If you want to build a fully functional nanosized robot, you need to incorporate a host of capabilities, from complicated electronic circuits and photovoltaics to sensors and antennas.
But just as importantly, if you want your robot to move, you need it to be able to bend.
Cornell researchers have created micron-sized shape memory actuators that enable atomically thin two-dimensional materials to fold themselves into 3D configurations. All they require is a quick jolt of voltage. And once the material is bent, it holds its shape—even after the voltage is removed.
Sam Altman, the co-founder and president of San Francisco-headquartered tech nonprofit OpenAI, says AI will generate enough wealth to pay each adult $13500 a year.
Today on the Science Talk podcast, Noam Slonim speaks to Scientific American about an impressive feat of computer engineering: an AI-powered autonomous system that can engage in complex debate with humans over issues ranging from subsidizing preschool and the merit of space exploration to the pros and cons of genetic engineering.
In a new Nature paper, Slonim and colleagues show that across 80 debate topics, Project Debater’s computational argument technology has performed very decently—with a human audience being the judge of that. “However, it is still somewhat inferior on average to the results obtained by expert human debaters,” says Slonim.
In a 2019 San Francisco showcase, its first public debut, the system went head to head with expert debater Harish Natarajan.
“The research is part of an explosion of new techniques and ideas for studying early development. Today, in the same issue of Nature, two other research groups are reporting a leap forward in creating ”artificial” human embryos.
Those teams managed to coax ordinary skin cells and stem cells to self-assemble into look-alike early human embryos they call ”blastoids,” which they grew for about 10 days in the lab. Several kinds of artificial models of embryos have been described before, but those described today are among the most complete, because they possess the cells needed to form a placenta. That means they are a step closer to being viable human embryos that could develop further, even until birth.
Scientists say that they would never try to establish a pregnancy with artificial embryos—an act that would be forbidden today in most countries.
Researchers are growing embryos outside the body longer than has ever been possible.
Dr James Desmond, DVM, Co-Founder, Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue & Protection (LCRP), discussing his work at LCRP, as well as his zoonotic disease surveillance work with EcoHealth.
Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue & Protection (LCRP — https://www.liberiachimpanzeerescue.org/) is the first and only chimpanzee sanctuary and conservation center in Liberia rescuing chimpanzees who are victims of the illegal bush meat and pet trades. The organization has over 40 orphaned chimpanzees, nearly all under the age of five, currently under their care.
Dr. James Desmond is the co-founder Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue & Protection. He is a wildlife veterinarian and a consultant specializing in emerging disease and the illegal wildlife trade. He graduated from Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, earning a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree and a Masters in Comparative Biomedical Sciences. Alongside his work with Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue & Protection, Dr. Desmond leads research on infectious disease, including identifying novel wildlife reservoirs for the Ebola virus.
Jenny Desmond is a co-founder of Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue & Protection and she leads the team who cares for chimpanzees serving as “mom” to the 40+ orphans, nurturing them and helping them form bonds with the other chimpanzees in the organization’s care to ensure they have fulfilling lives in their sanctuary family, providing love, enrichment, and refuge.
James and Jenny were recently the focus of a TV series, Baby Chimp Rescue, which aired on BBC and AMC.
The debut of “Space Matters-Pillars of the Space Industry” is scheduled to take place this coming Saturday, March 20th at 10:00AM PST.
Greetings Space Lovers! I wanted to personally invite each of you to join us in supporting the world premiere of the awesome new television show “Space Matters”, hosted by Rhonda Stevenson, of Tau Zero Foundation! The show airs this coming Saturday, March 20th @ 10am PST! Please download the e360tv app to view on Roku, IOS, Android, and other live streaming platforms.
A theoretical way to create a sub-light warp drive has been described that does not require negative mass. This could enable fast travel through our Solar System and onwards to distant star systems.
