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Aug 18, 2015

Record-Breaking Laser Hits 2,000 Trillion Watts

Posted by in categories: energy, solar power, sustainability

The most powerful laser beam ever created has been recently fired at Osaka University in Japan, where the Laser for Fast Ignition Experiments (LFEX) has been boosted to produce a beam with a peak power of 2,000 trillion watts – two petawatts – for an incredibly short duration, approximately a trillionth of a second or one picosecond.

Values this large are difficult to grasp, but we can think of it as a billion times more powerful than a typical stadium floodlight or as the overall power of all of the sun’s solar energy that falls on London. Imagine focusing all that solar power onto a surface as wide as a human hair for the duration of a trillionth of a second: that’s essentially the LFEX laser.

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Aug 18, 2015

Cryptographers Develop Encryption Method Resistant to Future Quantum Attacks

Posted by in categories: computing, encryption, internet, quantum physics

Cryptographers are working on new encryption methods able to protect today’s Internet communications from future quantum computers that can be able to break today’s cryptography techniques. The researchers have developed upgrades to the Internet’s core encryption protocol that will prevent quantum computer users from intercepting Internet communications.

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Aug 18, 2015

Technology has created more jobs than it has destroyed, says 140 years of data

Posted by in categories: employment, robotics/AI

Study of census results in England and Wales since 1871 finds rise of machines has been a job creator rather than making working humans obsolete.

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Aug 18, 2015

Astronauts Capture Rare Photograph of a Red Sprite

Posted by in categories: climatology, space

Astronauts captured a red sprite from their vantage point on the International Space Station. The vibrant jellyfish is part of a thunderstorm that raged over Mexico in early August.

Red sprites are bright flashes that happen directly above thunderstorms with more mundane cloud-to-ground or intracloud lightning strikes. The sprites are brightest at an altitude of 65 to 75 kilometers (40 to 46 miles), but can extend as faint wisps as low as 30 kilometers and as high as 95 kilometers (18 to 59 miles). The sprites are red at the highest altitude, fading to blue at lower altitudes. The largest sprites cluster together in a clump of tendrils up to 50 kilometers (31 miles) across, looking vaguely like red glowing jellyfish.

Astronauts Capture Rare Photograph of a Red Sprite.

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Aug 18, 2015

Using drones to explore space

Posted by in categories: alien life, asteroid/comet impacts, automation, defense, drones, economics, engineering, futurism, innovation, space

Long time ago I was wondering why not to use drones ( (named for that concrete application Extreme Access Flyers) to explore the space, to reach new planets, asteroids … it would be exciting … rovers are limited in action, so what if we make it airborne? Once in space, why not to send a drone or a swarm of them from the main spaceship to explore a new planet? They could interact, share capabilities, morph, etc.

While the economy looks more or less promising for civil and military, there is still a long path to walk …

“Teal Group’s 2015 market study estimates that UAV production will soar from current worldwide UAV production of $4 billion annually to $14 billion, totaling $93 billion in the next ten years. Military UAV research spending would add another $30 billion over the decade.”

Read more at http://www.suasnews.com/2015/08/37903/teal-group-predicts-wo…-forecast/

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Aug 18, 2015

FDA approved the first 3D-printed prescription drug

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, disruptive technology, drones, hacking

How 3D printing is changing the way we manufacture and produce is already a fact, step by step, in different areas, from aerospace to the medical areas.

How will this impact the established processes, the economy, the patient …

Is this the dawn of personalized medicine? patients will be able to print their own pills at home? Will 3D printing represent an enhancement to distribution processes?

Continue reading “FDA approved the first 3D-printed prescription drug” »

Aug 18, 2015

Is Solar Power Right for You? Have Google’s “Project Sunroof” Help You Decide

Posted by in categories: energy, solar power, sustainability

Project Sunroof maps out how much sun and shade hit homes on any given day. Head here to See how much shine your home gets and if solar power is good for you.

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Aug 18, 2015

This video of Google’s humanoid Atlas robot running through a forest is a game changer

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Videos of creepy robots trying their best to walk like humans (with absolutely no help from their abusive owners) are nothing new, but this new footage of the Atlas humanoid walking robot, developed by Google-owned company Boston Dynamics, is a game changer.

Usually these videos are shot in a lab, or on a treadmill — an artificial environment where the terrain that the robot is walking on can be controlled and maintained.

However, the latest video from the Boston Dynamics team, which gets funding from the US Defence budget, shows the Atlas robot running through a real forest.

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Aug 18, 2015

Blockchain for IoT? Yes!

Posted by in categories: automation, big data, complex systems, computing, disruptive technology, engineering, hardware, science, supercomputing

Quoted: “Sometimes decentralization makes sense.

Filament is a startup that is taking two of the most overhyped ideas in the tech community—the block chain and the Internet of things—and applying them to the most boring problems the world has ever seen. Gathering data from farms, mines, oil platforms and other remote or highly secure places.

The combination could prove to be a powerful one because monitoring remote assets like oil wells or mining equipment is expensive whether you are using people driving around to manually check gear or trying to use sensitive electronic equipment and a pricey a satellite internet connection.

Instead Filament has built a rugged sensor package that it calls a Tap, and technology network that is the real secret sauce of the operation that allows its sensors to conduct business even when they aren’t actually connected to the internet. The company has attracted an array of investors who have put $5 million into the company, a graduate of the Techstars program. Bullpen Capital led the round with Verizon Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Samsung Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Haystack, Working Lab Capital, Techstars and others participating.

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Aug 18, 2015

Graphene Just The Tip Of The 2D Materials Iceberg For Clean Technology

Posted by in category: materials

Graphene is not the only game in town.


Two new developments show that the race is on to replace silicon as the go-to semiconductor of choice with other 2D materials if not graphene.

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