The Space Elevator Concept | Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute. The space elevator was first proposed in 1895, but it might even predate that. The idea of a giant tower that can carry us from Earth to outer space is science fiction, but a company has successfully Kickstarted what they say is their first step to building one on the Moon. The LiftPort Group is funding a precursor project by sending a robot two kilometers up via a cable and building a test platform of high-altitude balloons that are tethered to the ground.
It’s not a stretch to think they’ll able to reach that goal, since the team made it only a quarter of a mile shy of that distance before the company went out of business in 2007. This is more of a team rebuilding exercise. The robot launch could help with the Lunar Elevator, which in turn could help with the Earth Elevator. In the lunar version, a space capsule would be attached to a rocket and sent toward the Moon. LiftPort has offered a list of “stretch goals,” additional projects to be completed if they raise more money. Construction starts on Smith and Gill's ice-inspired China skyscraper. News: construction has started in Chengdu, China, on a 468-metre-high crystalline skyscraper by the architects behind the current and future tallest buildings in the world.
The Greenland Tower Chengdu was designed by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill – the former SOM architects responsible for both the Burj Khalifa and the forthcoming Kingdom Tower – and is set to become the tallest building in south-western China. According to the architects, the faceted-glass form of the office and hotel tower was "inspired by the unique ice mountain topography around Chengdu". At night, inset LED lighting will highlight the edges designed to create the impression of a shimmering glacier. "Like the mountain ridges reflecting the light of the sky and the valleys reflecting light from the earth, the iconic tower will perform as a light sculpture to diffuse light from 360 degrees, creating a connection between sky and earth," said the studio in a statement.
Alyssa Carson - the first human to walk on Mars? 13-year old girl sure hopes so. At 13 years old, Alyssa Carson has been making preparations for nearly a decade to fulfill her dream of becoming the first astronaut to land on Mars. Even NASA officials think she can make it to the planned manned expedition of the Red Planet. (Photo : Alyssa Carson) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is already making the necessary preparations for the planned manned expedition to planet Mars less than 20 years from now but who will make it as the first human to walk on the Red Planet? 13-year-old Alyssa Carson hopes to be the first person to see and explore Mars in person.
Great athletes train at a young age and for Carson, who dreams of following the footsteps of legends Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, training also starts at an early age. "I would love to go to Mars because it is a planet that no one has been before," Carson wrote on her website NASA blueberry, where she writes the preparations she makes to become the first human to land on planet Mars. Wearable Technology That Feels Like Skin. Photo When it comes to the future of computing, there is one major known and a principal unknown. The known, with almost guaranteed certainty, is that the next era of computing will be wearables.
The unknown, with commensurate guaranteed uncertainty, is what these wearables will be and where on your body they will live. Apple and Samsung, for example, are betting on the wrist; Google, the face. A slew of tech companies believe clothing will simply become electronic. Yet there’s a whole new segment of start-ups that believe all of the above are destined for failure and that we humans will become the actual computers, or at least the place where the technology will reside. Their enthusiasm is on an emerging class of wearable computers that adhere to the skin like temporary tattoos, or attach to the body like an old-fashioned Band-Aid. Many of these technologies don’t look anything like today’s gadgets. MC10 recently teamed up with John A. How would these gadgets work? 3D-Printed Heartbeat Regulators : 3D-printed membrane. You’ve heard of 3D-printed auto parts, robots and even clothes, but a 3D-printed membrane for your heart is definitely out there.
Scientists at the University of Illinois and Washington University have made giant strides towards developing an artificial membrane that can keep hearts beating at a healthy rate and predict heart attacks before they happen. The scientists began by taking scans of a rabbit’s heart, generating a 3D model of it and printing the model using a 3D printer. The 3D-printed model was then used as a mold to create a silicon membrane custom-fitted to the rabbit’s heart. The heart was then removed, and the 3D-printed silicon membrane attached to it. Amazingly, the heart kept beating at a perfect pace even though it was outside the bunny’s body. It is hoped that this technology will be ready for use on human patients in 10-15 years. Punctuality-Encouraging Watches : "be more punctual" You'd think that wearing a watch would help people be more punctual, but this isn't always the case.
In addition to the usual numbers, hours and minute hands that we're so used to seeing, this proposed watch design by Box Clever is designed to call you out when you're running a little bit late. With a large strip running across the center of the watch face, the digital OLED screen makes it apparent when you're tardy. If you happen to be a punctual person already, the watch has other great features, such as being able to notify you when you've got an incoming phone call or missed voicemail. Even when there's nothing to display, the band in the middle of the watch isn't obstructive. Fuel cell vehicles: The only cars with potable exhaust? Toyota says water emissions safer to drink than milk Toyota says water emissions safer to drink than milk The bare chassis of Toyota's new hydrogen fuel-cell sedan -- the Mirai. Photo credit: REUTERS Hans Greimel Automotive NewsNovember 21, 2014 - 10:28 am ET TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. pitches its new Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car as a godsend for the planet.
But just how clean is that exhaust water vapor? Turns out, the Mirai’s exhaust water is safer than milk, Toyota says. “We tested the health impact of drinking the water in a special lab,” said Seiji Mizuno, general manager in charge of designing the car’s fuel stack power generator. Still, the company doesn’t recommend drinking it. E. coli and astronauts “Depending on the place you are driving, some parts of the world might have certain issues, such as organisms like E. coli, which could be hazardous to your health,” Mizuno said.
“You never know what the quality of the air intake is,” he added. Photo credit: BLOOMBERG Flush button Acid test. Interstellar (2014) - Plot Summary. Interstellar (2014) Synopsis - Plot Summary. A crew of astronauts embark on a mission to find a world where humanity can trive in a future where Earth can no longer sustain human life. The story opens on Earth in the distant future, as Mother Nature is waging war on humanity. Famine is widespread, and all of mankind's resources are now dedicated to farming in a desperate fight for survival. A former NASA pilot and engineer named Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) has become a homesteader in order to support his teenage son Tom (Timothee Chalamet) and 10-year-old daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy). Unfortunately, even that begins to look like a futile endeavor after a sandstorm ravages their close-knit community.
Meanwhile, a seemingly supernatural mystery begins to unfold when the "ghost" that dwells in Murph's room uses the power of gravity to send her a mysterious set of coordinates -- which lead the curious father/daughter duo to a clandestine underground base housing the remnants of NASA. Provided by Rovi. Probe makes historic comet landing. 12 November 2014Last updated at 11:10 ET Philae (shown in this artist's impression) should offer fresh insights into the origins of our Solar System European robot probe Philae has made the first, historic landing on a comet, after descending from its mothership. The lander touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at about 1605 GMT.
There were cheers and hugs at the control room in Darmstadt, Germany, after the signal was confirmed. It was designed to shine a light on some of the mysteries of these icy relics from the formation of the Solar System. The landing caps a 6.4 billion-kilometre journey that was begun a decade ago. "This is a big step for human civilisation," said Jean-Jacques Dordain, the director-general of the European Space Agency (Esa). Shortly after the touchdown was confirmed, Stephan Ulamec, the mission's lander chief, said: "Philae is talking to us... we are on the comet. " The robot deployed harpoons to fasten itself to the 2.5-mile-wide ball of ice and dust. Chance to bury your DNA on the moon in a time capsule - space - 19 November 2014.
Video: How DNA and data could be stored on the moon It's like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey. An artefact buried in the lunar surface conceals a big secret. Only this time, the secret is you… A plan to establish a lunar archive containing human DNA and a digital record of life on Earth is being unveiled this week. Called Lunar Mission One, the archive is the brainchild of British space consultant David Iron, who has worked on Skynet, the UK spy satellite network, and Galileo, the European Union's global positioning system.
