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thinkahol *

Dr. Daniel G. Nocera - YouTube - 0 views

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    The supply of secure, clean, sustainable energy is arguably the most important scientific and technical challenge facing humanity in the 21st century. Rising living standards of a growing world population will cause global energy consumption to double by mid-century and triple by the end of the century. Even in light of unprecedented conservation, the additional energy needed is simply not attainable from long discussed sources these include nuclear, biomass, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric. The global appetite for energy is simply too much. Petroleum-based fuel sources (i.e., coal, oil and gas) could be increased. However, deleterious consequences resulting from external drivers of economy, the environment, and global security dictate that this energy need be met by renewable and sustainable sources. The dramatic increase in global energy need is driven by 3 billion low-energy users in the non-legacy world and by 3 billion people yet to inhabit the planet over the next half century. The capture and storage of solar energy at the individual level personalized solar energy drives inextricably towards the heart of this energy challenge by addressing the triumvirate of secure, carbon neutral and plentiful energy. This talk will place the scale of the global energy issue in perspective and then discuss how personalized energy (especially for the non-legacy world) can provide a path to a solution to the global energy challenge. Daniel G. Nocera is the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Director of the Solar Revolutions Project and Director of the Eni Solar Frontiers Center at MIT. His group pioneered studies of the basic mechanisms of energy conversion in biology and chemistry. He has recently accomplished a solar fuels process that captures many of the elements of photosynthesis outside of the leaf. This discovery sets the stage for a storage mechanism for the large scale, distributed, deployment of solar energy. He has b
thinkahol *

The World's Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information | Kur... - 0 views

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    A study appearing Feb. 10 in Science Express calculates the world's total technological capacity to store, communicate and compute information, part of a Special Online Collection: Dealing with Data. The study by the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism estimates that in 2007, humankind was able to store 2.9 × 1020 optimally compressed bytes, communicate almost 2 × 1021 bytes, and carry out 6.4 × 1018 instructions per second on general-purpose computers. General-purpose computing capacity grew at an annual rate of 58%. The world's capacity for bidirectional telecommunication grew at 28% per year, closely followed by the increase in globally stored information (23%). Humankind's capacity for unidirectional information diffusion through broadcasting channels has experienced comparatively modest annual growth (6%). Telecommunication has been dominated by digital technologies since 1990 (99.9% in digital format in 2007), and the majority of our technological memory has been in digital format since the early 2000s (94% digital in 2007).
thinkahol *

Hybrid solar system makes rooftop hydrogen | KurzweilAI - 0 views

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    Duke University engineer Nico Hotz has proposed a hybrid solar system in which sunlight heats a combination of water and methanol in a maze of tubes on a rooftop to produce hydrogen. The device is a series of copper tubes coated with a thin layer of aluminum and aluminum oxide and partly filled with catalytic nanoparticles. A combination of water and methanol flows through the tubes, which are sealed in a vacuum. Once the evaporated liquid achieves higher temperatures, tiny amounts of a catalyst are added, which produces hydrogen. This combination of high temperature and added catalysts produces hydrogen very efficiently, Hotz said. The resulting hydrogen can then be immediately directed to a fuel cell to provide electricity to a building during the day, or compressed and stored in a tank to provide power later. After two catalytic reactions, the system produced hydrogen much more efficiently than current technology without significant impurities, Hotz said. The resulting hydrogen can be stored and used on demand in fuel cells. "This set-up allows up to 95 percent of the sunlight to be absorbed with very little being lost as heat to the surroundings," he said. "This is crucial because it permits us to achieve temperatures of well over 200 degrees Celsius within the tubes. By comparison, a standard solar collector can only heat water between 60 and 70 degrees Celsius." Holtz performed a cost analysis, comparing a standard photovoltaic cell, a photocatalytic system, and the hybrid solar-methanol system.  He found that the hybrid system is the least expensive solution, with a total installation cost of $7,900 if designed to fulfill the requirements in summer. The paper describing the results of Hotz's analysis was named the top paper during the ASME Energy Sustainability Fuel Cell 2011 conference in Washington, D.C. Topics: Energy | Nanotech/Materials Science
thinkahol *

