Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Magenn MARS Wind System


Wind power is notoriously flighty, particularly at ground level. Most turbine-on-a-post wind powered generators operate at around 20-40% of their rated generation capacity, simply because wind is intermittent and changes direction. But a generator situated 500-1000 feet above ground level would enjoy much more consistent strong wind - which is why the Magenn MARS system makes so much sense.

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Impossible alloys could now be possible

A research team led by Professor H.K. Mao from Carnegie Institution of Washington and Professor Rajeev Ahuja from UU have used high pressure experiments and theoretical calculations to study the behaviour of Ce3Al under high pressure.

Source

IBM Patents Bionic Armor That Gives Humans Ability To Dodge Bullets

NOTE: A search for this patent says: United States Patent: 7484451: Withdrawn!

IBM has filed for a patent on technology that heightens our reflexes so that we could, theoretically, dodge bullets like Neo in The Matrix.

This "Bionic Body Armor" would continuously scan the area for incoming projectiles. If one is detected, the system would deliver a shock to the muscles causing a swift, reflexive action away from the bullet.

"The present invention relates generally to the protection of an individual against a projectile propelled from a firearm. More particularly, the present invention relates to a body armor system and its method of use that is capable of detecting a projectile propelled from a firearm, computing the trajectory of the projectile, and moving the individual out of the path of the projectile to avoid being hit."Source

Solar Batteries


Designer and inventor extraordinaire Knut Karlsen recently unveiled an inspired approach to portable power that can’t be beat for its elegant simplicity: a prototype battery capable of charging itself when exposed to sunshine. His slick set of SunCat C-cells are wrapped in flexible photovoltaic panels and will slowly recharge when left to bask in the sun.

Source

Obama unveils $3.6tn budget

We will need all the new technology we can make to afford this!!

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Gene could allow lab-grown teeth

Scientists believe they have found a way to grow teeth in the laboratory, a discovery that could put an end to fillings and dentures. The US team from Oregon have located the gene responsible for the growth of enamel, the hard outer layer of teeth which cannot grow back naturally.

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Intel's New Optical Chip

In order to stay on top of data transfer speed game, Intel’s team suggests using optical technology as the only way to dramatically increase communication speeds between processor cores in the near future. Since the move to optical technology would require new components, Intel developed a silicon-based APD; a light sensor that achieves superior sensitivity by detecting light and amplifying weak signals as light is directed onto the silicon. “Intel's APD converts the light beams into electrical signals,” said Yimin Kang, a senior researcher at Intel, who also added that until now manufacturers paid more than $100 for a single device of this type

Source

Mini-Helicon Plasma Thruster

The new system, called the Mini-Helicon Plasma Thruster, is much smaller than other rockets of its kind and runs on gases that are much less expensive than conventional propellants. As a result, it could slash fuel consumption by 10 times that of conventional systems used for the same applications, says Oleg Batishchev, a principal research scientist in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and leader of the work at MIT.



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Brain Encodes Complex Plumes of Odors with a Simple Code

In the real world, odors don't happen one puff at a time. Animals move through, and subsequently distort, plumes of odor molecules that constantly drift, changing direction as the wind disperses them. Now, by exploring how animals smell odors under naturalistic conditions, Rockefeller University scientist Maria Neimark Geffen and her colleagues reveal that the brain encodes these swirling and complex patterns of molecules using surprisingly little neural machinery. The findings suggest a new theory of how animals smell.

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Ants and Collective decision-making

By analyzing models from neuroscience and insect socio-biology, Dr James Marshall from the University of Bristol and colleagues show how colonies of house-hunting social insects could collectively compromise between the speed and accuracy of decision-making, using mechanisms similar to those used by neurons in the primate brain.

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(Alternative) energy comes first, Pres. Obama says

Pres. Obama in a televised address to a joint session of Congress last night told lawmakers—and the nation—that his three top priorities are energy, healthcare and education. First and foremost on his list: seeking renewable power sources and reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

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Spun-sugar fibers and nerve repair

Researchers at Purdue have developed a technique using sugar filaments spun like cotton candy and coated with a polymer to create a scaffold of tiny synthetic tubes that might serve as conduits to regenerate nerves severed in accidents or damaged by disease.

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Hadrontherapy


In 1946, Robert Wilson, a physicist at FermiLab near Chicago pointed out that protons with an energy of between 200 and 250 MeV and carbon ions with an energy of 3500 to 4500 MeV work in a different way. Inside the body, they tend to dump all their energy at the end of their range. Not only that, but because the particles are charged, they can be sharply focused. He said that makes these particles ideal for targeting tumours.

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U.S. Tumbles to Sixth in Innovation

Long the unchallenged global leader in innovation and competitiveness, the United States now ranks No. 6 among the 40 most developed economies, according to a report published on Wednesday by Washington, D.C. think tank, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The United States now lags behind Singapore, Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark, and South Korea in that order and placed dead last among the top 40 economies in terms of competitive growth.

