crookedindifference:

The “Most Important Algorithm Of Our Lifetime” Could Change This Modern World

Math breakthroughs don’t often capture the headlines—but MIT researchers have just made one that could lead to all sorts of amazing technological breakthroughs that in just a few years will touch every hour of your life.

Here’s a quickie explainer: Fourier transforms are a mathematical trick to simplify how you represent a complicated signal—say the waves of sound made by speaking. They work by reducing the complex wave pattern to a simple and pretty short list of numbers that, when run through the system again, result in a very good approximation of the original signal. FFTs (Fast Fourier Transforms) are simply a way of making this magic happen in a digital computer, but the combination of math and machine means the FFT has revolutionized science and many industries that have technology at their core. Which is why it’s been labeled the “most important algorithm of our lifetime.”

Now, you should remember that sound waves, and both picture and video signals, are all handled by processors in your TV, PC, and phone, and that the radio waves that whizz through the air to keep us all connected to the Internet need digital processing too. That’s every compressed sound signal that you listen to as an MP3 or similar format, most every image that you snap with your smartphone or DSLR, every image frame in the video you’re watching on your TV streamed over the Net, many images—such as those from an MRI—your doctor uses to diagnose your disease and every burst of radio that connects your cell phone to the nearest tower or your PC to its Wi-Fi router. 

So calculating FFTs up to ten times faster is a big deal. It means that if you use existing hardware to do the math, it’ll be quicker at solving the problem you’ve set—so you need less compute time to do the task. If you’re talking about a portable computer like the one in your smartphone, that means it can spend more time doing other things instead. And with the valuable computing and battery resources of these portable devices under such pressure (you wouldn’t want your phone to be laggy now, would you?) that’s a good thing.

thenewenlightenmentage:

Was the Moon Once Powered by a Dynamo Core? MIT Research Says “Yes”

MIT’s research on an ancient lunar rock suggests that the moon once harbored a long-lived dynamo — a molten, convecting core of liquid metal that generated a strong magnetic field 3.7 billion years ago. The findings, published today in Science, point to a dynamo that lasted much longer than scientists previously thought, and suggest that an alternative energy source may have powered the dynamo.  

Continue reading “Was the Moon Once Powered by a Dynamo Core? MIT Research Says “Yes”” »

MIT’s Folding Electric Car Goes On Sale Next Year
Adam Clark Estes, theatlanticwire.com

Battery-powered fold­ing cars wouldn’t be out of place in an Inspec­tor Gad­get car­toon, but pret­ty soon, they may be com­mon­place on the streets of Europe. And you know what’s the best part? At only $16,210, they’re afford­able.

Designed by …

(Source: examinethose)

alchymista:

First Subliming Planet Forshadows Mercury’s Fate

A rocky exoplanet about the size of Mercury appears to be evaporating before our eyes. If confirmed, this would be the first time a rocky planet has been found turning to gas, demonstrating just how wacky alien planets can be. The provocative suggestion may also foreshadow the fate of Mercury.

“My first reaction was disbelief,” says Dan Fabrycky of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved in the new analysis. After playing with the data himself, however, he has come around – though he is still cautious. “After turning it over in my mind a few days, I cannot come up with a more natural theoretical explanation,” he says.

The evaporation was inferred from observations by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. These show that a star called KIC 12557548, which is slightly smaller than the sun, is dimming every 15.685 hours precisely. That suggests an orbiting companion is transiting, or passing in front of the star. Unlike other transits seen by Kepler, though, the dimming in this system varies wildly from one pass to another.

The best explanation is a rocky planet about the size of Mercury that is subliming – turning directly to a gas - due to the intense radiation from its star, conclude a team led by Saul Rappaport of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

laboratoryequipment:

Office Air May Contain Toxic Substances

In a first-of-its-kind study, scientists are reporting that the indoor air in offices is an important source of worker exposure to potentially toxic substances released by carpeting, furniture, paint and other items. Their report, which documents a link between levels of these so-called polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in office air and in the blood of workers, appears in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Office-Air-May-Contain-Potentially-Toxic-Substances-011912.aspx

laboratoryequipment:

Scientist of the Week: Jonathan How

Every Thursday, Laboratory Equipment features a Scientist of the Week, chosen from the science industry’s latest headlines. This week’s scientist is Jonathan How from MIT. He and colleagues created an algorithm that can predict if an oncoming car is likely to run a red light.

The original article on his work can be found here: www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Algorithm-Predicts-Dangerous-Drivers-120111.aspx

He speaks about his work here: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-sow-how-122211.aspx

Do you have a question for Jonathan How? Message us and we’ll pass it on!

infoneer-pulse:

Algorithm Can Detect When Cars Are About to Run a Red Light

Cars with infrared sensors, cameras and collaborative connectivity will eventually go a long way toward avoiding collisions, but human drivers will still be a wild card. Now a new algorithm can predict whether they’ll behave at intersections, and could someday prevent crashes and save lives.

Researchers at MIT developed an algorithm that analyzes several several parameters, including a vehicle’s deceleration, its distance from a traffic light and when the light turns red. It can capture a vehicle’s motion in 3-D in less than five milliseconds, according to MIT News. Using this data, it is able to determine which cars are driven by potential violators, those likely to run a red light, and which cars were obeying the law.

» via Popular Science

swagnotesblog:

Harvard researchers build flexible robot that can crawl, slither under a pane of glass. Pumping controlled amounts of air into each of the robot’s four limbs allows it to slither and contort to fit into many difficult space.  Dope and innovative.  #knowledgeispower so pay attention and take #swagnotes.

poptech:

Can Harvesting Fog Bring Water To The Thirsty? | Fast Company

With 900 million people around the world living without safe drinking water and the worlds population increasing, researchers at MIT are looking for innovative solutions to capture clean water. Inspired by the Namib Beetle, an African beetle that collects water droplets on its shell, MIT researches believe they can capture water droplets from fog. Although the project is far from being finished it certainly has potential.

(via smarterplanet)

…and in a related #StarWarsDay story, MIT has decided to get into the gas mining  business.