• Media via Hang et al., Sci. Robot. 4, eaau6637 (2019), Credit: Hang et al., Sci. Robot. 4, eaau6637 (2019), Yale University

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

15-03-2019 om 00:58 geschreven door peter  

Move over Doctor Who: 'Time machine' created in Russia moves tiny particles a fraction of a second into the past

• Russian physicists have effectively achieved the same principle of time travel 
• They loosely described it as moving in the opposite direction of 'time's arrow' 
• The researchers worked with electrons in the realm of quantum mechanics
• Broken pool balls were able to re-order themselves into their original formation

By VICTORIA BELL FOR MAILONLINE

A 'time machine' that moves tiny particles a fraction of a second into the past was built in Russia, scientists have claimed.

It may not rival Dr Who's Tardis but researchers have described it as being able to move the smaller-than-atom sized objects in the opposite direction of 'time's arrow'. 

The experiments involved electrons - negatively charged particles that make up an atom - found in the realm of quantum mechanics, the study of sub-atomic particles. 

They gave the analogy of a break for a game of pool, in which the balls are substitutes for the electrons.

After the break the 'balls' are scattered in what should be a haphazard way, according to the laws of physics. 

But researchers managed to make them reform in their original triangle 'break' order - appearing as if they were turning back time - using a special quantum computer.

Scroll down for video 

A 'time machine' that moves tiny particles a fraction of a second into the past has built in Russia, scientists have claimed. The team gave the analogy of a break for a game of pool. The 'balls' scattered and should have appeared to split in a haphazard way. But researchers managed to make them reform in their original order in the snooker triangle (pictured)

Researchers, from the Laboratory of the Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics & Technology (MIPT), say that they have effectively defied the second law of thermodynamics with the experiment.

This is a rule within physics that governs the direction of events from the past to the future, stating that everything in our universe tends towards decay.

The 'time machine' is built from a basic quantum computer, which is made up of 'qubits'. 

These are units of information described by a 'one', a 'zero', or a mixed 'superposition' of both, that can be stored on an electron.

In the experiment an 'evolution program' was launched which caused the qubits to become an increasingly complex changing pattern of zeros and ones. 

During this process, order was lost - just as it is when the pool balls are struck and scattered with a cue. Another program then modified the state of the quantum computer in such a way that it evolved 'backwards', from chaos to order.

The state of the qubits was rewound back to its original starting point. 

To an outside observer, it looks as if time is running backwards, said lead researcher Dr Gordey Lesovik, who heads the laboratory of the Physics of Quantum Information.

'We have artificially created a state that evolves in a direction opposite to that of the thermodynamic arrow of time.' 

The 'time machine', described in the journal Scientific Reports consists of a rudimentary quantum computer made up of electron 'qubits'.  

In the experiment an 'evolution program' was launched which caused the qubits to become an increasingly complex changing pattern of zeros and ones. 

During this process, order was lost - just as it is when the pool balls are struck and scattered with a cue. 

Another program then modified the state of the quantum computer in such a way that it evolved 'backwards', from chaos to order. 

It may not be the Tardis, a fictional time machine that appears in Doctor Who, pictured here, but physicists have loosely described as moving in the direction of 'time's arrow'. The team worked with electrons in the realm of quantum mechanics

The state of the qubits was rewound back to its original starting point. 

The scientists found that, working with just two qubits, 'time reversal' was achieved with a success rate of 85 per cent. 

When three qubits were involved more errors occurred, resulting in a 50 per cent success rate. 

The experiment could have a practical application in the development of quantum computers, the scientists said. 

'Our algorithm could be updated and used to test programs written for quantum computers and eliminate noise and errors,' said Dr Lesovik. 

WHAT IS A QUANTUM COMPUTER AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

The key to a quantum computer is its ability to operate on the basis of a circuit not only being 'on' or 'off', but occupying a state that is both 'on' and 'off' at the same time.

While this may seem strange, it's down to the laws of quantum mechanics, which govern the behaviour of the particles which make up an atom.

At this micro scale, matter acts in ways that would be impossible at the macro scale of the universe we live in.

Quantum mechanics allows these extremely small particles to exist in multiple states, known as 'superposition', until they are either seen or interfered with.

A scanning tunneling microscope shows a quantum bit from a phosphorus atom precisely positioned in silicon. Scientists have discovered how to make the qubits 'talk to one another

A good analogy is that of a coin spinning in the air. It cannot be said to be either a 'heads' or 'tails' until it lands.

The heart of modern computing is binary code, which has served computers for decades.

While a classical computer has 'bits' made up of zeros and ones, a quantum computer has 'qubits' which can take on the value of zero or one, or even both simultaneously.   

One of the major stumbling blocks for the development of quantum computers has been demonstrating they can beat classical computers.

