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Snake-inspired robot uses kirigami to move![]() Boston MA (SPX) Feb 28, 2018 Who needs legs? With their sleek bodies, snakes can slither up to 14 miles-per-hour, squeeze into tight space, scale trees and swim. How do they do it? It's all in the scales. As a snake moves, its scales grip the ground and propel the body forward - similar to how crampons help hikers establish footholds in slippery ice. This so-called friction-assisted locomotion is possible because of the shape and positioning of snake scales. Now, a team of researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School o ... read more |
Robo-picker grasps and packsBoston MA (SPX) Feb 28, 2018 Unpacking groceries is a straightforward albeit tedious task: You reach into a bag, feel around for an item, and pull it out. A quick glance will tell you what the item is and where it should be sto ... more
Berkeley Lab 'minimalist machine learning' algorithms analyze images from very little dataBerkeley CA (SPX) Feb 28, 2018 Mathematicians at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a new approach to machine learning aimed at experimental imaging data. Rather than re ... more
Putin signs new State Arms Program focused on cutting-edge weaponryMoscow (Sputnik) Feb 28, 2018 Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed the country's new state arms procurement program, which includes, among other things, robotics, ... more
Beware of replicating sexism in AI, experts warnBarcelona (AFP) March 1, 2018 Artificial intelligence could emulate human bias, including sexism, if there is no oversight on data used to create it, experts at the world's largest mobile phone fair in Barcelona warned Thursday. ... more |
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Goonhilly goes deep spaceParis (ESA) Feb 23, 2018 Until now, if you're an entrepreneur planning future missions beyond Earth, you'd have to ask a big space agency to borrow their deep-space antennas. Now, thanks to the UK's county of Cornwall and E ... more
New stretchable electronic skin sensitive enough to feel ladybug footstepsWashington (UPI) Feb 21, 2018 People with prosthetic limbs live without the ability to touch and feel the world around them. That could change in the near future thanks to new technology developed by scientists at Stanford University. ... more
Japanese, US astronauts end spacewalk to fix robotic armWashington (AFP) Feb 16, 2018 A Japanese and an American astronaut floated for hours outside the International Space Station Friday on a spacewalk to repair the orbiting outpost's robotic arm and move some equipment into storage. ... more
Artificial intelligence poses questions for nature of war: MattisWashington (AFP) Feb 18, 2018 Artificial intelligence and its impact on weapons of the future has made US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis doubt his own theories on warfare. ... more
Oppy Takes A Selfie To Mark Sol 5000Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 16, 2018 The Sun will rise on NASA's solar-powered Mars rover Opportunity for the 5,000th time on Saturday, sending rays of energy to a golf-cart-size robotic field geologist that continues to provide revela ... more |
![]() All-terrain microbot moves by tumbling over complex topography
Researchers help robots think and plan in the abstractProvidence RI (SPX) Feb 15, 2018 Researchers from Brown University and MIT have developed a method for helping robots plan for multi-step tasks by constructing abstract representations of the world around them. Their study, publish ... more |
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Can a cockroach teach a robot how to scurry across rugged terrain?Baltimore MD (SPX) Feb 14, 2018 When they turn up in family pantries or restaurant kitchens, cockroaches are commonly despised as ugly, unhealthy pests and are quickly killed. But in the name of science, Johns Hopkins researchers ... more
Mars Opportunity Rover Energy Levels ImprovePasadena CA (JPL) Feb 13, 2018 Opportunity is continuing her exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover has moved along the north fork of a local flow channel about half way down the ... more
New malleable 'electronic skin' self-healable, recyclableBoulder CO (SPX) Feb 12, 2018 University of Colorado Boulder researchers have developed a new type of malleable, self-healing and fully recyclable "electronic skin" that has applications ranging from robotics and prosthetic deve ... more Brooklyn NY (SPX) Feb 08, 2018 For more than a decade, biomimetic robots have been deployed alongside live animals to better understand the drivers of animal behavior, including social cues, fear, leadership, and even courtship. ... more
Quantum algorithm could help AI think fasterSingapore (SPX) Feb 08, 2018 One of the ways that computers 'think' is by analysing relationships within large sets of data. An international team has shown that quantum computers can do one such analysis faster than classical ... more |
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Russian military developing long-range supersonic missile-lobbing drone Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 28, 2018
Designed to infiltrate far into an enemy's territory, the new system will carry both guided and unguided munitions.
Russia is working on a long-range unmanned strike system, Zvezda, the official television channel of the Russian Ministry of Defense, has learned.
Speaking to the television channel, Alexander Nemov, deputy chief of the research department at the 30th Central Scientific ... more |
Latest updates from NASA on IMAGE Recovery Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 01, 2018
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 01, 2018
On Feb. 22, 2018, the signal from IMAGE began to break up and has been silent since Feb. 24. The team continues to assess what may be the issue, but it is known that this episode does not mimic the sudden silence that occurred in 2005 when contact was originally lost with the spacecraft. The team continues to make preparations to attempt to bring the attitude dete ... more |
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Unconventional superconductor may be used to create quantum computers of the future Gothenburg, Sweden (SPX) Mar 01, 2018
With their insensitivity to decoherence what are known as Majorana particles could become stable building blocks of a quantum computer. The problem is that they only occur under very special circumstances. Now researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have succeeded in manufacturing a component that is able to host the sought-after particles.
Researchers throughout the world are str ... more |
US lawmaker concerned over nuclear overtures to Saudi Washington (AFP) Feb 28, 2018
An American legislator has expressed concern over the Trump administration's efforts to sign a nuclear cooperation accord with Saudi Arabia, which is preparing to build its first reactors.
Riyadh plans to announce at the beginning of March who will construct the first two of up to 16 reactors, and negotiations are under way with the United States for its agreement to export technology needed ... more |
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Three US Marines back on duty after envelope sickened 11 Washington (AFP) Feb 28, 2018
Three US Marines who were briefly hospitalized after a mysterious envelope was opened at a base near Washington were well enough to report for duty on Wednesday, a spokeswoman said.
Agents with the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) were still examining the envelope and its contents, which arrived late Tuesday at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.
Shortly after receivin ... more |
Puerto Rico power grid snaps, nearly 1 million in the dark San Juan (AFP) March 1, 2018
Puerto Rico's power grid broke down again on Thursday, leaving some 800,000 customers without power, as the US Caribbean possession struggles to recover five months after Hurricane Maria slammed the island.
Justo Gonzalez, head of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), said that one of the island's main transmission lines was out of service. Officials said the line should be fully ... more |
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New tech for commercial Lithium-ion batteries finds they can be charged 5 times fast Warwick UK (SPX) Feb 20, 2018
Researchers at WMG at the University of Warwick have developed a new direct, precise test of Lithium-ion batteries' internal temperatures and their electrodes potentials and found that the batteries can be safely charged up to five times faster than the current recommended charging limits.
The new technology works in-situ during a battery's normal operation without impeding its performance ... more |
China plans rocket sea-launch Beijing (XNA) Mar 02, 2018
China is planning its first sea-launch of satellites carried by a Long March rocket, according to an aerospace official.
Yang Yiqiang, commander-in-chief of the Long March-11 rockets project of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said that 2018 would see five launches of Long March-11 rockets, with four missions for commercial payloads on land, and one at sea.
"Th ... more |
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ISS Expedition 54 crew land safely in Kazakhstan Houston TX (SPX) Feb 28, 2018
Three members of the Expedition 54 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS), including NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba, returned to Earth on Tuesday after months of performing research and spacewalks in low-Earth orbit.
Vande Hei, Acaba and cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos landed at 9:31 p.m. EST (8:31 a.m. Feb. 28 in Kazakhstan) sout ... more |
Dyes for 'live' extremophile labeling will help discover life on Mars Moscow, Russia (SPX) Mar 02, 2018
Researchers from MIPT and their colleagues from Research Center Juelich (Germany) and Dmitry Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia have described a new method for studying microorganisms that can survive in extreme conditions. The scientists identified a fluorescent dye that enabled them to observe the life cycle of bacteria in real time.
Halophiles, which is the ancient Gr ... more |
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Russia's Energomash tests RD-180 engine made for US Atlas rocket Moscow (Sputnik) Mar 01, 2018
Tests of a Russian RD-180 liquid-fuel rocket engine have been carried out in the Science and Test Complex of Russia's NPO Energomash, the company said Wednesday in a statement.
"According to the head of the complex Andrey Ushkov, the tests went routinely, the test program has been fully implemented," the statement reads.
The reliable and relatively cheap RD-180 engine is developed an ... more |
Gabon accuses France's Veolia of pollution Libreville (AFP) Feb 27, 2018
Gabon on Tuesday accused Veolia of pollutingthe country as the government and the French company wage an increasingly bitter dispute in public over the cancellation of a contract for water and electricity distribution.
"There is considerable environmental damage at almost all of the sites exploited by SEEG," Communication Minister Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze told journalists, referring to the ... more |
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German court paves way for diesel driving bans Leipzig, Germany (AFP) Feb 27, 2018 A top German court on Tuesday ruled that cities can impose diesel driving bans to combat air pollution, a landmark decision that plunges millions of car owners into uncertainty.
The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig found that local authorities can legally ban older, dirty diesels from certain zones as part of their efforts to improve air quality - a drastic move that could reshape in ... more |
UT Dallas team's microscopic solution may save researchers big time Dallas TX (SPX) Mar 01, 2018
A University of Texas at Dallas graduate student, his advisor and industry collaborators believe they have addressed a long-standing problem troubling scientists and engineers for more than 35 years: How to prevent the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope from crashing into the surface of a material during imaging or lithography.
Details of the group's solution appeared in the January is ... more |
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Latest updates from NASA on IMAGE Recovery Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 01, 2018
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 01, 2018
On Feb. 22, 2018, the signal from IMAGE began to break up and has been silent since Feb. 24. The team continues to assess what may be the issue, but it is known that this episode does not mimic the sudden silence that occurred in 2005 when contact was originally lost with the spacecraft. The team continues to make preparations to attempt to bring the attitude dete ... more |
EU food agency says three pesticides harm bees as ban calls grow Brussels (AFP) Feb 28, 2018
The European food safety watchdog said Wednesday that three pesticides currently partly banned in the EU pose a risk to wild bees and honey bees, in a long-awaited report.
The report said "most uses" of the three neonicotinoid pesticides, which are based on the chemical structure of nicotine and attack the nervous systems of insect pests, posed a risk to bees.
Bees help pollinate 90 perc ... more |
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