Computer America

Show Notes 10 February 2023
Story 1: Recent experiment shows lasers can direct lightning strikes

Source: The Guardian Story by Ian Sample

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jan/16/scientists-steer-lightning-bolts-with-lasers-for-the-first-time
Source: Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Link: https://www.polytechnique.edu/en/news/deflecting-lightning-laser-lightning-rod


Story 2: The Pentagon wants a drug that will heat your body ASAP

Source: Popular Mechanics Story by Tim Newcomb

Link: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a42537862/drug-that-will-heat-your-body-asap/


Story 3: Recent breakthrough dramatically cuts the time and cost of making “green” hydrogen from seawater

Source: InterestingEngineering.com Story by Jajo Malayil

Link: https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/hydrogen-from-sea-water-for-cheap


Story 4: Improved cancer treatment inspired by the foam on your latte

Source: MedicalXpress.com Story by Jennifer Brown, University of Iowa

Link: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-cancer-treatment-foam-latte.html

For more info, interviews, reviews, news, radio, podcasts, video, and more, check out ComputerAmerica.com!

Show Notes 3 February 2023

Story 1: Scientists create a small shapeshifting humanoid robot that can liquefy and reform

Source: Sciencealert.com Story by Michelle Starr

Link: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-create-shapeshifting-humanoid-robot-that-can-liquefy-and-reform

Source: Sciencenews.org Story by McKenzie Prillaman

Link: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/robot-shape-shifting-gallium-melt-reform-magnetic-fields


See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9zE8JQCG5E


Source for image: https://www.geologyin.com/2018/02/gallium-is-metal-that-melts-in-your.html


Story 2: Researchers create a new type of yarn that turns movement into electricity

Source: Techxplore.com News release from University of Texas at Dallas

Link: https://techxplore.com/news/2023-01-demo-carbon-nanotube-yarn-harvests.html



Story 3: New all-in-one system can capture carbon dioxide emissions from industrial plants and convert it into a lucrative product

Source: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory website

Link: https://www.pnnl.gov/news-media/scientists-unveil-least-costly-carbon-capture-system-date


Story 4: New portable, electronic biosensor can help detect oral cancer

Source: Medgadget.com Story by Conn Hastings

Link: https://www.medgadget.com/2023/01/point-of-care-biosensor-to-detect-oral-cancer.html



Story 5: Unique MIT suit helps people better understand the aging experience

Source: MIT News

Link: https://news.mit.edu/2023/unique-mit-suit-helps-people-better-understand-aging-experience-0120


For more info, interviews, reviews, news, radio, podcasts, video, and more, check out ComputerAmerica.com!

Popzara.com. Nathan Evans, Managing Editor.Throughout Popzara you’ll find views on gaming, movies, technology, cultural icons and so much more. Reviews and previews, in-depth analyses, opinion pieces, conversations, and a regularly updated Podcast keep things interesting and always entertaining. Our diverse editorial staff is committed to bringing this cornucopia of editorial goodness in fair-minded and positive ways, with minimal snark and maximum fun. A little bit of everything for the discriminating reader and curious listener is what you’ll find at Popzara.Topics:Rep. Jake Auchincloss Reads U.S. House Floor Speech Written By ChatGPT | WBZ NewsRadio 1030

MSG probed over use of facial recognition to eject lawyers from show venues | Ars Technica

Justice Department Sues Google for Monopolizing Digital Advertising Technologies | OPA | Department of Justice

After 25 years, GoldenEye 007 gets its first modern rerelease Friday | Ars Technica

The State of Gaming: The Best, Worst (and Everything Else) Games of 2022 | Popzara Podcast

CES 2023 Wrap-Up: OLED/Micro LED Displays, 3D/E INK Laptops, Accessibility, Electric Autos, RGB Appliances, and More | Popzara PodcastFor more info, interviews, reviews, news, radio, podcasts, video, and more, check out ComputerAmerica.com!

