Perfect Faults: A Self-Correcting Crystal May Unleash the Next Generation of Advanced Communications Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have joined with an international team to engineer and measure a potentially important new class of nanostructured materials for microwave and advanced communication devices. Based on NIST's measurements, the new materials—a family of multilayered crystalline sandwiches—might enable a whole new class of compact, high-performance, high-efficiency components for devices such as cellular phones.* "These materials are an excellent example of what the Materials Genome Initiative refers to as 'materials-by-design'," says NIST physicist James Booth, one of the lead researchers. "Materials science is getting better and better at engineering complex structures at an atomic scale to create materials with previously unheard-of properties." The new material has layers of strontium oxide, believed to be responsible for the self-correcting feature, separating a variable number of layers of strontium titanate. *C-H Lee, N.D.
Hempcrete Could Change The Way We Build Everything When it comes to new and sustainable housing ideas, it seems to always be about creating a more efficient home in terms of insulation, lighting, electricity, etc. Mainstream belief on the subject would have you believe that top corporations and government projects are working with the best possible technology to bring forth solutions that work and are going to be great for the environment. If that was truly the case, I can guarantee you that the whole world would be using Hempcrete right now. Haven’t heard of it? I’m not too surprised. First off, what is Hempcrete? Since lime is the binding material, builders do not have to heat up the lime as much as a supplier would need to in the industrial creation of concrete. conservation when producing Hempcrete vs. concrete. Hempcrete is a much more superior building material due to the fact that it is a very strong, lightweight and breathable material. petrify but is still incredibly strong.
The future according to Google's Larry Page Note: On Jan 3, as Fortune published this article, the Federal Trade Commission ended its investigation of Google's search practices saying it found no evidence that the company manipulated search results in violation of antitrust laws. The European Commission and other regulators continue to investigate the issue. FORTUNE -- When Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group, the giant advertising agency, visited Google this past fall, CEO Larry Page sent a car to pick him up at the Rosewood Hotel about 20 miles away. Only this was no ordinary car. The Lexus SUV drove itself thanks to a slew of high-tech tools, including radars, sensors, and a laser scanner that takes more than 1.5 million measurements every second. For about 20 minutes, while navigating I-280 and the area's busy State Route 85, the car cruised on autopilot, making quick course corrections, slowing down here when traffic loomed ahead, speeding up there to get out of the blind spot of a neighboring vehicle. MORE: Meet the L-Team
The inevitability of smart dust I’ve put forward my opinion that desktop computing is dead on more than one occasion, and been soundly put in my place as a result almost every time. “Of course desktop computing isn’t dead — look at the analogy you’re drawing between the so called death of the mainframe and the death of the desktop. Mainframes aren’t dead, there are still plenty of them around!” Well, yes, that’s arguable. The desktop will increasingly belong to niche users. For the rest of the world? People never wanted computers; they wanted what computers could do for them. Everyday objects are already becoming smarter. The sensors you carry with you may well generate more data every second, both for you and about you, than previous generations did about themselves during the course of their entire lives. The end point of this evolution is already clear: it’s called smart dust. Makes desktop computing look sort of dull, doesn’t it? Photo: it’s not fog… it’s smoke… by Guilherme Jófili, on Flickr Related:
Kurzweil joins Google to work on new projects involving machine learning and language processing Ray Kurzweil confirmed today that he will be joining Google to work on new projects involving machine learning and language processing. “I’m excited to share that I’ll be joining Google as Director of Engineering this Monday, December 17,” said Kurzweil. “I’ve been interested in technology, and machine learning in particular, for a long time: when I was 14, I designed software that wrote original music, and later went on to invent the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, among other inventions. I’ve always worked to create practical systems that will make a difference in people’s lives, which is what excites me as an inventor. “In 1999, I said that in about a decade we would see technologies such as self-driving cars and mobile phones that could answer your questions, and people criticized these predictions as unrealistic.
A second generation 3D concrete printing is under development Mar.16, 2012 Modern Architecture is demanding new developments in construction manufacturing technology, a team at Loughborough University has been working on a 3D concrete printing project that could allow full scale building components to be 3D printed on-site to any design. Named Freeform Construction, the project gives architects a tremendous degree of design freedom and to industry it reduces waste and CO2 emissions compared to a conventional concrete form building. In the process, concrete is deposited in layers very precisely from computer-generated instructions. Richard Buswell, a principal investigator on the project, said, "Anything is possible. We are working with a prototype, but within five years - with money and desire - there's no limit to what could be printed." In 2010 a one-tonne reinforced concrete bench has been printed and a year later a two square meter "S"-curved panel is exhibited in the Building Centre.
