TRANSISTORS

According to Kwabena Boahen, a computer scientist at Stanford University, a robot with a processor as smart as the human brain would require at least 10 megawatts to operate. That's the amount of energy produced by a small hydroelectric plant. But a small group of computer scientists may have hit on a new neural supercomputer that could someday emulate the human brain's low energy requirements of just 20 watts--barely enough to run a dim light bulb.

Pressure Point: The polymer fibers in flexible concrete help it resist 500 times as much stress as conventional concrete.  Courtesy Nicole Casal Moore/University of Michigan;

Flexcrete

Researchers have known for decades that concrete fixes itself as cement particles near a small crack mix with air and water to form calcium carbonate. But some fractures are too big to heal on their own. Now engineers at the University of Michigan have mixed a new concrete formula with reinforcing glue-like fibers that hold it together under pressure, allowing only hair-width cracks that can mend after a rainy day. Available in a few years, the remixed concrete will cost more than the standard stuff, but less maintenance could make it cheaper in the long run.

It's got to stop sometime. That's the message from Intel co-founder and computer visionary Gordon Moore, whose 1965 prediction that the number of transistors on a chip would double roughly every two years proved startlingly true. But Moore's Law, as it's known, can't apply indefinitely.

On an NPR show recently, Moore explained that he sees his famous axiom expiring in about 10 to 15 years. Eventually scientists will run into a wall trying to uncover new ways of jamming in more transistors. But let's hope that this time he's wrong.—Gregory Mone

Via ExtremeTech