Futuristische ontwikkelingen

[Pizzaman]

Wordt jouw auto in de nabije toekomst een mini-energiecentrale?

https://www.scientias.nl/wordt-auto-nab ... ecentrale/

I call bullshit. Nergens wordt rekening gehouden met omzet- en transport verliezen van energie.

[Pilgrim]

Nieuwe gentherapie valt 'commandocentrum van kanker' aan

Caroline Kraaijvanger, 4 mei 2017

Experimenten met muizen die aan een agressieve vorm van prostaat- of leverkanker lijden, zijn zeer veelbelovend.

Dat maken wetenschappers van de universiteit van Pittsburgh bekend in het blad Nature Biotechnology. In hun paper beschrijven ze hoe ze kanker met behulp van CRISPR de pas afsnijden.

CRISPR
CRISPR is een genome editing-methode die onderzoekers in staat stelt om genen te controleren. Zo kunnen ze de methode gebruiken om genen uit te schakelen of ongewenst genetisch materiaal te vervangen door een wenselijke DNA-sequentie. Onderstaand filmpje legt in detail uit hoe de methode – die bedacht is door moeder natuur zelf – werkt.



Fusie-genen
Het nieuwe onderzoek richt zich op zogenoemde fusie-genen. Dit zijn genen die ontstaan als twee afzonderlijke genen hun krachten bundelen en een abnormaal eiwit vormen dat kanker kan veroorzaken of promoten. Tijdens dit onderzoek richtten de wetenschappers zich op het fusie-gen MAN2A1-FER. Dit gen is tijdens eerder onderzoek in verband gebracht met agressieve vormen van lever-, long-, prostaat- en eierstokkanker.

CRISPR in actie
Het fusie-gen in kwestie heeft een unieke DNA-sequentie waaraan het te herkennen is. De onderzoekers spoorden de genen aan de hand van die DNA-sequentie op en gebruikten vervolgens virussen om het gemuteerde DNA van de fusie-genen weg te knippen en het te vervangen door een gen dat kankercellen doodt. Omdat het fusie-gen alleen aanwezig is in kankercellen en niet in gezonde cellen, heeft de behandeling alleen gevolgen voor de kankercellen en dus veel minder nare bijwerkingen dan bestaande behandelingen tegen kanker, zoals bijvoorbeeld chemotherapie (dat geen onderscheid maakt tussen gezonde cellen of kankercellen).

Muismodellen
Experimenten met muizen tonen aan dat de aanpak van de onderzoekers veelbelovend is. De onderzoekers stopten menselijke prostaat- en leverkankercellen in de lichamen van de muizen. Vervolgens pasten ze bij de helft van de muizen het fusie-gen in de kankercellen aan. Hierdoor krompen de tumoren met dertig procent. Geen van de muizen kreeg te maken met uitzaaiingen en aan het eind van de acht weken durende observatieperiode leefden de muizen allemaal nog. Heel anders was het in de controlegroep. Deze muizen hadden ook kankercellen in hun lichaam, maar bij hen werd een fusie-gen dat niet in de tumoren aanwezig was, aangepast. De tumoren van deze muizen werden bijna 40 keer groter, de meeste muizen kregen te maken met uitzaaiingen en alle muizen waren nog voor het einde van het onderzoek dood.

Nieuwe aanpak
Het onderzoek kan wel eens leiden tot een compleet nieuwe manier om kanker te bestrijden. “Andere kankerbehandelingen richten zich op de voetsoldaten van het leger,” legt onderzoeker Jian Hua Luo uit. “Onze aanpak richt zich op het commandocentrum, dus de vijandige soldaten krijgen de kans niet om zich opnieuw te groeperen en terug te slaan.” Een tweede voordeel is dat de nieuwe aanpak heel flexibel is. Een veelvoorkomend probleem dat de effectiviteit van chemotherapie aantast, is dat kankercellen evolueren en nieuwe mutaties genereren. Met genome editing kunnen onderzoekers in zo’n geval simpelweg de focus verleggen en die nieuwe mutaties aan gaan vallen.

De onderzoekers zijn zeker nog niet klaar met de fusie-genen. In deze studie is onder de bestudeerde muizen slechts sprake van een gedeeltelijke remissie. De wetenschappers willen uitzoeken of het met deze aanpak ook mogelijk is om de ziekte helemaal uit te roeien.

https://www.scientias.nl/nieuwe-genther ... anker-aan/

[Pilgrim]

3D-printer maakt - met een beetje hulp van de zon - stenen van maanstof

Caroline Kraaijvanger, 4 mei 2017

Want je moet wat als je op de maan wilt gaan wonen en werken.

Het is niet ondenkbaar dat de mens op korte termijn terugkeert naar de maan. Niet alleen om onze natuurlijke satelliet verder te bestuderen. Maar ook om deze te exploiteren: de maan herbergt verschillende grondstoffen die op aarde schaars aan het worden zijn. Maar wonen en werken op de maan vereist natuurlijk een nederzetting. En hoe gaan we die daar maken? Simpel: van maanstof. Dat is tenminste het idee waar ESA momenteel mee speelt. En experimenten suggereren nu dat het best mogelijk is.

Het proces
“We namen gesimuleerd maanstof en kookten het in een zonne-oven,” legt onderzoeker Advenit Makaya uit. “Dat deden we op een 3D-printer-tafel, waarop we opeenvolgend 0,1 millimeter dikke laagjes maanstof bakten op een temperatuur van 1000 graden Celsius.”

De zonne-oven die de onderzoekers gebruikten, is uitgerust met 147 gebogen spiegels die zonlicht focussen. Zo ontstaat een bijzonder warme bundel licht die maanstofjes laat smelten, waardoor ze zich aan elkaar gaan hechten. Het stof dat de onderzoekers gebruiken, is niet echt afkomstig van de maan, maar vulkanisch materiaal dat niet alleen qua samenstelling, maar ook qua korrelgrootte vergelijkbaar is met echt maanstof.

