Swarms of robots that use electromagnetic forces to cling together and assume different shapes are being developed by US researchers.
The grand goal is to create swarms of microscopic robots capable of morphing into virtually any form by clinging together.
Science & Technology
D-Wave Systems has received $17 million to see if it's possible to compute complex equations by studying the behavior of molecules.
International Investment and Underwriting of Dublin led the round, which was the third round of funding for the Vancouver-based company. Draper Fisher Jurvetson (which always seems to be involved in wacky sorts of companies), GrowthWorks Capital, BDC Venture Capital, Harris & Harris Group, and British Columbia Investment Management also participated. Previously, the company raised more than $30 million.
International Investment and Underwriting of Dublin led the round, which was the third round of funding for the Vancouver-based company. Draper Fisher Jurvetson (which always seems to be involved in wacky sorts of companies), GrowthWorks Capital, BDC Venture Capital, Harris & Harris Group, and British Columbia Investment Management also participated. Previously, the company raised more than $30 million.
Samples of Comet Wild 2 suggest it is made of rocky material, like an asteroid, rather than the fluffy dust expected of a comet. The object may be a refugee that formed in the asteroid belt before getting kicked to the chilly fringes of the solar system, or it might have formed in that frigid realm from material thrown out of the inner solar system, scientists say.
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| ©NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| Comet Wild 2 is shown in close-up above. Beside it is a microscopic view of an EDM (electrical discharge machined) surface. Note the flat-floored depressions with steep scalloped walls and terracing. The small white spots on the comet can then be reasonably identified as the active cathode arcs that produce the cometary jets. |
Comment: Read also SOTT's special report on Comets and Catastrophe (links on the left bar)
Hydrocarbons -- molecules critical to life -- are being generated by the simple interaction of seawater with the rocks under the Lost City hydrothermal vent field in the mid-Atlantic Ocean.
Being able to produce building blocks of life makes Lost City-like vents even stronger contenders as places where life might have originated on Earth, according to Giora Proskurowski and Deborah Kelley, two authors of a paper in the Feb. 1 Science. Researchers have ruled out carbon from the biosphere as a component of the hydrocarbons in Lost City vent fluids.
Being able to produce building blocks of life makes Lost City-like vents even stronger contenders as places where life might have originated on Earth, according to Giora Proskurowski and Deborah Kelley, two authors of a paper in the Feb. 1 Science. Researchers have ruled out carbon from the biosphere as a component of the hydrocarbons in Lost City vent fluids.
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| ©Kelley, U of Washington, IFE, URI-IAO, NOAA |
| The carbonate structures at the Lost City Field include these spires stretching 90 feet tall. The white, sinuous spine is freshly deposited carbonate material. Added digitally to this image are the remotely operated vehicles Hercules and Argus that were used to explore the hydrothermal vent field during an expedition in 2005 funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. |
University of Pennsylvania researchers have used gene therapy to reduce the time it takes to breed large animals capable of producing therapeutic proteins in their milk, such as insulin or those that fight cancer. This represents a significant milestone in drug development, as current methods involve cloning, which takes more time and generally costs more.
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| ©iStockphoto |
| Researchers have used gene therapy to reduce the time it takes to breed goats capable of producing therapeutic proteins in their milk, such as insulin or those that fight cancer. |
Using mice as models, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology traced some of the differences between humans and chimpanzees to differences in our diet.
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| ©iStockphoto/Stephanie Swartz |
| Humans consume a distinct diet compared to other apes, like this chimpanzee eating an apple. Not only do we consume much more meat and fat, but we also cook our food. It has been hypothesized that adopting these dietary patterns played a key role during human evolution. |
The remains of what has been described as a huge lost city may force historians and archaeologists to radically reconsider their view of ancient human history.
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| ©Unknown |
| The city is believed to predate the Harappan civilisation |
Gill - If the name "2007TK238" rings no bells, that would not be surprising.
What is surprising, however, is that it was students here at Northfield Mount Hermon School, not some established astronomer, who discovered an asteroid subsequently identified with that number-filled name.
A trio of students in S. Hughes Pack's astronomy class, and Pack himself, got official credit for discovering a group of asteroids while working with the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge. They used images fed to their computers from a 32-inch telescope in Illinois.
What is surprising, however, is that it was students here at Northfield Mount Hermon School, not some established astronomer, who discovered an asteroid subsequently identified with that number-filled name.
A trio of students in S. Hughes Pack's astronomy class, and Pack himself, got official credit for discovering a group of asteroids while working with the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge. They used images fed to their computers from a 32-inch telescope in Illinois.
Helsinki - Scientists in Finland said they had replaced a 65-year-old patient's upper jaw with a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from his own fatty tissue and grown inside his abdomen.
The recent flyby of Mercury by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has given scientists an entirely new look at a planet once thought to have characteristics similar to those of Earth's moon. Researchers are amazed by the wealth of images and data that show a unique world with a diversity of geological processes and a very different magnetosphere from the one discovered and sampled more than 30 years ago.
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| ©NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington |
| The Spider: MESSENGER obtained high-resolution images of the floor of the Caloris basin on January 14, 2008. Near the center of the basin, this remarkable feature -- nicknamed "the spider" by the science team -- was revealed. A set of troughs radiating outward are interpreted to be the result of the breaking apart of the floor materials that filled the Caloris basin after its formation. Other troughs near the center form a polygonal pattern. An impact crater about 40 km (~25 miles) in diameter appears to be centered on "the spider." |
Comment: See some prototypes of robot swarms created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University: