The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel

Will Dark Energy Fuel Spaceships of the Future? -A Galaxy Classic

The internet was amazed by images of the world's first warpship recently, and if you're wondering how science got past the fiction so quickly, remember how Leonardo is credited with inventing the helicopter?  Despite not knowing any of the relevant aerodynamics, physics, engineering, or having any of the required skills other than "able to draw a pretty picture"?  It's the same deal.

The internet was amazed by images of the world's first warpship recently, and if you're wondering how science got past the fiction so quickly, remember how Leonardo is credited with inventing the helicopter?  Despite not knowing any of the relevant aerodynamics, physics, engineering, or having any of the required skills other than "able to draw a pretty picture"?  It's the same deal.

The internet was amazed by images of the world's first warpship recently, and if you're wondering how science got past the fiction so quickly, remember how Leonardo is credited with inventing the helicopter?  Despite not knowing any of the relevant aerodynamics, physics, engineering, or having any of the required skills other than "able to draw a pretty picture"?  It's the same deal.

Will NexGen AI Have Unintended Consequences? -A Galaxy Insight

What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being? What happens if artificial intelligence technology is used to mine personal information from smartphones?

AI is becoming the stuff of future scifi greats: A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.

What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being? What happens if artificial intelligence technology is used to mine personal information from smartphones?

AI is becoming the stuff of future scifi greats: A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.

Son of HAL! Crunching One Quintillion Calculations Per Second

 

The U.S. Department of Energy has already begun holding workshops on building a system that's 1,000 times more powerful as the Jaguar, capable of a peak performance of 2.3 petaflops. — an exascale system, said Buddy Bland, project director at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility that includes Jaguar. An exaflop is a million trillion calculations per second, (one quintillion) or 1,000 times faster than a petaflop.

 

The U.S. Department of Energy has already begun holding workshops on building a system that's 1,000 times more powerful as the Jaguar, capable of a peak performance of 2.3 petaflops. — an exascale system, said Buddy Bland, project director at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility that includes Jaguar. An exaflop is a million trillion calculations per second, (one quintillion) or 1,000 times faster than a petaflop.

Artificial DNA -An Immortal Library of Human Knowledge?

A million years from now, will our descendants still read works like Beowulf, Shakespearean plays, or even the Bible? Will they study any of the same mathematical concepts or scientific theories? If so, how will our data reach those future generations? It will likely be stored and continually transferred to the most advanced computer chip, right?

Wrong. Try bacteria.

Will Augmented Reality (AR) Change Your Life? Techies Says "Yes"

Augmented Reality sounds like a sissy description of drug use, but it's the latest and greatest concept in computer-enhanced living.  And has a lot of the same effects: seeing things that aren't there, an increased awareness of your place in the universe, even being able to "really, like, tell what somebody truly is" by looking at them - and it's this last that The Amazing Tribe (TAT, a Swedish technology firm) are working on.

Augmented Reality sounds like a sissy description of drug use, but it's the latest and greatest concept in computer-enhanced living.  And has a lot of the same effects: seeing things that aren't there, an increased awareness of your place in the universe, even being able to "really, like, tell what somebody truly is" by looking at them - and it's this last that The Amazing Tribe (TAT, a Swedish technology firm) are working on.

The Quasar-Based, Black-Hole-Powered NexGen GPS

A collection of remote quasars, whose positions in the sky are precisely known, form a map of celestial landmarks ideal to orient the Earth. The first such map, called the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF), was completed in 1995. It was made over four years using painstaking analysis of observations on the positions of about 600 of these celestial beacons.

Rock Star Revolution: How Pandora's iPhone App Redefined Radio

Cool Tech! "Mobile" Network for the Solar System

Sunspots have been blamed for everything from hard drive crashes to poor phone reception, but once we start settling the solar system we'll have to worry about more than spots - we'll be blocked by the whole thing.  The Sun is two thousand septillion tons of burning nuclear reactor and it's right in the middle of every orbit - the fact it's a "solar" system is your first clue.  This means it will sometimes block interplanetary communications, which is why some scientists suggest setting up interplanetary relay satellites.

But we can't old-school communications satellites - they orbit the planets, so they inherit the same orbital problems - any time the Sun gets in the way the extra thousands miles of orbital height won't help.  The solution is simple: just do what the planets can't.  The entire class of "everything possible for natural objects" is now just "A orbits" - unpowered orbits under the effects of gravity.  Now we're working on "B orbits" - things only engineered objects can engage in.

Creating Optical Black Holes to Produce Super Solar Cells

Chinese scientists have built an optical black hole, but don't worry, this isn't the plot to the next Dan Brown novel - like most terrestrial uses of the phrase "black hole" it's an analogy rather than an accurate description.  You can tell by the way we're still here (We're just having some fun with the image!).

Our Tech Future? A Machine That Can Sense What You're Thinking

A sound-powered cellphone might sound like donuts that help you lose weight, an anti-hangover alcohol or an ad for "Guaranteed returns, work from home, APPLY NOW" - but it might well be possible.  A team of Texan scientists have published a paper claiming a breakthrough allowing audio-energized electronics.

A sound-powered cellphone might sound like donuts that help you lose weight, an anti-hangover alcohol or an ad for "Guaranteed returns, work from home, APPLY NOW" - but it might well be possible.  A team of Texan scientists have published a paper claiming a breakthrough allowing audio-energized electronics.

