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Sun Microsystems

Real Nanotechnology Getting Closer, Says Drexler 134

Posted by CmdrTaco from the so-is-fusion-i-hear dept.
destinyland writes "Sun Microsystems has helped fund a 198-page nanotechnology roadmap — but how close are we to real nanotechnology? A science writer asked four nano pioneers, including K. Eric Dexler ('progress is accelerating') and Ralph Merkle ('the exponential trends continue to be exponential') Though we don't have Star Trek replicators yet, the article lists some surprising recent nano developments (artificial tissue, nanoparticle sheets, ultrathin diamond nanorods). And the roadmap's scientists are envisioning targeted cancer therapies, super-efficient solar cells, high-density computer memory chips and even responsive 'smart' materials."
Earth

Geoengineering To Cool the Earth Becoming Thinkable 419

Posted by kdawson from the well-less-unthinkable dept.
johkir writes "As early as 1965, when Al Gore was a freshman in college, a panel of distinguished environmental scientists warned President Lyndon B. Johnson that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels might cause 'marked changes in climate' that 'could be deleterious.' Yet the scientists did not so much as mention the possibility of reducing emissions. Instead they considered one idea: 'spreading very small reflective particles' over about five million square miles of ocean, so as to bounce about 1 percent more sunlight back to space — 'a wacky geoengineering solution.' In the decades since, geoengineering ideas never died, but they did get pushed to the fringe — they were widely perceived by scientists and environmentalists alike as silly and even immoral attempts to avoid addressing the root of the problem of global warming. Three recent developments have brought them back into the mainstream." We've discussed some pretty strange ideas in the geoengineering line over the last few years.

Comment Re:It's not for dumb people (Score 1) 439

by jasticE (#25084913) Attached to: Why Lazy Functional Programming Languages Rule

there is really no natural, real world example of algorithmic recursion, and so the concept is alien.

I object. Recursion is a fundamental property of just about any natural language. You can make sentences infinitely long by recusively adding attributes, subsentences, clauses and whatnot.

I do agree though that the fact that many instructions are expressed in a steap-by-step manner may influence the way we think about algorithms - but it works the other way around too: If we think about algorithms as stepwise instructions, we may forget to look at them in a declarative manner, which can make such programming concepts harder to grasp if you are accustomed to the imperative style.

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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