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The Revolution Door


Fluxxlab, a design firm aiming to convert small amounts of human energy into electricity has created The Revolution Door and Powerslide, two prototype devices with mechanical/electrical systems that harnesses human motion and redistribute it as electricity.

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Designer Babies

The Fertility Institutes recently stunned the fertility community by being the first company to boldly offer couples the opportunity to screen their embryos not only for diseases and gender, but also for completely benign characteristics such as eye color, hair color, and complexion.

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The Fertility Institutes

DC Water Film Motor

From Slashdot:

KentuckyFC writes: "Last year, a group of Iranian physicists made a puzzling discovery. They placed a thin film of water in a small cell and bathed it in two perpendicular electric fields. To their surprise this caused the water to rotate. They called their device a liquid film motor and posted on the web a cool set of movies showing the phenomenon. The puzzle is this: the electric fields are static, so what's driving the motor? Now another group of physicists has the answer: a complex interaction between the electric field, the cell container and the liquid causes water to move along the cell wall. Crucially, it moves in opposite directions on opposite sides of the cell and so sets up a circular flow. The phenomenon works only when friction and surface tension are significant forces so the effect is entirely scale dependent. That's probably why we haven't seen it before and also why it could have important implications for microfluidic devices such as lab-on-a-chip."

Source

See videos here: Sharif University of Technology, Iran

Engineers use 'nano-origami' to build tiny electronic devices

MIT researchers have developed a way to fold nano- and microscale polymer sheets into simple 3D structures.

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Creative Commons Releases "Zero" License

The Creative Commons Zero license, which allows you to waive copyright and related rights to your works, improving on the existing public domain dedication. It only waives the rights as far as they can be waived (Note: Moral rights, in many countries, can not be outright waived), it opens up what is likely as close to a public domain option as practical under the current legal climate.

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OLED Wallpaper turns into a TV

Toshiba is working on an ultra-thin OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display that could be used to wallpaper your home, turning any wall into a huge TV.

From Toshiba:

"The wallpaper uses light that has been redirected by an ultra-fine grating that is fabricated by self-assembled nano particles." Also according to Toshiba, it's several years from commercial production.

Source

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Health and Wind Turbines

Residents living near wind turbines are increasingly complaining of headaches, dizziness, insomnia and other ailments, sparking fears that the new energy source could pose a risk to public health.

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Japanese Newspapers Collaborate on Mobile App


Three newspapers collectively introduced an iPhone/iPod Touch application which delivers the cover stories, city news items, editorials, and pictures to the owners of Apple's smartphone.

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HIV evolving at warp speed

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is one of the fastest evolving entities known. That's why no one has yet been able to come up with a vaccine: The virus mutates so rapidly that what works today in one person may not work tomorrow or in others.

Source

Toshiba to build 2 nuclear plants in U.S.

Toshiba’s U.S. subsidiary signed an agreement to build the plants for the South Texas Project—a nuclear power facility being expanded by NRG Energy Inc and CPS Energy, the electricity utility for San Antonio, Texas.

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Printed Battery


The Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems (ENAS) battery was made with zinc and manganese.

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SSC's Ultimate Aero EV (Electric Vehicle)

A 500 bhp EV is planned for late 2009 and a 1000 bhp 4WD EV is also under consideration. Now here’s the kicker – the press statement reads: “The drive train under development will feature a revolutionary power source allowing for extended time between charging intervals with the possibility of several years between charging.”

Source

SSC

Space-Based Power


The concept of Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) has been doing the rounds for decades with fantastic claims of 24 hour a day solar power beamed from space via microwave to any point on earth. A start up company called Space Energy, Inc says it plans to develop SBSP satellites to generate and transmit electricity to receivers on the Earth's surface. To do this, the company plans to create and launch a prototype satellite into low earth orbit (LEO). The hitch: this concept is based on as yet unproven technology.

Source

Reverse-Engineer the Mind

"The plan is to engineer the mind by reverse-engineering the brain," says Dharmendra Modha, manager of the cognitive computing project at IBM Almaden Research Center. The researchers' goal is first to simulate a human brain on a supercomputer. Then they plan to use new nano-materials to create logic gates and transistor-based equivalents of neurons and synapses, in order to build a hardware-based, brain-like system. It's the first attempt of its kind.

Source

AfriGadget


“This is basically a dynamo which is being driven as a result of friction between the ground and the blocks. The small yellowish blocks (these are covered by rubber in the real commercial product) rotate as you pull it. They are designed to rotate even on bumpy run even roads. We have tested it on moist lawn and have worked. It is very smooth so much that you basically don’t feel any disturbance as you move along.

At normal walking speeds we have gotten more than 2 watts which is more than enough for running cell phones or radios. I envision that people will attach this to themselves and walk with it - or even attach it to an ox-cart, a skating board, bike, etc.” Dr. Cedrick Ngalande, the inventor.

