About : Welcome to Explorations in Science with Dr. Michio Kaku Dr. Michio Kaku — theoretical physicist, bestselling author, acclaimed public speaker, renowned futurist, and popularizer of science. As co-founder of String Field Theory, Dr. Kaku carries on Einstein’s quest to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into a single grand unified theory of everything. Kaku’s newest book, THE FUTURE OF THE MIND was released on February 25, 2014 and is now available. Dr. To search this website for book-related updates, click here. Kaku has starred in a myriad of science programming for television including Discovery, Science Channel, BBC, ABC, and History Channel. He is a news contributor to CBS:This Morning and is a regular guest on news programs around the world including CBS, Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, RT. BBC Series: Time — Michio Kaku goes on an extraordinary exploration of the world in search of time. BBC Four series: Visions of the Future — 3 part series exploring the cutting edge science of today, tomorrow, and beyond.
Mempile - Terabyte on a CD Revolutionary new optical-storage technology currently under development will allow the equivalent of 250,000 high-quality MP3s or more than 115 DVD-quality movies and about 40 HD movies on a single CD-size medium. At 200 layers a disc, future versions of the technology will make it possible to store up to 5TB of data on one disc—the only question is, when will we find the time to watch all this content? Optical storage – a brief history has already briefly covered the early days of digital storage and the development of the first hard drives by IBM in the 1950s. Almost 15 years have passed, and in 1979 Philips and Sony set up a joint task force of engineers to design the new digital audio disc. As years passed by, DVD technology improved. Like the CD of the 1980s that introduced a revolution in audio, the DVD of the 1990s radically changed the video world, dramatically increasing the amount of data users could save and back up from their computers. How optical media works 2.
Black Holes in Star Clusters Stir Time and Space Astronomers at the University of Bonn’s Argelander-Institut fuer Astronomie have recently published a study that suggests novel techniques to simulate the movement of black holes in star clusters, providing a new method to detect the merging of black holes. Their idea might be the basis for a future field called “gravitational wave astronomy”. The common premise is that most stars are born in clusters, evidently forming the massive star sets we call galaxies. The smallest, looser “open clusters” have only a few stellar members, and the largest, tightly bound ”globular clusters” have as many as several million stars. It is believed that stars with higher masses use their hydrogen fuel relatively quickly (in terms of millions of years), and then their core collapses – in the form of a supernova explosion. The result is a stellar object with a gravitational field so strong that not even light can escape; this object is mostly known as a black hole.
Darpa Looks to Tap Nature’s Quantum Effects | Danger Room For years, some scientists have suspected that quantum mechanics might have a little something to do with biological processes. Now, over a year after they first announced plans to look into quantum effects in biology, the Pentagon’s far-out research arm is asking for research and prototypes that may help harness that knowledge. Researchers have already established several biological realms that seem governed by quantum mechanics. For example, they already know that photosynthesis, one example of nature’s incredible efficiency, is ruled by quantum energy transfers. Energy “simultaneously samples” potential routes, and opts for the most efficient one to get the job done. Now, Darpa wants even more examples that demonstrate “tantalizing evidence” of biological systems that “operate using ‘manifestly’ quantum effects.” That’s part one. For now, they’re after high-performance sensors. [Photo: College of DuPage]
Breakthrough in Thin-Film Solar Cells Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany have recently reported a breakthrough in their search for more efficient thin-film solar cells. Such cells could help create better solar receptors, improving both capacity and utilization of current devices – resulting in more realistically efficient sources for alternative energy. The new study shows that the new potential efficiency is 30%, a significant increase in comparison to contemporary cells that have only about 20% efficiency. Using computer simulations, the scientists investigated ways to improve the performance of CIGS thin-film solar cells; these are important since they are only a few micrometers thick, and offer savings on material and manufacturing costs. The research team at Mainz University, headed by Professor Dr Claudia Felser, has had its work published in the latest edition of the journal Physical Review Letters. In order to solve this puzzle, the team received support from IBM Mainz.
