Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Quantum Memory Storage to Help Quantum Communications Go the Distance (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: The technologies made possible by breakthroughs in quantum physics have already provided the means of quantum cryptography, and are gradually paving the way toward powerful, practical, everyday quantum computers, and even quantum teleportation. Unfortunately, without corresponding atomic memories to appropriately store quantum-specific information, the myriad possibilities of these technologies are becoming increasingly difficult to advance. To help address this problem, scientists from the University of Warsaw (FUW) claim to have developed an atomic memory that has both exceptional memory properties and a construction elegant in its simplicity.

Submission + - Swiss Scientists Discover DNA Remains Active After Space Journey and Re-entry (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: It may sound like the first chapter of a Quatermass thriller, but scientists from the University of Zurich (UZH) have discovered that DNA can survive not only a flight through space, but also re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere and still remain active. The findings are based on suborbital rocket flights and could have considerable impact on questions about the origins of life on Earth and the problems of terrestrial space probes contaminating other planets.

Submission + - Uber's Android App Caught Reporting Data Back Without Permission (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: Security researcher GironSec has pulled Uber's Android app apart and discovered that it's sending a huge amount of personal data back to base – including your call logs, what apps you've got installed, whether your phone is vulnerable to certain malware, whether your phone is rooted, and your SMS and MMS logs, which it explicitly doesn't have permission to do. It's the latest in a series of big-time missteps for a company whose core business model is, frankly, illegal in most of its markets as well.

Submission + - WaveNET – the Floating, Flexible Wave Energy Generator (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: Scotland's Albatern is putting a new, modular spin on renewable energy generation. WaveNET is a scalable array of floating "Squid" generator units that harvest wave energy as their buoyant arms rise and fall with the motion of the waves. Each Squid can link up to as many as three others, effectively creating a large, floating grid that's flexible in every direction. The bigger this grid gets, the more efficient it becomes at harvesting energy, and the more different wave movements it can extract energy from. Albatern's 10-year target is to have 1.25 kilometer-long floating energy farms pumping out as much as 100 megawatts by 2024.

Submission + - NASA to Deploy Four Spacecraft to Study Magnetic Reconnection (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: NASA has released a video depicting the initial deployment of an undertaking designed to study a phenomenon known as magnetic reconnection. The launch of the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission will see four identical spacecraft deployed from a single Atlas V rocket, set to lift off from cape Canaveral, Florida, no earlier than March next year.

Submission + - Nuclear Weapons Write Their Own Security Codes (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: Nuclear weapons are a paradox. No one in their right mind wants to use one, but if they're to act as a deterrent, they need to be accessible. The trick is to make sure that access is only available to those with the proper authority. To prevent a real life General Jack D Ripper from starting World War III, Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Defense Technologies Division is developing a system that uses a nuclear weapon's own radiation to protect itself from tampering.

Submission + - People Trained to Experience an Overlap in Senses Also Receive IQ Boost (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: Tasting lemons when they see a number seven, regarding a certain letter as being yellow in color. Not a great deal is known about why some people experience an overlapping of the senses, a phenomena known as synesthesia. But a new study conducted at the University of Sussex has suggested that specific training of the mind can induce the effects of the condition. The study even suggests that such training can boost a person's IQ.

Submission + - Martin Jetpack Closer to Takeoff in First Responder Applications (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: Last year's redesign of the long-awaited Martin Jetpack was accompanied by plans to begin commercial sales in 2014, starting with emergency response services and individual sales to follow thereafter. The release date for the first responder Jetpack has since been revised to 2016, a prediction bolstered by the fresh announcement of a partnership between Martin Aircraft Company and US company Avwatch to develop air-based, first responder solutions for the US Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense.

Submission + - ONR Augmented Reality System Allows Marines to Train Anywhere (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: While products like Google Glass tend to be the most publicized applications of augmented reality, uses of the technology extend far beyond niche consumer tech. To that end, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) has unveiled the Augmented Immersive Team Trainer (AITT), a system that aims to transform any location into a dynamic, cost-effective training ground for Marines.

Submission + - Data Transmitted Across Vienna Using Twisted Beams of Light (gizmag.com) 1

Zothecula writes: The city of Vienna has hosted a laser light show with a twist, with University of Vienna scientists having tested a new way of transmitting data over a light beam. The technique, which exploits classical and quantum mechanics, promises to provide the ability to send much more information through the air much more securely.

Submission + - Scallop Microbots Designed to Swim Through Your Bodily Fluids (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: In the 1960s science fiction film Fantastic Voyage, audiences thrilled to the idea of shrinking a submarine and the people inside it to microscopic dimensions and injecting it into a person’s bloodstream. At the time it was just fantasy and as fantastic an idea as its title suggested. Today, however, micro-miniature travelers in your body have come one step closer to reality. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute have been experimenting with real micro-sized robots that literally swim through your bodily fluids and could be used to deliver drugs or other medical relief in a highly-targeted way.

Submission + - New Technique for Generating Electricity From Mechanical Vibrations (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: Electrical energy is normally generated through heat, motion, nuclear transformation, or chemical reactions, but now scientists at VTT Technical Research Center of Finland have devised a new method that involves mechanical vibrations. They figured out how to "harvest" the vibrational energy that occurs naturally when two surfaces with different work functions are connected via electrodes, and this energy could potentially be used to power wearables and other low-power electronics.

Submission + - New Tech Could Allow Electric Cars' Body Panels to Store Energy (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: Imagine opening up an electric car and finding no batteries. An absent-minded factory worker or magic? Perhaps neither. If nanotechnology scientists led by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) are on the right track, it may one day be a reality as cars are powered not by batteries, but their body panels – inside which are sandwiched a new breed of supercapacitors.

Slashdot Top Deals

No man is an island if he's on at least one mailing list.

Working...