. According to IEMN's Dr. Steve Arscott, the biggest challenges facing micro fuel cells are: (i) high-performance room-temperature operation, (ii) miniaturization for on-chip use, (iii) compatibility with existing system fabrication (CMOS, for example), (iv) avoidance of complicated pumps for fuel and air which use energy themselves, (v) use of an efficient silicon-based proton exchange membrane and diffusion layers (novel porous layers for example), (vi) full integration with a microchannel architecture, and (vii) fuel storage. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news146139643.html)

The Oxford-based James Martin Institute has announced an opening for a post as a Research Fellow in Future Studies for someone with an interest in scenario-based futures studies and scenario planning practices for public-interest futures and environmental scenarios. (Source: )

Invest a half-trillion dollars in R&D in AI and other areas, instead of a bailout, AI panel members at Convergence08 advised president-elect Obama. (Source: http://www.memebox.com/futureblogger/show/1289)

The Convey supercomputer, to be introduced this week, promises to be simpler to program, using Intel-based field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that can be reconfigured with different hardware "personalities" to compute problems for different industries, initially aiming at bioinformatics, computer-aided design, financial services and oil and gas exploration. Larry Smarr, director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology at the University of California, San Diego, believes that the most important quality of the Convey computer is that it will be a green supercomputer. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/technology/business-computing/17machine.html)

Stanford University AI researchers have developed software that allows anyone to insert a video or still photo on almost any planar surface in an existing video. A "3D Surface Tracker Technology" algorithm first analyzes the video, with special attention paid to the section of the scene where the new image will be placed. The color, texture and lighting of the new image are subtly altered to blend in with the surroundings. Shadows seen in the original video will be seen in the added image as well. The result is a photo or video that appears to be an integral part of the original scene, rather than a sticker pasted artificially on the video. Source: Stanford news release (Source: )

University of Upssala researchers have developed a method for detecting and manipulating quantum invisibility, using cloaking of specific terahertz frequencies. (Source: http://arxivblog.com/?p=712)

Organs that are invisible to our immune system, so they won't be rejected when they are transplanted, could be ready within 10 years, thanks to a faster way of genetically engineering pigs developed by Hammersmith Hospital in London and California Institute of Technology researchers. (Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026823.400-invisible-transplant-organs-now-in-sight.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news)