WikiWep DevBlog. DOJ began a PR push last week to find legislative traction for a set of proposed bills that would criminalize the individual production of rifle receivers and magazines with 3D printers. Sections 4 and 5 of the proposed House bill directly criminalize 3D printed receivers and magazines, and mandate an arbitrary amount of metal be part of their fabrication. Beyond suffering from fatal Due Process and GCA problems, the bill’s prohibitions are not extended to manufacturers because (hint) there isn’t actually a security issue at stake. The bad faith and fraud required to hide this from the current public discussion is of course par for the course. The NRA used to say “no inroads.” Ceterum censeo Statistical Studies of Peer Production » Manufacturing in motion: first survey on 3D printing community by Jarkko Moilanen & Tere Vadén Another industrial revolution? Yochai Benkler’s book is available online as PDF, HTML and many other formats Economists and theorists of innovation such as Jeremy Rifkin , Yochai Benkler, Michel Bauwens , and several others have concluded that the Third Industrial Revolution is at hand [3, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15]. 3D printing has been around for a few decades already. In the old world (dinosaur age in software development), the proprietary approach was dominant, companies held their innovations inside and sold binaries to customers. Commons-based peer production Commons-based peer production as “a socio-economic system of production that is emerging in the digitally networked environment” uses shared resources and distributed decision-making. Motivations of open source hackers The motivation to participate in commons-based projects is different compared to “old” types of production. Background of the survey Research settings and methods Figure 1.
Looking for business models for 3D Printer | Digital | ZEIT ONLINE: Maker Movement Was passiert, wenn 3D-Drucker alltäglich werden? Was werden die Menschen drucken wollen? Und wie kann man damit Geld verdienen? Erste Firmen bringen sich in Stellung. Speichern Drucken Twitter Facebook Google + 3D-Drucker vom Typ Ultimaker im Einsatz | © Patrick Beuth / ZEIT ONLINE Mit neuen Konsumbedürfnissen ist das so eine Sache. 3D-Drucker für zu Hause, eine zurzeit mehr schlecht als recht funktionierende Technik , sind angeblich das nächste große Ding. Anzeige Noch ist der Markt eine winzige Nische, noch gibt es mehr Artikel über 3D-Drucker, als es 3D-Drucker in privaten Haushalten gibt. Mehrere amerikanische Firmen haben sich dazu in Stellung gebracht, vorneweg das New Yorker Unternehmen MakerBot und der Konzern 3D Systems, zu dessen Unternehmensgruppe mittlerweile auch der ehemalige Konkurrent Bits from Bytes gehört. Beliebt: Murmelbahnen ausdrucken Einigermaßen erschwinglich sind 3D-Drucker also schon. Genau das ist die Frage, die die Branche bewegt.
Maker Movement: Still 3D printers are something for hobbyists | Digital MakerBot verkauft mit dem Replicator 2 nach eigenen Aussagen den ersten massentauglichen 3D-Drucker. Das Problem: Nur ein kleiner Teil der Masse ist 3D-Drucker-tauglich. Speichern Drucken Twitter Facebook Google + Der Replikator 2 von MakerBot | © MakerBot Das, was Chris Anderson für die Zukunft hält, ist schwarz, so groß wie ein Kasten Bier, leuchtet von innen wie etwas aus einem Science-Fiction-Film und kostet 2.200 bis 2.800 US-Dollar. Auf den ersten Blick erscheint Andersons Euphorie nachvollziehbar. Anzeige Der Replicator 2 sei bestens geeignet "für Ingenieure, Wissenschaftler und jeden, der einfach gerne Dinge kreiert", bewirbt das Unternehmen sein Produkt. Wer wirklich Objekte ausdrucken will, muss sich mit der Hardware und der zugehörigen Software beschäftigen, und das gründlich. 3D-Drucken ist ein zeitaufwendiges Hobby und erfordert technisches Verständnis. Patrick Beuth Sie machen es sich allerdings auch nicht leicht.
The long view of technology « thenextwave I’ve just finished working on a thought leadership paper, Technology 2020, for The Futures Company with my colleague Andy Stubbings, and we’ve published an extract in the company’s quarterly newsletter, FutureProof (free, but registration required). I’ve republished this as it appears in FutureProof below the fold. In a couple of lines, I draw on Carlota Perez’ view of technology change to argue that we need to understand the ICT revolution as a long wave – following the same pattern as previous dominant technologies – which is nearing the end of its period of dominance. Mature sector, accelerating social impact Digital networked technology is already a mature sector. Platforms become the dominant idea of their time There are several points worth noting here: A platform, or a technology system, is more than a particular technology; instead, it is greater than the sum of specific technologies which make it up. New business models emerge late on Like this: Like Loading...