The SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY News Thread

[Ithekro]

But can it be used with whatever method of FTL communication methods that are being looked into?

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Vexx

this is pretty cool stuff if it is able to scale up to commercial levels.

No it won't. Think of the the poor profits of the telecom firms!

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

No it won't. Think of the the poor profits of the telecom firms!

The whole "limited spectrum" nonsense disappears... boo hoo. Actually the only ones really screwed would be the government suddenly holding a bag of spectrum no one cares about anymore (and the corporations who have already shelled out for frequencies).

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Vexx

The whole "limited spectrum" nonsense disappears... boo hoo. Actually the only ones really screwed would be the government suddenly holding a bag of spectrum no one cares about anymore (and the corporations who have already shelled out for frequencies).

Well they are going to "create" research that such vortex spectrum would cause "potential brain damage, health concerns, etc" then - it is going to be another tinfoil hat saga.

Unless of course, we get Google and Microsoft to side with us. I can't wait to shortsell telecom companies.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Multiplexing advance - "vortex radio waves". In theory, according to the team, we could potentially transmit an “infinite number” of TV, radio, WiFi, and cellular channels at the same time over the same frequency, blasting apart our highly congested wireless spectrum. I know a bit about electromagnetic theory and antennas... this is pretty cool stuff if it is able to scale up to commercial levels.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1...ity-infinitely

Well, I don't really believe them for "infinite number", so we'll probably still have a cap. Instead of 100 channels with nothing worth watching, we'll have 500?

Still, I'd have liked more precisions on how they do that, instead of just a simile.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Well, I don't really believe them for "infinite number", so we'll probably still have a cap. Instead of 100 channels with nothing worth watching, we'll have 500?

Still, I'd have liked more precisions on how they do that, instead of just a simile.

Yeah, I'm looking around for science papers or IEEE abstracts on the subject.

edit: so far I've only found a bit of a critique which notes the technique may only work for line-of-sight transmissions.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html


That's fairly cool, the auroras and the storms looks awesome.

[AnimeFan188]

"The Pentagon’s far-out research agency, Darpa, has just released a new video
of its Cheetah ‘bot — designed to mimic the rapid movements of cheetahs, the
speediest animals in nature — absolutely killing it on a laboratory treadmill.

In fact, the ‘bot is running so fast (reaching 18 miles an hour at its peak) that
Cheetah actually set a new land speed record, Darpa boasts, for robotic running.
The previous record, set in 1989, was a measly 13.1 miles per hour."

See:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/darpa-cheetah/

[Endless Soul]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

Spoiler for tidiness:

"The Pentagon’s far-out research agency, Darpa, has just released a new video
of its Cheetah ‘bot — designed to mimic the rapid movements of cheetahs, the
speediest animals in nature — absolutely killing it on a laboratory treadmill.

In fact, the ‘bot is running so fast (reaching 18 miles an hour at its peak) that
Cheetah actually set a new land speed record, Darpa boasts, for robotic running.
The previous record, set in 1989, was a measly 13.1 miles per hour."

See:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/darpa-cheetah/

Well great. That's just great! Now not only can it run twice as fast as you, it can use its impetus to impale you in the back with it's pointy legs while you're trying to run away.

Endless "Robotic overlords" Soul

[Anh_Minh]

The cheetah's only the fastest land animal. Some birds are faster. <- just bugged me.

[Afternoon Tea]

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html


That's fairly cool, the auroras and the storms looks awesome.

Thats Stunning!

[Endless Soul]

Spoiler for Nano Video:

That's pretty cool. However, I wonder how they will perform outside, and with unexpected things getting in the way.

Endless "Galaga" Soul

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

The cheetah's only the fastest land animal. Some birds are faster. <- just bugged me.

Peregrin Falcon is the fastest isn't it? At something stupid like 400km/h, when it's striking.

[Dhomochevsky]

That's cheating.
Base jumpers jumping off mountaincliffs don't hold the human speed record either. You have to run, to get that.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"The Pentagon’s far-out research agency, Darpa, has just released a new video
of its Cheetah ‘bot — designed to mimic the rapid movements of cheetahs, the
speediest animals in nature — absolutely killing it on a laboratory treadmill.

In fact, the ‘bot is running so fast (reaching 18 miles an hour at its peak) that
Cheetah actually set a new land speed record, Darpa boasts, for robotic running.
The previous record, set in 1989, was a measly 13.1 miles per hour."

See:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/darpa-cheetah/

When are they going to deploy them at the 38th?

