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Jan 29, 2018

‘Holy Grail’ of dinosaur fossils discovered in Egyptian desert

Posted by in category: education

A new species of dinosaur has been uncovered in the Egyptian desert, a rare discovery in a part of the world not known for dino fossils.

The huge animal, which was roughly the size of a school bus, is an “incredible discovery,” scientists said in a new study that was published Monday.

“This was the Holy Grail — a well-preserved dinosaur from the end of the age of dinosaurs in Africa — that we paleontologists had been searching for for a long, long time,” said Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, one of the authors of the study.

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Jan 29, 2018

Handheld device sequences human genome

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Reading human DNA used to take laboratories, a pile of cash and a long time.

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Jan 29, 2018

Diamonds show promise for spintronic devices

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Conventional electronics rely on controlling electric charge. Recently, researchers have been exploring the potential for a new technology, called spintronics, that relies on detecting and controlling a particle’s spin. This technology could lead to new types of more efficient and powerful devices.

In a paper published in Applied Physics Letters, researchers measured how strongly a charge carrier’s spin interacts with a in diamond. This crucial property shows diamond as a promising material for spintronic devices.

Diamond is attractive because it would be easier to process and fabricate into spintronic devices than typical semiconductor materials, said Golrokh Akhgar, a physicist at La Trobe University in Australia. Conventional quantum devices are based on multiple thin layers of semiconductors, which require an elaborate fabrication process in an ultrahigh vacuum.

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Jan 29, 2018

African countries have taken the first major step towards cheaper continental flights — By Yomi Kazeem | Quartz

Posted by in categories: drones, governance, innovation, transportation

“Yesterday (Jan. 28), 23 African countries launched the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative by the African Union (AU). ”

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Jan 29, 2018

Revolutionary gene edited T cell therapy to treat lymphoma shows promise and little toxicity

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

This revolutionary gene modified T cell therapy is bearing fruit in treating a type of lymphoma, a resistant form of cancer.


Summary: After years of effort, this revolutionary gene-modified T cell therapy is bearing fruit in treating a type of lymphoma, a resistant form of cancer. [This article first appeared on the website LongevityFacts.com. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

Thirty-seven-year-old Nick Asoian of Denver unsuccessfully fought Hodgkin’s Lymphoma using conventional cancer treatments for two years. In 2008, while in New Zealand for a ski race, Nick was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Two bone marrow transplants and two years of chemotherapy combined with radiation therapy didn’t bring his cancer to heel.

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Jan 29, 2018

Learning From First Principles — Demis Hassabis

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Between 04–09 December 2017, thousands of researchers and experts gathered for at the largest and most influential AI and Thirty-first Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) in Long Beach, California. This is the conference’s 40th year, and its most-attended, at 7,229 registrations.

Demis Hassabis, the founder and CEO of DeepMind and an expert chess player himself, presented further details of the system, called Alpha Zero, at an Artificial Intelligence Conference in California. The program often made moves that would seem unthinkable to a human chess player.

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Jan 29, 2018

Artificial brains could soon be reality: Superconducting switch, which can ‘learn’ like human brain, developed

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

Researchers have developed a superconducting switch that can make future computers think like the human brain.

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Jan 29, 2018

All living organisms on Earth owe a debt to these protein-based ‘Legos of life’

Posted by in category: energy

As an added bonus, these tiny building blocks could even be used to split water, creating a clean-burning and near infinite source of energy.

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Jan 29, 2018

Fully Electric “Tesla of the Canals” Set to Make Maiden Voyage This Summer

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

The battery-powered autonomous ships will move goods across Belgium and the Netherlands, helping pull up to 23,000 polluting trucks off the road.

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Jan 29, 2018

NASA tests light, foldable plane wings for supersonic flights

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

Planes that can fold their wings to different angles while in the air have the potential to fly faster than their peers, and NASA has recently made headway into their development. The space agency has conducted a series of test flights proving that it can control the wings it designed to move into any position and that they have aerodynamic benefits. While the technology has existed for a long time, it typically requires the use of heavy hydraulic systems. NASA’s version doesn’t need that kind of machinery: it relies on the properties of a temperature-activated material called shape memory alloy instead. Upon being heated, the alloy activates a twisting motion in the tubes serving as the wings’ actuator, moving the wings’ outer portion up to 70 degrees upwards or downwards.

The foldable wings will give typical planes like commercial airliners a way to adapt to different flight conditions. They can give pilots more control over their aircraft and could even lead to more fuel efficient flights. Planes designed to fly at supersonic speeds (faster than the speed of sound), however, will get more out of this technology.

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