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Bitcoin Hits the Big Time, to the Regret of Some Early Boosters

Iain — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:58:00 +0000

This past Sunday, Doug Scribner took out five $100 bills and began feeding them into what looked like a small, white ATM in San Jose Conference Center in California. The machine swallowed the bills smartly and credited him with an equivalent value in bitcoins, an intangible, digital currency that is backed by not gold or any government, but by math.

Scribner was one of an estimated 1,100 people who attended Bitcoin 2013, a weekend-long event in the heart of Silicon Valley and the first large conference dedicated to Bitcoin. Unsurprisingly, all those present seemed certain that the cryptocurrency was set to upend the world of finance, perhaps more. But the event also offered something new: evidence that Bitcoin is gaining traction outside its existing community of enthusiastic early adopters.

Bitcoin’s origins are mysterious. It was created by an unknown individual or individuals who used the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Cryptographic operations and oversight from a peer-to-peer network of people running Bitcoin software process transactions and protect against counterfeiting without the need for a central authority (see “What Bitcoin Is and Why It Matters”).

Quest for quantum computing advanced

Iain — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:39:00 +0000

Research teams from UW-Milwaukee and the University of York investigating the properties of ultra-thin films of new materials are helping bring quantum computing one step closer to reality.

An on-going collaboration between physicists from York and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA, is focusing on understanding, tailoring and tuning the electronic properties of topological insulators (TI) - new materials with surfaces that host a quantum state of matter – at the nanoscale.

Understanding the properties of thin films of the new materials and integrating them with semiconductors is an important step in creating a materials platform for quantum computers.

A cure for HIV is now a a realistic possibility

Iain — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:28:00 +0000

This week in Paris, the world's leading Aids scientists will gather to mark the 30th anniversary of the discovery of HIV. At least one of them, who won the Nobel Prize for her work, is quietly confident that very soon something approaching a cure for HIV will be possible.

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi believes that HIV is no longer the invincible agent she and her colleagues had once imagined. In fact, she speaks openly of the "C" word, which for years was taboo among HIV researchers.

"Normally when you say 'cure', you mean eradication of the virus from the body," she says. "But this is going to be very difficult, not to say impossible. However, there is another definition of cure, which is a 'functional cure'. This means people can be treated with drugs or whatever, and they will be able to stop their treatment and continue to control the virus without treatment. It is like remission in cancer. As part of this control we will limit the capacity of patients to transmit HIV to others, so there is a double benefit."

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First fully integrated artificial photosynthesis nanosystem

Iain — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:18:00 +0000

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientists have developed the first fully integrated nanosystem for artificial photosynthesis, in which solar energy is directly converted into chemical fuels.

“Similar to the chloroplasts in green plants that carry out photosynthesis, our artificial photosynthetic system is composed of two semiconductor light absorbers, an interfacial layer for charge transport, and spatially separated co-catalysts,” says Peidong Yang, a chemist with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, who led this research.

“To facilitate solar water- splitting in our system, we synthesized tree-like nanowire heterostructures, consisting of silicon trunks and titanium oxide branches. Visually, arrays of these nanostructures very much resemble an artificial forest.

“In natural photosynthesis, the energy of absorbed sunlight produces energized charge-carriers that execute chemical reactions in separate regions of the chloroplast,” Yang says. “We’ve integrated our nanowire nanoscale heterostructure into a functional system that mimics the integration in chloroplasts and provides a conceptual blueprint for better solar-to-fuel conversion efficiencies in the future.”

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Feynman: his birthday, his diagrams and his lectures

Iain — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:42:00 +0000

Yesterday was the 95th anniversary of the birth of Richard Feynman, one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. An excuse for an unusual party.

This evening BBC2 will show a documentary by Chris Riley about a remarkable man; Richard Feynman. Yesterday, on the 95th anniversary of Feynman's birth, Riley showed some clips and discussed the programme, and the man, with Robin Ince, Christopher Sykes and an audience at the Bloomsbury Theatre. Sykes met Feynman several times, and made three films with him starting with "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out". Riley expressed envy of Sykes, for having met Feynman. I felt the same.

Spintronics discovery - Scientists find new magic in magnetic material

Iain — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:50:00 +0000

From powerful computers to super-sensitive medical and environmental detectors that are faster, smaller and use less energy — yes, we want them, but how do we get them?

In research that is helping to lay the groundwork for the electronics of the future, University of Delaware scientists have confirmed the presence of a magnetic field generated by electrons which scientists had theorized existed, but that had never been proven until now.

The finding, which is reported in the journal Nature Communications, expands the potential for harnessing the "spin" or magnetic properties of electrons — adding a fundamental new building block to the pioneering field of spintronics.

John Xiao, Unidel Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UD, is the lead author of the study. His co-authors include research associate Xin Fan, graduate students Jun Wu and Yunpeng Chen, and undergraduate student Matthew Jerry from UD, and Huaiwu Zhang from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

Today's semiconductors, which are essential to the operation of a broad array of electronics, carry along the electrical charge of electrons, but make no use of the magnetic or "spin" properties of these subatomic particles. Xiao and his team are working to unveil those properties in UD's Center for Spintronics and Biodetection.

