Impact Lab – Page 292 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Robots

In Antarctica, a clunky robot has befriended a colony of penguins

June 3, 2022

ECHO is part of a scientific project studying climate change’s impact on emperor penguins.

ECHO is a small yellow robot currently living with a colony of emperor penguins in Antarctica. The robot is part of a project by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution studying climate change’s impact on the South Pole’s most iconic inhabitants. Physicist Daniel Zitterbart, who has been working alongside ecologist Céline Le Bohec, tells us about how ECHO works, what the project is trying to achieve, and his hopes for the future.

3D Printer

3D printed bone implants give patient new lease of life after head injury

June 3, 2022

The implants were used for Lin’s cranioplasty surgery in July last year.

SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): When Danny Lin fell in a carpark in November 2020, he injured his head so badly that he could remember only slipping into a coma for about 10 days.

The memory of how the incident happened was completely wiped clean.

“The next moment, when I woke up, the doctors told me that there was some swelling in my brain and that I needed a craniotomy,” the 46-year-old headhunter told The Straits Times.

A craniotomy is an operation which involves temporarily removing parts of the skull to ease pressure on the brain due to swelling or bleeding.

Recalling the first day Lin was admitted to hospital, his doctor, Assistant Professor Sein Lwin, a visiting consultant neurosurgeon at National University Hospital, said he found a small blood clot in the right side of the brain.

“He was slowly losing consciousness,” noted Prof Sein. “So we repeated the scan, and the clot grew bigger.”

This was because the swelling led to pressure building up within the brain, he added.

Bruises were also seen on both sides of the brain due to the impact of the injury, said Prof Sein.

To relieve this pressure, two bone flaps in the skull were removed to help reduce swelling.

Luckily for Lin, the swelling came down in about a week.

“Only 40 per cent of patients fully recover from such injuries and can resume normal activities, while the majority still end up bed-bound. So he’s really lucky,” said Prof Sein.

Space

Mitsubishi Electric develops technology for the freeform printing of satellite antennas in outer space

June 2, 2022

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) reports that the company has developed an on-orbit additive-manufacturing technology that uses photosensitive resin and solar ultraviolet light for the 3D printing of satellite antennas in the vacuum of outer space.

The novel technology makes use of a newly developed liquid resin that was custom formulated for stability in vacuum. The resin enables structures to be fabricated in space using a low-power process that utilizes the sun’s ultraviolet rays for photopolymerization.

The technology specifically addresses the challenge of equipping small, inexpensive spacecraft buses with large structures, such as high-gain antenna reflectors, and enables on-orbit fabrication of structures that greatly exceed the dimensions of launch vehicle fairings.

Resin-based on-orbit manufacturing is expected to enable spacecraft structures to be made thinner and lighter than conventional designs, which must survive the stresses of launch and orbital insertion, thereby reducing both total satellite weight and launch costs.

Robots

A CELLO-PLAYING ROBOT MAKES MUSIC WITH ITS HUMAN PROGRAMMER

June 2, 2022

by Melissa T. Miller

Swedish composer Fredrik Gran programs robotic arms to play bowed instruments like the cello and double bass. He also plays duets with the robots, blurring the lines between the musician and the music itself. The robot arms do make some mechanical noise as they move, but it blends into the sound of the instruments. The robots’ intended purpose is for automated assembly lines in the automotive, healthcare, or food industries, instead, here, they make music.

All the movements the robots use to make music come from the same abilities they need for their day jobs. But it’s still remarkable to see it applied in this way. It’s automated, but the listener still feels a swell of emotions, and the robots seem to come alive as they play their instruments. We found out about these unique performances thanks to Laughing Squid.

Based on his social media feeds, Gran has experimented with many uses of robotic arms in music. He also uses them to create feedback effects, moving a microphone around other equipment. For a more intense performance of robot music, check out the Instagram video below.

brain-computer interfaces

Researchers create a prosthetic arm that can be moved with an amputee’s mind

June 2, 2022

For centuries prosthetics have helped amputees, but until now those prosthetics, while helpful, have not given the same function as what was lost. However, a group of researchers are working on changing that.

A new piece of technology is being developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities that will make clumsy prosthetics a thing of the past.

The new device is said to be less invasive, more accurate, and allows amputees to move a robotic prosthetic with their arm using brain signals.

Researchers published their findings in a paper in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Jules Anh Tuan Nguyen, a postdoctoral researcher and University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumnus, shared that there is nothing else like this tech.

“It’s a lot more intuitive than any commercial system out there,” Nguyen said in a press release. “With other commercial prosthetic systems, when amputees want to move a finger, they don’t actually think about moving a finger.”

The tech, developed at the University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, is a small implantable device that attaches to the peripheral nerve in a person’s arm.

quantum computing

Unveiling IonQ Forte: The First Software-Configurable Quantum Computer

June 1, 2022

Photograph of IonQ Forte (front left) in our quantum data center in College Park, MD.

Introducing IonQ Forte

Today, the IonQ team is proud to unveil our next generation quantum computer – IonQ Forte. This latest generation quantum computer (Figure 1) represents a leap forward in flexibility, precision and performance. IonQ Forte uses ytterbium ions, and integrates highly specialized acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) to direct laser beams at individual qubits in the ion chain to apply logic gates among the qubits. This approach provides unprecedented precision and stability to the laser beams contributing to both higher fidelity and reliability by minimizing noise and unintended residual light on neighboring qubits.

Compared to our previous systems, IonQ Forte decouples the qubit arrangement in space from a fixed optical addressing system, leading to higher performance, the support of more qubits, and more software-driven flexibility. In fact, our goal is to deliver quantum computers whose architecture is fully controlled through software, from the number of qubits to the entangling gates, connectivity between qubits, error correction and ultimately the entire system performance as measured by the Algorithmic Qubit (#AQ) metric.

