Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 246

Harry Potter's invisibility cloak is pretty cool. But it's just fantasy, isn't it? Well, by applying some technology, scientists have been able to make a breakthrough in cloaking objects from heat-sensing cameras and the like. This is done by controlling the flow of heat, either focusing it into a small point, or spreading it outside of an invisibility zone.

the technology will most likely go to the military, where something similar has been proven to hide a tank. This technology also has applications in computers, because it is fundamentally shuffling heat around at will. In computers, heat is still a major challenge for engineers. "We can design a cloak so that heat diffuses around an invisibility region, which is then protected from heat," Dr Guenneau explained. "Or we can force heat to concentrate in a small volume, which will then heat up very rapidly."

It could also be used by thieves, provided they can steal it from the military in the first place. They would be able to hide from police helicopters at night, or from thermal imaging alarm systems. Harry Potter's cloak is becoming reality. It will just take more time and research.

OK, I'll admit it: I'm scared of heights. I live in a two-storey house and can barely look over my balcony without feeling scared. But this, this is just absolutely insane! Enter "Fearless Felix" Baumgartner, who has jumped 2,500 times from planes, and helicopters as well as some of the world's highest landmarks and skyscrapers, such as the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro, the Millau Viaduct in southern France, and the 101-story Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan.

This summer, Baumgartner hopes to fly toward the Earth at supersonic speeds from a record 23 miles above the Earth, breaking the sound barrier... with only his body. During a dress rehearsal last Thursday, he made it more than half-way, ascending from the New Mexico desert in a helium balloon, and jumping from more than 13 miles up. It's said that he is one of only three people who have jumped from such a height and free-fall to a safe landing. He's also the first to do so in 50 years.

He's even caught the attention of NASA, where engineers working on astronaut escape systems for future spacecraft keeping an eye on the skydiver. Here's where things get insane: Baumgartner took a 100-foot helium balloon and pressurized capsule which lifted from Roswell, New Mexico last Thursday morning. He then jumped at 71,581 feet - 13.6 miles - and landed safely just 8 minutes and 8 seconds later.

First off, some back story. This will end up as a mini-editorial, but some of you will find this very interesting. Lake Vostok is a large (10,000km2), presumably fresh water body located under some 4km of ice in East Antarctica. The lake is not some little pool of water, its a gigantic, 250km long and 50km wide.

Because the lake is under kilometres of frozen ice, it has been untouched by todays technology and hence, the hands of man. The contents of this secret under-the-ice lake, have not seen the light of day for more than 20 million years. Because of this long period of pure isolation, it is believed that the water inside Lake Vostok could contain new, never-before-seen lifeforms, and unique geochemical processes.

For the past five-plus years, Russia and the United States have been seeking to probe Vostok in order to discover its underlying secrets from this pure, pristine body of water. The problem associated with such an untouched body of water is that as soon as it is discovered, tested and exposed, we would have contaminated it in multiple ways. Because of its long period of isolation, it cannot be explored without the introduction of the outside world, i.e. us.

We're not even finished with the first month of 2012 and we are already experiencing some seriously powerful stuff happening to us because of one of the most important things we, humans, require to live: our Sun, our Star. The Sun, at around 0359 UT on January 23, from sunspot 1402 erupted and produced a long-duration M9-class solar flare.

The explosion's M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being classed an X-flare, the most powerful there can be. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare's most extreme ultraviolet flare, below:

The resulting coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field at 0617 UT on January 22 and according to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME strongly compressed Earth's magnetic field and briefly exposed satellites in geosynchronous orbit to solar wind plasma. The effects of this will last roughly 24 hours, where Earth's magnetic field reverberates from the impact. This causes bright auroras to be seen around the arctic circle. Bjørn Jørgensen observed this display from Tromsø, Norway:

Qualcomm have an interesting new competition, named the Tricorder X PRIZE. It is jointly organised with the X PRIZE Foundation, who is famous for its Ansari X PRIZE award of $10 million for its first private suborbital space flight. Qualcomm is offering up $10 million to those who could take the concept of a highly-portable health-monitoring device, the Star Trek Tricorder, and make it real.

