General science advances thread

[ScienceRocks]

Big Dog robot gets its first taste of real-world action with US Marines
Big Dog robot gets its first taste of real-world action with US Marines

LS3—the official name for the scary quadruped robot also known as Big Dog—has been deployed for the first time during the RIMPAC 2014, the multinational maritime war games in and around the Hawaiian Islands. It looks different from the last time we saw it, more like a big ox than a giant dog.

 

[ScienceRocks]

World’s First Plant to Print Jet Engine Nozzles in Mass Production

GE is taking mass production to a lofty new level. The company is pulling 3D printing out of the lab and installing it at the heart of the world’s first factory for printing jet engine fuel nozzles in Auburn, Ala.

The company has spent the last several years developing technologies ranging from data analysis to machine monitoring and preventive maintenance to get 3D printing ready for production prime time. “We need to have systems in place that anticipate a failure before it happens,” says Steve Rengers, principal engineer for additive manufacturing at GE Aviation. “This has not been done before.”

When it opens in 2015, the Auburn plant will be producing fuel nozzles for the next-generation LEAP jet engine, which was developed by CFM International, a joint venture between France’s Snecma (Safran) and GE Aviation.

The engine has benefited from GE’s $1 billion annual investment in jet propulsion R&D. Each engine will have nearly twenty 3D-printed fuel nozzles, as well as fan blades made from fourth-generation carbon-fiber composite blades and a hot section that includes parts from groundbreaking ceramic matrix composites (CMCs).

World's First Plant to Print Jet Engine Nozzles in Mass Production - GE Reports

 

[ScienceRocks]

Honda's new ASIMO robot is all grown up

Humanoid robots are continually improving and Honda's ASIMO is no different. Honda's first two-legged robot was born in 1986 and since then, subsequent models have become increasingly advanced. Today's newly-announced version is autonomous, intelligent and responsive.

An increased understanding of robotics, ability to share knowledge and availability of requisite components have resulted in a proliferation of humanoid robots. Robots like the 3D-printed Poppy and the German Aerospace Center's TORO have been developed relatively recently. Few have the near 30-year heritage of Honda's ASIMO, though.

ASIMO was developed out of Honda's desire to create a robot that could help in human society. For that, it needed to be able to move around objects in a room and negotiate stairs and that, in turn, meant it needed two legs. Its first design, the Eo, could walk by putting one leg in front of the other, but did so slowly and took five seconds between steps.

Honda continued develop the walking ability of its robots throughout the late 80s and early 90s. Innovations included modelling a robot's walk on that of humans, determining center of gravity and torque requirements, and adding sensors into the robots.

The most recent version of ASIMO was released in 2011. It boasted a host of sensors, with a number devoted to mimicking certain human senses, plus it could balance better than previous incarnations and, for the first time, had dexterous hands. Touch sensors throughout the hand and flexible fingers meant it could carry out tasks like opening bottles and pouring liquid.

All of which brings us up to today's announcement. The new ASIMO has been launched in Brussels with a variety of improvements. Many of those improvements are refinements of existing capabilities, but are no less impressive for it.

Improved intelligence allows the robot to recognize the faces and voices of multiple simultaneous speakers, and to change its behavior based on the perceived intention of the other party. This, of course, is calculated based on data collected via the robot's host of sensors.

ASIMO can now run at up to 5.6 mph (9 km/h) – 1.8 mph (2.9 km/h) faster than previously – and can run backwards, jump, and hop on one leg continuously. Its hands are more dexterous, allowing it to pick up a bottle and twist off the cap, and it can use its hands to perform sign language. The robot now has 57 degrees of freedom (ways of moving), up from 23 previously. It is 130 cm (51 in) tall and weighs 50 kg (110 lb).

Honda says that many of the new features and capabilities of ASIMO are a result of its research into the decision-making capabilities of robots. This has led ASIMO to be able to adapt much of its behavior in real time and, claims Honda, brings us one step closer to a world in which robots can be employed at home (or elsewhere) for practical purposes.