IonQ Forte, designed with a capacity of up to 32 qubits like IonQ Aria and further expandable in software, represents a major step in that direction. Once fully characterized (tested and measured), we expect that it will demonstrate superior #AQ results and allow customers to run deeper quantum circuits than ever before. We anticipate that IonQ Forte will be made broadly available in early 2023, with earlier access expected to be provided to select developers, partners, and researchers in 2022 to work alongside IonQ’s scientists in evaluating the full potential of this powerful quantum system.

In this blog post, we will bring you into our development process for IonQ Forte, share our thinking, early results and plans for the future.

AI

Revolut founder set to launch venture capital fund powered by artificial intelligence

June 2, 2022

By Lucy Harley-McKeown

The new venture — dubbed QuantumLight Capital — will be worth around $200 million, with funds supplied by Storonsky and other investors, Forbes reported on Tuesday.

“We are built as a technology company by a team of tech unicorn founders, quant traders, AI scientists and engineers,” the QuantumLight website states. The fund will identify investment opportunities using a machine called Aleph as its “proprietary quantitative decision engine.”

According to Forbes, QuantumLight will be focused mainly on Series B and Series C rounds, based on software which eliminates “human judgement.” Storonsky argues that the model is designed to eliminate the clubby world of venture capital, where decisions are made through a crowd mentality.

Cancer

Nanosensor Platform Could Advance Detection of Ovarian Cancer

June 2, 2022

Ovarian cancer kills 14,000 women in the United States every year. It’s the fifth leading cause of cancer death among women, and it’s so deadly, in part, because the disease is hard to catch in its early stages. Patients often don’t experience symptoms until the cancer has begun to spread, and there aren’t any reliable screening tests for early detection.

A team of researchers is working to change that. The group includes investigators from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medicine, the University of Maryland, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, and Lehigh University.

Two recent papers describe their advancements toward a new detection method for ovarian cancer. The approach uses machine learning techniques to efficiently analyze spectral signatures of carbon nanotubes to detect biomarkers of the disease and to recognize the cancer itself.

The first paper appeared in Science Advances in November.

Medical Breakthrough

Smaller than a pinhead: New 3D printed micro device provides breakthrough for IVF and regenerative medicine

May 31, 2022

Researchers have developed a tiny, 3D-printed cell “cradle” to boost IVF success, with the treatment of cancer, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and spinal cord injury also advanced by the invention.

By Lynne Minion

A tiny new medical device has been developed by Australian researchers that will transform the only fertility treatment procedure available for men with low sperm counts, with implications for the success of IVF and beyond into regenerative medicine.

A research team led by the University of Adelaide, in partnership with medical technology company Fertilis, has created the groundbreaking technology that allows injection of a single sperm into an egg for fertilisation with greater ease and accuracy, according to an article in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics.

Space

RED PLAN-IT. INSIDE PROTOTYPE ‘HUMAN MARTIAN COLONY’ BUILT IN DESERT WHERE SCIENTISTS TRIAL LIVING ON MARS

May 31, 2022

Researchers have shared plans to simulate life on Mars in a desert in Argentina

By Jona Jaupi

SCIENTISTS have shared plans to simulate life on Mars in a desert in Argentina.

A new project dubbed Solar54 aims to prepare cosmonauts for future missions to the Red Planet.

The project will be carried out in an Argentine red desert called a hundred kilometers away from the city of La Rioja.

Named the Los Colorados provincial reserve, the landscape is filled with red soil and organic canyons that mimic Mars’.

On the project’s website, researchers call the area “one of the places most similar to the red planet on Earth.”

Solar54 hopes to provide a space for astronauts and scientists to conduct a number of studies and tests that will help with the colonization of Mars.

“It has the objective of emulating the living conditions, Space Technology laboratories, and Food Production Systems that would be used on the planet Mars,” Solar54 project managers said.

The site comprises six domes for accommodation, cooking, crew recreation, plant production, Cubesats satellites, and a general laboratory, per the project’s YouTube channel.

Robots

Asteroid-mining may be possible with Scar-e robot

May 31, 2022

By Beatriz Valero de Urquía

Advancements in robotics technology might enable scientists to drill asteroids for precious metals such as iron, nickel and platinum.

The Space Capable Asteroid Robotic Explorer known as Scar-e is a six-legged robot capable of mining precious metals from asteroids.

Designed by the Asteroid Mining Corporation (AMC) in partnership with Tohoku University in Japan, Scar-e could be the key to opening up the exploration of the solar system, in line with current trends in the launch services market, with a low-cost, highly functional, walking and climbing robot.

Currently, the world is facing a shortage of precious metals, particularly those vital for the making of consumer electronics such as phones, laptops and cars, as well as battery and hydrogen technology, causing chaos in supply chains. With only a finite supply of them on Earth, people are increasingly looking to space to meet this increased demand.

Enter Scar-e, a robot capable of gripping onto an asteroid in space to stop it from floating away and drilling it to obtain iron, nickel and platinum.

Space Flight

MIT’s New Self-Rearranging Space Station Revealed; Will TESSERAE Be Better Than ISS?

May 30, 2022

Griffin Davis

MIT’s new self-rearranging space station has been revealed. However, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that this new space tech is not yet under development.

The new TESSERAE (Tessellated Electromagnetic Space Structures for the Exploration of Reconfigurable, Adaptive Environments) project aims to build a new space station that can rearrange or readjust itself.

If this is true, then astronauts will have a better artificial environment as their study the universe.

“The future of human habitation in space lies in self-assembling, adaptive, and reconfigurable structures,” said MIT via its official blog post.