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Two-dimensional ‘electron gas’ creates radical microelectronics devices

March 4, 2014

Atomic structure of strontium titinate (credit: Vienna University of Technology)

Vienna University of Technology researchers have created a two-dimensional “electron gas” in strontium titanate. In a thin layer formed by the gas just below the surface, electrons can move freely and occupy different quantum states.

The new material represents a potential future alternative to standard semiconductors. Strontium titanate or other metal oxides could also exhibit other novel phenomena, such as superconductivity, thermoelectricity (converting heat to electricity), or magnetic… read more

Topics: Electronics

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How to generate new neurons in brains, spinal cords of living adult mammals

No stem-cell transplants required
March 4, 2014

Induced adult neuroblasts (iANBs) generated from astrocytes develop into functionally mature neurons

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have created new nerve cells in the brains and spinal cords of living mammals without the need for stem cell transplants to replenish lost cells.

In a comment to a KurzweilAI news article, “Brain signals from a primate directly move paralyzed limbs in another primate ‘avatar,’” “Cazbot” wondered if “a sort of ‘neural jumper’ could be used to bridge damaged sections… read more

Topics: Biotech | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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How memory and thought alter the meaning of odors

Neuroscientists monitor inhibitory neurons that link sense of smell with memory and cognition in mice, shaping perception from experiences
March 4, 2014

Granule cells at work (credit: iStock)

Odors have a way of connecting us with moments buried deep in our past. But researchers have long wondered how the process works in reverse: how do our memories shape the way sensory information is collected?

In work published in Nature Neuroscience, scientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) demonstrate for the first time a way to observe this process in awake animals.

The team, led… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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Evidence of former life on Mars?

Carbon-rich tunnel, microtunnel, and spheroidal features on meteorite suggest past water movement throughout a Martian meteorite
March 4, 2014

meteorite_mars

A team of scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has found evidence of past water movement throughout a Martian meteorite, reviving debate in the scientific community over life on Mars.

The team reports that newly discovered structures and compositional features within the a 30-pound (13.7-kilogram) Yamato meteorite suggest biological processes might have been at work on Mars hundreds of millions of years… read more

Topics: Biotech | Space

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Making nanoelectronics last longer for medical devices and ‘cyborgs’

March 3, 2014

Silicon nanowires.Top: bare, bottom, coated with aluminum oxide. The coated version lasts for 100 hours without damage.

Harvard scientist Charles Lieber and colleagues have developed a coating that makes nanoelectronics much more stable in conditions mimicking those in the human body.

The advance could aid in the development of very small implanted medical devices for monitoring health and disease, and could speed up the debut of cyborgs who are part human, the researchers say.

Nanoelectronics devices with nanowire components are much smaller than most… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Are you ready for the Internet of Cops?

March 3, 2014

FirstNet-challenges

FirstNet — a state-of-the-art communications network for paramedics, firemen and law enforcement at the federal, state and local level — will give cops on the streets unprecedented technological powers, and possibly hand over even more intimate data about our lives to the higher ends of the government and its intelligence agencies, Motherboard reports.

According to a series of presentation slides from December last year, FirstNet… read more

Topics: Internet/Telecom | Survival/Defense

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Future Day: a 24-hour global conversation

March 3, 2014

Future Day events

Future Day 2014, a third annual global event, combined Google hangouts and live events, bringing together people around the world to brainstorm ways to create a radically better future.

Future Day was organized by Humanity+, an international nonprofit membership organization that advocates the ethical use of technology to expand human capacities, and The Millennium Project — an independent non-profit global participatory futures… read more

Topics: Singularity/Futures

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Moore’s law and neural networks collude to address grand challenge

March 3, 2014

The median complexity of a heuristic, compared with the other frameworks (credit: B. Torrent)

“Moore’s Law and neural networks can collude to address a grand challenge: understanding the World Wide Web. Virtual machines can be made atomic, real-time, and ‘smart,’” says computer scientist B. Torrent, in “An Improvement of DHTs Using Beild,” published today in the Journal of Internet Analytics.

“To accomplish this purpose, we use read-write archetypes to validate that the little-known collaborative algorithm for the improvement of forward-error correction… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Internet/Telecom

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Ultra-thin capacitors could acclerate development of next-gen electronics

February 28, 2014

All-nanosheet ultrathin capacitor (credit: C. Wang et al./ACS Nano)

Japanese researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science and Shinshu University have developed a way to shrink capacitors — key components that store energy — further, which could accelerate the development of more compact, high-performance next-gen electronic devices. The study appears in the journal ACS Nano.

Takayoshi Sasaki and colleagues note that current technology has almost reached its limit in terms of materials and processing, which in turn… read more

Topics: Computers/Infotech/UI | Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Selective nanopores in graphene dramatically improve desalination and purification

February 28, 2014

holes_graphene

A team of researchers at MIT, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and in Saudi Arabia succeeded in creating subnanoscale pores in a sheet of graphene, a development that could lead to ultrathin filters for improved desalination or water purification. Their findings are published in the journal Nano Letters.

The new work, led by graduate student Sean O’Hern and associate professor of mechanical engineering Rohit Karnik, is the first… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science

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Can space elevators really work?

February 28, 2014

Climber ascends space elevator, heading spaceward from its aeroshell (credit: Frank Chase/Chase Design Studios)

Yes. A space elevator appears possible and space elevator infrastructure could indeed be built via a major international effort, a study conducted by experts under the auspices of the International Academy of Astronautics has found, Space.com writer Leonard David reports.

Two technologies pacing the development of the space elevator are an ultra-strong space tether and other space elevator components, and lightweight solar cells, according to study lead… read more

Topics: Space

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Worldwide Future Day kicks off at noon March 1 in New Zealand

"We need to do everything in our power to make the future a radically better place, by any means necessary." --- DJ Steve Aoki comment re Future Day from his concert venue in Sao Paulo, Brazil
February 28, 2014

futureday

“The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed,” William Gibson famously said. Future Day aims to do something about that.

The global event begins at noon March 1 in New Zealand (6 PM Friday Feb. 28 in New York), when Stephanie Pride of the World Futures Studies Federation launches the Future Day Google Hangout, and continues in cities around the… read more

Topics: Singularity/Futures

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With the ‘Bionanoprobe,’ rapid freezing leads to better nanoscale imaging of cells

February 28, 2014

nano-freezing

For scientists to determine if a cell is functioning properly, they must destroy it (with X-rays), possibly giving false accounts of how the cell actually works.

Now, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have created a new probe that freezes cells to “see” at greater detail without damaging the sample.*

Traditional X-ray fluorescence methods look at cells that have either been… read more

Topics: Biotech

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Transhuman Visions 2.0′s ‘deep future’ exploration

February 28, 2014

TV2.0

Piedmont, California near Oakland will be the traditional setting for a radical “deep-future” symposium titled “TRANSHUMAN VISIONS 2.0 — East Bay” on Saturday March 1. Inside the 50′s-era Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium perched above the town’s Police Department, there will be 12 hours (9 am — 9 pm) of serious brain-boosting ideas, keynoted by eminent transhumanists Natasha Vita-More and Max More.

Here’s how event producer Hank Pellissier… read more

Topics: Human Enhancement

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NASA’s Kepler mission discovers 715 new planets

February 27, 2014

The artist concept depicts multiple-transiting planet systems, which are stars with more than one planet. The planets eclipse or transit their host star from the vantage point of the observer. This angle is called edge-on. (Credit: NASA)

NASA’s Kepler mission announced Wednesday the discovery of 715 new planets. These newly-verified worlds orbit 305 stars, revealing multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system.

Nearly 95 percent of these planets are smaller than Neptune, which is almost four times the size of Earth. This discovery marks a significant increase in the number of known small-sized planets more akin to Earth than previously identified exoplanets (planets… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology

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