Skip to main content

Home/ Advanced Concepts Team/ Group items tagged course

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Joris _

Swarming spacecraft to self-destruct for greater good - space - 06 September 2010 - New... - 0 views

www.newscientist.com/...destruct-for-greater-good.html

swarm formation robust spacecraft

shared by Joris _ on 07 Sep 10 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • However, should one spacecraft in such a swarm begin to fail and risk a calamitous collision with another, it must sense its end is nigh and put itself on a course that takes it forever away from the swarm – for the greater good of the collective.
Luzi Bergamin

"ride sharing 2.0" with car2gether - 2 views

www.daimler.com/...0-0-16694-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html

technology INF

shared by Luzi Bergamin on 08 Sep 10 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Luzi Bergamin on 08 Sep 10
     
    Pretty close to what we suggested for "system of systems." Was an excellent exercise in bullshitting, but of course ESA is not innovative enough. Now it's too late, Daimler did it...
  • LeopoldS on 10 Sep 10
     
    not sure they will end up needing a lot of "space" though ...
  • Luzi Bergamin on 10 Sep 10
     
    There is no "space" yet, at least I didn't find any. But that's because they didn't consider specific hardware, but normal mobile phones. The step to include "space" is obvious, though, and I'm sure they thought about this as well...
santecarloni

Space-time cloak could hide events : Nature News - 3 views

www.nature.com/...news.2010.611.html

phy cloak space-time

shared by santecarloni on 19 Nov 10 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • santecarloni on 19 Nov 10
     
    I think they are taking it a bit too far....
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Luzi Bergamin on 19 Nov 10
     
    I'm a little bit surprised as well about the crude story of the burglar, pure nonsense, of course! But the paper is deadly serious, Alberto and Paul are my best collaborators in metamaterials and optics, they are not this type of TV-show scientists as Leonhardt etc. But as Alberto told me: just put the name "cloak" in the title and you're in all the news. It's not science, it's kindergarden :-(.
  • LeopoldS on 20 Nov 10
     
    is my memory wrong or isn't this what you have already mentioned as theoretically possible a few years back when discussing this, Luzi?
  • Luzi Bergamin on 21 Nov 10
     
    Very well possible that I mentioned this. In fact I was one of the first who took spacetime transformations in transformation optics seriously. But first, my name is not Leonhardt and I don't work at Imperial, that's why nobody cites me and second I most probably found the idea too stupid to be published. You see the two reasons why I'm not successful in science...
Joris _

Japan probe overshoots Venus, heads toward sun - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2010120701077.html

MAD venus robust

shared by Joris _ on 08 Dec 10 - No Cached
sreejanag liked it
  • A Japanese probe to Venus failed to reach orbit Wednesday and was captured by the sun's gravitational pull
  • Akatsuki's engines did not fire long enough to attain the proper orbiting position
  • may be able to try again when it passes by Venus six years from now.
  • Joris _ on 08 Dec 10
     
    The usefulness of having a robust trajectory :) ... They have to wait 6 more years for another date with Venus ...
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Joris _ on 09 Dec 10
  • LeopoldS on 11 Dec 10
     
    I agree in general but just out of the stomach: is there really an optimised trajectory that would be able to avoid this kind of scenarios when main thrusters don't perform properly? Wouldn't you in any case end up in a sun-orbiting trajectory and have to come back after years??
  • Joris _ on 11 Dec 10
     
    "optimised trajectory" of course not, robust definitely! It was the subject of my paper presented at the AAS (the one in San Diego) "Designing robust interplanetary trajectories subject to one temporary engine failure". The problem here is that they do not have enough fuel for a correction maneuver that would allow to come back to Venus earlier, and break for a VOI. A robust scenario could have alloted the best amount of fuel and time to be able to recover from almost all possible unplanned events. In the paper, I introduce some confidence regions such that I get the robust control for p% chance of mission success in case m% chance of problem with the propulsion system.
  • Dario Izzo on 12 Dec 10
     
    You should run your method on this scenario and see if you could get a trajectory with a shorter come back time using the same spacecraft.... would be a big selling point for a new trajectory design approach
pacome delva

