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Jun 24, 2018

IT’S OFFICIAL: General Relativity Was Just Tested on Galactic Scales, Proving Einstein Right Again

Posted by in category: space

Einstein’s theory was validated on a galactic scale.


The curvature of empty space caused by an entire galaxy has now been pinned down with unprecedented precision, demonstrating Einstein’s theory of general relativity still rules on a super-sized scale.

Not that anybody is seriously surprised. But on the off chance the results had failed to meet expectations, they might have provided insight into some of the Universe’s biggest mysteries. It can be so boring being right in science.

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Jun 24, 2018

A Plea for AI That Serves Humanity Instead of Replacing It

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

A new group formed by MIT’s Media Lab and IEEE thinks artificial intelligence should complement human endeavors, not just serve the corporate bottom line.

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Jun 24, 2018

Why Do Our Brains Have Folds?

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Why do our brains — and the brains of other animals — have so many folds?

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Jun 24, 2018

Futuristic ‘sensory deprivation tanks’ make you feel like you’re floating in space

Posted by in categories: futurism, space

Floating in a sensory deprivation tanks allows you to feel completely weightless.

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Jun 24, 2018

This virtual reality headset runs at human-eye resolution

Posted by in categories: entertainment, virtual reality

Varjo’s VR headset lets you see virtual objects in much greater detail, and could be used for training, design or entertainment.

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Jun 24, 2018

Is your brain an analog or digital device? New research surprises

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Compare an analog and a digital audio recording medium. VHS video tape — an analog medium — stores a continuous curve of modulated audio/visual information. In a digital CD continuous audio is sliced into 44,100 frames a second, and represented by discrete numbers.

On playback the sounds are presented as continuous, much as the individual still frames of a motion picture appear continuous when played back fast enough. Most people can’t hear the difference between digital and analog recordings, me included, but those who say they do may spend thousands on turntables and tube amps to get the full analog experience.

From measurements, we know that neuron currents are continuous, not step functions. The important question is how is the information represented by these signals? Most psychological research assumes continuous or analog representation, but in the lengthy paper Is Information in the Brain Represented in Continuous or Discrete Form? James Tee and Desmond Taylor of the University of Canterbury make a strong theoretical and experimental case for digital data.

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Jun 24, 2018

This AI can see you through walls

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

X-ray vision has long seemed like a far-fetched sci-fi fantasy, but over the last decade a team led by Professor Dina Katabi from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has continually gotten us closer to seeing through walls.

Their latest project, “RF-Pose,” uses artificial intelligence (AI) to teach wireless devices to sense people’s postures and movement, even from the other side of a wall.

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Jun 24, 2018

Tiny washing machine

Posted by in category: futurism

This is the world’s smallest washing machine.

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Jun 24, 2018

This boat runs on solar power

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

This solar-powered boat turns seawater into fresh water.

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Jun 24, 2018

Chip upgrade helps miniature drones navigate

Posted by in categories: computing, drones

Researchers at MIT, who last year designed a tiny computer chip tailored to help honeybee-sized drones navigate, have now shrunk their chip design even further, in both size and power consumption.

The team, co-led by Vivienne Sze, associate professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and Sertac Karaman, the Class of 1948 Career Development Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, built a fully customized from the ground up, with a focus on reducing and size while also increasing processing speed.

The new computer chip, named “Navion,” which they are presenting this week at the Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, is just 20 square millimeters—about the size of a LEGO minifigure’s footprint—and consumes just 24 milliwatts of , or about one-thousandth the energy required to power a lightbulb.

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