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Dec 4, 2018

Scientists invented a new material that gets thicker as you stretch it

Posted by in categories: materials, physics

Most of us think we have a pretty solid grasp on basic physics, and one of the assumptions we’ve come to form is that any material gets thinner as it’s stretched. It makes sense, since the same amount of material spread over a larger area would have to mean that there’s less of it in any one spot, right?

Not so fast. Researchers led by Dr. Devesh Mistry of the University of Leeds invented a new synthetic material that gets thicker as it’s being stretched. The material, which is described in detail in a new paper published in Nature Communications, is one of few that exhibit “auxetic” properties, which means they expand instead of contracting when tugged on from different directions.

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Dec 4, 2018

IBM Reveals 8-Bit Analog Chip With Phase-Change Memory

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

Researchers used the chip to test a simple neural net and identify numerals with 100 percent accuracy.

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Dec 4, 2018

Samsung Launching 1TB SSD for $150 on Dec. 16

Posted by in categories: computing, electronics

The low price doesn’t come without some compromises. It’s not as fast or power efficient as previous Samsung SSDs, but then you’re paying a lot less for this new value drive that uses 4-bit QLC NAND.

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Dec 4, 2018

China’s biggest streaming-music service reveals the details for its US IPO

Posted by in categories: entertainment, media & arts

  • Tencent Music on Monday set the price for its US initial public offering after global markets got a boost from a truce in the US-and-China trade war.
  • The company said American Depository Receipts will price between $13 and $15, helping it raise as much as $1.2 billion.
  • The IPO was initially scheduled for October 18, but was postponed due to stock-market volatility.
  • Monday’s filing comes after President Donald Trump agreed to postpone new tariffs on Chinese imports by 90 days and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to buy a substantial amount of US goods and name Fentanyl a controlled substance.

Tencent Music Entertainment filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday to set the price for its US initial public offering — one day after President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a truce in the trade war between the US and China.

The China-based streaming-music service backed by tech giant Tencent said the offering price will be in the range of $13 and $15 per American Depository Receipt, helping it raise as much as $1.2 billion.

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Dec 4, 2018

One remote for all your devices

Posted by in category: futurism

Click on photo to start video.

This may soon turn the many unsightly remotes in our living room obsolete.

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Dec 4, 2018

The FDA just approved a drug that targets cancers based on DNA, rather than where the tumor is in your body

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

  • The FDA on Monday approved a new cancer treatment in an unconventional way: not by tumor type, but rather by the genetic mutation the drug targets.
  • The drug, Vitrakvi, was developed by Loxo Oncology in partnership with pharma giant Bayer.
  • It’s only the second time the FDA has approved a cancer drug’s use based on a certain mutation rather than a particular tumor type.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday took an unconventional approach to approving a new cancer drug.

The drug, Vitrakvi, was developed by Loxo Oncology. It’s the company’s first drug to get approved.

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Dec 4, 2018

CRISPR creates new species with single giant chromosome

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical

For at least the last 10 million years every yeast cell of the sort used to make beer or bread has had 16 chromosomes. But now—thanks to CRISPR technology and some DNA tinkerers in China—there are living yeast with just one.

Genome organizer: We humans have our genes arranged on 46 chromosomes, yeast use 16, and there’s even a fern plant with 1260 of them. That’s just the way it is. And no one is quite sure why.

The big one: Do we really need so many chromosomes? That’s what Zhogjun Qin and colleagues at the Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology in Shanghai wanted to know.

Continue reading “CRISPR creates new species with single giant chromosome” »

Dec 4, 2018

ANYbotics Autonomous Robot Can Inspect Offshore Converters

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

This four-legged robot can run, climb stairs, and apparently inspect offshore converters.

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Dec 4, 2018

Camera Can Record At 10 Trillion Frames Per Second

Posted by in category: electronics

This camera can capture photons of light in slow motion 📷.

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Dec 4, 2018

Nvidia AI Can Render Complete Urban Environments in Unreal Engine 4

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Interest in artificial neural networks has skyrocketed over the years as companies like Google and Facebook have invested heavily in machines that can think like humans. Today, an AI can recognize objects in photos or help generate realistic computer speech, but Nvidia has successfully built a neural network that can create an entire virtual world with the help of a game engine. The researchers speculate this “hybrid” approach could one day make AI-generated games a reality.

The system build by Nvidia engineers uses many of the same parts as other AI experiments, but they’re arranged in a slightly different way. To goal of the project was to create a simple driving simulator, but without using any humans to design the environment.

Continue reading “Nvidia AI Can Render Complete Urban Environments in Unreal Engine 4” »