Archive for the ‘computing’ category: Page 766
Jun 10, 2016
Living Bacteria Can Now Store Data
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, computing, genetics
Using the CRISPR gene-editing tool, scientists from Harvard University have developed a technique that permanently records data into living cells. Incredibly, the information imprinted onto these microorganisms can be passed down to the next generation.
CRISPR/Cas9 is turning into an incredibly versatile tool. The cheap and easy-to-use molecular editing system that burst onto the biotech scene only a few years ago is being used for a host of applications, including genetic engineering, RNA editing, disease modeling, and fighting retroviruses like HIV. And now, as described in a new Science paper, it can also be used to turn lowly microorganisms into veritable hard drives.
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5935415/why-dna-is-the-future-of-data-storage
Jun 10, 2016
The World’s Oldest Computer May Have Been Used to Predict the Future
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: computing, engineering, space
Discovered in an ancient shipwreck near Crete in 1901, the freakishly advanced Antikythera Mechanism has been called the world’s first computer. A decades-long investigation into the 2,000 year-old-device is shedding new light onto this mysterious device, including the revelation that it may have been used for more than just astronomy.
The Antikythera Mechanism is one of the most fascinating and important archaeological discoveries ever made, one that reveals the remarkable technological and engineering capacities of the ancient Greeks as well as their excellent grasp of astronomy. This clock-like assembly of bronze gears and displays was used to predict lunar and solar eclipses, along with the positions of the sun, moon, and planets. It wasn’t programmable in the modern sense, but it’s considered the world’s first analog computer. Dating to around 60 BC, nothing quite like it would appear for another millennium.
Jun 10, 2016
UChicago Physicists First to See Behavior of Quantum Materials in Curved Space
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics, space
Check this out!
UChicago hasthis been able for the first time conduct an experiment shows the behavior of quantum materials in curved space. In their own words, “We are beginning to make our photons interact with each other. This opens up many possibilities, such as making crystalline or exotic quantum liquid states of light. We can then see how they respond to spatial curvature.”
Interplay of light, matter is of potential technological interest
Continue reading “UChicago Physicists First to See Behavior of Quantum Materials in Curved Space” »
Jun 9, 2016
We are ‘almost definitely’ living in a Matrix-style simulation, claims Elon Musk
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: computing, Elon Musk, robotics/AI, sustainability, transportation
Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and founder of Space X, Tesla and Paypal, has told an interviewer there is only a “one in billions” chance that we’re not living in a computer simulation.
Speaking at San Francisco’s Code Conference this week, Musk said that he has had “so many simulation discussions it’s crazy”, and that it got to the point where “every conversation [he had] was the AI/simulation conversation”.
He also claimed that, if we’re not living in a simulation, we could be approaching the end of the world.
Jun 9, 2016
Google team predicts quantum computing supremacy over classical computing around 2018 with a 40 qubit universal quantum computer
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics
The Google team uses a row of nine solid-state qubits, fashioned from cross-shaped films of aluminium about 400 micrometres from tip to tip. These are deposited onto a sapphire surface. The researchers cool the aluminium to 0.02 degrees kelvin, turning the metal into a superconductor with no electrical resistance. Information can then be encoded into the qubits in their superconducting state.
The interactions between neighboring qubits are controlled by ‘logic gates’ that steer the qubits digitally into a state that encodes the solution to a problem. As a demonstration, the researchers instructed their array to simulate a row of magnetic atoms with coupled spin states — a problem thoroughly explored in condensed-matter physics. They could then look at the qubits to determine the lowest-energy collective state of the spins that the atoms represented.
Jun 9, 2016
Digital Currency Tech Will as Be Transformative as the Internet
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: biotech/medical, bitcoin, business, computing, cryptocurrencies, finance, health, internet
Exponential Finance celebrates the incredible opportunity at the intersection of technology and finance. Watch live as hundreds of the world’s leading investors, entrepreneurs and innovators gather in New York to define the future of the way we do business.
In Bitcoin’s early years computer scientists and early adopters were running the show. Now, a new community of academics, entrepreneurs, and economists, are working with cryptocurrencies and blockchain to bring the technology to a new set of diverse applications.
From building peer-to-peer networks for secure data computation and storage to decentralized content management systems that give patients access to health-care records across hospital databases, blockchain and digital currencies are starting to rewrite the rules of the 21st century transaction.
Continue reading “Digital Currency Tech Will as Be Transformative as the Internet” »
Jun 9, 2016
This is the future: YouTuber uses drone to cut hair
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: computing, drones, robotics/AI
Who needs a hair artisian anymore while you a have a drone. What’s next? Makeup artists? Lookout Mary Kay.
What about movie/ video crew that’s all drones? The list goes on and on.
A popular robotics vlogger and a computer hacker pair up to give a mannequin a haircut with a drone. Is this the feel-good story of the summer?
Continue reading “This is the future: YouTuber uses drone to cut hair” »
Jun 9, 2016
Living computers and nano-robots: what’s the future for DNA manipulation?
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: biotech/medical, computing, nanotechnology, robotics/AI
Jun 9, 2016
Using Adenosine Triphosphate to Create Biological Super-Computers
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: biotech/medical, computing, engineering, nanotechnology, sustainability
Machines running on human energy? Yes, it can happen, according to Dan Nicolau, Jr. from the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California. Nicolau and his colleagues successfully completed a proof-of-concept study of a book-sized computer that runs on adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a biochemical that releases energy in cells and aids in energy transfer.
The study results published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), describe the combination of geometrical modeling and engineering as well as nanotechnology to create circuitry that uses 1.5 × 1.5 cm in area and the naturally occurring protein to operate.
A More Sustainable Option
Continue reading “Using Adenosine Triphosphate to Create Biological Super-Computers” »