Being born would then be like entering paradise.

http://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-h...quantum-theory


Thoughts on quantum cognition?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cognition

World Bank economist proves Pythagorean Theorem.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...00-years-late-


PairTheBoard

http://www.sciencealert.com/first-of...-we-use-energy

What does this mean for the future of ITER? if it works

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...bb6_story.html

Coffee's good, Johnny baby. Motherspinners.

On Wednesday [Nov 18], a study in the journal Nature announced that scientists have directly observed the formation of a planet for the very first time.


Scientists-caught-a-new-planet-forming-for-the-first-time-ever/

There is nothing like being caught in the act.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...with-practice/


Science studies intentionally developed kindness and compassion. Hippies were right, once again.

http://snip.ly/D42V#http://neuroscie...networks-3235/

What a time to be alive and have a human brain!

http://astronomynow.com/2015/12/09/g...eavy-elements/

About one hundred years later - [If a signal supposedly detected at a research facility is verified, it would confirm one of the most dramatic predictions of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity]

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2...moured-science

From above link:


Scientists struggle to stay grounded after possible gravitational wave signal

Monday 11 January 2016 19.29 EST



Not for the first time, the world of physics is abuzz with rumours that gravitational waves have been detected by scientists in the US.

Lawrence Krauss, a cosmologist at Arizona State university, tweeted that he had received independent confirmation of a rumour that has been in circulation for months, adding: “Gravitational waves may have been discovered!!”

The excitement centres on a longstanding experiment known as the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo) which uses detectors in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana to look for ripples in the fabric of spacetime

[Analysis/ Gravitational wave detection could be a false alarm

Caution is needed over claims that gravitational waves have been found. It could be a fake to test the detectors and scientists involved – it has been before]

According to the rumours, scientists on the team are in the process of writing up a paper that describes a gravitational wave signal. If such a signal exists and is verified, it would confirm one of the most dramatic predictions of Albert Einstein’s century-old theory of general relativity.

Krauss said he was 60% confident that the rumour was true, but said he would have to see the scientists’ data before drawing any conclusions about whether the signal was genuine or not.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

My hypothesis is that gravity is actually a pack of wild dogs that statistically and sadistically rip at the flesh of the universe.

I just say one word: BICEP. Make what you will of it.

The thing is though that we know the waves (classical) exist (but not the gravitons) and we do not need to actually detect them to say aha great now we know they are real (although of course its needed because one can then learn even more from them and their patterns plus the technological benefits are substantial). Because we can see how many gravitational systems with period lose energy over time and this is exactly in line with the gravitational radiation that they must be emitting.

See how early such indirect detection is in place with pulsars;

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...ce.cld.iop.org

So the actual big news if it proves true is more about the technology finally materializing the dreams of few generations literally starting with Weber;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Weber

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravit...ve_observatory

https://ligo.caltech.edu/

http://ligo.org/

Another step for the fusion dream:

German-experiment-takes-tentative-steps-towards-fusion-reactor

From above link:

German experiment, called Wendelstein 7-X, received funding or components from Germany, Poland, and the United States. This is the first run with hydrogen, though it did some initial work creating helium plasma last year. Though the hydrogen plasma was short-lived, it was an exciting moment for researchers.

“With a temperature of 80 million degrees [Celsius] and a lifetime of a quarter of a second, the device’s first hydrogen plasma has completely lived up to our expectations”, Hans-Stephan Bosch, head of operations for Wendelstein 7-X said. The Wendelstein 7-X is not designed to produce energy. Instead, the experiment is focused solely on producing and maintaining a levitating ball of super-heated plasma, which is a key step towards fusion energy.[my bold]

The Germans aren't the only ones working on fusion, though. In France, the largest fusion reactor ever made, called ITER, is under construction. Private companies are in on the race too, with Lockheed Martin also working on a fusion reactor design.

*****************

Self-driving Cars Article linked below. Google gets some legal headway in the self-driving car game. Very interesting, and ties in with some on -oing threads as well

whats-next-for-self-driving-cars

From above link:

Would you have a computer drive for you?

Some say yes if the computer is accurate and has no bugs in it, while some say no because they want to be in control and they enjoy driving.

