Category Archives: Evolution

Artificial intelligence and deep machine learning are allowing UAS to scale and intensify their impact across many sectors.

Every now and then, the world experiences significant bursts of innovation thanks to random concurrence of favorable conditions in technology, business and society. The explosive growth in innovative applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) over the last 10 years can only be matched by the World Wide Web and the iPhone.

Remote controlled flight had existed since the Royal Air Force launched the Queen Bee aircraft in 1935. After that, drones evolved to higher levels of sophistication, but remained, for the most part, limited to military applications. Perhaps the two watershed moments that turned drones into true consumer products happened in 2010, when Parrot flew its AR Drone with an iPhone app at CES, and in 2013, when DJI equipped its Phantom drone with a camera.

Ease of navigation, image capture capabilities and miniaturization of ARM processors provided fertile ground for AI applications across all sectors. This powerful combination allowed drones to permeate an impressive variety of domains, including ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and targeting, film, agriculture, logistics, engineering and disaster response. The iPhone, the GoPro camera, GPS and AI were technology kindling. The number of problems that have been waiting for a UAV solution is only bound by imagination.

Todays drones come prepackaged with GPS sensing and navigation capabilities, video capture, and command and control applications, as well as several interfaces that allow the implementation of AI and special purpose programs. This combination puts the system in UAS.

Computers enabled massive automation and scaling of information processing. AI, on the other hand, moved computation to a much higher level, enabling massive automation of reasoning, or more precisely, solution discovery and parameter optimization. These two operations allowed machines to learn.

An AI thermostat, for instance, can learn the optimal temperature setting that minimizes the number of trips a person takes to warm or cool a home or office. To do this, a machine learning algorithm collects many data points such as room temperature and the action the person takes every time she or he sets the thermostat. This gives the algorithm valuable feedback on what the proper setting should be given ambient temperature, time of day, etc. All machine learning algorithms follow the same principle, except they use hundreds or thousands of thermostats, each of which learns an obscure parameter inside the algorithm. The accumulation of learning from these units results in machine intelligence such as recognizing a cat in an image, parallel parking a trailer truck, translating text from Mandarin to Arabic with no prior knowledge of vocabulary or grammar, or identifying terrorist cells in a social network.

The most successful and practical applications of drones today leverage AI for image recognition and image stitching. While this is far short of the full promise of AI, it is making a tremendous impact, helping to automate and scale a vast array of applications, at minimal cost. Drones are flying inside Europes cathedrals and architectural treasures to build comprehensive 3D models. Drones count sheep in Israel, and, surprisingly, stay awake. Civil engineers use drones to constantly scan large structures like bridges, dams and oil rigs to detect structural faults before they grow into serious problems. And, of course, the military has been using drones for decades now to collect field intelligence. Drone imaging is becoming so prevalent that it will be virtually impossible to find a domain that has not been permeated.

Drones that scan the insides of a cathedral, for instance, enjoy many luxuries that are rarely afforded to many in other domains. The drones can easily fly back to charging stations every time they need power. They can use broadband to upload their high-resolution videos to the cloud to be processed by gigantic server farms. They are protected from wind, rain, theft and attacks, and run little cybersecurity risk. AI cannot do its job without some of these luxuries.

The challenge of operating applications in hostile environments such as war zones, or forest fires, requires a great deal of support infrastructure as well as bigger, more powerful drones. This challenge provides a great opportunity for AI to provide operational support functions. Albeit less glamorous than object identification, navigation and context determination, these support functions optimize and preprocess the data to mitigate the lack of readily available powerful computing and high-speed data transfer.

For example, rather than upload high- resolution images to the server, or process them on the drone, AI algorithms are used to sample the images and only capture relevant features, such as edges, position of each eye relative to the nose, etc. These features can then be uploaded to a server requiring much lower bandwidth and using much less power. Another powerful approach, which is frequently used in movies, consists of taking a few high-resolution static images and low-resolution video; AI algorithms then use the two to construct high-resolution video. Once high-resolution video is on the server, then virtually endless computing power can be used by advanced AI. A drone equipped with FHD video, for instance, captures images that contain 19201080 pixels (about 2 million). Using images, an eighth the FHD resolution produces 240135 (or 32,400 pixels), which still provides recognizable images and results in an order of a 64-fold reduction in power required for capturing, storing and transmitting the images, as well as required bandwidth. Many AI applications only use 6432 images, which results in a 1024-fold reduction.

Advances in computing and battery technology as well as increased availability of bandwidth will make these support functions less relevant in many applications. However, the drive for miniaturization and continued expansion of drones onto new domains of application with hostile environments will always require additional support functions.

The model of using a handful of drones to capture images or other data and upload them to a server to run advanced AI is prone to be outdated very soon. The problem with this model is that it cannot be operationalized. It is neither robust nor is it scalable. If a drone fails, gets lost or suffers a physical or cyber attack, the whole operation could fail. The cost of manually replacing drones in a battlefield or an offshore oil rig is operationally too expensive. The model for the future is one that uses hundreds or thousands of drones as a system, rather than individual drones.