981.pdf (Objet application/pdf) - 6 views

www.seo.nl/...981.pdf

shared by pacome delva on 14 Dec 09 - No Cached
  • pacome delva on 14 Dec 09
     
    Where do you want to go to do academic research and still have a decent salary ? certainly not sweden, France or Germany... prefer the UK, US or the top... Switzerland !
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Luzi Bergamin on 14 Dec 09
     
    Where do you want to go to do academic research and still have fun? Where can you really do research instead of becoming an overpaid secretary? If you want to get rich go and work in investment banking...
  • pacome delva on 14 Dec 09
     
    well.. i'd better live decently than get rich... which is not possible in Paris (take 1680 euros for one family and a 1000 euros rent, minus all normal expenses (health, car, insurance, ...), it's difficult to finish the month...) Without mentioning that in France you would become an underpaid secretary...!!! My ex phd director is a professor and she doesn't even have a secretary to manage the 150 applications to the master she is in charge... My experience would rather say that the salary and the time you have for research are quite decorrelated.
  • Luzi Bergamin on 14 Dec 09
     
    Sure, 44k for a full professor, that's a bad joke! Just my experience from conferences: high saleries do not make good research, I rather suspect there's something like an optimal salery. People with too high saleries often seem to feel obliged to make much noise (whatever the reason might be), the result is not research but PR campagns.
  • pacome delva on 14 Dec 09
     
    I agree ! Just a correction, net salary for a full professor starting in France: 36456 euros/year... For a McF (equivalent junior prof.): 20160 euros/year, and of course a shitload of admistrative tasks and teaching. I don't know why i still dream to have a position...?
pacome delva

Power Law Explains Insurgent Violence - 1 views

sciencenow.sciencemag.org/...1

war power_law

shared by pacome delva on 18 Dec 09 - Cached
  • To try to explain the mechanism behind these patterns, the team borrowed a simple computer model from economics. The model treated all insurgencies like a marketplace--groups of people constantly deciding whether to act. Rather than coordinating, the groups simply watch the news. The size of the carnage reported at any given time determines the probability that a group of a given size will strike next. Like clockwork, the attacks over the course of the conflict--from the smallest to the most deadly--have the same distribution.
Luzi Bergamin

Power scattering and absorption mediated by cloak/anti-cloak interactions: A transforma... - 1 views

arxiv.org/1001.3000

phy nan metamaterials

shared by Luzi Bergamin on 20 Jan 10 - Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Luzi Bergamin on 20 Jan 10
     
    To keep you updated in the field of metamaterials. "Invisible sensors" are a hot topic at the moment. Of course, mainly due to military applications. Might be interesting to sense something while minimizing the perturbations due to the sensor.
  • Dario Izzo on 20 Jan 10
     
    And all seems to be allowed by transformation optics ..... mah
Joris _

NASA will miss Congressional deadline for asteroid tracking - Science Fair - USATODAY.com - 0 views

blogs.usatoday.com/...ine-for-asteroid-tracking.html

MAD NEO

shared by Joris _ on 25 Jan 10 - Cached
  • he panel finds the 2005 order to find 90% of Earth-threatening asteroids 460 feet or larger infeasible,
  • No method for diverting asteroids has been experimentally demonstrated
  • Options include a "gravity tractor" orbiting slow-moving objects and tugging them off course with tidal tugs, a "kinetic" impact of a heavy spacecraft into an asteroid, or a nuclear explosion
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Unlike the dinosaurs, we are smart enough to do the math and figure out the answer that modest resources should be dedicated to the problem
    • Joris _
      Joris _ on 25 Jan 10
       
      "we are smart enough" is a completely subjective comment. Reading the article it does not give the same impression :|
Francesco Biscani

STLport: An Interview with A. Stepanov - 2 views

www.stlport.org/...StepanovUSA.html

computer science

shared by Francesco Biscani on 23 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Generic programming is a programming method that is based in finding the most abstract representations of efficient algorithms.
  • I spent several months programming in Java.
  • for the first time in my life programming in a new language did not bring me new insights
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • it has no intellectual value whatsoever
  • Java is clearly an example of a money oriented programming (MOP).
  • Francesco Biscani on 23 Mar 10
     
    One of the authors of the STL (C++'s Standard Template Library) explains generic programming and slams Java.
  • ...6 more comments...
  • Ma Ru on 24 Mar 10
     