Google, IBM, and Intel are among companies competing to achieve this.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

14-03-2019 om 23:59 geschreven door peter  

THIS NEW 3D PRINTER STRAIGHT OUT OF STAR TREK USES LIGHT TO MATERIALIZE OBJECTS

University of California, Berkeley has developed a new type of 3D printer that uses rays of light to turn liquids into solids in a matter of minutes. Dubbed the ‘The Replicator’ by its creators referencing the famous Star Trek technology; the new device can form objects, smoother, faster and with more complex than traditional 3D printers.

https://i.makeagif.com/media/5-28-2016/UabBmB.gif

It also has the ability to add new materials to existing objects, for example adding a handle to a cup.

The UC Berkeley researchers say the printer could completely change the way products are imagined and prototyped.

“I think this is a route to being able to mass-customize objects even more, whether they are prosthetics or running shoes,” said Hayden Taylor, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley and senior author of a paper describing the printer, which appears online today (Jan. 31) in the journal Science.

Printer opens possibilities for new types of design ideation

“The fact that you could take a metallic component or something from another manufacturing process and add on customizable geometry, I think that may change the way products are designed,” Taylor said.

Traditional 3D printers build up objects layer by layer in either plastic or metal.

The Replicator uses a gooey liquid that turns to a solid when exposed to different thresholds of light. It works when carefully calibrated light waves are projected onto a rotating cylinder of liquid which transforms the object ‘all at once’.

“Basically, you’ve got an off-the-shelf video projector, which I literally brought in from home, and then you plug it into a laptop and use it to project a series of computed images, while a motor turns a cylinder that has a 3D printing resin in it,” Taylor explained.

“Obviously there are a lot of subtleties to it — how you formulate the resin, and, above all, how you compute the images that are going to be projected, but the barrier to creating a very simple version of this tool is not that high.”

3D printing becomes truly 3D

In a series of test prints, Taylor and his team made several small objects including a tiny replica of Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’. The printer can currently make objects up to four inches in diameter.

“This is the first case where we don’t need to build up custom 3D parts layer by layer,” said Brett Kelly, co-first author on the paper who completed the work while a graduate student working jointly at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“It makes 3D printing truly three-dimensional.”

The printer’s design was inspired by CT scans used by doctors to locate tumors, CT scans work by projecting X-rays into the body from all different angles. By analyzing the patterns of transmitted energy exposes the geometry of the object.

Taylor said they took this idea and basically reversed it.

“We are trying to create an object rather than measure an object, but actually a lot of the underlying theory that enables us to do this can be translated from the theory that underlies computed tomography.”

The Replicators inventors have filed a patent but hope to share their knowledge with other researchers who will continue to develop the technology.

{ https://thetruthrevolution.net/ }

09-03-2019 om 22:58 geschreven door peter  

MIT’s newest, diminutive robot can do backflips and outrun you in every single way

BY ALEXANDRU MICU

MIT’s newest robot is cute, tiny, modular, and could run rings around you.

*robotic cheetah noises*.
Image credits Bryce Vickmark.

Researchers at MIT have developed a ‘mini cheetah’ robot whose range of motion, they boast, would rival those of a champion gymnast. This four-legged robot (hardly more than a powerpack on legs) can move, bend, and swing its legs in a wide range of motions, which allows it to handle uneven terrain about twice as fast as a human, and even walk upside-down. The robot, its developers add, is also “virtually indestructible” at least as falling or slamming into stuff is concerned.

Skynet’s newest pet

The robot weighs in at a paltry 20 pounds, but don’t let its diminutive stature fool you. The mini cheetah can perform some really impressive tricks, even being able to perform a 360-degree backflip from a standing position. If kicked to the ground, or if it falls flat, the robot can quickly recover with what MIT’s press release describes as a “swift, kung-fu-like swing of its elbows.” Apparently, nobody at MIT has ever seen Terminator.

But, the mini cheetah isn’t just about daredevil moves — it’s also designed to be highly modular and dirt cheap (for a robot). Each of its four limbs is powered by three identical electric motors (one for each axis) that the team developed solely from off-the-shelf parts. Each motor (as well as most other parts) can be easily replaced in case of damage.

“You could put these parts together, almost like Legos,” says lead developer Benjamin Katz, a technical associate in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

“A big part of why we built this robot is that it makes it so easy to experiment and just try crazy things, because the robot is super robust and doesn’t break easily, and if it does break, it’s easy and not very expensive to fix.”

The mini cheetah draws heavily from its much larger predecessor, Cheetah 3. The team specifically aimed to make it smaller, easier to repair, more dynamic, and cheaper so thatthey would create a platform on which more researchers can test movement algorithms. The modular layout also makes it highly customizable. In Cheetah 3, Katz explains, you had to “do a ton of redesign” to change or install any parts since “everything is super integrated”. In the mini cheetah, installing a new arm is as simple as adding some more motors.

“Eventually, I’m hoping we could have a robotic dog race through an obstacle course, where each team controls a mini cheetah with different algorithms, and we can see which strategy is more effective. That’s how you accelerate research.”