Transforming individuals into a system has been fundamental to many areas, including physics, biology, social science and technology. The key distinction is that the system is greater than the sum of its parts. It is a universal property of sustainable systems. The science of managing large numbers of individuals as a system has been applied with great success to marketing, finance, web search, language translation, environment restoration and AI itself. Transforming an army of drones into a system of one is a natural application of this science.

To cite a public example, in 2012, Ars Electronica Futurelab created the first drone light show, in which 49 drones were programmed with flocking and swarming behavior inspired from birds and bees. The result was an emergence of artistic light patterns in the sky. Since then, there have been hundreds of light shows, using thousands of drones. Most of these shows use highly coordinated drones to show, for instance, a man walking in space at the 2020 New Years celebration in Shanghai.

As impressive as it is, a light show is simply a rendering of 3D images in which each drone occupies the position of a pixel. The technology-associated challenges are not to be underestimated, but this remains in the realm of coordinating individuals rather than managing a system.

AI exemplifies the power of leveraging large numbers of individuals as a system. In 1956, Oliver Selfridge and Marvin Minsky founded what is known today as AI with the notion of daemons, or background computer programs, working as a system to solve complex problems. Since then, there have been a proliferation of distributed technology systems founded on the principle of agents, or daemons, working together to tackle complex problems at scale. Hadoop technology that is today widely used to mine huge amounts of text data, such as web logs, is based on agents that each grab a subset of the data and break the task into thousands of subtasks that are executed in parallel. Agent-based modeling is widely used in biology to learn about the sustainability of an ecosystem, for instance. In these models, thousands of agents are programmed with certain behaviors, like deer eating vegetation at a particular rate, trees growing at their own rates, predators eating deer, etc. These agents then interact randomly with each other and produce many plausible outcomes.

Consequently, deep learning, which is at the center of many of the most impactful applications of AI in drones, gets its power from neural networks in which hundreds, or thousands, of very basic mathematical functions systematically cooperate to adapt their parameters as they learn from experience. These neural networks are organized in layers whereby each layer feeds a summarized version of its inputs to the next layer, allowing the network to dive deeper and deeper into the features that really matterhence the name deep learning.

Drones are no different from the nodes in a neural network, albeit much more sophisticated. With todays technology, small and simple drones can be produced at very low cost. Instead of a handful of powerful drones, with single points of failure, thousands of simpler drones can operate as a system. Systems of drones are much more effective than individuals. A handful of drones can be shot down in a battlefield; a dust of drones, on the other hand, is much harder to defend against.

The operationalization of drones as a multidrone system is key to enabling the next leap. Fortunately, there is a powerful precedent that presages high likelihood of success. In 2006 Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS), which gave birth to cloud computing, transforming IT operations forever and making data centers a thing of the past. At the core of AWS are a number of support processes that marshal thousands of computers on the cloud to operate as one. Before AWS, the vast majority of AI applications were limited to a handful of powerful computers. Now AI, with virtually endless power, is readily available at a staggeringly small fraction of the cost.

Amazon, and many others, are diligently working on the the operationalization of drones today. They have a pressing need to use drones in package delivery logistics, at scale. They are tackling a number of technical and regulatory challenges, such as air traffic control. They have the know-how, the tools and, importantly, the imagination to build the support infrastructure that makes drones operate as a system.

Drone light shows are a spearhead that is driving the systematization of drones today. They are creating the market conditions that drive miniaturization, cost reduction, interoperability and, crucially, the development of support processes. Indeed companies like Intel, EHang and HighGreat have developed a tremendous arsenal of technologies and capabilities that allowed them to rapidly scale drone light show production. SPH Engineering, a software engineering firm located in Latvia, is offering open source as well as premium software that allows anyone to create their own drone light show.

It is only a matter of time until these light show capabilities are repurposed for other activities. The availability of open source software along with standard drone interfaces provide extremely favorable conditions to implement AI applications. While light shows are concerned with mapping drones to pixels, these more generalized applications will focus on mapping drones to sub functions. For example, some drones will follow movement in a battlefield, others will count soldiers, etc. While many of these applications will address the task at hand, such as mapping a war zone, much of the AI will focus on breaking up and distributing the task among thousands of drones, and stitching the parts to make the whole.

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AI Fundamentals: The Evolution of AI in Drone Systems - Inside Unmanned Systems

This article originally appeared in Valid Points, CoinDesks weekly newsletter breaking down Ethereum 2.0 and its sweeping impact on crypto markets. Subscribe to Valid Points here.

Ethereums native asset was once discredited by bitcoiners and investors alike for its lack of hard monetary policy and ever-inflationary tokenomics. However, the combination of decentralized finance (DeFi), Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 and the coming transition to proof-of-stake has worked to create what ether holders call Ultra Sound Money.

Ethresear.ch recently introduced multiple new models to predict the circulating supply of ether after the Merge takes place. To understand their findings and the variables involved in their models, its essential to know the following:

Ether is distributed to reward miners for producing blocks under proof-of-work (PoW) and, under Ethereum 2.0, will be used to reward validators for proposing blocks in proof-of-stake (PoS).

EIP 1559 introduced a deflationary mechanism to the network, creating a base transaction fee for utilizing block space on the network and then burning that fee out of existence.