Vijf uurtjes
Om een steen van 20 bij 10 bij 2 centimeter te maken, hadden de onderzoekers een slordige vijf uur nodig. Maar dan heb je ook wat: een steen die ongeveer net zo sterk is als gips.

Ruimte voor verbetering
Er is nog wel wat ruimte voor verbetering, erkent Makaya. Zo trekken de randen van sommige geprinte ‘maanstenen’ krom. Dat komt doordat hun randen sneller afkoelen dan het hart. Er wordt nu uitgezocht hoe dat voorkomen kan worden.



Het onderzoek krijgt binnenkort een vervolg. Dan zullen de stenen niet geprint worden onder aardse omstandigheden, maar onder omstandigheden die de maan eigen zijn. Denk aan een vacuüm en extreme temperatuurschommelingen.

Overigens zijn onderzoekers niet alleen druk bezig om stenen te maken van maanstof. Wetenschappers buigen zich ook over de mogelijkheden die het oppervlaktemateriaal op Mars biedt. Vorige week nog presenteerden onderzoekers een nieuwe manier om stenen te maken van dat Marsstof. En daar komt geen oven aan te pas.

https://www.scientias.nl/3d-printer-maa ... -maanstof/

[xplosive]

De technieken om audio en video te manipuleren worden steeds geavanceerder, waardoor nep en echt straks nauwelijks meer van elkaar te onderscheiden zal zijn. In toenemende mate zullen we dus een bericht dat iemand iets "echt" gedaan of gezegd heeft, ondersteund met "bewijs" van audio- en video-materiaal, moeten gaan wantrouwen.

Clinton, Obama and Trump just endorsed a scarily accurate AI mimic

7th May 2017, Matthew Griffin

The Lyre Bird is a unique bird that lives in the Amazon Rainforest because it’s especially skilled at copying the sound of its surroundings. It’s so successful in fact that in the 1990’s it rose to fame as the sad symbol of the decline of the Amazon when it was first heard perfectly copying the noises of the chainsaws and car alarms of the loggers who were busily destroying its habitat. And now it’s probably mimicking the sound of WiFi routers… but that’s a different story.

Now, a Canadian Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning company, LyreBird, has received ringing sound bytes and endorsements from Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama discussing its technology. But it’s not actually them, it’s an AI powered imitation that’s scarily accurate – even if it does sound jerky, but over time, as we recently saw with DeepMind’s own WaveNet Project that’ll vanish.

LyreBird uses machine learning to produce realistic sounding voice audio and it does it by listening to just one minute – a whole minute – of audio. I know, why so long you ask?

By analysing the voices of all three celebrities, and others, the new system was able to re-produce their voices with amazing accuracy. LyreBird works by taking a sample of any voice and by analysing their waveforms and the cues that “make the voice unique,” it then takes these reliable deviations from the platonic ideal of an English voice and tells its voice synthesis component to make those same adjustments to its audio “wave-forms” as those sound curves are generated. By doing this with enough specificity, the voice generated can have not just the general sound or accent of a person, but the quirks and minor tics, as well. And that’s what makes it so accurate.

However, in the era of fake news, which Facebook are throwing more and more resource at – some of which will undoubtedly be fooled by the new system – some people are questioning the new system’s potential impact on society

It was only a few months ago when I reported on Voco, a new Adobe tool that let’s you do with voice what Photoshop allows you to do with images – basically photoshop voices on demand – and I can’t help thinking that if you combine Voco with LyreBird you’re going to get some awesome audio – and some huge biometric and security problems. Putin declaring war on the world? You could probably create that audio today and we’re only at the beginning of this tech. You get the idea… but just as it could be used for “evil” it could also, like most technologies, be used for great good, for example, it could be used to give people with voice boxes, after they’ve lost their voice boxes to cancer, their real voices back.

As we say in the futurists game – technology is unbiased, it’s humans who use it for good, or evil… but there is one person who needs to be very, very careful and that’s Alec Baldwin – his Trump impression is awful and he might just find himself getting replaced. Oh the joy, er travesty.

[xplosive]

Is de digitale munt in opmars? En is dat een voorbode voor de totale eliminatie van contant geld? Betaalt iedereen straks met mobieltjes op de markt?

$25 Billion in 30 Days: Are Cryptocurrencies in a Bubble?

Charles Bovaird | Published on May 8, 2017 at 22:31 BST



The combined market capitalization of all public cryptocurrencies has surged nearly 80% over the last month, as more than $20bn worth of new investment dollars has flooded the nascent market.

In roughly 30 days alone, the market cap for experimental blockchain-based cryptographic assets has ballooned from $27.8bn to $49.5bn, according to data from CoinMarketCap, with the strongest gains observed outside of the market's historical leader, bitcoin.

A closer look reveals the total market cap of so-called 'altcoins', cryptographic tokens that seek to serve alternative use cases to bitcoin, has surged to $23.5bn, up more than 600% from just over $3bn in early March.

Amid this sharp rally, some market observers have expressed concerns that the asset class may have entered a speculative bubble.

When supporting his argument, Jacob Eliosoff, a trader who runs a cryptocurrency fund, pointed to not only to the price gains, but also the fact that so many cryptocurrencies – including those that haven't seen technical or business progress – have risen in value.

Eliosoff told CoinDesk:

"I've been making the bubble argument for weeks. Doge, Dash, Litecoin, Stellar, Gnosis ... practically every coin has surged."

He further cautioned that this development is "a sign of unthinking buyers that will sell as soon as the tide turns."

Daniel Masters, director of the regulated investment vehicle Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund (GABI), offered similar sentiment, emphasizing that even cryptocurrencies with smaller market caps – like litecoin, ether, namecoin and ripple – have all experienced strong gains over the last few months.