Source: Honda

Honda's new ASIMO robot is all grown up


I hope they develop a version with intelligence enough to do math, science and the ability to consider.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Quadrotor Hoverbike hits Kickstarter – available to own in drone form
Quadrotor Hoverbike hits Kickstarter ? available to own in drone form

Having revealed its original Hoverbike design back in 2011, Malloy Aeronautics has been hard at work developing its ambitious, science fiction inspired vehicle. The team has made some significant changes in the last few years, moving from a dual rotor to quad rotor design while adding some serious stability credentials in the process. Chris Malloy has now launched a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter where backers are being offered a working 1/3rd scale version of the second generation Hoverbike, while giving the team a helping hand in the development of the eventual, manned vehicle.

 

[ScienceRocks]

NSU researcher part of team studying ways to better predict intensity of hurricanes
Published: Friday, July 25, 2014 - 12:22 in Earth & Climate
NSU researcher part of team studying ways to better predict intensity of hurricanes | (e) Science News

They are something we take very seriously in Florida -- hurricanes. The names roll off the tongue like a list of villains -- Andrew, Charlie, Frances and Wilma. In the past 25 years or so, experts have gradually been improving prediction of the course a storm may take. This is thanks to tremendous advancements in computer and satellite technology. While we still have the "cone of uncertainty" we've become familiar with watching television weather reports, today's models are more accurate than they used to be.

The one area, however, where there is still much more to be researched and learned is in predicting just how intense a storm may be. While hurricane hunter aircraft can help determine wind speed, velocity, water temperature and other data, the fact is we often don't know why or how a storm gets stronger or weaker. There has been virtually no progress in hurricane intensity forecasting during the last quarter century.

But, thanks to new research being conducted, all that's about to change.

"The air-water interface -- whether it had significant waves or significant spray -- is a big factor in storm intensity," said Alex Soloviev, Ph.D., a professor at Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center. "Hurricanes gain heat energy through the interface and they lose mechanical energy at the interface."

Soloviev is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (UM RSMAS) and a Fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS.) He and his fellow researchers used a computational fluid dynamics model to simulate microstructure of the air-sea interface under hurricane force winds. In order to verify these computer-generated results, the group conducted experiments at the UM's Rosenstiel School Air-Sea Interaction Salt Water Tank (ASIST) where they simulated wind speed and ocean surface conditions found during hurricanes.

 

[ScienceRocks]

China is set to build a particle collider twice the circumference of the LHC

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is by far the biggest particle collider in the world–it even has “large” in the name. However, the now famous scientific instrument buried near Geneva, Switzerland may soon be eclipsed by an even bigger collider currently being planned in China. The plan from scientists at the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing calls for a ring-shaped collider nearly twice the size of the LHC.

The LHC is 27 kilometers (about 16.7 miles) in circumference and capable of generating about 14 TeV of energy in collisions. That proved to be sufficient to coax the Higgs boson out of hiding, but the proposed Chinese machine would be 52 kilometers (around 32.3 miles) long and capable of collisions in the 70 TeV range. That’s the eventual goal, though. The initial version of the collider would be designed for electron-positron collisions and just 240 GeV (an order of magnitude less than the LHC). The instrument would then be upgraded to do proton-proton collisions at full power.

China is set to build a particle collider twice the circumference of the LHC | Science! | Geek.com

China is owning our asses!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Urban rooftop farms can yield 20 times more produce than traditional farms

Based in Brooklyn, New York, Gotham Greens is involved in urban agriculture projects in cities across the United States and internationally.

Gotham Greens designs, builds and operates commercial-scale greenhouse facilities in urban areas for fresh vegetable production. Since commencing production in early 2011, the company has quickly become a worldwide pioneer in the field of urban agriculture and one of New York State's leading producers of premium-quality, greenhouse-grown vegetables and herbs.

Gotham Greens' pesticide-free produce is grown using ecologically sustainable methods in technologically-sophisticated, climate-controlled rooftop greenhouses. Gotham Greens provides its retail, restaurant, and institutional customers with reliable, year-round, local supply of produce grown under the highest standards of food safety and environmental sustainability.