Each of the robot’s 12 motors is about the size of a Mason jar lid and comes with a gearbox that provides a 6:1 gear reduction, enabling the rotor to provide six times the torque that it normally would. A sensor permanently measures the angle and orientation of the motor and its associated limb, allowing the robot to keep tabs on its shape.

It’s also freaking adorable:

This lightweight, high-torque, low-inertia design allows the robot to execute fast, dynamic maneuvers and make high-force impacts on the ground without breaking any gears or limbs. The team tested their cheetah through the hallways of MIT’s Pappalardo Lab and along the slightly uneven ground of Killian Court. In both cases, it managed to move at around 5 miles (8 km) per hour. Your average human, for context, walks at about 3 miles per hour.

“The rate at which it can change forces on the ground is really fast,” Katz says. “When it’s running, its feet are only on the ground for something like 150 milliseconds at a time, during which a computer tells it to increase the force on the foot, then change it to balance, and then decrease that force really fast to lift up. So it can do really dynamic stuff, like jump in the air with every step, or run with two feet on the ground at a time. Most robots aren’t capable of doing this, so move much slower.”

They also wrote special code to direct the robot to twist and stretch, showcasing its range of motion and ability to rotate its limbs and joints while maintaining balance. The robot can also recover from unexpected impacts, and the team programmed it to automatically shut down when kicked to the ground. “It assumes something terrible has gone wrong,” Katz explains, “so it just turns off, and all the legs fly wherever they go.” When given a command to restart, the bot determines its orientation and performs a preprogrammed maneuver to pop itself back on all fours.

The team, funnily enough, also put a lot of effort into programming the bot to perform backflips.

“The first time we tried it, it miraculously worked,” Katz says.

“This is super exciting,” Kim adds. “Imagine Cheetah 3 doing a backflip — it would crash and probably destroy the treadmill. We could do this with the mini cheetah on a desktop.”

The team is building about 10 more mini cheetahs, which they plan to loan to other research groups. They’re also looking into instilling a (fittingly) very cat-like ability in their mini cheetahs, as well:

“We’re working now on a landing controller, the idea being that I want to be able to pick up the robot and toss it, and just have it land on its feet,” Katz says. “Say you wanted to throw the robot into the window of a building and have it go explore inside the building. You could do that.”

I have to admit, the idea of casually launching a robot out the window (there’s a word for that, by the way: defenestration) with complete disregard, and having it come back a few minutes later with its task complete, is hilarious to me. And probably why they will, eventually, learn to hate us.

Still, doom at the hands of our own creations is still a ways away, and not completely certain. Until then, the team will be presenting the mini cheetah’s design at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, in May. No word on whether they’ll be giving these robots out at the conference, but if they are, I’m calling major dibs.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

06-03-2019 om 01:21 geschreven door peter  

One sign that robots are increasingly capable of human tasks? Companies are buying a lot more them: Some 35,880 robots were shipped to North American companies last year, according to new data from the Association of Advancing Automation, seven percent more than 2017, setting a new record. In particular, non-automotive companies picked up the pace of automation, with shipments growing 41 percent.

Robot purchases picked up in a variety of industries except for, notably, the auto industry, which has traditionally been at the forefront of automated assembly (car companies still account for a little more than half of robotics purchases, according to the AAA’s data). Food and consumer good companies picked up their pace of automation the most, with shipments up 48 percent. Plastics, life sciences, and electronics companies all put more robots to work in 2018 as well.

“While the automotive industry has always led the way in implementing robotics here in North America, we are quite pleased to see other industries continuing to realize the benefits of automation,” said Jeff Burnstein, President of the Association for Advancing Automation, in a statement released with the report.

Robots are simply getting better: The World Economic Forum estimates that robots or automation will be capable of replicating more than half of workplace tasks by 2025, including 28 percent of tasks that involve decision-making, up from about 19 percent today. As 5G networks begin to roll out over the next two years, robots will also benefit from significantly from the extra bandwidth and latency improvements, making them much more dextrous and quick-to-react to their surroundings.

The job market is particularly strong, with unemployment hitting the lowest level it’s been at in nearly half a century, as the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. That’s finally starting to translate into stiff competition to find even relatively “low-skill” workers to fill jobs, which can drive up the economic incentive to automate, because the savings-per-worker is greater.

Check out the latest video from the Inverse YouTube channel 🔥📺🔥:

As always, the debate about how worried we need to be about this trend rages. As these trends — better, smarter, robots and machines capable of doing more — continue, some have argued that it could create a “barbell” economy, i.e. an economy where jobs are concentrated on low-paying and high-paying extremes instead of there being a large middle class.

The Brookings Institute published this month an alarming paper suggesting that automation’s job displacement will be regionally concentrated. In the future, life will be particularly difficult for people in cities with fewer than 100,000 people and in rural areas. In some regions, almost half of the jobs people have may be susceptible to automation.

