Dancing Robot to Preserve Japan’s Folk Arts

The mighty Transformer Optimus Prime might be able to save the universe, but who’s going to teach the Autobots to do the Hustle?

Enter HRP-2, a humanoid robot designed by Japanese researchers that is programmed to reproduce dance steps with the practiced grace of an electronic geisha. The 5-foot-tall (1.5-meter-tall) robot is seen here at a press demo at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science on January 12, 2005.

Source: National Geographic.

Mmmm, Space Chips

Little spacecraft could hitch a ride on Earth’s magnetic field to search for alien life.

The next generation of robotic space explorers could be smaller than a dime—and cost about that much, too. Mason Peck, an engineer at Cornell University, envisions thousands of miniature spacecraft drifting to different planets, powered only by Earth’s magnetic field. Peck’s novel magnetic-propulsion method recently earned him a $75,000 grant from NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts to bring the idea closer to reality.

Source: Popular Science.

Beyond Batteries: Storing Power in a Sheet of Paper

Along with its ability to function in temperatures up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 100 below zero, the device is completely integrated and can be printed like paper. The device is also unique in that it can function as both a high-energy battery and a high-power supercapacitor, which are generally separate components in most electrical systems. Another key feature is the capability to use human blood or sweat to help power the battery.

Source: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

DARPA Hearts HAARP; Tinfoil Hats Melt

Depending on who you talk to, HAARP  — the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program — is either an ionosphere-boiling superweapon, a giant mind control facility, a pork project par excellence, or some kind of defense against nukes in space.  But no matter what the project does, one thing is clear: DARPA, the Pentagon’s R&D arm, absolutely loves it.

Source: Wired.

Rewritable Holographic Memory

A genetically engineered microbial protein could mean better data storage.

By using lasers to etch data onto microbial proteins, researchers at the University of Connecticut may have demonstrated a way to produce rewritable holographic memory. Holographic memory stores data in three dimensions instead of two and could make data retrieval hundreds of times faster. The first holographic-memory systems have recently come to market, but they do not yet feature discs rewritable in real time.

Source: Technology Review.

Interview with Vernor Vinge

ActuSF : Your future isn’t hostile, but could appear a bit freaky for readers of today. Is there any state of emergency ?
Vernor Vinge : Unfortunately, I think we face many emergencies. The most serious threats come from cheap superweapons and the social and environmental problems that make the use of such weapons imaginable. On the positive side, we have hundreds of millions of people who are smart, of good nature, and communicating with one another. These people massively outnumber the crazy badguys. In fact, the broad reach of communicating humanity also outnumbers (and intellectually outmatches) the government leaders who play statist games. Furthermore, that broad reach of humanity is the fundamental powerhouse for the economies of all nations which aspire to prosperity or greatness. More and more, governments realize that whatever the laws, they need educated, creative, and relatively satisfied populations. Such populations make very good stewards of the future.

Interview with Vernor Vinge at ActuSF via BoingBoing.

Scientist float levitation theory

St Andrews scientists have discovered a new way of levitating tiny objects - paving the way for future applications in nanotechnology.

Theoretical physicists at the University of St Andrews (UK) have created `incredible levitation effects’ by engineering the force of nature which normally causes objects to stick together by quantum force. By reversing this phenomenon, known as `Casimir force’, the scientists hope to solve the problem of tiny objects sticking together in existing novel nanomachines.

Source: PhysOrg.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s Search for Biological Immortality

Most recently, Dr. Gupta embarked upon a remarkable quest to investigate “new discoveries in the search for immortality to help you age less today.” For his investigation, he interviewed scientists around the globe from Okinawa and Russia to laboratories throughout the United States. His findings resulted in both a book and documentary titled Chasing Life (Warner Wellness).

Source: Life Extension Magazine via Nanodot.

Robot vehicles take on tough jobs

Scientists are focused on developing unmanned machines that can operate in the air, on the ground and under water, doing jobs where deploying people is just too dangerous.

Picture: The GoldenEye takes off and lands vertically and can hover for hours.

Source: BBC.

U.S. professor advocate Ebola for culling 90% of global population

Today, to my dismay, I rediscovered this, a Dr. Pianka who publicly proposed the use of the airborne Ebola virus to kill off 90% of the human race. This man, a member of the Texas Academy of Science and chairman of its Environmental Science Section, received a standing ovation from students and Academy members when he gave a talk on the matter at the University of Texas at Arlington. As Eliezer Yudkowsky points out at Overcoming Bias, it’s silly to be “surprised” by something like this: given the professor’s knowledge set and lax sense of ethics, exterminating 90% of the human population with a flesh-eating virus must seem like a great solution to the planet’s problems, or he wouldn’t be talking about it in the first place.

Via Anissimov. Read the original article here.