Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 9

Elon Musk has been accused of ripping off the popular blockbuster movie "I, Robot" starring Will Smith with his Tesla Optimus robot designs, which were recently showcased at a Tesla event.

Alex Proyas, the director of the cult-classic movie I, Robot, has taken to his personal X, formerly Twitter, account to share an image that directly compares scenes from the movie with mockups of Tesla designs. Proyas wrote, "Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back, please?" The only real product Tesla has made in the image or at least is planning on bringing to market in the immediate future is the humanoid robot the company calls Optimus.

It was only recently that Musk showcased the Optimus robot at the Robotaxi event, where they were seen serving drinks, dancing, answering questions, and playing games. While it may have appeared that these Optimus robots roaming around the event were fully autonomous, they were actually being remotely controlled by humans, which explains the almost uncanny response time when it came to speech. As for the similarities with I, Robot, Tesla hasn't officially said Optimus' design is inspired by I, Robot, but the company did name the event "We, Robot".

It isn't unusual for researchers to take something incredible in nature, such as a cat's eye or vision system, and attempt to create that in the laboratory.

Biologically inspired engineering happens all the time, and researchers from South Korea have become another example of it with a new artificial vision system inspired by Feline or cat eyes. For those that don't know, cats have a very impressive vision system that enables them to see very well in well-lit environments and also in complete darkness. Cats are able to do this through an eye adaptation that changes their pupil slit to vertical during the day, which helps to reduce glare, while at night, their pupils widen.

Additionally, at night a cat's eyes will develop a reflective layer called the tapetum lucidum, which boosts night vision performance and gives the eyes the reflective glow. The South Korean researchers penned a new study published in the journal Science Advances that details a new artificial vision system directly inspired by a cats vision system. The team created a slit-like aperture designed to filter unnecessary light and assist in focussing on key objects, while also creating a special reflective layer that is similar to the one found on a cats eye. The team says its artificial protective layer also boosts nighttime vision performance.

SpaceX achieved what previously only appeared to be possible in science-fiction movies with the launch and catch of the world's most powerful rocket, Starship.

Starship launched from Starbase on October 13, and after seven minutes of flight, the 233-foot-tall booster called Super Heavy descended back to the launch pad to be perfectly caught by the launch tower named Mechazilla. The tower's arms, or as SpaceX calls them, "chopsticks," act as support for Super Heavy as it slowly touched back down on the launch pad. The success of Flight 5 puts the company one step closer to achieving rapid reusability of Starship, which is a critical component in SpaceX's overarching quest to put humans on the surface of Mars.

To celebrate the monumental achievement of Super Heavy touching back down on the launch pad, SpaceX has released some video footage of the launch and catch that shows what both events would have looked like if you were positioned on the launch tower. It shouldn't be understated what an achievement this catch is, as Super Heavy is a 233-foot-tall rocket booster, which is the equivalent of a 20-story building, and at the time of catch, it weighs multiple tons. Perhaps an analogy that lines up with SpaceX's description of Mechazilla's arms is Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid catching a fly mid-air with his chopsticks.

SpaceX has achieved a milestone in its quest to put humans on the surface of the Red Planet, with the company etching itself into the history books once again with the first attempt and success of the Starship rocket on the Mechazilla launch tower.

SpaceX has been working toward this moment for many years, and with the fifth launch of the world's largest and most powerful rocket, Starship, the Elon Musk-led company has landed the approximately 250-foot-tall booster Super Heavy back on the launch pad at Starbase. The moment was witnessed by thousands of onlookers and quickly became a viral sensation as Mechazilla's arms, referred to by SpaceX as its "chopsticks," slotted and caught the massive booster for a smooth touchdown.

Why is this important? Flight 5 was the highest stake flight of Starship yet as failure would have resulted in a potentially destroyed Mechazilla tower, launch pad, and launch site - all of which would have further postponed the development of Starship. However, that didn't happen, and SpaceX landed it on the first go, meaning the company is one step closer to achieving rapid reusability with Starship.

At Tesla's Cybercab event last week, the company made headlines for not only its new vehicles, but it's humanoid robots that were roaming around the event interacting with the public.

Numerous videos of the robots interacting with guests in various ways have begun circulating online, with some impressive footage showing Tesla's Optimus robots serving drinks, answering questions, dancing, and playing games. Footage of these Optimus robots responding to guests was particularly impressive as the response time was almost identical to that between two humans conversing.

Typically, when verbally interacting with a voice-activated device, there is a noticeable gap of time between the question being asked and the answer, as the device needs time to process the request, generate its response, and then speak it. However, Optimus's responses were near-perfect timing-wise. However, there was a reason for that as each of the Optimus robots were being remotely operated by humans who were responding to questions asked to them by guests via headsets.

