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Dec 13, 2020

Thanks to Microsoft, We Can Watch Superman for Thousands of Years

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI

Microsoft’s new write-once storage medium is constructed from quartz glass, stores data using lasers, and uses machine learning algorithms for decoding.

Dec 13, 2020

How A Colorado Startup Could Change The Game For Electric Cars

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

“What our technology does is it improves range and lowers vehicle cost,” Campbell said. “It’s as simple as that.”

As the name of his company suggests, Campbell thinks the key is a more-solid electric car battery. The lithium-ion batteries powering almost all of today’s electric vehicles rely on a liquid electrolyte, which ferries charged ions from a cathode to an anode. While the technology makes it practical to charge and recharge, the liquid can catch fire if overloaded.

For decades, scientists have seen a potential answer in solid electrolytes, which could allow a battery to soak up more energy without overheating.

Dec 13, 2020

The only total solar eclipse of 2020 occurs Monday. Here’s what to expect

Posted by in category: futurism

Like the previous total solar eclipse in 2019, the Dec. 14, 2020 event will happen over the Southern Cone of South America.

Dec 13, 2020

Dr. Ren Xiaoping — Pushing Surgical Boundaries — Head Transplantation (Cephalosomatic Anastomosis)

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

When one mentions the topic of “head transplantation” (or a related topic – the “brain transplant”), for most people, it remains a topic purely in the context and sphere of science fiction.

Yet most people are unaware of the following history:

Continue reading “Dr. Ren Xiaoping — Pushing Surgical Boundaries — Head Transplantation (Cephalosomatic Anastomosis)” »

Dec 13, 2020

Artificial Intelligence Discovers Surprising Patterns in Earth’s Biological Mass Extinctions

Posted by in categories: biological, existential risks, robotics/AI

The idea that mass extinctions allow many new types of species to evolve is a central concept in evolution, but a new study using artificial intelligence to examine the fossil record finds this is rarely true, and there must be another explanation.

Charles Darwin’s landmark opus, On the Origin of the Species, ends with a beautiful summary of his theory of evolution, “There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

In fact, scientists now know that most species that have ever existed are extinct. This extinction of species has on the whole been roughly balanced by the origination of new ones over Earth’s history, with a few major temporary imbalances scientists call mass extinction events. Scientists have long believed that mass extinctions create productive periods of species evolution, or “radiations,” a model called “creative destruction.” A new study led by scientists affiliated with the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Tokyo Institute of Technology used machine learning to examine the co-occurrence of fossil species and found that radiations and extinctions are rarely connected, and thus mass extinctions likely rarely cause radiations of a comparable scale.

Dec 13, 2020

What does space do to the human body? 29 studies investigate the effects of exploration

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, space travel

A collection of 29 papers, 19 of which were published Nov. 25, has advanced our knowledge of how spaceflight affects the human body farther than ever before.

Dec 13, 2020

Scientist figures out how to move our sun to avoid space collisions

Posted by in category: space travel

Looks like in the future, the whole solar system could be our spaceship! 😃 Pretty cool idea in my book.


An astrophysicist proposes new designs for stellar engines that can move a solar system.

Dec 13, 2020

Danish researchers developed nanochip that could achieve ‘quantum supremacy’

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Specialists from the University of Copenhagen created a chip that could be used to build a future quantum simulator.

Dec 13, 2020

How Can We Fall Asleep More Easily? Neuralink 2021 And Beyond [Part 2]

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pju4qUYaugU&feature=youtu.be

Hey it’s Han from WrySci HX with Part 2 of a four part series on sleep and brain computer interfaces such as Neuralink. We’ll look at what we know about sleep and how BCIs might be able to help us in the future, 2021 and beyond. This isn’t a topic I’ve seen much about so I decided to see what was up. This second part is on sleep regulation (aka how we fall asleep, and hopefully how we can fall asleep more easily in the future) and sleeping with only certain parts of the brain, while the next ones will cover sleep and dream theories. More below ↓↓↓

Watch Part 1 here! https://youtu.be/EmtlanXdGf4

Continue reading “How Can We Fall Asleep More Easily? Neuralink 2021 And Beyond [Part 2]” »

Dec 13, 2020

New Material Can Store Energy From The Sun For Months or Even Years

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

If we’re going to get better at powering the planet with renewable energy, we need to get better at finding ways of efficiently storing that energy until it’s needed – and scientists have identified a particular material that could give us exactly that.

The material is known as a metal-organic framework (MOF), in which carbon-based molecules form structures by linking metal ions. Crucially, MOFs are porous, so they can form composite materials with other small molecules.

That’s what the team did here, adding molecules of the light-absorbing compound azobenzene. The finished composite material was able to store energy from ultraviolet light for at least four months at room temperature before releasing it again – a big improvement over the days or weeks that most light-responsive materials can manage.