Technology

For the last decade, engineers have deployed increasingly capable underwater robots to map and monitor pockets of the ocean to track the health of fisheries, and survey marine habitats and species. When deploying such autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), much of an engineer's time is spent writing scripts, or low-level commands, in order to direct a robot to carry out a mission plan but new programming approach developed by MIT engineers gives robots more "cognitive" capabilities, enabling humans to specify high-level goals, while the robot performs high-level decision-making to figure out…

There is nothing like these RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) calculators from HP. But there seems to be two kinds of people: those who love RPN and those who just find it confusing. I happen to be in the first category and these are my RPN calculators: To the left is my HP-15C, a scientific calculator which I have used continuously since the 80's.   To the right is my HP-12C financial calculator that I recently purchased. It is also of 80's vintage. This calculator has been produced continuously from 1981 until today. Very impressive!   Below is a Limited Edition HP-…

Researchers  have demonstrated the functionality of a simple artificial neural circuit - a circuit of about 100 artificial synapses was proved to perform a simple version of a typical human task: image classification. The brain has 1015 (one quadrillion) synaptic connections so this will need some time to come close, but it is a step. For all its errors and potential for faultiness, the human brain remains a model of computational power and efficiency. That's because the brain can accomplish certain functions in a fraction of a second what computers would require far more time and energy…

Recent evidence demonstrating the feasibility of using novel CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology to make targeted changes in the DNA of human embryos is forcing researchers, clinicians, and ethicists to revisit the highly controversial issue of altering the inherited human genome. Currently, developed nations prohibit altering inherited factors, including ones related to disease, because that would open the door for editing to achieve positive traits. The United Kingdom recently allowed "Three-Person IVF" to try and prevent some cases of mitochondrial disease and say they were legally in…

Since the Great Recession ended in 2009, the recovery in jobs has lagged behind that of Corporate America. Corporate profits and business purchases of equipment and software returned to or near records within a year, yet unemployment remained stubbornly high – even though hiring usually tracks spending. Even today, with joblessness at 5.7%, the labor force participation rate has declined to 63% from 67% before the recession, signaling many adults have simply quit looking for work. And in many parts of the US, unemployment remains elevated. The sluggish jobs recovery and post-recession…

Genome editing using CRISPR/Cas system has enabled direct modification of the mouse genome in fertilized mouse eggs, leading to rapid, convenient, and efficient one-step production of knockout mice without embryonic stem cells. In contrast to the ease of targeted gene deletion, the complementary application, called targeted gene cassette insertion or knock-in, in fertilized mouse eggs by CRISPR/Cas mediated genome editing still remains a tough challenge. A research group overcame this issue by developing innovative highly efficient CRISPR/Cas system, which resulted in targeted insertion of…

In a study of how people interacted with avatars in World of Warcraft, women received less help from fellow players than men when they operated an unattractive avatar - even less than when they used a male avatar, according to a paper in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. This matches beliefs about how appearance stereotypes affect men and women in the real world. Some women believe they are more likely to suffer negative consequences based on their appearance than men are.  The researchers used six different avatars to study reactions to help requests among 2,300…

A new gold standard has been set for openness and reproducibility in research - and it was done by Cambridge computer scientists. At a talk today at the 12th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation in Oakland, they are going to unveil peer-reviewed results with 200 GB of data and 20,000 lines of code. All of the experimental figures and tables in the award-winning final version of their paper, which describes a new method of making data centers more efficient, are clickable and the links go to a website where the researchers have produced technically…

Automated organization, multi-RAT and multi-layer heterogeneous networks are being listed in mobile of 2020, at least by the kinds of committees that brought us bluetooth 7 years late. It's the 5G era, what vendors say will be the first meaningful unified wideband mobile communication system.  4G LTE systems, supporting up to 100Mbps data rate, at least in laboratories, have been globally deployed and are offer multimedia services like HD video, but with the mobile Internet and Internet of things (IoT) as the buzzwords for the future, current 4G systems may not satisfy the explosive…

Fish and flowers inspire diving goggle material says an article in Chemistry World.  First, the fish.  Fish repel oil by trapping water within their scales to create a self-cleaning, oil-repellent coat. And in the other corner, this little flower, Diphylleia grayi, – also known as the skeleton flower – which has the property that when rained on, its petals turn transparent, becoming white again on drying out. (Source of picture.)   It comes from mountainous regions in Japan and north China. Chen Feng (surname first!) of the Xi’an Jiaotong University (yes, the city…