Science! (2 Viewers)

[Optimus Prime]

Scientists have demonstrated in a first that a powerful laser beam directed at the sky can create a “virtual lightning rod” that can divert the path of lightning strikes.

The research, published on Monday in the journal Nature Photonics, may lead to improved lightning protection methods for critical infrastructure like power stations, airports, and launchpads.

Until now, the most commonly used lightning protection device is the Franklin rod, which is an electrically conducting metal pole on top of buildings and other infrastructure that intercepts lightning discharges and guides them safely to the ground, scientists, including those from Ecole Polytechnique in France, explained.

In the new study, they showed that a powerful laser beam directed at the sky could act as a virtual, movable rod and offer an alternative……

Scientists use laser beam to guide lightning strike in a first

Laser increased radius of the protection surface from 120m (390ft) to 180m (590ft)

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

I didn’t know that diabetic pets was a thing
==================
When Mark Winternheimer’s 12-year-old tabby cat was diagnosed with diabetes last year, the treatment was daunting: twice-daily injections of insulin, an implanted monitor and frequent visits to the vet.

Despite their qualms, Winternheimer and his wife, Courtnee, of New Albany, Indiana, learned to give Oliver his shots.

“For us, they’re part of the family,” Winternheimer said of Oliver and their two other cats, Ella and Theo. “You wouldn’t deny another family member care if it’s available.”

Now, a new, once-daily pill promises to make treating feline diabetes easier in newly diagnosed animals, without the shots.

“A pill is a huge step forward from a needle,” said Dr. Audrey Cook, a cat veterinarian at Texas A&M University.

One caveat: The pill called Bexacat can’t be used in cats like Oliver, who had previously received insulin.

The biggest benefit may be the ease of use, experts said. While many cat owners successfully treat their cats with twice-daily insulin, often for years, others struggle.

Research shows that owners put down 1 in 10 cats with a new diabetes diagnosis. Another 10% are euthanized within a year, in part because of the difficulties of treatment…….

New pill treats diabetic cats without daily insulin shots

When Mark Winternheimer’s 12-year-old tabby cat was diagnosed with diabetes last year, the treatment was daunting: twice-daily injections of insulin, an implanted monitor and frequent visits to the vet.

apnews.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

In the mid-1990s scientists found evidence that Earth’s inner core, a superheated ball of iron slightly smaller than the moon, was spinning at its own pace, just a bit faster than the rest of the planet.

Now a study published in Nature Geoscience suggests that around 2009, the core slowed its rotation to whirl in sync with the surface for a time — and is now lagging behind it.


The provocative findings come after years of research and deep scientific disagreements about the core and how it influences some of the most fundamental aspects of our planet, including the length of a day and fluctuations in Earth’s magnetic field.


Three thousand miles below the surface, a scorching hot ball of solid iron floats inside a liquid outer core. Geologists believe that the energy released by the inner core causes the liquid in the outer core to move, generating electrical currents that in turn spawn a magnetic field surrounding the planet.

This magnetic shielding protects organisms on the surface from the most damaging cosmic radiation.

Don’t panic. The core’s slowing down isn’t the beginning of the end times.

The same thing appears to have happened in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the study authors at Peking University in China suggest it may represent a 70-year cycle of the core’s spin speeding up and slowing down.


But while other experts praised the rigor of the analysis, the study will sharpen, not settle, the fierce scientific debate about what the mysterious metal sphere at the center of the Earth is up to……..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/01/23/earth-core-slowing/

 

[Tapxe]

Ultrasound 'tornado' breaks up brain blood clots

A new tool uses "vortex ultrasound"—a sort of ultrasonic tornado—to break down blood clots in the brain more quickly than existing methods.

www.futurity.org

“In other words, the ultrasound is swirling as it moves forward,” says Jiang, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University. “Based on our in vitro testing, this approach eliminates blood clots more quickly than existing techniques, largely because of the shear stress induced by the vortex wave.”

 

[Dago]

It's like they aren't even trying to be subtle about bringing about the robot apocalypse now

https://www.thedailybeast.com/scien...t-1000-terminator-robot-that-melts-on-command

 

[Optimus Prime]

Dogs are capable of understanding human intentions and reacting accordingly, a new study published on Wednesday suggests.

The findings of the behavioral study, presented in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, suggest dogs show more patience when people are clumsy or incapable of feeding them compared to when they are unwilling and choose to tease.

Researchers at the Clever Dog Labs at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna closely observed the reactions of nearly 100 dogs to people who fed them slices of sausage.

In the study, scientists behaved differently with the dogs – sometimes dropping the treats awkwardly so that the four-legged friends couldn’t reach them and sometimes teasing the canines by holding the sausage in front of them and quickly pulling it away.

In one interaction with the dogs, researchers also tried to push the sausage through a plexiglass pane.

The results indicate that dogs show more patience with unskillful people than with unseemly ones.

Previous studies have established the close social bond between humans and canines, but researchers have a limited understanding of how dogs comprehend human intent……

Dogs can tell when humans want to give them treats, study suggests

At the end of the study each dog was rewarded with two treats as a reward for their patience

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

Scientists have created a new type of artificial skin that they claim has more sensing features than human skin.

A team from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore built the dual-responsive artificial skin to not only detect pressure applied by an object, but also the object’s approach.

The technology has a variety of potential applications relating to next-generation electronics, including human-machine interfaces and robots.

The artificial skin could also be used in prostheses, offering amputees new ways of feeling and sensing objects.

“We created artificial skin with sensing capabilities superior to human skin,” said Yifan Wang, an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

“Unlike human skin that senses most information from touching actions, this artificial skin also obtains rich cognitive information encoded in touchless or approaching operations.

The work could lead to next-generation robotic perception technologies superior to existing tactile sensors.”…..

Scientists create artificial skin that feels things humans can’t

Robots fitted with artificial skin could sense things that would be impossible for humans

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

Scientists have figured out how to identify people in a building by using artificial intelligence to analyse WiFi signals.

A team at Carnegie Mellon University developed a deep neural network to digitally map human bodies when in the presence of WiFi signals.

The researchers said they developed the technology in an effort to address the limitations of current 2D and 3D computer vision tools like cameras, Lidar and radars.

A pre-print study of the technology describes how the system “can serve as a ubiquitous substitute” for these other methods…..

AI can ‘see’ people through walls using WiFi signals

‘This technology may be scaled to monitor the well-being of elderly people or just identify suspicious behaviours at home,’ scientists claim

www.independent.co.uk

 

[nolaspe]

Scientists have figured out how to identify people in a building by using artificial intelligence to analyse WiFi signals.

A team at Carnegie Mellon University developed a deep neural network to digitally map human bodies when in the presence of WiFi signals.

The researchers said they developed the technology in an effort to address the limitations of current 2D and 3D computer vision tools like cameras, Lidar and radars.

A pre-print study of the technology describes how the system “can serve as a ubiquitous substitute” for these other methods…..

AI can ‘see’ people through walls using WiFi signals

‘This technology may be scaled to monitor the well-being of elderly people or just identify suspicious behaviours at home,’ scientists claim

www.independent.co.uk

Is this what happens when we vaccinate AI?

 

[Optimus Prime]

A bionic device being developed by two researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine could help millions of people struggling with a loss of smell, they say.


One to 2 percent of Americans have a problem with smell that tends to increase with age. Partial or complete loss of smell, or anosmia, can result from many conditions, including brain injuries and diseases such as covid-19.

Nearly 15 million adults worldwide may have long-term smell problems because of covid, according to research published in July.


Craig Jerome, a nurse practitioner in North Carolina, contracted covid two years ago. He lost his sense of smell and continues to experience anosmia. “Emotionally, it has created grief,” said Jerome, who misses cherished scents such as the Christmas tree smell that brings back fond memories of his childhood.


Richard Costanzo and Daniel Coelho hope their neuroprosthetic, which they call a “bionic nose,” can help Jerome and others like him.


It will, however, take five to 10 years for a fully developed prototype to be ready for implantation and testing in patients, said Costanzo, director of research for the VCU Smell and Taste Disorders Center in Richmond.


Costanzo said his idea for the device came long before the pandemic, born out of a desire to help people with a permanent loss of smell.


He began collaborating with Coelho, a surgeon and professor of otolaryngology, because the olfactory implant they are creating is similar in concept to a cochlear implant used to help Coelho’s patients hear……

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/01/26/smell-loss-covid-bionic-nose-brain/

 

[Optimus Prime]

For many people who run, cycle or work out often, beer drinking and exercising are almost inextricably entwined.

But for performance, recovery and health, nonalcoholic beer is likely to be a much better choice and can even be as good as or better than regular sports drinks……

The first clues came in a much-discussed 2012 study of 277 men who’d signed up for the Munich Marathon. Scientists asked half of them to begin downing about two to three pints of nonalcoholic beer every day for three weeks before the race and two weeks afterward.

The others drank a similar-tasting placebo as a control group. (The study was funded by a German brewery, but the researchers declared in the study that the brewer had no input into the study’s design or analysis.)


Fewer colds and less inflammation
Researchers drew blood before and several times after the race and also asked the men to report any symptoms of a respiratory infection. Colds and other upper-respiratory-tract infections (URTI) are common after a marathon.


