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May 9, 2016
DOE opens funding opportunity for biofuels, bioproducts, biopower
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: climatology, economics, food, security, sustainability
Recognizing the importance of biofuels to energy and climate security, the U.S. Department of Energy has announced up to $90 million in project funding focused on designing, constructing and operating integrated biorefinery facilities. The production of biofuels from sustainable, non-food, domestic biomass resources is an important strategy to meet the Administration’s goals to reduce carbon emissions and our dependence on imported oil.
Project Development for Pilot and Demonstration Scale Manufacturing of Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biopower is a funding opportunity meant to assist in the construction of bioenergy infrastructure to integrate cutting-edge pretreatment, process, and convergence technologies. Biorefineries are modeled after petroleum refineries, but use domestic biomass sources instead of crude oil, or other fossil fuels to produce biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower. They convert biomass feedstocks—the plant and algal materials used to derive fuels like ethanol, butanol, biodiesel and other hydrocarbon fuels—to another form of fuel or energy product. This funding will support efforts to improve and demonstrate processes that break down complex biomass feedstocks and convert them to gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, as well as plastics and chemicals.
“The domestic bio-industry could play an important part in the growing clean energy economy and in reducing American dependence on imported oil,” said Lynn Orr, DOE’s under secretary for science and energy. “This funding opportunity will support companies that are working to advance current technologies and help them overcome existing challenges in bioenergy so the industry can meet its full potential.”
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May 9, 2016
Tom Brokaw reveals his cancer battle has made him appreciate life
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: biotech/medical
Lifeboat is all about how advances in science & technology can be use to improve humanity and ensure folks are informed. I also see this story as an opportunity for others to learn to improve humanity through sharing & hearing from a man who has been successful, met amazing people, and seen amazing things & places; and now shares his most important lesson of life.
Tom Brokaw spoke about his battle with incurable blood cancer in an emotional interview on Today Monday morning and how it has made him appreciate life more and brought him closer to some new friends.
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May 9, 2016
AI2 CEO calls for ‘full disclosure’ in artificial intelligence after students learn their TA is really a bot
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: robotics/AI
One of many lessons around AI?
A class of students at the Georgia Institute of Technology recently learned that Jill Watson, the teacher’s assistant they’d been interacting with all semester, was actually a robot.
Jill, powered by IBM’s Watson analytics system, helped graduate students in an online artificial intelligence course, according to The Wall Street Journal.
May 9, 2016
WATCH LIVE: The Transit of Mercury Across the Sun
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: space
Did you see it today?
Happening now. Mercury is making a rare transit across the face of the sun. You can watch it all live right here.” lang=” en-us.
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May 9, 2016
DARPA wants god-mode attribution platform to pin and predict crime
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: futurism
May 9, 2016
DARPA-backed researchers create dissolvable electrodes for brain monitoring
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, neuroscience
Next time you go for a brain scan; you could actually see dissolvable electrodes.
Hmmm
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania in a study funded by the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are developing implantable electrodes for brain monitoring that melt away at a predetermined rate. The devices could come in handy for monitoring and treating certain neurophysiological disorders such as Parkinson’s, depression and chronic pain.
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May 9, 2016
Imagine Discovering That Your Teaching Assistant Really Is a Robot
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: climatology, computing, robotics/AI
I wonder if this would qualify as a turing test.
Lalith Polepeddi, a (human) teaching assistant and researcher on the Jill Watson project at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Photo:
Lalith Polepeddi.
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May 9, 2016
Artificial Intelligence Evolution: Future AI Technologies To Make AI Obsolete And Intertwine Physical, Digital Realities?
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: evolution, robotics/AI, singularity
The troubling piece of this article is that the article leaves out how the underlying technology will need to change in order for AI to truly intertwine with humans. AI in the existing infrastructure and digital technology with no support of BMI, microbots, etc. will not evolve us to Singularity by itself and without changes to the existing digital landscape.
As artificial intelligence continuously evolves, the future of AI is also becoming more significantly challenging to perceive and comprehend for humans.
