Innovation is about finding a better way of doing something. Like many of the new development buzzwords (which many of them are over-used on many business documents), the concept of innovation originates from the world of business. It refers to the generation of new products through the process of creative entrepreneurship, putting it into production, and diffusing it more widely through increased sales. Innovation can be viewed as t he application of better solutions that meet new requirements, in-articulated needs, or existing market needs. This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments and society. The term innovation can be defined as something original and, as a consequence, new, that “breaks into” the market or society.
Innoveracy: Misunderstanding Innovation article points out that there is a form of ignorance which seems to be universal: the inability to understand the concept and role of innovation. The way this is exhibited is in the misuse of the term and the inability to discern the difference between novelty, creation, invention and innovation. The result is a failure to understand the causes of success and failure in business and hence the conditions that lead to economic growth. The definition of innovation is easy to find but it seems to be hard to understand. Here is a simple taxonomy of related activities that put innovation in context:
- Novelty: Something new
- Creation: Something new and valuable
- Invention: Something new, having potential value through utility
- Innovation: Something new and uniquely useful
The taxonomy is illustrated with the following diagram.
The differences are also evident in the mechanisms that exist to protect the works: Novelties are usually not protectable, Creations are protected by copyright or trademark, Inventions can be protected for a limited time through patents (or kept secret) and Innovations can be protected through market competition but are not defensible through legal means.
Innovation is a lot of talked about nowdays as essential to businesses to do. Is innovation essential for development work? article tells that innovation has become central to the way development organisations go about their work. In November 2011, Bill Gates told the G20 that innovation was the key to development. Donors increasingly stress innovation as a key condition for funding, and many civil society organisations emphasise that innovation is central to the work they do.
Some innovation ideas are pretty simple, and some are much more complicated and even sound crazy when heard first. The is place for crazy sounding ideas: venture capitalists are gravely concerned that the tech startups they’re investing in just aren’t crazy enough:
Not all development problems require new solutions, sometimes you just need to use old things in a slightly new way. Development innovations may involve devising technology (such as a nanotech water treatment kit), creating a new approach (such as microfinance), finding a better way of delivering public services (such as one-stop egovernment service centres), identifying ways of working with communities (such as participation), or generating a management technique (such as organisation learning).
Theorists of innovation identify innovation itself as a brief moment of creativity, to be followed by the main routine work of producing and selling the innovation. When it comes to development, things are more complicated. Innovation needs to be viewed as tool, not master. Innovation is a process, not a one time event. Genuine innovation is valuable but rare.
There are many views on the innovation and innvation process. I try to collect together there some views I have found on-line. Hopefully they help you more than confuze. Managing complexity and reducing risk article has this drawing which I think pretty well describes innovation as done in product development:
8 essential practices of successful innovation from The Innovator’s Way shows essential practices in innovation process. Those practices are all integrated into a non-sequential, coherent whole and style in the person of the innovator.
In the IT work there is lots of work where a little thinking can be a source of innovation. Automating IT processes can be a huge time saver or it can fail depending on situation. XKCD comic strip Automation as illustrates this:
System integration is a critical element in project design article has an interesting project cost influence graphic. The recommendation is to involve a system integrator early in project design to help ensure high-quality projects that satisfy project requirements. Of course this article tries to market system integration services, but has also valid points to consider.
Core Contributor Loop (CTTDC) from Art Journal blog posting Blog Is The New Black tries to link inventing an idea to theory of entrepreneurship. It is essential to tune the engine by making improvements in product, marketing, code, design and operations.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Tätä ei pitänyt tapahtua, eikä 107 vuoteen tiedetty yhtäkään poikkeusta koko maailmasta – Hiili teki jotain, mikä kirjoittaa oppikirjoja uusiksi
Kahden hiiliatomin välille saatiin muodostumaan yhden elektronin stabiili sidos.
https://www.tekniikkatalous.fi/uutiset/tata-ei-pitanyt-tapahtua-eika-107-vuoteen-tiedetty-yhtakaan-poikkeusta-koko-maailmasta-hiili-teki-jotain-mika-kirjoittaa-oppikirjoja-uusiksi/d4cea1f3-9287-4cb7-8ac2-f3de66dc4ea4
Kemistit Japanista ovat onnistuneet luomaan molekyylin, jossa kahden hiiliatomin välillä on yhdestä elektronista muodostuva stabiili kemiallinen sidos. Saavutus on merkittävä, ja Nature-tiedelehden yleistajuisemman uutisen mukaan se ”tulee päätymään oppikirjoihin”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists Find That “Class Clowns” Are Actually the Smartest People in Class
https://futurism.com/the-byte/class-clowns-smartest-people?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0YL1UCJ9k8558cd28zD_6Z4VCfHvlI0mN4xShvkuY0VW18VesJZrYXAI_aem_1H9KpBc9P7VIo3496E_1Yw
Humor seems to be a valuable tool for schoolchildren.