Peter Diamandis, chair and chief executive of the X PRIZE Foundation says:

If only this was approved to grubby gamers across the world. Well, it's starting with a company called Vioguard, which was started by two Microsoft Hardware veterans and their business partners. Vioguard have received U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval for use of its self-sanitizing computer keyboard in both hospitals and other healthcare settings.

Where this is different to the old "pick it up and shake it all about", Vioguard's keyboard can be retracted automatically into an enclosure to be bathed in germicidal ultraviolet light from two 25-watt fluorescent lamps. The enclosure also doubles as a monitor stand (how convenient), and the mechanism for retracting and ejecting the keyboard works hands-free via sensors.

Vioguard states that the technique has been proven effective in killing a minimum of 99.99-percent of harmful bacteria and viruses, inclusive of the flu, MRSA and other nasty bugs that can spread through hospitals. The intent of this new keyboard is to provide healthcare facilities an alternative to manually cleaning a keyboard.

Space Travel. Microsoft. Skynet. The steps are there, and we're hitting them at a nice pace. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has announced new plans to create a business for commercial space travel. It should take roughly five years to develop.

With the U.S. government slicing space flight, Allen has sensed a gap in the market for investment. Yesterday, Allen showcased designs for a new craft that would eventually have the ability of taking human passengers into the vast space that is, well, space.

Allen has previously funded spaceflight, as he was behind SpaceShipOne, which was the first manned private journey. Stratolaunch System are the ones behind the building of the new craft, which is a company founded by Paul Allen.

For those of you who don't know, there is a 400m-wide asteroid called "2005 YU55" that will fly past us (and in-between the Moon) on November 9. It will fly past at just 324,600km away, which is 0.85 the distance of the Moon itself, it won't kill us; but it is close enough to be news-worthy.

According to NASA, the "trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood", so there's no dangers whatsoever. The asteroid won't have any gravitational influence on Earth, so it won't make volcanoes go off or cause Earthquakes, etc. But, our gravitational pull might re-direct 2005 YU55. This is something NASA don't really cover, because it will [of course] most likely cause panic.

Also remember, that on the same day, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) along with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will be running a nationwide event coordinated by those agencies and administrations. Come November 9, there will be a test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) in which the test will be heard on the radio and seen on local, cable and satellite TV.

Fathers of the iPod, Ton Fadell who created the first 18 generations of the iPod and the first three versions of the iPhone, and Matt Rogers who was responsible for iPod software development at Apple, have a new startup: Nest Labs. Their first product? The Nest Learning Thermostat, which is designed to intelligently "learn" the behaviors of the user and adjust accordingly.

During the first seven days of use, the customer will set base temperatures using a single dial which is like a big click wheel. Click the wheel right for the temperature to increase and the display to turn orange, or to the left, to bring it down and the display turns blue. The Nest then records your initial settings and starts to take over after the first week or so. As usage continues, Nest will fine-tune settings using sensors, algorithms and cloud computing.

As an example, Nest is able to detect when users have left the house using a motion sensor and it will throttle back heating or cooling accordingly. The thermostat also includes an ambient light sensor and will adjust the brightness of the display relative to the surrounding light in the room to not cause eye strain.

From the people that brought you the crops that farm you, scientists in Russia were able to surgically implant a temporary device that allowed a patient to operate a computer- with the mind. This news comes to us from the aptly-named Singularity Hub, reminding us that one day, whether we like it or not, robots will take over the world. Also, something's telling me they're going to be able to override the Prime Directive.

This could well be the future folks, reprogrammable chips. Startup company, Tabula, is trying to create the hardware equivalent of software - a chip that over time, can have hardware improvements without completely replacing the device. If a programmable chip like this makes it to the market, it would replace the current mantra of replacing the entire device when a new, faster device comes out.

For years people have wondered, talked about, made movies about, created successful businesses locally and internationally, sold goods and accessories, all around the Roswell incident involving UFOs that crashed. Files have now appeared on the FBI's "vault" website that was once devoted to classified documents have now become public.