Justin - Humanoid Robot Catches with Two Hands German researchers developed a robot that can perform complex tasks such as catching a ball in mid flight. The new robot called “Justin” is described as a two-arm-system for investigation of two handed manipulation. The development of humanoid robots has made significant progress in recent years. Although several systems have impressive walking abilities, when it comes to their abilities to manipulate objects or interact with their surrounding they are quite limited. To overcome this limitation, researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Robotics and Mathematics developed a human-like torso with two arms and two hands. Justin is used to test programming and control concepts for two-handed mobile manipulation, and in a recent demonstration was able to show impressive abilities including catching two balls in mid air just like a skilled human would do. The researchers see the future of humanoid robots in household assistance as well as in space environments.
First Feathered Flight for SpaceShipTwo SpaceShipTwo, British billionaire Richard Branson’s spaceship and part of his commercial space venture Virgin Galactic, is now one step closer to fulfilling the dream of private manned mission to space after a successful test conducted earlier this week. On the 5/3/2011 for the first time, Virgin Galactic’s rocket plane – SpaceShipTwo deployed its twin tail sections designed to allow the craft to gently return to the Earth. The twin tail sections is a unique feature important in reducing the enormous stress inflicted on the craft’s body when returning to earth from space. In the case of SpaceShipTwo the twin tail sections is even more important as the spaceship will be used to ferry passengers to and from space many times in a short period of time – something no space vehicle to date had been required to do. The test flight Tuesday took place from the Mojave Air and Space Port. More information can be found on Virgin Galactic’s website.
Charge Your Cell Phone with Your Voice South Korean researchers developed a new technique for turning sound into electricity, allowing a mobile phones to be charged while the user is talking over the phone. At the Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, Dr. Sang-Woo Kim is working on a revolutionary new technology that he hopes will change the way we use our cell phones in the future. So far there have been several ideas floating around for tapping into unused energy to charge up cell phones, including solar power, surrounding vibration, and even electromagnetic energy which fills the air around us at all times. So far one type of untapped energy source which has been overlooked according to Dr. We live in a noisy environment: cars, trains, airplanes all produce almost constant noise. Dr.
New Quasiparticles Found Scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have demonstrated, for the first time, the existence of quasiparticles with one quarter the charge of an electron. Quasiparticles are formed from the interactions of multi-particle systems, and act effectively as independent particles. Quasiparticles are known for having a fraction of the charge of an electron, but until now all the quasiparticles that were discovered had an odd denominator. The special attribute of an even denominator in the recently discovered quasiparticles may be the first step towards powerful and stable quantum computers. In order to create quasiparticles the researchers had to confine electrons to a two-dimensional layer inside a semiconductor which in turn was cooled to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, then exposed to a strong magnetic field that was perpendicular to the layer. For a long time the basic electric charge unit was an electron that was indivisible just like the electron itself.
Ask Nature - the Biomimicry Design Portal: biomimetics, architecture, biology, innovation inspired by nature, industrial design - Ask Nature - the Biomimicry Design Portal: biomimetics, architecture, biology, innovation inspired by nature, industrial desi LIGO - Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory Patently Silly - The Humor of Invention - presented by Daniel Wright Israel Developing Flying Elephants According to a soon to be published article in the defensenews magazine, Israel has started working on a project known as “Flying Elephants”. The futuristic unmanned aircraft is said to be huge and slow, capable of self takeoff and landing even in unpaved airstrips and flying through high winds. Most importantly it will be able to carry and in some scenarios perform pin-point drops of supplies to troops up to one metric ton – something no existing unmanned aircraft is capable of doing. The Flying Elephants is another project which received a boost after the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, where Israeli troops found themselves only a few miles inside enemy territory but short on supplies. Aerial resupply was scarce and imprecise due to fear of enemy ground fire shooting down slow cargo planes and the lack of precise dropping methods. Here comes the Flying Elephants concept.