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Jan 22, 2020

Microwaving sewage waste may make it safe to use as fertilizer on crops

Posted by in category: food

The solids from wastewater plants are usually dumped into landfills because they are contaminated with heavy metals. Now there is a way to remove the metals so the waste can be used as fertilizer.

Jan 22, 2020

Chris Roberts on using infinite computing power to create a universe of endless possibilities

Posted by in categories: computing, entertainment, space

Circa 2017


Chris Roberts built worlds for games such as Wing Commander at Electronic Arts’ Origin at the dawn of 3D games a couple of decades ago.

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Jan 22, 2020

Navy Files Patent for Compact Fusion Reactor

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, particle physics, space travel

Essentially beyond this is a higgs boson reactor essentially a universe of power in a jar.


Scientists have longed to create the perfect energy source. Ideally, that source would eventually replace greenhouse gas-spewing fossil fuels, power cars, boats, and planes, and send spacecraft to remote parts of the universe. So far, nuclear fusion energy has seemed like the most likely option to help us reach those goals.

Jan 22, 2020

Amazon Imagines a Future of Infinite Computing Power

Posted by in categories: futurism, robotics/AI

Circa 2017 we could eventually have euclidean geometry to have inifinite size that is infinitely small like an entire infinity computer on one byte.


Amazon’s Alexa heads for a future that looks a lot like the Starship Enterprise.

Jan 22, 2020

China Quarantines Entire City Where Mystery Virus Outbreak Began

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

It’s a city of 11 million.

Jan 22, 2020

An AI designed 30,000 drugs in 21 days and came up with winners

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Drug companies are trying to find new ways to discover new blockbuster drug treatments faster, and AI is beginning to answer the call.

Jan 22, 2020

Pentagon Racks Up $35 Trillion in Accounting Changes in One Year

Posted by in categories: economics, military

The Pentagon made $35 trillion in accounting adjustments last year alone — a total that’s larger than the entire U.S. economy and underscores the Defense Department’s continuing difficulty in balancing its books.

The latest estimate is up from $30.7 trillion in 2018 and $29 trillion in 2017, the first year adjustments were tracked in a concerted way, according to Pentagon figures and a lawmaker who’s pursued the accounting morass.

The figure dwarfs the $738 billion of defense-related funding in the latest U.S. budget, a spending plan that includes the most expensive weapons systems in the world including the F-35 jet as well as new aircraft carriers, destroyers and submarines.

Jan 22, 2020

This ultrasonic gripper could let robots hold things without touching them

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, mobile phones, robotics/AI

If robots are to help out in places like hospitals and phone repair shops, they’re going to need a light touch. And what’s lighter than not touching at all? Researchers have created a gripper that uses ultrasonics to suspend an object in midair, potentially making it suitable for the most delicate tasks.

It’s done with an array of tiny speakers that emit sound at very carefully controlled frequencies and volumes. These produce a sort of standing pressure wave that can hold an object up or, if the pressure is coming from multiple directions, hold it in place or move it around.

This kind of “acoustic levitation,” as it’s called, is not exactly new — we see it being used as a trick here and there, but so far there have been no obvious practical applications. Marcel Schuck and his team at ETH Zürich, however, show that a portable such device could easily find a place in processes where tiny objects must be very lightly held.

Jan 22, 2020

Can the Universe Provide Us with the Meaning of Life?

Posted by in category: alien life

Astronomy and space exploration might offer a new perspective on our purpose in the cosmos.

Jan 22, 2020

The microbes in your gut could predict whether you’re likely to die in the next 15 years

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Two studies find strong predictive power of microbiome in complex diseases and death.