The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
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UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
10-03-2022
THIS ROBOT IS SO TINY YOU COULD FIT TEN OF THEM ON A SINGLE PERIOD
THIS ROBOT IS SO TINY YOU COULD FIT TEN OF THEM ON A SINGLE PERIOD
ITS CREATORS HOPE THE MICROSCOPIC BOT WILL CRAWL AROUND INSIDE YOUR BODY TO FIGHT CANCER.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Jitterbug
A team of Cornell University scientists developed a new robot — so small that it’s invisible to the naked eye — that they hope will someday crawl around inside the human body and hunt for disease.
The robots themselves are little more than microchips attached to four origami-inspired legs, BBC News reports. But their simplicity — the engineers can manufacture 1 million of the bots every week, each one steered by beaming a laser at its feet — gives the team hope that they’ll become a useful medical tool. BBC News published a video of the robots wiggling around, and it’s highly recommended.
New Legs
The hardest part, the team told BBC News, wasn’t necessarily building a microscopic robot, but rather giving such a tiny machine a way to actually move around.
“People have become very good at shrinking computer chips to microscopic dimensions,” Cornell physicist Itai Cohen told BBC News. “The problem was that there weren’t any legs that would work at that scale that could connect to these microchips. We invented a new technology [that’s] essentially the legs for these robotic brains.”
Hunter Killers
So far, the team is celebrating the tiny robots as an achievement and development all of their own. But someday, Cohen hopes that they could serve as medical devices that root around for signs of disease.
“You could imagine having these as little microsurgery devices,” he told the BBC. “You inject these robots in, they locally track down either bacteria or maybe a tumor cell and then they go snip it up and destroy it.”
Barcelona-based startup Kreios Space wants to unleash the potential of very low Earth orbit (VLEO) satellite missions.
Its secret weapon? The company is developing a fuel-free propulsion system that enables satellites to orbit much closer to Earth.
"Right now, very low Earth orbit is an unused orbit simply because of the lack of propulsion systems capable of staying in this orbit," Jan Mataró, Kreios Space CTO told IE in an interview at the Mobile World Congress. "But it could allow for a huge increase in the resolution for both telecommunications and earth observation."
What is very low Earth orbit?
VLEO is roughly defined as any orbit in the range between 95 miles to 250 miles of altitude. As a point of reference, the Kármán Line, which some define as the boundary of space, is about 65 miles high. Most satellite missions currently operate at about 370 miles or much higher, where they can maintain an orbit that keeps them rotating around Earth with minimal thrust.
Operations in VLEO can provide substantial benefits, according to Kreios Space, but it is currently an unexploited orbit due to the fact that constant thrust is needed to prevent satellites from deorbiting because of the atmospheric drag effect at this relatively low altitude.
With current technologies, this constant orbital correction would simply be too costly, but Kreios Space thinks it has the solution — and it's one that could also help with the growing problem of space debris. Called ABEP, which stands for Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion, the company's system works by absorbing air to generate plasma, which is then accelerated through an IPT thruster and electromagnetic nozzle. And yes, there is still some air in the altitude at which ABEP will operate. The team at Kreios Space believes its system will lower the costs of VLEO operations enough to make them feasible.
There's no space debris in VLEO
But what are the main benefits of operating in VLEO? "Descending to VLEO would provide two major improvements," Mataró told IE. "The first one is a massive increase in resolution for satellite images, and the second comes from the fact that space debris does not accumulate at this altitude."
To be precise, Kreios Space says operating in VLEO will allow a 16x increase in resolution for Earth observation and telecommunications satellites. What's more, the firm claims its system "doesn't produce space debris" as satellites operating at such a low orbit will have to eventually make a planned deorbit. "When the satellite's lifetime is finished," Mataró said, "it will simply deorbit and disintegrate." More often than not, satellites are placed into a graveyard orbit at the end of their lifetime, which has resulted in a massive accumulation of orbital space debris over the years — according to the European Space Agency, there are approximately 98,000 tonnes worth of space objects currently hurtling around the planet.
According to a statement provided to IE, Kreios Space said it aims to have the first complete functional ABEP system ready by 2024. To do that, they hope to raise €2.5 million (approx. $2.7 million) over two upcoming investment rounds.
If Kreios Space — which is composed of six co-founding engineers from Barcelona — achieves its goal of making constant orbital corrections at such a low orbit affordable, it will open up a whole new avenue for satellite operators. This would reduce the cost of high-resolution images, making them more accessible to all. It would be of massive benefit to the scientific community, which is more reliant than ever on Earth observation.
Correction 09/03/22: An earlier version of this article incorrectly cited geostationary orbit and pointed to the effect of gravity on satellites as opposed to atmospheric drag. This was corrected.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:SF-snufjes }, Robotics and A.I. Artificiel Intelligence ( E, F en NL )
08-03-2022
WATCH AN AI TURN MUSIC INTO A BRAIN-MELTING VISUALIZATION
WATCH AN AI TURN MUSIC INTO A BRAIN-MELTING VISUALIZATION
"THE AI DOES NOT FULLY CREATE THE WORK, AND NEITHER DO I. IT IS VERY MUCH A COLLABORATION."
XANDER STEENBRUGGE
Neural Synesthesia
Synesthesia is the rare condition when our senses melt together — some say they can hear colors, others that they can taste words.
But what if we let the senses of an artificial intelligence overlap instead? Belgium-based machine learning researcher and educator Xander Steenbrugge has developed a neural network that can turn music into trippy visualizations.
It’s an impressive example of the synthesis between human-created artforms and AI algorithms.
Making Music
Steenbrugge’s project, called “Neural Synesthesia,” makes use of a generative adversarial network.
“This project is an attempt to explore new approaches to audiovisual experience based on Artificial Intelligence,” wrote Steenbrugge in a description of his project. ” I do not create these works, I co-create them with the AI models that I bring to life.”
First, Steenbrugge feeds an AI algorithm a basic dataset of images, then trains the model to replicate their visual style. Finally he allows the AI to twist and blend the visuals based on parameters Steenbrugge pulls out of different audio sources using a “custom feature extraction pipeline.”
“The AI does not fully create the work, and neither do I. It is very much a collaboration,” adds Steenbrugge.
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SCIENTISTS CREATE JET ENGINE POWERED BY ONLY ELECTRICITY
SCIENTISTS CREATE JET ENGINE POWERED BY ONLY ELECTRICITY
THE PROTOTYPE DEVICE DOESN'T USE ANY FOSSIL FUELS TO GENERATE THRUST.
PIXABAY/VICTOR TANGERMANN
Clean Air
A prototype jet engine can propel itself without using any fossil fuels, potentially paving the way for carbon-neutral air travel.
The device compresses air and ionizes it with microwaves, generating plasma that thrusts it forward, according to research published Tuesday in the journal AIP Advances. That means planes may someday fly using just electricity and the air around them as fuel.