Ethereum 2.0 has an adaptive yield demand curve that attempts to ensure minimum viable issuance, or that enough validators are working to secure the network.

Since EIP 1559 was implemented on Aug. 4, 620,000 ETH at a market value of $2.6 billion has been burned through transaction fees. Using that burn rate and the current network demand metrics, Ethresear.ch found that around 2.5% of ethers circulating supply would be burnt annually. Under proof-of-work, the 2.5% burn only offsets a portion (~39%) of ethers emission schedule. However, emissions fall drastically post-Merge, potentially even making the asset deflationary.

Going back to Ethereum 2.0s adaptive yield curve, the blockchain looks to incentivize enough validators to properly secure the network and not any more. Assuming that staking yield falls around 3%, Ethresear.chs model predicts that the long-term supply of ether may fall anywhere between 27.3-49.5 million ETH or 23%-42% of todays supply.

Story continues

Such a reduction in supply could easily be met with the expectation that ether will be infinitely more scarce than it is today. However, the model requires assuming that demand for blockspace will stay at current levels, which is harder to predict now than ever. Alternative layer 1s continue to grow in popularity, but layer 2 systems built atop Ethereum are just getting started.

Read more: The Success of Ethereums Alternative Ecosystems

Welcome to another edition of Valid Points.

The following is an overview of network activity on the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain over the past week. For more information about the metrics featured in this section, check out our 101 explainer on Eth 2.0 metrics.

Disclaimer: All profits made from CoinDesks Eth 2.0 staking venture will be donated to a charity of the companys choosing once transfers are enabled on the network.

Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon is suing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after being served with a subpoena at Messaris conference last month. BACKGROUND: Do Kwon believes the SEC may have violated its own rules by serving him as a South Korea resident. Furthermore, the founder announced that Terra and Mirror are decentralized and cannot simply be shut down, contrary to what regulators might believe.

Polymarket, the largest DeFi predictions market, is said to be under investigation by the Commodities Futures Trading Commision (CFTC). BACKGROUND: Amid a potential billion-dollar funding round, the CFTC is looking into whether Polymarket offered unregulated swaps or binary options. The firm hired the CFTCs former head of enforcement to deal with the investigation.

A large interoperable Merge developer network is aimed for release during November. BACKGROUND: Eth1 and Eth2 clients came together to launch a test network earlier this month and now aim to release a larger version with further client interoperability. The symbiosis between execution and consensus clients and the creation of successful test networks are positive signs for a successful Merge.

Uniswap has done over $500 billion in trading volume since its inception in November 2018. BACKGROUND: Uniswap is the most popular decentralized exchange on Ethereum Layer 1 and is continuing to expand on Arbitrum and Optimism. According to Token Terminal, the protocol has also returned $1.6 billion in revenue to its liquidity providers.

Decentralized stablecoins have come back to the DeFi spotlight as FXS and SPELL surge in price. BACKGROUND: Regulation of stablecoins and the demand for cheap leverage has led to recent growth in the Maker, Abracadabra and Frax ecosystems, with decentralized stablecoins chipping away at USDT and USDCs market share.

Valid Points incorporates information and data about CoinDesks own Eth 2.0 validator in weekly analysis. All profits made from this staking venture will be donated to a charity of our choosing once transfers are enabled on the network. For a full overview of the project, check out our announcement post.

You can verify the activity of the CoinDesk Eth 2.0 validator in real time through our public validator key, which is:

0xad7fef3b2350d220de3ae360c70d7f488926b6117e5f785a8995487c46d323ddad0f574fdcc50eeefec34ed9d2039ecb.

Search for it on any Eth 2.0 block explorer site.

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The Evolution of Ethereums Monetary Policy - Yahoo Finance

An evolutionary mystery revolving around an ancient animal was recently solved by a recent study. The specified creatures, known as the bryozoans, had been found in the deepest parts of oceanic bodies for at least 35 million years earlier than first thought. The findings prove that the animals thrived throughout their early life along with major groups of species.

The fossils are confirmed to be older than the initially estimated age. The oldest set of bryozoan remains were previously dated around 480 million years ago, during the Ordovician period. The dating was 50 million years later than the surge of major lineage existence.

(Photo: Peter Southwood / WikiCommons)

The bryozoans are actually a colony of small animals called zooids, and according to the latest discovery from Australia and China, the Protomelission gatehouseifossils were not that young in terms of evolutionary age with their distant relatives. The new fossils are estimated to exist at least 500 million years ago.

Natural History Museum's Department of Earth Sciences expert Paul Taylor said in the museum's reportthat the discovery is essential to the mystery between the encrusting colonies from the Cambrian and the existence of the Protomelission gatehousei. The finding suggests that there are more diversity of the bryozoans in the Cambrian than the first discovered specimens. The initial records present the colony's structure as back-to-back individuals that form a single column upward that water. However, the structure could potentially differ from the primitive sorts of the species.

