Putting a turbo engine into an old car gives it an entirely new life — suddenly it can go further, faster. That same idea is now being applied to neuroscience, with a software wrapper that can be used on existing neuron tracing algorithms to boost their ability to handle not just big, but enormous sets of data. The wrapper is called UltraTracer. (via WSJ)
A brick made of Martian soil simulant compacted under pressure. The brick was made without any additional ingredients and without baking. Credit: Jacobs School of Engineering/UC San Diego Explorers planning to settle on Mars might be able to turn the planet’s red soil into bricks without needing to use an oven or additional ingredients. Instead, they would just need to apply pressure to compact the soil—the equivalent […]
The frailty of the DNS system became all too evident last year, when DNS host Dyn was hit by a major Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack that brought down large swaths of the internet. With the threat of DDoS attacks only expected to grow, experts urge organizations to build redundancy into their DNS services. GitHub, the online code sharing and development platform, is introducing a new […]
Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Researchers at MIT, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory have devised a way to wirelessly power small electronic devices that can linger in the digestive tract indefinitely after being swallowed. Such devices could be used to sense conditions in the gastrointestinal tract, or carry small reservoirs of drugs to be delivered over an extended period. Finding a safe […]
Lithium-oxygen fuel cells boast energy density levels comparable to fossil fuels and are thus seen as a promising candidate for future transportation-related energy needs. Several roadblocks stand in the way of realizing that vision. An engineering lab has focused on one of those roadblocks — the loss of battery power, also known as capacity fade. (via WSJ)
Thermal image showing thermal runaway of an 18650 cell with an implanted internal short circuiting device. Credit: Donal Finegan (UCL, NASA and NREL) How lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries behave under short-circuit conditions can now be examined using a new approach developed by a UCL-led team to help improve reliability and safety. The use of high energy density Li-ion batteries is ubiquitous – from powering portable electronics to providing […]
It’s official. Peggy Whitson holds the standing record for the longest amount of time spent in space, or as her crewmates better put it, the “New U.S. High-Time Space Ninja.” As of April 24, 2017, Whitson has spent 534 days, 2 hours, 49 minutes and counting. NASA noted that she may break this record herself, as her stay at the International Space Station was extended from March to […]
Cells engineered to produce insulin under the command of a smartphone helped keep blood sugar levels within normal limits in diabetic mice, a new study reports. (via WSJ)
Artist’s impression of a diamond quantum sensor Image: David A. Broadway/cqc2t.org Researchers at the University of Melbourne (UoM) have announced a boost to the development of future electronics, producing imagery of electrons moving in two-dimensional graphene. In the above image, the spotlight-like shine below the diamond represents light passing through the diamond defect and detecting the movement of electrons. Electrons are shown as red spheres, trailed by […]
On Saturday April 22, 2017, Expedition 51 Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency photographed Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft as it approached the International Space Station. Using the station’s robotic Canadarm2, Cygnus was successfully captured by Pesquet and Commander Peggy Whitson at 6:05 a.m. EDT Saturday morning. Source link
Dr Eyad Arabi, Research Associate in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Credit: University of Bristol Wireless communications is a technology that is used every day. Across society, there is a move away from using the internet on desktop computers and towards smartphones, tablets and laptops. Engineers at the University of Bristol have developed a novel radio frequency (RF) design tool that will speed up the […]
Over the years, we’ve seen technologies push the envelope on reality. When the Iranians shot off a bunch of missiles in 2008, for example, it was quickly discovered that they fired only one missile and just Photoshopped the rest in. More recently, on social media, it can be difficult to know fact from fiction. Now we have Lyrebird, a Montreal-based startup that says it can […]
No president likes being judged on his first hundred days in office, not least Donald Trump. It is, he tweeted last week, a “ridiculous standard” by which to be measured, even though he also claimed to have accomplished “a lot”. With his 100th day in the White House falling on Saturday, investors have more nuanced ideas. For much of 2017 financial markets have doubted the global “Trump […]