Then again, people have always feared that the robots are coming for our jobs. And just because the tech is there, doesn’t mean replacing a person with a cheaper robot is always going to be preferable. As the economist Oren Cass recently pointed out to the New Yorker’s Jill Lepore, just because parents can put their kids on an autonomously driven school buses doesn’t mean they will.

Cultural resistance to robots may provide some measure of comfort in the short term, but, unfortunately, it may only be a matter of time before robots get pretty good at babysitting, too.

04-03-2019 om 18:05 geschreven door peter  

In November, 2018, a Chinese biophysicist named He Jiankui came into the international spotlight after reports that he used the CRISPR gene editing technology to create the first genetically modified humans. The genetically modified twins, known by the pseudonyms Lulu and Nana, were born on November 8, 2018, to widespread international condemnation of He’s actions, seen by a large part of the scientific community as reckless tinkering. He Jiankui says the genetic modifications done to the twin baby girls were to make them immune to the HIV virus. How could anyone be mad about that? Well, it turns out that besides HIV immunity, He Jiankui’s tinkering might have “accidentally” given the twins super intelligence, enhancing their cognition, memory, and ability to learn. Accidentally.

According to the MIT Technology Review, the HIV immunity and enhanced intelligence are inseparable from one another. To make Lulu and Nana HIV immune, He used CRISPR to delete a gene known as CCR5. HIV needs the CCR5 gene in infect blood cells. But there’s another interesting part of the CCR5 gene: it’s been known since 2016 that removing the gene from mice enhances their memories. What’s more, people who are naturally lacking CCR5 seem to recover better from strokes and perform better in school. A recent journal article names CCR5 as a “suppressor of memories and synaptic connections.”

CRISPR gene editing technology first came to prominence in 2015.

While there is no evidence yet that this was He Jiankui’s true intentions all along, it does seem awfully suspicious at a time when a new biotechnology race between the U.S. and China seems to be starting up. He Jiankui apparently reached out to other scientists around the world for advice and support, but there is no record of him asking any questions about the link between CCR5 and intelligence. Maybe it’s just a happy accident, after all. But it’s also likely that asking those sorts of questions might get you in a bit of hot water before you have your mad-scientist fun.

It is certain that He Jiankui at least knew about the research on CCR5 and cognition. He addressed it at a conference, dismissing it as needing it “more independent verification.”  Questioned again on a separate occasion, He stated that he was against genetic modification for enhancements.

One of the authors of new paper on the link between the CCR5 gene and intelligence, Alcino J. Silva, a neurobiologist at the University of California Los Angeles, doesn’t buy it. When the news of the twins’ birth was announced on November 25, Silva immediately suspected that cognitive enhancement was the true aim of He Jiankui’s experiments:

 “I suddenly realized—Oh, holy shit, they are really serious about this bullshit.

My reaction was visceral repulsion and sadness.”

Silva sees these kind of genetic experiments as irresponsible and morally repugnant. While we have evidence of what removing this gene does to mice, we have no idea what it will do to humans and even less of an idea what unchecked genetic tinkering would do to human societies. Silva says:

“Could it be conceivable that at one point in the future we could increase the average IQ of the population? I would not be a scientist if I said no. The work in mice demonstrates the answer may be yes. But mice are not people. We simply don’t know what the consequences will be in mucking around. We are not ready for it yet.”

Regardless of He Jiankui’s intentions, the proverbial cat has exited the proverbial bag, and only time will tell what the results of this “mucking around” will be.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

24-02-2019 om 19:17 geschreven door peter  

Printed Sensors Could Simplify NASA’s Extraterrestrial Scanning

It’s no secret that remotely scanning extraterrestrial environments requires quite a lot of state-of-the-art technology. Aside from the space travel tech, there is the problem of building the actual sensors that will be picking up light traces of water vapor, gases or temperature changes. Luckily however, NASA is looking to develop 3D printed sensors that are lighter and more compact than ever. The sensors will serve as the basis for a potentially revolutionary, nanomaterial-based detector platform.

Mahmooda Sultana is the lead technologist for the project, having won funding to advance this concept through a $2 million technology development award. Potentially, the system will be capable of sensing everything from minute concentrations of gases and vapor, atmospheric pressure and temperature. It will then transmit all this data, using a wireless antenna, back to NASA’s ground controllers.

What’s most impressive about the project is that it could do all this from a single, self-contained platform. It’s also a marvel that the platform could measure just two-by-three-inches in size. The potential for miniaturisation that printed sensors provide is a major boon to simplifying NASA’s extraterrestrial terrain scanning capabilities.

Currently, the team is busy measuring which set-up is best for the design. This reequires determining which combination of materials can best measure minute (down to parts-per-billion) concentrations of water, ammonia, methane and hydrogen.

