Since Google’s wonderfully exciting video is so innocent and charming, its probably a good idea to pass this video around again just so we all can be clear where it’s going. #googlex +Project Glass http://vimeo.com/8569187

Jonathan Langdale originally shared this post: A team that includes scientists from USC has built a quantum computer in a diamond, the first of its kind to include protection against “decoherence” – noise that prevents the computer from functioning properly. Professor +Daniel Lidar USC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lidar Postdoc Zhihui Wang Their findings will be published on April 5 in Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-04-quantum-built-diamond.html http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120404161943.htm The chip in the image measures 3mm x 3mm, while the diamond in the center is 1mm x 1mm. (Credit: Courtesy of Delft University of Technology and UC Santa Barbara)

Jonathan Langdale originally shared this post: Information alone is not persuasion. If people have no choice, how do you get them to change? Are there some people that will simply never change their way of thinking? In order to change a mind with plasticity, you need information, knowledge, language, compatible social norms and most importantly… time. It seems like we should get used to the fact people do not change their mind unless their mind is in a state where it can make the leap. If they can’t, they just can’t yet. My guess is that this fundamental impossibility to accelerate the rate of change in a human brain is the source of much of our frustrations and political problems. Information, facts and well constructed arguments alone are not enough. Otherwise, Christoper Hitchens would have destroyed organized religion by now.

Andrea Kuszewski originally shared this post: Printable Robots: MIT Project Wants to Let You Design and Fabricate Your Own Machines Printable Robots: MIT Project Wants to Let You Design and Fabricate Your Own Machines – IEEE Spectrum The goal is to develop technology to allow an average person to design, customize, and print a functioning robot in a matter of hours

Eye contact is impressive, definitely an important part of telepresence. Mike Elgan originally shared this post: Japanese wireless giant invents incredible videoconferencing system. Japan’s NTT Docomo is developing this video conferencing system that enables eye contact, invisible backgrounds and screen movements that mirror head movements, which improves the psychology of talking to people who aren’t really there. Is this the future of Google+ Hangouts? http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/3/2922296/ntt-videoconferencing-telepresence-system-transparent-rotating-screen

Note: Digital migration is a form of migration. We’ve been swarming to Facebook, like rats fleeing a sinking ship. We’ve migrated online much faster than the urban migrations that characterized the Industrial Age. Unconsciously, we recognize this migration is necessary for our survival as a species. Climate News originally shared this post: In the face of climate change, migration is probably a winning strategy. Climate migration is a solution, not desperation – environment – 03 April 2012 – New Scientist Rather than being the final resort, migration is a key tactic in the human response to climate change, argues a leading geographer

Mark Crowley originally shared this post: They’re almost here… http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328585.300-driverless-cars-ready-to-hit-our-roads.html #TuringTuesday Driverless cars ready to hit our roads – tech – 02 April 2012 – New Scientist Sceptical about autonomous cars? Too late. They’re already here – and they’re smarter than ever

“Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. “I have come too early,” he said then; “my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars—and yet they have done it themselves. ” http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/nietzsche-madman.asp Jon Lawhead originally shared this post: “Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God’s decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.”

Jonathan Langdale originally shared this post: Tiny plastic fingers, each with a diameter 1/500th of a human hair, cradle a tiny green sphere I love this photo. I saw it on +Rich Pollett‘s profile and wondered what it was, and where to find the high-resolution file: http://goo.gl/61fm4 From: http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2010/0218sp_viz.shtml Tiny plastic fibers, each with a diameter of 250 nm, spontaneously wrapped around a plastic ball when they were immersed in an evaporating liquid. First reported in Science (Pokroy et al., Science 2009), the finding demonstrates a new way of controlling the self-assembly of polymer hairs. The image was produced with a scanning electronic microscope and was digitally enhanced for color. .

Marianna Limas originally shared this post: In this review, we present a number of tools that can assist in modifying and understanding cellular metabolic networks. The review covers seven areas of relevance to metabolic engineers. These include metabolic reconstruction efforts, network visualization, nucleic acid and protein engineering, metabolic flux analysis, pathway prospecting, post-structural network analysis and culture optimization. The list of available tools is extensive and we can only highlight a small, representative portion of the tools from each area. ScienceDirect.com – Metabolic Engineering – Computational tools for metabolic engineering Abstract. A great variety of software applications are now employed in the metabolic engineering field. These applications have been created to support a wide range of experimental and analysis techni…

Rich Pollett originally shared this post: Alan Turing: Legacy of a Code Breaker Lecture by Prof Jim Al-Khalili Presented by Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Professor of Physics and Professor of Public Engagement in Science from the University of Surrey. From cryptanalysis and the cracking of the German Enigma Code during the Second World War to his work on artificial intelligence, Alan Turing was without doubt one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. An extraordinarily gifted mathematician, he is rightly regarded as the father of computer science having set in place the formal rules that govern the way every computer code ever written actually work. This lecture will be a celebration of one man’s enigmatic yet ultimately tragic life – a whirlwind tour of his genius, from whether computers can have consciousness to how a leopard gets its spots. (1:02:34)

All of us depend on systems each of which are too large, intricate and complex for any one person to fully understand, much less manage: no one anywhere understands their interplay in its totality. We are forced, in order to think well about the world, to engage in collaborative thinking across disciplines, fields and places. We are forced to build models, construct working analogies, learn to debate systems functions and probable outcomes. This need to grapple with complexity and interconnectedness as we remake our cities demands more and more facility with telling stories about systems. We require elegance in apprehending complex truths combined with skill in turning models into narratives. This “systems storytelling” skill is absolutely critical in bright green cities in order to engage people to with their roles as citizens, creators and consumers in helping to evolve and support the kinds of systems that make possible more sustainably prosperous lives. Systems storytelling is an essential 21st century civic and journalistic skill. http://www.alexsteffen.com/2012/03/systems-storytelling/ » Systems Storytelling Alex Steffen The new urban culture of innovation is revealing to us again an old basic truth of cities: that cities are not the streets and buildings found within a set of legal boundaries, but the agglomeration o…