Friday - September 29 2023, 10:57 UTC - 1 year ago

In this article, we examine how the major developments of nanotechnology, biotechnology and cybernetics, commercial spaceflight, and hypersonic trains will create a new era in education, sports, leisure, and warfare. In particular, space exploration and growth of the commercial space sector will lead to humans living beyond Earth in large numbers with Low Earth Orbit (LEO) transitioning from a commercialized environment to a populated one. This will be helped immensely by the creation of a Space Elevator, allowing people to "lift" to orbit and beyond. As a result, Low Earth Orbit Habitats (LEOH) could become very common by 2100, allowing for a large orbital population.

Friday - September 29 2023, 06:12 UTC - 1 year ago

Research conducted by Ahmad Taher Azar of the Prince Sultan University and Benha University has introduced a hybrid classification algorithm aimed at improving the recognition of human activities using smartphone data. The algorithm has the capacity to classify six activities to an accuracy rate of 96%, and does so with an efficiency in processing of 0.073 seconds compared to the more widely used Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) which can take well over 1.5 seconds to handle the same job. The implications for this kind of research range from health care to personal support, however there is a need for deeper recognition of emotional state and other factors important to an individual's health and wellbeing.

Friday - September 29 2023, 01:07 UTC - 1 year ago

As the U.S. moves away from fossil fuel jobs, many workers have the skills to step into new green jobs. But they are located in areas where green jobs are not expected to be available. Without targeted policies, only about 2% of fossil fuel workers will transition to green jobs this decade.

Thursday - September 28 2023, 20:16 UTC - 1 year ago

The EU funded TACTILITY project has found that extended reality has enormous potential for sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing and gaming. The project developed a glove that simulates the sense of touch, and allows people to feel virtual objects and creatures. This opens up possibilities of using the technology for treatments of phobias, as well as helping operators to learn how to assemble complex machines. Evidence from the project bolsters the European Commission's efforts to develop the virtual-worlds domain.

Thursday - September 28 2023, 15:30 UTC - 1 year ago

A new study reveals that over 1,100 years ago, an earthquake cluster in the Puget Sound region led to landslides, upliftment of fault scraps, and a local tsunami. The study also suggests the potential for a single multi-fault earthquake with a magnitude of around 7.8, and emphasizes the need to update current seismic hazard models to account for such scenarios.

Thursday - September 28 2023, 10:53 UTC - 1 year ago

This paper proposes a deep learning framework for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation in radar perception tasks. The network consists of two parts: a multi-label classification task to estimate DOAs on a rough grid, and a regression task to estimate the offsets of real DOAs on the grid. Results show that the proposed method achieved stable DOA estimation with small estimation errors, and was significantly superior to other DL-based methods.

Thursday - September 28 2023, 06:05 UTC - 1 year ago

Agility Robotics recently announced they will scale production to 10,000 bipedal humanoid robots, while Fourier Intelligence released a video showcasing the GR-1 humanoid robot and production facilities. Meanwhile, Tesla sent out an update for their humanoid robot Optimus, capable of autonomously sorting objects by color and training with a neural network. While concerns regarding ethical considerations and the potential misuse of AI-powered robots remain, Agility Robotics claim they are creating jobs rather than taking them away.

Thursday - September 28 2023, 01:27 UTC - 1 year ago

In a recently released report, a team of Caltech and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory astronomers argue for widening our search from primarily radio signals to all Technosignatures—telltale signs of technological civilizations. They suggest using AI to search for any outliers in the data, from radio signals to unusually bright or flickering objects. Furthermore, the team states that SETI has suffered biases due to limited resources, which has resulted in the assumption that technological civilizations would choose to signal others civilizations "like us" with radio emission.

Wednesday - September 27 2023, 20:38 UTC - 1 year ago

Google DeepMind's AlphaMissense is a new tool that helps uncover disease-causing mutations. It analyzes DNA sequences and works out which DNA letter swaps likely lead to disease. In tests, it categorized 89 percent of the tens of millions of possible genetic typos as either benign or pathogenic. However, this tool is only meant to be viewed as a tip-line for disease-causing mutations, and is not to be used for diagnoses.

