60359741
submission
concertina226 writes:
If you're a big fan of Isaac Asimov and sentient robots like Johnny Five and Sonny, you might not be happy to hear that computer science researchers have used mathematical theory to prove that robots capable of feelings and emotions will never exist.
Using a variation of Giulio Tononi's influential mathematical framework for consciousness, a team of researchers from the National University of Ireland have proved mathematically that computers are unable to completely integrate information.
Tononi's 2008 framework argued that integrated information cannot be reduced into smaller components, so for example, if a human were to perceive a red triangle, the human brain would not be able to break down the triangle as a colourless outline of a triangle and a shapeless patch of red at the same time. The researchers disagree.
"There's no computer you could build that could integrate information so that it cannot be edited. Computers can still be useful and intelligent without complete integration, but we will never trust it as we trust a person, as the computer is just following certain algorithms," said Dr Maguire, who led the research.
"We agree with Tononi's approach but we feel his quantification of integrated information didn't work. The cost of integrating something was that you would lose a lot of your memories at the same time, so we decided to provide a new type of quantification."
60351329
submission
concertina226 writes:
University of Texas engineers have created the world's smallest, fastest and longest-running tiny synthetic motor to date – an invention that could change the future of medicine by powering nanobot computers to dispense drugs and fight cancer cells throughout the body.
Led by mechanical engineering assistant professor Donglei "Emma" Fan of the Cockrell School of Engineering, the team of researchers set out to create a three-part nanomotor 500 times smaller than a grain of salt and tiny enough to fit inside a human cell.
While most nanomotors rotate at the speed of 14 to 500 RPMs, the new ultra-high speed nanomotor can rotate for 15 continuous hours at the speed of 18,000 RPMS, which is equivalent to the speed of a jet airplane engine.
60319813
submission
concertina226 writes:
Researchers at the Tohoku University in Japan have created a new type of lithium ion conductor that could greatly decrease the fire risks associated with lithium batteries.
Due to its long life, Lithium ion is currently the preferred choice of rechargeable battery for everything from air planes and electrical cars to wearable tech, smartphones, tablets and implantable medical devices.
However, the compound relies on liquid chemistries, whereby lithium salts dissolve into organic liquid electrolyte solvents that are highly flammable, so in order to remove fire risks, the cells in batteries would need to be completely solid-state.
To achieve this, the researchers used rock salt Lithium Borohydride (LiBH4). This compound has previously been considered for use in lithium batteries, but has so far only been able to work if it is at a high temperature or pressure.
60311281
submission
concertina226 writes:
Researchers have proved that global symmetry is not required in order for a quantum particle to search quickly for an item in a database.
Grover's quantum search algorithm can be formulated as quantum particles having the ability to search for items in an unsorted database by jumping from one node to another, making quantum computing work much faster than traditional computers can.
However, the assertion has always assumed that quantum particles can only hop directly from one item to another, meaning that a quantum computer's ability to search for items depends on what items the particle hops onto.
Researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and the University of California San Diego have used a physics technique known as the "degenerate perturbation theory" to prove that searches can still be sped up without the use of global symmetry.
60309675
submission
concertina226 writes:
In the race to make humans self-sufficient in space, China has pulled ahead of Nasa with the development of Yuegong-1 (Moon Palace-1), a lab simulating the cultivation of plants and micro-organisms on the moon.
Three Chinese volunteers spent 105 days living in a module measuring 500 cubic metres (36 square metres), feeding themselves by growing five types of grains, 15 types of vegetables including soybean, peanuts, peppers, carrots, tomatoes and coriander, one type of fruit and yellow mealworm for protein.
Yuegong-1 is one of the world's most advanced bioregenerative life support systems, also known as a controlled ecological life support system.
Nasa has announced plans to send plants to the moon next year when the top contenders for the Google Lunar XPrize competition try to make a soft moon landing with their own rovers. The US space agency also wants to grow plants in a greenhouse on Mars by 2021.
60284127
submission
concertina226 writes:
Over 22 million women worldwide are currently playing a range of "Otome" romantic dating simulator mobile apps by Japanese app developer Voltage, inspired by Shjo manga comic books for young girls wildly popular in Japan.
