This finding, published in Science, was demonstrated by researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, the Cluster of Excellence Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior at the University of Konstanz, Germany, Tel Aviv University, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Would you be able to instantly recognize your location and find your way home from any random point within a three-kilometer radius, in complete darkness, with only a flashlight to guide you?

Echolocating bats face a similar challenge, with a local and directed beam of sound—their echolocation —to guide their way. Bats have long been known for their use of echolocation to avoid obstacles and orient themselves.

However, Dr. Robin Wordsworth of Harvard University and Dr. Charles S. Cockell of the University of Edinburgh argue that this focus has left unexplored possibilities for life in environments that don’t resemble our own.

In a preprint paper accepted for publication in the journal Astrobiology, researchers challenge conventional assumptions about extraterrestrial life and explore the feasibility of life existing in structures created by living organisms themselves.

As researchers suggest, life-supporting conditions created solely by biological structures could indeed exist, making it entirely possible for some forms of life to thrive in space habitats vastly different from those on Earth.

A wildfire destroyed 90% of a town in California. Now, it’s using building ordinances to entice insurance companies back. Could Washington soon follow the strategy?

At least 10 people including a child have died in Indonesia following a series of powerful volcanic eruptions that destroyed homes and a Catholic convent, authorities said.

The eruptions, originating from Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki, hit the remote island of Flores on Monday, according the country’s National Disaster Management Agency.

They began around midnight, sending thick plumes of ash up to 6,500 feet into the atmosphere and depositing hot ash on several nearby villages.

Pick and place bots autonomously doing household chores. Progress!

The idea of a robot that does a wide range of household chores, from unloading the dryer to folding laundry to cleaning up a messy table, has long seemed like pure science fiction—perhaps most famously embodied by the 1960s fantasy that was Rosey in The Jetsons.

Physical Intelligence, a startup in San Francisco, has shown that such a dream might actually not be so far off, demonstrating a single artificial intelligence model that has learned to do a wide range of useful home chores—including all of the above—by being trained on an unprecedented amount of data.

The feat raises the prospect of bringing something as magical and generally capable as other AI models like ChatGPT into the physical world.

A self-building sponge that efficiently collects gold could eliminate some harsh methods used to process e-waste.

By Ben Guarino

A newly discovered protein naturally houses an unusual binding site that can differentiate between rare earth elements, and researchers at Penn State have made it even better. Rare earth elements are key components used in everything from modern tech to gasoline production. The protein, called LanD, enriches neodymium and praseodymium over other similar rare earth elements (REEs) and has the potential to revolutionize industrial mining, researchers said.

27K likes, — logicure on October 3, 2024: Ballie is a soccer ball-sized, yellow, spherical AI-powered robot created by Samsung Electronics that can navigate homes and perform tasks such as controlling smart home devices, projecting images, and communicating with users.

Ballie was first introduced at CES 2020 and an upgraded version was unveiled at CES 2024.

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Located in the Xinyi District of Taipei, Tao Zhu Yin Yuan, more famously known as the Agora Garden, is an ultra-modern residential building. It has been a point of observation and study for many designers for its peculiar twisted structure. The building has a height of 306 ft comprising 21 floors above ground and three basements. It has a LEED gold and diamond label and has also won multiple awards.

This breakthrough could be used to make eco-friendly houses and structures in the near future.first appeared on The Cool Down.