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How humans across cultures and historical periods conceptualize relationships

Throughout the course of their lives, humans are known to establish and navigate an intricate web of social relationships, ranging from friendships to family bonds, romances, acquaintances, professional relationships and, today, online interactions. Over the past decades, some behavioral scientists have been trying to better understand how people make sense of these different types of relationships.

The overall organization and effects on the well-being of different kinds of social relationships has been widely investigated. However, how people conceptualize them (i.e., mentally make sense of different types of bonds) is not yet fully understood.

Researchers at Beijing Normal University carried out a study aimed at better understanding how humans across time and from different cultural backgrounds make sense of their relationships.

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U.S. Air Force revealed 2 Landing Pad for Starship Military Missions

🚀 Q: What key capabilities must SpaceX perfect for Earth-to-Earth transportation? A: SpaceX must master in-space engine relight, Mechazilla catch system landings, and re-entry with V2 upgrades including improved flaps and heat shields for extreme conditions.

🛬 Q: How many Starship landing pads is the US Air Force planning to build? A: The USAF plans to construct two landing pads on Johnston Island, with potential for more in the future, emphasizing goals of high launch frequencies and seamless point-to-point transport.

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How cells respond to stress is more nuanced than previously believed

The body’s cells respond to stress—toxins, mutations, starvation or other assaults—by pausing normal functions to focus on conserving energy, repairing damaged components and boosting defenses.

If the stress is manageable, cells resume normal activity; if not, they self-destruct.

Scientists have believed for decades this response happens as a linear chain of events: sensors in the cell “sound an alarm” and modify a key protein, which then changes a second protein that slows or shuts down the cell’s normal function.

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PAWS: Four-legged robot can reproduce animal movement with fewer actuators

Many of the robotic systems developed in the past decades are inspired by four-legged (i.e., quadruped) animals, such as dogs, cheetahs and horses. By replicating the agile movements of these animals, quadruped robots could move swiftly on the ground, crossing long distances on various terrains and rapidly completing missions.

Yet realistically and robustly replicating the fluid motions observed in animals using can be very challenging. While some existing four-legged robots were found to be very agile and responsive to changes in their environment, these systems typically integrate advanced actuators and computational components that consume a lot of energy.

Researchers at EPFL’s CREATE Lab and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) recently developed a new four-legged robot called PAWS (Passive Automata With Synergies), which could reproduce the fluid and adaptive movements of animals using fewer actuators. This robot, introduced in a paper in Nature Machine Intelligence, leverages so-called motor synergies, which are coordinated patterns of muscle activation that allow animals to perform agile motions consuming less energy.

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