Lifeboat Foundation

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A new microSD card delivers far more storage than previously available, with support for full HD videos and photos.

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(3Ders.org) The rapid advance of 3D printing technology means that hybrid-material wind turbine blades complete with metal mesh inserts are no longer the stuff of imagination. These energy savers with “sci-fi-level” performance could become reality in as soon as two years. Philip Totaro of Totaro & Associates, “The greatest challenge for wind turbine blade structural and manufacturing engineers is to implement the idealized performance and noise mitigated designs of aerodynamics engineers,” explains Totaro. “Limitations of previous generations of manufacturing technology and the reliance on lower cost materials have limited the type of spar/shear web structures which could be utilized.” But 3D printing could be about to change all that, Totaro says.

The Facebook AI lab has developed an animated bot that learned to respond naturally to human facial movements during conversation, so much so that volunteers rated its reactions as natural as a human’s.

Most of us are able to intuitively understand human facial expressions: in conversation, millions of tiny muscle movements change our eyes, mouth, head position and more to signal to our fellow humans what we’re thinking. These unconscious movements are what make us human, but they also make it exceptionally difficult for robots to imitate us — and make those that try seem creepy, as they enter the “uncanny valley.”

But once your car starts to get older, the speakers start to fade. Worse yet, they might buzz against a loose panel in your door, causing a distinctly un-rocking rattle every time the bass comes in. But a new design from Continental actually uses those vibrating door panels to great effect, and could simultaneously make car speakers obsolete and cut down on the weight of our cars in the very near future.

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Scientists at Tufts University were able to graft eyes to the tails of blind Xenopus, giving the tadpoles the ability to detect colors, focus on objects, and consistently follow patterns.

In a breakthrough for regenerative medicine, researchers have developed working eyes attached to the tails of blind Xenopus tadpoles. The tadpoles were able to process visual information from their environment upon the augmentation, helping scientist understand the process of promoting innervation (a part of the body’s nerve supply) in regenerative medicine.

Continue reading “Scientists Grafted Eyes Onto a Blind Organism’s Back, and It Could See” »

These white giraffes look like magical creatures.