Emerging Technologies....They Might Have Cured Cancer….Also Leaf Blower Silencers!

[PokerPacker]

43 minutes ago, China said:

 the bacterium Mycobacterium smegmatis – does it in a unique way

You know what... I'm good.  I'll stick to solar.

[The Sisko]

On 12/11/2022 at 12:06 PM, LD0506 said:

One of the offshoots of info technology that have given us TitTok and police abuse videos and LOLCats is that smart people everywhere are talking to other smart people without the heavy hand of government or corporations filtering the conversations. Genius and innovation and inventive imaginative minds have been hoarded like gold for centuries, held captive by whatever force ruled their neighborhood. This paradigm has been shattered and not a lot of people see and understand that. Technology, particularly materials research which I follow, is exploding in a way never seen before and it is because of the free flow of information. We are on the cusp of transformational change if we can avoid killing ourselves off first. 

Ceiling cat is lol-ing at your optimism.😹You’re correct that smart people can now interact in new ways. However, their work is almost always funded, whether directly or indirectly by gubments or corporations. So no, they’re not as independent as one might think.
 

On 1/31/2023 at 5:14 PM, The Evil Genius said:

 

So, he’s saying humanity will end due to multiple horrible sequels?

Edited March 10, 2023 by The Sisko

[China]

 

[China]

 

[mistertim]

Scientists create 'slits in time' in mind-bending physics experiment

 

Quote

Researchers replicated the classic double slit experiment using lasers, but their slits are in time not space.

 

In a first, scientists have shown that they can send light through "slits" in time. 

 

The new experiment is a twist on a 220-year-old demonstration, in which light shines through two slits in a screen to create a unique diffraction pattern across space, where the peaks and troughs of the light wave add up or cancel out. In the new experiment, researchers created a similar pattern in time, essentially changing the color of an ultrabrief laser pulse.

 

The findings pave the way for advances in analog computers that manipulate data imprinted on beams of light instead of digital bits - it might even make such computers "learn" from the data. They also deepen our understanding of the fundamental nature of light and its interactions with materials. 

 

For the new study, described April 3 in the journal Nature Physics(opens in new tab), the researchers used indium tin oxide (ITO), the material found in most phone screens. Scientists already knew ITO could change from transparent to reflective in response to light, but the researchers found it occurs much faster than previously thought, in less than 10 femtoseconds (10 millionths of a billionth of a second).

[China]

Scientists Working to Generate Electricity From Thin Air Make Breakthrough

 

Scientists have invented a device that can continuously generate electricity from thin air, offering a glimpse of a possible sustainable energy source that can be made of almost any material and runs on the ambient humidity that surrounds all of us, reports a new study.  

 

The novel “air generator,” or Air-gen, is made from materials with holes that are under 100 nanometers in length, which is a scale thousand times smaller than a human hair. This design can pull electricity from water droplets in the air for much longer periods than previous concepts, the researchers report, suggesting that it could eventually provide a continuous and sustainable source of power. Researchers hope the technique could eventually help to fight climate change by serving as an alternative to fossil fuels.

 

If you’ve ever seen a bolt of lightning streak across the sky, you’ve already had a sneak peek of the untapped power that is hidden in ambient air. This energy is fueled by the electrical charges of water droplets in the air, a phenomenon that has inspired many attempts to harvest humidity by inducing imbalances in charged waters with special devices. Many of these techniques only work for short periods, or require expensive materials, which presents practical challenges for efficiency and scalability.

 

Now, researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, have developed an Air-gen device that yields electricity from contact with water droplets that pass through its porous material. In this way, the Air-gen technology creates “a spontaneous and sustained charging gradient for continuous electric output” that “opens a wide door for the broad exploration of sustainable electricity from ambient air,” according to a study published on Wednesday in Advanced Materials.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

On 4/16/2022 at 12:59 PM, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

Sure it can. Waymo is already doing just that in one city.  The question is who can do it for the lowest marginal cost.
 

Waymo has a lot of sensors and needs continuously updated HD mapping == expensive.
 

Tesla is hoping to do its with just cameras and medium definition mapping == cheap.

 

Id say Tesla Vision can handle 85 percent of anything that’s thrown at it. The problem is that the last 15 percent has a very long tail.

 

‘Incompetent’ driverless cars are wreaking havoc on San Francisco

 

They ram through loose electrical wires and bring rush hour traffic grinding to a halt. They tear through crime scene caution tape and rear end city buses. Sometimes, they even obstruct Muni routes like the N Judah, inconveniencing hundreds of passengers who are simply trying to go home after a long day at work.  

