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Sep 22, 2021

Bacteria Makes Contaminated Water Drinkable

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, engineering, health

Bacteria may get a bad reputation in general, yet it’s actually generally healthy and serves an important role in many habitats, including human bodies. From supporting life on Earth to being employed in industrial and medicinal processes, bacteria have their figurative fingers in many pots — some varieties of bacteria can even filter tainted water and make it safe for human consumption.

A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU) has found a bacteria that can do just that — Named “microbacterium paraoxydans strain VSVM IIT (BHU)” by the scientists, it can separate toxic hexavalent chromium from water in an effective and eco-friendly manner, according to a research published in the Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering.

Hexavalent chromium is a heavy metal ion that is used in electroplating, welding, and chromate painting, among other things. It’s said to be responsible for health problems in humans like cancers, kidney and liver malfunctioning, and infertility. When compared to current approaches, the scientists believe that this bacterial strain, which can tolerate high amounts of hexavalent chromium, is particularly successful at eliminating the harmful substance from wastewater.

Sep 22, 2021

Alien Planets Are Even Less Habitable Than We Thought

Posted by in categories: particle physics, robotics/AI, space

It turns out, Mars was always fated for a waterless destiny.

New observations from robotic explorers like NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity have revealed much about the ancient past of the Red Planet, where liquid water flowed throughout the planet’s surface. It used to have lakes, streams, rivers, and perhaps even a colossal ocean stretching around the horizon of Mars’ northern hemisphere. For decades, scientists have thought the weakening of the Martian magnetic field enabled charged particles from the sun to strip away the atmosphere, literally blowing away the bodies of water.

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Sep 22, 2021

Obesity: Why exercising may be more important than dieting

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Advocates of the fat-but-fit approach to obesity treatment argue that improving fitness, even in the absence of weight loss, can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality.


New research suggests that improving fitness is at least as effective as weight loss for staving off obesity-related cardiovascular disease and mortality risks.

Sep 22, 2021

Crime forecasting: a machine learning and computer vision approach to crime prediction and prevention

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI

Circa 2021


A crime is a deliberate act that can cause physical or psychological harm, as well as property damage or loss, and can lead to punishment by a state or other authority according to the severity of the crime. The number and forms of criminal activities are increasing at an alarming rate, forcing agencies to develop efficient methods to take preventive measures. In the current scenario of rapidly increasing crime, traditional crime-solving techniques are unable to deliver results, being slow paced and less efficient. Thus, if we can come up with ways to predict crime, in detail, before it occurs, or come up with a “machine” that can assist police officers, it would lift the burden of police and help in preventing crimes. To achieve this, we suggest including machine learning (ML) and computer vision algorithms and techniques.

Sep 22, 2021

An Automated System for Crime Investigation Using Conventional and Machine Learning Approach

Posted by in categories: law, privacy, robotics/AI

Circa 2019


Crime causes significant damage to the society and property. Different kinds of physical or direct methods are devised by the law and order department to spot out the criminals involved in the crime. This techniques will explore the evidences at crime site. For instance if it finds a fingerprint then the system will capture and send it to forensic department for fingerprint matching, which can be later used for identifying the suspects or criminals by investigations etc. Yet, it is a huge challenge for them to find the criminal due to less or no evidence and incorrect information, which can change the direction of investigation to the end. This paper proposes a data analysis approach to help the police department by giving them first-hand information about the suspects. It automates the manual process for finding criminal and future crime spot by using various techniques such as pattern matching, biometric and crime analytics. Based on the availability of information, the system is able to produce the expected accuracy.

Sep 22, 2021

Lasers could bring the precision of 3D printing to the cooking of food

Posted by in category: 3D printing

Even though it’s now possible to 3D-print foods into millimeter-precise shapes and forms, cooking those printed foods is still a fairly inexact process. Scientists are trying to change that, by using lasers to cook foods to specific optimized standards.

Led by PhD student Jonathan Blutinger, a team at Columbia University started by pureeing raw chicken then extruding it through the nozzle of a 3D food printer, creating samples measuring 3 mm thick by about one square inch (645 sq mm) in area. They then precisely heated that chicken via pulses of either blue or near-infrared laser light, at wavelengths of 445 nanometers for the former and either 980 nanometers or 10.6 micrometers for the latter.

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Sep 22, 2021

Japan Space Agency: Why We’re Exploring the Moons of Mars

Posted by in category: space

Dr. Ryuki Hyodo. Credit: JAXA

At ISAS, researchers watched the progress with particularly keen attention. In just a few years from now, we are about to attempt the same feat of visiting the Martian sphere. But for us, the destination is not the red planet but its two small moons. The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is scheduled to launch in the fiscal year of 2024. Largely ignoring the looming presence of Mars, the spacecraft will focus its suite of observing instruments on the moons, Phobos and Deimos. The mission plans to land on Phobos and collect samples to bring back to Earth in 2029. It is these barren moons that scientists believe contain evidence of the early days of the Solar System, and how habitability may have flourished and died on the planet below.

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Sep 22, 2021

Deploying Artificial Intelligence At The Edge

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

From ecosystem development to talent, much effort is still required for practical implementation of edge AI.

By Pushkar Apte and Tom Salmon

Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have made this technology important for many industries, including finance, energy, healthcare, and microelectronics. AI is driving a multi-trillion-dollar global market while helping to solve some tough societal problems such as tracking the current pandemic and predicting the severity of climate-driven events like hurricanes and wildfires.

Sep 22, 2021

‘Amazon One’ Contactless Payment Palm Reader Debuts On Santana Row In San Jose

Posted by in category: futurism

SAN JOSE (KPIX) — Online shopping giant Amazon is ramping up deployment of its non-contact payment dubbed, “Amazon One,” announcing more than 60 locations from New York to California will feature the touchless devices.

The first such system debuted in the Bay Area at the Amazon store in San Jose on Santana Row, Tuesday morning.

Sep 22, 2021

Mathematician Answers Chess Problem About Attacking Queens

Posted by in category: futurism

The n-queens problem is about finding how many different ways queens can be placed on a chessboard so that none attack each other. A mathematician has now all but solved it.