New Technology

  On 1/19/2013 at 2:19 AM, luke viia said:

I'm not sure what form the technology would hit the market in, but I think it could be used to cover entire buildings, cars, phones or other devices, your bike helmet, your bike, whatever. I'm pretty excited about the future of solar energy. It's the quintessential "sustainable" energy, and we're finally getting good enough to turn our machines into digi-autotrophs. exciting times imo!

excellent! energy is an exciting field right now and I am interested to see how further developments in solar affect economic systems. seems one could live more self sustained in the middle of nowhere cause of 'free energy' or at least not finite (while the sun is around).

also that road solar panel video/idea is also insane. this kind of tech should get massive government funding because of the long term economic benefits plus jobs it would create in the now.

Not really new technology, but good news as I never trusted these machines due to the radiation they emit on the surface of the skin as opposed to the radiation you get on planes.

  Quote

The American Pilots Association, which represents about 12,000 pilots, is recommending members instead submit to new pat-down searches, even though critics have described them as "horribly invasive" and likened them to foreplay. The recommendation is based on concerns that, contrary to claims by the US Transportation Security Administration, the types of X-rays emitted by the machines could pose serious risks that still aren't well understood.

“We are already subjected to larger amounts of radiation by flying long distances at high altitudes,” Captain Sam Mayer, who is the APA's communications committee chairman, told The Register. “While the TSA is telling us it's completely safe, that may be true for the occasional user, but we haven't seen any data yet talking about the long term cumulative effects of this over time.”

  Quote

Although the machines operate at relatively low beam energies of about 28keV, the radiation is delivered only to passengers' skin and underlying tissue, the scientists argued in an April 6memorandum (PDF) to John P. Holdren, assistant to the President for science and technology. While the dose might be safe if absorbed by the entire body, directing all of it to the skin only may be dangerous.

  Quote

The scientists also warned that travelers might face health risks from malfunctioning machines or from overzealous screeners who raise the dose in an attempt to improve a scanner's resolution.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/09/pilots_oppose_backscatter_scanners/

TSA removing 'virtual strip search' body scanners

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/18/travel/tsa-body-scanners/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

this makes me so happy...

"Turn Your Plastic Recyclables Into 3D Printing Spools using Filabot"

  Quote

 

"Filabot is a 3D plastic extrusion system that takes all kinds of recyclable plastic – milk jugs, soda, detergent and shampoo bottles – and turns them into raw material for 3D printing creativity."

 

"The way Filabot works is pretty straightforward. It’s fed pieces of plastic up to 4 inches in diameter, which are then ground down to smaller pieces and are squeezed through a heated barrel that melts the plastic down. The molten plastic is then extruded out through interchangeable nozzles – 3mm or 1.75mm in diameter – to produce the plastic filament. The filament is then shaped to the right size for printing as it is pressed between a pair of grooved barrels. Finally, a cutter corrects any shape irregularities that might’ve made it past the barrels."

 

"Filabot can process thermoplastics such as HDPE, LDPE, ABS, and NYLON, and there are plans in place to process more types in the future. It doesn’t process PVC because of toxicity risks."

http://singularityhub.com/2013/02/04/turn-your-plastic-recyclables-into-3d-printing-spools-with-filabot/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DMNLJUKKNhQ

We Can Almost Print New Organs Using 3D Stem Cells

  Quote

File this under unexpectedly cool: organs you don’t harvest, but

instead print using an honest-to-goodness printer, just as you might

words on paper, except in this case, the “words” are actual stem cells

that could save someone’s life.

 

Let’s talk about 3D printers for a moment: high-tech contraptions that

let you craft three-dimensional objects with a computer aided design

program, then render them in the real world as instantly usable objects

with, say, a little powder and some binding material. We’ve used such

devices to make everything from jewelry and full-color models of human

faces to smartphone cases and battery-powered motors. Scan an existing

physical object like a crescent wrench into a computer and a 3D printer

can completely replicate it just a short while later, no assembly

required, right down to the adjustable jaws and cylindrical track.

 

Now imagine a device that could print new organs on demand using cells

in lieu of ink (call it “bio-ink,” because the scientists do). It’s part

of a process known as biofabrication: assembling the essential cellular

building blocks of organs using the mechanical exactness of

computer-driven, three-dimensional printing technology.

 

Say you need a new trachea, a part of the body we’ve already managed to

replicate using stem cells and successfully transplant to a human with

late-stage tracheal cancer (I’m not making that up or exaggerating).

With a 3D printer and a bunch of stem cell-saturated bio-ink, you might

be able to just print that trachea on demand thanks to a new technique

that lets you pass human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) through a printer

nozzle without destroying them.

 

A team of researchers from Scotland announced Monday that they’d

finally managed to get an inkjet-style printer to craft an organic 3D

object. Not an actual organ (well, not yet), but these scientists claim

they’ve been able to clear a crucial hurdle: getting hESCs, prized for

their ability to become cells of any tissue type, to survive the

printing process.

 

The solution involved rejiggering the way the inkjet-style 3D printer

worked, specifically the printing valve, which had to be tweaked to

ever-so-gently deposit blobs of hESCs in programmable patterns without

compromising the viability and functionality of the cells themselves.

The researchers figured out how to do this using two types of bio-inks

as well as allow for independent control of the amount in each droplet

(with considerable control granularity — down to less than five cells

per droplet). The results of the experiment were just published in the

bio-science print and online journal Biofabrication.

 

“We are able to print millions of cells within minutes,” said paper

co-author Will Shu of the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, reports

Agence France-Presse. Shu adds that the printer is comparable in size to

a garden variety desktop laser printer.

 

It’s not like we haven’t printed cells before — we’ve been able to print

stuff as crazy-sounding as DNA for years. But getting hESCs through a

3D printer nozzle successfully using a method that allows how they

emerge and in what amounts to be controlled precisely without

compromising their viability and rendering them as 3D objects — that’s

crazy-cool future science. And though it’ll be some time before we’re

printing stuff like human tracheas, to say nothing of organs that

require complex networks of blood vessels to sustain the tissue, we’re a

momentous step closer after this breakthrough.

 

What’s more, the immediate benefits extend well beyond human organ

genesis: Next up, Shu and team intend to print 3D liver tissue, which

Shu hopes could eliminate the use of non-human animals in laboratory

drug tests.

Holy shit

http://techland.time.com/2013/02/05/we-can-almost-print-new-organs-using-3d-stem-cells/#ixzz2K6S692fG

http://news.sky.com/story/1047575/3d-printing-advances-stem-cell-research

http://stereopsis.com/flux/

Here's some software I use to (hopefully) help my brain start releasing melatonin when I'm staring at the computer at ungodly hours of the night. Sort of warms the screen colors up at night so they're not so blinding and misleading to my body.

  On 2/6/2013 at 9:31 AM, happycase said:

http://stereopsis.com/flux/

 

Here's some software I use to (hopefully) help my brain start releasing melatonin when I'm staring at the computer at ungodly hours of the night. Sort of warms the screen colors up at night so they're not so blinding and misleading to my body.

Holy shit, you just made me realize why I haven't liked staring at my new computer. Had this installed on my previous computer for the past 3 years or so. Very much recommended. Thanks for the reminder.

:cisfor:

the robobees, discussed at length in yikes' thread about Boston Dynamics' & DARPA & the spookiness of robotics in the future years, are apparently here:

http://singularityhub.com/2013/05/08/robobee-robot-the-size-of-a-quarter-shows-off-new-flight-skills/

Update on the Solar Roadways i posted years back

  Quote

 

Solar Roadways is a modular paving system of solar panels that can withstand the heaviest of trucks (250,000 pounds). These Solar Road Panels can be installed on roads, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks, bike paths, playgrounds... literally any surface under the sun. They pay for themselves primarily through the generation of electricity, which can power homes and businesses connected via driveways and parking lots. A nationwide system could produce more clean renewable energy than a country uses as a whole (http://solarroadways.com/numbers.shtml). They have many other features as well, including: heating elements to stay snow/ice free, LEDs to make road lines and signage, and attached Cable Corridor to store and treat stormwater and provide a "home" for power and data cables. EVs will be able to charge with energy from the sun (instead of fossil fuels) from parking lots and driveways and after a roadway system is in place, mutual induction technology will allow for charging while driving.

The video is annoying as hell but still worth the watch.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways#home