Source

CirculaFloor

The CirculaFloor is a series of autonomous tiles that reposition themselves quickly so that whoever is walking above can move in any direction across them, without going anywhere at all. It's designed to make virtual reality more immersive. In robotics holonomicity refers to the relationship between the controllable and total degrees of freedom of a given robot (or part thereof).



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Monday, February 23, 2009

The Toumaz Sensium™


Sensium enables the development of a new generation of non-intrusive body-worn wireless devices that can continuously monitor multiple vital signs in real-time, and feed back high-quality information to health professionals via PCs, PDAs and cell phones.

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Andy Kessler's book -- The End of Medicine


Kessler's pitch goes like this: "...sometime in the next several years, as the silicon and software and algorithms developed for early detection begin to get cheap enough, these business models will emerge, and you will see venture capitalists step up to fund interesting companies and IPOs of the hot new early detection players. 3-D imaging, computer aided detection, biomarkers, molecular imaging probes, nanotech scan devices for antibody chips, these are all areas that we will see companies emerge."

Source

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Rubber Circuits


Electrical engineers and materials scientists have developed electronic circuits that can bend, extend, and even twist into a spiral. Their design features small electronic elements embedded in silicone rubber and connected by bridges that change shape to accommodate strain when the surrounding material stretches. “Strain is what kills electronics,” says Yonggang Huang, a Northwestern University engineer with the team that developed the circuits.

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Artifical Life

In an important step towards the creation of artificial life, scientists in Florida announced this week they have created a synthetic form of DNA that, with a catalyst, can replicate itself. The breakthrough moves biochemist Steven A. Benner closer to achieving what he calls “Darwinian evolution in a test tube."

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Reading your mind

Researchers at Vanderbilt University have shown they can use fMRI to determine which of two images people are thinking about.

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Switching from the hard drive to the "cloud"

Banking analysts last year forecast that cloud computing could be worth $160billion in the next few years. Last year technology players were scouring the world for remote sites near water supplies, which they need to keep the clusters cool - places to build cloud server farms, the equivalent of computer generating stations with countless computers lined up to take on the hard work that used to happen in-house.

Yet Microsoft and Google have scaled back plans. It is unclear if this is a result of the economic downturn or if the future of the cloud computing is uncertain.

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An evolving robot

British artificial intelligence engineers have created a robot that mimics the evolutionary process in just the span of a few hours. They programmed a robot’s “brain” to automatically grow in size and complexity as its physical makeup is modified.

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The plasmonic switch

A research team at Penn State has developed a plasmonic switch that may help pave the way for the next generation of super-fast computers.

“If plasmonics are realized, the future will have circuits as small as the current electronic ones with a capacity a million times better,” said Tony Jun Huang, James Henderson assistant professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics. “Plasmonics combines the speed and capacity of photonic — light based — circuits with the small size of electronic circuits.”

Source

Penn State Live

The nanotube radio


The nanotube radio was developed in 2007 by physicist Alex Zettl and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley. It is a fully functional, fully integrated radio receiver, orders-of-magnitude smaller than any previous radio. If you’re in disbelief, you can actually listen to the song “Layla” played on the nanotube radio. (Note there’s a significant amount of static noise since it uses none of the external circuitry to filter or process the signal typically found in typical radios).

Listen to the song “Layla” played on the nanotube radio

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Microsoft's Gazelle Web Browser


Microsoft Research released an interesting PDF about a Web browser it calls Gazelle that's constructed in such a way to act like an operating system with the browser kernel exclusively protecting resources and sharing across Web sites.

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MircoSoft's PDF

LUCAS

Professor Aydogan Ozcan of UCLA has taken a typical Sony Ericsson phone, and by adding a few off-the-shelf parts that cost less than $50, he can get it to produce a remarkable image that shows the thousands of cells in a small fluid sample such as human blood.

The device is called LUCAS, which stands for lensless ultra-wide-field cell monitoring array platform based on shadow imaging. It uses a short wavelength blue light to illuminate a sample of liquid -- blood, saliva or another fluid -- on a laboratory slide.

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Robot helps stroke victims

A hand-holding robot can help partially-paralysed stroke patients regain their ability to grasp and pick up objects.

VIDEO HERE

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UNITX


UNITX (united networks international transport exchange) is a concept for the transportation of goods to your house using logibots which would travel through a massive network of underground tunnels. It's a project by Viennese entrepreneur turned artist Michael Marcovicia and author of the book, "The end of EBay".

Source

UNITX

GreenWheel


Scientists at MIT are testing a new power generation, storage and propulsion system known as the GreenWheel. Greenwheel is a wheel with a storage battery and motor that will turn any pedal bicycle into an electric bike.

