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Ford unveils two-legged robot that can walk packages to your door

‘It’s not always convenient for people to leave their homes to retrieve deliveries or for businesses to run their own delivery services,’ Ken Washington, chief technology officer at Ford, wrote in a blog post.

‘If we can free people up to focus less on the logistics of making deliveries, they can turn their time and effort to things that really need their attention.

‘Enter Digit, a two-legged robot designed and built by Agility Robotics to not only approximate the look of a human, but to walk like one, too,’ Washington added.

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Robot inspired by a bush baby can bounce THREE times its own height

A nimble robot inspired by bush babies can now bounce three times its own height in a single leap.

SALTO (saltatorial locomotion terrain obstacles) was fist designed to jump at 4mph (1.75 m/s) but a host of new features have now been added to the nifty machine.

A single leg, inspired by those of the galago, or Senegalese bush baby, propels the robot across a range of terrain and over various obstacles.

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Cooling wood: Engineers create strong, sustainable solution for passive cooling

What if the wood your house was made of could save your electricity bill? In the race to save energy, using a passive cooling method that requires no electricity and is built right into your house could save even chilly areas of the US some cash. Now, researchers at the University of Maryland and the University of Colorado have harnessed nature’s nanotechnology to help solve the problem of finding a passive way for buildings to dump heat that is sustainable and strong.

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An astronomer in the Netherlands captured stunning video of 60 Starlink satellites zooming across the sky

A stunning video shot by a Dutch astronomer captured a string of roughly 60 Starlink satellites zooming across the night sky, one day after they were launched into orbit.

The video shows the “train” of satellites speeding in a straight line as they orbit around the earth.

The astronomer, Marco Langbroek, wrote in a blog post that he had calculated the search orbit himself to find out when they would pass by, and “stood ready” with his camera. The train zoomed by within three minutes of his predicted time.

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Scientists Project Holograms Into The Brain To Create Experiences

One day soon you may be filling your lungs with crisp ocean air, your arms bathed in warm light as the sun sets over softly lapping waters and you may wonder, is this real? Or are scientists projecting holograms into my brain to create a vivid sensory experience that isn’t actually happening? A group of researchers at University of California, Berkeley are in the early stages of testing their ability to create, edit and scrub sensory experiences from your brain, both real-time and stored experiences: memories.

Using light to make us see what isn’t there.

Different sensory experiences show up in brain imaging as patterns of neurons firing in sequence. Neuroscientists are trying to reverse-engineer experiences by stimulating the neurons to excite the same neural patterns. At present, the steps to accomplish this are a little invasive. Scientists genetically modify neurons with photosensitive proteins so they can gingerly manipulate neurons using light. The process is known as optogenetics. Also, a metal head plate gets surgically implanted over the targeted area.

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