DARPA funds autonomous robotic manipulation

DARPA’s four-year, multi-track Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program aims to develop software and hardware that enables a robot to autonomously manipulate, grasp, and perform complicated tasks with humans providing only high-level supervision. The ARM robot will be able to adapt to unstructured, dynamic environments. Over the course of the program in the Software Track, funded …

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Synthetic Universal Flu Nasal Spray Vaccine shows success in Mice

University of Adelaide researcher Dr Darren Miller and colleagues have successfully trialled a synthetic universal flu vaccine in mice. Dr Miller and colleagues used specific peptides delivered to the noses of mice. The peptides trigger an immune response to a tiny region of the flu virus that is present in all influenza A and B …

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Brian Wang on Blog Talk Radio with the Speculist Tonight talking Life Extension

Phil, Stephen, and special guest Brian Wang discuss the possibility of average life expectancy jumping up to 100, 200, or 500 — or even older Fast forward radio at blogtalkradio The show starts at: 11:00 Eastern/10:00 Central/9:00 Mountain/8:00 Pacific. If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks …

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Russian Population May be Stabilizing

Ad Support : Nano Technology   Netbook    Technology News    Computer Software Russia’s population may have stopped its decline and this is important for future GDP projections as well as geopolitical forecasts. Russia has bucked a long-term trend of population decline by recording its first annual increase in 15 years, its health minister has announced. The population grew …

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Phoenix: an Ultra-Low Power Processor for Cubic Millimeter Sensor Systems

Ad Support : Nano Technology   Netbook    Technology News    Computer Software The University of Michigan developed a low power chip for cubic millimeter sensors in 2009. It was built in 180 micron lithography process so the chip could theoretically be reduced in size by about 20 times with the latest lithography process. However, the key is power …

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Diode Pumped Alkali Lasers Could Eventually Enable Practical Airplane Based Laser Anti-Missile Systems

Lawrence Livermore National Lab on the Diode-Pumped Alkali Laser (DPAL) Solid-state and gas lasers have followed largely divergent development paths. Gas lasers are based primarily on direct electrical discharge for pumping (energizing), while solid-state lasers are pumped by flashlamps and semiconductor diode laser arrays. The alkali-vapor laser’s intrinsically high efficiency (80+%) and its compatibility with …

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Trend Tracking and Projections

The first 6 weeks of technology developments in 2009 and the second 6 weeks have seen a lot of big developments. One of the comments was to have trend tracking and projections included in the big development highlight roundups. That will be included as part of future highlight packages. Here are the trends and projections …

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The Singularity as Wave After Wave of Outsourcing

J Storrs Hall, President of the Foresight Institute, posited that a technological singularity where artificial human or greater than human intelligence becomes very cheap would mean an early retirement for all people. I propose that although some people may early retire others would be running corporations that take advantage of wave after wave of outsourcing. …

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Underground Burning Variations for Oilsand Recovery and Gasifying Coal Underground

Alberta has several large scale pilot projects to perform many more oil refining and combustion steps underground and coal gasification underground. The advantages can be significantly lower costs and improved environmental effects. This site has covered the work of Petrobank to develop the THAI (Toe-to-Heel Air Injection)and CAPRI processes for upgrading oilsand bitumen underground for …

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Thermoelectric advance could increase car, truck, power plant and industrial fuel efficiency by 15%

Industrial waste heat is 7 quads in the USA. There is more waste heat from power plants and from cars. Capturing 20% of that waste heat is 1.4 quads every year. 1.4 quads is double all of the wind energy generated in the USA from 2003 to 2006. Further down this article is diagrams and …

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