Facebook Will Build Drones and Satellites to Beam Internet Around the World A still from an promotional video showing how Facebook and Internet.org will deliver internet access via aerial drone. Image: Internet.org Mark Zuckerberg is putting together a lab where a team of Facebook engineers will build flying drones, satellites, and infrared lasers capable of beaming internet connections to people down here on earth. Revealed this afternoon by the Facebook CEO and founder, it’s known as the Facebook Connectivity Lab. According to Zuckerberg, the lab’s engineering staff already spans “many of the world’s leading experts in aerospace and communications technology,” including researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA’s Ames Research Center, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. All this may seem like a stretch for a social networking company. Hinted at in earlier press reports, Facebook’s flying-internet efforts mirror a similar project that’s underway at Google.
How NASA might build its very first warp drive I want to see this work as much as anyone else on io9, but every time I read an article on warp drive, I expend so much mental energy trying to wrap my head around the concept that my entire left hand side goes numb. Somewhere along the line my understanding of concepts such as the nature of Spacetime is deficient. Here's the problem. If someone could point me towards some legible books that I could buy that would help me understand where my understanding has gone wrong, I would be grateful. Thanks.
Solar System Scope Hubble Serves Up a Holiday Snow Angel Hubble Serves Up a Holiday Snow Angel NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope presents a festive holiday greeting that’s out of this world. The bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106, looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel. The outstretched “wings” of the nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the backdrop of a colder medium. The bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106, looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel. The outstretched “wings” of the nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the backdrop of a colder medium. Sharpless 2-106, Sh2-106 or S106 for short, lies nearly 2,000 light-years from us. A massive, young star, IRS 4 (Infrared Source 4), is responsible for the furious activity we see in the nebula. A ring of dust and gas orbiting the star acts like a belt, cinching the expanding nebula into an “hourglass” shape. Dusky red veins surround the blue emission from the nebula. Related Links about S106:
'Frozen waves' of blue ice photographed by Tony Travouillon Dramatic images appear to show a frozen wave but the phenomenon is actually caused by compressed iceThe ice appears blue because it absorbs light from the 'red end' of the spectrum and throws out the blue light By Rik Sharma Published: 13:18 GMT, 26 November 2012 | Updated: 19:07 GMT, 26 November 2012 At first glance these beautiful images from the Antarctic appear to show 50-ft tall waves that have been instantly frozen as they break. Some people have posted the pictures online, taken by scientist Tony Travouillon at Dumont D'Urville, with a description claiming they are a tsunami wave which was frozen. But although email chains and internet forums back this claim up, what is really pictured is the natural phenomenon of blue ice. Imposing: Although this is not, as widely rumoured, a wave frozen while breaking, it is still an incredible phenomenon Frozen towers: This blue ice is created because ice bubbles are compressed and light at the red end of the spectrum is absorbed
13 Sci-Fi Gadgets You Won't Believe Already Exist When will the real world catch up to some of the science fiction novels of our youth? WhoIsHostingThis put together this great infographic that shows some of the gadgets from the world of sci-fi that already exist and you probably didn’t even realize it. There are some great finds on this graphic, including the Tamaggo ibi, the 360 degree camera and the Electrolux Wirio cooking device, but we were a bit dismayed to see that one of the devices is intended to allow you to know what your dog is thinking. Gary Larson taught us many years ago how dogs truly think of themselves.
gov News Transcript: DoD News Briefing: Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen Cohen's keynote address at the Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and U.S. Strategy at the Georgia Center, Mahler Auditorium, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. The event is part of the Sam Nunn Policy Forum being hosted by the University of Georgia. Secretary Cohen is joined by Sen. Sam Nunn and Sen. Secretary Cohen: Senator Nunn, thank you very much. I'll comment on that later during the course of the morning, but I've had occasion to meet with a number of Russian counterparts, and as we go through various translations of the communications that we're having, the two words they are able to articulate very clearly, they say 'Nunn/Lugar, Nunn/Lugar. It was Nunn/Lugar I that dealt with the reduction of nuclear weapons between the United States and the Soviet Union in terms of trying to come to grips with how we helped the Russians dismantle hundreds of their nuclear weapons, and also helped them with their destruction of chemical weapons. Q: How prepared is the U.S.
Scientists discover tiny solar panels that create themselves File this one under "holy crap," but scientists at MIT have discovered molecules that spontaneously assemble themselves into a pattern that can turn light into electricity — essentially a self-creating solar panel. In a petri dish. The researchers set out to create a synthetic process that imitates photosynthesis. Certain molecules respond to light by releasing electrons; the trick was discovering a substance that sticks them together in a consistent structure. Phospholipids do just that, and they also attach themselves to carbon nanotubes, which conduct electricity. With the nanotubes holding the phospholipids in a uniform alignment, the photoreactive molecules are all exposed to light at once, and the tube acts as a wire that then collects the resulting electrical current. The most interesting part is that the tiny solar array can be disassembled and reassembled just by adding chemicals. MIT News, via Kurzweil AI
Drinking Water out of Air 100 Amazing Futuristic Design Concepts We Wish Were Real Concept designers are also referred to as “visual futurists”. These concept designs may not be on the market yet, but they can still inspire you to create something just as futuristic and exciting online. The designs may be impractical in some cases, but the idea is to put the concept out to the world to see how it evolves and grows. Remember that these are all just conceptual, you can’t buy them yet! With that said, here you have 100 amazing futuristic design concepts that will make you crave more. 1. This is an elegant concept created by designer D.K. 2. This concept design was inspired by the curves and tapering of the Macbook Air coupled with the look of an iPod Touch. 3. iPhone 4G Concept This fantasy iPhone mimics both the look of Mac OS/X and the aluminum case of a MacBook Pro. 4. Created by designer Norio Fujikawa. 5. This watch tells time in an extraordinary way. 6. 7. Designer Balykin Pavel tells the time with digital sand in this Reddot Design Award winner for 2006. 8. 9. 10. 11.
NASA Announces Results of Epic Space-Time Experiment May 4, 2011: Einstein was right again. There is a space-time vortex around Earth, and its shape precisely matches the predictions of Einstein’s theory of gravity. Researchers confirmed these points at a press conference today at NASA headquarters where they announced the long-awaited results of Gravity Probe B (GP-B). “The space-time around Earth appears to be distorted just as general relativity predicts,” says Stanford University physicist Francis Everitt, principal investigator of the Gravity Probe B mission. “This is an epic result,” adds Clifford Will of Washington University in St. Louis. Time and space, according to Einstein’s theories of relativity, are woven together, forming a four-dimensional fabric called “space-time.” If Earth were stationary, that would be the end of the story. The idea behind the experiment is simple: Put a spinning gyroscope into orbit around the Earth, with the spin axis pointed toward some distant star as a fixed reference point. Author: Dr.