Show Notes 27 January 2023


Story 1: A new satellite can now measure nearly all the Earth’s water

Source: CNN Story by Ashley Strickland

Link: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/16/world/nasa-swot-launch-scn/index.html

See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maI09QHicTg&t=4181s


Story 2: University of Minnesota researchers can move objects without touching them

Source: Scitechdaily.com and University of Minnesota announcement

Link: https://scitechdaily.com/not-science-fiction-a-new-method-to-move-objects-without-contact/

See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61y6CBfyoqI&t=1s



Story 3: The viability of solar cars just got a shot in the arm with an order for 10,000 vehicles made by a Dutch car maker

Source: NL#Times Netherlands Times

Link: https://nltimes.nl/2023/01/17/dutch-startup-lightyear-pre-sells-10000-solar-electric-cars-company-leases



See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xee3D7prGzw


Story 4: Scientists recently discovered a fourth membrane in the human brain and the important role it plays

Source: Popular Mechanics Story by Tim Newcomb
Link: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a42436251/fourth-membrane-discovered-in-human-brain/

Source: newscientist.com Story by Clare Wilson
Link: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2353622-weve-just-discovered-a-new-part-of-the-brains-waste-disposal-system/


For more info, interviews, reviews, news, radio, podcasts, video, and more, check out ComputerAmerica.com!

Show Notes 20 January 2023

Story 1: NASA Just Announced Funding for 14 Futuristic Space Exploration Concepts Source: Extremetech.com

Story by Ryan Whitwam

Link: https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/342213-nasa-funds-14-futuristic-space-exploration-concepts-including-a-titan-seaplane

Story 2: New solar-powered machine turns carbon dioxide and waste plastic into valuable products

Source: Futurism.com

Story by: Maggie Harrison

Link: https://futurism.com/solar-machine-co2-plastic-fuel

Source: TechXplore.com [University of Cambridge press release]

Link: https://techxplore.com/news/2023-01-solar-powered-plastic-greenhouse-gases-sustainable.html

Story 3: Apple expected to launch a mixed reality headset this year

Source: AIBusiness.com

Story by Ben Wodecki

Link: https://aibusiness.com/verticals/here-comes-apple-s-mixed-reality-headset

Story 4: Researchers develop a blood test that can reliably detect Alzheimer’s disease

Source: Engadget.com

Story by Igor Bonifacic

Link: https://www.engadget.com/researchers-develop-blood-test-detects-alzheimers-disease-224320271.html

For more info, interviews, reviews, news, radio, podcasts, video, and more, check out ComputerAmerica.com!

For more info, interviews, reviews, news, radio, podcasts, video, and more, check out ComputerAmerica.com!

Popzara.com, Nathan Evans, Managing Editor

Throughout Popzara you’ll find views on gaming, movies, technology, cultural icons and so much more. Reviews and previews, in-depth analyses, opinion pieces, conversations, and a regularly updated Podcast keep things interesting and always entertaining. Our diverse editorial staff is committed to bringing this cornucopia of editorial goodness in fair-minded and positive ways, with minimal snark and maximum fun. A little bit of everything for the discriminating reader and curious listener is what you’ll find at Popzara.

Topics:

Fortnite maker Epic Games to pay $520 million in record-breaking FTC settlement

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/tech/fortnite-epic-ftc-settlement/index.html

Amazon Luna lets Prime members play Ubisoft PC games they own for free

https://www.engadget.com/amazon-luna-ubisoft-pc-game-share-175013720.html

Also: Amazon getting into more games-to-movies with God of War and Warhammer

https://movieweb.com/god-of-war-series-will-stay-incredibly-true-to-the-source-material-amazon-assures/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/henry-cavill-warhammer-40000-amazon-1235283251/

Atari pulls the plug on Atari VCS console manufacturing

https://liliputing.com/atari-pulls-the-plug-on-atari-vcs-console-manufacturing/

Tie into the fabulous Atari 50 Collection:

https://www.popzara.com/games/game-reviews/atari-50-the-anniversary-celebration/

Misc.

CES 2023

Avatar: The Way of Water3 hours, 3D Imax, 48 HFR

The State of Gaming December 2022: Callisto Protocol, NFS Unbound, High on Life, Dragon Quest Treasures, Crisis Core FF7, Amazon Gaming and NPD

https://www.popzara.com/podcast/the-state-of-gaming-december-2022-callisto-protocol-nfs-unbound-high-on-life-dragon-quest-treasures-crisis-core-ff7-amazon-gaming-and-npd/

For more info, interviews, reviews, news, radio, podcasts, video, and more, check out ComputerAmerica.com!