Miniaturization & Space Exploration

The miniaturization of technologies is a crucial aspect of modern space travel. Compact and lighter equipment allows for the economisation of space and fuel costs. Thus, it’s been on NASA’s mind for a while and 3D printing is definitely playing a part in multiple ways. The team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center are working with could simplify both the production and the packaging of these essential platforms.

The project is looking into nanomaterials, like carbon nanotubes, graphene, etc. as the basis. Another unique aspect of the proposed method is that it will print all the necessary sensors on the same substrate using a single process. They are even looking int printing a part of the wireless communication circuitry needed for the platform and the printed sensors to relay the data to ground controllers.

Nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, molybdenum disulfide and others, possess useful physical properties. They display high sensitivity and can remain stable in extreme conditions, thus they are ideal candidates. As one would imagine, they are also lightweight, resistant against radiation and require less power.

Once finalised, Northeastern University will use their Nanoscale Offset Printing System to apply the nanomaterials. Sultana’s group, meanwhile, will functionalize individual sensors by depositing additional layers of nanoparticles, enhancing their sensitivity. They will also integrate the sensors with readout electronics and package the entire platform.

• Featured image courtesy of NASA.

{ https://3dprinting.com/ }

18-02-2019 om 23:46 geschreven door peter  

The latest terrifying artificial intelligence development to foreshadow humanity’s future under the cold, steel boots of ruthless robots comes by way of OpenAI, a San Francisco-based research institute funded in part by Elon Musk. OpenAI has reportedly created an AI capable of generating realistic-but-fake news stories that are credible enough to fool most human readers. In fact, the AI is so good at what it does that its own creators believe it’s too dangerous to release. How much longer until one of these systems is let loose on an unsuspecting public?

And how long until it decides humanity is a plague?

OpenAI’s newest hellish creation is called GPT2. The program is essentially a text generator which can analyze existing text and then produce its own based on what it expects might come after it. What separates GPT2 from other natural language bots is the fact that it can produce realistic texts in perfect prose – and that’s where the danger comes in.

Jack Clark, policy director at OpenAI, says that because the program writes such realistic-looking text, it could be easily used to fool or mislead readers with fake news stories. “We started testing it, and quickly discovered it’s possible to generate malicious-esque content quite easily,” Clark told the MIT Technology Review. “It’s very clear that if this technology matures—and I’d give it one or two years—it could be used for disinformation or propaganda. We’re trying to get ahead of this.”

Real-life Bond villain Elon Musk is also trying to get ahead of the dangers of GPT2 by distancing himself from OpenAI altogether. Musk left the company this week, citing his commitments to his other endeavors. While Musk is without a doubt a busy man, many suspect his departure might be due to the terrifying possibilities GPT2 foreshadows.

As artificial intelligence networks continue to get better at fooling humans, the line between what is real and what is fake is beginning to blur. Already, sophisticated AI programs can produce perfectly real-looking video and audio content depicting people saying or doing things which never actually happened. What’s going to happen when these start flooding the news cycle? Are we destined to lose our ability to tell what is real and true?

“Shhh. Too many questions. Just sit back and smash that ‘Subscribe’ button. It’ll all be over soon.”

Perhaps we already have. Many technologists and historians believe we may already be controlled by AI. Could that explain the geopolitical high strangeness of the last few years? Is it all a carefully curated illusion designed to manipulate the minds of the masses?

Kill your TV before it’s too late. And your phone and computer while you’re at it. Better yet, just gouge your own eyes out and rip your ears off. It’s not as difficult as it may sound. It’s the only real way to avoid the hellish nightmare the future is turning out to be.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

18-02-2019 om 18:17 geschreven door peter  

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

15-02-2019 om 00:40 geschreven door peter  

Robot Citizenship: Why Our Artificial Assistants May One Day Need Passports

SingularityNET is working with the government.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

11-02-2019 om 23:36 geschreven door peter  

THE US ARMY IS EQUIPPING SOLDIERS WITH POCKET-SIZED RECON DRONES

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

05-02-2019 om 22:18 geschreven door peter  

3D Printing 2.0

The replicator might have groundbreaking implications, but it does have some inherent limitations as well: the objects it produces are small, and require special synthetic resin to produce.

But it’s an exciting new technology — and one that could lead to a “Star Trek” future.

READ MORE: 

• Forget everything you know about 3D printing — the ‘replicator’ is here [Nature]

More on 3D printing: 

• We Can Now Easily 3D Print With Metal

{  https://futurism.com/the-byte }

02-02-2019 om 00:58 geschreven door peter  

GOOD EGGS

{ https://futurism.com/ }

29-01-2019 om 00:13 geschreven door peter  

{ https://futurism.com/ }

23-01-2019 om 01:00 geschreven door peter  

KILLER ROBOT SHIPS

{ https://futurism.com/ }

17-01-2019 om 15:27 geschreven door peter  

One of the latest projects to come out of DARPA and the Pentagon’s emerging technologies unit sounds like something straight out of a long-lost Michael Crichton manuscript. According to a call for proposals issued last week, DARPA wants to explore methods of creating “conscious” robots and technologies using insect brains. Don’t these guys watch or read science fiction? Maybe they’re reading and watching too much science fiction.