Urban rooftop farms can yield 20 times more produce than traditional farms

 

[ScienceRocks]

The Army Is 3D Printing Warheads
The Army Is 3D Printing Warheads | Motherboard

Every technology casts a shadow. In the case of 3D printing, for every potentially benign use —like bioprinting organs—there is an unsettling opposite like printing guns at home. Now, the army is looking to use 3D printing to make the world a more dangerous place in at least one more way: building deadlier warheads.

The army has been developing its 3D printing capabilities for some time now, and has technology already nearly advanced enough to bioprint replacement skin on the battlefield. But the military isn’t just interested in saving lives—more often than not, it takes them. In its latest bid to kill more people, more efficiently, and at less cost, the army is planning to print warhead components, according to the latest issue of Army Technology.

“3D printing of warheads will allow us to have better design control and utilize geometries and patterns that previously could not be produced or manufactured,” James Zunino, a researcher at the Armament Research, Engineering and Design Center (ARDEC) in Picatinny, New Jersey, told Motherboard in an email.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Flying Cars Take Flight, Samson Motors And ICON Aircraft Likely To Launch In Northern California
By Brandon Mercer
Flying Cars Take Flight, Samson Motors And ICON Aircraft Likely To Launch In Northern California « CBS San Francisco

CBS SF) — The flying car is coming, and it will likely be built right here in Northern California from two companies competing to put you in the pilot’s seat: Auburn-based Samson Motors, and ICON Aircraft, which manufacturing planned for Vacaville.

Over the weekend, ICON flew its first working prototype of the amphibious and trailerable A5 at the flagship EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Samson Motorworks has been testing its tricycle-plane hybrid for years, and isn’t far behind.

Both companies take advantage of lightweight composite materials that didn’t exist when the Jetsons creators made the concept of a flying car every kid’s dream, and they capitalize on new FAA rules making “sport planes” less regulated, and sports pilot licenses easier to get.

The ICON A5 is not exactly a flying car, but it does have wings that fold up, letting you tow it on a trailer, and it can take off and land on water. The Samson Switchblade is more truly a flying sportscar, or flying motorcycle, but the company is still testing the driving unit, and is manufacturing prototype airframe parts to minimize weight and get a working model off the ground within the next six months. Samson expects to sell them for $95,000. The ICON starts at $189,000. Both would be very reasonably priced for airplanes. Both can easily fit into your garage.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Superconductors Notch Highest Current of 100,000 amperes
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/supercond...current-100-000-amperes-102331180.html#T8VtcR

Japan's National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) has achieved an electrical current of 100,000 amperes, the highest to be generated so far in the world. This has major implications for its use in fusion reactors.

They used state-of-the-art yttrium-based high-temperature superconducting tapes to fabricate a large-scale magnet conductor by a relatively simple technique of stacking the tapes to obtain a conductor of exceptional mechanical strength. For the conductor joints, NIFS developed low-resistance joint technology through collaborative research with Tohoku University.

At the absolute temperature of 20 degrees Kelvin (minus 253 degrees Celsius) the electrical current exceeds 100,000 amperes.

 

[ScienceRocks]

North American Robotics Market Posts its Best Quarter Ever, Sets New Record for First Half of 2014
Robotics News - North American Robotics Market Post...

Fueled by strong demand from manufacturing companies in all sectors, the North American robotics industry is off to its fastest start ever in 2014, according to new statistics released from Robotic Industries Association (RIA), the industry’s trade group.

A record 14,135 robots, valued at $788 million were ordered from North American robotics companies in the first half of 2014, an increase of 30% in units and 16% in revenue over the same period in 2013. The second quarter of 2014 was the main driver of the market’s record first half, with 8,197 robots valued at $450 million sold to North American customers. This performance shattered the previous record for a single quarter, exceeding the fourth quarter of 2012 by 31% in units and 17% in revenue.

