Skip to main content

Home/ Advanced Concepts Team/ Group items tagged xkcd

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
sreejanag

NASA finds a new life form - 5 views

gizmodo.com/...nasa-finds-new-life

space science BIO

shared by sreejanag on 02 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • dejanpetkow on 03 Dec 10
     
    Does the Drake equation (and the revised formulations) need to be adjusted?
  • Ma Ru on 04 Dec 10
     
    > Does the Drake equation (and the revised formulations) need to be adjusted? Certainly. See the XKCD journal, vol. 1 issue 384.
  • sreejanag on 07 Dec 10
nikolas smyrlakis

Your Favorite Sci-Fi Movies, 2000 and Beyond | Underwire | Wired.com - 0 views

www.wired.com/...5

sci-fi movies primer wired

shared by nikolas smyrlakis on 09 Dec 09 - Cached
  • nikolas smyrlakis on 09 Dec 09
     
    some ideas for movie Fridays A "must" see on my opinion (never heard about it in the past!) : Primer Sounds ideal: "Primer is a 2004 American science fiction film about the accidental discovery of time travel. The film was written, directed and produced by Shane Carruth, a mathematician and a former engineer, and was completed on a budget of $7,000.[1] Primer is of note for its extremely low budget, experimental plot structure and complex technical dialogue, which Carruth chose not to 'dumb down' for the sake of his audience. One reviewer said that "anybody who claims [to] fully understand what's going on in Primer after seeing it just once is either a savant or a liar."[2] The film collected the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004 before securing a limited release in US cinemas, and has since gained a cult following."
  • Ma Ru on 09 Dec 09
     
    I watched it a while ago during my studies in Belgium... The plot is quite well summarized on this diagram: http://xkcd.com/657/large/ According to the text above I'm either savant or a liar (you choose). But I watched the movie under significant exposure to Belgian beer, so this may have helped...
andreiaries

Mars Exploration Rover Mission: Press Releases - 6 views

marsrover.nasa.gov/...20100323a.html

mars rover exploration AI technology space

shared by andreiaries on 25 Mar 10 - Cached
  • andreiaries on 25 Mar 10
     
    "has a new capability to make its own choices about whether to make additional observations of rocks that it spots on arrival at a new location"
  • Ma Ru on 25 Mar 10
LeopoldS

Kettling Wikileaks | DefectiveByDesign.org - 1 views

www.defectivebydesign.org/wikileaks

INF politics opensource

shared by LeopoldS on 21 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 21 Dec 10
     
    sympathetic point of view ... I am sure Francesco will appreciate ...
  • Luís F. Simões on 22 Dec 10
     
    the great Richard Stallman ( http://xkcd.com/225/ ). Nice article indeed.
Thijs Versloot

Rise of the Robots #Economist - 2 views

www.economist.com/...le-want-technology-makes-their

robot economist

shared by Thijs Versloot on 28 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • Thijs Versloot on 28 Mar 14
     
    The Economist this week has a 14-page special on the rise of the robots. Don't expect a very indepth technical review but an interesting read nonetheless for some maybe.
  • Ma Ru on 28 Mar 14
     
    This article nailed the issue, as far as I'm concerned. By the way the diagram in the Economist is hilarious.. amazing combination of American and male chauvinism!
anonymous

Nasa validates 'impossible' space drive (Wired UK) - 3 views

www.wired.co.uk/...lidates-impossible-space-drive

PHY space nasa propulsion emdrive

shared by anonymous on 31 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • anonymous on 31 Jul 14
     
    NASA validates the EmDrive (http://emdrive.com/) technology for converting electrical energy into thrust. (from the website: "Thrust is produced by the amplification of the radiation pressure of an electromagnetic wave propagated through a resonant waveguide assembly.")
  • ...3 more comments...
  • LeopoldS on 01 Aug 14
     
    I would be very very skeptic on this results and am actually ready to take bets that they are victims of something else than "new physics" ... some measurement error e.g.
  • anonymous on 02 Aug 14
     
    Assuming that this system is feasible, and taking the results of Chinese team (Thrust of 720 mN http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/06/emdrive-and-cold-fusion), I wonder whether this would allow for some actual trajectory maneuvers (and to which degree). If so, can we simulate some possible trajectories, e.g. compare the current solutions to this one ? For example, Shawyer (original author) claims that this system would be capable of stabilizing ISS without need for refueling. Other article on the same topic: http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/1/5959637/nasa-cannae-drive-tests-have-promising-results
  • Thijs Versloot on 04 Aug 14
     
    To be exact, the chinese reported 720mN and the americans found ~50microN. The first one I simply do not believe and the second one seems more credible, yet it has to be said that measuring such low thrust levels on a thrust-stand is very difficult and prone to measurement errors. @Krzys, the thrust level of 720mN is within the same range of other electric propulsion systems which are considered - and even used in some cases - for station keeping, also for the ISS actually (for which there are also ideas to use a high power system delivering several Newtons of thrust). Then on the idea, I do not rule out that an interaction between the EM waves and 'vacuum' could be possible, however if this would be true then this surely would be detectable in any particle accelerator as it would produce background events/noise. The energy densities involved and the conversion to thrust via some form of interaction with the vacuum surely could not provide thrusts in the range reported by the chinese, nor the americans. The laws of momentum conservation would still need to apply. Finally, 'quantum vacuum virtual plasma'.. really?
  • annaheffernan on 04 Aug 14
     
    I have to join the skeptics on this one ...
  • Marcus Maertens on 09 Aug 14
‹ Previous 21 - 26 of 26
Showing 20▼ items per page