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Nov 29, 2016
Battery breakthrough charges in seconds, lasts for a week
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: mobile phones, nanotechnology
Illustration representing the novel design of a hybrid supercapacitor, showing bundles of nanowires (blue) coated with 2D energy-storage materials (yellow) (credit: University of Central Florida)
University of Central Florida researchers have developed a radical new supercapacitor design that could one day replace lithium-ion batteries, allowing users to charge a mobile phone in a few seconds and with a charge that lasts a week, according to the researchers. The new battery would be flexible and a fraction of the size of a lithium-ion battery.
The proof-of-concept design is based on a hybrid supercapacitor composed of a core with millions of highly conductive nanowires coated with shells of two-dimensional materials. It combines fast charging and discharging (high power density) and high storage capacity (high energy density).
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Nov 28, 2016
Exeter’s New Living Systems Institute hosts ‘Global Conversation’
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: futurism
The pioneering and world-leading research conducted at the University of Exeter’s state-of-the-art Living Systems Institute (LSI) will form the basis of the latest high-profile Global Conversation event.
The iconic new research facility, located on the University’s Streatham Campus, will host 100 specially-invited guests at the prominent event, held on Monday, 28 November.
The event, the first Global Conversation to be held on campus, gives the distinguished guests an exclusive opportunity to preview the new £52 million LSI facility, which brings together world-leading scientists and researchers from diverse discipline backgrounds.
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Nov 28, 2016
Neuroscientists Wirelessly Control the Brain of a Scampering Lab Mouse
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: genetics, neuroscience
Nov 28, 2016
Brain Implants that Augment the Human Brain Using AI
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics, robotics/AI
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ySsv5-jSqss
BMI implant leveraging AI.
You probably clicked on this article because the idea of using brain implants to allow artificial intelligence (AI) to read your brain sounds futuristic and fascinating. It is fascinating, but it’s not as futuristic as you might think. Before we start talking about brain implants and how to augment the human brain using AI, we need to put some context around human intelligence and why we might want to tinker with it.
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Nov 28, 2016
Brain Activity Predicts the Force of Your Actions
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
Summary: Researchers have discovered a link between nerve clusters in the brain and the amount of force generated by a physical action.
Source: Oxford University.
Researchers have found a link between the activity in nerve clusters in the brain and the amount of force generated in a physical action, opening the way for the development of better devices to assist paralysed patients.
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Nov 28, 2016
Mystery of bleary-eyed astronauts may be cleared up with spinal fluid study
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: neuroscience
Scientific Method —
Mystery of bleary-eyed astronauts may be cleared up with spinal fluid study.
Small study finds fluid that cushions the brain floods eye cavities in microgravity.
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Nov 28, 2016
4 no-bull takeaways from Microsoft quantum computing
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: computing, quantum physics
Nov 28, 2016
Material Measures the ‘Mood’ of Structures
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: education, engineering
Nov 28, 2016
NASA’s EMDrive And The Quantum Theory Of Pilot Waves
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: particle physics, quantum physics, space travel
There has been a lot of digital ink spilled over the recent paper on the reactionless thrust device known as the EMDrive. While it’s clear that a working EM Drive would violate well established scientific theories, what isn’t clear is how such a violation might be resolved. Some have argued that the thrust could be an effect of Unruh radiation, but the authors of the new paper argue instead for a variation on quantum theory known as the pilot wave model.
One of the central features of quantum theory is its counter-intuitive behavior often called particle-wave duality. Depending on the situation, quantum objects can have characteristics of a wave or characteristics of a particle. This is due to the inherent limitations on what we can know about quanta. In the usual Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory, an object is defined by its wavefunction. The wavefunction describes the probability of finding a particle in a particular location. The object is in an indefinite, probabilistic state described by the wavefunction until it is observed. When it is observed, the wavefunction collapses, and the object becomes a definite particle with a definite location.
While the Copenhagen interpretation is not the best way to visualize quantum objects it captures the basic idea that quanta are local, but can be in an indefinite state. This differs from the classical objects (such as Newtonian theory) where things are both local and definite. We can know, for example, where a baseball is and what it is doing at any given time.
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