Welcome to Sott.net
Mon, 08 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Science & Technology
Map

Info

Self-propelled hybrid bio-bots developed at University of Illinois


RedOrbit
Sun, 19 Jan 2014 12:19 UTC
Bio-Hybrid Machines
© Raj Creationzs/Shutterstock
The bio-hybrid machines can swim like sperm and are modeled after flagella.
Engineers from the University of Illinois have developed a new line of miniature, swimming bio-bots - the first class of synthetic structures capable of traveling through viscous biological fluids on their own.

Their bio-hybrid machines, which are detailed in the January 17 edition of the journal Nature Communications, can swim like sperm and are modeled after flagella, or single-celled creatures that have long tails, the researchers explained in a statement.

"Micro-organisms have a whole world that we only glimpse through the microscope," said lead investigator Taher Saif, a mechanical science and engineering professor at the university. "This is the first time that an engineered system has reached this underworld."

Saif and his colleagues began by creating the body of this bio-bot using a flexible polymer, and then they cultured heart cells near the junction of its head and tail. Those cells self-aligned and synchronized to beat together, sending a wave down the machines' tails and propelling them forward, they explained.

According to the university, this self-organization is "a remarkable emergent phenomenon" and while they do not fully understand exactly how the cells on the flexible polymer tail are able to communicate with one-another, they have to beat together in the correct direction in order for movement to occur in the tail.
      Read More...
Cardboard Box

Amazon wants to ship your package before you buy it

Greg Besinger
Digits
Fri, 17 Jan 2014 14:12 UTC
Amazon.com knows you so well it wants to ship your next package before you order it.

The Seattle retailer in December gained a patent for what it calls "anticipatory shipping," a method to start delivering packages even before customers click "buy."

The technique could cut delivery time and discourage consumers from visiting physical stores. In the patent document, Amazon says delays between ordering and receiving purchases "may dissuade customers from buying items from online merchants."

So Amazon says it may box and ship products it expects customers in a specific area will want - based on previous orders and other factors - but haven't yet ordered. According to the patent, the packages could wait at the shippers' hubs or on trucks until an order arrives.

Image
© unkown
An image from patent, showing a possible logistics trail
      Read More...
Telescope

Two more newly discovered asteroids to pass Earth on Tuesday

Pauline Beart
The French Tribune
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 08:28 UTC
Image
© French Tribune
According to a new report, a small asteroid entered earth's atmosphere and busted over the mid-Atlantic ocean on the Eve of New Year. It has been reported that the asteroid, 2014 AA, was discovered by NASA scientists just 21 hours before it entered the Earth's atmosphere. This has raised a question on NASA's search and discovery of Near Earth Objects (NEOs). NASA is capable of noticing asteroids approaching the Earth, well in advance.

No destruction was caused by the asteroid as it was very small in size. This incident has occurred only for the second time in world history. Researchers cited a similar incident that took place in 2008, in which NASA officials reported about a NEO provisionally titled, 2008 TC3, just 19 hours before it made an entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
      Read More...
Rose

Is this plant intelligent? Tropical fern found to 'learn and remember' despite having no brain

Sarah Griffiths
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 17 Jan 2014 05:36 UTC
Image

Scientists claim fern-like plants Mimosa pundica (pictured) that respond to touch, learned that water droplets are not harmful in an experiment and remember the lesson for weeks afterwards
  • Scientists from the University of Western Australia found Mimosa pudica plants can learn and remember as well as some animals
  • Fern responds to touch and curls up to protect itself from predators
  • But eventually 'learned' not to curl up when rain drops landed on it
  • Researchers aren't certain why the plants are able to do so, but think it might be down to a calcium-based signally network in their cells
  • Study suggests experience teaches plants to learn details to survive
Marvellous memories are often attributed to elephants, but scientists have discovered that plants can also learn and remember - even though they do not have a brain.

Scientists claim fern-like plants that respond to touch have learned that water droplets are not harmful and remember the finding weeks afterwards.

Their research suggests that experience teaches plants to learn details to survive and could lead to scientists viewing flora in a new way.
      Read More...
Laptop

What is this mystery object spotted on Google Moon? Bizarre wedge-shaped 'craft' appears on the lunar surface


The Daily Mail
Fri, 17 Jan 2014 09:06 UTC
Is it part of an alien spaceship nestled under the dust of the moon, or a secret moonbase occupied by humans?

Speculation has exploded over these controversial images which appear to show something unexplained on the surface of the moon.
Image
© Caters News Agency
This triangular anomaly with rows of seven light-like dots along its edge has been tracked down on the Google Moon viewer
The triangular anomaly, spotted on Google's map of the moon, has rows of seven light-like dots along its edge that have been likened to an alien base or spaceship.
      Read More...
Question

The rock that appeared out of nowhere on Mars

Nancy Atkinson
Universe Today
Fri, 17 Jan 2014 15:00 UTC
Pinacle Island_1
© Universe Today
Screenshot from Steve Squyres presentation celebrating 10 years of the Mars Exploration Rovers. A rock suddenly appeared where there was none 12 sols earlier.
During last night's celebration at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of ten years of the Mars Exploration Rovers, mission principal investigator Steve Squyres shared several stories about the exploration and discoveries made by the rovers Spirit and Opportunity since they landed on Mars in 2004.

An intriguing recent mystery is a strange rock that suddenly appeared in photos from the Opportunity rover in a spot where photos taken just 12 sols earlier there was no rock.