    "Java is clearly an example of a money oriented programming (MOP)." Exactly. And for the industry it's the money that matters. Whatever mathematicians think about it.
  • Joris _ on 24 Mar 10
     
    It is actually a good thing that it is "MOP" (even though I do not agree with this term): that is what makes it inter-operable, light and easy to learn. There is no point in writing fancy codes, if it does not bring anything to the end-user, but only for geeks to discuss incomprehensible things in forums. Anyway, I am pretty sure we can find a Java guy slamming C++ ;)
  • Francesco Biscani on 24 Mar 10
     
    Personally, I never understood what the point of Java is, given that: 1) I do not know of any developer (maybe Marek?) that uses it for intellectual pleasure/curiosity/fun whatever, given the possibility of choice - this to me speaks loudly on the objective qualities of the language more than any industrial-corporate marketing bullshit (for the record, I argue that Python is more interoperable, lighter and easier to learn than Java - which is why, e.g., Google is using it heavily); 2) I have used a software developed in Java maybe a total of 5 times on any computer/laptop I owned over 15 years. I cannot name of one single Java project that I find necessary or even useful; for my usage of computers, Java could disappear overnight without even noticing. Then of course one can argue as much as one wants about the "industry choosing Java", to which I would counterargue with examples of industry doing stupid things and making absurd choices. But I suppose it would be a kind of pointless discussion, so I'll just stop here :)
  • Joris _ on 24 Mar 10
     
    "At Google, python is one of the 3 "official languages" alongside with C++ and Java". Java runs everywhere (the byte code itself) that is I think the only reason it became famous. Python, I guess, is more heavy if it were to run on your web browser! I think every language has its pros and cons, but I agree Java is not the answer to everything... Java is used in MATLAB, some web applications, mobile phones apps, ... I would be a bit in trouble if it were to disappear today :(
  • Dario Izzo on 24 Mar 10
     
    I personally do not believe in interoperability :)
  • Ma Ru on 24 Mar 10
     
    Well, I bet you'd notice an overnight disappearance of java, because half of the internet would vanish... J2EE technologies are just omnipresent there... I'd rather not even *think* about developing a web application/webservice/web-whatever in standard C++... is it actually possible?? Perhaps with some weird Microsoft solutions... I bet your bank online services are written in Java. Certainly not in PHP+MySQL :) Industry has chosen Java not because of industrial-corporate marketing bullshit, but because of economics... it enables you develop robustly, reliably, error-prone, modular, well integrated etc... software. And the costs? Well, using java technologies you can set-up enterprise-quality web application servers, get a fully featured development environment (which is better than ANY C/C++/whatever development environment I've EVER seen) at the cost of exactly 0 (zero!) USD/GBP/EUR... Since many years now, the central issue in software development is not implementing algorithms, it's building applications. And that's where Java outperforms many other technologies. The final remark, because I may be mistakenly taken for an apostle of Java or something... I love the idea of generic programming, C++ is my favourite programming language (and I used to read Stroustroup before sleep), at leisure time I write programs in Python... But if I were to start a software development company, then, apart from some very niche applications like computer games, it most probably would use Java as main technology.
  • Francesco Biscani on 24 Mar 10
     
    "I'd rather not even *think* about developing a web application/webservice/web-whatever in standard C++... is it actually possible?? Perhaps with some weird Microsoft solutions... I bet your bank online services are written in Java. Certainly not in PHP+MySQL :)" Doing in C++ would be awesomely crazy, I agree :) But as I see it there are lots of huge websites that operate on PHP, see for instance Facebook. For the banks and the enterprise market, as a general rule I tend to take with a grain of salt whatever spin comes out from them; in the end behind every corporate IT decision there is a little smurf just trying to survive and have the back covered :) As they used to say in the old times, "No one ever got fired for buying IBM". "Industry has chosen Java not because of industrial-corporate marketing bullshit, but because of economics... it enables you develop robustly, reliably, error-prone, modular, well integrated etc... software. And the costs? Well, using java technologies you can set-up enterprise-quality web application servers, get a fully featured development environment (which is better than ANY C/C++/whatever development environment I've EVER seen) at the cost of exactly 0 (zero!) USD/GBP/EUR... Since many years now, the central issue in software development is not implementing algorithms, it's building applications. And that's where Java outperforms many other technologies." Apart from the IDE considerations (on which I cannot comment, since I'm not a IDE user myself), I do not see how Java beats the competition in this regard (again, Python and the huge software ecosystem surrounding it). My impression is that Java's success is mostly due to Sun pushing it like there is no tomorrow and bundling it with their hardware business.
  • Joris _ on 24 Mar 10
     
