Comment Re:Yes, obviously? (Score 1) 177
Yep, I agree with you. But I don't know why it is a revelation for some physicists. What school did they go to?
Comment spooky action at a distance (Score 1) 166
The only thing I was looking in the paper was the explanation of spooky action at a distance. There is no explanation I could find. Anybody?
He tackles causality but I did not see him using it to explain the spooky-action-at-a-distance phenomena. This phenomenon is the most puzzling item in the quantum world. How come 2 points (out of 10^400) points can communicate with each other.
Comment Re:And here it comes... (Score 0) 373
"... What form of life on earth does not age and die? Name one." Bacteria.
"What does life on earth look like if we cure aging? Well, we better well cure the problem of giving birth at the same time, doncha think?" If we live healthy and young for 200 years, for example, giving birth may occur at older age. Why would you want to have kids every single year if you live to 200? Why not wait till you 118, for example.
Look at what happens in countries of Europe, for example. People choose not to have children enough to replenish the population, a so-called negative birth rate. This might happen in the future everywhere.
Comment Re: And here it comes... (Score 1) 373
"... there would need to be a reason to share it with commoners". All governments on earth will want all the commoners to stay healthy and be productive instead of being retired, sick, and be supported by other people taxes. It's in the interest of economy.
Comment Re:And here it comes... (Score 1) 373
Last 6000 years of communication at a distance? Shouting, smoke signals, light signals, etc.
Anti-aging startups? www.oisinbio.com, unitybiotechnology.com, Pentraxin Therapeutics, sensproject21.org, bioviva-science.com, just to name a few.
Comment Re:And here it comes... (Score 3, Insightful) 373
Back in 80s only really rich could get cell phones. They started the trend. Now you and I can enjoy it too. Yes, it took some time, but they are cheap and everybody can afford them. The rich lead the way.
Same with curing aging. It must be billionaires leading the way. You and I can not afford spending millions on biomedical research. Or can you?
I say few dozen years from now, our kids will wonder why we all did not invest in our future and make our 80s and 90s to be healthy living time instead we died slowly in decrepitude and pain.
Or think this way, ask your grandma if she loves to have Alzheimer or Parkinson.
Go Thiel !!!
Comment size of volume pixel (grain) (Score 1) 532
Interestingly,
1) The number of grains is about 10^123. Number 123 sounds familiar.
2) Changing the size (radius) of the universe from 15 billion years to say 30 billion years does not change the size of the volume grain that much, which is about the size of an electron! Wikipedia says: "The classical electron radius is 2.8179 × 1015 m"
3) You can try to back calculate the size (radius) of the universe, given that the size of the volume grain is equal to the size of the electron.. It turns to be 27.2 billion years (which might be about twice as much as the size of the currently visible universe.)
Here are the back of the envelope calculations:
Radius of the universe, assume, = 15 billion light years = 4.73*10^17 light seconds
Speed of light = 3.00 * 10^8 m/s
Universe radius, r = 3.00*10^8 m/s * 4.73*10^17 s = 1.42*10^42 m
Area of the sphere of the universe, A = 4*pi*r^2 = 2.53*10^53 m^2
Volume of the sphere of the universe, V = 4/3*pi*r^3 = 1.20*10^79 m^3
Planck distance = 1.616*10^-35 m
Number of pixels (grains of the size of Plank distance) on a square meter = 3.83*10^69
Number of pixels (grains) on the sphere, Ns = 9.69*10^122
size of volume pixels (grains) in the volume of the sphere, rV = 1/ [ ( Ns / V ) ^ (1/3) ] = 2.13*10^-15m
(check: number of volume grains in the universe = number of grains in 1m^3 * volume of universe in meters = (1/2.13*10^-15)^3 * 1.20*10^73 m^3 = 9.69*10^122)
nanotech.republika.pl
Irrelevant Scientific Research Honored 93
More than 1,000 people attended this year's Ig Nobel awards, a light-hearted alternative to the Nobel Prizes. Scientists who unlocked the inner secrets of dog fleas, crisps and tangled string swept the show. Handing out awards was William Lipscomb, the 1976 Nobel laureate for chemistry, also doubling Thursday, at the age of 89, as the hero in the "Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest." The prize itself is a plaque that reads, "This Ig Nobel Prize is awarded in the year 2008 to an Ig Nobel Prize Winner, in recognition of the Ig Nobel Prize Winners' Ig Nobel Prize winning achievement." At last I can submit my paper, "Everything is Really Wet, Even Dry Stuff." for peer review.
