8bitfuture: First flexible smartphones to launch in 2013. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Samsung are getting ready to launch the first flexible smartphones to market in the first half of 2013. The company - along with many other smartphone makers - have been researching the the technology for as long as 10 years, but it’s been difficult to bring it to market due to difficulties mass producing the technology. Pictured above are prototype devices which Samsung exhibited last year, although it’s not clear exactly what form the final product will take. The flexible displays will use OLEDs, which can be put on flexible material such as plastic or metal foil. “The key reason for Samsung to use plastic rather than conventional glass is to produce displays that aren’t breakable. The technology could also help lower manufacturing costs and help differentiate its products from other rivals,” said Lee Seung-chul, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities.
Pop-upView Separately

8bitfuture:

First flexible smartphones to launch in 2013.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Samsung are getting ready to launch the first flexible smartphones to market in the first half of 2013. The company - along with many other smartphone makers - have been researching the the technology for as long as 10 years, but it’s been difficult to bring it to market due to difficulties mass producing the technology. Pictured above are prototype devices which Samsung exhibited last year, although it’s not clear exactly what form the final product will take.

The flexible displays will use OLEDs, which can be put on flexible material such as plastic or metal foil.

“The key reason for Samsung to use plastic rather than conventional glass is to produce displays that aren’t breakable. The technology could also help lower manufacturing costs and help differentiate its products from other rivals,” said Lee Seung-chul, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities.

(via 8bitfuture)

Two companies to look for Martian DNA. Researcher J. Craig Venter has announced that his company will develop a machine capable of sequencing DNA on Mars, and beaming the data back to Earth. “There will be DNA life forms there,” Venter predicted Tuesday in New York, where he was speaking at the Wired Health Conference. Venter said researchers working with him have already begun tests at a Mars-like test site in the Mojave Desert. Their goal, he said, is to demonstrate a machine capable of autonomously isolating microbes from soil, sequencing their DNA, and then transmitting the information to a remote computer, as would be required on an unmanned Mars mission. Another DNA sequencing company, Ion Torrent, have also announced they are working with NASA and MIT to adapt their “Personal Genome Machine” for Martian conditions. That work is part of the SET-G program - “the search for extra-terrestrial genomes”.
Pop-upView Separately

Two companies to look for Martian DNA.

Researcher J. Craig Venter has announced that his company will develop a machine capable of sequencing DNA on Mars, and beaming the data back to Earth.

“There will be DNA life forms there,” Venter predicted Tuesday in New York, where he was speaking at the Wired Health Conference.

Venter said researchers working with him have already begun tests at a Mars-like test site in the Mojave Desert. Their goal, he said, is to demonstrate a machine capable of autonomously isolating microbes from soil, sequencing their DNA, and then transmitting the information to a remote computer, as would be required on an unmanned Mars mission.

Another DNA sequencing company, Ion Torrent, have also announced they are working with NASA and MIT to adapt their “Personal Genome Machine” for Martian conditions. That work is part of the SET-G program - “the search for extra-terrestrial genomes”.

(via 8bitfuture)

Imagine electronic medical devices, implanted to heal wounds and then dissipating inside the human body.  Welcome the next generation of medical devices! A collaboration between scientists at Tufts School of Engineering at the University of Illinois has led to the creation of tiny, fully biocompatible electronic devices that, once they have functioned for a set period of time, dissolve harmlessly into their surroundings. The devices, dubbed “transient electronics”, are thought to be the next-generation of medical devices, and could lead to a range of  implants that never need surgical removal – not to mention that they are fully compostable. Related articles Smooth as silk ‘transient electronics’ dissolve in body or environment (eurekalert.org)
Pop-upView Separately

Imagine electronic medical devices, implanted to heal wounds and then dissipating inside the human body. 

Welcome the next generation of medical devices!

A collaboration between scientists at Tufts School of Engineering at the University of Illinois has led to the creation of tiny, fully biocompatible electronic devices that, once they have functioned for a set period of time, dissolve harmlessly into their surroundings. The devices, dubbed “transient electronics”, are thought to be the next-generation of medical devices, and could lead to a range of  implants that never need surgical removal – not to mention that they are fully compostable.


Related articles

(via alexob)

Life on Mars! Little spheres of rock, dubbed blueberries, like these ones are known to form with the help of liquid water and microbes on Earth. This might mean there was once life (and liquid water) on Mars that formed their Martian cousins! It was only recently discovered that microbes are part of the process - research that was done using equipment in Western Australia.Image of the Martian blueberries courtesy NASA/JPL/Cornell University - taken with the Opportunity Rover. Also more info here: http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201209124999/research/uwa-discovery-helps-search-extra-terrestial-life-mars
Pop-upView Separately

Life on Mars!

Little spheres of rock, dubbed blueberries, like these ones are known to form with the help of liquid water and microbes on Earth. This might mean there was once life (and liquid water) on Mars that formed their Martian cousins! It was only recently discovered that microbes are part of the process - research that was done using equipment in Western Australia.

Image of the Martian blueberries courtesy NASA/JPL/Cornell University - taken with the Opportunity Rover.

