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Jan 24, 2020

Another coronavirus case has been confirmed in the U.S., this time in Chicago

Posted by in category: futurism

2nd new coronavirus case confirmed in the USA, CDC reports. What are the symptoms of coronavirus and what is it? The most recent coronavirus diagnosis.

Jan 24, 2020

Harvard Professor Clayton M. Christensen Turned His Life Into a Case Study

Posted by in category: business

Clayton M. Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor and management guru, was an authority on what he called disruptive technologies who became more widely known for offering his life as a case study.

Dr. Christensen, whose books included “The Innovator’s Dilemma” and “How Will You Measure Your Life?,” died Thursday in Boston. He was 67 and had leukemia.

Into a Case Study.

Jan 24, 2020

NASA has now decided what it is going to send to the moon next year

Posted by in category: space travel

16 different experiments and technology demonstrations are going to the moon, in the run-up to the Artemis program’s goal to send humans back in 2024.

Jan 24, 2020

Facebook has trained an AI to navigate without needing a map

Posted by in categories: drones, habitats, information science, robotics/AI

The algorithm lets robots find the shortest route in unfamiliar environments, opening the door to robots that can work inside homes and offices.

The news: A team at Facebook AI has created a reinforcement learning algorithm that lets a robot find its way in an unfamiliar environment without using a map. Using just a depth-sensing camera, GPS, and compass data, the algorithm gets a robot to its goal 99.9% of the time along a route that is very close to the shortest possible path, which means no wrong turns, no backtracking, and no exploration. This is a big improvement over previous best efforts.

Why it matters: Mapless route-finding is essential for next-gen robots like autonomous delivery drones or robots that work inside homes and offices. Some of the best robots available today, such as Spot and Atlas made by Boston Dynamics and Digit made by Agility Robotics, are packed with sensors that make them pretty good at keeping their balance and avoiding obstacles. But if you dropped them off at an unfamiliar street corner and left them to find their way home, they’d be screwed. While Facebook’s algorithm does not yet handle outside environments, it is a promising step in that direction and could probably be adapted to urban spaces.

Jan 24, 2020

Unexpected new component discovered circulating in bloodstream

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Researchers at the Montpellier Cancer Research Institute (IRCM) have discovered a new component in blood that has never been detected there before. Mitochondria are normally found inside cells, but the team has now discovered them floating around on their own in the bloodstream.

Often referred to as the power houses of cells, mitochondria are organelles that play a key role in metabolizing energy and cell signaling. Occasionally they are found outside of cells, but usually only as fragments within platelets.

But after a seven-year study, an IRCM team has now found complete and fully-functioning mitochondria in blood plasma, contained inside highly-stable structures. Using electron microscopy, the researchers analyzed plasma samples from about 100 people, and found up to 3.7 million of these mitochondria-containing structures per milliliter of plasma.

Jan 24, 2020

With Wuhan virus genetic code in hand, scientists begin work on a vaccine

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health

CHICAGO/LONDON (Reuters) — When a newly organized vaccine research group at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) met for the first time this week, its members had expected to be able to ease into their work. But their mandate is to conduct human trials for emerging health threats — and their first assignment came at shocking speed.

Jan 24, 2020

Chinese ‘nurse’ claims corpses of coronavirus victims are left lying on hospital floor

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Corpses of coronavirus victims are being left unattended in a corridor of a hospital flooded with patients in Wuhan as the Chinese city is ravaged by the deadly infection, it has been revealed.

The chilling scene, captured by a woman who claims to be a nurse, was posted on the country’s social media network today but quickly censored.

Continue reading “Chinese ‘nurse’ claims corpses of coronavirus victims are left lying on hospital floor” »

Jan 24, 2020

The scientists who are creating a bio-internet of things

Posted by in category: internet

BioIoT!!


The internet of things connects devices across the globe. Now researchers are considering how bacteria can join the network.

Jan 24, 2020

Transparent material conducts and insulates heat at the same time

Posted by in categories: computing, materials

Different kinds of materials can play different roles when it comes to controlling heat. If we want to keep our home warm in the depths of winter, insulating layers in our walls can help to lock it in. If we want to keep things cool, thermally conductive materials like those used in computer processors can help carry it away. But could one material have it both ways? A new breakthrough suggests that it could, made by a team of scientists who believe heat needn’t just be a one way street.

The research was carried out by scientists at the University of Bayreuth and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, who sought to combine the thermally insulating properties of materials like polystyrene, with the thermally conductive properties of heavy metals often used to dissipate heat.

Their breakthrough boils down to a way of manipulating the way heat travels, which is through the oscillation of individual molecules that pass on their movement to neighboring molecules.

Jan 24, 2020

‘Ghost’ population of humans discovered in ancient Africa

Posted by in category: futurism

Ancient burials in a Cameroon rock shelter are shedding light on the humans who lived in western Central Africa thousands of years ago.