Recent Advances in Nanotechnology May Lead to a Massive Increase in Memory Capacity
There are two very exciting recent advances in nanotechnology may soon result in a massive increase in memory capacities of your DVDs and iPods:
Researchers at the Centre for Micro-Photonics at the Swinburne University of Technology in Victoria, Australia, created a new material that could lead to new discs that can store 10,000 times more data than your average DVDs.The material is made up of layers of gold nanorods suspended in clear plastic spun flat on a glass substrate. Multiple data patterns can be written and read within the same area in the material without interfering with each other. Using three wavelengths and two polarizations of light, the Australian researchers have written six different patterns within the same area. They’ve further increased the storage density to 1.1 terabytes per cubic centimeter by writing data to stacks of as many as 10 nanorod layers. In a paper published online today in the journal Nature, Gu’s group reports recording speeds of about a gigabit per second.
The picture to the right shows 6 patterns written in the same area of the nanorods using three different color and two different polarization of lasers: Link (Photo credit: Nature Publishing Group)
(Image: Zettl Research Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California at Berkeley)
- Berkeley (yay! My alma mater) researcher Alex Zettl and colleagues created a physical memory cell composed of an iron nanoparticle that can be moved back and forth in a nanotube. The position of the iron particle represents the state of the bit, which leads to very dense and highly stabile memory arrays, resulting in very long lifetime: LinkHow stable is stable? Here’s a chart that shows typical storage lifetimes vs bit density for a variety of storage media. As you can see, his stuff beats rock!
The work of Alex Gray. Example Here.
A snake eating it’s own tail.
Mexico legalizing drugs for recreational use.
A Mexican that decorated his swine flu mask.
And this article calling for a 20 year ban on fishing.
Filed under: I predicted it and it came true, It's the future, News, Science
Scientists a step closer to steering hurricanes
By Tim Shipman in Washington
Scientists have made a breakthrough in man’s desire to control the forces of nature – unveiling plans to weaken hurricanes and steer them off course, to prevent tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina. (more…)
We are coming of age as a type 1 civilization on the Kardashev scale. Very exciting.
April 25, 2007, 5:59 pm
Frustrated with the limits of public policy to tackle global warming, some scientists say the time has come to engineer a way to control the weather. The idea might seem appealing, says a science scholar, but it could have potentially harmful ramifications.
Climate engineering has become a popular topic among a group of scientists who are skeptical of the potential other environmental remedies, from carbon taxes to alternative energy, James R. Fleming, a professor of science, technology and society at Colby College, writes in the Wilson Quarterly’s spring issue. But the potential fixes being discussed reflect an overconfidence in technology, Mr. Fleming says, as well as an ignorance of the history of failed efforts to control the weather.
One idea put forth by a physicist involved in climate-control discussions would involve bombarding the Arctic stratosphere with specially engineered particles to deflect (more…)
sweeeeet.
- 05 January 2006
- Haiko Lietz
EVERY year, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics awards prizes for the best papers presented at its annual conference. Last year’s winner in the nuclear and future flight category went to a paper calling for experimental tests of an astonishing new type of engine. According to the paper, this hyperdrive motor would propel a craft through another dimension at enormous speeds. It could leave Earth at lunchtime and get to the moon in time for dinner. There’s just one catch: the idea relies on an obscure and largely unrecognised kind of physics. Can they possibly be serious?
I think we should name it Caprica. Agree? Disagree?
Astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, a world which could have water running on its surface. The planet orbits the faint star Gliese 581, which is 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra.
Scientists made the discovery using the Eso 3.6m Telescope in Chile.
They say the benign temperatures on the planet mean any water there could exist in liquid form, and this raises the chances it could also (more…)
The prospect of all-female conception
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 13 April 2007
news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2444462.ece [independent.co.uk]
Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today.
Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman’s bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue.
The researchers said they had already produced early sperm cells from bone-marrow tissue taken from men. They believe the findings show that it may be possible to restore fertility to men who cannot naturally produce their own sperm.
But the results also raise the prospect of being able to take bone-marrow tissue from women and coaxing the stem cells within the female tissue to develop into sperm cells, said Professor Karim Nayernia of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Creating sperm from women would mean they would only be able to produce daughters because the Y chromosome of male sperm would still be needed to produce sons. The latest research brings the prospect of female-only conception a step closer.
“Theoretically is it possible,” Professor Nayernia said. “The problem is whether the sperm cells are functional or not. I don’t think there is an ethical barrier, so long as it’s safe. We are in the process of applying for ethical approval. We are preparing now to apply to use the existing bone marrow stem cell bank here in Newcastle. We need permission from the patient who supplied the bone marrow, the ethics committee and the hospital itself.”
If sperm cells can be developed from female bone-marrow tissue they will be matured in the laboratory and tested for their ability to penetrate the outer “shell” of a hamster’s egg – a standard fertility test for sperm.
“We want to test the functionality of any male and female sperm that is made by this way,” Professor Nayernia said. But he said there was no intention at this stage to produce female sperm that would be used to fertilise a human egg, a move that would require the approval of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
The immediate aim is to see if female bone marrow can be lured into developing into the stem cells that can make sperm cells. The ultimate aim is to discover if these secondary stem cells can then be made into other useful tissues of the body, he said.
The latest findings, published in the journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology, show that male bone marrow can be used to make the early “spermatagonial” stem cells that normally mature into fully developed sperm cells.
