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Jun 24, 2020

Tecton brings DevOps to machine learning

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

A startup recently emerging from stealth is aiming to automate much of the process for feature development with the goal of making data scientists more self-reliant.

Jun 24, 2020

Microsoft’s redesigned Windows 10 Start menu is a big improvement

Posted by in category: futurism

Windows 10 has been around for five years now, and although Microsoft has introduced a number of big changes over the years, the Start menu doesn’t look hugely different from how it was when the OS debuted back in 2015.

That’s all about to change though. Microsoft is planning to overhaul the menu, and it’s released a number of new images to give us a clearer idea of how it will look.

Jun 24, 2020

Scientists Want to Build Nuclear Reactors to Power Moon Colony

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, space

Staging Area

The engineers say four reactors could give enough energy for a six-person crew to live on Mars, and they’re hoping to use the Moon as a testing ground.

“On the moon, you’re close to home,” NASA engineer Michelle Rucker told C&EN, “so if something fails, it’s a fairly close trip to get back home, whereas on Mars, your system better be working.”

Jun 24, 2020

Sondors’ powerful new Bafang Ultra mid-drive e-bikes w/ 1kWh battery start at $1,999

Posted by in category: transportation

Sondors has just revealed three new high-powered electric bicycles known as the Sondors Rockstar, Cruiser and LX. The new models are part of the company’s not-yet-released Elite line. They feature stunning new frame designs, huge 1kWh batteries though the low introductory prices might actually be the biggest shocker of all.

Jun 24, 2020

New On-Chip Laser Shines in Many Colors

Posted by in category: computing

A weakness of lasers integrated onto microchips is how they can each generate only one color of light at a time. Now researchers have come up with a simple integrated way to help these lasers fire multiple colors, a new study finds.

When it comes to data and telecommunications applications, integrated lasers would ideally generate multiple frequencies of light to boost how much information they could transmit. One way to achieve this end is an “optical frequency comb,” which converts a pulse of light from a single laser into a series of pulses equally spaced in time and made up of different, equally spaced frequencies of light.

Generating combs long required equipment that was expensive, bulky, complex, and delicate. However, in the past decade or so, researchers began developing miniature and integrated comb systems. These microcombs passed light from a laser through a waveguide to a microresonator—a ring in which circulating light could become a soliton, a kind of wave that preserves its shape as it travels. When solitons left these microresonators, they each did so as very stable, regular streams of pulses—in other words, as frequency combs.

Jun 24, 2020

House’s $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill packed with pro-solar, pro-storage provisions

Posted by in category: futurism

In addition to making the stand-alone energy storage investment tax credit (ITC) eligible and extending a 30% solar ITC through 2025, the House bill creates a direct pay mechanism that can be used in lieu of the ITC.

Jun 24, 2020

Electrify America’s first cross-country EV charging route is complete

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Taking a cross-country roadtrip in your electric vehicle is a little more feasible thanks to Electrify America. Its first coast to coast EV fast charging route is now complete, and the company plans to have another route finished by September. The routes provide high-powered chargers to all EV brands, and on average, the stations are spaced about 70 miles apart, so EV owners can travel beyond a single charge without being stranded.

The first route stretches over 2,700 miles from Washington DC to Los Angeles. It follows Interstates 15 and 70 and passes through 11 states. The second route will connect Jacksonville and San Diego.

Jun 24, 2020

Reverse-Engineering of Human Brain Likely by 2030, Expert Predicts

Posted by in categories: Ray Kurzweil, robotics/AI, singularity

Circa 2010


Updated at 18:30 EST to correct timeline of prediction to 2030 from 2020 Reverse-engineering the human brain so we can simulate it using computers may be just two decades away, says Ray Kurzweil, artificial intelligence expert and author of the best-selling book The Singularity is Near. It would be the first step toward creating machines \[…\].

Jun 24, 2020

The Lancehead F1 Torsion Limb Crossbow Aims to Revolutionize Archery

Posted by in category: futurism

In the archery world, few technologies have evolved as rapidly as crossbows. Manufacturers continue to make them lighter, faster and more reliable with each new release. There has also been a reduction in the profile of these bows with the trend moving towards more compact reverse limb bows in recent years.

Now there’s a company making a crossbow with an entirely new limb system that makes for a slimmer package than ever before.

Continue reading “The Lancehead F1 Torsion Limb Crossbow Aims to Revolutionize Archery” »

Jun 24, 2020

Massive genomic database helps decode mutations’ effects

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

A trove of DNA sequences from 141,456 people — and counting — offers researchers an unparalleled look at genetic variation across the general population1,2. The resource has been helping researchers to identify variants that contribute to autism since it was released online about four years ago3,4.

The genomes of autistic people harbor hundreds of potentially harmful mutations. But to firmly connect a specific variant to the condition, researchers need to see if it is common among typical people — a sign that that variant may actually be benign.

In 2014, researchers debuted one of the first tools to probe the prevalence of a mutation in the general population. Known as the Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC), it contained 60,000 sequences of exomes — the protein-coding regions of the genome5.