Menu

Blog

Page 11839

Sep 24, 2015

‘4-D’ printing technology allows self-folding of complex ‘transformer’ objects, using smart shape-memory materials

Posted by in categories: 4D printing, materials

This image shows the self-folding process of smart shape-memory materials with slightly different responses to heat. Using materials that fold at slightly different rates ensures that the components do not interfere with one another during the process. (credit: Qi Laboratory)

Using components made from smart shape-memory materials (which can return to their original shape) with slightly different responses to heat, researchers have demonstrated a “four-dimensional” printing technology that allows for creating complex, self-folding structures.

Read more

Sep 24, 2015

U.S. military has a heat ray

Posted by in category: military

The U.S. military is developing a real-life heat ray. CNN’s Thom Patterson explains this non-lethal “active denial system.”

Read more

Sep 24, 2015

Nobel Prize Predictions See Honors for Gene Editing Technology

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

By Julie Steenhuysen.

(Reuters) — Scientists behind the discovery of a technology called CRISPR-Cas9 that allows researchers to edit virtually any gene they target are among the top contenders for Nobel prizes next month, according to an annual analysis by Thomson Reuters.

The predictions announced on Thursday come from the Intellectual Property & Science unit of Thomson Reuters (which also owns the Reuters news service). Since 2002, it has accurately identified 37 scientists who went on to become Nobel laureates, although not necessarily in the year in which they were named.

Read more

Sep 24, 2015

Don’t Worry, Artificial Intelligence Has A Long Way To Go: Baidu Scientist

Posted by in categories: computing, employment, robotics/AI

Don’t get overly excited about computers and artificial intelligence replacing humans , at least not yet says Andrew Ng, chief scientist at the Chinese search giant Biadu. Computers are still in the “supervised learning” stage where human input is required to connect dots.

artificial intelligence AI Jobs

Read more

Sep 24, 2015

He couldn’t more robots?

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Click on photo to start video.

Daha olamamış robotlar smile

Read more

Sep 24, 2015

Banks Embrace Bitcoin’s Heart but Not Its Soul — By Tim Simonite | MIT Technology Review

Posted by in category: bitcoin

bitcoinx299_2


“Major financial institutions like some technical features of Bitcoin but are building their own versions that leave out the digital cash and built-in economics.”

Read more

Sep 24, 2015

A colorful and dazzling view of Pluto

Posted by in categories: astronomy, science, space

[From Engadget]…

While NASA has already shown us Pluto’s best images yet, the administration is anything but done blowing our minds. What you see above is an enhanced high-resolution color view of Pluto, created with a combination of blue, red and infrared images. NASA says this photo, taken by New Horizons spacecraft, highlights Pluto’s diverse landforms and shows us its complex geological and climatological story — as much as scientists have been able to figure out, anyway. Over the past few months, NASA’s shared many things related to Pluto, including a closer look at its desolate surface and icy mountain range.

Sep 24, 2015

Brain-computer link enables paralyzed California man to walk

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, engineering, information science, neuroscience, robotics/AI

By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — A brain-to-computer technology that can translate thoughts into leg movements has enabled a man paralyzed from the waist down by a spinal cord injury to become the first such patient to walk without the use of robotics, doctors in Southern California reported on Wednesday. The slow, halting first steps of the 28-year-old paraplegic were documented in a preliminary study published in the British-based Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, along with a YouTube video. The feat was accomplished using a system allowing the brain to bypass the injured spinal cord and instead send messages through a computer algorithm to electrodes placed around the patient’s knees to trigger controlled leg muscle movements.

Read more

Sep 24, 2015

Double Black Holes May Warp Spacetime — But Quietly

Posted by in category: cosmology

Two black holes, circling one another on their way to merging together, can create ripples in spacetime, but the waves are weaker than previously thought.

Read more

Sep 24, 2015

Mars‘ Mysterious Dark Streaks Spur Exploration Debate

Posted by in category: space

The dark, fingerlike features that creep down steep Martian slopes in warm weather continue to puzzle scientists.

These “recurring slope lineae” (RSL), which have been spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) at low and middle latitudes on the Red Planet, fade during cooler months but come back again annually at nearly the same locations over multiple Martian years.

Scientists continue to debate the true nature of the RSL phenomenon; no guess as to what they are and why they occur yet satisfies all observations. And just how RSL sites should be explored generates spirited debate, as evidenced by the discussions that emerged during the second Mars 2020 Landing Site Workshop, which was held last month in Monrovia, California. [Photos: The Search for Water on Mars].

Read more