• Science

    Scientists Reproduce Quantum Entanglement, Einstein's “Spooky Action”

    By Christine Cyr Posted on 6.9.2009 17 Comments

    A group of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology recently came a step closer to figuring out where the boundary lies between the quantum and classical physical worlds, and their discovery has big implications for the future of quantum computers— which would have much faster and more powerful processors than our computers do today.

    6.10.2009 at 02:07pm - Comment by qlmmb2086

    What you have to remember is that a message is really just information in its purest form. It's not traveling anywhere; it has no velocity, no mass, and no energy. Essentially, as far as the laws of physics are concerned, information doesn't even exist. So, even if you "send" a message faster than the speed of light via superposition or quantum entanglement, no laws are broken. All you really have is a particle in one location reacting to a particle in another; there is no "traveling" involved.

  • Science

    New Evidence Suggests That Using the Internet Might Make You Smarter, Not Rot Your Brain

    By Posted on 6.9.2009 9 Comments

    "The simple headline here is that Google is making us smarter," says Gary Small of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California at Los Angeles. Thank you, Dr. Small. And thank you, Internet, for not only helping me dig up this information but also juicing up my brain while I looked for it. Small recently published results showing that searching the Internet does for the brains of older folks what doing bench presses does for chest muscles.

    6.10.2009 at 11:36am - Comment by qlmmb2086

    In the experiment, both sets had the same level of brain activity as each other while simply reading the book on-screen, but showed a mark difference in brain activity when tasked to find information via information search. Since the first half of the experiment showed a lack of difference between the two sets while performing an activity that did not require familiarity, there is a very good chance that the results in the second half are the results of familiarity and not a difference in intelligence between the two groups. Really, is anyone surprised that the human brain can perform a task more efficiently if it has performed it many times before? The study needs to perform a similar experiment with a completely different task: say a group of experienced artists asked to sketch an image from a photo compared to an inexperienced group. I would wager the experienced artists would show much higher brain activity than the inexperienced, simply because they are drawing on their knowledge and past experience concerning that particular medium. So yes, sellassie, bdhoro87 is correct; this is an experiment in familiarity, being used to jump to a conclusion about the medium that happened to be used to perform the experiment.

  • Science

    Scientists Reproduce Quantum Entanglement, Einstein's “Spooky Action”

    By Christine Cyr Posted on 6.9.2009 17 Comments

    A group of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology recently came a step closer to figuring out where the boundary lies between the quantum and classical physical worlds, and their discovery has big implications for the future of quantum computers— which would have much faster and more powerful processors than our computers do today.

    6.10.2009 at 08:49am - Comment by qlmmb2086

    Hmm... I've reread your post a few times, and I think I see the point you were trying to make. Under the theory of general relativity, as an object approaches the speed of light, time slows for that object, and eventually comes to a stop at the speed of light itself. I suppose one could extend the theory to the assumption that, if you were able to push beyond the speed of light, time would "slow" even further for that object, and the object would then be experiencing time in reverse. However, if this is what you meant when you said an action that occurs beyond the speed of light will have its consequences occur before the action, I think you may be misapplying the theory. Once again, in a quantum entanglement example, there are no particles traveling beyond the speed of light, and so both of the entangled particles are experiencing time in a normal, forward direction.

  • Science

    Scientists Reproduce Quantum Entanglement, Einstein's “Spooky Action”

    By Christine Cyr Posted on 6.9.2009 17 Comments

    A group of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology recently came a step closer to figuring out where the boundary lies between the quantum and classical physical worlds, and their discovery has big implications for the future of quantum computers— which would have much faster and more powerful processors than our computers do today.

    6.10.2009 at 08:38am - Comment by qlmmb2086

    "Anything that goes faster than the speed of light means the the consequence of an action could occur before the action" Granted, I'm no expert in quantum physics, but this statement seems to break the laws of cause and effect more than the one you're using it as a counter-argument against. If it were possible to launch an object at twice the speed of light, and send it to a location two light years in the distance, common sense would dictate that the object will arrive at its destination in one year. One year later does not mean the consequences are occurring before the action... they are occurring one year later. Now, the observable effect from the point of the destination would *appear* to happen in reverse, since from that perspective visible light from the object's arrival would reach the destination sooner than visible light from an earlier point in its travel. but that would be an observable effect, and not the actual events. Granted, if light is indeed the barrier for velocity, this example could never occur to begin with... Either way, in a quantum entanglement example, it seems to me like this would be a moot point; even if the effect is instantaneous over a large distance, there are no particles, be they mater or energy, traveling faster than the speed of light. All particles involved stay in relatively fixed locations. These are just my thoughts as best as I understand the theory. I think one of the two of us is confused about something, so I'd appreciate it if you could clarify your stance, maybe with source information... interesting discussion, though.

  • DIY

    Old Flatbed Scanner + 50mm Lens = Amazing 130-Megapixel Scancam

    By John Mahoney Posted on 6.9.2009 33 Comments

    Tinkerers have been turning flatbed scanners into cameras for a while, but this version by a Japanese modder is one of the finest I've seen--both in technical execution and the incredible quality of the massive 130-megapixel images it creates.

