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The robots can tumble up slopes.
A new study investigates tiny tumbling soft robots that can be controlled using rotating magnetic fields. The technology could be useful for delivering drugs to the nervous system. In this latest study, researchers put the robots through their paces and showed that they can climb slopes, tumble upstream against fluid flow and deliver substances at precise locations to neural tissue.
Would you let a tiny MANiAC travel around your nervous system to treat you with drugs? You may be inclined to say no, but in the future, “magnetically aligned nanorods in alginate capsules” (MANiACs) may be part of an advanced arsenal of drug delivery technologies at doctors’ disposal. A recent study in Frontiers in Robotics and AI is the first to investigate how such tiny robots might perform as drug delivery vehicles in neural tissue. The study finds that when controlled using a magnetic field, the tiny tumbling soft robots can move against fluid flow, climb slopes and move about neural tissues, such as the spinal cord, and deposit substances at precise locations.
Diseases in the central nervous system can be difficult to treat. “Delivering drugs orally or intravenously, for example, to target cancers or neurologic diseases, may affect regions of the body and nervous system that are unrelated to the disease,” explained Lamar Mair of Weinberg Medical Physics, a medical device company based in the US and an industrial partner on the study. “Targeted drug delivery may lead to improved efficacy and reduced side-effects due to lower off-target dosing.”
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX just confirmed that Starlink will transfer data close to speed of light. According to Gizmochina, the speed will be close to 97% speed of light.
Starlink is a constellation of thousands satellites aiming to deliver high-speed internet to consumers anywhere on the planet. While the Starlink service is still in beta, the company has over 100,000 users in 14 countries so far, with over half a million orders or refundable deposits placed by potential customers.
As of today there are 1,700 satellites in orbit. SpaceX intends to provide satellite internet connectivity to underserved areas of the planet, as well as provide competitively priced service in more urbanized areas. The company has stated that the positive cash flow from selling satellite internet services would be necessary to fund their Mars plans.
Summary: An overgrowth in the gastrointestinal tract of the bacteria Klebsiella in preterm babies was associated with an increased presence of certain immune cells and the development of neurological damage. The findings suggest a link between microbiota and brain development.
Source: University of Vienna.
Extremely premature infants are at high risk for brain damage. Researchers at the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna have now found possible targets for the early treatment of such damage outside the brain: Bacteria in the gut of premature infants may play a key role.
The ultimate goal of neuroscience is to learn how the human brain gives rise to human intelligence and what it means to be intelligent. Understanding how the brain works is considered one of humanity’s greatest challenges.
Jeff Hawkins thinks that the reality we perceive is a kind of simulation, a hallucination, a confabulation. He thinks that our brains are a model reality based on thousands of information streams originating from the sensors in our body. Critically — Hawkins doesn’t think there is just one model but rather; thousands.
Jeff has just released his new book, A thousand brains: a new theory of intelligence. It’s an inspiring and well-written book and I hope after watching this show; you will be inspired to read it too.
Pod version: https://anchor.fm/machinelearningstreettalk/episodes/59—Je…ry-e16sb64
Learn More.
Ian Bremmer.
If you could cure genetic diseases by editing DNA sequences, would you?
GZERO Media #GZEROWorld
A new theory of how the brain works — neural transduction theory — might upend everything we know about consciousness and the universe itself.
‘How far will future rockets go?’
The SpaceX Starship might be the next rocket to take humans to the moon, but it won’t be the first, and likely not the last.
Starting in the mid-20th century, humanity has explored space faster than ever before. We’ve launched satellites, telescopes, space stations, and spacecrafts, all strapped to rocket-propelled launch vehicles that helped them breach our atmosphere.
In the image, Centaurus A, which is located more than 12 million light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation Centaurus (The Centaur), ripples across space.
Roaming isn’t available in space, so network access is an issue as satellites and spacecraft orbit the Earth. This will soon change as NASA develops a new Wideband Ka-band communications terminal, which is a transceiver that operates over government and commercial Ka-band spectrum allocations (17.7 GHz – 31 GHz).
