On April 23rd 2018, Amazon announced that it will now deliver packages to the trunk of your vehicle.The company is launching the new service in 37 cities with the cooperation of General Motors and Volvo. Amazon Prime members will be the first to sample the new service, and in order to use the new service you must own a car that is connected to the internet. The in car delivery service only works with GM's On Star and Volvo's On Call services.
Amazon's delivery drivers will use On Star or On Call to locate the prospective customer's car. Once the driver has found the car, they then use an app on their smart phone to gain entry, insert the package, and the lock the customer's car. The app only allows the delivery drive to unlock the doors and trunk, and can no be used to start the ignition. For those interested, there's no installation fee or need for a smart lock or camera.
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Researchers Create Self Cleaning Coating
On April 11th 2018, researchers at the University of Michigan announced in the ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, that they have created a self cleaning coating that can also repel liquids. Anish Tuteja, an associate professor of material science and engineering and head of the research team are calling the new coating, "omniphobic." He says that the new coating is the first of its kind that's durable, clear, and can be applied to almost any surface.
Professor Tuteja went on to explain that in past experiments, researchers would try combining a durable substance with a repellent substance, but that would not necessarily yield a durable, repellent substance. His team, however, discovered the property or ability of two substance to mix together in just the right way, which they call, "partial miscibility." The researchers found that a combination of fluorinated polyurethane and a fluid repellent called F-Poss was the right mix.
The team believes that their new coating could eventually grime proof phone screens, counter tops, camera lenes, and many other everyday items. They have shown that their new coating can resist water, oils, alcohol, and even peanut butter. The research team is conducting further studies in order to make sure that their new coating is non toxic and is safe for use around children.
Professor Tuteja went on to explain that in past experiments, researchers would try combining a durable substance with a repellent substance, but that would not necessarily yield a durable, repellent substance. His team, however, discovered the property or ability of two substance to mix together in just the right way, which they call, "partial miscibility." The researchers found that a combination of fluorinated polyurethane and a fluid repellent called F-Poss was the right mix.
The team believes that their new coating could eventually grime proof phone screens, counter tops, camera lenes, and many other everyday items. They have shown that their new coating can resist water, oils, alcohol, and even peanut butter. The research team is conducting further studies in order to make sure that their new coating is non toxic and is safe for use around children.
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
IBM Introduces World's Smallest Computer
On March 19th 2019, at the annual IBM Think Conference, researchers from IBM announced that they have created the world's smallest computer. The computer is smaller than a grain of salt and costs less than .10 cents to manufacture. It's designed to work with blockchain technology to track goods and is also able to analyze and store data. And, it has the processing power of a 1990s x86, which will be enough power to communicate with various tracking systems.
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Spotify Goes Public
On April 3rd 2018, Spotify began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with an Initial Public Offering (IPO), and individual stocks selling for an opening price of $169 a share. Spotify is the world's largest music streaming service with 71 million paying subscribers which puts it ahead of Apple Music which has 36 million paid subscribers. Its opening per share stock price gave the company a value of $29 billion.
Spotify was launched in Sweden in 2008 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. The idea was to provide those who engaged in illegal downloading, an affordable alternative. Its free ad based streaming service was first, but was quickly followed by its paid subscription version. The company received a $100 million infusion of cash in 2011, and with that money it was able to launch its platform in the United States.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Launch Of James Webb Telescope Delayed
On march 27th 2018, NASA announced that the scheduled launch of the James Webb Space Telescope moved from its previous expected launch window of spring 2019 to May of 2020. The spacecraft has been in development for over two decades. NASA says that it needs more time to tests the telescope's intricate systems and to make repairs to its sun shield. The James Webb Space Telescope is slated to become the replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope.
Unlike Hubble, the Webb telescope will not be serviceable once it is launched. The Hubble Space Telescope orbited the Earth. The Webb telescope will go into orbit around the sun at a point that's a million miles away from Earth. Because of the very real need to get everything right before launch, it's possible that the Webb telescope may exceed its 8 billion development budget. NASA's partner on the project, the European Space Agency, says the spacecraft will be launched from French Guiana.
Unlike Hubble, the Webb telescope will not be serviceable once it is launched. The Hubble Space Telescope orbited the Earth. The Webb telescope will go into orbit around the sun at a point that's a million miles away from Earth. Because of the very real need to get everything right before launch, it's possible that the Webb telescope may exceed its 8 billion development budget. NASA's partner on the project, the European Space Agency, says the spacecraft will be launched from French Guiana.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
A New Form Of Light Has Been Created
On February 15th 2018, scientists at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Harvard, announced in the Journal Science, that they have created a new form of light. According to Vladan Vuletic, the Lester Wolf Professor of physics at MIT and Mikhail Lukin of Harvard, who led the research team, groups of three photons were observed interacting with each other. They say that the photons were sticking together in a way that formed a new photonic matter.
