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Exploiting the promise of recent advances in imitation learning for mobile manipulation will require the collection of large numbers of human-guided demonstrations. This paper proposes an open-source design for an inexpensive, robust, and flexible mobile manipulator that can support arbitrary arms, enabling a wide range of real-world household mobile manipulation tasks. Crucially, our design uses powered casters to enable the mobile base to be fully holonomic, able to control all planar degrees of freedom independently and simultaneously. This feature makes the base more maneuverable and simplifies many mobile manipulation tasks, eliminating the kinematic constraints that create complex and time-consuming motions in nonholonomic bases. We equip our robot with an intuitive mobile phone teleoperation interface to enable easy data acquisition for imitation learning.

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Technology has shaped our civilization as it grew down the centuries, and since the industrial revolution, each new generation seems defined by some new technological revolution… So what will the next revolution be?

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Continue reading “The Next Technological Revolution: What’s Coming?” | >

A recent study published in the journal Aging by Julia Michalkiewicz, Tung D. Nguyen, and Monica Y. Lee from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine underscores the essential role of the protein Nucleoporin93 (Nup93) in preserving blood vessel health during aging. The authors discuss emerging research that identifies Nup93 as a potential therapeutic target for preventing or mitigating aging-related conditions such as heart disease and stroke.

Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading causes of death worldwide, with aging identified as a major risk factor. Vascular health declines as endothelial cells (EC)—the protective lining of blood vessels—lose their functionality with age. This deterioration leads to inflammation, arterial stiffening, and reduced blood flow, significantly increasing the risk of life-threatening diseases. The authors underscore the urgent need to uncover the molecular mechanisms driving these changes.

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Physicists have long theorized the existence of a unique state of matter known as a quantum spin liquid. In this state, magnetic particles do not settle into an orderly pattern, even at absolute zero temperature. Instead, they remain in a constantly fluctuating, entangled state.

This unusual behavior is governed by complex quantum rules, leading to emergent properties that resemble fundamental aspects of our universe, such as the interactions of light and matter. Despite its intriguing implications, experimentally proving the existence of quantum spin liquids and exploring their distinctive properties has been extremely challenging.

In a paper recently published in Nature Physics, an international group of researchers comprised of an experimental team from Switzerland and France and theoretical physicists in Canada and the U.S., including Rice University, have found evidence of this enigmatic quantum spin liquid in a material known as pyrochlore cerium stannate.

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The instrument uses light to move atoms to measure incredibly small forces.

A new study finds that chimpanzees’ self-medication has helped scientists identify some promising plants for future pharmaceuticals. In the study, Oxford researchers have identified no less than 13 plants with potent wound-healing and infection-fighting properties.

The researchers made this astounding discovery thanks to the help of wild chimpanzees. By observing them in the wild, the team found that chimps tend to eat bark, dead wood, and leaves that are not part of their diet when sick or injured.

Continue reading “Chimps use medicinal plants to treat illnesses, may help find new drugs” | >