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Blog – Page 5431

The first galaxies in the universe are a mystery to us — but that could soon change.

The cosmos has come a long way (pun intended). But the most fantastic story of all time isn’t fully understood — especially the early chapters, ‘written’ in history during the first two to three hundred million years of the universe’s 13.8 billion-year existence.

The James Webb Space Telescope could be the key. The observatory can look about three times as far back in time than the iconic Hubble. The Webb will detect infrared wavelengths long enough to pierce through the dense smog of all the light and dust that sits between Earth and the furthest galactic posts, revealing information about the ancient universe where these wavelengths began their journey through space billions of years ago.

Although not quite yet ready to collect data, the Webb Telescope promises a level of perception made possible by its four instruments. These instruments can operate at the same time to siphon observations of objects like galaxies — maximizing the efficiency of the telescope.

Continue reading “Engage! Webb Telescope prepares to unlock the secrets of galactic evolution” | >

Researchers in Japan have developed a new machine learning system for a two-armed robot – enabling it to identify, pick up, and peel a banana.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a new machine learning system for a two-armed robot – enabling it to identify, pick up, and peel a banana.

The manipulation of deformable objects, like soft fruits, is problematic for robots, because of difficulties in object modelling and a lack of knowledge about the type of force and dexterity needed.

Heecheol Kim, a researcher in the Intelligent Systems and Informatics Laboratory, University of Tokyo, worked with colleagues to develop a system based on “goal-conditioned dual-action deep imitation learning (DIL)”. This can learn dexterous manipulation skills using human demonstration data.

Continue reading “Robot peels banana with deep learning” | >

Scientists have confirmed the speed of sound on Mars, using equipment on the Perseverance rover to study the red planet’s atmosphere, which is very different to Earth’s.

What they discovered could have some strange consequences for communication between future Martians.

The findings suggest that trying to talk in Mars’ atmosphere might produce a weird effect, since higher-pitched sound seems to travel faster than bass notes. Not that we’d try, since Mars’ atmosphere is unbreathable, but it’s certainly fun to think about!

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First, there was Endeavor. Then there was Resilience and Endurance.

Now, the fourth SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, sending the fourth operational crew to the International Space Station, has a name as well.

“FREEDOM!!” NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, commander of the upcoming mission dubbed Crew-4, tweeted enthusiastically. “Crew-4 will fly to the International Space Station in a new Dragon capsule named ‘Freedom.’”.

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With the onset of warmer temperatures, winter canola is breaking dormancy and army cutworms are now present in fields across Kansas. Significant army cutworm pressure has been observed in fields northwest of Caldwell in Sumner County.

Army cutworms feed aggressively and significant damage can occur in a short period of time. Smaller plants are most susceptible. The larvae feed on the leaf tissue, leaving the plants with a fed-on appearance (Figure 2). When minor feeding is observed, you may find leaves severed from the plant and laying on the soil surface. Where infestations are high, army cutworms will remove all leaf tissue, leaving only the base of the stem (Figure 3).

The economic threshold for chemical control is 1–2 cutworms per foot of row. Army cutworms behave nocturnally and typically spend the daylight hours below ground. When scouting, it is critical to dig in the soil around individual canola plants to find the larvae. However, it is not unusual to find army cutworm above ground when populations are high (Figure 1). The larvae are greenish-gray and often curl up into a C-shape.

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