Safer robots will improve manufacturing | KurzweilAI - 0 views

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    Robots have been considered too unpredictable and dangerous to work alongside humans in factories, but improved technologies for artificial sensing and motion are leading to a new wave of safer robots. Last winter, NASA sent a humanoid robot dubbed Robonaut 2 (R2) to the International Space Station. R2, which has only a torso, sophisticated arms and fingers, and a head full of sensors, jointly developed by NASA and General Motors under a program to create a robot that could operate safely alongside humans. R2 uses a popular robotics technology called series elastic actuators in its joints. The actuators have an elastic spring component between the motor and the object the robot has to pick up. The actuators help the robot detect and control the force of its own movements. R2 is also covered in soft material in case of accidental collisions, and its head contains cameras so it can keep track of its human colleagues. In June, President Obama announced a $500 million federal investment in manufacturing technology (including $70 million for robotics). It represents another step in developing robots that can assist with repetitious or physically stressful assembly-line tasks without posing a safety risk.
Duane Sharrock

Resources Are Not Something We Consume Like Sweets - 0 views

  • Resources are fixed and finite, surely? Wrong!
  • key developments in technology created new resources.
  • resources like computing power, medicines and knowledge are becoming more and more abundant.
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  • The reason why the total forested area in Europe and North America is increasing year by year is because we no longer need to burn the trees.
  • We can create resources as well as consume them.
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    The author makes some important observations that are astoundingly political and may be uncover the core to today's religious interests in science and technology. Major points of interest, when referring to the human eras of social/scientific/technological development: "At each stage, a new resource became available. Something that was previously unknown, unavailable or unusable suddenly became a valuable commodity. In other words, key developments in technology created new resources. The quantity of available resources has continued to expand throughout human history."
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    The author makes some important observations that are astoundingly political and may be uncover the core to today's religious interests in science and technology. Major points of interest, when referring to the human eras of social/scientific/technological development: "At each stage, a new resource became available. Something that was previously unknown, unavailable or unusable suddenly became a valuable commodity. In other words, key developments in technology created new resources. The quantity of available resources has continued to expand throughout human history."
thinkahol *

New way to store solar energy for use whenever it's needed | KurzweilAI - 0 views

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    MIT researchers have developed a new application of carbon nanotubes that shows promise as an innovative approach to storing solar energy for use whenever it's needed. Storing the sun's heat in chemical form - rather than first converting it to electricity or storing the heat itself in a heavily insulated container - has significant advantages: in principle, the chemical material can be stored for long periods of time without losing any of its stored energy. The researchers created carbon nanotubes in combination with a compound called azobenzene. The resulting molecules, produced using nanoscale templates to shape and constrain their physical structure, and the concept that can be applied to many new materials. This material is vastly more efficient at storing energy in a given amount of space - about 10,000 times higher in volumetric energy density, making its energy density comparable to lithium-ion batteries, the researchers said. Ref.: Alexie M. Kolpak, Jeffrey C. Grossman, Azobenzene-Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes As High-Energy Density Solar Thermal Fuels, Nano Letters, 2011; 110705085331088 [DOI: 10.1021/nl201357n]
thinkahol *

Two-layer solar cell to achieve 42 percent efficiency | KurzweilAI - 0 views

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    In a paper published in Nature Photonics, University of Toronto researchers report the first efficient two-layer solar cell based on colloidal quantum dots (CQD) to capture both visible and near-infrared rays. CQDs are nanoscale materials that can be tuned to respond to specific wavelengths of the visible and invisible spectrum. By capturing such a broad range of light waves - wider than normal solar cells - tandem CQD solar cells can in principle reach up to 42 per cent efficiencies. The best single-junction solar cells are constrained to a maximum of 31 per cent efficiency. (In reality, solar cells that are on the roofs of houses and in consumer products have 14 to 18 per cent efficiency.) The researchers expect that in five years, solar cells using the graded recombination layer paper will be integrated into building materials and mobile devices.
Duane Sharrock