Bryozoans are colonies that form a large phylum among the biggest groups in the animal kingdom. The group consists of over 6,500 living species, and most are found in water bodies, specifically under the ocean's depths. The colonies are composed of tiny individual invertebrates called zooids. they have a size of less than a millimeter in length and are dominantly uniform in physical structure. The near-microscopic size of the zooids may not fit to the category of animal kingdom members, but they actually have managed to comprise all of their anatomical organs, inducing the muscles, digestive, and reproductive system collectively into their small bodies.

ALSO READ: Dinosaur Fossil in Australia First Thought as Giant Carnivore Confirmed Today as Herbivore

Taylor said that the zooids form bryozoa on rocks and other solid materials that could be found underwater, but some of the species are able to cluster on shells and even seaweeds. The zooids are part of the oceanic food chain and could be a great source of nutrients for other marine creatures such as crabs and fish. Along with their nutritional functions, the bryozoans could also form into the reef-like body to serve as temporary habitats for many underwater species.

But the animals have been considered a pest by some regions, especially in places where marine and fishing enterprise is active. Due to this stigma, the presence of the bryozoans is frequently disregarded or overlooked. The limiting data are also shrouded by the mysterious absence of the animals during the Cambrian explosion, but the recent findings are expected to contribute more to future research regarding their true origin. The study was published in the journal Nature, titled "Fossil evidence unveils an early Cambrian origin for Bryozoa."

RELATED ARTICLE: Tusk Evolution: Researchers Trace First Mammal Relative

Check out more news and information on Paleontologyin Science Times.

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Bryozoan Evolution from the Depths of the Ocean Solved; Study Says - Science Times

Mobile slots are some of the most exciting games to play at an online casino. Throughout the world, youll see people playing mobile slots while on the go, during a break at work or while chilling out somewhere.

The online casino industry is growing at a rapid pace alongside the boom the gaming market. But how have mobile slots gotten to be so popular? And how does the history of slots come into play?

In this article well take you through all you need to know about the exciting evolution of online slots. Read on to find out more.

The history of slots

Do you love playing slot machines? Well thats thanks to a car mechanic called Charles Fey who in 1895 created the first mechanical slot in San Francisco. Known as the Liberty Bell, this slot machine had three spinning reels, with heart, spade and diamond symbols painted around each reel as well as an image of a cracked Liberty Bell.

This machine can still be seen in Reno, Nevada at the aptly named Liberty Belle Saloon. But the Liberty Bell wasnt the only slot machine that Charles Fey invented. Other machines of his included the Draw Power, Three Spindle and Klondike. Fey began to rent out his machines to bars and saloons, splitting the profit 50/50.

From there, the slot machine continued to grow in popularity; the demand for Liberty Bells was massive and Fey couldnt keep up despite refusing to sell to manufacturing and distribution rights to casino supply manufacturers. In 1907, a Chicago manufacturer of arcade machines called Herbert Mills created a knock-off of the Liberty Bell which they called the Operator Bell. It was Mills who placed fruit symbols on the machines the ones we all recognize today.

Electronic machines

The era of electric casino machines was the next big step towards the mobile slots we know and love today. It was in 1975 that the first electronic slot machine was created by the Fortune Coin Company.

Although electric casino machines had actually become popular since 1934 when the animated horse race machine PACES RACES was invented. Electronic machines definitely changed the game when it came to casino games; but for those who love them, the best was still to come.

The internet boom and online gaming

It was the internet boom of the 1990s that really changed the world. Almost every industry was effected by the internet, and this of course includes casinos and gaming.

As computers and the internet took the world by storm, the first online casinos were introduced. While in 1996 there were only fifteen online casinos, there were 200 websites offering online casino games by the following year.

As the industry boomed, so did the interest from investors and those wishing to build and develop online gaming companies. More developers were hired and the software behind the games, including online slots, became more and more sophisticated. Many more countries made online casinos legal, which helped fuel the surge in players.

Why are mobile slots so popular?

This is due, in large part, by how fun they are to play and just how sophisticated the technology has gotten over the years. There is continued investment in making the games even better, which is why some of the best animations, graphics and sound are now available as part of slots experiences.

Some gaming companies are looking towards the most exciting new technologies like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, which would bring the atmosphere or elements of a casino into your home.

But one of the biggest reasons that mobile slots have become so popular is due to the rise in mobile device ownership. More people than ever own a smartphone, covering all demographics and locations, with more than three billion smartphone users worldwide, a number that continues to rise over the years.

The convenience of being able to play online slots and other casino games on a smartphone means that more people are getting into games like mobile slots. If youre on the go, at a friends house or even just hanging out on the couch, you can enjoy slot machine games.

There are other huge benefits to playing mobile slots, which include the privacy aspect and not having to spend money going to your local casino. And of course, online casinos make setting up an account and depositing money online so easy to do. They also offer a variety of bonuses to encourage customers to stay loyal to their brand.

A further reason why mobile slots are so popular? Theyre easy to play. Unlike other casino games like poker, anyone can play mobile slots as theres no skills required. This is why many people try mobile slots as their first casino game, as you dont have to be good at them to have a chance at winning.

Lastly, mobile slots are just a great form of entertainment. Game companies are always coming up with new and exciting themes, so theres a mobile slots game out there for everyone. Whether its popular culture, movies, music or a historical theme, theres a huge variety to choose from.

