Builder Bots

In 2022, the Robot Science Museum is expected to officially open in Seoul, South Korea. The museum’s first exhibit, however, will actually launch two years prior — when a team of robots begin constructing the facility.

Turkish firm Melike Altinisik Architects (MAA) recently announced that it had won an international competition to design the Robot Science Museum, which will serve as a branch of the Seoul Metropolitan Museum.

According to the firm, “robots will be in charge” of designing, manufacturing, and constructing the facility. World Architecture elaborates on that a bit, reporting that various systems of robots will mold and assemble the building’s metal plates, as well as 3D-print its concrete landscape.

Amusing Museum

While tasking robots with building a robotics museum is an amusing proposition, the decision to choose MAA’s proposal was also reportedly a fiscal one — the use of robots for the museum’s construction is expected to save time and money.

It’s also important to note that this is far from the first example of robots doing construction. We’ve already seen bots install drywall, lay bricks, and 3D-print homes for people — so robots that build a home for themselves seems like the next logical step.

READ MORE: This Robotics Museum in Korea Will Construct Itself (in Theory) [TechCrunch]

More on robots: This Humanoid Robot Can (Slowly) Install Drywall All by Itself

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Robots Are Building a Robotics Museum

Out With The Old

There’s new evidence to suggest that transfusions of young tissue can stave off health problems for the elderly.

After a transplantation of a healthy young mouse’s bone marrow, older mice’s brain cells were better preserved and the mice had better memories and cognitive abilities than their elderly peers, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Communications Biology — raising the possibility of a future anti-aging treatment for humans.

Blood-Borne

More specifically, the research found that the marrow prevented brain cells from receding and decaying due to age. Mice who received transfusions had brain cells with longer axons that maintained broader networks with the rest of the brain.

These mice fared better at a battery of cognitive tests than other elderly mice who didn’t receive transfusions.

“While prior studies have shown that introducing blood from young mice can reverse cognitive decline in old mice, it is not well understood how this happens,” said Helen Goodridge, a Cedars-Sinai Medical Center scientist who led the new research, in a press release. “Our research suggests one answer lies in specific properties of youthful blood cells.”

The Big “But”

The research calls to mind Ambrosia Health, the controversial blood transfusion clinic that shut its doors this week after the FDA issued a warning about its practices — but it’s worth remembering that mice aren’t people.

There’s no evidence that this mouse study is relevant to human medicine, and there’s a long road of testing ahead before anyone can say it is — though that doesn’t mean researchers aren’t excited.

“We are entering an era in which there will be more elderly people in the population, along with an increased incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, putting a huge burden on the health system,” Clive Svendsen, who is the director of the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute and who also helped lead the research project, said in the same press release. “Our work indicates that cognitive decline in mice can be significantly reduced by simply providing young blood cells, which act on the brain to reduce the loss of synapses related to aging.”

READ MORE: Young bone marrow rejuvenates aging mouse brains, study finds [Cedars-Sinai Medical Center via EurekAlert!]

More on regenerative medicine: Neural Stem Cells Grown From Blood Could Revolutionize Medicine

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A New Woman

On Tuesday, China’s state-run news outlet Xinhua announced the latest addition to its news team: Xin Xiaomeng.

But Xin never went to journalism school — or any school — because “she” is not a real person. Instead, she’s an artificial intelligence created by Xinhua and search engine Sogou — making her the world’s first female AI news anchor.

Two Sessions, Three AIs

Xin will make her professional debut during March’s Two Sessions, the name given to a pair of annual meetings featuring China’s legislature and its top political advisory body.

She won’t be the only AI news anchor covering the event either.

In November, Xinhua and Sogou unveiled the first AI news anchors of any gender, a pair of male AIs trained to deliver the news in either English or Chinese.

The same day they unveiled Xin, Xinhua and Sogou announced that they’d given these AI anchors the ability to stand and talk simultaneously, and they’ll show off that new ability while covering the Two Sessions alongside their female counterpart.

Hard Workers

When Xinhua debuted their first AI anchors in November, the news agency claimed that each anchor could “work 24 hours a day on its official website and various social media platforms, reducing news production costs and improving efficiency.”

Since then, the anchors have delivered 3,400 news reports while logging 10,000 minutes of screen time, according to Tencent News.

