Actus Sci et Tech

Made in IBM Labs: Holey Optochip First to Transfer One Trillion Bits of Information per Second Using the Power of Light
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/37095.wss

Citation :

• Researchers invent novel technique by fabricating tiny holes in a single quarter-inch chip to boost data transfer rates
• Until now, it was not possible to transport terabits of data for existing parallel optical communications technology
• New prototype compactly and efficiently delivers ultra-high interconnect bandwidth to power future supercomputer and data center applications

Citation :

LOS ANGELES - 08 Mar 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) scientists today will report on a prototype optical chipset, dubbed “Holey Optochip”, that is the first parallel optical transceiver to transfer one trillion bits – one terabit – of information per second, the equivalent of downloading 500 high definition movies. The report will be presented at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference taking place in Los Angeles.
With the ability to move information at blazing speeds – eight times faster than parallel optical components available today – the breakthrough could transform how data is accessed, shared and used for a new era of communications, computing and entertainment. The raw speed of one transceiver is equivalent to the bandwidth consumed by 100,000 users at today’s typical 10 Mb/s high-speed internet access. Or, it would take just around an hour to transfer the entire U.S. Library of Congress web archive through the transceiver.  
Progress in optical communications is being driven by an explosion of new applications and services as the amount of data being created and transmitted over corporate and consumer networks continues to grow. At one terabit per second, IBM’s latest advance in optical chip technology provides unprecedented amounts of bandwidth that could one day ship loads of data such as posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos posted online, sensors used to gather climate information, and transaction records of online purchases.  
“Reaching the one trillion bit per second mark with the Holey Optochip marks IBM’s latest milestone to develop chip-scale transceivers that can handle the volume of traffic in the era of big data,” said IBM Researcher Clint Schow, part of the team that built the prototype. “We have been actively pursuing higher levels of integration, power efficiency and performance for all the optical components through packaging and circuit innovations. We aim to improve on the technology for commercialization in the next decade with the collaboration of manufacturing partners.”  
Optical networking offers the potential to significantly improve data transfer rates by speeding the flow of data using light pulses, instead of sending electrons over wires. Because of this, researchers have been looking for ways to make use of optical signals within standard low-cost, high-volume chip manufacturing techniques for widespread use.

US Naval Research Lab NRL Designs Robot for Shipboard Firefighting

Citation :

In both war and peacetime scenarios, fire in the shipboard environment is serious and frequently results in excessive damage and high repair costs because the fire is not detected or controlled adequately. To help further improve future shipboard firefighting capability, scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory have formed an interdisciplinary team to develop a humanoid robot that could fight fires on the next generation of combatants. A humanoid-type robot was chosen because it was deemed best suited to operate within the confines of an environment that was deigned for human mobility and offered opportunity for other potential warfighting applications within the Navy and Marine Corps.

The Naval Research Laboratory's Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot (SAFFiR) is a humanoid-type robot being designed for shipboard firefighting.

The firefighting robot, called the Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot (SAFFiR), is being designed to move autonomously throughout the ship, interact with people, and fight fires, handling many of the dangerous firefighting tasks that are normally performed by humans. The humanoid robot should be able to maneuver well in the narrow passages and ladderways that are unique to a ship and challenging for most older, simpler robots to navigate.

The robot is designed with enhanced multi-modal sensor technology for advanced navigation and a sensor suite that includes a camera, gas sensor, and stereo IR camera to enable it to see through smoke. Its upper body will be capable of manipulating fire suppressors and throwing propelled extinguishing agent technology (PEAT) grenades. It is battery powered that holds enough energy for 30 minutes of firefighting. Like a sure-footed sailor, the robot will also be capable of walking in all directions, balancing in sea conditions, and traversing obstacles.

Another key element of the SAFFiR development is to allow damage control personnel and the robot to work cohesively as a team. Algorithms are being developed to allow autonomous mobility and decision making by the robot as a team member. To enable natural interaction with a human team leader, the robot will have multimodal interfaces that will enable the robot to track the focus of attention of the human team leader, as well as to allow the robot to understand and respond to gestures, such as pointing and hand signals. Where appropriate, natural language may also be incorporated, as well as other modes of communication and supervision.

Researchers from Virginia Tech and University of Pennsylvania are also working with NRL on the project. They plan to test the firefighting robot in a realistic firefighting environment onboard the ex-USS Shadwell in late September 2013.

Virginia Tech and the University of Pennsylvania are working with NRL on the firefighting robot project. NRL's firefighting robot will be a follow-on version to the existing Virginia Tech CHARLI-L1 robot, pictured here.
Photo: Virginia Tech
The Navy Technology Center for Safety & Survivability, located at NRL in Washington, DC, carries out research aimed to solve current and future Navy problems regarding combustion, fire extinguishment, fire modeling and scaling, damage control, and atmosphere hazards. The Center has unique fire research facilities that include pressurable chambers up to a 10,000 cubic foot capacity at the Centers test site at NRL's Chesapeake Bay Detachment in Calvert County, Maryland. The Center also has custody of the world's unique fire test ship, ex-USS Shadwell (LSD-15) located in Mobile Alabama, where full-scale fire and damage control tests are conducted using the reality conformations of active duty sailors. Using the ex-USS Shadwell, NRL scientists are able to enhance their technology base for introducing advanced damage control concepts to the fleet. The ship provides a unique opportunity to realistically experience a true damage control environment, to create a partnership between the technical and fleet communities, and to take advantage of new insights gleaned during full-scale experimentation.

The Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence (NCARAI) has been involved in both basic and applied research in artificial intelligence, human factors, and human-centered computing since its inception in 1981. NCARAI, part of the Information Technology Division within NRL, is engaged in research and development efforts designed to address the application of artificial intelligence technology and techniques to critical Navy and national problems. The NCARAI is developing the algorithms that allow the firefighting robot to work naturally with human firefighters, as well as high-level reasoning capabilities.

The Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research will provide specialized facilities to support highly innovative, multidisciplinary research in autonomous systems, including intelligent autonomy, sensor systems, power and energy systems, human-system interaction, networking and communications, and platforms. The Laboratory will capitalize on the broad multidisciplinary character of NRL, bringing together scientists and engineers with disparate training and backgrounds to attack common goals in autonomous systems at the intersection of their respective fields. The Laboratory will provide unique facilities and simulated environments (littoral, desert, tropical) and instrumented reconfigurable high bay spaces to support integration of science and technology components into research prototype systems. The objective of the Laboratory is to enable Navy and DoD scientific leadership in this complex, emerging area and to identify opportunities for advances in future defense technology.

Il est possible que les seules bonnes news de l'histoire soient ceux du progres et decouvertes scientifiques...

Research breakthrough takes supercomputing out of the lab

http://www.news.utoronto.ca/research-breakthrough-takes-supercomputing-out-lab

Citation :

New device could bring quantum computing to your home
In the age of high-speed computing, the photon – a finely tuned particle of light - is king. But producing photons has always been a complex and time-consuming process.

Until now.

A team of engineers led by U of T Professor Amr Helmy has identified a novel solution that will make the production of a special class of photons faster and easier.



“The research offers the prospect of unleashing the potential of the powerful and underutilized quantum technologies into the main stream commercial world, out of the lab,” explained Professor Helmy of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering.

Advanced computing technologies – such as ultra-secure communication systems and optical quantum computers – use light to quickly relay information. To enable these technologies to work, a photon – the smallest unit of energy – has to be tightly coupled with another photon. These are known as entangled photon pairs.

Producing entangled photon pairs requires relatively bulky optical equipment in specialized labs. The photons are extremely delicate to construct and very sensitive to mechanical vibrations. This complexity and associated cost currently makes the use of this technology in homes or offices impracticable.

Helmy’s team offers an innovative solution. These engineers have successfully designed a new integrated counterpart to the delicate laboratory equipment that could produce the entangled photon pairs using an integrated circuit.

Ultimately, the entire production of the photons could be completed using a single chip.

The semiconductor chip schematic shown here is a depiction of the integrated circuits designed by the Helmy research group, where the chip takes in photons from an external source (blue) and through the intricate design of the circuit. The result is two photons (red and green) that are entangled without the need for other circuitry or components.

While other attempts at creating a chip-based solution didn’t permit the addition of other components, Helmy’s team used a semiconductor chip that would function with the other existing equipment. This makes it possible to have all of the required components that traditionally exist in a laboratory be on the same chip.

The team in Toronto along with their colleagues at the University of Waterloo and Universität Innsbruck, have tested the first generation of these devices. They reported their findings in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters.

Utilizing quantum optical computing will be key in solving extremely difficult computational problems, such as complex data sorting. Optical computers are much faster than any classical computer thanks to their ability to use advanced modern algorithms. Producing entangled pairs using this chip is a first and significant step towards making them commercially available and perhaps might lead to future quantum-optical gadgets.

Posted Wednesday, May 2, 2012

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Une compagnie francaise, EOLE WATER:

Citation :

Eole Water is the inventor of the first wind turbine able to produce of drinking water by condensing the air.

Today, 150 million of people worldwide live without any access to safe drinking water in remote areas.

The mission of Eole Water is to provide drinking water for these isolated communities.

http://www.eolewater.com/gb/our-products/range.html

Bientot plus de cle USB ou HDD un piqure pour toute la collection "photo de famille"

Citation :

Totally rad: Stanford bioengineers create rewritable digital data storage in DNA

STANFORD, Calif. — Sometimes, remembering and forgetting are hard to do.

"It took us three years and 750 tries to make it work, but we finally did it," said Jerome Bonnet, PhD, of his latest research, a method for repeatedly encoding, storing and erasing digital data within the DNA of living cells.

Bonnet, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, worked with graduate student Pakpoom Subsoontorn and assistant professor Drew Endy, PhD, to reapply natural enzymes adapted from bacteria to flip specific sequences of DNA back and forth at will. All three scientists work in the Department of Bioengineering, a joint effort of the School of Engineering and the School of Medicine.

In practical terms, they have devised the genetic equivalent of a binary digit — a "bit" in data parlance. "Essentially, if the DNA section points in one direction, it's a zero. If it points the other way, it's a one," Subsoontorn explained.

"Programmable data storage within the DNA of living cells would seem an incredibly powerful tool for studying cancer, aging, organismal development and even the natural environment," said Endy.

Researchers could count how many times a cell divides, for instance, and that might someday give scientists the ability to turn off cells before they turn cancerous.

In the computer world, their work would form the basis of what is known as non-volatile memory — data storage that can retain information without consuming power. In biotechnology, it is known by a slightly more technical term, recombinase-mediated DNA inversion, after the enzymatic processes used to cut, flip and recombine DNA within the cell.

The team calls its device a "recombinase addressable data" module, or RAD for short. They used RAD to modify a particular section of DNA within microbes that determines how the one-celled organisms will fluoresce under ultraviolet light. The microbes glow red or green depending upon the orientation of the section of DNA. Using RAD, the engineers can flip the section back and forth at will.

They report their findings in a paper that will be published online May 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Bonnet is the first author of the paper, and Endy is the senior author.

