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May 3, 2016
World’s Largest Radio Telescope Nears Completion, And It’s Going To Find ALIENS
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: futurism
The world’s largest radio telescope is almost finished — and it’s going to try to make contact with extra-terrestrial life.
This fascinating video and stunning photos show how close the 500m wide Aperture Spherical Telescope, or “FAST”, is to completion.
Continue reading “World’s Largest Radio Telescope Nears Completion, And It’s Going To Find ALIENS” »
May 3, 2016
Implant helps teen regain control of hands
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: neuroscience
Beautiful
A Blue Springs teen who has struggled to control her hand movements for years is seeing results after a brain implant.
A group of strangers are plunged into a dark, claustrophobic maze where they must fight to survive as the outside world wagers on their fate.
May 3, 2016
A Tesla Model S equipped with a robotic arm for your wheelchair [Video]
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: robotics/AI, space, sustainability, transportation
A Germany-based company, Paravan, is a leader in the electric wheelchair market and related accessories to adapt vehicles for people with disabilities. While they mostly work with vans and trucks, their latest product makes almost any car with enough trunk space extremely practical for someone using a wheelchair.
They installed it in a Tesla Model S to illustrate the functionalities of the product and the range of vehicles it can be installed on.
A robotic arm, called Robot 3000, can automatically lift a wheelchair (up to 25 kg – 55 lbs) from the trunk of a vehicle, then it moves the chair to the driver’s side and extends it all the way to the driver’s door.
Continue reading “A Tesla Model S equipped with a robotic arm for your wheelchair [Video]” »
May 3, 2016
How Craig Wright Privately ‘Proved’ He Created Bitcoin — By Andy Greenberg | Wired
Posted by Odette Bohr Dienel in category: bitcoin
“Who rumors surfaced early last month that Australian cryptographer Craig Wright would attempt to prove that he created Bitcoin, Gavin Andresen remained skeptical. As the chief scientist of the Bitcoin Foundation, his opinion counts: Andresen is among the earliest programmers for the cryptocurrency, and likely the one who has corresponded more than anyone with Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous, long-lost inventor.”
May 3, 2016
Virtual Reality Is the Most Powerful Medium of Our Time — By Molly Gottschalk | Artsy
Posted by Odette Bohr Dienel in categories: media & arts, virtual reality
“Virtual reality, too, has existed for a long time—at least in some form. In 1935, American science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum planted early seeds of virtual reality with his short story Pygmalion’s Spectacles, having imagined a pair of magic goggles that could transport the wearer into a faraway place—a holographic, multisensory motion picture complete with touch and smell.”
May 3, 2016
Do we need sex to reproduce?
Posted by Matthew Holt in categories: genetics, habitats, sex
The article states that European royal houses are all closely related. Well in humanities history it’s thought that over 80% of all marriages were between second cousins or closer. While until the industrial revolution the nobility would have been the only demographic who could travel further than as far as you can walk from your home and back in a day. So until the industrial revolution the nobility were probably the most genetically diverse demographic.
‘Virgin births’ happen in nature more than we thought, says Frank Swain, so what’s stopping human beings from doing the same?
May 3, 2016
Comcast Can Now Sell You Fiber Speeds Over Coax, Thanks to a New Modem
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: energy, habitats, internet
Gearing up to offer one-gigabit-per-second Internet service in five U.S. cities this year. The first five cities to see the blazing speed are Nashville, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, and Miami.
Comcast, the Internet provider everyone loves to hate, is gearing up to offer one-gigabit-per-second Internet service in five U.S. cities this year. The first five cities to see the blazing speed are Nashville, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, and Miami. In line with Google Fiber, Verizon FiOs, and municipal offerings at one-gigabit speeds to the home, the new Comcast service will dramatically increase download speeds. Most subscribers currently receive download speeds of 25–100 megabits per second. For the customers with a 100Mbps connection, the increase boosts their speed 10 times over. For customers with 25 megabit connections, it’s 40 times faster. At that rate, one could download a full-length HD movie in around seven seconds. Not bad.
What sets Comcast’s gigabit service apart is the fact that the Internet provider is not using fiber optic lines to achieve the mega-fast speeds. Instead the company is using the existing coaxial cable lines that are already piped into people’s homes, giving Comcast a potentially huge advantage over a project like Google Fiber—which requires digging costly trenches through cities to lay fiber cables.
Continue reading “Comcast Can Now Sell You Fiber Speeds Over Coax, Thanks to a New Modem” »
May 3, 2016
School’s in session — Nvidia’s driverless system learns
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: computing, robotics/AI, transportation
After spending 72 hours watching human drivers, Nvidia’s GPU-based computers were able to construct a road-worthy driverless car system.