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A review paper by scientists at Zhejiang University summarized the development of continuum robots from the aspects of design, actuation, modeling and control. The new review paper, published on Jul. 26 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, provided an overview of the classic and advanced technologies of continuum robots, along with some prospects urgently to be solved.

“Some small-scale continuum robots with new actuation methods are being widely investigated in the field of interventional surgical treatment or endoscopy, however, the characterization of mechanical properties of them is still different problem,” explained study author Haojian Lu, a professor at the Zhejiang University.

In order to realize the miniaturization of continuum robots, many cutting-edge materials have been developed and used to realize the actuation of robots, showing unique advantages. The continuum robots embedded with micromagnet or made of ferromagnetic composite material have accurate steering ability under an external controllable magnetic field; Magnetically soft continuum robots, on the other hand, can achieve small diameters, up to the micron scale, which ensures their ability to conduct targeted therapy in bronchi or in cerebral vessels.

A brain-building genetic mutation might have helped give us an intellectual leg up on other hominins. Plus, why NASA’s Artemis Moon launch is delayed and all about an affirmative-action strategy to boost female faculty numbers.

Say you live across from a bakery. Sometimes you are hungry and therefore tempted when odors waft through your window, but other times satiety makes you indifferent. Sometimes popping over for a popover seems trouble-free but sometimes your spiteful ex is there. Your brain balances many influences in determining what you’ll do. A new MIT study details an example of this working in a much simpler animal, highlighting a potentially fundamental principle of how nervous systems integrate multiple factors to guide food-seeking behavior.

All animals share the challenge of weighing diverse sensory cues and internal states when formulating behaviors, but scientists know little about how this actually occurs. To gain deep insight, the research team based at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory turned to the C. elegans worm, whose well-defined behavioral states and 302-cell nervous system make the complex problem at least tractable. They emerged with a case study of how in a crucial olfactory neuron called AWA, many sources of state and sensory information converge to independently throttle the expression of a key smell receptor. The integration of their influence on that receptor’s abundance then determines how AWA guides roaming around for food.

“In this study, we dissected the mechanisms that control the levels of a single olfactory receptor in a single olfactory neuron, based on the ongoing state and stimuli the animal experiences,” said senior author Steven Flavell, Lister Brothers Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. “Understanding how the integration happens in one cell will point the way for how it may happen in general, in other worm neurons and in other animals.”

Vaneev posits that: “‘intelligent impulses’ or even ‘human mind’ itself (because a musician can understand these impulses) existed long before the ‘Big Bang’ happened. This discovery is probably both the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, and the worst discovery (for many) as it poses very unnerving questions that touch religious grounds.”

The Voxengo developer sums up his findings as follows: “These results of 1-bit PRVHASH say the following: if abstract mathematics contains not just a system of rules for manipulating numbers, but also a freely-defined fixed information that is also ‘readable’ by a person, then mathematics does not just ‘exist’, but ‘it was formed’, because mathematics does not evolve (beside human discovery of new rules and patterns). And since physics cannot be formulated without such mathematics, and physical processes clearly obey these mathematical rules, it means that a Creator/Higher Intelligence/God exists in relation to the Universe. For the author personally, everything is proven here.”

Vaneev says that he wanted to “share my astonishment and satisfaction with the results of this work that took much more of my time than I had wished for,” but that you don’t need to concern yourself too much with his findings if you don’t want to.”

Summary: The TOB gene plays a significant role in reducing depression, anxiety, and fear in mouse models. The findings could have positive implications for developing new treatments for disorders associated with psychiatric stress.

Source: OIST

First characterized in Prof. Tadashi Yamamoto’s former lab in Japan in 1996, the gene Tob is well known for the role it plays in cancer. Previous research has also indicated that it has a hand in regulating the cell cycle and the body’s immune response.

400tmax/iStock.

The company has recently announced that they are ready to spin out a new one, Aalyria.

Thankfully, no crew were onboard for what would have been a terrifying ride.

One minute and four seconds after the launch of an uncrewed flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch system on Monday, September 12, the rocket suffered an anomaly.

Continue reading “Blue Origin’s rocket exploded, but the capsule escape system worked a charm” »

Hubble walked so that JWST could run.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured the most detailed and painstakingly sharp images ever taken of the inner region of the Orion Nebula, known as the “picture book of star formation.” The stellar nursery is situated in the constellation Orion, 1,350 light-years away from Earth.

NASA, ESA, CSA, PDRs4All ERS Team; image processing Salomé Fuenmayor.

Continue reading “James Webb Space Telescope captures Orion Nebula with ‘breathtaking’ details” »

This will make solar the cheapest type of clean energy.

The biggest challenge with solar power is that it can be produced only during the day. This is also one of the major reasons why many people and industries abstain from investing in solar panels because they are not a stable source of power. However, 26-year-old innovator and entrepreneur Ben Nowack claims to have developed a method that would allow solar energy production during the night as well.

Continue reading “This 26-year-old engineer plans to generate solar power at night using space mirrors” »