Weekly Science Headlines

[P3nT4gR4m]

Terahertz detection gets a much needed shot in the arm from (you guessed it) carbon nanotubes

It's beginning to look like there's no real world application that isn't going to benefit from nanomaterials 

[Junkenstein]

The most impressive thing about nanomaterials for me is that no-one is currently running around screaming about grey goo.

It doesn't feel like real advancement without a crazy person screaming about how it'll cause the end of everything. More seriously, anything that's improving MRI type scans is going to be a literal lifesaver. Hope this gets further development fast.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Grey goo panic probably won't happen until molecular assemblers and we might sidestep the phenomena completely if that ends up coming out of biotech, rather than nanotech. Right now the grey-goo contingent are probably too busy worrying about drones and privacy to bother with grey goo scenarios.

With regards being a lifesaver, there's quite a lot of stuff (terahertz detection included) that indicates a good chance of someone picking up the tricorder x-prize on schedule (august next year). Tricorder looks like it has the potential to be the biggest game changer in global healthcare since penicillin!

[Junkenstein]

I've just had a look into that and it's worth watching:
http://www.qualcommtricorderxprize.org/files/qtxp.org/QTXP_Guidelines_20130701_v18.pdf
Page 124 onwards has the meat of what they're looking to test for. Potentially revolutionary worldwide. Assuming the usual rate of advancements in tech that 72 hour period should reduce significantly by the end of the decade or so.

As I understand it there's 5 groups currently likely to pick up a prize. There's one involving an ER doctor which has my money on it. Being able to get accurate information in those settings is literally life and death so I'm betting his way of displaying info will lead the way for others.

It'd be nice to see a competition of this nature that encourages more collaboration between groups, possibly with a larger prize for doing so. If this was one team instead of 5 I'd guess the device created would already be in use. 

[P3nT4gR4m]

I've just had a look into that and it's worth watching:
http://www.qualcommtricorderxprize.org/files/qtxp.org/QTXP_Guidelines_20130701_v18.pdf
Page 124 onwards has the meat of what they're looking to test for. Potentially revolutionary worldwide. Assuming the usual rate of advancements in tech that 72 hour period should reduce significantly by the end of the decade or so.

As I understand it there's 5 groups currently likely to pick up a prize. There's one involving an ER doctor which has my money on it. Being able to get accurate information in those settings is literally life and death so I'm betting his way of displaying info will lead the way for others.

It'd be nice to see a competition of this nature that encourages more collaboration between groups, possibly with a larger prize for doing so. If this was one team instead of 5 I'd guess the device created would already be in use. 

I'm not so sure. I watched an interview with Diamandis on the thinking behind the x-prize and the way he put it, the Ansari Spaceflight prize cost $10mil - the prize money. To win this cash the various contestants spent (in some cases) slightly more than the fucking prize money! The upshot was, instead of just investing 10 mil on a team to do the work, Ansari and the other investors actually generated $100+mil of R&D.

It's also worth noting that it's not necessarily just the winners who end up with a viable business at the end of it.

[Junkenstein]

Well I could argue about the actual costs being somewhat larger that the Prize cash due to the level of back office admin and such that goes along with the thing but it reasonably would still be nowhere near the 100 Mil+ mark.

My thinking was that tech in general seems to be increasingly collaborative. Rewarding/encouraging this behaviour along with allowing all to profit from the process seems like a smart way to go. 

Did you catch the thing about Musk and patents? Probably getting on a big tangent now but that kind of thinking is something I'd like to see much more of in the future.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Yeah, I caught something about him open sourcing a few of his IP assets. One of the few that realises which side his bread is buttered. Collaboration to the detriment of competition is one of the foundations required if we're ever going to advance to post-capitalism. Can't see it happening overnight, unfortunately but there's a new breed of $billion+ companies wising up. Things would appear to at least be crawling in the right direction.

The optimist in me could almost be forgiven for thinking this idiotic race of talking monkeys have a chance of survival in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.

[P3nT4gR4m]

THIS looks like some kind of potentially awesome new. Dunno much about plasma physics myself but I can't find anyone who's debunking it so I'm assuming it's sound until proven otherwise. Energy solutions are coming flying in these days. If a tenth of this shit delivers a quarter of the promised leccy, we'll still be able to ditch carbon/fission on the back of it.

Decorations for our wedding cake that satisfies my geek appetite

[Reginald Ret]

THIS looks like some kind of potentially awesome new. Dunno much about plasma physics myself but I can't find anyone who's debunking it so I'm assuming it's sound until proven otherwise. Energy solutions are coming flying in these days. If a tenth of this shit delivers a quarter of the promised leccy, we'll still be able to ditch carbon/fission on the back of it.

That sounds possible, though I don't know nearly enough about this to make my judgement worth shit.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Yeah, same here. Only have a basic grasp of "normal" fusion reactors. I'll keep eye on it, tho. Either for a debunk or a successful test

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It's not actually new, and I tend to lean toward this guy's analysis: http://mikebhopkins.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/why-lawrenceville-plasma-physics-results-are-not-even-wrong-a-detailed-analysis/

[minuspace]

Yeah, I caught something about him open sourcing a few of his IP assets. One of the few that realises which side his bread is buttered. Collaboration to the detriment of competition is one of the foundations required if we're ever going to advance to post-capitalism. Can't see it happening overnight, unfortunately but there's a new breed of $billion+ companies wising up. Things would appear to at least be crawling in the right direction.

The optimist in me could almost be forgiven for thinking this idiotic race of talking monkeys have a chance of survival in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.

I need to think about that one.  It's the right signal.  The synthesis becomes important.  Collaboration subsumes competition - "coopetition" - overcoming antagonism in favor of cooperative spirit for improvement.  On an individual level, I think a metric determining this possibility would be inversely proportional to a cultures tolerance of schadenfreude.  I hope I'm wrong.

[P3nT4gR4m]

More Elon Musk awesomeness

Isn't it about time this prick got a Nobel Prize?

[Junkenstein]

Well it's more justified than Obama's one for Peace.

With any luck, he'll throw some money/time at the Solar roadways project, it would surely tie into this perfectly.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Sneaking proteins into cells without killing the cell

Drug development to treat specific ailments where a medicinal compound could be delivered into a cell is another potential use, he said.

Couple this with signature targetting and you got a whole new kind of collateral-free chemo!