An entirely new organism has been created by combining living cells with dead cells, birthing what is being called a "third state" of existence.

A team of researchers penned a new study review in the journal Physiology where they detail a method to achieving this state that is separate from life and death, which they believe will challenge many scientists' general understanding of cell evolution. According to the study's co-authors, biologists Peter Noble and Alex Pozhitkov, who explained in The Conversation, cells are capable of mechanisms even after the death of the host organism, and a widely known example of that is organ transplants.

The biologists set out to determine what it takes to trigger cell activity after an organism has died, and according to the study, cells can be reactivated into multicellular organisms through various stimuli, such as nutrients, oxygen, bioelectricity, or biochemical cues. The team found that skin cells extracted from deceased frog embryos were capable of adapting to new conditions and spontaneously reorganizing into multicellular organisms called xenobots. The researchers wrote these xenobots were capable of mechanisms far beyond their original predetermined biological roles.

Tesla held its recent "We Robot" special event in California, unveiling its new Optimus Gen 2 humanoid robot that will cost $20K to $30K and help you around your house, and so much more.

First, these robots weren't running autonomously like some people think... they were walking on their own, but being controlled by a human operator through a VR headset, microphone, and headset. This means you're virtually operating an Optimus robot, with the robot being the physical avatar in your virtual world.

The possibilities of this and the future of employment are huge, as robots aren't replacing jobs -- yet -- but rather, human operators will "use" the robot and have it perform functions that they otherwise couldn't. Think of heavy lifting, dangerous environments, etc where humans can't do those jobs (or not as good as an infinitely strong, never-tired robot). This will eventually all be done over Starlink, connecting human operators to Optimus robots.

Spider-Man is one of, if not the most popular superhero on the planet, and anyone who is a fan of Peter Parker has once imagined what it would be like to be able to shoot a web out of their wrist and swing through the concrete jungle of New York City taking down bad guys.

While we are still many years away from that becoming a reality, the foundations of Spider-Man's web fluid have been officially created. According to a team of researchers out of Tufts University Silklab that penned a study published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the first web-slinging technology has been created in the form of a fluid material that immediately solidifies after being shot out of a needle. Researchers took silky fibers from moth cocoons, which can then be reduced to its building block fibers called fibroin.

The fibroin is then combined with specific adhesives and shot of a needle tip device to create a stream. Shortly after the web fluid is fibered, it sticks to objects and then solidifies, making it possible to tether to objects. The researchers attribute their inspiration for this device to the incredible strength of spiderwebs, which are 1,000 times stronger than the artificial web created by the researchers in this study, and comic books. While the researchers' web isn't anywhere near as strong as a spiderweb it can still pick up objects over 80 times its own weight under various conditions.

Hurricane Milton has reached landfall in Florida and as resident protect their homes as much as they can one meteorologist was honored for his contributions to the field by having his ashes poured into the eye of the monsterous Milton.

That lucky scientist was Peter Dodge, a radar scientist and hurricane hunter who worked with the National Hurricane Center and Aircraft Operations Center and an avid participant of hurricane aircraft missions where he served as an onboard radar scientist. Dodge passed away on March 3, 2023, and during a hurricane reconnaissance flight of Hurricane Milton, Dodge was dropped into the eye of the historic Category 5 hurricane, as reflected by the Vortex Data Message, which is a log of in-flight observations made by hurricane reconnaissance aircraft.

The Vortex Data Message captures important details about the hurricane, such as its location, wind speed, pressure, storm's center location, intensity, and other meteorological data. The below image shows the Vortex Data Message, and at the bottom reads a tribute to Dodge, "PETER DODGE HX SCI (1950-2023) 387TH PENNY." The tribute message was translated by Ars Technica, who wrote "HX SCI" means "hurricane scientist," and "387TH PENNY" refers to the term "penny," which means "hurricane penetration," or the act of entering a hurricane during a hurricane reconnaissance mission.

Hurricane Milton is closing in on Florida's west and as residents in the affected area prepare for its impact an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) passed safely by overhead and captured the monstrosity of a storm from space.

That NASA astronaut was Matthew Dominick, who took to his personal X account to share an incredible image and timelapse of Hurricane Milton as the International Space Station floated safely overhead at an altitude of approximately 250 miles. Both the image and the video showcase the immense scale of Milton and just how big of a hurricane Florida is about to get hit with.

