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Oct 23, 2015

Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI, transportation

Self-driving cars are already cruising the streets. But before they can become widespread, carmakers must solve an impossible ethical dilemma of algorithmic morality.

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Oct 23, 2015

‘Zeno effect’ verified: Atoms won’t move while you watch

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

One of the oddest predictions of quantum theory — that a system can’t change while you’re watching it — has been confirmed in an experiment by physicists.

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Oct 22, 2015

Top EU court rules Bitcoin exchange tax-free in Europe

Posted by in category: bitcoin

The EU’s top court ruled Thursday that the exchange of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies should be treated just like traditional money in Europe and not incur any sales tax.

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Oct 22, 2015

Haptics Technology: Soon, We Might Be Able To ‘Feel’ Cyberspace

Posted by in categories: computing, electronics, mobile phones, neuroscience, virtual reality

Haptics is a growing field that aims to allow our bodies to control and ultimately ‘feel’ our virtual identity. Instead of using the theorized mechanism of a neural computer link, haptic tech attaches sensors and stimuli to our body. A report by research firm Markets and Markets thinks haptic technology, which could soon include something like a glove that let’s you move a hand in cyberspace, will be worth 30 billion by 2020.

Haptic technology, also known as kinesthetic communication, sounds like something out of science fiction. But products, like the vibrating cell phone, have been out for decades. And there’s more advanced systems on the way. That’s partly because of another hyped field: virtual reality. With pioneering virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift poised for release next year, the question becomes: How to make this experience even more immersive.

Continue reading “Haptics Technology: Soon, We Might Be Able To ‘Feel’ Cyberspace” »

Oct 22, 2015

New graphene based inks for high-speed manufacturing of printed electronics

Posted by in categories: electronics, materials, particle physics

A low-cost, high-speed method for printing graphene inks using a conventional roll-to-roll printing process, like that used to print newspapers and crisp packets, could open up a wide range of practical applications, including inexpensive printed electronics, intelligent packaging and disposable sensors.

Developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge in collaboration with Cambridge-based technology company Novalia, the method allows graphene and other electrically conducting materials to be added to conventional water-based inks and printed using typical commercial equipment, the first time that graphene has been used for printing on a large-scale commercial printing press at high speed.

Graphene is a two-dimensional sheet of carbon atoms, just one atom thick. Its flexibility, optical transparency and electrical conductivity make it suitable for a wide range of applications, including printed electronics. Although numerous laboratory prototypes have been demonstrated around the world, widespread commercial use of graphene is yet to be realised.

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Oct 22, 2015

Moon Express will launch the first privately-backed mission to the Moon in 2017

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space

The primary objective of the mission is to find rare Earth elements that the team believes to be abundant on the moon.

California-based Moon Express is planning to make the first ever private moon landing by 2017. Their plan includes a series of robotic spacecraft intended to explore the moon’s surface and the possibility of commercial development. The company has teamed up with Rocket Lab to help launch their robotic spacecraft into the atmosphere. Rocket Lab uses battery-powered rocket engines that are cheaper than traditional engines.

If the plan succeeds, this is going to be the first ever privately-backed venture to achieve a lunar landing, and will hopefully encourage other enterprises to follow suit. From a financial perspective, the primary objective of this mission is to find rare Earth elements that the team believes are largely abundant on the Moon. If these elements are indeed found we can expect a new-age mini-lunar race to ensue.

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Oct 22, 2015

Arctic Explorers Uncover (and Eat) 60-Year-Old Food Stash — By Danny Lewis | Smithsonian.com

Posted by in categories: education, food, geography

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“While exploring the coldest parts of the planet, even the smallest snacks can be a lifesaver. In case of emergencies (or sometimes to for a future treat), polar explorers will leave caches of food and supplies along their return route. … Recently, a teams of researchers camped out in Greenland’s arctic desert discovered one such cache—ration tins left behind by an expedition about 60 years ago.”

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Oct 22, 2015

Scientists are days from finding out if that mysterious star could actually harbor aliens

Posted by in category: alien life

When SETI astronomer Doug Vakoch heard the news that there might be an alien civilization around the mysterious star KIC 8462852, he took immediate action.

For the last week, Vakoch and his colleagues at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute have been pointing the ground-based Allen Telescope Array in California at the enigmatic star with one goal in mind.

“We’re trying to rule out the hypothesis that maybe it’s intelligence out there,” Vakoch told Business Insider.

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Oct 22, 2015

Time Travel & The Multiverse – Many Worlds: Many Timelines

Posted by in categories: cosmology, time travel

Excerpt from This Book Is From the Future: A Journey Through Portals, Relativity, Wormholes and Other Adventures in Time Travel by Marie D. Jones & Larry Flaxman.

Time travel has enchanted and intrigued us since the earliest days of fiction, when authors such as H.G. Wells, Samuel Madden, Charles Dickens and Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau stretched and challenged our imaginations with images and tales of men and women who invented amazing machines and devices that could take them back in time, or forward into the future.

Because of the restrictions of light speed, and the paradoxes of going back to the past without damaging the future timeline, and a host of other obstacles and challenges, we, in fact, have remained stuck in the present.

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Oct 22, 2015

Simulation Shows Time Travel Is Possible

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

Australian scientists created a computer simulation in which quantum particles can move back in time. This might confirm the possibility of time travel on a quantum level, suggested in 1991. At the same time, the study revealed a number of effects which are considered impossible according to the standard quantum mechanics.

Using photons, physicists from the University of Queensland in Australia simulated time-traveling quantum particles. In particular, they studied the behavior of a single photon traveling back in time through a wormhole in space-time and interacting with itself. This time-traveling loop is called a closed timelike curve, i.e. a path followed by a particle which returns to its initial space-time point.

The physicists studied two possible scenarios for a time-traveling photon. In the first, the particle passes through a wormhole, moving back in time, and interacts with its older self. In the second scenario, the photon passes through normal space-time and interacts with another photon which is stuck in a closed timelike curve.

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