He told CoinDesk that he believes "sentiment [is] too strong," noting that between this and record prices for cryptocurrencies, a bubble may be forming.

More room to grow
While the aforementioned analysts provided cautious viewpoints, other market observers were more optimistic, asserting that cryptocurrency prices have significant room to appreciate despite current prices.

Harry Yeh, managing partner of Binary Financial, took a bullish slant, telling CoinDesk that "there's still quite a ways to move" as more investors take note of big gains in the sector.

Tim Enneking, chairman of Crypto Currency Fund, also spoke to the market's potential. "I would agree that prices have increased too far too fast, but I don't think it's a serious problem – more like a buying opportunity," he said.

He elaborated on this statement, pointing out that it is challenging to determine the "true value" of a cryptocurrency:

"I'm not sure I would label it a bubble, at least not yet. It's quite difficult to definitively state what the intrinsic value is or should be of an altcoin," he said, adding:

"Property is worth what people are willing to pay for it."

Rising OTC trading
One strong indicator of the bullish sentiment is robust trading. While transaction volume for many of the digital assets listed on Coinmarketcap has risen, over-the-counter (OTC) trading firms have also reported an increase in activity.

Martin Garcia, vice president of Genesis Global Trading, noted that his New York-based firm is experiencing such an improvement.

"Our new applications are up significantly, and old clients are circling back as well," Garcia said.

Ryan Rabaglia, head trader for Octagon Strategy, expressed similar sentiment.

"Our desk has had [a threefold] volume increase over the last few months and over the last few weeks we're onboarding new counterparties at a record rate," he said.

Finally, Rabaglia spoke to the changing demands of his customers, emphasizing that while bitcoin and ether are still the "hottest names," his trading desk has repeatedly received requests for trades involving lesser-known alternative cryptocurrencies such as ZEC, DASH, ETC and XRP.

Ultimately, he characterized the current market as one with abundant opportunities for his business.

He concluded:

"Up to this point we've dabbled in each and are considering dedicating more resources if the demand persists."

[Pilgrim]

Misschien niet zo heel opzienbarend, maar het geeft mogelijk toch een toekomstige trend weer en dat is dat je in de toekomst de apparaten in je huis gewoon bediend en ook aan en uit zet met je stem (en in een nog verdere toekomst misschien met je gedachten).

Harman Kardon brengt deze herfst Cortana-speaker uit

Gepubliceerd: 08 mei 2017



Het Amerikaanse bedrijf Harman Kardon brengt deze herfst een speaker uit met daarin de digitale assistent Cortana van Microsoft.

Dit maakt het bedrijf bekend via een nieuwe pagina op zijn website. Een verkoopprijs is nog niet bekendgemaakt.

De Invoke is een cilinder met bovenop een lichtring. De ingebouwde digitale assistent laat gebruikers andere slimme apparaten besturen met hun stem. Zo kan onder meer het licht gedimd en de muziek aangepast worden. Ook is het mogelijk om via Skype te bellen met het apparaat.

Met de luidspreker gaan de speakermaker en Microsoft de concurrentie aan met Amazon en Google, die beide ook luidsprekers met virtuele assistenten verkopen. Volgens geruchten werkt ook Apple aan een zelfstandig apparaat met daarin stemassistent Siri.

Door: NU.nl

http://www.nu.nl/gadgets/4676121/harman ... eaker.html

[Pilgrim]

Belgische onderzoekers maken vervuilde lucht tot een energiebron

Caroline Kraaijvanger, 9 mei 2017

Een nieuwe technologie zuivert vervuilde lucht en wekt tegelijkertijd energie op.

Het is maar een klein apparaatje, maar het is in staat tot grootse dingen. We hebben het over een uitvinding van Vlaamse onderzoekers die twee vliegen in één klap slaat. Het apparaatje rekent af met luchtvervuiling én wekt energie op. En om het apparaatje aan het werk te zetten, moet je het alleen even belichten, zo is in het blad ChemSusChem te lezen.

Twee kamers
Hoe werkt het? In het apparaatje bevinden zich twee kamers die van elkaar gescheiden worden door een membraan. “Aan de ene kant wordt lucht gezuiverd, terwijl aan de andere kant waterstofgas wordt geproduceerd uit een deel van de afbraakproducten,” vertelt onderzoeker Sammy Verbruggen. “Dat waterstofgas kan worden opgeslagen en later als brandstof worden gebruikt.”

Het membraan
De kracht van het apparaatje zit ‘m natuurlijk in het membraan. De onderzoekers hebben daar nanomaterialen op aangebracht. “Die katalysatoren zijn in staat om waterstofgas te vormen en luchtvervuiling af te breken. In het verleden werden dergelijke cellen vooral gebruikt om waterstof te winnen uit water. We hebben nu ontdekt dat het ook kan, en zelfs efficiënter, met vervuilde lucht.”

De veelbelovende technologie staat nog in de kinderschoenen. “Op dit ogenblik werken we op een schaal van slechts enkele vierkante centimeter,” vertelt Verbruggen. “Op termijn willen we onze technologie graag opschalen om het proces industrieel toepasbaar te maken.” Ook hopen Verbruggen en collega’s de gebruikte materialen verder te optimaliseren, zodat het apparaatje nog efficiënter wordt.

https://www.scientias.nl/belgische-onde ... ergiebron/

[Pilgrim]

Domino's zet eerste bezorgrobots in in Duitsland

Gepubliceerd: 12 mei 2017



Domino's heeft de eerste bezorgrobots ingezet bij de bezorging van pizza's in de Duitse stad Hamburg.

De robots kunnen bestellingen zelfstandig bezorgen, zonder hulp van mensen. Vooralsnog lopen er echter nog medewerkers van het bedrijf mee om te kijken of alles goed gaat, meldt de fastfoodketen op zijn website. Bij het oversteken kijkt er iemand op afstand mee.

