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May 21, 2019

Why lack of sleep is bad for your heart

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

A new University of Colorado Boulder study, published in the journal Experimental Physiology, helps explain why.

It found that people who sleep fewer than 7 hours per night have lower blood levels of three physiological regulators, or microRNAs, which influence gene expression and play a key role in maintaining vascular health.

The findings could potentially lead to new, non-invasive tests for sleep deprived patients concerned about their health, the authors said.

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May 21, 2019

Controlling Concrete Production

Posted by in category: materials

This device helps builders create high quality concrete via Carmix Metalgalante.

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May 21, 2019

People with Autism Finding Jobs in AI

Posted by in categories: employment, robotics/AI

Can artificial intelligence provide careers for people with autism?

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May 21, 2019

Scientists Have Created a Sound So Loud It Can Vaporize Water on Contact

Posted by in category: futurism

Scientists have used an X-ray laser to create the loudest possible underwater sound on Earth.

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May 21, 2019

Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

(Reuters) — The U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday started a two-week test transporting mail across three Southwestern states using self-driving trucks, a step forward in the effort to commercialize autonomous vehicle technology for hauling freight.

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May 21, 2019

SpotMini Autonomous Navigation

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

SpotMini autonomously navigates a specified route through an office and lab facility. Before the test, the robot is manually driven through the space so it can build a map of the space using visual data from cameras mounted on the front, back and sides of the robot. During the autonomous run, SpotMini uses data from the cameras to localize itself in the map and to detect and avoid obstacles. Once the operator presses ‘GO’ at the beginning of the video, the robot is on its own. Total walk time for this route is just over 6 minutes. (The QR codes visible in the video are used to measure performance, not for navigation.)

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May 21, 2019

The Army Is Spending Millions on Powered Exoskeletons

Posted by in category: cyborgs

No Iron Man suits yet; most exoskeletons mainly help soldiers carry heavy loads.

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May 21, 2019

Superfast bullet train that rivals airplane flying times set to debut in Japan

Posted by in category: transportation

The picture of a “bullet train” speeding past Mount Fuji is an iconic image of modern Japan.

In recent years, however, Japan has lost the “world’s fastest train” title to China — if only by a few miles per hour. But now, Japan plans to reclaim that crown, with a new bullet train that will whisk between cities with journey times that rival passenger jets.

The Alfa-X train, unveiled by rail company JR East, will carry passengers at up to 224 miles per hour, outpacing the fastest Japanese bullet trains in commercial service today by almost 25 miles per hour.

Continue reading “Superfast bullet train that rivals airplane flying times set to debut in Japan” »

May 21, 2019

Mathematicians revive abandoned approach to the Riemann Hypothesis

Posted by in category: mathematics

Many ways to approach the Riemann Hypothesis have been proposed during the past 150 years, but none of them have led to conquering the most famous open problem in mathematics. A new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that one of these old approaches is more practical than previously realized.

“In a surprisingly short proof, we’ve shown that an old, abandoned approach to the Riemann Hypothesis should not have been forgotten,” says Ken Ono, a theorist at Emory University and co-author of the paper. “By simply formulating a proper framework for an old approach we’ve proven some new theorems, including a large chunk of a criterion which implies the Riemann Hypothesis. And our general framework also opens approaches to other basic unanswered questions.”

The paper builds on the work of Johan Jensen and George Pólya, two of the most important mathematicians of the 20th century. It reveals a method to calculate the Jensen-Pólya polynomials—a formulation of the Riemann Hypothesis—not one at a time, but all at once.

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May 21, 2019

There’s a Brand-New Kilogram, And It’s Based on Quantum Physics

Posted by in categories: alien life, particle physics, quantum physics

The kilogram isn’t a thing anymore. Instead, it’s an abstract idea about light and energy.

As of today (May 20), physicists have replaced the old kilogram — a 130-year-old, platinum-iridium cylinder weighing 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) sitting in a room in France — with an abstract, unchanging measurement based on quadrillions of light particles and Planck’s constant (a fundamental feature of our universe).

In one sense, this is a grand (and surprisingly difficult) achievement. The kilogram is fixed forever now. It can’t change over time as the cylinder loses an atom here or an atom there. That means humans could communicate this unit of mass, in terms of raw science, to space aliens. The kilogram is now a simple truth, an idea that can be carried anywhere in the universe without bothering to bring a cylinder with you.

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