Wearable brain scanner could give computers insight into how hard you’re thinking

Technology Review – researchers at MIT and Tufts are experimenting with a way for computers to gain a little insight into our inner world. Their system, called Brainput, is designed to recognize when a person’s workload is excessive and then automatically modify a computer interface to make it easier. The researchers used a lightweight, portable …

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NASA radiation shielding project videos

Nextbigfuture recently covered three NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts projects that are targeting lighter and improved radiation shielding. Here is a video on Electrostatic Active Radiation Shielding for Deep Space Missions. There is also a video on Radiation Shielding Materials Containing Hydrogen, Boron, and Nitrogen. If you liked this article, please give it a quick review …

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High Speed Rail Problems in China and California

1. Washington Post – Part of a high-speed railway line collapsed in central China following heavy rains, state media reported, jolting railroad shares and reviving worries over safety. About 7 kilometers (4 1/2 miles) of track were being removed after it sank at points where the line runs across a floodplain, the official Xinhua News …

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100,000 Nomad planets per star would not be that helpful for interstellar colonization

Our galaxy may be awash in homeless planets, wandering through space instead of orbiting a star. There may be 100,000 times more “nomad planets” in the Milky Way than stars, according to a new study by researchers at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), a joint institute of Stanford University and the …

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Power Felt could enable thermoelectrics to convert heat to power at 1000 times lower cost

Simply by touching a small piece of Power Felt – a promising new thermoelectric device developed by team of researchers in the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials – Corey Hewitt has converted his body heat into an electrical current. Currently, 72 stacked layers in the fabric yield about 140 nanowatts of power. The team …

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Car Platooning successfully demonstrated for four vehicles

The SARTRE project (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) has recently completed the first successful test demonstration of a multiple vehicle platoon, with Volvo Car Corporation as the only participating car manufacturer. The test fleet included a lead truck followed by three cars driven entirely autonomously at speeds of up to 90 km/h (56 mph), …

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Automated nanomanipulation for nanodevice construction

Journal Nanotechnology – Automated nanomanipulation for nanodevice construction [Free account required] Nanowire field-effect transistors (nano-FETs) are nanodevices capable of highly sensitive, label-free sensing of molecules. However, significant variations in sensitivity across devices can result from poor control over device parameters, such as nanowire diameter and the number of electrode-bridging nanowires. This paper presents a fabrication …

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US planning to reduce military spending by $450 to $950 billion over the next decade

NY Times – President Obama outlined a broad new military strategy for the United States on Thursday, one that refocuses the armed forces on threats in Asia and the Pacific region, continues a strong presence in the Middle East but makes clear that American ground forces will no longer be large enough to conduct prolonged, …

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Robots could transform the agriculture industry

Agriculture is a field where robotics holds particular promise. Agricultural work is often simple but grueling, and the agriculture and horticulture industries are finding it difficult to meet their labor requirements. A startup robotics company called Harvest Automation is developing robots designed specifically for agricultural work. In an interview with Sander Olson, roboticist and Harvest …

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