A key energy storage technology for the future, called the flywheel, allows for frequency regulation without wasting extra fuel. Its implementation is a big step toward a smart energy grid.
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What constraints govern the physical process of computing? Is a minimum amount of energy required per logic step? There seems to be no minimum, but some other questions are open.
In a bid to enable computers to learn faster, defense company Lockheed Martin has bought a system that uses quantum mechanics to process digital data. At $10 million, it is the first sale of its kind.
“Scandinavian Pain” burns crimson in the night in one photo by Ragnar Kjartansson featured in the new exhibition North by New York: New Nordic Art in celebration of the centenary […]
As much as the car chieftains of Detroit try to fight it, America is slowly but surely turning away from the concept of car ownership. Instead, hundreds of thousands of […]
Aron Cramer, CEO of Business for Social Responsibility, explains how Walmart has used its market power to become an agent of change and an industry leader in what he calls “sustainable excellence.”
Housekeepers at the Pierre Hotel will get panic buttons in the wake of two highly publicized attacks on Manhattan hotel cleaners. The buttons are part of a deal hashed out […]
I can’t count the number of times I heard, “It’s not if you win or lose. It’s how you play the game” when I was growing up. And how often […]
Is there a kind of noble consistency in insisting the rich pay more taxes and not be entitled to government payments they don’t need?
Just when we were starting to get over the shock that parts of the moon’s surface are wetter than the Sahara Desert, a new study reports that the lunar interior is sopping wet, too.
Scientists have been using small variations in the Earth’s gravity to identify trouble spots around the globe where people are making unsustainable demands on groundwater.
If humans hope to achieve long-distance space travel, a fusion powered space craft currently holds the most promise. Adam Crowl of Project Icarus says we may source its fuel from Uranus.
Since the beginning of history, humans have searched for the beginning of time, asking how we came to be. But at no other point has humanity come so close to finding the keys to creation.
Three eclipses will happen over the next month. As rare as that is, it all starts with another rarity—a midnight eclipse of the sun visible only from locations close to the high Arctic.
While groups may have been wise at the start of the experiment, as soon as individuals within the group became aware of others’ estimates and choices, the diversity of opinions plummeted.
As a Canadian I am baffled by the fact that a country like the US, with its culture of civil rights, has no federal law to prevent men and women […]
Prosperity means more greenhouse gases. In a perverse way, the global recession was good for the environment, because emissions actually fell in 2009. But as the world economy begins to […]
Among the appalling sights Primo Levi witnessed at Auschwitz was the fervent prayer of a prisoner grateful to be spared the ovens. “I see and hear old Kuhn praying aloud,” […]
Something rather weird happened last Thursday. In one the the regular “Spring Cleaning” briefings on its developer blog, Google announced that they would limit the number of requests you may […]
Choice is good. It’s always nice to have options. It makes us feel more in control; it supports our vision of ourselves as “deciders” in our own lives. But choice can also come with negative consequences.
I’ll be posting my summer schedule soon – it is a busy summer for me this year for a number of reasons (as you’ll see). So, to keep things interesting, […]
Older workers are news these days. Consider two contrasting New York Times stories reported on the same day. Nelson Schwartz writes in Easy Out the Gray-Haired. Or Not., that older […]
A long weekend right about now does wonders for getting a little focus back, especially after such a busy week with the eruption of Grímsvötn. I even got a weekend […]
It’s 2011. If you’re invisible to the world, aren’t you also irrelevant to the world? I use the Rapportive plugin for Gmail. It’s a pretty powerful little add-on that gives […]
Adding to the current debate on downside of search filters and algorithms, Daniel Terdiman interviews author Eli Pariser on why a hyper-personalized Web is bad for you.
The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage from another country can constitute an act of war, opening the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.
Technology and constant connectivity offer us the promise of never being bored again. But at what price? Cognitive overload, lost concentration…
Could games’ fundamental principles—such as rewarding success, removing the sting from failure—be applied elsewhere, such as in education policy?
Should companies be forced to adopt document management systems to help ease the legal discovery process? Some litigants face a nightmare amid shambolic info management.
Elm Point and Buffalo Bay Point are quite possibly America’s most obscure exclaves in Canada.