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Sep 30, 2016

Jedi scientists freeze light in midair to bring quantum computers a step closer to reality

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics

Remember that scene in “The Force Awakens” where the dark side warrior Kylo Ren stops a laser blast in mid-air? In a Canberra laboratory, physicists have managed a feat almost as magical: they froze the movement of light in a cloud of ultracold atoms. This discovery could help bring optical quantum computers from the realms of sci-fi to reality.

The experiment, published in a paper this week, was inspired by a computer stimulation run by lead researcher Jesse Everett from the Australian National University. The researchers used a vaporized cloud of ultracold rubidium atoms to create a light trap, into which they shone infrared lasers. The light trap constantly emitted and re-captured the light.

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Sep 30, 2016

Robotic surgery tech provides users with a sense of touch

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

A new system called HeroSurg, developed by researchers at Deakin and Harvard Universities, is set to increase what surgeons can achieve via robotic surgery, using a haptic feedback system to provide a sense of touch. It also brings other improvements over existing tech, such as collision avoidance, to make robotic surgery safer and more accurate.

Robotic surgery, wherein human-controlled robots perform delicate surgical tasks, has been around for a while. One great example of the tech is the da Vinci robotic surgical system from Intuitive Surgical – a setup made up of numerous robotic arms, a console to operate the instruments, and an imaging system that shows the surgeon what’s happening in real time. In 2008, Professor Suren Krishnan, a member of the team behind HeroSurg, became the first surgeon to perform ear, throat and nose operations using the da Vinci robotic surgical system.

Since then, we’ve seen numerous breakthroughs, including improvements to the original da Vinci system, and other robots emerging capable of achieving impressive tasks, such as performing surgery on a beating heart, or successfully stitching soft tissue.

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Sep 30, 2016

Elon Musk’s Plan To Get Us To Mars (In Less Than 90 Seconds)

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

Elon Musk spent two hours detailing his plan to bring humanity to Mars. We cut it down to less than 90 seconds. You’re welcome.

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Sep 30, 2016

Challenging America’s Two Party System

Posted by in categories: geopolitics, transhumanism

I’m on BBC World Service and some NPR stations over the next 6–10 hours talking politics and transhumanism with Prof. Lawrence Lessig and others. Jill Stein also on show. Give it a listen:


Why can’t a third party candidate become US president?

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Sep 30, 2016

D-Wave Systems previews 2000-qubit quantum processor

Posted by in categories: energy, information science, quantum physics

D-Wave 2000-qubit processor (credit: D-Wave Systems)

D-Wave Systems announced Tuesday (Sept. 28, 2016) a new 2000-qubit processor, doubling the number of qubits over the previous-generation D-Wave 2X system. The new system will enable larger problems to be solved and performance improvements of up to 1000 times.

D-Wave’s quantum system runs a quantum-annealing algorithm to find the lowest points in a virtual energy landscape representing a computational problem to be solved. The lowest points in the landscape correspond to optimal or near-optimal solutions to the problem. The increase in qubit count enables larger and more difficult problems to be solved, and the ability to tune the rate of annealing of individual qubits will enhance application performance.

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Sep 30, 2016

New Ethernet standards will offer up to 5Gbps performance using cables you already own

Posted by in category: futurism

A newly-approved wired Ethernet standard could deliver 2.5GbE and 5GbE connections over existing infrastructure. After nearly 20 years, are we finally ready to move past gigabit Ethernet?

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Sep 30, 2016

Scientists Can Reconstruct An Image Of What Someone Was Looking At Using Brain Scans

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Soon, scientists will be able to record your dreams.

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Sep 30, 2016

This Startup Employs Robots That Bake Pizza En Route for Delivery

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Its co-founder may have this skeptical New Yorker convinced.

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Sep 30, 2016

Massive Earthquake Along the San Andreas Fault Is Disturbingly Imminent

Posted by in category: futurism

Anyone who is, or will be, anywhere near these potentially severe earthquake damage zones, be safe!


A series of quakes under the Salton Sea may be a signal that the San Andreas Fault is on the verge of buckling. For the next few days, the risk of a major earthquake along the fault is as high as 1 in 100. Which, holy crap.

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Sep 30, 2016

Elon Musk Will Name the First Mars-Bound Craft After a Mega-Famous Sci-Fi Ship

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

“It’s driven by infinite improbability.”

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