Researchers have developed an efficient process to convert organic solids into liquid fuel. The process, thermal depolymerization process, is designed to take almost any waste product imaginable and turn it into one of three products, all valuable and environmentally benign: high-quality oil, clean-burning gas, and purified minerals that can be used as fuels, fertilizers, or specialty chemicals for manufacturing.
A powered exoskeleton could transform the average joe into a supersoldier.
Orbital space around the Earth is full of deadly debris from old missions. Now NASA has to figure out how to keep a hail of space junk from bringing down the shuttle, the space station, and a lot of satellites.
Maverick energy guru Amory Lovins says a profitable, pollution-free hydrogen economy is just over the horizon. It's merely a matter of taming the most powerful gas on the planet, hydrogen.
James Martin predicts that we will soon have machines that are a billion times more intelligent than we are, but only in narrow, specific ways. He likens them to human idiot savants, and as such, he believes we can keep them under control - ``a person with general intelligence will always find ways to control a person without such intelligence.''
An introduction to artificial life with a focus on genetic algorithims and evolutionary computing. "Computers can now mimic evolution by breeding software that can design robots, improvise jazz, manage vast warehouse inventories, and tackle other creative tasks more efficiently than humans. Are these digital powerhouses too smart for our own good?"