Holy smokes.
I remember poking aroun pages at MIT on Friday and I vaguely remember finding a page about Singh. Of course, there could be several people named Singh… but the cooincidence is unlikely. Now, much to my dismay… I read this less than 5 minutes ago:
Wired tells the quite sad but very interesting stories of Chris McKinstry and Pushpinder Singh. Initially self-educated, both had the idea to create huge fact databases from which AI agents could feed, hoping to eventually have something that could reason at a human level or better. McKinstry leveraged the dotcom era to grow his database. Singh had the backing of MIT, where he eventually got his PhD and had been offered a position as a professor alongside his mentor, Marvin Minsky. Sadly, personal life was more troublesome for them, and the story ends in a tragic way.
It’s really sad! To read the entire article, click here.
I suppose there are several morals you could get out of this event… however, it is really depressing.
RIP <3
Link.
… and there is no denying it! Check out these first place winners from the Science as Art competition.
Nano-Explosions Color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph of an overflowed electrodeposited magnetic nanowire array (CoFeB), where the template has been subsequently completely etched. It’s a reminder that nanoscale research can have unpredicted consequences at a high level. (Image: Fanny Beron, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, Canada)
Bamboos for Vibration Control Ni-Mn-Ga melt-extracted fibers with an approximate diameter of 100 µm showing a bamboo-type structure (imaged with a backscattered electron detector in an FEG-SEM). Melt-extraction is a unique and novel method to prepare single-crystalline particles for magnetic shape memory composites. (Image: Oliver Gutfleisch, IFW Dresden, Institute of Metallic Materials, Dresden, Germany)
Dirty Dice Self-assembled 200 micron size nickel dice, imaged using scanning electron microscopy in the lower secondary electron (LEI) mode. The dice were colorized using Adobe Photoshop. (Image: Timothy Leong, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA)
Definitely really cool!
Link.
Tags: nanotechnology, art
Check out this awesome wath. In my opinion, it’s 10 times better than a rolex…
…because it’s BINARY! 
The upper LED-row shows hours (8-4-2-1)
The lower LED-row shows minutes (32-16-8-4-2-1)
The time in the image above is 10:15…
This is too awesome. If I had the money, I would buy it. (But I don’t! Heh)
Link!
Tags: binary, watch, awesomeness
Incase it slipped my mind and I haven’t blogged about i-Snake…
i-Snake is a new robotic surgeon that is storming its way through the news recently (a few months ago..). Basically, it is an extremely flexible robot that is able to see where we can’t.
This highly flexible robot ‘could allow coronary bypass operations to be performed without the need for open-heart surgery.’ And it would help heal your heart after travelling through blood vessels. The research team thinks that the i-Snake could also be used as a diagnosis tool replacing the eyes of a surgeon when looking inside us.
It sounds very promising. However, when thinking of the worst… what happens if it can’t get out? Or, what happens if it was short circuited? I’m sure that would be highly unlikely, but … what if? Although, the benefits outweigh the risks by far.
Link.
Tags: robot, snake, surgeon, flexible, i-Snake
What would happen if a material was invented that could act like muscle?
NASA’s Macro-Fiber Composite, or MFC, can be attached to a structure to bend it, reduce vibrations and monitor force. A team at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., created the flexible and durable material that uses ceramic fibers. By applying voltage to the MFC, the ceramic fibers change shape to expand or contract and turn the resulting force into a bending or twisting action on the material. Likewise, voltage is generated in proportion to the force applied to the MFC material.
It almost sounds as if it is too good to be true!
The device primarily is used in industrial and research applications for vibration monitoring and dampening.
That’s interesting… However I’d be researching more about how it could act as a motor alternative for humanoid robots. Would it be lighter, or heavier? Would there be more control, or less control? To what degree is it sensitive to the voltage?
Hmm, all questions one should think about!
Link.
Tags: muscle, material, NASA
I saw a mind-perplexing article on Make the other day… check it out!
That one is pretty cute. The nail is running from the big hammer to protect the tiny hammer. =^-^=
Headshot much? I like the effect with the macaroni… however I don’t enjoy seeing anything getting their spaghetti brains blown out of them. 
Eitherway, it is really creative!
Link and Link.
Tags: nail, hammer, tiny, cute