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Oct 13, 2016
Will Quantum Computers Kill Bitcoin?
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: bitcoin, cybercrime/malcode, encryption, quantum physics
Since they were first theorized by the physicist Richard Feynman in 1982, quantum computers have promised to bring about a new era of computing. It is only relatively recently that theory has translated into significant real-world advances, with the likes of Google, NASA and the CIA working towards building a quantum computer. Computer scientists are now warning that the arrival of the ultra-powerful machines will cripple current encryption methods and as a result bring a close to the great bitcoin experiment—collapsing the technological foundations that bitcoin is built upon.
“Bitcoin is definitely not quantum computer proof,” Andersen Cheng, co-founder of U.K. cybersecurity firm Post Quantum, tells Newsweek. “Bitcoin will expire the very day the first quantum computer appears.”
The danger quantum computers pose to bitcoin, Cheng explains, is in the cryptography surrounding what is known as the public and private keys—a set of numbers used to facilitate transactions. Users of bitcoin have a public key and a private key. In order to receive bitcoin, the recipient shares the public key with the sender, but in order to spend it they need their private key, which only they know. If somebody else is able to learn the private key, they can spend all the bitcoin.
Oct 13, 2016
Hubble: Observable universe holds ten times more galaxies than previously thought
Posted by Montie Adkins in category: cosmology
Not 100 billion galaxies but one trillion. Is this the missing mass then? No more “dark matter”?
The latest finding with the Hubble space telescope:
Oct 13, 2016
This Revolutionary Bionic Eye Sends Images Directly To Your Brain
Posted by Elmar Arunov in categories: cyborgs, neuroscience, transhumanism
In Brief:
This newly developed bionic eye sends images directly to the brain to restore a tiny fraction of the pixels a normal eye can produce.
There are about 285 million people in the world who suffer from some type of visual impairment. For many years, researchers have been looking for ways to restore eyesight. This year, Australian volunteers are set to receive bionic eyes which should help restore their vision.
Continue reading “This Revolutionary Bionic Eye Sends Images Directly To Your Brain” »
Oct 13, 2016
Rocket Lab Aims to Win Cubesat-Launching Race
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: business, satellites
Rocket Lab is dedicating itself to launching small satellites cheaply and efficiently — a capability the American company thinks the burgeoning private spaceflight industry desperately needs.
Small satellites, some no bigger than a lunch box, are revolutionizing how people gather data about the Earth, and they might be the future of global communications.
Rocket Lab’s business model is a bit like Henry Ford’s was when he started selling Model T’s: keep the machine simple, produce a lot of them and keep them affordable. Peter Beck, the company’s owner, told Space.com that he’d like to reach a point where Rocket Lab launches one of its custom-made, small-satellite rockets about once per week. And similar to Henry Ford (who didn’t even want to make different colors of the Model T), Beck said that until that basic goal is met, he has no plans to diversify the company’s services. [Satellite Quiz: How Well Do You Know What’s Orbiting Earth?].
Oct 13, 2016
Free Science: NASA Just Opened Its Entire Research Library to the Public
Posted by Albert Sanchez in category: science
In Brief:
NASA has announced that all research it has funded will be FREE and accessible to anyone through their new open portal PubSpace.
NASA is opening up its research library to the public in the newly launched web database PubSpace …and it’s absolutely free.
Continue reading “Free Science: NASA Just Opened Its Entire Research Library to the Public” »
Oct 13, 2016
Meet Asgardia: a Proposal for the First Ever Outer Space Nation
Posted by Albert Sanchez in category: space
Oct 13, 2016
Beyond Exaflop supercomputers will require new materials, new architectures, new memory and quantum computers
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: nanotechnology, quantum physics, supercomputing
Eurolab HPC tries to assess the future disruptive technology for high performance computing beyond Exascale computers.
They survey the currents state of research and development and its potential for the future of the following hardware technologies:
CMOS scaling
Die stacking and 3D chip technologies
Non-volatile Memory (NVM) technologies
Photonics
Resistive Computing
Neuromorphic Computing
Quantum Computing
Nanotubes
Graphene and
Diamond Transistors
Oct 13, 2016
The combination of human and artificial intelligence will define humanity’s future
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: robotics/AI, transportation
Through the past few decades of summer blockbuster movies and Silicon Valley products, artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly familiar and sexy, and imbued with a perversely dystopian allure.
What’s talked about less, and has also been dwarfed in attention and resources, is human intelligence (HI).
In its varied forms — from the mysterious brains of octopuses and the swarm-minds of ants to Go-playing deep learning machines and driverless-car autopilots — intelligence is the most powerful and precious resource in existence. Our own minds are the most familiar examples of a phenomenon characterized by a great deal of diversity.
Oct 13, 2016
The War On Obesity Is A Waste Of Resources, Aging Is The Real Enemy
Posted by Robert James Powles in categories: biotech/medical, life extension
As the WHO announces support of a sugary drinks tax, are we wasting resources tackling obesity over aging and age-related disease?