EDIT :

Why Videogames May Be Good for You

And they are using Starcraft 2 as a research platform, so actually it may only be SC2 that is helping brains grow.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Why Videogames May Be Good for You

You gotta love how old news becomes new...

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

(Oct 24, 2007)

When work becomes a game

Forget MBA. You'd only need to play World of Warcraft 24/7 to climb the corporate ladder in the future.

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

(June 26, 2008)

Everything bad is good for you

By the way, I have read Mr Johnson's book. It's very interesting, but like most other books I've opened recently, I didn't complete it. But I think I've caught the main gist of what he was explaining, so I think I prove his point quite nicely.

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

(June 26, 2008)

"The point is that books and video games represent two very different kinds of learning. When you read a biology textbook, the content of what you read is what matters. Reading is a form of explicit learning. When you play a video game, the value is in how it makes you think. Video games are an example of collateral learning, which is no less important."

And what could be better? I'm trying to work on an op-ed on the same theme (so, the latest video actually helps, heh).

The wheel never ceases to reinvent itself.

====================

Speaking of (re)inventions...


Spider silk spun into violin strings... and they play beautifully

Tokyo (March 5, Mon): A Japanese researcher has used thousands of strands of spider silk to spin a set of violin strings. The strings are said to have a "soft and profound timbre" relative to traditional gut or steel strings.

That may arise from the way the strings are twisted, resulting in a "packing structure" that leaves practically no space between any of the strands.

Dr Shigeyoshi Osaki of Japan's Nara Medical University has been interested in the mechanical properties of spider silk for a number of years, and he has perfected methods of obtaining large quantities of this dragline silk from captive-bred spiders and has now turned his attention to the applications of the remarkable material.

"Bowed string instruments such as the violin have been the subject of many scientific studies," he writes. "However, not all of the details have been clarified, as most players have been interested in the violin body rather than the properties of the bow or strings."

Dr Osaki used 300 female Nephila maculata spiders — one of the species of "golden orb-weavers" renowned for their complex webs — to provide the dragline silk.

For each string, Dr Osaki twisted between 3,000 and 5,000 individual strands of silk in one direction to form a bundle. The strings were then prepared from three of these bundles twisted together in the opposite direction.

He then set about measuring their tensile strength, a critical factor for violinists wishing to avoid breaking a string in the midst of a concerto.

The result? See the video embedded here.

BBC NEWS

Also browse the comments on Slashdot:

"Play music and catch lunch at the same time! No more starving musicians!"

"You want flies with that?"

"They sound like the horrific screams of a thousand terrified flies."

"Now that you mention it, I thought I heard something screaming, 'Help Meeeee!' in the background."

[AnimeFan188]

"Someone tell the U.S. Navy that rough waters might become a thing of the past.
Scientists think they’ve figured out how to fool the stormy seas.

The breakthrough, courtesy of researchers at the University of California at
Berkeley, is the latest in a series of developments in invisibility research — many
of them Pentagon-funded. Too bad this one won’t actually address what’s
arguably the military’s biggest on-the-water worry: Hiding ships from the watchful
eyes of potentially dangerous foes. Instead, these scientists think they’ve figured
out how to trick the water itself."

See:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012...ibility-water/

[aohige]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"The Pentagon’s far-out research agency, Darpa, has just released a new video
of its Cheetah ‘bot — designed to mimic the rapid movements of cheetahs, the
speediest animals in nature — absolutely killing it on a laboratory treadmill.

In fact, the ‘bot is running so fast (reaching 18 miles an hour at its peak) that
Cheetah actually set a new land speed record, Darpa boasts, for robotic running.
The previous record, set in 1989, was a measly 13.1 miles per hour."

See:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/darpa-cheetah/

When I read your post, it made me wonder if Darpa had another robotics research geniuses than Boston Dynamics.

Followed the link.

Oh.

It's just them again.


Now get back to developing Petman so we can welcome our new overlords soon.


As for the video gaming for education...
Who here has played Tropico 4?
That game is ideal at grasping economics and realizing changes of demands, the cost of raising the bar of quality of living, and managing various different economies.

Although it may also create young dictators and socialists.

I love that game.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by aohige

As for the video gaming for education...
Who here has played Tropico 4?
That game is ideal at grasping economics and realizing changes of demands, the cost of raising the bar of quality of living, and managing various different economies.

Although it may also create young dictators and socialists.

I love that game.

If you say that, Japanese game creators have the credit of creating and training real life racketeers through a doujin game.

[MrTerrorist]

The Pentagon’s robotic cheetah is the fastest mechanical mammal ever built

Soon, robot-cheetahs will dominate the battlefield.