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May 21, 2021

China showcases artificial intelligence advances

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, security

Thank you to China for trying to surpass the USA in Ai, otherwise they’d never open the wallet to fund this AI research. AGI 2025!!


China is showcasing its advances in the field of artificial intelligence — at an annual tech-themed forum.
It is being held in the port city of Tianjin.
Super computers, rockets and robots are among the innovations on display.
The event comes just months after the United States National Security Commission said that China is on track to overtake the US as the world’s AI superpower.
Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu reports.

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May 21, 2021

New Model Helps Predict Cyber Threats and Improve Resilience

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Network defenders face the constant challenge of effectively preventing, detecting, and responding to cyber incidents.

Our new Scalable Warning and Resilience Model (SWARM) can help enable defenders to proactively protect their systems.


Today’s evolving cyber threats require a tailored and targeted approach to cybersecurity. Current defenses focus on managing threats after a network has been breached. RAND’s Scalable Warning and Resilience Model (SWARM) can help defenders proactively protect their systems through early warning of cyber incidents before they occur.

May 20, 2021

Tiny single-piston hydrogen engine repackages internal combustion

Posted by in categories: energy, engineering, sustainability, transportation

Israel’s Aquarius Engines this week gave the world a first look at the tiny hydrogen engine it hopes can supplant gas engine-generators and hydrogen fuel cells in future electrified vehicles. Weighing just 22 lb (10 kg), the simple engine uses a single moving piston to develop power. Beyond vehicles, Aquarius is developing the engine for use as an off-grid micro-generator.

First created in 2014, Aquarius’ efficient single-piston linear engine has a single central cylinder in which the piston moves between two engine heads. In previous iterations, Aquarius used more conventional fossil fuels to create combustion, but now it’s turning attention to emissions-slashing hydrogen. The company says Austrian engineering firm AVL-Schrick recently completed third-party testing, verifying that a modified version of the engine can operate purely on hydrogen.

“It was always our dream at Aquarius Engines to breathe oxygen into hydrogen technology as the fuel of the future,” explains Aquarius chairman Gal Fridman. “From initial tests, it appears that our hydrogen engine, that doesn’t require costly hydrogen fuel-cells, could be the affordable, green and sustainable answer to the challenges faced by global transport and remote energy production.”

May 20, 2021

A Molecule That Shouldn’t Exist – “The Biggest Scientific Shock of My Life”

Posted by in category: futurism

A variety of molecules protrude from the cell surface, including glycoproteins, glycolipids, and the newly discovered glycoRNAs. This illustration depicts RNA as a double-stranded stem and a loop, and the glycan as a Tinkertoy-like structure branching off it. Credit: Emily M. Eng/R. Flynn et al./Cell 2021.

Sugars attach to certain RNA molecules on the outside membrane of the cell. The newly discovered “glycoRNAs” may be involved in immune signaling.

In a surprise find, scientists have discovered sugar-coated RNA molecules decorating the surface of cells.

May 20, 2021

Inside One of the World’s Largest Edible Insect Factories

Posted by in categories: business, food

French businesses are betting on insects as food. We explore the off-limit foods that might soon be on our plates.

Check out VICE News for more: http://vicenews.com.

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May 20, 2021

HALO & HARC Balloon Launched Hybrid Rockets with Bill Brown

Posted by in categories: habitats, space travel

See how we developed Hybrid rockets and launched them from high altitude balloon initially with the Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (HAL5)‘s High Altitude Lift-Off (HALO) Program and later with our High Altitude Research Corporation (HARC). See our Balloon Launch Return Vehicle (BLRV) and our HARC Cheap Access to Space (CATS) Prize rocket. Hear some of our war stories from these adventures. A balloon launched rocket is known as a rockoon.

Watch next week for a related interview, The Inside Scoop on Virgin Galactic with Tim Pickens.

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May 20, 2021

Cement Batteries Could Let Your Whole House Store Electricity

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability, transportation

Home batteries are becoming increasingly popular ways to store solar energy to power houses at night, but what if one could make the whole house a battery? Rechargeable cement batteries prove the idea is possible, even if it has a long way to go to be affordable.

Dr Emma Zhang of Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, mixed 0.9 percent carbon fibers into cement and poured it over a metal-coated carbon fiber mesh to make concrete blocks. In the journal Buildings, Zhang and colleagues report that with iron anodes and nickel cathodes these blocks become rechargeable batteries.

At 0.8 Watthours per liter, Zhang’s battery is hundreds of times less energy-dense than a lithium-ion battery, and completely useless for transportation purposes. However, it stores about ten times more energy than previous rechargeable concrete batteries. These, Zhang said in a statement; “Showed very low performance,” forcing her and colleagues to seek new ideas on how to produce the electrodes.

May 20, 2021

Dr. Morten Scheibye-Knudsen — University of Copenhagen — Aging, DNA Repair, And Clinical Innovation

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, robotics/AI

Aging, DNA Repair, And Clinical Innovation — Dr. Morten Scheibye-Knudsen — University of Copenhagen.


Dr. Morten Scheibye-Knudsen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and at the Center for Healthy Aging (CEHA), at the University of Copenhagen.

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May 20, 2021

Novel concrete battery could let buildings store their own energy

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

One of the more interesting areas of battery research centers on how these devices can not just store energy, but also double as structural components. We’ve seen some impressive examples of this that could be worked into electric vehicles, and now scientists in Sweden have applied this type of thinking to big buildings, demonstrating a novel type of cement-based battery that could see large structures constructed from functional concrete.

The research was carried out at Chalmers University of Technology, where scientists were working on developing more sustainable building materials, with a particular focus on concrete. As the world’s most widely-used material and one that is very energy intensive to produce, we’re seeing a lot of research into how the carbon footprint of concrete could be reduced, and the authors of this new study have come up with an interesting potential solution.

Like regular concrete, it starts with a cement-based mixture, but one spiked with small amounts of short carbon fibers to add conductivity and flexural strength. Also incorporated into the mix are a pair of carbon fiber meshes, one coated in iron to act as the battery’s anode and the other coated in nickel to act as the cathode. As the battery’s two electrodes, these ferry electrons back and forward as the device is charged and discharged.

May 20, 2021

Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, particle physics

Do we need to revisit this? 🤔


Airborne transmission by droplets and aerosols is important for the spread of viruses. Face masks are a well-established preventive measure, but their effectiveness for mitigating SARS-CoV-2 transmission is still under debate. We show that variations in mask efficacy can be explained by different regimes of virus abundance and related to population-average infection probability and reproduction number. For SARS-CoV-2, the viral load of infectious individuals can vary by orders of magnitude. We find that most environments and contacts are under conditions of low virus abundance (virus-limited) where surgical masks are effective at preventing virus spread. More advanced masks and other protective equipment are required in potentially virus-rich indoor environments including medical centers and hospitals. Masks are particularly effective in combination with other preventive measures like ventilation and distancing.

Airborne transmission is one of the main pathways for the transmission of respiratory viruses, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (1). Wearing face masks has been widely advocated to mitigate transmission. Masks are thought to protect people in two ways: source control reducing the emission and spread of respiratory viruses through airborne droplets and aerosols, and wearer protection reducing the inhalation of airborne respiratory viruses.

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