CuriouTech

On Wednesday night, SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and announced that the speediest way to terraform Mars and allow humans to live outside of an airlock dome would be to nuke it. "The fast way is to drop thermonuclear weapons over the poles," Musk told Colbert, prompting the host to call him a super villain. But is the idea that crazy? The basis of the bomb plot is that the nukes would melt the frozen CO2 on the Red Planet's poles, releasing it as gas into the atmosphere. This would help to thicken up the Red Planet's thin atmosphere, which could be enough to heat the planet and allow water to exist in a liquid form. Essentially, the bombs would kick-start something similar to the global warming that's happening here on Earth, and hopefully trigger a cascade effect - so the more ice that melts, the more CO2 that's released, which warms the planet and melts more ice, and so on. However, there are some

NASA scientists  have reported  that they've successfully tested an engine called the electromagnetic propulsion drive, or the EM Drive, in a vacuum that replicates space. The EM Drive experimental system could take humans to Mars in just 70 days without the need for rocket fuel, and it's no exaggeration to say that this could change everything. But before we get too excited (who are we kidding, we're already freaking out), it's important to note that these results haven't been replicated or verified by peer review, so there's a chance there's been some kind of error. But so far, despite a thorough attempt to poke holes in the results, the engine seems to hold up. The engine is controversial because it seems to violate one of the fundamental concepts of physics - the conservation of momentum, which states that for something to be propelled forward, it needs some kind of propellant to be pushed out in the opposite direction. But the EM Drive doesn't

German car manufacturer Audi has reportedly invented a carbon-neutral diesel fuel, made solely from water, carbon dioxide and renewable energy sources. And the crystal clear 'e-diesel' is already being used to power the Audi A8 owned by the country’s Federal Minister of Education and Research, Johanna Wanka. The creation of the fuel is a huge step forward for sustainable transport, but the fact that it’s being backed by an automotive giant is even more exciting. Audi has now set up a pilot plant in Dresden, Germany, operated by clean tech company Sunfire, which will pump out 160 litres of the synthetic diesel every day in the coming months. Their base product, which they’re calling 'blue crude' is created using a three-step process. The first step involves harvesting renewable energy from sources such as wind, solar and hydropower. They then use this energy to split water into oxygen and pure hydrogen, using a process known as reversible electrolysis. This hyd

Three-dimensional holographic images are a mainstay in many sci-fi films. But in real life, we’ve struggled to achieve the same effect without the use of annoying 3D glasses. Now scientists from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia have used a graphene-based material to create a full-colour, pop-up, 3D floating display - visible from a wide angle with the naked eye. The effect was created using a graphene oxide, and could be applied to the touch-screen surface of smartphones or watches, the authors Min Gu and Xiangping Li explain over at The Conversation. Holograms work by bending light off the screen in a carefully controlled way so that, instead of bouncing directly back into your eye, it makes it appear as though it's projected off a separate display. The Swinburne researchers were able to create the floating 3D display by tweaking the refractive index - the measure of how much light bends as it passes through a medium - of graphene oxide. This al

Aerogels have long been one of those ‘gee whiz’ materials that gets people to take notice—watching a solid float on air tends to do that. To accomplish their remarkable feats, aerogels are essentially a gel in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced with gas. We’ve seen them used in applications from “ invisibility cloaks ” to  oil spill remediation . Now researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have produced an aerogel out of graphene  that could have applications ranging from electronics to energy storage. Boosting the ‘gee whiz’ factor: the new material is produced through  3-D printing . In research published in  Nature Communications , the LLNL research team were able to produce a predetermined architecture for a graphene-based aerogel, which previously had always been random, by using 3-D printing. By being able to define the architecture, the researchers were able to improve the material’s performance. The 3-D printing proces