According to scientists, that class clown from seventh grade may have been the brightest kid in the room.
It turns out that humor ability and overall intelligence are tightly linked in middle-school-aged children, according to research published in the International Journal of Humor Research.
“We were particularly interested in the quality of humor made by children but evaluated by adults,” lead study author and Anadolu University researcher Ugur Sak said in a press release. “Parents and teachers should be aware that if their children or students frequently make good quality humor, it is highly likely that they have extraordinary intelligence.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Toxicity testing using deep learning and stem cells might make animals redundant.
Testing toxicity using stem cells and AI
https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-024-00249-2?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=APSR_NINDX_AWA1_GL_PCFU_CFULF_AI-YKH-AP24&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0BMABhZGlkAasTmcvU4lwBHR2FAKrVvQ7nX_HGUJ1Ji6R9XXBYjc7VmGdCaZNAWwFA-hzKanQiJ20PqA_aem_LpLh3SoBJjHTlm3DN_gDMw&utm_id=120210830217190572&utm_content=120211366248910572&utm_term=120211366248930572
A new technique based on machine learning and stem cells may lead to personalized testing for hazardous chemicals and make toxin testing on animals a thing of the past.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/16759-uuden-polven-alkaliakku-voi-ratkaista-energian-varastointiongelmat
Tomi Engdahl says:
From fanning flames at 5 AM to perfect rice at the push of a button, the story of the automatic rice cooker is a testament to human ingenuity. Learn how a post-war Japanese housewife’s meticulous research changed the way we cook rice forever.
The Unlikely Inventor of the Automatic Rice Cooker A Japanese housewife’s experiments cracked the code of perfectly cooked rice
https://spectrum.ieee.org/toshiba-rice-cooker?share_id=8477078&socialux=facebook&utm_campaign=RebelMouse&utm_content=IEEE+Spectrum&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR00KuzLFY98yGioanUXSQyremBEXuW4Lzdh-HOnw-ORC7k4RdOl0cROlp0_aem_Was1D5u2-VqETCQMJ8QC7A
“Cover, bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer for 20 minutes.” These directions seem simple enough, and yet I have messed up many, many pots of rice over the years. My sympathies to anyone who’s ever had to boil rice on a stovetop, cook it in a clay pot over a kerosene or charcoal burner, or prepare it in a cast-iron cauldron. All hail the 1955 invention of the automatic rice cooker!
How the automatic rice cooker was invented
It isn’t often that housewives get credit in the annals of invention, but in the story of the automatic rice cooker, a woman takes center stage. That happened only after the first attempts at electrifying rice cooking, starting in the 1920s, turned out to be utter failures. Matsushita, Mitsubishi, and Sony all experimented with variations of placing electric heating coils inside wooden tubs or aluminum pots, but none of these cookers automatically switched off when the rice was done.
But Shogo Yamada, the energetic development manager of the electric appliance division for Toshiba, became convinced that his company could do better. In post–World War II Japan, he was demonstrating and selling electric washing machines all over the country. When he took a break from his sales pitch and actually talked to women about their daily household labors, he discovered that cooking rice—not laundry—was their most challenging chore.
The inability to properly mind the flame could earn a woman the label of “failed housewife.”
In 1951, Yamada became the cheerleader of the rice cooker within Toshiba, which was understandably skittish given the past failures of other companies.
Conventional wisdom was that the heat source needed to be adjusted continuously to guarantee fluffy rice, but Fumiko found that heating the water and rice to a boil and then cooking for exactly 20 minutes produced consistently good results.
But how would an automatic rice cooker know when the 20 minutes was up?
When the internal temperature of the double boiler surpassed 100 °C, the switch would bend and cut the circuit. One cup of boiling water in the external pot took 20 minutes to evaporate. The same basic principle is still used in modern cookers.
Toshiba’s automatic rice cooker went on sale on 10 December 1955, but initially, sales were slow. It didn’t help that the rice cooker was priced at 3,200 yen, about a third of the average Japanese monthly salary. It took some salesmanship to convince women they needed the new appliance.
Another clever sales technique was to get electricity companies to serve as Toshiba distributors. At the time, Japan was facing a national power surplus stemming from the widespread replacement of carbon-filament lightbulbs with more efficient tungsten ones. The energy savings were so remarkable that operations at half of the country’s power plants had to be curtailed. But with utilities distributing Toshiba rice cookers, increased demand for electricity was baked in.
From there, the story becomes an international one with complex localization issues. Japanese sushi rice is not the same as Thai sticky rice which is not the same as Persian tahdig, Indian basmati, Italian risotto, or Spanish paella. You see where I’m going with this. Every culture that has a unique rice dish almost always uses its own regional rice with its own preparation preferences. And so countries wanted their own type of automatic electric rice cooker (although some rejected automation in favor of traditional cooking methods).