By Marton Dunai | BUDAPEST BUDAPEST Anti-government protesters have filled Budapest’s streets in recent weeks, but divisions within the opposition and weak support outside the capital mean they are unlikely to herald a serious threat to Prime Minister Viktor Orban in next year’s election. Triggered by a law targeting an international school founded by liberal U.S. financier George Soros, the rallies have galvanised broader public anger against […]
26 April 2017 Mumbai, INDIA – Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, and strategic partner Jet Airways, India’s full-service premium international carrier, have signed a ground breaking agreement with the Government of Maharashtra to promote tourism to the western Indian state. The partnership will enable both airlines to capitalise on their strong links with Maharashtra and further propel domestic and international arrivals into […]
Robo Wunderkind founding team: Yuri Levin, Anna Larotska, and Rustem Akishbekov. Image: Zoe Opratko As robots increasingly replace humans in the workplace, those who possess the skills to build and program robots will have a distinct advantage, according to Vienna-based startup Robo Wunderkind. As the “robotic revolution” beckons, Robo Wunderkind wants to take a proactive approach by equipping children as young as five years old with some […]
Uber is planning to demonstrate a network of flying cars in Dallas-Fort Worth and Dubai by 2020, as announced by the ride-hailing company at the Uber Elevate summit. Similar to how Uber dispatches drivers and their cars, the company will not be manufacturing the flying cars, which will be vertical take-off and landing, or VTOL, vehicles. Rather, it will lead the formation of the network that will […]
Government incentive programs — such as the investment tax credit (ITC) and California Solar Initiative (CSI — increased the number of commercial solar PV adoptions. Credit: Wang, Yu and Johnson One key goal for renewable energy in the United States is to promote the continued adoption of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create a clean energy workforce. Federal and state governments are […]
Google on Tuesday announced changes to how it delivers and ranks internet searches, the latest effort by the tech giant to weed out “fake news” and offensive content. The new initiative includes tweaks to the algorithm used by Google to deliver search results, while offering users more options to flag inappropriate content, including for “autocomplete,” or the suggestions Google makes while someone is typing a search query. […]
Uber Technologies Inc has reportedly teamed up with officials from Dubai and Dallas to test flying cars within three years. The company aims to hold test flights in Dubai during the city’s Expo 2020 event, its chief product officer Jeff Holden said at a conference in Dallas on Tuesday. Holden was quoted as saying in media reports that the company’s models suggest flying cars could cost $1.32 […]
By Aleksandar Vasovic | BELGRADE BELGRADE Thousands protested in central Belgrade on Tuesday against Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s government and demanded a probe into a multi-billion euro riverside building project in the Serbian capital. A yellow duck, a symbol of the movement “Let’s Not Let Belgrade Drown” opposing the project, was displayed under flags marking the area along the Sava river where the Dubai-style residential buildings, hotels […]
Late last year, Google tweaked its search algorithm to fix a pesky problem: Users who asked the search engine whether the Holocaust occurred were served a post from the White supremacist site Stormfront denying its existence as a top result. Similar problems occasionally arise with Google’s featured “snippets,” the prominently displayed boxes that highlight highly-cited answers from around the web. For instance, at the time of publication […]
The Navy has since 2014 been testing a 30-kilowatt laser on one of its warships, the USS Ponce A sci-fi staple for decades, laser weapons are finally becoming reality in the US military, albeit with capabilities a little less dramatic than at the movies. Lightsabers—the favored weapon of the Jedi in “Star Wars” films—will remain in the fictional realm for now, but after decades of development, laser […]
Uber is scoffing at claims that its expansion into self-driving cars hinges on trade secrets stolen from a Google spinoff, arguing that its ride-hailing service has been working on potentially superior technology. The legal defense, presented in documents filed Friday in San Francisco federal court, marks Uber’s first detailed response to explosive allegations that its self-driving cars rely on crucial technology designed by Waymo. That company was […]
