tagged w/ Optics
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"When you have energy companies like Shell and British Petroleum, both of which are perhaps represented in this room, saying there is a problem with excess carbon dioxide emission, I think we ought to listen." - James Baker"When you have energy companies like Shell and British Petroleum, both of which... more
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As the name implies, free space optics uses light to transmit data, much the same way as fiber optics systems but through the air, not over a fiber line. Founded in 1996, SkyFiber is hardly a new company, but for most of its existence it’s been flying under the radar, researching optical technologies and accruing patents. According to CEO David Achim, its success in patenting much of free space optics intellectual property is what forced Terabeam to ultimately get out of the business. Last year, SkyFiber decided that its technology and its market were ready for commercial deployments. It raised $32 million in venture funding and began trialing its equipment with local governments and wireless operators and is now set to start selling its SkyLink product commercially.
“Free space optics was an overhyped, overpromised and under-delivered technology that left a bad taste in people’s mouths’,” Achim said, explaining why the technology fell off the radar after Terabeam’s initial trials. But SkyFiber has managed to optimize the technology to overcome its original shortcomings, which were primarily related to range and weather conditions...
http://connectedplanetonline.com/3g4g/news/skyfiber-optical-wireless-061610/As the name implies, free space optics uses light to transmit data, much the same way... more
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It may look like any average building but behind closed doors could lie the answer to safe renewable energy of the future. Here at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore California, scientists are aiming to build the world's first sustainable fusion reactor by 'creating a miniature star on Earth'. Following a series of key experiments over the last few weeks, the £2.2 billion project has inched a little closer to its goal of igniting a workable fusion reaction by 2012. http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/your-details/11685-creating-a-miniature-star-on-earthIt may look like any average building but behind closed doors could lie the answer to... more
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worrg
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added this
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1 year ago
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What do MRI machines, rockets, fiber optics, LCDs, food production and welding have in common? They all require the inert, or noble, gas helium for their use or at some stage of their production. And that helium essentially could be gone in less than three decades http://www.grabi.co.cc/index.php/novosti/znanost/28304-heliumWhat do MRI machines, rockets, fiber optics, LCDs, food production and welding have in... more
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worrg
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added this
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1 year ago
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These are graphical representations of numerical simulations depicting four potential applications of a new field called transformation optics. Clockwise from top left are: a design for optical cloaking; a light "concentrator" for sensors and solar collectors; a "planar hyperlens" and "impedence-matched hyperlens" for applications including microscopes. (Courtesy of the journal Science)
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A new research field called transformation optics may usher in a host of radical advances including a cloak of invisibility and ultra-powerful microscopes and computers by harnessing nanotechnology and "metamaterials."
These are graphical representations of numerical simulations depicting four potential... more
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"Now I can finally answer," says Dickinson, the Esther M. and Abe M. Zarem Professor of Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Using high-resolution, high-speed digital imaging of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) faced with a looming swatter, Dickinson and graduate student Gwyneth Card have determined the secret to a fly's evasive maneuvering. Long before the fly leaps, its tiny brain calculates the location of the impending threat, comes up with an escape plan, and places its legs in an optimal position to hop out of the way in the opposite direction. All of this action takes place within about 100 milliseconds after the fly first spots the swatter.
"This illustrates how rapidly the fly's brain can process sensory information into an appropriate motor response," Dickinson says."Now I can finally answer," says Dickinson, the Esther M. and Abe M. Zarem... more
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Most animals — fish, insects, reptiles, birds, rabbits, and horses, for example — exist in non-cluttered environments like fields or plains, and they have eyes located on either side of their head. These sideways-facing eyes allow an animal to see in front of and behind itself, an ability also known as panoramic vision.
Humans and other large mammals — primates and large carnivores like tigers, for example — exist in cluttered environments like forests or jungles, and their eyes have evolved to point in the same direction. While animals with forward-facing eyes lose the ability to see what's behind them, they gain X-ray vision, according to Mark Changizi, assistant professor of cognitive science at Rensselaer, who says eyes facing the same direction have been selected for maximizing our ability to see in leafy environments like forests.Most animals — fish, insects, reptiles, birds, rabbits, and horses, for example... more
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