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Jul 28, 2016
Physicist offers leading theory about mysterious Large Hadron Collider excess
Posted by Andreas Matt in categories: particle physics, space
In December of last year, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe announced startling results hinting at the existence of an undiscovered subatomic particle—one with a mass six times heavier than the Higgs boson, the particle that made headlines in 2012.
The evidence is still thin, but if more data confirm the finding, it could sharpen humankind’s understanding of the building blocks of the universe.
“This was a very surprising announcement and a puzzle at the same time, because the lifetime and mass of the particle could reveal something else beyond simply one extra particle, if it turns out to be a real signal,” said Kyoungchul “K.C.” Kong, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas. “Yet we do not claim this as a discovery, and we need more data.”
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Jul 28, 2016
A Transhumanist Goes to the Conventions
Posted by Zoltan Istvan in category: transhumanism
My experiences at the Republican and Democratic conventions summed up in a Vice Motherboard article:
The RNC was surprisingly more open to transhumanism than the DNC.
Jul 28, 2016
Breakthrough solar cell captures carbon dioxide and sunlight, produces burnable fuel
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: solar power, sustainability
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have engineered a potentially game-changing solar cell that cheaply and efficiently converts atmospheric carbon dioxide directly into usable hydrocarbon fuel, using only sunlight for energy.
The finding is reported in the July 29 issue of Science and was funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. A provisional patent application has been filed.
Unlike conventional solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity that must be stored in heavy batteries, the new device essentially does the work of plants, converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into fuel, solving two crucial problems at once. A solar farm of such “artificial leaves” could remove significant amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and produce energy-dense fuel efficiently.
Jul 28, 2016
Russia to Create New Powerful Plasma Rocket Engine
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: nuclear energy, space
A Russian rocket engine company, with the assistance of a major research and development institute, will work on a project to create a powerful electrodeless plasma rocket engine, Russia’s Roscosmos space corporation said Wednesday.
The project will be developed by the Kurchatov Institute, Russia’s leading research and development institution in the field of nuclear energy, and the Chemical Automatics Design Bureau (CADB).
“The project involves the development of a new-generation electrodeless plasma engine. It is a high-power engine using fuel in a plasma state. It has a high energy efficiency, an ability to use almost any kind of rocket fuel… and its maximum engine power is limited only by the power supply of a high-frequency generator,” Roscosmos said in a statement.
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Jul 28, 2016
A new, independent review of the Orion spacecraft is pretty damning
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: space travel
The next president needs to invest the damn money that’s needed to get this entire thing going. No more deferring. No more dithering. If this turns out to be an impossibility, then we should just privatize the entire production and design process, get rid of the red tape, and just get it DONE before we get delay after delay and then, when we finally DO get there, we find the Chinese have already built a damned settlement.
Scientific Method —
A new, independent review of the Orion spacecraft is pretty damning.
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Jul 28, 2016
Tonight, a meteor shower created by a mysterious comet will reach its peak — here’s how to watch
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: space
Right now, we are in the middle of a meteor shower called the Delta Aquarids, which began around July 12. And tonight, the shower will reach its peak.
Jul 28, 2016
Growing Organs on Apples
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: biotech/medical, life extension
Jul 28, 2016
New Group Takes On Massive Computing Needs of Big Data
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: computing, engineering, information science, neuroscience, robotics/AI
Big Data and Obama’s Brain Initiative — As we harness mass volumes of information and the current tech explosion around information; we will seeing an accelerated growing need/ urgency for more advance AI, QC, and new brain-mind interface intelligence to assist others when working with both super-intelligence AI and the mass volumes of information.
Engineers are experimenting with chip design to boost computer performance. In the above layout of a chip developed at Columbia, analog and digital circuits are combined in a novel architecture to solve differential equations with extreme speed and energy efficiency. Image: Simha Sethumadhavan, Mingoo Seok and Yannis Tsividis/Columbia Engineering.
In the big data era, the modern computer is showing signs of age. The sheer number of observations now streaming from land, sea, air and space has outpaced the ability of most computers to process it. As the United States races to develop an “exascale” machine up to the task, a group of engineers and scientists at Columbia have teamed up to pursue solutions of their own.
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Jul 28, 2016
Exclusive Interview with a BioRobotics Researcher
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: robotics/AI
An interview with the ever humble Francesco Corucci world re-known BioRobotics researcher with the BioRobotics Institute.
We had the unique opportunity to interview Francesco Corucci, a Phd Fellow at the BioRobotics Institute. As we aren’t researchers ourselves, here are the unedited answers by Francesco instead of paraphrasing or rewording his message.
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