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Jun 12, 2021

Samsung researchers announce the feasibility of commercial stretchable devices

Posted by in category: computing

With the established success of flexible computer screen displays, many users are wondering how display technology will advance next. So far, free-form displays have grown popular as a next-generation product that offers both portability and high-resolution visuals.

While this technology is still quite new, a wealth of research already exists into the stretchable displays that make up free form displays, products that can stretch into any direction like rubber.

On June 4, 2021, research at Samsung appeared in the well-known journal Science Advances discussing a technology that bypasses the limitations of stretchable devices. The associated experiment showed stable performance even when the was significantly elongated. As these products can already be used in existing semiconductor processes, Samsung researchers have high hopes about what this could mean for the commercialization and salability of stretchable devices.

Jun 12, 2021

1,000-foot multi-rotor floating Windcatchers to power 80,000 homes each

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

Norway’s Wind Catching Systems (WCS) has made a spectacular debut with a colossal floating wind turbine array it says can generate five times the annual energy of the world’s biggest single turbines – while reducing costs enough to be immediately competitive with grid prices.

Standing more than 1000 ft (324 m) high, these mammoth Windcatcher grids would deploy multiple smaller turbines (no less than 117 in the render images) in a staggered formation atop a floating platform moored to the ocean floor using established practices from the oil and gas industry.

Just one of these arrays, says WCS, could offer double the swept area of the world’s biggest conventional wind turbines – the 15 MW Vestas V236 – and its smaller rotors could perform much better in wind speeds over 40 to 43 km/h (25 to 27 mph), when larger turbines tend to start pitching their blades to limit production and protect themselves from damage. The overall effect, says WCS, is a 500 percent boost in annual energy output, with each array making enough power to run 80000 European homes.

Jun 12, 2021

BMWs new electric motorcycle patent shows its bike could make history

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

BMW Motorrad may not have arrived very early to the electric motorcycle party, but the company is making up for it now with what could become an industry first electric motorcycle with a driveshaft.

BMW loves its driveshaft motorcycles, but the electric motorcycle industry hasn’t been as keen on them.

Electric motors and batteries have freed motorcycle manufacturers from the typical design constraints of gas-powered drivetrains. Unshackled from traditional gas tanks and bulky internal combustion engines, designers have been granted unprecedented levels of freedom thanks to the modularity of electric motorcycle components.

Jun 12, 2021

A bio-inspired technique to mitigate catastrophic forgetting in binarized neural networks

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Deep neural networks have achieved highly promising results on several tasks, including image and text classification. Nonetheless, many of these computational methods are prone to what is known as catastrophic forgetting, which essentially means that when they are trained on a new task, they tend to rapidly forget how to complete tasks they were trained to complete in the past.

Researchers at Université Paris-Saclay-CNRS recently introduced a new technique to alleviate forgetting in binarized . This technique, presented in a paper published in Nature Communications, is inspired by the idea of synaptic metaplasticity, the process through which synapses (junctions between two ) adapt and change over time in response to experiences.

“My group had been working on binarized neural networks for a few years,” Damien Querlioz, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. “These are a highly simplified form of deep neural networks, the flagship method of modern artificial intelligence, which can perform complex tasks with reduced memory requirements and energy consumption. In parallel, Axel, then a first-year Ph.D. student in our group, started to work on the synaptic metaplasticity models introduced in 2005 by Stefano Fusi.”

Jun 12, 2021

A new study improves the odds of Enceladus having alien life

Posted by in categories: alien life, chemistry

There may be life in Enceladus’ deep sea plumes.


The Cassini probe revealed a subsurface ocean beneath Enceladus’ icy surface that may be habitable. A new analysis shows that the chemistry has the right stuff.

Jun 12, 2021

Calico Scientists Develop Safer Cellular Reprogramming

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension

Calico has made some important discoveries about Yamanaka factors.


In a preprint paper, scientists from Calico, Google’s longevity research behemoth, suggest that contrary to our previous understanding, transient reprogramming of cells using Yamanaka factors involves suppressing cellular identity, which may open the door to carcinogenic mutations. They also propose a milder reprogramming method inspired by limb regeneration in amphibians [1].

Rejuvenation that can give you cancer

Continue reading “Calico Scientists Develop Safer Cellular Reprogramming” »

Jun 12, 2021

Mythic launches analog AI processor that consumes 10 times less power

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Analog AI processor company Mythic launched its M1076 Analog Matrix Processor today to provide low-power AI processing.

The company uses analog circuits rather than digital to create its processor, making it easier to integrate memory into the processor and operate its device with 10 times less power than a typical system-on-chip or graphics processing unit (GPU).

The M1076 AMP can support up to 25 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of AI compute in a 3-watt power envelope. It is targeted at AI at the edge applications, but the company said it can scale from the edge to server applications, addressing multiple vertical markets including smart cities, industrial applications, enterprise applications, and consumer devices.

Jun 12, 2021

Waddles the Disabled Duck Walks for the First Time on His 3D-Printed Prosthetic Leg

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, transhumanism

“I didn’t think I would be emotional about this.”


It’s not just humans that use prosthetic limbs—wounded or disabled animals can benefit from them, too. In the past, we’ve reported on cats, dogs, and even an elephant who have been fitted for prosthesis. The latest creature who’s now learning to walk on an artificial foot is an adorable duck named Waddles.

Waddles was born with a deformed leg, but his adoptive owner Ben Weinman wanted to help him live a better life. He contacted Derrick Campana, a Certified Pet Prostheticist at Bionic Pets who made a 3D-printed prosthetic leg and foot.

Continue reading “Waddles the Disabled Duck Walks for the First Time on His 3D-Printed Prosthetic Leg” »

Jun 12, 2021

Breakthrough Understanding of Limb and Organ Regeneration – Closer to the Development of Regenerative Medicine Therapies

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Discovery in Salamanders by James W. Godwin, Ph.D., brings science closer to the development of regenerative medicine therapies.

Many salamanders can readily regenerate a lost limb, but adult mammals, including humans, cannot. Why this is the case is a scientific mystery that has fascinated observers of the natural world for thousands of years.

Now, a team of scientists led by James Godwin, Ph.D., of the MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, has come a step closer to unraveling that mystery with the discovery of differences in molecular signaling that promote regeneration in the axolotl, a highly regenerative salamander, while blocking it in the adult mouse, which is a mammal with limited regenerative ability.

Jun 12, 2021

Google and Harvard Unveil the Largest High-Resolution Map of the Brain Yet

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Last Tuesday, teams from Google and Harvard published an intricate map of every cell and connection in a cubic millimeter of the human brain.

The mapped region encompasses the various layers and cell types of the cerebral cortex, a region of brain tissue associated with higher-level cognition, such as thinking, planning, and language. According to Google, it’s the largest brain map at this level of detail to date, and it’s freely available to scientists (and the rest of us) online. (Really. Go here. Take a stroll.)

“The human brain is an immensely complex network of brain cells which is responsible for all human behavior, but until now, we haven’t been able to completely map these connections within even a small region of the brain,” said Dr. Alexander Shapson-Coe, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Lichtman Lab and lead author of a preprint paper about the work.