Source

Identified: human monoclonal antibodies effective against bird flu and seasonal flu viruses

Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Dana-Farber), Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported the identification of human monoclonal antibodies (mAb) that neutralize an unprecedented range of influenza A viruses, including avian influenza A (H5N1) virus, previous pandemic influenza viruses, and some seasonal influenza viruses.

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Saturday, February 21, 2009

A Raymond Kurzweil Movie


The Singularity Is Near: A computer avatar saves the world from self-replicating microscopic robots.

What is Singularity? The Singularity is an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly non-biological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today, i.e., the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity. Raymond Kurzweil

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Transferring Light

Dr. Hau and her co-researchers, Dr. Naomi S. Ginsberg and Dr. Sean R. Garner, stopped and extinguished a light pulse in a tiny, supercooled sodium cloud called a Bose Einstein Condensate, and then brought the light pulse back into existence in another atom cloud in a separate location.

The information inside the light pulse was transferred from the first to the second cloud by converting the light pulse into a travelling matter wave, a small atom pulse that was a perfect matter copy of the extinguished light pulse. After the matter wave entered the second cloud, the atoms there worked together to restore the original light pulse.

The work is funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation and NASA.



Source

The Most powerful Quantum Chip

The prototype chip built by D-Wave Systems in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, is designed to handle 128 qubits of information. (The most powerful machines to date can cope with only a handful of quantum bits, or qubits, making them little more capable than a hand-held calculator.) The data is stored in 128 superconducting niobium loops as either a clockwise or an anticlockwise current, representing a 0 or a 1, or as a qubit with both currents at the same time in a quantum superposition. When the information needs to be processed, the individual qubits are manipulated by a magnetic field. To make the entire chip superconduct so that the currents can flow indefinitely without dissipating heat, it is cooled to 0.01 °C above absolute zero.

Source

D-Wave Systems

3DV Systems

3DV Systems is a pioneer and world leader in the three-dimensional video imaging industry. Established in 1997 and headquartered in Yokne'am, Israel, the company has developed a unique proprietary technology which enables video cameras to capture the depth dimension of objects in real time, high speed and very high resolution. The new ZCamTM is at the size of a typical webcam and provides home users revolutionary gesture recognition capabilities in addition to real-time background replacement, enabling them to control video games and personal space through intuitive body gestures and immerse themselves with virtual reality.
3DV Systems

Mechdyne to install virtual reality system in Tech Park

Imagine stepping into a room -- one similar to the “holodeck” of the starship Enterprise -- and performing engineering feats in three dimensions. This is what Rowan engineering students will be capable of doing once Mechdyne installs the CAVE, a fully-immersive, navigable and interactive virtual reality system.

Source

Mechdyne

An Intelligent Bridge


A new highway bridge in Minnesota incorporates hundreds of sensors to increase safety and cut costs.

Several kinds of technologies are built into the bridge. A network of 323 sensors monitors the span for corrosion in the concrete, strained joints, or other structural weaknesses. The anti-icing system tracks the roadway's temperature and sprays potassium acetate when it gets cold enough for ice to form. There's also a traffic monitoring system, which detects the speed and volume of cars on the span. If there's an accident that blocks the roadway, information can be relayed to the Transportation Dept.'s central command so drivers approaching the bridge can be alerted or rerouted...

But there are big changes ahead. This bridge has a wired sensor network. The next generation will be wireless. There's even talk about applying sensors to surfaces in the form of a paint-like substance--so it works like human skin. How will thousands or millions of sensors be powered? One possible answer is harvesting the vibrations of the bridges as an energy source. The sensors in the current bridge added less than 1 percent to the total cost.

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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Oncolytic virus - Curing cancer with a virus

An oncolytic virus is a virus that preferentially infects and lyses cancer cells; these have obvious functions for cancer therapy, both by direct destruction of the tumour cells, and, if modified, as vectors enabling genes expressing anticancer proteins to be delivered specifically to the tumor site.

The Seneca Valley Virus is a naturally-occurring (and untweaked) virus which has been shown in clinical trials to be remarkably effective at treating some of the more nasty human cancer types while presenting no threat to the human body itself.

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Thwarting Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Researchers from Duke University have designed software that can simulate modifications to an enzyme used to make a common antibiotic. Mutating genes that produce the enzyme will make for slightly different variants of the drug. The researchers say this technique could eventually be used to design new variants of existing antibiotics to which bacteria have built up resistance. The results were detailed this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source

A Terabit Internet

Two groups of engineers—one from Australia and Denmark and the other from California—have independently created new optics technologies that could greatly increase the Internet’s speed limits. The key to the new technologies is nonlinear optics, in which physics allows for an optical fiber’s properties to be adjusted from moment to moment.