“Our next goal is to see if we can get the spermatagonial stem cells to progress to mature sperm in the laboratory and this should take around three to five years of experiments,” Professor Nayernia said.
Last year, Professor Nayernia led scientists at the University of Gottingen in Germany who became the first to produce viable artificial sperm from mouse embryonic stem cells, which were used to produce seven live offspring.
His latest work on stem cells derived from human bone marrow suggests that it could be possible to develop the techniques to help men who cannot produce their own sperm naturally.
“We’re very excited about this discovery, particularly as our earlier work in mice suggests that we could develop this work even further,” Professor Nayernia said.
Whether the scientists will ever be able to develop the techniques to help real patients – male or female – will depend on future legislation that the Government is preparing as a replacement to the existing Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.
A White Paper on genetics suggested that artificial gametes produced from the ordinary “somatic” tissue of the body may be banned from being used to fertilise human eggs by in vitro fertilisation.
Making babies without me
Chimpanzees ‘hunt using spears’
Chimpanzees in Senegal have been observed making and using wooden spears to hunt other primates, according to a study in the journal Current Biology.
Researchers documented 22 cases of chimps fashioning tools to jab at smaller primates sheltering in cavities of hollow branches or tree trunks.
The report’s authors, Jill Pruetz and Paco Bertolani, said the finding could have implications for human evolution.
Filed under: Science
Robot Discovers Itself, Adapts to Injury from PhysOrg.com
Nothing can possibly go wrong … go wrong … go wrong … The truth behind the old joke is that most robots are programmed with a fairly rigid “model” of what they and the world around them are like. If a robot is damaged or its environment changes unexpectedly, it can’t adapt.
Instead of giving the robot a rigid set of instructions, the researchers let it discover its own nature and work out how to control itself, a process that seems to resemble the way human and animal babies discover and manipulate their bodies. The ability to build this “self-model” is what makes it able to adapt to injury.
It begins by building a series of computer models of how its parts might be arranged, at first just putting them together in random arrangements. Then it develops commands it might send to its motors to test the models. A key step, the researchers said, is that it selects the commands most likely to produce different results depending on which model is correct. It executes the commands and revises its models based on the results. It repeats this cycle 15 times, then attempts to move forward.
“The machine does not have a single model of itself — it has many, simultaneous, competing, different, candidate models. The models compete over which can best explain the past experiences of the robot,” Lipson said.
The result is usually an ungainly but functional gait; the most effective so far is a sort of inchworm motion in which the robot alternately moves its legs and body forward.
Once the robot reaches that point, the experimenters remove part of one leg. When the robot can’t move forward, it again builds and tests 16 simulations to develop a new gait.
The researchers limited the robot to 16 test cycles with space exploration in mind. “You don’t want a robot on Mars thrashing around in the sand too much and possibly causing more damage,” Bongard explained.
[...]
We all knew it was going to happen eventually. I really knew it would happen to yet it was still such a shock. This is a man who contributed to bringing science into homes for kids to get excited about again and who brought about global awareness of Australian evinornmental conservation. Like a Carl Sagan or a Bill Nye though I dare not compare them. May the torch be passed on to another.
‘Crocodile Hunter’ Irwin killed
The naturalist worked to protect Australian wildlife
Irwin with tiger cubsAustralian environmentalist and television personality Steve Irwin has died during a diving accident. Mr Irwin, 44, was killed by a stingray barb to the chest while he was filming an underwater documentary in Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef.
Paramedics from the nearby city of Cairns rushed to treat him at the scene but were unable to save him.
Mr Irwin was known for his television show The Crocodile Hunter and his work with native Australian wildlife.
Police in Queensland confirmed the naturalist’s death and said his family had been notified. Mr Irwin was married with two young children.
“It is believed that Mr Irwin collapsed after being stung by a stingray at Batt Reef off Port Douglas at about 1100 (0100 GMT),” a police statement quoted by AFP news agency said.
“His crew called for medical treatment and the Queensland medical helicopter responded. However Mr Irwin had died.”
The stingray is a flat, triangular-shaped fish, commonly found in tropical waters.
It gets its name from the razor-sharp barb at the end of its tail, coated in toxic venom, which the animal uses to defend itself with when it feels threatened.Although deadly, such attacks on humans are a rarity. David Penberthy, editor of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, told the BBC he had never heard of anyone in Australia being killed by a stingray before.
“You know we still at this early stage don’t know what type of stingray it was, or, you know I guess given the bloke’s track record, whether he was getting up close and personal with it as well,” Mr Penberty said.
“Or whether it was just a total freak accident and in the course of making this nature documentary he just ended up being attacked.”
Documentaries
Mr Irwin had built up what was a small reptile park in Queensland into what is now Australia Zoo, a major centre for Australian wildlife.
He was famous for handling dangerous creatures such as crocodiles, snakes and spiders, and his documentaries on his work with crocodiles drew a worldwide audience.
But he also courted controversy with a series of stunts.
He sparked outrage across Australia after cradling his one-month-old son a metre away from the reptile during a show at Australia Zoo.
A probe was also launched to investigate whether Mr Irwin and his team interacted too closely with penguins and whales while filming in the Antarctic, but no action was taken.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer praised Mr Irwin for his work to promote Australia.
“The minister knew him, was fond of him and was very, very appreciative of all the work he’d done to promote Australia overseas,” Mr Downer’s spokesman said.