    OK, I think there is a bit of everything, wrong and right, but you have to acknowledge that Python is not always the simplest. For info, Facebook uses Java (if you upload picture for instance), and PHP is very limited. So definitely, in company, engineers like you and me select the language, it is not a marketing or political thing. And in the case of fb, they come up with the conclusion that PHP, and Java don't do everything but complement each other. As you say Python as many things around, but it might be too much for simple applications. Otherwise, I would seriously be interested by a study of how to implement a Python-like system on-board spacecrafts and what are the advantages over mixing C, Ada and Java.
Ma Ru

Researcher Creates 'Facebook for Scientists' - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...book-for-scientists-22081.html

inf Web 2.0 ariadnet science

shared by Ma Ru on 19 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Ma Ru on 19 Mar 10
  • ...4 more comments...
  • LeopoldS on 20 Mar 10
     
    and we are of course there since some time :-) and even have our own group in there ... think that Tobias has first discovered it our group is: https://www.researchgate.net/group/ESA_Advanced_Concepts_Team/ everybody welcome to join ... though Ariadnet is better
  • Ma Ru on 23 Mar 10
     
    So if I'm already on Ariadnet, there's no need for me to join this researchgate thingy? Pheew..
  • Luzi Bergamin on 23 Mar 10
     
    Very active group, it has exactly one member (Leo) and exactly zero (ZERO,0!!) posts since June 13, 2008!!! Well, sounds like a very typical ACT action in order to increase the key performance indicators :D.
  • Ma Ru on 23 Mar 10
     
    Oh come on Luzi, don't be over-pessimistic! It's just because all activity takes place on Ariadnet ;-)
  • nikolas smyrlakis on 24 Mar 10
     
    tsk tsk typical ex-ACT criticism.. Maybe for me too from next week;P
  • Luzi Bergamin on 24 Mar 10
     
    WRONG! You ignore the fact that I complained already while I was yet in the ACT!! Seriously: I clicked around in "ResearchGate" a little bit, couldn't find too many interesting things. Many scientists from India, Iran etc. desperately looking for contacts, retired engineers/scientists from industry that now remember that they were once at university and also quite a number of semi-crackpots. My honest conclusion: not a must. Btw: wish you a nice post-ACT depression! Keep a stiff upper lip, esp. in case you go back to Greece...
Luzi Bergamin

Physics in a Crisis - 3 views

www.rqm.ch/physics_in_a_crisis.htm

phy LHC crackpot fun

shared by Luzi Bergamin on 30 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Luzi Bergamin on 30 Mar 10
     
    Luckily I'm far away from Geneva, but this has to be said today, when the LHC starts! No, not tiny black holes will eat us (what a nonsense!), but the supernovae energy will let LHC explode!!! Pacome, I expect you to debunk this with gratest care!
  • ...2 more comments...
  • pacome delva on 30 Mar 10
     
    wtf is this! As I read this morning in the newspaper (not even a scientific one), 1 TeV is the kinetic energy of a flying mosquito... so be careful ! It seems they already sloved every thing on this website: "At the Institute for Space Quantum Physics ISQP, it was already proved in 1991-1992 that dark matter is in magnetic fields as magnetic space quantum flux." This website is the biggest source of crackpots i have seen in a long time...! (http://www.supernovae-energy.com/)
  • Ma Ru on 30 Mar 10
     
    Come on guys, this website is hilarious! "The HAITI EARTHQUAKE (...) were impossible for the Institute for Space Quantum Physics (ISQP) to compute because on one single planet was on a common line or axis with the Sun: Venus."
  • Luzi Bergamin on 30 Mar 10
     