Source

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Solving the decades-old problem of just what glass is

It has been known that that despite its solid appearance, glass and gels are actually in a "jammed" state of matter — somewhere between liquid and solid — that moves very slowly. Paddy Royall from the University of Bristol in England, with colleagues in Canberra, Australia and Tokyo, has shown that glass fails to be a solid due to the special atomic structures that form in a glass when it cools. Now, metallic glass could revolutionize aircraft structure

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Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene


Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, colloquially known by its abbreviation ETFE, is a fluorocarbon-based polymer (a fluoropolymer): a kind of plastic. It was designed to have high corrosion resistance and strength over a wide temperature range. In addition it has a high melting temperature and does not emit toxic fumes when ignited.

Wikipedia

At the Beijing Olympics, the National Aquatics Center, or "Water Cube," is surrounded by a light-weight polymer foil that significantly reduces the energy that goes into construction. The thin transparent material, called ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene), is segmented into 3,000 air-filled cushions that let in light but hold in heat.

Source

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

ARSights - Google Earth Plugin

Augemented Reality is a new technology which improves visualization capabilities by superimposing real-time computer graphics to the real space where users do actually work and live. ARSights is the first freely accessible tool which links together Augmented Reality, web-based technologies, and Google Earth.

ARSights

Robot Shop

The World's Leading Source for Domestic and Professional Robot Technology.

Robor shop

Instant Messaging with Language Translation

MeGlobe combines traditional instant messaging (IM) with real-time language translation technology to offer users instantaneous communication across multiple languages.

Source

MeGlobe

Acoustic Metamaterial

A group of researchers from Korea and China has created an acoustic metamaterial that causes the bizarre effect of a reverse Doppler effect. This is an important stepping stone to an acoustic cloak, according to the researchers.

Source

NEC's 3D Screens

NEC has announced a sampling of its 3.1-inch 3D TFT LCD module for a Mobile3DTV prototype device. The screen provides wide viewing angles and requires no glasses to view 3D content. Source

Quantum cryptography

Quantum cryptography may be perhaps five years ahead. Quantum computing may possibly be 15 years away. Progress in building quantum computers tends to develop in steps as researchers find new methods, so it is slow, but the theory is solid.

Source

A short history of holographics



Holography is the only visual recording and playback process that can record our three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional recording medium and playback the original object or scene to the unaided eyes as a three dimensional image.


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Robotic Prostheses For Human Faces

The design of prosthetic limbs has taken huge strides in recent years – But internal prosthetics, like those used to reconstruct injured faces, have yet to incorporate such advanced features, and still tend to be awkward and unrealistic.

Surgeons Craig Senders and Travis Tollefson of the University of California, Davis, plan to change that by using artificial polymer muscles to reanimate the facial features of people suffering from severe paralysis.

Source

Patent

The Diamond Synchrotron

A British X-ray with a light ten billion times brighter than the sun is to be used to reveal the secrets of statues, mummies, sarcophagi and other ancient artifacts to analyze their composition and how they were made.

What is a Synchrotron: A synchrotron is a huge scientific machine designed to produce very intense beams of x-rays and ultraviolet light. This “synchrotron light” can penetrate deep inside matter and allows scientists to investigate the world around us at the scale of atoms and molecules.

Source

Diamond Website

Top 8 Web 2.0 Security Threats

The Secure Enterprise 2.0 Forum has just released their 2009 industry report and the topic is the top Web 2.0 security threats.

See the list HERE.

The Secure Enterprise 2.0 Forum

Hacks Hack biometric computers

Vietnamese researchers have cracked facial recognition technology in Lenovo, Asus, and Toshiba laptops; demonstration planned for Black Hat DC next week.

The researchers were able to bypass the authentication system not only by using a photo of the authorized user, but also by creating multiple phony facial images. "The mechanisms used by those three vendors haven't met the security requirements needed by an authentication system, and they cannot wholly protect their users from being tampered," the researchers wrote in their paper on the hack.

Source

What is causing Gobal Warming?


During the last 2 billion years the Earth's climate has alternated between a frigid "Ice House", like today's world, and a steaming "Hot House", like the world of the dinosaurs.

And Man's activities had nothing to do with it!

This chart shows how global climate has changed through time.

Source

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Quantum Spin Hall Effect Directly Observed And Explained

An international research team has succeeded in gaining an in-depth insight into an unusual phenomenon. The researchers succeeded for the first time in directly measuring the spin of electrons in a material that exhibits the quantum spin Hall effect. This paves the way towards fault-tolerant quantum computers and towards a source of spin currents.

Source

Solar Thermal Waste Heat Engine works at low temperature, low pressure



The compact, lightweight 18 lb (8 kg) Waste Heat Engine is a six-cylinder radial steam engine capable of running on waste heat as low as 225 °F (107 °C) and pressure as low as 25 psi (172 kPa). The engine achieves maximum efficiencies at 600 °F (316 °C) and steam pressure of 200 psi (1.4 MPa), at which point one Waste Heat Engine can generate 16 hp (12 kW), 30 lb-ft (41 Nm) of torque, and a little over 10 kW of electrical output. The only drawback is the typically low 12% energy efficiency common with most reciprocating steam engines. On the plus side the piston-based steam engine operates at a maximum of 3000 rpm which means it is well suited to drive any standard generator.

