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Sep 9, 2016

A Refrigerator Backpack Could Help Transport Vaccines And Organs

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, transportation

Medical supply transportation is a serious problem in remote regions, where it may take weeks to transport a vaccine where it’s most needed. But a British student has developed a simple device that might help get supplies where they need to go and save millions of lives in the process.

Will Broadway of Loughborough University created the tank as a way to extend the life of fragile medical supplies, like vaccines, samples, and organs.

The device uses a simple ammonia reaction that creates a cooling effect when charged. It can keep vaccines within a stable temperature realm for up to 30 days. While it’s currently designed for vaccines, Broadway next wants to make it transport organs and tissues to people in need.

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Sep 9, 2016

At Last, Google’s DeepMind AI Can Make Machines Sound Like Humans

Posted by in categories: computing, media & arts, neuroscience, robotics/AI

Google has announced WaveNet, a speech synthesis program that uses AI and deep learning techniques to generate speech samples better than current technologies. By analyzing samples 16,000 a second, it can generate human-like speech and even its own music compositions.

If you’ve ever been lost in the maze of Youtube videos you may have stumbled on clips of computers reading news articles. You’d recognize that staccato, robotic nature of the voice. We’ve come a long way from “Danger! Will Robinson!,” but it there is yet to be a computer that can seamlessly mimic a human voice.

Now, there’s a new contender, brought to you by the brilliant minds behind DeepMind. Google has announced a new voice synthesis program in WaveNet, powered by deep neural AI.

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Sep 9, 2016

The ‘impossible’ EM Drive is about to be tested in space

Posted by in categories: physics, space travel

An actual EM Drive is about to be launched into space for the first time, so scientists can finally figure out — once and for all — if it really is possible for a rocket engine to generate thrust without any kind of exhaust or propellant.

Built by American inventor and chemical engineer, Guido Fetta, the EM Drive is as controversial as it gets, because while certain experiments have suggested that such an engine could work, it also goes against one of the most fundamental laws of physics we have.

As Newton’s Third Law states, “To each action there’s an equal and opposite reaction,” and many physicists say the EM Drive categorically violates that law.

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Sep 9, 2016

OMEGA Laser Could Produce Nuclear Fusion at 5 Times Current Levels

Posted by in category: nuclear energy

Researchers from the University of Rochester have detailed conditions where the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore can create five times more nuclear fusion yield than the current records.

Nuclear fusion is one of the Holy Grails of energy research. However, developments in this particular field have been more like baby steps rather than great strides.

But now, one study is significantly accelerating our (unfortunately) small steps towards nuclear fusion. Researchers working on the OMEGA laser at the Rochester University’s Laboratory of Laser Energetics (LLE) have found optimal conditions that could produce a fusion yield that’s five times higher than the current record.

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Sep 9, 2016

No Waves? No Problem, If You’re Dronesurfing

Posted by in category: futurism

It was inevitable, and also awesome.

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Sep 9, 2016

Scientists Created a Substance that Transforms Infrared into Visible Light

Posted by in category: futurism

A team of scientists from Germany were able to create a substance that converts infrared light into visible light. This development is a big step in the advancement of illumination technology.

Light is one of the primary things that allows humans to function effectively and efficiently. Indeed, without it, we are basically hopeless; however, a lot of it is…well, missing. Perhaps a better way of articulating it is by noting that a lot of light is invisible to us.

Light, or electromagnetic radiation, is actually a really wide spectrum, but only a small portion can be seen by humans. The region that we can see is called the visible spectrum because (duh) it is visible to us.

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Sep 9, 2016

Biotech startup says it has nearly perfected making wine in a lab

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food

Ava Winery’s first public taste test didn’t exactly go well. Two reporters on camera at New Scientist compared the biotech startup’s artificial wine with a glass of the Moscato D’Asti that it was based on. They complained that the fake wine had too little color, too little viscosity, and an unpleasant plastic smell.

But that was May, and this is September, and Ava is already bragging about making huge improvements in its product, to the point where it is all but indistinguishable from fermented grape juice, and looking ahead to how it’s going to change the world.

“What we have done since then is leaps and bounds beyond what they were able to taste back in May,” co-founder Alec Lee says. “Now we’re at the point where about 90% of people fail out blind taste test.”

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Sep 9, 2016

Ray Kurzweil: Accelerating Tech Is Making Old Intellectual Property Laws Obsolete

Posted by in categories: law, Ray Kurzweil, singularity

As technology and innovation move faster and faster, concerns over ownership and access continue to increase. In answer to a question at a Singularity University event, Ray Kurzweil suggested we need to rethink intellectual property laws to more realistically match today’s pace.

Intellectual property laws from the 19th century were envisioned with roughly 20-year cycles, he said, which was enough to give you a head-start on a new idea or invention and attract funding to see it through. But how relevant is a 20-year cycle today when a generation of technology can come and go in a year—and even that is set to speed up?

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Sep 9, 2016

First Cryogenically Frozen Mammal Brain Restored Successfully

Posted by in categories: life extension, neuroscience

The human ‘connectome’.

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Sep 9, 2016

Drones armed with anti-laser lasers that trick controls of enemy lasers into missing the drone

Posted by in categories: drones, energy, military

To defend against military lasers, Adsys Controls of Irvine, California, has created Helios, which can be carried on drones. To do much damage, an offensive laser needs to remain focused on its target for several seconds. Helios stops a laser from doing this by disrupting the systems controlling the beam – the Achilles’ heel for all such weapons. “Beam control is a critical function of high-energy lasers,” says Adsys CEO Brian Goldberg.

Helios can detect an incoming laser beam and identify its key characteristics, such as power, wavelength, pulse frequency and its source. Helios then interferes with the beam control – possibly by firing back a low-power laser of its own – so the attacking laser cannot fix on the target. “It provides permanent protection,” says Goldberg. “It’s not just buying time.”

He will not say exactly how the interference is done, but it may involve fooling the control system into thinking it is hitting its target despite the laser actually pointing a few metres to the side. A direct hit would have produced a big burst of reflected light, so a pulse sent back by an anti-laser laser could make it look like the original laser was on target.

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