To make their system work, the team had to control the precise dynamics of two opposing proteins, integrase and excisionase, within the microbes. "Previous work had shown how to flip the genetic sequence — albeit irreversibly — in one direction through the expression of a single enzyme," Bonnet said, "but we needed to reliably flip the sequence back and forth, over and over, in order to create a fully reusable binary data register, so we needed something different."

"The problem is that the proteins do their own thing. If both are active at the same time, or concentrated in the wrong amounts, you get a mess and the individual cells produce random results," Subsoontorn continued.

The researchers found it was fairly easy to flip a section of DNA in either direction. "But we discovered time and again that most of our designs failed when the two proteins were used together within the same cell," said Endy. "Ergo: Three years and 750 tries to get the balance of protein levels right."

Bonnet has now tested RAD modules in single microbes that have doubled more than 100 times and the switch has held. He has likewise switched the latch and watched a cell double 90 times, and set it back. The latch will even store information when the enzymes are not present. In short, RAD works. It is reliable and it is rewritable.

For Endy and the team, the future of computing then becomes not only how fast or how much can be computed, but when and where computations occur and how those computations might impact our understanding of and interaction with life.

"One of the coolest places for computing," Endy said, "is within biological systems."

His goal is to go from the single bit he has now to eight bits — or a "byte" — of programmable genetic data storage.

"I'm not even really concerned with the ways genetic data storage might be useful down the road, only in creating scalable and reliable biological bits as soon as possible. Then we'll put them in the hands of other scientists to show the world how they might be used," Endy said.

To get there, however, science will need many new tools for engineering biology, he added, but it will not be easy. "Such systems will likely be 10 to 50 times more complicated than current state-of-the-art genetic engineering projects," he said.

For what it is worth, Endy anticipates their second bit of rewritable DNA data will arrive faster than the first and the third faster still, but it will take time.

"We're probably looking at a decade from when we started to get to a full byte," he said. "But, by focusing today on tools that improve the engineering cycle at the heart of biotechnology, we'll help make all future engineering of biology easier, and that will lead us to much more interesting places."

###
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation's Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center, and by fellowship grants from Stanford's Center for Longevity and its Bio-X program.

The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/sumc-tr051712.php

Citation :

Jerome Bonnet received his PhD in molecular cell biology in 2007 from the University of Montpellier, France, where he worked on the mechanisms controlling entry into mitosis in mammalian cells.

As a postdoc in the Stanford bioengineering department since October 2008, his goal is to engineer a cell cycle counter using recombination based DNA switches. Such a counter would enable living cells to report the number of time they divided, an would improve our understanding of aging and age-related diseases. Subpopulations of cells having gone through different numbers of divisions could be isolated and interrogated, allowing the characterization of intermediary aging phenotypes and markers. Currently, his work use synthetic biology approaches to design, build and characterize genetic circuits allowing cells to write, store and report cell division events.

http://longevity.stanford.edu/blog/2011/06/jerome-bonnet-phd/

Departement des Nouvelles qui font du Bien:

Citation :

Italy doctors save baby with smallest artificial heart

(Reuters) - Italian doctors have saved the life of a 16-month-old boy by implanting the world's smallest artificial heart to keep the infant alive until a donor was found for a transplant.

The doctors at Rome's Bambino Gesu hospital said the operation was carried out last month and made public this week. The baby, whose identity has not been disclosed, was kept alive for 13 days before the transplant and is now doing well.

The baby was suffering from dilated myocardiopathy, a heart muscle disease which normally causes stretched or enlarged fibers of the heart. The disease gradually makes the heart weaker, stopping its ability to pump blood effectively.

"This is a milestone," surgeon Antonio Amodeo told Reuters television, adding that while the device was now used as bridge leading to a transplant, in the future it could be permanent.

Before the implant, the child also had a serious infection around a mechanical pump that had been fitted earlier to support the function of his natural heart.

"From a surgical point of view, this was not really difficult. The only difficulty that we met is that the child was operated on several times before," he said.

The tiny titanium pump weighs only 11 grams and can handle a blood flow of 1.5 liters a minute. An artificial heart for adults weighs 900 grams.

Amodeo said the baby had become family and his team wanted to do everything to help him.

"The patient was in our intensive care unit since one month of age. So he was a mascot for us, he was one of us," the doctor said.

"Every day, every hour, for more than one year he was with us. So when we had a problem we couldn't do anything more than our best," he said.

Doctors said the device, invented by American Doctor Robert Jarvik, had been previously tested only on animals.

The hospital needed special permission from Jarvik and the Italian health ministry before going ahead with the procedure.

http://www.reuters.com/article/slideshow/idUSBRE84N0XZ20120524#a=1

http://www.jarvikheart.com/basic.asp?id=43

Citation :

With Mind-Reading Speller, Free-For-All Conversations That Are Silent and Still

ScienceDaily (June 28, 2012) — Researchers have come up with a device that may enable people who are completely unable to speak or move at all to nevertheless manage unscripted back-and-forth conversation. The key to such silent and still communication is the first real-time, brain-scanning speller, according to the report published online on June 28 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.

The new technology builds on groundbreaking earlier uses of fMRI brain scans to assess consciousness in people described as being in an unconscious, vegetative state and to enable them to answer yes and no questions.

fMRI (or functional magnetic resonance imaging) is typically used for clinical and research purposes to track brain activity by measuring blood flow.

"The work of Adrian Owen and colleagues led me to wonder whether it might even become possible to use fMRI, mental tasks, and appropriate experimental designs to freely encode thoughts, letter-by-letter, and therewith enable back-and-forth communication in the absence of motor behavior," said Bettina Sorger of Maastricht University in The Netherlands.

