Tag: science

German Laser Destroys Targets More Than 1Km Away

kkleiner writes “A German company has brought us one step closer to the kinds of shootouts only seen in Sci-Fi films. Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall Defense recently tested a 50kW, high-energy laser at their proving ground facility in Switzerland. First, the system sliced through a 15mm- (~0.6 inches) thick steel girder from a kilometer away. Then, from a distance of two kilometers, it shot down a handful of drones as they nose-dived toward the surface at 50 meters per second.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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German Laser Destroys Targets More Than 1Km Away

Study Estimates 100 Billion Planets In the Milky Way Galaxy

The Bad Astronomer writes “A new study finds that there may be 100 billion alien planets in the Milky Way alone, with 17 billion of them the size of Earth. Announcements like this have been made before, but this new research is more robust than previous studies, using data from the Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft over a longer period and analyzing it in a more statistically solid way. They also found that smaller planets are not as picky about their host stars, with terrestrial planets forming around stars like the Sun or as small as tiny, cool red dwarfs with equal ease.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Study Estimates 100 Billion Planets In the Milky Way Galaxy

Free Software NVIDIA Driver Now Supports 3D Acceleration With All GeForce GPUs

aloniv writes “The reverse-engineered free/libre and open source driver for NVIDIA cards Nouveau has reached another milestone. ‘The Nouveau driver in the current Linux 3.8 development branch has recently acquired everything that’s necessary to support the 3D acceleration features of any GeForce graphics hardware. Together with a current version of libdrm and the Nouveau 3D driver in Mesa 3D 9.0, this allows Linux applications to use 3D acceleration even with the most recent GeForce graphics cards.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Free Software NVIDIA Driver Now Supports 3D Acceleration With All GeForce GPUs

The number of planets in our galaxy alone is downright staggering

Caltech astronomer John Johnson, co-author of a newly published study on the formation of planetary systems , calls the distribution of planets in our galaxy “mind-boggling.” His team’s are the latest in a string of predictions that pin the number of planets in the Milky Way at upwards of 100-billion . And these are conservative estimates. More »

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The number of planets in our galaxy alone is downright staggering

Open-Hardware Licensed Handheld Software-Defined Radio In the Works

An anonymous reader writes “Chris Testa recently presented at TAPR Digital Communications Conference and annouced his development work on a hand-held software defined radio. Running uClinux on an ARM Corex-M3 coupled to a Flash-based FPGA, it will be capable of receiving and transmitting from 100MHz to 1GHz. Designed to be low power, Chris has designed the radio primarily with the Amateur 2m and 70cm bands in mind. Currently in early prototyping stage, Chris intends to release the design under the TAPR Open Hardware License.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Open-Hardware Licensed Handheld Software-Defined Radio In the Works

The Woodward Effect allows for endless supplies of starship fuel

One of the major problems with traveling through space is the need to carry fuel. Scientists have endlessly sought after sources of perpetual, portable fuel for spacecraft. But maybe that was the wrong approach? More »

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The Woodward Effect allows for endless supplies of starship fuel

Samsung’s Series 7 Ultra: Your MacBook Air Might Get Jealous

Sure, Samsung’s laptops of late have borne more than a passing resemblance to Apple’s MacBook line. The skinny, shiny Series 7 Ultra is no exception. But so what? In the Age of Windows 8, that just means you get basically the same pretty package with the added bonus of a touchscreen and some spec improvements. Not bad! More »

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Samsung’s Series 7 Ultra: Your MacBook Air Might Get Jealous

Campaign To Remove Paper From Offices

An anonymous reader writes “A campaign started by HelloFax, Google, Expensify, and others has challenged businesses to get rid of physical paper from their office environment in 2013. According to the EPA, the average office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of paper each year, and the Paperless 2013 project wants to move all of those documents online. HelloFax CEO Joseph Walla said, ‘The digital tools that are available today blow what we had even five years ago out of the water. For the first time, it’s easy to sign, fax, and store documents without ever printing a piece of paper. It’s finally fast and simple to complete paperwork and expense reports, to manage accounting, pay bills and invoice others. The paperless office is here – we just need to use it.’ The companies involved all have a pretty obvious dog in this fight, but I can’t say I’d mind getting rid of the stacks of paper HR sends me.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Campaign To Remove Paper From Offices

Egyptian Government To Adopt Free Software On Larger Scale

ezabi writes “After announcing a 43 Million USD license agreement with Microsoft, the Egyptian government was faced with a protest from FOSS enthusiasts staging a stand before the cabinet http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/activists-protest-microsoft-deal Later, representatives from the community had a meeting with the minister of communications and information technology, such a meeting led to the ministry issuing a press release (in Arabic) stating its commitment to gradually move to open source (Google Translate to English) as a strategic option for future projects. It’s worth mentioning that all governmental websites used in the elections and constitution referendum were all based on open source solutions.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Egyptian Government To Adopt Free Software On Larger Scale