Developing terahertz detectors with carbon nanotubes: Improvements in MRIs on the horizon
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories, along with collaborators from Rice University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology, are developing new terahertz detectors based on carbon nanotubes that could lead to significant improvements in medical imaging, airport passenger screening, food inspection and other applications.
A paper in Nano Letters journal, “Carbon Nanotube Terahertz Detector,” debuted in the May 29 edition of the publication’s “Just Accepted Manuscripts” section. The paper describes a technique that uses carbon nanotubes to detect light in the terahertz frequency range without cooling.
Historically, the terahertz frequency range—which falls between the more conventional ranges used for electronics on one end and optics on another—has presented great promise along with vexing challenges for researchers, said Sandia’s François Léonard, one of the authors.
“The photonic energy in the terahertz range is much smaller than for visible light, and we simply don’t have a lot of materials to absorb that light efficiently and convert it into an electronic signal,” said Léonard. “So we need to look for other approaches.”
http://phys.org/news/2014-06-terahertz-detectors-carbon-nanotubes-mris.html
First Turing Test success marks milestone in computing history
An historic milestone in artificial intelligence set by Alan Turing – the father of modern computer science – has been achieved at an event organised by the University of Reading.
The 65 year-old iconic Turing Test was passed for the very first time by supercomputer Eugene Goostman during Turing Test 2014 held at the renowned Royal Society in London on Saturday.
‘Eugene’, a computer programme that simulates a 13 year old boy, was developed in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The development team includes Eugene’s creator Vladimir Veselov, who was born in Russia and now lives in the United States, and Ukrainian born Eugene Demchenko who now lives in Russia.
The Turing Test is based on 20th century mathematician and code-breaker Turing’s 1950 famous question and answer game, ‘Can Machines Think?’. The experiment investigates whether people can detect if they are talking to machines or humans. The event is particularly poignant as it took place on the 60th anniversary of Turing’s death, nearly six months after he was given a posthumous royal pardon.
If a computer is mistaken for a human more than 30% of the time during a series of five minute keyboard conversations it passes the test. No computer has ever achieved this, until now. Eugene managed to convince 33% of the human judges that it was human.
This historic event was organised by the University’s School of Systems Engineering in partnership with RoboLaw, an EU-funded organisation examining the regulation of emerging robotic technologies.
http://phys.org/news/2014-06-turing-success-milestone-history.html
