Latest in research and development of fusion power:
THE TWO-HUNDRED AND TWENTY FISTS OF FUSION
To you who don't want to read the whole article; it's basically a project to design a device made out of 220 massive pistons, that are to simultaneously slam down on a mixture of deuterium and tritium, causing them to undergo fusion. The idea really is to punch something so hard its atoms start hurting.
I approve of this idea.
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måndag 10 augusti 2009
tisdag 7 oktober 2008
Follow Up
My experiment was at least a partial success for a timeframe of one day. I managed to master Gaussian Elimination and got a basic idea of linear equation systems, without the aid of a teacher, and a lot faster than I would otherwise.
I didn't really make progress in my calculus, but attending school today showed me I didn't really miss anything at all; I followed what was happening.
Conclusion: A valid, speedy tactic, but not one to be used for extended periods of time. Perhaps I shall try how well it works for two days, some other time.
I didn't really make progress in my calculus, but attending school today showed me I didn't really miss anything at all; I followed what was happening.
Conclusion: A valid, speedy tactic, but not one to be used for extended periods of time. Perhaps I shall try how well it works for two days, some other time.
måndag 6 oktober 2008
Lectures Are Not For Me
Today I am conducting an experiment.
Will I learn more if I stay home and study, than if I go to school and listen to the lecturers? I'm starting to doubt the proficiency of especially one lecturer; many classes feel like a waste of time, problem being I can't skip only those lectures since they're in between other, useful lectures.
So I figures, what if I do as much work as possible at home today? Maybe that'll teach me more. It requires more discipline, of course, but it also saves me prodigious amounts of time since I don't have to walk to and from school, nor do I have to listen through a lecturer's fascination for certain small, irrelevant phenomena. It's not that I mind the trivia, of course not - but with the high pace of education here, I have a feeling I can't afford a lecturer who wastes my time. I'd rather spend my free time drawing than listening to a guy going on and on about miniscule mathemathical trivia, actually.
So, everyone cross your fingers that I won't be consumed by sloth while I conduct this 'speriment. Thanks.
Will I learn more if I stay home and study, than if I go to school and listen to the lecturers? I'm starting to doubt the proficiency of especially one lecturer; many classes feel like a waste of time, problem being I can't skip only those lectures since they're in between other, useful lectures.
So I figures, what if I do as much work as possible at home today? Maybe that'll teach me more. It requires more discipline, of course, but it also saves me prodigious amounts of time since I don't have to walk to and from school, nor do I have to listen through a lecturer's fascination for certain small, irrelevant phenomena. It's not that I mind the trivia, of course not - but with the high pace of education here, I have a feeling I can't afford a lecturer who wastes my time. I'd rather spend my free time drawing than listening to a guy going on and on about miniscule mathemathical trivia, actually.
So, everyone cross your fingers that I won't be consumed by sloth while I conduct this 'speriment. Thanks.
måndag 18 februari 2008
Neuroscience
Today has been spent studying the subject of psychology, specifically how the brain and nerves work - and I have encountered a lot of interesting trivia on the matter, that I thought I might share with you.
Firstly, stem cell research is apparently making it increasingly likely that we will be able to mend broken nerves - up to and including nerves in the spine, possibly even in the brain. The possibilities here are endless - paralysis can be cured, neural diseases can be stopped, and we could even potentially regrow lost limbs (we can already clone forth raw flesh - if we can give it functioning nerves, we could attach limbs to ourselves). Aside from the sheer practicality and awesomeness of such an invention, it works in an interesting way; stem cells introduced into the spine or the brain find their way towards a damaged nerve and replace it.
Doing so in the brain, which is still more science fiction than science but sort of possible, would be interesting since each individual nerve doesn't contribute to our identity - merely the structure, the pattern of nerves. I'm not entirely certain about how neurobiology works, admittedly, but it seems like it's not impossible to speculate in making your brain effectively immortal by introducing new stem cells to it on a regular basis. Growing and learning to control nerves would also hypothetically make it possible to grow organic computers, if we could learn to dictate the growth of the nerves and interact with them in a meaningful way.
A second interesting invention is the Cortical Implant, built by the University of Utah. Apparently this invention allows for wireless eyes for blind people - a camera in a pair of glasses connected to a computer sends information to a microchip implanted in the brain. This chip stimulates the visual cortex of the occipital lobe, causing you to perceive flashes of light - an effect since long tested. What the researchers are now working on is a way to turn these flashes of light into "pixels", allowing blind people to see, albeit in black-and-white low-resolution only. Currently there are enough such "pixels" for blind people to be able to read, although only one letter at a time and they need to be large and glow - which is still pretty damn impressive, considering the method works on people who don't even have eyes.
In a manner of speaking, the future is already here. But, all this tampering with the brain and the neurons is getting me awfully curious about my favourite subject again; identity. It seems like the way the brain is constructed indicates that identity, much like the brain in which it resides, can be picked apart - we even know how to "switch off" some functions of the brain, such as sexuality or aggression. If you ask me, these two aspects are rather large a part of how people work.
Firstly, stem cell research is apparently making it increasingly likely that we will be able to mend broken nerves - up to and including nerves in the spine, possibly even in the brain. The possibilities here are endless - paralysis can be cured, neural diseases can be stopped, and we could even potentially regrow lost limbs (we can already clone forth raw flesh - if we can give it functioning nerves, we could attach limbs to ourselves). Aside from the sheer practicality and awesomeness of such an invention, it works in an interesting way; stem cells introduced into the spine or the brain find their way towards a damaged nerve and replace it.
Doing so in the brain, which is still more science fiction than science but sort of possible, would be interesting since each individual nerve doesn't contribute to our identity - merely the structure, the pattern of nerves. I'm not entirely certain about how neurobiology works, admittedly, but it seems like it's not impossible to speculate in making your brain effectively immortal by introducing new stem cells to it on a regular basis. Growing and learning to control nerves would also hypothetically make it possible to grow organic computers, if we could learn to dictate the growth of the nerves and interact with them in a meaningful way.
A second interesting invention is the Cortical Implant, built by the University of Utah. Apparently this invention allows for wireless eyes for blind people - a camera in a pair of glasses connected to a computer sends information to a microchip implanted in the brain. This chip stimulates the visual cortex of the occipital lobe, causing you to perceive flashes of light - an effect since long tested. What the researchers are now working on is a way to turn these flashes of light into "pixels", allowing blind people to see, albeit in black-and-white low-resolution only. Currently there are enough such "pixels" for blind people to be able to read, although only one letter at a time and they need to be large and glow - which is still pretty damn impressive, considering the method works on people who don't even have eyes.
In a manner of speaking, the future is already here. But, all this tampering with the brain and the neurons is getting me awfully curious about my favourite subject again; identity. It seems like the way the brain is constructed indicates that identity, much like the brain in which it resides, can be picked apart - we even know how to "switch off" some functions of the brain, such as sexuality or aggression. If you ask me, these two aspects are rather large a part of how people work.
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