Skip to main content

Home/ Advanced Concepts Team/ Group items tagged Humans

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Joris _

Earth's atmosphere came from outer space, find scientists - 3 views

  • From that we now know that the volcanic gases could not have contributed in any significant way to the Earth's atmosphere
  •  
    tried to find the original science paper but could not .... the only one I found was this one: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1210/2
  • ...1 more comment...
  •  
    "Plan 9 from outer space" quote confirmed : atmospheric conditions in outer space stall communications! Wonder how many more facts of the movie will prove right in the end...
  •  
    very interesting study. Although it is not so much a surprise, they cite many papers on planetary formation that predicted this, and the only paper on degassing they cite is from our rather unpopular french ex-minister of research c. allegre, who refuses the fact that humans have an impact on climate...
pacome delva

NASA Administrator Promises Not to Cannibalize Science Budget - 0 views

  • Bolden didn't provide any direct answers to whether the agency would continue to send humans into space in the coming decade, as recommended by a report from a blue-ribbon panel last October. However, Bolden promised that the program would not be paid for through cuts to the agency's science budget, which has been cannibalized in recent years to support space flights. The auditorium erupted in applause. Bolden avoided getting into any specifics on the next generation of NASA manned spacecraft, a topic of hot debate.
Tobias Seidl

Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network : Article : Nature - 2 views

  •  
    This is the community that states mammals have cognitive maps. Good work, especially by the Moser-couple.
Joris _

NASA could buy plasma engine for station reboost services - 1 views

  • enough to generate 1lb of thrust (0.00445kN) and fulfil the critical role of giving the Space Station a periodic altitude boost.
  • the most powerful electric engine in operation toda
  • , NASA is contracting Ad Astra Rocket for a lunar tug concept study, to take cargo from the Earth to the Moon and back, and deliver equipment in preparation for a human landing
Ma Ru

MY favourite ESA project continues... - 3 views

  •  
    Anyone of you among the lucky winners?
andreiaries

04.02.2010 - Researchers enable a robot to fold towels - 3 views

  •  
    Amazing what robots learn to do these days :). Any background music ideas for the video?
  •  
    Nice try, but humans are still better in it... on so many levels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzFwn064cFE
LeopoldS

Why Humans Have Sex | The New York Academy of Sciences - 4 views

  •  
    nice podcast ... ESTEC YGT community might be an interesting study pool ....
  •  
    haha ;) I dunno what the general idea of the YGTs here at ESTEC is ;)
Ma Ru

Android astronaut - 0 views

  •  
    Let's start the bets on how long it will take him to exterminate the crew!
Joris _

Alliant, EADS Unit Set Sights on Rocket Venture - 0 views

  •  
    ... some competition in the commercial space launcher market ? I kind of wonder why EU, or ESA, still doesn't push for anything in this market!
terencepf

Awesome video of memory chip production - 1 views

  •  
    amazing! Humans become less and less useful.
Isabelle DB

the World Wide Web for robots - 4 views

  •  
    Will they need humans anymore?
  •  
    the coordinators of this FP7 are in Eindhoven ... might be nice to check where they are at one of their next consortium conferences: next one apparently in July but no date given. Guido: could you check?
Luís F. Simões

