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A new study by Penn State and the SETI Institute explored alien signal detection in the TRAPPIST-1 system using innovative techniques focused on planetary alignments.

Astronomers have developed a new technique to search for radio signals from planets beyond our solar system, particularly those aligned with both each other and Earth. These signals would be similar to those used for communication with rovers on Mars. Penn State astronomers, in collaboration with scientists at the SETI Institute, spent 28 hours using the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) to scan the TRAPPIST-1 star system for signs of alien technology. This effort represents the longest focused search for radio signals from TRAPPIST-1 to date.

Although no evidence of extraterrestrial technology was found, the project introduced a new method for future searches. The research has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal.

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27K likes, — logicure on October 3, 2024: Ballie is a soccer ball-sized, yellow, spherical AI-powered robot created by Samsung Electronics that can navigate homes and perform tasks such as controlling smart home devices, projecting images, and communicating with users.

Ballie was first introduced at CES 2020 and an upgraded version was unveiled at CES 2024.

Follow @logicure for more amazing content.

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While wind and solar energy are the two most viable clean alternatives to the dirty energy sources that power most of our society, the energy that can be harvested from ocean waves also has a lot of potential as an infinitely renewable source.

However, the technology is still developing, and a new research tool may play a big part in helping it get there, Interesting Engineering reported.

The new device, the marine and hydrokinetic toolkit, was developed jointly by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. It offers validation and standardized analysis tools to help researchers figure out whether their wave energy-gathering technologies are going to be viable without forcing them to undergo expensive and difficult real-world testing.

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Plastic pollution is everywhere, and a good amount of it is composed of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). This polymer is used to make bottles, containers and even clothing. Now, researchers report in Environmental Science & Technology that they have discovered an enzyme that breaks apart PET in a rather unusual place: microbes living in sewage sludge. The enzyme could be used by wastewater treatment plants to break apart microplastic particles and upcycle plastic waste.

Microplastics are becoming increasingly prevalent in places ranging from remote oceans to inside bodies, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they appear in wastewater as well.

However, the particles are so tiny that they can slip through water treatment purification processes and end up in the effluent that is reintroduced to the environment. But effluent also contains microorganisms that like to eat those plastic particles, including Comamonas testosteroni—so named because it degrades sterols like testosterone.

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A team of engineers and planetary scientists at Western University’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration, in Canada, has found that it might be possible to produce food for space travelers by feeding bacteria asteroid material, resulting in the growth of an edible biomass.

In their paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, the group describes how they tested the idea by calculating how much asteroid material would be needed and what they found.

Prior research has shown that future spacecraft traveling to remote parts of the solar system or beyond could not possibly hold enough food to sustain astronauts. Such craft could not support the growth of enough food onboard, either.

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What keeps some immune systems youthful and effective in warding off age-related diseases? In a new paper published in Cellular & Molecular Immunology, USC Stem Cell scientist Rong Lu and her collaborators point the finger at a small subset of blood stem cells, which make an outsized contribution to maintaining either a youthful balance or an age-related imbalance of the two main types of immune cells: innate and adaptive.

Innate immune cells serve as the body’s first line of defense, mobilizing a quick and general attack against invading germs. For germs that evade the body’s innate immune defenses, the second line of attack consists of , such as B cells and T cells that rely on their memory of past infections to craft a specific and targeted response. A healthy balance between innate and adaptive immune cells is the hallmark of a youthful immune system—and a key to longevity.

“Our study provides compelling evidence that when a small subset of overproduces innate immune cells, this drives the aging of the immune system, contributes to disease, and ultimately shortens the lifespan,” said Lu, who is an associate professor of stem cell biology and , , medicine, and gerontology at USC, and a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar. Lu is also a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC, and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

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“If you constantly use an AI to find the music, career or political candidate you like, you might eventually forget how to do this yourself.” Ethicist Muriel Leuenberger considers the personal impact of relying on AI.

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