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These hominids — a now-extinct race of humans found in South Africa — had big eyes, child-like faces and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens.

The behavior of a collection of squeezed elastic beams is determined by geometry, not by complex forces.

When a collection of thin elastic beams—such as toothbrush bristles or grass—is compressed vertically, the individual elements will buckle and bump into one another, forming patterns. Experiments and numerical simulations now show that basic geometry controls how order emerges in these patterns [1]. The results could be useful for designing flexible materials and for understanding interactions among flexible structures in nature, such as DNA strands in cells.

Studies of bending and buckling have often focused on the behavior of a single membrane, such as a thin disc of polystyrene fabric, a sheet of crumpled paper, or even a bell pepper. But few models have tackled the dynamics of a group of many elastic objects.

Mixed reality (MR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies merge the real world with computer-generated elements, allowing users to interact with their surroundings in more engaging ways. In recent years, these technologies have enhanced education and specialized training in numerous fields, helping trainees to test their skills or make better sense of abstract concepts and data.

Researchers at University of Calgary have been trying to develop interfaces and systems that could enhanced MR visualizations. In a paper set to be presented at CHI 2023 LBW, they introduced HoloTouch, a system that can augment mixed reality graphics and charts using smartphones as physical proxies.

“To me, this paper was inspired for the most part by a work that I published during my final undergraduate year,” Neil Chulpongsatorn, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore “They both originated from my interest in mixed reality interactions for data representations.”

Earth’s magnetic field does more than keep everyone’s compass needles pointed in the same direction. It also helps preserve Earth’s sliver of life-sustaining atmosphere by deflecting high energy particles and plasma regularly blasted out of the sun. Researchers have now identified a prospective Earth-sized planet in another solar system as a prime candidate for also having a magnetic field—YZ Ceti b, a rocky planet orbiting a star about 12 light-years away from Earth.

Researchers Sebastian Pineda and Jackie Villadsen observed a repeating radio signal emanating from the star YZ Ceti using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, a radio telescope operated by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Research by Pineda and Villadsen to understand the magnetic field interactions between distant stars and their orbiting planets is supported by NSF. Their research was published today (April 3) in the journal Nature Astronomy.

“The search for potentially habitable or life-bearing worlds in other solar systems depends in part on being able to determine if rocky, Earth-like exoplanets actually have magnetic fields,” says NSF’s Joe Pesce, program director for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “This research shows not only that this particular rocky exoplanet likely has a magnetic field but provides a promising method to find more.”

April 3 (Reuters) — NASA on Monday named the first woman and the first African American ever assigned as astronauts to a lunar mission, introducing them as part of the four-member team chosen to fly on what would be the first crewed voyage around the moon in more than 50 years.

Christina Koch, 44, an engineer who already holds the record for longest continuous spaceflight by a woman and was part of NASA’s first three all-female spacewalks, was named as a mission specialist for the Artemis II lunar flyby expected as early as next year.

She will be joined by Victor Glover, 46, a U.S. Navy aviator and veteran of four spacewalks who NASA has designated as pilot of Artemis II. He will be the first Black astronaut ever to be sent on a lunar mission.

A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) analyzes structural brain asymmetries in schizophrenia.

Study: Large-scale analysis of structural brain asymmetries in schizophrenia via the ENIGMA consortium. Image Credit: hutpaza / Shutterstock.com

The saliva of mosquitoes infected with dengue viruses contains a substance that thwarts the human immune system and makes it easier for people to become infected with the potentially deadly viruses, new research published in PLOS Pathogens reveals.

Dengue has spread in recent years to Europe and the southern United States in addition to longstanding hotspots in tropical and subtropical areas such as Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. The new discovery, from a University of Virginia School of Medicine scientist and his collaborators, helps explain why the disease is so easily transmitted—and could eventually lead to new ways to prevent infection.

“It is remarkable how clever these viruses are. They subvert mosquito biology to tamp down our immune responses so that infection can take hold,” said Dr. Mariano A. Garcia-Blanco, who recently joined the UVA faculty as chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology. “There is no doubt in my mind that a better understanding of the fundamental biology of transmission will eventually lead to effective transmission-blocking measures.”

A new accessibility-focused robot under development will allow children of mixed visual abilities to have a balanced conversation where everyone participates equally.

Researchers at the Interactive Technologies Institute have recently released a study on using a robot to mediate group discussions between children with mixed–visual abilities.

The team presented the study during the ACM/IEEE conference this March in Stockholm, and it’s now published as part of the Proceedings of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.