Forbes | Building A 'Collective Superintelligence' For Doctors And Patients Around The World Forbes One thing about The Human Diagnosis Project -- It's not thinking small. Its goal is to build an open diagnostic system for patients, doctors and caregivers using clinical experience and other information contributed by physicians and researchers around ... |
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Building A 'Collective Superintelligence' For Doctors And Patients Around The World - Forbes
Space is a cruel place. It's cold, it's airless, it's riddled with deadly radiation, and most cruelly of all it's just so darned big. NASA's Apollo missions aside, it's why almost all space exploration is done by robots, who are stronger, more resilient, and easier to maintain. We're not going to stop exploring space using robots. Instead, we're going to wear them, with some claiming that incredible advances in wearable technology could help spread humanity to the very furthest reaches of the galaxy.
But it's going to take a lot more than a souped-up smartwatch.
Today the most famous space robot is Curiosity. The Martian rover has plenty of company on the red planet, most notably Opportunity, while dozens of robotic space probes are buzzing around Jupiter, Saturn and the dwarf planet Ceres. Here on Earth we also have exploration robots, including robotic submersibles (even underwater humanoid robots) and maintenance droids in the oceans, with autonomous industrial drones and self-driving cars almost upon us.
Such robots are extensions of ourselves, and both wearables and robots are already being trialled on the International Space Station (ISS). French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, currently orbiting Earth on the ISS, is wearing BodyCap's Blood Pulse Wave sensor and e-TACT patch, while set to join the ISS crew this year or next is both Astroskin and a robotic cube called Astrobee. Russian cosmonauts on the ISS will get a humanoid robot called FEDOR in 2021.
Must-read: Being better than human with bionics
"NASA has a long history of building humanoid platforms, and has Robonaut 2 on the ISS, which is just an upper torso," says Sethu Vijayakumar, Professor of Robotics at University of Edinburgh and Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, which owns one of NASA's Valkyrie humanoid robots. Although Robonaut 2 comes packed with image recognition systems and sensors galore, its main use is to take care of repetitive tasks to clear astronauts' clogged to-do lists. Robonaut 2, whose development also led to a 'human grasp assist' device called Robo-Glove, could potentially hop outside the ISS to do repairs. Dextre, another 'robotic handyman' on the ISS, has already conducted repairs to the spaceship's batteries, saving the crew from risky spacewalks. Such robots could be used on Mars to assemble a habitat in advance of a manned mission. And it's on missions to Mars and beyond where wearable technology comes in.
Robotics on Mars is a different beast to working on the ISS. "Robots on the ISS work in zero gravity, but when you go to Mars they will have to work in varying gravity environments, and will need to have bipedal locomotion, so we need dextrous manipulations, sensing and walking, and that's where we come in," says Vijayakumar, who is working on the ultimate in space wearables: exoskeletons.
Exoskeletons are basically wearable robots that make astronauts stronger or more mobile in different environments, but they'll be crucial long before man gets to the surface of Mars. Since micro-gravity makes muscles work less, the crew of the ISS need to work-out 2.5 hours per day, six days a week just to keep minimum muscle performance, but they're still weaklings when they descend back to Earth. "Astronauts on the ISS have to strap themselves to a treadmill," says Vijayakumar. "But instead of providing assistance, exoskeletons can act as a resistive device."
That will be crucial if astronauts are to arrive at Mars in any fit state, but some serious miniaturisation is needed. "The exercise device on the ISS is 2,000lbs and wouldn't fit in the crew vehicle that would go to Mars, so they will need a new kind of exercise equipment," says Dr. Peter Neuhaus, Senior Research Scientist at Florida's Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC), which works on technology to extend human capabilities. However, the IHMC is also working on exoskeletons purely for space exploration, developing the X1 Mina with NASA, and more recently Mina V2, which has motors on the ankle, hip and knees.
The X1 Mina exoskeleton
Motors embedded on 'soft' exoskeletons essentially space suits would help make up for the differing gravity on Mars, and the fact that space suits are pressurised. "On Mars the gravity is less, so that will help astronauts support their own bodyweight when they try to stand and walk, but they will have spent between six and nine months in micro-gravity getting to Mars, so they might need an exoskeleton for their space suit," says Neuhaus. He explains that the pressurised Apollo space-suits used by NASA on the Moon acted like a spring, making it difficult for the astronauts to bend their legs. Cue motors at all joints to achieve a customised gait.
"With reduced gravity we could assist them with different gaits," says Neuhaus." Apollo astronauts used a hopping gait on the Moon's surface, but with exoskeleton devices we could help them to do a more bounding gait, which could help them travel further on the surface."
Read next: The best stargazing apps for your smartwatch
For Vijayakumar it's all about the user interface between man and machine. That means exoskeletons with haptic feedback and 'multi-model sensory information'. "One of our projects is how to provide sensory feedback to amputees who have lost a limb," says Vijayakumar, explaining that his work for NASA is based upon the same technology he's developing for real-time control of exoskeletons for stroke patients, amputees, and for prosthesis. "We have an artificial limb they wear, but they currently don't have ownership of the device because of the lack of feedback."
Perhaps the ultimate wearable exoskeleton-like device was shown off recently by South Korean robotics company Hankook Mirae Technology, whose 1.5-ton Method-2is a manned bipedal robot that can travel forwards and backwards, though only on flat ground. As you might expect, this bipedal robot is controlled by someone sitting inside, and apparently 'shakes the ground' when it takes a step, though it reportedly has balance issues.
To visualise what engineers will be able to achieve in a decade or so takes some deep thinking. "Future exoskeletons will be much better," says engineer and futurist Dr Ian Pearson, describing a 'Spider-Man' suit a few millimetres thick that uses either electro-active polymers or folded graphene capacitors to create electromagnetic muscles enabling super-human strength. "It wouldn't look like metal armour, more like a wetsuit and it could be done in 10 years if you had the kind of development budget that a spacesuit normally has," he says.
How successful exoskeletons can be in space depends on the gravity of the situation. "Your legs are only of use on Mars and the Moon," says Neuhaus. "They're the only places with gravity, aside from some of the bigger planets, which we're not going to send humans for a very long time."
On asteroids, which astronauts will probably have to mine for resources to fuel any long-term space exploration outside the Solar System, gravity is insignificant. "On an asteroid it would be all about an astronaut's arms," says Neuhaus. "Astronauts would probably be in some kind of floating device around the asteroid, and have use of their arms either directly, or via robotic arms that respond to their motions." That could be done in two ways; the wearable arms could be an exoskeleton, or the user could be an avatar for those arms.
Ah yes, avatars. "I look at avatars as a sister to robots, but robots powered by human intelligence," says Dr. Harry Floor, CEO at Jupiter 9 Productions and curator of the upcoming ANA Avatar X prize. "The Avatar X prize concept is that we don't just want robots with artificial intelligence, we want to power them using human intelligence so people can teleport themselves anywhere in the world by transferring their consciousness," he said at January's CES 2017. "But it's not like in the movie you are seeing and hearing through a virtual reality headset, and using haptics gloves you can move, control and touch there needs to be a marriage between robots and avatars."
