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Archive for the ‘habitats’ category: Page 68

Feb 3, 2020

Creating His Whole Apartment in VR

Posted by in categories: habitats, virtual reality

He made his whole apartment in VR! đŸ€Ż

Credit:: Greg Medison

Jan 28, 2020

The Pacific Ocean is so acidic that it’s dissolving Dungeness crabs’ shells

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics, habitats

The Pacific Ocean is becoming more acidic, and the cash-crabs that live in its coastal waters are some of its first inhabitants to feel its effects.

The Dungeness crab is vital to commercial fisheries in the Pacific Northwest, but lower pH levels in its habitat are dissolving parts of its shell and damaging its sensory organs, a new study found.

Their injuries could impact coastal economies and forebode the obstacles in a changing sea. And while the results aren’t unexpected, the study’s authors said the damage to the crabs is premature: The acidity wasn’t predicted to damage the crabs this quickly.

Jan 28, 2020

Nanoparticle chomps away plaques that cause heart attacks

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, habitats, nanotechnology

Michigan State University and Stanford University scientists have invented a nanoparticle that eats away—from the inside out—portions of plaques that cause heart attacks.

Bryan Smith, associate professor of biomedical engineering at MSU, and a team of scientists created a “Trojan Horse” nanoparticle that can be directed to eat debris, reducing and stabilizing plaque. The discovery could be a potential treatment for atherosclerosis, a leading cause of death in the United States.

The results, published in the current issue of Nature Nanotechnology, showcases the nanoparticle that homes in on due to its high selectivity to a particular immune cell type—monocytes and macrophages. Once inside the macrophages in those plaques, it delivers a drug agent that stimulates the cell to engulf and eat cellular debris. Basically, it removes the diseased/dead in the plaque core. By reinvigorating the macrophages, size is reduced and stabilized.

Jan 27, 2020

Maine woman stalked

Posted by in categories: drones, habitats

GORHAM, Maine (AP) — A Maine woman who was harassed by a drone for two days says police told her they could do nothing about it.

Mary Dunham says a drone tracked her in her car on Tuesday as she drove to a gas station, where she called police, and then to her home in Gorham. It followed her eight miles to her brother’s house in Standish the following day.

It was an “unnerving” experience, she said. “The officer arrived and said, ‘Yeah, I see it. I don’t know what to tell you though. We can’t do too much,’” she said.

Jan 24, 2020

Facebook has trained an AI to navigate without needing a map

Posted by in categories: drones, habitats, information science, robotics/AI

The algorithm lets robots find the shortest route in unfamiliar environments, opening the door to robots that can work inside homes and offices.

The news: A team at Facebook AI has created a reinforcement learning algorithm that lets a robot find its way in an unfamiliar environment without using a map. Using just a depth-sensing camera, GPS, and compass data, the algorithm gets a robot to its goal 99.9% of the time along a route that is very close to the shortest possible path, which means no wrong turns, no backtracking, and no exploration. This is a big improvement over previous best efforts.

Why it matters: Mapless route-finding is essential for next-gen robots like autonomous delivery drones or robots that work inside homes and offices. Some of the best robots available today, such as Spot and Atlas made by Boston Dynamics and Digit made by Agility Robotics, are packed with sensors that make them pretty good at keeping their balance and avoiding obstacles. But if you dropped them off at an unfamiliar street corner and left them to find their way home, they’d be screwed. While Facebook’s algorithm does not yet handle outside environments, it is a promising step in that direction and could probably be adapted to urban spaces.

Jan 22, 2020

Are bats to blame for China’s virus?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, habitats

Zoonotic diseases may become the source of more outbreaks in the future. People must take note and pass the appropriate regulations to prevent future outbreaks.

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/01/22/996315/are-bats-to-blame-for-chinas-virus#


As bats and humans cross paths more viruses are making the jump from bat to people. China’s latest scare is the latest coronavirus to affect humans likely to have its origins in bats.

Continue reading “Are bats to blame for China’s virus?” »

Jan 17, 2020

NASA Wants to Grow a Moon Base Out of Mushrooms

Posted by in categories: energy, habitats, space

Fungus Among Us

The idea is to ship dormant fungus to a Moon base and, once it arrives, give it water and the right conditions to trigger growth, according to a NASA press release. That would also require a supply of photosynthetic bacteria to provide the fungus with nutrients. Once the fungus grows into the shape of a structure, it would be heat-treated, effectively killing it and turning it into a compact brick.

Continue reading “NASA Wants to Grow a Moon Base Out of Mushrooms” »

Jan 16, 2020

This New Sensor Could Start Pushing Smart Home Technology From ‘Nice To Have’ To ‘Must Have’

Posted by in categories: habitats, health

Sekisui House has upped its ante in a potentially game-changing, life-altering home health technology at this year’s CES.

Jan 15, 2020

National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, habitats, health, security, space

Location: Manhattan, KS

NBAF - National Agor-Defense Facility

The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) will be a state-of-the-art biocontainment laboratory for the study of diseases that threaten both America’s animal agricultural industry and public health. DHS S&T is building the facility to standards that fulfill the mission needs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) which will own, manage and operate (PDF, 16 pgs., 165 KB) the NBAF once construction and commissioning activities are complete. The NBAF will strengthen our nation’s ability to conduct research, develop vaccines, diagnose emerging diseases, and train veterinarians. DHS S&T will leverage the facility as a national asset to fulfill homeland security mission needs.

Continue reading “National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility” »

Jan 14, 2020

Google acquires AppSheet to bring no-code development to Google Cloud

Posted by in category: habitats

Google announced today that it is buying AppSheet, an eight-year-old no-code mobile-application-building platform. The company had raised more than $17 million on a $60 million valuation, according to PitchBook data. The companies did not share the purchase price.

With AppSheet, Google gets a simple way for companies to build mobile apps without having to write a line of code. It works by pulling data from a spreadsheet, database or form, and using the field or column names as the basis for building an app.

It is integrated with Google Cloud already integrating with Google Sheets and Google Forms, but also works with other tools, including AWS DynamoDB, Salesforce, Office 365, Box and others. Google says it will continue to support these other platforms, even after the deal closes.

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