rjshae, on 09 Apr 2014 - 3:56 PM, said:

Scientists discover a novel way to make ethanol without corn or other plants

 

They used copper nanocrystals and electricity with water and CO to attain 57% conversion efficiency. Pretty impressive. They're working on a way to improve yields of higher energy-density propanol as well. Could this be the future of vehicle fuel generation?

There seems to be a problem with this idea, where would the energy to do all these conversions come from?

 

Unrelated, they're trying to raise $2.5 million to save a little girl : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/04/14/saving-eliza-4-year-olds-family-fights-to-fund-clinical-trial-to-treat-deadly/

New “solar thermal fuel” has energy density of lead batteries.

Oh, no, it's GO-TO! http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2014/04/why-there-will-be-robot-uprising/82783/

 

And I think I just figured out his name stands for "go to".

Edited April 20, 201411 yr by Wrath of Dagon

not a discovery but what the heck

 

Pentagon’s Superpowered Autopilot Will Do the Work of 5 Crew Members.

Top Gun, robot-style: Navy moves ahead on carrier-based drone program.

Not a discovery per say, but an interesting 'cause and effect' of releasing wolves into Yellow Stone Park.

 

How Wolves Change Rivers

 

 

The Future is Now.

Hugh Herr on the new Bionic Legs (go to 17:05 to see a somewhat pathos, but effective example of this - a former dancer and Boston bomber victim)

"Stanford bioengineers have developed a new circuit board modeled on the human brain, possibly opening up new frontiers in robotics and computing.

Boahen and his team have developed Neurogrid, a circuit board consisting of 16 custom-designed "Neurocore" chips. Together these 16 chips can simulate 1 million neurons and billions of synaptic connections."The Article.

But will it create consciousness?

 

Bethseda was right after all.

Quantum positioning system steps in when GPS fails.

See, this is what I mean. Atomic laser cooling, quantum navigation, gravity maps ... why can't we reduce the incidence of male-pattern balding. 

Pick your battles. At least we got the whole boner thing figured out.

See, this is what I mean. Atomic laser cooling, quantum navigation, gravity maps ... why can't we reduce the incidence of male-pattern balding. 

Haha, agreed.

The Fermi Paradox: Where the Hell Are the Other Earths?

SpaceX shows off Dragon V2, its brand new manned space capsule.

Scientists Say They Have Found A Way To Fight SARS And MERS

 

An international team of scientists say they have identified a compound that can fight coronaviruses, responsible for the SARS and MERS outbreaks, which currently have no cure.

Coronaviruses affected the upper and lower respiratory tracts in humans. They are the reason for up to a third of common colds. [...]

Scientists Just Achieved Quantum Teleportation for the First Time

 

The news: It's not every day that you get to say Albert Einstein was wrong.

On Thursday, scientists from the Netherlands announced that they were able to achieve quantum teleportation — a feat that Einstein once dismissed as "spooky action at a distance."

 

rjshae, on 09 Apr 2014 - 3:56 PM, said:

Scientists discover a novel way to make ethanol without corn or other plants

 

They used copper nanocrystals and electricity with water and CO to attain 57% conversion efficiency. Pretty impressive. They're working on a way to improve yields of higher energy-density propanol as well. Could this be the future of vehicle fuel generation?

There seems to be a problem with this idea, where would the energy to do all these conversions come from?

 

Electricity. The nanocrystals are acting as an efficient catalyst.

Female hurricanes are a lot more deadly... But perhaps because of gender bias.

 

 

Rather than this finding being related to the severity of the storms, the team hypothesized that hurricanes with female names may be perceived as less dangerous than those with male names. According to the study, this means that people are less likely to take protective measures such as evacuation during storms with female names and are therefore more vulnerable.

 source.

Berkeley Lab's 2D Transistor Could Supercharge Tomorrow's Electronics.

Tesla Release Electric Car Patents To Public

 

A few days ago, we reported that Telsa Motors CEO Elon Musk had hinted he would be opening up patents to the Supercharger stations that charge their electric vehicles (EVs). This would have made it more convenient for competitors to enter or expand the EV market, reducing demand for traditional vehicles powered by gasoline. Today, Musk formally announced that Tesla Motors were not just opening up the patents for the Superchargers, but for all of the patents obtained by Tesla; over 200 in all. 

 

Musk released a blog entry on Tesla’s website entitled “All Our Patent Are Belong To You” which doubles as a potential massive advance for the EV market as well as the only good reference to that Zero Wing meme in the last decade. In the blog, Musk vows that Tesla will not sue anyone who uses their technology in good faith.

 

“When I started out with my first company, Zip2, I thought patents were a good thing and worked hard to obtain them,” Musk wrote. “And maybe they were good long ago, but too often these days they serve merely to stifle progress, entrench the positions of giant corporations and enrich those in the legal profession, rather than the actual inventors.”

 

There are some minor stipulations for companies who want to use Tesla’s technology. Other auto manufacturers using Supercharger technology must also charge customers for use of the charging stations up front, and granting free access thereafter. It is hoped that other manufacturers will also assume an open source stance, allowing the industry to evolve more quickly.

 

That's actually quite impressive.

Raytheon's Modular Missile Defense Snaps Together Like Lego Bricks.

 

The Navy's Just Mounted an Anti-UAV Laser on a Hummer--A Hummer!