Advanced Concepts Team

very nice selection of projects by NIAC!! there are at least some who have European partners as it looks like ... lets still see if we can get involved ...

Interesting. Is it NASA's equivalent of ESA's GSP?

It is a good thing NIAC is alive again. Wie, Bong -> "Optimal Dispersion of Near-Earth Objects" . I wonder what it is?

pretty impressive

Awesome, Dutch robotics labs must be so jealous!

The Top 400 World University Rankings published by Times Higher Education. Official 2011-2012 results.

I hate scorpions, but this could be a nice subject for a future Ariadna study! This north African desert scorpion, doesn't dig burrows to protect itself from the sand-laden wind (as the other scorpions do). When the sand whips by at speeds that would strip paint away from steel, the scorpion is able to scurry off without apparent damage.

Nice research, though they have done almost all the work that we could do in an Ariadna, didnt they? "To check, they took further photographs. In particular, they used a laser scanning system to make a three-dimensional map of the armour and then plugged the result into a computer program that blasted the virtual armour with virtual sand grains at various angles of attack. This process revealed that the granules were disturbing the air flow near the skeleton's surface in ways that appeared to be reducing the erosion rate. Their model suggested that if scorpion exoskeletons were smooth, they would experience almost twice the erosion rate that they actually do. Having tried things out in a computer, the team then tried them for real. They placed samples of steel in a wind tunnel and fired grains of sand at them using compressed air. One piece of steel was smooth, but the others had grooves of different heights, widths and separations, inspired by scorpion exoskeleton, etched onto their surfaces. Each sample was exposed to the lab-generated sandstorm for five minutes and then weighed to find out how badly it had been eroded. The upshot was that the pattern most resembling scorpion armour-with grooves that were 2mm apart, 5mm wide and 4mm high-proved best able to withstand the assault. Though not as good as the computer model suggested real scorpion geometry is, such grooving nevertheless cut erosion by a fifth, compared with a smooth steel surface. The lesson for aircraft makers, Dr Han suggests, is that a little surface irregularity might help to prolong the active lives of planes and helicopters, as well as those of scorpions."

What bugs me (pardon the pun) is that the dimensions of the pattern they used were scaled up by many orders of magnitude, while "grains of sand" with which the surface was bombarded apparently were not... Not being a specialist in the field, I would nevertheless expect that the size of the surface pattern *in relation to* to size of particles used for bombarding would be crucial.

A new imaging technique able to make movies of light moving!!! There is a trick, of course, but is a rather clever one and does not preclude innovative applications .....

I especially like " The program will also create a "developer's kit" of open hardware and software specifications to make it easier for new components to integrate into such fractionated systems." Joris: wanna take the lead on having a closer look on this, I definitely would like to be part of it and happy to contribute, possibly also Juxi? - first assessment by Christmas realistic?

I think it a very interesting approach. If you google "darpa F6", you should see that a lot seems to be on-going. So, should we do something about it before having the conclusions of the Darpa study ?

wait and see is never a good approach in these cases .... first step has to be anyway to understand what they are up to and then to think about our own ideas on it, own approaches, alternatives and then to see what we can do specifically in the team on it.

Reminds me of something .... :)

Star travel in 2069 ! Completely crazy this guys.. and what do you do once you are around Betelgeuse or Proxima ?

Not as crazy as "one united space agency in 2020" :)

fantastic images from the deep sea ...

wow, i want to do that !!! The suggestion of raising the funds on facebook is a good idea :) Look at this video, the future of banking, frightening isn't it ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqESjpfb3OE&feature=player_embedded

the first step is already not that trivial it seems to me: STEP 1: Form a bank.

depends on the country and of course the type of the bank :)

"At a symposium at the Dutch Spinoza-instituut on 8 December, 2009, string theorist Erik Verlinde introduced a theory that derives Newton's classical mechanics. In his theory, gravity exists because of a difference in concentration of information in the empty space between two masses and its surroundings. He does not consider gravity as fundamental, but as an emergent phenomenon that arises from a deeper microscropic reality. A relativistic extension of his argument leads directly to Einstein's equations."

Leo, do you mean you liked my comment on your question more than Pacome's? Well, the ACT has to evolve and fledge, so no bullshitting anymore, but serious and calculating answers... :-) Sorry Pacome, nothing against you!! I just LOVE this Diigo because it gives me the opportunity for a happy revival of my ACT mood.

haha, today would have been great to show your mood... we had a talk on the connection between mind and matter !!

who in the group will build the first fabber? bets are open ...

yes! very much so!!! is he in Holland? since would also probably be nice to get some first hand experience from him/her ....

but what would we do with it...? any idea ?

iPhone app with scientific assessment of arguments used by global warming skeptics

very good idea! and it seems well done, the graphics are very clear and the literature abondant.

the new scientist article does not say much but maybe the paper could be of interest to our models - Nina and Friederike, please have a look at it - hope that you can get hold of it ...

excellent !

interesting blog entry

this guy is actually one of the most fervent supporters of open innovation and tries to promote it whereever he can ... his problem is that at least at first view Apple does not confirm his theory ...

lol, the 'about' page is priceless bullshit: http://www.15inno.com/about-15inno/ "Corporate Mind Exchange (CMX) events in which corporate innovation leaders discuss relevant challenges and issues. No academics, consultants or start-ups; just corporate practitioners." We are doing it wrong, Leo. We don't need no stinking Universities! "Network groups in which 12-20 innovation leaders from different companies meet 4-6 times annually to discuss challenges and issues. Workshops and events with thought leaders and practitioners." What the hell are "innovation/thought leaders"?

what a ACT's exercise should look like...

Maybe, you should propose this exercise to the team. You'll see there is not much imagination, unless, you consider imagination equals craziness (bullshit things ... and the too common blah blah in the act). I think this concept is an imaginative credible concept. "anything we might ever see" explains it well.

well, the article is not very detailed so it can be only "du vent" ! did they actually try if such an airplane can fly ??? what about the engine ??? i find the solar impulse (see post below) much more eco-friendly !!! I agree with Leopold that it's quite boring and stays in the mainstream of the production. I'm sure we can do much better !!! What about some really useful things like pills against the flight sickness, and some really good food in the plane ? haha not soon to happen with all the cost reduction. The future of air transport will be a plane without seats, stewards and perhaps even without pilot !!!

nice link from toby .... it contains some of the things that I have been saying to the wind!!

"Do something only you would come up with-that none of your friends or family would think of." - according to them, this is one of their success recipes .... a recipe for the team?

>Get moving. I always said that fitness test should be included in the recruitment process!!!

did you already know about this?

no .... nice

Do you know this one ? (no time to go through the bookmarks...)

They just got 1.7 million euros from the EU "to build the laboratory prototypes of the key components of the electric sail": http://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/press-release/121643

very interesting info indeed!!

fantastic!