Most Recently Added Most commentedBy Title | Z-A

Page 8 of 1,035First45678910111213203040Last

WTN X PRIZE Technology Prizes Initiative Launched

October 12, 2004

The X Prize Foundation and the World Technology Network (WTN) announced the launch of the WTN X PRIZE, which will award prizes for significant achievements towards specific science or technology challenges such as cures for major diseases, artificial intelligence, or molecular assemblers.

The prizes will use the same methods developed for the recently awarded Ansari X PRIZE (10 million dollars for the first private space flight) to choose both… read more

Topics: Singularity/Futures

Comments (0)

Writer Neal Stephenson unveils his digital novel The Mongoliad

September 1, 2010

mongoliad

Author Neal Stephenson has launched Subutai, which has developed the “PULP platform” for creating digital novels, using a new model for publishing books in which authors can add additional material like background articles, images, music, and video. There are also social features that allow readers to create their own profiles, earn badges for activity on the site or in the application, and interact with other readers..

Their first… read more

Topics: Entertainment/New Media

Comments (0)

Write speeds for phase-change memory reach record limits

June 28, 2012

fast_phase_change

By pre-organizing atoms in a bit of phase-change memory, information can be written in less than one nanosecond, the fastest for such memory.

With write speeds comparable to the memory that powers our computers, phase change memory could one day help computers boot up instantly.

Phase-change memory stores information based on the organization of atoms in a material, often a mixture of germanium, antimony, and tellurium (Ge2Sb2Te5 or… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science | Physics/Cosmology

Comments (3)

Wristwatch gives remote control of computer

October 10, 2001

A new high-tech watchstrap that gives its wearer remote control over a wearable computer has been demonstrated in Switzerland.The GestureWrist, developed by Jun Rekimoto of Sony’s Computer Science Laboratory in Tokyo, Japan, uses sensors embedded into a normal watch strap. These track a wearer’s arm movements and the opening and closing their hand, relaying this information to a computer kept somewhere on their person.

GestureWrist uses a tilt sensor… read more

Topics: Computers/Infotech/UI | Human Enhancement

Comments (0)

Wrinkled cell nuclei may make us age

April 28, 2006

A new study shows that cells from people over the age of 80 tend to have specific problems with the nucleus. The elderly nucleus loses its pert, rounded shape and becomes warped and wrinkled.

The National Cancer Institute team suggests that healthy cells always make a trace amount of an aberrant form of lamin A protein, but that young cells can sense and eliminate it. Elderly cells, it seems,… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity

Comments (0)

Wrapping Solar Cells around an Optical Fiber

October 30, 2009

Researchers at Georgia Tech have made dye-sensitized solar cells with a much higher effective surface area by wrapping the cells around optical fibers.

These fiber solar cells are six times more efficient than a zinc oxide solar cell with the same surface area, and if they can be built using cheap polymer fibers, they shouldn’t be significantly more expensive to make.

Topics: Energy

Comments (0)

Wozniak’s New Goal is Efficient Housing

August 15, 2007

Steve Wozniak is developing techniques to build homes with the least energy usage and pollution (using, for example, ram-dirt) and the least energy to operate.

Topics: Energy | Environment/Climate

Comments (0)

Wow! That’s fast TCP!

December 14, 2004

Data has been sent across a wide-area optical network at 101Gbit/sec., the fastest-ever sustained data transmission speed, equivalent to downloading three full DVD movies per second, or transmitting all of the content of the Library of
Congress in 15 minutes.

It was demonstrated by a High Energy Physics research team that included the California Institute of Technology, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratories (FNAL).… read more

Topics: Internet/Telecom

Comments (0)

Would you trust a humanoid robot?

July 7, 2010

Nexi226

Northeastern University psychology professor David DeSteno and colleagues are conducting innovative research to determine how humans decide to trust strangers — and if those decisions are accurate.

The researchers are examining whether nonverbal cues and gestures could affect our trustworthiness judgments. “People tend to mimic each other’s body language,” said DeSteno, “which might help them develop intuitions about what other people are feeling — intuitions about whether they’ll… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

Comments (3)

Would you pay $68,000 to unlock the secrets of your genetic code?

May 1, 2009

Bidding kicked off last week at $68,000 on a 10-day eBay auction whose prize includes personal genome sequencing, analysis, and interpretation services provided by Cambridge, Mass.-based genetics firm Knome, Inc.

The auction’s winner also participates in a roundtable discussion with Knome’s geneticists, clinicians and bioinformaticians to review the winner’s sequence data, and a private dinner with George Church, co-Founder and Knome’s chief scientific advisor.

The auction is intended… read more

Topics: Biotech

Comments (0)

Would you have allowed Bill Gates to be born?

June 1, 2005

There is a good chance we will soon have a genetic test for detecting the risk of autism in an embryo or fetus.

The development of such a screening tool raises the possibility that parents might one day have the option of preventing the birth of a child with even a mild form of the disorder.

As genetic testing moves into the world of mental health, we are… read more

Topics: Biotech

Comments (0)

Would you give up your immortality to ensure the success of a posthuman world?

July 30, 2007

On Wednesday at TransVision 2007, Marvin Minsky puckishly suggested we could solve any population problem by uploading the minds of 10 billion people and running them on a computer that occupies a few cubic meters and costs only a few hundred dollars to run.

Ray Kurzweil claimed that longevity trends are accelerating so fast that the life expectancy will increase more than one year for each year… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Human Enhancement | Singularity/Futures

Comments (0)

Would You Buy a Car From a Robot?

December 12, 2002

Honda is using its Asimo walking-talking robot as a promotional tool, reciting information about cars in showrooms and appearing in commercials and at events.

Asimo uses the visual information from a camera to recognize ten different preprogrammed faces, follows movements, and takes direction for its movements.

Topics: AI/Robotics

Comments (0)

Worse Than Gray Goo

February 24, 2004

“If we ever get to the point where script kiddies can release dangerous gray goo, we’re probably doomed –since it’ll surely be harder to stop goo than to stop slow-moving, slow-thinking meat robots from pushing the wrong buttons, says Center for Responsible Nanotechnology Director of Research Chris Phoenix.

“But we will have much more severe dangers to deal with before that point. Like nano-arms races with weapons much more… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science

Comments (0)

Wormhole ‘no use’ for time travel

May 24, 2005

A new study by Stephen Hsu and Roman Buniy of the University of Oregon says the idea of building a traversable wormhole may be fundamentally unstable.

However, they also assert that “semi-classical” wormholes — in which the space-time “tube” shows only weak deviations from the laws of classical physics — are the most desirable type for time travel because they potentially allow travellers to predict where and when they… read more

Comments (0)

Page 8 of 1,035First45678910111213203040Last
close and return to Home