Yoshiko Nakano, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, wrote a book in 2009 about the localized/globalized nature of rice cookers.
One of the key differences between the Japanese and Chinese rice cooker is that the latter has a glass lid
Modern rice cookers have settings to give Iranians crispy rice at the bottom of the pot, one to let Thai customers cook noodles, one for perfect rice porridge, and one for steel-cut oats.
Even after the Korean government made it a national goal to build a better rice cooker, manufacturers failed to deliver one, perhaps because none of the engineers involved knew how to cook rice. It’s a good reminder that the history of technology is not always the story of innovation and progress.
Eventually, the Asian diaspora brought the rice cooker to all parts of the globe
Tomi Engdahl says:
Put the Metal to the Petal
The e-Flower is a sensor with flexible, flower-like petals that hug neural spheroids to capture brain activity, helping unlock its secrets.
https://www.hackster.io/news/put-the-metal-to-the-petal-cab5da332cba
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sound Advice on Seeing the Unseen
Benn Jordan shows how cheap hardware, like smartphones and a Raspberry Pi, can reveal information that exposes complex phenomena.
https://www.hackster.io/news/sound-advice-on-seeing-the-unseen-c920b3a21e9b
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.xda-developers.com/i-tried-storing-data-in-the-internet-itself/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Brush Your Transistors
Researchers showed that a common whitener found in toothpaste is ideal for making edible transistors, which could power medical devices.
https://www.hackster.io/news/brush-your-transistors-2a7fb1af07ed
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/horizon-magazine/stamp-sized-microchip-imitates-human-brain-could-speed-treatments-alzheimers
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fysiikan yhtälöt näyttävät noudattavan erikoista matemaattista lakia, tutkija havaitsi
https://tekniikanmaailma.fi/fysiikan-lait-nayttavat-noudattavan-erikoista-matemaattista-kaavaa-tutkija-havaitsi/
Fysiikan laeissa käytettyjen symbolien ja matemaattisten operaatioiden taustalla piilee uuden tutkimuksen mukaan erikoinen kaava, joka saattaa paljastaa jotain perustavanlaatuista maailmankaikkeudesta.
Zipfin lain kaltainen ilmiö, joka tunnetaan kielitieteessä sanojen yleisyysjakaumana, näyttää pätevän myös fysiikan laeissa. Zipfin lain mukaan kielen yleisin sana esiintyy noin kaksi kertaa niin usein kuin toiseksi yleisin sana, kolme kertaa niin usein kuin kolmanneksi yleisin sana ja niin edelleen. Englannin kielessä esimerkiksi sana “the” kattaa noin seitsemän prosenttia isosta tekstiaineistosta, kun taas seuraavaksi yleisin sana “of” esiintyy noin 3,5 prosenttia ajasta. Havainto pätee myös suomen kieleen.
Andrei Constantin Oxfordin yliopistosta ja hänen kollegansa ovat nyt löytäneet vastaavan lain fysiikan yhtälöiden symboleista.
Tulokset yllättivät tutkijat: yhtälöiden symbolit noudattivat samanlaista jakaumaa kaikissa kolmessa aineistossa, vaikka niiden alkuperät olivat erittäin erilaisia. Satunnaisesti luoduissa matemaattisissa lausekkeissa vastaavaa lainalaisuutta ei kuitenkaan nähty.
Tämä havainto saattaa kertoa jotain syvällistä todellisuuden luonteesta
”Olemme kehittäneet kielen, matematiikan ja symbolit moniin tarkoituksiin, mutta vaikuttaa siltä, että fysiikka – tai luonto – käyttää vain niistä yksinkertaisimpia,” Chen sanoo.
”Operaattorit, jotka esiintyvät vähemmän usein – kuten eksponentti-, logaritmi- ja trigonometriset funktiot – noudattavat kaikki samaa lakia. Tämä on yllättävää”, hän sanoo.
Toisaalta Deaglan Bartlett Sorbonnen yliopistosta uskoo New Scientistin mukaan, että tulos voi olla seurausta siitä, että fyysikot pyrkivät ilmaisemaan ideansa mahdollisimman ytimekkäästi, aivan kuten Zipfin lain on ajateltu kertovan kielen tehokkuudesta.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The laws of physics appear to follow a mysterious mathematical pattern
The symbols and mathematical operations used in the laws of physics follow a pattern that could reveal something fundamental about the universe
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2452341-the-laws-of-physics-appear-to-follow-a-mysterious-mathematical-pattern/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Computer Scientists Establish the Best Way to Traverse a Graph
By
Ben Brubaker
October 25, 2024
Dijkstra’s algorithm was long thought to be the most efficient way to find a graph’s best routes. Researchers have now proved that it’s “universally optimal.”