Medical devices powered by the ear itself - MIT News Office - 0 views

  • Health Sciences and Technology (HST) demonstrate for the first time that this battery could power implantable electronic devices without impairing hearing.
  • The devices could monitor biological activity in the ears of people with hearing or balance impairments, or responses to therapies. Eventually, they might even deliver therapies themselves
  • “In the past, people have thought that the space where the high potential is located is inaccessible for implantable devices, because potentially it’s very dangerous if you encroach on it,” Stankovic says. “We have known for 60 years that this battery exists and that it’s really important for normal hearing, but nobody has attempted to use this battery to power useful electronics.”
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  • The ear converts a mechanical force — the vibration of the eardrum — into an electrochemical signal that can be processed by the brain; the biological battery is the source of that signal’s current. Located in the part of the ear called the cochlea, the battery chamber is divided by a membrane, some of whose cells are specialized to pump ions. An imbalance of potassium and sodium ions on opposite sides of the membrane, together with the particular arrangement of the pumps, creates an electrical voltage.
  • Low-power chips, however, are precisely the area of expertise of Anantha Chandrakasan’s group at MTL
  • The frequency of the signal was thus itself an indication of the electrochemical properties of the inner ear.
  • in cochlear implants, diagnostics and implantable hearing aids. “The fact that you can generate the power for a low voltage from the cochlea itself raises the possibility of using that as a power source to drive a cochlear implant,” Megerian says. “Imagine if we were able to measure that voltage in various disease states. There would potentially be a diagnostic algorithm for aberrations in that electrical output.”
  • “I’m not ready to say that the present iteration of this technology is ready,” Megerian cautions. But he adds that, “If we could tap into the natural power source of the cochlea, it could potentially be a driver behind the amplification technology of the future.”
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    "For the first time, researchers power an implantable electronic device using an electrical potential - a natural battery - deep in the inner ear."
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    "All of D-Lab's classes assess the needs of people in less-privileged communities around the world, examining innovations in technology, education or communications that might address those needs. The classes then seek ways to spread word of these solutions - and in some cases, to spur the creation of organizations to help disseminate them. Specific projects have focused on improved wheelchairs and prosthetics; water and sanitation systems; and recycling waste to produce useful products, including charcoal fuel made from agricultural waste."
thinkahol *

‪Quantum Computers and Parallel Universes‬‏ - YouTube - 0 views

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    Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/05/23/Marcus_Chown_in_Conversation_with_Fred_Watson Marcus Chown, author of Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You: A Guide to the Universe, discusses the mechanics behind quantum computers, explaining that they function by having atoms exist in multiple places at once. He predicts that quantum computers will be produced within 20 years. ----- The two towering achievements of modern physics are quantum theory and Einsteins general theory of relativity. Together, they explain virtually everything about the world in which we live. But almost a century after their advent, most people havent the slightest clue what either is about. Radio astronomer, award-winning writer and broadcaster Marcus Chown talks to fellow stargazer Fred Watson about his book Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You. - Australian Broadcasting Corporation Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology, he is now cosmology consultant of the weekly science magazine New Scientist. The Magic Furnace, Marcus' second book, was chosen in Japan as one of the Books of the Year by Asahi Shimbun. In the UK, the Daily Mail called it "a dizzy page-turner with all the narrative devices you'd expect to find in Harry Potter". His latest book is called Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You.
thinkahol *

Tactile technology guaranteed to send shivers down your spine | KurzweilAI - 0 views

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    Surround Haptics, a new tactile technology developed at Disney Research, Pittsburgh (DRP) in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, makes it possible for video game players and film viewers to feel a wide variety of sensations, from the smoothness of a finger being drawn against skin to the jolt of a collision. The technology is based on rigorous psychophysical experiments and new models of tactile perception. The technology will enhance a high-intensity driving simulator game developed in collaboration with Disney's Black Rock Studio. With players seated in a chair outfitted with inexpensive vibrating actuators, Surround Haptics will enable them to feel road imperfections, objects falling on the car, skidding, braking and acceleration; and experience ripples of sensation when cars collide. They will also experience jumping, flying, falling, shrinking or growing, of bugs creeping on their skin, the researchers said. The DRP researchers have accomplished this feat by designing an algorithm for controlling an array of vibrating actuators in such a way as to create "virtual actuators" anywhere within the grid of actuators. A virtual actuator can be created between any two physical actuators; the user has the illusion of feeling only the virtual actuator, the researchers said. As a result, users don't feel the general buzzing or pulsing typical of most haptic devices today, but can feel discrete, continuous motions such as a finger tracing a pattern on skin. Disney is demonstrating Surround Haptics Aug. 7-11 at the Emerging Technology Exhibition at SIGGRAPH 2011, the International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Vancouver, B.C.
Duane Sharrock

9 Overlooked Technologies That Could Transform The World | The Creativity Post - 0 views

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    "We live in an era of accelerating change. Technology is changing and innovating faster than most of us can keep up. And at the same time, it's easy to get so caught up in shiny visions of the future, and not notice the astounding things that are happening in science and technology today. So the next time people ask you where the future went, tell them it's already here. Here are nine underrated or overlooked technologies that could transform the world before you know it."
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    We live in an era of accelerating change. Technology is changing and innovating faster than most of us can keep up. And at the same time, it's easy to get so caught up in shiny visions of the future, and not notice the astounding things that are happening in science and technology today. So the next time people ask you where the future went, tell them it's already here. Here are nine underrated or overlooked technologies that could transform the world before you know it.
thinkahol *

Tiny LEDs Pump out Quantum-Entangled Photons | 80beats | Discover Magazine - 0 views

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    LEDsThe strange quantum state of entanglement isn't just challenging to think about, it's hard to create. This "spooky" phenomenon-in which two particles are linked, even if they're separated by distance-can be created by scientists in the lab using bulky lasers. But scientists published a study in Nature today in which they created a light-emitting diode (LED) that produces entangled photons.
thinkahol *

Advance in Quantum Computing Entangles Particles by the Billions - NYTimes.com - 0 views

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    In a step toward a generation of ultrafast computers, physicists have used bursts of radio waves to briefly create 10 billion quantum-entangled pairs of subatomic particles in silicon. The research offers a glimpse of a future computing world in which individual atomic nuclei store and retrieve data and single electrons shuttle it back and forth.
thinkahol *

In a genetic research first, researchers turn zebrafish genes off and on - 0 views

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    ScienceDaily (May 9, 2011) - Mayo Clinic researchers have designed a new tool for identifying protein function from genetic code. A team led by Stephen Ekker, Ph.D., succeeded in switching individual genes off and on in zebrafish, then observing embryonic and juvenile development. The study appears in the journal Nature Methods.
thinkahol *

Global Internet traffic to quadruple by 2015 | KurzweilAI - 0 views

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    Cisco predicts more than 15 billion network-connected devices by 2015, reaching 966 exabytes (10^18 bytes) per year - close to 1 zettabyte (10^21 bytes). Average global IP traffic in 2015 will reach 245 terabytes per second, equivalent to 200 million people streaming an HD movie (1.2 Mbps) simultaneously. This growth will primarily be driven by the global online video community, which will increase by approximately 500 million users by 2015, up from more than 1 billion Internet video users in 2010, Cisco says. Global IP traffic growth is driven by four primary factors, according to Cisco: An increasing number of devices: The proliferation of tablets, mobile phones, connected appliances and other smart machines is driving up the demand for connectivity.  By 2015, there will be nearly 15 billion network connections via devices - including machine-to-machine - and more than two connections for each person on earth. More Internet users: By 2015, there will be nearly 3 billion Internet users - more than 40 percent of the world's projected population. Faster broadband speed: The average fixed broadband speed is expected to increase four-fold, from 7 megabits per second in 2010 to 28 Mbps in 2015. The average broadband speed has already doubled within the past year from 3.5 Mbps to 7 Mbps. More video: By 2015, 1 million video minutes -+ the equivalent of 674 days - will traverse the Internet every second. By 2015, the Asia Pacific region will generate the most IP traffic (24.1 exabytes per month), surpassing last year's leader, North America (22.3 exabytes per month), for the top spot. The fastest-growing IP-traffic regions for the forecast period (2010-2015) are the Middle East and Africa, surpassing last year's leader, Latin America.
thinkahol *