It was only yesterday the National Weather Service Tampa Bay Area announced that if Milton kept its pace and reached landfall at its current intensity it would be the worst storm to hit the Tampa Bay area in the last 100 years. As for the footage from space, Dominick explained the ISS flew over Milton approximately 90 minutes before the image was uploaded.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced on X that communities hit by the devastating Hurricane Helene were able to get Starlink "without need for payment," or according to SpaceX's own statement, "Starlink is now free for 30 days".

However, it doesn't appear to be as simple as that as "free" comes with a few undisclosed caveats that were unfurled by The Register, which published a report detailing users attempting to sign up for Starlink in Helene disaster-stricken zones were being prompted for a $350 payment for the Starlink terminal. SpaceX discounted the terminals for users within the affected areas down to $299, which, after shipping and taxes, lands a Hurricane Helen victim attempting to sign up to Starlink with a bill approximating $400.

Starlink explains on its help page that qualifying Hurricane Helene victims will receive 30 days of free Starlink internet access, and after those 30 days, the user will be moved to a $120-a-month subscription. As for existing Starlink customers who wish to take advantage of the free 30 days of Starlink are required to lodge a support ticket with that will then be evaluated by Starlink and if qualifying, issue a waiver for an upcoming monthly payment.

SpaceX has taken to its website to post an update on when it plans to launch Starship again, the world's largest and most powerful rocket.

The Elon Musk-led company took to its website to state its targeting no earlier than October 13 for the fifth flight of Starship, and that after the success of Flight 4, where SpaceX conducted its first-ever booster soft landing in the Gulf of Mexico, the company is ready to take another step toward achieving full and rapid reusability. SpaceX explains Flight 5's primary objective will be attempting the "first ever return to launch site and catch of the Super Heavy booster."

SpaceX will be attempting to land and catch the 233-foot-tall booster on the Starbase launch pad with "chopstick" arms attached to the Mechazilla tower. While sounding like a sci-fi movie, SpaceX writes its engineers and various teams have "spent years planning and months testing". As for the Super Heavy booster going up in Flight 5, SpaceX says it has implemented new hardware and software into the booster to improve chances of success, and that infrastructure at Starbase has also been significantly improved.

The National Weather Service Tampa Bay X account has been firing off continuous warnings of the approaching Hurricane Milton, which is expected to cause a widespread loss of power across the west coast of Florida.

The National Hurricane Service has issued a warning for a Category 5 cyclone as the post states, "Milton Explosively Intensifies with 175-mph Winds" as it begins to approach on the west coast of Florida. Unfortunately, the wind speed increase has meant Milton has reached the top end of the hurricane intensity scale, with the hurricane jumping from Category 1 to Category 5 in just 24 hours due to "extreme rapid intensification". Kathryn Prociv, a meteorologist with NBC news, explained online. "Extreme RI defined as a 58mph+ increase in 24 hours. Milton has gone 90mph."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) used weather satellites to capture the below footage of Milton. The footage showcases the increasing size of the storm over such a short duration. Officials estimate Milton will reach landfall on the west coast of Florida, specifically around the Tampa Bay region, on Wednesday. If it does reach landfall at its current speeds, it will be the worst storm to impact the Tampa area in over 100 years, according to the National Weather Service.

Mother nature truly is remarkable when you look closely enough, and a team of researchers has stumbled across another example of that as explained in a recently published study in the journal Current Biology.

The team was carrying out standard research on comb jellies, a group of more than 100 species of marine invertebrate creatures that inhabit seawaters around the world. The team discovered one of the test subjects was missing from its tank and then noticed the significant size increase of another test subject. The team further inspected the suspiciously large comb jelly and found it was made up of two individual jellies but didn't have any noticeable "separation between them."

The scientists began testing to see if they could replicate the previously unknown quality of the jellies. The team removed small sections from the bodies of 20 individual comb jellies and paired each of the pieces up. Out of the 20, nine pairs successfully fused. Researchers found the fusion process doesn't even take long either, as jellies were fully combined within 24 hours. More specifically, after just two hours some jellies bodies were completely fused and their nervous system demonstrated synchronicity.

SpaceX has launched the Hera mission on the back of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on October 7.

The Hera mission is the European Space Agency's first planetary defense spacecraft that is on route to the crash site of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) that proved a kinetic impactor, or high-speed spacecraft, can generate enough energy to alter the orbit of an asteroid. The success of the DART mission unlocked Earth's first planetary defense weapon against asteroids, and now the ESA is sending a spacecraft to go inspect the crash site in hopes of gathering more data to unravel some of the remaining mysteries surrounding the event.