The new evidence shows that the answer to that thought question is yes. Sorger's team came up with a letter-encoding technique that requires almost no pre-training. Participants in their study voluntarily selected letters on a screen, which guided the letter encoding; for each specific character, participants were asked to perform a particular mental task for a set period of time. That produced 27 distinct brain patterns corresponding to each letter of the alphabet and the equivalent of a space bar, which could be automatically decoded in real-time using newly developed data analysis methods.

In each communication experiment, participants held a mini-conversation consisting of two open questions and answers. Everyone the researchers tested was able to successfully produce answers within a single one-hour session.

The results substantially extend earlier uses of fMRI, which allowed individuals to answer the equivalent of multiple-choice questions having four or fewer possible answers, by enabling free-letter spelling. That could make all the difference for people who are completely paralyzed and unable to benefit from other means of alternative communication, Sorger says.

Ultimately, she says their goal is to transfer the fMRI technology they've developed to a more portable and affordable method for measuring blood flow, such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120628164426.htm

Citation :

Infinite-capacity wireless vortex beams carry 2.5 terabits per second

American and Israeli researchers have used twisted vortex beams to transmit data at 2.5 terabits per second. As far as we can discern, this is the fastest wireless network ever created — by some margin. This technique is likely to be used in the next few years to vastly increase the throughput of both wireless and fiber-optic networks.

These twisted signals use orbital angular momentum (OAM) to cram much more data into a single stream. In current state-of-the-art transmission protocols (WiFi, LTE, COFDM), we only modulate the spin angular momentum (SAM) of radio waves, not the OAM. If you picture the Earth, SAM is our planet spinning on its axis, while OAM is our movement around the Sun. Basically, the breakthrough here is that researchers have created a wireless network protocol that uses both OAM and SAM.

In this case, Alan Willner and fellow researchers from the University of Southern California, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Tel Aviv University, twisted together eight ~300Gbps visible light data streams using OAM. Each of the eight beams has a different level of OAM twist. The beams are bundled into two groups of four, which are passed through different polarization filters. One bundle of four is transmitted as a thin stream, like a screw thread, while the other four are transmitted around the outside, like a sheathe. The beam is then transmitted over open space (just one meter in this case), and untwisted and processed by the receiving end. 2.5 terabits per second is equivalent to 320 gigabytes per second, or around seven full Blu-ray movies per second.

This huge achievement comes just a few months after Bo Thide finally proved that OAM is actually possible. In Thide’s case, his team transmitted an OAM radio signal over 442 meters (1450ft).

According to Thide, OAM should allow us to twist together an “infinite number” of conventional transmission protocols without using any more spectrum. In theory, we should be able to take 10 (or 100 or 1000 or…) WiFi or LTE signals and twist them into a single beam, increasing throughput by 10 (or 100 or 1000 or…) times. For fiber networks, where we still have a lot of spare capacity, this isn’t all that exciting — but for wireless networks, where we’ve virtually run out of useful spectrum, twisted radio waves could provide an instant, future-proof solution. For the networking nerds, Willner’s OAM link has a spectral efficiency of 95.7 bits per hertz; LTE maxes out at 16.32 bits/Hz; 802.11n is 2.4 bits/Hz. Digital TV (DVB-T) is just 0.55 bits/Hz.

The next task for Willner’s team will be to increase the OAM network’s paltry one-meter transmission distance to something a little more usable. “For situations that require high capacity… over relatively short distances of less than 1km, this approach could be appealing. Of course, there are also opportunities for long-distance satellite-to-satellite communications in space, where turbulence is not an issue,” Willner tells the BBC. In reality, the main limiting factor is that we simply don’t have the hardware or software to manipulate OAM. The future of wireless networking is very bright indeed, however.

Read more at Nature (paywalled)

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/131640-infinite-capacity-wireless-vortex-beams-carry-2-5-terabits-per-second

Nouvelle techno prometteuse utilisant le scientillement de la lumiere visible des ampoules pour trasmettre en sans fil

Citation :

Will Li-Fi be the new Wi-Fi?

FLICKERING lights are annoying but they may have an upside. Visible light communication (VLC) uses rapid pulses of light to transmit information wirelessly. Now it may be ready to compete with conventional Wi-Fi.

"At the heart of this technology is a new generation of high-brightness light-emitting diodes," says Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, UK. "Very simply, if the LED is on, you transmit a digital 1, if it's off you transmit a 0," Haas says. "They can be switched on and off very quickly, which gives nice opportunities for transmitting data."

It is possible to encode data in the light by varying the rate at which the LEDs flicker on and off to give different strings of 1s and 0s. The LED intensity is modulated so rapidly that human eyes cannot notice, so the output appears constant.

More sophisticated techniques could dramatically increase VLC data rates. Teams at the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh are focusing on parallel data transmission using arrays of LEDs, where each LED transmits a different data stream. Other groups are using mixtures of red, green and blue LEDs to alter the light's frequency, with each frequency encoding a different data channel.

Li-Fi, as it has been dubbed, has already achieved blisteringly high speeds in the lab. Researchers at the Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin, Germany, have reached data rates of over 500 megabytes per second using a standard white-light LED. Haas has set up a spin-off firm to sell a consumer VLC transmitter that is due for launch next year. It is capable of transmitting data at 100 MB/s - faster than most UK broadband connections.

Once established, VLC could solve some major communication problems. In 2009, the US Federal Communications Commission warned of a looming spectrum crisis: because our mobile devices are so data-hungry we will soon run out of radio-frequency bandwidth. Li-Fi could free up bandwidth, especially as much of the infrastructure is already in place.

"There are around 14 billion light bulbs worldwide, they just need to be replaced with LED ones that transmit data," says Haas. "We reckon VLC is a factor of ten cheaper than Wi-Fi." Because it uses light rather than radio-frequency signals, VLC could be used safely in aircraft, integrated into medical devices and hospitals where Wi-Fi is banned, or even underwater, where Wi-Fi doesn't work at all.

