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Jul 9, 2023

Synthetic Evolution: Genetically Minimal Artificial Cells Prove “Life Finds a Way”

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, education, evolution, genetics

Scientists discovered that a synthetic cell with a reduced genome could evolve as quickly as a normal cell. Despite losing 45% of its original genes, the cell adapted and demonstrated resilience in a laboratory experiment lasting 300 days, effectively showcasing that evolution occurs even under perceived limitations.

“Listen, if there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us is that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories, and it crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but… ife finds a way,” said Ian Malcolm, Jeff Goldblum’s character in Jurassic.

The Jurassic period is a geologic time period and system that spanned 56 million years from the end of the Triassic Period about 201.3 million years ago to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period 145 million years ago. It constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic Era and is divided into three epochs: Early, Middle, and Late. The name “Jurassic” was given to the period by geologists in the early 19th century based on the rock formations found in the Jura Mountains, which were formed during the Jurassic period.

Jul 9, 2023

Scientists soften hair follicles using microRNA to regrow hair

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Just as stiffened joints can hinder mobility, it appears the stem cells of hair follicles can also grow stiff, obstructing hair growth.

Jul 9, 2023

New priming method improves battery life, efficiency

Posted by in categories: climatology, particle physics, sustainability

Silicon anode batteries have the potential to revolutionize energy storage capabilities, which is key to meeting climate goals and unlocking the full potential of electric vehicles.

However, the irreversible depletion of lithium ions in silicon anodes puts a major constraint on the development of next-generation lithium-ion batteries.

Scientists at Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering have developed a readily scalable method to optimize prelithiation, a process that helps mitigate lithium loss and improves battery life cycles by coating silicon anodes with stabilized lithium metal particles (SLMPs).

Jul 9, 2023

Wearable Sensors that Detect Gas Leaks

Posted by in categories: chemistry, health, holograms, military, wearables

Gas accidents such as toxic gas leakage in factories, carbon monoxide leakage of boilers, or toxic gas suffocation during manhole cleaning continue to claim lives and cause injuries. Developing a sensor that can quickly detect toxic gases or biochemicals is still an important issue in public health, environmental monitoring, and military sectors. Recently, a research team at POSTECH has developed an inexpensive, ultra-compact wearable hologram sensor that immediately notifies the user of volatile gas detection.


[Professor Junsuk Rho’s research team at POSTECH develops wearable gas sensors that display instantaneous visual holographic alarm.].

Jul 9, 2023

Gartner: 79% of strategists see AI as critical to businesses

Posted by in categories: business, robotics/AI

The technological research firm’s recent survey that found corporate strategists view AI and analytics as paramount to future business success.

Jul 9, 2023

Generative AI in Games Will Create a Copyright Crisis

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Titles like AI Dungeon are already using generative AI to generate in-game content. Nobody knows who owns it.

Jul 9, 2023

Scientists make loudspeakers that can absorb sound for pure silence

Posted by in category: particle physics

This is according to a press release by the institution published last week.

“We wanted to reduce the effect of the membrane as much as possible, since it’s heavy. But what can be as light as air? The air itself,” explained Stanislav Sergeev, a postdoc at EPFL’s Acoustic Group and first author.

“We first ionize the thin layer of air between the electrodes that we call a plasmacoustic metalayer. The same air particles, now electrically charged, can instantaneously respond to external electrical field commands and effectively interact with sound vibrations in the air around the device to cancel them out.”

Jul 9, 2023

Electrons are extremely round, a new measurement confirms

Posted by in category: space

The near-perfect roundness deepens the mystery behind how the universe came to be filled with matter as opposed to antimatter.

Jul 9, 2023

OpenAI makes GPT-4 generally available

Posted by in categories: innovation, robotics/AI

OpenAI today announced the general availability of GPT-4, its latest text-generating model, through its API.

Starting this afternoon, all existing OpenAI API developers “with a history of successful payments” can access GPT-4. The company plans to open up access to new developers by the end of this month, and then start raising availability limits after that “depending on compute availability.”

“Millions of developers have requested access to the GPT-4 API since March, and the range of innovative products leveraging GPT-4 is growing every day,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post. “We envision a future where chat-based models can support any use case.”

Jul 9, 2023

MIT develops a motion and task planning system for home robots

Posted by in categories: habitats, robotics/AI

Why aren’t there more robots in homes? This a surprising complex question — and our homes are surprisingly complex places. A big part of the reason autonomous systems are thriving on warehouse and factory floors first is the relative ease of navigating a structured environment. Sure, most systems still require a space be mapped prior to getting to work, but once that’s in place there tends to be little in the way of variation.

Homes, on the other hand, are kind of a nightmare. Not only do they vary dramatically from unit to unit, they’re full of unfriendly obstacles and tend to be fairly dynamic, as furniture is moved around or things are left on the floor. Vacuums are the most prevalent robots in the home, and they’re still being refined after decades on the market.

This week, researchers at MIT CSAIL are showcasing PIGINet (Plans, Images, Goal, and Initial facts), which is designed to bring task and motion planning to home robotic systems. The neural network is designed to help streamline their ability to create plans of action in different environments.