Hera will be conducting deep-space technology experiments such as the deployment of two twin shoebox-sized "CubeSats" which will be tasked with flying closer to the asteroid and hovering in ultra-low gravity before eventually landing on the asteroid's surface. One of the CubeSats will be attempting "self-driving" navigation around the asteroids based on its visual input.

The time has finally come to switch off one of the instruments aboard one of the greatest ongoing scientific achievements of the human race.

NASA officially launched the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1977, and since then, it has been sending valuable scientific data back to Earth from interstellar space or beyond our solar system. NASA has been receiving Voyager 2's scientific data for 47 years, which makes the spacecraft the oldest active space probe. So far, Voyager 2 has traveled 12.8 billion miles away from Earth, and throughout its journey, it used several scientific instruments to measure the giant planets in the 1980s.

After completing that mission NASA switched off those instruments as they weren't useful in Voyager 2's new mission which was and still is to measure interstellar space. Voyager 2 is powered by plutonium, and it decays every year. NASA explained that Voyager 2's power source loses about 4 watts of power each year and that NASA teams have been working to postpone the time when more instruments aboard Voyager 2 would need to be shut down to conserve power for the overall mission.

It was back in March this year that Arthur "Jack" Schubarth pleaded guilty to the breeding and selling of giant hybrid sheep, which authorities described as an "audacious scheme".

Initial reports stated Schubarth purchased parts of the Marco Polo argali sheep, which can weigh as much as 300 pounds. These parts were purchased from Kyrgyzstan and imported into the United States. However, Schubarth didn't declare the imported parts, and for good reason, as that particular species of sheep is protected both internationally and domestically by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Schubarth extracted DNA samples from the parts and took them to a lab to create embryos, of which he received 165 in November 2016. Schubarth then created a pure genetic Marco Polo argali that he named "Montana Mountain King," which was milked for its semen to create herds of these hybrid sheep, which authorities said were then sold and hunted for trophies.

The closest known star to Earth is called Barnard's star, and it's located just six light years away, which is a very small distance in astronomical terms.

In the world of astronomy, six light years is the equivalent of Earth's neighbor, and now a team of researchers has discovered a planet orbiting our closest known star. That planet has been named Barnard b. According to a new study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, the planet is considered a sub-Earth as its substantially less massive than Earth and Venus. Planets such as Mars and Mercury are considered to be sub-Earth planets.

As for Barnard b, the paper states the newly discovered planet orbits its star at an extremely close distance, with one year on the planet, or one full orbit, taking just three Earth days. Notably, Bernard b has a mass less than half of Venus, and with its distance of six light years away from Earth, Bernard's star is the second closest stellar system following Alpha Centauri's three-star group and the closest known star to Earth Proxima Centauri at 4.25 light years away.

SpaceX has been pouring millions of dollars into the development of Starship, the company's rocket that is slated to be the transportation method humans will use to touch down on the surface of Mars.

Starship is the world's largest and most powerful rocket and is shaping up to be the rocket that will finally realize the company's dream, sourced from Elon Musk, of making humans a multi-planetary species. With a few Starship launches under its belt SpaceX is full steam ahead to achieving its goal, but it appears its being blocked by US regulators more than necessary, at least according to SpaceX.

Despite its goals, we have now learned an approximate figure SpaceX has spent on Starship's development, with the company's Chief Operating Officer, Gwynne Shotwell, saying in front of the Texas Appropriations Committee for Texas Space Commission that SpaceX has invested $3 billion into developing Starship and its surrounding facilities. Shotwell also pointed out SpaceX is about to break through the four million mark for Starlink customers and that as the network grows, it plans to expand its facilities and put more Starlink satellites in orbit.

NASA has highlighted an interestingly shaped near-Earth asteroid that recently made a close approach to our planet, and during its fly-by, a powerful radar system analyzed it.

The space agency published the results of the analysis on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) website, where it explained the oddly-shaped asteroid is officially called 2024 ON. According to the report, Deep Space Network's Goldstone Solar System Radar was used to capture the above images of the asteroid, which passed safely by Earth at a distance of 620,000 miles, or approximately 2.6 times the distance between the Moon and Earth. The asteroid was originally discovered on July 27, 2024, and despite 600,000 miles being an immense distance on Earth, it's actually quite close in astronomical terms.

600,000 miles falls within the range of 2024 ON, being categorized as a near-Earth object or an NEO. However, NASA and other researchers aren't interested in its proximity to Earth but instead in its shape, as 2024 ON resembles a peanut, with one lobe being at least 50% larger than the other. According to the images gathered by the radar, 2024 ON is approximately 1150 feet long with features on its surface that have a diameter of 12.3 feet, which are likely boulders. The images also show the asteroid rotates about 90% over the course of six hours.