Otome apps are interactive 2D animated games on iOS and Android aimed at women in their 20s and 30s.
The user plays the protagonist in chick flick/ soap opera-type premise and can pick from one of five male characters, each of whom comes with a different personality, agenda and storyline.
During the game, the user can choose how the protagonist responds, which affects the outcome of the game.
"We began distributing our first dating sim title 'My lover is the No.1 Host' in December 2006. Up until then we'd been making battle simulation games aimed at men and lyric and song ringtone websites, but the reception we got [was so positive] that we gradually started to specialise in dating sims," said a Voltage spokesperson.
"Dating simulation games came about in Japan during the late 1980s in PC games aimed towards boys and men. The market has been primarily focused on things aimed towards men for a while now, but with the widespread use of mobile phones, we realised that there was a market for these games aimed at women too."
60248847
submission
concertina226 writes:
Acclaimed film director Miyazaki's career has spanned six decades and the works from his animation firm Studio Ghibli have become a major influence in cinema history.
Miyazaki's passion for historic aeroplanes and flying has filtered into almost every single animated film he has made and his Studio Ghibli is named after the Italian Caproni Ca.309 Ghibli World War II fighter, so it is not surprising that he has chosen to pay tribute to not one, but two aerospace legends in The Wind Rises, the final film of his career.
The Wind Rises tells the fictionalised biography of Jiro Horikoshi, the chief engineer behind many Japanese WWI fighter planes, on his journey to build a plane that could match the West's more advanced technology.
The film jumps between Horikoshi's life and his dreams, where he meets his idol, the Italian airplane designer Gianni Caproni.
60160831
submission
concertina226 writes:
Ever wished you could take a vacation from real life to a place where you are always beautiful, young, rich, successful and having a great time? Over 50 million people in the world are doing this right now, in a corner of the web known as Utherverse.
Utherverse is a massively multi-player online game (MMO) that currently comprises 100,000 commercial worlds and over 1 million personal worlds, and once online, you are free to do what you want, without the constraints of everyday life.
You can meet people and make friends through IM text chats, webcam or voice chat, have sex with other avatars, smoke virtual marijuana, party and explore Utherverse's red light district, hold your dream wedding, decorate your dream home or even get a virtual job – whatever you want to do or be, you can.
There is a copious amount of sexually explicit content on Utherverse, and the first world launched in 2004 was Red Light Center, a virtual replica of Amsterdam's red light district.
"In the beginning, adult content was wildly successful on the net and that was how so many people moved onto the internet," Shuster says.
60158459
submission
concertina226 writes:
After 200 years of people searching for evidence of Roman military presence in eastern Germany, state archaeologists have finally announced the discovery of a long-lost ancient military camp near the town of Hachelbich in Thuringia, eastern Germany.
Situated in a broad valley, the camp measures 18 hectares (180,000 square metres) and is thought to have sheltered a Roman legion consisting of up to 5,000 troops.
The camp seems to have been a temporary thing, set-up by the Romans on their way to invade further eastern territory. The camp was first discovered in 2010, but the archaeologists wanted to make absolutely sure that their find was conclusively Roman.
To that end, Thuringia state archaeologist Mario Kuessner and his team excavated two hectares of land and analysed soil disturbances over another 10 hectares in order to discover the outlines of the ancient camp.
60118887
submission
concertina226 writes:
MIT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researchers have devised two different methods to harvest fresh water from fog by using mesh structures and a water droplet network.
Over a million people in the world today do not have a reliable source of water, such as the Atacama Desert in Chile, which is the driest region in the world.
Researchers from MIT's School of Engineering, working together with the Pontificial University of Chile, have developed an inexpensive system of simple suspended mesh structures that can collect up to 500% more water than conventional fog fences.
Meanwhile, ORNL researchers have developed droplet interface bilayers, i.e. stable water droplet networks, which work by placing water droplets on a super-hydrophobic surface infused with an oil coating.
