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Physicists just put Apple’s latest iPhone to shame, taking the most detailed image of atoms to date with a device that magnifies images 100 million times, reports. The researchers, who set the record for the highest resolution microscope in 2018, outdid themselves with a study published last month. Using a method called electron ptychography, in which a beam of electrons is shot at an object and bounced off to create a scan that algorithms use to reverse engineer the above image, were used to visualize the sample. Previously, scientists could only use this method to image objects that were a few atoms thick. But the new study lays out a technique that can image samples 30 to 50 nanometers wide—a more than 10-fold increase in resolution, they report in. The breakthrough could help develop more efficient electronics and batteries, a process that requires visualizing components on the atomic level.

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Unusual clusters on neurons are calcium-signaling “hotspots” that activate gene transcription, allowing neurons to produce crucial proteins.

For 30 years, mysterious clusters of proteins found on the cell body of neurons in the hippocampus, a part of the brain, both intrigued and baffled James Trimmer.

Now, the distinguished professor of physiology and membrane biology at the UC Davis School of Medicine may finally have an answer. In a new study published in PNAS, Trimmer and his colleagues reveal these protein clusters are calcium signaling “hotspots” in the neuron that play a crucial role in activating gene transcription.

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SpaceX shot 53 Starlink internet satellites into orbit on top of a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday from foggy Cape Canaveral, commencing a new phase of deploying the global broadband network with the first launch into a new “shell” some 335 miles above Earth.

The mission was the 31st Falcon 9 launch in two-and-a-half years dedicated to carrying satellites for the Starlink internet network, bringing the total number of Starlink spacecraft launched to 1,844.

Veiled in fog, the Falcon 9 lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral at 7:19:30 a.m. EST (1219:30 GMT) Saturday. Nine Merlin main engines throttled up to produce 1.7 million pounds of thrust, powering the launcher off the pad and quickly through the ground-hugging fog layer.

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We often consider interacting with Aliens and Robots in the future, but what about Alien Robots? Today we’ll ask what artificial intelligence created by aliens might look like and what sort of circumstances we’d encounter them, and if they may be the only aliens we ever encounter.

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What kinds of ‘particles’ are allowed by nature? The answer lies in the theory of quantum mechanics, which describes the microscopic world.

In a bid to stretch the boundaries of our understanding of the world, UC Santa Barbara researchers have developed a device that could prove the existence of non-Abelian anyons, a that has been mathematically predicted to exist in two-dimensional space, but so far not conclusively shown. The existence of these particles would pave the way toward major advances in topological quantum computing.

In a study that appears in the journal Nature, physicist Andrea Young, his graduate student Sasha Zibrov and their colleagues have taken a leap toward finding conclusive evidence for non-Abelian anyons. Using graphene, an atomically thin material derived from graphite (a form of carbon), they developed an extremely low-defect, highly tunable device in which non-Abelian anyons should be much more accessible. First, a little background: In our three-dimensional universe, elementary particles can be either fermions or bosons: think electrons (fermions) or the Higgs (a boson).

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China is building a specially designed ship for launching rockets into space from the seas in an effort to boost its capacity to launch satellites and recover rocket stages.

The 533 feet (162.5 meters) long, 131 feet (40 meters) wide “New-type rocket launching vessel” is being constructed for use with the new China Oriental Spaceport at Haiyang, Shandong province on the Eastern coast.

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With advancements in the field of robotics, scientists have created smart soft robots that can mimic any animal in terms of movement and behaviour. This may be the future of robotics since any kind of animals, whether it’s a robot dog, cat or fish can easily be built to perform complex movements and actions to help researchers and people in need of a social companion or pet.

Soft robotics is the specific sub-field of robotics dealing with constructing robots from highly compliant materials, similar to those found in living organisms.
Soft robotics draws heavily from the way in which living organisms move and adapt to their surroundings. In contrast to robots built from rigid materials, soft robots allow for increased flexibility and adaptability for accomplishing tasks, as well as improved safety when working around humans. These characteristics allow for its potential use in the fields of medicine and manufacturing.
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 How Robots have gotten more real.
00:48 Current robotic companions.
02:45 What are these new “Soft Robots”?
04:34 What these new Robots can accomplish.
06:55 Last Words.
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#robots #robotics #animals

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