Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 69

A video of an alligator being eaten by seemingly giant "sea bugs" went viral back in 2019 and has now received a follow up study detailing the recently discovered species.

The creatures seen in the above video are called Bathynomus yucatanensis, and while they certainly resemble a type of bug, they aren't actually bugs at all - they are isopods. A new study published in the Journal of Natural History in August looked into the Bathynomus yucatanensis and detailed their behavior, with the researchers writing that these isopods don't appear to hunt their prey and behavior more like a scavenger of food.

The researchers write that these strange creatures search for leftover corpses of sea creatures or any other food they can safely get access to. Notably, these isopods are capable of consuming an entire alligator corpse in just 51 days. The study details the location of the Bathynomus yucatanensis, with the researchers writing that they are common in tropical temperature areas in the deep sea. When seen in the ocean, they appear as large floating white pieces as this species can grow up to 1.5 feet in length.

The new bipedal, humanoid robot has been developed by Chinese company Xiaomi and unveiled at a launch event in Beijing.

Named the CyberOne, its reveal followed Xiaomi's presentation for a new foldable phone, thinner than Samsung's and only available in China. The robot joined Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun on stage, walking over to him to hand him a flower. The humanoid robot adds to Xiaomi's growing robotics line-up, known as its Cyber series, which includes the Cyberdog released last year, a robotic dog sharing a similar design to Spot, Boston Dynamics' robot dog.

The CyberOne stands 177 centimeters (5 feet 9.7 inches) with a wingspan of 168 centimeters (66 inches). It supports up to 21 degrees of freedom in motion, which, paired with a response time of 0.5 milliseconds per degree of freedom, allows it to simulate human movements completely. Visually, the CyberOne also shares some strong design similarities with renders of the upcoming Tesla Bot, also known as Optimus.

A paper on Gaia's new data titled "Gaia Data Release 3: Astrophysical parameters inference system (Apsis) I -- methods and content overview" is available on the arXiv preprint server.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has released the third dataset from its Gaia mission, which maps the stars. The mission has identified stars of similar mass and composition to our Sun, which provides insight into the timeline of the Sun. Gaia also captures information about a star's apparent brightness and temperature and can also derive a star's absorption and emission spectra.

When a star's light is split with a prism, the colors of light that separate out correlate to the presence of various elements in the star. Astronomers from the late 19th and 20th centuries realized these spectra could be ordered in a way that correlates with the temperature. Additionally, they discovered the width of the lines along the spectra indicated the star's luminosity and age.

A study on oxygen and magnetism titled "Magnetic phase separation in microgravity" has been published in the journal npj Microgravity.

An international team of researchers has found a new way to produce oxygen in space for astronauts to breathe, such as on the International Space Station (ISS) and other space vehicles. The method NASA currently uses aboard the ISS is to split water into hydrogen and oxygen using an electrolytic cell. The gases have to be removed from that system so they can be utilized, which requires a centrifuge to separate the gases from the electrode and liquid electrolyte of the water electrolyzer system.

However, such a centrifuge is typically large, has a lot of mass, and requires significant power and maintenance. A recent analysis by a NASA Ames researcher indicated that the current infrastructure for creating oxygen in space "wouldn't make any sense to use" for a trip to Mars. Researchers have now found that gas bubbles can be separated from electrode surfaces using simple neodymium magnets in simulated microgravity conditions.

A new report has revealed that TikTok officials kept a "kill list" of staff members they wanted to be pushed out of a TikTok office.

The report from the Financial Times details four anonymous employees that spoke to the publication regarding a list that included the names of several staff members at the London TikTok office, with some of the names on the list only being at the company for a few weeks. Notably, the unnamed employees said that TikTok would sometimes hire replacements before letting the individual go from the company and that senior officials would intentionally create a hostile work environment.

BusinessInsider contacted TikTok for comment and a spokesperson for the company said that if any list such as the one detailed by the employees exists, it would not be "condoned or in accordance with our internal policies on probation and performance management." The Financial Times report also details one employee that stated senior officials singled her out which led her to self doubt about her ability. This employee described the environment as "If they don't like you, they gaslight you or make your job untenable."

