Musings on interdisciplinary scientific research, trends and findings that affect (and, in some cases, effect) the way we market goods, services and opportunities.
I saw an article by Alyssa Danigelis on Discovery News about one-way sound walls. The article is more about offices, but it seems to me it could do wonders for retail spaces. Imagine a room where a band is playing. Neighbors can’t hear the music, but if someone outside the room is talking, the musicians …
It’s no secret that U.S. public schools are pitifully behind in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) when compared to other countries. Only 38% of 4th graders and 33% of 8thgraders are proficient or advanced in math. By the 8th grade, U.S. students rank well below students in Singapore, the Czech Republic, Japan, Bulgaria, and Russia in science. …
Phil McKenna says a new system in San Francisco learns from the past to predict traffic jams before they happen. It’s the bane of drivers the world over. You round a corner on a busy highway to find the traffic in front of you at a standstill, blocking the road ahead as far as the …
Thin screens for televisions, computers and other big display devices may soon have brilliant, sharp pictures while consuming much less power, thanks to transistors that use carbon nanotubes to deliver current in a new way. It will be at least a few years until the technology, described in the April 29 Science, graces your flat …
Just when I thought screens couldn't get any brighter . . . Read More »
Thin screens for televisions, computers and other big display devices may soon have brilliant, sharp pictures while consuming much less power, thanks to transistors that use carbon nanotubes to deliver current in a new way. It will be at least a few years until the technology, described in the April 29 Science, graces your flat …
Just when I thought screens couldn’t get any brighter . . . Read More »
For event organizers, predicting the highly complex dynamics within large crowds can be an unenviable task. But new computer-modelling research, which treats people as decision-makers rather than passive particles, could help authorities to identify where crowds could become dangerous. Crowds display a wide variety of behaviours that arise spontaneously from the collective motion of unconnected …
Understanding Crowd Behavior (and doing something about it). Read More »
THINK your broadband internet connection is fast? Two separate research groups have just lapped the field, setting a world record by sending more than 100 terabits of information per second through a single optical fibre. That’s enough to deliver three solid months of HD video- or the contents of 250 double-sided Blu-ray discs. This marks …
According to Zena Iovino, writing in New Scientist, in the future the news will find you – at least according to Futureful, a Finnish startup building a predictive discovery iPad app that will deliver personalised information. The company’s mission is to “give you what you want before you knew you wanted it.” Hmm, this all sounds …
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0vDd76nGs8I] I have been fortunate enough to design 3 museums and a bunch of exhibits. I have always tried to incorporate digital signage and hands-on technology into our designs, but was often limited by what was available (and cost). Now, I see the following: Ideum has taken the wraps off the latest addition to its growing family …
Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in quantum communications and computing using a teleporter and a paradoxical cat. The breakthrough is the first-ever transfer, or teleportation, of a particular complex set of quantum information from one point to another, opening the way for high-speed, high-fidelity transmission of large volumes of information, such as quantum encryption keys, …
