The SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY News Thread

[GreyZone]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

Bill Gates' nuclear firm plans hot, salty push into power:

And a royalty payment from every home

"The nuclear power firm being hailed by Bill Gates as the answer to mankind's future
energy needs is planning a proprietary approach to an old atomic idea to further its
global ambitions.

TerraPower is an offshoot of patent holding company Intellectual Ventures, which was
co-founded by former 14-year Microsoftie Nathan Myhrvold. It was showcased by Bill
Gates at TED in 2010 and the main area the firm is working on is a traveling-wave
reactor (TWR).

A TWR mostly burns depleted uranium fuel, which is stacked in a long candle-like
column and then ignited with a cap of enriched uranium. Such a fission reactor would
take 50-100 years to burn itself down, with virtually no maintenance required or spent
fuel to dispose of, and proposed power plants could produce 300MWe and 1,000MWe
cheaply and simply."

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07...sh_into_power/

That reminds me... any news regarding nuclear fusion power?

[AnimeFan188]

‘Landmark’ Space Policy Shift As China, Others Agree To Space Code of Conduct Talks:

"After years of grudging refusal to do much more than discuss the possibility of talks
on a space code of conduct, China has begun discussions on a multilateral code as
part of a larger UN effort, as well as committed to specific goals known in the trade
as “transparency and confidence-building measures” (TCBMs)."

See:

http://breakingdefense.com/2013/07/2...de-of-conduct/

[Ithekro]

A oppose to "Totally Cosmic Ballistic Missiles"

[AnimeFan188]

Beam me up? Not in the life of this universe:

"Student boffins find walking to the moon would be faster than teleportation"

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07...re_in_a_hurry/

[SummeryDreams]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

Beam me up? Not in the life of this universe:

"Student boffins find walking to the moon would be faster than teleportation"

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07...re_in_a_hurry/

He has a point. I guess any stuffs that is transferable right now will not surpass the total capacity of a human being, not even a fraction. Though, I'm surprised that some theory like this had been created. Few years ago, teleportation is nothing but a fantasy without any explanations, now we already have a theoritical goal. xD

[ganbaru]

'Comet of the Century' already may have fizzled out
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...96S16U20130730

[Ithekro]

But was it really a comet....

[AnimeFan188]

USB Is Getting a 10Gbps Shot in the Arm:

"The USB 3.0 Promoter Group—honestly, there is such a thing—has finalized the next
iteration of Universal Serial Bus, and it's going to run at a lightning fast 10Gbps.

The .1 upgrade will be entirely backwards compatible USB 3.0 and 2.0 kit but will
obviously need 3.1 kit to run at full speed. The idea of 3.1 was floated back in January,
but now it's official—though there's still no word on when the first USB 3.1 devices will
arrive. It seems likely, however, that products should be available in the new year."

See:

http://gizmodo.com/usb-is-getting-a-...-arm-986911633

[ganbaru]

Mothballed NASA telescope may get new life as asteroid hunter
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...96U1I120130801

[SaintessHeart]

U.S., states seek limits on Apple over e-book price-fixing

(Reuters) - Apple Inc should face several restrictions to protect consumers and promote competition after a judge found it illegally conspired to raise e-book prices, federal and state officials said on Friday.

The changes proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice and 33 U.S. states and territories will be reviewed by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan, who on July 10 concluded that Apple violated antitrust law by playing a "central role" in a conspiracy with five major publishers to raise e-book prices.

"Under the department's proposed order, Apple's illegal conduct will cease, and Apple and its senior executives will be prevented from conspiring to thwart competition," said Bill Baer, head of the Justice Department's antitrust division.

Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Cupertino, California-based company has said it did not conspire to fix prices and planned to appeal Cote's decision.

A hearing on remedies is scheduled for August 9 and a damages trial may follow.

Analysts have said the bigger issue for Apple in the case may be reputational damage, not financial damage. Amazon.com Inc commands about 65 percent of the U.S. e-books market, while Apple's share has been estimated in the single digits.

LIMITS ON DEALMAKING

The proposed plan, which requires court approval, calls for Apple to end existing agreements with the publishers, and be banned for five years from entering e-book distribution contracts designed to keep prices high.

The publishers included Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group Inc, News Corp's HarperCollins Publishers LLC, Pearson Plc's Penguin Group (USA) Inc, CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster Inc and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH's Macmillan. All settled with U.S. regulators.

Apple would also be prevented from cutting deals with suppliers of e-books, movies, music, TV shows and other content for its iPad tablets and iPhones that would likely increase the prices at which rivals may sell such content.

Regulators also want Apple to treat e-book rivals that use its platforms more fairly.

For two years, it would be required to let retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble Inc provide hyperlinks to their own stores within their e-book apps, making it easier for consumers to compare prices.

Apple would also be required to hire a full-time internal antitrust compliance officer and employ a court-appointed external monitor to ensure its compliance with antitrust law.

Government officials said the changes would permit Apple to compete "vigorously and lawfully" in the e-books market and take into account its "pervasive disregard" for the antitrust laws.

"APPLE SEIZED THE MOMENT"

Federal and state officials accused Apple of conspiring with the publishers in late 2009 and early 2010, as the iPad was being launched.

They said the conspiracy caused some e-book prices to rise to $12.99 or $14.99 from the $9.99 that Amazon charged. A core alleged element was the use of "agency agreements" in which publishers set prices and paid 30 percent commissions to Apple.

Evidence damaging Apple's case included emails from Steve Jobs, its chief executive, that the officials said reflected a desire to boost prices.

"Taking advantage of the publisher defendants' fear of and frustration over Amazon's pricing," Cote concluded, "Apple seized the moment and brilliantly played its hand."

In their settlements, the publishers agreed to pay more than $166 million for consumers' benefit. None admitted wrongdoing.

The case is U.S. v. Apple Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-02826.

Being somewhat of a bookworm myself, the senior executives who came up with this plan should be publicly buried up to their neck in erotic literature then "stoned" to death with every available copy of Encyclopedia Britannica at that moment.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Being somewhat of a bookworm myself, the senior executives who came up with this plan should be publicly buried up to their neck in erotic literature then "stoned" to death with every available copy of Encyclopedia Britannica at that moment.

That's king a bit too soft on them, and using Encyclopedia Britannica for such shameful use...
Wouldn't it be better to burry them up to their waist on finance-related book and them stone them with cheap erotic literature...

[AnimeFan188]

New Tech Could Allow Super-Speed Internet on Old Phone Lines:

"Gigabit internet is fast and amazing. But that "Download entire movies in mere
seconds!" line gets real old if you, like the vast majority of the country, don't have
access to those lightning fast fiber lines. But thanks to a new approach from Alcatel-
Lucent, your creaky old copper phone lines might be good enough. That's a really
big deal if it actually works."

See:

http://gizmodo.com/new-tech-could-al...one-1004361130

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

New Tech Could Allow Super-Speed Internet on Old Phone Lines:

"Gigabit internet is fast and amazing. But that "Download entire movies in mere
seconds!" line gets real old if you, like the vast majority of the country, don't have
access to those lightning fast fiber lines. But thanks to a new approach from Alcatel-
Lucent, your creaky old copper phone lines might be good enough. That's a really
big deal if it actually works."

See:

http://gizmodo.com/new-tech-could-al...one-1004361130

I actually turned my land line off completely after I was able to get land-wireless and we just use our cellphones as our voice lines. The "god damned telco" (Frontier formerly Verizon) has a duct-taped copper-fiber-copper mess between us and the CO that won't do better than 26.4 KILO bits/sec (hear that modem noise?). Won't even do ISDN as legally required by the state. Been nagging them about it since 1992 and said fuck'em about five years ago.

I live less less than three miles from a massive Intel Corp. campus and a large town. Might as well be in the back part of the Yukon.

[ganbaru]

Scientists to cook world's first in-vitro beef burger
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...97119D20130803

[MrTerrorist]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Scientists to cook world's first in-vitro beef burger
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...97119D20130803

Yes!

Now we have artificial meat.

Time to wait for the next step.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/fnozDdpaFik

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[ganbaru]

Kirobo the talking robot blasts into space on historic mission
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...97303920130804

[AnimeFan188]

Resistive RAM: Terabytes of Storage, 20 Times Faster Than NAND:

"There's never a shortage of new experimental forms of memory—but a company
called Crossbar has now worked up something called resistive RAM which could wipe
the floor with NAND.

At half the size of conventional NAND RAM but with 20 times faster write speeds—
around 140MB/s—this stuff really means business. It also uses 20 times less power,
last 10 times as long, and reads data at 17MB/s. Its 3D structure also provides it with
impressive data density, too: one 200mm2 chip apparently provides upwards of 1TB
of storage. It's not exactly a fair fight."

See:

http://gizmodo.com/resistive-ram-ter...-th-1038661137

[AnimeFan188]

The Weird New Solid That's Actually a Liquid:

"Usually, if you cool any substance down enough it will turn into a solid—the most
stable state of matter that exists, according to traditional physics. But that could all be
about to change, because researchers have discovered a weird new liquid state that's
more stable than a solid crystal.

A team of scientists from La Sapienza University in Rome have used computer
simulations to create a weird liquid that could help scientists create strange new
materials in the future. Starting with a model of a colloid—a liquid with tiny particles
suspended in it, like the way milk contains tiny fat globules—they were able to virtually
cool the fluid until it took on a stable form that seemed solid but had the molecular
structure of a liquid. Frank Smallenburg, one of the researchers, explains:"

See:

http://gizmodo.com/the-weird-new-sol...uid-1039676700

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

The Weird New Solid That's Actually a Liquid:

"Usually, if you cool any substance down enough it will turn into a solid—the most
stable state of matter that exists, according to traditional physics. But that could all be
about to change, because researchers have discovered a weird new liquid state that's
more stable than a solid crystal.

A team of scientists from La Sapienza University in Rome have used computer
simulations to create a weird liquid that could help scientists create strange new
materials in the future. Starting with a model of a colloid—a liquid with tiny particles
suspended in it, like the way milk contains tiny fat globules—they were able to virtually
cool the fluid until it took on a stable form that seemed solid but had the molecular
structure of a liquid. Frank Smallenburg, one of the researchers, explains:"

See:

http://gizmodo.com/the-weird-new-sol...uid-1039676700

Give it electromagnetic properties to act as a plasma suspension, and it becomes a lightsaber!

[AnimeFan188]

Harvard Scientists Have Just Invented Human-Rat Telepathy:

"Humans have long wished to see through the eyes of other animals—like Bran Stark's
Warg ability, say—but so far the best we've achieved is mounting GoPros on them.
One Harvard research team, though, has just brought us a step closer to that goal
with a prototype noninvasive brain-to-brain interface allowing test subjects to control a
rat's tail with nothing more than their thoughts.

The study, which has been published in the journal PLOS One, used an EEG headset
to "read" the human's brain functions, an intermediary computer to interpret and
translate the that data into electronic signals, and a transcranial focused ultrasound
device that activates a specific region of an anesthetized rat's brain, causing the
rodent's tail to twitch. It's essentially a human-rat mind meld using a computer to
translate the respective thoughts. As the research results explain:"

See:

http://gizmodo.com/harvard-scientist...epat-978412932