Source

When cloths can talk...

In the future, smart clothing might be able to talk. Excerpted from Alternate Reality Ain’t What It Used To Be. Copyright 2008 by Ira Nayman.


"...when the star witness in the Macy Maroon murder trial took the stand: the undershirt of Jason Modeska, the man accused of Maroon’s murder.

The protesters, who oppose the idea of smart clothing giving testimony in a criminal case, unfurled a banner that read “Time for clothing to come clean!” while chanting “No shirt! No shoes! No justice!” After several calls for order, Justice Padwihller was forced to clear the court before the trial could resume...."

Source

Organic electronics

Organic Materials Are Poised As Never Before To Transform the world of circuit and display technology. Using organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs), organic full-color displays may eventually replace liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) for use with laptop and even desktop computers.

Source

Unleashing the high frequency spectrum

The frequency range of 10-100 GHz offers a gold mine of commercial and military applications. Full-blown system integration has been rare, however. This is rapidly being transformed by indium phosphide heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), a technology that is now yielding large-scale integrated (LSI) circuits packing 1000 to 10 000 transistors on a chip and operating at over 65 GHz. Success in integrating such fast, dense transistors has bred numerous analog, digital, and mixed-mode ICs having unprecedented performance. Moreover, such high-speed integration is not only possible but marketable, too, because consumer demand for data from the Internet, digital audio and video, and video-on-demand is on the rise.

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Exoskeletons Around the World

Here is an IEEE article showing the state-of-the-art in Exoskeletons.

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Artificial muscles

Artificial muscles are plastics that change shape and size under electrical stimulation. Because they are plastics—that is, polymers—they are light and can be cheap, pliable, quiet, and shatterproof. Also, they can be designed for particular properties, filled with sensors and other components, shaped for specific actuators, and manufactured on scales both macro and micro. Unlike most active materials, such as semiconductors and shape-memory alloys, however, these electroactive polymers work according to a variety of principles, offering different tradeoffs of power, extensibility, reaction time, and other qualities.

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A self-reproducing machine

More than 50 years ago, computer pioneer John von Neumann conceived of a self-reproducing machine. RepRap (short for “replicating rapid-prototyper”) doesn’t harvest its own materials, but it’s entirely real. For about US $725 in parts, this self-reproducing machine, spawned by a global band of engineers and hobbyists, will squirt out complex three-dimensional patterns of molten plastic filaments that will solidify into most, if not all, of the mechanical parts for another RepRap.

Source

RepRap Research Foundation

Neuromorphic integrated circuits

Electronic chips that mimic neurobiological circuits related to visual processing.

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Life after death

If you can hang on for another 30 years or so, you might have an alternative to death: being a ghost in a machine. You'll be able to upload your mind — your thoughts, memories, and personality — to a computer.

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Synthetic Skin

Engineered tissue is a combination of living cells and a support structure called a scaffold. The scaffold, depending on the organ in production, can be anything from a matrix of collagen, a structural protein, to synthetic biodegradable plastic laced with chemicals that stimulate cell growth and multiplication. The "seed" cells that initiate this propagation come from laboratory cultures or from the patient's own body.

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Controling your mind

Researchers at Arizona State University at Tempe have developed a new use for it: to control brain activity from outside the skull.

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The Singularity


This special report by IEEE can be found HERE.

The Bionic Body Shop

Advanced medical devices are the tools that enable humans and robots to merge, perhaps signaling the dawn of a technological singularity. How close are we now? Take a tour on IEEE's Bioengineering Body Shop HERE.

The Electric Bike


There are an estimated 1 million electric two-wheelers on Shanghai's streets. The China Bicycle Association, a government-chartered industry group in Beijing, estimates that last year manufacturers sold 7.5 million electric bikes nationwide—nearly double the sales in 2003—and they are likely to ship more than 10 million this year. Shouldn't we be using them in the US also?

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Spinning Buildings


When the twisted tower in this rendering is completed in Dubai in 2010, each of its 80 floors will rotate independently around a central column that will house its elevator shafts, stairwells, and utilities.

Source

A vitual nuclear blast

This 1970 underground test released radioactivity into the atmosphere above the Nevada desert.
Nuclear scientists will use the two supermachines to run three-dimensional simulations at dizzying speeds to achieve much of the nuclear weapons analysis that was formerly accomplished by underground nuclear testing, capping a long campaign to use virtual testing in place of physical weapons detonations. There goes Second Life!

