Yet another green project at last week’s Paris Airshow shows how the industry’s attention is shifting towards becoming more efficient and bringing down emissions. HyperMach presented a large-scale model of its ground-breaking new supersonic business jet, SonicStar, which it hopes to roll out within 10 years. For years, innovation in supersonic technology has been curbed by understandably stringent regulations on the level of aircraft noise permitted over land. But SonicStar uses innovative technology to allow control of aerodynamics leading to actively eliminating the problem of sonic boom at very high speeds. To make unprecedented travel times a reality, speed is, quite literally, of the essence. But with climate change a pressing global concern, HyperMach have put revolutionary green engine technology at the heart of SonicStar’s development. This next generation hybrid electric gas turbine engine which has been in development for seven years at SonicBlue provides the power generation capability to reduce jet emissions by 100%, increase thrust to weight ratio by 20% and reduce parts count in core engine components by 40%. No sonic boom despite going at three times speed of sound As well as curbing emissions and boosting efficiency, SonicStar will achieve the speed of Mach 3.5, while dramatically reducing sonic boom overland. “You’ll be able to fly supersonic from New York to Sydney in five hours with no sonic boom overland – changing the way in which the world does business….. forever,” explains HyperMach. Richard Lugg, HyperMach’s Chairman commented during the unveiling in Paris: “I’ve made it my life’s work to make this dream a reality. Now, in 2011, we have access to revolutionary engine technology, and a unique, very high speed aircraft design to make this kind of earth-shatteringly fast air travel possible.” The propulsion system for SonicStar is a new Hybrid engine, S-MAGJET 4000X designed by HyperMach’s engine partner SonicBlue. It is over 30% more fuel efficient then the Rolls Royce 593 Engine in Concorde. This is record breaking technology for a supersonic engine design. The 54,700 thrust class S-MAGJET engine is optimized to fly the HyperMach SonicStar aircraft at 62,000 ft, at a specific fuel consumption below 1.05 at Mach 3.5, this performance will be unprecedented and will welcome in a new era of the future of aerospace transport. HyperMach reveals that the engine technology will be developed and built in the UK and are currently in discussions with potential engine partners for the manufacture of the engine. The UK Department of Trade and Industry have agreed to support the company in the UK, as it establishes and grows the strategic Global Headquarters for the commercial engine development and manufacture of S-MAGJET 4000X. The UK’s Global Entrepreneur Programme is key to attracting some of the world’s most significant breakthrough technologies to the UK, creating the next generation of high growth sustainable global technology companies, and is involved in this new project. “We will be working with Richard Lugg and his company to explore ways for the SonicBlue engine, HyperMach and SonicStar to take advantage of the UK’s unique, global support infrastructure and network, which will help to establish the business as a dominant company in its field,” reveals Andrew Humphries, Dealmaker for the UK’s Global Entrepreneur Programme. HyperMach is currently working to secure investment and create value in preparation for launch in 2021. For additional information: Source: Renewable Energy Magazine
Revolutionary “green” supersonic aircraft unveiled
A New Reality Materializing: Humans Can Be the New Supercomputer
Illustration: Colourbox
Today, people of all backgrounds can contribute to solving serious scientific problems by playing computer games. A Danish research group has extended the limits of quantum physics calculations and simultaneously blurred the boundaries between man and mac. The Danish research team, CODER, has found out, that the human brain can beat the calculating powers of a computer, when it comes to solving quantum-problems. The saying of philosopher René Descartes of what makes humans unique is beginning to sound hollow. 'I think -- therefore soon I am obsolete' seems more appropriate. When a computer routinely beats us at chess and we can barely navigate without the help of a GPS, have we outlived our place in the world? Not quite. Welcome to the front line of research in cognitive skills, quantum computers and gaming. Today there is an on-going battle between man and machine. While genuine machine consciousness is still years into the future, we are beginning to see computers make choices that previously demanded a human's input. Recently, the world held its breath as Google's algorithm AlphaGo beat a professional player in the game Go--an achievement demonstrating the explosive speed of development in machine capabilities. A screenshot of one of the many games that are available. In this case the task is to shoot spiders in the "Quantum-Shooter" but there are many other
Credit: CODER/AU
kinds of games. But we are not beaten yet -- human skills are still superior in some areas. This is one of the conclusions of a recent study by Danish physicist Jacob Sherson, published in the prestigious science journal Nature. "It may sound dramatic, but we are currently in a race with technology -- and steadily being overtaken in many areas. Features that used to be uniquely human are fully captured by contemporary algorithms. Our results are here to demonstrate that there is still a difference between the abilities of a man and a machine," explains Jacob Sherson. What are quantum computers and how goes playing games help physicist in cutting edge research?Get a few answers in this video about ScienceAtHome. At the interface between quantum physics and computer games, Sherson and his
research group at Aarhus University have identified one of the abilities that still makes us unique compared to a computer's enormous processing power: our skill in approaching problems heuristically and solving them intuitively. The discovery was made at the AU Ideas Centre CODER, where an interdisciplinary team of researchers work to transfer some human traits to the way computer algorithms work. ? Quantum physics holds the promise of immense technological advances in areas ranging from computing to high-precision measurements. However, the problems that need to be solved to get there are so complex that even the most powerful supercomputers struggle with them. This is where the core idea behind CODER--combining the processing power of computers with human ingenuity -- becomes clear. ? Our common intuition: Like Columbus in QuantumLand, the CODER research group mapped out how the human brain is able to make decisions based on intuition and accumulated experience. This is done using the online game "Quantum Moves". Over 10,000 people have played the game that allows everyone contribute to basic research in quantum physics. "The map we created gives us insight into the strategies formed by the human brain. We behave intuitively when we need to solve an unknown problem, whereas for a computer this is incomprehensible. A computer churns through enormous amounts of information, but we can choose not to do this by basing our decision on experience or intuition. It is these intuitive insights that we discovered by analysing the Quantum Moves player solutions," explains Jacob Sherson. ? This is how the "Mind Atlas" looks. Based on 500.000 completed games the group has been able to visualize our ability to solve problems. Each peak on the 'map' represents a good idea, and the area with the most peaks - marked by red rings - are where the human intuition has hit a solution. A computer can then learn to focus on these areas, and in that way 'learn'
Credit: CODER/AU
about the cognitive functions of a human. The laws of quantum physics dictate an upper speed limit for data manipulation, which in turn sets the ultimate limit to the processing power of quantum computers -- the Quantum Speed ??Limit. Until now a computer algorithm has been used to identify this limit. It turns out that with human input researchers can find much better solutions than the algorithm. "The players solve a very complex problem by creating simple strategies. Where a computer goes through all available options, players automatically search for a solution that intuitively feels right. Through our analysis we found that there are common features in the players' solutions, providing a glimpse into the shared intuition of humanity. If we can teach computers to recognise these good solutions, calculations will be much faster. In a sense we are downloading our common intuition to the computer" says Jacob Sherson. And it works. The group has shown that we can break the Quantum Speed Limit by combining the cerebral cortex and computer chips. This is the new powerful tool in the development of quantum computers and other quantum technologies. We are the new supercomputer: Science is often perceived as something distant and exclusive, conducted behind closed doors. To enter you have to go through years of education, and preferably have a doctorate or two. Now a completely different reality is materializing? In recent years, a new phenomenon has appeared--citizen science breaks down the walls of the laboratory and invites in everyone who wants to contribute. The team at Aarhus University uses games to engage people in voluntary science research. Every week people around the world spend 3 billion hours playing games. Games are entering almost all areas of our daily life and have the potential to become an invaluable resource for science. "Who needs a supercomputer if we can access even a small fraction of this computing power? By turning science into games, anyone can do research in quantum physics. We have shown that games break down the barriers between quantum physicists and people of all backgrounds, providing phenomenal insights into state-of-the-art research. Our project combines the best of both worlds and helps challenge established paradigms in computational research," explains Jacob Sherson. The difference between the machine and us, figuratively speaking, is that we intuitively reach for the needle in a haystack without knowing exactly where it is. We 'guess' based on experience and thereby skip a whole series of bad options. For Quantum Moves, intuitive human actions have been shown to be compatible with the best computer solutions. In the future it will be exciting to explore many other problems with the aid of human intuition. "We are at the borderline of what we as humans can understand when faced with the problems of quantum physics. With the problem underlying Quantum Moves we give the computer every chance to beat us. Yet, over and over again we see that players are more efficient than machines at solving the problem. While Hollywood blockbusters on artificial intelligence are starting to seem increasingly realistic, our results demonstrate that the comparison between man and machine still sometimes favours us. We are very far from computers with human-type cognition," says Jacob Sherson and continues: "Our work is first and foremost a big step towards the understanding of quantum physical challenges. We do not know if this can be transferred to other challenging problems, but it is definitely something that we will work hard to resolve in the coming years."
