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Feb 14, 2020

Maps of a now-submerged land help reconstruct the lives of ancient Europeans

Posted by in categories: innovation, mapping

A region beneath the rough waters of the North Sea, known as Doggerland, holds archaeological clues to the past. Watch how researchers are using advances in mapping and leads from dredging sites to piece together the history of this vanished landscape.

Read the story: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/relics-washed-beache…-north-sea

Continue reading “Maps of a now-submerged land help reconstruct the lives of ancient Europeans” »

Feb 14, 2020

The World’s First 3D-Printed Heart Model

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical

This is the first-ever 3D-printed human heart model using human cells #ValentinesDay

Feb 14, 2020

The fastest way to heat certain materials may be to cool them first

Posted by in category: materials

A theoretical study reveals that, in certain situations, some materials might heat up more quickly after first being cooled.

Feb 14, 2020

Biologists Are Already Printing the Deadly COVID-19 Virus

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, terrorism

Still, the fact that many labs worldwide are capable of printing viruses is worrisome.

A few years ago, for instance, Canadian researchers alarmed the scientific community when they assembled synthetic horsepox in a lab — a virus closely related to smallpox, which killed hundreds of millions before researchers developed a vaccine.

The same technique, the researchers said at the time, could be be used to bring back smallpox, giving terrorists tools to set off a deadly pandemic.

Feb 14, 2020

Tesla driver’s Autopilot often swerved toward the same barrier. One day, it killed him

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Grim details emerge.

Feb 14, 2020

Iran Unveils Its Most Advanced Humanoid Robot Yet

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Meet Surena IV, an adult-size humanoid built by University of Tehran roboticists.


A little over a decade ago, researchers at the University of Tehran introduced a rudimentary humanoid robot called Surena. An improved model capable of walking, Surena II, was announced not long after, followed by the more capable Surena III in 2015.

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Feb 14, 2020

Light Sails and Supernovae Can Help Us Reach the Speed of Light

Posted by in category: cosmology

When Betelgeuse explodes, there’s nothing stopping another civilization from surfing the supernova with a light sail.

By Brad Bergan

Feb 14, 2020

Quantum anomalous Hall effect in intrinsic magnetic topological insulator

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Nontrivial band topology can combine with magnetic order in a magnetic topological insulator to produce exotic states of matter such as quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators and axion insulators. An aim of condensed matter physics is to find new materials with useful properties and apply quantum mechanics to study them. The field has allowed physicists to better understand the uses of magnets for hard disk data storage, computer displays and other technologies. The recent discovery of topological insulators have attracted broad interest and researchers predict that the interplay between ferromagnetism and the topological insulator state can realize a range of exotic quantum magnetic phenomena of interest in fundamental physics and device applications.

In a new report, Yujun Deng and a research team at the departments of physics and quantum matter physics in China, probed quantum transport in a thin flake MnBi2Te4 topological insulator, with intrinsic magnetic order. The ferromagnetic layers coupled anti-parallelly to each other in the atomically thin MnBi2Te4 layered van der Waals crystal. However, the sample became ferromagnetic when it contained an odd number of septuple layers. The research team observed the zero-field QAH effect in a five-septuple-layer specimen at 1.4 Kelvin. The results established MnBi2Te4 as an ideal platform to explore exotic topological phenomena with spontaneously broken time-reversal symmetry. The work is now published on Science.

Topological materials distinctly contain topologically protected quantum states that are robust against local distresses. For instance, in a topological insulator (TI) such as bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3), the bulk band topology can guarantee the existence of two-dimensional (2-D) surface states with gapless Dirac dispersion. By introducing magnetism into the initially time-reversal invariant topological insulators (TIs), scientists can induce profound changes in their electronic structure. For example, to experimentally observe the QAH effect in chromium-doped (Bi, Sb)2Te3, physicists had to precisely control the ratio of multiple elements in a non-stoichiometric material. Fine-tuning the material required reconciling conflicting demands and therefore, researchers had to precisely quantize the anomalous Hall effect only at temperatures up to T = 2 K, far below the Curie temperature and exchange gap in the material.

Feb 14, 2020

Study unveils security vulnerabilities in EEG-based brain-computer interfaces

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI, security

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are tools that can connect the human brain with an electronic device, typically using electroencephalography (EEG). In recent years, advances in machine learning (ML) have enabled the development of more advanced BCI spellers, devices that allow people to communicate with computers using their thoughts.

So far, most studies in this area have focused on developing BCI classifiers that are faster and more reliable, rather than investigating their possible vulnerabilities. Recent research, however, suggests that algorithms can sometimes be fooled by attackers, whether they are used in computer vision, speech recognition, or other domains. This is often done using , which are tiny perturbations in data that are indistinguishable by humans.

Researchers at Huazhong University of Science and Technology have recently carried out a study investigating the security of EEG-based BCI spellers, and more specifically, how they are affected by adversarial perturbations. Their paper, pre-published on arXiv, suggests that BCI spellers are fooled by these perturbations and are thus highly vulnerable to adversarial attacks.

Feb 14, 2020

3D Printing Is Changing the World | VICE on HBO

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, transportation

3D-printing innovations in recent years have brought a sea change in the fabrication of everything from automobile parts to human bio-tissues.

VICE’s Krishna Andavolu delves into the cutting-edge research behind what’s being called the next industrial revolution, meeting the scientists and entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries of manufacturing, material science, and even space exploration.

Continue reading “3D Printing Is Changing the World | VICE on HBO” »