Thursday - August 17 2023, 02:42 UTC - 1 year ago

Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle used stem cells to produce organoids that release the proteins responsible for forming dental enamel and opened up possibilities of manipulating stem cells to reconstruct and regenerate damaged teeth.

Wednesday - August 16 2023, 22:17 UTC - 1 year ago

Tech workers and industry leaders are advocating for more equitable industry practices, such as resistance to extractive practices and a desire to reduce structural inequalities. Xiaowei Wang, a technologist, author, and organizer based in Oakland, California, has launched a collaborative learning project called Collective Action School to empower tech workers and promote more labor organizing within the industry. Wang moved from China to Somerville, Massachusetts in 1990, and started questioning social norms early on.

Wednesday - August 16 2023, 17:19 UTC - 1 year ago

Chemists at the University of Basel have succeeded in replacing the rare and expensive noble metals osmium and ruthenium, used in screen and solar energy conversion, with a significantly cheaper metal - chromium. Relative to osmium, chromium is about 20,000 times more abundant in the earth's crust and much cheaper. Properties of chromium materials are nearly as good as those of osmium compounds and has potential applications in photosynthesis and production of active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Wednesday - August 16 2023, 12:13 UTC - 1 year ago

A research group from Peking University has recently attempted to replicate the levitation effect reported in the LK99 paper. They fail to produce superconductivity, instead observing a "semi-levitation" effect. The cause of this is potentially related to variations on the original paper, such as switching from sintering to oxygen annealing. The research team is investigating further and waiting for the review of the original paper before drawing any conclusions.

Wednesday - August 16 2023, 07:18 UTC - 1 year ago

David Ryan Polgar is the founder of All Tech Is Human, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting ethics and responsibilites in tech. Founded in 2018, ATIH hosts events and runs programs to create opportunities in responsible tech, with a focus on connecting people and encouraging ethical actions in the tech space. The organization also works to promote data security with initiatives like the US Federal Trade Commission's Privacy Framework and Microsoft's Data Sovereignty initiatives.

Wednesday - August 16 2023, 02:47 UTC - 1 year ago

The US DoD has established a task force called Lima to leverage the possibilities of integrating AI systems into defense technologies. The task force will look into ways the generative artificial intelligence can be used responsibly and strategically for military uses. DoD intends to improve its operations in warfighting, business affairs, health, preparedness, and policy by employing generative AI models. Task Force Lima will be responsible for minimizing risk and redundancy of AI utilization, and promoting education on its responsible usage.

Tuesday - August 15 2023, 22:15 UTC - 1 year ago

The identity of the world’s largest freshwater fish species long remained a mystery until 2022, when a giant freshwater stingray was caught in the Mekong River, surpassing the previous record holder. The discovery marked a milestone in fish biologist Zeb Hogan's two-decade quest to study and protect giant freshwater fish, which are among the most endangered animals on the planet. The decline of these creatures is due to human activities such as overfishing, dam building and climate change.

Tuesday - August 15 2023, 18:01 UTC - 1 year ago

This paper provides a systematic and comprehensive survey to review and analyze enabling and developing EC algorithms for tackling difficult Expensive Optimization Problems (EOPs), mathematically analyzing the total expensive cost and providing three potential research directions for reducing this cost. This paper also provides a taxonomy for summarizing the state-of-the-art advances in EC for EOPs from various perspectives, as well as a comprehensive overview of various key enabling technologies for EC for solving EOPs, and identifies and analyzes the common challenges and open issues in EC for EOPs.

Tuesday - August 15 2023, 13:14 UTC - 1 year ago

Twitter has recently rebranded itself to a spindly black X, causing user's ambivalence, ridicule and scorn. CEO Elon Musk's long standing obsession with the letter X dates back to 2000 when he was forced out as CEO of PayPal for trying to change its name to X. Facebook similarly rebranded itself to Meta in 2021, seeking to shift its focus to the metaverse. Lego also updated its logo in 2021 with a condensed sans-serif font. Dunkin’ and Path also made similar name changes and slight rebrands. Rivals Threads, Meta's new social media platform, is reportedly off to a strong start.