Deze week werden de eerste bestellingen al bezorgd door een robot. Daarmee is het apparaat voor het eerst ingezet voor reguliere bestellingen.

Diefstal
De robot heeft een compartiment waar vijf pizza’s in passen. Het voertuig rijdt met maximaal 6 kilometer per uur over de stoep. Verder zitten er camera’s en sensoren op waarmee hij zich kan aanpassen aan verschillende omstandigheden. Waar nodig kan het apparaat met geluid communiceren.

Het compartiment met pizza’s kan alleen door de ontvanger geopend worden. De klant ontvangt daar per sms een link voor. Op die manier moet de bezorgrobot beveiligd zijn tegen diefstal.

Blijkt de proef succesvol, dan wil Domino’s de robots op grote schaal in gaan zetten. Een woordvoerder laat weten dat er in de komende maanden ook een test komt in Nederland. In Amsterdam werd tijdens een presentatie al één pizza bezorgd met de robot.

Door: NU.nl

[Zie ook de video op de site.]



http://www.nu.nl/gadgets/4688913/domino ... sland.html

[Ali Yas]

In Amsterdam werd tijdens een presentatie al één pizza bezorgd met de robot.

Dat is trouwens een model met zes wielen, niet met vier.

Overigens zag ik meteen al een paar ernstige gebreken.

1. Het tweetal staande mensen werd zó krap ingehaald dat één stapje achteruit een aanrijding had betekend. Het ding 'begrijpt' te weinig van zijn omgeving.
2. De vering is abominabel. De vervoerde pizza hebben ze maar niet laten zien, want die zat aan alle kanten van de doos. Dat had echt veel beter gekund met klassieke middelen (veren & dempers), om nog maar te zwijgen over wat had kunnen bereikt met lidar en actieve vering.

Kortom, deze pizzabot gaat het niet worden. Er is nog veel werk aan de winkel.

[Ali Yas]

Die katalysatoren zijn in staat om waterstofgas te vormen en luchtvervuiling af te breken.

Mag ik de formule zien van de chemische reactie waar het hier om gaat? Want "luchtvervuiling" is nogal een vaag begrip.

[xplosive]

Robot Erica :

[Pilgrim]

Interview: California gubernatorial candidate proposes state-wide basic income

May 15, 2017 - Tyler Prochazka



Zoltan Istvan is running for governor of California in 2018 and has made headlines for his proposal to develop California lands and use the revenue to form a Universal Basic Income for all California households.

Istvan, who is running as a Libertarian and also ran for president in 2016, recently spoke to the UBI Podcast to discuss his proposal and why he believes it is the surest path to a basic income.

By monetizing federal lands in California, Istvan said he wants to “kill two birds with one stone” by eliminating poverty and pushing economic development in the state. Based on his research, Istvan said each California household could receive over $50,000 annually if the 45 million acres of unused land were developed.

“If we developed land and resources in California, we would be able to afford a basic income,” he said. “I’ve promised to do all of this without raising taxes.”

This plan, he said, would “lift 19 million Californians out of poverty.”

“It doesn’t matter what party you are running for, that is totally unacceptable,” Istvan said.

“With this large of a basic income, the welfare system would naturally go away because they would not have to rely on the state,” Istvan said. He expressed that this form of basic income will also “avoid the traditional opposition from business interests because it would open new development opportunity.”

“Implementing the basic income this way would attract support from both sides,” Istvan said, “because it would develop the economy and help the poor.”

Some of the primary criticisms of this plan are likely to come from environmentalists. But Istvan, who once worked for Wild Aid and National Geographic, said that environmentalists should not be worried, and eliminating poverty should be a high priority for the left.

“We can make all the arguments we want for why preserving the environment is good, but for me feeding people, giving them the right education, these are things that matter more,” Istvan said.

To ensure that the land was preserved, Istvan said the land would be “leased, not sold”, and the land will have to be returned to the state in its previous condition or better. The plan will not involve national parks.

“The environment can be preserved through radical green technologies that are just on our front door,” he said.

If Istvan is elected, he said he would immediately begin pushing this proposal. Once the revenue starts coming in from the development, Istvan said he could begin handing out a partial basic income.

“I want to transform poverty. It is just insane to me as somebody who loves technology and science that in the Twenty First Century we have a system where 40 percent of Californians are at the poverty line,” Istvan said. “This is something that does not just sound wrong to me, it sounds outright insane.”



http://basicincome.org/news/2017/05/int ... ic-income/

[Pilgrim]

Hier nog wat leuke auto's.

Renault TREZOR: an electric GT I Renault
Gepubliceerd op 29 sep. 2016



Top 5 Future Concept Cars - 2017 [New] [4K]
Gepubliceerd op 18 jul. 2016

[xplosive]

Kunstmatige intelligentie die onafhankelijk van een koppeling aan het internet kan opereren. Een meer autonome kunstmatige intelligentie dus :
 

Neurala Announces Deep Learning Breakthrough That Cuts AI from Always Needing to be on the Cloud

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Artificial intelligence company, Neurala recently announced a major advance in deep learning with software that can learn with or without the cloud and eliminates the risk of forgetting its previous knowledge. The company made the announcement through a press release.

"Our results not only show state of the art accuracy, but real time performance suitable for deployment of AI directly on the edge, thus moving AI out of the server room and into the hands of consumers," states Anatoly Gorshechnikov, Neurala's CTO. "Imagine a toy that can learn to recognize and react to its owner or a drone that can learn and detect objects of interest identified while in flight."

The new patent-pending approach means that for the first time a self-driving car can be personalized by each owner or dealer to a specific neighborhood; a parent can teach a toy to recognize a child, without infringing on privacy; and industrial machines can be updated in the field for specific tasks.

Until now, if an AI system had learned a certain number of objects and needed to learn one more, it would have to be retrained on all of the objects. This traditional method requires using powerful servers that are often located in the cloud. Neurala enables learning of the incremental object on the edge.