https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientists-establish-the-best-way-to-traverse-a-graph-20241025/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Startup Claims It’s Achieved Communication Between Two People Who Were Both Dreaming
byFrank Landymore
Oct 26, 10:00 AM EDT
REMSpace via YouTube
“Yesterday, communicating in dreams seemed like science fiction. Tomorrow, it will be so common we won’t be able to imagine our lives without this technology.”
https://futurism.com/the-byte/startup-claims-communication-over-dreams
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum ‘Schrödinger’s cat’ survives for a stunning 23 minutes
A typically fragile quantum superposition has been made to last exceptionally long, and could eventually be used as a probe for discovering new physics
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2453356-quantum-schrodingers-cat-survives-for-a-stunning-23-minutes/
Quantum superpositions are typically fragile and fleeting, but one such state has now been maintained for a record-breaking 23 minutes. Keeping quantum states stable for this long could help make more robust quantum devices, or lead to discoveries of strange new effects in quantum physics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Something Massive Is Shifting Deep Inside the Moon
https://futurism.com/the-byte/shifting-deep-inside-moon?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR202_Avh4kSbCiEqEmdvIu4y0v_FaD03ihsL-lcyk1qAE3Hqs7qI_HZ-ho_aem_32yINY-THi6xsCQNLhkA5w
Moon Goo
Something is moving inside of the Moon. Yes, you read that correctly.
A recent study from scientists at NASA and the University of Arizona found that a layer of low-viscosity goo sits between the Moon’s rugged mantle and its metal core. This goo is rising and falling beneath the lunar surface — not unlike, say, ocean tides — which they concluded is likely caused by the gravitational push and pull of the Sun and Earth.
“Just like the Moon raises tides on the Earth, the Earth (and Sun) raise tides on the Moon,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists Say SpaceX Starship Explosion Tore a Hole in the Atmosphere
https://futurism.com/the-byte/starship-explosion-hole-atmosphere?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0td8oedgKkWqMA-GkOAXiu-jq3JjAvJHM4txlDotmmGelRsF1toPeJPQ0_aem_RKK1dncsSm6yU_0-ee4BJA
Holy Fail
When SpaceX’s Starship rocket blew up — again — it punched a hole open in our atmosphere, according to new research.
Four minutes after launching from SpaceX’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas on November 18, the Starship’s superheavy booster exploded at an altitude of roughly 56 miles after separating from its second stage.
This was followed by another explosion minutes later, when the surviving portion of the spaceship reached an altitude of 93 miles, and then combusted itself.
Now, as detailed in a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, it appears that these events combined to create a temporary hole in a region of the upper atmosphere called the ionosphere, where charged particles, stripped of their electrons by solar radiation, form the final boundary between the Earth and the vacuum space.
The ionosphere spans approximately 50 to 400 miles above the Earth’s surface. According to the researchers, the velocity of the Starship itself, which was traveling faster than the speed of sound, sent cone-like acoustic shock waves through this region.
Then when the explosions followed, the resulting sound waves caused the electrons to “disappear,” neutralizing the charge of atoms nearby — thus forming the ionospheric hole that spanned up to 1,200 miles. This is noteworthy, because “usually, such holes are formed as a result of chemical processes in the ionosphere due to interaction with engine fuel,” Yasyukevic said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In August, a paper published Nature Communications that claimed a new current capacity record for high-temperature superconducting wires The journal recently retracted the paper, after it was brought to the authors’ attention that they had made an error in their calculations.
Superconducting Wire Sets New Current Capacity Record And it doesn’t require additional cost or complexity to manufacture
https://spectrum.ieee.org/high-temperature-superconductor-current-capacity?share_id=8490332&socialux=facebook&utm_campaign=RebelMouse&utm_content=IEEE+Spectrum&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1-MrF-sSBkLKixW4vlLAAgV_CcTX3rtOcidlpnrwbgYdw7fiuXUx7oCzM_aem_2Ofst1PHfeEqNvn2eqRawA
UPDATE 31 OCTOBER 2024: Number one no longer. Nature has retracted the would-have-been groundbreaking study by Amit Goyal et al. claiming the world’s highest-performing high-temperature superconducting wires yet.
The journal’s editorial statement that now accompanies the paper says that after publication, an error in the calculation of the reported performance was identified. All of the study’s authors agreed with the retraction.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Akkutekniikan läpimurto lähellä – sähköautoihin tarjolla pian mullistava tuhannen kilometrin akku
Uusissa akuissa tarvitaan vähemmän harvinaisia maametalleja, joista alkaa olla huutava pula. Suomessa voidaan pian valmistaa myös puupohjaisia akkuja.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20121510
Tarvitaan litiumia, natriumia, rautaa ja kobolttia.
Niitä löytyy tulevaisuuden akusta, jonka turvin sähkölentokoneella voi lentää tulevaisuudessa useita satoja kilometrejä, tai sähköautolla ajaa jopa tuhat kilometriä ilman ylimääräisiä lataustaukoja.
