Menu

Blog

Page 8581

May 26, 2019

Ford unveils two-legged robot that can walk packages to your door

Posted by in categories: business, robotics/AI

‘It’s not always convenient for people to leave their homes to retrieve deliveries or for businesses to run their own delivery services,’ Ken Washington, chief technology officer at Ford, wrote in a blog post.

‘If we can free people up to focus less on the logistics of making deliveries, they can turn their time and effort to things that really need their attention.

Continue reading “Ford unveils two-legged robot that can walk packages to your door” »

May 26, 2019

Robot inspired by a bush baby can bounce THREE times its own height

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

A nimble robot inspired by bush babies can now bounce three times its own height in a single leap.

SALTO (saltatorial locomotion terrain obstacles) was fist designed to jump at 4mph (1.75 m/s) but a host of new features have now been added to the nifty machine.

Continue reading “Robot inspired by a bush baby can bounce THREE times its own height” »

May 26, 2019

Cooling wood: Engineers create strong, sustainable solution for passive cooling

Posted by in categories: energy, habitats, nanotechnology, sustainability

What if the wood your house was made of could save your electricity bill? In the race to save energy, using a passive cooling method that requires no electricity and is built right into your house could save even chilly areas of the US some cash. Now, researchers at the University of Maryland and the University of Colorado have harnessed nature’s nanotechnology to help solve the problem of finding a passive way for buildings to dump heat that is sustainable and strong.

Read more

May 26, 2019

‘Neural Lander’ uses AI to land drones smoothly

Posted by in categories: drones, robotics/AI

Control engineers and AI experts team up to make drones that fly more smoothly close to the ground.

Read more

May 26, 2019

These Hidden Women Helped Invent Chaos Theory

Posted by in category: futurism

Two programmers played a key role in developing chaos theory and the famous butterfly effect, but they’ve been left out of virtually all accounts of the work.

Read more

May 26, 2019

Researchers Find ‘Oldest Collection of Non-Fossil Meteorites’ in Chile’s Atacama Desert

Posted by in category: futurism

An international team of scientists has found a wealth of well-preserved stony meteorites in the Atacama Desert that allowed them to reconstruct the rate of falling meteorites over the past two million years.

Read more

May 25, 2019

An astronomer in the Netherlands captured stunning video of 60 Starlink satellites zooming across the sky

Posted by in category: satellites

A stunning video shot by a Dutch astronomer captured a string of roughly 60 Starlink satellites zooming across the night sky, one day after they were launched into orbit.

The video shows the “train” of satellites speeding in a straight line as they orbit around the earth.

The astronomer, Marco Langbroek, wrote in a blog post that he had calculated the search orbit himself to find out when they would pass by, and “stood ready” with his camera. The train zoomed by within three minutes of his predicted time.

Continue reading “An astronomer in the Netherlands captured stunning video of 60 Starlink satellites zooming across the sky” »

May 25, 2019

Scientists Project Holograms Into The Brain To Create Experiences

Posted by in categories: genetics, holograms, neuroscience

One day soon you may be filling your lungs with crisp ocean air, your arms bathed in warm light as the sun sets over softly lapping waters and you may wonder, is this real? Or are scientists projecting holograms into my brain to create a vivid sensory experience that isn’t actually happening? A group of researchers at University of California, Berkeley are in the early stages of testing their ability to create, edit and scrub sensory experiences from your brain, both real-time and stored experiences: memories.

Using light to make us see what isn’t there.

Different sensory experiences show up in brain imaging as patterns of neurons firing in sequence. Neuroscientists are trying to reverse-engineer experiences by stimulating the neurons to excite the same neural patterns. At present, the steps to accomplish this are a little invasive. Scientists genetically modify neurons with photosensitive proteins so they can gingerly manipulate neurons using light. The process is known as optogenetics. Also, a metal head plate gets surgically implanted over the targeted area.

Continue reading “Scientists Project Holograms Into The Brain To Create Experiences” »

May 25, 2019

No, Night Owls Aren’t Doomed to Die Early

Posted by in category: life extension

But while saying that night owls are going to die early makes for an eye-catching headline, the real story isn’t quite that simple.


Despite alarmist headlines and a study that suggested morning people live longer, the truth is more complicated.

Read more

May 25, 2019

A month after the fire that ravaged the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

Posted by in categories: climatology, government

A month after the fire that ravaged the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, scientists and research bodies are getting organized to help restore the building—and advance scientific knowledge.

At a public hearing held yesterday by France’s Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Options (OPECST), academics explained how they can contribute to the government’s efforts to restore the cathedral, which was partly destroyed on 15 April.

“This catastrophe is, in the end, a privileged moment for research, because we’ll have access to materials that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to access,” said Martine Regert, deputy scientific director of the Institute of Ecology and Environment at the French national research agency CNRS. For example, analyzing certain isotopes in the cathedral’s timber frame could provide insights about the medieval climate, said Philippe Dillmann, a research leader at CNRS’s Institute for Research on Archeomaterials.

Continue reading “A month after the fire that ravaged the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris” »