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Discussion of the Essence# programming language, and related issues and technologies. |
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According to a posting on the GigaOM blog, Smallthought Systems have received $2 million in venture financing for their Dable DB structured-data web application.
Congratulations to Avi Bryant and Andrew Catton, the founders of Smallthought Systems. Well done, dudes!
The ScienceDaily article Stealth Radar System Sees Through Trees, Walls -- Undetected discusses an ultrawideband radar system that a) operates undetectably and without interfering with other EM signals, b) operates over even very short distances (unlike curent radar technology,) c) is able to see through just about any obstruction, and d) costs less than $100 to manufacture.
According to ScienceDaily's article Chewing Up A Key Regulator Of Fat Synthesis Keeps Mice Lean Despite A High-fat Diet:
Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a novel pathway that regulates the body's ability to store or burn fat, a discovery that suggests new ways to reduce obesity, diabetes and other fat-related human diseases.
According to the journal Nature, a method to convert adult cells into embryonic stem cells is on the verge of discovery:
Biologists say they are close to finding a cellular elixir of youth: a cocktail of proteins that can convert adult cells into embryonic stem cells that are able to grow replacement tissues.
Assuming this pans out, it means we are very, very close to a stunning new medical technology, whose impact should be as great as the sum of the germ theory of disease, antibiotics, anaesthetics, blood transfusions and x-rays. It would appear that, by the end of the next decade, 21st-Century medicine will be as far advanced over that of the late 20th Century, as 1990s medicine was over that of the 19th Century.
The Socionomics Institute and Elliott Wave International have published a fim entitled History's Hidden Engine:
History's Hidden Engine is the result of more than three years of research and creativity by filmmaker David Moore. Moore traveled North America to capture the insights of 17 brilliant minds, then wove them into this film. In just 59 minutes and with the help of pop songs, news footage and cultural images that are familiar to everyone, this documentary shows how social mood drives trends in movies, music, fashion, finance, economics, politics, the media and war.
You can download or stream it for free.
In Slow-frozen People? Latest Research Supports Possibility Of Cyropreservation, ScieneDaily reports on research that suggests that it may be possible to cryopreserve animals (including humans) without formation of damaging ice crystals.
If so, the principal implications would be a) reversible cryonic suspension of the terminally ill (in the expectation that the patient's condition would not be terminal from the perspective of future medical technology, b) "suspended animation" for long-distance time/space travel (for that trip to the other side of the Galaxy, or into the 24th Century,) and c) indefinite storage of tissues and organs.
It would be a socioculturally disruptive technology.
From EE Times: IBM's 'frozen chip' claims speed record.
Even at room temperature, the clock speed is still 350-GHz--2 orders of magnitude faster than typical high-end desktop CPUs.
New mathematical method provides better way to analyze noise from PhysOrg.com
Humans have 200 million light receptors in their eyes, 10 to 20 million receptors devoted to smell, but only 8,000 dedicated to sound. Yet despite this miniscule number, the auditory system is the fastest of the five senses. Researchers credit this discrepancy to a series of lightning-fast calculations in the brain that translate minimal input into maximal understanding. And whatever those calculations are, they’re far more precise than any sound-analysis program that exists today.
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From A Sponge's Guide to Nano-Assembly:
One of the ongoing goals of nanotechnology is to easily and inexpensively create high-performance materials structured at the nanoscale. And one of the most promising strategies is to attempt to mimic nature's remarkable ability to self-assemble complex shapes with nanoscale precision. Now researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), using clues gleaned from marine sponges, have developed a method of synthesizing semiconducting materials with useful structures and novel electronic properties. The first applications could be ways to make materials for more powerful batteries and highly efficient solar cells at a lower price.
Growing Nanostructures on Micro Cantilever Provides New Platform for Materials Discovery from PhysOrg.com
Researchers have developed a new technique that could provide detailed information about the growth of carbon nanotubes and other nanometer-scale structures as they are being produced. The technique offers a way for researchers to rapidly and systematically map how changes in growth conditions affect the fabrication of nanometer-scale structures.
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A Cosmic Coincidence Resurrects the Cyclical Universe from PhysOrg.com
Over the past five years or so, scientists have finally converged on a model of the universe that explains (or at least permits) all of its characteristics. The new cosmological model has one very surprising feature, however, which is supported by several robust and unrelated observations. In addition to matter and radiation, it seems that the vacuum of space is filled with a mysterious ‘dark energy’ that pushes the universe apart. While the dark energy helps us explain a great many things, it also resurrects an old problem once thought buried—the idea that our universe is the product of a highly unlikely cosmic coincidence.
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