"One of the things I like to say is that Mars keeps throwing new things at us," Squyres deadpanned.
      Read More...
Wolf

Dogs are not descended from modern wolves but split from common ancestor 34,000 years ago

Sarah Griffiths
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 17 Jan 2014 12:10 UTC
Image

Dogs and wolves evolved from a common ancestor between 11,000 and 34,000 years ago but modern canines are more closely related to each other than to wolves, according to new research
  • U.S. scientists believe the genetic overlap observed between some modern dogs and wolves is the result of interbreeding after dog domestication
  • University of Chicago researchers said their study reflects a more complicated history of how canines came to be domesticated
Dogs and wolves evolved from a common ancestor between 11,000 and 34,000 years ago, according to new research.

U.S. scientists said that part of the genetic overlap observed between some modern dogs and wolves is the result of interbreeding after dog domestication and not a direct line of descent from one group of wolves.

They believe their research reflects a more complicated history than the popular story that early farmers adopted a few docile, friendly wolves that later became our modern canine companions.
      Read More...
Question

Two studies reveal strange findings in the Arctic air

Kate Allen
The Spec.com
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 11:15 UTC
Arctic Air
© Paul Souders/Torstar News Service
A polar bear is seen under the surface in the frigid Arctic water.
"There are strange things done in the midnight sun," poet Robert Service wrote. He was referring to the Klondike gold rush, but he could have been referring to the Arctic atmosphere, the strangeness of which continues to confound and concern scientists.

In separate studies published this week, research teams working in Barrow, Alaska announced two discoveries about the polar air: an unexpected process for depositing mercury pollution to land and sea, and the highest levels of molecular chlorine ever detected.

The chlorine finding, published in Nature Geoscience, is simply weird - it's too early to conclude what it means for the environment on a broader scale.

But the mercury finding, , is worrisome. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that enters the atmosphere through coal-burning power plants and other industries, and can be carried far from its original source. When it enters an ecosystem, bacteria can transform it into highly toxic methylmercury and that builds up in wildlife; in humans, it has a host of harmful effects including neurological damage to babies in the womb.

The twin papers are another indication that the Arctic remains an enigma, especially as it changes in response to global warming.

"There's a lot left to learn - not just about the Arctic atmosphere but about atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, land, and snow," said Kimberly Strong, an Arctic expert and atmospheric physicist at the University of Toronto who was not involved in either research team.

"We're really just starting to pull together all the bits of the puzzle, and these two studies are contributing to that."

Both of the studies relate to a peculiar process that is one of the strangest things done in the midnight sun, at least when it comes to atmospheric chemistry. More than 20 years ago, scientists discovered that something weird was happening to mercury and ozone levels in the High Arctic air in springtime: in space of just hours they would suddenly disappear, only to return again hours later.
      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Natural ball lightning probed for the first time

Michael Slezak
New Scientist
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 18:53 UTC
Ball Lightning
© Library Thinkquest Org
Ball lightning is a phenomenon where a luminous sphere, only several centimeters in diameter, floats through the air near the ground. It lasts a few seconds, and then dissipates or explodes.
Goodness gracious, a great ball of lightning seen in China offers the first evidence in nature that the elusive glowing orbs form thanks to vaporised dirt.

Anecdotes about ball lightning stretch back for centuries, but the phenomenon has been hard to study as the balls are unpredictable - and when they do materialise, they last for mere seconds.

Lacking detailed observations, explanations have ranged from electrically charged meteorites to hallucinations induced by magnetism during storms.

In 2012, Jianyong Cen and his colleagues at Northwestern Normal University in Lanzhou, China, were observing a thunderstorm in Qinghai, China with video cameras and spectrographs.

Purely by chance, they recorded a ball lightning event. When a bolt struck the ground, a glowing ball about 5 metres wide rose up and travelled about 15 metres, disappearing after 1.6 seconds.

The spectrograph revealed that the main elements in the ball were the same as those found in the soil: silicon, iron and calcium. The observations support a theory for making ball lightning put forth in 2000 by John Abrahamson at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
      Read More...
Arrow Down

Nearly 6,000 natural gas leaks found in Washington, D.C.

Denise Chow
LiveScience
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 11:42 UTC
Gas Leak
© Duke University
This is a map of the District of Columbia showing where researchers found natural gas leaks under city streets, with colors indicating the concentration, in parts per million, of methane at each location.
Aging pipelines under the streets of Washington, D.C., are to blame for nearly 6,000 natural gas leaks, including 12 that could have caused dangerous explosions, a new study finds.

Researchers from Duke University and Boston University mapped 1,500 road miles (2,400 kilometers) of underground infrastructure that delivers fuel to power homes and businesses in the nation's capital. Using a high-precision device to detect methane - the chief component of natural gas - the scientists discovered more than 5,893 natural gas leaks throughout the city.

The scientists also found some manholes with methane concentrations nearly 10 times greater than the threshold at which explosions can occur.

"Repairing these leaks will improve air quality, increase consumer health and safety, and save money," study lead author Robert Jackson, a professor of environmental sciences at Duke University, said in a statement.

"Pipeline safety has been improving over the last two decades. Now is the time to make it even better."

After their initial findings, the researchers reported the leaks to city authorities. Yet, four months later, nine leaks were still found to be emitting dangerous levels of methane, Jackson said.

"Finding the leaks a second time, four months after we first reported them, was really surprising," he said.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts