MIT scientists train shape-shifting, slimy robots that can seamlessly squeeze through narrow spaces by contorting their bodies on command.
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Intelligent Neuroprostheses: Brain-Controlled Devices Mimic Natural Motor Control
Researchers have tested a range of neuroprosthetic devices, from wheelchairs to robots to advanced limbs, that work with their users to intelligently perform tasks.
They work by decoding brain signals to determine the actions their users want to take, and then use advanced robotics to do the work of the spinal cord in orchestrating the movements. The use of shared control — new to neuroprostheses — “empowers users to perform complex tasks,” says José del R. Millán, who presented the new work at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) conference in San Francisco today.
Millán, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, began working on “brain-computer interfaces” (BCIs), designing devices that use people’s own brain activity to restore hand grasping and locomotion, or provide mobility via wheelchairs or telepresence robots, using people’s own brain activity.
$1,800,000,000,000 Bank Says Customer and Employee Data Has Been Exposed and Accessed in Mysterious Breach
One of the largest banks in the world says a data breach has exposed customer and employee information.
In a statement, Santander says it’s aware of “unauthorized access” to a third-party database containing information on an undisclosed number of customers and employees.
The bank, which has $1.8 trillion in total assets and operates in ten markets across Europe and the Americas, says customers of Santander Chile, Spain and Uruguay are affected.
The S-Matrix Is the Oracle Physicists Turn To in Times of Crisis
The Standard Model Lagrangian specifies all known particles that might come into being during a collision and how they might interact.
Particle physicists in search of the next theory of reality are consulting a mathematical structure that they know will never fail: a table of possibilities known as the S-matrix.
Diamonds grown at normal pressure in just 15 minutes
Diamonds are famously formed under high pressure and temperature, which is partly why they’re so valuable. But now, scientists have created diamonds in a lab under regular pressure in just 15 minutes.
Diamonds are basically just plain old carbon that’s been put under immense pressure and temperature, causing the atoms to crystallize into a particular structure. On Earth, the only place with the right natural conditions is deep in the mantle, hundreds of miles down. Only later are they brought closer to the surface, hitching rides in volcanic eruptions, which makes them pretty rare. Couple that with some of the most insidious marketing in history, and you’ve got a highly sought-after little rock.
Scientists have been growing diamonds in labs for decades, but it usually still needs those extreme conditions – almost 50,000 atmospheres of pressure, and temperatures of about 1,500 °C (2,732 °F). But a new technique has now produced diamonds under normal pressure levels and cooler temperatures.