Wednesday - September 27 2023, 15:53 UTC - 1 year ago

Tesla has released the video of the Optimus Teslabot, showing vastly improved balance and hand control. They plan to begin mass producing the robots in November and using a cost savings model by Dr. Scott Walter, Tesla could save 20%, 50% and even 90% labor costs by using the robots instead of human workers.

Wednesday - September 27 2023, 11:15 UTC - 1 year ago

China, India, and the U.S. are all on the Moon in the 2020s. To build a successful base, they must create a heating and cooling system that will keep it habitable. Scientists are researching liquid-vapor systems - two-phase systems involving the simultaneous flow of liquid and vapor - which are more effective and smaller than purely liquid systems. This research includes two processes: flow boiling and flow condensation.

Wednesday - September 27 2023, 07:09 UTC - 1 year ago

Google is introducing its artificially intelligent chatbot 'Bard' that is available through an English-only extension and will be compatible with Gmail, Maps and YouTube Services. It also promises and protecting user's privacy from human reviewers and not using the data for ads. This is in response to OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot and Microsoft's AI technology.

Wednesday - September 27 2023, 02:28 UTC - 1 year ago

Purdue University researchers have unveiled a new method called biphasic quasistatic brain communication (BP-QBC), which may enable a compact, brain-implanted sensor to sense and transmit data to a wearable device, without interfering with the body’s natural physiological functions. This technology has the potential to offer valuable insights into a range of medical conditions, such as Parkinson’s, Tourette Syndrome and epilepsy.

Tuesday - September 26 2023, 22:01 UTC - 1 year ago

Physicists can help to advance AI technology by replacing the 'black box' algorithms of neural networks with better-understood equations of physical process. Poisson flow generative models (PFGM) rely on a physical set up of a electric field that is learned by the neural network during the training process. PFGM create images with the same quality as diffusion-based models while being 10-20x faster.

Tuesday - September 26 2023, 17:09 UTC - 1 year ago

ChatGPT, OpenAI's viral chatbot app, has had two major updates; users can now interact with the chatbot through voice, and also ask it questions about images. There are five synthetic voices available to choose from, and the image recognition feature has been tried by a company called Be My Eyes. This set of upgrades adds further power and flexibility to the chatbot.

Tuesday - September 26 2023, 12:36 UTC - 1 year ago

Getty Images has offered protection for its customers against intellectual-property disputes with its AI-generated model. It has also announced a Spotify-style compensation model for creatives. The system is trained on Getty’s image library, so does not include imagery of real people or places that could be manipulated into deepfake imagery.

Tuesday - September 26 2023, 07:52 UTC - 1 year ago

Bourbon whiskey have a rich and complicated heritage, and is commonly known as "America's spirit". To be legally defined as a bourbon, whiskey is only allowed to be made in the United States and has to follow a specific mash bill and process of fermentation and distillation. This rigorous process of making the whiskey affects the flavor of the end product, from its sweetness and nutty smoky flavors to its spicy whiskey taste and fruity, floral and aromatic aromas.

Tuesday - September 26 2023, 03:06 UTC - 1 year ago

Researchers from the University of Cordoba and the University of Bern have unveiled a fascinating glimpse into the past by studying the archaeological treasure trove of the Cave of Marbles in Priego de Córdoba, Spain. Through the use of high-resolution molds and electron microscopy, the research team made a startling revelation: many of the bone remains bore marks and cuts that were not consistent with consumption but pointed towards an alternative purpose – as tools. Carbon-14 dating points to three periods of funerary use ranging from Neolithic to Bronze Age. They concluded that these ancient communities engaged in intricate rituals and used the bones as tools, suggesting ancestral reverence during that time.

Monday - September 25 2023, 22:43 UTC - 1 year ago

Tara Sweeney visited Thwaites Glacier in January 2023 to study its geology and ice fabric, and its potential contribution to sea level rise. Through her experience, she observed that polar exploration and space borne missions are linked and attended the 2023 Analog Astronaut Conference held at Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona. There, she and other participants discussed the psychological toll of reintegration following analog astronaut missions.