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January 28, 2006
Eliza Redux
Wortzel, who teaches new media in City Tech’s Department of Advertising Design & Graphic Arts, has created a virtual robot psychoanalyst on her interactive website, “Eliza Redux.” If you log on at http://elizaredux.org and sign up for a session, you can visit with the robot shrink-in-residence, ask it questions and get oral responses, although some responses will make it clear that it is the robot that likely needs the counseling more than you do.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 07:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb
The most Earth-like planet yet discovered beyond the solar system has been detected orbiting a distant star, boosting the chances that life exists elsewhere in the galaxy.
The icy, rocky world is just five times larger than our own, making it the smallest and most similar to Earth of all the 160 "exoplanets" around other stars that astronomers have found so far.
The planet, which has been given the unglamorous name OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, is considered an unlikely candidate for life, as it has a surface temperature of -220C (-364F) that precludes the presence of the liquid water thought necessary to sustain organisms.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 07:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 21, 2006
Magnetic Levitation Transport
Magnetic levitation transport, or maglev, is a form of transportation that suspends, guides and propels vehicles via electromagnetic energy. This has advantages in terms of speed and ride comfort compared to wheeled mass transit systems - potentially, maglevs could reach velocities comparable to turboprop and jet aircraft (500 – 580 km/h) - but although the idea is decades old, technological and economic limitations have caused relatively few full-scale systems to be built. Maglev technology has minimal overlap with wheeled train technology and is not compatible with conventional railroad tracks.
Read More about Maglev Train
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 08:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 18, 2006
Nanobattery
Several researchers from Sandia National Laboratories, led by principal investigator Susan Rempe, are part of a multi-institutional, multidisciplinary team developing a nano-size battery that one day could be implanted in the eye to power an artificial retina.
They are among the recipients of a five-year, $6.5 million grant recently awarded by the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish a new center, the National Center for Design of Biomimetic Nanoconductors. Based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign under the direction of principal investigator Eric Jakobsson, the center is designed to rapidly launch revolutionary ideas in the use of nanomedicine.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 06:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 10, 2006
What Is Your Dangerous Idea?
The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 07:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 07, 2006
iGallop
OSIM iGallop.Horse-riding exercise
Right now available in Singapore and Hongkong only.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 04:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 06, 2006
The Walrus
DARPA's Walrus program to develop and evaluate a very large airlift vehicle has moved forward; DARPA announced the contractors for the first phase of the program. Despite detailed early descriptions of "war-balloons" in late nineteenth century science fiction, this isn't your father's (not to mention great-grandfather's) dirigible airship. According to DARPA's press release, "the Walrus aircraft will be a heavier-than-air vehicle and will generate lift through a combination of aerodynamics, thrust vectoring and gas buoyancy generation and management."
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 05:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 04, 2006
We Can Rebuild You
Shahinpoor, the genial assistant dean of the College of Engineering, is an unlikely successor to Dr. Frankenstein. Although he is not trying to create life in his laboratory, the inanimate materials he melds together squirm and writhe like living entities. His true objective is to develop a host of supple artificial muscles that may eventually run machines and robots, and perhaps replace worn-out or defective human parts.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 05:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 02, 2006
Singularly frightening future?
Will super-intelligent computers someday inherit the Earth?
This portentous question is a staple of science-fiction thrillers such as "The Matrix" and "The Terminator" movies as well as more thoughtful cinematic treatments such as Steven Spielberg's haunting film "A.I."
It is also the topic of two best-selling nonfiction books by futurist Ray Kurzweil: "The Age of Intelligent Machines" and "The Age of Spiritual Machines." With his new book, "The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology," Kurzweil links a projected ascendance of artificial intelligence to the future of the evolutionary process itself. The result is both frightening and enlightening.
Posted by Vishwakarma C. K. @ 09:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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