Also more info here: http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201209124999/research/uwa-discovery-helps-search-extra-terrestial-life-mars

(via scienceyoucanlove)

Pioneering experiments have cast doubt on a founding idea of the branch of physics called quantum mechanics. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is in part an embodiment of the idea that in the quantum world, the mere act of observing an event changes it. But the idea had never been put to the test, and a team writing in Physical Review Letters says “weak measurements” prove the rule was never quite right. That could play havoc with “uncrackable codes” of quantum cryptography. Quantum mechanics has since its very inception raised a great many philosophical and metaphysical debates about the nature of nature itself. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, as it came to be known later, started as an assertion that when trying to measure one aspect of a particle precisely, say its position, experimenters would necessarily “blur out” the precision in its speed. That raised the spectre of a physical world whose nature was, beyond some fundamental level, unknowable. (via BBC News - Quantum test pricks uncertainty)
Pop-upView Separately

Pioneering experiments have cast doubt on a founding idea of the branch of physics called quantum mechanics. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is in part an embodiment of the idea that in the quantum world, the mere act of observing an event changes it. But the idea had never been put to the test, and a team writing in Physical Review Letters says “weak measurements” prove the rule was never quite right. That could play havoc with “uncrackable codes” of quantum cryptography. Quantum mechanics has since its very inception raised a great many philosophical and metaphysical debates about the nature of nature itself. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, as it came to be known later, started as an assertion that when trying to measure one aspect of a particle precisely, say its position, experimenters would necessarily “blur out” the precision in its speed. That raised the spectre of a physical world whose nature was, beyond some fundamental level, unknowable. (via BBC News - Quantum test pricks uncertainty)

(via wildcat2030)

Apollo 11 Interactive Panorama Thanks to the nice folks at PhotoJPL.com, you can hang out with Buzz and Neil at Tranquility Base. Click through above for complete lunarcy. That amazing experience was stitched together from photos that Armstrong himself took. Want more lunar panoramas? Relive most of the Apollo landings here. You’ll essentially feel like this the whole time.
Pop-upView Separately

Apollo 11 Interactive Panorama

Thanks to the nice folks at PhotoJPL.com, you can hang out with Buzz and Neil at Tranquility Base. Click through above for complete lunarcy. That amazing experience was stitched together from photos that Armstrong himself took.

Want more lunar panoramas? Relive most of the Apollo landings here. You’ll essentially feel like this the whole time.

MIT Researchers Modify Skeletal Muscles to Respond to Light, Key Precursor for Muscle-Powered Robots This is the first time tough, powerful skeletal muscle has been modified to react to light. Optogenetics researchers have done it with cardiac cells, which are already primed to beat on their own — now skeletal muscle, which normally requires some outside stimulus, can contract and expand at the command of light bursts.
Pop-upView Separately

MIT Researchers Modify Skeletal Muscles to Respond to Light, Key Precursor for Muscle-Powered Robots

This is the first time tough, powerful skeletal muscle has been modified to react to light. Optogenetics researchers have done it with cardiac cells, which are already primed to beat on their own — now skeletal muscle, which normally requires some outside stimulus, can contract and expand at the command of light bursts.

(via joshbyard)

All the American Flags On the Moon Are Now White NASA has finally answered a long-standing question: all but one of the six American flags on the Moon are still standing up. Everyone is now proudly talking about it. The only problem is that they aren’t American flags anymore. They are all white. So America f*ck yeah, right? Not quite. While the $5.50 nylon flags are still waving on the windless orb, they are not flags of the United States of America anymore. All Moon and material experts have no doubt about it: the flags are now completely white. If you leave a flag on Earth for 43 years, it would be almost completely faded. On the Moon, with no atmospheric protection whatsoever, that process happens a lot faster. The stars and stripes disappeared from our Moon flags quite some time ago.
Pop-upView Separately

All the American Flags On the Moon Are Now White

NASA has finally answered a long-standing question: all but one of the six American flags on the Moon are still standing up. Everyone is now proudly talking about it. The only problem is that they aren’t American flags anymore. They are all white.

So America f*ck yeah, right? Not quite. While the $5.50 nylon flags are still waving on the windless orb, they are not flags of the United States of America anymore. All Moon and material experts have no doubt about it: the flags are now completely white. If you leave a flag on Earth for 43 years, it would be almost completely faded. On the Moon, with no atmospheric protection whatsoever, that process happens a lot faster. The stars and stripes disappeared from our Moon flags quite some time ago.

(via poptech)

Source: Gizmodo

9 Theoretical Physicists Win Massive New Cash Award || Scientific American

A billionaire Internet mogul has awarded a record US$27 million to nine physicists for their work on fundamental theory. Yuri Milner, who has made his fortune investing in social-media companies, announced the new Fundamental Physics Prize this morning. The winners work on difficult problems ranging from the Universe’s early inflation to string theory….

He created the prize out of a love of theoretical physics, which he studied at Moscow State University and the Russian Academy of Sciences during the 1980s and early 1990s. The initial prizewinners were chosen by Milner himself. Unlike other awards, such as the Nobel Prize, the new award can be given to theorists whose ideas have not yet been supported by data. The goal is to reward groundbreaking concepts that are driving theoretical thinking forward.

Top