Story 1: Today marks the 75th anniversary of the first successful test of the transistor

• On this day, December 16, in 1947, scientists at Bell Labs conducted the first successful test of their semiconductor amplifier, the transistor.

• Over time, the transistor totally revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for all the electronic devices in our lives today.

• As one of the most important building blocks of modern electronics, many historians contend it stands as one of the most important scientific inventions in world history.

• But first, what is a transistor?

• In the most fundamental terms, a transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power.

• Another definition is a transistor is a semiconductor device for amplifying, controlling, and generating electrical signals. Transistors are the active components of integrated circuits, or “microchips,” which often contain billions of these minuscule devices etched into their shiny surfaces.

• In its role as a switch, the transistor either prevents or allows current to flow through.

• Here’s what motivated the researchers at Bell Labs to create the transistor 75 years ago:

• An amazing team of scientists at Bell Labs, most notably John Bardeen and Walter Brattain working under William Shockley, wanted to replace the unreliable and hot vacuum tubes [as well as slow electromechanical relays] used in long-distance telephone service equipment with something much more reliable and cost effective.

• The ideal substitute they created to replace vacuum tubes used to amplify weak electrical signals and produce audible sounds was a highly reliable solid-state transistor which offered dramatically smaller size and significantly less power consumption.

• Although today we’re celebrating the first successful test of the transistor, but the team demonstrated the discovery a week later on December 23, often considered the date the transistor was invented.

• In terms of sharing the news with the world officially, it was not until June 30, 1948, at a press conference that Bell Labs publicly announced their invention.
  • At the event a spokesman for the Labs claimed that “it may have far-reaching significance in electronics and electrical communication.”

• Nine years later, Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 for the first transistor.

• The first commercial applications for transistors were for hearing aids and “pocket” radios in the 1950s.

• In 1959 scientists Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs invented the metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor the most widely used type of transistor – this was another major step in the advancement of transistor technology which ultimately laid the foundation for the development of semiconductor chips

• Over time scientists, like those at Fairchild Semiconductors [which was founded in 1957 by scientists who came to California to work with Shockley in Palo Alto but left to start their own venture] and Intel and others, figured out how to super miniaturize transistors and perfect manufacturing of transistors and integrated circuits.
  • A semiconductor chip [also called an integrated circuit] is an electric circuit with many components such as transistors and wiring formed on a semiconductor wafer.

• Fast forward to today, and the silicon chips in our smartphones, computers, TVs, cars, you name it, may contain millions if not billions of microscopic transistors on a chip the size of a fingernail, or smaller!

• And recently Intel announced their will be one trillion transistors on their chips by 2030! That’s ten times the number of transistors currently available on modern Central Processing Units, or “brain chips” like the ones that power your laptop, smartphone, etc.

• And here’s how the 75th anniversary of the transistor is of personal family history interest for me.

• My maternal grandfather, Gustave Charles de Coutouly, was on the team at Bell Labs working with William Shockley.

• He was a French scientist who was recruited by the US Army during the first world war to help develop our military’s radio technology.

• He met and married my American maternal grandmother, became an American citizen, the contributed to the field of electronics for decades.

• And regarding William Shockley, after work, my grandfather and Shockley would sometimes go up into the attic of my grandfather’s home in Madison, New Jersey and do research and experiments!

• Unfortunately, Shockley was an ardent eugenicist whose theories of black racial inferiority eventually made him an academic pariah.

• To my knowledge my grandfather did not share his beliefs. I do know from my mother’s stories that my grandmother did not like Shockley – who was famous for having a very difficult personality.

• I’ll never forget the day in the late 1950s [when I was maybe 7 years old] when he was visiting us in California, and he was so excited to give me a “transistor” pocket radio. I was old enough to be thrilled to get this amazing gadget, but too young to understand the significance.

Story 2: Airbus plans to test a hydrogen fuel cell engine on a modified superjumbo jetSource: Futurism.com Story by Victor TangermannLink: https://futurism.com/the-byte/airbus-hydrogen-fuel-cell-jetSource: Aerospace Manufacturing and Design Story by

For more info, interviews, reviews, news, radio, podcasts, video, and more, check out ComputerAmerica.com!

For more info, interviews, reviews, news, radio, podcasts, video, and more, check out ComputerAmerica.com!