Caption This for 11/02/12

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 01 November 2012 05:45:00 PM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

This week's image:Be sure to vote for your favorite caption!

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The Mylar Renaissance

post from Physics Buzz on 01 November 2012 05:16:44 PM. © Physics Buzz

Imagine walking into a dark, abandoned, stone church, the air a little damp and the floor echoing as you walk into the chapel, towards a glowing orb sitting on the floor.

In response to your approach, to your movement and to the heat you radiate, hundreds of individual metallic petals bend forward letting light and soft sound stream out.

Lotus Dome is the newest installment of the Lotus series by Dutch architect and tech artist Daan Roosegaard. As the principal behind Studio Roosegaard, a collaborative lab of engineers, artists, and designers, Roosegaard blends nature and technology to make architecture dynamic. His work spans interactive fields of light, sustainable dance floors and energy-generating highways.

LOTUS DOME hundreds of high-tech flowers by Studio Roosegaarde from Daan Roosegaarde on Vimeo.

Studio Roosegaarde calls Lotus Dome a "futuristic vision on the Renaissance" that "merges elements of architecture and nature into an interactive environment." Lotus Dome was commissioned by the City of Lille for the vacant church of Sainte Marie Madeleine.

Over seven feet tall, the dome houses a light source engulfed by hundreds of thin sheets of aluminum coated Mylar. The magic of Lotus Dome lies in Roosegaarde's elegant use of this versatile material.

Since its invention in the 1950s, Mylar has gone to the moon and back as NASA's insulator of choice on spacecrafts, satellites, and the Hubble telescope. You're probably familiar with Mylar as the material in space blankets, the foil wrappers runners use after marathons, and in helium balloons.
Frame from Lotus Dome Video
Courtesy of Studio Roosegaarde
The featherlight Mylar that envelops the surface of Lotus Dome was specially developed by Studio Roosegaarde and their manufacturers to softly bend towards one side when exposed to heat.

In an earlier Lotus wall of dynamic Mylar petals, a sensor tracked motion and initiated a tiny light within the wall. The heat from the light caused the petals near the light (and near you) to fold open.

Lotus 7.0: a living wall comprised of smart foils that fold open in response to human behavior
2010-2011.In an interview in 2010, Roosegaarde said that through the Lotus series, the studio explored what happens when technology merges with nature, reacting and moving with you to form a "techno-poetry" through space.
Inside the Sainte Marie Madeleine, the technology of the Lotus Dome interfaces the visitor with the Renaissance history of the church.

I, for one, really love when materials science and technology are used to develop new and thoughtful art. For anyone else now considering a trip to Lille, France, the installation will be up as part of 'Fantastic' Lille3000 through mid-January 2013.

[Images courtesy of Studio Roosegaarde]

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Noam Chomsky on where artificial intelligence
went wrong

post from Top stories on 01 November 2012 05:09:15 PM. © Top stories

If one were to rank a list of civilization's greatest and most elusive intellectual challenges, the problem of "decoding" ourselves?understanding the inner workings of our minds and our brains, and how the architecture of these elements is encoded in our genome?would surely be at the top. Yet the diverse fields that took on this challenge, from philosophy and psychology to computer science and neuroscience, have been fraught with disagreement about the right approach.

Subject:

Artificial Intelligence

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http://machineslikeus.com/news/noam-chomsky-where-artificial-intelligence-went-wr
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Experiment to solve the 'one real mystery' of
quantum mechanics

post from Top stories on 01 November 2012 04:56:21 PM. © Top stories

What is light made of: waves or particles? This basic question has fascinated physicists since the early days of science. Quantum mechanics predicts that photons, particles of light, are both particles and waves simultaneously. Reporting in Science, physicists from the University of Bristol give a new demonstration of this wave-particle duality of photons, dubbed the 'one real mystery of quantum mechanics' by Nobel Prize laureate Richard Feynman. The history of science is marked by an intense debate between the particle and wave theories of light.

Subject:

Technology

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Softening arteries protects the heart

post from Top stories on 01 November 2012 04:47:33 PM. © Top stories

Arterial stiffening has long been considered a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Keeping arteries soft and supple might reduce disease risk, but the mechanisms of how arteries stave off hardening has remained elusive.

Subject:

Health & Medicine

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http://machineslikeus.com/news/softening-arteries-protects-heart

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Tech Breakthrough May Double Smartphone Life

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 01 November 2012 04:17:57 PM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

Smartphone batteries may soon last twice as long -- if an MIT spinoff's power amplifier technology lives up to its promise.Read The Full Story

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Volunteer Open House 2012

post from Planetary Society Blog on 01 November 2012 03:14:03 PM. © Planetary Society Blog

A great crowd came by our headquarters to learn more about volunteering in the service of planetary exploration.

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Reminder: Donors Choose

A quick reminder: I am participating in the Donors Choose Science Blog Challenge to raise money for teachers in need. The funds go to educators in at-risk schools so they can get the tools they need to teach kids math, science, and other topics. I have[...]

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The Clathrate Gun Hypothesis: How Global Warming
Will Really Kill Us All

When you read about the terrible effects of global warming it’s easy to believe it won’t be that bad. Yes, the sea levels will rise 20 feet, but you don’t live near the sea. Sure, there’ll be food and water shortages which could trigger wars, but if you turn on the news now what you [...]

The Clathrate Gun Hypothesis: How Global Warming Will Really Kill Us All is a post from Science Quick Picks, a blog dedicated to the world of Science.

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How to become a psychopath

Some time ago, I discussed the question of whether Sherlock Holmes could be classed as a psychopath based on his behavior in the stories. In pursuing this question a little more, I came across an article in the Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders that elaborated on how psychopathy manifests itself.