Ray EstevezOct 29, 2015
3-D Scans Give New Life to the Dodo
Can technology revise our image of the bird as a big, dumb buffoon?
Everyone knows the story of the dodo, right? Big, slow, dumb, pear-shaped bird that basically deserved its extinction when hungry colonists arrived on its isolated island home of Mauritius in the 17th century. Not so fast. Paleontologist Leon Claessens at the University of the Holy Cross has spent the last four years using 3-D scans and virtual reconstructions to rewrite the story of this much-maligned bird, as described in this recent Audubon article by Jennifer Huizen.
3-D Scans Give New Life to the Dodo
Ray EstevezOct 26, 2015
Inhabit This Teddy Bear’s Body Using Virtual Reality
Japanese startup Adawarp thinks teleporting inside the body of a robotic stuffed animal could be a good way to keep in touch with loved ones.
Companies inventing things to do with virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift, which launches next year, mostly use them to transport you into imaginary worlds. Tatsuki Adaniya has a different idea—teleporting you into the body of a robotic teddy bear.
Inhabit This Teddy Bear’s Body Using Virtual Reality
Ray EstevezOct 23, 2015
Squeezed Light and Quantum Clockspeeds
Why do some quantum computations require entanglement while others don’t? Squeezed photons may hold the answer, say physicists.
The world’s fastest computer is the Tianhe-2 supercomputer at National Super Computer Center in Guangzhou, China. It consists of 16,000 computer nodes, each with two Intel Ivy Bridge Xeon processors and three Xeon Phi coprocessor. Together these make it capable of 33.86 quadrillion floating point calculations per second, more than any other computing machine on the planet.
Squeezed Light and Quantum Clockspeeds
Ray EstevezOct 22, 2015
Alphabet Prepares to Spend More On Its Riskiest Projects
Google’s new parent company, Alphabet, warns investors it will invest more in long-term “bets” on breakthrough technologies.
Alphabet, the parent company recently created to keep Google’s core business separate from wilder enterprises such as self-driving cars, is preparing to ramp up spending on its most far-out projects.
Alphabet Prepares to Spend More On Its Riskiest Projects
Ray EstevezOct 20, 2015
Artificial Creativity
Why computers aren’t close to being ready to supplant human artists.
Artificial intelligence has an Achilles’ heel. It can’t decide what’s relevant.
Artificial Creativity
Ray EstevezOct 19, 2015
You’ve Been Misled About What Makes a Good Password
Common advice on how to make a strong password is misleading, according to a new study of password-guessing techniques.
“Password must include upper and lowercase letters, and at least one numeric character.” A common scold dished out by websites or software when you open an account or change a password—and one that new research suggests is misleading.
You’ve Been Misled About What Makes a Good Password
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