The project is being called “Microscale Bio-mimetic Robust Artificial Intelligence Networks”, or μBRAIN (pronounced “microBRAIN”). According to its synopsis, the project seeks to combine the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies with the incredible feats of physiology and cognition performed by insects, some of the smallest members of the animal kingdom:

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is issuing an Artificial Intelligence Exploration (AIE) opportunity inviting submissions of innovative basic research concepts exploring new computational frameworks and strategies drawn from the impressive computational capabilities of very small flying insects for whom evolutionary pressures have forced scale/size/energy reduction without loss of performance.

The proposal states that while AI systems are advancing exponentially, the amount of hardware and software required to create and maintain these systems makes most modern AI systems too large and unwieldy for many uses in the field. A computer smarter than the whole human race combined is great, but if you have to house it in super-cooled hangar in the desert, how could it possibly wreak havoc on other nations’ electrical grid or spy on the CEOs of Chinese telecom firms?

That’s where tiny insects come in. Or maybe tiny cyborg insects reporting back to their shadowy black budget handlers. According to a document in the Pentagon’s proposal, studying the tiny-but-advanced brains of insects could open up new possibilities in form factor and function for AI systems, opening up new avenues for solving problems in tiny packages:

Nature has forced on these small insects drastic miniaturization and energy efficiency, some having only a few hundred neurons in a compact form-factor, while maintaining basic functionality. Furthermore, these organisms are possibly able to display increased subjectivity of experience, which extends simple look-up table responses to potentially AI-relevant problem solving.

Of course, the science fiction fan in me makes me wonder what would happen if we start transplanting insect brains or neural networks into advanced machines. What happens if one gets loose and trained an army of insects to do its bidding? Didn’t these Pentagon spooks see the latest iteration of the Planet of the Apes franchise? 

Of course, they’re not talking about taking a honeybee’s brain, dropping it into a tiny drone, opening the window, and pointing it in the direction of an Iranian nuclear facility. Studying neural networks is one thing, creating advanced insect cyborg spies is another. Still, as mathematician Ian Malcom notes, nature finds a way, even when we try to tamper with it – maybe especiallywhen we try to tamper with it. If DARPA and the Pentagon are involved, there are military or intelligence applications here, meaning the stakes are high if something goes awry. Like all things AI, though, we won’t know the end result until it’s too late.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

16-01-2019 om 18:35 geschreven door peter  

Devin Coldewey

Light is the fastest thing in the universe, so trying to catch it on the move is necessarily something of a challenge. We’ve had some success, but a new rig built by Caltech scientists pulls down a mind-boggling 10 trillion frames per second, meaning it can capture light as it travels along — and they have plans to make it a hundred times faster.

Understanding how light moves is fundamental to many fields, so it isn’t just idle curiosity driving the efforts of Jinyang Liang and his colleagues — not that there’d be anything wrong with that either. But there are potential applications in physics, engineering, and medicine that depend heavily on the behavior of light at scales so small, and so short, that they are at the very limit of what can be measured.

You may have heard about billion- and trillion-FPS cameras in the past, but those were likely “streak cameras” that do a bit of cheating to achieve those numbers.

A light pulse as captured by the T-CUP system.

If a pulse of light can be replicated perfectly, then you could send one every millisecond but offset the camera’s capture time by an even smaller fraction, like a handful of femtoseconds (a billion times shorter). You’d capture one pulse when it was here, the next one when it was a little further, the next one when it was even further, and so on. The end result is a movie that’s indistinguishable in many ways from if you’d captured that first pulse at high speed.

This is highly effective — but you can’t always count on being able to produce a pulse of light a million times the exact same way. Perhaps you need to see what happens when it passes through a carefully engineered laser-etched lens that will be altered by the first pulse that strikes it. In cases like that, you need to capture that first pulse in real time — which means recording images not just with femtosecond precision, but only femtoseconds apart.

Simple, right?

That’s what the T-CUP method does. It combines a streak camera with a second static camera and a data collection method used in tomography.

“We knew that by using only a femtosecond streak camera, the image quality would be limited. So to improve this, we added another camera that acquires a static image. Combined with the image acquired by the femtosecond streak camera, we can use what is called a Radon transformation to obtain high-quality images while recording ten trillion frames per second,” explained co-author of the study Lihong Wang. That clears things right up!

At any rate the method allows for images — well, technically spatiotemporal datacubes —  to be captured just 100 femtoseconds apart. That’s ten trillion per second, or it would be if they wanted to run it for that long, but there’s no storage array fast enough to write ten trillion datacubes per second to. So they can only keep it running for a handful of frames in a row for now — 25 during the experiment you see visualized here.

