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Mar 21, 2016

Viewpoint: Quantum Hoverboards on Superconducting Circuits

Posted by in category: quantum physics

A new quantum device uses a superconducting circuit to monitor a 2D gas of electrons floating on the surface of superfluid helium.

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Mar 21, 2016

Robot-Built Landing Pad Could Pave the Way for Construction on Mars

Posted by in categories: materials, robotics/AI, space

A robot has built a prototype launch-and-landing pad in Hawaii, potentially helping pave the way for automated construction projects on the moon and Mars.

The robotic rover, named Helelani, assembled the pad on Hawaii’s Big Island late last year, putting together 100 pavers made of locally available material in an effort to prove out technology that could do similar work in space.

“The construction project is really unique. Instead of concrete for the landing pad, we’re using lunar and Mars material, which is exactly like the material we have here on the Big Island — basalt,” Rob Kelso, executive director of the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration (PISCES) in Hawaii, told Hawaiian news outlet Big Island Now. PISCES partnered with NASA on the project, which is part of a larger program called Additive Construction with Mobile Emplacement, or ACME for short. [The Boldest Mars Missions in History].

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Mar 21, 2016

Resurrection and Biotechnology

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, disruptive technology, Elon Musk, futurism, human trajectories, neuroscience, posthumanism, Ray Kurzweil, Skynet, transhumanism

“He is not here; He has risen,” — Matthew 28:6

As billions of Christians around the world are getting ready to celebrate the Easter festival and holiday, we take pause to appreciate the awe inspiring phenomena of resurrection.

crypt

In religious and mythological contexts, in both Western and Eastern societies, well known and less common names appear, such as Attis, Dionysus, Ganesha, Krishna, Lemminkainen, Odin, Osiris, Persephone, Quetzalcoatl, and Tammuz, all of whom were reborn again in the spark of the divine.

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Mar 21, 2016

Relatively slow greenhouse injections triggered ancient hothouse — By Eric Hand | Science

Posted by in categories: environmental, events, science

permafrost

“There is a cautionary tale buried in Earth’s past. Some 56 million years ago, about 10 million years after the dinosaurs went extinct, a massive amount of carbon surged into the atmosphere, triggering a rise in temperature of 5°C. Scientists often look to the so-called Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) as an analog for today’s rising temperatures, because the magnitude of that ancient carbon injection is thought to be comparable to what humans will release if fossil fuel emissions continue unabated for a few more centuries.”

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Mar 21, 2016

Tesla charging stations outnumber gas stations in Manhattan

Posted by in category: transportation

Free fill-ups for your Tesla in many of the 105 (and growing) Tesla charging stations in Manhattan. Meanwhile, gas stations disappear when landowners find they get $25 million for the property.

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Mar 21, 2016

Bionic Fingertip

Posted by in categories: cyborgs, transhumanism

This new bionic fingertip allows amputees to regain the sense of touch.

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Mar 21, 2016

DNA from Mysterious ‘Denisovans’ Helped Modern Humans Survive

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

Genetic mutations from extinct human relatives called the Denisovans might have influenced modern human immune systems, as well as fat and blood sugar levels, researchers say.

Very little is known about the Denisovans. The first evidence of them was discovered in Denisova Cave in Siberia in 2008, and DNA from their fossils suggests they shared an origin with Neanderthals but were nearly as genetically distinct from Neanderthals as Neanderthals were from modern humans.

Previous work found that any modern humans with ancestry outside of Africa inherited about 1.5 to 2.1 percent of their DNA from Neanderthals. In contrast, prior research suggested that substantial levels of Denisovan ancestry are found only in the Pacific islands of Melanesia. Scientists are increasingly uncovering the effects of Neanderthal ancestry on modern humans, from potential immune boosts to increased risks for depression, obesity, heart attacks, nicotine addiction. However, relatively little was known about the effects of Denisovan ancestry.

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Mar 21, 2016

See ‘twin’ comets buzz Earth hotter and brighter than expected

Posted by in category: space

Two comets, perhaps fragments of the same larger space rock, will make two of the closest passes in modern history, one right after the other.

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Mar 21, 2016

This Prototype Could Be The Future Of Low- Cost Solar Power

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

A chemical compound named Perovskite could be the next big innovation in solar power technology. http://voc.tv/14JQHoo

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Mar 21, 2016

Exploring other dimensions — Alex Rosenthal and George Zaidan

Posted by in category: futurism

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/exploring-other-dimensions-alex-ro…rge-zaidan

Imagine a two-dimensional world — you, your friends, everything is 2D. In his 1884 novella, Edwin Abbott invented this world and called it Flatland. Alex Rosenthal and George Zaidan take the premise of Flatland one dimension further, imploring us to consider how we would see dimensions different from our own and why the exploration just may be worth it.

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