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Aug 15, 2016
Self-Healing Textile: Welcome to the Age of Clothes That Can Heal Themselves
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: innovation, materials
Researchers have developed a liquid material that repairs torn clothes, and it it able to withstand subsequent washes in a washing machine.
Every invention starts with an idea. And a group of researchers at Pennsylvania State University have a rather great idea—making a piece of torn fabric heal itself.
After years of working on the concept, the team is more than pleased to have created a biodegradable liquid material that allows torn fabric to bind to itself back together, sans needles.
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Aug 15, 2016
Japan firm marks one small step for solar energy in space
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: solar power, space, sustainability
A major Japanese machinery company said Friday that it has succeeded in transmitting energy wirelessly, marking a step toward making solar power generation in space a reality.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said it used microwave technology to send 10 kilowatts of power—enough to run a set of conventional kitchen appliances—through the air to a receiver 500 metres (1,640 feet) away.
Wireless power transmission is currently under development as the core technology to tap the vast amount of solar energy available in space and use it on Earth.
Aug 15, 2016
Dragonfly drones and lasers: Britain invests £800m in next generation of military technology
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: drones, military, neuroscience
Britain will spend more than £800million funding next-generation military technology including tiny “dragonfly drones” for gathering intelligence and laser weapons to eliminate missiles.
Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, will today announce an innovation unit which will encourage individuals and companies to pitch ideas to a panel of experts. The best ideas will be fast-tracked with the support of an £800million fund over the next decade.
Projects which will be funded include a “micro-drone” with tiny flapping wings inspired by the biology of a dragon fly, which could have a “huge impact” on operations in urban environments.
Aug 14, 2016
NASA researchers are working on a laser propulsion system that could get to Mars in 3 days
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in category: space travel
The one thing still holding us back from interstellar travel is our slow spacecraft and researcher are working on solving this. With our present technology, it will take around five months to reach Mars. But NASA scientist Philip Lubin is working on a system where lasers propel spaceship with massive sails to the Red Planet in only a time period of three days.
Pretty much like Bill Nye’s much-hyped solar sail, this ‘photonic propulsion’ system count on on the momentum of photons to move forward. But as an alternative of photons from the Sun’s rays, Lubin’s system would use a push by huge Earth-based lasers.
Aug 14, 2016
China rockets to top of supercomputing charts with homegrown tech
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: biotech/medical, supercomputing
Lookout world Chine Tech is rising and nothing or no one will stop it now. The real question is how soon with the world’s tech valley hub be in China? The US has enjoyed for many decades being the world’s top technology center. However, China for the past 20+ years has been executing their world footprint in owning the title as the top global economic power. In the past we have seen them take over consumer goods manufacturing, pharma (especially generic drugs), and the latest is tech. Wonder what is next?
TOKYO — China has jumped to the front ranks of the supercomputing powers, with its Sunway TaihuLight, powered by domestically developed chips, recently recognized as the fastest computer in the world.
In its debut on the Top500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers in June, the Sunway TaihuLight overwhelmed such rivals as the Tianhe-2, a Chinese supercomputer powered by Intel chips that has claimed the No. 1 spot on the past six Top500 lists. Furthermore, it was the first time for China to surpass the U.S. in the total number of systems on the list.
Aug 14, 2016
Researchers Just Broke A World Record in Superfast 5G Technology
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: futurism, internet
A team of 5G researchers has set a new world record for spectrum efficiency with the wireless technology, Massive MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output), overwhelming today’s existing 4G technology, 22-fold. To test how well the technology works in a real world setting, the researchers from Bristol will visit Lund at the end of August.
In the future, users are expected to exchange much more information over the spectrum. However, with its dwindling supply, we need to find a way to exchange all this new data more efficiently without causing delays for everyone using the available spectrum.
In response to this insufficiency, many researchers have been conducting experiments using a form of 5G technology called Massive MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) which would allow for the simultaneous transfer of data with the use of multiple transmitters and receivers.
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Aug 14, 2016
IBM’s New Artificial Neurons a Big Step Toward Powerful Brain-Like Computers
Posted by Andreas Matt in categories: biological, computing
Thanks to a sleek new computer chip developed by IBM, we are one step closer to making computers work like the brain.
The neuromorphic chip is made from a phase-change material commonly found in rewritable optical discs (confused? more on this later). Because of this secret sauce, the chip’s components behave strikingly similar to biological neurons: they can scale down to nanometer size and perform complicated computations rapidly with little energy.