Advanced Concepts Team

DuckDuckGo is a search engine that does not track you and, has more instant answers and less spam/clutter. You can still search google hits by added !g to your search query, which will then send an encrypted search request to google and return only the sensible part

!w = Wikipedia !wa = Wolfram alpha !y = Yahoo

Vortices in the South Atlantic are mathematically equivalent to black holes, say physicists, an idea that could lead to new ways of understanding how currents transport oil and garbage across oceans Black holes are regions of spacetime in which gravity is strong enough to prevent anything escaping, even light.

"Chemists have calculated that chains of double or triple-bonded carbon atoms, known as carbyne, should be stronger and stiffer than any known material."

Concept animation featuring notional crew operations during NASA's proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission. Very cool video.

Engineer : Remember to tip 18%, everybody. Mathematician : Is that 18% of the pre-tax total, or of the total with tax? Physicist : You know, it's simpler if we assume the system doesn't have tax. Computer Scientist : But it does have tax.

"In the future, if you need a new smartphone case, you might not have to drive to the store and purchase one that comes wrapped in even more plastic." Actually I was thinking more of printing whatever LEGO blocks you might need for a certain home project

German non-profit group Definetz wants to make defibrillators readily available across its country so that any time someone has a heart attack, the life saving devices are within arms reach.

The telepathic cyborg lives, sort of. University of Washington scientists Rajesh Rao and Andrea Stocco claim that they are the first to demonstrate human brain-to-brain communication. Rao sent a signal into a Stocco's brain via the Internet that caused him to move his right hand.

An international team of researchers, led by physicists from Lund University, have confirmed the existence of what is considered a new element with atomic number 115. The experiment was conducted at the GSI research facility in Germany. The results confirm earlier measurements performed by research groups in Russia.

The most tiny autopilot in the world was introduced yesterday by the Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands. Named Lisa/s, she comes in at the scales with just a mere 1.9 grams, the 2*2 cm board has everything that a multirotor needs. Among the sensors are a 3 axle gyroscope, compass, barometer and a gps module.

Also hardware and software are open source!

For your daily intake of interesting thoughts...

I remember that ESA was looking into similar things for the Vulcain 2/2+ NE upgrade together with Volvo and other companies. Does anybody know about the status of that program (google does not ;-))?

165000 people have applied and the founders of Mars One still seem enthusiastic. Wouldn't it be great if they actually could pull it off..?

I'm up for it.. literally :)

I will try it also ... quite convincing indeed ... could even free some more space for documents on my desk :-)

looks like the first "killer app" for 3D printers I am aware of ... highly useful and solving humanities most pressing problems as expected

University of Washington researchers have proved that it's possible to use one's thoughts to remotely control another person's body movements.