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Nov 11, 2024

Robots chisel out the future of sculpture as some artists embrace change and others push back

Posted by in categories: futurism, robotics/AI

Instead of the old-fashioned hammer and chisel, a 13-foot zinc alloy arm with a spinning, diamond-crusted finger is now used by some to cut marble. Robotor CEO Giacomo Massari says it’s ten times faster.


A fleet of marble-sculpting robots is carving out the future of the art world. It’s a move some artists see as cheating, but others are embracing the change.

Nov 11, 2024

Uncovering the effect of low-frequency static magnetic field on tendon-derived cells: from mechanosensing to tenogenesis

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Magnetotherapy has been receiving increased attention as an attractive strategy for modulating cell physiology directly at the site of injury, thereby providing the medical community with a safe and non-invasive therapy.


Pesqueira, T., Costa-Almeida, R. & Gomes, M.E. Sci Rep 7, 10,948 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-11253-6

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Nov 10, 2024

Bioinspired hydrogels harness sunlight: A step closer to artificial photosynthesis

Posted by in categories: chemistry, solar power, sustainability

Mimicking how plants convert sunlight into energy has long been a dream for scientists aiming to create renewable energy solutions. Artificial photosynthesis is a process that seeks to replicate nature’s method, using sunlight to drive chemical reactions that generate clean energy. However, creating synthetic systems that work as organically as natural photosynthesis has been a significant challenge until now.

Nov 10, 2024

Tesla Rolls Out Major FSD Update with Neural Network Shift

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, robotics/AI, transportation

Tesla began rolling out a significant update to its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software on Saturday, shifting the city-streets driving system to a single, end-to-end neural network model in FSD version 12.5.6.3.

Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company’s FSD technology “is now almost entirely AI.” In early October, Musk had stated that FSD “will soon exceed 10,000 miles between critical interventions, which is a year of driving for most people.”

Nov 10, 2024

Apple’s $1.5 Billion Mobile Service Satellites Will Be Launched By SpaceX

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, satellites

SpaceX will launch Apple partner Globalstar’s new MSS satellites as part of the iPhone’s satellite connectivity features.

Nov 10, 2024

Flexible circuits made with silk and graphene

Posted by in categories: computing, materials

After thousands of years as a highly valuable commodity, silk continues to surprise. Now it may help usher in a whole new direction for microelectronics and computing.

While silk protein has been deployed in designer electronics, its use is currently limited in part because silk fibers are a messy tangle of spaghetti-like strands.

Now, a research team led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has tamed the tangle. They report in the journal Science Advances (“Two-dimensional silk”) that they have achieved a uniform two-dimensional (2D) layer of silk protein fragments, or “fibroins,” on graphene, a carbon-based material useful for its excellent electrical conductivity.

Nov 10, 2024

14-Year-old Wins ‘America’s Top Young Scientist’ for Inventing Pesticide Detector For Fruits and Vegetables

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI

A 9th grader from Snellville, Georgia, has won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, after inventing a handheld device designed to detect pesticide residues on produce.

Sirish Subash set himself apart with his AI-based sensor to win the grand prize of $25,000 cash and the prestigious title of “America’s Top Young Scientist.”

Like most inventors, Sirish was intrigued with curiosity and a simple question. His mother always insisted that he wash the fruit before eating it, and the boy wondered if the preventative action actually did any good.

Nov 10, 2024

A Cloned Ferret Has Given Birth for the First Time in History, Marking a Win for Her Endangered Species

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Antonia, a cloned black-footed ferret at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, has produced two healthy offspring that will help build genetic diversity in their recovering population.

Nov 10, 2024

Epistemic Boundaries and Quantum Uncertainty: What Local Observers Can (Not) Predict

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Quantum theory is distinguished by its apparent indeterminism, a feature that raises the question: Is this uncertainty inherent to Nature, or might…


Johannes Fankhauser

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Nov 10, 2024

Did egg or chicken come first? A protist suggests it was the egg!

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

The world is full of unusual unicellular organisms and microbes, many of which have not been discovered yet. In 2017, scientists identified a single-celled marine organism called Chromosphaera perkinsii in sediments collected from Hawaii. This species is estimated to be over a billion years old, making it older than the world’s most ancient animals. Researchers determined that this species has significant similarities to some animal embryos, though it is typically unicellular. The findings, which have been reported in Nature, suggested that some of the genetic mechanisms underlying complex life are present in C. perkinsii, or that it has evolved those characteristics independently.

The investigators noted that this study seems to answer the question of whether the chicken came before the egg; it was apparently the egg, since the genetic tools for making eggs existed prior to the emergence of chickens.

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