Scaling Up
There’s a long way to go between a proof-of-concept prototype and installing an engine in a real plane. But the prototype was able to launch a one-kilogram steel ball 24 millimeters into the air. That’s the same thrust, proportional to scale, as a conventional jet engine.
“Our results demonstrated that such a jet engine based on microwave air plasma can be a potentially viable alternative to the conventional fossil fuel jet engine,” lead researcher and Wuhan University engineer Jau Tang said in a press release.
Air Jet
Air travel represents a small but not insignificant portion factor of climate change. The New York Timesreported in September that commercial air is responsible for 2.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions — though that excludes military jets.
“The motivation of our work is to help solve the global warming problems owing to humans’ use of fossil fuel combustion engines to power machinery, such as cars and airplanes,” Tang said in the release. “There is no need for fossil fuel with our design, and therefore, there is no carbon emission to cause greenhouse effects and global warming.”
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Scientists Create “Strange Metal” Packed With Entangled Electrons
Scientists Create “Strange Metal” Packed With Entangled Electrons
This could be the key to creating quantum technologies.
Image by Ahmed Neutron/Victor Tangermann
An international team of researchers has created what’s called a “strange metal” — and they say it could help harness the potential of the quantum world in a practical way.
Specifically, the metal provides evidence for the quantum entanglement nature of quantum criticality. But that’s a lot to unpack, so let’s start with something most of us probably learned about in elementary school: phase transitions.
We see evidence of classical phase transitions all the time — the ice in our drinks melts into a liquid at a certain temperature, for example, while the water we boil evaporates into a gas at another.
Simple enough.
Well, materials in the quantum world also undergo phase transitions under the right conditions, and when a quantum material is capable of transitioning from one phase to another, it’s called a state of “quantum criticality” — which brings us back to this new study, published this week in the journal Science.
Researchers Create "Strange Metal" Packed With Entangled Electrons
The researchers used the elements ytterbium, rhodium, and silicon to create a “strange metal,” a type of metal in which the electrons act as a unit rather than independently like they would in a regular metal, such as copper or gold.
When at the lowest temperature theoretically possible — absolute zero, or -273.15 degrees Celsius (-459.67 degrees Fahrenheit) — the team’s strange metal undergoes a transition from a quantum phase, in which it forms a magnetic order, to another phase in which is doesn’t.
While conducting experiments on ultrapure films made from the metal, the team noticed quantum entanglement among billions of billions of electrons in it.
So, why is this observation important? It could help in our efforts to create quantum technologies.
“Quantum entanglement is the basis for storage and processing of quantum information,” researcher Qimiao Si of Rice University said in a press release. “At the same time, quantum criticality is believed to drive high-temperature superconductivity. So our findings suggest that the same underlying physics — quantum criticality — can lead to a platform for both quantum information and high-temperature superconductivity.”
“When one contemplates that possibility,” he added, “one cannot help but marvel at the wonder of nature.”
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06-03-2022
THIS “QUANTUM BATTERY” NEVER LOSES ITS CHARGE
THIS “QUANTUM BATTERY” NEVER LOSES ITS CHARGE
THE BATTERIES OF THE FUTURE COULD EXPLOIT QUANTUM PHYSICS.
BERNDTHALLER/VICTOR TANGERMANN
Quantum Battery
A team of scientists from the universities of Alberta and Toronto have laid out the blueprints for a “quantum battery” that never loses its charge.
To be clear, this battery doesn’t exist yet — but if they figure out how to build it, it could be a revolutionary breakthrough in energy storage.
“The batteries that we are more familiar with — like the lithium-ion battery that powers your smartphone — rely on classical electrochemical principles, whereas quantum batteries rely solely on quantum mechanics,” University of Alberta chemist Gabriel Hanna said in a statement.
Dark State
A paper describing the research was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. in July. The battery works by harnessing the power of “excitonic energy” — the state in which an electron absorbs sufficiently charged photons of light.
The researchers found that their resulting battery model should be “highly robust to energy losses,” thanks to the fact that their battery is prepared inside a “dark state” where it cannot exchange energy — by absorbing or releasing photons — with its surroundings.
Large Charge
By breaking down this “dark state” quantum network, the researchers claim the battery could be able to discharge and release energy in the process.
But the team has yet to come up with viable ways of doing so. They will also have to figure out a way to scale the technology for real-world applications as well.
Researchers and scientists spoke to The Daily Beast this week to express horror at Musk’s goal of connecting human brains to computers. Ultimately, at the heart of their trepidation is the infusion of Big Tech into the human mind.
“I don’t think there is sufficient public discourse on what the big picture implications of this kind of technology becoming available are,” Dr. Karola Kreitmair, assistant professor of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, told the website.
“I worry that there’s this uncomfortable marriage between a company that is for-profit,” she added.
Indeed, the ethics surrounding technology such as the Neuralink is uncharted territory. As such, many are concerned about how these products — ostensibly meant to help those with disabilities — can ultimately be exploited for profit.
“If the ultimate goal is to use the acquired brain data for other devices, or use these devices for other things — say, to drive cars, to drive Teslas — then there might be a much, much bigger market,” Dr. L. Syd Johnson, associate professor at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University, told the Daily Beast.
“But then all those human research subjects — people with genuine needs — are being exploited and used in risky research for someone else’s commercial gain,” she continued.
Kreitmair echoed the sentiment. While she believes that the technology could be “life-changing” for paralyzed people, she told the Daily Beast that its potential for consumer uses “raises such a slew of ethical concerns.”
Some experts are also worried that Musk is nothing but a carnival barker who’ll say anything and stop at nothing to make a buck — which, well, fair. He’s been known to make lofty promises before only to grossly underdeliver before. Who’s to say Neuralink won’t be the same?
“With these companies and owners of companies, they’re kind of showmen,” Dr. Laura Cabrera, a neuroethics researcher at Penn State, told the Beast. “They’ll make these hyperbolic claims, and I think that’s dangerous, because I think people sometimes believe it blindly.”
She later added, “I’m always cautious about what [Elon Musk] says.”
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05-03-2022
MIT STARTUP DRILLING 12 MILES INTO THE EARTH TO SUCK OUT ENERGY
MIT STARTUP DRILLING 12 MILES INTO THE EARTH TO SUCK OUT ENERGY
OKAY, THAT'S KINDA AWESOME.
GETTY IMAGES/FUTURISM
Fusion Drilling
An MIT spinoff has locked down significant funding for a literally groundbreaking project: using fusion power tech to drill 12 miles into the Earth and harvest the immense energy down there.
The startup is called Quaise, and it picked up $40 million in series A funding last month, according to a press release. It says the money is going toward its efforts to leverage fusion technology to drill one of the deepest holes of all time. If it proves viable, it could give humans access to nearly limitless and clean geothermal energy.
That’s right. Fusion drilling.
“We need a massive amount of carbon-free energy in the coming decades,” Mark Cupta, managing director at Prelude Ventures and one of the investors in the company, said in the release.
“Quaise Energy offers one of the most resource-efficient and nearly infinitely scalable solutions to power our planet,” he added. “It is the perfect complement to our current renewable solutions, allowing us to reach baseload sustainable power in a not so distant future.”
Potential Gamechanger
Aside from being just kinda awesome in a sci-fi-sounding way, using fusion tech to dig these ultra-deep holes could offer a number of notable benefits. For one, traditional drill bits are limited with how far they can go before the hot temperatures, gasses, and liquids prevent them from going further.
However, Quaise would use a machine called a gyrotron, which is typically used to create millimeter electromagnetic waves to superheat plasma in fusion reactors. Instead of plasma, though, the startup would point at the ground — and drill into it using energy beams.
The tech has the potential to take drilling to a depth we’ve never seen before. In theory, this could also allow people to access geothermal power from the Earth no matter where they are in the world.
Of course, this tech still has a long way to go. Quaise is slated to launch its first full-scale demonstration machines in 2024, with its first commercial operation by 2026. Plus, there’s a good chance that hiccups like running out of funding or pesky supply chain issues could prevent this from ever actually launching.
Still, the idea of a fusion drill tapping into the Earth for bountiful, clean energy is pretty dope.
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03-03-2022
Quantum Gravity Sensor Breakthrough Paves Way for Groundbreaking Map of World Under Earth’s Surface
Quantum Gravity Sensor Breakthrough Paves Way for Groundbreaking Map of World Under Earth’s Surface
ByUNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
A perspective of future gravity cartography being used with 0.5 m spatial resolution over a region, at an uncertainty level of 20 E. Expected signal sizes for a range of applications are shown.
Credit: Stray et al. 2022 Nature DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04315-3
An object hidden below ground has been located using quantum technology — a long-awaited milestone with profound implications for industry, human knowledge, and national security.
University of Birmingham researchers from the UK National Quantum Technology Hub in Sensors and Timing have reported their achievement in Nature. It is the first in the world for a quantum gravity gradiometer outside of laboratory conditions.
The quantum gravity gradiometer, which was developed under a contract for the Ministry of Defence and in the UKRI-funded Gravity Pioneer project, was used to find a tunnel buried outdoors in real-world conditions one meter below the ground surface. It wins an international race to take the technology outside.
The sensor works by detecting variations in microgravity using the principles of quantum physics, which is based on manipulating nature at the sub-molecular level.
The success opens a commercial path to significantly improved mapping of what exists below ground level.
This will mean:
Reduced costs and delays to construction, rail, and road projects.
Improved prediction of natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions.
Discovery of hidden natural resources and built structures.
Understanding archaeological mysteries without damaging excavation.
Professor Kai Bongs, Head of Cold Atom Physics at the University of Birmingham and Principal Investigator of the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing, said: “This is an ‘Edison moment’ in sensing that will transform society, human understanding, and economies.
“With this breakthrough we have the potential to end reliance on poor records and luck as we explore, build and repair. In addition, an underground map of what is currently invisible is now a significant step closer, ending a situation where we know more about Antarctica than what lies a few feet below our streets.”
Current gravity sensors are limited by a range of environmental factors. A particular challenge is vibration, which limits the measurement time of all gravity sensors for survey applications. If these limitations can be addressed, surveys can become faster, more comprehensive, and lower cost.
How the quantum gravity sensor works
The quantum gravity sensor measures subtle changes in the pulling strength of gravitational fields when a cloud of atoms is dropped. The bigger the object and the greater the difference in density of the object from its surroundings, the stronger the measurable difference in pull. But vibration, instrument tilt and disruption from magnetic and thermal fields have made turning quantum theory into commercial reality challenging. The Birmingham quantum sensor breakthrough is the first to meet these real-world challenges and perform a high spatial resolution survey. The removal of noise due to vibration will unlock gravity mapping at high spatial resolution.
The sensor developed by Dr. Michael Holynski, Head of Atom Interferometry at Birmingham and lead author of the study, and his team at Birmingham is a gravity gradiometer. Their system overcomes vibration and a variety of other environmental challenges in order to successfully apply quantum technology in the field.
The successful detection, realized in collaboration with civil engineers led by Professor Nicole Metje of the School of Engineering, is the culmination of a long-term development program that has been closely linked to end-users from its outset.
This breakthrough will allow future gravity surveys to be cheaper, more reliable, and delivered 10 times faster, reducing the time needed for surveys from a month to a few days. It has the potential to open a range of new applications for gravity survey, providing a new lens into the underground.
Professor George Tuckwell, Director for Geoscience and Engineering at RSK, said: “Detection of ground conditions such as mine workings, tunnels, and unstable ground is fundamental to our ability to design, construct and maintain housing, industry, and infrastructure. The improved capability that this new technology represents could transform how we map the ground and deliver these projects”
Dr. Gareth Brown, joint Project Technical Authority for Quantum Sensing and Senior Principal Scientist at Dstl, said: “For national Defence and Security, accurate and rapid measurements of variations in microgravity open up new opportunities to detect the otherwise undetectable and navigate more safely in challenging environments. As gravity sensing technology matures, applications for underwater navigation and revealing the subterranean will become possible.”
Reference: “Quantum sensing for gravity cartography” by Ben Stray, Andrew Lamb, Aisha Kaushik, Jamie Vovrosh, Anthony Rodgers, Jonathan Winch, Farzad Hayati, Daniel Boddice, Artur Stabrawa, Alexander Niggebaum, Mehdi Langlois, Yu-Hung Lien, Samuel Lellouch, Sanaz Roshanmanesh, Kevin Ridley, Geoffrey de Villiers, Gareth Brown, Trevor Cross, George Tuckwell, Asaad Faramarzi, Nicole Metje, Kai Bongs and Michael Holynski, 23 February 2022, Nature. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04315-3
The breakthrough is a collaboration between the University of Birmingham, environmental, engineering and sustainability solutions provider RSK, Dstl (the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, part of the UK Ministry of Defence), and technology company Teledyne e2v. The project is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of the UK National Quantum Technologies Program and under contract from the Ministry of Defence.
Theoretical inventions known as the “UFO patents” have been inflaming worldwide curiosity. A product of the American engineer Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais, the patents were filed during his work for the U.S. Navy and are so ambitious in their scope and imagination that they continue to draw interest despite any clear evidence that they are feasible. The patents include designs for a futuristic hybrid vehicle with a radical propulsion system that would work equally well in the air, underwater, and in space, as well as a compact fusion reactor, a gravitational wave generator, and even a “spacetime modification weapon”. The technology involved could impact reality itself, claims its inventor, whose maverick audacity rivals that of Nikola Tesla.
The patents
How real are these ideas? While you can read the patents for yourself, it's evident that the tech necessary to actually create the devices described is beyond our current capabilities. Yet research into many of these fields has gone on for years, which may explain why the Navy expressed an interest. Another likely influence is the fact that the Chinese government seems to be working to develop similar technology.
One of the most attention-grabbing designs by Dr. Pais is the2018 patent for a cone-shaped craft of unprecedented range and speed. The amazing vehicle would be able to zoom around with ease both high in the air and deep in the sea. It would travel through air, water, and space by generating a quantum vacuum with an energy field. This vacuum around its body would help it push away any molecules it encounters, regardless of the medium. The craft would also not leave any heat signature, making it virtually undetectable. Controlling the “quantum field fluctuations” in the vacuum would counteract inertia and resistance, resulting in “extreme speeds.” Reducing a craft’s inertial and gravitational mass in this way could be transformational for space travel. It sounds like an enticing design. However, as noted, it’s not something we could actually create with current technologies.
Another futuristic patent with far-reaching ramifications is Pais’ Plasma Compression Fusion Device. It would be relatively small, less than two meters in length, and house fusion reactions generating power in the gigawatt (one billion watts) to terawatt (one trillion watts) range. By comparison, a coal plant or a nuclear reactor generate energy in the one to two-gigawatt range.
Notes from researchers who worked on vetting Pais’ ideas indicate that a possible outcome of the plasma fusion device and the high energy levels it may generate is the "Spacetime Modification Weapon” (SMW). Research documents refer to it as “a weapon that can make the Hydrogen bomb seem more like a firecracker, in comparison."
Research notes from Navy’s experiments with Pais’s plasma fusion device. Source:FOIA / Department of Navy / The Drive
Among Pais’s other inventions with military applications is a patent for an electromagnetic field generator. It could create “an impenetrable defensive shield to sea and land as well as space-based military and civilian assets” which would be used against ballistic and cruise missiles that avoid radars and other defenses. The shield would also be a barrier against dangers from space like coronal mass ejections and wayward asteroids.
Pais’s electromagnetic field generator consists of a shell, an electrostatic generator, a power plant, a thermoelectric generator, and an electric motor.Source: Salvatore Pais / U.S Department of Navy
Another device that could deflect asteroids is the high-frequency gravitational wave generator conceived by Pais. It would work to intersect generated electromagnetic fields and create waves of gravity. These could be used to propel spaceships to the far reaches of the galaxy, among other uses.
The Pais Effect
The fantastical inventions devised by Dr. Pais largely build upon an idea that he calls “The Pais Effect.” In his patent write-ups and in an interview with The Drive, he described it as “the generation of extremely high electromagnetic energy fluxes (and hence high local energy densities) generated by controlled motion of electrically charged matter (from solid to plasma states) subjected to accelerated vibration and/or accelerated spin, via rapid acceleration transients.”
This effect amounts to the ability to spin electromagnetic fields to contain a fusion reaction. The electromagnetic energy fields would be so powerful that they could “engineer the fabric of our reality at the most fundamental level,” writes Pais.
In practical terms, this invention could lead to a veritable revolution in propulsion, quantum communications, and create an abundance of cheaply-produced energy. Certainly, an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence, as posits the Sagan standard.
The critics
The assertions by Dr. Pais have drawn a fair share of criticism and incredulity from fellow scientists. The nuclear engineer and researcher Carl Willis, who is also a reactor supervisor at the University of New Mexico, called Dr. Pais’s work, "a classic case of pathological science" that’s heavy on jargon and ”nonsensical statements” while providing little evidence that his ideas, which seem to contradict established physics, can bear fruit.
Physicist Stephen Webb of the University of Portsmouth in England was equally blunt, saying that, “I find it puzzling frankly that the patents were awarded.“ He called Pais’s ideas a, “wonderful wish list of things that we want,” which, “doesn’t make sense in terms of physics.”
Dr. Charles Collett, who teaches Physics at Muhlenberg College, did acknowledge that in theory, the Pais Effect may not be “outlandish” but in practice, there are "significant engineering challenges” in fashioning a device that would be able to produce the kind of electromagnetic forces Dr. Pais envisions in his patents.
The trials
Despite the well-founded unease at Dr. Pais’s inventions, the Navy took them seriously enough to run experiments for three years and even found some of them “operable”, although the extent of that alleged operability is under debate. In the patent documents, two Navy officials seemed to assert the operability of the inventions.
Furthermore, in correspondence with The Drive’s “War Zone,” Timothy Boulay of NAWCAD, stated that Pais’s High Energy Electromagnetic Field Generator was, in fact, tested from 2016 until 2019, at a cost of $508,000. The team working on the project consisted of at least 10 technicians and engineers and put in some 1,600 hours of work. But upon the conclusion of the testing, the Pais Effect “could not be proven,” shared Boulay.
What happened subsequently with the tested device and further investigations is not known at this point. There are indications in documents obtained by The Drive’s WarZone through the Freedom of Information Act that the inventions could be moved to another research department in the Navy or the Air Force, or possibly even to NASA or DARPA, but whether that really happened is not clear.
Pais's Electromagnetic Field Generator tested by the Navy researchers. Source: FOIA / U.S. Navy / The Drive
Who is Dr. Pais?
As a creator of such potentially pioneering designs, Dr. Pais has understandably drawn scrutiny from internet denizens and skeptical scientists but as he rarely gives interviews (partially due to classified research for the military), he has remained largely enigmatic.
His author bio in a 2019 concept paper on the Plasma Compression Fusion Device, published by the peer-reviewed engineering journal IEEE Transactions on Plasma Sciences, provides some clues. The paper proposes a compact plasma compression fusion device that seeks to generate tremendous energy through nuclear fusion and describes Dr. Pais as a mechanical and aerospace engineer who currently works for the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) in the Department of Defense in Washington, DC. According to its website, the SSP is “the Nation's premier provider of cost-effective, safe and secure sea-based strategic deterrent systems and related technologies.” It works to develop advanced submarines and weapons for the stated mission “to prevent nuclear war.”
Photo: Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais. Source: Pais / IEEE.
Dr. Pais’s education includes a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and his prior credentials include work as a NASA Research Fellow, working for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) in Maryland, and work as a general engineer as well as an advanced concept analyst for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, one of the world’s top companies for next-generation aerospace and defense technologies.
Dr. Pais, claims the bio, utilizes his “advanced knowledge” in aerodynamics, with particular expertise in designing hypersonic missiles and vehicles. His wide-ranging research interests also extend to electrical engineering, room temperature conductivity, and new quantum technologies with a concentration on laser power generation and high-energy electromagnetic field generation.
The inventor’s credentials are definitely impressive. Did he come up with devices that not only defy known physics and physicists but will radically change our life through limitless energy and high-speed all-medium vehicles? Time will tell, but in his exchanges with The Drive, Dr. Pais stands by his technological visions and asks the skeptics to “try to keep an open mind in regard to my work.”
