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My grandparents taught me the importance of a power nap; and it does help.


We’re not sure what the boss would have to say about it if you suddenly downed tools and made a decision to have a little sleep, but new research has found that taking an hour’s nap after lunch can have a number of health benefits, including preventing brain ageing.

The study conducted among the older Chinese men by a team of worldwide researchers concentrated mainly on post-lunchtime napping and its impact on the health of elderly people.

Do you hesitate to take a sleep after having your lunch, now you should not.

An international team of astronomers have discovered a ‘cosmic one-two punch’ in the night sky that has never been seen before. In one image, the team managed to spot a supermassive black hole and two gigantic galaxy clusters colliding at the same time.

Matter ejected from the black hole gets caught up inside the violent galactic collisions, turning this dynamic duo into one hell of an enormous cosmic particle accelerator.

“We have seen each of these spectacular phenomena separately in many places,” said team leader Reinout van Weeren, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics.

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Stronger Graphene; can you imagine have a car or SUV that is solid like a Sherman Tank and weighs the same or less than your car or SUV does today; or a commercial jet that it’s fuselage remains intact when it crashes while protecting others inside; or a building that does not get ripped apart in a tornado? With this form of graphene it may be possible.


Now a team of researchers at MIT have developed a computer model that simulates fusing flakes of graphene into three-dimensional configurations.

According to the researchers, Graphene is a strong material. As such, the porous graphene material can be used in the construction industry by creating strong and light materials.

This also suggests that other strong and lightweight materials can be made stronger as well by taking on similar geometric features. They were mechanically tested for their tensile and compressive properties, and their mechanical response under loading was simulated using the team’s theoretical models.

DARPA’s Tactical Undersea Network Architecture (TUNA) program recently completed its initial phase, successfully developing concepts and technologies aimed at restoring connectivity for U.S. forces when traditional tactical networks are knocked offline or otherwise unavailable. The program now enters the next phase, which calls for the demonstration of a prototype of the system at sea.

TUNA seeks to develop and demonstrate novel, optical-fiber-based technology options and designs to temporarily restore radio frequency (RF) tactical data networks in a contested environment via an undersea optical fiber backbone. The concept involves deploying RF network node buoys—dropped from aircraft or ships, for example—that would be connected via thin underwater fiber-optic cables. The very-small-diameter fiber-optic cables being developed are designed to last 30 days in the rough ocean environment—long enough to provide essential connectivity until primary methods of communications are restored.

“Phase 1 of the program included successful modeling, simulation, and at-sea tests of unique fiber-cable and buoy-component technologies needed to make such an undersea architecture work,” said John Kamp, program manager in DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office. “Teams were able to design strong, hair-thin, buoyant fiber-optic cables able to withstand the pressure, saltwater, and currents of the ocean, as well as develop novel power generation concepts.”

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For example, the market for hemostats in defence and civil forces alone is 2 crore units. While some startups have got some funding to fuel their expansion plans, not all investors may be keen to back companies targeting the defence market.

“Since the cost of failure is really high in this industry, one needs to invest significant time and effort to ensure development of a world-class product,” says Bhaniramka of the GIS solutions vendor VizExperts.

“This results in higher gestation periods, which typical investors shy away from.” Instead, he and other entrepreneurs argue, longer term investors may be more suited to this field. “This is where the government’s role in supporting innovative technology companies can be a game changer.”

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This kit by Royal College of Art graduate Heeju Kim uses sweets to recreate the tongue-tying experience of living with autism. Kim created three tools and a mobile application as part of the project, which is titled An Empathy Bridge for Autism.

A set of six awkwardly shaped lollipops and candies impede tongue movement in various ways. They make it hard for users to hold a conversation, conveying how unclear pronunciation has an impact on autistic individuals.

An augmented-reality headset is worn over the eyes and connects to a smartphone to alter the user’s perception of what’s in front of them. It restricts the view of their periphery, gives them double vision or obscures their focus with a patch of black.

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I like this article as it highlights some of the major discoveries made in 2016 that will launch many areas forward in 2017.


IBM is taking steps to make the world a better place.

The company has unveiled its annual ‘Five in Five’ list today, which lays out some of the most important and groundbreaking scientific innovations that, in the next five years, could have the potential to drastically alter the way people work, live and interact.