The German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) has successfully operated its robot AILA in Germany using its upper-body exoskeleton CAPIO located in Russia. That kind of teleoperation would allow hands-off exploration of a planetary surface by astronauts, though it would have to be a short-range data link, probably on the planet's surface. "You cannot do tele-operations from Earth because of the delays it takes about 30 minutes for a signal to come back from Mars so you have to build significant autonomy into robots," says Vijayakumar.
"It's not like the robot has a mind of its own, but it needs to able to take care of low-level operations." He also points out that communications channels in space are typically unreliable, so tele-operating an avatar-robot while orbiting of Mars would likely be disrupted. The use of lasers to create 'space broadband' could change all that, though British ESA astronaut Tim Peake already remotely operated a Mars rover in an Airbus facility in Stevenage, UK while aboard the ISS last year.
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Space is just too big to make real-time control of anything remote possible. So why waste time working on ways to send humans safely to other planets when you could just, you know, directly upload their brains to tiny 'space fairies'? "Once we can do a full direct mind-link and put the human mind inside a computer, we could fit about 10,000 human minds in the volume of a cubic millimetre a pin-head," says Pearson, explaining that nanotech devices could theoretically be put beside every neuron and synapse in your brain and create a deep neural network in silicon that's an exact copy.
But space fairies? Pearson's predictions of advances in genetic engineering, IT and consciousness development go way further. "You could make a fairy-sized space farer just a few centimetres tall or smaller, which would make space travel so much easier and it would also be much easier to build wormholes if you wanted to have high-speed space travel." It all sounds bizarre, yet Pearson thinks that it will be possible this century, probably around the year 2090. "Nobody expects us to be doing interstellar travel before then anyway," he reasons. He's right.
But Pearson's point is that the technology to upload our brains will come a long time before conventional Star Trek or Passengers-style interstellar missions into the cosmos aboard vast spaceships. Uploading a brain to a tiny 'space fairy' has other intriguing possibilities. "Once you've digitised a human mind, you could make as many copies of you as you like, and send them out all over the cosmos," he says, adding that if we identified a particularly good astronaut-explorer, we could clone them, and generally use cloning to more quickly colonise other planets. Small astronauts, in small space-ships, would go a lot faster. "Space travel will become a lot easier," says Pearson.
And a lot weirder, too.
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Why the 'ultimate wearables' lie in the future of space exploration - Wareable
The Hindu | Nanotech incubation centre inaugurated - The Hindu The Hindu Harkesh Mittal (left), advisor and head of National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, inaugurates the PSG Nanotech Research, ... |
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Jag Davies is the director of communications strategy for the Drug Policy Alliance. This piece first appeared on the Drug Policy Alliance Blog.
The criminalization of people who use psychedelics is rooted in myths that are the vestiges of colonialism and the drug war and, one by one, those myths are crumbling down.
Weve learned in recent years that people who use psychedelics are significantly *less* likely to end up developing mental health problems, perpetrating domestic violence, or suffering from psychological distress and suicidal thinking.
Meanwhile, recent research has shown that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy can be an effective treatment for people struggling with difficult-to-treat conditions such as substance use disorders. Not much has been known, though, about the connection between psychedelic use and substance misuse in the general population.
Now, a new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology has found that experiences with psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin mushrooms are associated with decreased risk of opioid abuse and dependence among respondents with a history of illegal opioid use. Psychedelic use is associated with 27% reduced risk of past-year opioid dependence and 40% reduced risk of past-year opioid abuse. Other than marijuana use, which was associated with 55% reduced risk of past-year opioid abuse, no other illegal drug was associated with reduced risk of past-year opioid dependence or abuse.
The study is based on six years of data from the federal governments National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which surveys 70,000 people each year. While the findings are far from causal, the authors conclude that the associations between psychedelic use and opioid misuse are pervasive and significant and suggest that psychedelics are associated with positive psychological characteristics and are consistent with prior reports suggesting efficacy in treatment of substance use disorders.
Although more research is needed to determine exactly why theres such a strong correlation between psychedelic use and decreased risk of opioid misuse, this study does appear to validate the experiences of many people who have found substances like ibogaine, marijuana or kratom to be life-changing tools that have helped them lead happier, more fulfilling lives. For many, these substances have helped them cut back or quit their use of opioids or other substances with which theyve had a problematic relationship. Safe access to these substances along with 911 Good Samaritan laws, naloxone access programs, supervised injection facilities, various forms of maintenance therapy, and, of course, ending the criminalization of drug use should be part of the discussion when it comes to dealing with addiction and skyrocketing rates of overdose deaths.
And lets not forget our commander-in-chief is ramping up the drug war and thinks he can deal with opioid addiction by building a giant wall and deporting millions of people, both documented and undocumented. Lets remember, too, that thousands of people are getting handcuffed, arrested, branded as criminals, and serving time behind bars every year simply for using or possessing a psychedelic substance in the U.S. and these people are more likely to be young, non-white, and socioeconomically marginalized than most people who use psychedelics.
While psychedelic-assisted therapy could be approved by the FDA in the next decade, that would do nothing to change the criminal penalties faced by millions of people who use psychedelics outside of government-sanctioned, medically-supervised settings. Thats why its incumbent upon people who care about psychedelics to advocate for reducing the criminalization of people who use them outside of medical contexts, while also advocating for psychedelic-assisted therapy research.
Given the widespread scientific consensus that drug use and addiction are best treated as health issues, theres no good reason for people who use psychedelics to be treated as criminals especially considering how much we already know about prohibitions discriminatory impact on people of color and other marginalized groups.
This study also forces us to reflect on why abstinence-only policies can be so harmful and counterproductive. Contrary to conventional wisdom, federal government data has consistently shown that the vast majority of people who use opioids, including heroin, dont end up developing an addiction. So our focus should be not just on preventing people from using opioids after all, they can be essential medical tools but also ensuring, above all else, that people who use them dont go on to struggle with addiction.
A truly health-centered approach to drug addiction assesses improvement by many measures, not simply by someones drug use level, but also by their overall health, their social relationships, and their general well-being. Determining success by boiling it down to the single measure of abstinence to an arbitrary group of certain drugs isnt realistic or effective.
Addiction is a complex phenomenon, but I think its safe to say that it can only be genuinely resolved when people find meaning in their lives. This study is yet another indication that the meaning people seem to find from psychedelics has considerable implications for our prevailing healthcare and addiction treatment paradigms.
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Psychedelics Help Reduce Opioid Addiction, According to New ...
Psychedelic substances like LSD and psilocybin - the active ingredient in magic mushrooms - are powerful, able to transform the way that people who use them perceivethe world.
Because of that, after years of prohibition, psychiatric researchers in the US are hoping to take advantage of that power to transform mental health treatment.
And as the new documentary " A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin " shows, the results we've seen so far are powerful. Perhaps most interestingly, the film shows how these substances transformthe people who undergo this therapy.
"Psilocybin does in 30 seconds what antidepressants take three to four weeks to do," David Nutt , a professor of neuropsychopharmacology in the division of brain sciences at Imperial College London explains in the film. Researchers have found that a single dose of psilocybin accompanied by therapy can have a transformational effect on mental health - like a "surgical intervention" - able to treat even cases of depression and anxiety that resist standard treatment.
The film follows the researchers and study participants that are at the forefront of this modern era of psychedelic study. Cancer patients facing distress about end of life talk about how their experience helps them overcome that distress and accept their condition. Healthy volunteers who took psilocybin for the first time to help show that it can be used safely in a therapeutic setting describe the way the "trip" changed their perception.
It's fascinating to see.
On a basic level, a part of the brain that seems to coordinate mood and is very active in cases of depression seems to basically stop acting for a time, allowing connections to form between regions of the brain that rarely communicate with each other. This mimics an effect seen in the minds of long term meditators. Something in this experience seems to cause the "trippy" effects of the drug, which participants in this research undergowhile listening to music and sitting with trained observers.
"In terms of whether these agents cause hallucinations, they're a little bit misclassified, a hallucination is an experience in some sensory phenomenon based on a stimuli that doesn't exist in reality, it's internally generated," says Stephen Ross , an associate professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, in an interview in the film. "Versus an illusion would be looking at the wall and the wall is melting, that would be an illusion, and these drugs tend to cause more illusions than frank hallucinations, they alter how we perceive real stimuli."
In order to cause these effects, these drugs activate serotonin 2-A receptors, explains David Nichols, president and co-founder of the Heffter Research Institute.
But something about this experience- the brain activation, illusions, and hallucinations - seems to do something more profound that's harder to understand. It's able to reliably cause what researchers call a "mystical experience." That experience is strongly linked with lasting effects.
"It was like you're at the top of a roller coaster and you're about to go down and I remember inside myself saying, 'I'm taking my mind with me, I don't know where I'm going but I'm taking my mind with me' ... and I felt okay and off I went," says Sandy, one of the healthy volunteers who tried psilocybin for the first time, describing her experience.
People return from that journey changed.
"When we came back it was like someone had put on a light bulb inside Annie's head, she was literally glowing," says the husband of one terminally ill patient in one of these psilocybin studies at UCLA. "I felt wonderful, I think it's an incredibly useful tool ... what we did, it probably would have taken me years of therapy," she agrees.
You can watch the trailer for the film below and a current version of it can be rented from Vimeo .
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Underground respected doom merchants Unearthly Trance are back after a break of a few years with the monumental new banger Stalking the Ghost. From the opening song, Into the Spiral, where the New York-based band charge into the fray with the same kind of sense of purpose that made the title track to Neurosis ninth album Given to the Rising such a massive opening album cut, to the trippy album-closing song In the Forests Keep, it is evident that the time Unearthly Trance members spent since 2010s V. working on Serpentine Path records and Thralldom stuff also allowed them to meditate on what the next kind of statement should be from a band that is frankly somewhat underappreciated.
On the weekends I often meet at 3:00 am with a bouncer from a different bar than the one I work at, stuffing my face with mozzarella sticks while he tries in vain to find good vegan options at a greasy spoon in the wee hours of the morning. While we bitch about drunks we had to 86 often, we also tend to talk music. Last weekend we were discussing Megadeths Grammy win and if that was what metal really is now. Despite his favorite band being Baroness, my friend felt they were more of a proggy hard rock band now and that Megadeths style of thrash was too dated to warrant a current metal nomination. He felt like Gojira was the only band in the category who fairly represented how heavy metal has gotten and that even Black Sabbath should now be considered classic rock instead of metal.
While his points are interesting, I think it is more complicated. Sub-genres in the family tree of metal are as fun to name as all the ex-members of Napalm Death, and all lead back to certain landmarks. Whether you like your doom with a charred style of hardcore attached (Thou) or prefer your stoner rock and sludge with more melodic leaning tendencies these days ala Torche, Lo-Pan or Clutch, all of these bands are still cousins in the theatre of pain, as far removed as they might seem from Mtley Cre as can be.
Unearthly Trace mine a certain territory between extreme metal and the more traditionally Sabbathian where the vocals are generally harsher, a more torn throat and scorched earth style of doom that vocally might even appeal to some black metal or death metal fans rather than people who prefer their walls of fuzz with a slice of Josh Homme on top. Unearthly Trance also have less of a formal obligation to stick closer to hard rock forms all the time, something they share in common with also heavy as heck but experimental acts who likewise deserve way more love like Ultraphallus and Ufomammut.
Dont let me imply that Unearthly Trance are always a difficult listen. Most of their history is now on Bandcamp and will keep you thrilled and rocking out for days and days. For some, they will find it just too much of an audio ass-walloping, but most metalheads who like slower stuff will end up worshiping this band if they dont mind harsher vocals. Dream State Arsenal is positively bludgeoning, like the band Saint Vitus on steroids if Godzilla was singing after a three-day bender destroying Asia and drinking an ocean of whiskey. It is telling that the band just slotted nicely on a bill between Buzzoven and my psych rocker pals INN:IS.
Unearthly Trances appeal is that (like classic NYC band Unsane) they always have sounded dangerous underneath the distortion, not really concerned if they harsh your buzz or remind you the world can be painful. With more extreme acts like Inter Arma or even Deafheaven getting many more eyes on them than bands not named Converge have for the last decade or so, the time is ripe for Unearthly Trance to finally get more of the credit they deserve.
Famine is perhaps the highlight of these eight tracks that descend to varied depths, possibly the heaviest song on the record. The quality of the material is so high that despite this song being emotionally fatiguing enough that most bands would put Famine last on their record, Unearthly Trance keep you invested for four more six- to nine-minute length beasts AFTER that. Kudos and horns.
Rating:
Morgan Ywain Evans speaks to forest spirits, sings for GET OUT. and Walking Bombs, has been published by the likes of Noisemag.net, New Noise (USA) and other publications for over a decade and regularly contributes to The Kingston Times as well as Metalriot.com. He likes kindness, vampire movies, meditating and listening to post punk with his dog.
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Trucker Tools, provider of a populardriver smartphone app andautomated Load Track platform, announces an integration with Revenova that delivers freightvisibility to shippers, brokers and third-party logistics companies that use the cloud-based Revenova TMS system.
Revenova is a Salesforce.com certified Partner and provider of CRM-powered transportation management. The Revenova TMS system leverages the scalability, reliability and security of the salesforce1 platform and application ecosystem.
The integration of the Load Track platform with Revenova TMS gives its users an automated shipment tracking option as part of a configurable workflow.
The Revenova TMS is already steps ahead in terms of improving the process of moving freight. We are delighted to partner with Revenova to further extend its value with an automated Load Track process, said Prasad Gollapalli, chief executive officer of Trucker Tools.
By clicking on any load in Revenova TMS, users see a Load Detail record with all of the pertinent information neatly organized into objects. To initiate the Load Track, users click the Tracking Log object and enter the time they wish to start the Load Track and select a geo-fence perimeter such as 5 miles.
The system uses the geofences to trigger instant arrival and departure notifications when drivers have completed pickups and deliveries. The Load Track integration also gives Revenova TMS users visibility of loads as routes progress and the ability to read and respond to instant messages from drivers.
The Load Track integration provides a differentiating value for Revenova TMS by automatically communicating all pickup and drop-off activities as well as the ETA delivery status of loads. Drivers can capture images of proof-of-delivery documents, and the system automatically generates an invoice to increase efficiency and accelerate cash flow for our customers, said Dave Craigmile, chief technology officer of Revenova.
The Trucker Tools app with the built-in Load Track feature has been downloaded by more than 400,000 small carrier drivers and owner operators. If a driver has not already downloaded the app, the integration with Revenova TMS sends an instant text message to the driver to download the free app as part of the dispatch process.
Pricing for the integrated Load Track feature starts as low as $1.05 per load for users with high load volumes. Location updates for loads in Revenova TMS are in virtual real-time with no limitations on the number of days and stop events from pickup to final delivery.
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Trucker Tools integrates Load Track platform with Revenova TMS - Commercial Carrier Journal
Fort Worth Star Telegram | TMS boss Gossage: Austin road track doesn't know NASCAR business Fort Worth Star Telegram NASCAR has two road courses on the schedule in Sonoma, Calif., and Watkins Glen, N.Y. Austin would make sense to bring on, to a certain extent, but it's hard to envision that happening with TMS a few hours away. It's a nice race track, but we're the ... |
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TMS boss Gossage: Austin road track doesn't know NASCAR business - Fort Worth Star Telegram
Did you catch last ThursdaysRiverdale? This weeks episode brought up all kinds of family blood feuds, Jason Blossoms memorial service, and a really creepy Gothic mansion.
In this episode, Keisha and I talk about how our love for Cheryl Blossom grew tenfold in this episode, and her growing friendship with Veronica is a wonderful thing to see. After all, who better to help the spoiled, mean rich girl than a reformed rich girl? Maybe these blossoming friendships will be enough to bury the feuds between all the adults, which we found out this week were all over maple syrup.How could such a wonderful, beautiful thing cause so much hate and evil? We dont really understand how maple syrup works, but we dont appreciate it being soiled like this.
Heart of Darkness was also one of the creepier episodes, and we love all the Gothic elements from theCrimson Peakvibe we got at the Blossom mansion to the snake in the box sent to Hermione Lodge. Were starting to uncover some lies and secrets behind Polly and Jasons relationship. Our current working theory is that Polly was/is pregnant, and might be locked away unfairly so she doesnt snitch on someone. It would certainly fit in with the Gothic vibe were seeing now.
On a lighter note, Archies musical journey is going well! With the gross predatory Ms. Grundy gone, were seeing him get closer to Val (who we both agree is too good for him) and start to work in some balance. Naturally he has to compromise a bit, and its refreshing to see the film take on improving as a musician and having multiple commitments in an honest way. One might even call Archie a red-headed Troy Bolton, torn between sport and song until he discovers he can doboth. Were all in this together, yall.
What did you think aboutHeart of Darkness? Do you have any new theories about who killed Jason Blossom?
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TMS Reviews Riverdale Chapter Five, "Heart of Darkness" | The ... - The Mary Sue
The controversy of not enough black people nominated last year hurts the winners this year. It is unfair to all the black actors and actresses, who are nominated, to have a shadow cast over them. Last year, a fake controversy appeared, when there were complaints that not enough black people were nominated for an Oscar. Now, this year's Oscars had a record amount of black people nominated. This was obviously a political correctness response from the left.
Now we will never know if those actors and actresses that won, received an Oscar because they were the best. It is unfair to the great performances by these actors, to have any doubt Loom over their wins or nominations. If left-wing political correctness hadn't reared its head, we would know that these actors won because they are the best. But leave it to the left and political correctness to destroy a special moment.
I don't know if anyone won because of their skin color, But the fact that I have to even ponder that, is ridiculous. I don't look at someone's skin color, I just look at whether they're deserving or not. But last year and this year, political correctness made skin color an issue for the Oscars. When the left tries to fix something, you can be assured it will end up even worse.
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Men's Health | 20th Anniversary of Dolly the Cloned Sheep | Men's Health Men's Health 20 years after the world was introduced to Dolly, the Cloned Sheep, we take a look back at what we've learned about cloning. The clones are still among us - Gulf Times |
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20th Anniversary of Dolly the Cloned Sheep | Men's Health - Men's Health
Autism genes may have been conserved during human evolution because they make us smarter, say scientists.
More inherited genetic variants linked to autism have been naturally selected than would be expected by chance, a study has shown.
The same variants were associated with traits linked to brain performance, such as molecular functions involved in the creation of new neurons.
Lead researcher Dr Renato Polimanti, from Yale School of Medicine in the US, said: We found a strong positive signal that, along with autism spectrum disorder, these variants are also associated with intellectual achievement.
Under the laws of natural selection outlined by Charles Darwin, evolutionary variants that have a negative impact on reproductive success are quickly eliminated from a population.
But those providing a better chance of survival tend to remain for generation after generation, if their advantages outweigh their adverse effects.
Meet the Labrador changing the life of a little boy with autism
Study co-author Professor Joel Gelernter, from Yale University, said: It might be difficult to imagine why the large number of gene variants that together give rise to traits like ASD (autism spectrum disorder) are retained in human populations.
Why aren't they just eliminated by evolution?.
The idea is that during evolution these variants that have positive effects on cognitive function were selected, but at a cost - in this case an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders."
The scientists, whose findings are published in the journal Public Library of Science Genetics, studied more than 5,000 cases of ASD and conducted an analysis of evolutionary gene selection.
PA
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Autism genes conserved during human evolution to make us ... - The Independent
For those in Pokemon GO about to evolve their Eevee into the first Espeon or Umbreon theyve ever had, pay attention. The most recent chart of Eevolutions, methods, and best potential outcomes has arrived. Barring all Pokemon GO hacks and whatnot, were having a look at the insides of the software to show you exactly whats possible for Eevee in the wild.
The first thing were going to do is list the most updated chart on whats possible with wild Eevee captures. This list includes the minimum CP and the max CP available for Eevee given power level. The minimum CP of any given Eevee is 10, while the max CP is 969. A max CP Eevee is extremely rare.
Eevee Wild Capture Stats: Max Wild Capture: 830 CP Global Spawn Rate: 2.75% Capture Rate: 30%+ Flee Rate: 10% Max Egg Hatch: 615 CP Egg Hatch Rate: 18%
As such, theres just under 3 Eevee hiding in every 100 Pokemon that pop up around the world at any given moment. The rarity of Eevee in general is dictated by the region in which the user is standing. Eevee is not a region-specific Pokemon, so theres nowhere where Eevee CANT pop up, but itll be more common in places like Residential Neighborhoods and University Campuses.
For those that wish to power up an Eevee before evolving dont even. Using Stardust to power up an Eevee costs the same as an Eevee as it does in any evolved form. It does not matter what evolution the Eevee is at any given time.
Pokemon have a hidden Level which dictates their minimum and maximum CP. Every Pokemon is always a Level between 1 and 40, and each time Stardust is given to a Pokemon, it grows 0.5 level. To raise the level of an Eevee from level 21 to level 21.5, itll cost a trainer 3000 Stardust. To raise the level of any evolved form of Eevee from level 21 to level 21.5, itll cost a trainer 3000 Stardust.
When evolving a Pokemon any Pokemon trainers should ALWAYS wait until the full evolution is complete before deciding to add Stardust. The final evolution will show what moves the Pokemon can do and theyre not always great. For Eevee, the final evolution can be one of five entirely different Pokemon that each have their own unique set of possible moves. Leveling up an Eevee before evolution is not a great idea.
In general its best to wait until finding an Eevee thats as close to maximum level as possible before evolving. Maximum level for Eevee in the wild is 30 thats the same for every Pokemon in the Pokemon GO universe. As such, the max WILD CAPTURE for Eevee is 830 CP.
SEE TOO: How to get Espeon or Umbreon in Pokemon GO
The best Eevee available in the wild will be between 642 CP and 830 CP. Once that Eevee is captured, it can be leveled up with Stardust up to level 40, where its max CP will be between 749 and 969. Again, dont DO that see Section 2. But thats the range youre dealing with.
Eevee Worth Evolving Minimum: 200+ CP* Maximum: 830 CP
*This is our opinion anything less than this and the Eevelution isnt going to be a worthy Gym attacker or defender. This is really up to you, when it comes down to it especially if youre targeting Pokemon types with types that are strong against certain types. If youre battling another Vaporeon, for example, you could potentially beat a level 2,000 with a Jolteon of level 1,000 since water is weak against lightning.
In the end it all comes down to what you want and what youre willing to wait for. For more information on HOW to get the Eevee evolution types youre wishing to get, including Jolteon, Vaporeon, Flareon, Espeon, or Umbreon, have a peek at the timeline below. Weve got more guides than youll know what to do with.
See more here:
Pokemon GO update: Eevee evolution charts tweaked - SlashGear
BOSTON In humans mysterious journey to become intelligent, socializing creatures like no other in the animal world, one innovation played an essential role: religion.
Thats the theory that a preeminent evolutionary scientist is setting out to prove.
You need something quite literally to stop everybody from killing everybody else out of just crossness, said Robin Dunbar. Somehow its clear that religions, all these doctrinal religions, create the sense that were all one family.
[Fear of a vengeful God may explain humanitys global expansion]
Dunbar, an evolutionary psychology professor at Oxford University, gained some measure of fame more than 20 years ago for his research on the size of animals social networks. Each species of primate, he found, can manage to keep up a social bond with a certain number of other members of its own species. That number goes up as primates brain size increases, from monkeys to apes.
Humans, Dunbar found, are capable of maintaining significantly more social ties than the size of our brains alone could explain. He proved that each human is surprisingly consistent in the number of social ties we can maintain: About five with intimate friends, 50 with good friends, 150 with friends and 1,500 with people we could recognize by name. That discovery came to be known as Dunbars number.
And then Dunbar turned to figuring out why Dunbars number is so high. Did humor help us manage it? Exercise? Storytelling? That riddle has been Dunbars quest for years and religion is the latest hypothesis hes testing in his ongoing attempt to find the answer.
Most of these things were looking at, you get in religion in one form or another, he said.
[Harvard Medical School professor says faith-based miracle cures could be real]
Dunbar is just one of a recent wave of scientists who are interested in how religion came to be and how people have benefited from it. For most of Western intellectual history since the Enlightenment, religion has been thought of as ignorant and strange and an aberration and something that gets in the way of reason, said Christian Smith, a sociologist at the University of Notre Dame who studies religion. In the last 10 or 20 years on many fronts, theres been a change in thinking about religion, where a lot of neuroscientists have been saying religion is totally natural. It totally makes sense that were religious. Religion has served a lot of important functions in developing societies.
In the case of Dunbar and his colleagues, they already published research demonstrating that two other particularly human behaviors increased peoples capacity for social bonding. In the lab, they showed that first, laughter, and second, singing, left research subjects more capable of forming connections with other people than they were before.
Religion is the remaining key to explaining humans remarkable social networks, Dunbar thinks. These three things are very good at triggering endorphins, making us feel bonded, he said last week at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences annual meeting, where he presented his teams research on laughter and singing and introduced the forthcoming research on religion.
[Religion doesnt necessarily influence Americans views on science, with two big exceptions]
Religion includes numerous elements of Dunbars earlier studies on endorphin-producing activities. Lots of singing, to start. Repetitive motion triggers endorphins, he said, noting that traditions from Catholicism to Islam to Buddhism to Hinduism make use of prayer beads.
Plus, researchers have shown that doing these activities in synchronized fashion with other people drastically magnifies the endorphin-producing effect: Picture the coordinated bowing that is central to Muslim, Jewish and Catholic worship.
And Dunbars most recent published research demonstrated the effectiveness of emotional storytelling in bonding groups of strangers who hear the story together again, a fixture of religious worship.
What you get from dance and singing on its own is a sense of belonging. It happens very quickly. What happens, I suspect, is that it can trigger very easily trance states, Dunbar said. He theorizes that these spiritual experiences matter much more than dance and song alone. Once youve triggered that, youre in, I think, a different ballgame. It ramps up massively. Thats whats triggered. Theres something there.
Dunbars team will start research on religion in April, and he expects it will take three years. To begin, he wants to map a sort of evolutionary tree of religion, using statistical modeling to try to show when religious traditions evolved and how they morphed into each other.
Of course, religious people themselves might find Dunbars theory odd most dont think of religion existing to serve an evolutionary purpose, but of their faiths simply being true.
But Smith thinks one can easily have faith in both Gods truth and religions role in human development. From the religious point of view, you can say this . God created humans as a very particular type of creature, with very particular brains and biology, just so that they would develop into the type of humans who would know God and believe in God, Smith said. Theyre not in conflict at all.
He added: A lot of people assume, falsely, that science and religion are zero-sum games: that if science explains something, then religion must not be true. If you were God and wanted to set up the world in a certain way, wouldnt you create humans with bigger brains and the ability to imagine?
One more research finding onthe place of God in our brains remember Dunbars number, the five intimate friends and 50 good friends and 150 friends each person can hold onto? Dunbar says that if a person feels he or she has a close relationship with a spiritual figure, like God or the Virgin Mary, then that spiritual personage actually fills up one of those numbered spots, just like a human relationship would. One of your closest friends, scientifically speaking, might be God.
Want more stories about faith? Follow Acts of Faithon Twitteror sign up for our newsletter.
Jesus had a body. Heres why that matters for Lent.
How do you prick the conscience of an NFL fan? The problem with uncritical football fandom.
Engineering an advanced human? The more religious you are, the less likely youll want to.
Read the original:
A scientist's new theory: Religion was key to humans' social evolution - Washington Post
Dont worry these guys are sticking around. Photo: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
Starbucks is finally pulling the plug on its attempt to clone Liquiteria. The ill-fated Evolution Fresh stores were part of the coffee chains plot to dominate the juicing craze; it bought that brand in 2011 from the Naked Juice creator, and by 2012 was building cafs where juice partners served cold-pressed, organic ginger and kale elixirs, plus a selection of healthy fare like wraps, grain bowls, and customizable salads. But they never caught on; the number of stores stalled before it even reached a half-dozen, all of them in the Seattle area or San Francisco. The remaining two are near downtown Seattle, and Seattle Met notes theyll both be closed by June.
Most Starbucks-goers are familiar with the Evolution Fresh bottles the chain stocks in cafs cold cases, though. Those debuted nationwide around the same time as the hapless juice-store concept, and their run was much more successful. The company not only plans to keep on selling them at supermarkets and cafs but its also about to expand the line to include four new superfoods flavors with ber-trendy ingredients like coconut milk and turmeric.
Peter Pan, Old Traditional Polish Cuisine, and more.
The chains future with cold-pressed sweet greens will live on in the supermarket bottles.
One reviewer called it horrifying and said his toothbrush even turned bright pink.
It technically owns the brand.
La Buvette, a beloved Parisian wine bar, is popping up in New York for one night only.
Totenko Co.s stocks jumped following a major mating announcement.
He slathered a $54 New York strip in ketchup.
Add to the already lengthy rsum.
He dined at the too cool Italian restaurant with Malia.
The problem starts way before food hits grocery stores or your plate.
So-called alcosynth would solve a lot of other problems associated with traditional booze, too.
A five-course dinner at the James Beard House.
Its like the Frappuccino version of Nutella.
The whole car now smells like freshly baked bread, and I reach inside and tear off the heel.
Although theres at least one other way to free birds from pain, injury, and disease.
Two former friends say the brothers stole ideas, threatened physical violence, and hoarded profits.
Find out where to eat in our weekly ranking of the citys most important restaurants.
A third of Americans are dining out less often than they were three months ago.
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Starbucks Is Closing Its Evolution Fresh Juice Chain - Grub Street - Grub Street
February 27, 2017 Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) and P. Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
Thirty years ago, on 23 February 1987, the light from a stellar explosion marking the death of a massive star arrived at Earth to shine in Southern Hemisphere skies.
Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, SN 1987A was the closest observed supernova to Earth since the invention of the telescope. Studying it for the last 30 years has revolutionised our understanding of the explosive death of massive stars.
In operation since 1990, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed the supernova remnant many times, as highlighted in this montage. The images show its evolution between 1994 and 2016, and highlight the main ring that blazes around the exploded star.
A new wide-field image was also taken by Hubble in January 2017 to mark the 30 year anniversary.
By observing the expanding remnant material over the years, Hubble has helped to show that the material within the ring was likely ejected 20 000 years before the actual explosion took place.
The initial burst of light from the supernova initially illuminated the rings. They slowly faded over the first decade after the explosion, until a fast-moving shell of gas ejected during the supernova slammed into the central ring, sending a powerful shockwave through the gas, heating it to searing temperatures and generating strong X-ray emission.
This caused clumps of denser gas within the ring to light up like a string of pearls, seen as the increasing number of bright spots, which are now fading again.
As the shock wave continues to move through the shells ejected by the dying star in its final throes of life, who knows what new details will be revealed?
Explore further: The dawn of a new era for Supernova 1987a (Update)
Three decades ago, astronomers spotted one of the brightest exploding stars in more than 400 years. The titanic supernova, called Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A), blazed with the power of 100 million suns for several months following ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers are witnessing the unprecedented transition of a supernova to a supernova remnant, where light from an exploding star in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- In 1987, light from an exploding star in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, reached Earth. Named Supernova 1987A, it was the closest supernova explosion witnessed in almost 400 years, allowing ...
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures the remnants of a long-dead star. These rippling wisps of ionized gas, named DEM L316A, are located some 160,000 light-years away within one of the Milky Way's closest galactic ...
(PhysOrg.com) -- The delicate shell, photographed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, appears to float serenely in the depths of space, but this apparent calm hides an inner turmoil. The gaseous envelope formed as the ...
Twenty years ago, astronomers witnessed one of the brightest stellar explosions in more than 400 years. The titanic supernova, called SN 1987A, blazed with the power of 100 million suns for several months following its discovery ...
On Mars, wind rules. Wind has been shaping the Red Planet's landscapes for billions of years and continues to do so today. Studies using both a NASA orbiter and a rover reveal its effects on scales grand to tiny on the strangely ...
Planets are thought to form in the disks of dust and gas found around young stars. But astronomers have struggled to assemble a complete theory of their origin that explains how the initial dust develops into planetary systems. ...
Evidence of planetary debris surrounding a double sun, 'Tatooine-like' system has been found for the first time by a UCL-led team of researchers.
When the universe was young, a supermassive black holebloated to the bursting point with stupendous powerheaved out a jet of particle-infused energy that raced through the vastness of space at nearly the speed of light.
(Phys.org)A team of astronomers led by Favio Faifer of the National University of La Plata, Argentina, has discovered the first ultra-compact dwarf (UCD) galaxy in an X-ray bright galaxy group designated NGC 5044. The ...
Hunting for habitable exoplanets now may be easier: Cornell University astronomers report that hydrogen pouring from volcanic sources on planets throughout the universe could improve the chances of locating life in the cosmos.
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Image: The evolution of supernova 1987A - Phys.org - Phys.Org
February 27, 2017
Alzheimer's disease, and other neurodegenerative conditions involving abnormal folding of proteins, may help explain the emergence of lifeand how to create it.
Researchers at Emory University and Georgia Tech demonstrated this connection in two new papers published by Nature Chemistry: "Design of multi-phase dynamic chemical networks" and "Catalytic diversity in self-propagating peptide assemblies."
"In the first paper we showed that you can create tension between a chemical and physical system to give rise to more complex systems. And in the second paper, we showed that these complex systems can have remarkable and unexpected functions," says David Lynn, a systems chemist in Emory's Department of Chemistry who led the research. "The work was inspired by our current understanding of Darwinian selection of protein misfolding in neurodegenerative diseases."
The Lynn lab is exploring ways to potentially control and direct the processes of these proteinsknown as prionsadding to knowledge that might one day help to prevent disease, as well as open new realms of synthetic biology. For the current papers, Emory collaborated with the research group of Martha Grover, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, to develop molecular models for the processes.
"Modeling requires us to formulate our hypotheses in the language of mathematics, and then we use the models to design further experiments to test the hypotheses," Grover says.
Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is well-establishedorganisms adapt over time in response to environmental changes. But theories about how life emergesthe movement through a pre-Darwinian world to the Darwinian thresholdremain murkier.
The researchers started with single peptides and engineered in the capacity to spontaneously form small proteins, or short polymers. "These protein polymers can fold into a seemingly endless array of forms, and sometimes behave like origami," Lynn explains. "They can stack into assemblies that carry new functions, like prions that move from cell-to-cell, causing disease."
This protein misfolding provided the model for how physical changes could carry information with function, a critical component for evolution. To try to kickstart that evolution, the researchers engineered a chemical system of peptides and coupled it to the physical system of protein misfolding. The combination results in a system that generates step-by-step, progressive changes, through self-driven environmental changes.
"The folding events, or phase changes, drive the chemistry and the chemistry drives the replication of the protein molecules," Lynn says. "The simple system we designed requires only the initial intervention from us to achieve progressive growth in molecular order. The challenge now becomes the discovery of positive feedback mechanisms that allow the system to continue to grow."
Explore further: Provocative prions may protect yeast cells from stress
More information: Design of multi-phase dynamic chemical networks, Nature Chemistry, nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nchem.2737
Catalytic diversity in self-propagating peptide assemblies, Nature Chemistry, nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nchem.2738
Journal reference: Nature Chemistry
Provided by: Emory University
Prions have a notorious reputation. They cause neurodegenerative disease, namely mad cow/Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. And the way these protein particles propagategetting other proteins to join the pilecan seem insidious.
Nerve-damaging protein particles called prions have long been known to exist in mammals.
A team of scientists from the University of Alberta is examining compounds with anti-prion properties, which can alter the misfolding of proteins in rare but universally fatal prion diseases like Mad Cow and Creutzfeld-Jakob. ...
"When they are healthy, they look like tiny spheres; when they are malignant, they appear as cubes" stated Giuseppe Legname, principal investigator of the Prion Biology Laboratory at the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di ...
Emory University scientists have discovered that simple peptides can organize into bi-layer membranes. The finding suggests a "missing link" between the pre-biotic Earth's chemical inventory and the organizational scaffolding ...
It's a chicken and egg question. Where do the infectious protein particles called prions come from? Essentially clumps of misfolded proteins, prions cause neurodegenerative disorders, such as mad cow/Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, ...
The manufacture of cement, bricks, bathroom tiles and porcelain crockery normally requires a great deal of heat: a kiln is used to fire the ceramic materials at temperatures well in excess of 1,000C. Now, material scientists ...
Individual molecules are extremely hard to see through feeble fluorescence. Leiden physicists have managed to use tiny gold nanorods as antennas to intensify their signal 500 times. They have published their results in Angewandte ...
New light on a key factor involved in diseases such as Parkinson's disease, gastric cancer and melanoma has been cast through latest University of Otago, New Zealand, research carried out in collaboration with Australian ...
A Washington State University research team has improved an important catalytic reaction commonly used in the oil and gas industries. The innovation could lead to dramatic energy savings and reduced pollution.
Manufacturing small proteins known as peptides is usually very time-consuming, which has slowed development of new peptide drugs for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and bacterial infections.
Alzheimer's disease, and other neurodegenerative conditions involving abnormal folding of proteins, may help explain the emergence of lifeand how to create it.
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How protein misfolding may kickstart chemical evolution - Phys.Org
Wilton Librarys robotics team, Singularity Technology, recently qualified in the CT State Competition to move to the Super-Regional Competitions in Scranton, Pa., in March. Standing left to right: Rohit Singhal, Albert Wei, Alex Cameron, Harris Patnaik, Rishabh Raniwala; kneeling left to right: Navod Jayawardhane, Khloe Rackley, Emilie McCann, Cathy Campbell, Nickia Muraskin.
For the first time ever, Singularity Technology, Wilton Librarys robotics team, has qualified to compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Super-Regionals Championship, a global robotics competition, to be held in March in Scranton, Pa.
The library team had an outstanding performance at the FTC CT State Championships on Feb. 18 at Greens Farms Academy in Westport. Earning second place in the state competition, the team was recognized for excelling in all facets of the challenge, including innovative and successful robot design and the embodiment of the FIRST value of Gracious Professionalism.
We are so excited to have come this far, said team captain Nickia Muraskin of Singularity Technologys performance against 23 other teams from around Connecticut.
FTC competitions are alliance-based. That means teams are partnered with one another for every match. Alliances change from match to match and former partners turn into adversaries. Its all part of FTCs goal of developing team-building skills and cooperative approaches to problem solving among the young engineers which they summarize with the trademarked terms Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition.
Albert Wei, the teams software captain, finds wisdom in Gracious Professionalism.
To me, it is less about the robot that we make and more about the way we act, he said. It has motivated us to integrate as many people as we can into our building process, because our product turns out better when everyone works together.
Susan Lauricella, Wilton Librarys teen services and maker space manager noted, This has been such a wonderful learning and bonding exercise. The group has grown in experience in the last year or so and really has come together as a team in the true sense and spirit of the word.
The Singularity Technology team consists of 10 middle and high school students: Cathy Campbell, Alex Cameron, Navod Jayawardhane, Emilie McCann, Nickia Muraskin, Harris Patnaik, Khloe Rackley, Rishabh Raniwala, Rohit Singhal, and Albert Wei. Members meet and work at the library with volunteer mentors Tom Abend and Paul Lauricella and library staffers Susan Lauricella and Thomas Kozak.
Part of the teams success comes from their integration of various sensors and custom 3D-printed designs. The team uses online CAD programs and the 3D printer in the librarys Innovation Station to create everything from bevel gears to cap ball holding parts, all in SingulTechs signature blue and green. Team member Rishabh Raniwala is most proud of how far our coding has come, its been a huge improvement over last year.
This year, the team made a strategic decision to focus on two specific challenges with the robot: lifting the cap ball and pressing infrared beacons in both autonomous and teleop modes.
Our cap ball lifting and beacon-pressing mechanisms are incredibly reliable, said team member Harris Patnaik. Much more so than those of our competitors.
Our team needs to spend a lot of time practicing driving in high-stress situations, so we can be prepared for anything that could possibly go wrong, added Emilie McCann, the teams build captain. Additionally, we have to create lots of promotional materials not only for our own team, but for FIRST as a whole.
The team is most grateful for the support of Jet Blue, Wilton Hardware, Glenn Hemmerle and McHancock County LLC, as well as Wilton Library for the initial funding. Anyone wishing to support the teams push to the Super-Regionals may make an online donation through Wilton Librarys website, http://www.wiltonlibrary.org, and specify Robotics in the comments field.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a nonprofit organization with the mission to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.
To learn more about the FIRST Tech Challenge, visit http://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc or http://7034st.wixsite.com/singultech to see more of the team and its robot.
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Image: Boston Dynamics via YouTube Boston Dynamics' Handle is a humanoid robot on wheels, and it's amazing.
When Boston Dynamics introduced its massively upgraded Atlaslast year, we said the robot coulddo things weve never seen other robots doing before, making it one of the most advanced humanoids in existence. But now, after seeing the video that Boston Dynamics just released to officially unveil itsnewest creation, Handle, a sort of Atlas on wheels,well just say it again: Handle cando things weve never seen other robots doing before, making it one of the most advanced humanoids in existence.
Wheels are a great invention,Marc Raibert, founder and president of Boston Dynamics, tells IEEE Spectrum, adding that Handle, which uses a wheel-leg hybrid system,can have the best of both worlds.
You probably saw footageof Handle a few weeks ago, when Raibert gave a talk in California and someone filmed the screen with a phone and posted it on YouTube. When we asked Boston Dynamics about the leaked video, the company saiditwasnt ready to discuss the new robot and suggested that we wait. Now, finally, we have more details about Handle, and Raibert even answered a few of our questions on why and how they built the robot.
Boston Dynamicssays Handle is an R&D robot, so although it can perform a number of useful tasks, like carrying 45-kilogram crates, it probably wont be commercially availableanytime soon. Handle has a range of24 kilometers on a battery charge, which is much more than what it would be able to cover with traditional bipedal robot locomotion. Using wheels also helps reduce thenumber of degrees of freedom,and the company says Handle is significantlyless complex than some of the quadruped and biped robots that precededit.
Indeed, this kind of multi-modal locomotion is highly effective. In a much more limited capacity, its what helped DRC-HUBO win the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals: Being able to use both wheels and legs helps your robot efficiently adapt to different situations, trading the ability to traverse rough terrain for speed (and stability, which legged robots can have trouble with)and back again whenever necessary, just like you would as a human with a pair of rollerblades.
Teaching bipeds to move like this seems like an idea with a lot of potential, especially if Boston Dynamics can develop a generalized controller that allows robots with regular legs to take advantage of wheelsimagine the next generation of Atlasbeing equipped with an integrated pair of roller shoes likeHeelys. Were not sure if thats part of the companys plans, but hereswhat Raibert told us about Handle and his teams experience using wheels after famously building so many legged robots.
IEEE Spectrum:How did the idea to build a wheeled robot come about, and how long did it take to build it?
Marc Raibert:Weve had the idea for building a robot that combined legs with wheels for a long time, but never had the opportunity to explore it.We started last summer and had something working in about six months. We accelerated the project by using components for power, arms, and upper body that were originally designed for Atlas.
Were you able to reuse or adapt any of the bioinspired control strategies youve used so successfully in legged robots?
Much of the control used in Handle leverages our teams experience with the quadruped and biped robots.The software is not exactly the same, but the balance and dynamic control principles have a lot in common and share the same physics-based roots.
Is Handles upper body an Atlas torso, or a completely new design? And isthe robot all electric or does it use hydraulics?
Yes, it uses Atlas torso and a slightly modified version of Atlas arms. [For power we use] electric power (batteries), but both electric and hydraulic actuation.
How do you and your team feel about working with wheels after working on legged designs for so long?
Wheels are a great invention. But wheels work best on flat surfaces and legs can go anywhere. By combining wheels and legs, Handle can have the best of both worlds.
IEEE Spectrum's award-winning robotics blog, featuring news, articles, and videos on robots, humanoids, drones, automation, artificial intelligence, and more. Contact us:e.guizzo@ieee.org
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Continue reading here:
Boston Dynamics Officially Unveils Its Wheel-Leg Robot: "Best of Both Worlds" - IEEE Spectrum
ACME Robotics is moving on.
The independent robotics team, made up mostly of Nevada Union High School students working out of one of the school's portable buildings, finished eighth among 202 teams at the NorCal For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Tech Challenge at Newark Memorial High School on Feb. 19.
The top 10 finish sends ACME Robotics to the FTC West Super Regional in Tacoma, Washington March 9-11 for the first time in the team's three-year history.
The goal is to reach the World Championships April 19-22 in Houston, Texas by placing in the top 38 of the 72 teams at the Super Regionals.
"I'd say we have a 50-percent chance," said Kellen Bodine, one of the team's co-founders and the lead engineer. "We're one of the better teams based on (our data)."
THE TEAM
Ryan Brott, 16, is in charge of scouting opponents, and he's also the team's software lead who does most of the robot's programming. A Nevada Union junior, Ryan helped found the team as a freshman. He wasn't surprised ACME advanced to the Super Regional.
"This is our third year as a team, and this is also our third year being in the (NorCal) Championships," he said. "It was just a matter of time before we moved on."
Bodine, 16, a junior at Nevada Union, said his love of engineering led him to help start the ACME team.
"I've always loved building things, and this gives me the perfect outlet to do that," he said. "The whole program is just really cool and it gives kids a lot of great opportunities I knew I wanted to be some sort of engineer since I was probably 4 years old."
Bodine has been hard at work improving the robot for the trip to Washington.
"Our button presser is a little slow, and we keep improving the accuracy and speed of the components, primarily the ball launcher," Bodine said.
John Convis, 17, a Nevada Union junior in his second year with ACME, is in charge of the team's 3-D modeling, something new this year. He created a 3-D model of the robot, which helped ACME create special wheels the robot uses to fire balls.
Ivy Brott, 14, a Nevada Union freshman, handles the team's outreach, including fundraising, the website, social media and team events.
"My position is a way to get involved with the team without having to be good at coding or know exactly how to make a robot," Ivy Brott said. "My part is more connecting with the community, not the technical part."
Other team members include Shawn (last name withheld by request), Thea Pelayo and Kelly Muir. Michael Lewis and Stephanie Lewis help Oitzman as mentors.
GOTTA GET THERE
ACME Robotics operates on a budget of about $7,000 a year, excluding travel. The trip to Tacoma alone is going to cost about $7,000. The team has set up a GoFundMe page, gofundme.com/acme-robotics-superregionals-trip. Those wishing to help can also visit the team's website at goacmerobotics.com.
Team sponsor Telestream stepped up, with employee donations exceeding $1,500. The company matched the first $1,000, and Telestream CEO Dan Castles matched the $1,500 raised by employees to get the team more than halfway to its goal.
Autometrix, another of ACME's corporate sponsors, had raised $490 in employee donations as of Friday afternoon with a goal to reach $750. The company has also pledged to match the employee donations.
According to the ACME website, the team had raised $5,255 as of Monday afternoon.
HOW IT'S PLAYED
The challenge requires teams to fit their robot in an 18-by-18-inch box, but it may expand once it's been removed.
That's where the 3-D modeling comes in.
"It's helped out immensely," Convis said. "From the 3-D modeling, we were able to determine that we couldn't fit some of the parts we wanted to use."
They then compete on a field that's 12-by-12 feet and divided into red and blue sides.
This year's game, Velocity Vortex, consists of two driver/operators, one coach and one robot per team. There are four teams in each match, two sets of two-team alliances.
"There's a lot of politicking about what teams the kids want to align with," ACME mentor Mike Oitzman said.
In the center of the playing surface is a rotating vortex with one red and one blue "basket" that essentially serves as a basketball-like hoop. There are also vortices ramps with a goal on top, one red and one blue in opposing corners of the field and four beacons on top of the 1-foot-tall walls that frame the field.
Each team has multiple particles, which are essentially Wiffle balls, and one 21-inch cap ball. Teams are awarded points for a variety of things, most commonly shooting particles from the robot through the center vortex rings, scoring the particles in the corner vortices, and pushing the beacon when it flashes the color corresponding with a team's color.
The team that touches the beacon last is the only team awarded points.
To contact Staff Writer Stephen Roberson, email sroberson@theunion.com or call 530-477-4236.
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