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Dec 8, 2015
The $75,000 problem for self-driving cars is going away
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: robotics/AI, transportation
LIDAR units once cost $75,000. Now a $250 LIDAR, with no moving parts, is about to enter the market.
Giving a car “eyes” once cost a fortune. Now it’s affordable, a good sign for autonomous vehicles.
Dec 8, 2015
Why Algae Could Be the Greatest—and Trickiest—Fuel Source of All
Posted by Montie Adkins in categories: climatology, nuclear energy, sustainability
I recall when Venter made the first synthetic unique life form he said biofuels and algae that soaks up carbon dioxide would come out of it. Feels like it has been slow going but here is a why and why no item and please read the comments too as they are also informative.
From powering airplanes to replacing nuclear energy, algae has been touted as a green energy miracle. So if our waterways are already filled with the stuff, why isn’t it filling the world’s skies with biofueled planes? Algae is a tricky creature that presents a lot of challenges and misconceptions. Here’s why it’s difficult to harness—and why it could big a big payoff.
As we previously reported, algae is a fuel source that’s vastly more eco-friendly than oil, and will be crucial as we head into a future filled with climate change and depleting fossil fuels.
Continue reading “Why Algae Could Be the Greatest—and Trickiest—Fuel Source of All” »
Dec 8, 2015
Red Mars: Spike Orders Kim Stanley Robinson’s Epic to Series
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: entertainment, space
Spike is finally getting into the scripted series game and is beginning with a full season order for an adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars.
Dec 8, 2015
California firm Hyperloop to test engine in southern Nevada
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: business, transportation
A California company with visions of building a futuristic transportation system to one day zip people and packages at nearly the speed of sound announced Tuesday it is building a test facility in southern Nevada.
Hyperloop Technologies Inc. and the Nevada governor’s office said the 50-acre facility at a fledgling North Las Vegas business park will test a linear electric motor at speeds of about 335 mph—about half the speed envisioned in a full-scale system.
“This decision represents another major milestone in our journey to bring Hyperloop to commercial reality,” Rob Lloyd, CEO of the Los Angeles-based company, said in a statement.
Dec 8, 2015
Tiny chip that powers itself from radio waves
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: computing, energy
A tiny chip that uses radio waves to make its energy has been developed by Dutch researchers.
Dec 8, 2015
Laser-Induced Graphene Looks to Displace Batteries With Supercapacitors
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: energy, materials
Researchers continue to refine the process for producing laser-induced graphene that promises big changes in energy storage.
Dec 8, 2015
IBM to develop hardware to wipe out errors in quantum computing
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: computing, quantum physics
(Image: IBM)
The race to build a full-blown quantum computer is heating up. Tech giant IBM has been working on error-correcting techniques for quantum hardware, and has now won funding from the US Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) to take it to the next level.
Quantum computers promise to vastly outperform normal PCs on certain problems. But efforts to build them have been hampered by the fragility of quantum bits, or qubits, as the systems used to store them are easily affected by heat and electromagnetic radiation. IBM is one of a number of companies and research teams developing error-correcting techniques to iron out these instabilities.
Dec 8, 2015
Controversial Quantum Machine Bought
Posted by Andreas Matt in categories: computing, information science, materials, quantum physics, robotics/AI
Governments and leading computing companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google are trying to develop what are called quantum computers because using the weirdness of quantum mechanics to represent data should unlock immense data-crunching powers. Computing giants believe quantum computers could make their artificial-intelligence software much more powerful and unlock scientific leaps in areas like materials science. NASA hopes quantum computers could help schedule rocket launches and simulate future missions and spacecraft. “It is a truly disruptive technology that could change how we do everything,” said Deepak Biswas, director of exploration technology at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.
Biswas spoke at a media briefing at the research center about the agency’s work with Google on a machine they bought in 2013 from Canadian startup D-Wave systems, which is marketed as “the world’s first commercial quantum computer.” The computer is installed at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and operates on data using a superconducting chip called a quantum annealer. A quantum annealer is hard-coded with an algorithm suited to what are called “optimization problems,” which are common in machine-learning and artificial-intelligence software.
However, D-Wave’s chips are controversial among quantum physicists. Researchers inside and outside the company have been unable to conclusively prove that the devices can tap into quantum physics to beat out conventional computers.
