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Acrobatic space rovers to explore moons and asteroids

An autonomous system for exploring the solar system's smaller members, such as moons and asteroids, could bring us closer to a human mission to Mars
January 2, 2013

probos surveyer2

Stanford researchers in collaboration with NASA JPL and MIT have designed a robotic platform that involves a mother spacecraft deploying one or several spiked, roughly spherical rovers to the Martian moon Phobos.

Measuring about half a meter wide, each rover would hop, tumble and bound across the cratered, lopsided moon, relaying information about its origins, as well as its soil and other surface materials.

Developed by… read more

Topics: Space

Comments (7)

Better than human

Imagine that 7 out of 10 working Americans got fired tomorrow. What would they all do?
January 2, 2013

rethink_baxter

It’s hard to believe you’d have an economy at all if you gave pink slips to more than half the labor force. But that — in slow motion — is what the industrial revolution did to the workforce of the early 19th century, says Wired maverick Kevin Kelley.

Two hundred years ago, 70 percent of American workers lived on the farm. Today automation has eliminated all but 1 percent… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Social/Ethical/Legal

Comments (106)

Google Glass update

January 2, 2013

google_glass

Summary of an IEEE Spectrum report

In the next few weeks, Google will start shipping its Google Glass to developers. More-polished consumer models are expected in 2014.

Details about Glass are still sketchy but here’s what we know:

  • The lightweight browband, which looks like an ordinary pair of reading glasses minus the lenses, connects to an earpiece that has much the same electronics you’d

… read more

Topics: VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics

Comments (24)

Cosmic radiation found harmful to astronauts during space travel

NASA-funded study shows exposed mice develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease
January 2, 2013

This NASA shapeship design may no longer be able to protect astronauts during a trip to and from Mars (credit: NASA)

Cosmic radiation — which would bombard astronauts on deep space missions to places like Mars — could accelerate the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, a new study in the open-access journal PLOS ONE shows.

“Galactic cosmic radiation poses a significant threat to future astronauts,” said M. Kerry O’Banion, M.D., Ph.D., a professor in the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Department of Neurobiology and… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Space

Comments (19)

Single-molecule motor sits on a single-atom ball bearing

Can be run forward or in reverse, depending on where electrons are injected
December 31, 2012

The base of the device holds a Ru atom, and the five-armed device can rotate on top of it (credit:

Researchers have created a reversible rotor that sits atop a ball bearing — a single ruthenium atom, Ars Technica reports.

The base of the system involves a boron atom that coordinates three ringed structures that are chemically similar to the bases of DNA. Nitrogens at a corner of these ringed structures coordinate the ruthenium atom, placing it at the peak of a three-sided pyramid.

The ruthenium atom acts… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science

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The future of medicine is now

December 31, 2012

foundation_medicine_analyzer

Six medical innovations are poised to transform the way we fight disease, The Wall Street Journal reports.

  • Surgeons at Boston Children’s Hospital have developed a way to help children born with half a heart to essentially grow a whole one — by marshaling the body’s natural capacity to heal and develop.
  • Oxford Nanopore Technologies has unveiled the first of a generation of tiny DNA sequencing devices that

… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Biotech

Comments (19)

Adafruit to teach electronics through puppets in new kids’ show

December 28, 2012

circuit_playground

 

Adafruit, the kit-based electronics retailer and promoter of hobbyist engineering, is aiming to teach electronics to a younger demographic, using puppets, says Wired.

Their new online show, titled Circuit Playground, will teach the essentials of electronics and circuitry to children through kid-friendly dolls.

As a learning companion, Adafruit has also recently produced the coloring book E is for Electronics, and will carry … read more

Topics: Electronics | Entertainment/New Media

Comments (7)

Is growth over?

December 28, 2012

Growth in real GDP per capita, with actual (from .2 to 2.5 percent per year) and hypothetical paths (credit: Robert J. Gordon)

Global growth from the current industrial revolution (computers, the web, mobile phones) is slowing — especially in advanced-technology economies, and long-term economic growth may grind to a halt, Robert J. Gordon, Stanley G. Harris Professor in the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at Northwestern University, has argued.

Now economist Paul Krugman counters in The New York Times that we are moving toward a… read more

Topics: Computers/Infotech/UI | Innovation/Entrepreneurship | Singularity/Futures

Comments (145)

Social media: five predictions for 2013

December 28, 2012

tout

What does 2013 hold in store for the world of social media? CNET predicts:

1. MySpace relaunches; no one cares (no-brainer)

2. Twitter-Instagram photo rivalry continues to develop

3. Tout (video-sharing service) breaks out

4. Bigger bucks for Twitter (ads possible)

5. Facebook buys RockMelt? (its own browser)

Topics: Social Networking/Web

Comments (8)

Synaptic electronic circuits that learn and forget like neural processes

December 27, 2012

nanoionic device

Rui Yang, Kazuya Terabe and colleagues at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), and the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) in Japan and at the California NanoSystems Institute/UCLA have developed “nanoionic” (processes connected with fast ion transport in all-solid-state nanoscale systems) devices capable of a broad range of neuromorphic and electrical functions.

Background

Such a device would allow for fabrication of on-demand configurable circuits,… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (9)

‘Neuristor’: memristors used to create neuron-like behavior

December 27, 2012

neuron-640x480

HP Labs researchers may have figured out a way to create a chip that generates neuron-like spikes (sharp signal pulses), using a combination of memristors and capacitors to create a spiking output pattern, Ars Technica reports.

Neurons encode information in the pattern and timing of  spikes. The researchers used a simplified model of neurons based on sodium-potassium ion channels to turn the neuron on and off.… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Electronics

Comments (10)

A high-resolution nanoscale window to the live biological world

December 27, 2012

vtech_nanoscale_window

Investigators at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute have invented a way to directly image biological structures at nanometer-resolution in their natural habitats (a liquid environment).

The technique is a major advancement toward the ultimate goal of imaging biological processes in action at the atomic level.

The technique uses two silicon-nitride microchips with windows etched in their centers and pressing them together until only… read more

Topics: Biotech | Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (3)

Thiel Fellowship applications open until December 31

Program awards $100,000 grants to innovative, driven young people with creative ideas who want to make a difference for the world
December 27, 2012

thiel_fellowship

Applications for the Thiel Foundation’s 20 Under 20 fellowship program for 2013 are due by 11:59 P.M. (UTC–12) on December 31, 2012.

Thiel Fellowships consist of separate grants of $100,000 to 20 people under 20 years old, so that they can leave the classroom and pursue innovation. In addition to the financial support, Thiel Fellows are mentored by hundreds of highly accomplished entrepreneurs, scientists, investors, thinkers, and innovators of the Thiel Network.… read more

Topics: Innovation/Entrepreneurship

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Advanced humanoid Roboy to be ‘born’ in nine months

December 26, 2012

roboy

Meet Roboy, “one of the most advanced humanoid robots,” say researchers at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Zurich.

Their 15 project partners and over 40 engineers and scientists are constructing Roboy as a tendon-driven robot modeled on human beings (robots usually have their motors in their joints, giving them that “robot” break-dance look), so it will move almost as elegantly as a… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

Comments (164)

What will your next body be like?

December 25, 2012

A scene from R.U.R., showing three robots (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

“Many engineers, including me, think that some time around 2050, we will be able to make very high quality links between the brains and machines. … If your mind is so well connected, you could inhabit a new body, without having to vacate your existing one,” suggests futurologist Ian Pearson.

“Using a detachable brain is one option, or not to put a brain in at all, using empty immobile husks that… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Human Enhancement

Comments (40)

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