Signs Agreement with German, Canadian Partners to Test Alternative Fuels A heavily instrumented NASA HU-25 Guardian measures chemical components from the larger DC-8's exhaust generated by a 50/50 mix of conventional jet fuel and a plant-derived biofuel, demonstrating the type of work that will be done during ACCESS II flights. NASA has signed separate agreements with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to conduct a series of joint flight tests to study the atmospheric effects of emissions from jet engines burning alternative fuels. The Alternative Fuel Effects on Contrails and Cruise Emissions (ACCESS II) flights are set to begin May 7 and will be flown from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. NASA's DC-8 and HU-25C Guardian, DLR's Falcon 20-E5, and NRC's CT-133 research aircraft will conduct flight tests in which the DC-8's engines will burn a mix of different fuel blends, while the Falcon and CT-133 measure emissions and observe contrail formation. Image Credit: -end-
Beginning With the End Watch the trailer for David Marshall's documentary film about a hospice class in Rochester, New York, where students learn to care for dying. Photograph by Brigitte Bouvier High school seniors at The Harley School in Rochester, New York, have the option of taking a class called “Hospice.” Most who sign up for it don’t know what they’re in for. David Marshall is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker who followed the hospice class for two years. The documentary will premiere at South By Southwest in March. Beginning with the End :90 Trailer from bspfilms on Vimeo. This web extra provides additional information related to an article titled, "A Matter of Death and Life," which appeared in the February 2014 issue of Mindful magazine. <div class="disqus-noscript"><a href="
Moore's law Moore's law is the observation that, over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. The law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, who described the trend in his 1965 paper.[1][2][3] His prediction has proven to be accurate, in part because the law is now used in the semiconductor industry to guide long-term planning and to set targets for research and development.[4] The capabilities of many digital electronic devices are strongly linked to Moore's law: processing speed, memory capacity, sensors and even the number and size of pixels in digital cameras.[5] All of these are improving at roughly exponential rates as well. This exponential improvement has dramatically enhanced the impact of digital electronics in nearly every segment of the world economy.[6] Moore's law describes a driving force of technological and social change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.[7][8] History[edit]
Herbert Fingarette, Existential Philosopher, Faces His Own Death and Mortality In his 1996 book about death, Herbert Fingarette argued that fearing one’s own demise was irrational. When you die, he wrote, “there is nothing.” Why should we fear the absence of being when we won’t be there ourselves to suffer it? Twenty years later, facing his own mortality, the philosopher realized that he’d been wrong. Death began to frighten him, and he couldn’t think himself out of it. “It haunts me, the idea of dying soon, whether there’s a good reason or not,” he says in Andrew Hasse’s short documentary Being 97. Hasse, Fingarette’s grandson, turned the camera on the philosopher in the last months of his life. Being 97 is a poignant film that explores the interiority of senescence and the struggle of accepting the inevitable. In one scene, Fingarette listens to a string quartet that was once meaningful to his late wife. Hasse made the artistic choice to omit his voice from the film, so while he was filming the scene, he had to stifle the urge to comfort his grandfather.
This Hotel in Singapore has the Coolest Sky Gardens Ever Jan 28, 2014 Designed by WOHA Architects, the PARKROYAL on Pickering Hotel in Singapore features six incredible sky gardens that are cantilevered at every fourth level between the blocks of guest rooms. PARKROYAL on Pickering is a hotel-in-a-garden concept that incorporates energy-saving features throughout the property including the ‘zero-energy’ sky gardens. The sustainable project design and green efforts have earned the hotel the BCA Green Mark Platinum, Singapore’s highest green rating, as well as the Solar Pioneer Award for its innovative solar energy system. The hotel recently celebrated it’s one year anniversary. The 367-room hotel cost $350 million to build and features 15,000 square metres (161,459 sq. ft) of cascading greenery, reflecting pools, waterfalls, planter walls and four-storey high solar-powered sky gardens, constituting more than twice its land area. [via ArchDaily]
Self-Assembling Nano Flowers Grown in Lab Jun 3, 2013 At a laboratory at Harvard University, scientists have grown complex self-assembling nano- and microstructures using a solution of chemicals and minerals. Some of the structures are smaller than the width of a human hair and have many potential uses in optics and engineering. Researchers have started with flowers, stems and vases as they were the easiest shape to start with. In an upcoming paper published in Science, lead scientist Wim Noorduin explains: “The emergence of complex nano- and microstructures is of fundamental interest, and the ability to program their form has practical ramifications in fields such as optics, catalysis, and electronics. [Slideshow from Science, Science via National Geographic] If you enjoyed this post, the Sifter highly recommends:
Will Synthetic Biology Evolve Into the Next Hot Field? Synthetic biology grew from a very old human desire to engineer living systems and make them do useful things for us. As genetic engineering of the 1970s has evolved into synthetic biology today, the technologies and economics for sequencing (reading) and synthesizing (writing) DNA have become optimized for large-scale DNA processing. This allows synthetic biologists to design and modify the genetics of living systems so that they produce a wide variety of materials for us that don’t occur in nature, such as drugs, biofuels, flavors, fragrances and more. The field is garnering the attention of entrepreneurs and investors -- here are some things you should know that help explain why. 1. Related: Entrepreneurs on the Moon, DNA Hacking and Real-Life Iron Man Gear 2. Despite the recent gradual slope, the exponential drop in DNA sequencing ushered in projects that would have been laughably ambitious just a few years earlier. 3. Related: This New Genetics Startup Wants to Make '100' the New '60'
The Micro is a 3D printer 'designed for everyone' M3D is making a bid to bring 3D printing to everyday consumers. Today the company is introducing the Micro, a product it claims to be the world’s "first truly consumer 3D printer." The Micro — now live (and already funded) on Kickstarter — was designed around three key principles: reliability, consistency, and accessibility. It features what M3D calls Micro Motion Technology, an auto-leveling and auto-calibration system that the company says will keep the Micro running optimally long into the future. But the hardware improvements don't stop there. One of the main obstacles between 3D printers and consumers has been clunky, unintuitive software. But none of this would have come together if the Micro's Kickstarter campaign had fallen short.
The Micro is a $200 3D printer that can make a teacup in an hour There are more than a couple of reasons why 3D printing hasn't truly hit critical mass, and the team at M3D thinks it's sidestepped them with The Micro, its $200 - $300 3D printer. The Micro is hitting Kickstarter today with the sole intention of becoming the first consumer 3D printer that's at once accessible, affordable and easy on the eyes. "The dream here is definitely that you take something and install it as fast as the fastest plug-and-play device that you've ever seen and you're focused on the end result," Michael Armani, M3D's CEO tells us. The Micro See all photos 9 Photos For example, we asked how long it would take from initial unboxing to having a spot of tea from the cup in the project's pitch video. But even then, ease-of-use doesn't particularly matter if one of 3D printing's biggest barriers to entry doesn't change: price. "When we looked at 3D printers, we saw that the field was becoming hyped and that everyone was super curious about it," Armani says. Comments
First 3D-printed Skull implanted Almost one year ago we reported about the first full-face transplant using 3D-printed bones in Belgium. Now the first 3D-printed skull has been implanted on a 22 years old Dutch women, affected by a rare bone disease. The skull of the patient never stopped growing, so the surgeons at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, led by neurologist Dr. Bon Verweij, replaced her skull bone with a 3D-printed implant mede out of PEEK (polyetherketoneketone). It’s a thermoplastic, extremely strong and temperature resistant. “Implants used to be made by hand in the operating theatre using a sort of cement which was far from ideal. Source: Dutch NewsRelated Post: 3D Printing a New Face