2012 March 12 - The Scale of the Universe Interactive Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2012 March 12 The Scale of the Universe - Interactive Flash Animation Credit & Copyright: Cary & Michael Huang Explanation: What does the universe look like on small scales? Tomorrow's picture: dust before galaxies Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important NoticesA service of:ASD at NASA / GSFC& Michigan Tech.
Science fair gold medalist, 17, invents better way to search Internet Watch out, Google: When it comes to Internet search, there’s a new competitor in town. Seventeen-year-old Nicholas Schiefer has found a better way to search small documents, such as tweets and Facebook statuses – all for his Grade 11 science fair project. The Pickering resident, who attends Holy Trinity School, created an algorithm to filter through, and find relevant information. Created using linear algebra and discrete math, his algorithm is named “Apodora” after a python species with extraordinary search capabilities. Not only did Mr. Before he starts Grade 12 in the fall, Mr. You have been compared to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. I’m not really sure how well that applies. Tell me about your science fair project. I focused on micro search, which deals with search on very short documents. I wanted to create an algorithm that would try to discern and exploit the relationships between words so people can get better search results. How did you get interested in search? I’m really not sure.
The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies In The Internet Of Things - StumbleUpon 1. Nest (Google) For solving yet another pain point in building the smart home. 2. For having the bright idea to make smartphone-tethered bulbs. 3. For unleashing simple connected products for the cautious consumer. Monitor your home. 4. For upping the activity-tracking game with a next-gen, supercharged wristband. 5. For opening a platform of Internet-wise devices to let users customize their connected homes. 6. For strengthening its products to stand out among the quantified-self crowd. 7. For giving users control of whatever’s plugged in. 8. For jumping into the IoT fray as only it could—with a superpowered chip. 9. For building out a cloud platform to help make smart machines smart. For racing to establish an Internet of Things accelerator.
Scientific Hypothesis, Theory, Law Definitions Words have precise meanings in science. For example, 'theory', 'law', and 'hypothesis' don't all mean the same thing. Outside of science, you might say something is 'just a theory', meaning it's supposition that may or may not be true. In science, a theory is an explanation that generally is accepted to be true. Hypothesis A hypothesis is an educated guess, based on observation. Example: If you see no difference in the cleaning ability of various laundry detergents, you might hypothesize that cleaning effectiveness is not affected by which detergent you use. Theory A scientific theory summarizes a hypothesis or group of hypotheses that have been supported with repeated testing. Example: It is known that on June 30, 1908 in Tunguska, Siberia, there was an explosion equivalent to the detonation of about 15 million tons of TNT. Law A law generalizes a body of observations. Example: Consider Newton's Law of Gravity. As you can see, there is no 'proof' or absolute 'truth' in science.
Interactive video comes online from FlixMaster - TNW Apps Video on the Internet has held a lot of promises and with those promises it has been given a lot of responsibility. I’ve heard it said more than once that the integration of video is what will be the defining difference between the Web 2.0 world that we’re in now and the live-action, self-directed Web 3.0 world that we’re entering. Unfortunately, up to this point, video has been like hitting a brick wall on an otherwise open road. Once you’ve reached the video, the only thing that you could do was watch it. That is, until the birth of FlixMaster. FlixMaster is the brain child of CEO Cameron McCaddon and COO Erika Trautman. “We had a dream to make videos as rich and interactive as everything else on the Web.” It’s with that in mind that FlixMaster came to life. “We build technology that makes it possible to link videos to other videos, text, images and forms, so they can be as interactive as the rest of the web.” FlixMaster is not without its difficulties.
Acoustic Levitation and the Tractor Beam, the Impossible just became Incredible... - StumbleUpon Levitation and the defiance of gravities surly bond has been a science that struggled to keep up with its own mythology, until now. A team of Japanese researchers have this week demonstrated the first technology that not only brings the mythology of levitation to life but leap frogs it to create a tractor beam, lifting and moving objects across 3 dimensions using sound alone. Presented for your viewing pleasure is the astounding video of acoustic levitation in action, now including tractor beam. Scientists from the University of Tokyo and Nagoya Institute of Technology are now able to levitate and move any object in 3 dimensions. This latest acoustic levitation technique uses multiple ultrasonic transducers (speakers) arranged in a phased array to create a standing wave that surrounds the suspended object forming a node, or sonic bubble. Acoustic levitation is only in its infancy, with so many science fiction dreams requiring levitation let’s hope the developments continue.