Source

Sonofusion

Tiny bubbles imploded by sound waves can make hydrogen nuclei fuse—and may one day become a revolutionary new energy source. Imagine sound waves producing in bubbles, even briefly, the extreme temperatures and pressures created by the lasers or magnetic fields, which themselves replicate the interior conditions of stars like our sun, where fusion occurs steadily. Nevertheless, three years ago, Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.; and the Russian Academy of Sciences branch in Ufa obtained strong evidence that such a process—now known as sonofusion is indeed possible.

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Laser to Light to Electricity

Photonic Power Systems Inc. has developed a system that uses a laser to inject power in the form of light into a fiber-optic cable and a photovoltaic (PV) array to convert the light back into electricity for powering devices. This method of transferring power has advantages in situations where sparks or shorts can be a fatal problem, where electromagnetic interference is more than just an inconvenience—in cellphone base stations, for example, or in pacemakers—and where conventional methods are bulky and cumbersome.

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Atmospheric water generator

A device that pulls water from the air by cooling it to the point that condensation forms and then keeps it sterile for drinking. 
Element Four’s WaterMill is a 300‑watt generator that makes up to 12 liters of drinking water per day—enough, it says, for your typical North American household.

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Element Four

Electroporation

An electroporation device that it claims can kill cancerous tumor cells with remarkable specificity while inflicting little or no damage on surrounding structures and causing no pain for the patient.

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AngioDynamics

Friday, February 13, 2009

Magnetocaloric Material


This idea isn't new - scientists have been using magnetic refrigerators to achieve very low temperatures for decades. However, until now magnetocalorics have required the use of gadolinium or arsenic alloys - both toxic and expensive metals. A joint team working with the National Institute of Science and Technology has now discovered a magnetocaloric composed of manganese, iron, phosphorus and germanium - far more common elements. In addition, the new material responds very well magnetocalorically - meaning large temperature changes occur for a given magnetic field.

Source

SMELLIT TV


The movie shows people eating popcorn, SMELLIT uses its digital smell technology (DST) to start cranking out a corresponding odor. The device by Nuno Teixeira works like the inkjet printer, though in contrast, it houses 118 cartridges for purification instead of the ink cartridges. The SMELLIT releases the fragrance of the picture on the screen as concentrated “smell gel” that’s evenly distributed by a central fan.

Source

Unmanned Flying Ambulance


A remote-controlled 'flying stretcher' that can rescue accident victims and bring them to hospital is being developed by Israeli scientists. A prototype has already undergone successful testing and a final version is expected to be available within the next year.

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Kindle 2


Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device that holds over 1500 books and can download them for free.

Source

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Temperature Sensitive Bottle


The graphics are printed with thermochromic anti-forgery ink and change to show you it’s just at the right temperature for consumption. It could have a wide range of applications in the food industry.

Source

A laser that stitches the skin

A doctor from Tel Aviv University demonstrated how a new laser the university has developed is better than stitching up a patient. The laser allows a wound to be welded shut as opposed to sutured, which makes it far more watertight and there's less tearing.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Voice biometrics

Some of UK’s largest banks are watching the development of voice biometric technology. They are waiting for the right time to begin implementation of the technology for customer service systems to replace pins and passwords.

Source

Turning insects into unmanned air vehicles


Electrodes and a control chip are inserted into a moth during its pupal stage. When the moth emerges the electrodes stimulate its muscles to control its flight.

Shock absorber developed to harvest energy

By harvesting the energy wasted by ordinary shock absorbers, a prototype device aims to take over much of the work now performed by alternators.

Source

Organic RFID

A number of groups have demonstrated prototypes of p-type organic tags working at 13.56 MHz.

Source

3-D TV

Mitsubishi, Phillips, nVidia, Samsung, plus a number of universities are working on 3-D TV.

Real-Time Holographic Communication Might Soon Be a Reality

Advances in video compression and high speed broadband internet mean that real-time holographic communication may be commonplace in as little as five years' time.

Source

Musion

Fraunhofer working on transparent OLEDs, 3D displays, OLED lighting and an OLED pico projector

These guys are working on several OLED projects - OLED lighting, a bi-directional OLED, Organic SOLAR, transparent displays, 3D OLEDs and even an OLED pico-projector. They have a pilot-production line, and hopefully we will see those inventions as products within a few years.

Check out the SciScoop interview here

Fraunhofer working on transparent OLEDs, 3D displays, OLED lighting and an OLED pico projector

These guys are working on several OLED projects - OLED lighting, a bi-directional OLED, Organic SOLAR, transparent displays, 3D OLEDs and even an OLED pico-projector. They have a pilot-production line, and hopefully we will see those inventions as products within a few years.

Check out the SciScoop interview here

Super Battery Technology Locks Up Energy "Behind Bars"

New battery breakthrough leverages nanotechnology and microstructures. The nanotubes are a hybrid consisting of a carbon nanotube core and a metal oxide outer coating.

Pulickel Ajayan, the Rice University Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and leader of the team, states, "It's a nice bit of nanoscale engineering. Although the combination of these materials has been studied as a composite electrode by several research groups, it's the coaxial cable design of these materials that offers improved performance as electrodes for lithium batteries."

