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Jun 4, 2015

Are new stem cell therapies miracles in a bottle–or just a dangerous form of snake oil? — Tyler Graham Popular Science

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

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On a snowy evening in Brooklyn, New York, sweat is streaming from my pores, rolling down my face, back, and palms. I don’t know what the temperature is here inside the MRI machine, but “summer in the Sahara” seems about right. I keep thinking about how I should have shed my winter-weight pants and button-down shirt.

The lab technician chimes in over a microphone. He reminds me not to move or I’ll need to start the MRI over. Considering I’ve been here for 45 minutes, that doesn’t sound appealing. My eyes sting, and sweat has pooled in weird places. I imagine this is what Chinese water torture feels like. Add to that, I have a gadolinium contrast agent coursing through my body. The substance is supposed to highlight areas of inflammation, but it can also make you feel like you’re itching from within. Read more

Jun 4, 2015

A New York State of Megabits — Susan Crawford | Backchannel

Posted by in categories: architecture, big data, business, economics, education, energy, information science, internet, moore's law

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So it was great to get back to New York and be able to report on what is called the“New NY Broadband Program.” It involves a $500 million expenditure to help ensure that New Yorkers across the state have access to current-generation Internet capacity. There’s lots of potential in the plan, targeted at providing every New Yorker with access to 100 megabit per second (Mbps) service (10 Mbps uploads) by the end of 2018. Because New York expects a 1:1 match from the private sector for each grant or loan it makes, that means the state hopes to be deploying at least $1 billion on high-speed Internet access infrastructure.

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Jun 4, 2015

CuriosityStream Live

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

DARPA ROBOTICS CHALLENGE 2015 THE ROBOTS ARE COMING

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Jun 4, 2015

Google Wants You to Control Your Gadgets with Finger Gestures, Conductive Clothing — Tom Simonite MIT Technology Review

Posted by in categories: computing, hardware, innovation, materials

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Small gadgets such as smart watches can be frustrating to use because their tiny buttons and touch screens are tricky to operate. Google has two possible solutions for the fat finger problem: control your gadgets by subtly rubbing your finger and thumb together, or by swiping a grid of conductive yarn woven into your clothing.

The first of those two ideas works thanks to a tiny radar sensor that could be integrated into, say, a smart watch and can detect fine motions of your hands from a distance and even through clothing. Levi Strauss announced today that it is working with Google to integrate fabric touch panels into its clothing designs. The new projects were announced at Google’s annual developer conference in San Francisco Friday by Ivan Poupyrev, a technical program lead in Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects research group.

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Jun 3, 2015

Quantum Entanglement: EPR Paradox

Posted by in categories: encryption, general relativity, physics, quantum physics, science

When I was a freshman at Cornell University some decades ago, I had a memorable teaching assistant for CS100, the entry level computer programming course taken by nearly every student in Engineering or Arts & Sciences. Gilles Brassard, a French Canadian, is now a chaired math professor at Université de Montréal and a preeminent cryptographer. He has also been inducted into the Royal Order of Canada. I am told that this is a bit like being knighted. In fact, this highest of civilian honors was established by Queen Elizabeth.

The author with Gilles Brassard in 2014

The author with Gilles Brassard in 2014

Gilles was a graduate student at Cornell in the mid ’70s. Back then, public key encryption was a radical concept. Named for three MIT professors who described it, RSA is now it is at the heart of every secure Internet transaction. Yet, the new generation of cryptographers refers to RSA as “classical cryptography”. The radicals have moved on to Quantum Cryptography. Gilles and his collaborator, Charles Bennett, are the pioneers and leaders in this burgeoning field. No one else is even pretender to the throne.

In its simplest terms, quantum cryptography achieves a secure communication channel because it relies on a stream of individual particles or “quanta” to convey information. If information is sent without any fat at all—just the minimum physics that can support the entropy—then any eavesdropping or rerouting of a message can be detected by the recipient. Voila! Perfect authentication, fidelity and security. Communication is secure because any attack can be detected.

Continue reading “Quantum Entanglement: EPR Paradox” »

Jun 3, 2015

How the Tech Behind Bitcoin Could Stop the Next Snowden — Klint Finley Wired

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, encryption, government, hacking, information science, privacy, security

The National Security Agency knows Edward Snowden disclosed many of its innermost secrets when he revealed how aggressive its surveillance tactics are. What it doesn’t know is just how much information the whistleblower took with him when he left.

For all of its ability to track our telecommunications, the NSA seemingly has little clue exactly what documents, or even how many documents, Snowden gave to the media. Like most large organizations, the NSA had tools in place to track who accessed what data and when. But Snowden, a system administrator, apparently was able to cover his tracks by deleting or modifying the log files that tracked that access. Read more

Jun 3, 2015

Physicist Proposes New Way To Think About Intelligence | Inside Science

Posted by in category: neuroscience

A radical concept could revise theories addressing cognitive behavior.

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Jun 3, 2015

Future Crises: Is there opportunity beside the danger?

Posted by in category: futurism

Jose Cordeiro is a hopeless optimist. But is he right to say that in the Chinese word for crisis there’s opportunity beside the danger? I think he is. What do you think?!

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Jun 3, 2015

How To Store Your Data For A Million Years — By Ciara Byrne Fast Company

Posted by in categories: information science, media & arts

“We are interested in now, most of us,” says Robert Grass, a researcher in chemistry at ETH Zurich. “We buy our furniture in Ikea. We don’t care if in 10 years it falls apart. With information it is similar. We don’t think into the future.”

But Grass isn’t like most of us. His team, which is exploring how to use DNA as a data storage mechanism, is one of several academic and commercial entities grappling with the challenge of protecting data against the elements over time spans stretching out to millions of years. Read more

Jun 3, 2015

Elon Musk Rebuffs Critics with Fundamentals

Posted by in categories: business, economics, environmental, government, innovation, policy, science, solar power, space, transportation

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“If he was paid by the oil and gas industry lobby he couldn’t have written a more favorable article for them.”—Elon Musk

Video & Article on Criticism about Incentives