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"Nanotechnology Fiction."
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The diamond age
The future is small. The future is nano ... And who could be smaller or more insignificant than poor Little Nell - an orphan girl alone and adrift in a world of Confucian Law, Neo-Victorian values and warring nano-technology? Well, not quite alone. Because Nell has a friend, of sorts. A guide, a teacher, an armed and unarmed combat instructor, a book and a computer.
Book
The Future of Material Scientists in an Age of Artificial Intelligence
Material science has historically evolved in tandem with advancements in technologies for characterization, synthesis, and computation. Another type of technology to add to this mix is machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). Now increasingly sophisticated AI‐models are seen that can solve progressively harder problems across a variety of fields. From a material science perspective, it is indisputable that machine learning and artificial intelligence offer a potent toolkit with the potential to substantially accelerate research efforts in areas such as the development and discovery of new functional materials. Less clear is how to best harness this development, what new skill sets will be required, and how it may affect established research practices. In this paper, those question are explored with respect to increasingly more sophisticated ML/AI‐approaches. To structure the discussion, a conceptual framework of an AI‐ladder is introduced. This AI‐ladder ranges from basic data‐fitting techniques to more advanced functionalities such as semi‐autonomous experimentation, experimental design, knowledge generation, hypothesis formulation, and the orchestration of specialized AI modules as stepping‐stones toward general artificial intelligence. This ladder metaphor provides a hierarchical framework for contemplating the opportunities, challenges, and evolving skill sets required to stay competitive in the age of artificial intelligence. In this perspective, the implications of adopting increasingly advanced AI technologies in materials science are discussed. It is considered how to best utilize AI technologies, identify the necessary new skills, and examine the impact they may have on traditional research methodologies. Central to the discussion is a conceptual AI ladder that spans from elementary data fitting to general artificial intelligence.
Journal Article
BZRK reloaded
The struggle for control between the Armstrong twins and the group known as BZRK continues with the stakes higher than ever.
Book
The environmental crisis and African women's displacements in War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi
In the following article, I explore several types of dislocations (environmental, war, patriarchal, to name but a few) in Tochi Onyebuchi's novel War Girls (2019), analysed from the methodological perspective of Africanfuturism. The aim of the article is to show how the second wave of African future-oriented literature (diasporic in this case) looks back to the past (the Nigerian Civil War) in order to seek solutions for the ongoing current problems, such as the devastation of the natural environment, climate change, the participation of underage soldiers in military conflicts, and new forms of capitalism and neolonialisation. The novel is read via historical, sociological, and frequently anthropological sources to demonstrate how the speculative discourse can be firmly grounded in the scientific context. Additionally, I propose a feminist and utopian reading of War Girls. The text is divided into parts where key elements of Africanfuturism-such as digitalisation, nanotechnologies, Information Technology, African cosmologies, and oral tradition-are discussed in detail and are shown as existing at the same time, entangled with the past and future simultaneously, within human and more-than-human worlds. Keywords: Africanfuturism, War Girls, the environmental crisis, new technologies, posthumanism.
Journal Article
BZRK
In the near future, the conjoined Armstrong twins, under the guise of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, plot to create their own version of utopia using nanobots, while a guerilla group known as BZRK develops a DNA-based biot that can stop bots, but at risk of the host's brain.
Book
Strain-mediated magnetoelectrics: Turning science fiction into reality
There is currently a need for an efficient approach to control magnetism at small scales (<1 mm). Work on these magnetoelectric concepts dates back to the 19th century, when researchers believed that a material could convert electrical to magnetic energy, similar to Oersted’s discovery, made by passing a current through a wire. Today, there are significant magnetoelectric research opportunities in both materials discovery and theoretical modeling efforts to advance this important area of magnetic control. Applications for these strain-mediated magnetoelectric materials range from replacing existing inefficient magnetic memory approaches to spearheading new discoveries, such as micrometer-size electromagnetic motors enabling robotic manipulation. This article and the other articles in this issue provide the motivation, background information, research opportunities, and novel applications for studying strain-mediated magnetoelectric materials. The issue is designed to encourage additional research on magnetoelectrics due to its potential impact on society through the efficient control of magnetism at the micro- and nanoscale.
Journal Article
Split by sun
\"Split by Sun is a synthesis of scientific and policy research into the globalisation of artificial photosynthesis, blended with utopian and dystopian fiction. The book explores significant questions about humanity' responsibilities and use of new technologies against the dramatic backdrop of a future Earth where every road and building makes clean fuel, food and fertiliser just from water, sun and air. With allusions and allegories to primary scientific and canonical literature, as well as moral philosophy and jurisprudence, it sets the emergence of a contemplative culture based on renewable energy and food technologies against the corporate world of neoliberal economics, privatisation, financial speculation and multilateral trade and investment agreements. Its diverse characters face dangers and personal flaws in urban and wilderness settings across a Sustainocene world where global synthetic photosynthesis, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and augmented reality systems facilitate universal basic income, health-care and education, corporate marriage, rights of nature, liquid democracy and the elimination of war and nuclear weapons\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Acoustic Actuators for the Manipulation of Micro/Nanorobots: State-of-the-Art and Future Outlooks
Compared to other actuating methods, acoustic actuators offer the distinctive capability of the contactless manipulation of small objects, such as microscale and nanoscale robots. Furthermore, they have the ability to penetrate the skin, allowing for the trapping and manipulation of micro/nanorobots that carry therapeutic agents in diverse media. In this review, we summarize the current progress in using acoustic actuators for the manipulation of micro/nanorobots used in various biomedical applications. First, we introduce the actuating method of using acoustic waves to manipulate objects, including the principle of operation and different types of acoustic actuators that are usually employed. Then, applications involving manipulating different types of devices are reviewed, including bubble-based microrobots, bubble-free robots, biohybrid microrobots, and nanorobots. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future perspectives for the development of the field.
Journal Article
Lost souls : a novel
As Victor Leben, formerly Frankenstein, begins his work to create a race of super humans, five people, including Victor's original creation, Deucalion, gather in a small Montana town to face dangers they have never known before in order to oppose Victor.
Book
Bio-Inspired Design of Superconducting Spiking Neuron and Synapse
The imitative modelling of processes in the brain of living beings is an ambitious task. However, advances in the complexity of existing hardware brain models are limited by their low speed and high energy consumption. A superconducting circuit with Josephson junctions closely mimics the neuronal membrane with channels involved in the operation of the sodium-potassium pump. The dynamic processes in such a system are characterised by a duration of picoseconds and an energy level of attojoules. In this work, two superconducting models of a biological neuron are studied. New modes of their operation are identified, including the so-called bursting mode, which plays an important role in biological neural networks. The possibility of switching between different modes in situ is shown, providing the possibility of dynamic control of the system. A synaptic connection that mimics the short-term potentiation of a biological synapse is developed and demonstrated. Finally, the simplest two-neuron chain comprising the proposed bio-inspired components is simulated, and the prospects of superconducting hardware biosimilars are briefly discussed.
Journal Article