Since 2010 the robotics market in North America has grown an average of 26% per year leading up to its record setting first half performance in 2014. At the same time, the unemployment rate in the United States has fallen precipitously over this period.

“In 2010, after one of the worst recessions in our nation’s history, unemployment in the U.S. was nearing 10%,” said Jeff Burnstein, President of RIA. “Since then, amidst record years for robot sales, unemployment has steadily fallen toward pre-recessionary levels. The unemployment rate reached 6.1% in June of this year, the lowest it has been since September of 2008.”

In addition to falling unemployment, manufacturing jobs are now returning to the U.S. because of automation. "While we often hear that robots are job killers, just the opposite is true," Burnstein added. "Robots save and create jobs."

 

[ScienceRocks]

The next graphene? Engineers to study new class of ultra-thin film materials

Three University of California, Riverside engineers are part of team recently awarded a nearly $1.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation to characterize, analyze and synthesize a new class of ultra-thin film materials that could improve the performance of personal electronics, optoelectronic devices and energy conversion systems.

Read more at: The next graphene? Engineers to study new class of ultra-thin film materials

 

[ScienceRocks]

Magnetic microhair material can change transparency, and make water flow uphill
Magnetic microhair material can change transparency, and make water flow uphill

What if your house's windows could automatically reduce the amount of hot sunlight passing through them, or your car's windshield could cause rain droplets to bead off to its edges? These things and more could soon be possible, thanks to a new animal hair-inspired material developed at MIT.

The material consists of a base layer of transparent flexible silicone, studded with a dense array of tiny nickel microhairs (or "micropillars"). At around 70 microns in height and 25 microns in width, each one is approximately a quarter the diameter of a human hair.

When an external magnetic field is applied at one side of the array, all of the hairs simultaneously bend towards it. The degree to which they bend can be controlled by varying the intensity of the field.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Clam fossils offer 10,000 year history of El Nino Southern Oscillation

(Phys.org) —A research team working in Peru, with members from France, Peru and the U.S. has found a way to track the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) going back as far as ten thousand years. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team reports that their study of clam fossils has revealed clear patterns of the ENSO and report that it has not been increasing in intensity over the course of the Holocene as some have suggested.

People have been living on the shores of the Pacific Ocean in Peru for a long time, and as they've done so, they've eaten clams, tossing the shells onto waste areas that grew to become huge mounds over thousands of years. In this new effort, the researchers dug down into several such mounds and extracted clam fossils they found, along with dirt and charcoal—remnants of ancient fires used to cook the clam meat. By taking measurements of oxygen isotopes in the clam shells, the researchers were able to calculate ocean surface temperatures at two to four week intervals throughout the lives of the individual clams, while radiocarbon dating of the dirt and charcoal revealed when the clams made their way into the mound. Examining multiple clams at different depths in the mounds allowed for creating a historical record of sea surface temperatures, and that allowed for charting the cycle of the ENSO going back ten thousand years.

The charts created by the research team suggest that the ENSO cycle does not have a predictable cycle and also that it has not been increasing in strength over the course of the Holocene as others have suggested. They did find some patterns, however. During a period approximately 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, for example, the ENSO was relatively weak, and during another period, from 6,700 to 7,500 years ago, ocean temperatures along the coast of Peru appeared to have been skewed by the location of warm water from an El Niño (when trade winds push warm water into the Eastern Pacific.)

The findings by the team also cast doubt on some theories that have been developed to explain why the ENSO occurs at all—primary among them are those that suggest they are due to a slight wobble in the Earth's orbit. If that were the case, it would seem logical to conclude that an identifiable periodicity would emerge over the course of ten thousand years, but now, that doesn't appear to be the case.

Read more at: Clam fossils offer 10,000 year history of El Nino Southern Oscillation

 

[Abishai100]

"Engineers have been discussing an ambitious and elegant habitat design project involving a complex built entirely of plastic.

Plastics have come a long way, and there is good talk of developing a living center which includes a swimming pool, apartment towers, work-out gym, hair cuttery, laundry room, department store, grocery store, food court, and its own security officers.