Will Dark Energy Fuel Spaceships of the Future? -A Galaxy Classic

The internet was amazed by images of the world's first warpship recently, and if you're wondering how science got past the fiction so quickly, remember how Leonardo is credited with inventing the helicopter?  Despite not knowing any of the relevant aerodynamics, physics, engineering, or having any of the required skills other than "able to draw a pretty picture"?  It's the same deal.

The internet was amazed by images of the world's first warpship recently, and if you're wondering how science got past the fiction so quickly, remember how Leonardo is credited with inventing the helicopter?  Despite not knowing any of the relevant aerodynamics, physics, engineering, or having any of the required skills other than "able to draw a pretty picture"?  It's the same deal.

The internet was amazed by images of the world's first warpship recently, and if you're wondering how science got past the fiction so quickly, remember how Leonardo is credited with inventing the helicopter?  Despite not knowing any of the relevant aerodynamics, physics, engineering, or having any of the required skills other than "able to draw a pretty picture"?  It's the same deal.

Will NexGen AI Have Unintended Consequences? -A Galaxy Insight

What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being? What happens if artificial intelligence technology is used to mine personal information from smartphones?

AI is becoming the stuff of future scifi greats: A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.

What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being? What happens if artificial intelligence technology is used to mine personal information from smartphones?

AI is becoming the stuff of future scifi greats: A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.

Son of HAL! Crunching One Quintillion Calculations Per Second

 

The U.S. Department of Energy has already begun holding workshops on building a system that's 1,000 times more powerful as the Jaguar, capable of a peak performance of 2.3 petaflops. — an exascale system, said Buddy Bland, project director at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility that includes Jaguar. An exaflop is a million trillion calculations per second, (one quintillion) or 1,000 times faster than a petaflop.

 

The U.S. Department of Energy has already begun holding workshops on building a system that's 1,000 times more powerful as the Jaguar, capable of a peak performance of 2.3 petaflops. — an exascale system, said Buddy Bland, project director at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility that includes Jaguar. An exaflop is a million trillion calculations per second, (one quintillion) or 1,000 times faster than a petaflop.

Artificial DNA -An Immortal Library of Human Knowledge?

A million years from now, will our descendants still read works like Beowulf, Shakespearean plays, or even the Bible? Will they study any of the same mathematical concepts or scientific theories? If so, how will our data reach those future generations? It will likely be stored and continually transferred to the most advanced computer chip, right?

Wrong. Try bacteria.

Will Augmented Reality (AR) Change Your Life? Techies Says "Yes"

Augmented Reality sounds like a sissy description of drug use, but it's the latest and greatest concept in computer-enhanced living.  And has a lot of the same effects: seeing things that aren't there, an increased awareness of your place in the universe, even being able to "really, like, tell what somebody truly is" by looking at them - and it's this last that The Amazing Tribe (TAT, a Swedish technology firm) are working on.

Augmented Reality sounds like a sissy description of drug use, but it's the latest and greatest concept in computer-enhanced living.  And has a lot of the same effects: seeing things that aren't there, an increased awareness of your place in the universe, even being able to "really, like, tell what somebody truly is" by looking at them - and it's this last that The Amazing Tribe (TAT, a Swedish technology firm) are working on.

The Quasar-Based, Black-Hole-Powered NexGen GPS

A collection of remote quasars, whose positions in the sky are precisely known, form a map of celestial landmarks ideal to orient the Earth. The first such map, called the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF), was completed in 1995. It was made over four years using painstaking analysis of observations on the positions of about 600 of these celestial beacons.

Rock Star Revolution: How Pandora's iPhone App Redefined Radio

Cool Tech! "Mobile" Network for the Solar System

Sunspots have been blamed for everything from hard drive crashes to poor phone reception, but once we start settling the solar system we'll have to worry about more than spots - we'll be blocked by the whole thing.  The Sun is two thousand septillion tons of burning nuclear reactor and it's right in the middle of every orbit - the fact it's a "solar" system is your first clue.  This means it will sometimes block interplanetary communications, which is why some scientists suggest setting up interplanetary relay satellites.

But we can't old-school communications satellites - they orbit the planets, so they inherit the same orbital problems - any time the Sun gets in the way the extra thousands miles of orbital height won't help.  The solution is simple: just do what the planets can't.  The entire class of "everything possible for natural objects" is now just "A orbits" - unpowered orbits under the effects of gravity.  Now we're working on "B orbits" - things only engineered objects can engage in.

Creating Optical Black Holes to Produce Super Solar Cells

Chinese scientists have built an optical black hole, but don't worry, this isn't the plot to the next Dan Brown novel - like most terrestrial uses of the phrase "black hole" it's an analogy rather than an accurate description.  You can tell by the way we're still here (We're just having some fun with the image!).

Our Tech Future? A Machine That Can Sense What You're Thinking

A sound-powered cellphone might sound like donuts that help you lose weight, an anti-hangover alcohol or an ad for "Guaranteed returns, work from home, APPLY NOW" - but it might well be possible.  A team of Texan scientists have published a paper claiming a breakthrough allowing audio-energized electronics.

A sound-powered cellphone might sound like donuts that help you lose weight, an anti-hangover alcohol or an ad for "Guaranteed returns, work from home, APPLY NOW" - but it might well be possible.  A team of Texan scientists have published a paper claiming a breakthrough allowing audio-energized electronics.