This week’s Top 5 engineering technology articles include television, movies, robots, rockets, and balloons. What’s not to love about that?
- Scientists Are Planting False Experiences Into Peoples’ Brains, Inception-Style
- Blue Origin’s Rocket Factory Breaks Ground
- “It’s Okay If It Breaks And Blows Up”
- That Dire Helium Shortage? Vastly Inflated
- The World’s First-Ever Television Commercial Aired Exactly 75 Years Ago
Scientists Are Planting False Experiences Into Peoples’ Brains, Inception-Style
Popsci.com
There have been a number of movies about memory and dream manipulation. Any number of parenting blogs advocate for giving children experiences instead of material gifts for holidays. Put the two of those together and in the not too distant future you may be able to schedule an appointment at your doctor’s office to simply have new memories and experience planted directly into our brains.
Researchers used a simple subliminal message while exploring associative learning and continued to reinforce those messages. This reinforcement saw consistent results and the effect lasted anywhere from three to five months after the experiment.
And while there are definitely medical conditions that could benefit from these techniques, depression and autism are specifically called out in the article, there is also a very slippery ethical slope that would need to be addressed. Could you implant a false memory about committing a crime, erase an entire family or relationship, or essentially brainwash a population into voting for someone or something in particular.
Maybe they’ll use the power for good and eliminate fears and phobias or that feeling of being at work on a Monday morning. One can only hope.
Blue Origin’s Rocket Factory Breaks Ground
Space.com
In the not too distant past, all space travel was done by government agencies and building the rockets, shuttles, and space vehicles was a highly contained and super-secret process. Fast forward to the present and we have a number of private agencies pushing the boundaries of space travel. And this week, Blue Origin broke ground on a factory for rocket building.
An artist’s rendition of Blue Origin’s new Florida facility, where the company will manufacture and test orbital rockets. Credit: Blue Origin
With the trend toward reusable rockets for travel, you need a place to build said rockets. And Florida is where Jeff Bezos, of Amazon renown, chose to start building. The Blue Origin facility will manufacture and test the orbital launch vehicles.
The facility will be custom built and span 750,000 square feet. It will house the building of every aspect of the vehicle except the engine which will be United Launch Alliance’s responsibility. Though there are no reliable estimates on how long it will take to complete construction and start production on the rockets, the fact that it is coming in the future is great news for now. Then I won’t need the doctors and researchers to implant a space vacation, I can actually take one of my own.
“It’s Okay If It Breaks And Blows Up”
MIT News
Fifteen or sixteen years ago, I was channel surfing and found an excitable announcer calling play by play on what looked to be two random stacks of metal moving around. As I watched the show, I learned that the hunks of metal were robots being remote-controlled and the ultimate goal was for the two robots to battle within a closed in cage. This could result in destroying your opponent which was considered a knockout or just inflicting enough damage to get a judge’s decision. The show was called Battlebots and the competition has existed in one form or another for more than two decades.
The latest incarnation has seen some impressive robots head into the cage with all manner of weapons. And engineering students simply salivate at the opportunity to compete on the show. MIT students are no different and there are four teams from the prestigious college competing on this season of the show.
The opportunity to design and build a battlebot gives the students an amazing real-world application of the courses they are taking. And, it has the added benefit of including things like a rotating saw blade or drum spinner as part of the weaponization of the robot.
And while MIT isn’t the only school to field a team, the makerspace that the students use fosters a camaraderie and exchange of ideas that gives the brilliant minds just one more creative outlet. And, I have to say, the entertainment value of watching the show is totally worth it.
That Dire Helium Shortage? Vastly Inflated
Wired
With so many varied uses for helium, it was almost a panic when the announcement came that the world was potentially running out. Turns out that announcement may be a bit premature even though the human race uses up about eight billion cubic feet of the gas every year for things like MRIs, party balloons, and the large hadron collider.
A newly discovered pocket of the gas in Tanzania has received quite a bit of press, but again experts are saying there isn’t actually a shortage. Even though the supply is finite, it was the notion of the prices going up for the gas that led people to yell shortage.
Luckily for everyone who likes to imitate Alvin and his siblings, there is enough of this noble gas to keep us amused for many years to come.
The World’s First-Ever Television Commercial Aired Exactly 75 Years Ago
Mashable
There is definitely a love/hate relationship with commercials on TV. Originally they weren’t even allowed on TV. That all changed in 1941 when a baseball game was “interrupted” for the very first television commercial.
Bulova Watch Co showed a graphic with a live voice over announcing the time. And it wasn’t the first time they had made such history, they also had the first radio ad in 1926. And things have never truly been the same since.
What cost Bulova approximately $9 in 1941 dollars would amount to roughly $150 in today’s economy. And that would be a massive bargain considering most 30 second national ads sell for an average of $350,000. And that doesn’t even count the potential $5 million price tag for the Superbowl.
And though the technology back then perhaps wasn’t the most impressive part, commercials today vie for eyeballs amongst technological advances of forwarding DVRs, hundreds of channels, and, of course, the internet. This means that advertisers take some risks for a potential pay-off. So, though you may not run right out and buy a new Bulova watch, the fact that you remember the brand name might just be good enough.
That’s all for me this week. Until next time keep your eyes wide open to see some great new advances, even if it is just to watch the latest Jake from State Farm commercial.
The post This Week’s Top 5 Engineering Technology Articles appeared first on ANSYS.