    Unfortunately, most information I have about the guy (Hans Lehner, a Swiss) is in German, his official homepage is http://www.rqm.ch/ According to EsoWatch he is the Swiss analogue to Dr. Mills and his Blacklight power. Lehner apparently founded a company, which should have produced a "Raum-Quanten-Motor" that -- of course -- produces energy out of nothing. The theory is based on spookey forces mediated by Lehneronen. 11 Million Swiss Franks (about 8 Million Euro) were lost when the company bankrupt. And the guy is selling new stocks on his homepage again... Lehner calls another crackpot named Oliver Crane Zweistein (from Einstein being "Onestone") and himself "Dreistein". Now he is looking for Mister or Misses Vierstein. Perhaps you should apply, good luck!!
  • Nicholas Lan on 30 Mar 10
     
    i like the first line of their supernovae energy technology document "Dear potential investor:"...
pacome delva

Girls Get Math: It's Culture That's Skewed - 2 views

www.livescience.com/...090601-gender-math.html

sociology math

shared by pacome delva on 19 Apr 10 - Cached
  • "There's a gender stereotype that boys are better at math than girls are, and stereotypes die very hard," Hyde told LiveScience. "Teachers and parents still believe that boys are better at math than girls are." The researchers provide several possible cultural factors keeping females from excelling in math, including classroom dynamics in which teachers pay more attention to boys, while even mathematically gifted girls are not nurtured. In addition, stereotypes may drive guidance counselors and others to discourage girls from taking engineering courses.
  • Nina Nadine Ridder on 26 Apr 10
     
    The guidance counselor at my high school discouraged me to study physics but was very excited when I was contemplating to become a teacher. Maybe I should send her this article...
  • Luzi Bergamin on 26 Apr 10
     
    Oh yeah, real new!! And in the 90s it was obvious that girls are smarter but discriminated, today its obvious that the poor boys are neglected; some years ago female teachers were proven to discriminate even stronger against girls than male teachers and today politicians demand more male teachers... because they would pay more attention to the neglected boys! Great, that's what I like about sociological research, every couple of years one can sell the same old story again and again and again... sorry, I'm in a real bullshitter mood today!
  • Nicholas Lan on 27 Apr 10
     
    gotta agree with luzi here. girls at secondary school in the UK have been outperforming boys for years now after numerous government programmes. As to guidance counsellors - if they were any good at guidance wouldn't they have better jobs?
Juxi Leitner

Networked Networks Are Prone to Epic Failure | Wired Science | Wired.com - 1 views

www.wired.com/...networked-networks

tech networks failure

shared by Juxi Leitner on 27 Apr 10 - Cached
  • The interconnections fueled a cascading effect, with the failures coursing back and forth. A damaged node in the first network would pull down nodes in the second, which crashed nodes in the first, which brought down more in the second, and so on. And when they looked at data from a 2003 Italian power blackout, in which the electrical grid was linked to the computer network that controlled it, the patterns matched their models’ math.
  • Juxi Leitner on 27 Apr 10
     
    that would be an interesting "Systems of Systems" study for once ...
Luzi Bergamin

Vivos Underground Survival Shelter Network for 2012 and Beyond - 0 views

www.terravivos.com/...secureindex.htm

fun apocalypse doomsday

shared by Luzi Bergamin on 29 Apr 10 - Cached
  • Luzi Bergamin on 29 Apr 10
     
    The world will end on 21.12.2012, the Maya knew this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04OilEWckAU in German,) so be prepared! There should be an extra shelter for all (Ex-)ACT members. This would be real fun!! Endless strategic meetings on how to survive after apocalypse!
  • Dario Izzo on 30 Apr 10
     
    No, Luzi, there was an error in the profecy transcription... they meant that Italy would end in 2012, not the world..... and they seem to be quite right according to most observers. I am actually surprised it lasted so long!!!
  • Ma Ru on 30 Apr 10
     
    Of course one of the major reasons behind the apocalypse will be European football championship taking place in Poland+Ukraine...
pacome delva

