Using 3D worlds to visualize data

In other innovation news:

Take a walk through a human brain? Fly over the surface of Mars? Computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago are pushing science fiction closer to reality with a wraparound virtual world where a researcher wearing 3D glasses can do all that and more. 

In the system, known as CAVE2, an 8-foot-high screen encircles the viewer 320 degrees. A panorama of images springs from 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels, conveying a dizzying sense of being able to touch what's not really there. 

As far back as 1950, sci-fi author Ray Bradbury imagined a children's nursery that could make bedtime stories disturbingly real. "Star Trek" fans might remember the holodeck as the virtual playground where the fictional Enterprise crew relaxed in fantasy worlds. 

The Illinois computer scientists have more serious matters in mind when they hand visitors 3D glasses and a controller called a "wand." Scientists in many fields today share a common challenge: How to truly understand overwhelming amounts of data.

Digital Green mention in the New York Times

Our non-profit Digital Green got a mention in Tom Friedman's column in the New York Times earlier this month:

 The United States Agency for International Development office here in New Delhi connected me with a group of Indian social entrepreneurs the U.S. is supporting, and the power of the tools they are putting in the hands of India’s virtual middle class at low prices is jaw-dropping. Gram Power is creating smart microgrids and smart meters to provide reliable, scalable power for Indian rural areas, where 600 million Indians do not have regular (or any) electricity with which to work, read and learn. For 20 cents a day, Gram Power offers villagers a prepaid electricity card that can power all their home appliances. Healthpoint Services is providing safe drinking water for a family of six for 5 cents a day and telemedicine consultations for 20 cents a visit. VisionSpring is now distributing examinations and eyeglasses to India’s poor for $2 to $3 each. The Institute for Reproductive Health is alerting women of their fertile days each month with text messages, indicating when unprotected sex should be avoided to prevent unwanted pregnancies. And Digital Green is providing low-cost communications systems for Indian farmers and women’s groups to show each their best practices through digital films projected on a dirt floor.

In tribute to Ramanujam

This is just a short note to say that office hours for the blog will be held next Monday between 7:30 and 8:15 a.m PST. Office hours are scheduled for the first Monday of every month between 7:30 and 8:15. The topic for this month - entrepreneurial finance.

This year, we will be covering topics related to India. And so we dedicate this year's posts to Ramanujam.

Update: The next office hours is on April 2nd, not April 1st. Office hours will continue after April from May onwards, as usual, on the first Monday of every month.

Stanford researchers demonstrate the potential of nanotubes as alternative to silicon

Recent innovation research at Stanford now in the news:

In the next decade or so, the circuits etched on silicon-based computer chips are expected to shrink as small as they can physically become, prompting a search for alternative materials to take their place. 

Some researchers are putting high hopes on carbon nanotubes, and on Monday a group of researchers at Stanford successfully demonstrated a simple microelectronic circuit composed of 44 transistors fabricated entirely from the threadlike fibers.

Happy birthday, 'Ask the Delphic Oracle'

So it is the one year anniversary of 'Ask the Delphic Oracle'. We have now grown to a fabulous group blog, and to mark the anniversary, first, a word of thanks. Thanks to Avinash Mudaliar and Kedar Sastry for ably supporting us for the column. Thanks also to everyone who has contributed to this blog. Thanks also to all the puzzle enthusiasts and other responders who kindly took the time to send in replies. This blog would not have been possible without all your responses and words of support. We appreciate your emails.

Next, the solution to the puzzle posed in the first column. The indiatimes.com link to the first column is here. You can view the puzzle itself on the indiatimes site. What follows is the full, unabridged, complete solution to the puzzle and so, if you are just here to check your answer to the puzzle, the answer we were looking for was just this : 0.5. Three characters to type out. That's all, folks.

C-DAC unveils India's fastest supercomputer

From the Times of India:

Precise weather forecasting, faster tapping of natural resources in the sea and designing of customised drugs for individuals will now be possible using Param Yuva II, India's fastest supercomputer. Developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Param Yuva II was inaugurated by J Satyanarayana, secretary, department of electronics and information technology, here on Friday. 

The supercomputer has been upgraded to 524 teraflops, about 10 times faster than the present facility. With an investment of Rs 16 crore, it was developed in a record three months.

Cell circuits remember their history

From MIT News:

MIT engineers have created genetic circuits in bacterial cells that not only perform logic functions, but also remember the results, which are encoded in the cell’s DNA and passed on for dozens of generations. 

The circuits, described in the Feb. 10 online edition of Nature Biotechnology, could be used as long-term environmental sensors, efficient controls for biomanufacturing, or to program stem cells to differentiate into other cell types. 

“Almost all of the previous work in synthetic biology that we’re aware of has either focused on logic components or on memory modules that just encode memory. We think complex computation will involve combining both logic and memory, and that’s why we built this particular framework to do so,” says Timothy Lu, an MIT assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science and biological engineering and senior author of the Nature Biotechnology paper.