Tutkijoiden laboratorioissa ympäri maailmaa muhii mullistus, joka tekee mahdolliseksi nykyisten nestemäisten litiumioniakkujen korvaamisen kiinteän olomuodon solid state -akuilla autoissa, kännyköissä, tietokoneissa – melkein kaikkialla, missä ylipäätään käytetään akkuja.
Uuden sukupolven akut ovat edellytys ilmastotavoitteiden saavuttamisessa, koska liikenteen sähköistyminen sekä tuuli- ja aurinkosähkön tuotannon kasvu edellyttävät parempaa kykyä varastoida sähköä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/ultra-thin-wonder-material-absorbs-99-electromagnetic-waves-with-ease/ar-AA1t8wa0?ocid=winp2fptaskbar&cvid=ceff6940a4a64079be9d3c7dda86f712&ei=9&fbclid=IwY2xjawGT925leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYo1fsHSAVqL4SRVA0firWa2KuObWZaX5RzUOgToWHEeMbyg47FZ_MMmsg_aem_i9FgjyL7gw2vgvI1el43nw
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kaksi opiskelijaa ratkaisi 2 500 vuotta vanhan matemaattisen ongelman
Kaksi opiskelijaa löysi 10 uutta todistusta Pythagoraan lauseelle. Ne perustuvat trigonometriaan, mitä on pidetty mahdottomana.
https://tieku.fi/fysiikka/kaksi-opiskelijaa-ratkaisi-2-500-vuotta-vanhan-matemaattisen-ongelman
Tomi Engdahl says:
Student-built desalination tech turns brine into fresh water with 90% efficiency
Salt-free electrodialysis metathesis treats brine by using electric currents and ion exchange membranes to separate salt from water at a molecular level.
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/student-desalination-tech-wins-award
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/16808-huokoinen-kide-voi-siirtaeae-akkujen-raejaehtelemisen-historiaan
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2024/11/11/entista-tehokkaampi-keino-valittaa-suuria-tietomaaria/
Aalto-yliopiston teknillisen fysiikan laitoksen tutkijat ovat nyt kehittäneet uudenlaisenmenetelmän, jonka avulla voidaan kasvattaa merkittävästi optisten kaapeleiden tiedonsiirtokapasiteettia. Keino perustuu sähkömagneettisen kentän ja metallisten nanohiukkasten vuorovaikutukseen sekä ns. pienten valohurrikaanien eli Vorteksien luomiseen.
Aalto-yliopiston professori Päivi Törmän johtaman Quantum Dynamics -tutkimusryhmän väitöskirjatutkijat Kristian Arjas ja Jani Taskinen ovat kehittäneet uuden geometrisen suunnittelumenetelmän, joka mahdollistaa pienten valohurrikaanien eli vorteksien luomiseen. Vortekx on valosäteessä esiintyvä hurrikaanin kaltainen ilmiö, jossa kirkkaan valon rengas ympäröi rauhallista ja pimeää keskustaa – kuin hurrikaanin silmää.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nesteen kaltaiset elektronit avaavat uusia teknisiä mahdollisuuksia
https://www.nanobitteja.fi/uutiset.html?240331
Apulaisprofessori Denis Bandurin ja hänen tiiminsä Singaporen kansalliselta yliopistolta (NUS) tutkivat, kuinka kvanttimateriaalit ovat vuorovaikutuksessa sähkömagneettisen säteilyn kanssa nanomittakaavassa paljastaakseen uusia tieteellisiä ilmiöitä ja niiden mahdollista käyttöä tulevaisuuden teknologioiden kehittämisessä.
Äskettäin julkaistussa tutkimuksessa ryhmä raportoi, että kun grafeeni altistetaan terahertsien sähkömagneettiselle säteilylle, elektronineste lämpenee ja sen viskositeetti pienenee huomattavasti, mikä johtaa pienempään sähkövastukseen – aivan kuten öljy, hunaja ja muut viskoosit nesteet virtaavat helpommin, kun niitä kuumennetaan liedellä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Näin toimii koneoppiminen
https://www.nanobitteja.fi/uutiset.html?240527
Koneoppimisen käyttäminen lupaavien tutkimussuuntien tunnistamiseen on kasvava trendi materiaalitieteessä, koska se voi auttaa tutkijoita merkittävästi vähentämään uusien materiaalien seulomiseen tarvittavien kokeiden määrää ja aikaa.
Koneoppiminen voisi nopeuttaa seuraavan sukupolven akkujen kehitystä, sillä ne voivat mullistaa energian varastointiteknologiat kaikkialla.