A new study has narrowed the theoretical speed limit for how quickly quantum computers of the future will be able to transmit and process information. Quantum computing systems have the potential to perform certain calculations exponentially faster than classical computers. As such, they could offer enormous advantages for solving complex problems, like searching expansive databases, cracking modern encryption, and modelling atomic-scale systems for drug development. The fundamental building blocks of these computers are quantum bits, or qubits. While several candidate particles exist, most - if not all - qubits are single atoms. Information is stored on the magnetic spin of these atomic particles, which can point either "up" or "down" - states that are considered equivalent to the 0 and 1 of binary code. Importantly, qubits can harness a strange quantum phenomenon called superposition, which allows the spin to exist in both states simultaneously. A scal

MIT physicists have developed a new tabletop particle detector that is able to identify single electrons in a radioactive gas. As the gas decays and gives off electrons, the detector uses a magnet to trap them in a magnetic bottle. A radio antenna then picks up very weak signals emitted by the electrons, which can be used to map the electrons’ precise activity over several milliseconds. The team worked with researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of Washington, the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), and elsewhere to record the activity of more than 100,000 individual electrons in krypton gas. The majority of electrons observed behaved in a characteristic pattern: As the radioactive krypton gas decays, it emits electrons that vibrate at a baseline frequency before petering out; this frequency spikes again whenever an electron hits an atom of radioactive gas. As an electron ping-pongs against multiple atoms in the detector, its energy a

United Launch Alliance (ULA) has been working on a secretive new rocket program for a while now, and they’ve finally settled on a name — it’s the Vulcan. The announcement date seemed planned to take some wind out of SpaceX’s sails, as the company was supposed to launch a rocket yesterday. That Falcon 9 mission was scrubbed because of weather , but in a few years we could all be waiting for clouds to clear for a ULA Vulcan to launch. ULA is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing formed in December 2006 to provide commercial launch services to the Department of Defense and NASA. The company has been working on a number of government contracts over the years, but all of its launches have been done with pre-existing Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy rockets. The Vulcan will be ULA’s first completely in-house rocket design, akin to the SpaceX Falcon 9 — though the two will be very different vehicles. So why go to the trouble of designing a new rocket? First is price competitio

CuriouTech: Gold Nanotubes To Cure Cancer : Scientists has found out that Gold nanotubes can be used in fighting Cancer; internal nanoprobes for high-resolution imaging; drug deliver...

Images of the Terminator 2's T1000 flash before your mind's eye after watching this incredible video by Jing Liu of the Tsinghua University and Chinese Academy of Sciences. Thanks to this self powered liquid motor, the future of shape shifting robots just came a step closer. The metal alloy is mix of indium, liquid gallium, a little tin, and a flake of aluminium. It can propel itself forwards, and navigate tight spaces and bends without the need for an external power source. Besides it being a step towards future T1000's (however scary that notion might be if you've ever seen the Terminator 2, and if you haven't: go watch it!), this metal alloy has other potential usages. When held in place it can be used as a pump to push liquid through cooling devices, or even through blood vessels. source: http://www.sciencedump.com/content/future-shape-shifting-robots-closer-you-think

Last week, Mercedes Benz has unvieled its first futuristic, driverless concept car in San Francisco. The car named as F015 Luxury in Motion was first revealed to the public at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas last September. The car since has received a lots of attention from all around the world. Reddit user 'GoogleplexStar' posting the pic above, commenting, "This driverless Mercedes is cruising around San Francisco, blowing everyone's minds.". "It needed a break from Sunnyvale," the automaker wrote on Twitter, sharing photos of what looks like a roadster from Blade Runner. The F015 is being called as “Virtual Living Room” with seating for up to 4 people with two sets of couches facing each other. This is best for after a hard day work from office to home. And, because its Mercedes, it comes trimmed in walnut veneer, nappa leather, polished aluminium and glass, with soft blue LED lighting,” says Jason Fell at Entrepreneur. The s