The plastics in the proposed habitat are reinforced with rubbers and efficient plumbing and each apartment comes with an individual heating-cooling box.

Of course, elevator cables and telephone wires are of usual material in this otherwise completely plastic mini-city.

We've already developed sophisticated solar homes and elaborate adult-themed tree houses, so a plastic habitat further encourages people to think about creative home designs in our consumerism age of self-determined material use."


Such storyboarding is made possible with the well-funded development of plastics research.






Plastic News Daily, Injection Molding, Extrusion Polymers Communities

 

[ThirdTerm]

Neanderthals went extinct in Europe about 40,000 years ago, giving them millennia to coexist with modern humans culturally and sexually, new findings suggest. This research also suggests that modern humans did not cause Neanderthals to rapidly go extinct, as some researchers have previously suggested. Neanderthals are the closest extinct relatives of modern humans, and lived in Europe and Asia. Recent findings suggest that Neanderthals were closely related enough to interbreed with ancestors of modern humans — about 1.5 to 2.1 percent of the DNA of anyone outside Africa is Neanderthal in origin.

A site in Abric Romani, Spain, where Neanderthal remains were found.

The new findings suggest that Neanderthals disappeared from Europe between about 41,000 and 39,000 years ago. The Neanderthal extinction occurred across sites ranging from the Black Sea to the Atlantic Coast of Europe. The timing and geography suggest Neanderthals may have overlapped with modern humans for 2,600 to 5,400 years, opening the door for genetic and cultural exchanges between the two groups for millennia.

Neanderthals may not even have truly disappeared, but instead have been assimilated into modern human populations. "We know, of course, that we have a genetic legacy from Neanderthals of about 1 to 2 percent, so there was interbreeding," Higham said. One mystery regarding sex between Neanderthals and modern humans is that the greatest amount of interbreeding between the two lineages is currently thought to have occurred about 77,000 to 114,000 years ago, preceding any potential interbreeding in Europe. However, Higham noted more recent as-yet-unpublished data suggest the interbreeding events occurred about 55,000 to 60,000 years ago, more in tune with interbreeding scenarios involving Europe. "What is needed is more genetic analysis of human bone from this transitional period in Europe," Higham said.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Japan's creepy sex doll industry 'reaches next level' in creation of perfect artificial £1,000 ‘Dutch Wife’ which comes with 'realistic feeling skin'

• Firm Oriental Industry claims the dolls are their most realistic to date
• Come complete with realistic feeling skin and authentic looking eyes
• Sold under the name 'Dutch Wives' and cost just over £1,000 each
• Company say early sales indicate the dolls are a big success

Read more: http://www.dailymail....ling-skin.html

 

[ScienceRocks]

Schrödinger's cat caught on quantum film
New Scientist ^ | 27 August 2014 | Penny Sarchet


Schrödinger's cat is the poster child for quantum weirdness. Now it has been immortalised in a portrait created by one of the theory's strangest consequences: quantum entanglement.

These images were generated using a cat stencil and entangled photons. The really spooky part is that the photons used to generate the image never interacted with the stencil, while the photons that illuminated the stencil were never seen by the camera.

(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...

 

[ScienceRocks]

http://techcrunch.co...7/18/matterfab/

This company is making 3D printing metal an order of magnitude (10×) cheaper.


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http://www.gartner.c...room/id/2825417


"Consumer 3D printing is around five to 10 years away from mainstream adoption."

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NASA is testing swarm robots: http://www.valuewalk...xplore-planets/

 

[ScienceRocks]

Robotic raptors that look and fly like the real thing
By Colin Jeffrey
Robotic raptors that look and fly like the real thing
September 2, 2014

10 Comments
7 Pictures

Birds that stray into the paths of aircraft, eat crops, or spread disease from foraging in large numbers at landfills are, at best, a nuisance and, at worst, downright dangerous. Over the years people have tried everything from scaring them away with loud noises to trapping them – all with varying results. Now a designer from the Netherlands has come up with robotic birds of prey that look and fly exactly like the real thing.