The SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY News Thread

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"gadgets with screens the size of an oyster cracker have inspired new ways
to "steal" everyday surfaces to replace the computer screen. By using tiny
projectors that sense your every move, you'll soon be able to read and write
email on a wall or table top. Or surf the web on the palm of your hand or the leg
of your jeans."

See:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-cou...202115388.html

Doesn't exactly sound like you can expect high quality projections with such less than optimal backgrounds.

[Ithekro]

Unless it auto contrasts.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Unless it auto contrasts.

Well, I am more concerned about the geometry and projection angle of the projection surface.

[Ithekro]

Current screens and projectors can compensate for some things to make an image rectagular based on angle. Bumps and spaces is something else though.

[Endless Soul]

I wanted to share this because I thought it was pretty cool (or hot if you like). However I didn't know where else to post this since steam engines are old technology and hardly newsworthy. If it doesn't fit here, please feel free to move it.

Spoiler for Steam engine made of glass:

[LoweGear]

... that robot's gait is remarkably close to a human's. And it's not made in Japan

[MrTerrorist]

Why are humans scared of robots?

[Ithekro]

With all the motion capture techology they use for computers, all they need is the right gears and other systems so the robot can use those motions correctly.

[AnimeFan188]

"Downloading — quite often stealing, in the eyes of the law — music, movies,
books and photos is easier than bobbing for apples in a bucket without water. It
has kept legions of lawyers employed fighting copyright violations without a
whole lot to show for their efforts in the past decade.

You think that was bad? Just wait until we can copy physical things.

It won’t be long before people have a 3-D printer sitting at home alongside its old
inkjet counterpart. These 3-D printers, some already costing less than a computer
did in 1999, can print objects by spraying layers of plastic, metal or ceramics into
shapes. People can download plans for an object, hit print, and a few minutes
later have it in their hands."

See:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/1...-free-for-all/

[Ithekro]

Primative "replicator".

Just how big would a home unit have to be to do this sort of stuff? How big would be the cartridges, and how much power would this thing take to keep the materials hot for printing?

Well, before they figure out how to keep matter in digital forms of energy until it is needed.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Primative "replicator".

Just how big would a home unit have to be to do this sort of stuff? How big would be the cartridges, and how much power would this thing take to keep the materials hot for printing?

Well, before they figure out how to keep matter in digital forms of energy until it is needed.

This is why it is only used for prototyping in the industry. Something I already mentioned in another thread... interesting that these topics keep coming again... okay this time it is a low tech device (toy) for usage at home. Might be great for people who are into 3D modelling like me... but I really don't see it as a realy useful tool in everyday life.

[Kyuu]

OK. Who remembers the Microwave Power Plant in the SimCity games? On the picture, it's that dish looking thing:

Spoiler:

Well, the techonology could be a reality someday.

(Reuters) - The sun's abundant energy, if harvested in space, could provide a cost-effective way to meet global power needs in as little as 30 years with seed money from governments, according to a study by an international scientific group.

Orbiting power plants capable of collecting solar energy and beaming it to Earth appear "technically feasible" within a decade or two based on technologies now in the laboratory, a study group of the Paris-headquartered International Academy of Astronautics said.

Such a project may be able to achieve economic viability in 30 years or less, it said, without laying out a road map or proposing a specific architecture.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...7AC0J120111114

This would be the most aggressive "green" energy project -- assuming man ever undertakes it. And within 30 years? Given the political environment and the drive... I'd give it 50-70 years. The current geopolitical environment is too marred by the financial crisis. So, therefore, they're too "busy" looking forward into the future.

[Jinto]

The article is about technical feasability. That already says everything you need to know. Economically this is completely insane.

To use this correctly one had to shoot these power plants to a geo stationary orbit, which is quite costly (logistical nightmare). And the average lifetime of satelites there, tells me this has to be repeated every 20 or 30 years. It simply doesn't make sense economically and environmentally when its only purpose is to provide electrical energy for the earth.

On earth such modules need to be replaced after some decades, I suppose it is even worse in the orbit where there is the heavy radiation from the solar wind.

[AnimeFan188]

"Since being redirected away from Bush-era plans for a base on the Moon
towards a manned Mars mission, NASA has realigned its nuclear-tech-in-space
efforts away from a Moonbase powerplant and towards an atomic-powered
rocket able to get astronauts to the red planet quickly, without receiving
dangerous exposure to cosmic radiation."

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11...rocket_report/

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"Since being redirected away from Bush-era plans for a base on the Moon
towards a manned Mars mission, NASA has realigned its nuclear-tech-in-space
efforts away from a Moonbase powerplant and towards an atomic-powered
rocket able to get astronauts to the red planet quickly, without receiving
dangerous exposure to cosmic radiation."

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11...rocket_report/

If this article wasn't full of misspellings and "cool" slang I'ld certainly take it more seriously. It sounds like the author wants the reader to believe that the low thrust, high specific impulse rockets could be used not just in space but even on earth for propulsion.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Jinto

If this article wasn't full of misspellings and "cool" slang I'ld certainly take it more seriously. It sounds like the author wants the reader to believe that the low thrust, high specific impulse rockets could be used not just in space but even on earth for propulsion.

Just shoot it on some nap-of-the-earth route and bingo, pre-cleared roadways you could use in a few thousand years

edit: o wait, I'm thinking of one of the other kinds of nuclear rockets...

[AnimeFan188]

"Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have come up with a
better way to simulate the processing that goes on in the human brain, and you
hardware enthusiasts out there will appreciate this one. Rather than simulate the
firing and spiking of a bunch of neurons in software on massive clusters of
computer chips, MIT researchers have created a digital chip with analog
properties that emulates the flow of ions between connected brain cells and
therefore can directly simulate how neurons actually fire across their synapses."

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11...synaptic_chip/

[Kyuu]

SCIENCE!!

OPERA Confirms: Neutrinos Travel Faster Than Light!!
By Tommaso Dorigo
November 17th 2011 07:00 PM

The OPERA Collaboration sent to the Cornell Arxiv a new preprint today, where they summarize the results of their analysis, expanded with additional statistical tests, and including the check performed with 20 additional neutrino interactions they collected in the last few weeks.

http://www.science20.com/quantum_dia...er_light-84763

Well... OK. Very tiny things are found to be traveling faster than light. What does this mean?

Spoiler:

Zero has been divided!

[Ithekro]

Just checking for possible errors still. They've still not declared they found something to change the universe. Probably because all their science tells them it should be impossible, thus they can't just believe the results. They have to be sure beyond sure, or have someone from someplace else say "yeah it does that. Move on with it".

[Vexx]

I keep wondering if it might provide some insight into non-locality (google Bell's Theorem) down the road if it turns out the little buggers do skip faster than photons. I'll state right out I haven't been paying attention to the details... waiting til they're sure they actually have something or not.