Nanomedicine advance enables medicinal “smart bombs”
New pharmacological weaponeering:
“BIND-014 demonstrates for the first time that it is possible to generate medicines with both targeted and programmable properties that can concentrate the therapeutic effect directly at the site of disease, potentially revolutionizing how complex diseases such as cancer are treated,” said Omid Farokhzad, MD, a physician-scientist in the BWH Department of Anesthesiology, associate professor at HMS, and study co- senior author.”
Quantum computer research advancing
Science News reports on advances in using diamond in quantum computing, A diamond based device employing a nitrogen nucleus’ spin as one qubit, and an electron’s spin as the other. When the system was used to solve a problem using an unsorted database and succeeded on the first try 95% of the time, when a non-quantum computer should only be successful half the time, it indicated that a quantum effect was taking place.
Other advances announced this week include hacker resistant encryptionand more reliable method of moving qubit encoded electrons.
Navy 4 years away from laser guns
Danger Room reports that the Office of Naval Research is close to having a solid state laser with military value in about 4 years. The article talks to the difference between solid state and free electron lasers. The difference is of great effect because a solid state laser of 100Kw can deal with a few threats, but still has a dwell time on a target of many seconds to nearly a minute, demanding on the target and the conditions. This means you can’t deal with many more targets than you have lasers.
The Free Electron laser, with 10 times the power or more, can deal with many more targets than lasers – the holy grail of shipboard missile defense – a high power “shield” that makes a vessel virtually immune to missile attack. The power for this will likely require going back to nuclear power plants on surface ships to provide the necessary power, and a new generation of power handling equipment to deal with moving several Megawatts of power around a ship.
So in the near term, lasers have the potential to provide defense against a handful or 2 of small boats or a single enemy ships typical salvo of anti-ship missiles. Given that the future is likely going to see a return of Cold war era massive saturation sraids of scores of missiles against a carrier battle group, the SAM will not be made obsolete until an air defense ship has 10 Mw of power and a man battery of 4 to 6 Free electron lasers.
Mystery of the lightening bolt neutrons
Ars Technica reports on one of the many little mysteries that keep physicists up at night.
Why do lightening strikes produce low energy free neutrons?
One explanation was related to cosmic rays, another to gamma rays produced by the bolt.
Neither explanation matches the data Russian scientists recently recorded.
As the article opines, this is not likely to be the harbinger of a revolution in physics, but reminds us that the more we seem to know about the universe, the more we find we don’t yet know.
Unmanned Drones first mission – Taco delivery!
Singularity Hub reports on a practical use for all the gyrations Quadcopters have been doing on the web.
OK, as the site speculates April 1st is right around the corner, and despite H. R. 658 titled “FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012″ which passed in February, allowing for the commercial development of UAVs, the bar is tremendously high, and quadcopters do have 4 rapidly spinning blades – each a lawsuit waiting to happen.
The article also discusses matternet a vision that takes the idea of delivering food with UAVs from a web gimmick, to a potential lifeline for millions. Are roads days numbered?
Apple provides a “religious experience”
PC Mag reports on research that shows that the use of Apple products stimulates the same centers of the brain responsible for “religious experiences” in at least one fan.
The study will be reported tonight in the UK in a BBC documentary called “Secrets of the Superbrands,” which examines the relationship between consumers and brands that shape our lives.
On a related note, “The Church of Kopimism, whose principal tenant is the right to file-share, has been formally recognized as a religious organization in Sweden.”
“For the Church of Kopimism, information is holy and copying is a sacrament,” it said in a statement. “Information holds a value, in itself and in what it contains, and the value multiplies through copying. Therefore, copying is central for the organization and its members.”
“Hopefully, this is one step towards the day when we can live out our faith without fear of persecution,” Gerson said in a statement.
Unfortunately, the recognition as a religion has no effect on the illegality of copyright infringement…Well, they can always join the Raelians…
Communicate through anything…even a planet!
The University of Rochester has demonstrated a communication technology that can be used through rock, water, even through the moon to its dark side using neutrinos. THe process:
The apparatus required is incredibly large and complex, but it demonstrated in principle that communicating by modulating a beam of neutrinos is possible.
IBM opens door to terahertz computing
A press release from IBM reports on a hybrid optical/silicon chip that can send and receive data at terahertz rates on a single chip. Seperately, the University of Pittsburgh has reported on techniques that can transmit at 100 tera hz using a “spectral comb” that isolates combinations of the natural oscillations in silicon atoms. Theoretically the technique could be refined to focus on electrons vice a crystal lattice of atoms, multiplying the effect by 1000 to peta-hz frequencies.
The potential of the discoveries to increase processing speeds of processing chips by 1000 to 1,000,000 times – a Moore’s law blowing proposition. coupled with IBM’s discovery to move data around at similar speeds, the combination could result in a revolution in both processing and communications using lasers for long-haul data transfer rather than microwaves currently used.
University of Texas at Dallas adds other pieces to the puzzle.
This would provide the backbone required to employ post 4G wireless technologies on a widespread basis, allowing cellular technology to potentially rival wired plant solutions for consumers.
And to make matters worse…Old memories interfere with new ones!
So not only does it take energy to erase information, if you don’t “your brain gets full”.
Well not exactly, but according to this article when the pattern of brain activity for the older memory was stronger, the participants were more likely to fail to correctly recall the newer memory, the team reports. Even when a person successfully reported the new memory, traces of the old memory were called to mind. What’s more, when the new and old memory strengths were evenly matched, the participants took longer to answer. “We’re seeing evidence of things people are trying to not remember,” Kuhl says.
technoleracy 