He hyödynsivät koneoppimista tehostamaan lupaavien koostumusten hakua Natrium-ioni akkujen positiivisessa elektrodissa tarvittavien materiaalien koostumuksen arviointiin
“Tutkimuksemme mukainen lähestymistapa tarjoaa tehokkaan menetelmän lupaavien koostumusten tunnistamiseen laajasta valikoimasta potentiaalisia ehdokkaita”, Komaba huomauttaa, “Lisäksi tämä menetelmä on laajennettavissa monimutkaisempiin materiaalijärjestelmiin, kuten kvinaariset siirtymämetallioksidit.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
XOR valolla ja yksittäisen transistorin neuronissa
https://www.nanobitteja.fi/uutiset.html?240353
Tomi Engdahl says:
Suomalaiset fyysikot tekivät mullistavan löydön: ”Suuria tietomääriä voisi siirtää jopa 16 kertaa tehokkaammin”
Kvasikristalleiksi kutsuttujen rakenteiden avulla voidaan koodata ja välittää tietoa huomattavasti nykyistä tehokkaammin.
https://www.tekniikkatalous.fi/uutiset/suomalaiset-fyysikot-tekivat-mullistavan-loydon-suuria-tietomaaria-voisi-siirtaa-jopa-16-kertaa-tehokkaammin/150ea899-7bec-47bf-8628-6dc012044792
Tomi Engdahl says:
Muistot eivät ole vain aivoissa: Uusi tutkimus
Tutkimuksen mukaan myös munuais- ja hermokudossolut luovat muistoja samalla tavalla kuin neuronit.
https://www.tekniikkatalous.fi/uutiset/muistot-eivat-ole-vain-aivoissa-uusi-tutkimus/ffedb75d-8604-4c17-b946-314c9a023105
Tomi Engdahl says:
1400-luvulla Suomeen saapui innovaatio, joka edelleen hankaloittaa jokaisen sukankutojan elämää
Naantalin Sukkakuja kertoo kaupungin elinkeinohistorian tiiviistä yhteydestä sukkiin.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20122933
Kuja on lyhyt ja piskuinen, mutta viis siitä. Kaupungin perinteiset villasukat on huomioitu kadunnimessä – ja syystä.
Naantali tunnetaan presidentin kesäasunnosta ja muumeista, mutta harvempi tietää, miten oleellisesti sukat liittyvät kaupungin historiaan.
Sukkakujan tarina alkoi vuonna 1438, kun Naantalin luostari perustettiin. Se oli ensimmäinen laitos Suomessa, jossa naiset saivat sivistystä.
Myös käsityöt kuuluivat nunnien päivittäiseen ohjelmaan. Se tarkoitti paitsi hienojen kirkkotekstiilien kirjomista, myös esimerkiksi aivan tavallisia sukkia.
Tai ei aivan tavallisia.
Jälleen kerran länsinaapurista tuli kuuma uutuus; taito kutoa sukkiin kantapäät. Niitä ei ennen ollut Suomessa osattu tehdä.
Se oli tärkeä innovaatio, joka yhä edelleen hankaloittaa monen aloittelevan kutojan elämää.
Naantalin nunnat kutoivat sukkien lisäksi myös käsineitä myyntiin. He myös opettivat taitoja paikkakunnan asukkaille jo 1400-luvulla.
Kun Kustaa Vaasa kielsi Naantalin markkinat 1530-luvulla, Armonlaaksoksi kutsuttua kaupunkia uhkasi alamäki ja liittäminen Turkuun. Markkinat kun olivat olleet pienen kaupungin ainoita tulonlähteitä.
Sukista tuli kaupungin pelastus.
1600-luvulla sukkia ruvettiin käyttämään yleisesti. Kuuminta hottia olivat varsinkin polvipituiset sukat.
Nunnien opettamat naantalilaiset olivat jo konkareita sukankudonnassa ja kauppa alkoi käydä. Pian koko Naantali kutoi, niin naiset, miehet kuin lapsetkin. Kerrotaan, että jokainen talo oli sukkaverstas.
Kauppa kävi ja vienti veti. 1700-luvulla Naantalista lähti vientiin 20 000 sukkaparia vuodessa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2024/11/13/intuition-about-maxwells-equations/
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Teletype By Any Other Name: The Early E-mail And Wordprocessor
https://hackaday.com/2024/11/13/a-teletype-by-any-other-name-the-early-e-mail-and-wordprocessor/
The teleprinter predates the computer by quite a bit. The original impetus for their development was to reduce the need for skilled telegraph operators. In addition, they found use as crude wordprocessors, although that term wouldn’t be used for quite some time.
Telegraph
An 1855 keyboard telegraph (public domain).
Early communication was done by making and breaking a circuit at one station to signal a buzzer or other device at a distant station. Using dots and dashes, you could efficiently send messages, but only if you were proficient at sending and receiving Morse code. Sometimes, instead of a buzzer, the receiving device would make marks on a paper — sort of like a strip recorder.
In the mid-1800s, several attempts were made to make machines that could print characters remotely.
By 1874, the Frenchman Èmile Baudot created a 5-bit code to represent characters over a teleprinter line. Like some earlier systems, the code used two shift characters to select uppercase letters (LTRS) and figures (FIGS). This lets the 32 possible codes represent 26 letters, 10 digits, and a few punctuation marks. However, if the receiver missed a shift character, the message would garble badly. This was especially a problem over radio links.
