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Blog – Page 5748

They are.

The cyborgs are upon us. Turns out, they’re more ‘enhanced reality’ and less ‘science fiction.’

In 1998, Professor of Cybernetics Kevin Warwick had a chip implanted in his body that would open electronic doors and turn on lights as he passed. In 2002, he had a 100 electrode array wired into the nervous system of his arm to allow him to remotely control an artificial hand. Today, he’s working on using animal brain cells as a control system for robots.

Performance artist Stelios Arcadiou (whose has changed his name to Stelarc) has spent 10 years growing an artificially-created ear that is surgically attached to his left arm. In 2009, Jerry Jalava, a Finnish computer engineer who lost part of a finger in a motorcycle accident, turned his prosthetic finger into a USB drive. Colorblind artist Neil Harbisson has an antenna that helps him to ‘hear’ colors. Avant-garde artist Moon Ribas had seismic sensors implanted in her feet that detect the vibrations caused by earthquakes, and records the data online. She then transforms that data into dance.

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Continue reading “The Cyborg Revolution: Are They Here Yet?” | >

Elon Musk’s Neuralink, the company that purports to implant computer chips in human brains, just took a critical step toward actually following through.

The brain implant firm is officially hiring a clinical trial director, which means Musk’s futuristic firm is finally ready, at least on its own terms, to give next-gen brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) a try.

Of course, it’s hard to imagine being the one for whom the buck stops should anything go monstrously wrong during trials. But on the other hand, if it works, this could be the beginning of a new age of sense re-immersion for countless victims of neurological disorders, brain damage, paralysis, and more.

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After only 23 minutes, he could even pee again!

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham transplanted kidneys derived from genetically modified pigs into a brain-dead person last year as part of human preclinical trials, Science Daily reported.

Organ transplant from another species recently made big news, a heart from a genetically modified pig was transplanted into a human whose heart condition left with no other option. While the transplant was authorized under compassionate grounds by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the idea is catching up with the provider of the organ, Revivicor, already having completed two such trials in dead patients.

As Science Daily explains, genetically modified kidneys have been extensively tested in non-human primate recipients but testing them in humans before clinical trials can also provide important information about the safety and efficacy of the transplanted organs.

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Continue reading “A Brain-Dead Person Just Scored Two Kidneys From Genetically Modified Pigs” | >

And it looks like a big yak.

China’s state media, the Global Times, claims the country has developed the world’s largest electric-powered quadruped bionic robot. And to be honest, that thing looks just like a yak.

Bizarre appearances aside, this comes as the latest in China’s push to become a global leader in robotics by 2025. And also, of course, in military tech.… See more.

China claims that it has developed the largest electric-powered quadruped robot in the world! And the nation is rapidly approaching its 2025 goal.

Continue reading “China’s New Electric Quadruped Robot Could Be the Largest in the World” | >

In another example of space technology coming down to Earth.

One of the big arguments in favor of investing in space technologies is that the same technology is often used to benefit citizens down here on Earth.

In a new example of an Earth-focused application of space technology, SpaceX has won a U.S. Air Force contract worth over $102 million to help deliver humanitarian aid using heavy rockets, according to a report from SpaceNews.

The contract, part of the U.S. Air Force’s $47.9 million Rocket Cargo program, is aimed at developing rocket cargo solutions that can deliver aid as well as military cargo. Neither the U.S Air Force nor SpaceX has so far provided any information regarding which specific rockets will be used for the program. However, Greg Spanjers, rocket cargo program manager, told SpaceNews that the Department of Defense (DoD) wants to develop the capability to quickly deliver humanitarian aid anywhere in the world using specially adapted launch vehicles.

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Continue reading “SpaceX Won a 2 Million Contract to Deliver Aid and Military Cargo” | >

Researchers from the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies of the Cnr and the Politecnico di Milano have built a battery which, following the laws of quantum physics, has a recharge time that is inversely related to the amount of stored energy.

Quantum batteries are a new class of energy storage devices that operate according to the principles of quantum physics, the science that studies the infinitely small where the laws of classical physics do not always apply. Tersilla Virgili of the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies of the National Research Council (Cnr-Ifn) and Giulio Cerullo of the Physics Department of the Politecnico di Milano have shown that it is possible to manufacture a type of quantum battery where the charging power increases faster by increasing the battery capacity. The work, carried out together with other international research groups, was published in Science Advances.

“Quantum batteries have a counter-intuitive property in which the recharge time is inversely related to the battery capacity, that is the amount of stored electrical charge,” explains Virgili. “This leads to the intriguing idea that the charging power of quantum batteries is super-extensive, meaning that it increases faster with battery size.”

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At just 1/1000th of a millimeter, nanoparticles are impossible to see with the naked eye. But, despite being small, they’re extremely important in many ways. If scientists want to take a close look at DNA, proteins, or viruses, then being able to isolate and monitor nanoparticles is essential.

Trapping these particles involves tightly focusing a to a point that produces a strong electromagnetic field. This beam can hold particles just like a pair of tweezers but, unfortunately, there are natural restrictions to this technique. Most notable are the size restrictions—if the particle is too small, the technique won’t work. To date, optical tweezers have been unable to hold particles like individual proteins, which are only a few nanometers in diameter.

Now, due to recent advances in nanotechnology, researchers in the Light-Matter Interactions for Quantum Technologies Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have developed a technique for precise nanoparticle trapping. In this study, they overcame the natural restrictions by developing optical tweezers based on —a synthetic material with specific properties that do not occur naturally. This was the first time that this kind of metamaterial had been used for single nanoparticle trapping.

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In our latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, we forecast that U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will increase in both 2022 and 2023 but remain below 2019 levels. In 2020, U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions decreased by 11% as energy use declined during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the U.S. economy began to return to pre-COVID activity, CO2 emissions increased by an estimated 6% in 2021. We expect increasing economic activity, along with other factors, will result in those emissions increasing by another 2% in 2022 and remaining virtually flat in 2023.

We forecast that, by 2023, U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions will total 4,971 million metric tons (MMmt) — still 3% below the 5,144 MMmt of CO2 emissions generated in 2019 and 17% below the peak level of 6,016 MMmt in 2007.

U.S. petroleum-related CO2 emissions increased 8% in 2021, and we forecast that they will increase by another 5% in 2022 and an additional 1% in 2023 as travel activity continues to increase. We forecast that in 2022, the number of vehicle miles traveled in the United States, which affects motor gasoline and diesel consumption, will return to 2019 levels and that air travel will increase by 4% over 2019.

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