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Japan's advanced humanoids can now serve tea and wash the cup afterwards, but they still need to learn from their mistakes if they are to become real household helpers. A Tokyo University team this week showed their latest robots which can perform more complicated daily tasks, but the machines still have a learning curve.
Chinese scientists succeeded to attach a chip to the brain of a pigeon which allowed them to remotely control the pigeon movements. The scientists from the Robot Engineering Technology Research Centre at Shandong University of Science and Technology in China used hair-thin electrodes which were implanted in the brain of the pigeon in key locations responsible for movement.
The Chinese scientists already successfully implanted similar electrodes in fish, rats, mice and monkeys in research that was driven by military and intelligence interests. This is the first time a bird is being controlled in this way. The scientists reported that they successfully ordered the birds to fly right or left or up or down using a computer and remote control.
The US navy also hopes to use similar implants to exploit sharks' ability to sense minute electrical changes left by a vessel as it sail in the vicinity of the shark. IN this way the navy will have a highly sensitive biological sensor which will be very hard for the enemy to detect.
The Chinese scientists already successfully implanted similar electrodes in fish, rats, mice and monkeys in research that was driven by military and intelligence interests. This is the first time a bird is being controlled in this way. The scientists reported that they successfully ordered the birds to fly right or left or up or down using a computer and remote control.
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The US navy also hopes to use similar implants to exploit sharks' ability to sense minute electrical changes left by a vessel as it sail in the vicinity of the shark. IN this way the navy will have a highly sensitive biological sensor which will be very hard for the enemy to detect.
Astronomers are watching a galaxy rip to shreds, a finding that could help reveal how galaxies go from stellar riches to rags.
While looking at the galaxy cluster Abell 2667 with the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists found a spiral galaxy which they nicknamed the "Comet Galaxy."
The gas and stars of the Comet Galaxy-moving through the cluster at speeds of more than 2 million mph-are being stripped away by the tidal forces of the cluster. Also, the pressure of the cluster's scorching gas plasma - known as ram pressure stripping - is adding to the damage.
While looking at the galaxy cluster Abell 2667 with the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists found a spiral galaxy which they nicknamed the "Comet Galaxy."
The gas and stars of the Comet Galaxy-moving through the cluster at speeds of more than 2 million mph-are being stripped away by the tidal forces of the cluster. Also, the pressure of the cluster's scorching gas plasma - known as ram pressure stripping - is adding to the damage.
Physicists in the US have got to grips with a phenomenon that can cause hurricane winds to intensify rapidly. So-called "eyewall replacement" occurs when the cloud wall encircling the eye of a major hurricane breaks down, only to be replaced by a new wall farther out. The physicists claim that this latest insight will help to predict when and to what extent hurricanes will intensify
The dynamics that govern a hurricane's path and intensity are incredibly complex, and one of the least understood is eyewall replacement. In this process the wind speed drops initially when the first cloud walls collapse. But the new walls that move in to replace them re-intensify the wind as they shrink inward - a similar result of angular momentum conservation that makes ice skaters spin faster as they fold their arms.
The dynamics that govern a hurricane's path and intensity are incredibly complex, and one of the least understood is eyewall replacement. In this process the wind speed drops initially when the first cloud walls collapse. But the new walls that move in to replace them re-intensify the wind as they shrink inward - a similar result of angular momentum conservation that makes ice skaters spin faster as they fold their arms.
She was Queen of England for nine days in 1553, but historians have had to rely on contemporary descriptions of Lady Jane Grey's appearance as no portrait was thought to have survived from her lifetime.
Now a miniature measuring less than 2in (5cm) in diameter has been identified as a portrait of England's briefest monarch. It had languished in an American collection, its subject described as "unknown woman".
After 12 months of research, David Starkey, the Tudor specialist, believes that it is a contemporary portrait of Lady Jane Grey, the great-granddaughter of Henry VII who was deposed and beheaded by Mary I. "Jane need not remain one of history's invisible women," Dr Starkey said.
Now a miniature measuring less than 2in (5cm) in diameter has been identified as a portrait of England's briefest monarch. It had languished in an American collection, its subject described as "unknown woman".
After 12 months of research, David Starkey, the Tudor specialist, believes that it is a contemporary portrait of Lady Jane Grey, the great-granddaughter of Henry VII who was deposed and beheaded by Mary I. "Jane need not remain one of history's invisible women," Dr Starkey said.
RALEIGH, North Carolina -- A shipwreck off the North Carolina coast believed to be that of notorious pirate Blackbeard could be fully excavated in three years, officials working on the project said.
"That's really our target," Steve Claggett, the state archaeologist, said Friday while discussing 10 years of research that has been conducted since the shipwreck was found just off Atlantic Beach.
