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Jul 21, 2015

Metal foams found to excel in shielding X-rays, gamma rays, neutron radiation

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, energy, space

Lightweight composite metal foams like this one have been found effective at blocking X-rays, gamma rays and neutron radiation, and are capable of absorbing the energy of high impact collisions — holding promise for use in nuclear safety, space exploration, and medical technology applications (credit: Afsaneh Rabiei, North Carolina State University)

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Jul 21, 2015

We are data: the future of machine intelligence — By Douglas Coupland | Financial Times

Posted by in categories: big data, computing, economics, privacy

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I sometimes wonder, How much data am I generating? Meaning: how much data do I generate just sitting there in a chair, doing nothing except exist as a cell within any number of global spreadsheets and also as a mineable nugget lodged within global memory storage systems — inside the Cloud, I suppose. (Yay Cloud!)

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Jul 21, 2015

World’s first pocket spectrometer lets you measure the molecular makeup of anything

Posted by in category: electronics

The SCiO is the world’s first spectrometer that fits in a pocket, and it can measure the molecular fingerprint of just about anything you see.

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Jul 21, 2015

Russian billionaire, Hawking announce $100 million search for ET

Posted by in category: alien life

Green Bank Telescope (credit: Geremia/Wikimedia Commons) Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking, Martin Rees, Frank Drake and others announced at The Royal Society today $100 million funding for Breakthrough Listen — the “most powerful, comprehensive, and intensive scientific search ever undertaken for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth.”

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Jul 21, 2015

This US presidential candidate doesn’t want to be president—he wants to live forever

Posted by in categories: geopolitics, life extension, transhumanism

An interview on transhumanism, Transhumanist Party, and longevity science in Quartz, which is the business site of Atlantic Media:.

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Jul 21, 2015

Wall Street analysts say virtual reality can’t go mainstream until these issues are fixed — Corey Stern | Business Insider

Posted by in category: virtual reality

“‘We are unsure if gamers and general consumers alike are willing to spend long periods of time alone, in a confined space, with a headset, and completely shut off from surrounding environment,’ [Oppenheimer analysts] wrote of the limiting characteristics. This brings us to the social issue: virtual reality has so far only been a single person experience.” Read more

Jul 21, 2015

Robot Soldiers — By Geoff Dyer | Financial Times

Posted by in categories: military, robotics/AI

There was no one standing beside Chimp with a joystick, manipulating the robot’s every movement. Instead, Chimp’s head and body are packed with cameras, sensors and processors that allow it to generate a 3D model of its environment, which it sends back to a control team. “If it is a task that is familiar, we can say ‘grab that drill or turn that valve’,” says Tony Stentz, a Carnegie Mellon university professor who runs Chimp. Or to put it more bluntly, the robot was making many of the decisions itself.

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Jul 21, 2015

Colonizing The Moon May Be 90 Percent Cheaper Than We Thought

Posted by in categories: space, space travel

And that in turn could help us get to Mars, says NASA-commissioned study.

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Jul 20, 2015

Nanoscale light-emitting device has big profile

Posted by in categories: energy, nanotechnology

University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have created a nanoscale device that can emit light as powerfully as an object 10,000 times its size. It’s an advance that could have huge implications for everything from photography to solar power.

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Jul 20, 2015

Stephen Hawking announces $100 million hunt for alien life — Rachel Feltman The Washington Post

Posted by in category: alien life

On Monday, famed physicist Stephen Hawking and Russian tycoon Yuri Milner held a news conference in London to announce their new project: injecting $100 million and a whole lot of brain power into the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life, an endeavor they’re calling Breakthrough Listen.

“We believe that life arose spontaneously on Earth,” Hawking said at Monday’s news conference, “So in an infinite universe, there must be other occurrences of life.” Read more