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Feb 22, 2024

The Zombie Star That Could Solve the Mystery of the Universe’s Strongest Magnets

Posted by in category: space

Magnetars are the strongest magnets in the universe. These super-dense dead stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields can be found all over our galaxy but astronomers don’t know exactly how they form.

Now, using multiple telescopes around the world, including European Southern Observatory (ESO) facilities, researchers have uncovered a living star that is likely to become a magnetar. This finding marks the discovery of a new type of astronomical object—massive magnetic helium stars—and sheds light on the origin of magnetars.

Despite having been observed for over 100 years, the enigmatic nature of the star HD 45,166 could not be easily explained by conventional models, and little was known about it beyond the fact that it is one of a pair of stars, is rich in helium and is a few times more massive than our sun.

Feb 22, 2024

Man feels hot and cold again with prosthetic hand breakthrough

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs

Researchers have built a device that helps users feel temperature through a prosthetic arm. A new study shows it works with high accuracy.

Feb 22, 2024

24 Best Longevity Conferences and Events for 2024

Posted by in category: life extension

For this long overdue update of top longevity conferences we’ve removed 5 old events no longer happening and added a whopping 12 new ones!


We’ve put together the most up-to-date list of longevity conferences where you can learn about life-extension research in-person and online.

Feb 22, 2024

Power-efficient neural network with artificial dendrites

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

A memristor-based artificial dendrite enables the neural network to perform high-accuracy computation tasks with reduced power consumption.

Feb 22, 2024

AI billionaire crowns ‘whole new industry’ amid ‘tipping point’ after his company passes Google for third most valuable in the world

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

He’s worth $60 billion. I wouldn’t say I didn’t see it coming. The company has been good for a while.


Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang, worth over $60 billion after his $1.9 trillion AI giant reported blowout earnings, crowns a “whole new industry.”

Feb 22, 2024

OpenAI’s Sora Unleashes New Text-to-Video Generative AI: It’s Shockingly Powerful

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Late last week, OpenAI announced a new generative AI system named Sora, which produces short videos from text prompts.

Feb 22, 2024

Report claims Apple’s smart ring is arriving ‘imminently’

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, wearables

The rumor mill has fired up again, with a new supply chain report claiming that the “Apple Ring” will arrive sooner, rather than later.

Samsung’s tease of the Galaxy Ring during its Unpacked event in January will help expand the smart ring market considerably. However, a report claims Apple isn’t too far away from introducing its own.

According to an industry insider speaking to ETNews on Tuesday, Apple is getting very close to launching the rumored wearable. After filing many patent applications, and spurned on by Samsung, it could soon be Apple’s turn.

Feb 22, 2024

What the U.S. can learn from Norway when it comes to EV adoption

Posted by in categories: climatology, government, sustainability

Norway boasts the highest electric vehicle adoption rate in the world. Some 82% of new car sales were EVs in Norway in 2023, according to the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV). In comparison, 7.6% of new car sales were electric in the U.S. last year, according to Kelley Blue Book estimates. In the world’s largest auto market, China, 24% of new car sales were EVs in 2023, according to the China Passenger Car Association.

“Our goal is that all new cars by 2025 will be zero-emission vehicles,” said Ragnhild Syrstad, the state secretary of the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, “We think we’re going to reach that goal.”

The Norwegian government started incentivizing the purchase of EVs back in the 1990s with free parking, the use of bus lanes, no tolls and most importantly, no taxes on zero-emission vehicles. But it wasn’t until Tesla and other EV models became available about 10 years ago that sales started to take off, Syrstad said.

Feb 22, 2024

IOS 18: Here are the new AI features in the works

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

2024 is shaping up to be the “Year of AI” for Apple, with big updates planned for iOS 18 and more. The rumors – and Tim Cook himself – make it clear that there are new AI features for Apple’s platforms in the works. Here’s everything we know about the ways Apple is exploring AI features…

Feb 22, 2024

Researchers develop molecules for a new class of antibiotics that can overcome drug resistant bacteria

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

About a decade ago, researchers in UC Santa Barbara chemistry professor Guillermo Bazan’s lab began to observe a recurring challenge in their research: Some of the compounds they were developing to harness energy from bacteria were instead killing the microbes. Not good if the objective of the project was to harness the metabolism of living bacteria to produce electricity.

“We needed the bacteria to be alive,” said Alex Moreland, a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow who joined the Bazan research group as a graduate student in 2014, and currently works at UCSB’s Center for Polymers and Organic Solids. “While we were developing new molecules for that application, we found that some of them didn’t work because they were killing the bacteria.”

However, instead of brushing it off as a rather annoying laboratory curiosity, in subsequent research the team leaned into the apparent antimicrobial properties of these compounds, called conjugated oligoelectrolytes (COE). Fast-forward to today, and they now have the basis for a new class of antibiotics, one that not only shows promise against a broad array of bacterial infections but can also evade the dreaded resistance that has been rendering our current generation of first-line antibiotics ineffective.