Science

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Gig.U to Extend LAN Speed Among Schools

Universities nationwide are banding together to extend the gigabit per second speeds typical of modern local-area networks to long-distance connections among signatory educational institutions.

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Universities nationwide have signed onto Gig.U by soliciting ideas for how to extend gigabit per second local-area network speeds over long-distance connections.

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Smarter Robots to Inspect Aging Nukes

With valves and pipes being allowed to leak up to 20 times their original limits by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), according to a recent Associated Press report, smarter robotic inspectors are being proposed to detect underground leaks before they release radiation into groundwater.

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A spherical robot equipped with a camera is being proposed to navigate underground pipes at nuclear reactors to locate potential cracks that could leak radioactive water.

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U.S. Renewables Outpace Nuclear Power

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that renewable energy sources in total have surpassed nuclear power, and are likely to widen the gap unless new nuclear plants are built.

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Renewable energy passed that of nuclear power in March 2011 (in quadrillion BTUs).

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Astronomers Find Largest, Most Distant Reservoir of Water

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This artist's concept illustrates a quasar, or feeding black hole, similar to APM 08279+5255, where astronomers discovered huge amounts of water vapor.

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Oracle Must Curb Android Damages Claim Vs. Google

Oracle has to lower its starting point for damages versus Google to $100 million, but it gets to interview Google CEO Larry Page to help the court determine whether Google willfully infringed on Java patents Oracle now owns.

Oracle received some bittersweet news July 21 in its patent infringement case against Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) over Android.

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MAVEN Mission Completes Major Milestone

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An artist's conception of the MAVEN spacecraft orbiting Mars.

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The Hidden Value of Social-Networking Data

There is a gold mine of information buried in social-networking data for companies that know where to look.

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Social-networking sites are ripe targets for companies to gain new business intelligence.

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Twisted Tale of our Galaxy's Ring

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In a strange twist of science, astronomers using the Herschel Space Observatory have discovered that a suspected ring at the center of our galaxy is warped for reasons they cannot explain.

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Smarter AIs Start to Read the Manual

Artificial intelligence has made great strides in solving particular problems, such as IBM's Watson, which learned to beat humans at the game Jeopardy. Unfortunately, dozens of human experts needed to read and digest rules of the game in order to code them into algorithms. Now a group at MIT wants to change the hand coding of algorithms by allowing an AI to read and digest the rules all by itself.

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Researchers are applying their new AI learning approach to Sid Meier's Civilization V.

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Visualization Analytics Writ Large

An 80 foot wide visualization display simultaneously tracks data streams from thousands of sensors to provide the real-time analytics necessary to balance a statewide electric grid, with telecommunications the next challenge.

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California ISO uses new 80-foot wide visualization display driven by Space-Time Insight's analytics.