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Apr 15, 2016
WiFi capacity doubled at less than half the size
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: computing, internet, mobile phones, nanotechnology
“This technology could revolutionize the field of telecommunications,” says Krishnaswamy, director of the Columbia High-Speed and Mm-wave IC (CoSMIC) Lab. “Our circulator is the first to be put on a silicon chip, and we get literally orders of magnitude better performance than prior work. Full-duplex communications, where the transmitter and the receiver operate at the same time and at the same frequency, has become a critical research area and now we’ve shown that WiFi capacity can be doubled on a nanoscale silicon chip with a single antenna. This has enormous implications for devices like smartphones and tablets.”
Krishnaswamy’s group has been working on silicon radio chips for full duplex communications for several years and became particularly interested in the role of the circulator, a component that enables full-duplex communications where the transmitter and the receiver share the same antenna. In order to do this, the circulator has to “break” Lorentz Reciprocity, a fundamental physical characteristic of most electronic structures that requires electromagnetic waves travel in the same manner in forward and reverse directions.
“Reciprocal circuits and systems are quite restrictive because you can’t control the signal freely,” says PhD student Negar Reiskarimian, who developed the circulator and is lead author of the Nature Communications paper. “We wanted to create a simple and efficient way, using conventional materials, to break Lorentz Reciprocity and build a low-cost nanoscale circulator that would fit on a chip. This could open up the door to all kinds of exciting new applications.”
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Apr 15, 2016
Ghost in the Shell and the transhumanist future of sexuality
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: military, security, surveillance, transhumanism
The sky above Osaka Bay is saturated in light pollution teeming from the neon-soaked metropolis below. Military bi-copters circle in patterns between the antenna towers of Niihama City’s looming skyscrapers as they survey the scene of an ongoing domestic security operation. Kneeling from atop the edge of one of these towers is a figure; a mauve-haired saboteur of the state clad in a leotard, side holster, and leather jacket. Combat boots and leggings hiked just past her knees with her upper thighs left exposed. An external HD cable juts from a small input jack indented at the base of her neck.
Her pupils dilate, sifting through the visual noise of an embedded surveillance feed while combing the room below for suspicious movements. She detaches the cable at her subordinate’s signal, stands upright and removes her clothing. She leans over the edge of the building, a smirk streaking across her otherwise stoic expression. A rappel line heaves sharply, suspending her body directly adjacent to that of her target, who is now only a trigger pull from annihilation.
Apr 15, 2016
16 Presidential Candidates You Didn’t Know Are Running in 2016
Posted by Zoltan Istvan in categories: geopolitics, transhumanism
Check out this PBS article on other 2016 presidential candidates (including Transhumanist Party). One of the main goals of my campaign is to try to help challenge the monopolistic 2-party system in America:
If you were asked who is running for president, you’d probably list the five candidates still running for the major political party nominations: Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. But there are lots of candidates running either from lesser-known parties or without any party affiliation. Here are 16 independent presidential candidates running in 2016:
Apr 15, 2016
Nanotubes assemble! Rice introduces Teslaphoresis
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: nanotechnology, tractor beam
Carbon nanotubes in a dish assemble themselves into a nanowire in seconds under the influence of a custom-built Tesla coil created by scientists at Rice University.
But the scientists don’t limit their aspirations for the phenomenon they call Teslaphoresis to simple nanowires.
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Apr 15, 2016
18TB hard drives will be entering the market soon
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: computing
As solid state drives get more and more cheaper, we will get to see larger capacity storage peripherals, with 18TB hard drives getting announced soon.
Apr 15, 2016
New Device Can Ease Chronic Pain Without Drugs, Thanks to Brain Stimulation
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
This new method of pain treatment can prevent risky side-effects such as addiction, dependence, and overdose-related deaths — and it does so using electricity.
Abuse of prescription pain killers or opioid medicines is common. But then again, how else can you treat chronic pain? Unfortunately, addiction is a terrible side-effect that can lead to overdose-related deaths.
But now a research team from the University of Arlington seems to have found a better and more efficient solution: Electrical stimulation.
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Apr 15, 2016
They Built the Single-Atom Engine And It Actually Works
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: particle physics
Apr 15, 2016
Insulin-producing cells created in the lab
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: biotech/medical
Stem cell discovery could transform the treatment of type 1 diabetes. Bill Condie reports.
A micrograph of a section through the human pancreas shows the central purple “Langerhans islets”, which contain the cells that produce hormones including insulin. The surrounding exocrine tissue produces digestive enzymes. Credit: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER /Getty Images.
Scientists have for the first time created insulin-producing cells in the laboratory, a discovery that could transform the way we treat diabetes.
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Apr 15, 2016
Apple files patent for haptic touch laptop keyboard
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: computing, futurism
A new patent filed by Apple could offer a glimpse into the future of MacBook design, and it would be a much less tactile experience. The patent for a “Configurable Force-Sensitive Input Structure for Electronic Devices” was filed in September 2014 and was made available to the public last week. It describes a haptic-powered touch keyboard for devices like laptops. Such a device wouldn’t have any physical key switches, just a touch-sensitive layer with virtual keys.
The system would essentially consist of a large metal contact layer with the ability to sense not just touches, but the amount of force applied — 3D Touch, basically. The user would tap a key, which is really just a configurable area of the surface, and they get a haptic jolt to simulate pressing a key. The array of keys on the virtual keyboard would be marked by a light guide shining up from underneath.
Apple files patents on plenty of things that never see the light of day, but this seems like something it might want to use. Of course, that assumes it can get anywhere close to a real typing experience in terms of speed and accuracy. The company is constantly trying to slim down its MacBooks, to the point that it went all-in with USB Type-C on the latest MacBook Air. The keyboard is one of the thickest single components of the device now. If the physical keys could be done away with, the computer could approach tablet levels of thinness.
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