A study on tinnitus titled "A randomized single-blind controlled trial of a prototype digital polytherapeutic for tinnitus" has been published in the journal Frontiers in Neurology.

Researchers from the University of Auckland in New Zealand have developed a new smartphone-based therapy for treating tinnitus patients. Their clinical trial involved 61 patients, who were separated into a group of 31 that received the new "digital polytherapeutic" and a group of 30 that used a popular, generic app for producing white noise. After 12 weeks, the group receiving the polytherapeutic treatment showed significant improvement, while those using white noise did not.

Tinnitus refers to phantom noises like a ringing in the ears that isn't generated by an external source nearby and can be brought on by excessive exposure to loud noises and various other causes. About five percent of people with tinnitus are distressed by it, which can impact sleep and emotional health. Currently, no cure exists. However, the researchers hope that the new polytherapeutic approach will be available in approximately six months.

A study on the bioengineered cornea titled "Bioengineered corneal tissue for minimally invasive vision restoration in advanced keratoconus in two clinical cohorts" has been published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Researchers from Linkoping University in Sweden have developed a bioengineered version of the human cornea, the clear, protective outer layer of the eye. Their version is made from collagen sourced from pig skin and purified for its resemblance to the proteins found in the human cornea. It is an alternative option for transplants compared to those sourced from deceased human donors, which can only last for five to seven days without specialized cold storage.

A small trial by the research team involved 20 patients with a corneal condition known as keratoconus, resulting in 14 of whom were legally blind, and the rest visually impaired. The implant restored or improved sight in 20 individuals, with three previously blind participants having 20/20 vision two years after the operation. Over 12 million people worldwide have blindness due to damage to the cornea or corneal disease, and only 1 in 70 patients can receive a corneal transplant to correct this.

A security researcher has warned that because Starlink satellites are widespread, they are at risk of hardware hackers.

Lennert Wouters explained on Blackhat.com that he performed the first black-box hardware security evaluation of the SpaceX Starlink UT, which uses a custom quad-core Cortex-A53 System-on-Chip (SoC) that runs a verified boot based on the ARM trusted firmware (TF-A) project. Wouters writes that he was able to bypass firmware signature verification during the ROM bootloader execution through a voltage fault injection.

The process of the hack was broken down by Wouters, who is a security researcher from Belgian university KU Leuven, in a conference in Las Vegas this week. The security researcher explained that he constructed a small homemade circuit board out of many off-the-shelf items and added them to his Starlink dish. The devices allowed hackers to execute a code that would grant them access to the entire Starlink network while also revealing parts of the systems that weren't available before.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and has the third largest diameter in the solar system, yet it's commonly overlooked and joked about due to its name.

James Webb Space Telescope project scientists and NASA veteran Heidi Hammel knows all too well about the jokes and laughter that Uranus' name has caused in the classroom, with Hammel even stating that the chosen name for the large blue planet is "definitely distracting". The NASA veteran worked on the Voyager 2 mission and said that for a while, she attempted to educate people on the correct pronunciation of Uranus, which she later gave up on after discovering the word 'urinous' which means "relating to, like, or having the qualities or odor of urine."

Now when Hammel discusses Uranus, she tells the class a few jokes about the planet to get the laughter out of the way so the science can begin. So, why has Uranus been named such a way? The planet was discovered by Sir William Herschel on March 13, 1781, with German astronomer Johann Elert Bode's observations solidifying the discovery.

Multiple publications have reported that the situation around the largest nuclear power plant in Europe is growing worse as Russian forces tempt fate by bombing the area.

Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' watchdog for nuclear energy, said on Thursday that the time is a "grave hour", with IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi warning the public that multiple parts of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant were destroyed from bombing runs conducted by the Russian military. The director general said the plant is now risking an "unacceptable" potential radiation leak.