60090857
submission
concertina226 writes:
An internet urban legend about a supposedly haunted Jewish wine cabinet auctioned on eBay in 2004 spawned not only a book and a blockbuster horror film but also a rising trend in selling so-called "haunted" items on eBay.
The tale of the dybbuk box has appeared on the internet on and off since 2004 but it only came to media attention with the release of The Possession, a 2012 film about a girl who is possessed by an evil spirit residing in an old wooden box. Her parents seek help from an Orthodox Jewish rabbi.
In Jewish mythology, a dybbuk ( from Hebrew adhere or cling) is a malicious spirit.
The film is inspired by an urban legend recounted by eBay user Spasmolytic. He chronicled the events that he, the original owner Kevin Mannis and several other people experienced while they were in possession of the box.
The publicity from the film and book has spawned an online market in the UK and the US in objects said to be possessed by a spirit. Spooky-looking vintage china dolls are so popular on eBay that it has given them their own section on the website.
60084599
submission
concertina226 writes:
Scientists at Imperial College have invented a cheap solution that enables people with spinal cord injuries to control and steer a wheelchair, using only their eyes.
Dr Aldo Faisal and his colleagues have spent the last four years using neural technology to develop software that can detect and decode eye movements in human behaviour, turning these movements into directions.
"Even if you have a spinal injury, the one thing that doesn't change is eye movement, so we built a non-invasive system that can decode eye movement [using] cameras to see where you are looking," Faisal told IBTimes UK.
Although other scientists are focusing on moving objects using brainwaves, Faisal believes eye movements present a far more feasible solution.
He says that a brainwave cap "is not only very expensive, but we've heard from manufacturers and healthcare organisations that patients won't adopt the technology as it feels too unnatural and it's too complicated to use."
60004497
submission
concertina226 writes:
Indonesia has banned popular video-sharing website Vimeo for hosting pornographic content.
According to the Jakarta-based Ministry of Communications and Information, numerous complaints had been received about Vimeo, and an investigation by the government turned up several channels on the site containing thousands of videos of sexually explicit content.
The channels highlighted by the Indonesian government include "Art of Nakedness", a Vimeo channel hosting 6,120 videos, "Beautiful of Nakedness" with 1,188 videos, and "Nudie Cutie" with 8,611 videos. The three channels have been up for between eight months and two years.
Indonesia passed an anti-pornography law in 2008 which prohibits anyone from creating, selling or distributing any form of sexually explicit content. The government currently maintains a database of 120 blocked websites on the Trust+ Positif List.
Since the ban was announced, communications and information minister Tifatul Sembiring has been attacked on his official Twitter account.
59995705
submission
concertina226 writes:
Researchers at Simon Fraser University have designed an iOS app to help people to fall asleep that makes use of cognitive science to hijack thoughts so that the brain stops trying to make sense out of them.
The app, mySleepButton, works by reading out a stream of random, unrelated things or scenes that people are asked to imagine. The app might suggest a user thinks of a baby, then a football game, then London, then a bird on a branch.
Users can select a specific timeframe for the app to read out these shuffled thoughts, which change every five to 10 seconds. By performing a "cognitive shuffle", the brain stops trying to make sense of thoughts, helping users fall asleep.
Sleep psychologists have found that when people are drowsy, if they are woken up before they fall asleep, they will experience micro-dreams. Beaudoin realised images were important in attempts to sleep.
59945841
submission
concertina226 writes:
The United Nations will debate the use of killer robots for the first time at the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) this week, but human rights activists are calling for the robots to be banned.
Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic have published a new report entitled "Shaking the Foundations: The Human Rights Implications of Killer Robots", which calls for killer robots to be banned to prevent a potential arms race between countries.
Killer robots, or fully autonomous weapons, do not yet exist but would be the next step after remote-controlled armed drones used by the US military today. Fully autonomous weapons would have the ability to identify and fire on targets without human intervention, putting compliance with international humanitarian laws in doubt.
Among the problems with killer robots highlighted in the report is the risk of criminal liability for a military officer, programmer or weapons manufacturer who created or used an autonomous weapon with intent to kill.
If a robot killed arbitrarily, it would be difficult to hold anyone accountable.
