Occupy Federal Science: "Transformative" Research Can't Come From Milquetoast | The Cru... - 4 views
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I like this one "The kind of idle pastime that might amuse physicists is to imagine drafting Einstein's grant applications in 1905. "I propose to investigate the idea that light travels in little bits," one might say. "I will explore the possibility that time slows down as things speed up," goes another. Imagine what comments these would have elicited from reviewers for the German Science Funding Agency, had such a thing existed. Instead, Einstein just did the work anyway while drawing his wages as a technical expert third-class at the Bern patent office. And that is how he invented quantum physics and relativity." There is an even more pointer example of the Prussian academy of sciences reviewing the Dr. application of Hertz ...
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Shocking. What is federal research funding for? No, wrong question. Instead maybe: What is federally funded review for?
Kepler confirms first planet found in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star! | Bad Astr... - 2 views
How Likely Is a Runaway Greenhouse Effect on Earth? - Technology Review - 1 views
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Sometime in the last few billion years, disaster struck one of Earth's nearest neighbours. Planetary geologists think there is good evidence that Venus was the victim of a runaway greenhouse effect which turned the planet into the boiling hell we see today. A similar catastrophe is almost certain to strike Earth in about 2 billion years, as the Sun increases in luminosity.
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the actual paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.1593 just wondering if their conclusion that the long term solution is to change the orbit of Earth is really the ultimate wisdom ...
Computer Model Replays Europe's Cultural History - Technology Review - 2 views
Artificial Braneworlds Made to Collide In Lab - Technology Review - 4 views
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Physicists have simulated two universes colliding inside a metamaterial-- Now, this is cool (if it is true...)
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Hm, they use more or less everything I don't especially like. They are nonmagnetic, so the relation materialGR is already rather weak. Usually, experimentalists prefer nonmagnetic media, since they are cheaper and broadband. At least the broadband is no argument here, since the frequency defines the "mass", which I find a rather strange point of view. And finally, they use strong anisotropy as a model of "time", which is rather problematic. Of course, the spatial direction with eps<0 appears in the wave equation with the same sign as time. But this does not mean that it behaves like time. But to teach material physicists that time is more than just a different sign in the wave equation seems to be as hopeless as to teach them that a black hole is more than something that absorbs all light... SIGHHH
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Luzi I miss you ...
The Secret of Ant Transportation Networks - Technology Review - 2 views
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Just how ants create the highly efficient network of trails around their nests has never been fully understood. Now researchers think they've cracked it
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They say the structure of ant trails can be entirely explained if the ants's response to a pheromone droplet concentration is linear. "One ant will turn to the left in proportion to the difference between the pheromone it has on its left side and the pheromone on its right," say Perna and co. They also point out that this is exactly what Weber's law predicts.
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Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1201.5827 :Individual Rules For Trail Pattern Formation In Argentine Ants (Linepithema Humile)
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from the abstract: "Using a novel imaging and analysis technique on experimental data we estimated pheromone concentrations at all spatial positions in the experimental arena and at different times. Then we derived the response function of individual ants to pheromone concentrations by looking at correlations between concentrations and changes in speed or direction of the ants." [...] "agent based simulations based on the Weber's Law response function determined experimentally produced results compatible with those reported in the literature and reproduced the formation of trails."
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Nice article!
Astronomer Captures Enormous True-Color Photo of Night Sky - 4 views
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And some interactive versions: http://skysurvey.org/
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this is very very nice! thanks for sharing
American Innovation Losing its Shine? - 4 views
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interesting reflections by MIT head on innovation in US
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interesting, especially since in all COmmission papers US innovation is praised and changes expected are only related to China/India (for the better)... Article mixes a lot talk on innovation with numbers that I do not see necessarily connected (trade deficit, GDP growth etc.). Seems to me the real problematique behind the article is only the next planned distribution of federal funds and where they should cut...
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well I understand her point. Spending cuts are only vicious short term solutions against economical downturn since growth (GDP is an interesting measure indeed) comes from innovation, research and production. Nonetheless, what she is describing is happening in EU too. So who will take the lead? I am not certain China is the one. In my view, it has not yet solved its domestic issues... and US still has more Nobel Prize than China. One thing for sure, the way it is EU is only a "wagon" of the train...
Robotic Ostrich - 0 views
Stochastic Pattern Recognition Dramatically Outperforms Conventional Techniques - Techn... - 2 views
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A stochastic computer, designed to help an autonomous vehicle navigate, outperforms a conventional computer by three orders of magnitude, say computer scientists
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These guys have applied stochastic computing to the process of pattern recognition. The problem here is to compare an input signal with a reference signal to determine whether they match. In the real world, of course, input signals are always noisy so a system that can cope with noise has an obvious advantage. Canals and co use their technique to help an autonomous vehicle navigate its way through a simple environment for which it has an internal map. For this task, it has to measure the distance to the walls around it and work out where it is on the map. It then computes a trajectory taking it to its destination.
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Although the idea of stochastic computing has been around for half a century, attempts to exploit have only just begun. Clearly there's much work to be done. And since one line of thought is that the brain might be a stochastic computer, at least in part, there could be exciting times ahead.
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hey! This is essentially the Probabilistic Computing Ariadna
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The link is there but my understanding of our purpose is different than what I understood from the abstract. In any case,the authors are from Palma de Mallorca, Balears, Spain "somebody" should somehow make them aware of the Ariadna study ... E.g somebody no longer in the team :-)
How To Build A Speech Jamming Gun - Technology Review - 1 views
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he drone of speakers who won't stop is an inevitable experience at conferences, meetings, cinemas and public libraries. Today, Kazutaka Kurihara at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tskuba and Koji Tsukada at Ochanomizu University, both in Japan, present a radical solution: a speech jamming device that forces recalcitrant speakers into submission.
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...must...not...make...the...obvious...ACT...meeting...joke...
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Unfortunately it won't work when it is most needed .... Read this: "Their tests also identify some curious phenomena. They say the gun is more effective when the delay varies in time and more effective against speech that involves reading aloud than against spontaneous monologue. Sadly, they report that it has no effect on meaningless sound sequences such as "aaaaarghhh".
America's 10 Most Sleep-Deprived Jobs - NYTimes.com - 1 views
Flying robot quadrotors have better rhythm than you - 2 views
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Robotics scientists at TED unleash co-ordinated drones that mimic bird behavior to play the James Bond theme song At TED2012, the University of Pennsylvania's deputy dean for education Vijay Kuma showed off his latest accomplishment in robotics: a co-ordinated rendition of the James Bond theme song.
Quantum Biology and the Puzzle of Coherence - Technology Review - 4 views
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Quantum processes shouldn't survive in hot, wet biological systems and yet a growing body of evidence suggests they do. Now physicists think they know how
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Yes, because our bosses forced us to write strategic reports on "system of systems" :-)
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Oh these terrible ignorant slave masters .... Would love to see your "reports on system of systems" :-)
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