Lithium-ion  batteries  have taken us a long way in phones, tablets, and even cars over the years, but it’s not a perfect technology — battery capacity holds us back. Scientists have been on the lookout for an alternative, but nothing has quite panned out yet. There’s been considerable interest around lithium-sulfur batteries in the last few years, and a breakthrough experiment from the Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside could make these batteries the next big thing. All it takes is a little glass. Traditional lithium-ion batteries have found their way into virtually all types of mobile technology, because they have significant energy density and relatively long life. You can charge a  li-ion cell  a few hundred times before it starts to fail, and there’s no memory effects as with older nickel cadmium and nickel-metal hydride rechargeables. This is where lithium-sulfur still falls short, but not because of the memory effect. They just get  di

For the first time, scientists have shown that it’s possible for two people of the same sex to create a baby, without the need for outside egg or sperm donation. The most obvious benefits would be for homosexual couples who want to have a child together, but the method could also help couples who have been affected by infertility.  The team, from Cambridge University in the UK and Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, built on previous work where baby mice were successfully raised from mouse skin cells that had been converted into what’s known as  primordial germ cells  - the precursors of egg and sperm cells. It was a real struggle to replicate the process using human biological matter, but now they’ve finally managed to create new human primordial germ cells using skin cells from five human donors and stem cell lines from five human embryos. “We have succeeded in the first and most important step of this process, which is to show we can make these very early human stem cell

General Electric has revealed a new next generation body scanner dubbed as 'Revolution CT' that will give a Guts, Brains, Veins, Hearts and Bones of a body in a high definition.  Using this scanner, Doctors at Florida hospital get up close to bones, organs and veins, without making a single cut. The patients ride into the chamber of the scanner, dubbed as 'Revolution CT' where a fan-shaped beam of x rays passes down their bodies and a computer reconstructs a digital model of the body, slice-by-slice. The scanner can build an image of a heart in the time it takes for a single heartbeat, according to GE. To know more :  click on this link

The materials chitin and chitosan found in the shells are abundant and significantly cheaper to produce than the expensive metals such as ruthenium, which is similar to platinum, that are currently used in making nanostructured solar-cells. Currently the efficiency of solar cells made with these biomass-derived materials is low but if it can be improved they could be placed in everything from wearable chargers for tablets, phones and smartwatches, to semi-transparent films over window. Researchers, from QMUL's School of Engineering and Materials Science, used a process known as hydrothermal carbonization to create the carbon quantum dots (CQDs) from the widely and cheaply available chemicals found in crustacean shells. They then coat standard zinc oxide nanorods with the CQDs to make the solar cells. Dr Joe Briscoe, one of the researchers on the project, said: "This could be a great new way to make these versatile, quick and easy to produce solar cells from readily ava

Researchers at various reserach institutes has been working and successful in finding out a dru that can work against HIV virus and immune against it. The drug has worked against doses of HIV that were higher than  transmitted between humans, and works for at least eight months after injection. A new drug led by the team of researchers at  Scripps Research Institute in the US, is found to be effective against doses of HIV-1, HIV-2 and SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) that have been extracted from humans - including what researchers consider to be the ‘hardest-to-stop’ variants. "Our compound is the broadest and most potent entry inhibitor described so far,” lead researcher Michael Farzan from the Scripps Institute said in a press release. "Unlike antibodies, which fail to neutralise a large fraction of HIV-1 strains, our protein has been effective against all strains tested, raising the possibility it could offer an effective HIV vaccine alternative.” HIV infect

Addicted of taking selfies and love to share it with your friends, Now, a German company will take your selfies to a whole new level. For all selfie lovers, a German company is allowing people to get a 3D selfie - a detailed, four-inch figurine of their body - for a sum of $95. Making one of the selfies requires a lot of harware and software component: 54 DSLRs, 54 lenses, a complex 3-D modelling pipeline, a $80,000 full-color, and a room-size scanning booth. The Dusseldorf-based company DOOB 3D has four 3D scanning booths in different locations throughout the world. One is in Dusseldorf, one in Tokyo, another at Santa Monica Place in Los Angeles, and one in New York City's Chelsea Market. The company said they are set to add more US locations soon, 'Wired' reported. Each Doob-licator is fitted with DSLRs, arranged in nine columns of six cameras each. A customer steps in, strikes a pose, and the booth operator fires all the cameras at once. That creates a full-body s

