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Scientists develop soft robot for exploration in the deepest underwater place on Earth

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Scientists at Zhejiang University in China have developed a soft robot which has been able to navigate the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth.

The research team led by Professor LI Tiefeng from the Center for X-Mechanics at the Zhejiang University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Zhejiang Lab conducted inter-disciplinary research with its partners and pioneered in proposing the principle of pressure adaptation in mechatronic systems, and their findings were reported in the journal Nature.

Typically, at such depths in the oceans, a vessel without a pressure-resilient “armor” would be “destroyed by the overwhelmingly hydrostatic pressure”. [Read more…] about Scientists develop soft robot for exploration in the deepest underwater place on Earth

Plastic-eating bacteria could help recycle waste ‘six times faster’

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The University of Portsmouth scientists who re-engineered the plastic-eating enzyme PETase have now created an enzyme “cocktail” which can digest plastic up to six times faster.

A second enzyme, found in the same rubbish dwelling bacterium that lives on a diet of plastic bottles, has been combined with PETase to speed up the breakdown of plastic.

PETase breaks down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) back into its building blocks, creating an opportunity to recycle plastic infinitely and reduce plastic pollution and the greenhouse gases driving climate change. [Read more…] about Plastic-eating bacteria could help recycle waste ‘six times faster’

Innovative Ways for Robotics Companies to Step up Their Performance

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When we think about robotics, many of us automatically have the image of the robots from our favorite science-fiction movie or animation.

Robots in movies have incredible artificial intelligence and functions that often sees them at odds with the human characters.

In actual fact, robots are incredibly useful for our lives and robotic scientists are constantly coming up with new innovations which are advancing the development of new robotic technology at an incredible speed. [Read more…] about Innovative Ways for Robotics Companies to Step up Their Performance

Scientists build robot to climb coconut trees

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A group of scientists has developed a robot that can climb coconut trees and harvest the delicious fruit, or nut, or whatever it is. (See video below.)

In a paper authored by nine authors, the researchers say there is “an acute shortage of human coconut tree climbers to harvest coconuts in India and other developing countries”.

In response, the team has built a robot called Amaran, which is described as “a novel robotic coconut tree climber and harvester”, and which can be operated through a smartphone. [Read more…] about Scientists build robot to climb coconut trees

Scientists will use newly discovered ‘cyborg material’ to invade our brains, merge with our thoughts and turn us all into mindless zombie robots, says report

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Scientists will use newly discovered “cyborg material” to invade our brains, merge with our thoughts and turn us all into mindless zombie robots, according to a report on The Daily Star website.

The sinister “bio-synthetic material” that could end humanity as we know it was presented recently at the American Chemical Society Fall 2020 virtual expo.

Experts claim it will pave the way to integrating electronics with the body to create “cyborg” beings, reports The Star, which adds that the new breakthrough material will enable human brains to merge with artificial intelligence. [Read more…] about Scientists will use newly discovered ‘cyborg material’ to invade our brains, merge with our thoughts and turn us all into mindless zombie robots, says report

Brainy alien hunter obsessed with finding life on Mars

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A brainy alien-hunter is apparently obsessed with finding life on Mars. The Purdue scientist is playing a critical role in the 2020 NASA Mars rover mission.

Briony Horgan (main picture), associate professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University, is working to determine whether we are alone in the universe or if life once existed on other planets such as Mars.

When the NASA Mars rover Perseverance launches in the next few weeks, it will travel to Jezero Crater, which preserves evidence of a time when rivers flowed on Mars. [Read more…] about Brainy alien hunter obsessed with finding life on Mars

Scientists develop new method of teaching surgery to a robot

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A team of scientists has developed a new way of teaching surgery to a robot that they say is far more efficient than other methods.

In a paper entitled Semi-Supervised Representation Learning from Surgical Videos, the team at Cornell University calls its algorithm Motion2Vec.

The team – which is backed by Intel’s AI Labs, Google Brain, and UC Berkeley – says Motion2Vec learns from video observations “by minimizing a metric learning loss”. [Read more…] about Scientists develop new method of teaching surgery to a robot

Heraeus and Aachen University develop ‘fastest-ever’ artificial synapses

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The boffins say that the secret is ‘foreign atoms in the oxide layer’ which have so far gone unnoticed by experts

Scientists and researchers from the materials science-oriented technology group Heraeus and the Jülich Aachen Research Alliance have developed what they describe as “artificial synapses” similar to the ones found in the human brain.

The collective of brainboxes say that their discovery could be useful in the development of branches of artificial intelligence, such as machine learning and deep learning.

The boffins discovered how the switching properties of artificial synapses can be specifically influenced. [Read more…] about Heraeus and Aachen University develop ‘fastest-ever’ artificial synapses

Scientists use supercomputer to create ‘first living robot’

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Scientists at the University of Vermont and Tufts University have created what they claim is the world’s first living robot. (See video below.)

The scientists say they have repurposed living cells, taken from frog embryos, and assembled them into “entirely new life-forms”.

The millimeter-wide “xenobots” can move toward a target, perhaps pick up a payload – like a medicine that needs to be carried to a specific place inside a patient – and heal themselves after being cut. [Read more…] about Scientists use supercomputer to create ‘first living robot’

Scientists make chip using carbon nanotubes instead of silicon

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Scientists have made a microprocessor using carbon nanotubes – not silicon.

As reported by Science News, the innovation marks a milestone in computing.

The prototype chip is said to be slower than equivalent silicon-based processors and is not as small. [Read more…] about Scientists make chip using carbon nanotubes instead of silicon