A new study by Manasvi Lingam and Avi Loeb at Harvard says that fast radio bursts (FRBs) could come from extraterrestrial radio beams being used as beacons or to power alien light sails. The source of FRBs, which are milliseconds-long but incredibly bright pulses of radio waves, have intrigued and mystified astronomers for years – …
Radiation from cosmic rays is one of the biggest health risks astronauts will face on long space missions, such as a proposed trip to Mars or settlement on the moon. A 2013 study suggested that a return trip to Mars would expose astronauts to a lifetime’s dose in one go. But the heavy aluminium shields …
Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas have created an atomic force microscope on a chip, dramatically shrinking the size — and, hopefully, the price tag — of a high-tech device commonly used to characterize material properties. “A standard atomic force microscope is a large, bulky instrument, with multiple control loops, electronics and amplifiers,” …
Hypersonic glide vehicles are a growing factor in strategic stability calculations. These systems are characterized by speed, precision and manoeuvrability, which can be applied to defeat missile defences. Traditional calculations of strategic stability rely on the ability to undermine an opponent’s nuclear deterrent capability, and hypersonic glide vehicles are seen as providing this assurance. On …
New nanologic machines consist of individual phosphorous atoms that are precisely positioned and embedded in a silicon crystal at a density of about 200 billion atoms per square centimeter. Single electrons randomly move in and out of the atoms due to quantum tunneling. Since each atom can hold one or two of these electrons, and …
Facebook Live Studio with Ray and Amy Kurzweil at SXSW. Cartoonist and author Amy (daughter of Ray Kurzweil) Kurzweil Comix, and author, futurist, and inventor Ray Kurzweil. Ray Kurzweil highlighted three big things: – we have to continue to predict change – human equivalent will happen by 2029 – humans merging with AI will only …
Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of AfriCom, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he expected the Chinese base on the Horn of Africa to be operational later this summer. Without getting specific, Waldhauser said he recently met with Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh “and expressed our concerns about some of the things that are …
The efficient characterization of quantum systems, the verification of the operations of quantum devices and the validation of underpinning physical models are central challenges for quantum technologies and fundamental physics. The computational cost of such studies could be improved by machine learning enhanced by quantum simulators. Here researchers interface two different quantum systems through a …
A possible venue for big announcements is for the “One Belt, One Road” summit of more than 20 leaders in May. It will be hosted in Beijing by President Xi to showcase his most important foreign policy innovation to date. The “Belt” is supposed to consist of three land-based silk roads. The “One Road,” actually, …
Under newly proposed California self-driving car rules, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles will let companies test autonomous vehicles that lack the steering wheel. Three years ago Google’s self driving car project (now Waymo) introduced a self driving car with no steering wheel. Once the cars have been tested either on a closed track or …
Tests of the second-stage engine for Russia’s fifth-generation PAK FA fighter jet have been delayed a year and will start in 2018. Previously trials of the PAK FA main engine were due to begin in 2017, with the entire project to be completed by 2020. The next-generation Saturn izdeliye 30—sometime referred to as the izdeliye …