Paper Tape
Donald Murray made a big improvement in 1901. Instead of directly sending characters from a keyboard to the wire, his apparatus let the operator punch a paper tape. Then a machine used the paper tape to send characters to the remote station which would punch an identical tape. That tape could go through another machine to print out the text on it. Murray rearranged the Baudot code slightly, adding things we use today, like the carriage return and the line feed.
Patents
Instead of fighting a big patent war, the two companies, Morkrum (partly owned by the owner of Morton Salt) and Klienschmitt, merged in 1924 and produced an even better machine.
Word Processing
While replacing telegraphs was an obvious use of teleprinter technology, you might wonder how people could use these as crude word processors. The key was the paper tape and a simple paper tape trick. A Baudot machine would have five possible punches on one row of the tape. You can think of it as a binary number from 00000 (no punch) to 11111 (all positions punched out). The trick is that if all positions are punched out, the reader would ignore that position and move on to the next character. They also usually had a code that would stop the reading process.
This allowed you to do a few things. First, you could punch a tape and then make many copies of the same document. If you made a mistake, you could overpunch the tape to remove any unpunched holes and “delete” characters. It was also common to use several fully punched-out characters as a leader or a trailer, which allowed you to line up two tapes and paste them together.
So, to insert something, you could identify about a dozen characters around the insert and over-punch them. Then, you’d prepare another tape that had the new text, including the characters you punched over. You’d start that tape with a leader and end it with a trailer of fully punched positions. Then, you can cut the old tape and splice the new tape’s leader and trailer over the parts you punched out in the first step. A lot of work? Yes, but it’s way better than retyping everything by hand.
Once you create your master tape, you could turn out many originals. You could even do a sort of mail merge.
Handwriting Computer
Another trick was to take a tape with a header and a trailer and paste them together to form a loop. Then the printer would just print the same thing over and over. I saw a particularly odd use of this back in the 1970s.
Death of the Teleprinter
Teleprinters couldn’t survive the “glass teletype” revolution. CRT-based terminals swept away the machines from most applications. Real wordprocessors and magnetic media wiped out the applications in wordprocessing and typesetting.
Companies like Teletype, Olivetti, and Siemens (disclosure: Hackaday is part of Supply Frame, which is part of Siemens) stopped making teleprinters֫. In today’s world, these seem impossibly old-fashioned. But in 1932, they were revolutionary, as seen in the video below.
If you noticed the similarity between most modern teleprinters and electric typewriters, you aren’t wrong. Linux will still let you log in using a hardcopy terminal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ulkoavaruudesta saatiin kryptinen viesti
Vuonna 2023 tullut alien-tyyppinen signaali on saatu purettua.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/0e664be4-3e75-4e5d-8827-118188249bff
Alien-like signal from 2023 has been decoded. The next step is to figure out what it means
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/11/science/seti-alien-signal-decoded-sign-in-space/index.html
If Earth’s astronomical observatories were to pick up a signal from outer space, it would require an all-hands-on-deck effort to untangle and decipher the extraterrestrial message.
An art project from the SETI Institute, a nonprofit in Mountain View, California, devoted to searching for life beyond Earth, simulated that scenario over a year ago before a father-daughter team of citizen scientists recently deciphered the message. Its meaning, however, remains a mystery.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Thomas Kurtz, co-creator of the BASIC Programming Language, has passed away. Sometimes the credit for creating BASIC has been given to Mary Kenneth Keller but it was Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny (1926-1992) who created the language.
https://computerhistory.org/blog/in-memoriam-thomas-e-kurtz-1928-2024/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGjx6hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHX-lQocwR-lCl6SvInvqaGkkth8NUU9DSeaj63S2wCFn_Mu-4803c7jkvQ_aem_l4YHDzd573pFmnM_asg_UQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
Uudet havainnot haastavat suhteellisuusteorian – Tästä on kyse
Lotta Jalli15.11.202422:22AvaruusTiede
Tutkijat löysivät ”pieniä poikkeamia” painovoiman käyttäytymisestä.
https://www.tivi.fi/uutiset/uudet-havainnot-haastavat-suhteellisuusteorian-tasta-on-kyse/83098554-404c-411e-b9be-478acfe5d2e4
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finland’s 100MW sand battery turns 2,000 tons of fireplace waste into power
In terms of size, this unique battery will have a height of about 13 meters and a width of roughly 15 meters.