Clearly, Xinhua plans to actually put its AIs to work, and the addition of another anchor to the news team should only serve to increase production.

READ MORE: Chinese State Media’s Latest Innovation Is an AI Female News Anchor [Quartz]

More on AI anchors: Meet the World’s First AI News Anchor

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Zuck Stop

Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to know that Facebook truly values privacy. So much so, he says, that it practically invented the whole concept!

At least, that was Zuckerberg’s message during a conversation with Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor at Harvard, reports CNBC.

So Close

“Thinking about Facebook as an innovator in privacy is certainly not the mainstream view,” said Zuckerberg in a brief moment of unintentional candor, before going on to describe how the Facebook was originally used to give Harvard students a way to privately communicate among themselves.

Notably, Zuckerberg chose to not focus on Facebook’s role in sharing private messages without permission, undermining democratic elections or enabling genocide in Myanmar.

Missing the Mark

After a series of privacy scandals and data breaches, Zuckerberg is likely trying to earn back the favor of a public that doesn’t fully understand or trust how the corporation generates advertising revenue, according to Gizmodo’s analysis.

Here’s a hint: it’s all thanks to the company’s access to that sweet, sweet private data.

READ MORE: Facebook Is an ‘Innovator in Privacy,’ Says Guy Who Runs Facebook [Gizmodo]

More on Facebook: If Zuck’s Prepared Statements Prove One Thing, It’s That Facebook Has Become Far Too Big

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Mark Zuckerberg Insists That Facebook Promotes Privacy

Weather Report

The temperature at Mars’ Elysium Planitia has hovered around a bracing -80 degrees Fahrenheit (-17 degrees Celsius) for the past week, occasionally spiking to a high of 15 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 degrees Celsius).

At least, that’s according to a new NASA website that beams data on Martian weather from the space agency’s InSight lander on the Red Planet straight to your web browser — a striking example of how technology is making Mars more accessible than ever.

Martian Meteorologist

NASA isn’t just using data from the InSight lander to satisfy online curiosity about Martian weather. According to a Cornell blog post announcing the new weather reports, the data is also already adding to scientists’ understanding of the Red Planet’s weather systems.

“Since the lander is close to the equator, I didn’t think we’d see any evidence of the storms that are 60-degrees north latitude, but we’re already seeing evidence of the high and low pressure-signal waves that create weather on Mars,” Don Banfield, the mission lead for InSight’s meteorological sensors, said in the post. “We can see those waves all the way down near the equator, as the waves are big enough that they have a signature. That was a surprise.”

Red Planet

InSight’s weather sensors serve another crucial purpose: supporting the lander’s mission to investigate Mars’ seismic activity.

“For our mission, [the lander’s meteorological sensors] will help us filter out noise in our data and know when we’re seeing a Mars quake and when we aren’t,” Banfield said. “But by operating continuously, we’ll also see a more detailed view of the weather than most surface missions, which usually collect data for just a few hours at a time.”

READ MORE: You Can Now Check the Weather on Mars Every Day [Gizmodo]

More on Mars: NASA’s Mars Lander Places Instrument to Listen for “Marsquakes”

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NASA Lander Now Provides Daily Martian Weather Reports

Palm Reading

For autonomous vehicles that rely on smooth roads and clear signals, a broken traffic light could conceivably pose a major problem.

To get around the problem of a missing green light, self-driving car company Waymo trained its vehicles’ artificial intelligence to detect and respond to the arm movements of a traffic cop as they wave traffic through an intersection, according to CNET — and you can watch it on YouTube.

Long Time Coming

Waymo first claimed that its autonomous vehicles could respond to hand signals from nearby cyclists back in 2016. That particular research treated cyclists, from the vehicle’s perspective, as obstacles to track and avoid.

A new video published by Waymo on Wednesday is the first that shows its vehicles responding to gesture commands — especially in the absence of the traffic lights on which it would normally rely — and obeying police orders. The video, which runs at three times normal speed, shows a picture-in-picture display of the car’s digital perspective and a video camera as it goes through an intersection.

Computer Vision

The video shows the car approach the intersection where a virtual red wall blocks off the road, suggesting that the computer’s software responds to the absence of a green light at an intersection the same way as it might to an illuminated red light.

The cop in the video, represented by a small prism, teeters across the virtual representation of the intersection before finally waving the Waymo vehicle’s vehicle through the intersection and along its way.

