Advanced Concepts Team

To right that appalling wrong, here we attempt to explain the apparently erratic seasonal changes in the world of G.R.R.M. A natural explanation for such phenomena is the unique behavior of a circumbinary planet. Thus, by speculating that the planet under scrutiny is orbiting a pair of stars, we utilize the power of numerical three-body dynamics to predict that, unfortunately, it is not possible to predict either the length, or the severity of any coming winter.

Comparison between biological and technological evolution.

These features lead to a high heat-to-electricity energy conversion efficiency of 5.7% when cycled between 10 and 60 °C, opening a promising way to utilize low-grade heat.

interestingly it looks like a subject could wear it all day while doing normal stuff http://www.choosemuse.com/ "I got my hands on an early version of Interaxon's brainwave reading headband, the Muse, and I think this could be the most important wearable of the year. And that's saying a lot, considering I've seen 2014′s entire lineup for health tech at the Consumer Electronic Show as well as a few undisclosed athletic devices slated for later this year."

..."alerts the users with sights and sounds when they are producing brain waves associated with calm and focus." ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! YOU ARE CALM AND FOCUSSED! :-D

indeed the app that comes with it sounds really lame but it comes with an sdk

Short GRBS are formed when neutron stars (in a binary system) slam into one another. On the other hand, long GRBs are a result of massive stars going supernova. Stars end their lives in violent explosions, typically leaving behind remnants like neutron stars.

unfortunately the original article is subscription only "Among the evidence the article cites for this conclusion is Google's recent hiring of Brian Holtz and Dave Bettinger. Both came from companies (O3b and VT iDirect respectively) that specialize in communication satellites. Google has also invested in O3b and a current Google employee sits on company's board. A Boeing representative told The Information that Facebook and Google are "beginning to show a broader interest in satellite technology." While both companies are looking to space to broaden their reach, the ad-supported Google has the potential resources (cash) and gumption to actually follow through in the immediate future."

This could become quite relevant in future control systems if the setup can be made simple to keep alive and stable. I was doing some follow-up on a story about people controlling aircraft with their brainwaves (through EEG) when I ran into this really cool story. The idea of growing the neurons in patterns is incidentally very similar to the Physarium slime-mold stuff that Dario and me were curious about a little while ago.

I think we already had a discussion on this during a wednesday meeting :P

Oh, I thought that was on the little robot that was controlled by rat neurons and bumped into EVERYTHING. The interesting thing here is that they add a surface patterning (with some kind of nutrient) to control the growth of cells. (Maybe that is not new either, though.)

More than 40 years after a Soviet nuclear physicist proposed an outlandish theory that trios of particles can arrange themselves in an infinite nesting-doll configuration, experimentalists have reported strong evidence that this bizarre state of matter is real.

Yu and Thomas et al report cables that conduct electricity through a central wire, but that also store electrical energy in a coaxial supercapacitor. In the authors' design, electrochemically active nanowires project from a copper wire coated with copper oxide. Applications range from low-energy circuits to level power in linked generators which may not produce equal amounts of electricity.

The Wall Street Journal hears that the search firm is preparing to build 180 "small, high capacity" satellites that will go into low orbit and provide internet connections to underserved areas

sorry, did not see your earlier post ... fully altruistic move of course as they claim

actually I posted about it first :P

next step ... almost as predicted ....

Browsing Kaggle...

Very nice library, we actually use it for GTOC7.

Their accuracy is orders of magnitude better than what is currently being used, however at the moment, it sounds like quite a large setup -> they're working on getting it down to 1m^3 :o, still any gravity mapping instruments could benefit from these in the future.

Actually GPS is much more accurate, but as it doesnt work under water, the only alternative (without building an underwater GPS equivalent using probes) is to use cumulative accelerometer data. But as this is prone to drifting over time, quantum systems like this can help improving the accuracy significantly.

Very true :). I was thinking though when you want to remove 'noise' from any gravity mapping experiment, highly accurate accelerometers are required, like those used in GOCE.

A new mechanism was discovered on how H2 and N2 participate in the radiation budget. This may help to resolve the "faint young sun paradox", a hypothesis according to which during the earlier age of the solar system when sun radiation had lower intensity than now, the earth was warmer. Extended, it could reassess the past habitability of Mars.

12 new NIAC 1 studies - many topics familiar to us ... please have a look at those closest to your expertise to see if there is anything new/worth investigating (and in general to be knowledgeable on them since we will get questions sooner or later on them)
Principal Investigator Proposal Title Organization City, State, Zip Code
Atchison, Justin Swarm Flyby Gravimetry Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD 21218-2680
Boland, Eugene Mars Ecopoiesis Test Bed Techshot, Inc. Greenville, IN 47124-9515
Cash, Webster The Aragoscope: Ultra-High Resolution Optics at Low Cost University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0389
Chen, Bin 3D Photocatalytic Air Processor for Dramatic Reduction of Life Support Mass & Complexity NASA ARC Moffett Field, CA 94035-0000
Hoyt, Robert WRANGLER: Capture and De-Spin of Asteroids and Space Debris Tethers Unlimited Bothel, WA 98011-8808
Matthies, Larry Titan Aerial Daughtercraft NASA JPL Pasadena, CA 91109-8001
Miller, Timothy Using the Hottest Particles in the Universe to Probe Icy Solar System Worlds John Hopkins University Laurel, MD 20723-6005
Nosanov, Jeffrey PERISCOPE: PERIapsis Subsurface Cave OPtical Explorer NASA JPL Pasadena, CA 91109-8001
Oleson, Steven Titan Submarine: Exploring the Depths of Kraken NASA GRC Cleveland, OH 44135-3127
Ono, Masahiro Comet Hitchhiker: Harvesting Kinetic Energy from Small Bodies to Enable Fast and Low-Cost Deep Space Exploration NASA JPL Pasadena, CA 91109-8001
Streetman, Brett Exploration Architecture with Quantum Inertial Gravimetry and In Situ ChipSat Sensors Draper Laboratory Cambridge, MA 02139-3539
Wiegmann, Bruce Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System (HERTS) NASA MSFC Huntsville, AL 35812-0000

Eh, the swarm flyby gravimetry is very similar to the "measuring gravitational fields" project I proposed in the brewery

The 65 year-old iconic Turing Test was passed for the very first time by supercomputer Eugene Goostman during Turing Test 2014 held at the renowned Royal Society in London on Saturday.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140609/07284327524/no-supercomputer-did-not-pass-turing-test-first-time-everyone-should-know-better.shtml is a good read on the whole issue..

Humans have been failing the reverse turing test for years now actually.

A recently published review on insect flight appeared in Review of Modern Physics. It might be of interest to the biomimetics unit.

The system is based on two liquids which are adsorbed. As the sensor generates heat, the liquids desorb and the pressure builds up, it can then move to an expansion vessel which is held at a cooler temperature and the liquid then adsorb together again. This technique requires no mechanical compression and there are less vibration, leading to less wear and tear of components. It is being developed in a joint collaboration between UTwente and Dutch Space.