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Mar 26, 2024

Awesomely Weird Alibaba EV of the Week: Solar-powered 2-seat e-bike with infinite range

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability, transportation

Two of my passions are electric bicycle projects and DIY solar powered projects. In fact I’ve written the book on both topics. So to see these two fields combined in one quirky-yet-awesome product totally made my week. I just hope you’re as excited as I am to dive into this strange electric bike/car contraption that boasts a heap of features from seating for two to a giant solar panel array offering nearly unlimited range!

It’s just one of many strange, awesome and fun-looking electric vehicles I’ve discovered while window shopping on the world’s most eclectic digital thrift store: Alibaba. And now it has the honor of officially becoming this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week!

We’ve seen solar powered electric bicycles before, but they’re usually designed with some serious pedaling requirements. The low power of even large-sized panels means that riders generally still have to provide some significant leg assist.

Mar 26, 2024

Plasma Cell Neoplasms (Including Multiple Myeloma)—Patient Version

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Plasma cell neoplasms occur when abnormal plasma cells form cancerous tumors in bone or soft tissue.

When there is only one tumor, the disease is called a plasmacytoma. When there are multiple tumors, it is called multiple

Learn more about multiple treatment, statistics, research, and clinical trials.

Mar 26, 2024

Chronic musculoskeletal pain may accelerate brain aging

Posted by in categories: life extension, neuroscience

In a study published in Nature Mental Health, scientists from China and the United States have found that individuals suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) may face a higher high risk of brain aging.

Mar 26, 2024

Cryptic diversity of cellulose-degrading gut bacteria in industrialized humans

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Previously undescribed human gut bacteria that aid in the digestion of plant cellulose are scarce in urban societies but abundant in ancient and hunter-gatherer microbiomes, according to a new Science study.

Mar 26, 2024

Specific Gut Microbes are Linked to a Lower Risk of Infection

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, health

There are trillions of microbes in the human gastrointestinal tract, each of which expresses its own genome, and carries out a variety of biochemical processes. Gut microbes can generate a variety of molecules that can have a significant impact on human health, such as vitamins, specially modified bile acids, and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).

SCFAs have fewer than six carbon atoms, and are found in a few major forms, including acetate, propionate, and butyrate. When we eat fibers that are tough to digest, gut microbes metabolize them instead, and generate SCFAs. Many links have been found between butyrate and human health; it is thought to have roles in the maintainence of epithelial barriers, prevention of gut inflammation in the gut and colorectal cancer, and oxidative stress relief.

Mar 26, 2024

When Will Homo Sapiens Go Extinct?

Posted by in category: futurism

Other species of human used to walk the Earth. Homo sapiens are the last to survive.

Mar 26, 2024

Explained: AlterEgo—a Device With Which You Can Communicate With Machines With The ‘internet In Your Head’

Posted by in categories: internet, robotics/AI, wearables

This article is almost a year old, yet still wildly interesting.

An MIT scientist developed a wearable BCI device that allows users to access the internet with their minds.

The wearable device records neural signals as and when a person hears or thinks of words.

Continue reading “Explained: AlterEgo—a Device With Which You Can Communicate With Machines With The ‘internet In Your Head’” »

Mar 26, 2024

Google Pushing Its Unsafe Search AI on Users Who Didn’t Opt In

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Don’t want Google’s experimental AI search feature embedded into your search pages? Too bad.

According to Search Engine Land, Google has started unleashing its AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE) product, which was previously available for users only on an opt-in basis, into the browsers of users who didn’t choose to partake in Google’s AI search experiment.

Google has defended the unsolicited SGE-ification of its platform, telling Search Engine Land that it’s thus far only incorporated SGE automatically into a “subset of queries” that take up a “small percentage of search traffic in the US” and arguing further that the rollout will allow them to glean feedback from the users who, again, didn’t elect to opt into the generative AI search service.

Mar 26, 2024

Nanospikes: A Novel Approach to Virus-Killing Surfaces

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

What non-invasive methods can be developed to kill viruses on site? This is what a recent study published in ACS Nano hopes to address as a team of international researchers have developed a silicon surface containing nanospikes capable of preventing viruses from replicating or killing them entirely. This study holds the potential to help develop a passive way of mitigating the spread of viruses within a myriad of environments, including scientific laboratories and healthcare facilities.

“Our virus-killing surface looks like a flat black mirror to the naked eye but actually has tiny spikes designed specifically to kill viruses,” said Dr. Natalie Borg, who is a senior lecturer in the STEM | Health and Biomedical Sciences at RIMT University and a co-author on the study. “This material can be incorporated into commonly touched devices and surfaces to prevent viral spread and reduce the use of disinfectants.”

For the study, researchers at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication took inspiration from insects, some of which possess their own version of nanospikes on their wings that can damage fungi and bacteria. To produce the nanospikes, the team blasted smooth silicon wafers with ions, resulting in nanospikes measuring 290 nanometers in height and 2 nanometers thick, the latter of which is 30,000 times thinner than a human hair. They then tested their new material on the hPIV-3 virus, which is responsible for causing pneumonia and bronchitis, finding their nanospikes exhibited a 96 percent success rate in either preventing the virus from replicating or shredding them to pieces completely.

Mar 26, 2024

How the brain’s GPS helps you know where you are

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Researchers show for the first time the role endocannabinoid signals play in living animals moving about in the environment.

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