A pair of MIT researchers has proposed a radical method for making our presence known in the universe.
In a new feasibility study, the team says it could be possible to use laser technology as a beacon to attract the attention of alien astronomers, much like a planetary-scale porch light.
Using a laser focused through a huge telescope, the researchers say this ‘porch light’ could be seen from as far as 20,000 light-years away.
No matter how abundant or renewable, solar power has a thorn in its side. There is still no cheap and efficient long-term storage for the energy that it generates.
The solar industry has been snagged on this branch for a while, but in the past year alone, a series of four papers has ushered in an intriguing new solution.
Scientists in Sweden have developed a specialised fluid, called a solar thermal fuel, that can store energy from the sun for well over a decade.
It’s an unfortunate fact that a large percentage of people have some sort of trouble with their vision. Even if you don’t at the moment, every human eventually has enough trouble focusing both near and far that they’ll need glasses for one or the other as they age. Our pupils become more limited also, with young eyes able to expand and close from about 2mm to 8mm, while in seniors they hardly change size at all. Exposure to the wrong kinds of light can also lead to eye issues later in life.
Fortunately, there are a variety of high-tech solutions either available or planned that can help us delay, or workaround, or even prevent some of these problems. For many of us, the only time we think about getting new glasses or a different kind of contact lenses is when our prescription changes. But that old pair of glasses you’re wearing doesn’t include the latest high-tech advances, which might turn out to be important to you. Similarly, there is increasing competition in contact lenses as well. We’ll cover some of the most important advances below.
There is no question that UV radiation can be bad for you. However, it is only recently that scientists have realized that we hadn’t been going far enough with UV protection. Historically “UV380” was considered adequate for sunglasses. That certified that UV light below 380 nm was filtered out. But, while the light radiation from 380 nm to 400 nm may not contain as much energy, it is also the only UV light that makes it all the way to the retina. As a result, it can be a contributing factor in macular degeneration. Unfortunately, the time to start blocking UV is when you’re young, long before you typically think about or experience macular degeneration. But in any case, better late than never.
Highlights from Ray Kurzweil’s keynote talk at the 2018 Google Maps Street View summit. In this interview, Ray draws compelling connections between augmented intelligence and augmented reality. In light of recent ground-level imaging trends, his perspective paints an exciting picture of the future for Street View and AR.
The International Society on Aging and Disease (ISOAD) recently held its third international conference in Nice, France, bringing together researchers – and longevity activists – from around the world. Journalist and supporter of anti-aging research Oliver Rowland attended the event and has made this great report packed with information gathered from interviews and talks at the event.
Professor Eric Gilson
After working in Lyon, Prof. Gilson founded the Ircan Institute for Research on Cancer and Aging in Nice in 2012. “It was perhaps the first institute that specifically aimed to couple the themes of aging and cancer in the same laboratory, even if the links between them had been known to some extent,” he said. “That was its originality.”
In this video, we’ll be discussing the gap between computing performance and memory and how this ‘memory wall’ is to be demolished.
[0:25–7:00] Starting off we’ll look at, current different types of memory (SRAM, DRAM, NAND,…) and what their use cases and tradeoffs are. As well as, new types of memory that will break current paradigms, such as Optane memory and how all these types of memory can work together to yield performance boosts.
[7:00–9:40] Following that we’ll discuss, improving data transfer mediums and protocols and their effect on decreasing the memory gap.
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