- Contacts and sources: Jacob Sherson, Aarhus University,
- Citation: " Exploring the quantum speed limit with computer games" Authors: Jens Jakob W. H. Sørensen, Mads Kock Pedersen, Michael Munch, Pinja Haikka, Jesper Halkjær Jensen, Tilo Planke, Morten Ginnerup Andreasen, Miroslav Gajdacz, Klaus Mølmer, Andreas Lieberoth & Jacob F. Sherson Nature 532, 210–213 (14 April 2016) doi:10.1038/nature17620 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature17620A, Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/
Peer Into A Simulated Stellar-Mass Black Hole
A new study by astronomers at NASA, Johns Hopkins University and Rochester Institute of Technology confirms long-held suspicions about how stellar-mass black holes produce their highest-energy light. “We’re accurately representing the real object and calculating the light an astronomer would actually see,” says Scott Noble, associate research scientist in RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation. “This is a first-of-a-kind calculation where we actually carry out all the pieces together. We start with the equations we expect the system to follow, and we solve those full equations on a supercomputer. That gives us the data with which we can then make the predictions of the X-ray spectrum.” Lead researcher Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, says the study looks at one of the most extreme physical environments in the universe: “Our work traces the complex motions, particle interactions and turbulent magnetic fields in billion-degree gas on the threshold of a black hole.” This animation of supercomputer data takes you to the inner zone of the accretion disk of a stellar-mass black hole. Gas heated to 20 million degrees Fahrenheit as it spirals toward the black hole glows in low-energy, or soft, X-rays. Just before the gas plunges to the center, its orbital motion is approaching the speed of light. X-rays up to hundreds of times more powerful (“harder”) than those in the disk arise from the corona, a region of tenuous and much hotter gas around the disk.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Coronal temperatures reach billions of degrees. By analyzing a supercomputer simulation of gas flowing into a black hole, the team finds they can reproduce a range of important X-ray features long observed in active black holes. “We’ve predicted and come to the same evidence that the observers have,” Noble says. “This is very encouraging because it says we actually understand what’s going on. If we made all the correct steps and we saw a totally different answer, we’d have to rethink what our model is.” Scott Noble, associate research scientist in RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation
Gas falling toward a black hole initially orbits around it and then accumulates into a flattened disk. The gas stored in this disk gradually spirals inward and becomes compressed and heated as it nears the center. Ultimately reaching temperatures up to 20 million degrees Fahrenheit (12 million C) — some 2,000 times hotter than the sun’s surface — the gas shines brightly in low-energy, or soft, X-rays. For more than 40 years, however, observations show that black holes also produce considerable amounts of “hard” X-rays, light with energy 10 to hundreds of times greater than soft X-rays. This higher-energy light implies the presence of correspondingly hotter gas, with temperatures reaching billions of degrees. The new study bridges the gap between theory and observation, demonstrating that both hard and soft X-rays inevitably arise from gas spiraling toward a black hole. Working with Noble and Julian Krolik, a professor at Johns Hopkins, Schnittman developed a process for modeling the inner region of a black hole’s accretion disk, tracking the emission and movement of X-rays, and comparing the results to observations of real black holes. Noble developed a computer simulation solving all of the equations governing the complex motion of inflowing gas and its associated magnetic fields near an accreting black hole. The rising temperature, density and speed of the infalling gas dramatically amplify magnetic fields threading through the disk, which then exert additional influence on the gas. The result is a turbulent froth orbiting the black hole at speeds approaching the speed of light. The calculations simultaneously tracked the fluid, electrical and magnetic properties of the gas while also taking into account Einstein’s theory of relativity. Running on the Ranger supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center located at the University of Texas in Austin, Noble's simulation used 960 of Ranger’s nearly 63,000 central processing units and took 27 days to complete. Over the years, improved X-ray observations provided mounting evidence that hard X-rays originated in a hot, tenuous corona above the disk, a structure analogous to the hot corona that surrounds the sun. “Astronomers also expected that the disk supported strong magnetic fields and hoped that these fields might bubble up out of it, creating the corona,” Noble says. “But no one knew for sure if this really happened and, if it did, whether the X-rays produced would match what we observe.” Using the data generated by Noble’s simulation, Schnittman and Krolik developed tools to track how X-rays were emitted, absorbed and scattered throughout both the accretion disk and the corona region. Combined, they demonstrate for the first time a direct connection between magnetic turbulence in the disk, the formation of a billion-degree corona, and the production of hard X-rays around an actively “feeding” black hole. Results from the study, “X-ray Spectra from Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Accreting Black Holes,” were published in the June 1 issue of The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ, 769, 156). In the corona, electrons and other particles move at appreciable fractions of the speed of light. When a low-energy X-ray from the disk travels through this region, it may collide with one of the fast-moving particles. The impact greatly increases the X-ray’s energy through a process known as inverse Compton scattering. “Black holes are truly exotic, with extraordinarily high temperatures, incredibly rapid motions and gravity exhibiting the full weirdness of general relativity,” Krolik says. “But our calculations show we can understand a lot about them using only standard physics principles.” The study was based on a non-rotating black hole. The researchers are extending the results to spinning black holes, where rotation pulls the inner edge of the disk further inward and conditions become even more extreme. They also plan a detailed comparison of their results to the wealth of X-ray observations now archived by NASA and other institutions. Black holes are the densest objects known. Stellar-mass black holes form when massive stars run out of fuel and collapse, crushing up to 20 times the sun’s mass into compact objects less than 75 miles (120 kilometers) wide. Contacts and sources: Susan Gawlowicz, Rochester Institute of Technology, Source: Nano Patents And Innovations
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