 

Driverless cars — which are suddenly quite common in the Bay Area — have been touted as life-saving solutions by Cruise and Waymo, two local tech behemoths that are in an arms race for San Francisco’s roadways. But the “rigorous” training that these cars must undergo each day is still annoying — and endangering — San Franciscans who didn’t sign up to become the multibillion dollar companies’ unpaid lab rats.     

 

In June 2022, the California Public Utilities Commission authorized Cruise to deploy 30 autonomous vehicles — or AVs — for passenger use throughout designated regions of San Francisco, and said the company could charge for those rides. Five months later, the CPUC authorized Waymo to put its AVs on Bay Area streets as part of the state’s driverless pilot program. Optimistically described as a “milestone” by CPUC, the agreement gave Waymo the green light to autonomously drive passengers throughout San Francisco and stretches of Daly City, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale for free test rides.  

 

On Dec. 12, 2022, Waymo applied for the CPUC permit that would allow the company to charge for driverless rides, filings show; four days later, Cruise applied to expand its fleet and deploy 100 self-driving cars across “the entire 7x7” of San Francisco. Both requests are still pending, and the next hearing is scheduled for June 29, TechCrunch reported.

 

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is still skeptical about Cruise and Waymo’s technological capabilities. The companies continue to wrestle for dominance, outpacing lesser known contenders like Pony.ai, Zoox and AutoX, but the city is wary of both Waymo and Cruise because they’ve obscured data about their cars’ basic operations.

 

There’s also the maelstrom of photos, videos and news reports showing the vehicles can cause major traffic snafus. Yet the expansions of Waymo and Cruise have marched on, with the CPUC seemingly poised to grant the permits the companies seek. Meanwhile, local transportation agencies have protested, arguing that the cars still endanger pedestrians, drivers and emergency personnel.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[CousinsCowgirl84]

San Francisco is not the city where Waymo has functional autonomous driving. 

[China]

To be effective, it should really be able to function in more than one city.

[CousinsCowgirl84]

31 minutes ago, China said:

To be effective, it should really be able to function in more than one city.

I agree with that, Waymo is not effective but it does function alongside other drivers in one city.

 

Which is why I think Tesla Vision is already better than Waymo.

 

Waymo is functional in just one city, Tesla Vision functions the same in every city.  It isn’t functional as autonomous driving yet, but I think it is further along in being functional in every city than waymo is.

I haven’t really followed cruise. 

Edited June 7, 2023 by CousinsCowgirl84

[The Evil Genius]

43 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

San Francisco is not the city where Waymo has functional autonomous driving. 

 

Which is odd since they advertise SF as fully autonomous on their website.

 

https://waymo.com/sf/

Edited June 7, 2023 by The Evil Genius

[CousinsCowgirl84]

5 minutes ago, The Evil Genius said:

 

Which is odd since they advertise SF as fully autonomous on their website.

 

https://waymo.com/sf/

Clearly that is asperational.

[China]

Scientists beam solar power to Earth from space for 1st time ever

 

The Space Solar Power Demonstrator's MAPLE experiment was able to wirelessly transfer collected solar power to receivers in space and direct energy to Earth.

 

A space solar power prototype has demonstrated its ability to wirelessly beam power through space and direct a detectable amount of energy toward Earth for the first time. The experiment proves the viability of tapping into a near-limitless supply of power in the form of energy from the sun from space. 

 

Because solar energy in space isn’t subject to factors like day and night, obscuration by clouds, or weather on Earth, it is always available. In fact, it is estimated that space-based harvesters could potentially yield eight times more power than solar panels at any location on the surface of the globe. 

 

The wireless power transfer was achieved by the Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment (MAPLE), an array of flexible and lightweight microwave power transmitters, which is one of the three instruments carried by the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1).

 

SSPD-1 was launched in January 2023 as part of the California Institute of Technology's (Caltech) Space Solar Power Project (SSPP), the primary goal of which is to harvest solar power in space and then transmit it to the surface of Earth.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[CousinsCowgirl84]

Let’s exploit the sun here on earth first. Seems a lot easier.

[China]

On 6/7/2023 at 3:29 PM, China said:

 

‘Incompetent’ driverless cars are wreaking havoc on San Francisco

 

They ram through loose electrical wires and bring rush hour traffic grinding to a halt. They tear through crime scene caution tape and rear end city buses. Sometimes, they even obstruct Muni routes like the N Judah, inconveniencing hundreds of passengers who are simply trying to go home after a long day at work.  

 

Driverless cars — which are suddenly quite common in the Bay Area — have been touted as life-saving solutions by Cruise and Waymo, two local tech behemoths that are in an arms race for San Francisco’s roadways. But the “rigorous” training that these cars must undergo each day is still annoying — and endangering — San Franciscans who didn’t sign up to become the multibillion dollar companies’ unpaid lab rats.     

 

In June 2022, the California Public Utilities Commission authorized Cruise to deploy 30 autonomous vehicles — or AVs — for passenger use throughout designated regions of San Francisco, and said the company could charge for those rides. Five months later, the CPUC authorized Waymo to put its AVs on Bay Area streets as part of the state’s driverless pilot program. Optimistically described as a “milestone” by CPUC, the agreement gave Waymo the green light to autonomously drive passengers throughout San Francisco and stretches of Daly City, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale for free test rides.  

 

On Dec. 12, 2022, Waymo applied for the CPUC permit that would allow the company to charge for driverless rides, filings show; four days later, Cruise applied to expand its fleet and deploy 100 self-driving cars across “the entire 7x7” of San Francisco. Both requests are still pending, and the next hearing is scheduled for June 29, TechCrunch reported.

 

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is still skeptical about Cruise and Waymo’s technological capabilities. The companies continue to wrestle for dominance, outpacing lesser known contenders like Pony.ai, Zoox and AutoX, but the city is wary of both Waymo and Cruise because they’ve obscured data about their cars’ basic operations.

 

There’s also the maelstrom of photos, videos and news reports showing the vehicles can cause major traffic snafus. Yet the expansions of Waymo and Cruise have marched on, with the CPUC seemingly poised to grant the permits the companies seek. Meanwhile, local transportation agencies have protested, arguing that the cars still endanger pedestrians, drivers and emergency personnel.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

SFFD chief is fed up with robotaxis interfering with firefighters on the job

 

Autonomous vehicles are making headlines in San Francisco and not necessarily for the right reasons.

 

Robotaxis are being hotly debated as some of them occasionally have problems. We've reported on them stopping for no reason at intersections and according to San Francisco's Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson, firefighters are encountering at least one robotaxi every single day.

 

She says at some point, this going to have deadly consequences.

 

"The biggest concern is that someone is going to get really severely injured or killed because we cannot properly respond to an incident," Chief Nicholson said. "Or if they can get in the way at an incident. We've really gotten lucky so far, but it's only a matter of time before something really, really catastrophic happens."

 

Click on the link for the video

[Larry]

Just observing:  Cars driven by humans sometimes do stupid things, too. 

[Corcaigh]

Claims are being made for a new material LK-99 with superconducting properties at room temperature, and higher temperatures.

 

Here is a summary posted on Reddit:

 

If you're not following LK-99, you're missing out on the most fun thing happening on the internet right now. Feels like the old internet.

TL;DR:

• Since 1999, a tiny group of Korean scientists, working in obscurity and in their off-time, pursue the dying wishes of their materials professor who has his own theory about room temperature and pressure superconductors, a century-defining material, the holy grail of materials science and an instant Nobel prize.

• A week ago, one of them went rogue and published a paper describing how to produce their substance, LK-99, which may or not be this holy grail material. It requires no exotic materials or equipment to reproduce, but the paper omits a lot of detail about the specifics of the synthesis.

• They accompany it with pictures and a video. There are mistakes in the paper, but they authors say they are trivial, will be fixed, and all of them stand by their claims, even as they feud with each other.

• This kicks off a world-wide race to deboonk or reproduce. US, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian labs all drop what they're doing and give LK-99 a shot. One guy at a startup in California tries on his own as well, and 10,000 people tune in to watch a Twitch stream of a webcam pointed at a kiln. The process takes a few days.

• A Russian anime catgirl joins the fracas, ruthlessly making fun of both the original Korean scientists for their bizarre methodology, and of Western/Chinese labs for simply following the steps without understanding what they do. She applies the Soviet technique of ignoring the steps outlined and instead trying to figure out what they actually do, and comes up with her own procedure using **** just laying around her apartment.

• She produces a small grain of the floaty rock, takes a picture but refuses to take a video, and mercilessly ridicules everybody who keeps asking her for more proofs because it was so easy to do, they should just be doing it themselves if they weren't mediocre westoids. She's catty and great.

I skipped some details but it's been a fun ride. Maybe the history books will record the moment when a ****y internet catgirl became the first person to reproduce the material that saved humanity and sent them to the stars.

 

Definitely has cold fusion vibes and still awaiting confirmation in labs but different to some prior ‘breakthroughs’ there is at least a possible theoretical explanation:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.16892

 

The author of that paper is Dr Sinead Griffin from Dublin, currently at Lawrence Livermore Lab, and the Irish know physics.

 

 

 

[PleaseBlitz]

Can I get a TL;DR to the TL;DR?

[Jabbyrwock]

6 hours ago, PleaseBlitz said:

Can I get a TL;DR to the TL;DR?

 

Sell ur liquid nitrogen stocks.

[PleaseBlitz]

11 minutes ago, Jabbyrwock said:

 

Sell ur liquid nitrogen stocks.

[Corcaigh]

2 hours ago, Jabbyrwock said:

 

Sell ur liquid nitrogen stocks.

My biggest regret about leaving a physics lab was that all those pranks with liquid nitrogen would have to come out of my own pocket

[Corcaigh]

9 hours ago, PleaseBlitz said:

Can I get a TL;DR to the TL;DR?

If it’s real it would mean applications involving electrical power and magnetic fields would be a lot more efficient and lower cost.

 

For example up to 10% of electricity generated is lost between the power plants and the consumer - that’s probably $25 B in cost in the US alone every year to keep the bird warm as they perch on wires

 

With electricity transmission becoming a lot more efficient it removes a  barrier to filling the desserts with solar panels.

 

And lowering the cost dramatically of MRI and similar equipment while increasing performance.

 

And ultra-high performance computers get cheaper and easier too.

 

Probably faster EV charging and who knows what else.

 

 

[China]

On 6/7/2023 at 3:41 PM, China said:

To be effective, it should really be able to function in more than one city.

 

Self-driving taxis coming to Nashville, testing already underway

 

Cruise, a self-driving car company, is expanding and introducing its driverless taxis to Nashville.

 

Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt announced the expansion into Music City on July 27 as Nashville is set to be the company’s next robotaxi-enabled city.

 

Vogt said Nashvillians will see driverless Cruise autonomous vehicles (AV) in a few months. However, it seems the company has already begun testing its service on July 28.

 

Cruise says its testing in Nashville is the first step to learn the city’s roads and driving behaviors. “Over the coming weeks, we’ll focus on finetuning our generalizable AI technology to understand these nuances and unique elements before going driverless,” Cruise said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

On 6/25/2023 at 5:31 PM, China said:

 

SFFD chief is fed up with robotaxis interfering with firefighters on the job

 

Autonomous vehicles are making headlines in San Francisco and not necessarily for the right reasons.

 

Robotaxis are being hotly debated as some of them occasionally have problems. We've reported on them stopping for no reason at intersections and according to San Francisco's Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson, firefighters are encountering at least one robotaxi every single day.

 

She says at some point, this going to have deadly consequences.

 

"The biggest concern is that someone is going to get really severely injured or killed because we cannot properly respond to an incident," Chief Nicholson said. "Or if they can get in the way at an incident. We've really gotten lucky so far, but it's only a matter of time before something really, really catastrophic happens."

 

Click on the link for the video

 

San Franciscans Are Having Sex in Robotaxis, and Nobody Is Talking About It

 

Ever thought about getting down and dirty in a robotaxi? Want to light up a cig or a joint on the drive home from the club? You’re not alone. 

 

As autonomous vehicles become increasingly popular in San Francisco, some riders are wondering just how far they can push the vehicles’ limits—especially with no front-seat driver or chaperone to discourage them from questionable behavior. 

 

For some, that’s a welcome invitation to test the autonomous vehicles’ limits. Megan, a woman in her 20s, took her first robotaxi ride on a recent late-night excursion. It was also her first time having sex in a driverless vehicle. The Standard is not providing exact dates of the riders’ debauchery to protect their privacy but has verified the rides took place through documentation. Names have been changed because of the riders’ privacy concerns. 

 

“We got in and just got straight to it, making out,” said Megan, who got into the Cruise wearing nothing but a robe. “One thing led to another, and he made sure that I was taken care of, if you will. … I was like, ‘I have no underwear on, and I am ready to go in this kimono.’ And I was using his slippers that were like five sizes too big.” 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Clearly someone's talking about it or we wouldn't have this article

[Jabbyrwock]

On 8/2/2023 at 9:32 PM, Corcaigh said:

If it’s real it would mean applications involving electrical power and magnetic fields would be a lot more efficient and lower cost.

 

For example up to 10% of electricity generated is lost between the power plants and the consumer - that’s probably $25 B in cost in the US alone every year to keep the bird warm as they perch on wires

 

With electricity transmission becoming a lot more efficient it removes a  barrier to filling the desserts with solar panels.

 

And lowering the cost dramatically of MRI and similar equipment while increasing performance.

 

And ultra-high performance computers get cheaper and easier too.

 

Probably faster EV charging and who knows what else.

 

 

 

Well...crap.

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02585-7