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Mar 29, 2018

Richard Taylor, Stanford physicist who won Nobel, dies

Posted by in category: particle physics

Shortly after learning he’d won the Nobel Prize in physics, Richard Taylor stared at his reflection in a mirror.

“Murray Gell-Mann is smart. Dick Garwin is smart,” he told himself, referring to two pioneering 20th century physicists. “You are lucky.”

The self-effacing Taylor, a Stanford University professor emeritus of physics who shared the Nobel in 1990 for his role in the discovery of quarks, died Feb. 22 at his home on the Stanford campus. He was 88.

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Mar 29, 2018

Flying a Tiny Drone to a Staggering 33,000 Feet Gives You the Ultimate Bird’s-Eye View

Posted by in categories: drones, robotics/AI

To ensure the safety of larger aircraft carrying pilots and passengers, unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, can’t be flown higher than 400 feet so they don’t enter national airspace. Regulations in Russia, however, aren’t as strict, enabling drone pilot Denis Koryakin to fly his homebuilt, 2.3-pound craft to a staggering height of almost 33,000 feet.

For comparison, a 747 has a maximum ceiling of just over 45,000 feet, but most airliners will cruise at around the same altitude this tiny drone managed to reach. As amazing as the view is from 33,000 feet, it’s certainly a dangerous stunt and will get you in heaps of trouble in the US if you get caught. But Koryakin’s flight took place near the city of Strejevoï, in Siberia, which is notoriously frigid and sparsely populated. Russia also doesn’t appear to have any regulations on how high a drone can be flown, but hopefully stunts like this don’t become too commonplace.

[YouTube via DPReview].

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Mar 29, 2018

FCC approves SpaceX plan for 4,425-satellite broadband network

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, internet, satellites

SpaceX has a green light from the FCC to launch a network of thousands of satellites blanketing the globe with broadband. And you won’t have too long to wait — on a cosmic scale, anyway. Part of the agreement is that SpaceX launch half of its proposed 4,425 satellites within six years.

The approval of SpaceX’s application was not seriously in doubt after last month’s memo from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who was excited at the prospect of the first U.S.-based company being authorized to launch a constellation like this.

“I have asked my colleagues to join me in supporting this application and moving to unleash the power of satellite constellations to provide high-speed Internet to rural Americans,” he wrote at the time. He really is pushing that “digital divide” thing. Not that Elon Musk disagrees:

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Mar 29, 2018

Days Exchange Photo

Posted by in category: life extension

Executive director Qatar Foundation Omran Al Kuwary excited to be among first adopters of DAYS.exchange plan to consolidate longevity top experts in order to find elixir of youth.

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Mar 29, 2018

Astro litter-picker launches to help clean up 7,600 tonnes of space junk

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

T he world’s most advanced litter-picker will be launched into space next week to clean up floating debris which is threatening satellites and the International Space Station (ISS).

Surrey University has designed a spacecraft which can grab space junk then pull it into Earth’s atmosphere where it is burned up.

The little craft, named RemoveDebris, is due to launch from the Kennedy Space Centre on Monday, on board one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

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Mar 29, 2018

The brain learns completely differently than we’ve assumed, new learning theory says

Posted by in categories: biological, information science, neuroscience

(credit: Getty)

A revolutionary new theory contradicts a fundamental assumption in neuroscience about how the brain learns. According to researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel led by Prof. Ido Kanter, the theory promises to transform our understanding of brain dysfunction and may lead to advanced, faster, deep-learning algorithms.

A biological schema of an output neuron, comprising a neuron’s soma (body, shown as gray circle, top) with two roots of dendritic trees (light-blue arrows), splitting into many dendritic branches (light-blue lines). The signals arriving from the connecting input neurons (gray circles, bottom) travel via their axons (red lines) and their many branches until terminating with the synapses (green stars). There, the signals connect with dendrites (some synapse branches travel to other neurons), which then connect to the soma. (credit: Shira Sardi et al./Sci. Rep)

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Mar 29, 2018

Scientists discover a mysterious ‘ghost galaxy’ with no dark matter

Posted by in category: cosmology

The galaxy, which is as large as our Milky Way, contains around 1/400th the amount of dark matter that astronomers had expected

By.

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Mar 29, 2018

Google Knows Literally Everything About You — Here’s How To Delete That Data

Posted by in category: futurism

Take back control of your information with these easy steps.

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Mar 29, 2018

New AI software may be used to help companies hire or fire employees

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

In the past, companies have often used technology to keep track of employee actions and increase productivity. But recently, they’ve begun using AI for hiring, firing and compensation.

Xander, which is developed by tech firm Ultimate Software, is being used at steel processor SPS Companies in Manhattan, Kansas, the Journal noted.

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Mar 29, 2018

NASA’s planet-hunting spacecraft TESS moves closer to launch

Posted by in category: satellites

NASA is now just weeks away from launching its next mission to find undiscovered worlds beyond our solar system.

In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, the space agency revealed its Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is undergoing the final preparations in Florida ahead of its April 16 launch.

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