54558063
submission
advid.net writes:
The designer and developer of the world's most advanced total artificial heart project announces the first implantation of its artificial heart, as part of its feasibility study and in accordance with the approvals granted by the French health authority and the ethics committee.
This artificial heart is total, biocompatible and self-regulated, it slows down or accelerates when needed. The external battery is on a belt.
The procedure was performed on December 18, 2013 by the Georges Pompidou European Hospital team in Paris — a world first.
This first implant went smoothly, with the prosthesis automatically providing normal blood flow at a physiological rate. The patient is currently being monitored in intensive care. He is awake and able to talk to his family.
English article
Two videos about this total artificial heart
25843406
submission
advid.net writes:
A 'walking' drop on a liquid surface behave like a particle with wave properties: diffraction, interference patterns, vibration quantization.
First, in a vibrating container they put a liquid like silicon oil, vibrations are just bellow the Faraday instability threshold. Then a drop of the same liquid is dropped on the surface, but it does not coalesce, it bounces. And further bounces make a static wave pattern on the liquid surface just bellow the drop and its immediate neighborhood. As the spike grows, instability increases and the drop slides down the spike, and start moving horizontally.
Then they have a combo object drop+wave pattern moving at 1/10th the speed of wave in this liquid, straight. They call it a walker.
What is really amazing is that the wave pattern below the drop has some kind of memory: it has accumulated energy from several drop bounces. It can also make the drop see "forward", as the small wave pattern bounces back from nearby obstacles. So the drop is "aware" of its environment and "recall" the path it has followed.
Diffraction is observed and explained by the multiple reflexions the wave makes when the drop passes through a small hole, randomizing the wave pattern and the angle of the path afterward. Interference patterns observed are explained a la de Broglie: as the drop passes through one of the two holes, its associated wave passes through both, carrying forward the message of the second hole to the drop and changing the statistical repartition of the drop's path direction. One more stunning result: they are circling the drop by moving the container (Coriolis), then the associated wave adopts a discrete series of pattern, depending on the speed and radius. Very much like the energy quantization of electrons.
English (and French) abstract
A short article (French but it has photos and formulas)
Full thesis (French,10Mb)
23981666
submission
advid.net writes:
The long awaited Duke Nukem Forever, the king of the vaporware, was — at last — finished this year. During those years I noticed that the Duke has many followers here on /.
This is why I ask the crowd:
What would you have liked to get instead of this disappointing game?
Or what the next Duke Nukem should be like ?
It seems everyone agrees with games reviews: they took out the fun that DN3D once had.
Obviously we want back:
— maps free to explore, no more lame disneyland path to follow like a track.
— 10 weapons to carry (not counting fists and boots), quick change by keyboard (PC gamers), because choosing the perfect weapon for a job is fun.
— fast Duke, not one that can't breath after a 10s sprint. And higher jumps also.
These are the minimum requirements.
And the paradox is that going back to this old gameplay would lead to a new kind of FPS among those we have today. Don't you think so?
Along with that I wonder if you have some other ideas.
Maybe the Ego thing is a good idea to keep, or some combination with life points ?
Interaction with the maps is poor in Duke Nukem Forever, it could be improved with the next Duke Nukem, but I know it is quite some work for developer teams. I think it doesn't matter if you can't destroy walls, doors, and furniture; but some new unusual and innovative map and object interactions should be worked out for the fun and the gameplay.
Then, humor and story are more a matter of taste.
I would suggest a worldwide contest to send new jokes, they will be kept secret unless discarded by some kind of small team of dedicated fans.
Collaborate to build a new story without telling the whole picture or all the details to gamers: do you have any experience in such participation?
Also: dying. Duke should die with more class. Bloody broken glasses aren't enough. Different kinds of death, maybe from another point of view, not with Duke's eyes.
By the way, are the other camera angles gone?
One last question:
How could we call the next Duke Nukem adventure ?
I suggest Duke Nukem Unleashed.
(by contrast to Duke Nukem Forever, very restrained)
I hope someone will be able to push those requirements and your answers to an editor, so the Duke that we like can come back... when finished !
23350338
submission
advid.net writes:
As I browsed through MozilllaNews links on my Slashdot page, I realize that they all direct to the same cybersquatter page with a very poor content.
What happened? Did they forgot to renew the domain subscription?
Should Slashdot remove this section until they get back their domain?