A newly released image taken by an advanced telescope in Hawaii has shown the distant fate of our humble Milky Way galaxy.

The new image was snapped by the Gemini North telescope located in Hawaii and operated by the National Science Foundations' NOIRLabs. The image showcases a gorgeous galaxy merger between two interacting spiral galaxies called NGC 4568 and NGC 4567. These galaxies have been on a collision course for millions of years, and researchers estimate that in about 500 million years, they will complete the merger into one singular elliptical galaxy.

As explained by the researchers, the image of this galactic merger is a window into the future of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, which is set to merge with our closest neighboring galaxy Andromeda. Scientists estimate that the merger between the Milky Way and Andromeda will take place in approximately 5 billion years. Notably, the recently published image shows the glowing remains of a supernova that was detected by researchers in 2020.

Reports indicate that Russia is taking heavy losses on the fighter jet front as the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine takes to social media to tout the country's jet count.

According to a Facebook post by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russia has been forced to turn to "outdated" fighter jets after an attack resulted in the Kremlin losing two squadrons of SU-35 aircrafts, which accounts for about "24 units". As a result of the attack, the nation has reportedly been forced to turn to "old" SU-24M bomber aircraft.

Furthermore, Brigadier General Oleksiy Hromov reportedly has said that Russia's success rate on its attacks has been very low as the pilots are concentrating on avoiding being shot down. As for the SU-35 fighter jet and its capabilities, the jet is a renowned 4th generation fighter jet that was first used in 2014. Since then, the SU-35 has been used in active combat regularly, with it seeing use in the Syrian Civil War.

A study on the artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm titled "Interpretable surface-based detection of focal cortical dysplasias: a Multi-centre Epilepsy Lesion Detection study" has been accepted for publication in the journal Psychological Science.

Researchers from the University College London (UCL) have created a new AI algorithm that can detect subtle brain abnormalities that are the source of epileptic seizures. The Multicentre Epilepsy Lesion Detection project (MELD) analyzed more than 1,000 MRI scans from 22 epilepsy centers worldwide, looking at brain abnormalities associated with drug-resistant focal cortical dysplasia (FCD).

FCDs are a leading cause of epilepsy and refer to abnormally developed brain regions that often lead to a patient having drug-resistant epilepsy, typically requiring surgery to be treated. However, identifying the areas that need to be operated on is challenging. The researchers began developing their algorithm by examining brain features like its thickness and how folded it is at approximately 300,000 locations throughout the cortex.

A study on the Mandela Effect titled "The Visual Mandela Effect as evidence for shared and specific false memories across people" has been accepted for publication in the journal Psychological Science.

Researchers from the University of Chicago have released the first-ever study on the internet phenomenon known as the Visual Mandela Effect, where people adopt a widespread and consistent false memory of various famous icons, confident in their flawed recollection. Previous evidence shows consistent trends in what people tend to remember; however, it's now clear there is also a consistency to what is misremembered.

The research team collected forty different icons to determine how widespread the phenomenon was and the underlying cause. Their experiments also explored how common false variations of icons were on Google Images, and whether people would spontaneously produce these common errors if made to draw the icons from memory.

A team of archaeologists has been excavating the Maya city of Tonina in southern Mexico, but some experts disagree with their claims.

The archaeologists released a Spanish-language statement in which they claim that after cremating their rulers, the Maya people used their ashes to help make rubber balls to be used in the famous Maya game known simply as ballgame. The game originated over 3,000 years ago and has gone through many iterations, but numerous ball courts have been found throughout the known Maya cities, including Tonina.

Juan Yadeun Angulo, an archaeologist at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History whose team uncovered a 1,300-year-old crypt in Tonina in 2020, formulated the new theory about the rubber balls. The crypt is located beneath a pyramid called the Temple of the Sun and contained 400 vessels with ash, charcoal, natural rubber, and other organic materials being found inside.

NASA wants innovative ideas from university students across the country on how to construct a metal production pipeline on the surface of the Moon.

