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Jul 23, 2015

Funding Policies Distort Science

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, innovation

A good summary of the crisis in research and the broken paradigm the medical world is currently stuck in from Josh Mitteldorf’s excellent blog.


Capital shuns risk. — The essence of science is exploration of the unknown. Science and Capitalism is not exactly a match made in heaven. Government and foundation funding has always been behind the curve of innovation, but the recent contraction in US science funding has engendered an unprecedented intensity of competition. This has translated into a disastrous attitude of risk aversion. A “hard-headed” business model prevails at the funding agencies, and they are now funding only those projects that they deem “most likely to succeed.”

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Jul 23, 2015

Scientists have finally discovered massless particles, and they could revolutionise electronics

Posted by in categories: electronics, particle physics

After 85 years of searching, researchers have confirmed the existence of a massless particle called the Weyl fermion for the first time ever. With the unique ability to behave as both matter and anti-matter inside a crystal, this strange particle can create electrons that have no mass.

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Jul 23, 2015

Nasa announcement live: Earth 2.0 planet Kepler 452b discovered

Posted by in category: space

Nasa has announced the discovery of Kepler 452B by their Kepler space telescope — a planet very similar to Earth in the Milky Way. Here are the latest updates:

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Jul 23, 2015

Astronomers discover most Earth-like planet yet

Posted by in category: space

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) — A planet believed to be remarkably similar to Earth has been discovered orbiting a distant sun-like star, bolstering hopes of finding life elsewhere in the universe, U.S. scientists said on Thursday. The planet, which is about 60 percent bigger than Earth, is located 1,400 light years away in the constellation Cygnus. It was discovered by astronomers using NASA’s Kepler space telescope and circles a star that is similar in size and temperature to the sun, but older.

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Jul 23, 2015

4 Key Problems With Measuring EV Pollution vs. Gas Cars — Eric Jaffe | CityLab

Posted by in category: environmental

“People basically have to buy a new gas car to get a cleaner gas car. If you own an EV for a decade, on the other hand, it has the potential to get cleaner every year as the electricity grid gets cleaner—in a sense, updating itself in real-time. ‘Only electric cars get cleaner as you drive them.’” Read more

Jul 22, 2015

NASA’s making a big exoplanet announcement this week, watch it live!

Posted by in category: space

NASA has had a pretty big month already, but apparently the US space agency’s not done yet. The Ames Research Centre team has revealed that they’ll be making a big announcement on Thursday at 4pm UTC (9am PDT on Thursday, or 2am AEST on Friday) about the exoplanet-hunting Kepler mission. And speculation is already running wild that they may be about to announce the discovery of a new Earth-like planet in the habitable zone of a star… in other words, a potential new home for humanity (or prime spot to look for extraterrestrial life).

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Jul 22, 2015

10 Technologies That Could Make Humans Immortal

Posted by in categories: life extension, robotics/AI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=192&v=cIJ2GRWCCyE

Will humans ever live forever? With these technological advancements maybe one day. From Robot Avatars to Scientists Manipulating Molecules Alltime10s proudly presents 10 Technologies That Could Make Humans Immortal.

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Jul 22, 2015

The 8 most innovative scientists in tech and engineering

Posted by in categories: engineering, innovation

Based on our list of the 50 groundbreaking scientists who are changing the way we see the world.

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Jul 22, 2015

Deep neural network program recognizes sketches more accurately than a human

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The Sketch-a-Net program successfully identified a seagull, pigeon, flying bird and standing bird better than humans. (Credit: QMUL, Mathias Eitz, James Hays and Marc Alexa)

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Jul 22, 2015

Stephen Hawking aliens theory may be right | Newsday

Posted by in category: alien life

Looking for aliens is really, really cool. But more cool would be finding them. And this obviously leads to the question, what if we catch E.T. watching “Guardians of the Galaxy” in a dark corner of our galaxy? What if we’re not alone? The philosophical consequences are worth intense contemplation.

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