Showing 20 articles starting at article 521

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Offbeat: Computers and Math, Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Miniaturization is progressing rapidly in just any field and the trend towards the creation of ever smaller units is also prevalent in the world of robot technology. In the future, minuscule robots used in medical and pharmaceutical applications might be able to transport medication to targeted sites in the body. Statistical physics can contribute to the foundations for the development of such technologies.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

As robots assume more roles in the world, a new analysis reviewed research on robot rights, concluding that granting rights to robots is a bad idea. Instead, the article looks to Confucianism to offer an alternative.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Cage structures made with nanoparticles could be a route toward making organized nanostructures with mixed materials, and researchers have shown how to achieve this through computer simulations.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

One researcher says we should look beyond the hype to see how virtual reality can make scientists more effective. But to realize the benefits, researchers must also plan well and avoid potential pitfalls.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study suggests iron-rich ancient sediments may have helped cause some of the largest volcanic events in the planet's history.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have made a significant advancement with quantum technologies that could transform complex systems modelling with an accurate and effective approach that requires significantly re-duced memory.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Engineers have designed a new class of 'microrobots' several times smaller than the width of a human hair that may be able to treat human illnesses like interstitial cystitis -- a painful bladder disease that affects millions of Americans.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have found a new way to create a crystalline structure called a 'density wave' in an atomic gas. The findings can help us better understand the behavior of quantum matter, one of the most complex problems in physics.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A robotic bee that can fly fully in all directions has been developed. With four wings made out of carbon fiber and mylar as well as four light-weight actuators to control each wing, the Bee++ prototype is the first to fly stably in all directions. That includes the tricky twisting motion known as yaw, with the Bee++ fully achieving the six degrees of free movement that a typical flying insect displays.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A tiger-sized saber-toothed creature called Inostrancevia has previously only been found in Russia. But scientists have discovered its fossils in South Africa, suggesting that it migrated 7,000 miles across the supercontinent Pangaea during the world's worst mass extinction 252 million years ago. Heading to South Africa allowed it to fill a gap in a faraway ecosystem that had lost its top predators.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The number of qubits in superconducting quantum computers has risen rapidly during the last years, but further growth is limited by the need for ultra-cold operating temperatures. Connecting several smaller processors could create larger, more computationally powerful quantum computers -- however doing so poses new challenges. Researchers have now demonstrated quantum entanglement between optical and microwave photons that could lay the foundation for such a future quantum network.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have discovered a new species of mosasaur, a sea-dwelling lizard from the age of the dinosaurs, with strange, ridged teeth unlike those of any known reptile. Along with other recent finds from Africa, it suggests that mosasaurs and other marine reptiles were evolving rapidly up until 66 million years ago, when they were wiped out by an asteroid along with the dinosaurs and around 90% of all species on Earth.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scales, spines, feathers and hair are examples of vertebrate skin appendages, which constitute a remarkably diverse group of micro-organs. Despite their natural multitude of forms, these appendages share early developmental processes at the embryonic stage. Researchers have discovered how to permanently transform the scales that normally cover the feet of chickens into feathers, by specifically modifying the expression of certain genes.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new paper rewrites the history of the darkest, most bizarre event in the history of palaeontology.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have developed a robot, called ReMotion, that occupies physical space on a remote user's behalf, automatically mirroring the user's movements in real time and conveying key body language that is lost in standard virtual environments.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

There have been heated debates over the size of Jurassic animals. The speculation was set to continue, but now a chance discovery in an Oxfordshire museum has led to palaeontologists publishing a paper on a Jurassic species potentially reaching a whopping 14.4 meters -- twice the size of a killer whale.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Surveying the body sizes of Earth's living organisms, researchers found that the planet's biomass -- the material that makes up all living organisms -- is concentrated in organisms at either end of the size spectrum.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A fossil arthropod entombed in 100-million-year-old Burmese amber has been identified as a new genus and species of froghopper, known today as an insect with prodigious leaping ability in adulthood following a nymphal stage spent covered in a frothy fluid.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Imagine a cocktail party full of 3D-printed, humanoid robots listening and talking to each other. That seemingly sci-fi scene is the goal of an augmented listening laboratory. With precise control over the simulated subjects, the researchers can adjust the parameters of the experiment and even set the machines in motion to simulate neck movements.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Humans inherited genetic material from Neanderthals that affects the shape of our noses, finds a new study.