"The time is right for VLC, I strongly believe that," says Haas, who presented his work at TED Global in Edinburgh last week.

But some sound a cautious note about VLC's prospects. It only works in direct line of sight, for example, although this also makes it harder to intercept than Wi-Fi. "There has been a lot of early hype, and there are some very good applications," says Mark Leeson from the University of Warwick, UK. "But I'm doubtful it's a panacea. This isn't technology without a point, but I don't think it sweeps all before it, either."

Harald Haas: Wireless data from every light bulb

Papier ciseaux calloux contre robo aucune chance

Janken (rock-paper-scissors) Robot with 100% winning rate

Citation :

The purpose of this study is to develop a janken (rock-paper-scissors) robot system with 100% winning rate as one example of human-machine cooperation systems.
http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/fusion/Janken/index-e.html

Live skydiving with Google's glasses - CNET News

Citation :

http://cnet.co/LtAOYr
Google's Sergey Brin leads a demo of Google's Project Glass with a group of skydivers outfitted with the new video-capturing spectacles. The skydivers jump from an airplane during Google I/O while attendees watch via the company's Hangout software.

Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute are developing microchips comprising the cells and functionality of human organs.



automatiser la recherche medicale en implemtant le mecanisme des organes sur des puces




TEDxCaltech - Stephen Quake - The Integrated Circuit of Biology

Spoiler:

Citation :

PHYSICIST AND ENTREPRENEUR DR. STEPHEN QUAKE HONORED WITH
$500,000 LEMELSON-MIT PRIZE

Quake Recognized for Biomedical Discoveries and Commercialization of Inventions Revolutionizing Human Health

http://web.mit.edu/invent/n-pressreleases/n-press-12LMP.html

Rice researchers invent paintable battery

Citation :

Rice University researchers develop a paint-on lithium-ion battery that can be applied to virtually any surface. To learn more, visit http://news.rice.edu/2012/06/28/rice-researchers-develop-paintable-battery-2/

Citation :

Toyota to expand eco-friendly tie-up with BMW

This file photo shows a lithium-ion battery, installed under the trunk space of a Toyota Motors' Prius plug-in hybrid vehicle cut-model during a in Tokyo, in 2009. Toyota is expanding a tie-up with Germany's BMW on hybrid and fuel-cell vehicle technology as the global automakers push further into the "green" market, a report said on Monday.
Toyota Motor is expanding a tie-up with Germany's BMW on hybrid and fuel-cell vehicle technology as the global automakers push further into the "green" market, a report said on Monday.

The two firms' top executives will announce in Germany this week that they are boosting a previously announced agreement involving joint research on next-generation lithium ion batteries, the Nikkei business daily said.
The initial tie-up involved technology for electric cars, and the broadened deal will focus on batteries for hybrid gasoline-electric and fuel-cell vehicles, it said.

It marks the first time that Japan's top automaker will supply its fuel-cell technology, which relies on hydrogen to supply a vehicle's battery, to a rival, it said.

Toyota did not immediately respond to requests to confirm the report.
BMW, meanwhile, will provide its expertise on light car bodies made from carbon fibre to Toyota, as cutting a car's weight leads to better fuel efficiency, the Nikkei said.

Under the earlier deal announced last year, the German automaker also agreed to provide diesel engines for Toyota as the Japanese firm looks to boost sales in Europe, where more than half of passenger cars are diesel powered.
Demand for lower-emission diesel vehicles is forecast to grow, with further technological advances in the field seen as crucial due to toughening vehicle emissions standards.

AFP

Facebook's new energy efficient data center

Et publient en open source leur design energy efficient http://opencompute.org/

Spoiler:

datant de Fevrier 2012 mais dans le meme sens

Citation :

Apple reveals big solar, fuel cell plans for data center

GigaOm

A few months ago it was revealed that Apple planned to build a solar array for its massive data center in North Carolina. Now according to Apple’s latest environmental report (hat tip CNET), the company has disclosed that its solar project will actually be pretty sizable at 20 MW, and it will be built on 100 acres, and will supply the company with 42 million kWh of solar power per year.

Apple calls the 20 MW solar project “the nation’s largest end user–owned, onsite solar array.” There’s other much larger solar PV projects being built in the U.S. by solar developers, which sell the solar power to utilities, like the 500 MW Blythe solar PV project, the 550 MW Topaz solar project and the 230 MW Antelope Valley solar project. But in terms of corporate user-owned solar projects, Apple’s is a big one.

Apple also says it plans to build a massive fuel cell farm at its data center that will use biogas (gas captured from decomposing biomass), which is an even more rare move for an Internet company. Apple’s planned fuel cell farm will be 5 MW when it goes online later in 2012, and Apple calls the project “the largest non-utility fuel cell installation operating anywhere in the country.” Apple notes that it already has a small 500 kilowatt biogas-powered fuel cell at its Cupertino facility.

These fuel cells are likely from either FuelCell Energy or Bloom Energy, though Apple didn’t disclose the supplier. I’ve reached out to these firms to learn more. Given the solar project is 20 MW, it probably will be developed by a well known supplier, so previous reports that the solar project will come from a company called Leaf Solar are probably wrong. If I had to guess who the solar suppliers could be, I’d say potentially SunPower or First Solar.

North Carolina has one of the dirtiest electrical grids in the country, with 61 percent of the power coming from coal, and 31 percent from nuclear. It also has some of the cheapest power, which is likely why Apple decided to build its data center there.