Source

MIT's smart device turns any surface into a touchscreen

Using a webcam, battery-powered projector, and mobile phone, the device acquits itself like a portable Microsoft Surface display built from $300 worth of consumer-grade hardware. The interface is generated by the phone which is in turn projected onto nearly any surface, and the camera is used to recognize gestures that interact with that projection.

Source

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Open Source Chat Bridge Between Virtual Worlds

It's called the Parallel Selves Message Bridge, a new addition to the code forge of OpenSimulator, the "Apache for virtual worlds" project featured on OStatic last year.

Source

Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum (CCIF)

The Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum is a group of industry stakeholders that are active in cloud computing.

CCIF

WikiLeaks

WikiLead is of assistance to peoples of all countries who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and institutions.

Know something we should know: click here

Turning exhaust into energy


Research into thermoelectrics — the science of using temperature differences to create electricity — couldn't come at a better time.

Source

JetPack International

Buy yourself a jet pack.

JetPact International

Peer-To-Patent via the USPTO

By using the power of the Internet to tap the wisdom of the masses, Peer-to-Patent aims to dig up hard-to-find "prior art" — evidence that an invention already exists or is obvious and therefore doesn't deserve a patent.

Source

Peer-to-Patent Community

Robots to fight in place of US troups within a few years

Robots will fight the wars of the future, a prominent military expert told an audience of luminaries Wednesday. "We are at a point of revolution in war, like the invention of the atomic bomb," writer and Brookings Institution fellow Peter W. Singer said.

Source

People turning to Web to watch TV and movies

This is a disruptive technology for the movie, TV industry.

As more Americans get used to watching video on their computers, more Web sites are popping up to offer free movies and TV shows. Consumers are taking advantage of this to eliminate cable or satellite TV and integrate their home entertainment with the Web. And online video viewership is skyrocketing.

Source

The "Sixth Sense"



Controlled by hand gestures aided by color-coded tips on each index finger and thumb, the system senses what you're looking at, projecting data about it right in front of you.

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Source

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Fingerprint study offers robotics insights

As the finger passes over a surface, nerve endings in the skin detect vibrations that arise when the finger touches something, the study demonstrates. These nerve endings, called Pacinian corpuscles, are connected to sensory neurons, which signal the brain.

Source

Singularity University

A technology-focused school called Singularity University will open on the Moffett Field campus of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration this summer.

Source

Monday, February 2, 2009

E-Ink

Imagine a magazine that updates its articles whenever new information is available, or a tablet that stores all the textbooks a university student will ever need. It's here.



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First Terabit Speed Computing

Electrical engineers at the University of California, San Diego have achieved world-record speeds for real-time signal processing in an effort to meet ambitious goals set by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the first Terabit-scale technology for optical processing. The technology could have widespread ramifications for networking, computing, defense and other industries.

Source

Eight Mobile Technologies to Watch in 2009 and 2010

"All mobile strategies embed assumptions about technology evolution so it's important to identify the technologies that will evolve quickly in the life span of each strategy," said Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "The eight mobile technologies that we have pinpointed as ones to watch in 2009 and 2010 will have broad effects and, as such, are likely to pose issues to be addressed by short-term strategies and policies."

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Storing data with a Magnetic Tornado

Argonne National Laboratory researchers said recently that they have discovered a way to control the rotation - or chirality - of "magnetic tornadoes" in way that could enable the writing and reading of digital information with greater sensitivity, reliability and efficiency.

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Argonne National Laboratory Paper

The $10 laptop

India has already given the world a 100,000 rupee ($2,000) car, the Tata Nano, and a super-basic $15 phone. Now, it's a laptop for $10!

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The Electric Car Infrastructure

California start-up Better Place and Danish utility Dong Energy said Tuesday they have lined up financing to bring an electric car charging network to Denmark by 2011. The two organizations have secured almost $103 million in equity and convertible debt that will go toward constructing stations where drivers can swap in fresh batteries for electric cars. Denmark appears to be the first to secure financing to build the charging infrastructure.

Source

Better Place

Linking Green with Economic Growth

A number of initiatives related to clean-energy, such as retrofitting government buildings to be energy-efficient, can create jobs and lay the foundation for longer-term economic growth, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

WEF

WEF Report

Going Electric

The Obama Administration has a goal of putting 1 million plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015. But, it will only happen with a coordinated set of policies and technology advances, according to an electric vehicle association. The Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) has developed five key policy recommendations to accelerate the electrification of the transportation sector and speed the nation toward true energy security.

EDTA

EDTA's Plan

Driverless Car -- the podcar


In Masdar, Abu Dhabi, where the streets will be entirely free of automobiles, a network of compact, driverless, electric taxis will provide clean and quiet transportation to the city’s residents, as well as commuters.

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