Robots

Solinftec unveils new sprayer robot for farms

Solinftec, a global leader in agricultural digitalization, has unveiled a new sprayer robot for applications on farms and in agriculture.

BY MARK ALLINSON

The company says it is expanding its Solix Ag Robotics offerings. In addition to its Solix Scouting robot, the company has unveiled its Solix Sprayer robot designed to detect and spray weeds.

In partnership with the manufacturing, research, and development company, McKinney Corporation, who will produce and manufacture the Solix spray robot, this new cutting-edge technology is slated to become commercially available in 2023 to the entire agricultural market including farmers, cooperatives, and ag-retailers. 

Leonardo Carvalho, Solinftec’s director of operations, says: “Solinftec’s partnership with McKinney Corporation will positively impact our ability to market and deliver Solix Ag Robotics by consolidating Solix’s scalability and accelerating service to the North American markets.

“It also supports Solinftec’s goal of making this technology available globally.”

Continue reading… “Solinftec unveils new sprayer robot for farms”
Medical Breakthrough

Innovative approach brings cell-reprograming therapy for heart failure closer to reality

By Ana Maria Rodriguez

Not too long ago the idea of taking, for instance, a skin cell and transforming it into a muscle cell was unthinkable. About 10 years ago, however, revolutionary research showed that it is indeed possible to reprogram differentiated adult cells into other types fully capable of conducting new functions.

Cell reprogramming is a main interest of the lab of Dr. Todd Rosengart, chair, and professor of the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, whose research focuses on finding innovative therapeutic approaches for heart failure.

“Heart failure remains the leading cause of death from heart disease,” said Rosengart, DeBakey-Bard Chair in Surgery and professor of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor. “Nearly 5 million Americans can be expected to develop advanced congestive heart failure, and heart transplant or mechanical circulatory support implantation currently are the only options for patients with end-stage heart disease. However, these options are limited. We need to improve how to treat this devastating condition.”

After a heart attack, the parts of the heart muscle that die do not regenerate into new heart tissue; instead, they are replaced by a scar that does not help the heart to beat. “The idea behind cell reprogramming is to coach the heart to heal itself by inducing the scar tissue, which is made mostly of fibroblasts, to change into functional heart muscle,” said Rosengart, professor of heart and vascular disease at the Texas Heart Institute.

Researchers have succeeded at reprogramming fibroblasts from small animals to become heart muscle, with dramatic improvements in heart function. The challenge has been to apply this technology to human cells — human fibroblasts are more resistant to reprogramming. In this study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, Rosengart and his colleagues explored a novel strategy to enhance the reprogramming efficiency of human fibroblasts.

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Space

An ESA Inflatable Moon Base Concept

ESA Moon Base Concept ESA 

By Keith Cowing

A vision of a future Moon settlement assembled from semi-buried inflatable habitats. Sited beside the lunar poles in regions of near-perpetual solar illumination, mirrors positioned above each habitat would reflect sunlight into greenhouses within the doughnut-shaped habitats.

Inflatable structures specialist Pneumocell in Austria performed a system study of an inflatable lunar habitat, based on prefabricated ultralight structures.

Once inflated, these habitats would be buried under 4-5 m of lunar regolith for radiation and micrometeorite protection. Above each habitat a truss holding a mirror membrane would be erected, designed to rotate to follow the Sun through the sky. Sunlight from the mirror would be directed down through an artificial crater, from which another cone-shaped mirror reflects it into the surrounding greenhouse.

Continue reading… “An ESA Inflatable Moon Base Concept”
AI

MIT’s new AI model can successfully detect Parkinson’s disease

Apart from detecting Parkinson’s, the new model showed promise in detecting the severity of disease.

Written by Sethu Pradeep 

A new artificial intelligence model developed by researchers at MIT shows great promise in detecting Parkinson’s diesease from breathing patterns.

MIT researchers have developed an early-research artificial intelligence model that has demonstrated success in detecting Parkinson’s disease from breathing patterns. The model relies on data collected by a device that detects breathing patterns in a contactless manner using radio waves.

Neurological disorders are some of the leading sources of disability globally and Parkinson’s disease is the fastest-growing neurological disease in the world. Parkinson’s is difficult to diagnose as diagnosis primarily relies on the appearance of symptoms like tremors and slowness but these symptoms usually appear several years after the onset of the disease.

The model also estimated the severity and progression of Parkinson’s, in accordance with the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS), which is the standard rating scale used clinically. The research findings have been published in the journal Nature Medicine.

The researchers trained the model by using nocturnal breathing data (data collected while subjects were asleep) from various hospitals in the US and some public datasets. After training the model, they tested it on a dataset that was not used in training, and discovered it diagnosed Parkinson’s disease with an accuracy of about 90 per cent when it analyses one night’s sleep worth of data from a patient. They found that the model’s accuracy improves to 95 per cent when it analyses sleep data from 12 nights.

