Dreamy times Animation by Fractually.
“claims to compress any input data by at least one bit”
“Now, suppose I compress 10 different files in this way — each of them compresses to a single ‘1’ or ‘0’ (a single bit).”
Why stop at a single bit? If it can compress any input by at least one bit, then it can compress an input of one bit into 0 bits. Infinite compression!
The cold fusion dream lives on: NASA is developing cheap, clean, low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) technology that could eventually see cars, planes, and homes powered by small, safe nuclear reactors.
When we think of nuclear power, there are usually just two options: fission and fusion. Fission, which creates huge amounts of heat by splitting larger atoms into smaller atoms, is what currently powers every nuclear reactor on Earth. Fusion is the opposite, creating vast amounts of energy by fusing atoms of hydrogen together, but we’re still many years away from large-scale, commercial fusion reactors. (See: 500MW from half a gram of hydrogen: The hunt for fusion power heats up.)
LENR is absolutely nothing like either fission or fusion. Where fission and fusion are underpinned by strong nuclear force, LENR harnesses power from weak nuclear force — but capturing this energy is difficult. So far, NASA’s best effort involves a nickel lattice and hydrogen ions. The hydrogen ions are sucked into the nickel lattice, and then the lattice is oscillated at a very high frequency (between 5 and 30 terahertz). This oscillation excites the nickel’s electrons, which are forced into the hydrogen ions (protons), forming slow-moving neutrons. The nickel immediately absorbs these neutrons, making it unstable. To regain its stability, the nickel strips a neutron of its electron so that it becomes a proton — a reaction that turns the nickel into copper and creates a lot of energy in the process.
The cold plasma reactors are more often used in the last decades for diverse activities such as: the pollutant treatment from air or from solutions, plasti.
For the first time, scientists have clearly linked together two types of gamma-ray phenomena in thunderclouds, suggesting that weak bursts of gamma-ray activity might precede lightning flashes in certain conditions.
The two phenomena in question are weak emissions called gamma-ray glows, which last about a minute, and much shorter and more intense terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs).
Both are known to happen inside thunderclouds, depending on the various positive and negative electrical charges around them, brought on by accelerating electrons. But scientists have never fully understood how the two gamma ray phenomena work together or their link to lightning.
Britain could soon be sending tourists into orbit after the UK Space Agency began drafting regulations to allow human launches from spaceports in Cornwall and the Scottish Highlands.
The government is already committed to putting satellites into space from British soil and recently signed a deal with Virgin Orbit to start building the facilities to allow horizontal launches.
Now the UK Space Agency has confirmed it is drawing up regulations to allow sub-orbital human spaceflight, with Virgin Galactic the most likely candidate to take tourists beyond Earth’s atmosphere where they can experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the planet.
Posted in energy
Tech Armor is a tech power in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3’s single-player and multiplayer modes.
The power generates an energy armor suit that boosts the user’s shields.
Neuromorphic computing has had little practical success in building machines that can tackle standard tests such as logistic regression or image recognition. But work by prominent researchers is combining the best of machine learning with simulated networks of spiking neurons, bringing new hope for neuromorphic breakthroughs.
Posted in robotics/AI
Posted in robotics/AI, space
The geth (“Servant of the People” in Khelish) are a race of networked artificial intelligences that reside beyond the Perseus Veil. The geth were created by the quarians as laborers and tools of war. When the geth became sentient and began to question their masters, the quarians attempted to exterminate them. The geth won the resulting war, and reduced the quarians to a race of nomads.
The history of the geth’s creation and evolution serves as a warning to the rest of the galaxy of the potential dangers of artificial intelligence and to the legally enforced, systematic repression of artificial intelligences throughout galactic society.