Those 25 frames show a femtosecond-long laser pulse passing through a beam splitter — note how at this scale the time it takes for the light to pass through the lens itself is nontrivial. You have to take this stuff into account!

This level of precision in real time is unprecedented, but the team isn’t done yet.

“We already see possibilities for increasing the speed to up to one quadrillion (10¹⁵) frames per second!” enthused Liang in the press release. Capturing the behavior of light at that scale and with this level of fidelity is leagues beyond what we were capable of just a few years ago and may open up entire new fields or lines of inquiry in physics and exotic materials.

• Liang et al.’s paper appeared today in the journal Light.

{ https://techcrunch.com/ }

12-01-2019 om 16:29 geschreven door peter  

‘Fotonenchip’ rekent ultrasnel

{ https://www.eoswetenschap.eu/ }

27-12-2018 om 01:36 geschreven door peter  

The Terrafugia Transition could end the long wait for flying cars

The car-plane hybrid goes on sale in 2019, but experts say air taxis might steal its thunder.

It might not the most elegant-looking thing on the road or in the sky, but an automobile-airplane hybrid that’s being called the world's first practical flying car is almost ready to spread its wings.

The two-passenger Transition will go on sale in the U.S. next year at an estimated price of $400,000, according to Terrafugia, the Woburn, Massachusetts-based firm that makes it.

The Transition has four wheels, folding wings and a rear-mounted “pusher” propeller. Powered by a four-cylinder hybrid-electric engine, it can fly 100 miles an hour at altitudes of up to 9,000 feet, with a flying range of 400 miles. There are controls for both flying and driving: for the roads, conventional brake and accelerator pedals and a steering wheel; for flying, the usual yoke and rudder pedals.

The vehicle converts from driving to flying mode in less than a minute, according to Terrafugia. But don’t expect it to get you out of a traffic jam. Though it’s the first vehicle certified to drive on U.S. roads and fly in U.S. skies, it can take off and land only at airfields — and you’ll need a pilot's license.

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Air Taxis Are About to Take Off. This One Just Did

Many flying car prototypes have been built in recent decades, but none has proven practical enough to become a full-fledged production vehicle. The Transition is designed mainly for light aircraft owners who don’t want to get stuck when bad weather makes flying impossible, or who want to avoid airfield parking fees and fuel costs, according to Terrafugia. The vehicle runs on ordinary premium gasoline and can be kept in a garage at home.

But the company, now owned by Chinese car maker Geely, also hopes the Transition will attract people who are new to private aviation. “We would like people who never thought of becoming a pilot before to consider it because, hey, it’s a flying car,” Carl Dietrich, Terrafugia’s founder, told Smithsonian Air and Space magazine.

Terrafugia was founded in 2006 with a plan for a “flying SUV” that earned Dietrich a prestigious technology prize. But with recent advances in autonomous passenger drones — electrically powered “air taxis” that take off and land vertically without a runway — experts say vehicles like the Transition are likely to be a niche product.

“The world changed while they were working on that vehicle,” says Richard Anderson, an aerospace engineering professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Investors worldwide are pouring billions of dollars into the development of air taxis, with manufacturers like Airbus and Germany’s Volocopter claiming to be well on the way to bringing the vehicles to market. “The business case is absolutely crystal clear, and the technology is here,” Anderson said.

Terrafugia said it is developing its own vertical-takeoff-and-landing passenger vehicle, dubbed the TF-2, that could take to the skies as a piloted aircraft in 2023. That’s likely to be several years before the first self-piloted air taxis get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, Anderson said.

“These vehicles are things that were never seen before, so there's a learning process,” Anderson said of the FAA. “Even if they are willing to embrace the technology, they have to understand it before they're going to let it fly over our heads in a city.”

WANT MORE STORIES ABOUT CARS?

• Nissan's 'B2V' system lets you drive a car with brain waves
• This smart race car is driving into the future
• This self-driving car could deliver groceries to your doorstep

{ https://www.nbcnews.com/mach }

26-12-2018 om 23:22 geschreven door peter  

Real life 'shrink ray' can reduce 3D structures to one thousandth of their original size - and could be used to make the next generation of miniature robots

• The 'shrink ray' can reduce 3D structures to one thousandth of their original size
• Scientists can put all kinds of materials in the polymer before they shrink it
• This could include a variety of materials such as metals, quantum dots or DNA 
• These tiny structures could be be used in many fields, including in robotics 

By PHOEBE WESTON FOR MAILONLINE

MIT researchers have created a real life 'shrink ray' that can reduce 3D structures to one thousandth of their original size.

Scientists can put all kinds of useful materials in the polymer before they shrink it, including metals, quantum dots, and DNA.

The process - called implosion fabrication - is essentially the opposite of expansion microscopy, which is widely used by scientists to create 3D visualisations of microscopic cells.