New laser technology could revolutionize communications | KurzweilAI - 0 views

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    Engineers at Stevens Institute of Technology have developed a technique to optically modulate the frequency of a laser beam and create a signal that is disrupted significantly less by environmental factors, says Dr. Rainer Martini. The research provides for enhanced optical communications, allowing mobile units not tied to fiber optic cable to communicate in the range of 100 GHz and beyond, the equivalent of 100 gigabytes of data per second. Eventually, the team hopes to extend the reach into the terahertz spectrum. The frequency or amplitude modulation of middle infrared quantum cascade lasers has been limited by electronics, which are barely capable of accepting frequencies of up to 10 GHz by switching a signal on and off.  Marini and his team have developed a method to optically induce fast amplitude modulation in a quantum cascade laser to control the laser's intensity. Their amplitude modulation system employed a second laser to modulate the amplitude of the middle infrared laser, using light to control light. The current detector is only capable of detecting frequencies up to 10 GHz, but Dr. Martini is confident that a new detector will make the system capable of much higher frequencies. With an optical system that is stable enough, satellites may one day convert to laser technology, resulting in a more mobile military and super-sensitive scanners, as well as faster Internet for the masses, says Martini. Ref.: "Optically induced fast wavelength modulation in a quantum cascade laser," Applied Physics Letters, July 7, 2010.
Duane Sharrock

Tissue engineering: Growing new organs, and more - MIT News Office - 0 views

  • This kind of disease modeling could have a great impact in the near term, says MIT professor Sangeeta Bhatia, who is developing liver tissue to study hepatitis C and malaria infection.
  • liver is difficult to grow outside the human body because cells tend to lose their function when they lose contact with neighboring cells. “
  • In a large-scale project recently funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration, several MIT faculty members are working on a “human-on-a-chip” system that scientists could use to study up to 10 human tissue types at a time.
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  • Biological and Mechanical Engineering
  • developing regenerative therapies that help promote wound healing.
  • Endothelial cells, normally found lining blood vessels, could help repair damage caused by angioplasty or other surgical interventions; smoke inhalation; and cancer or cardiovascular disease.
  • One of the earliest successes of implantable tissues was the development of artificial skin, which is now commonly used to treat burn victims.
  • Langer is now working on more complex tissues, such as cardiac-tissue scaffolds that include electronic sensors and a synthetic polymer that could restore vocal-cord function in people who have lost their voices through overuse or other types of damage
  • In Bhatia’s lab, where tissue-engineering research is evenly divided between modeling diseases and working toward implantable organs, researchers recently developed 3-D liver tissues that include their own network of blood vessels
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    "MIT News examines research with the potential to reshape medicine and health care through new scientific knowledge, novel treatments and products, better management of medical data, and improvements in health-care delivery. "
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    "MIT News examines research with the potential to reshape medicine and health care through new scientific knowledge, novel treatments and products, better management of medical data, and improvements in health-care delivery. "
tabnova914

The Impact of Enterprise Apps in UK: Revolutionizing Business Operations - 1 views

In recent years, the adoption of enterprise apps in the United Kingdom has transformed the way businesses operate. From enhancing productivity and improving customer engagement to streamlining inte...

enterprise mobility mobile device management enterprise mobility management enterprise apps in uk

started by tabnova914 on 18 Sep 23 no follow-up yet
thinkahol *

Erasing signs of aging in human cells now a reality - 0 views

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    ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2011) - Scientists have recently succeeded in rejuvenating cells from elderly donors (aged over 100). These old cells were reprogrammed in vitro to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and to rejuvenated and human embryonic stem cells (hESC): cells of all types can again be differentiated after this genuine "rejuvenation" therapy. The results represent significant progress for research into iPSC cells and a further step forwards for regenerative medicine.
thinkahol *

Evolutionary robotics: for robust robots, let them be babies first | KurzweilAI - 0 views

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    In a first-of-its-kind experiment, University of Vermont roboticist Josh Bongard created both simulated and actual robots that, like tadpoles becoming frogs, change their body forms while learning how to walk. over generations, his simulated robots also evolved, spending less time in "infant" tadpole-like forms and more time in "adult" four-legged forms.
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