Synthetic Genome Brings New Life to Bacterium - 0 views

www.sciencemag.org/...958

bio genomics ethics

shared by pacome delva on 21 May 10 - Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • For 15 years, J. Craig Venter has chased a dream: to build a genome from scratch and use it to make synthetic life. Now, he and his team at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in Rockville, Maryland, and San Diego, California, say they have realized that dream.
  • "One thing is sure," Boeke says. "Interesting creatures will be bubbling out of the Venter Institute's labs."
  • pacome delva on 21 May 10
     
    wow, a big step in genomics...!
  • Ma Ru on 21 May 10
     
    But isn't it just yet another word abuse? From what I understand, they just synthesised a genome identical to the one of an existing bacteria... while undoubtedly nice work, this is *very* far from "creating life from scratch"... The fact that you are able to copy something, doesn't mean you understand how it works...
  • pacome delva on 27 May 10
     
    well of course we are far from engineering specific functions, and this is just a copy of a function that already existed. However it is quite impressive and the first time it is done. And the challenge here is not really to "copy" the ADN, but the fact that it works... in other words it is not because you copy the ADN identically that the phenotype (traduction of the ADN) will be the same, which is the case in this experiment.
LeopoldS

Macroscopic invisibility cloaking of visible light : Nature Communications : Nature Pub... - 3 views

www.nature.com/...ncomms1176.html

invisibility PHY science

shared by LeopoldS on 02 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 02 Feb 11
     
    and all this without magic metamaterials ...
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Luzi Bergamin on 02 Feb 11
     
    Wellwellwell! I don't know how I have to complain, since I could not yet read the full article, but I'm sure I will :-).
  • Luzi Bergamin on 02 Feb 11
     
    It's funny to see how people get more and more humble in the desperate attempt to save their stupid ideas... At the beginning was the brave and bold aim to cloak something in free space (in a sphere or a cylinder). This requires inhomogeneous, anisotropic, magnetic materials; hopeless!! So one reduces to one polarization, now we have inhomogenous, anisotropic materials; still hopeless! At this point one downgraded the pretension: instead of cloaking in free space, we make a "carpet cloak" and hide an object behind an invisible dent in a mirror. But if that shall be continuous, we still need inhomogeneity and this is very hard. So now instead of a dent we take a cone and then it is claimed to work ... for ONE polarization. But of course the cloak can't work at all incident angles... irony of fate: everything is now made from birefringent media, the antithesis of what the metamaterials dogma was at the beginning!
  • jmlloren on 04 Feb 11
     
    Hi Luzi, can you please send me the paper. We are writing a project based on sulfates and carbonates, and all this BS sounds great for the introduction (The authors used Calcite as birefringent material)
Luís F. Simões

The Fantastical Promise of Reversible Computing  - Technology Review - 2 views

www.technologyreview.com/...26308

INF reversible logic computing chip electronics quantum cellular_automata

shared by Luís F. Simões on 25 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Reversible logic could cut the energy wasted by computers to zero. But significant challenges lie ahead.
  • By some estimates the difference between the amount of energy required to carry out a computation and the amount that today's computers actually use, is some eight orders of magnitude. Clearly, there is room for improvement.
  • There are one or two caveats, of course. The first is that nobody has succeeded in building a properly reversible logic gate so this work is entirely theoretical. But there are a number of computing schemes that have the potential to work like this. Thapliyal and Ranganathan point in particular to the emerging technology of quantum cellular automata and show how their approach might be applied.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1101.4222: Reversible Logic Based Concurrent Error Detection Methodology For Emerging Nanocircuits
  • Dario Izzo on 26 Jan 11
     
    We did look at making computation powers more efficient from the bio perspective (efficiency of computations in brain). This paper was actually the base for our discussion on a new approsach to computing http://atlas.estec.esa.int/ACTwiki/images/6/68/Sarpeshkar.pdf and led to several ACT internal studies
  • Luís F. Simões on 26 Jan 11
     
    here is the paper I told you about, on the computational power of analog computing: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0304-3975(95)00248-0 you can also get it here: http://www.santafe.edu/media/workingpapers/95-09-079.pdf
Dario Izzo

Proposed mission to Jupiter system achieves milestone - 1 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...110204205538.htm

life MAD

shared by Dario Izzo on 11 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Dario Izzo on 11 Feb 11
     
    Understanding life is the scientific focus of the next Europa/Ganimede mission!
  • LeopoldS on 12 Feb 11
     
    the objective is rather the study of "emergence of habitable worlds", which of course includes understanding of life and what habitability is ...
  • LeopoldS on 12 Feb 11
Luís F. Simões

