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Facial sensors and software to help Hawking communicate faster

January 21, 2013

(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

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

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Computers/Infotech/UI | Human Enhancement | Internet/Telecom

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Firefly gene makes mice glow to track cancer and aging in real time

January 21, 2013

University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers have developed a strain of mice that turns on a gene from fireflies to provide a visual indication of aging and tumor growth in mice. The mice light up whenever another mouse gene, p16INK4a (p16) is is activated (in cells undergoing senescence, the p16 gene is switched on).

The researchers followed p16 activation by simply tracking the… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

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Using HIV to attack itself

January 21, 2013

HIV virus (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

A Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) Associate Professor David Harrich has developed a way to use HIV to beat HIV in the laboratory.

He has determined how to modify a protein in the virus, creating the the “Nullbasic” protein, which provides strong, lasting protection from infection by stopping the virus from replicating in a lab environment. Animal trials are due to start this year.

“If this… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

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Highest-efficiency flexible thin-film solar cells

January 21, 2013

Scientists at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have developed thin-film solar cells on flexible polymer foils with a new record efficiency of 20.4%.

The cells are based on CIGS  (copper indium gallium (di)selenide) semiconducting material.

Thin-film, lightweight, flexible high-performance solar modules are attractive for solar farms, roofs and facades of buildings, automobiles, and portable electronics and can be produced using… read more

Topics: Energy | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Asteroid-prospecting spacecraft plan to be announced

January 21, 2013

deepspaceindustries

On Tuesday at 10 AM PT, Deep Space Industries Inc. will announce plans to create “the world’s first fleet of commercial asteroid-prospecting spacecraft,” according to an email press release.

The announcement will be broadcast live at http://www.spacevidcast.com. A video of the announcement will be available  at www.deepspaceindustries.com.

“Deep Space is pursuing an aggressive schedule and plans on prospecting, harvesting and processing asteroids for use… read more

Topics: Space

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Kim Suozzi cryopreserved January 17 at Alcor

by Shannon Vyff
January 19, 2013

kim_suozzi

Kim Suozzi, diagnosed at age 21 with brain cancer while studying neuroscience at college, passed away Thursday, January 17, 2013 at age 23.

The Society for Venturism, a cryonics advocacy and support group, started a charity fund for her cryonic suspension in August of 2012 and through an overwhelming amount of support from the extreme life extension community, enough funds were raised for her to be cryopreserved with Alcor.… read more

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Micron readies hybrid memory cube for debut

January 18, 2013

hybrid_memory_cube

The next-generation memory-maker Micron Technology‘s Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) technology is a multi-chip module (MCM) that aims to address one of the biggest challenges in high performance computing: scaling the memory wall, HPC Wire reports.

Memory architectures haven’t kept pace with the bandwidth requirements of multicore processors. As microprocessor speeds out-accelerated DRAM memory speeds, a bottleneck developed that is referred to as the… read more

Topics: Computers/Infotech/UI | Electronics

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Mathematicians aim to take publishers out of publishing

Episciences Project to launch series of community-run, open-access journals
January 18, 2013

arxiv

Mathematicians plan to launch a series of free open-access journals that will host their peer-reviewed articles on the preprint server arXiv, Nature News reports. The project was publicly revealed yesterday in a blog post by Tim Gowers, a Fields Medal winner and mathematician at the University of Cambridge, UK.

The initiative, called the Episciences Project, hopes to show that researchers can organize the… read more

Topics: Entertainment/New Media | Social Networking/Web/Education | Social/Ethical/Legal

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New research supports the huge potential of tidal power

January 18, 2013

Artist’s impression of a tidal turbine array (credit: Phil. Trans. R. Soc)

A global group of scientists and engineers, including from the University of Southampton, has published in a special issue journal of the Royal Society in support of tidal power, which has the potential to provide more than 20 per cent of the UK’s electricity demand, they calculate.

While the predictable nature of tides makes them an ideal renewable energy source, more so than wind, the… read more

Topics: Energy

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Is the ‘quantum singularity’ near?

January 18, 2013

quantum_aaronson

Four research groups have announced progress on a quantum-computing proposal made two years ago by MIT researchers.

In early 2011, two theoretical computer scientists at MIT proposed an optical experiment that would harness the weird laws of quantum mechanics to perform a computation impossible on conventional computers.

Commenting at the time, Terry Rudolph, a quantum-computing researcher at Imperial College London said that the experiment… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology | Quantum

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New surfaces repel most known liquids

January 18, 2013

superoleophobic surface (credit: Shuaijun Pan et al./JACS)

Scientists have developed new “superomniphobic” surfaces that will lead to stain-proof, spill-proof clothing, protective garments, and other products that shrug off virtually every liquid — from blood and ketchup to concentrated acids.

Anish Tuteja and colleagues point out that scientists have previously reported “omniphobic” surfaces, the term meaning that such surfaces can cause a range of different liquids to bead up and not spread on them. But… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science

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Telepresence robot helps program brain and spine stimulators remotely

January 18, 2013

RP-7 home telepresence device (credit: Ivar Mendez et al./Neurosurgery)

With the rapidly expanding use of brain and spinal cord stimulation therapy (neuromodulation), “remote presence” (telepresence) technologies may help to meet the demand for experts to perform stimulator programming, reports a study published in Neurosurgery.

The preliminary study by Dr. Ivar Mendez of Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, supports the feasibility and safety of using a telepresence robot (“RP-7″) to increase… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Biomed/Longevity | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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A robotic fish that glides for long distances

January 18, 2013

A team of MSU researchers has developed a robotic fish that can swim and glide long distances while gathering data such as water quality and temperature (credit: G.L. Kohuth/Michigan State university)

Michigan State University (MSU) scientists have redesigned a “robotic fish,” giving it the ability to glide long distances, using little to no energy, while measuring water temperature and quality and other data that can aid in testing and cleaning lakes and rivers.

According to research team leader Xiaobo Tan, MSU associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, while gliding  uses less energy, it’s slower and less… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Innovation/Entrepreneurship

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Quantum dots go on display

January 17, 2013

QD-Vision-Color.graph

Researchers working with nanoscale fluorescent particles called quantum dots have long predicted groundbreaking achievements, such as ultra-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and solar cells, but the technology has found mainly niche applications.

That could change with the announcement last week that QD Vision would supply Sony Corporation of Tokyo with quantum dots for flat-screen televisions that will transmit more richly colored images than other TVs on… read more

Topics: Entertainment/New Media | Nanotech/Materials Science

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A real-life ‘holodeck’ in 10 years?

January 17, 2013

The holodeck of the USS Enterprise (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

According to software expert Tim Huckaby, we’re on the verge of a science-fiction-like future where doctors manipulate molecules in three-dimensional (3-D) space, augmented music players tune into your thoughts, and retailers deliver coupons in real time based on the focus of your gaze across store shelves, Smart Planet reports.

His predictions for what’s possible within the next 10 years include a functioning “holodeck” (as in Star Trek)… read more

Topics: Computers/Infotech/UI | Entertainment/New Media | VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics

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