READ MORE: Waymo self-driving cars can now respond to traffic cops’ hand signals [CNET]

More on Waymo: Expert Slams Waymo Safety Data: “They Obviously Do Not Trust These Numbers”

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Watch a Self-Driving Car Obey Police Hand Signals

Old Medicine

The name native California tribes gave to the plant Eriodictyon californicum — “Yerba santa” — translates to “holy herb” in English, and the moniker is a testament to the tribes’ respect for the plant, which they used to treat everything from headaches to sore muscles.

Now, in a heartening old-meets-new finding, scientists think they may have discovered yet another ailment Yerba santa has the potential to treat: Alzheimer’s disease.

Brain Protector

In a study published in the journal Redox Biology on Wednesday, researchers from the Salk Institute detail their discovery that Yerba santa could be useful for treating Alzheimer’s.

They started by screening 400 plant extracts known to have pharmacological properties for signs of anti-inflammatory or neuroprotective properties. This led them to the Yerba santa compound sterubin.

The researchers found through additional testing that “the compound was effective against multiple inducers of cell death in the nerve cells,” according to a press release.

It had an anti-inflammatory impact on certain brain cells, and it was also effective at removing iron, which is known to add to the damage of nerve cells in people with neurodegenerative diseases.

Dramatic Drug

The researchers now plan to test sterubin in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease. After that, they’ll set out to determine the compound’s toxicity levels in animals and other characteristics.

Human testing could follow, but as researcher Pamela Maher pointed out in a press release, the team would likely created a synthetic derivative of sterubin rather than use sterubin drawn from a plant.

Ultimately, this wouldn’t be the first medicine with its roots in nature — aspirin and morphine are two well-known examples — but given the ever-growing number of people suffering and dying from Alzheimer’s, the “holy herb” has the potential to be one that has an immediate and dramatic impact.

READ MORE: Native California Medicinal Plant May Hold Promise for Treating Alzheimer’s [Salk Institute]

More on Alzheimer’s: Americans Are Living Longer. That Will Mean More People With Alzheimer’s.

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Back to the Basics

Both Boeing and SpaceX are working to develop tools for NASA to use in upcoming crewed missions from the International Space Station.

While NASA planned on launching test flights over the next few months, the whole program may be delayed as the government agency has found over 30 technical flaws or safety hazards for each company’s system, according to Reuters — a startling rebuke of the efforts of two premier private spaceflight companies to do work for the U.S. government.

“SpaceX and Boeing both have challenges, both comparable, from a safety perspective,” a source from within the government told Reuters.

Plan B

In the past, NASA has paid Russia’s space agency to shuttle astronauts but is currently leaning on private industry to develop alternative options.

NASA spokesperson Joshua Finch told Reuters that the agency was willing to delay missions as long as is necessary to make sure that astronauts will actually reach the space station safely.

Geronimo!

For SpaceX, NASA reported concerns over how the rocket is presently fueled with astronauts already on board. NASA also found problems with how SpaceX rockets orient themselves when landing in water.

Meanwhile, it said, Boeing capsules may not be structurally sound. And both companies, according to Reuters, may not have adequate parachute systems to ensure a safe landing.

READ MORE: Exclusive: SpaceX, Boeing design risks threaten new delays for U.S. space program [Reuters]

More on NASA: Apollo Astronaut: It Would Be “Stupid” to Send People to Mars

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NASA Warns SpaceX and Boeing About Safety Flaws in Spacecraft

Making Moves

Remember that cryptocurrency exchange that said it lost $196 million of its customers’ money when CEO Gerald Cotten died — prompting conspiracy theories Cotten faked his own death?

Well, those 115,000 customers just lawyered up.

Ticking Clock

Michael Wood, a justice on Nova Scotia’s Supreme Court, issued a ruling Tuesday that QuadrigaCX customers would be represented by two law firms, Miller Thomson as well as Cox & Palmer, in the event of a class-action lawsuit, according to CoinDesk.

So far, no one has filed suit against QuadrigaCX — though the users’ new lawyers can start preparing one, according to CoinDesk. On Feb. 5, the courts approved a 30-day stay at the company’s request. That leaves QuadrigaCX with about two more weeks to settle the matter and come up with $196 million on its own before anyone can sue.