The relationship between Parkinson’s and breathing has been known since 1817, as observed by James Parkinson in his research. There has also been previous research into how Parkinson’s patients develop sleep breathing disorders, weakness in the function of respiratory muscles, and degeneration in brainstem areas that control breathing.

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Robots

Researchers discover robots can be used for diagnosing mental health disorders in children

A recent study revealed that robots may be more effective than parent-reported or self-reported tests in diagnosing mental health disorders in youngsters.

A recent study revealed that robots may be more effective than parent-reported or self-reported tests in diagnosing mental health disorders in youngsters. A team of roboticists, computer scientists and psychiatrists from the University of Cambridge carried out a study with 28 children between the ages of eight and 13 and had a child-sized humanoid robot administer a series of standard psychological questionnaires to assess the mental wellbeing of each participant.

The children were willing to confide in the robot, in some cases sharing information with the robot that they had not yet shared via the standard assessment method of online or in-person questionnaires. This is the first time that robots have been used to assess mental well-being in children. The researchers say that robots could be a useful addition to traditional methods of mental health assessment, although they are not intended to be a substitute for professional mental health support. The results will be presented today (1 September) at the 31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) in Naples, Italy.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, homeschooling, financial pressures, and isolation from peers and friends impacted the mental health of many children. Even before the pandemic, however, anxiety and depression among children in the UK have been on the rise, but the resources and support to address mental well-being are severely limited. Professor Hatice Gunes, who leads the Affective Intelligence and Robotics Laboratory in Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology, has been studying how socially-assistive robots (SARs) can be used as mental well-being ‘coaches’ for adults, but in recent years has also been studying how they may be beneficial to children.

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Space Flight

CHINA BUILDING SECRETIVE ‘SPACE NUCLEAR REACTOR’ THAT COULD POWER 10 ORBITING STATIONS

China has reportedly been developing a powerful nuclear reactor for its groundbreaking moon and Mars mission

CHINA has reportedly been developing a powerful nuclear reactor for its groundbreaking moon and Mars mission.

The reactor was designed to power the spacecraft and propulsion using one megawatt of electricity.

That means the reactor is 100 times more powerful than a similar device Nasa is developing for the Moon, per Interesting Engineering.

Meanwhile, Space estimated that the reactor has enough power for 10 International Space Stations.

Most recently, the reactor passed a comprehensive performance review by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology on August 25.

Developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the reactor has been funded by the Chinese central government since 2019.

Currently, there are no details on how China is planning to use the reactor.

Continue reading… “CHINA BUILDING SECRETIVE ‘SPACE NUCLEAR REACTOR’ THAT COULD POWER 10 ORBITING STATIONS”
Space Flight

SKYROOT AEROSPACE RAISES $51M TO BOOST R&D OF VIKRAM ROCKET WITH 3D PRINTED CRYO-ENGINE

A concept image of a Skyroot Aerospace Vikram rocket. Image via Skyroot Aerospace. 

By PAUL HANAPHY

Indian space start-up Skyroot Aerospace has raised $51 million towards the development of its 3D printed cryogenic engine-powered rockets. 

Capable of carrying up to 815-kilos into Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram launch vehicles are propelled by the Dhawan-1, an engine 3D printed from a superalloy, in a way that reduces its production time by 95%. Having secured Series B backing via a round led by Singaporian investor GIC, the firm now has the cash to fund its initial launch tests, and establish its own satellite launch service.

“This round puts us on a trajectory of hyper-growth by funding all of our initial developmental launches, and enables building infrastructure to meet high launch cadence required by our satellite customers,” said Pawan Kumar Chandana, CEO of Skyroot Aerospace. “Our objective is to establish ourselves as a provider of best-in-class rocket launch services and the go-to destination for affordable and reliable small satellite launches.”

“WE ARE PROUD TO WELCOME ONE OF THE WORLD’S LEADING INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS AS A LONG-TERM PARTNER IN OUR MISSION TO ‘OPEN SPACE FOR ALL’”

Continue reading… “SKYROOT AEROSPACE RAISES $51M TO BOOST R&D OF VIKRAM ROCKET WITH 3D PRINTED CRYO-ENGINE”
Human Behavior

Hinge survey says Gen Z over ‘hookup culture’ post-COVID

The pandemic was something of a reset for many ways of life we took for granted, and new data shows that it’s even been a catalyst in changing the modern dating scene, particularly for Gen Z.

New data from Hinge found that while Gen Z felt like they’d missed out on the fundamentals of dating after two years of lockdowns and social distancing, a full 45 percent of users on the app felt they’d changed their dating habits for the better.

Gen Z is only interested in romantic relationships that feel additive to their everyday lives — and they’re not the only ones.

A full 39 percent of Hinge users reported being pickier about whom they went on a date with since the pandemic, and 91 percent of those people say they made the change because they don’t want to waste time on the wrong person.

On that note, while most older people are no strangers to dating games and archaic “rules,” singles have given it all up to be more honest with their feelings and intentions.

Many Hinge users reported they had learned to be more honest about their feelings during the pandemic.