Neurala’s breakthrough solves the “catastrophic forgetting” problem for deep learning neural networks instantly at the computing device. New objects can be added to the deep learning AI system on the fly, on the edge and without a server. Systems do not need to be retrained from the beginning, and new information can be added without risk. Neurala accomplishes this by combining different neural network architectures in a way that was previously considered impossible.

“Neurala’s breakthrough approach is the enabler that automotive companies, consumer electronics companies and others have needed to make deep learning useful for their customers,” said Massimiliano “Max” Versace, CEO of Neurala. “The ability to learn on the fly and at the edge means that the Neurala approach enables learning directly on the device, without all the drawbacks of cloud learning. In addition, it eliminates network latency, increases real-time performance, and ensures privacy where needed. Most importantly, it will unlock the development of a sea of cloud-less applications.”

“The NVIDIA Jetson AI platform enables Neurala to develop innovative deep learning solutions for inferencing and learning at the edge,” said Murali Gopalakrishna, head of product management, intelligent devices, at NVIDIA. “This enables a new class of intelligent machines.”

Neurala will incorporate the new capability at no additional charge into the Neurala Brains for Bots SDK (software development kit). It is expected to ship later this year.

[Pilgrim]

Moon as unprospected eighth continent that will produce trillionaires

Brian Wang | May 13, 2017

Moon Express is one of only two teams in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition with a verified launch contract for its 2017 lunar mission. In October 2015, Moon Express announced that it had signed the worlds’ first multi-mission launch contract with Rocket Lab USA for 3 lunar missions between 2017 and 2020.

Moon Express sees the moon as critical for humanity to become a multi-world species, and that our sister world, the Moon, is an eighth continent holding vast resources than can help us enrich and secure our future.

MoonEx had been planning to place the International Lunar Observatory (ILO) on the Moon as early as 2018. The plan calls for placement of both a 2 meters (6 ft 7 in) radio telescope as well as an optical telescope at the South Pole of the Moon.

Rick Tumlinson, chairman of Deep Space Industries, plans to land its first prospector on an asteroid by 2020.

Deep Space Industries will use small scouts to explore and study prospective targets. A larger robot will land on high value asteroids to mine and process material. It will use solar power to evaporate and capture water from the sample.

“Water, we believe, is relatively easy to harvest from asteroid materials,” said Tumlinson.

By 2025 they could be producing serious quantities of resources.



Deep Space Industries and the University of Tennessee were awarded NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program funding for developing technology to slow spacecraft carrying asteroid resources as they return to Earth’s orbit.

The purpose of asteroid mining is to collect fuel and building materials harvested from near Earth asteroids and provide them to commercial and government missions. One major challenge to making asteroid mining a reality is slowing down the returning mining spacecraft as they approach Earth. Returning from distant destinations, these spacecraft will be traveling at high speeds, so slowing them down enough to slip into orbit is quite difficult.

Current braking methods call for the returning asteroid mining spacecraft to expend a great deal of propellant to slow itself down enough to achieve low Earth orbit insertion. However, propellant is heavy and valuable, so if another way of slowing the spacecraft could be devised, it would significantly help the economics of asteroid mining missions.

The NASA grant will research the manufacturing of an aerobrake system from the asteroid’s regolith (soil) collected from mining operations. The idea is that the fully laden asteroid mining spacecraft will use the collected material to manufacture a braking system during its journey back to Earth’s orbit. The aerobrake system would act as a large heat shield that would allow the spacecraft to pass through Earth’s atmosphere, creating enough drag to slow down the payload without using propellant.

“Using aerobrakes instead of propellant will expand by 30 to 100 times the number of asteroids where water and other supplies can be affordably delivered to markets in Earth orbit,” said Dr. John S. Lewis, chief scientist at DSI. “In the near future,” explains Lewis, “asteroid resources will support space stations, expeditions to the Moon and Mars, and the transfer of payloads from low orbit to geosynchronous orbit by space-based tugs refueled with asteroid propellant.”

Planetary Resources is also focused on water.

“You can concentrate that solar energy and heat up the surface of the asteroid and literally bake off the water in the same way you’d bake a clay pot,” says CEO Chris Lewicki.

Both Lewicki and Tumlinson want to supply building materials in space, which could allow for the construction of super-massive floating structures that would be ungainly to launch from Earth.

This was the old L5 colonization vision.

National Space Society has updated analysis of the enormous growth potential of orbital space colonization and near earth settlement. If the single largest asteroid (Ceres) were to be used to build orbital space settlements, the total living area created would be well over a hundred times the land area of the Earth. This is because Ceres is a solid, three dimensional object but orbital space settlements are basically hollow with only air on the inside. Thus, Ceres alone can provide the building materials for uncrowded homes for hundreds of billions of people, at least.

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/05/mo ... aires.html

[Pilgrim]

Hewlett Packard Enterprise unveils a monster computer that’s made for Mars

By Alan Boyle on May 16, 2017



In a video tied to the 2016 movie “Star Trek Beyond,” Hewlett Packard Enterprise imagines a time when Starfleet trainees learn about the rise of The Machine. (HPE Discover via YouTube)

What does a prototype computer with 160 terabytes of memory have to do with missions to Mars? The way Kirk Bresniker sees it, a giant leap in computing is required for the giant leap to the Red Planet.

“That’s actually what we need to wrap around that crew,” Bresniker, chief architect at Hewlett Packard Labs, told GeekWire.

Bresniker said the latest prototype in a Hewlett Packard Enterprise research project known as The Machine, unveiled today, represents one not-so-small step toward the kind of computer that could be included on a Mars mission.

“We have talked with some of the teams who have worked on mission proposals” for journeys to Mars, he said. Bresniker isn’t naming names, but he acknowledged that the companies he’s talking with are on the level of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

It’s not just aerospace companies that could benefit: Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman says the computer architecture being developed for The Machine is well-suited for addressing big problems on Earth as well.

“The secrets to the next great scientific breakthrough, industry-changing innovation or life-altering technology hide in plain sight behind the mountains of data we create every day,” Whitman said in a statement released today. “To realize this promise, we can’t rely on the technologies of the past. We need a computer built for the Big Data era.”



HPE calls its concept for The Machine “memory-driven computing”. Rather than loading data into standard silicon-based memory and relying on calculations and recalculations to process the information, the computer can hold and manipulate entire data sets in its arrays of memristors.

Memory-driven computing has the potential to keep processing power climbing upward, which is just what the industry needs right now, Bresniker said.

“Moore’s Law is running out of steam,” he said. “Now that it’s coming to an end, it leaves us exposed.”

Not everyone is sold on The Machine: When HPE provided an update on the project last November, some observers said that its memristor technology didn’t look as if it was ready for prime time, and that the concept would “not emerge from the labs as an official product anytime soon”.

Today’s announcement signals that HPE still has high hopes for The Machine, at least over the long term.

HPE said its prototype device, comprising 160 terabytes of shared memory spread across 40 physical nodes, is the world’s largest single-memory computer. And Bresniker’s lab is just getting warmed up.

Bresniker says the computer architecture is on track to scale up to the exabyte level – that is, a million terabytes of memory – by the year 2022 or so.

Beyond that, HPE says the sky’s the limit. More precisely, the limit appears to be 4,096 yottabytes, which HPE says is about 250,000 times the total size of today’s digital universe. (For numbers geeks, one yottabyte equals 10²⁴ bytes, or a septillion bytes.)

Theoretically, that monstrous amount of memory could accommodate every scenario that Mission Control could anticipate for an interplanetary mission.

“By pre-calculating a large number of those plans ... you can include as many ‘black swans’ as your design team can come up with,” Bresniker said. What’s more, memristor-based data storage systems are “much less susceptible to radiation” than today’s systems, he said.

If HPE follow through on its vision for The Machine, that should make it easier for Mars-bound crews in the 2030s to rely on their onboard computers rather than having to check with Mission Control.

In the midst of a crisis, relying on communications with Earth for guidance would be highly problematic for crewed Mars missions, since the two-way light travel time for signals can exceed 40 minutes.

Bresniker sees future Mars missions as “the perfect laboratory” for The Machine, and he’s looking forward to seeing what astronauts do with the computers that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will create. “Being able to bring those computational capabilities with them is what’s particularly interesting to us,” he said.

Let’s just hope those machines are more like the even-tempered computer from “Star Trek,” and less like the creepy HAL 9000 from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Bresniker, who leads The Machine research project, will deliver a Facebook Live presentation on memory-driven computing and its potential to support missions to Mars at 11:20 a.m. PT today.

https://www.geekwire.com/2017/hewlett-p ... hine-mars/

[xplosive]

Een interessant artikel en een interessant project. In bovenstaand artikel moet "1024 bytes" natuurlijk "10²⁴ bytes"zijn. 4% van 10²⁴ bytes is 40 maal 10²¹ bytes. Dat is 40 duizend exabyte of 40 miljard terabyte. Dat is een enorm aantal.

[Pilgrim]

Ja, dat moet 10²⁴ bytes zijn. Het invoerscherm maakte er 1024 van. Ik heb het inmiddels hersteld door die 10²⁴ van jou tekst over te kopiëren, maar hoe tik je die '²⁴' eigenlijk in?

[Pilgrim]

Critical Step in DNA Damage Pinpointed – Immortality Within Grasp?

Sanchari Sinha Dutta, May 11, 2017

AGING – THE NATURAL PROCESS
Aging is inevitable, just like an extra candle on your birthday cake. It is the accumulation of gradual changes over time – which has a good face of wisdom and maturity; a bad face of minor wrinkles; and an ugly face of severe disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Not only that but from time immemorial, humans have always wanted to be immortal. Almost craving for the fountain of youth or perhaps slowing down aging.

With the advancements in scientific technologies and innovations, Scientists have turned their focus on what causes aging rather than finding the fountain of youth.

THE GIANT LEAP
This is where scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) made a magnificent discovery. In the paper published in Science, they have explained the molecular basis of reversing aging through the cellular DNA damage repair mechanism. Consequently, this could bring potential solutions to extend life expectancy.

Although our cells have an innate DNA damage repair mechanism, it tends to lose its efficiency as we grow older. However, the scientists have identified oxidized nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) as a key molecule in restoring the DNA damage repair mechanism.

The specific binding of NAD+ to the Nudix homology domain (NHD) of DBC1 protein restricts its interaction with a crucial DNA repair enzyme, Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1), which in turn restores the normal functioning of PARP1.

NAD+ is a metabolic sensor present abundantly in the cells. Nonetheless, the levels decline with age. Scientists introduced precursor of NAD+, nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) in old mice.

Upon receiving NMN, old mice showed a profound increase in NAD+ levels and PARP1 activity. This led to a marked decrease in DNA damage biomarkers, which altogether represents improved DNA repair management.

Moreover, the treatment with NMN also provided protection against radiation-induced DNA damage, as observed by exposing NMN pre/post-treated mice with radiation.

“The cells of the old mice were indistinguishable from the young mice, after just one week of treatment”, says Prof. David Sinclair of the UNSW School of Medical Sciences and Harvard Medical School Boston, the lead author of the present study.

“Our results unveil a key mechanism in cellular degeneration and aging but beyond that they point to a therapeutic avenue to halt and reverse age-related and radiation-induced DNA damage”[/i], says Prof. David Sinclair.

HUMAN TRIALS
However, there are huge biological differences between mice and humans. Therefore, affirmations are required from further animal and human studies before proceeding towards therapeutic interventions.

Professor Sinclair and Dr Wu have been working on making NMN into a drug substance. This could be with their companies MetroBiotech NSW and MetroBiotech International.

The human trials will begin this year at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston.

“This is the closest we are to a safe and effective anti-ageing drug that’s perhaps only three to five years away from being on the market if the trials go well”, says Prof. David Sinclair.

BENEFICIARIES OF THE THERAPY
The therapeutic intervention that can potentially reverse aging definitely brings hope for all of us. Most of all the beneficiaries of the therapy could be the one who is more susceptible to age-related changes.

Of note, frequent flyers can be benefited by the same therapy as well.

The other population that can benefit from this work is the cancer patients who are susceptible to DNA damage due to radiation therapy.

Not only this, the study has possible suitors in NASA, which is counting on the NMN therapy for keeping astronauts in good health during a four-year mission to Mars.

http://scientifist.com/critical-step-dn ... inpointed/

[Pilgrim]

IBM builds its most powerful universal quantum computing processors

May 17, 2017


IBM Research Staff Member Katie Pooley, a Physics PhD from Harvard who recently joined IBM, pictured at the Thomas J Watson Research Center, working on a new prototype of a commercial quantum processor, which will be the core for the first IBM Q early-access commercial systems. Credit: Carl De Torres for IBM

IBM announced today it has successfully built and tested its most powerful universal quantum computing processors. The first new prototype processor will be the core for the first IBM Q early-access commercial systems. The first upgraded processor will be available for use by developers, researchers, and programmers to explore quantum computing using a real quantum processor at no cost via the IBM Cloud. The second is a new prototype of a commercial processor, which will be the core for the first IBM Q early-access commercial systems.

Launched in March 2017, IBM Q is an industry-first initiative to build commercially available universal quantum computing systems for business and science applications. IBM Q systems and services will be delivered via the IBM Cloud platform. IBM first opened public access to its quantum processors one year ago, to serve as an enablement tool for scientific research, a resource for university classrooms, and a catalyst of enthusiasm for the field. To date users have run more than 300,000 quantum experiments on the IBM Cloud.

With the introduction of two new processors today for IBM Q, the company is building the foundation for solving practical problems in business and science that are intractable even with today's most powerful classical computing systems. The two new IBM-developed processors include:

• A 16 qubit processor that will allow for more complex experimentation than the previously available 5 qubit processor. It is freely accessible for developers, programmers and researchers to run quantum algorithms and experiments, work with individual quantum bits, and explore tutorials and simulations. Beta access is available today through a new Software Development Kit available on GitHub https://github.com/IBM/qiskit-sdk-py.
• IBM's first prototype commercial processor with 17 qubits and leverages significant materials, device, and architecture improvements to make it the most powerful quantum processor created to date by IBM. It has been engineered to be at least twice as powerful as what is available today to the public on the IBM Cloud and it will be the basis for the first IBM Q early-access commercial systems.· A second experimental processor that has 16 qubits and will allow for more complex experimentation than the previously available 5 qubit processor freely accessible for developers, programmers and researchers to run quantum algorithms and experiments, work with individual quantum bits, and explore tutorials and simulations. Beta access is available today through a new Software Development Kit available on GitHub https://github.com/IBM/qiskit-sdk-py.

"The significant engineering improvements announced today will allow IBM to scale future processors to include 50 or more qubits, and demonstrate computational capabilities beyond today's classical computing systems," said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president and director of IBM Research and Hybrid Cloud. "These powerful upgrades to our quantum systems, delivered via the IBM Cloud, allow us to imagine new applications and new frontiers for discovery that are virtually unattainable using classical computers alone."


IBM announced on May 17, 2017 that it has successfully built and tested its most powerful universal quantum computing processors. Its upgraded 16 qubit processor (pictured) will be available for use by developers, researchers, and programmers to explore quantum computing using a real quantum processor at no cost via the IBM Cloud. IBM first opened public access to its quantum processors one year ago, to serve as an enablement tool for scientific research, a resource for university classrooms, and a catalyst of enthusiasm for the field. To date users have run more than 300,000 quantum experiments on the IBM Cloud. Credit: IBM Research

The inherent computational power of a quantum processor to solve practical problems depends on far more than simply the number of qubits. Due to the fragile nature of quantum information, increasing the computational power requires advances in the quality of the qubits, how the qubits talk to each other and minimizing the quantum errors that can occur.

IBM has adopted a new metric to characterize the computational power of quantum systems: Quantum Volume. Quantum Volume accounts for the number and quality of qubits, circuit connectivity, and error rates of operations. IBM's prototype commercial processor offers a significant improvement in the Quantum Volume. Over the next few years, IBM plans to continue to push the technology aggressively and aims to significantly increase the Quantum Volume of future systems by improving all aspects of the processors, including incorporating 50 or more qubits. Experts can learn more here: https://ibm.biz/BdiaQe.

While technologies that currently run on classical computers, such as Watson, can help find patterns and insights buried in vast amounts of existing data, quantum computers will deliver solutions to important problems where patterns cannot be found because there isn't enough data and the possibilities that you need to explore to get to the answer are too enormous to ever be processed by classical computers.

Future applications of quantum computing may include:

• Business Optimization: Providing improved solutions to complex optimization problems found in supply chains, logistics, modeling financial data, and risk analysis;
• Materials and Chemistry: Untangling the complexity of molecular and chemical interactions leading to the discovery of new materials and medicines;
• Artificial Intelligence: Making facets of artificial intelligence such as machine learning much more powerful; or
• Cloud Security: Using the laws of quantum physics to enhance the security of private data in the cloud.

Explore further: Five ways quantum computing will change the way we think about computing

https://phys.org/news/2017-05-ibm-power ... ssors.html

[Pilgrim]

Wetenschappers maken recordbrekend dunne hologram

Caroline Kraaijvanger, 18 mei 2017

De nano-hologram is 1000 keer dunner dan een menselijke haar en kan zonder 3D-bril bekeken worden.

De hologram is zo’n 25 nanometer dik en kwam tot stand met behulp van een kwantummateriaal. Dat is te lezen in het blad Nature Communications.

Hologram op je telefoon
Het onderzoek kan wel eens verstrekkende gevolgen hebben. Mogelijk brengt deze de hologram naar kleinere apparaten zoals je smartphone of computer. “Conventionele door een computer gegenereerde hologrammen zijn veel te groot voor elektronische apparaten,” vertelt onderzoeker Min Gu. “Maar onze ultradunne hologram stapt over die barrière heen.”



Werk aan de winkel
Voor het zover is, moet er nog wel wat werk verzet worden. “De volgende stap is het ontwikkelen van een hard, maar dun laagje dat op een LCD-scherm gelegd kan worden om weergave van een hologram mogelijk te maken,” vertelt onderzoeker Gaolei Xue. “Daarvoor moeten we de pixelgrootte van onze nano-hologram wel verder verkleinen: deze moet zeker 10 keer kleiner worden.”

Toch is het allemaal de moeite waard, denkt Gu. “Het integreren van holografie in alledaagse elektronica zou de omvang van het scherm irrelevant maken, een pop-up 3D-hologram kan een schat aan informatie weergeven die niet op een telefoon of horloge past.”

https://www.scientias.nl/wetenschappers ... -hologram/

[xplosive]

Ja, dat moet 10²⁴ bytes zijn. Het invoerscherm maakte er 1024 van. Ik heb het inmiddels hersteld door die 10²⁴ van jou tekst over te kopiëren, maar hoe tik je die '²⁴' eigenlijk in?

Via de Tiny Text Generator en dan daarvandaan kopiëren.

[Pilgrim]

Ah, dank je wel.

[Pilgrim]

Riding high: Toyota eyes 'flying car' future

AFP - May 15, 2017


A computer-generated image released by CARTIVATOR Resource Management on May 15, 2017 shows the flying manned vehicle dubbed 'SkyDrive' (AFP Photo/Handout)

Toyota has its sights set on a Blade Runner future as the Japanese automaker backs a move to launch a flying car in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The company is giving about 42.5 million yen ($375,000) to the Cartivator project, which is developing the three-wheeled sci-fi car that relies on drone technology to take flight.

The manned vehicle, dubbed SkyDrive, will have four sets of propellors and -- at 2.9 metres (9.5 foot) long and 1.3 metres wide -- is aiming to be the world's smallest flying car, according to the project.

A promotional video graphic shows the little car lowering its retractable wings before zipping off for a flight around Tokyo and then lighting the flame at the Olympic stadium.

The car is expected to have a top flight speed of around 100 kilometres (62 miles) an hour, hovering some 10 metres off the ground. It will have a top land speed around 150 kilometres an hour.

A group of young engineers from the auto and aerospace industries are working on the project, which is being funded by a number of investors including Toyota subsidiaries.

The group is hoping to launch a manned prototype by the end of next year so it can be used to light the Olympic flame when Japan's capital hosts the Games.

Other firms, including ride-sharing service Uber and a Silicon Valley startup reportedly backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, are moving to put in place a system of flying cars to move people around cities.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/riding-high- ... hoofinance

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Een robot als president van een land in plaats van een mens?

Could an AI Ever Be Elected President?

Written by Chelsea Gohd, May 23, 2017

• IN BRIEF
  
  As automation continues to infiltrate more and more aspects of life, some are considering the potential of an AI taking over the presidency. With a higher capacity for unbiased, constructive problem solving, an AI president could potentially prove to be a better leader than our human ones.

ROBOT PRESIDENT

The president. A highly coveted and highly controversial role, one traditionally held by humans. The use of “traditionally” is a recently added modifier, one necessary when discussing a Wired article suggesting that the role of president might one day be filled by an artificial intelligence (AI).

Others have pushed the idea of an AI president before, with one group even fighting for Watson, IBM’s AI, to run for the position in 2016. This massive, strange, sci-fi political makeover would completely upend the idea of traditional political discourse, so why are so many considering it?

One major reason is level-headedness. Humans are vulnerable to emotion, obviously, but an AI can make decisions without prejudice, without anger, without resentment, without impulse, and without ego (a major concern with powerful positions). AI is, by nature, capable of fully considering all aspects of an issue before making up its “mind.” AI will not make quick decisions based off of a single fact, so in that respect, the machine has humanity beat.

Also, an AI president could not be influenced financially. An AI wouldn’t have a financial stake in any businesses, so it wouldn’t prioritize any over others. It would only calculate what would be best based on the most up-to-date existing facts. For example, an AI would not have any investment in any energy source, so that would free it to consider only the facts of the situation when determining action on climate change.

WHAT’S REALLY POSSIBLE?

As with any radical idea, the election of an AI president seems impossible on the surface. Could we really ever advance to the point where it would be technologically feasible to entrust the presidency to an AI? Theoretically, yes. AI is advancing rapidly, so if a serious project to build the first presidential AI came to fruition, such a system could probably be built in the not-so-distant future.

The largest issue standing in the way of this becoming a future reality is whether or not we, as a people, will allow it. Would the idea ever be supported by a majority of people? Hard to imagine when you consider that the current political landscape appears more polarized than ever.

As automation creeps into more and more aspects of our lives, it is not too out-there to think that we might be willing to one day elect a president unswayed by human shortcomings and programmed to act according to a set of ideals. The president could be programmed to follow conservative or liberal agendas, or instead of electing an AI designed to reflect one political party or another, we could just vote on various issues that would then be considered by our unbiased AI leader.

As AI systems take on tasks traditionally held by human doctors, lawyers, and even songwriters, considering an AI president isn’t so far-fetched. AI can now even be used to create better AI, so it might be time for us to consider a future in which our political leaders are smarter, fairer, and, well, less human.