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Smart Watches
The designers of the Pebble watch realized that a mobile phone is more useful if you don’t have to take it out of your pocket.Eric Migicovsky didn’t really want a “wearable computer.” When he first conceived of what would become the Pebble smart watch five years ago, as an industrial-design student at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, he just wanted a way to use his...
Supergrids
A high-power circuit breaker could finally make DC power grids practical.High-voltage DC power lines can efficiently transport electricity over thousands of kilometers and for long distances underwater, outperforming the AC lines that dominate transmission grids now. But for a century, AC prevailed because high-voltage DC could be used only for point-to-point transmission, not to form the...
Teaching at the End of the World
The professor who tapped into a doomsday scenario to teach advanced space systems engineeringPaul Sandorff ’39 did not look like a harbinger of doom. A wiry Lockheed Martin employee with short-cropped hair and an affinity for meteoroids, he had been teaching at the Institute for nearly 15 years in February 1967, when he asked his students to prevent the world from being destroyed on June 14,...
Temporary Social Media
Messages that quickly self-destruct could enhance the privacy of online communication and make people feel freer to be spontaneous.One essential aspect of privacy is the ability to control how much we disclose to others. Unfortunately, we’ve lost much of that control now that every photo, chat, or status update posted on a social-media site can be stored in the cloud: even though we intended to...
The “What If?” Whiz
By asking that simple question for more than five decades, Institute Professor Millie Dresselhaus has pioneered nanoscience, launched a new field of energy research, and helped women find their place at MIT.Mildred Dresselhaus was summoned to the Oval Office last May for what was to have been a five-minute audience with the president. But after Obama congratulated her and a fellow physicist for...
Ultra-Efficient Solar Power
Doubling the efficiency of solar devices would completely change the economics of renewable energy. Here is a design that just might make it possible.Harry Atwater thinks his lab can make an affordable device that produces more than twice the solar power generated by today’s panels. The feat is possible, says the Caltech professor of materials science and applied physics, because of recent...
Is This “Kickstarter for People” a Good Idea?
Does Upstart turn investing into a popularity contest?In my years reporting on startups, I’ve often encountered stories of venture capitalists who’ve invested in a person, rather than a person’s idea. Hustle, an entrepreneurial spirit, a solid education, resolve, sheer likeability–often, these are qualities that seem to matter as much to investors as anything else.
MONDAY 22. APRIL 2013
Nest Thermostat Slays Peak Power
Nest adds “energy services” with utilities to shift heavy air conditioning loads and tune home efficiency.“Demand response” is not something most people outside the utility industry know about, never mind pay much attention to. Then again, most people didn’t give much thought to thermostats before Nest Labs made one.
Earth Day Reality Check
To make real progress in cleaning the air, we need better technology.As people around the world celebrate Earth Day and call attention to the need to take care of natural resources, it’s not a bad time to note that the use of coal–one of the dirtiest fuels–is going up around the world in spite of the growth of renewable energy and in spite of efforts by environmentalists to decrease its use...
Google Glass Testers “Spam” Google’s Social Network
The first flood of photos taken using Google’s wearable computer are underwhelming.If you want to know what people with early access to Google’s wearable computer Glass are doing, take a look at the public feed on Google+, the company’s social network. Photos and videos taken with the device, most of them unexciting, are flooding the service under the tag #throughglass. A couple of Google+...
How To Carbon Date a Web Page
If a web page lacks a timestamp, how do you know when it was created? A new web application could helpEver needed to know the age of a webpage only to discover that it lacks a timestamp saying when it was published?
Overview of Electronic Mail Protection Systems
Everyone who uses e-mail sometimes wonders how well the transmitted information is protected from prying eyes. Indeed, a message to be transferred travels a long way between different computers and mobile devices before it reaches a recipient; the intentions of these devices’ owners are unknown. Besides, each device in the chain can run malware that stores transmitted messages. Another problem...
IBM Solar Dish Does Double Duty
IBM Researchers build solar concentrator that generates electricity and enough heat for desalination or cooling.Cooling a supercomputer can provide clues on how to make solar power cheap, says IBM.
Multifunctional Drugs May Offer Better-Than-Additive Effects
A startup called Catabasis is developing drugs that hit diseases at multiple targets.Sometimes a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The startup Catabasis Pharmaceuticals is hoping that will hold true for the multifunctional drugs it’s developing.
Novel Heating System Could Improve Electric Car’s Range
A prototype system can heat and cool without draining battery power.Buyers considering an electric car must bear in mind that using battery-powered heating and air conditioning can decrease the car’s range by a third or more (see “BMW’s Solution to Limited Electric-Vehicle Range: A Gas-Powered Loaner”). A New York Times reviewer recently ran into this problem on a test drive, ending up...
The Enduring Technology of Coal
Despite the need to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, the burning of coal has only been accelerating.
SATURDAY 20. APRIL 2013
Other Interesting arXiv Papers This Week
The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv preprint serverTracking of Fingertips and Centres of Palm using KINECT
FRIDAY 19. APRIL 2013
Ads on Google Glass Will Never Work
An ad delivered straight to the eyeball feels like a violation.Some curious information came to light this week about Google Glass. For a company that owes its solvency to advertising–95% of its revenue comes from it–remarkably, Google is planning an ad-free experience for its on-eye computing experiment. At least, for...
Building a Picture of the Bomb Suspects through Social Network Analysis
Police can obtain huge quantities of social network data, but must sort out the junk to glean useful information.Within hours of obtaining identifications of the Boston marathon bombing suspects, police likely obtained search warrants and extensive digital records from mobile phone networks and social media and e-mail providers.
DOE to Push Development of Huge Potential Source of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The Department of Energy and the Alaskan Government are speeding up development of oil sands and methane hydrates.Many environmentalists are protesting the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline because it would help facilitate the delivery of oil from Canada’s oil sands and, they argue, increase carbon dioxide emissions. They may have more reason to worry about what’s happening in Alaska. The...
Google Floats Renewable Energy Data Center Plan
Google tries to use its buying clout to prod utilities to offer renewable energy option.Google has spent more than $1 billion in solar and wind energy projects but it ultimately has no control over the fuel that produces the electricity that powers its data centers. Google today is proposing a new tariff to buy renewable energy directly from utilities, a model it hopes will help scale renewable...
Samsung Demos a Tablet Controlled by Your Brain
An easy-to-use EEG cap could expand the number of ways to interact with your mobile devices.One day, we may be able to check e-mail or call a friend without ever touching a screen or even speaking to a disembodied helper. Samsung is researching how to bring mind control to its mobile devices with the hope of developing ways for people with mobility impairments to connect to the world. The ultimate...
A Longer Lasting Phone? Google's Larry Page Says It's Coming
Improved battery life and durability could be big selling points for new phones from Motorola.In his January earnings call, Google CEO Larry Page complained that our phones died too quickly and broke too easily. On Google’s next quarterly earnings call today, he cited the same concerns and said new products being cooked up at Motorola Mobility would address them. Google acquired for $12.5...