Continue reading… “Hinge survey says Gen Z over ‘hookup culture’ post-COVID”
Environment

Much of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch’s Plastic Comes From These 5 Countries

Section of the Garbage Patch in 2019.

By CARLY CASSELLA

Our oceans are swirling concoctions of waste that scientists have for years reported are fed by an influx of pollution from both the land and the sea.

But working out what rubbish winds up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific, where it comes from, and who is responsible is an ongoing challenge. Now a new study further implicates the global fishing industry in the mix.

“Here we show that most floating plastics in the North Pacific subtropical gyre can be traced back to five industrialized fishing nations,” data scientist Laurent Lebreton and colleagues write.

When analyzing 573 kilograms of (dry) hard plastic debris collected by Lebreton and The Ocean Cleanup organization in 2019, the researchers found more than a quarter of the fragments were from ‘abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear’ (aka ALDFG) – and that’s not including discarded fishing nets and ropes.

This waste category includes items like oyster spacers, eel traps, and lobster and fish tags, as well as plastic floats and buoys.

Another third of the debris was unidentifiable.

When the authors used computer models to simulate how their samples ended up in the patch, they found that a plastic fragment was 10 times more likely to originate from fishing activities than land-based ones.

Continue reading… “Much of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch’s Plastic Comes From These 5 Countries”
Electric Automobile

Exploring on-street EV car charging using power poles and streetlights

An electric car (EV) charging at an power pole in a London street.

By Mathew Dickerson

A friend visited me from Canberra recently. Several years earlier he had purchased a new AMG CLA45 compact performance car. 

Inline-4 turbo engine. Dual-clutch 8-speed automatic transmission. 4 seconds to 100km/h. And the exhaust was tuned so it sang beautifully. 

In sports mode when braking for a corner it did an automatic double-clutch that would have made Peter Brock proud. 

He was interested in comparing the driving experience of this zenith of internal combustion cars versus this idea of a golf-buggy – an electric vehicle (EV)!

After five seconds behind the wheel of an EV, his eyes had been opened. He was convinced this was the future. 

Continue reading… “Exploring on-street EV car charging using power poles and streetlights”
Cancer

An Anti-cancer Drug in Short Supply Can Now be Made by Microbes

Thanks to a leap forward in synthetic biology, the plant-derived chemotherapy vinblastine has a new source

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as brewer’s yeast, is seen under a microscope. This species is used around the world to make food and beverages. Easily cultured with a well-known genome, the species has also become a favorite of synthetic biologists for making natural products that are difficult to obtain from their native sources. 

Newswise — The supply of a plant-derived anti-cancer drug can finally meet global demand after a team of scientists from Denmark and the U.S. engineered yeast to produce the precursor molecules, which could previously only be obtained in trace concentrations in the native plant. A study describing the breakthrough was published today in Nature. 

“The yeast platform we developed will allow environmentally friendly and affordable production of vinblastine and the more than 3,000 other molecules that are in this family of natural products,” said project co-leader Jay Keasling, a senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and scientific director at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability (DTU Biosustain). “In addition to vinblastine, this platform will enable production of anti-addiction and anti-malarial therapies as well as treatments for many other diseases.” Keasling is a biochemical engineer who helped launch the now-booming field of synthetic biology when his team successfully transferred the genetic pathway to produce an antimalarial drug, artemisinin, from an herb called sweet wormwood to the laboratory workhorse microbe, E. coli. He is also a professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at UC Berkeley. 

Continue reading… “An Anti-cancer Drug in Short Supply Can Now be Made by Microbes”
Space

Microgravity Testing Advances Space-Based Printing of Electronics

Space Foundry printed electrodes that could be used in space-based biological and chemical sensors on parabolic flights in Nov. and Dec. 2021 and June 2022. 

By Keith Cowing

As NASA prepares to send astronauts back to the Moon to live and explore, capabilities for space-based manufacturing of sensors, circuits, and other electronics will become increasingly critical. Recent microgravity flights have helped to advance cutting-edge methods for 3D printing of electronics by teams from San Jose, California-based Space Foundry and Iowa State University in Ames, supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs.

A vast range of future scenarios could benefit from electronics printed in space – from radiation sensors printed onto the walls of lunar habitats, to printing solar panels on the Moon’s surface, to gas and biosensors for use on the International Space Station. The capability to print electroinics in space is critical to the NASA mission and testing the ability to print electorincs in microgravity on Earth first is an important step in the maturation of technology.

“In terms of electronics, there are so many critical needs for which we must enable reliable in-space manufacturing, because we simply cannot anticipate and carry with us all of the sensors and circuits that we might need for a given mission,” said Curtis Hill, senior materials engineer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and principal investigator for NASA’s On-Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) project, part of the agency’s Game Changing Development program. ODME will select electronics manufacturing technologies among systems from Space Foundry, Iowa State, and other organizations for 2024 demonstrations on the space station.

Continue reading… “Microgravity Testing Advances Space-Based Printing of Electronics”