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Apr 18, 2021

SeeDevice’s QUANTUM IMAGE SENSOR may be the first to appear on the market, and will allow better low-light imaging than the Sionyx “black silicone” color night-vision cameras

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, quantum physics

This year-old zdnet article notes that the company plans a photo-sensitivi ty range from ultraviolet through visible light to 2000nm infrared. The sensor itself retains almost 4x the light of ordinary CMOS sensors, while being 2000x more sensitive to light. This will put it on par with the best analogue image intensification tubes used for night vision. Up until now, there have not been any digital night vision systems that can match analogue systems. This will be better, with higher resolution and multichromatic. It also has a 100x greater dynamic range than ordinary CMOS sensors, according to the specifications from SeeDevice’s site linked below. (This means that it can image both bright and dark areas clearly and simultaneously, instead of having the bright areas washing out the image, or the dark areas being black. The included photo is from its website, demonstrating a wide dynamic range photo produced by the system. On a normal photo, either the sky would appear black, or the road would be so bright that it would look washed out.)

Hopefully coming soon to a cell phone camera near you…

SeeDevice’s site: https://www.seedeviceinc.com/technology

Apr 18, 2021

Why Microsoft’s new AI acquisition is a big deal

Posted by in categories: health, robotics/AI

Microsoft’s acquisition of Nuance signals the tech giant’s AI strategy in Azure, self-driving cars, and other products beyond health care AI.

Apr 18, 2021

How Bill Gates’ company TerraPower is building next-generation nuclear power

Posted by in categories: engineering, nuclear energy

TerraPower’s ability to achieve those goals will be in no small part due to the money and influence of the company’s founder.

“The most important factor is that Bill Gates is behind this,” principal research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology department of nuclear science and engineering Charles Forsberg tells CNBC Make It. “The most important factors in developing a new reactor are money and very competent people. Bill Gates brings both to the project.”

Here’s how TerraPower is building advanced nuclear power plants.

Apr 18, 2021

Robotic Exoskeletons Could One Day Walk

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, mobile phones, robotics/AI, transportation, wearables

**Engineers, using artificial intelligence and wearable cameras, now aim to help robotic exoskeletons walk by themselves.**

Increasingly, researchers around the world are developing lower-body exoskeletons to help people walk. These are essentially walking robots users can strap to their legs to help them move.

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Apr 18, 2021

NASA MOXIE device will create oxygen on Mars

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, energy, space

Circa 2020 o.o


The NASA Perseverance Rover has a device aboard called MOXIE that will convert the air available on Mars into oxygen. The device is a test, and if the technology was used on a larger scale could produce oxygen for humans to breathe on the Red Planet and could be used for rocket fuel. NASA knows that one of the most challenging parts of putting people on Mars will be getting them off the planet and back to Earth.

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Apr 18, 2021

Plastic rain is the new acid rain and a hidden threat to health, warns wildlife expert

Posted by in category: health

Microplastics from the sea are polluting soil, with equivalent of 120 million water bottles falling into protected areas in the US each year.

Apr 18, 2021

Scientists are on a path to sequencing 1 million human genomes and use big data to unlock genetic secrets

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health, information science, wearables

The more data collected, the better the results.


Understanding the genetics of complex diseases, especially those related to the genetic differences among ethnic groups, is essentially a big data problem. And researchers need more data.

1000, 000 genomes

Continue reading “Scientists are on a path to sequencing 1 million human genomes and use big data to unlock genetic secrets” »

Apr 18, 2021

Ergothioneine: A ‘Longevity Vitamin’ With Potential Benefits For Age-Related Outcomes?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience

Papers referenced in the video:

Dietary Thiols: A Potential Supporting Strategy against Oxidative Stress in Heart Failure and Muscular Damage during Sports Activity:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7765667/

Continue reading “Ergothioneine: A ‘Longevity Vitamin’ With Potential Benefits For Age-Related Outcomes?” »

Apr 18, 2021

Scientists get more great looks at the 1st black hole ever photographed

Posted by in category: cosmology

The supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy M87 is coming into sharper and sharper focus.

Apr 18, 2021

Washington state lawmakers vote to phase out gasoline cars by 2030

Posted by in categories: futurism, transportation

The bill awaits Gov. Jay Inslee’s signature.


Washington state lawmakers have passed a measure that would phase out the sale of gas-powered vehicles starting in 2030. The Clean Cars 2030 initiative passed Thursday as an amendment to a bill that requires state utilities prepare for an electric-vehicle future. The bill now awaits Gov. Jay Inslee’s signature.

That’s five years earlier than planned gas vehicle bans in California and Massachusetts, and the first ban on gas cars passed by legislators, rather than by an executive order. The bill passed Washington’s Senate by a vote of 25–23 and a vote of 54–43 in the House. The bill bans the sale, purchase, or registration of non-EVs from model year 2030 and later, and would include vehicles bought in another state and brought into Washington state.

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