science
A nifty compilation of books that glimpsed the future before it happened, relating/connecting/ascribing each of the literary predictions with the actual/corresponding discovery/invention/emergence.
Complete list on the other side of the jump.
Albert Einstein and his imaginary twin brother, Bertrand, helm 2, homonymous, rocket ships, to demonstrate how light and time affect each other.
AKA, Lady in Red, illustrates (and is a product of) what Prof. Jürgen Schmidhuber dubbed Low-Complexity Art. The image/form/pattern can be computed from a simple/short program, without being obvious to the beholder, and this, is surmised, has an effect in its perceived beauty.
In some way, relating (equating?) Occam's razor with/to beauty.
From an original project of the University of Adelaide, a tool that allows the capture and transformation/conversion of (2D) video images into (3D) model(s).
In their own words:
VideoTrace is a system for interactively generating realistic 3D models of objects from video—models that might be inserted into a video game, a simulation environment, or another video sequence. The user interacts with VideoTrace by tracing the shape of the object to be modelled over one or more frames of the video. By interpreting the sketch drawn by the user in light of 3D information obtained from computer vision techniques, a small number of simple 2D interactions can be used to generate a realistic 3D model. Each of the sketching operations in VideoTrace provides an intuitive and powerful means of modelling shape from video, and executes quickly enough to be used interactively. Immediate feedback allows the user to model rapidly those parts of the scene which are of interest and to the level of detail required. The combination of automated and manual reconstruction allows VideoTrace to model parts of the scene not visible, and to succeed in cases where purely automated approaches would fail.
An "oldie" (so to speak) but goldie: Wired's article recounting the pioneering efforts/attempts of Leonard Adleman to materialize the world's first DNA computer/computations.
From the article itself:
[...]
Thanks to learning algorithms and other evolutionary tools being incorporated into computers, the machines around us are becoming more lifelike. But Adleman wanted to tackle the question from the opposite direction. What if life itself, already susceptible to genetic engineering, could be used to solve problems? What if DNA could be shifted from reproducing life to thinking about it? Adleman imagined a future in which organic and inorganic computers link up; he wanted to witness this momentous occasion in his lifetime.
Inspired, he hopped out of bed and started to build the world's first DNA computer.
[...]
Also dubbed Super-Levitation (apparently), and based in a phenomenon called Quantum Trapping (or Locking).
Especially mind-blowing: the part where double levitation is demonstrated, when both discs cross each other's path, without any kind of interference or disruption in any of their movement(s).
Eureqa is a software tool that allows to derive formula(s) from data, using Symbolic Regression.
Everybody can use it. Here is a(n) (gentle) introduction:
MIT Prof. Walter H. G. Lewin asks, challengingly:
We've all looked at rainbows but, have you really seen rainbows?
A fascinating talk that uncovers the hidden beauty in how rainbows work and in other color and light related phenomena.
In depth, with Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Mind opening. Genious stuff.
"Mandatory" reading for those trying to understand what it means (and how we got) to be human.
All the remaining members of the aluded race would also benefit greatly from reading it.
By Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.
