There’s rough terrain – then there are the craters and near-vertical cliffs on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The DuAxel is a robot built for situations just like those. By creating two single-axle rovers that can combine into one with a central payload we could maximize versatility during future missions. See more details: go.nasa.gov/34QNo5T.
A peer-reviewed study by scientists at the Environmental Working Group estimates that more than 200 million Americans could have the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS in their drinking water at a concentration of 1 part per trillion, or ppt, or higher. Independent scientific studies have recommended a safe level for PFAS in drinking water of 1 ppt, a standard that is endorsed by EWG.
The study, published today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, analyzed publicly accessible drinking water testing results from the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Geological Survey, as well as state testing by Colorado, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina and Rhode Island.
“We know drinking water is a major source of exposure of these toxic chemicals,” said Olga Naidenko, Ph.D., vice president for science investigations at EWG and a co-author of the new study. “This new paper shows that PFAS pollution is affecting even more Americans than we previously estimated. PFAS are likely detectable in all major water supplies in the U.S., almost certainly in all that use surface water.”
Homeland Security might soon have a new tool to add to its arsenal.
Researchers at Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory have developed a new material that opens doors for a new class of neutron detectors.
With the ability to sense smuggled nuclear materials, highly efficient neutron detectors are critical for national security. Currently, there are two classes of detectors which either use helium gas or flashes of light. These detectors are very large — sometimes the size of a wall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FrYWDO-8KQ&feature=youtu.be
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SpaceX is targeting this weekend for its next Falcon 9 rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center, this time with another batch of Starlink internet satellites.
If schedules hold, teams will give the go-ahead for the 230-foot rocket to launch from pad 39A at 8:27 a.m. Sunday, the opening of an instantaneous window. It must launch at that time or delay to another day.
About eight minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s 162-foot first stage will target an autonomous landing on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX’s fleet of ships and the booster should return to Port Canaveral a few days later.
Summary: New artificial intelligence technology will analyze clinical data, brain images, and genetic information from Alzheimer’s patients to look for new biomarkers associated with the neurodegenerative disease.
Source: University of Pennsylvania
As the search for successful Alzheimer’s disease drugs remains elusive, experts believe that identifying biomarkers — early biological signs of the disease — could be key to solving the treatment conundrum. However, the rapid collection of data from tens of thousands of Alzheimer’s patients far exceeds the scientific community’s ability to make sense of it.
“Who are we? What are we composed of? What is matter? What does matter? Is the body just a vessel with an expiration date?” asks American rapper GZA from Wu-Tang Clan, in Liquid Science, the show about science and imagination he hosts on Red Bull TV. In this episode, GZA is on a “quest to understand the human desire to live forever”.
Trying to find answers to such questions is nothing new. In an opinion piece for the Washington Post titled ‘‘Transhumanist’ eternal life? No thanks, I’d rather learn not to fear death’, Arthur C Brooks explains that, back in the fifth century before Christ, Greek historian Herodotus wrote about “a race of people in northern Africa who, according to local lore, never seemed to age”.
Eternal youth and immortality have always fascinated humanity, but we’ve not had much success finding them. Until now.
Summary: Researchers have identified a novel neural network in fruit flies that converts external stimuli of varying intensity into decisions about whether to act.
Source: University of Michigan
Fruit flies may be able to teach researchers a thing or two about artificial intelligence.
We only ever experience three spatial dimensions, but quantum lab experiments suggest a whole new side to reality – weird particle apparitions included.
“Less than one”-shot learning can teach a model to identify more objects than the number of examples it is trained on.
