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pacome delva

Randomness is no lottery thanks to entangled ions - 0 views

physicsworld.com/...42310

phy quantum_cryptography quantum_entanglement

shared by pacome delva on 15 Apr 10 - Cached
  • An international team of physicists has created the first system that can produce verifiably random numbers. The technique relies on the inherent uncertainties in quantum mechanics and future versions could help cryptographers to encode information more securely than ever before.
pacome delva

Researchers Solve the Mystery of the Zodiacal Light - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...hers-solve-the-mystery-of.html

phy astrophysics comets zodiacal_light

shared by pacome delva on 19 Apr 10 - Cached
  • Zodiacal light—the faint white glow that stretches across the darkest skies, tracing the same path the sun takes—has mystified scientists for centuries. They've known that it is sunlight reflected from a disk of dust spanning the inner solar system from Mercury to Jupiter. They just didn’t know where the dust came from—until now.
Joris _

Hewlett-Packard Unveils Real-World Memristor, Chip of the Future | Popular Science - 3 views

www.popsci.com/...d-unveils-first-ever-memristor

technology electronic

shared by Joris _ on 12 Apr 10 - Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • they allow the same device to serve as the processor and the memory
  • a memristor system would work far faster, and with far less energy, than a traditional computer.
  • Second, memristors can be much smaller than transistors.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Lastly, unlike transistors, which only work linearly, memristors can form three-dimensional networks
  • pacome delva on 15 Apr 10
     
    wow, looks pretty cool! I wonder what is "a ridiculous amount of memory on a chip"...? giga, tera, peta, exa, ... ?
  • Ma Ru on 15 Apr 10
     
    Looks cool indeed, but as with all those technology "breakthroughs" my enthusiasm will be limited until this actually makes it to my laptop...
  • LeopoldS on 15 Apr 10
     
    what a phrase: "this advance could increase the power and memory of computers to nearly unimaginable proportions within only a couple of years." ... sure ....
Joris _

Nautilus X MMSEV Is More Outside-the-Box Space Thinking from NASA - 1 views

news.yahoo.com/...dl9pc19tb3JlX291dHNpZGV0aGVib3

technology MAD

shared by Joris _ on 31 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Joris _ on 31 Jan 11
     
    Wonder what is the most creative: the system or the name! NAUTILUS-X = Non-Atmospheric Universal Transport Intended for Lengthy United States X-ploration http://spirit.as.utexas.edu/~fiso/telecon/Holderman-Henderson_1-26-11/Holderman_1-26-11.ppt
  • LeopoldS on 03 Feb 11
     
    dreaming ...
Luís F. Simões

Boeing probes international market for human spacecraft - 1 views

spaceflightnow.com/...10cst100

human spaceflight commercial spaceflight

shared by Luís F. Simões on 11 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • The aerospace powerhouse is designing and testing systems for its CST-100 space capsule, a craft the company says could begin flying astronauts to low Earth orbit by 2015. It will launch on existing rockets to lessen development risk and costs.
  • "The spacecraft that we're designing is rocket-agnostic. It would be possible to sell this like a commercial airplane to countries who perhaps have a launch vehicle who would like to launch it in their own country."
  • Luís F. Simões on 11 Feb 11
     
    ...and hitting the news in the same day: A Rocket Built from U.S. and European Parts "A new rocket that would combine parts from NASA's canceled Ares I rocket as well as the Ariane 5 , a well-proven European satellite launcher, could provide a low-cost option for taking crew and cargo to the space station. The rocket proposal was announced this week by ATK, an aerospace and defense company that manufactures the solid rocket motors for NASA's space shuttles, and Astrium, the European company that makes the Ariane 5. They say the rocket, called Liberty, would be ready for flight by 2015." "Other commercial companies, including Boeing and Orbital Sciences Corporation, are looking to use low-end versions of the Atlas V to carry the capsules they are building. Liberty could carry any capsule at a cost less than that of the Atlas V, according to ATK." Look! Competition! :)
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

William Shatner Wakes Up Crew for Final Discovery Mission - Slashdot - 1 views

idle.slashdot.org/...ew-for-Final-Discovery-Mission

Space shuttle sci-fi Star Trek fun

shared by Luís F. Simões on 07 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • The Space Shuttle Discovery left the International Space Station this morning for the last time. To commemorate the ship's accomplishments over 27 years of service, the crew was greeted to a morning wake-up message from Capt. Kirk. "Space, the final frontier," Shatner said in a prerecorded message. "These have been the voyages of the space shuttle Discovery. Her 30-year mission: to seek out new science, to build new outposts, to bring nations together on the final frontier, to boldly go and do what no spacecraft has done before."
  • Luís F. Simões on 07 Mar 11
     
    here's a recording of the transmission: http://ia600406.us.archive.org/13/items/STS-133/03-07-11_STS-133_FD12_Crew_Wakeup.mp3 to quote from the thread at reddit: "When the space shuttle first flew, 55 americans were being held hostage in the embassy in Iran, and Ronald Reagan had just become president. That same year Prince Charles would marry Lady Diana, the HIV virus would be first identified, Post-It notes were invented, and a small company called Microsoft released it's new operating system MS-DOS."
  • Francesco Biscani on 07 Mar 11
     
    Speaking of William Shatner, the legendary "Rocket Man": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hARDXYz2io
LeopoldS

