Blog

Page 10785

Sep 9, 2016

OMEGA Laser Could Produce Nuclear Fusion at 5 Times Current Levels

Posted by in category: nuclear energy

Researchers from the University of Rochester have detailed conditions where the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore can create five times more nuclear fusion yield than the current records.

Nuclear fusion is one of the Holy Grails of energy research. However, developments in this particular field have been more like baby steps rather than great strides.

But now, one study is significantly accelerating our (unfortunately) small steps towards nuclear fusion. Researchers working on the OMEGA laser at the Rochester University’s Laboratory of Laser Energetics (LLE) have found optimal conditions that could produce a fusion yield that’s five times higher than the current record.

Continue reading “OMEGA Laser Could Produce Nuclear Fusion at 5 Times Current Levels” »

Sep 9, 2016

No Waves? No Problem, If You’re Dronesurfing

Posted by in category: futurism

It was inevitable, and also awesome.

Read more

Sep 9, 2016

Scientists Created a Substance that Transforms Infrared into Visible Light

Posted by in category: futurism

A team of scientists from Germany were able to create a substance that converts infrared light into visible light. This development is a big step in the advancement of illumination technology.

Light is one of the primary things that allows humans to function effectively and efficiently. Indeed, without it, we are basically hopeless; however, a lot of it is…well, missing. Perhaps a better way of articulating it is by noting that a lot of light is invisible to us.

Light, or electromagnetic radiation, is actually a really wide spectrum, but only a small portion can be seen by humans. The region that we can see is called the visible spectrum because (duh) it is visible to us.

Continue reading “Scientists Created a Substance that Transforms Infrared into Visible Light” »

Sep 9, 2016

Biotech startup says it has nearly perfected making wine in a lab

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food

Ava Winery’s first public taste test didn’t exactly go well. Two reporters on camera at New Scientist compared the biotech startup’s artificial wine with a glass of the Moscato D’Asti that it was based on. They complained that the fake wine had too little color, too little viscosity, and an unpleasant plastic smell.

But that was May, and this is September, and Ava is already bragging about making huge improvements in its product, to the point where it is all but indistinguishable from fermented grape juice, and looking ahead to how it’s going to change the world.

“What we have done since then is leaps and bounds beyond what they were able to taste back in May,” co-founder Alec Lee says. “Now we’re at the point where about 90% of people fail out blind taste test.”

Continue reading “Biotech startup says it has nearly perfected making wine in a lab” »

Sep 9, 2016

Ray Kurzweil: Accelerating Tech Is Making Old Intellectual Property Laws Obsolete

Posted by in categories: law, Ray Kurzweil, singularity

As technology and innovation move faster and faster, concerns over ownership and access continue to increase. In answer to a question at a Singularity University event, Ray Kurzweil suggested we need to rethink intellectual property laws to more realistically match today’s pace.

Intellectual property laws from the 19th century were envisioned with roughly 20-year cycles, he said, which was enough to give you a head-start on a new idea or invention and attract funding to see it through. But how relevant is a 20-year cycle today when a generation of technology can come and go in a year—and even that is set to speed up?

Continue reading “Ray Kurzweil: Accelerating Tech Is Making Old Intellectual Property Laws Obsolete” »

Sep 9, 2016

First Cryogenically Frozen Mammal Brain Restored Successfully

Posted by in categories: life extension, neuroscience

The human ‘connectome’.

Read more

Sep 9, 2016

Drones armed with anti-laser lasers that trick controls of enemy lasers into missing the drone

Posted by in categories: drones, energy, military

To defend against military lasers, Adsys Controls of Irvine, California, has created Helios, which can be carried on drones. To do much damage, an offensive laser needs to remain focused on its target for several seconds. Helios stops a laser from doing this by disrupting the systems controlling the beam – the Achilles’ heel for all such weapons. “Beam control is a critical function of high-energy lasers,” says Adsys CEO Brian Goldberg.

Helios can detect an incoming laser beam and identify its key characteristics, such as power, wavelength, pulse frequency and its source. Helios then interferes with the beam control – possibly by firing back a low-power laser of its own – so the attacking laser cannot fix on the target. “It provides permanent protection,” says Goldberg. “It’s not just buying time.”

He will not say exactly how the interference is done, but it may involve fooling the control system into thinking it is hitting its target despite the laser actually pointing a few metres to the side. A direct hit would have produced a big burst of reflected light, so a pulse sent back by an anti-laser laser could make it look like the original laser was on target.

Continue reading “Drones armed with anti-laser lasers that trick controls of enemy lasers into missing the drone” »

Sep 9, 2016

Apple Is Said to Be Rethinking Strategy on Self-Driving Cars — By Daisuke Wakabayashi and Brian X. Chen | The New York Times

Posted by in categories: business, robotics/AI, transportation

10apple-master768

“Apple started looking seriously into building an electric car about two years ago. It expanded the project quickly, poaching experts in battery technology and so-called machine vision, as well as veterans from the automobile industry.”

Read more

Sep 9, 2016

Three Ways To Unlearn Old Habits Faster — By Liz Alexander | Fast Company

Posted by in category: hacking

3063112-poster-p-1-three-ways-to-unlearn-old-habits-faster

“There’s something missing from the conversation about lifelong learning.”

Read more

Sep 9, 2016

Google’s DeepMind Achieves Speech-Generation Breakthrough

Posted by in categories: computing, robotics/AI

Google’s DeepMind unit, which is working to develop super-intelligent computers, has created a system for machine-generated speech that it says outperforms existing technology by 50 percent.

U.K.-based DeepMind, which Google acquired for about 400 million pounds ($533 million) in 2014, developed an artificial intelligence called WaveNet that can mimic human speech by learning how to form the individual sound waves a human voice creates, it said in a blog post Friday. In blind tests for U.S. English and Mandarin Chinese, human listeners found WaveNet-generated speech sounded more natural than that created with any of Google’s existing text-to-speech programs, which are based on different technologies. WaveNet still underperformed recordings of actual human speech.

Read more