Scientists has found out that Gold nanotubes can be used in fighting Cancer; internal nanoprobes for high-resolution imaging; drug delivery vehicles; and agents for destroying cancer cells. The article published in the journal, Advanced Functional Materials, details the first successful demonstration of the biomedical use of gold nanotubes in a mouse model of human cancer.  Dr Sunjie Ye, who is based in both the School of Physics and Astronomy and the Leeds Institute for Biomedical and Clinical Sciences at the University of Leeds, said:  “High recurrence rates of tumours after surgical removal remain a formidable challenge in cancer therapy. Chemo- or radiotherapy is often given following surgery to prevent this, but these treatments cause serious side effects. Gold nanotubes – that is, gold nanoparticles with tubular structures that resemble tiny drinking straws – have the potential to enhance the efficacy of these conventional treatments by integrating diagnosis and therapy

Flying Car has been a dream of many people for lot of years and many company are working on making it possible. Think about a flying Car which can take off without runaway. Now a Arizona based start-up called Krossblade Aerospace Systems is thinking of making it possible. Krossblade has come out a concept of a SkyCruiser that will act as a car, airplane and helicopter. Skycruiser is a 5-seat hybrid VTOL transformer plane with an ability to drive on road also. While the concept has been in developing mode, therefore company is coming out with a miniature unctioning prototype called 'SkyProwler'. VTOL, vertical take off and landing give it a power to take off from anywhere and land it anywhere. To fly it fast it has to be aerodynamically clean therefore it is made narrow, somewhat drop-shaped with only few things sticking out. Working: SkyCruiser in normal mode is pushed along by two 150 bhp electric motors in the tail, which is then switched to set of four rotors arm fro

Dan Granett, a former engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory has designed a giant robot, called BugJuggler which will juggle cars in a motoring shows to wow crowds. The BugJuggler at 70 ft will throw three VW bettle cars into the air and will catch them in mid-air using hydralic cylinder. A human sitting in the robots's head will  be controlling using haptic feedback interface, giving them full sensory feedback from the throwing and catching forces. It has a full budget of $2.3 million and is still in funding stage. These robots will impress the audience and will add thrill in the party. BugJuggler                                      

Many of us have been fascinated by the strength of Spider webs as it has thought as the strongest natural material on the Earth. Spider silk has a tensile strength same as that of a high-grade steel alloy and strongest than most of the metals and alloys with only the density of one-sixths of the steel. While now scientist has discovered a new 'strongest natural materials' which is the teeth of   Limpet , a type marine animal. Asa Barber, from the School of Engineering at Portsmouth University in the UK, said " Until now, we thought that spider silk was the strongest biological material because of its super-strength and potential applications in everything from bullet-proof vests to computer electronics. But now we have discovered that limpet teeth exhibit a strength that is potentially higher'. While examining teeth of the Limpet to the atomic structure, the team found a super-hard, iron-bearing hydroxide mineral called goethite in the tooth structures. Researche

– A new method that creates large-area patterns of three-dimensional nanoshapes from metal sheets represents a potential manufacturing system to inexpensively mass produce innovations such as "plasmonic metamaterials" for advanced technologies. The metamaterials have engineered surfaces that contain features, patterns or elements on the scale of nanometers that enable unprecedented control of light and could bring innovations such as high-speed electronics, advanced sensors and solar cells. The new method, called laser shock imprinting, creates shapes out of the crystalline forms of metals, potentially giving them ideal mechanical and optical properties using a bench-top system capable of mass producing the shapes inexpensively. The shapes researchers created include nanopyramids, gears, bars, grooves and a fishnet pattern, and are too small to be seen without specialized imaging instruments and are thousands of times thinner than the width of a human hair. The re