Shell energy scenarios to 2050 - 6 views

www.shell.com/...shell_energy_scenarios_2050

energy future forecast politics economy climate_change

shared by Luís F. Simões on 09 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Luís F. Simões on 09 Mar 11
     
    just in case you were feeling happy and optimistic
  • ...7 more comments...
  • Francesco Biscani on 09 Mar 11
     
    An energy scenario published by an oil company? Allow me to be sceptical...
  • Joris _ on 10 Mar 11
     
    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.
  • Luís F. Simões on 10 Mar 11
     
    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.
  • LeopoldS on 12 Mar 11
     
    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
  • Joris _ on 14 Mar 11
     
    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.
  • LeopoldS on 14 Mar 11
     
    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
  • Joris _ on 14 Mar 11
     
    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/
  • LeopoldS on 16 Mar 11
     
    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
  • Joris _ on 16 Mar 11
     
    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.
Luzi Bergamin

Prof. Markrams Hirnmaschine (Startseite, NZZ Online) - 2 views

www.nzz.ch/...s_hirnmaschine_1.10736223.html

AI neuroscience SciFi

shared by Luzi Bergamin on 29 May 11 - No Cached
  • Luzi Bergamin on 29 May 11
     
    A critical view on Prof. Markram's Blue Brain project (in German).
  • ...4 more comments...
  • Luzi Bergamin on 29 May 11
     
    A critical view on Prof. Markram's Blue Brain project (in German).
  • LeopoldS on 30 May 11
     
    so critical that the comment needed to be posted twice :-) ?
  • Luzi Bergamin on 30 May 11
     
    Yes, I know; I still don't know how to deal with this f.... Diigo Toolbar! Shame on me!!!
  • dejanpetkow on 30 May 11
     
    Would be nice to read something about the modelling, but it appears that there is nothing published in detail. Following the article, the main approach is to model each(!) neuron taking into account the spatial structure of the neurons positions. Once achieved they expect intelligent behaviour. And they need a (type of) supercomputer which does not exist yet.
  • Ma Ru on 31 May 11
     
    As far as I know it's sort of like "Let's construct an enormous dynamical system and see what happens"... i.e. a waste of taxpayer's money... Able to heal Alzheimer... Yeah... Actually I was on the conference the author is mentioning (FET 2011) and I have seen the presentations of all 6 flagship proposals. Following that I had a discussion with one of my colleagues about the existence of limits of the amount of bullshit politicians are willing to buy from scientists. Will there be a point at which politicians, despite their total ignorance, will realise that scientists simply don't deliver anything they promise? How long will we (scientists) be stuck in the viscous circle of have-to-promise-more-than-predecessors in order to get money? Will we face a situation when we'll be forced to revert to promises which are realistic? To be honest none of the 6 presentations convinced me of their scientific merit (apart from the one on graphene where I have absolutely no expertise to tell). Apparently a huge amount of money is about to be wasted.
  • Luzi Bergamin on 01 Jun 11
     
    It's not just "Let's construct an enormous dynamical system and see what happens", it's worse! Also the simulation of the cosmological evolution is/was a little bit of this type, still the results are very interesting and useful. Why? Neither the whole cosmos nor the human brain at the level of single neurons can be modelled on a computer, that would last aeons on a "yet-to-be-invented-extra-super-computer". Thus one has to make assumptions and simplifications. In cosmology we have working theories of gravitation, thermodynamics, electrodynamics etc. at hand; starting from these theories we can make reasonable assumptions and (more or less) justified simplifications. The result is valuable since it provides insight into a complex system under given, explicit and understood assumptions. Nothing similar seems to exist in neuroscience. There is no theory of the human brain and apparently nobody has the slightest idea which simplifications can be made without harm. Of course, Mr. Markram remains completely unaffected of ''details'' like this. Finally, Marek, money is not wasted, we ''build networks of excellence'' and ''select the brightest of the brightest'' to make them study and work at our ''elite institutions'' :-). I lively remember the stage of one of these "bestofthebest" from Ivy League at the ACT...
« First ‹ Previous 61 - 80 of 112 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page