Shell energy scenarios to 2050 - 6 views

  •  
    just in case you were feeling happy and optimistic
  • ...7 more comments...
  •  
    An energy scenario published by an oil company? Allow me to be sceptical...
  •  
    Indeed, Shell is an energy company, not just oil, for some time now ... The two scenarii are, in their approach, dependant of economic and political situation, which is right now impossible to forecast. Reference to Kyoto is surprising, almost out-dated! But overall, I find it rather optimistic at some stages, and probably the timeline (p37-39) is unlikely with recent events.
  •  
    the report was published in 2008, which explains the reference to Kyoto, as the follow-up to it was much more uncertain at that point. The Blueprint scenario is indeed optimistic, but also quite unlikely I'd say. I don't see humanity suddenly becoming so wise and coordinated. Sadly, I see something closer to the Scramble scenario as much more likely to occur.
  •  
    not an oil company??? please have a look at the percentage of their revenues coming from oil and gas and then compare this with all their other energy activities together and you will see very quickly that it is only window dressing ... they are an oil and gas company ... and nothing more
  •  
    not JUST oil. From a description: "Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies." Of course revenues coming from oil are the biggest, the investment turnover on other energy sources is small for now. Knowing that most of their revenues is from an expendable source, to guarantee their future, they invest elsewhere. They have invested >1b$ in renewable energy, including biofuels. They had the largest wind power business among so-called "oil" companies. Oil only defines what they do "best". As a comparison, some time ago, Apple were selling only computers and now they sell phones. But I would not say Apple is just a phone company.
  •  
    window dressing only ... e.g. Net cash from operating activities (pre-tax) in 2008: 70 Billion$ net income in 2008: 26 Billion revenues in 2008: 88 Billion Their investments and revenues in renewables don't even show up in their annual financial reports since probably they are under the heading of "marketing" which is already 1.7 Billion $ ... this is what they report on their investments: Capital investment, portfolio actions and business development Capital investment in 2009 was $24 billion. This represents a 26% decrease from 2008, which included over $8 billion in acquisitions, primarily relating to Duvernay Oil Corp. Capital investment included exploration expenditure of $4.5 billion (2008: $11.0 billion). In Abu Dhabi, Shell signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to extend the GASCO joint venture for a further 20 years. In Australia, Shell and its partners took the final investment decision (FID) for the Gorgon LNG project (Shell share 25%). Gorgon will supply global gas markets to at least 2050, with a capacity of 15 million tonnes (100% basis) of LNG per year and a major carbon capture and storage scheme. Shell has announced a front-end engineering and design study for a floating LNG (FLNG) project, with the potential to deploy these facilities at the Prelude offshore gas discovery in Australia (Shell share 100%). In Australia, Shell confirmed that it has accepted Woodside Petroleum Ltd.'s entitlement offer of new shares at a total cost of $0.8 billion, maintaining its 34.27% share in the company; $0.4 billion was paid in 2009 with the remainder paid in 2010. In Bolivia and Brazil, Shell sold its share in a gas pipeline and in a thermoelectric power plant and its related assets for a total of around $100 million. In Canada, the Government of Alberta and the national government jointly announced their intent to contribute $0.8 billion of funding towards the Quest carbon capture and sequestration project. Quest, which is at the f
  •  
    thanks for the info :) They still have their 50% share in the wind farm in Noordzee (you can see it from ESTEC on a clear day). Look for Shell International Renewables, other subsidiaries and joint-ventures. I guess, the report is about the oil branch. http://sustainabilityreport.shell.com/2009/servicepages/downloads/files/all_shell_sr09.pdf http://www.noordzeewind.nl/
  •  
    no - its about Shell globally - all Shell .. these participations are just peanuts please read the intro of the CEO in the pdf you linked to: he does not even mention renewables! their entire sustainability strategy is about oil and gas - just making it (look) nicer and environmentally friendlier
  •  
    Fair enough, for me even peanuts are worthy and I am not able to judge. Not all big-profit companies, like Shell, are evil :( Look in the pdf what is in the upstream and downstream you mentionned above. Non-shell sources for examples and more objectivity: http://www.nuon.com/company/Innovative-projects/noordzeewind.jsp http://www.e-energymarket.com/news/single-news/article/ferrari-tops-bahrain-gp-using-shell-biofuel.html thanks.
santecarloni

[1105.1293] Eigengestures for natural human computer interface - 1 views

  •  
    We present the application of Principal Component Analysis for data acquired during the design of a natural gesture interface. We investigate the concept of an eigengesture for motion capture hand gesture data and present the visualisation of principal components obtained in the course of conducted experiments. We also show the influence of dimensionality reduction on reconstructed gesture data quality.
Luís F. Simões