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The Exciting Evolution Of Mobile Slots - Android Headlines

Posted by Daniel Gleeson on 29th October 2021

Epiroc is now offering customers conversion kits that, it says, seamlessly transform loaders from diesel-powered to battery-electric driven means, with the company having secured its first order for the solution from Evolution Minings Red Lake gold operations in Canada.

The new offering will speed up the mining industrys shift to an emissions-free future, Epiroc said.

Battery conversions are already underway in Canada, with Epirocs Scooptram ST1030 loader being the first vehicle to undergo the transformation. Evolution Mining, earlier this year, ordered the conversion of two diesel-powered Scooptram ST1030 machines for use at Red Lake, in Ontario. In addition, it also ordered two new Scooptram ST14 Battery loaders and one Minetruck MT42 Battery to add to the fleet at Red Lake.

The company has been helped in this electrification pursuit by Ontario-based FVT Research, a Canada-based company with expertise in converting diesel-powered mining machines to battery-electric vehicles. Epiroc announced plans in September to acquire the company.

Kits to convert the Scooptram ST1030, one of Epirocs most popular loaders, are now available to order through most of Epirocs Customer Centers worldwide, the OEM said. Conversion kits for other machines will follow, including for the Scooptram ST14 loader, which is already being tested as a converted version.

Helena Hedblom, Epirocs President and CEO, said: Converting existing diesel machines to battery electric will be a smart and cost-efficient alternative for mining companies that want to electrify their operations. It will be an important part as we together continue the drive toward emissions-free operations.

The conversion involves removing the diesel engine, adding the battery and changing to an electric drive line. The end result is the same or higher performance level as diesel machines with all the added benefits of battery technology, which includes zero emissions and a healthier underground environment for operators, Epiroc said.

Epirocs service organisation will offer a quick turnaround time for the conversion, which is included in a midlife rebuild and puts machines back on site ready for heightened performance without unnecessary disruptions to production, it added.

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Epiroc's battery conversion offering comes to life with Evolution Mining Red Lake order - International Mining

High-powered fiber laser cutting machines have introduced a new level of productivity to the job shop. They also have forced company owners and managers to take another look at their nitrogen supply plan.

The increasing adoption rate of high-powered lasers is not likely to end anytime soon. With laser cutting power reaching 20 kW, these devices are capable of cutting materials up to 1.5 in. with precision, a thickness once reserved for waterjets and plasma cutting machines.

Adopting these high-powered devices comes with new considerations, however. All metal fabricators love the increased cutting capacity. For example, on average, a new 20-kW fiber laser can increase cutting speeds by up to 50% when compared to a 10-kW fiber laser power source. That comparison is valid when the cutting is done using nitrogen as the laser assist gas, and thats important to note because nitrogen gas consumption rises dramatically with these new high-powered fiber laser cutting machines. Legacy equipment simply cant match the range of material thicknesses that can be cut efficiently with nitrogen on high-powered fiber laser cutting machines.

Nitrogen is the gas of choice because it prevents the laser-cut edge from becoming oxidized, which is what happens when oxygen is used as the assist gas. (Powder coatings and paint often cannot adhere to oxidized metal edges.) That leads to the following scenario: A metal fabricator loves producing more parts per hour than it ever could on its older laser cutting machine, and to minimize downstream handling, such as grinding the edges to remove evidence of oxidation, it uses nitrogen as the assist gas. As a result, the fabricator likely is going to use more nitrogenespecially if it is cutting platethan it ever did before.

Does the shop seek out larger bulk tanks? Thats a possibility, but it might not be the most cost-effective answer. Relationships with gas suppliers require contracts, which lock metal fabricating companies into a financial arrangement that offers little flexibility. Also, in many instances, the farther away a fab operation is from the gas supplier, the more expensive the gas is.

Increased consumption of nitrogen also begs the question if a facilitys piping system can accommodate the new volume of gas. Re-piping the entire infrastructure might be required with the upsizing of bulk tanks.

After having invested in a new high-powered laser cutting machine including material handling and parts sorting automation, any metal fabricator would show interest in trying to minimize the ongoing costs of running the laser. Thats why more of them are showing an interest in nitrogen generators as part of the equipment mix when they embrace high-powered laser cutting.

Nitrogen generation isnt new to the metal fabricating sector, but it is being more widely embraced. Many shops might have been suspicious of the technology at one time and found traditional bulk containers or dewars more reliable. Today the high-powered fiber lasers thirst for nitrogen is changing any lingering doubts into full-fledged interest.

Nitrogen-generation devices dont really create nitrogen but extract it from the surrounding atmosphere. Nitrogen makes up approximately 78% of the air humans breathe, and oxygen accounts for about 21%. The rest is argon and traces of other gases like carbon dioxide and methane.

There are essentially two methods of generating high-purity nitrogen: membranes and pressure swing adsorption. In the membrane process, gas flows through a collection of hollow fibers; the oxygen molecules flow through because they are smaller than the fibers pores, and nitrogen molecules, which are larger than the pores, migrate to the laser (see Figure 1).

Pressure swing adsorption involves a two-tank setup with a carbon molecular sieve on both tanks to trap oxygen molecules. As one tank is trapping the oxygen, the sieve allows the nitrogen molecules to pass vertically to the second tank. When the first tank can no longer adsorb additional oxygen molecules, a pressure swing occurs between the two tanks, with the second tank becoming pressurized and the first tank expelling its collection of oxygen. The first tank then is filled with nitrogen, and the separation cycle begins again. The entire process is in a constant state of balance (see Figure 2).

Figure 1. The membrane process of generating nitrogen is focused on having gas flow through a collection of hollow fibers. The oxygen molecules flow through the fibers because they are smaller than the fibers pores, and nitrogen molecules, which are larger than the pores, pass through to the laser cutting machine.

Currently the pressure swing adsorption approach is the most common for nitrogen generation for laser cutting. It can produce a very pure nitrogen gas and deliver strong flow rates at higher pressures for those laser cutting machines that require them.

In recent years a lot of research has been conducted with gas mixingadding another gas to nitrogen during the laser cutting process. The primary motivation was increased cutting rates; the idea was that the presence of some oxygen could elevate the cutting temperatures, thereby removing metal at a higher rate. This worked in many instances, but not in all cases.

A recently discovered benefit of gas mixing is the ability to reduce the fiber burrthat burr and dross on the bottom side of metal, particularly aluminum, which appears after metal is cut with any high-powered fiber laser using an inert gas such as nitrogen. This burr results from the material cooling too fast as it is ejected through the bottom surface and recast on the edges of the profile. The presence of oxygen in the gas mix and resultant increase in cut temperature helps to minimize the burr to the point that many metal fabricators can live with the laser-cut results and not worry about downstream deburring.

The results of using this type of gas mix can be pretty dramatic when compared to using straight nitrogen. For instance, a test involving a 6-kW fiber laser cutting 0.375-in. mild steel revealed that a gas mix of 97% nitrogen and 3% oxygen produced a cutting speed of 110 IPM, which was a marked improvement over the 90 IPM using only nitrogen as the assist gas.

The results get more dramatic with higher-powered machines. A 10-kW fiber laser processing the same material and using the same gas mixture achieved cutting speeds as high as 230 IPM. Using straight nitrogen as the laser assist gas, the same machine reached only 183 IPM.

Those are just two examples, but metal fabricators can expect higher-quality edges, increased cutting speeds, and reduced nitrogen consumption when using these gas mixes. Obviously, the results will differ depending on the laser cutting machine being used and the prescribed gas ratio mixtures.

Metal fabricators worried about oxidation of edges when using a gas mix with oxygen have every right to be concerned, but they also might be surprised. Some metal manufacturers have found that parts cut with a gas mixture of 95% nitrogen and 5% oxygen accepted a paint coating well enough and performed satisfactorily in scratch-resistance and weather tests. On the other hand, some manufacturing companies that required parts stand up to extensive salt spray testing, where parts are blasted with salt and water over a long period of time, discovered that using the gas mix during laser cutting opened the door to more test failures. Again, the application and user expectations drive whether the use of this gas mix makes sense.

These gas mixes are delivered to the laser cutting machine through an on-demand gas-mixing system, which is both small in size and inexpensive. The gas mixer makes it easy to dial in the correct ratio of nitrogen and oxygen for the cutting application.

These gas mixers are connected to the nitrogen-generation system and typically high-pressure dewars of oxygen. A bulk supply of oxygen typically doesnt work for this setup because the feed pressure is too low. The feed pressure from one of these oxygen tanks might be 145 PSI, which is inadequate when compared to the feed pressure of 350 PSI from the nitrogen-generation system. If the incoming oxygen feed pressure is 20 PSI less than the nitrogen feed pressure, the nitrogen will displace the oxygen, and the gas flow will become unbalanced. The high-pressure dewars of oxygen keep that gas mixture in the correct balance.

The overall size of the nitrogen-generation system comprises two main parts: the generation unit and the storage tanks. The generation unit takes up about a 6 by 6 sq. ft. and stands about 8 ft. tall. The storage tanks, which look like a stack of scuba tanks, are stacked close to the generation unit, adding a few feet to the overall footprint. The on-demand gas mixer is small by comparison: 2 by 2.5 ft. and about 3 ft. tall.

Figure 2. Pressure swing adsorption systems are commonly used to generate nitrogen for laser cutting.

The size of the nitrogen-generation equipment makes it a good candidate for placing it above the laser cutting machine, say in a mezzanine. To make the most of their existing square footage, shops are looking to go vertical wherever they can with ancillary support equipment for their workhorse machine tools. A nitrogen-generation system is a suitable candidate for this approach.

Research on gas mixing is likely to continue as laser cutting machines grow in power and metal fabricators open their minds to what is possible beyond using pure nitrogen as an assist gas. Machine tool companies will explore just how much oxygen they might be able to introduce for a cutting application that boosts cutting speed and improves cut edges without leaving too much evidence of oxidation. These companies also will take a look at alternative gases to add to the mix, especially given the increased amount of titanium and other specialty metals that fabricators are being asked to cut for the growing commercial space industry.

Despite all the positives associated with nitrogen generation and the new gas mixes that are available with these systems, some metal fabricators are still dragging their feet. The initial capital investment can be a turnoff, particularly if their current gas delivery method and storage tanks work.

Thats where these company owners and managers need to change their perspective. Nitrogen generation represents a chance for metal fabricators to improve production rates, achieve cost certainty, and even boost product quality, with the potential to see further improvements thanks to continuing industry research. Its getting to the point where fabricators cant afford to ignore nitrogen generation if they are running high-powered laser cutting machines.

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High-powered lasers and the evolution of assist gases - The Fabricator

A new fossil discovery in the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada, may change how we consider animal evolution. Image via The Conversation.

By Elizabeth C. Turner, Laurentian University

Ever wonder how and when animals swanned onto the evolutionary stage? When, where and why did animals first appear? What were they like?

Life has existed for much of Earths 4.5-billion-year history, but for most of that time it consisted exclusively of bacteria.

Although scientists have been investigating the evidence of biological evolution for over a century, some parts of the fossil record remain maddeningly enigmatic, and finding evidence of Earths earliest animals has been particularly challenging.

Information about evolutionary events hundreds of millions of years ago is mainly gleaned from fossils. Familiar fossils are shells, exoskeletons and bones that organisms make while alive. These so-called hard parts first appear in rocks deposited during the Cambrian explosion, slightly less than 540 million years ago.

The seemingly sudden appearance of diverse, complex animals, many with hard parts, implies that there was a preceding interval during which early soft-bodied animals with no hard parts evolved from simpler animals. Unfortunately, until now, possible evidence of fossil animals in the interval of hidden evolution has been very rare and difficult to understand, leaving the timing and nature of evolutionary events unclear.

This conundrum, known as Darwins dilemma, remains tantalizing and unresolved 160 years after the publication of On the Origin of Species.

There is indirect evidence regarding how and when animals may have appeared. Animals by definition ingest preexisting organic matter, and their metabolisms require a certain level of ambient oxygen. It has been assumed that animals could not appear, or at least not diversify, until after a major oxygen increase in the Neoproterozoic Era, sometime between 815 and 540 million years ago, resulting from accumulation of oxygen produced by photosynthesizing cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae.

It is widely accepted that sponges are the most basic animal in the animal evolutionary tree and therefore probably were first to appear. Yes, sponges are animals: they use oxygen and feed by sucking water containing organic matter through their bodies. The earliest animals were probably sponge-related (the sponge-first hypothesis),and may have emerged hundreds of millions of years prior to the Cambrian, as suggested by a genetic method called molecular phylogeny, which analyzes genetic differences.

Based on these reasonable assumptions, sponges may have existed as much as 900 million years ago. So, why have we not found fossil evidence of sponges in rocks from those hundreds of millions of intervening years?

Part of the answer to this question is that sponges do not have standard hard parts (shells, bones). Although some sponges have an internal skeleton made of microscopic mineralized rods called spicules, no convincing spicules have been found in rocks dating from the interval of hidden early animal evolution. However, some sponge typeshave a skeleton made of tough protein fibers called spongin, forming a distinctive, microscopic, three-dimensional meshwork, identical to a bath sponge.

Work on modern and fossil sponges has shown that these sponges can be preserved in the rock record when their soft tissue is calcified during decay. If the calcified mass hardens around spongin fibers before they too decay, a distinctive microscopic meshwork of complexly branching tubes results appears in the rock. The branching configuration is unlike that of algae, bacteria or fungi, and is well known from limestones younger than 540 million years.

I am a geologist and paleobiologist who works on very old limestone. Recently, I described this exact microstructure in 890-million-year-old rocks from northern Canada, proposing that it could be evidence of sponges that are several hundred million years older than the next-youngest uncontested sponge fossil.

Although my proposal may initially seem outrageous, it is consistent with predictions and assumptions that are common in the paleontological community: the new material seems to validate an extrapolated timeline and a predicted identity for early animals that are already widely accepted.

If these are indeed sponge fossils, animal evolution can be pushed back by several hundred million years.

The early possible sponges that I describe lived with localized cyanobacterial communities that produced oxygen oases in an otherwise low-oxygen world, prior to the Neoproterozoic oxygenation event. These early sponges may have continued living in similar environments, possibly unchanged and unchallenged by evolutionary pressure, for up to several hundred million years, before more diverse animals emerged.

The existence of 890-million-year-old animals would also indicate that biological evolution was not substantially affected by the controversial Cryogenian glacial episodes so-called snowball Earth that began around 720 million years ago.

My unusual fossil material may provide a new perspective on Darwins dilemma. However, radical new ideas are generally not fully accepted by the scientific community without vigorous discussion; I expect lively controversy to ensue. At some point, probably years in the future, a consensus may develop based on further work. Until then, enjoy the debate!

Elizabeth C. Turner, Professor, Earth Sciences, Laurentian University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Bottom line: Elizabeth Turner said her new fossil discovery may be the oldest animal fossil on record. The 890-million-year-old sponge would push back the evolutionary timeline for animals.

