/ News
Aalto scientists make a splash with water-based computer
Scientists at Aalto University, Finland, have made an eyebrow-raising computing breakthrough, creating digital bits from droplets of water.
According to researchers at Aalto University in Finland, water based computers could one day be used as part of lab on a chip devices.
In a recent study, the team found that water droplets would rebound off each other like billiard balls when placed on a highly water-repellent superhydrophobic surface, made of copper coated with silver, and chemically modified.
This means that a water droplet a few millimetres wide could be pushed down a slightly tilted track by another droplet, in the manner of electrons flowing down a traditional circuit.
One of the researchers, Dr Robin Ras, told TechEye that it was then possible to build basic memory devices, with droplets acting as a bit of digital information. Each time a droplet was sent down the track it would push a stationary droplet, positioned in one of two parallel grooves in the track, into one of two pathways. This would alternate for each droplet.
By constructing a number of these devices Ras said it was possible to build memory devices, and could form the basis for simple computers.
"These logic systems are very interesting," Ras said, speaking with TechEye. "We have now demonstrated several logic gates that could operate using simply water.In principle these logic gates are also building blocks of computers".
The logic system may have novelty value, but Ras contends that there are potential uses for computing without the need for electricity, such as for lab on a chip devices. However, he admits that the likes of Intel have little to worry about in terms of speed, but they have other applications.
"The logic gate that we have developed will never compete in speed with silicon based logic systems," Ras said, "but they can be useful in other systems."
"Now we have the first demonstration where we can combine chemistry with such logic systems, because we compute with water droplets, and not with electrons," he said, though he did highlight that commercial applications are some way off.
According to Ras, for some simple logic systems you would not need a silicon based computer, meaning that the water-based system developed at Aalto could be combined with microfluidic systems.
"We think that the applications are related to diagnostics, combining chemistry with analysis, such as lab on a chip devices," Ras said.
Ras told us the next steps are to put individual logic gates in place after each other, so that multiple logic gates of memory can be put "in a series", like in a silicon chip.
Source: http://news.techeye.net/science/aalto-scientists-make-a-splash-with-water-based-computer
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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