Excellent! Randall (online comic artist behind XKCD) writes a fantastic book on hypothetical scenarios, fleshing it out with hard science. Take a look at it in the link above!
Friday, January 23, 2015
Review of What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Excellent! Randall (online comic artist behind XKCD) writes a fantastic book on hypothetical scenarios, fleshing it out with hard science. Take a look at it in the link above!
Excellent! Randall (online comic artist behind XKCD) writes a fantastic book on hypothetical scenarios, fleshing it out with hard science. Take a look at it in the link above!
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Major Radio Burst Detected Outside Solar System
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26813-epic-cosmic-radio-burst-finally-seen-in-real-time.html#.VMCy-izaKld
Scientists believe the source of the burst was the deterioration of a neutron star, but mainly remains largely a mystery. I'm inclined to lean more towards the scientists on this one. The more fringe groups side with aliens, but this seems unlikely. A burst of this magnitude, if it was a signal, would probably have a more distinct pattern conforming more towards the cryptographical than the random, which this seems to be.
The source is 5.5 billions light years away. In addition to this, nine other radio bursts have been detected since 2007.
If you're worried, don't be. These bursts are no threat to life on earth and probably won't even be picked up on your car radio.
Scientists believe the source of the burst was the deterioration of a neutron star, but mainly remains largely a mystery. I'm inclined to lean more towards the scientists on this one. The more fringe groups side with aliens, but this seems unlikely. A burst of this magnitude, if it was a signal, would probably have a more distinct pattern conforming more towards the cryptographical than the random, which this seems to be.
The source is 5.5 billions light years away. In addition to this, nine other radio bursts have been detected since 2007.
If you're worried, don't be. These bursts are no threat to life on earth and probably won't even be picked up on your car radio.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Lithium Leading to Fountain of Youth?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110218111709.htm
A regular uptake of the trace element lithium can considerably promote longevity. This is the result of a new study by scientists of Friedrich Schiller University Jena.
Incredible work being done in the field. A good read if you can spare a few minutes. In other news, I've had more bad news involving a close family member, so I apologize for not updating yesterday. The Propulsion Algorithm might be sketchy for the next couple of days so bare with me. Thank you.
-Riley
A regular uptake of the trace element lithium can considerably promote longevity. This is the result of a new study by scientists of Friedrich Schiller University Jena.
Incredible work being done in the field. A good read if you can spare a few minutes. In other news, I've had more bad news involving a close family member, so I apologize for not updating yesterday. The Propulsion Algorithm might be sketchy for the next couple of days so bare with me. Thank you.
-Riley
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Laser-Powered Lightcraft "At the Cusp of Commercial Reality"
http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-07/high-powered-lightcraft-experiments-hint-future-space-travel
Riding a Beam of Light: Kick back and relax for your one-hour commute from New York City to Tokyo. Media Fusion; Courtesy of NASA
Astounding to say the least. Using laser technology to move light weight craft to the stars is an incredible idea. Scientists are also looking into the possibility of using this technology for ground based travel. If more trials are successful in the coming year, expect a revolution in travel. Except an awesome future. Now if we could only produce the necessary electricity for this laser cheaply and with low/ no emissions. Anyway, what are your thoughts on this subject? Please comment below!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Vaccine Against Cocaine Making Progress
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69024/title/Vaccine_against_cocaine_makes_headway
Would you take a vaccine for cocaine, heroine, or even meth? Sure, the benefits seem to outweigh any risks, but I do know that sometimes cocaine is used in surgery as a topical anesthetic. It could create problems in the future because of this. However, helping the brain resist harmful drugs could be the cornerstone our civilization has been waiting for. To help mankind finally, once and for all, overcome it's vices. What do you think about this? Please share your thoughts below!
Would you take a vaccine for cocaine, heroine, or even meth? Sure, the benefits seem to outweigh any risks, but I do know that sometimes cocaine is used in surgery as a topical anesthetic. It could create problems in the future because of this. However, helping the brain resist harmful drugs could be the cornerstone our civilization has been waiting for. To help mankind finally, once and for all, overcome it's vices. What do you think about this? Please share your thoughts below!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Water Powered Jet Pack!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC4988JqEOk
Talk about innovation! Taking the water and literally using it to fly is an incredible idea. Don't go buying just yet however, the price tag is estimated to be around 50,000. Still, if this technology could be mass produced, imagine the consequences it would have on transportation, search and rescue, and so on. I'm also curious, how high in the air could this invention take you? I would think that even increasing the thrust of the machine and the suction tubes distance, a limit would have to be reached eventually. In any event, I hope you enjoyed the video! Please tell me what you think in the comments section below!