    6.9.2009 at 03:39pm - Comment by qlmmb2086

    It wouldn't make for a very effective security camera; the time it takes to record an image at that high of a resolution to permanent media would kill the recordable frame rate, and you'd run out of space to store footage very, very quickly.

  • Science

    Scientists Reproduce Quantum Entanglement, Einstein's “Spooky Action”

    By Christine Cyr Posted on 6.9.2009 17 Comments

    A group of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology recently came a step closer to figuring out where the boundary lies between the quantum and classical physical worlds, and their discovery has big implications for the future of quantum computers— which would have much faster and more powerful processors than our computers do today.

    6.9.2009 at 03:36pm - Comment by qlmmb2086

    Well... the theory is that two entangled particles affect one another instantaneously, regardless of distance. That is, the time between an action performed on one particle and its effect being measured on the other is zero. I can't for the life of me imagine how you could jump to the conclusion that that would allow you to communicate into the past. Instantaneous is instantaneous... you can't pass information through time when the total time involved is zero.

  • Science

    Scientists Reproduce Quantum Entanglement, Einstein's “Spooky Action”

    By Christine Cyr Posted on 6.9.2009 17 Comments

    A group of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology recently came a step closer to figuring out where the boundary lies between the quantum and classical physical worlds, and their discovery has big implications for the future of quantum computers— which would have much faster and more powerful processors than our computers do today.

    6.9.2009 at 11:03am - Comment by qlmmb2086

    One of the more important applications of quantum entanglement would be its use as a potential for long distance communication. If you can affect one particle and have that effect be instantaneously apparent on the other, regardless of distance, it would alleviate many of the problems in communication with spacecraft that have left the reliable distance for radio communication. Imagine a probe that can be controlled at a distance of several light years, with instantaneous precision.

  • Technology

    New Army Rifle Fires Laser-Guided Smart Bullets With Onboard Targeting Chips

    By Dan Smith Posted on 6.5.2009 23 Comments

    It would be hard to describe a bullet as smart, but what if that bullet was laser-guided, radio-controlled, and carried an onboard targeting CPU? The US Army has announced the creation of the XM25 rifle, which can fire a new type of explosive round that fit that exact description. Imagine the implications: hitting targets inside buildings or hiding around walls. Whoa.

    6.8.2009 at 09:25am - Comment by qlmmb2086

    In theory, a more efficient weapon allows us to spend less time killing and more time building. Of course, that only really applies if the weapons are being used in a defensive capacity, and if everyone did that we wouldn't need them to begin with.

  • Science

    Dean Kamen Won't Be Satisfied Until He Reinvents Us All

    By Posted on 6.10.2009 20 Comments

    "Let's run it through from the top. This is going downhill." Dean Kamen is standing on a six-inch riser in an almost empty room in the basement of Westwind, his 32,000-square-foot house in Bedford, New Hampshire, trying to get this thing right. It's crunch time for FIRST, the high-school robotics competition Kamen founded two decades ago in an effort to get kids jazzed about engineering, to make science as sexy as sports. (FIRST = For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.) In less than a month, 42,000 students on 1,700 teams will gather at 43 regional championships to showcase the ball-throwing 'bots that each team has spent six weeks assembling in novel ways from nearly identical boxes of parts. At stake -- besides glory -- is $9 million in scholarships.

    6.8.2009 at 09:18am - Comment by qlmmb2086

    "Mr. Kaman's invention selling methods aren't the real keys to his success. If you re-read the article, you will find what he does is not aimed at selling. His aim is to better mankind through his inventions." I got a good chuckle at this. The fact that you believe the above statement only proves just how good at marketing himself Mr. Kamen really is. Regarding the racism thing; your second paragraph was exactly my point, though in more words.

  • Gadgets

    Bing Is Pretty, But Is it Any Good?

    By Tom Conlon Posted on 6.5.2009 20 Comments

    Heard of Bing yet? If not, you soon will. Backed by a reported $100-million-dollar promotional campaign, Bing is Microsoft's latest grasp at double digits in the war for search engine market share, of which Redmond now owns between 5 and 6 percent (according to Net Applications' Market Share report). After months of beta testing followed by a public preview, Bing officially took over this week as THE search engine powering all of MSN. So, if you use any Microsoft services with even limited frequency, you'll be getting friendly with Bing whether you know it or not, and whether you like it or not. But Microsoft isn't going to carve out a fatter slice of market share unless it can convince a new, non-MSN audience to abandon Google and to make Bing its second brain instead. Of course, there has to be good reason to do that. Very good reason. So this week I installed the official Bing add-on to Firefox and put the new kid on the block to the test.

    6.8.2009 at 09:10am - Comment by qlmmb2086

    "Hey google is trying to steal some of the internet browser market from microsoft, but when microsoft gets into the search market its seen as hostile?" I'm going to have to agree with you on that one, except to point out the fact that Microsoft has already been in the search market for a very long time, so they're not really "getting into" the market as much as flailing their arms for attention. I think people have reached the point where we assume any act by Microsoft to encroach on a market is a hostile act. Really, unless either company thinks they can do the same task spectacularly better than the other, all they're doing is throwing money down the drain. Why would I bother switching to another search engine, when Google already does exactly what I need? And why would I bother switching to a new browser, when I already have one that does everything I want it to? Granted, that browser is Firefox, so I guess Microsoft is 0 for 2...

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