But the nonalcoholic beer drinkers seemed relatively protected. “Incidence of URTI was 3.25 fold lower” among that group than the controls, the study’s authors wrote.

The beer drinkers also showed lower markers of inflammation and other indicators of generally improved immune response in their blood.


“We ascribed these benefits to the beer polyphenols,” said David Nieman, a professor of biology and human performance at Appalachian State University, who co-wrote the study…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/01/25/exercise-beer-nonalcoholic-healthy/

 

[Optimus Prime]

The ant oncologist will see you now.


Ants live in a world of odor. Some species are completely blind. Others rely so heavily on scent that ones that lose track of a pheromone trail march in a circle, until dying of exhaustion.


Ants have such a refined sense of smell, in fact, that researchers are now training them to detect the scent of human cancer cells.


A study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences highlights a keen ant sense and underscores how someday we may use sharp-nosed animals — or, in the case of ants, sharp-antennaed — to detect tumors quickly and cheaply.

That’s important because the sooner that cancer is found, the better the chances of recovery.
“The results are very promising,” said Baptiste Piqueret, a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Germany who studies animal behavior and co-wrote the paper.

He added, however: “It’s important to know that we are far from using them as a daily way to detect cancer.”
 Stretching out their pair of thin sensory appendages atop their heads, the insects detect and deploy chemical cues to do almost everything — find food, swarm prey, spot colony mates, protect young.

This chemical communication helps ants construct complex societies of queens and workers that operate so in sync with scent that scientists dub some colonies “superorganisms.”


For his study, Piqueret’s team grafted pieces of a human breast-cancer tumor onto mice and trained 35 ants to associate urine from the tumor-bearing rodents with sugar.

Placed in a petri dish, the silky ants (Formica fusca) spent significantly more time near tubes with urine from the “sick” mice compared with urine from healthy ones……..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/01/24/ants-smell-cancer/

 

[Optimus Prime]

Researchers have created humanoid, miniature robots that can shapeshift and turn into liquid.

The breakthrough could allow for the creation of more robots that can shift between liquid and solid, allowing them to be used in a variety of situations.

Researchers demonstrated the capability by having one of the robots turn liquid so that it could escape from a small prison that had been held in……

Researchers reveal shapeshifting robots that can turn themselves into liquid

Objects are also magnetic and can conduct electricity

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

Bryan Johnson is 45 years old but, according to a new report, his test results show he has the heart of a 37-year-old and the lungs of a young adult.

Johnson is a biotech entrepreneur who hopes to game nature's course of aging and have the organs and health of an 18-year-old by going through an intense data-driven experimental program he's called Project Blueprint.

According to a recent Bloomberg profile of the CEO, Johnson could spend up to $2 million on his body this year and there are early glimpses that show he may be on track to unlocking the secret to age reversal.

Test results from doctors suggest that Johnson has the heart of a 37-year-old, the skin of a 28-year-old, and the lung capacity of an 18-year-old, Bloomberg's Ashlee Vance reported.

The program is led by Oliver Zolman, a 29-year-old physician who calls himself the "rejuvenation doctor," and is supported by a team of more than 30 health experts, according to the report.

While it's still in its experimental stage and is constantly being tweaked, the health program consists of an intense daily regimen of carefully curated supplements, meals, exercise, and a slew of bodily tests.

Johnson's 5 a.m.-mornings for example start with two dozen supplements for all kinds of purported health benefits: lycopene, metformin, turmeric, zinc, and, for brain health, a small dose of lithium, among others.

His meals, a mix of solid and soft foods, are vegan and restricted to 1,977 calories a day. He exercises daily, with three high-intensity workouts a week, and goes through blood tests, MRIs, and colonoscopies each month, Bloomberg reported.

"What I do may sound extreme, but I'm trying to prove that self-harm and decay are not inevitable," Johnson told the outlet.

All of his efforts in 2021 have amounted to what Johnson claims to be a world record epigenetic age reversal of 5.1 years.

In certain aspects of his health, he's shown even younger signs of age. Doctors say he has the gum inflammation of a 17-year-old, and a device that tracks Johnson's rate of nighttime erections is like that of a teenager's, Bloomberg reported...............

MSN

 

[Optimus Prime]

Novak Djokovic, age 35, sometimes hangs out in a pressurized egg to enrich his blood with oxygen and gives pep talks to glasses of water, hoping to purify them with positive thinking before he drinks them. Tom Brady, 45, evangelizes supposedly age-defying supplements, hydration powders and pliability spheres. LeBron James, 38, is said to spend $1.5 million a year on his body to keep Father Time at bay. While most of their contemporaries have retired, all three of these elite athletes remain marvels of fitness. But in the field of modern health science, they’re amateurs compared to Bryan Johnson...........

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?