Bitcoin P2P Currency: The Most Dangerous Project We've Ever Seen - 10 views

  • After month of research and discovery, we’ve learned the following:1. Bitcoin is a technologically sound project.2. Bitcoin is unstoppable without end-user prosecution.3. Bitcoin is the most dangerous open-source project ever created.4. Bitcoin may be the most dangerous technological project since the internet itself.5. Bitcoin is a political statement by technotarians (technological libertarians).*6. Bitcoins will change the world unless governments ban them with harsh penalties.
  • The benefits of a currency like this:a) Your coins can’t be frozen (like a Paypal account can be)b) Your coins can’t be trackedc) Your coins can’t be taxedd) Transaction costs are extremely low (sorry credit card companies)
  • An individual with the name -- or perhaps handle -- of Satoshi Nakamoto first wrote about bitcoins in a paper called Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • * We made this term up to describe the “good people” of the internet who believe in the fundamental rights of individuals to be free, have free speech, fight hypocrisy and stand behind logic, technology and science over religion, political structure and tradition. These are the people who build and support things like Wikileaks, Anonymous, Linux and Wikipedia. They think that people can, and should, govern themselves. They are against external forms of control such as DRM, laws that are bought and sold by lobbyists, and religions like Scientology. They include splinter groups that enforce these ideals in the form of hacktivism, such as the takedown of the Sony Playstation Network after Sony tried to prosecute a hacker for unlocking its console.
  •  
    Sounds good!
  • ...9 more comments...
  •  
    wow it's frigthening! it's the dream of every anarchist, every drug, arm, human dealer! the world made as a global fiscal paradise... the idea is clever however it will not replace real money because 1 - no one will build a fortune on bitcoin if a technological breakthrough can ruin them 2 - government never allowed parallel money to flourish on their territory, so it will be almost impossible to change bitcoin against euros or dollars
  •  
    interesting stuff anyone read cryptonomicon by neal stephenson? similar theme.
  •  
    :) yes. One of the comments on reddit was precisely drawing the parallels with Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash / Diamond Age / Cryptonomicon. Interesting stuff indeed. It has a lot of potential for misuse, but also opens up new possibilities. We've discussed recently how emerging technologies will drive social change. Whether it's the likes of NSA / CIA who will benefit the most from the Twitters, Facebooks and so on, by gaining greater power for control, or whether individuals are being empowered to at least an identical degree. We saw last year VISA / PayPal censoring WikiLeaks... Well, here's a way for any individual to support such an organization, in a fully anonymous and uncontrollable way...
  •  
    One of my colleagues has made a nice, short write-up about BitCoin: http://www.pds.ewi.tudelft.nl/~victor/bitcoin.html
  •  
    very nice analysis indeed - thanks Tamas for sharing it!
  •  
    mmm I'm not an expert but it seemed to me that, even if these criticisms are true, there is one fundamental difference between the money you exchange on internet via your bank, and bitcoins. The first one is virtual money and the second one aims at being real, physical, money, even if digital, in the same way as banknotes, coins, or gold.
  •  
    An algorithm wanna-be central bank issuing untraceable tax free money between internet users? not more likely than the end of the world supposed to take place tomorrow, in my opinion. Algorithms don't usually assault women though !:P
  •  
    well, most money is anyway just virtual and only based on expectations and trust ... (see e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply) and thus if people trust that this "money" has some value in the sense that they can get something of value to them in exchange, then not much more is needed it seems to me ...
  •  
    @Leopold: ok let's use the rigth words then. Bitcoin aim at being a currency ("physical objects generally accepted as a medium of exchange" from wikipedia), different than the "demand deposit". In the article proposed by Tamas he compares what cannot be compared (currencies, demand deposits and their mean of exchange). The interesting question is wether one can create a digital currency which is too difficult to counterfeit. As far as I know, there is no existing digital currency except this bitcoins (and maybe the currencies from games as second life and others, but which are of limited use in real world).
  •  
    well of course money is trust, and even more loans and credit and even more stock and bond markets. It all represents trust and expectations. However since the first banks 500 years ago and the first loans etc. etc., and as well the fact that bonds and currencies bring down whole countries (Greece lately), and are mainly controlled by large financial centres and (central) banks, banks have always been on the winning side no matter what and that isn't going to change easily. So if you are talking about these new currencies it would be a new era, not just a new currency. So should Greece convert its debt to bitcoins ;P ?
  •  
    well, from 1936 to 1993 the central bank of france was owned by the state and was supposed to serve the general interest...
LeopoldS

