Asteroid Mining

It seems that a bunch of science fiction increasingly becoming true. Let say, some eccentric billionaires has made startup that aims to mine near-earth asteroids. And its not just some mad idea that wasted a lot of money just for show.

The company, called Planetary Resources, was founded by Eric Anderson and Peter Diamandis, who were involved with the X-Prize space race. The money is coming from people like Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and James Cameron.

Planetary Resources is going to start next year with a robotic survey mission to hunt down the right space rocks. There are many potentially of suitable near-Earth objects that could be accessible to robotic missions. The survey mission will catalog the asteroids in convenient Earth-like orbits to see which ones have the necessary resources. It’s not just precious metals Planetary Resources is looking for, there are other compounds needed to make the project work.

The next part will be to actually start mining for resources. The company will have to develop the technology from scratch to do this, but it might involve slowly dragging an asteroid closer to Earth, possibly even putting it in orbit around the moon. According to Planetary Resources, there could be as much platinum in a single asteroid as humanity has mined in all of history.

Despite sounding like a near-future hard sci-fi novel, the physics of Planetary Resources’ plan aren’t outlandish. There is a lot of engineering and science to be done, but many experts believe it’s possible. This is an era where government funding for space exploration is falling just as private space enterprises picks up. This is the time for something like Planetary Resources to happen.

Along the way to that mine in the sky, new technologies will be developed, and science will be advanced. This is just the beginning of the process, but at least someone is doing what needs to be done to assure humans have a foothold in space.

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The Coolest Robot Videos Ever

Best of the Nanocopters

 

Boston Dynamics’ Big Dog

 

Drum Jam

DIY amusement park ride in Google car

 

SmartBird

 

Towel-folding

Asimo just keeps getting better

 

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MIT Discovers the Location of Memories

Have you ever thought to erase your stressful memories out of your brain? Or maybe implanting some knowledge to your brain in an instant? In not too distant future, you will get what you want. For the First time ever, MIT researchers have shown that memories are stored in specific brain cells. By triggering a small cluster of neurons, the researchers were able to force the subject to recall a specific memory. By removing these neurons, the subject would lose that memory.

To do this, the researchers used optogenetics so that they’re sensitive to light. These modified cells are then triggered using lasers. We should note that MIT’s subjects in this case are mice, but the function is likely the same as the human brain. To perform this experiment, MIT had to breed genetically engineered mice with optogenetic neuron, and we’re a long, long way off breeding humans with optogenetic brains.

In the experiment, MIT gave mice an electric shock to create a fear memory in the hippocampus region of the brain and then activated the neurons where the memory was stored. The mice quickly entered a defensive, immobile crouch, suggesting the fear memory was being recalled.

The question now is how memories are actually encoded. Can we programmatically create new memories and learn entire subjects by inserting a laser into our brain? We know that a cluster of neurons firing can trigger the memory of your first kiss, but why? How can 100 or maybe more neurons, firing in a specific order, conjure up a beautifully detailed image of an elephant? Hopefully MIT isn’t too far away from finding out.

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10 Most Weird Places in the World

1. Aurora Borealis (North Pole)

 

2. Spain Rio Tinto

 3. McMurdo Dry Valleys (Antarctica)

 4. The Richat Structure, near Ouadane, Mauritania

 5. Rotorua, New Zealand

 6. Fly Geyser, Reno

 7. Spotted Lake, Osoyoos, British Columbia

 8. The Bermuda Triangle

 9. Kauai, Hawaii

 10. Mount Roraima (Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana)

 

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iPad 3 Show Its Fang

The iPad 3 is now available for pre-order and will be shipping on March 16. It will have a 9.7-inch 2048×1536 Retina Display, cellular radios up the wazoo (including 4G LTE), a new A5X SoC with quad-core GPU, and an iPhone 4S-grade camera, with the same price as the iPad 2 at $499. The iPad 3 is a bit thicker than iPad 2 (9.4mm vs. 8.6mm) and a little heavier (1.46lbs vs. 1.325lbs), probably because of some addition on the battery. So, the battery life is still 10 hours, and 9 hours on 4G.

Then, what so surprising about it? Of course it is hard to believe that a 9.7-inch display can handle 2048x1536 resolution. It is like you are watching some 20-inch monitor on a less than 10-inch device. And with the power of new A5X SoC with quad-core GPU, it will blow away everything on its way, not just tablet, any portable game console will be kneel on fear. But put that aside for now, how about the battery and the price?

The new processor, radios, and reduced power consumption (to keep the battery life the same) all thanks to a new 28nm fabrication process. By dropping down from 40nm to 28nm, Apple instantly reduces power consumption by around 30%. And pressumable that the two Cortex-A9 cores might have been tweaked to reduce their power usage. The 4G radio is probably a second-generation 28nm part provided by Qualcomm. It will suck down power, but significantly less than the first-generation 40nm parts. 28nm parts are cheaper to produce too, because you can squeeze more of them onto the same silicon wafer.

But it won’t be without issues. First, just like with the iPhone 4, app developers will have to create new assets and creating icons and textures that look good at 264 PPI, and that won’t be cheap or easy. And then, unless Apple has somehow reinvented backlight, LCD, or lithium-ion battery tech, there’s no way the iPad HD will be comparable to the iPad 2 in terms of weight, cost, or longevity.

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Graphene, New Step to Perfect Water Filtering

For now, graphene is known as one of the wonder of science world. Graphene is a thin layer of carbon atoms, with only a single of atom in thickness. It is one of the most promising materials discovered in a long time. Graphene take all the praise because of its capability to reinforce almost all of the inventions that human ever created. Despite of its fantastic thickness, graphene is the most conductive material in the world. And believe it or not, incredibly strong. It can be used for superconductor, anticorrosive, bulletproof materials, and even water filter.

Researchers from the University Manchester in England, have discovered one of the most important properties of graphene yet. It’s impermeable to everything but water. It is the perfect water filter.

In an experiment, the University of Manchester researchers filled a metal container with a variety of liquids and gases and then covered it with a film of graphene oxide. It was unable to allow any molecules leaving the container, except for water vapor. The graphene oxide filter even prevented helium gas from pass through.

In another experiment, Dr Nair & Co. sealed a bottle of vodka with the graphene filter. And again, this allowed just the water to evaporate, and leave a super-vodka. It is easy to see the potential of this new filter. With such horrible condition in consuming clear water in this time, water filtration is one of the most valuable topics we can discuse. And if graphene oxide really is completely impermeable to everything except water, this new filter would make clean water out of anything, as easy as pouring a tea on a cup.

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