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Aug 24, 2021
China Reportedly Working on “Ultra-Large” Spacecraft That’s Miles Across
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: space travel
Aug 24, 2021
Dust-sized supercapacitor packs the same voltage as a AAA battery
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: biotech/medical, nanotechnology
The scientists behind the new device were working within the realm of nano-supercapacitors (nBSC), which are conventional capacitors but scaled down to the sub-millimeter scale. Developing these types of devices is tricky enough, but the researchers sought to make one that could work safely in the human body to power tiny sensors and implants, which requires swapping out problematic materials and corrosive electrolytes for ones that are biocompatible.
These devices are known as biosupercapacitors and the smallest ones developed to date is larger than 3 mm3, but the scientists have made a huge leap forward in terms of how tiny biosupercapacitors can be. The construction starts with a stack of polymeric layers that are sandwiched together with a light-sensitive photo-resist material that acts as the current collector, a separator membrane, and electrodes made from an electrically conductive biocompatible polymer called PEDOT: PSS.
Aug 24, 2021
Odd thunderstorm cycle over Michigan for next 6 days
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: climatology
O,.o.
Hot and humid weather, combined with upper-air disturbances, will put Michigan in a thunderstorm pattern over the next week. The interesting part is the thunderstorms won’t come at the likely time of the day.
Normally summer thunderstorms flare up in the heat of the afternoon and early evening, and then diminish overnight. The recent thunderstorm pattern has a bit of a different life cycle. The thunderstorms have been developing overnight, lasting about 12 hours and diminishing to nothing during the morning.
Continue reading “Odd thunderstorm cycle over Michigan for next 6 days” »
Aug 24, 2021
A New Chip Cluster Will Make Massive AI Models Possible
Posted by Kelvin Dafiaghor in category: robotics/AI
Cerebras says its technology can run a neural network with 120 trillion connections—a hundred times what’s achievable today.
Aug 24, 2021
Meet the wealthy Indonesian scions giving the country a tech boost
Posted by Derick Lee in categories: economics, finance
Michael is also part of a group of wealthy Indonesian scions that have in the past decade dabbled in the country’s vibrant tech sector by investing in home-grown giants and start-ups, be it in the form of money, resources, know-how, or access.
Industry stakeholders say family-owned corporate venture capital firms have played an important role in growing the country’s US$44 billion digital economy.
Aug 24, 2021
Mojo Vision crams its contact lens with AR display, processor and wireless tech
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: augmented reality, biotech/medical
Aug 24, 2021
Robot perception algorithms convert data from cameras and sensors into something useful for decision making and planning physical actions
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: information science, robotics/AI
See how perception and adaptability enable varied, high-energy behaviors like parkour. https://bit.ly/3AZWMCu
Aug 24, 2021
The magnetosphere waxes and wanes every 200 million years
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: futurism
Aug 24, 2021
Mental Phenomena Don’t Map Into the Brain as Expected
Posted by Dan Kummer in category: neuroscience
Neuroscientists are the cartographers of the brain’s diverse domains and territories — the features and activities that define them, the roads and highways that connect them, and the boundaries that delineate them. Toward the front of the brain, just behind the forehead, is the prefrontal cortex, celebrated as the seat of judgment. Behind it lies the motor cortex, responsible for planning and coordinating movement. To the sides: the temporal lobes, crucial for memory and the processing of emotion. Above them, the somatosensory cortex; behind them, the visual cortex.
Not only do researchers often depict the brain and its functions much as mapmakers might draw nations on continents, but they do so “the way old-fashioned mapmakers” did, according to Lisa Feldman Barrett, a psychologist at Northeastern University. “They parse the brain in terms of what they’re interested in psychologically or mentally or behaviorally,” and then they assign the functions to different networks of neurons “as if they’re Lego blocks, as if there are firm boundaries there.”
But a brain map with neat borders is not just oversimplified — it’s misleading. “Scientists for over 100 years have searched fruitlessly for brain boundaries between thinking, feeling, deciding, remembering, moving and other everyday experiences,” Barrett said. A host of recent neurological studies further confirm that these mental categories “are poor guides for understanding how brains are structured or how they work.”
