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Dec 2, 2015

This Gadget Translates Sign Language On The Fly

Posted by in category: futurism

Another big break in the communication barrier: Researchers created a wearable device that translates sign language on the fly. http://voc.tv/1P6L9zh

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Dec 2, 2015

Samsung gives you a new way to browse the web — virtual reality

Posted by in categories: internet, mobile phones, virtual reality

Samsung Mobile is building a virtual reality browser.


Maybe it’s my game industry roots talking, but when I think of virtual reality, the last thing I imagine is checking updates on Facebook or poking through a Reddit thread.

Yet come tomorrow, December 2, Samsung is going to provide proof of this concept with a virtual reality web browser called the Samsung Internet for Gear VR. Users of the Samsung S6 family of mobile phones and the Samsung Note 4 or 5 — coupled with the Samsung Gear VR unit — will be able to shake their head in disgust watching Black Friday fight videos and scan for offensive tweets on Twitter from the glorious world of virtual reality. The app will support HTML5 based videos, as well as 3D streaming and 360-degree content.

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Dec 2, 2015

MIT, Broad scientists overcome key CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing hurdle

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Researchers at MIT have engineered changes to the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system that significantly reduce “off-target” editing errors. In addition, a new enzyme, eSpCas9, will be useful for DNA editing requiring a high level of specificity.

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Dec 2, 2015

For Israeli firm, an answer to global warming blowing in the wind

Posted by in category: sustainability

For an Israeli start-up, one answer to global warming is blowing in the wind. The company called NewCO2Fuels, or NCF, has been developing its own version of a technology that allows heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions to be captured and recycled back into useable fuel.

It sounds complicated—and it is—but the company’s founders say it holds real potential in the fight against .

Such capture technologies have gained increased attention as countries seek alternative methods of cutting back on , the main culprit in global warming.

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Dec 2, 2015

The New Utopians

Posted by in category: futurism

Kim Stanley Robinson and the novelists who want to build a better future through science fiction.

By

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Dec 2, 2015

The Chinese scientist behind the world’s biggest cloning factory believes he can replicate humans

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

But cattle are only the beginning of chief executive Xu Xiaochun’s ambitions.

In the factory pipeline are also thoroughbred racehorses, as well as pet and police dogs, specialised in searching and sniffing.

Boyalife is already working with its South Korean partner Sooam and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to improve primate cloning capacity to create better test animals for disease research.

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Dec 2, 2015

China Plans Enormous Particle Collider

Posted by in category: particle physics

The country is plotting a separate path to the Large Hadron Collider’s successor.

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Dec 2, 2015

Hawking radiation is not produced at the black hole horizon

Posted by in category: cosmology

Stephen Hawking’s “Brief History of Time” was one of the first popular science books I read, and I hated it. I hated it because I didn’t understand it. My frustration with this book is a big part of the reason I’m a physicist today – at least I know who to blame.

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Dec 1, 2015

Light-Bending Microchip Could Fire Up Quantum Computers

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

For the first time, scientists have achieved infinite speeds on a microchip. Although this advance will not enable faster-than-light starships, the light-warping technology behind this innovation could lead to new light-based microchips and help enable powerful quantum computers, researchers said.

Light travels at the speed of about 670 million miles per hour (1.08 billion km/h) in a vacuum, and is theoretically the fastest possible speed at which matter or energy can travel. Exceeding this speed limit should lead to impossible results such as time travel, according to Einstein’s theory of relativity.

However, in a way, researchers have overcome this barrier for decades. [Warped Physics: 10 Effects of Faster-Than-Light Travel].

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Dec 1, 2015

SpaceX Will Attempt Next Rocket Landing At Cape Canaveral Instead Of In The Ocean

Posted by in category: space travel

Next time a SpaceX rocket touches down, it will be on solid ground.

Florida Today broke the news today that SpaceX was hoping to land its next Falcon 9 rocket on the ground at NASA’s Cape Canaveral facility in Florida.

SpaceX has attempted to land a rocket gently before, but those attempts were made on giant floating platforms in the ocean (which just missed). Then, last week, competitor Blue Origin managed to land it’s own reusable rocket safely on the ground, amping up the public pressure on SpaceX to successfully land their own rocket.

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