Next Steps

Once the stay expires on March 7, the crypto exchange may try to have it extended. But that appeal would come before Judge Wood.

Given his move to prepare QuadrigaCX customers for a potential lawsuit, Wood may decide that QuadrigaCX was given enough time and open up the floor to any lawsuits.

READ MORE: Judge Appoints Law Firms to Represent QuadrigaCX Customers [CoinDesk]

More on QuadrigaCX: Indian Hospital Fires Back at Rumors That Crypto CEO Faked Death

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Users of Crypto Site Where Dead CEO Lost $196M Are Preparing Suit

Growing Change

Meat farming is a major contributor of the greenhouse gases driving climate change. To ensure we never have to choose between a livable planet and a juicy hamburger, scientists are attempting to efficiently grow convincing imitation meat in the lab using everything from volcano-dwelling microbes to stem cells.

But new research suggests the efforts of those scientists might be in vain — it turns out that growing meat in the lab might actually do more damage to the environment than producing it the traditional way.

Meat Market

For their study, published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, researchers from the Oxford Martin School compared the potential impact on the global temperature over the next 1,000 years of three cattle farming methods and four potential methods for growing meat in the lab.

Their comparison revealed that yes, lab-grown meat could be better for the environment — but it won’t be better by default.

“The climate impacts of cultured meat production will depend on what level of sustainable energy generation can be achieved, as well as the efficiency of future culture processes,” researcher John Lynch told the BBC. “If the lab-grown meat is quite energy intensive to produce then they could end up being worse for the climate than cows are.”

Apples and Oranges

The methane emitted by cattle also has a different kind of impact on the environment than the carbon dioxide that scientists might pump into the atmosphere while producing meat in the lab.

“Per tonne emitted, methane has a much larger warming impact than carbon dioxide,” researcher Raymond Pierrehumbert said in a press release. “However, it only remains in the atmosphere for about 12 years whereas carbon dioxide persists and accumulates for millennia.”

Ultimately, this research reveals that it’s still too soon to know whether lab-grown meat could actually solve our agriculture-caused climate woes — which means we might still be headed toward a future in which we need to trade at least some of our steaks for salads.

READ MORE: Cultured Lab Meat May Make Climate Change Worse [BBC]

More on lab-grown meat: To Feed a Hungry Planet, We’re All Going to Need to Eat Less Meat

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Flow On

The Milky Way is home to a variety of star clusters. Most of the time, its gravity quickly pulls these clusters apart, but some clusters have enough mass to remain stuck together, and sometimes the clusters form stellar streams, which are river-like stretches of stars that orbit the galaxy.

Now, researchers have identified a billion-year-old stellar stream comprising nearly 4,000 stars — and it’s remarkably close to our Sun.

Close Encounter

In a study published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics on Thursday, a team from the University of Vienna details its discovery of this new stellar stream, which is approximately 1,300 light-years long and 160 light-years wide.

The team discovered the stream using data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite, and according to researcher João Alves, it’s been hiding in plain sight.

“Astronomers have been looking at, and through, this new stream for a long time, as it covers most of the night sky, but only now realize it is there,” he explained in a press release.

“As soon as we investigated this particular group of stars in more detail, we knew that we had found what we were looking for: A coeval, stream-like structure, stretching for hundreds of parsecs across a third of the entire sky,” researcher Verena Fürnkranz said. “It was so thrilling to be part of a new discovery.”

Down River

The researchers are already looking ahead to what new insights they may be able to glean from this river of stars, positing that it could lead to new information on how galaxies gain their stars, the discovery of new exoplanets, and an improved understanding of the Milky Way’s mass and gravitational field.

“Finding things close to home is very useful,” Alves said. “It means they are not too faint nor too blurred for further detailed exploration, as astronomers dream.”

READ MORE: Astronomers Have Detected a Previously Unnoticed ‘River of Stars’ Flowing Past Earth [Science Alert]

More on stellar streams: Dark Energy Survey Discovers Remnants of Other Galaxies Within Our Own

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Nuclear Probe

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) just sent a robot into one of the reactors of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which was destroyed by a tsunami back in 2011.

The robot made contact with the melted fuel, picking it up and putting it back down to determine whether it was solid enough to cart away during a future mission, according to Ars Technica.

The Claw

Fukushima won’t be fully decommissioned for another 30 to 40 years. But this robotic mission is the first step toward determining how other robots will go about cleaning it up.

In this case, the robot was able to pick up small chunks of the radioactive fuel at five of the six test sites, all of which were located inside one of the power plant’s three damaged reactors. TEPCO published a video of the process taken by the robot’s built-in camera, in which you can see a robotic claw position itself around and pick up small pieces of fuel.

Catch and Release

None of the radioactive fuel left the reactor along with the robot when the mission was over. But that wasn’t the plan. Rather, this mission marks the first time that a robot has been able to physically examine Fukushima’s fuel.

The team hopes to start retrieving some of the deadly fuel in 2021, now that they know it can be physically lifted.

READ MORE: Japanese utility makes first contact with melted Fukushima fuel [Ars Technica]

More on Fukushima: A $320 Million Ice Wall Still Can’t Contain Radioactive Water Near Fukushima

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Japan Sends Robot Into the Nuclear Hell of the Fukushima Reactor

New Class

Marijuana could soon be reclassified on an international scale.

In 1948, the United Nations (UN) established the World Health Organization (WHO) to serve as its conduit to all things health-related. Now, the agency is recommending that the UN reclassify marijuana to a less restrictive narcotics schedule — a move that could have a huge impact on public health worldwide.

Narcotics Treaty

Under the UN’s Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, an international treaty that regulates the production and sale of certain drugs, cannabis is listed as a Schedule IV drug. That‘s the most restrictive class, reserved for drugs that have “particularly dangerous properties.”

Earlier this month, the WHO published new recommendations to the UN regarding the classification of marijuana in the medical journal The BMJ. According to the WHO, there’s growing evidence that cannabis has medical applications, and the UN should reschedule the plant to take into account these applications.

Medical Marijuana

The WHO’s proposal to reclassify marijuana could go before the UN’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs as soon as March, at which point 53 countries will have the option of voting on it.

Although a vote to reclassify wouldn’t make cannabis legal everywhere overnight, it would mark a major shift in how political leaders view the drug — which could have a huge impact on the drug’s use for medical purposes.

Scientists have already noted potential uses for cannabis to treat everything from psychosis and epilepsy to heart disease and Alzheimer’s, but researching these links hasn’t been easy given marijuana’s legal status.

If governments decide to revisit their cannabis laws in the wake of a UN reclassification, it might be easier for researchers to gain approval — and funding — for their marijuana-focused studies, meaning we could see a dramatic increase in the number of cannabis-based medical treatments in the future.

READ MORE: In Historic Announcement, the World Health Organization (WHO) Proposes Removing Cannabis From Most Dangerous Drug Category [Good News Network]

More on marijuana: New Senate Bill Would Legalize Marijuana Nationwide

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WHO Says UN Should Reclassify Marijuana as Less Dangerous

Space Force 2.0

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a directive today that organizes all military space functions under a new Space Force. The Space Force will be run entirely under the current U.S. Air Force — at least for the time being.

That means a future Space Force would function more like the Marine Corps, which is part of the Navy, than an entirely separate branch of the military — which is what the Trump administration first suggested back in June.

A More Popular Approach

The news comes after Trump signed an executive order in December, calling for the creation of a “U.S. Space Command” to streamline and consolidate space operations.

The plans still have to receive Congress approval before its creation, but organizing it under the Air Force could be a way to warm lawmakers up to the idea, as Defense News suggests.

Agreeable Idea

The Washington Post points out that the Directive could also be a more agreeable idea to the Pentagon as it would create far less bureaucracy.

Today’s news doesn’t necessarily rule out future plans for a standalone Space Force military branch. But it could save military officials a headache in the near future.

READ MORE: Trump approves plan to create Space Force, but puts it under Air Force control, as Pentagon officials had wanted [The Washington Post]

More on Space Force: The US May Soon Have The World’s First Space Force

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Trump Signs Directive: Space Force Will Be Run By Air Force

“Seriously?”

Elon Musk is talking cryptocurrency. The real Elon Musk, not one of those Twitter scammers.

On Tuesday, Tesla’s CEO sat down for a podcast interview with ARK Invest, a tech investment firm. In addition to chatting about electric vehicles and self-driving cars, the interviewers decided to throw Musk an “off-topic” question about cryptocurrencies.

After an initially incredulous response — “Crypto, seriously?” — Musk went on to elaborate on his thoughts about crypto and Bitcoin in particular — and while he sees the value in both, don’t expect Tesla to get involved in the space any time soon.

Pros and Cons

During the interview, Musk admitted that he thinks “the Bitcoin structure is quite brilliant” and that there might be “some merit to Ethereum as well and maybe some others.”

He went on to discuss the uses of the cryptocurrency with ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood, who noted that “there were $1.3 trillion worth of transactions in bitcoin, and we don’t see it here because it’s not for pizza or Coke.”

“It might be for coke,” Musk deadpanned, in an apparent drug joke, prompting laughs from his interviewers.

“We figure it’s business-to-business in Africa where it is prohibitively expensive to convert from one nation’s currency to another,” Wood continued. “It really is very important. It’s money over IP for them. It’s free transmission of money, and that’s really important to opening up the world.”

“It bypasses currency controls,” Musk said. “Paper money is going away, and crypto is a far better way to transfer value than pieces of paper, that’s for sure. That has its pros and cons.”

Tesla Coin

As for whether Tesla would ever get involved in crypto, Musk doesn’t see that happening any time soon.

His company’s primary goal is to “accelerate the advent of sustainable energy,” according to Musk, and as he noted during the interview, mining cryptocurrencies is computationally energy intensive.

“I’m not sure it would be a good use for Tesla resources to get involved in crypto,” he concluded.

“Just to clarify,” ARK Invest analyst Tasha Keeney asked later, “Tesla’s not going to start selling bitcoin anytime soon?”

“No, we’re not,” Musk replied.

READ MORE: Elon Musk Calls Bitcoin ‘Brilliant,’ Better Than Paper Money for Value Transfer [CoinDesk]

More on crypto: Fake Elon Musks Clutter Twitter With Crypto Scams

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Elon Musk: Bitcoin Is “Brilliant” And “Paper Money Is Going Away”

License to Emoji

It’s the natural evolution of the vanity license plate: emoji.

As of March 1, drivers in Queensland, Australia will be able to include one of five emoji in their license plates: laughing out loud, winking face, sunglasses, heart eyes, and the classic smiley face.

“For quite some time we’ve seen that you can support your favourite team or your favourite town with a symbol on your number plate,” Royal Automobile Club of Queensland spokeswoman Rebecca Michael told 7News Brisbane. “And using an emoji is no different.”

Cool Sunglasses Face

If you drive a vehicle in Queensland, you can pre-order your own customized plate right now on the website of government-approved plate vendor Personalised Plates Queensland (PPQ.)

Drivers will like need to pay a fee somewhere between $160 to $500 in Australian dollars to get the new emoji, according to 7News.

Mo’ ‘Mojis, Mo’ Problems

One problem remains: police could be thrown off by the unusual new plates.

“How do you write down the emoji in your number plate after an accident?” Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts asked the Brisbane Times.

READ MORE: Queensland drivers set to get emoji number plates [new.com.au]

More on license plates: A “Smart” License Plate: To Buy or Not to Buy?

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Upgrading SETI

A new scientific instrument with the extraordinary name “TreePol spectropolarimeter” can be used to detect the presence of lifeforms from several kilometers away.

And while right now the device is best used for spotting faraway plants, a high-powered version of the tool could someday serve as the most reliable means of searching for extraterrestrial life to date, according to a press release published Tuesday by The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

Advanced Search

Often, when scientists talk about which exoplanets or moons might harbor life, they weigh factors like water, atmospheric oxygen, and the presence of organic molecules. But that opens the door to all kinds of false positives — there’s an underwater lake on Mars, for instance, but that doesn’t mean anything lives there.

But TreePol detects light that’s been rotated after bouncing off molecules found only in living things. The tool was specifically built to detect foliage, but can also detect light that bounced off of most living things on Earth, according to the press release.

Long Shot

It’s possible that the molecules that make up whatever extraterrestrial life might exist out there doesn’t interact with light in the same way as life on Earth. But the important distinction here is that nothing else on Earth does — nothing will trigger TreePol’s sensors except for living things.

Right now, the team is preparing to test whether TreePol could be used to analyze crops from a plane or satellite, slowly ramping up the distance over which TreePol scans. If those tests work, the scientists will investigate whether they can use it to scan the cosmos, perhaps by sending TreePol up to the International Space Station.

READ MORE: Reliable method for detecting extraterrestrial life is used on Earth for the first time [NWO Newsroom]

More on extraterrestrial life: Scientists Need to Solve These Two Mysteries to Find Life on Mars

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New Gadget Detects Lifeforms From Long Distances

RoboCop

India just swore in its first robotic police officer, which is named KP-Bot.

The animatronic-looking machine was granted the rank of sub-inspector on Tuesday, and it will operate the front desk of Thiruvananthapuram police headquarters, according to India Today.

Action Figure

The robot was welcomed aboard with a salute from Pinarayi Vijayan, the Chief Minister of Kerala. India Today reports that the robot “responded with a perfect salute,” which presumably just means that it didn’t karate chop its own head off in the process.

Aside from the symbolic gesture of integrating robotics into the police force, KP-Bot doesn’t do much. At the moment, it can sit behind a police station’s front desk, recording complaints and directing visitors to the correct department as needed.

It can also salute at higher-ranked officers, according to India Today. In the future, it may be integrated with facial recognition software or the capability to detect bombs.

Quit While Ahead

KP-Bot is also for some reason gendered, with Assistant Deputy of police Manoj Abraham explicitly declaring that the inanimate object is a woman.

“Women empowerment and gender equality were kept in mind while deciding on the gender of the first robot,” said Loknath Behra, the Director General of Police. “Also, the fact that most front office jobs are managed by women was considered.”

READ MORE: India’s first RoboCop: Kerala Police inducts robot, gives it SI rank [India Today]

More on police robots: Dubai Wants Robots to Make up 25% of Its Police Force by 2030

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India Just Swore in Its First Robot Police Officer

End of an Error

People who use Google’s home security device, Nest Guard, got some surprising news earlier this month when the company announced that the device could now be used as a smart assistant.

That was startling because Google Assistant devices use voice recognition, and the company had never disclosed that Nests had built-in microphones. Now the search giant is admitting they do — and saying its failure to mention the microphone was an “error.”

Telescreen

According to the spokesperson, the microphones were never enabled and had been added to Nest devices in case the company decided to implement sound-based features. The spokesperson described a hypothetical use to Business Insider in which a Nest Guard might detect the sound of broken glass during a break-in.

“The on-device microphone was never intended to be a secret and should have been listed in the tech specs,” a Google spokesperson told Business Insider on Tuesday. “That was an error on our part.”

Ministry of Search

Google has a fraught history with privacy advocates. In 2010, for instance, it got busted sweeping up Wi-Fi data with its Street View cars. And earlier this year, France fined the tech giant $57 million for privacy violations. And now, framing a secret microphone hidden in customers’ homes as an “error,” whether or not the microphone was active, doesn’t click.

Google acknowledging wrongdoing is a nice start, but there are no brownie points to be had for framing the company’s decision as an error only after it came to light anyway.

READ MORE: Google says the built-in microphone it never told Nest users about was ‘never supposed to be a secret’ [Business Insider]

More on Google: Google Wins Lawsuit Over Facial Recognition Technology

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Google: Secret Nest Microphone “Never Intended to Be a Secret”

Bad Blood

Ambrosia Health, the controversial clinic that sold transfusions of young, healthy people’s blood, has “ceased patient treatments,” according to the company’s website.

The decision to stop taking patients comes after an official statement from FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb this week, which described the company’s practices as a dangerous scam.

Dr. Acula

Ambrosia claimed its transfusions of a younger person’s blood could reverse health problems and extend a person’s life — a controversial and unproven notion.

The company never published the results of its self-funded clinical experiments, and recent evidence suggests that these transfusions could have been dangerous from the start.

Vampire Empire

It’s unclear whether Ambrosia plans to resume operations in the future or if the FDA’s warning rang the company’s death toll. Futurism reached out to the company with questions, and this article will be updated if we hear back.

Either way, the wealthy will need to get their controversial medical treatments somewhere else for the time being.

READ MORE: ‘Young blood’ company Ambrosia halts patient treatments after FDA warning [NBC]

More on Ambrosia Health: The FDA Warns: Transfusions of Young Blood Are a Dangerous Scam

The post Vampire Clinic That Sold Young Blood to the Wealthy Closes Shop appeared first on Futurism.

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Vampire Clinic That Sold Young Blood to the Wealthy Closes Shop