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Feb 18, 2021

Locus Robotics raises $150 million to scale its warehouse robotics platform

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Locus Robotics, a startup developing warehouse automation technologies, has raised $150 million at a $1 billion post-money valuation.

Feb 18, 2021

Researchers construct the smallest microchips yet using graphene nano-origami

Posted by in categories: computing, nanotechnology, physics, space

Physicists from the University of Sussex have created what they called the tiniest microchips yet. The little microchips are made using graphene and other 2D materials and a form of “nano-origami.” The technique used in creating the tiny microchips marks the first time any researchers have been able to do this.

Researchers succeeded in making the tiny microchips by creating kinks in the structure of graphene to make the nanomaterial behave like a transistor. In their study, the team showed that when a graphene strip is crinkled in a specific way, it behaves like a microchip only about 100 times smaller than a conventional microchip. New construction methods are needed for microchips because traditional semiconducting technology is at the limit of what it can do.

The researchers believe that using the materials in their technique will make computer chips smaller and faster. The technology is dubbed “straintronics” and uses nanomaterials rather than electronics, allowing space for more chips inside a given device. The researchers believe everything we want to do with computers to speeding them up can be done by crinkling graphene.

Feb 18, 2021

Strengthening international cooperation on artificial intelligence

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Joshua P. Meltzer and Cameron F. Kerry outline the requirements for the U.S. to lead international cooperation on artificial intelligence.

Feb 18, 2021

DARPA, Linux Foundation Partner to Advance 5G

Posted by in categories: computing, government, internet

A new agreement will create an open-source software ecosystem to support government technology research and development.

Feb 18, 2021

Gut microbiome implicated in healthy aging and longevity

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

The gut microbiome is an integral component of the body, but its importance in the human aging process is unclear. ISB researchers and their collaborators have identified distinct signatures in the gut microbiome that are associated with either healthy or unhealthy aging trajectories, which in turn predict survival in a population of older individuals. The work is set to be published in the journal Nature Metabolism.

Feb 18, 2021

Google and Facebook: the landmark Australian law that will make them pay for news content

Posted by in category: law

“The Australian parliament is poised to pass a landmark media law that would make Google and Facebook pay news publishers for displaying their content. The Australian law is separate to a deal Facebook made to pay mainstream UK news outlets millions of pounds a year to license their articles, but has a similar motivation. The legislation, which will be debated this week, is designed to support Australian public interest journalism and is backed by all the nation’s media companies, big and small.”


Despite protestations from both companies, the Australian parliament is set to pass legislation it says is needed to boost public interest journalism.

Feb 18, 2021

Russia & China ready to sign deal to build first moon base after snubbing US

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, government, robotics/AI, space travel

Shouldn’t NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration already be building a moon-base with Elon Musk at SpaceX as well as Russia and China? Congress should fund space travel.


RUSSIA and China are joining forces as they prepare to sign a historic deal to build the first moon base after they snubbed the US.

The two countries are to collaborate on the international lunar structure, which was thought up by China — the latest build in the space-race against America.

Continue reading “Russia & China ready to sign deal to build first moon base after snubbing US” »

Feb 18, 2021

Space Engine – the universe simulator

Posted by in categories: computing, space

SpaceEngine is a realistic virtual Universe you can explore on your computer. You can travel from star to star, from galaxy to galaxy, landing on any planet, moon, or asteroid with the ability to explore its alien landscape. You can alter the speed of time and observe any celestial phenomena you please. All transitions are completely seamless, and this virtual universe has a size of billions of light-years across and contains trillions upon trillions of planetary systems. The procedural generation is based on real scientific knowledge, so SpaceEngine depicts the universe the way it is thought to be by modern science. Real celestial objects are also present if you want to visit them, including the planets and moons of our Solar system, thousands of nearby stars with newly discovered exoplanets, and thousands of galaxies that are currently known.

Feb 18, 2021

Plants’ Response To Being Eaten Is Very Similar To Our Response To Pain, Researchers Prove

Posted by in category: neuroscience

A study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison published on September 14 in Science revealed that when a plant is injured, they release a nervous system-like signal throughout their body, similar to the pain response found in humans and other animals.

When a human is injured, sensory cells in our bodies alert our nervous system to release the neurotransmitter glutamate. This stimulates a part of our brain to release adrenaline, which kicks our fight-or-flight response into gear. Plants don’t have nervous systems but video captured by the scientists behind this new study of injured plants shows that they do have their own version of fight-or-flight when they come under attack.

Continue reading “Plants’ Response To Being Eaten Is Very Similar To Our Response To Pain, Researchers Prove” »

Feb 18, 2021

First Black Hole Ever Detected – Cygnus X-1 – Is Much More Massive Than We Thought

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

New observations of the first black hole ever detected have led astronomers to question what they know about the Universe’s most mysterious objects.

Published today (February 182021) in the journal Science, the research shows the system known as Cygnus X-1 contains the most massive stellar-mass black hole ever detected without the use of gravitational waves.

Cygnus X-1 is one of the closest black holes to Earth. It was discovered in 1964 when a pair of Geiger counters were carried on board a sub-orbital rocket launched from New Mexico.