Tuesday - August 15 2023, 09:03 UTC - 1 year ago

Solar arrays, floating on the oceans near the Equator, could revolutionize the energy landscape for densely populated nations in Southeast Asia and West Africa. Emerging research suggests that they have the potential to generate 35,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) of solar energy annually in Indonesia alone. Indonesia stands at the forefront of this transition, utilizing its maritime area and the relative calmness of its equatorial regions to tap into the virtually limitless energy potential of its seas. Companies are working diligently to engineer defenses against storms, and this sustainable energy source is set to play an important role in the energy mix of countries in the coming years.

Tuesday - August 15 2023, 04:05 UTC - 1 year ago

The LK99 discusses CuS2 as an impurity within the copper metal used in Beijing's National Laboratory. This compound is highly variable with respect to temperature, pressure, and humidity and its structure is very unstable. Further studies have been done to investigate potential applications for CuS2 such as its antibiotic activity. It could be a potential cost-effective alternative to commercial antibiotics and its interference pigments could be used for a variety of dye products.

Monday - August 14 2023, 23:51 UTC - 1 year ago

A Swiss research team has developed an interface that uses household batteries to control gene expression in cells. The interface, which works with lab-made genes inserted into living cells, has already had an impact in a proof-of-concept test using mice with Type 1 diabetes. The interface's potential in wearables to directly guide therapeutics for metabolic and potentially other disorders is very promising, as three AA batteries could trigger a daily insulin shot for more than five years.

Monday - August 14 2023, 18:53 UTC - 1 year ago

The power of slideshows to communicate stories has been known since the 1948 Seagram-Vitarama, a traveling extravaganza of a slideshow that was the first A/V presentation ever given at a sales meeting. 35mm film slides, 16mm film, and digital projectors have all been used for high-impact presentations, and companies still use these today to leverage the dramatic power of images in corporate promotions, public relations, and internal communications.

Monday - August 14 2023, 14:08 UTC - 1 year ago

Government funding helped U.S. charities remain afloat during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Charitable donations declined by an estimated 20%, while government grants to nonprofits and the Paycheck Protection Program enabled many charities to retain their employees. Nonprofit spending and employment suffered, while social service charities fared better. Government funding and the PPP ultimately saved between 1.4 and 2 million jobs in the nonprofit sector.

Monday - August 14 2023, 09:22 UTC - 1 year ago

The pristine reputation of the U.S. government’s debt decreased after the rating agency Fitch downgraded Uncle Sam from its AAA perch of creditworthiness to AA+. The downgrade is unlikely to have much of an impact in the short term, but investors will likely be wary of the implications for U.S. economic growth and will look to Capitol Hill for negotiations on a budget agreement to avert the first Biden administration government shutdown.

Monday - August 14 2023, 04:44 UTC - 1 year ago

The U.S. Army is working to develop directed-energy weapons for air defense, such as Iron Beam Combat Laser. This contract is worth about $221 million for development alone and acquiring this new technology could reduce risk to the military. The laser interception system can destroy targets at short range and relatively cheap cost, though certain weather conditions can reduce its effectiveness and the laser beam generation process is slower than other weapons.

Sunday - August 13 2023, 23:54 UTC - 1 year ago

Some employers are introducing virtual reality headsets for their workers, and while promising, the side effects of using VR are largely unknown. We propose 90 factors that influence these side effects, as well as guidelines to mitigate them. While government organizations and tech giants advocate for the use of VR technology in the workplace, more research is needed to improve the quality of evidence and better understand long-term side effects.

Sunday - August 13 2023, 19:27 UTC - 1 year ago

The JWST revealed Hydrogen Peroxide on the poles of Ganymede, probably due to its magnetic field, and sulfurous fumes on the most volcanically active moon of Jupiter, Io.

Sunday - August 13 2023, 15:25 UTC - 1 year ago

AnyTeleop is a computer vision-based system created by researchers at NVIDIA and UC San Diego which enables robust and flexible teleoperation of a robotic arm and hand to complete tasks at a distance. It is low-cost, easy to deploy, and generalizes well across different tasks, environments and robotic systems.