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Scientists at Harvard Medical School have discovered that a protein called TMC1 converts sound and head motion into electrical signals, thus enabling hearing and balance.

The findings were published this week in the journal https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(18)30631...ctitle0120\">Neuron.

Sensitivity to sound has been a powerful evolutionary force, but the precise molecular mechanisms that enable hearing have not been fully identified.

Continue reading “Scientists Have Discovered The Protein That Enables Hearing And Balance” »

ROME (AP) — Mount Etna in Sicily has roared back into spectacular volcanic action, sending up plumes of ash and spewing lava.

Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) says that the volcano, which initially “re-awoke” in late July, sprang into fuller action Thursday evening by shooting up chunks of flaming lava as high as 150 meters (500 feet) almost constantly.

On Friday, INGV said the action was continuing, feeding ash plumes several hundred meters (yards) into the air above the crater.

SpaceX is another step closer to crewed flight.

On Monday (Aug. 20), the private spaceflight company installed an astronaut walkway at Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, the jumping-off point for SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon spaceship.

The walkway is like the jetways that connect airport lounges and airliners. Astronauts will use the walkway to get from Pad 39A’s tower to Crew Dragon, which will sit atop SpaceX’s 230-foot-tall (70 meters) Falcon 9 rocket. [Photos: Behind-the-Scenes Look at SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Spaceship].

Continue reading “SpaceX’s New Astronaut Walkway Represents a Step Toward Crewed Flight” »

Scientists have identified the cause of outbreaks of enterovirus, one of the most prevalent types of virus in the world.

The findings, from researchers at Imperial College London and published in the journal Science, may help the public and healthcare workers prepare for an outbreak up to two years before it occurs.

The work, funded by the Wellcome Trust, has shown for the first time that the frequency of enterovirus outbreaks over time are linked to birth rates.

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The team of Li Chengfeng, Zhou Zongquan and others from the CAS Key Lab of Quantum Information developed a multi-degree-of-freedom (DOF) multiplexed solid-state quantum memory, and demonstrated photon pulse operation functions with time and frequency DOFs. The results were published in Nature Communications recently.

The reliable storage and coherent manipulation of quantum states with matter-systems enable the construction of large-scale quantum networks based on a quantum repeater. To achieve useful communication rates, highly multi-mode quantum memories will be required to construct a multiplexed quantum repeater.

The team presented the first demonstration of the on-demand storage of orbital-angular-momentum states with weak coherent pulses at the single-photon-level in a rare-earth-ion doped crystal. Through the combination of this 3-dimensional spatial DOF with 2-dimensional temporal and 2-dimensional spectral DOFs, the team created a multiple-DOF memory with high multi-mode capacity up to 3×2×2=12.

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Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. – Dylan Thomas.

The country isn’t a world leader in autonomous or electric vehicles, but it’s all in on putting cars in the sky.

The news: Japan announced today that it’s bringing together 21 companies and organizations, including big hitters like Uber, Boeing, Airbus, Cartivator, and Japan Airlines, to bring aerial vehicles to the skies within 10 years.

The challenge: The government said it will address one of the major things holding back flying cars: regulation. “The Japanese government will provide appropriate support to help realize the concept of flying cars, such as creation of acceptable rules,” the ministry said. If Japan is able to quickly establish a legal system in which flying cars can function, it could get a jump start over countries like the US, whose Federal Aviation Association has been notoriously slow-moving on things like drone regulation.

Continue reading “Japan teams up with Uber, Boeing, and Airbus to deploy flying cars within a decade” »

T-Mobile disclosed an “incident” in which hackers accessed “some” customers’ personal information—but no financial data or passwords.

The facial recognition technology the US is testing for airports has caught its first imposter merely three days after Washington Dulles International started using it. According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a 26-year-old man from Sao Paulo, Brazil successfully fooled people with a French passport until he presented it to a Dulles officer who used the new facial comparison biometric technology. The system determined that his face wasn’t a match with the person in the passport, and he was sent for a comprehensive check, which revealed the Republic of Congo ID hidden inside his shoe.

[Image credit: US Customs and Border Protection].

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