Understanding experts, the expert mind and expertise

An interesting article at scientific american about understanding how experts are different from novices To a beginner, a position with 20 chessmen on the board may contain far more than 20 chunks of information, because the pieces can be placed in so many configurations. A grandmaster, however, may see one part of the position as …

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A better Ion space propulsion engine

Nasa making a more powerful ion engine (NEXT). NEXT can generate a force of 236 milliNewtons, compared to NSTAR’s maximum of 92 mN. This corresponds to 6.9 kilowatts of engine power, compared to NSTAR’s 2.3 kilowatts. A mission to Titan would take 20 kilowatts of engine power. An array of three NEXT engines plus a …

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Fiber Optic array for finding Kuiper belt objects

Fiber optic telescope array used to look for Kuiper belt objects. There might be 5 to 10 times the 100 billion object estimate. The researchers looked for split-second ‘winking’, or darkening, of stars which suggests a Kuiper belt object is passing in front, or occulting the star. They found evidence of many objects ranging in …

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Other tech: superconducting 2G wire rolling out, 140 amps over 300+feet

The breakthrough announced yesterday, American Superconductor Corp said, is that 2G wire of lengths in excess of 300 feet can now conduct 140 amperes of electric current, which is over the commercial threshold of 120 amps. It is the first-ever commercial-grade 2G wire that has been produced by a high-volume low-cost scalable industrial process. The …

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Atom Camera proposed

Better tools and sensing at the nanoscale are helpful to enabling progress to molecular manufacturing. A newly devised nozzle fitted with a pinhole-sized capillary has allowed the scientists to distribute helium atoms with X-ray-like waves on randomly shaped surfaces. The researchers say that technique could power development of a new microscope for nanotechnology, allowing for …

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Follow up: Printing UAVs, 3D printing industry

Open the future and CRnano have pointed out the leading edge of the shift in military capability resulting from cheap yet capable UAVs. This site also noted the importance of rapid prototyping (RP) techniques being used to build capable end product. The new application is called Rapid Manufacturing. From the 2006 wohler associates RP industry …

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Nanofactory collaboration website

The nanofactory is a proposed compact molecular manufacturing system, possibly small enough to sit on a desktop, that could build a diverse selection of large-scale molecularly precise diamondoid products. The nanofactory is potentially a high quality, extremely low cost, and very flexible manufacturing system. The long-term goal of the Nanofactory Collaboration is to design, and …

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A Code Beyond Genetics in DNA

The genetic code specifies all the proteins that a cell makes. The second code, superimposed on the first, sets the placement of the nucleosomes, miniature protein spools around which the DNA is looped. The spools both protect and control access to the DNA itself. There are about 30 million nucleosomes in each human cell. So …

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follow up on AI/transhumanism

Velcro city posted about the original AGI/loads of abundance article. I had cross posted to betterhumans One commenter talked some about AI emotions and human poverty. My response: I do not consider AI emotions at all. The AGI with any potential for danger is one that can and is rapidly improving its own technology. My …

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China Superconducting tokamak fusion device starting Aug 15

Hot fusion may not be the best way to go to solve our energy problems (in terms of cost or timeliness of making a difference). Making solar cheaper and better and creating space based solar power should be better. But with enough breakthroughs advanced fusion power could become very important. the Institute of Plasma Physics …

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