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Amazon Is Developing Smartphone With 3-D Screen

Iain — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:35:00 +0000

Amazon.com Inc. is expanding beyond its range of Kindle devices as it aims to compete more directly with Google Inc. and Apple Inc.

The Seattle e-commerce giant has recently been developing a wide-ranging lineup of gadgets—including two smartphones and an audio-only streaming device—to expand its reach beyond its Kindle Fire line of tablet computers, said people familiar with the company's plans.

One of the devices is a high-end smartphone featuring a screen that allows for three-dimensional images without glasses, these people said. Using retina-tracking technology, images on the smartphone would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles, they said. Users may be able to navigate through content using just their eyes, two of the people said.

Some elements of Amazon's hardware push have previously become public. Last year, news surfaced about Amazon developing one smartphone. And last month, The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets reported that Amazon also was developing a set-top box for streaming movies and TV shows.

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Making sense of nanotechnology in northern Canada

Iain — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:55:00 +0000

Can nanotechnology help the economy of Edmonton become less dependent on oil?

On the flight to Edmonton, I sat next to Ted, a friendly giant with a pronounced Dutch/Irish accent. He told me how, unable to find work in Ireland, he was flying to Canada with the promise of a job. With the ice beginning to melt, he and thousands of others will work for the summer, cleaning up oil refineries before moving on to the next opportunity.

This story happens to be true. But fans of Thomas "world is flat" Friedman will recognise its type from his New York Times OpEds. Friedman is fond of such globalisation parables, often snatched from receptionists or taxi drivers. As Richard Florida (pdf) and others have pointed out, we should not overlook the world's spikiness. Geography matters, even, or perhaps especially, when it comes to science and innovation. This is why we are so fascinated by Silicon Valley. If we follow Friedman, Silicon Valley could be anywhere, and yet the businesses and universities that populate it show no signs of upping sticks.

iPad explores quantum computing

Iain — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:46:00 +0000

A new section in Lockheed Martin’s LM Tomorrow, a free app for iPad users, explores quantum physics in an interactive, easy-to-understand format. The LM Tomorrow app received the gold-level “W3 Award” in 2012 for creative excellence on the web.

The Quantum Theory section draws on expanding research into the potential of quantum computing to solve challenges ranging from designing lifesaving new drugs to instantaneously debugging millions of lines of software code.

In partnership with the University of Southern California, the Corporation has founded the USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computation Center (QCC), home of D-Wave One, the world’s first commercial adiabatic quantum optimizer and by far the largest functional quantum information processor ever built.

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Astronomers Calculate Orbit of Chelyabinsk Meteorite

Iain — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:31:00 +0000

On 15 February at 0920 local time, a huge fireball raced across the skies above the Chelyabinsk region of Russia. This meteorite then exploded creating a shockwave that injured more than 1000 peopl

The incident was captured on numerous webcams, security cameras and dashcams in the region and these videos were widely distributed on the web.

The following day, Stefen Geens, who writes the Ogle Earth blog, pointed out that these cameras formed an ad-hoc sensing network that had gathered significant data about the trajectory and speed of the meteorite. He used this data and Google Earth to reconstruct the path of the rock as it entered the atmosphere and showed that it matched an image of the trajectory taken by the geostationary Meteosat-9 weather satellite.

Today, Jorge Zuluaga and Ignacio Ferrin at the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia, take this approach a step further by reconstructing the meteorite’s original orbit around the Sun.

Insects inspiring new robot vision technology for collision avoidance

Iain — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:19:00 +0000

A computerized system that allows for autonomous navigation of mobile robots based on the locust’s unique visual system has been created by scientists from the University of Lincoln and Newcastle University

The work could provide the blueprint for the development of highly accurate vehicle collision sensors, surveillance technology, and even aid video game programming, according to the researchers.

Locusts have a distinctive way of processing information through electrical and chemical signals, giving them an extremely fast and accurate warning system for impending collisions.

Professor Shigang Yue from the University of Lincoln’s School of Computer Science and Dr. Claire Rind from Newcastle University’s Institute of Neuroscience were inspired by the powerful visual processing power built into these insects’ biology.

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A Tiny Computer Attracts a Million Tinkerers

Iain — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:26:00 +0000

Raspberry Pi may sound like the name of a math-based dessert. But it is actually one of the hottest and cheapest little computers in the world right now. Almost one million of these $35 machines have shipped since last February, capturing the imaginations of educators, hobbyists and tinkerers around the world.

The story of the Raspberry Pi begins in 2006 when Eben Upton and other faculty members at the University of Cambridge in Britain found that their incoming computer science students were ill-prepared for a high-tech education. While many students in the previous decade were experienced electronics hobbyists by the time they got to college, these freshmen were little more than skilled Web designers.

Easy-to-use, modern PCs hide most of the nuts and bolts behind a pleasing interface. Mr. Upton posited that parents did not want their children to destroy their expensive computers by experimenting with their insides. But a cheaper machine would be fair game for messing around.

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