To honor Aaron Swartz, a contributor to the Open Government book, O’Reilly Media has posted the Open Government book files for free for anyone to download, read and share, says co-author Laurel Ruma on O’Reilly Radar.
The files are posted on the O’Reilly Media GitHub account as PDF, Mobi, and EPUB files for now here: github.com/oreillymedia/open_government.
DARPA’s planned Phoenix program is intended to develop and demonstrate technologies to cooperatively harvest and re-use valuable components from retired, nonworking satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) at greatly reduced cost.
Today, when a communication satellite fails, it usually means the expensive prospect of having to launch a brand new replacement communication satellite. Many of the satellites that are obsolete or have failed still have usable antennas, solar… read more
At CES, Intel demoed its latest big idea — “perceptual computing,” MIT Technology Review reports.
With perceptual computing, Intel envisions a new kind of interface for devices that will let users switch fluently between keyboards, trackpads, touch screens, voice commands, and gestures — or use several modes of interaction at once.
Perceptual computing is Intel’s attempt to keep laptops relevant in a consumer-tech landscape… read more
For 25 years, Scottish science fiction writer Iain M. Banks, author of the Culture Series, has been writing about a utopian post-scarcity civilization managed by artificially intelligent drones known as Minds, and preoccupied by artificial intelligence, games, and interactions with other civilizations.
In the latest novel published in October, The Hydrogen Sonata, a civilization known as the Gzilt are making preparations to Sublime — in… read more
Northwestern Medicine researchers have developed a nanoparticle that attacks a cancerous lymphoma cell by mimicking HDL.(high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol, an essential nutrient for the cell.
The nanoparticle tricks the cell by blocking cholesterol from entering the cell. Deprived of an essential nutrient, the cell eventually dies.
The new study by C. Shad Thaxton, M.D., and Leo I. Gordon, M.D. shows that these… read more
A new finding by Harvard stem cell biologists turns one of the basics of neurobiology on its head — demonstrating that it is possible to turn one type of already differentiated (formed from a stem cell) neuron into another within the brain.
The discovery by Paola Arlotta and Caroline Rouaux indicates that “maybe the brain is not as immutable as we… read more
Cambridge University researchers have published a paper that they say proves that four-stranded “quadruple helix” DNA structures (G-quadruplexes) exist within the human genome.
They form in regions of DNA that are rich in the DNA building block guanine (G).
The findings mark the culmination of over 10 years investigation by scientists to show these complex structures in vivo (in living human cells) using computational… read more
Akamai, the Web optimization company whose servers deliver up to 30 percent of Web traffic, is setting its sights on creating a TV technology that can detect what a person is watching and stream secondary content to a smartphone or tablet in near real-time, MIT Technology Review reports.
The aim, the company says, is to take today’s fast-growing but chaotic landscape of TV “companion” apps… read more
In a SPIEGEL interview, synthetic biology expert and Harvard University professor of genetics George Church explains how DNA will become the building material of the future — one that can help create virus-resistant human beings and possibly bring back lost species like the Neanderthal.
In his new book, “Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves,” which he has also… read more
A new petascale supercomputer built to study the universe is one of the fastest calculating machines in the world, and certainly the fastest of its kind.
The supercomputer is part of ALMA, a new radio telescope that is claimed to be “largest ground-based astronomical project in existence,” HPC Wire reports.
The ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and “soul” in Spanish) radio telescope is a… read more
Deep Space Industries (DSI) announced Monday night that it will send a fleet of asteroid-prospecting spacecraft out into the solar system to hunt for resources to accelerate space development to benefit Earth.
These “FireFly” spacecraft utilize low-cost cubesat components and get discounted delivery to space by ride-sharing on the launch of larger communications satellites.
“This is the first commercial campaign to explore the small… read more
Belgium is planning to build a doughnut-shaped island in the North Sea that will store wind energy by pumping water out of a hollow in the middle, as it looks for ways to lessen its reliance on nuclear power, Reuters reports.
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Filabot promises to help turn your plastic junk into 3-D printed objects, Wired reports.
Most contemporary printers use plastic filament, available in spools from various suppliers. With Filabo, you can grind up several types of household plastics or even past projects to make new filament lines.
People who’ve lost sight in one eye can still see with the other, but they lack binocular depth perception.
A pair of augmented reality glasses being built at the University of Yamanashi in Japan artificially introduces a feeling of depth in a person’s healthy eye, MIT Technology Review reports.
The researchers created software that makes use of the twin cameras in a Vuzix Wrap… read more
Intel is developing communication technology that can quickly process and respond to signals Stephen Hawking sends from the few muscles in his body that he can still control, Scientific American reports.
Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner noted that Hawking can make a number of facial expressions that might be used to speed up the rate at which the physicist conveys his thoughts. Even providing Hawking with… read more