Quantum Computers to Compete with Home Computers?

A "Quantum Computer" has for the most part been the minion of science fiction.  Using quantum states for logic instead of 1s and zeros used by today's computer logic systems.  A quantum logic state can  store more than 1 and do it at virtually no power consumption.

Any one of these would make a home or business computers vastly more efficient.  But Physicists believe that a true Quantum computer is still way into the future.  

Now, several teams have demonstrated a "quantum" speed-up that if perfected could give the standard computer a very real competition! Scientists at MIT, studying the effect, have said that the mechanical computation of Quantum may just be possible which would mean that calculations that take hours and days, might be able to complete in a fraction of the time.

Read the Wired / Science Now article HERE

LED Bulb That is 230% Efficient

You read that right. An MIT research team has shown an LED bulb can actually give off more energy (in light) than it consumes in electricity. Every law about the conservation of energy or thermodynamics that you learned in school just flew out the window. How is this possible?

Well for clarity, lets look at the Gizmodo article:

• (scientists) from MIT posited that while the bulb's energy requirements decrease at an exponential rate (halving the voltage reduces the input power by a factor of four), the lumen output would decrease linearly (halve the voltage and the lumens drop by half as well). This means that at some point, the amount of lumens the bulb is emitting would be more than the amount of energy spent—essentially "free" light.

Still it's enough to make you head spin!  The factors we do have to watch though are that the bulbs are extremely small and the amount of voltage applied is minuscule.   To get an idea, let's look at the article again:

• the team was able to generate 69 picowatts of light from just 30 picowatts of energy. (to get an idea of how small a picowatt is,  a picowatt is 1 trillionth of a watt)

But some of the methods used to boost efficiency is equally amazing.  In this instance, the MIT team boosted the bulb's inherent electrical inefficiency by capturing waste heat from the bulb's atomic lattice!  This cools the device and raises the efficiency.   The really good news is that the methods employed can be applied to the LEDs in use today, making them "cold" bulbs.  Though they would not reach the efficiency of  the MIT's bulb, the bulbs would still be giving off light without any waste heat to rob the bulb's overall efficiency. 

Physics online article here

Advances in Computer Literacy

Some big news in the world of AI. A computer at MIT has learned to read! Which is actually a much bigger breakthrough than you might think.

Computers, as we know, have no problem treating words as raw data. But they've never scored very high in reading for comprehension. Until now. MIT researchers set a computer to the task of playing the game "Civilization II". With no prior instruction, learning the game simply through trial and error, the computer was able to win 46% of its games. Which still sounds pretty impressive to me. Then the computer was given an instruction manual to read. The manual is written in broad language, intended to give the basics of the game. It tells you how to play, but not necessarily how to win. Once the computer read the manual, though, it won 79% of the games it played. It even began devising strategies, extrapolating upon the information from the manual.

All of which is very cool and exciting, but it does beg the question: are we really sure we want to be teaching our supercomputers to play games of world domination? Really?

You can read the full article here.

Get Smart's Cone of Silence now a reality?

Shaun Saunders points out an article in NewScientist. Do you remember Get Smart? Well recall that big plastic dome that came down whenever Max wanted to confide in the chief. What made it comical is that it never seemed to work.

Well that is a thing of the past it would seem. Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are being patented!

From the article:

• Instead of plastic domes, they use a sensor network to work out where potential eavesdroppers are, and speakers to generate a subtle masking sound at just the right level.

To make the system work:

• The walls of the room must be peppered with light-switch-sized units that include a microphone, a speaker, an infrared location sensor and networking circuitry connected to a server.

The idea is to have the system beam white noise and randomized office noise at the potential eavesdropper.

Honest! Read more here

Researchers discover inexpensive method for spliting H2O

Shaun Saunders sends in a really exciting article concerning one of the major drawbacks to low cost solar and fuel cell power generation and storage. Up until now, the cost of storing the energy from the sun or splitting water molecules has been prohibitive. Thus pushing the tech into fringe markets. Now researchers from MIT have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy. Here is an excerpt from the article explaining the process:

• The key component in ... (the) new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity -- whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source -- runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.

• Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.

Though still in it's early stages, the implications are clear. Once implemented, cheap production of oxygen and hydrogen gases will lead to power generation at extremely lower cost which at the very least will reduce our dependence of foreign fuel supplies. Another benefit will be a much smaller carbon footprint.

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Darpa working on power exoskeleton

Backpacks are a mainstay of soldiers, hikers, firefighters and others who have to lug heavy loads, often over rough terrain where wheeled vehicles cannot traverse. But hauling them can be quite the chore, limiting wearers' mobility, especially over long distances. Scientists at M.I.T. Media Lab's Biomechatronics Group have, with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), developed an exoskeleton that promises to not only lessen the load of weary travelers but also to advance research that will ultimately lead to robotic limbs that improve the strength and mobility of amputees.

Thanks to Shaun Saunders for the post


image: Courtesy of the MIT Media Lab