Paradigm Hacker

A new journal article on PLOS evaluates the use of keywords in natural and social sciences using tequniques developed to caracterize evolution in organisms. The basic result is that word usage in natural sciences appears to be systematic and directional while social sciences appear to exhibit caracteristics of genetic drift, as far as keyword ...

Every curious engineer has wondered how to use the principles developed in the Dyson "Air Multiplyer" fan for propulsion.  There may be a way to do this. Take a gander at this diagram of fluid flow rate through and around the Dyson fan.  The air jets that slide along the inner surface of the airfoil ring flow at ...

The USA has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in the so named "war on terror" in the middle east.  In addition to defending the national security of the US these efforts were intended to bring about other benefits.  One of the ideas going into Iraq was that the US was going to benefit by obtaining rights to ...

California and other states have begun to invest in high-speed rail systems to reduce connection and increase transit efficiencies and it looks like the US could catch up to Europe, China and Japan if funding is provided for these massive projects.  Highs-peed rail isn't actually bad, but there is something much better for the USA.  After seeing ...

The fundamentals for how and why technologies are developed are not so clear to even those who have become expert at inventing.  New ways of looking at technology are in order. Ray Kurzwiel is very convincing in his argument that technology evolution is best understood to be the extention of biological evolution.  Put another way, all ...

Two very powerful opinions are in play, excitement for the inevitable progress of technology yielding higher living standards vs. those who fear that our current economic prowess and technological excess is predicated on consuming ever increasingly unsustainable amounts of finite "saved solar" energy visa vi carbon-based fuels.  These two perspectives are ascribed to by representatives ...

The Apollo Program was the pinnacle of western scientific accomplishment and the result of a collective will to act on a grand scale. Mission Name Lunar Lander Lunar Landing Date Duration on Lunar Surface Apollo 11 Eagle 20-Jul-69 21:31 Apollo 12 Intrepid 19-Nov-69 1 day, 7:31 Apollo 14 Antares 5-Feb-71 1 day, 9:30 Apollo 15 Falcon 30-Jul-71 2 days, 18:55 Apollo 16 Orion 21-Apr-72 2 days, 23:02 Apollo 17 Challenger 11-Dec-72 3 days, 2:59 In order to achieve these amazing results both public support ...

When space colonization is mentioned many things come to mind: Mars, the Moon, the future, terraforming, and even occasionally asteroids. One thing that rarely comes to mind, however, is Venus. And why should it? After all, Venus is Earth's sister planet from hell, registering a spicy 450 degrees C average on the surface or, in ...

These guys... [caption id="attachment_151" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Diaspora Guys"][/caption] ...just raised 200K to start up an open-source project.  That has to be some sort of record! Diaspora is in effect a public service that is being funded by the citizens of the internet on an opt-in basis.  As a public service they will be (and already are) subject to ...

The following are a few interesting images from a demonstration video created by Discovery News regarding a new aircraft designed for single person flight.  This new vehicle is unique among single person vehicles in that the basic architecture has already been proven as a VTOL craft such as the "Martin Jet-pack" below while the principle of head ...