The 50 Most Innovative Companies In the past decade, as the U.S. was losing an estimated 2.4 million factory jobs to China, the Economic Policy Institute and other research organizations identified an alarming trend—alarming to Westerners, at least. The factories of South Korea, Taiwan, and China were making their way up the global value chain, from the sneakers, toys, and T-shirts they had produced in earlier years to personal computers, consumer electronics gear, household appliances, and even cars. For the West, the silver lining was this: Asia's high-tech products were still generally regarded as inferior knockoffs of items designed in the U.S. and other so-called knowledge economies. China may have been the biggest worry, but as author Ted C. Fishman argued in his 2005 book, China Inc., it possessed a factory culture—it could imitate but not innovate. The battle is on. The extended Top 50 list is dominated by companies from Europe, Asia, and, in another first, South America (Petrobrás (PBR) of Brazil at No. 41).
Microsoft Research uses Kinect to translate between spoken and sign languages in real time - StumbleUpon 30 October '13, 08:31pm Follow Microsoft’s Kinect is a wonderful piece of technology that seems to know no bounds. Microsoft Research is now using it to bridge the gap between folks who don’t speak the same language, whether they can hear or not. As you can see in the video below, the Kinect Sign Language Translator is a research prototype that can translate sign language into spoken language and vice versa. The best part? In short, Kinect captures the gestures, while machine learning and pattern recognition programming help interpret the meaning. While this is clearly a massive achievement, there is still a huge amount of work ahead. Guobin Wu, the program manager of the Kinect Sign Language Translator project, explains that recognition is by far the most challenging part of the project. Wu says there are more than 20 million people in China who are hard of hearing, and an estimated 360 million such people around the world. ➤ Kinect Sign Language Translator part 1 and part 2
Proposta sobre Lei de Inovação é aberta à consulta pública - Notícias - Secretaria da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior O comitê para elaboração do Anteprojeto de Lei de Inovação do Paraná disponibiliza, a partir dessa semana, consulta pública à proposta. Os interessados terão acesso ao texto no endereço eletrônico da Secretaria da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior. Assim, até o dia 31 de agosto, as opiniões e sugestões recebidas serão analisadas; na sequência, a proposta passa por possíveis alterações para ser finalizada e encaminhada à Assembleia Legislativa. O Anteprojeto de Lei teve as discussões iniciadas na gestão anterior, no entanto, a aprovação não aconteceu e foi preciso adaptar o texto que levou em consideração, nessa nova versão, as leis já instituídas em Estados como Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo, e também a lei federal. Entre as questões debatidas, a garantia de recursos que a lei deverá prever foi considerada um dos pontos mais complexos e importantes de toda a discussão. Participe:Consulta Pública
9 Overlooked Technologies That Could Transform The World - StumbleUpon What I've noticed is that most people don't really pay attention to "science" news, unless it's something that they can see immediately. I think this is at least partially because of the amount of news that comes out daily - whatever we may think about the quality of news, there is just a flood of it, which makes picking out "interesting" items difficult. When I talk about (just for example) the idea of gene therapy, most people think that it is still complete science fiction, as opposed to a very near-term product that will be available. Of course, CSP has been around for years, so it isn't really "new" to the average person. Finally, of course, for a majority of people, the only science fiction they think of it Star Wars/Trek, or (advanced!) If you are on friendly terms with a non-technical coworker, ask them about any of the subjects mentioned here, you will be surprised at their response. I get that, which is why I specifically mentioned "popular sci-fi."
3 Types of Innovation-Structured [Apple], Unstructured [Amazon] & Open [Google] I had the opportunity to survey (in person, one-on-one) about 60+ entrepreneurs in India, who were founders and chief executives at leading eCommerce companies at the BVP cocktails & drinks last week at Delhi. I asked them to identify who they thought were the leaders in product (technology) innovation. Not surprisingly, Amazon, Google and Apple were top of mind. Most opinion polls would point to the same “winners”, in no particular order. The cultures at these innovation monsters are now widely known, but in parts. I believe that to successfully innovate you need 3 (I know this is obvious, but bear with me) qualities: Vision, Strategy and Execution. The Vision tells you where to go, Strategy; how to get there, and Execution takes you there. Before this misleads you, let me clarify that this is not a Google v/s Apple v/s Amazon showdown. Structured (Apple) At Apple, innovation looks like a structured and methodical process. With this kind of model, communication tends to be controlled.