Normal beams of light are composed of photons or tiny packets of energy, but those photons don't interact, they just pass each other. A way to picture this is to imagine shining two flashlights so as to make the beams touch each other. What you will see is the two beams passing each other by. However, when the research team shined a weak laser beam through a cloud of rubidium atoms, the photons interacted by binding together in pairs and triplets.
Photons, by nature, travel at 186,000 miles per second, but the researchers observed them traveling through the cloud at 100,000 times slower than normal. As the photons interacted, the resulting pairs and triplets gave off a phase shifted energy signature. The team worried as to whether these photon groupings would be stable. However, they discovered that a three photon grouping was more stable than two.
The team also found that the bond grows stronger as more photons are added. While the idea or possible use for this discovery may lead some to envision Star Wars like light sabers, the team wants to use the attractive and repulsive interactions of the photons to one day make light crystals. They believe that such crystals could be used to in quantum communication and quantum computing.
Normal beams of light are composed of photons or tiny packets of energy, but those photons don't interact, they just pass each other. A way to picture this is to imagine shining two flashlights so as to make the beams touch each other. What you will see is the two beams passing each other by. However, when the research team shined a weak laser beam through a cloud of rubidium atoms, the photons interacted by binding together in pairs and triplets.
Photons, by nature, travel at 186,000 miles per second, but the researchers observed them traveling through the cloud at 100,000 times slower than normal. As the photons interacted, the resulting pairs and triplets gave off a phase shifted energy signature. The team worried as to whether these photon groupings would be stable. However, they discovered that a three photon grouping was more stable than two.
The team also found that the bond grows stronger as more photons are added. While the idea or possible use for this discovery may lead some to envision Star Wars like light sabers, the team wants to use the attractive and repulsive interactions of the photons to one day make light crystals. They believe that such crystals could be used to in quantum communication and quantum computing.
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Physicist Stephen Hawking Dies
Noted physicist and author, Stephen Hawking died Wednesday March 13th 2018, he was 76. According to his family he died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in the United Kingdom, as the result of complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Dr. Hawking was best known for his work in cosmology, specifically black holes and relativity and for authoring the hugely successful science book, "A Brief History of Time."
Dr. Hawking was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, when he was 22. Progression of the motor neurone disease eventually left Dr. Hawking confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak. He did not however let that stop him from making significant contributions to science. When he was a graduate student at Cambridge University he and Roger Penrose of Berkbeck College of London were able to prove mathematically that black holes actually exist.
He later theorized the existence of mini proton sized black holes that he believed eventually evaporated. He then concluded that this meant that these black holes were essentially radiating away through what has become known as Hawking Radiation. A few years later, with the help of Dr, James Hartle form the University of California Santa Barbara, Dr. Hawking arrived at the assessment that our universe was a closed system and therefore is boundless like the Earth.
In the late 1980's, Dr. Hawking achieved real stardom when he wrote the science book, "A Brief History of Time." His book stayed on the Sunday Times best seller list for 237 weeks which won it a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Dr, Hawking won the Einstein Award, the Wolf Prize, the Copley Medal, and the Fundamental Physics Prize. In 2009, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2014 His life was made into a movie named, "The Theory of Everything," which won an Academy Award for Eddie Redmayne, the actor who portrayed him.
Dr. Hawking was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, when he was 22. Progression of the motor neurone disease eventually left Dr. Hawking confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak. He did not however let that stop him from making significant contributions to science. When he was a graduate student at Cambridge University he and Roger Penrose of Berkbeck College of London were able to prove mathematically that black holes actually exist.
He later theorized the existence of mini proton sized black holes that he believed eventually evaporated. He then concluded that this meant that these black holes were essentially radiating away through what has become known as Hawking Radiation. A few years later, with the help of Dr, James Hartle form the University of California Santa Barbara, Dr. Hawking arrived at the assessment that our universe was a closed system and therefore is boundless like the Earth.
In the late 1980's, Dr. Hawking achieved real stardom when he wrote the science book, "A Brief History of Time." His book stayed on the Sunday Times best seller list for 237 weeks which won it a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Dr, Hawking won the Einstein Award, the Wolf Prize, the Copley Medal, and the Fundamental Physics Prize. In 2009, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2014 His life was made into a movie named, "The Theory of Everything," which won an Academy Award for Eddie Redmayne, the actor who portrayed him.
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