Does anyone remember the animated version of Star Trek from the 1970s? The Emmy-Award-winning series was the very first outing for the now familiar Holodeck, although it was called the recreation room back then.
For a long time, the holy grail of solar photovoltaics (PV) has been “grid parity,” the point at which it would be as cheap to generate one’s own solar electricity as it is to buy electricity from the grid. And that is indeed an important market milestone, being achieved now in many places around the world. But recently it has become clear that PV is set to go beyond grid parity and become the cheapest way to generate electricity.
The University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, has converted a 3D theater into the world’s largest touchscreen, used for teaching mathematics and computer science students interactivity. The screen has a curvature of 135 degrees and is transparent.
Check out this article from Byte Magazine in July 1978 about the Second West Coast Computer Faire. We have certainly come along way.
Doing something as simple as playing a computer game called Foldit, gamers have helped to unlock the secrets of a protein-cutting enzyme from a virus that resembles AIDS. Though that may not mean much to you, it’s a breakthrough that could have real repercussions for those researching AIDS and cancer treatment.
An anonymous worker at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has written dozens of blog posts describing the ups and downs of his experience as one of the lead robot operators at the crippled facility. His blog provides a window into the complex and dangerous work environment faced by the operators, a small group of young technicians who, like other front-line personnel, must approach areas of high radiation, deploying remote-controlled robots to assist with efforts to further stabilize and shut down the plant’s four troubled reactors.
Robonaut is evolving. NASA and General Motors are working together to accelerate development of the next generation of robots and related technologies for use in the automotive and aerospace industries. Engineers and scientists from NASA and GM worked together through a Space Act Agreement at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to build a new humanoid robot capable of working side by side with people. Using leading edge control, sensor and vision technologies, future robots could assist astronauts during hazardous space missions and help GM build safer cars and plants.
One Sunday afternoon last month, a hundred boisterous patrons crowded into Mad Dog in the Fog, a British sports bar here, to watch a live broadcast. Half the flat-screen TVs were tuned to a blood-filled match between two Korean competitors, “MC” and “Puma.” The crowd erupted in chants of “M-C! M-C!” when the favorite started a comeback. The pub is known for showing European soccer and other sports, but Puma and MC aren’t athletes. They are 20-year-old professional videogame players who were leading computerized armies of humans and aliens in a science-fiction war game called “Starcraft II” from a Los Angeles convention center. The Koreans were fighting over a tournament prize of $50,000.
We’ve been hearing the word “bionic†in the news a lot lately, but it has primarily been referring to the Droid Bionic smartphone that’s soon to be released. However, today’s bionic news is centered on a 15-year-old girl who lost all her fingers to septicaemia as a toddler and has never been able to pick things up herself. Thanks to a bionic hand made by Touch Bionics in Scotland, Chloe Holmes can now do the simplest things she was previously unable to do.
Early last year Google set out on a mission to bring 1Gbps fiber-to-the-home networks in selected areas across the U.S. It was a big challenge, and one that states, counties, and cities fought hard to get in their areas. 18 months on, and those Google networks are being installed. As they come online individuals with access to the super-fast lines are posting their Speedtest.net results, and boy are these connections fast.
Cleaning the dirty water from our drains and toilets is an expensive and energy-sucking task. A new fuel cell uses bacteria to remove grossness from the water and generate power at the same time.