The space agency has taken to its blog and social channels to reveal its 2023 Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge, where it detailed that this year's challenge will be to design a metal production pipeline that can extract metal from lunar minerals to create structures and tools. NASA explains that metal will be a vital resource on the Moon when structures are being created due to its strength and resistance to corrosion.

However, metal is heavy, making it very expensive to transport, hence the challenge of designing a pipeline to create it out of lunar materials. Notably, NASA states that drilling, excavation, and transportation of mined materials are not included within the challenge and that a team will be eligible when it has five members, no more than 25 members, and is from U.S.-based colleges and universities affiliated with their state's Space Grant Consortium. Furthermore, the space agency states that there is a non-binding notice of intent due by September 30 and the design proposals in both written and video format on January 24, 2023.

A study on the new rubber-based concrete titled "Design and strength optimization method for the production of structural lightweight concrete: An experimental investigation for the complete replacement of conventional coarse aggregates by waste rubber particles" has been published in the journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling.

Researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University in Australia have developed a new method for creating concrete comprised entirely of recycled rubber from discarded tires. The rubber replaces the conventionally used concrete aggregates like gravel and crushed rock but still allows the end product to meet building codes. The team believes this breakthrough promises "a boost for the circular economy."

Small amounts of rubber are currently in use to partially replace some of the typical concrete aggregates, but using too much has typically resulted in weaker end results that don't meet the relevant requirements. Their new manufacturing process, which builds upon previous breakthroughs by RMIT, produces lighter and greener concrete that performs as well as traditional concrete.

Russia launched its Kosmos 2558 spy satellite on August 1st, 2022, into a nearly identical orbit to a classified American reconnaissance satellite launched on February 2nd, 2022, named USA 326.

Kosmos 2558 is suspected of being an "inspector" satellite, launched to keep tabs on the U.S imagery intelligence (IMINT) satellite and has been tracked since launching by Marco Langbroek, a satellite tracker from the Netherlands. The orbit of Kosmos 2558 differs from that of USA 326 by only 0.04 degrees, and its altitude is about 60 kilometers (37.28 miles) below that of USA 326.

Kosmos 2558 made its closest approach to the USA 326 satellite on August 4th, coming as close as 67 kilometers (41.6 miles) to USA 326, though most of that distance was due to altitude difference. The capabilities of the U.S. satellite are unknown, so it's not possible to know if similar satellites have been launched previously.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has snapped some images of what researchers are calling UFOs.

A new study published on the pre-print server arXiv on August 2, 2022, details objects called HST-dark galaxies, or Ultra-red Flattened Objects (UFO). These galaxies feature the same spherical or oval shape that the classic depiction of UFOs confirmed by the US government and seen regularly by Air Force personnel conducting a reconnaissance missions.

Webb is observing these galaxies in infrared light, and the light that Webb is looking at is anywhere between 10.3 to 12.7 billion years old, meaning we are observing the galaxies as they were in the universe nearly 13 billion years ago (total universe age is 13.7 billion years old). The researchers detail in the study that these galaxies shine the most when observed in infrared light, and out of the images that Webb has already taken, they found 29 of these galaxies.

One of the theories of the origin of the Moon is Earth collided with a planet named Theia, which was approximately the size of Mars, and the debris of that collision eventually formed the Moon we see today.

A new study published in Science Advances provides significant evidence to support that theory as researchers analyzed fragments of a lunar meteorite. The meteorite was originally debris from a large asteroid impact into the lunar surface, and after analyzing the fragments, the researchers discovered noble gasses such as helium and neon trapped within the fragments, which match up with the same isotopes found in solar wind. However, the fragments were never exposed to solar wind.

The team noticed that the same isotope ratios found within the fragments were very similar to the isotope ratios of neon in Earth's mantle located deep within the surface. The similarity between the isotope ratios within the fragments and Earth's molten mantle that hasn't been disturbed since its early formation approximately 4.5 billion years ago has led researchers to believe the gases within the fragments came from Earth.