A University of Michigan survey found that about 90 percent of Americans have some concerns about the concept of self-driving cars. But most also say that they do want some aspects of the car to be automated.

Whatever Americans think, the legal and regulatory groundwork is being laid right now for a drastically different transportation landscape — one where we ride around in cars that drive themselves. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Google this month that the self-driving car system can be recognized as the driver.

***********************

http://www.npr.org/2016/02/24/467805...ce-in-science?

Fun list. I'm rather intrigued about wasp faces.

most-distant-galaxy-hubble-breaks-cosmic-distance-record

From above link:

By pushing the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to its limits, astronomers have shattered the cosmic distance record by measuring the distance to the most remote galaxy ever seen in the universe. This galaxy existed just 400 million years after the Big Bang and provides new insights into the first generation of galaxies. This is the first time that the distance of an object so far away has been measured from its spectrum, which makes the measurement extremely reliable.

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has measured the distance to this new galaxy, named GN-z11. Although extremely faint, the galaxy is unusually bright considering its distance from Earth. The distance measurement of GN-z11 provides additional strong evidence that other unusually bright galaxies found in earlier Hubble images are really at extraordinary distances, showing that we are closing in on the first galaxies that formed in the universe.

Previously, astronomers had estimated GN-z11’s distance by analyzing its color in images taken with both Hubble and the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope. Now, for the first time for a galaxy at such an extreme distance, the team has used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) to precisely measure the distance to GN-z11 spectroscopically by splitting the light into its component colors.

“Our spectroscopic observations reveal the galaxy to be even further away than we had originally thought, right at the distance limit of what Hubble can observe,” said Gabriel Brammer of the Space Telescope Science Institute.

This puts GN-z11 at a distance that was once thought only to be reachable with the upcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

*****************************

"GN-z11 is 25 times smaller than the Milky Way and has 1% of the Milky Way galaxy’s mass in stars. GN-z11 is growing forming stars at a rate about 20 times faster than the Milky Way galaxy does today."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...omical_objects

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GN-z11

And the paper itself

(A Remarkably Luminous Galaxy at z=11.1 Measured with Hubble Space Telescope Grism Spectroscopy http://arxiv.org/abs/1603.00461 )

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1603.00461v1

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/scie...s-in-real-time

In a heartbeat over some of the people I let drive for me. Yes to over me driving as well especially if it means being able to drink and not having to park. Might even be worth having a car.

Over/under until major places start banning human drivers? I'll go with 20 years.

I take 25-30 years, even if 15 years would be ideal. Car park needs to be used up, and as long as politicians and others have the old fashioned man-driven cars, they will be allowed practically everywhere.

Those driving by themselves will have their asses partly covered by the smarter vehicle behavior the AI cars have.

We're in the same ballpark. Once the accident rate falls significantly below humans then the 'avoidable' deaths will become unacceptable. Then past a certain point the advantage of the 'drivers' being able to communicate with each other in a far more sophisticated fashion will dramatically reduce accident rates further - cars will literally know what the other car is about to do before it does it.

I'm thinking of buying shares in country pubs - they were damaged badly by the drink driving laws but their day may be coming again.

Certainly important points. In principle even one unncecessarily lost life is too much. That may speed up the process significantly. And as the "antique" man-driven cars don't have the devices to do any actions themselves (it's all about the driver), they are relying on the AI ones trying to avoid them single-handedly the best they can, which is much less effective than having lots of data interchanging between two AIs, even if still much better than having two human-driven cars "interact", as we have nowadays. I can see there's something wrong every day...

Still very effective though because the AI car wont fail to notice other cars/pedestrians/objects because it's distracted. People drive terribly, reducing the accident rate very significantly is going to be very easy.

Against that there will be the 'wasn't it better when we lived in caves' brigade who will be horrified when the computer makes a mistake and count those deaths x100. The facts will be too clear though - insurance costs alone will do most of the job.

Driving your own car will be at least as immoral as driving drunk today.

The numbers will be such.

I agree with the line of discussion.

But life is going to feel a lot less free if all your route decisions are optimized by computer. I suppose there will be a "wander" setting but it won't be the same.

(Already missing my mechanical horse.)