"That's really our target," Steve Claggett, the state archaeologist, said Friday while discussing 10 years of research that has been conducted since the shipwreck was found just off Atlantic Beach.
Sky watchers across the world have been enjoying the first total lunar eclipse in more than three years.
The eclipse began at 2018 GMT, with the Moon totally immersed in the shadow of the Earth between 2244 and 2358 GMT.
During "totality" the moon appeared reddish in colour, as only light that had been filtered through the Earth's atmosphere reached the Moon's surface.
The eclipse was visible from the whole of Europe, Africa, South America, and eastern parts of the US and Canada.
The coppery red Moon was visible across large areas of the UK thanks to clear skies.
The eclipse began at 2018 GMT, with the Moon totally immersed in the shadow of the Earth between 2244 and 2358 GMT.
During "totality" the moon appeared reddish in colour, as only light that had been filtered through the Earth's atmosphere reached the Moon's surface.
The eclipse was visible from the whole of Europe, Africa, South America, and eastern parts of the US and Canada.
The coppery red Moon was visible across large areas of the UK thanks to clear skies.
It's food scarcity, not dietary preferences, that motivates birds to migrate thousands of miles back and forth between breeding and non-breeding areas each year, new research shows.
"It's not whether you eat insects, fruit, nectar or candy bars or where you eat them - it matters how reliable that food source is from day-to-day," said study leader W. Alice Boyle of the University of Arizona.
To figure out the underlying pressures that drive some birds to leave home for the season, Boyle examined 379 related species of New World flycatchers and compared their size, food type, habitat, migratory behavior and whether or not they fed in flocks.
(New World flycatchers are one of the largest groups of birds in the Americas and include kingbirds, flycatchers, phoebes, manakins and cotingas.)
"It's not whether you eat insects, fruit, nectar or candy bars or where you eat them - it matters how reliable that food source is from day-to-day," said study leader W. Alice Boyle of the University of Arizona.
To figure out the underlying pressures that drive some birds to leave home for the season, Boyle examined 379 related species of New World flycatchers and compared their size, food type, habitat, migratory behavior and whether or not they fed in flocks.
(New World flycatchers are one of the largest groups of birds in the Americas and include kingbirds, flycatchers, phoebes, manakins and cotingas.)
What gruesome fate awaits our universe? Some physicists have argued that it is doomed to be ripped apart by runaway dark energy, while others think it is bouncing through an endless series of big bangs and big crunches. Now these two ideas are being combined to create another option, in which our universe ultimately shatters into billions of pieces, with each shard growing into a whole new universe. The model could solve the mystery of why our early universe was surprisingly well ordered.
One of the problems that cosmological models must explain revolves around the amount of disorder in the way that particles in our universe are arranged, which is marked by a quantity called entropy. Cosmologists believe that the universe started out in an ordered, low-entropy state after the big bang, and is gradually becoming more of a mess. But just why it started out so well ordered, when it is much more likely for particles and energy to be created in a greater state of disarray, is something of a puzzle.
One of the problems that cosmological models must explain revolves around the amount of disorder in the way that particles in our universe are arranged, which is marked by a quantity called entropy. Cosmologists believe that the universe started out in an ordered, low-entropy state after the big bang, and is gradually becoming more of a mess. But just why it started out so well ordered, when it is much more likely for particles and energy to be created in a greater state of disarray, is something of a puzzle.
A team of researchers from Oxford University has discovered that English apples may have originated from a forest on the border of Kyrgyzstan and China.
They may be thought of as quintessentially English, but many of the apples that grow in British gardens, such as the Cox's Orange Pippin and the Discovery may have originated in central Asia, scientists claim.
A team of researchers from Oxford University has found that the DNA of English apples is nearly identical to that of apples growing in the Tian Shan forest on the border of Kyrgyzstan and China.
The team, led by Barrie Juniper, had assumed the English apple was a hybrid of different types of fruit including the crab apple, but discovered that they were direct descendants of fruit trees growing in the mountainous region.
They may be thought of as quintessentially English, but many of the apples that grow in British gardens, such as the Cox's Orange Pippin and the Discovery may have originated in central Asia, scientists claim.
A team of researchers from Oxford University has found that the DNA of English apples is nearly identical to that of apples growing in the Tian Shan forest on the border of Kyrgyzstan and China.
The team, led by Barrie Juniper, had assumed the English apple was a hybrid of different types of fruit including the crab apple, but discovered that they were direct descendants of fruit trees growing in the mountainous region.
Comment: While Japan's humanoids are busy learning to serve tea and crumpets, ours are facing much more difficult problems: