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Science/Technology News Breakthroughs
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From Popular Science Magazine, Spring Edition 2018, a short article on the human brain. I had no idea. I’m looking at the digital version, tried to find a link for this, but could not.
The human brain contains 86 billion neurons, each containing .07 volts, for a total of 6 billion volts, the equivalent of 477,777,777 car batteries in your head.
The human brain contains 86 billion neurons, each containing .07 volts, for a total of 6 billion volts, the equivalent of 477,777,777 car batteries in your head.
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There is, however, a huge difference in cold cranking amps.
Step One, baby brain A.I., step 100 self aware A.I. like Skynet. 
We should build a baby-brained artificial intelligence
https://www.popsci.com/alison-gopnik-baby-brained-ai
Research shows that the bulk and structure of a child’s brain confer cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Same goes for adults. For example, a developed prefrontal cortex allows grown-ups to focus, plan, and control our impulses: valuable skills that let us write magazine articles and avoid jail time. But evidence suggests a developed cortex can also make it hard to learn new or surprising concepts and can impede creative thinking. Toddler brains, constantly abuzz with fresh neural connections, are more plastic and adaptive. This makes them bad at remembering to put on pants but surprisingly good at solving abstract puzzles and extracting unlikely principles from extremely small amounts of information.
We should build a baby-brained artificial intelligence
https://www.popsci.com/alison-gopnik-baby-brained-ai
Research shows that the bulk and structure of a child’s brain confer cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Same goes for adults. For example, a developed prefrontal cortex allows grown-ups to focus, plan, and control our impulses: valuable skills that let us write magazine articles and avoid jail time. But evidence suggests a developed cortex can also make it hard to learn new or surprising concepts and can impede creative thinking. Toddler brains, constantly abuzz with fresh neural connections, are more plastic and adaptive. This makes them bad at remembering to put on pants but surprisingly good at solving abstract puzzles and extracting unlikely principles from extremely small amounts of information.
This car doesn’t need a steering wheel or pedals
https://www.popsci.com/gm-cruise-av-self-driving-car
![F9809655-0307-45A6-8A3C-6CF620F824CE.jpeg]( "F9809655-0307-45A6-8A3C-6CF620F824CE.jpeg")
https://www.popsci.com/gm-cruise-av-self-driving-car
Kurzgesag is an excellent source of thought provoking videos.
The Great Filter- Why Alien Life Might Be Our Doom. I changed the description to might.
The Great Filter- Why Alien Life Might Be Our Doom. I changed the description to might.
Lab Grown Meat, Dec 2018: Including a link to a MacRumors thread about lab grown meat:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/real-meat-grown-in-a-lab.2160444/#post-26909899
A video in post 1 of this thread States that lab grown meat could produce 96% less water usage and green house gasses.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/real-meat-grown-in-a-lab.2160444/#post-26909899
A video in post 1 of this thread States that lab grown meat could produce 96% less water usage and green house gasses.
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Why are dreams hard to remember? On a regular basis when I wake up from a dream, it’s like a movie I just watched, but if I don't immediately concentrate on it, it slips away as if it never happened. Interesting article, it has to do with memory storage associated with retaining a dream.
Why Dreams Are So Difficult To Remember: Precise Communication Discovered Across Brain Areas During Sleep https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090225132249.htm
By listening in on the chatter between neurons in various parts of the brain, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have taken steps toward fully understanding just how memories are formed, transferred, and ultimately stored in the brain--and how that process varies throughout the various stages of sleep.
Why Dreams Are So Difficult To Remember: Precise Communication Discovered Across Brain Areas During Sleep https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090225132249.htm
By listening in on the chatter between neurons in various parts of the brain, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have taken steps toward fully understanding just how memories are formed, transferred, and ultimately stored in the brain--and how that process varies throughout the various stages of sleep.
Hmmmm...I recall the very first time I even saw a laser. A guy from a telecommunications company was brought into our school to demonstrate one in the school gymnasium. He used it to send his voice to the laser’s target across the stage. It was 1967. To my thinking that would make it less new, than say, further development of the laser’s range to make it of practical use. S
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I’m willing to be corrected, but since I’ve recently given the book away during a move I cannot look, but I recall Thorium is a by-product of fissionable materials so it needs to be bred which results in nuclear waste.
For safe generation of power it sounds OK, but you still have to make the fuel. Any nuclear guys here? S
[doublepost=1556600398][/doublepost]...regarding AI, I recently read the 2019 edition of the Robot and Automation Almanac. I found it a decent, quick read. The Turing test was referred to. S
[doublepost=1556600096][/doublepost]
Thorium Reactors- The Possible Way Forward for Nuclear Power
![Safety%20Plan.jpg]()
I'll reference this 2011 Popular Science Article about Thorium Reactors, the wonder material- no melt downs and not easily converted to weapons grade material. In fact China, India and Norway are taking the lead on this design. Why aren't we running with it? A trial in Norway started in 2013.
I’m willing to be corrected, but since I’ve recently given the book away during a move I cannot look, but I recall Thorium is a by-product of fissionable materials so it needs to be bred which results in nuclear waste.
For safe generation of power it sounds OK, but you still have to make the fuel. Any nuclear guys here? S
[doublepost=1556600398][/doublepost]...regarding AI, I recently read the 2019 edition of the Robot and Automation Almanac. I found it a decent, quick read. The Turing test was referred to. S
My understanding is that thorium produces less waste, not as radioactive, and might be reprocessed, but not sure about the that.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power
- There is much less nuclear waste—up to two orders of magnitude less, state Moir and Teller,[4] eliminating the need for large-scale or long-term storage;[14]:13 "Chinese scientists claim that hazardous waste will be a thousand times less than with uranium."[19] The radioactivity of the resulting waste also drops down to safe levels after just a one or a few hundred years, compared to tens of thousands of years needed for current nuclear waste to cool off.[23]
My recollection was thorium is a by product of a fission reaction and you need to make it before you can use it as a fuel. It may be better as a fuel but it isn’t found in nature. Uranium is. I may likely be wrong. I can’t even recall the book I read that in. Either Command and Control, Making of an Atomic bomb or Full Body Burden. All worth the read IMO.
I guess I’ll be Googling Thorium as soon as I leave here. Now I’m curious.
S
I guess I’ll be Googling Thorium as soon as I leave here. Now I’m curious.
S
https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclide-basics-thorium
Thorium (chemical symbol Th) is a naturally occurring radioactive metal found at trace levels in soil, rocks, water, plants and animals. ... There are natural and man-made forms of thorium, all of which are radioactive. In general, naturally occurring thoriumexists as Th-232, Th-230 or Th-228.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power#Possible_benefits
The thorium fuel cycle offers enormous energy security benefits in the long-term – due to its potential for being a self-sustaining fuel without the need for fast neutron reactors. ... Almost all thorium is fertile Th-232, compared to uranium that is composed of 99.3% fertile U-238 and 0.7% more valuable fissile U-235.
Science Technology Breakthroughs
you have got to be really impressed the changes the lighting industry as gone through. You only expect find incandescent light bulbs on Russian space craft these days. You can only admire the change.
now if we could get past the Lithium-ion battery?
you have got to be really impressed the changes the lighting industry as gone through. You only expect find incandescent light bulbs on Russian space craft these days. You can only admire the change.
now if we could get past the Lithium-ion battery?
yes we are all about technology and rumors here
it was the stealth light bulb technology
We found one! Only a billion more to find.
Water discovered for first time in atmosphere of habitable exoplanet
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...-atmosphere-of-habitable-exoplanet/ar-AAH90of
Water has been discovered for the first time in the atmosphere of an exoplanet with Earth-like temperatures that could support life as we know it, scientists revealed Wednesday.
An ESA/Hubble artist's impression of the K2-18b super-Earth, the only super-Earth exoplanet known to host both water and temperatures that could support life
© M. KORNMESSER An ESA/Hubble artist's impression of the K2-18b super-Earth, the only super-Earth…
Eight times the mass of Earth and twice as big, K2-18b orbits in its star's "habitable zone" at a distance -- neither too far nor too close -- where water can exist in liquid form, they reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.
"This planet is the best candidate we have outside our solar system" in the search for signs of life, co-author Giovanna Tinetti, an astronomer at University College London, told AFP.
Water discovered for first time in atmosphere of habitable exoplanet
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...-atmosphere-of-habitable-exoplanet/ar-AAH90of
Water has been discovered for the first time in the atmosphere of an exoplanet with Earth-like temperatures that could support life as we know it, scientists revealed Wednesday.
An ESA/Hubble artist's impression of the K2-18b super-Earth, the only super-Earth exoplanet known to host both water and temperatures that could support life
© M. KORNMESSER An ESA/Hubble artist's impression of the K2-18b super-Earth, the only super-Earth…
Eight times the mass of Earth and twice as big, K2-18b orbits in its star's "habitable zone" at a distance -- neither too far nor too close -- where water can exist in liquid form, they reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.
"This planet is the best candidate we have outside our solar system" in the search for signs of life, co-author Giovanna Tinetti, an astronomer at University College London, told AFP.
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And only 105 lightyears away. If you leave now your great, great, great, grandchildren can see if they are correct or if it's just a bit of mist on the lens.We found one! Only a billion more to find.
Water discovered for first time in atmosphere of habitable exoplanet
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...-atmosphere-of-habitable-exoplanet/ar-AAH90of
Water has been discovered for the first time in the atmosphere of an exoplanet with Earth-like temperatures that could support life as we know it, scientists revealed Wednesday.
An ESA/Hubble artist's impression of the K2-18b super-Earth, the only super-Earth exoplanet known to host both water and temperatures that could support life
© M. KORNMESSER An ESA/Hubble artist's impression of the K2-18b super-Earth, the only super-Earth…
Eight times the mass of Earth and twice as big, K2-18b orbits in its star's "habitable zone" at a distance -- neither too far nor too close -- where water can exist in liquid form, they reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.
"This planet is the best candidate we have outside our solar system" in the search for signs of life, co-author Giovanna Tinetti, an astronomer at University College London, told AFP.
if the exo planet inhabitants dont blow themselves first.
Actually, depressingly, I think it more likely that the inhabitants of the planet that is home to the ancestors of those who have travelled to the exoplanet will blow themselves up first.