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25-02-2022
STARTUP TURNS “UNRECYCLABLE” PLASTIC INTO GIANT, INDESTRUCTIBLE CONSTRUCTION BRICKS
STARTUP TURNS “UNRECYCLABLE” PLASTIC INTO GIANT, INDESTRUCTIBLE CONSTRUCTION BRICKS
THIS SOUNDS MILDLY INGENIOUS.
BYFUSION
Block Heads
What if we told you that you could construct entire buildings out of trashed plastic bags and water bottles?
That future may be closer than you think, thanks to new tech from ByFusion Global, an LA-based startup that’s developed a way for governments, companies, and communities to recycle previously “unrecyclable plastics” into huge, virtually indestructible bricks.
Known as “ByBlocks,” the cinderblockish bricks are made using a steam-based compacting method that, per ByFusion’s website, “does not require any chemicals, additives, adhesives, or fillers.” The lego-like bricks made by the ByFusion process are said to be construction-grade and indestructible.
Plastic Urgency
In an interview with Waste360, ByFusion CEO Heidi Kujawa said that the company received a Dow grant and has partnered with the Hefty trash bag company’s EnergyBag recycling program to run a pilot program in Boise, Idaho that will give the community access to the Blocker system.
Along with providing the tech, the pilot program is slated to help Boise residents divert up to 72 tons of otherwise unrecyclable plastics from the local landfill and has already used the blocks to build a bench in a city park, with more planned structures set to built in the coming years.
Though there’s certainly room for criticism of the startup’s partnership with a company that manufactures plastic bags and an organization integral to the not-so-green financial industry, there’s no harm in ByFusion taking their money.
And one thing’s for sure: whoever figures out a way to implement this kind of system on a mass scale deserves the Nobel Prize.
An object hidden below ground has been located using quantum technology—a long-awaited milestone with profound implications for industry, human knowledge and national security.
University of Birmingham researchers from the UK National Quantum Technology Hub in Sensors and Timing have reported their achievement in Nature. It is the first in the world for a quantum gravity gradiometer outside of laboratory conditions.
The quantum gravity gradiometer, which was developed under a contract for the Ministry of Defense and in the UKRI-funded Gravity Pioneer project, was used to find a tunnel buried outdoors in real-world conditions one meter below the ground surface. It wins an international race to take the technology outside.
The sensor works by detecting variations in microgravity using the principles of quantum physics, which is based on manipulating nature at the sub-molecular level.
The success opens a commercial path to significantly improved mapping of what exists below ground level.
This will mean:
Reduced costs and delays to construction, rail and road projects.
Improved prediction of natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions.
Discovery of hidden natural resources and built structures.
Understanding archaeological mysteries without damaging excavation.
Professor Kai Bongs, head of cold atom physics at the University of Birmingham and principal investigator of the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing, said: "This is an 'Edison moment' in sensing that will transform society, human understanding and economies.
"With this breakthrough we have the potential to end reliance on poor records and luck as we explore, build and repair. In addition, an underground map of what is currently invisible is now a significant step closer, ending a situation where we know more about Antarctica than what lies a few feet below our streets."
Current gravity sensors are limited by a range of environmental factors. A particular challenge is vibration, which limits the measurement time of all gravity sensors for survey applications. If these limitations can be addressed, surveys can become faster, more comprehensive and lower cost.
The sensor developed by Dr. Michael Holynski, Head of Atom Interferometry at Birmingham and lead author of the study, and his team at Birmingham is a gravity gradiometer. Their system overcomes vibration and a variety of other environmental challenges in order to successfully apply quantum technology in the field.
The successful detection, realized in collaboration with civil engineers led by Professor Nicole Metje of the School of Engineering, is the culmination of a long-term development program that has been closely linked to end-users from its outset.
This breakthrough will allow future gravity surveys to be cheaper, more reliable and delivered 10 times faster, reducing the time needed for surveys from a month to a few days. It has the potential to open a range of new applications for gravity survey, providing a new lens into the underground.
Professor George Tuckwell, director for geoscience and engineering at RSK, said: "Detection of ground conditions such as mine workings, tunnels and unstable ground is fundamental to our ability to design, construct and maintain housing, industry and infrastructure. The improved capability that this new technology represents could transform how we map the ground and deliver these projects."
The breakthrough is a collaboration between the University of Birmingham, environmental, engineering and sustainability solutions provider RSK, Dstl (the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory, part of the UK Ministry of Defense), and technology company Teledyne e2v.
The quantum gravity sensor measures subtle changes in the pulling strength of gravitational fields when a cloud of atoms is dropped. The bigger the object and the greater the difference in density of the object from its surroundings, the stronger the measurable difference in pull. But vibration, instrument tilt and disruption from magnetic and thermal fields have made turning quantum theory into commercial reality challenging. The Birmingham quantum sensor breakthrough is the first to meet these real-world challenges and perform a high spatial resolution survey. The removal of noise due to vibration will unlock gravity mapping at high spatial resolution.
About the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing
The UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing (led by the University of Birmingham) brings together experts from Physics and Engineering from the Universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Imperial, Liverpool John Moores, Nottingham, Southampton, Strathclyde and Sussex, NPL, the British Geological Survey and over 75 industry partners. The Hub has a total of over 120 past and present projects, valued at approximately £200 million, and has 17 patent applications.
The UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing is part of the National Quantum Technologies Programme (NQTP), which was established in 2014 and has EPSRC, IUK, STFC, MOD, NPL, BEIS, and GCHQ as partners. Four Quantum Technology Hubs were set up at the outset, each focussing on specific application areas with anticipated societal and economic impact. The Commercialising Quantum Technologies Challenge (funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund) is part of the NQTP and was launched to accelerate the development of quantum enabled products and services, removing barriers to productivity and competitiveness. The NQTP is set to invest £1B of public and private sector funds over its ten-year lifetime.
For commercial enquiries relating to the University of Birmingham’s patents in Quantum Technologies, please email: info@enterprise.bham.ac.uk
About the University of BIrmingham
The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries.
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22-02-2022
Scientists Reveal Device that Can Project Holograms Into Your Brain to Create New Experiences
Scientists Reveal Device that Can Project Holograms Into Your Brain to Create New Experiences
SCIENCE
R2-D2 being able to transmit a hologram of Princess Leia was the coolest thing ever back in the late 70s when “Star Wars: A New Hope” was first on the big screen. More recently, we have seen holograms in our cards or money.
In 2019, there are card game enthusiasts who are designing holographic images of the monsters in games such as Yu-Gi-Oh for use in tournaments. When we imagine our future, we might see holographic projections of cell phone apps in front of our faces as we walk down the street.
What if those same holographic images were able to create sensations such as touch, memory, or hearing things that weren’t actually real? What if certain sensations could be omitted, such as painful ones? Scientists recently revealed a device that can project holograms into your brain to create new experiences.
Neuron, Cell of the nervous system allowing information to be carried in the form of electrical and... [+]
How is a hologram created?
A hologram, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a three-dimensional image reproduced from a pattern of interference produced by a split coherent beam of radiation. A laser is a great example.” The scientific term for the process of making a hologram is holography.
Light travels in waves. A hologram records the light waves as they bounce off an object. When a light wave bounces off an object, its changed form is called an interference wave. Think of when you toss a pebble into a pond over your reflection; you see an image of yourself in the water but that image appears slightly distorted. In a light wave, due to the discovery of lasers, that distortion is minimal and can be projected onto an outside source.
Lasers help create 3D holographs due to how the light operates from a laser. Light from a laser has a constant flow of light that moves in consistent phases. Therefore, the entire area is getting consistent light waves, which then bounce off more equal to the original light source. Holography acts like photography. Original photograph images can be captured by allowing the light bouncing off an object to be reflected off a mercury-coated surface and then it is captured onto a different surface.
Real-world uses for holograms
Holograms have several uses, and their potential for changing how we interact in the world is impressive.
Use of holograms in the entertainment and marketing industry:
Various big-name brands are using holograms to invoke excitement for their products and to gain information about the users.
In Los Angeles, CA, September of 2017, an augmented reality company, VNTANA, partnered with an intelligent engagement company, Satisfi Labs, and created the first AI concierge. This concierge was designed to be interactive in its responses to the public. People could communicate with the hologram and ask questions related to the particular event it was hosting.
The Death Star hologram was made available to those who purchased a deluxe edition of the Star Wars soundtrack for the Star Wars’ 40th anniversary.
Coachella put on a holographic concert in 2017 of Tupac Shakur. The same company who put on that concert has also opened an all-holographic theatre in Hollywood.
In Chicago, Pepsi and Aquafina put on a hologram of a baseball player which allowed visitors to play baseball with it.
The benefits of these holograms for the industries:
Well, other than the coolness factor, here are some others:
The companies can request visitors’ names and email addresses either to gain access or to obtain a digital copy of the event after the fact.
With more involvement, the companies have better feedback on the crowd’s reaction.
Listening in on social sharing. In most instances, the public took pictures or video of themselves with the hologram and shared it on social media. Not only is that continued free advertising, but it also creates more comments and reactions.
It leaves an impression of the brand or company not easily forgotten.
Encourages longer engagement from the public at events.
On a more personal level, one company, 8i Studios in Culver City, Ca., is working on creating holographic images of people that can be recorded and then viewed through a VR headset or 8i’s app, Holo. The purpose of this is to create authentic, recorded memories; for example, recorded images of your parents while you were a child, or a favorite pet, or your newborn baby. Just imagine, re-experiencing people you have lost or who have grown up, all over again in the now. It would be like a photo album but with the sensation of the people truly being in the room.
How are holograms used in medicine?
The science of medicine began due to inquisitive individuals who wanted to know how our bodies worked and how we could heal people. In order to learn more about our bodies, scientists used cadavers. Now, medical students can peer at the holographic image of the human body. This also allows for a more intensive, in-depth study of how the neurological, vascular, and musculoskeletal systems are laid out and react with each other.
Other medical holographs are of the cell structure, organs, and our DNA. This then encourages further advancement in the biomedical field.
Holograms find their primary uses by scientists, biomedical professionals, and researchers. Through holographic imaging, these professionals can see what is going on in your body without having to undertake any risky procedure. It also allows for research and further understanding of the complexities of how our brain and neurological systems operate and react under various circumstances. They can trigger events without causing harm and see how it all reacts.
All of this increases the opportunity to make a more accurate diagnosis and treatment for patients in a far less obtrusive and risky manner.
The benefits of creating new experiences through holograms into the brain
Could you ever imagine that holographic images could project into our brains and target specific neurons in order to recreate a sensation? It could also potentially project a false memory for the betterment of an individual’s life.
Researchers at the University of Berkley are working on designing a way to create a hologram within the brain. They have found that this would allow them to read the activity of the neurons in the brain and then influence them.
The scientists had to match the speed of the pulsing neurons in our brain and then recreate the pattern with lasers. The goal was to mimic the brain’s activity in order to fool it into believing it was part of its own pattern. They then created a holographic image of a brain with a focus on the individual neurons to isolate the particular ones they wished to influence. The scientists then projected that image onto a thin slice of a brain.
They first did this to affect the touch, motor, and vision neurons of mice. While the mice did not demonstrate any change through behavior, a reading of the neurons did demonstrate that the stimuli were received by the brain. The next step in the process is to train the mice to alter their behavior depending upon the stimuli.
The hope of this experiment is to aid with many diseases or disorders.
The first they feel it would be most effective with is those who have lost a limb. It would help by allowing the body to respond the same with a prosthetic as one would with a limb. As technology and their knowledge advances, they hope to see areas where the brain misfires; examples include a seizure or schizophrenia. Then they may find a way to alter the brain’s neurons to fire correctly. They even believe it could offer a return of sight to those who lost their vision.
“But as basic neuroscientists, we are also primarily interested in using this system to ‘crack’ the neural codes of sensory perception.”
We want to understand how our brain builds perceptions of our external world all through the language of neurons …. We believe this new technology can address this fundamental question in neuroscience because we can attempt to generate artificial perceptions by writing specific patterns of activity into the brain and see what’ works.'”
Closing Thoughts
Can you believe it? Scientists have created a device that can project a hologram to create experiences in our brain! They have also found a way to isolate individual, tiny neurons. Amazing!
The capability of being able to communicate directly to the brain has many possibilities. Not only does this make feasible the ability to read what is happening in the brain, but it can also “write” changes onto your brain. The implied possibilities are awe-inspiring to even think about. They add more hope for those who would benefit.
ALL RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011
Holograms just got a lot more exciting with the news that a team of researchers in Japan has developed a 3D hologram projector that responds to a person’s touch, allowing it to completely change shape.
Dubbed ‘Fairy Lights’, and developed by researchers from five Japanese universities, the project was started as a means of improving existing 3D hologram technology and ones that react to touch in mid-air.
According to Hacked, the technology behind touchable holograms has been in existence for a number of years now, but has been nowhere near capable of being introduced to the commercial market because the laser beams, which generate the hologram, actually burn human skin on contact with it.
To fix this, the Japanese researchers decided to develop a system whereby their device will fire laser pulses that are fired at high frequencies, ionising the air molecules that exist in one particular spot.
The lasers in question are known as femtosecond lasers, which create pulses of light that last a few tens of femtoseconds, which to you and me means one millionth of one billionth of just one second.
This leads to the formation of the pixels, which respond to touch when the pulses are interrupted.
Scientists Reveal Device that Can Project Holograms Into Your Brain to Create New Experiences
From the video they have published to show their results, the minute scale of the holograms shows great promise for bringing the technology on a larger scale in the near future during a time when augmented reality (AR) is seen as being a realistic alternative to interactive hologram technology.
Researchers have developed a hologram that allows you to reach out and “feel” it — not unlike the holodecks of “Star Trek.”
University of Glasgow scientists have created hologram system that uses jets of air known as “aerohaptics” to replicate the sensation of touch, according to Ravinder Daahiya, a researcher who worked on the project. He said that the air jets can allow you to feel “people’s fingers, hands and wrists.” The team published a paper of their findings in Advanced Intelligent Systems.
“In time, this could be developed to allow you to meet a virtual avatar of a colleague on the other side of the world and really feel their handshake,” he said in his piece for The Conversation. “It could even be the first steps towards building something like a holodeck.”
No Gloves, No Problems
Similar to previous touch sensory holograms, the aerohaptic system doesn’t require a handheld controller or smart gloves in order to produce the sense of touch. Instead, a nozzle, which is able to respond to the movements of your hand, blows air with an appropriate amount of force onto you.
Daahiya and his team tested this with an interactive projection of a basketball, which he said “can be convincingly touched, rolled and bounced.”
“The touch feedback from air jets from the system is also modulated based on the virtual surface of the basketball, allowing users to feel the rounded shape of the ball as it rolls from their fingertips when they bounce it and the slap in their palm when it returns,” he said.
Welcome to the Holodeck
While it would be pretty cool to see this system fleshed out until we get an honest-to-God holodeck to live out our Sherlock Holmes fantasies, the system will be pretty limited for now.
However, Daahiya has hopes that it could eventually be used to create some pretty amazing video game experiences — as well as help doctors better treat patients no matter where they are on Earth.
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21-02-2022
Scientists Designs A Laser Propulsion System That Can Take You To Mars In Just 45 Days
Scientists Designs A Laser Propulsion System That Can Take You To Mars In Just 45 Days
Scientists at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) present in a recent study the design of a “laser-thermal propulsion” system that would allow humans to reach Mars in just 45 days.
NASA, which plans to send a manned mission to the red planet in the mid-2030s, expects such a trip to take about 500 days .
However, McGill engineers believe it’s possible to cut the journey down to just over six weeks thanks to directed-energy propulsion , which uses large lasers fired from Earth to deliver power to a hydrogen heating chamber on the spacecraft. and, in this way, promote it.
The spacecraft speeds up rapidly while close to our planet, and in the following month it makes the long way to Mars. For landing, the main vehicle is released and the rest of the ship is returned to Earth so that it can be recycled for the next launch.
The idea of directed-energy propulsion had previously been proposed by other scientists in a project that involves using lasers to send small sail probes to the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri.
The system uses laser beams to propel a spacecraft into deep space at relativistic speeds, a fraction of the speed of light. The more powerful the laser, the faster the spacecraft can be accelerated.
“We were interested in how the same laser technology could be used for rapid transit in the solar system,” said Emmanuel Duplay, lead author of the recent study.
The conceptual spacecraft created by the team would require a 100-megawatt, 10-meter-diameter array of lasers .
“Our approach would use a much more intense laser flux on the spacecraft to directly heat the propellant, similar to a giant steam boiler,” Duplay said.
The engineer also points out that it would be necessary “to develop high-temperature materials that allow the spacecraft to break against the Martian atmosphere upon arrival.”
Diaper technology
The problem is that these technologies are still in their early stages and have only been developed at a theoretical level, so they may not be ready for the next decade.
“The laser heating chamber is probably the biggest challenge,” Duplay concludes.
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THESE MATHEMATICIANS THINK THE UNIVERSE MAY BE CONSCIOUS
THESE MATHEMATICIANS THINK THE UNIVERSE MAY BE CONSCIOUS
"THIS COULD BE THE BEGINNING OF A SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION."
IMAGES VIA PIXABAY/VICTOR TANGERMANN
Theory of Everything
Scientists are doubling down on a peculiar model that attempts to quantify and measure consciousness.
The model, known as Integrated Information Theory (IIT), has long been controversial because it comes with an unusual quirk. When applied to non-living things like machines, subatomic particles, and even the universe, it claims that they too experience consciousness, New Scientist reports.
“This could be the beginning of a scientific revolution,” Munich Centre for Mathematical Philosophy mathematician Johannes Kleiner told the magazine.
Complex Math
IIT relies on a value called phi that represents the interconnectivity of a node, whether it’s a region of the brain, circuitry, or an atom. That value represents the node’s level of consciousness. The cerebral cortex, for instance, has a high value because it contains a dense cluster of widely-interconnected neurons.
But when IIT was first presented, calculating phi was impossibly convoluted. New Scientist reports that calculating the phi of a human brain would have previously taken longer than the universe has existed, but a February paper by IIT’s creators, currently awaiting peer review, attempts to simplify the process significantly.
Show Your Work
Many academics remain unconvinced by IIT, in part because of its complexity but mainly because of its far-reaching implications for a conscious universe.
“I think mathematics can help us understand the neural basis of consciousness in the brain, and perhaps even machine consciousness, but it will inevitably leave something out: the felt inner quality of experience,” University of Connecticut philosopher and cognitive scientist Susan Schneider told New Scientist.
It’s hard to conceptualize the bizarre quantum behavior of subatomic particles, which are often too tiny, fleeting, and counterintuitive to conceptualize on any tangible scale. But new research bucks that trend, suggesting that an unusual quantum phenomenon could have a serious impact to biological structures — even causing point mutations in molecules of DNA.
The upshot is that the hydrogen bonds that link together two spiraling strands of DNA are prime for an unusual quantum process called proton tunneling, according to research published by University of Surrey scientists last month in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.
Proton tunneling happens when a proton seemingly vanishes and reappears elsewhere on the other side of a physical or energetic barrier. Protons are massive compared to other subatomic particles that exist on the quantum scale, so it’s not as common to see a proton tunnel as it is to see something like an electron tunnel. But it is possible, and when it happens within a DNA molecule, it can essentially move atoms to the wrong place, leading to a mutation in the genetic code.
“Many have long suspected that the quantum world — which is weird, counter-intuitive, and wonderful — plays a role in life as we know it,” lead author and Surrey chemist Marco Sacchi said in a press release. “While the idea that something can be present in two places at the same time might be absurd to many of us, this happens all the time in the quantum world, and our study confirms that quantum tunneling also happens in DNA at room temperature.”
The odds that one of these quantum mutations would lead to medical problems down the line is rare — the paper notes that the DNA molecules are capable of righting themselves in fairly short order. But just like with any other mutation, it is possible that these mutations take hold and propagate through the DNA replication process, potentially causing issues or even increasing the risk of cancer.
“There is still a long and exciting road ahead of us to understand how biological processes work on the subatomic level,” study coauthor and quantum biologist Louie Slocombe said in the release, “but our study — and countless others over the recent years — have confirmed quantum mechanics are at play.”
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14-02-2022
Making direct air capture more efficient
Making direct air capture more efficient
A new process for turning atmospheric carbon dioxide desorbed from an absorbent into dry ice reduces the energy input needed for carbon capture.
A new technology for capturing carbon dioxide from air, Cryo-DAC can use existing infrastructure at ports for ships that transport liquefied natural gas and infrastructure used to prepare city gas.
Carbon capture is playing an increasingly prominent role in plans to combat climate change. A new process for direct air capture, which involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, promises to greatly enhance the efficiency of the technology.
“Direct air capture has great potential for removing CO2 from the atmosphere on massive scales,” says Soichiro Masuda at the R&D/Digital Division of the Japanese energy-provider Toho Gas. “And it has evolved rapidly in the past several years.”
Direct air capture complements other technologies that capture carbon from industrial emissions, but the lower levels of CO2 in atmospheric air make it considerably more challenging. “Efficiency has continued to be a challenge for direct air capture, as the steps that isolate CO2 from atmospheric air require the input of energy,” says Masuda. “Burning fossil fuel to provide the energy input ends up creating more carbon emission for the sake of capturing carbon.”
“Direct air capture technology is a key part of our corporate strategy to reach carbon neutrality by 2050,” says Masuda. Now, Toho Gas and Nagoya University, have started research and development into realizing carbon neutrality and have devised a way to largely overcome the problem of capturing carbon with an improved direct air capture technology called Cryo-DAC.
Diagram depicting the carbon cycle (left) of Cryo-DAC (right), the direct air capture technology developed by researchers at Toho Gas and Nagoya University.
A key advantage of recycling carbon by Cryo-DAC is that it can use existing infrastructure such as ports for ships that transport liquefied natural gas, along with the associated infrastructure used to prepare city gas for industrial and household use. Natural gas is imported in liquefied form at about −162 degrees Celsius. Japan is one of the world’s major importers of liquefied natural gas, accounting for nearly 20% of global imports.
“Ever since Japan first imported natural gas in 1969, we’ve been exploring ways to exploit the cold energy of liquid natural gas,” explains Masuda. “We think we’ve finally found a solution.” Liquefied natural gas is vaporized by exchanging heat with seawater; the cold energy generated in this exchange is used for industrial purposes such as liquefying industrial gases. Large amounts of the cold energy, however, was wasted.
Cryo-DAC uses cold energy, thereby minimizing the thermal energy needed for the process. Of the various types of direct air capture being developed worldwide, Cryo-DAC employs a method that captures and isolates CO2 with chemical absorbents. “The scalability of the chemical absorption method is well suited for collecting massive amounts of CO2,” says Masuda. “This involves collecting atmospheric air, absorbing CO2 in a solvent, and then isolating the CO2 from the solvent. This last step, however, requires large amounts of heat, creating carbon emission.”
Using dry ice to create a vacuum
The research team designed a new process that has a chamber in which CO2is sublimated into dry ice by using the cold energy of liquid natural gas. The new chamber is connected to another in which CO2 is absorbed in solvent; the phase change from CO2 to dry ice lowers the pressure inside, which causes the solvent and CO2 to evaporate. “As a result, CO2 can be recovered from the solvent at near room temperature, minimizing the thermal energy needed,” explains Yoshito Umeda, a professor at Nagoya University.
Schematic diagram of the cryopump used in Cryo-DAC.
The output of Cryo-DAC is high-pressure CO2 gas. Toho Gas plans to use the captured CO2 as a raw material for city gases that the company provides to its customers. “High-pressure CO2 is needed to produce methane, the main component of city gas, that can be obtained by reacting CO2 and hydrogen. While CO2 for methanation is typically prepared with compressors, Cryo-DAC has the potential to separate CO2 from air and generate high-pressure CO2 at low cost. Although city gas leaves a carbon footprint when burned, direct air capture with Cryo-DAC could offset these emissions,” says Masuda. “The International Energy Agency predicts that the demand for natural gas will continue to increase until 2050, unlike other major fossil fuels like oil or coal. We thus see Cryo-DAC as a key part of future gas infrastructure with net-zero carbon emission.”
The research is now a part of Japan’s Moonshot Research and Development Program, the Cabinet Office’s initiative to fund high-risk, high-impact research projects. The team includes collaborators at Tokyo University of Science, Chukyo University and the University of Tokyo, who are enhancing the materials and processes used in Cryo-DAC. The group is currently developing a solvent with higher absorption capabilities, as well as trying to achieve a continuous flow from CO2 sublimation to the output of high-pressure CO2. The aim is to establish the core technology by 2022 so that the system can operate continuously with a capacity of 1 tonne of CO2 per year in 2024. The group also aspires to design equipment for commercial use, and create detailed plans for implementing the system in a real-world setting by 2029.
“By using existing infrastructure for gas-consuming appliances and pipelines, we expect to transition smoothly to carbon neutrality without imposing a significant burden on our customers or the wider society,” says Masuda.
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12-02-2022
Artificial Intelligence to watch over embryos outside the womb
Artificial Intelligence to watch over embryos outside the womb
TRUNEWS with RICK WILES Researchers in Suzhou have developed an AI system able to monitor and take care of embryos as they grow into babies in the lab. Technology won’t be a problem for its future application, but legal and ethical concerns might, warns Beijing-based researcher. Researchers in Suzhou, in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, say they have developed an artificial intelligence system that can monitor and take care of embryos as they grow into fetuses in an artificial womb environment.
This AI nanny is looking after many animal embryos for now, they said in findings published in the domestic peer-reviewed Journal of Biomedical Engineering last month. Previously, the development process of each embryo had to be observed, documented and adjusted manually – a labor-intensive task that became unsustainable as the scale of the research increased. The robotic system or “nanny” now created can monitor the embryos in unprecedented detail, as it moves up and down the line around the clock, the research paper says. AI technology helps the machine detect the smallest signs of change on the embryos and fine-tune the carbon dioxide, nutrition and environmental inputs.
The system can even rank the embryos by health and development potential. When an embryo develops a major defect or dies, the machine would alert a technician to remove it from the womblike receptacle. Current international laws prohibit experimental studies on human embryos beyond two weeks of development. However, research on the later stages is important because “there are still many unsolved mysteries about the physiology of typical human embryonic development”, Sun and his colleagues say in their paper.
The technology would “not only help further understand the origin of life and embryonic development of humans, but also provide a theoretical basis for solving birth defects and other major reproductive health problems”, they add. www.trunews.com
(Photo : Pixabay)
Artificial intelligence is a technology that helps a machine detect the tiniest indications of change on the embryos and modify the nutrition, carbon dioxide and environmental inputs.
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Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
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