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Dec 16, 2022

A world-first project that uses ‘self-healing’ concrete to repair sewage pipes

Posted by in categories: economics, life extension, robotics/AI

This technology will not only extend the lifespan of concrete structures, but also promote a circular economy.

Sewer pipe corrosion, or crown corrosion, occurs when sewage pipe material comes into contact with sulphuric acid. The aging pipe material corrodes, and the pipes crack. Over the past few years, engineers have developed sewer bots to inspect sewage pipes and go to places unsafe for humans.

Professor Yan Zhuge, an engineering expert at the University of South Australia, is trialing a novel solution.

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Dec 16, 2022

Riffusion tweaks Stable Diffusion to make AI text to image spectrograms play audio

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Tweaks to the system have fine-tuned images of spectrograms.

Stable Diffusion has been tweaked to include an update to its AI routines to include a fine-tuning of the images of spectrograms that are paired to text. Now they are able to generate more precise sounds. The team calls their version of the stable diffusion model, Riffusion.

All the Stable Diffusion features remain.

Continue reading “Riffusion tweaks Stable Diffusion to make AI text to image spectrograms play audio” »

Dec 16, 2022

A startup is building an in-space manufacturing platform that could attach to Starship

Posted by in categories: military, space travel

“This platform can be for manufacturing, human habitation, military applications, and whatnot.”

In-space manufacturing will form a massive part of the future of space exploration as it massively reduces the cost of launching otherwise fully-built structures to orbit and beyond.

Not only that, one of its co-founders says it could be compatible with SpaceX’s in-development fully reusable Starship rocket, which could eventually take humans to Mars.

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Dec 16, 2022

World’s first attempt to reach orbit with methane-fueled rocket fails

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, satellites

The mission was also China’s first liftoff of a commercially developed liquid propellant rocket.

Chinese launch company LandSpace was touted to be akin to Elon Musk’s SpaceX. They were preparing a satellite launch that could beat Musk’s company with a methane-fueled rocket, reported Bloomberg.

Unfortunately, on Wednesday, the world’s first methane-fueled expendable rocket to be launched toward orbit failed to reach its goal. Hopes were high as the mission was also China’s first liftoff of a commercially developed liquid propellant rocket.

Dec 16, 2022

AI system can predict a positive or negative COVID-19 test result

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

The study shows that machine-learning models can help predict COVID-19 infections.

Researchers have discovered a new way to predict which features are most useful in determining test results for COVID-19. The research team, from Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) College of Engineering and Computer Science in the U.S., used AI to predict positive or negative COVID-19 test results.

The most common techniques currently used to detect COVID-19 are blood tests, also called serology tests, and molecular tests. Since the two assessments use different methods, they vary substantially.

Dec 16, 2022

A new water-based switch is thousands of times faster than current semiconductors

Posted by in categories: computing, mobile phones

Water becomes conductive within one trillionth of a second.

Researchers have developed a water-based switch that becomes conductive thousands of times faster than current state-of-art semiconductor-based switches. Such switches are used in computers, smartphones, and wireless communications.

Essentially, a short but powerful laser pulse converts the water into a conductive state within less than a trillionth of a second (10-12 seconds), during which time it behaves almost like a metal.

Dec 16, 2022

Apes can make rational, economic decisions as humans do, research finds

Posted by in category: economics

They love to bet.

The Institute of Biology at the University of Neuchatel (UniNE) in Switzerland discovered that orangutans and gorillas could make rational economic decisions. According to a new study, apes are similar to humans when it comes to making choices.

Led by Penelope Lacombe, Sarah Brocard, Klaus Zuberbühler, and Christoph Dahl, the study was conducted with orangutans and gorillas housed at Switzerland’s Basel Zoo. The results were published in PLOS ONE on December 14.

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Dec 16, 2022

Binance withdrawals surge to $3 billion, CEO CZ calls its ‘business as usual’

Posted by in categories: blockchains, business

A deja-vu in the crypto industry.

Withdrawals at the world’s largest crypto exchange platform, Binance, surged to $3 billion in a period of 24 hours, according to blockchain analytics firm Nansen.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao called the incident “very normal market behavior,” CNN

Continue reading “Binance withdrawals surge to $3 billion, CEO CZ calls its ‘business as usual’” »

Dec 16, 2022

Elon Musk sells nearly $3.6 billion of Tesla stock this week

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, finance, sustainability, transportation

Making the total amount of sold Tesla stocks nearly $40 billion over the past year.

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, has been on a selling spree of his company’s stock this year. Earlier this week, Musk sold 22 million shares over a period of three days, a filing with the U.S. financial regulator has revealed, the BBC

Musk, who rose to the top of the world’s wealthiest people list last year riding on Tesla stock price, has spent most of 2022 dealing with this start-again-stop-again campaign to acquire Twitter. Musk, who was quite secretive about acquiring Twitter stock at the beginning of the year, shocked many by declaring his intent to buy out the social media company and take it private.

Dec 16, 2022

Aliens likely haven’t visited because humanity’s technological signature is very limited

Posted by in categories: alien life, existential risks

There are likely many exciting alien worlds for extraterrestrials to visit.

Now that more and more scientists are actively searching for signs of extraterrestrial life, whether in our solar system or in the far reaches of space, more attention has been brought to the Fermi paradox.

A new study in preprint server arXiv suggests that we might not have encountered intelligent extraterrestrials because they may not find humanity very interesting.

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