Lifeboat Foundation

Faster and better method around Q-dots development which ultimately extends the quality of Quantum Dots plus mass production of Q-Dots is much faster through this new method. Hoping this causes the costs of new cameras, phone displays, monitors/ video displays are now able to be created more cheaply and in larger quantities.

Materials researchers at North Carolina State University have fine-tuned a technique that enables them to apply precisely controlled silica coatings to quantum dot nanorods in a day — up to 21 times faster than previous methods. In addition to saving time, the advance means the quantum dots are less likely to degrade, preserving their advantageous optical properties.

Quantum dots are nanoscale semiconductor materials whose small size cause them to have electron energy levels that differ from larger-scale versions of the same material. By controlling the size of the quantum dots, researchers can control the relevant energy levels — and those energy levels give quantum dots novel optical properties. These characteristics make quantum dots promising for applications such as opto-electronics and display technologies.

Continue reading “Researchers develop faster, precise silica coating process for quantum dot nanorods” »

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A team of scientists from Oxford University has shown how the natural movement of bacteria could be harnessed to assemble and power microscopic ‘windfarms’ — or other man-made micromachines such as smartphone components.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances (“Active micromachines: Microfluidics powered by mesoscale turbulenceence”), uses computer simulations to demonstrate that the chaotic swarming effect of dense active matter such as bacteria can be organised to turn cylindrical rotors and provide a steady power source.

Continue reading “Scientists simulate tiny bacteria-powered ‘windfarm’ to power micromachines” »

Satya Nadella bounded into the conference room, eager to talk about intelligence. I was at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, WA, and the company’s CEO was touting the company’s progress in building more intelligent apps and services. Each morning, he told me, he puts on a HoloLens, which enables him to look at a virtual, interactive calendar projected on a wall of his house. Nadella appeared giddy as he described it. The system was intelligent, productive, and futuristic: everything he hopes Microsoft will be under his leadership.

No matter where we work in the future, Nadella says, Microsoft will have a place in it. The company’s “conversation as a platform” offering, which it unveiled in March, represents a bet that chat-based interfaces will overtake apps as our primary way of using the internet: for finding information, for shopping, and for accessing a range of services. And apps will become smarter thanks to “cognitive APIs,” made available by Microsoft, that let them understand faces, emotions, and other information contained in photos and videos.

Continue reading “Inside Microsoft’s plan to outsmart Google” »

You got to luv this one.

The security agency must defend itself in a US appeals court for violating the rights of a convicted bomber by supposedly illegally spying on him.

A US appeals court will weigh a constitutional challenge on Wednesday to a warrantless government surveillance program, brought by an Oregon man found guilty of attempting to detonate a bomb in 2010 during a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony.

Continue reading “NSA to stand trial for spying on convicted bomber without warrant” »

Nice.

Researcher Tim Burgess added atoms of zinc to lasers one hundredth the diameter of a human hair and made of gallium arsenide — a material used extensively in smartphones and other electronic devices.

The impurities led to a 100 times improvement in the amount of light from the lasers.

Continue reading “A little impurity makes nanolasers shine” »

SanDisk doubles the capacity of its microSD memory cards with 256GB Ultra and Extreme options.

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One day in the future, we’ll look back in wonder at how our physical objects used to be singular, disconnected pieces of matter.

We’ll be in awe of the fact that a car used to be just a piece of metal full of gears and belts that we would drive from one place to another, that a refrigerator was a box that kept our food cold — and a phone was a piece of plastic we used to communicate to one other person at a time.

Continue reading “The World Will Be Continuously Upgradable When Everything Is Connected” »

Although we love them to pieces, eventually smart phones won’t be the only way we communicate and spend our time. Scientists predict we might end up using neural networks to play candy crush, or we could spend all our time using smart eyewear.

They still have a few issues to iron out, but there’s a new reason that smart eyewear might be a good option — night vision! Google’s just submitted a patent that suggests it’s planning on adding the future at some point.

Seriously though, we’re keen for anything to stop us tripping over stuff in the middle of the night.

Continue reading “A new patent means Google Glass might soon have night vision” »