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Jan 16, 2021

Scientists are a step closer to developing ‘smart’ stem cells – and they’re made from human fat

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Stem cells from fat. 😃


A new type of stem cell—that is, a cell with regenerative abilities—could be closer on the horizon, a new study led by UNSW Sydney shows.

Continue reading “Scientists are a step closer to developing ‘smart’ stem cells – and they’re made from human fat” »

Jan 16, 2021

HAWC+ Reveals Magnetic Chaos Hidden Within the Whirlpool Galaxy

Posted by in category: space

Not all appears as it would seem in the Whirlpool galaxy. One of the best-studied spiral galaxies and a delight to amateur astronomers, Messier 51, as it’s officially named, is influenced by powerful, invisible forces.

Located 31 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici, the galaxy’s arms are strikingly visible as they reach out along the central spine structure, displaying swirling clouds of gas and dust that are massive star-making factories. But new observations by NASA ’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, presented at this week’s 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, shows a more complicated picture.

Radio telescopes previously detected neatly-drawn magnetic fields throughout the length of the galaxy’s massive arms. But under SOFIA’s infrared gaze for the first time those lines give way to a chaotic scene in the outer spiral arms. Using a far-infrared camera and imaging polarimeter instrument called the High-Resolution Airborne Wideband Camera, or HAWC+, researchers found that the magnetic fields in the outskirts of the galaxy no longer follow the spiral structure and are instead distorted.

Jan 16, 2021

Ten “Keys to Reality” From Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek – Understanding Ourselves and Our Place in the Universe

Posted by in category: mathematics

To understand ourselves and our place in the universe, “we should have humility but also self-respect,” the physicist writes in a new book.

In the spring of 1970, colleges across the country erupted with student protests in response to the Vietnam War and the National Guard’s shooting of student demonstrators at Kent State University. At the University of Chicago, where Frank Wilczek was an undergraduate, regularly scheduled classes were “improvised and semivoluntary” amid the turmoil, as he recalls.

It was during this turbulent time that Wilczek found unexpected comfort, and a new understanding of the world, in mathematics. He had decided to sit in on a class by physics professor Peter Freund, who, with a zeal “bordering on rapture,” led students through mathematical theories of symmetry and ways in which these theories can predict behaviors in the physical world.

Jan 16, 2021

The incredible physics behind quantum computing | Brian Greene, Michio Kaku, & more | Big Think

Posted by in categories: computing, cosmology, particle physics, quantum physics

The incredible physics behind quantum computing.
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While today’s computers—referred to as classical computers—continue to become more and more powerful, there is a ceiling to their advancement due to the physical limits of the materials used to make them. Quantum computing allows physicists and researchers to exponentially increase computation power, harnessing potential parallel realities to do so.

Quantum computer chips are astoundingly small, about the size of a fingernail. Scientists have to not only build the computer itself but also the ultra-protected environment in which they operate. Total isolation is required to eliminate vibrations and other external influences on synchronized atoms; if the atoms become ‘decoherent’ the quantum computer cannot function.

Continue reading “The incredible physics behind quantum computing | Brian Greene, Michio Kaku, & more | Big Think” »

Jan 16, 2021

This Spider-Like Moon Rover Will Explore Lunar Lava Tubes

Posted by in category: space

A spider-like moon rover heading to the lunar surface in 2021 is designed to explore the underground lava tubes in which astronauts might one day live.

Jan 16, 2021

Fly me to the moon: rocket fuel made from human waste

Posted by in category: space travel

Circa 2014 o.o


Scientists in Florida have developed process to create methane using aerobic digester.

Jan 16, 2021

Meet Assembloids, Mini Human Brains With Muscles Attached

Posted by in categories: food, internet, robotics/AI

The result was a bizarre, Lego-like human tissue that replicates the basic circuits behind how we decide to move. Without external prompting, when churned together like ice cream, the three ingredients physically linked up into a fully functional circuit. The 3D mini-brain, through the information highway formed by the artificial spinal cord, was able to make the lab-grown muscle twitch on demand.

In other words, if you think isolated mini-brains—known formally as brain organoids—floating in a jar is creepy, upgrade your nightmares. The next big thing in probing the brain is assembloids—free-floating brain circuits—that now combine brain tissue with an external output.

The end goal isn’t to freak people out. Rather, it’s to recapitulate our nervous system, from input to output, inside the controlled environment of a Petri dish. An autonomous, living brain-spinal cord-muscle entity is an invaluable model for figuring out how our own brains direct the intricate muscle movements that allow us stay upright, walk, or type on a keyboard.

Jan 16, 2021

Smart Contact Lens Targets Vision Improvement

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, mobile phones

The device, which is like a smartphone in the eye, took home an award at the year’s biggest tech conference, but it’s not quite ready for prime time.

Jan 16, 2021

Toyota To Turn Cow Manure Into Hydrogen To Back Its Fuel Cell Vehicle Push

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

The automaker is doggedly sticking with the clean fuel that has taken a backseat to batteries. The hydrogen-generation station at the Long Beach port, the first that’s megawatt-scale and 100% renewable, will fuel arriving Toyota Mirai sedans and its Project Portal semi.

Jan 16, 2021

NASA’s attempt to burrow into Mars met 2 insurmountable obstacles: cement-like soil and an unexpected energy shortage

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, solar power, space, sustainability

InSight lander’s “mole” was unable to hammer through the Martian soil, and unusually dusty solar panels meant the robot was generating less power.