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Jan 17, 2016

New Quantum Record: Ball of Atoms Ends up in Two Spots at Once

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics

Researchers have demonstrated the effects of superposition on the scale of everyday objects.

Of the weird implications of quantum mechanics, superposition may be the hardest for humans to wrap their minds around. In principle, superposition means that the same object can exist in more than one place at the same time.

Ordinarily, superposition is only relevant on the microscopic scale of subatomic particles. Effects on this scale are the key to some possibly groundbreaking technologies, like quantum computing. No one has ever demonstrated quantum effects on the scale of Schrödinger’s cat –the mythical unobserved cat in a box that is both alive and dead at the same time.

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Jan 17, 2016

AI Goes Mainstream

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience, robotics/AI, transportation

It’s leading to a different way of thinking about computing.

This year’s Detroit auto show is proving that autonomous driving is no longer a techie’s pipe dream. Even holdout Akio Toyoda has finally joined the parade. The self-driving car is coming.

But behind that development is an even more profound change: artificial intelligence (also known as “deep learning”) has gone mainstream. The autonomous driving craze is just the most visible manifestation of the fact that computers now have the capacity to look, learn and react to complex situations as well or better than humans. It’s leading to a profoundly different way of thinking about computing. Instead of writing millions of lines of code to anticipate every situation, these new applications ingest vast amounts of data, recognize patterns, and “learn” from them, much as the human brain does.

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Jan 16, 2016

90 Second Tour Around The Tesla Factory

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Tesla Motors Around the factory in 90 seconds.

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90 Second Tour Around The Tesla Factory.

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Jan 16, 2016

Belgian Astronomers Pay Tribute to David Bowie With New Constellation

Posted by in category: space

Belgian astronomers have paid tribute to David Bowie with a constellation of seven stars that form the ‘Aladdin Sane’ lightning bolt.

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Jan 16, 2016

Your bones could soon heal a whole lot better thanks to polymer nanoshells

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, transhumanism

Might we one day have bionic body parts able to ward off disease and injury and even heal themselves? Today it’s still the stuff of sci-fi movies, but there are regular breakthroughs in the field of medical science that suggest that such a future might one day be possible – one example is a new nanoshell treatment from a team working at the University of Michigan in the US and reported in Gizmag.

Instead of using foreign cells or molecules to patch up and regrow damaged bone tissue, the new technique uses polymer nanoshells – microscopic capsules inside the body – to deliver microRNA molecules right to the site of an injury. Once the shells begin to break down, the microRNA molecules are released and instruct the surrounding cells to ‘switch on’ their natural bone-building and healing mechanisms. It’s a bit like a site manager arriving on the scene of a broken-down development and telling his construction workers to get busy with the rebuilding process.

There are a couple of key advantages to this new technique. One, the shell is designed to degrade slowly, leading to a gradual release of the microRNA molecules and thus ongoing restorative treatment that can last for a month or more. Second, the process uses the body’s own cells rather than introducing foreign healing agents – an approach that can sometimes cause cell rejection or even tumours associated with the injury.

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Jan 16, 2016

Why Digital Overload Is Now Central to the Human Condition

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, mobile phones, nanotechnology, neuroscience, robotics/AI, singularity

Imagine: What happens when you’re in 2027 on the job competing with other AI; and there is so much information exposed to you that you’re unable to scan & capture all of it onto your various devices and personal robot. And, the non-intrusive nanobot for brain enhancement is still years away. Do you finally take a few hundred dollars & get the latest chip implant requiring a tricky surgery for your brain or wait for the nanobot? These are questions that folks will have to assess for themselves; and this could actually streamline/ condition society into a singularity culture. https://lnkd.in/bTVAjhb


A mom pushes a stroller down the sidewalk while Skyping. A family of four sits at the dinner table plugged into their cell phones with the TV blaring in the background. You get through two pages in a book before picking up your laptop and scrolling through a bottomless stream of new content.

Information technology has created a hyper-connected, over-stimulated, distracted and alienated world. We’ve been living long enough with internet-connected computers and other mobile devices to have begun to take it for granted.

Continue reading “Why Digital Overload Is Now Central to the Human Condition” »

Jan 16, 2016

European Space Agency unveils ‘lunar village’ plans as stepping stone to Mars

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, materials, robotics/AI, space travel

Moon “village”, a successor to International Space Station, would be series of structures made by robots and 3D printers that use moon dust as building material.

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Jan 16, 2016

‘Bubble pen’ can precisely write patterns with nanoparticles as small as 1 nanometer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, electronics, solar power, sustainability

Allows for more easily building tiny machines, biomedical sensors, optical computers, solar panels, and other devices — no complex clean room required; portable version planned.


Illustration of the bubble-pen pattern-writing process using an optically controlled microbubble on a plasmonic substrate. The small blue spheres are colloidal nanoparticles. (credit: Linhan Lin et al./Nano Letters)

Continue reading “‘Bubble pen’ can precisely write patterns with nanoparticles as small as 1 nanometer” »

Jan 16, 2016

Model Airbus A310

Posted by in category: transportation

Credit: ViralHog
LIKE S. Saint Airbus A310 Short Flight.

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Jan 16, 2016

IHMC’s ATLAS Robot Learning to Do Some Chores

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Meet the robot butler that you will never, ever be able to afford.

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