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Feb 3, 2022

Glowing Helicopters on Mars

Posted by in categories: drones, space

If the Ingenuity helicopter would fly at night on Mars, its very possible the whirring rotors would create enough static electricity in the extremely dry Martian atmosphere to cause the air around the craft to glow.

“The faint glow would be most visible during evening hours when the background sky is darker,” said William Farrell, from Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author of a paper on this topic. “NASA’s experimental Ingenuity helicopter does not fly during this time, but future drones could be cleared for evening flight and look for this glow.”

If you’ve ever shuffled your feet across a wool carpet on a dry winter day, and then reached out to touch a metal doorknob, you’re familiar with the static discharge that creates a little zap — a spark — that leaps between your fingers and the metal knob.

Feb 3, 2022

Iron Accumulation Linked With Age-Related Cognitive Decline

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience

Summary: A breakdown in regulatory mechanisms causes iron to build up in the brain during aging, increasing oxidative stress and increasing the risk of age-related cognitive decline, a new study reports.

Source: Northwestern University.

Breakdowns in regulatory mechanisms cause iron to build up in the brain as organisms grow older, increasing oxidative stress and causing cellular damage, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in the journal eLife.

Feb 3, 2022

GM declares chip crisis over—and says it’s time to let the cheap cars roll

Posted by in categories: computing, transportation

The carmaker’s confidence this early in the year surprised analysts skeptical it can boost global annual production volumes by 25% at least.

Feb 3, 2022

Sadly, the ‘Warp Bubble’ is Still in Beta

Posted by in category: space

Sorry to our fellow hopeful space nerds, but we have to burst everyone’s warp bubble. Despite recent reports that scientists have “accidentally created a warp bubble,” it looks like warp speed is still a few baby steps away. But all hope is not lost: a group of scientists led by Dr. Harold G. “Sunny” White has proposed a structure that could actually be built in the real world and used to study the Casimir effect. It might be a baby step, but it’s a real one.

Breaking the ‘cosmic speed limit’ with the Casimir effect

To make a warp drive, first you need to master the Casimir effect. The Casimir effect, for the uninitiated, is a very small attractive force that exists between two uncharged but conductive parallel plates that are held very, very close together. It used to be a purely hypothetical offshoot of relativity. However, now that we’ve seen it happen in real life, it’s high on the list of real-world phenomena scientists are investigating to figure out how we might finally crack the problem of interstellar space exploration.

Feb 3, 2022

Captained: The European immigrants prevailed in that war, as well as in a long series of conflicts with other tribes

Posted by in categories: health, internet, robotics/AI, sustainability

On this land taken from Indigenous Peoples, a new nation was eventually born, largely built by those whose ancestries traced back to the Old World via immigration and slavery.

As the country grew, inventions like the telephone, airplane, and Internet helped usher in today’s interconnected world. But the inexorable march of technological progress has come at great cost to the health of the planet, particularly because of global dependence on fossil fuels. The United Nations declared in 2017 that a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development would be held from 2021 to 2030. This Ocean Decade calls for a worldwide effort to reverse the oceans’ degradation.

The dawn of this decade, 2020, also marked the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s journey. Plymouth 400, a cultural nonprofit, has been working for more than a decade to commemorate the anniversary in ways that honor all aspects of this history, said spokesperson Brian Logan. Events began in 2020, but one of the most innovative launches is still waiting in the wings—a newfangled nautical craft, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship, or MAS.

Feb 3, 2022

Sushi Robot Cranks Out 3,600 Pieces per Hour

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI

Why hire a sushi chef when you can buy a sushi robot that cranks out 3,600 pieces of sushi per hour? This week, Suzumo debuted its newest sushibot the fastest in the world at the World Food and Beverage Great Expo 2012 in Japan.

Feb 3, 2022

Genetically engineered immune cells have kept two people cancer-free for a decade

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Long-lasting leukemia remission prompts doctors to call CAR-T cell therapy a ‘cure’ for some.

Feb 3, 2022

Does AI Improve Human Judgment?

Posted by in categories: business, information science, robotics/AI

Decision-making has mostly revolved around learning from mistakes and making gradual, steady improvements. For several centuries, evolutionary experience has served humans well when it comes to decision-making. So, it is safe to say that most decisions human beings make are based on trial and error. Additionally, humans rely heavily on data to make key decisions. Larger the amount of high-integrity data available, the more balanced and rational their decisions will be. However, in the age of big data analytics, businesses and governments around the world are reluctant to use basic human instinct and know-how to make major decisions. Statistically, a large percentage of companies globally use big data for the purpose. Therefore, the application of AI in decision-making is an idea that is being adopted more and more today than in the past.

However, there are several debatable aspects of using AI in decision-making. Firstly, are *all* the decisions made with inputs from AI algorithms correct? And does the involvement of AI in decision-making cause avoidable problems? Read on to find out: involvement of AI in decision-making simplifies the process of making strategies for businesses and governments around the world. However, AI has had its fair share of missteps on several occasions.

Feb 3, 2022

NASA’s X-48 Aircraft Test Flights Promise a ‘Green Airliner’ For the Future

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, sustainability, transportation

Fewer CO2 emissions, more cargo space.

California-based startup Natilus revealed a new unmanned aircraft that it believes will make air cargo more sustainable as well as cost-effective, a report from *NewAtlas* reveals.

The company designed a blended wing body aircraft, similar to NASA’s X-48 “green airliner” concept, which it says allows it to offer “an estimated 60% more cargo volume than traditional aircraft of the same weight while reducing costs and carbon dioxide per pound by 50%.” startup Natilus’ new aircraft promise fewer CO2 emissions and more cargo space.

Feb 3, 2022

Metaverse: what is it and what possibilities does it offer?

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The concept of the Metaverse first blew up in October of 2021 when the company formerly known as Facebook announced its rebranding to Meta with an intent to build the metaverse, a virtual world where users could interact with each other and even play games. Meta, at the time, was said to be hiring 10,000 engineers to build the tools of the Metaverse.

The news made headlines around the world and had people asking: what exactly is a Metaverse? In short, it is an extension of our world, complete with concert venues, museums, and even robot training grounds. In fact, what you can build is only limited by your imagination. do the Metaverse and Omniverse work together? Can one exist without the other? We have the answers to all your questions and more.