Instead of making things bigger, scientists attach special molecules which block negative charges between molecules so they no longer repel which makes them contract.

Experts say that making such tiny structures could be useful in many fields, including in medicine and for creating nanoscale robotics. 

MIT researchers have created a real life 'shrink ray' that can reduce 3D structures (pictured) to one thousandth of their original size

'It's a way of putting nearly any kind of material into a 3-D pattern with nanoscale precision,' said Edward Boyden, an associate professor of biological engineering and of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT.

Using the new technique, researchers can create any shape and structure they want, according to the paper published in Science.

The method can create lots of different shapes, including tiny hollow spheres to microscopic chains. 

The researchers shrank hollow linked cubes and an Alice in Wonderland etching using the method. 

Scientists say the technique uses equipment that many biology and materials science labs already have, making it widely accessible for researchers who want to try it.

Currently scientists are able to directly print 3D nanonscale objects.

However, this is only possible with specialised materials like polymers and plastics which have limited applications.

After attaching useful materials to the polymer 'scaffold', they shrink it, generating structures one thousandth the volume of the original. The researchers shrank hollow linked cubes (pictured) using this method

Researchers shrank an Alice in Wonderland etching using the method.  Scientists say the technique uses equipment that many biology and materials science labs already have, making it widely accessible for researchers who want to try it

To overcome this, researchers decided to adapt a technique that was developed a few years ago for high-resolution imaging of brain tissue.

This technique, known as expansion microscopy, involves embedding tissue into a hydrogel and then expanding it.

Hundreds of research groups in biology and medicine are now using expansion microscopy as it enables 3D visualisation of cells and tissues with ordinary hardware.

The new technique involves reversing the process. 

By doing this, scientists could create large-scale objects embedded in expanded hydrogels and then shrink them to the nanoscale.

They call this approach 'implosion fabrication.'

Just like they did in expansion microscopy, the researchers used a very absorbent material made of polyacrylate. This is a plastic commonly found in nappies.

Scientists can put all kinds of useful materials in the polymer before they shrink it such as metals, quantum dots and DNA. Pictured is the machine used to shrink objects 

The polyacrylate forms the scaffold over which other materials can be attached.

It is then bathed in a solution that contains molecules of fluorescein, which attach to the scaffold when they are activated by laser light.

Then, they use two-photon microscopy to target points deep within the structure.

They attach fluorescein molecules to these specific locations within the gel.

These acts as anchors that bind to other types of molecules that are in the structure.

'You attach the anchors where you want with light, and later you can attach whatever you want to the anchors,' Dr Boyden said.

'It could be a quantum dot, it could be a piece of DNA, it could be a gold nanoparticle.'

Researchers think these nanobjects could be used to create better lenses for cell phone cameras, microscopes (stock image), or endoscopes

Once the desired molecules are attached in the right locations, the researchers shrink the entire structure by adding an acid.

The acid blocks the negative charges in the polyacrylate gel so that they no longer repel each other, causing the gel to contract.

Using this technique, researchers can shrink the objects 10-fold in each dimension (for an overall 1,000-fold reduction in volume).

This ability to shrink not only allows for increased resolution, but also makes it possible to assemble materials in a low-density scaffold.

This means it can be easily modified and later the material becomes a dense solid when it is shrunk. 

Researchers think these nanobjects could be used to create better lenses for cell phone cameras, microscopes, or endoscopes. 

Farther in the future, researchers say that this approach could be used to build nanoscale electronics or robots.

WILL GLOBAL WARMING CAUSE SPECIES TO SHRINK?

A study conducted by the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada found that over the last century, the beetles in the region have shrunk.

By looking at eight species of beetle and measuring the animals from past and present they found that some beetles were adapting to a reduced body size.

The data also showed that the larger beetles were shrinking, but the smaller ones were not. 

Around 50 million years ago the Earth warmed by three degrees Celsius (5.4°F) and as a result, animal species at the time shrunk by 14 per cent. 

Another warming event around 55 million years ago - called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) - warmed the earth by up to eight degrees Celsius (14.4°F).

In this instance, animal species of the time shrunk by up to a third. 

Woolly mammoths were a victim of warming climate, shrinking habitat and increased hunting from a growing early-human population which drove them to extinction - along with many large animals

Shrinking in body size is seen from several global warming events.

With the global temperatures set to continue to rise, it is expected the average size of most animals will decrease. 

As well as global warming, the world has seen a dramatic decrease in the amount of large animals. 

So called 'megafauna' are large animals that go extinct. With long life-spans and relatively small population numbers, they are less able to adapt to rapid change as smaller animals that reproduce more often. 

Often hunted for trophies or for food, large animals like the mastadon, mammoths and the western black rhino, which was declared extinct in 2011, have been hunted to extinction. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

15-12-2018 om 17:50 geschreven door peter