Lifeboat Foundation

A small research group from the University of Michigan has developed a three-legged skating/shuffling robot called SKOOTR that rolls as it walks, can move along in any direction and can even rise up to overcome obstacles.

The idea for the SKOOTR – or SKating, Omni-Oriented, Tripedal Robot – project came from assistant professor Talia Y. Moore at the University of Michigan’s Evolution and Motion of Biology and Robotics (EMBiR) Lab.

Continue reading “Omnidirectional tripedal robot scoots, shuffles and climbs” »

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) — SpaceX has started selling satellite lasers, which are used for speedy in-space communications, to other satellite firms, company President Gwynne Shotwell said at a conference on Tuesday.

SpaceX’s thousands of Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit use inter-satellite laser links to pass data between one another in space at the speed of light, allowing the network to offer broader internet coverage around the world with fewer ground stations.

Shotwell, speaking on a panel at the Satellite industry conference in Washington, said SpaceX as a supplier will sell that technology to other companies.

Researchers have developed a revolutionary sensor capable of detecting chemical warfare agents without wires, representing a major advancement in technology for public safety. This innovative device, capable of identifying substances like dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP), offers a new level of efficiency and reliability in monitoring and responding to chemical threats, without the need for direct power sources or physical connections.

The urgent need for advanced detection of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) to ensure global security has led to the development of a novel gas sensor. This sensor is distinguished by its rapid response, high sensitivity, and compact size, crucial for the early detection of CWAs. Accurate detection and monitoring of CWAs are vital for effective defense operations, both military and civilian. Due to the hazardous nature of CWAs, research is typically limited to authorized laboratories using simulants that mimic CWAs’ chemical structure without their toxic effects.

Older people may be at greater risk of developing pancreatic cancer and have poorer prognoses because of age-related changes in cells in the pancreas called fibroblasts, according to research led by investigators from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

The study, published online Feb. 8 in Cancer Research, provides clues as to why pancreatic cancer is more common and aggressive in older people. It may also help scientists develop new therapeutic approaches for this difficult-to-treat cancer. The study showed that aging alters fibroblasts in ways that enable them to promote pancreatic cancer tumor growth.

“Older fibroblasts release proteins that directly affect pancreatic cancer cells and ultimately lead to the growth and spread of pancreatic cancer tumors,” says the study’s lead author, Daniel Zabransky, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “The younger fibroblasts did not have these capabilities. We think this is a key reason why we see pancreatic cancer more commonly in older patients.”

MIT CSAIL researchers introduce FeatUp, a model-agnostic framework designed to significantly enhance the spatial resolution of deep learning features for improved performance in computer vision tasks such as semantic segmentation, depth prediction, and object detection.

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The third Starship launched! How did it go? Does anything require repairs, and why did it tumble? Dream Chaser is gearing up for the launch, and ABL Space is back in action!

Continue reading “SpaceX Starship IFT3 Aftermath: New Insights Paint Different Picture!” »

According to Nvidia’s roadmap, it’ll unveil its next-gen Blackwell architecture soon. The company always launches a new architecture with data center products first and then reveals the cut-down GeForce versions many months later, so that’s what’s expected this time as well. On that note, the company’s semi-annual GTC technology conference starts in two weeks, so we expect a lot to be revealed at the show. As proof that Nvidia is close to pulling the wraps off its new data center GPUs, a Dell executive has already shared some juicy info about next-gen Nvidia hardware, saying in a recent earnings call the company has a 1,000W data center GPU in the pipeline.

The executive who has probably already received an angry call from Jensen is Jeff Clarke, a COO at Dell. On a Feb. 29 earnings call (PDF), the executive discussed Dell’s engineering superiority and how upcoming hardware from Nvidia will give the company a chance to show it off. “We’re excited about what happens at the B100 and the B200,” he said, which are the die names for Nvidia’s next-generation data center GPU and its apparent successor. For context, Nvidia currently has the H100 as its flagship data center GPU and is just now launching the second iteration with faster HBM3e memory, dubbed H200. We all know the B100 is the Blackwell successor to this chip, so it appears the B200 will be that GPU’s second iteration, though it does not currently appear on Nvidia’s roadmap (below).

It’s hard to imagine that a Ford F-150 Lightning out there already has nearly 100,000 miles on its odometer. Especially since they’ve only been on the roads since late May of 2022. That’s less than two years ago, yet here we have a Ford F-150 Lightning owner reporting on his electric truck with 93,000 miles on the odometer.

He’s owned this F-150 Lightning for 21 months now, so that works out to an average of 4,429 miles driven per month or about 53,000 miles yearly. And while that’s certainly a lot of driving, what’s perhaps most interesting is the battery health of the electric pickup truck.

He then left Google and started a new AI lab called Inflection AI, which he ran as CEO. He and Inflection’s chief scientist, Karén Simonyan, are now jumping ship to help lead Microsoft AI.

Suleyman will become both a Microsoft EVP and run the new Microsoft AI group as CEO. On why he was selected, Nadella said: “I’ve known Mustafa for several years and have greatly admired him as a founder of both DeepMind and Inflection, and as a visionary, product maker, and builder of pioneering teams that go after bold missions.”

Meanwhile, Suleyman noted in a LinkedIn post: “I’ll be leading all consumer AI products and research, including Copilot, Bing and Edge.” Several of his co-workers at Inflection have also decided to migrate to Microsoft, he wrote.