Human Brain Project - Goals - 3 views

  •  
    can we contribute in any way to this - or alternatively benefit from this research already now?
  • ...4 more comments...
  •  
    Watch out!! I read quite a lot about the contribution by EPFL (apparently coordinator) and their boss, Henry Markram. From what I read, this is not really science, but mainly a PR campaign. The main motor in this project is attracting a lot of money and the main aim to do so is promising a lot of stuff that nobody will be able to deliver. Accordingly, Markram is a very controversial person in the business...
  •  
    Oups, sorry! Of course I meant, "the main MEAN to do so...", but the aim justifies the means. Well, that's exactly Markram's motto, I guess.
  •  
    interesting info indeed ... I though still think that the overall goal of this project, even if too ambitious for the time being is interesting, no?
  •  
    It's not about interesting or not, it's about serious science or not. Also the goal of a fortune-teller is interesting, isn't it? Any description of a good science project is too ambitious, that's normal and not necessarily PR. But personally I think there is a certain limit where a science project becomes a bad SciFi thriller. This one here is a dime novel, I think. But the too ambitious is not the only point I became very doubtful. I have seen quite a number of scientists and engineers from different fields; what I read about the character and attitude of this guy just hints towards the worst case scenario. It's presumptive evidence, I know...
  •  
    that bad! wow ....
  •  
    You know me, I'm the bullshitter... You remember Kurzweil and his Singularity-nonsense. In a way this was very similar. Though I think Kurzweil and Markram are very different characters (The Singularity essentially is a religion, I can't see anything like that in Markram's claims) they seem to share an important point: they are both complete nerds that apparently never spent a single thought on the limits of science (in its English meaning) in general nor of their particular research field in specific. One may find this excusable, I don't. But even then, they make claims that the nerdest nerd must know that they are completely unrealistic and thus I just have to assume that they claim their nonsense on purpose. The reason in Markram's case clearly seems to be money. But all this does not mean that these nerds cannot produce valuable results.
Luzi Bergamin

Airbus Concept Cabin - 3 views

  •  
    Another futuristic view on flying by Airbus. To make it more sexy it also includes some biomimetics...
  •  
    "The cabin electrical system can be compared to the human brain, with a network of intelligence pulsating through the cabin.". Oh, come on, ...
Ma Ru

more space tourism - 3 views

  •  
    Russian space hotel, but alcohol banned on board... something's not right here...
Ma Ru

Russian cargo rocket crashes - 1 views

  •  
    So... basically they are the only guys who now do human spaceflight?
  •  
    and 2nd failed launch for Russian in 10 days. http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/08/proton-m-launches-russias-ekspress-am4-communications-satellite/ although this one is a giant space debris stuck on the GTO.
  •  
    ESA's article on the consequences for ISS: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM6GJUTTRG_index_0.html What is not clear is if the rocket that failed is the same variant as used in manned missions. [Edit] According to this article: http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?pg=3&id=268437 "The first and second stages of the Soyuz-FG space rocket used for manned launches differ from those of the Soyuz-U, but the third stage [the one that failed - MR] is identical in both rockets". Thus the stay of astronauts currently at ISS may prolong a little bit.
Francesco Biscani

Found: first 'skylight' on the moon - space - 22 October 2009 - New Scientist - 2 views

  • A deep hole on the moon that could open into a vast underground tunnel has been found for the first time. The discovery strengthens evidence for subsurface, lava-carved channels that could shield future human colonists from space radiation and other hazards.
« First ‹ Previous 161 - 180 of 230 Next › Last »
Showing 20 items per page