Science & Technology News – Page 266

Bitcoin, Blockchain, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

New ECB boss Christine Lagarde issued a serious bitcoin warning

July 20, 2019

Bitcoin and other crypto-assets have long divided traditional economists and bankers with some warning over their instability and others praising their ingenuity.

The bitcoin price rebound so far this year has caused some to change sides, though many continue to warn bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be a mere flash in the pan.

Earlier this year, Christine Lagarde, who has just been nominated to replace Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Bank (ECB), warned that cryptocurrencies are “shaking the system”—something that could signal a change in the ECB’s approach to bitcoin and crypto and potentially spur adoption.

Continue reading… “New ECB boss Christine Lagarde issued a serious bitcoin warning”

Employment, Latest Trend, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

1 in 4 Americans have no plans to retire

July 20, 2019

CHICAGO — Nearly one-quarter of Americans say they never plan to retire, according to a poll that suggests a disconnection between individuals’ retirement plans and the realities of aging in the workforce.

Experts say illness, injury, layoffs and caregiving responsibilities often force older workers to leave their jobs sooner than they’d like.

According to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 23% of workers, including nearly 2 in 10 of those over 50, don’t expect to stop working. Roughly another quarter of Americans say they will continue working beyond their 65th birthday.

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Automation, Driverless vehicles, Employment, Robots, Science & Technology News

Battle underway at the port of LA : Driverless cargo handlers vs. jobs

July 19, 2019

LA WATCHDOG–On Friday, June 28, the Los Angeles City Council will consider a motion by Councilman Joe Buscaino to assert jurisdiction over a decision by the Board of Harbor Commissioners to approve a minor construction permit that would allow Maersk, the world’s largest shipper of cargo containers, and its subsidiary, APM Terminals, to install electric charging stations, wi-fi antenna poles, and traffic barriers in its 484 acre facility.

This construction permit is just a small part of Maersk’s ambitious plan to introduce up to 130 driverless electric powered cargo handlers that will increase the efficiency of its container operations. This capital-intensive project will also reduce emissions consistent with Mayor Eric Garcetti’s New Green Deal.

Unfortunately, the politically powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union is opposed Maersk’s plan because it believes that it will result in the loss of an estimated 500 jobs. As a result, they have enlisted the help of Garcetti, Buscaino who represents San Pedro, County Supervisor Janice Hahn, a resident of San Pedro, and the Democratic Party to oppose this minor construction permit in an effort to stall or derail Maersk’s project.

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Analysis, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

What you need to earn to be in the to 1%

July 19, 2019

Hint: Try aiming for the top 10% instead. Or maybe move to New Mexico.

When you think of the 1%, you probably think of people banking millions of dollars per year, traveling from vacation home to vacation home on their private jets, and spending tens of thousands without thought or care. Those people certainly exist, but they don’t all earn seven-figure incomes.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) published a study that looked at income inequality based on 2017 reported wages, and the results may be surprising. While the top 1% obviously out-earn the bottom 90% by a considerable margin, you don’t need to make millions each year to join them. And if you consider yourself relatively well-to-do, you may be in the top 5% or 10% already.

Continue reading… “What you need to earn to be in the to 1%”

Employment, Latest Trend, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

Nearly 80 percent of employees would prefer one of these 3 things to a pay raise

July 19, 2019

It’s not always about the money, money, money.

Money can’t buy you love, but it can buy a lot of important things. Which is why it’s interesting that a recent Employment Confidence Survey by Glassdoor named some of the other things that employees would actually rather have over a pay raise.

Yes, we’re talking about perks–but not, perhaps, the ones you might think.

Continue reading… “Nearly 80 percent of employees would prefer one of these 3 things to a pay raise”

Great New Product, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

This spray-on nanofiber ‘skin’ may revolutionize burn and wound care

July 19, 2019

Hey Shaped like a gun, Nanomedic’s SpinCare device emits a web of electrospun polymer nanofabric that stays put for weeks—no dressing changes required.

Imagine if bandaging looked a little more like, well, a water gun?

Israeli startup Nanomedic Technologies Ltd., a subsidiary of medical device company Nicast, has invented a new mechanical contraption to treat burns, wounds, and surgical injuries by mimicking human tissue. Shaped like a children’s toy, the lightweight SpinCare emits a proprietary nanofiber “second skin” that completely covers the area that needs to heal.

Continue reading… “This spray-on nanofiber ‘skin’ may revolutionize burn and wound care”

Breakthrough Thinking, cutting edge, Engineering, quantum computing, Science & Technology News

Physicists use light waves to accelerate supercurrents, enable ultrafast quantum computing

July 18, 2019

Scientists have discovered that terahertz light — light at trillions of cycles per second — can act as a control knob to accelerate supercurrents. That can help open up the quantum world of matter and energy at atomic and subatomic scales to practical applications such as ultrafast computing.

Jigang Wang patiently explained his latest discovery in quantum control that could lead to superfast computing based on quantum mechanics: He mentioned light-induced superconductivity without energy gap. He brought up forbidden supercurrent quantum beats. And he mentioned terahertz-speed symmetry breaking.

Then he backed up and clarified all that. After all, the quantum world of matter and energy at terahertz and nanometer scales — trillions of cycles per second and billionths of meters — is still a mystery to most of us.

Continue reading… “Physicists use light waves to accelerate supercurrents, enable ultrafast quantum computing”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Crazy Stuff, Science & Technology News

Worlds’s first AI universe simulator knows things it shouldn’t

July 18, 2019

Great Mystery

“It’s like teaching image recognition software with lots of pictures of cats and dogs, but then it’s able to recognize elephants.”

Since we can’t travel billions of years back in time — not yet, anyways — one of the best ways to understand how our universe evolved is to create computer simulations of the process using what we do know about it.

Most of those simulations fall into one of two categories: slow and more accurate, or fast and less accurate. But now, an international team of researchers has built an AI that can quickly generate highly-accurate, three-dimensional simulations of the universe — even when they tweak parameters the system wasn’t trained on.

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3D Printer, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

A BFF in Space! Bioprinter Will 3D-Print Human Tissue on the Space Station

July 18, 2019

A new 3D printer will launch to the space station in July with the goal of manufacturing human tissue in space.A new 3D printer will launch to the space station in July with the goal of manufacturing human tissue in space.(Image: © Techshot Inc.)

The futuristic gizmo will launch this month.

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AI, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Science & Technology News

AI and machine learning dominate World Economic Forum’s list of 2019 Technology Pioneers

July 18, 2019

The World Economic Forum today announced its list of 56 companies selected as Technology Pioneers, and this year’s class demonstrates the growing embrace of artificial intelligence and machine learning across a broad range of sectors.

Of those selected, at least 20 companies say they are using AI or machine learning in some fashion to tackle challenges in fields such as advertising technology, smart cities, cleantech, supply chain, manufacturing, cybersecurity, autonomous vehicles, and drones.

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Analysis, Environment, New Discoveries, Science & Technology News

New analysis techniques unearth a trove of unusual minerals

July 17, 2019

Nataliyamalikite was discovered in Kamchatka’s Avacha Volcano, which emits sulfurous vapor that’s high in thallium.YURI SMITYUK/GETTY IMAGES

THE LANDSCAPE OF Kamchatka Peninsula steams with sulfurous vapor, its 29 active volcanoes forming a hazy backdrop for the region’s herds of reindeer and rivers of salmon. One of the most geologically active places in the world, Kamchatka juts out from the eastern coast of Russia to resemble a larger version of Florida. A process almost like alchemy occurs here: Like a set of roiling cauldrons, Kamchatka’s volcanoes mix unusual combinations of atomic elements to forge minerals that are unlike anything anywhere else in the world.

And in the past few years, researchers have discovered several new minerals on Kamchatka. “They pop up by accident,” says Joël Brugger, a geologist at Monash University in Australia, who helped discover a new mineral on the peninsula called nataliyamalikite in 2017. “You just have to keep your eyes open.” Researchers don’t set out to make these discoveries, usually. Instead, they stumble upon new minerals during their studies of broader geologic processes that might, for example, cause rare metals to collect in unusually large concentrations in a specific volcano.

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AI, Machine Learning, Science & Technology News

Machine learning has been used to automatically translate long-lost languages

July 17, 2019

Some languages that have never been deciphered could be the next ones to get the machine translation treatment.

In 1886, the British archaeologist Arthur Evans came across an ancient stone bearing a curious set of inscriptions in an unknown language. The stone came from the Mediterranean island of Crete, and Evans immediately traveled there to hunt for more evidence. He quickly found numerous stones and tablets bearing similar scripts and dated them from around 1400 BCE.

Continue reading… “Machine learning has been used to automatically translate long-lost languages”