His idea is to charge people £50 or so to place a sample of their DNA, in the form of a strand of hair, in an archive to be buried on the moon, alongside a digital history of as much of their lives as they want to record, in the form of text, pictures, music and video. The catch? Lunar kick-start "Getting below that top layer of the moon that Apollo looked at should give us extraordinary new data," Iron says. Beyond religion "I'm intrigued. More From New Scientist. Microsoft turns to robotic security guards to watch for trouble. OK, so the robot apocalypse probably won’t happen any time soon, but the new robot sentries guarding Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus seem like something straight out of a futuristic sci-fi movie. According to ExtremeTech, each of the K5 security guard robots from robotics company Knightscope stands 5 feet tall and weighs 300 pounds, so you probably don’t want to mess with one.
The K5 robots don’t come with any weapons onboard—thankfully—but they use a suite of alarms, sirens, and cameras to monitor and patrol the grounds of Microsoft’s campus. If one spots trouble, it’ll either sound an alarm or dispatch a human security guard to its location. ExtremeTech notes that the K5 can run for up to 24 hours on a single charge, and can recharge in only about 20 minutes. Its battery won’t die out in the field, though—these bots will return to the charging station by themselves when their batteries start to run dry.
Japan investing in robotic workforce to regain status as world's top manufacturer. By North Asia correspondent Matthew Carney Updated Once the undisputed world leader in robotic technology, Japan's supremacy in the field is being challenged by rival robot producing countries. Now the government is pouring money into regaining that place to ensure the robot age starts in Japan. Pepper is the world's first emo robot and represents a huge leap in artificial intelligence. It can read facial expressions, voice tones and body language and then respond. At Omotosando, an upmarket shopping district in Tokyo, Pepper works in a mobile phone store doing market research. Pepper told one woman: "You're very lovely - do people say that to you often? And then later joked with a male customer: "So you want to become Pepper? Pepper is designed to be cute.
On sale for $2,000 from next year, Pepper is sure to be big seller. But Japanese industry and government have serious plans for Pepper and robots like him. On the outskirts of Tokyo is the factory of the future, Nextage. Microsoft's headquarters are now defended by a fleet of robots. Microsoft, the private vault where Bill Gates stores his immense fortune, used to have the inexhaustible defence of lawyers. Now they have the inexhaustible defence of robots. Literally robots. We are living in science fiction. Manufactured by a company called Knightscope, the K5 security bots look like little rubbish bin pods on wheels embedded with tiny HD cameras. Alternatively, they look like proto-Daleks designed by Fisher-Price. And in the future, they're going to be equipped with tasers.
"How could this possibly go wrong? " Have a look at Microsoft's new army of unfeeling death machines below. via Daily Dot. Church of England formally approves plans for women bishops. 17 November 2014Last updated at 10:39 ET Supporters have welcomed the change but divisions remain within the church, as Caroline Wyatt reports The Church of England has formally adopted legislation which means its first female bishops could be ordained next year. The amendment was passed with a show of hands at the general synod. The first women priests were ordained in 1994, but to date they have not been able to take on the Church's most senior roles. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the move meant the start of "a new way of being the church". But divisions remain between Anglicans who feel it is consistent with their faith and traditionalists who disagree.
The general synod voted to back plans for female bishops in July. A prior move to allow women to stand as bishops was defeated in 2012 by six votes cast by lay members of the general synod, the law-making body of the Church of England. 'Changing the culture' Continue reading the main story Church of England women priests Getty. The Christian Students Giving Religion A 'Tolerance' Makeover. Throughout November, The Huffington Post UK is featuring its Beyond Belief series, chronicling the remarkable lives of Britons who've taken on their faith to create a force for change. Among most young people, religion has a reputation: stuffy, archaic, intolerant and outdated - prompting some followers to suggest even Jesus could do with some new PR. Student Christian societies don't fare any better.
From the inevitable links with pro-life societies, which are often banned from fresher fairs, to a infamous incident at Bristol University, where female Christians were barred from speaking at meetings, it's no surprise almost a quarter of followers are over 65. For some, the onslaught of negative publicity has meant a drastic rethink.
"It's not easy being Christian," recent graduate Tyelle Render admits. "People think you're supposed to be perfect. "We’ve had a few atheists and gay people come to our society. "When people come to us, we tell them they don't have to change their personality. UK unemployment falls by 115,000 to 1.96 million.
The Future is Female | Jo Haigh. Ebola treatments - how far off?