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/sand-battery-turns-fireplace-waste-into-power
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tutkijat keksivät tavan kerätä sähköä käyttämällä ainoastaan styroksia ja tuulta: Jopa 230 voltin jännite
Uusi materiaali, joka on valmistettu polystyreenijätteestä tuottaa sähköä liikkeestä ja tuulesta.
https://www.tekniikkatalous.fi/uutiset/tutkijat-keksivat-tavan-kerata-sahkoa-kayttamalla-ainoastaan-styroksia-ja-tuulta-jopa-230-voltin-jannite/ce8fb086-7308-4243-a9a5-bc5be5e8c23c
Tomi Engdahl says:
Onko täällä kohta mikroskooppisen pieniä aseita? — Nanoteknologia unohtui julkisesta keskustelusta
https://www.rapport.fi/katleena-kortesuo/onko-taalla-kohta-mikroskooppisen-pienia-aseita-nanoteknologia-unohtui-julkisesta-keskustelusta-6d14e6?fbclid=IwY2xjawGlHE1leHRuA2FlbQEwAGFkaWQBqxYSNOBZTgEdHo_XcqZ4CFmE6IjgwIhL_QqmAOnyF_xeWzAHtF1TwLyNQ64k8wQAq5TL_aem_44rExhNVKtk2LXZIHl8M5g
Tomi Engdahl says:
Astronomit havaitsivat tähtienvälisen tunnelin Aurinkokunnan ympärillä
Tähtitieteilijät ovat luoneet 3D-kartan Aurinkokuntaa ympäröivästä kaasutaskusta. Sitten he yllättyivät.
https://www.mikrobitti.fi/uutiset/google-pakottaa-uuteen-kaytantoon-vahentaa-hakkeroimisen-riskia-99/4aad4071-91b5-4353-9dcc-c2dd24da1d52
Tomi Engdahl says:
THL varoittaa uudesta koronaakin vakavammasta pandemiasta
Rokotuksilla ei kuitenkaan voida estää uuden pandeemisen viruksen syntyä.
https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000010837121.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Very expensive artistic snax:
Walk into any supermarket and you can generally buy a banana for less than $1. But a banana duct-taped to a wall? That might sell for more than $1 million at an upcoming auction at Sotheby’s in New York.
“What you buy when you buy Cattelan’s ‘Comedian’ is not the banana itself, but a certificate of authenticity that grants the owner the permission and authority to reproduce this banana and duct tape on their wall as an original artwork by Maurizio Cattelan,” Galperin said.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/maurizio-cattelan-ap-sothebys-new-york-italian-b2648480.html#Echobox=1731837980
Tomi Engdahl says:
Afrikasta löytyi muovia syövä toukka
https://tekniikanmaailma.fi/afrikasta-loytyi-muovia-syova-mato/
Ongelmallisen muovijätteen käsittelyyn on saattanut löytyä uusi erikoinen keino: polystyreeniä syövä jauhomato.
Tutkimusartikkeli aiheesta julkaistiin Nature-tiedelehdessä syyskuussa, ja tutkimusryhmä kirjoittaa löydöstään Conversation-palvelussa.
Afrikasta löydetyt jauhomadot eli jauhopukki-kovakuoriaisen toukat liittyvät havainnon myötä pieneen hyönteisryhmään, jonka on todettu pystyvän hajottamaan muovia. Kyseessä on tutkijaryhmän mukaan ensimmäinen kerta, kun Afrikasta kotoisin olevan hyönteislajin on todettu pystyvän tähän.
Polystyreeni on kestomuovia, jota käytetään laajasti esimerkiksi elintarvikkeiden ja elektroniikkalaitteiden sekä teollisuuden pakkauksissa. Kyseisen polymeerin hävittäminen on hankalaa sen kestävyyden takia. Yhtenä keinona voidaan käyttää polttamista muun aineksen seassa tai kemiallista prosessia, mutta nämä ovat kalliita keinoja, minkä lisäksi palaessaan muovista vapautuu myrkyllisiä päästöjä.
Plastic-eating insect discovered in Kenya
https://theconversation.com/plastic-eating-insect-discovered-in-kenya-242787
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sitkeähenkinen hiukkanen kiusaa fyysikkoja: Protonin on kuoltava!
Fyysikkojen tavoitteena on kaiken teoria, joka selittäisi maailmankaikkeuden kaikki ilmiöt. Sen tiellä on yksi iso ongelma: protoni. Japanilaisessa luolassa on meneillään koe, jossa hiukkanen yritetään saada päiviltä.
https://tieku.fi/fysiikka/sitkeahenkinen-hiukkanen-kiusaa-fyysikkoja-protonin-on-kuoltava
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/scientists-invented-a-quantum-rubiks-cube-to-win-a-bet-its-infinitely-hard-but-solvable-76736
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.tyla.com/life/brain-doctor-worst-foods-eat-morning-breakfast-265232-20241112
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/particle-physics/hawking-radiation-may-be-erasing-black-holes-watching-it-happen-could-reveal-new-physics
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://tieku.fi/teknologia/oppikirjat-pitaa-kirjoittaa-uusiksi-tutkijat-murtavat-100-vuotta-vanhan-saannon-kokeessa
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03007-y