Talk about innovation! Taking the water and literally using it to fly is an incredible idea. Don't go buying just yet however, the price tag is estimated to be around 50,000. Still, if this technology could be mass produced, imagine the consequences it would have on transportation, search and rescue, and so on. I'm also curious, how high in the air could this invention take you? I would think that even increasing the thrust of the machine and the suction tubes distance, a limit would have to be reached eventually. In any event, I hope you enjoyed the video! Please tell me what you think in the comments section below!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Researchers Produce World's First Programmable Nanoprocessor
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-world-programmable-nanoprocessor.html
"This work represents a quantum jump forward in the complexity and function of circuits built from the bottom up, and thus demonstrates that this bottom-up paradigm, which is distinct from the way commercial circuits are built today, can yield nanoprocessors and other integrated systems of the future," says principal investigator Charles M. Lieber, who holds a joint appointment at Harvard's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
The work was enabled by advances in the design and synthesis of nanowire building blocks. These nanowire components now demonstrate the reproducibility needed to build functional electronic circuits, and also do so at a size and material complexity difficult to achieve by traditional top-down approaches.
Moreover, the tiled architecture is fully scalable, allowing the assembly of much larger and ever more functional nanoprocessors.
"For the past 10 to 15 years, researchers working with nanowires, carbon nanotubes, and other nanostructures have struggled to build all but the most basic circuits, in large part due to variations in properties of individual nanostructures," says Lieber, the Mark Hyman Professor of Chemistry. "We have shown that this limitation can now be overcome and are excited about prospects of exploiting the bottom-up paradigm of biology in building future electronics."
An additional feature of the advance is that the circuits in the nanoprocessor operate using very little power, even allowing for their miniscule size, because their component nanowires contain transistor switches that are "nonvolatile."
This means that unlike transistors in conventional microcomputer circuits, once the nanowire transistors are programmed, they do not require any additional expenditure of electrical power for maintaining memory.
"Because of their very small size and very low power requirements, these new nanoprocessor circuits are building blocks that can control and enable an entirely new class of much smaller, lighter weight electronic sensors and consumer electronics," says co-author Shamik Das, the lead engineer in MITRE's Nanosystems Group.
"This new nanoprocessor represents a major milestone toward realizing the vision of a nanocomputer that was first articulated more than 50 years ago by physicist Richard Feynman," says James Ellenbogen, a chief scientist at MITRE.
Alphanumeric article! Additionally, I'm still tweaking the music and the format for all of my future posts. Should I just axe the music altogether? Leave your thoughts in the comments section!
This is a false-color scanning electron microscopy image of a programmable nanowire nanoprocessor super-imposed on a schematic nanoprocessor circuit architecture. Credit: Photo courtesy of Charles M. Lieber, Harvard University
Engineers and scientists collaborating at Harvard University and the MITRE Corporation have developed and demonstrated the world's first programmable nanoprocessor.
The groundbreaking prototype computer system, described in a paper appearing today in the journal Nature, represents a significant step forward in the complexity of computer circuits that can be assembled from synthesized nanometer-scale components.
It also represents an advance because these ultra-tiny nanocircuits can be programmed electronically to perform a number of basic arithmetic and logical functions."This work represents a quantum jump forward in the complexity and function of circuits built from the bottom up, and thus demonstrates that this bottom-up paradigm, which is distinct from the way commercial circuits are built today, can yield nanoprocessors and other integrated systems of the future," says principal investigator Charles M. Lieber, who holds a joint appointment at Harvard's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
The work was enabled by advances in the design and synthesis of nanowire building blocks. These nanowire components now demonstrate the reproducibility needed to build functional electronic circuits, and also do so at a size and material complexity difficult to achieve by traditional top-down approaches.
Moreover, the tiled architecture is fully scalable, allowing the assembly of much larger and ever more functional nanoprocessors.
"For the past 10 to 15 years, researchers working with nanowires, carbon nanotubes, and other nanostructures have struggled to build all but the most basic circuits, in large part due to variations in properties of individual nanostructures," says Lieber, the Mark Hyman Professor of Chemistry. "We have shown that this limitation can now be overcome and are excited about prospects of exploiting the bottom-up paradigm of biology in building future electronics."
An additional feature of the advance is that the circuits in the nanoprocessor operate using very little power, even allowing for their miniscule size, because their component nanowires contain transistor switches that are "nonvolatile."
This means that unlike transistors in conventional microcomputer circuits, once the nanowire transistors are programmed, they do not require any additional expenditure of electrical power for maintaining memory.
"Because of their very small size and very low power requirements, these new nanoprocessor circuits are building blocks that can control and enable an entirely new class of much smaller, lighter weight electronic sensors and consumer electronics," says co-author Shamik Das, the lead engineer in MITRE's Nanosystems Group.
"This new nanoprocessor represents a major milestone toward realizing the vision of a nanocomputer that was first articulated more than 50 years ago by physicist Richard Feynman," says James Ellenbogen, a chief scientist at MITRE.
Alphanumeric article! Additionally, I'm still tweaking the music and the format for all of my future posts. Should I just axe the music altogether? Leave your thoughts in the comments section!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)