An Open Source Legal Breakthrough 292
jammag writes "Open source advocate Bruce Perens writes in Datamation about a major court victory for open source: 'An appeals court has erased most of the doubt around Open Source licensing, permanently, in a decision that was extremely favorable toward projects like GNU, Creative Commons, Wikipedia, and Linux.' The case, Jacobsen v. Katzer, revolved around free software coded by Bob Jacobsen that Katzer used in a proprietary application and then patented. When Katzer started sending invoices to Jacobsen (for what was essentially Jacobsen's own work), Jacobsen took the case to court and scored a victory that — for the first time — lays down a legal foundation for the protection of open source developers. The case hasn't generated as many headlines as it should."
How Do I Talk To 4th Graders About IT? 531
Tsunayoshi writes "My son volunteered me to give a presentation on what I do for a living for career day at his elementary school. I need to come up with a roughly 20-minute presentation to be given to 4-5 different classrooms. I am a systems administrator, primarily Unix/Linux and enterprise NAS/SAN storage, working for an aerospace company. I was thinking something along the lines of explaining how some everyday things they experience (websites, telephone systems, etc.) all depend on servers, and those servers are maintained by systems administrators. I was also going to talk about what I do specifically, which is maintain the computer systems that allow the really smart rocket scientists to get things into space. Am I on the right track? Can anyone suggest some good (and cheap/easy to make) visual aids?"
Nero Unveils LiquidTV, TiVo For Your Computer 156
bigwophh writes to mention HotHardware is reporting that Nero has decided to try a new step forward for home theater PCs by bringing the TiVo service to your computer. The new LiquidTV / TiVo PC package includes a (USB-based) high definition ATSC digital/analog TV tuner, antenna, remote control, IR blaster, Nero's LiquidTV software, and a 12-month subscription to the TiVo service for around $200. You can cut that in half if you already have a compatible TV tuner. This is the first time that TiVo has licensed their intuitive interface for a PC package. In addition to the TiVo interface, the rest of the LiquidTV software package allows you to burn your TV recordings to DVD or transfer the videos to other computers, iPods, PSP, or "other mobile devices." This service is due to launch next month.
Comment Not an orbital velocity (Score 4, Informative) 518
To achieve a full orbit, the velocity must be 7.8 km/s or about 23 Mach. 5200m/s is not enough to stay in orbit. It more like suborbital flight.
World's Oldest Rocks Found 254
Smivs writes "The BBC reports that Earth's most ancient rocks, with an age of 4.28 billion years, have been found on the shore of Hudson Bay, Canada. Writing in Science journal, a team reports finding that a sample of Nuvvuagittuq greenstone is 250 million years older than any rocks known. It may even hold evidence of activity by ancient life forms. If so, it would be the earliest evidence of life on Earth — but co-author Don Francis cautioned that this had not been established. 'The rocks contain a very special chemical signature — one that can only be found in rocks which are very, very old,' he said."
Software Update Makes iTunes Accessible To Blind Users 148
rickthewizkid writes "Recent updates to the iTunes software allow blind users to access the program without assistance. From the article: 'The new software — which transforms the written information on an iTunes-linked computer screen into speech or Braille — stemmed from an agreement between Apple, the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer company, the National Federation of the Blind and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.'" It's not just the actual iTunes app, though; the article notes that this update makes iTunes U useable as well.
On Fourth Launch Attempt, SpaceX Falcon 1 Reaches Orbit 518
xp65 writes with the just-announced success of Elon Musk's SpaceX's long efforts to reach orbit with a privately-developed launching craft: "T+0:08:21 Falcon 1 reached orbital velocity, 5200 m/s Nominal Second stage cut off (SECO) — Falcon 1 has made history as the first privately developed liquid fueled launch vehicle to achieve earth orbit!"
dbullard adds "This was a completely new vehicle — it's not using any previously developed hardware. All developed from scratch. No government supplied hardware, Russian engines, or old ICBM motors. My hat's off to the employees of Space X — all 550 of them. (Note — no 'cast of thousands,' just 550).
They've got video of the entire launch."
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