Citation :

Boson de higgs prend forme
http://www.lepoint.fr/science/boson-peter-higgs-met-le-champagne-au-frais-04-07-2012-1480658_25.php

Une des plus grandes découvertes de la physique des particules faite au Cern qui montre au passage l'excellence de la recherche fondamental européenne et française notamment d'autant qu'elle était en concurrence avec le tevatron aux USA, cette Particule était la clé manquante pour rendre complète le modèle standard cad la théorie expliquant l'existence de toutes particules élémentaires constitutif de l'univers et de ses propriétés combinatoires...

Grosse info en effet. C'etait le Graal des physicien depuis près de 50 ans. Enfin on va connaitre le mecanisme qui procure une "masse" a toute chose.
C'est le Nobel de physique assurée pour cette équipe du CERN.

un grand bravo

PGM

PGM a écrit:

Grosse info en effet. C'etait le Graal des physicien depuis près de 50 ans. Enfin on va connaitre le mecanisme qui procure une "masse" a toute chose.
C'est le Nobel de physique assurée pour cette équipe du CERN.

un grand bravo

PGM

Bien joue le CERN reste a ce que les autres labs reproduisent et confirment la decouverte

On devra egalement les remercier pour le WWW




c'est quoi le boson de higgs ?




What is a Higgs Boson? Fermilab




Sci American Instant Egghead - What is the Higgs Boson?




Khan Academy Four Fundamental Forces

Citation :

DARPA successfully tests gigapixel-class camera

Spoiler:

This is an image of a gigapixel camera currently being developed by DARPA’s Advanced Wide FOV Architectures for Image Reconstruction and Exploitation (AWARE) program.

As part of the program, DARPA successfully tested cameras with 1.4 and 0.96 gigapixel resolution at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, DC.
The gigapixel cameras combine 100-150 small cameras with a spherical objective lens. Local aberration correction and focus in the small cameras enable extremely high resolution shots with smaller system volume and less distortion than traditional wide field lens systems.
The DARPA effort hopes to produce resolution up to 10 and 50 gigapixels—much higher resolution than the human eye can see. Analogous to a parallel-processor supercomputer, the AWARE camera design uses parallel multi-scale micro cameras to form a wide field panoramic image.
The AWARE program is developing new approaches and advanced capabilities in imaging to support a variety of Department of Defense missions. For more information, please visit the program page.

Physorg

Spoiler:

Citation :

NICT, Fujitsu develop indoor guidance technology for the blind using ultra wide band positioning, smartphones


Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and Fujitsu today announced their joint development of an indoor support system for the blind that uses ultra wide band (UWB) technology and a smartphone. The system is able to provide real-time positioning data, even indoors where GPS cannot be used, and provide audio instructions on the distance and direction to a destination to help guide the blind



This guidance support system for the blind reduces inconveniences facing the blind and is expected to pave the way to major R&D advances in other guidance support systems. The system will be demonstrated at Wireless Technology Park 2012, held July 5-6 at Pacifico Yokohama.

Currently there are systems under development that use GPS with mobile terminals to provide audio instructions to an outdoor destination. GPS, however, cannot be used indoors. Accordingly, NICT and Fujitsu decided to use a UWB positioning system, which can provide highly precise positioning indoors, in real time with a granularity of less than several tens of centimeters.

The newly developed support system for the blind takes advantage of the ability of impulse radio UWB (IR-UWB) technology to measure distances. It is configured with several base stations positioned in an indoor area as part of the infrastructure, several mobile stations—one for the user and others for destinations—and a PC that controls the entire system.

The base stations first measure the distance between each of the mobile stations (for the user and the destinations) and the base stations with a margin of ranging error of less than 30 centimeters, and the control PC calculates and gives the positioning data based on the ranging results in real time. The obtained position data is then sent to the user's mobile station. Furthermore, the position data is sent via Bluetooth to a smartphone, where the user's location and the location of the destination are simultaneously displayed using a special mapping application. The user is guided to the destination by audio instructions on direction and distance. As the user moves, the location information, map display, and audio instructions are updated.

- The IR-UWB uses frequencies in the 7.25-10.25GHz band in Japan, the developed system has been certified by TELEC.
- The smartphone used is a Fujitsu-manufactured docomo NEXT series ARROWS X LTE F-05D released from NTT DoCoMo, and the mapping application was developed for Android 2.3.

NICT and Fujitsu plan to make further advancements to push forward the technology for assisting the blind by building a system with additional sensors that can detect obstacles on the road. Moreover, this highly precise positioning technology is notonly useful for the blind but also can be used to improve the safety of people in moving or to provide indoor guide services. For example, it could be used to guide visitors inside of local government buildings or hospitals to improve public safety and security. It could also be used in museums, libraries, and shopping malls, where contents could be tailored to a user's location. These are just a few of the comprehensive support service applications that could be developed to enhance user enjoyment and convenience.

Provided by Fujitsu

Citation :

Electricity Transmitted to Auto Tire Through 10cm-thick Concrete

The Toyohashi University of Technology demonstrated its wireless power transmission technology using electric field coupling with automobile tires and the same concrete as used for public roads.

The demonstration took place at WTP Wireless Technology Park 2012, a trade show on wireless technologies, which runs from July 5 to 6, 2012, in Yokohama, Japan.

A research group led by Takashi Ohira, professor at the university's Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering, has been engaged in the research aimed at using wireless power transmission technologies based on electric field coupling (or inductive coupling) for transmitting power to a running vehicle.

The differences from the group's past research results are (1) that electricity as large as 50-60W was transmitted to life-size automobile tires and (2) that there was a 10cm-thick concrete block between the metal plate on the transmission side and the tire. The efficiency of power transmission from the metal plate under the concrete, which is the same as used for public roads in Japan, to the light bulb attached to the tire is 80-90% or higher, Ohira said.

As for the second improvement, the research group said that it will become possible to use the technology with 20cm or thicker concrete, which is sometimes used for actual roads, because of the high conductivity of concrete. To put the technology into practical use, the electric power needs to be increased by 100 times. But the group said that the parts needed for it are relatively cheap and that there is no major problem.

les voitures electriques a l'attaque

Citation :

Robot Body Controlled By Human Thoughts Alone

For the first time, scientists have managed to use fMRI scans of a human to control the movements of a robot body. The link between man and machine allowed the researchers to control a robot in France from a brain scanner in Israel.

New Scientist reports the momentous achievement, which is the culmination of research which hopes to give people who are "locked in" the chance to interact with the world using a surrogate body.

To achieve the feat, a team of researchers first developed software systems that could interpret fMRI data—brain imaging which monitors blood flow and can spot when areas associated with certain actions are active—and control a virtual avatar. Over time, they worked out how to interpret the data and recognize when a participant was thinking about walking, turning, or other simple movements.

When that component was in place, the team started beaming the data via an internet connection to Béziers Technology Institute in France, where it was used to control a robot. The results are nothing short of amazing:

The set-up allowed [the participant] to control the robot in near real time with his thoughts, while a camera on the robot's head allowed him to see from the robot's perspective. When he thought of moving his left or right hand, the robot moved 30 degrees to the left or right. Imagining moving his legs made the robot walk forward.

There is, of course, some delay: the fMRI scanner has to detect the neural activity, the software translate it, and finally the robot act upon it. But that doesn't stop the experiment being successful. Tirosh Shapira, who was the man controlling the robot with his thoughts, was able to get the android to follow people around a room and walk towards specified objects. He even felt a deep sense of embodiment, too. He explains to New Scientist that "at one point the connection failed. One of the researchers picked the robot up to see what the problem was and I was like, 'Oi, put me down!'"

The research, though, is far from over. These first trials used a small robot: the next step is to replace the current surrogate with a bigger, more life-like humanoid. It's probably a while until you see such a thing walking down the street of course—and all sorts of ethical issues arise at that point—but it's a breakthrough that at least means it's possible. [New Scientist]

Image by EU VERE project, IDC, Weizmann Inst. of Science, CNRS

Toujours a la recherche du tutorial du Higgs boson voici une nouvelle video (grace a l'accelerateur du Youtube )

Citation :

UN SCIENTIFIQUE SOUHAITE SE DONNER LA MORT POUR RESSUSCITER

Un scientifique américain a peut-être trouvé le secret de l’immortalité psychique. Mais pour étayer ses arguments, il va devoir mourir.
Ken Hayworth n’est pas fou. C’est même tout son entourage qui le dit. Ce brillant scientifique, qui dispose d’un laboratoire à l’Université d’Harvard, est en train de mettre sur pied une expérimentation qui pourrait changer à jamais notre vision de la mortalité. L’idée du scientifique serait de fossiliser le cerveau humain afin qu’il soit implanté dans un robot.

La plasticination, le concept découvert par le professeur Hayworth, consiste à enfermer le cerveau dans un bloc de résine en plastique pur afin de protéger chaque neurone et chaque synapse de la décomposition cérébrale qui survient après la mort du corps. Au préalable, il est obligatoire de vider l’eau et la moelle épinière de l’appendice et de le remplacer par cette résine.


La conscience conservée

Le cerveau physique serait alors détruit mais le connectome, plan de toutes ses connections, subsisterait. Pour de nombreux scientifiques, ce connectome contiendrait la conscience. Des tests ont déjà été réalisés sur des souris avec des résultats plutôt convaincant ce qui laisse à penser que Ken Hayworth navigue sur la bonne voie.

Toutefois, l'expérience reste encore assez nébuleuse. Le professeur Hayworth est en effet persuadé que dans une centaine d’années, « les scientifiques connaitront la fonction de chaque neurone, chaque synapse et qu’ils pourront reconstruire un cerveau sur ordinateur. » Ils seront donc capables de le découper très précisément afin de le raccorder à un robot.


Une pause et non un suicide

Pour prouver ses dires, Ken Hayworth va toutefois devoir mourir. Il a d’ailleurs déjà un plan. Plutôt que de vieillir en souffrant, il souhaite faire une grande fête avec ses amis, profiter une dernière fois de cette vie et aller au bloc opératoire pour tenter l’expérience de la mort. Lui ne voit pas ça comme un suicide mais plutôt comme une pause qui le fera renaître bien des années plus tard.

Encore faut-il que toutes les preuves soient réunies pour montrer aux plus sceptiques que l’expérience fonctionne. Si c’est le cas, les travaux de Ken Hayworth seraient une grande avancée scientifique. Bien plus que le principe de cryogénisation, qui consiste à geler le corps pour le réveiller des années plus tard. Ce procédé abimerait en effet gravement les tissus cérébraux. Pas le meilleur moyen de ressusciter sereinement.

Engadget

Citation :

UCLA creates transparent solar cell, dreams of current generating windows

Transparent photovoltaics have yet to grace the face of your smartphone, but don't give up hope -- UCLA researchers are working on a new see-through solar cell that's showing potential. Using a new type of polymer solar cell, the team has been able to build a device that converts infrared light into electrical current. Current prototypes boast 4 percent energy conversion efficiency at 66 percent transparency -- not crystal clear, but certainly clean enough to peer through. According to a study in ACS Nano, the technology could be used in "building-integrated photovoltaics or integrated photovoltaic chargers for portable electronics." Translation? It could one day be used to build solar windows or better sun collecting smartphones. Don't get too excited though, the technology still has a ways to go before any of these dreams come to fruition. Still, feel free to head past the break for the team's official press release, or skip to the source to take in the full academic study.
Show full PR text

Citation :

Photovoltaics from any semiconductor

A technology that would enable low-cost, high efficiency solar cells to be made from virtually any semiconductor material has been developed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley. This technology opens the door to the use of plentiful, relatively inexpensive semiconductors, such as the promising metal oxides, sulfides and phosphides, that have been considered unsuitable for solar cells because it is so difficult to taylor their properties by chemical means.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-07-photovoltaics-semiconductor.html#jCp

Citation :

La Chine lancera une sonde lunaire en 2013
http://www.lapresse.ca/sciences/astronomie-et-espace/201207/31/01-4560923-la-chine-lancera-une-sonde-lunaire-en-2013.php

Citation :

5 choses à savoir sur la mission de Curiosity sur Mars
http://m.lexpress.fr/actualite/sciences/mars-5-choses-a-savoir-sur-la-mission-de-curiosity_1146682.html

Citation :

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=18895&media_id=149974611

Amarissage de curiosity sur mars

EDIT PGM : petite faute, on dit amarsissage et non Amarissage

Citation :

DICO – Doit-on dire « amarsissage » ou « atterrissage sur Mars » ?

http://bigbrowser.blog.lemonde.fr/2012/08/06/dico-doit-on-dire-amarsissage-ou-atterrissage/
Cdt

ca serait la solution ideale a notre probleme de secheresse

Citation :

La “pluie solide”, le gel anti-sécheresse miraculeux

Le 17 août 2012 par Green et vert

En piégeant l’eau sous forme solide, un ingénieur mexicain réussit à hydrater les racines des plantes pendant plusieurs mois d’affilée. Une arme décisive pour lutter contre la sécheresse, qui a valu à son inventeur une nomination pour le prix mondial de l’eau 2012.

Offrir une réserve d’eau aux cultures en supprimant les phénomènes d’infiltration et d’évaporation. C’est l’exploit réalisé par Sergio Jesús Rico, ingénieur diplômé de l’Institut Polytechnique national (IPN).

Une substance qui gélifie l’eau

Son secret ? Le polyacrylate de potassium : une substance chimique capable d’adhérer aux racines des plantes, qui stocke l’eau en la transformant en gel. Baptisée “pluie solide” par son créateur, cette invention se présente sous la forme d’une poudre blanche semblable à du sucre. Chaque kilo permet de gélifier 500 litres d’eau.

Selon Sergio Jesús Rico, le polyacrylate de potassium peut être utilisé avec n’importe quel type de végétation : pâturage, forêt, serres et, surtout, production alimentaire.

Une étude comparative menée dans l’état de Jalisco, au Mexique démontre l’incroyable efficacité de ce nouveau procédé. Alors que l’irrigation traditionnelle des cultures de maïs offre une récolte de 600 kilos à l’hectare, la pluie solide permet d’obtenir près 10 tonnes à l’hectare.

Une irrigation moins consommatrice en eau

La qualité est au rendez-vous, comme l’indiquent les essais menés en Colombie. Les blocs d’eau solidifiée sont placés sous terre, ils se reconstituent lors de chaque averse. Avec cette méthode, les frais liés à l’irrigation ont baissé de 75%, tandis que le feuillage et les fleurs ont augmenté de 100%, et les racines de 300%. En Inde, sur certaines cultures nécessitant un arrosage hebdomadaire de 80 litres d’eau, le procédé a permis de passer à 50 litres tous les trois mois.

Avec une vie utile variant entre 8 et 10 ans, le polyacrylate de potassium permet de développer de nouveaux systèmes d’irrigation plus économes, particulièrement adaptés aux zones exposées à la sécheresse.

La pluie solide a valu à Sergio Jesús Rico d’être nominé pour le Prix mondial de l’eau 2012, une récompense décernée chaque année en Suède par le Stockholm international water institute

http://www.neo-planete.com/2012/08/17/la-pluie-solide-eau-solide-mexique-sergio-rico/

Genial !
ça couplé à l'invention israelienne (condensateur d'eau), serait le top.

PGM

pourvu que les notres s´y interessent de plus pret,couplé a l´autoroute de l´eau et autres mesures possibles a prendre(cactus,condensateurs israliens..) ca réduirai le degrés de secheresse

Yakuza a écrit:

pourvu que les notres s´y interessent de plus pret,couplé a l´autoroute de l´eau et autres mesures possibles a prendre(cactus,condensateurs israliens..) ca réduirai le degrés de secheresse

Une analyse débouchant sur un pptx sur la stratégie d'irrigation pour le Maroc serait la bienvenue de votre part

vraiment spectaculaire si les chiffres se confirment

En plus c'est dérivé du potassium qui sert aussi d'engrais vraiment géniale cette idée !


@inanc
Feu SM Hassan II fut visionnaire de ce côté là, il lança un grand programme de construction de barrages qui ont grandement contribuer diminuer l'impact des sécheresses....aujourd'hui il faut poursuivre avec d'autre innovation

Viper a écrit:

Feu SM Hassan II fut visionnaire de ce côté là, il lança un grand programme de construction de barrages qui ont grandement contribuer diminuer l'impact des sécheresses....aujourd'hui il faut poursuivre avec d'autre innovation

Je me rappelle de lui Allah irahmo dire dans un discours royal un truc du genre '' je veux que celui qui survole le maroc en avion voit des lacs partout'' par lacs il voulait dire les bassins des lacs... Aujourd'hui quand je regarde la photo aérienne du maroc sur wikimap et autre, je les vois ces lacs artificiels là ils ont jamais existé

La descente de Curiosity sur Mars en HD !



PGM