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Aug 4, 2015

A high-performance single-molecule diode

Posted by in categories: computing, nanotechnology

Researchers from Berkeley Lab and Columbia University have created the world’s highest-performance single-molecule diode, using a combination of gold electrodes (yellow) and a “TDO” molecule (purple, with molecular structure on the left) in propylene carbonate, an ionic solution (light blue). The circuit symbols on the right represent a battery and an ammeter (A) to measure current flow. (credit: Brian Capozzi et al./Nature Nanotechnology)

A team of researchers from Berkeley Lab and Columbia University has created “the world’s highest-performance single-molecule diode,” using a combination of gold electrodes and an ionic solution.

The diode’s rectification ratio (ratio of forward to reverse current at fixed voltage) is in excess of 200, “a record for single-molecule devices,” says Jeff Neaton, Director of the Molecular Foundry, a senior faculty scientist with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and the Department of Physics at the University of California Berkeley and a member of the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute at Berkeley (Kavli ENSI).

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Aug 4, 2015

If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel — A tediously accurate scale model of the solar system | www.joshworth.com

Posted by in category: space

moon-clip-art-moon-clip-art-5

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Aug 4, 2015

Millennium Project releases ’2015–16 State of the Future’ report

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, economics, energy, health, nanotechnology, robotics/AI

The Millennium Project released today its annual “2015–16 State of the Future” report, listing global trends on 28 indicators of progress and regress, new insights into 15 Global Challenges, and impacts of artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, nanotechnology and other advanced technologies on employment over the next 35 years.

“Another 2.3 billion people are expected to be added to the planet in just 35 years,” the report notes. “By 2050, new systems for food, water, energy, education, health, economics, and global governance will be needed to prevent massive and complex human and environmental disasters.”

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Aug 4, 2015

The Lexus Hoverboard Is Real And We Rode It

Posted by in category: transportation

Amazing! Back to the Future 2 eat your heart out….


The Lexus SLIDE hoverboard isn’t just hype. It really works, and we sent racer and Jalopnik contributor Robb Holland to ride it. And crash. Drive free or die!

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Aug 4, 2015

Obama signs executive order authorizing development of exascale supercomputers

Posted by in category: supercomputing

Titan, former world’s fastest supercomputer (credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

President Obama has signed an executive order authorizing the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI), with the goal of creating the world’s fastest supercomputers. The NSCI is charged with building the world’s first-ever exascale (1,000-petaflops) computer — 30 times faster than today’s fastest supercomputer.

The order mandates:

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Aug 4, 2015

Intracellular microlasers for precise labeling of a trillion individual cells

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Massachusetts General Hospital investigators have induced subcutaneous fat cells in a piece of skin from a pig to emit laser light in response to energy delivered through an optical fiber (credit: Matjaž Humar and Seok Hyun Yun/Nature Photonics)

Imagine being able to label a trillion cells in the body to detect what’s going on in each individual cell.

That’s the eventual goal of a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) study to allow individual cells to produce laser light. The wavelengths of light emitted by these intracellular microlasers differ based on factors such as the size, shape, and composition of each microlaser, allowing precise labeling of individual cells.

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Aug 4, 2015

Scientists reveal secret to longer lives

Posted by in categories: health, life extension

Once again telomeres are shown to be key players in aging.


The secret to living long, healthy lives and ageing beyond 100 has finally been cracked, according to a new study.

Scientists at Newcastle University say they have identified the key to longevity and good health amongst centenarians and how they pass that gift onto their offspring.

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Aug 4, 2015

Supercomputer simulates one second of human brain activity in 40 minutes

Posted by in categories: neuroscience, supercomputing

The K supercomputer in Japan. The human brain is arguably the most complex structure in the Universe. To unlock its secrets, scientists all over the world are mapping and simulating parts of the human brain. The latest breakthrough comes from Japan where scientists using the K supercomputer, the fourth most powerful in world, accurately mapped one second’s worth of brain activity. It took the computer 40 minutes to undertake this task, for one percent of the brain activity!

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Aug 4, 2015

Stop Worrying About Whether Machines Are “Intelligent”

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, singularity

We’re thinking about AI all wrong.

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Aug 4, 2015

From the Earth to the Moon: 1865/1968

Posted by in categories: alien life, astronomy, space, space travel

How does science fiction become science fact? Often the link between art and science can be hard to pin down. It can be unclear if science fiction is actually influencing science or merely observing it, giving the public sneak peaks into the implications of scientist’s work.

But some work of science fiction create direct links to the future. As a young man in Russia, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky read a translation of Jules Verne’s ‘From the Earth to the Moon.” And although Verne’s plan to get to the moon wouldn’t have worked, the novel had just enough science mixed in with its romance to make the central idea seem plausible. Tsiolkovsky became obsessed with the idea of spaceflight, and his life’s work created the foundations of modern rocketry.

One hundred years after Verne wrote his novel, a group of individuals who had been inspired by Verne’s fantasy as children launched a voyage to the moon.