The memo is brief but it's from an Air Force informant about "flying saucers". The memo has FBI agent Guy Hottel saying what an "investigator for the Air Forces" told him about what is called "the Roswell incident", Hottel says:

In a radical move, patients will finally be able to see just how long the list of people are in hospital emergency departments ahead of time before they arrive. The overhaul of the health system is being lead by Health Minister Jillian Skinner who as her first move is also giving power back to the doctors and nurses to run their hospitals.

Intel Taiwan hailed the launch of the 2nd Generation Core i Series with the 'Intel Get 2gether Party' that was as flashy as the speeds Sandybridge delivers! The event was as star studded as it was flashy with celebrities such as Janet Hsieh, Big Mouth & the Korean girl band Visual Dream. In true APAC style there were dancing robots, scantily clad girls, asexual male dancers, WIDI demos, 3D glasses and a bevy of peace signs every where we turned!

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The 2nd Generation Core i Series, code name Sandybridge have been knows for sometime, with their official release happening back at CES. What this launch was about was getting Taiwan excited about the processors hitting the streets and becoming available for purchase. Intel APAC GM Navin Shenoy swung Taipei to join in the celebration that involved all of Taiwans major OEMs.

Space X has successfully launched a large capsule into Earth's orbit today, with this success it makes them the first private corporation to reach this milestone.

I can tell you from experience that it can be very hard to find time to get to the gym for some exercise. My gym is only about a mile from the house and some weeks I am just too busy to make it. If you have no desire to go to a gym, but you need to keep yourself in tiptop shape for all those hard-core COD gaming sessions, we have the perfect office chair for you.

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The chair is called the GymyGym and the thing is billed as the world's first ergonomic exercise chair. The chair comes in several colors and appears to have stretch exercise bands to hold you up. The chair has a couple elastic resistance bands that have handles on it and you can grab them and get your workout in.

This is a cool concept actually that will let you take an exercise break throughout the day and may help you lose some weight. I wonder how comfortable the chair is, it seems like it would feel like sitting in a lawn chair all the time. You can pick one up for $599 with free shipping or you can pay $299 up front and then three more payments of $133.

I want my notebook and smartphone to perform well with lots of speed for games and other uses, but I also want the battery to last a really long time. Some of the biggest advances in technology over the next few years will be in the battery market as makers seek to improve the battery to make it last longer and charge quicker. Researchers from Japan have shown off a new battery device that is much more powerful than other batteries of the type.

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The little battery is actually a power generator that is able to make power by harnessing vibrations. The battery is made from an alloy of iron and gallium called galfenol that changes shape when exposed to a magnetic field. The little battery is able to generate 20x more power from vibrations that similar devices of its size.

It has an energy density of 22mW/cm3. This type of power source has a myriad of potential uses. They could be used for cell phones that charge themselves as you walk. The tech could also lead to batteries for hybrid cars that generate power from the vibrations of driving and batteries for notebooks that get power as you walk through the airport. The little battery is about the size of the tip of a pencil.

It wasn't all that long ago when it was thought to be impossible for man to set foot on Mars. But that hasn't stopped the likes of NASA researching continuously to find out if there's a way to accomplish it without kicking the bucket (short or long term).

However, recent studies have determined that a mission to the Red Planet would be a significant health concern for those willing to suit up for the 3 year return trip (if a one year stay on the planet is factored in).

Have you ever sat back and wondered just what direction computing is going? Over the last few days I have had some time to think about it and to be honest I think we are right on the verge of something big.

Intel just pushed Lynnfield out the door, AMD just kicked out DX11 GPUs and a fully DX11 driver package. nVidia is pushing Tegra while Microsoft, Linux and Apple are working on the move to a fully 64-bit computing world.

We are seeing systems becoming more and more simple instead of complex. Lynnfield brought the PCI-e controller for graphics into the CPU cutting out much unneeded data transfer between the CPU, GPU and Northbridge. The next step in this evolution is right around the corner as Clarkdale and Arrondale get their coming out party at IDF.

While the GPU is moving to the CPU at Intel AMD is busy finding new ways to leverage their (previously) highly under optimized and unused Stream Processor. They have also fashioned the GPU into a video splitter, something that required additional and expensive hardware in the past.

From the software side we see newer and faster operating systems. Both Microsoft and Apple have revamped their current offering with speed and functionality in mind.