Golden Goal collaborates with Flamingo in conferring synaptic-layer specificity in the ... - 1 views

www.nature.com/...nn.2756.html

PHY AI bio

shared by LeopoldS on 21 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 21 Feb 11
     
    new interesting neuroscience article ... how can we learn from this for AI?
  • Ma Ru on 21 Feb 11
     
    > how can we learn from this for AI? After reading the abstract only... it appears a bit too low-level to be relevant...
duncan barker

Can WISE find the hypothetical 'Tyche'? - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...2-wise-hypothetical-tyche.html

shared by duncan barker on 24 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • duncan barker on 24 Feb 11
     
    "In November 2010, the scientific journal Icarus published a paper by astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire, who proposed the existence of a binary companion to our sun, larger than Jupiter, in the long-hypothesized "Oort cloud" -- a faraway repository of small icy bodies at the edge of our solar system. The researchers use the name "Tyche" for the hypothetical planet. Their paper argues that evidence for the planet would have been recorded by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)."
Joris _

Up telescope! Search begins for giant new planet - 1 views

www.independent.co.uk/...-giant-new-planet-2213119.html

space science

shared by Joris _ on 15 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Joris _ on 15 Feb 11
  • Luís F. Simões on 15 Feb 11
  • Joris _ on 15 Feb 11
     
    well, he kind-of falls into his own trap: confusing/discussing "evidence" with "likelihood", and "there is" with "it may". He should have made more efforts in his writing, what he says is a bit pointless! (just put the Icarus' paper)
Isabelle DB

The emergent dynamics of biological systems - 3 views

www.stanford.edu/...riedel-kruse

bio fun technology

shared by Isabelle DB on 10 Mar 11 - No Cached
Dario Izzo liked it
  • Isabelle DB on 10 Mar 11
     
    Want to play football with paramecia?
  • LeopoldS on 12 Mar 11
     
    Interesting lab: very young and still in building up / recruiting phase: "Our lab started officially February 2010 - and we are looking for new members! "
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.
Luís F. Simões

Lonely Rogue Worlds Surprisingly Outnumber Alien Planets with Suns | Alien Planets & So... - 1 views

www.space.com/lien-planets-milky-common.html

astronomy exoplanets gravitational_lensing planet_formation

shared by Luís F. Simões on 19 May 11 - No Cached
  • Astronomers have discovered a whole new class of alien planet: a vast population of Jupiter-mass worlds that float through space without any discernible host star, a new study finds.
  • Sumi and his team looked at two years' worth of data from a telescope in New Zealand, which was monitoring 50 million Milky Way stars for microlensing events. They identified 474 such events, including 10 that lasted less than two days. The short duration of these 10 events indicated that the foreground object in each case was not a star but a planet roughly the mass of Jupiter. And the signals from their parent stars were nowhere to be found.
  • Luís F. Simões on 19 May 11
     
    here's something we didn't consider yesterday in the meeting on extra-solar planets!
  • LeopoldS on 20 May 11
     
    this is because you did not read the nature paper I have posted (see post a few lines below ...)
santecarloni

Peptidoglycan recognition proteins kill bacteria by activating protein-sensing two-comp... - 0 views

www.nature.com/...nm.2357.html

bio

shared by santecarloni on 24 May 11 - No Cached
  • santecarloni on 24 May 11
     
    A group of proteins that act as the body's built-in line of defense against invading bacteria use a molecular trick to induce bacteria to destroy themselves...
Luís F. Simões

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

launch.is/...dangerous-project-weve-ev.html

bitcoin p2p money disruptive

shared by Luís F. Simões on 16 May 11 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • 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.
  • Ma Ru on 17 May 11
     
    Sounds good!
  • ...9 more comments...
  • pacome delva on 18 May 11
     
    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
  • Nicholas Lan on 18 May 11
     
    interesting stuff anyone read cryptonomicon by neal stephenson? similar theme.
  • Luís F. Simões on 18 May 11
     
    :) 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...
  • tvinko on 18 May 11
     
    One of my colleagues has made a nice, short write-up about BitCoin: http://www.pds.ewi.tudelft.nl/~victor/bitcoin.html
  • LeopoldS on 18 May 11
     
    very nice analysis indeed - thanks Tamas for sharing it!
  • pacome delva on 20 May 11
     
    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.
  • nikolas smyrlakis on 20 May 11
     
    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
  • LeopoldS on 21 May 11
     
    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 ...
  • pacome delva on 23 May 11
     
    @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).
  • nikolas smyrlakis on 23 May 11
     
    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 ?
  • pacome delva on 23 May 11
     
    well, from 1936 to 1993 the central bank of france was owned by the state and was supposed to serve the general interest...
Luzi Bergamin

Airbus Concept Cabin - 3 views

www.thefuturebyairbus.com/...the-airbus-concept-cabin.aspx

bio future concept SciFi

shared by Luzi Bergamin on 15 Jun 11 - No Cached
Joris _ liked it
  • Luzi Bergamin on 15 Jun 11
     
    Another futuristic view on flying by Airbus. To make it more sexy it also includes some biomimetics...
  • Ma Ru on 16 Jun 11
     
    "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

Multi-robot olfactory search in structured environments (Robotics and Autonomous Systems) - 3 views

www.sciencedirect.com/...S0921889011001321

technology INF robotics science

shared by Ma Ru on 03 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • Ma Ru on 03 Aug 11
     
    Anyhow related to the "scent of science"?
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