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New fossil discovery may add 100s of millions of years to animal evolution - EarthSky

The professional growth of a photographer, and therefore the maturity of his or her projects, passes through several phases. Different phases require different skills from the photographer. In each phase the work and the goal of photography change, the maturity of his or her work grows.

Borrowing ideas from Greiners growth model (good designers copy, great designers steal), I came up with a model for the evolution of the commercial photographer. Just like Greiners famous model, my model has different phases. It also has crisis moments marking the transition from one phase to the next. And I want to say right away that this is a rather subjective model, and Im sure its different for everyone.

The foundation of photography is creating beautiful images. This is a fundamental skill of any photographer. Its what is taught in art school. Thats why photographers become photographers, to create beauty. Its what makes photography appealing. Its what most people imagine when they think of photography.

The creator uses classic tools and possesses aesthetic skills: color grading, rhythm, form. Further professional growth depends on learning and mastering to create more beautiful things.

The first moment of crisis comes when the photographer succeeds. The better the photography gets, the more photo projects he or she can work on. The photographer needs to collaborate with more people and create projects on a larger scale. It requires tools that help to create more complex photography.

This is quite an obstacle for a creator who was taught in art school to work solo on a single project and who has mastered the craft to perfection.

When photographers overcome the obstacles of collaboration and systems thinking, they become art directors. They now work with larger teams of stylists, agencies, and even approach retouching and color grading differently. Further growth will ensure better collaboration and sharpened systems thinking.

An art director works with stylists, brands, location scouts, magazines, editors, etc. He or she develops beautiful and on-trend projects. Now the final picture has more impact because the scale is bigger. But sometimes the team does their work not according to the assignment, but in the way they want or know how to do it. And thats where the problems come in

If the team wants more impact, the next hurdle they have to overcome is establishing the perfect point of interaction. The photographer (AKA art director) needs to become a problem solver, not a picture maker. For the photographer to allow others to participate in his or her process is a big leap.

If the photographer can connect to all stakeholders and develop organizational skills, he or she can create much bigger solutions. To establish a dialogue, the photographer must understand the language of the business.

Even if youve worked it all out, put ideas together in powerful mood boards, youre faced with the fact that the reality of your idea is too complex to implement. Creating large-scale projects takes a lot of time and money, and in our complex world doesnt bring enough value. Either the world has changed since TikTok, or it turns out youve drifted far into creativity. To solve this problem, the photographer must become a researcher, or better yet, a scientist. Scared?

Scientists are able to build, measure, and learn, apply their unique perspective, mindset, and skillset to lift projects to a higher level. Such a hybrid approach of the artistic, combined with analytical thinking, allows them to create even more valuable projects. Visual thinking, ability to create concrete things, creativity, courage, and ability to see connections all contribute to the quality and success of the projects. They no longer do tasks, they create them. Take a look at Nick Knights photography projects, for example.

And thats when they discover their superpowers, they want more. They want maximum influence: to lead people according to their visions.

And now the photographer faces the final crisis. It needs to raise his or her leadership status. When the photographer was an art director, he or she was already leading a team. But now the playing field has changed. It is no longer just influencing a team, it is about influencing entire organizations.

Its not just about learning how to communicate properly like when it was at the connectors phase. Its a step up. It requires understanding how modern designers, brands and entire industries think and work. To break the rules, you have to learn them first.

There is a growing need in business for a new type of leadership based on imagination. A powerful image can be a tremendous force for change.

About the author: Dmitry Ostrovsky (@ostrovsky) is a photographer and editor of the independent editorial board EDITTS (@editts.class), which is the most useful and beautiful blog about contemporary photography on Instagram in Russia and the CIS. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

Image credits: Header photo licensed from Depositphotos

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The Evolution of the Pro Photographer Through Phases and Crises - PetaPixel

Between 2.5 and 4 billion years ago, a time known as the Archean eon, Earths weather could often be described as cloudy with a chance of asteroid.

Back then, it was not uncommon for asteroids or comets to hit Earth. In fact, the largest ones, more than six miles wide, altered the chemistry of the planets earliest atmosphere. While this has all been generally accepted by the geologists, what hasnt been as well understood is how often these large asteroids would hit and how exactly the fallout from the impacts affected the atmosphere, specifically oxygen levels. A team of researchers now believe they have some of the answers.

In a new study, Nadja Drabon, a Harvard assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences, was part of a team that analyzed remnants of ancient asteroids and modeled the effects of their collisions to show that the strikes took placemore often than previously thought and may have delayed when oxygen started accumulating on the planet. The new models can help scientists understand more precisely when the planet started its path toward becoming the Earth we know today.

Free oxygen in the atmosphere is critical for any living being that uses respiration to produce energy, Drabon said. Without the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere we would probably not exist.

The work is described in Nature Geoscience and was led by Simone Marchi, a senior research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

The researchers found existing planetary bombardment models underestimate how frequently asteroids and comets would hit Earth. The new, higher collision rate suggest impactors hit the planet roughly every 15 million years, about 10 times higher than current models.

The scientists realized this after analyzing records of what appear to be ordinary bits of rock. They are actually ancient evidence, known as impact spherules, that formed in the fiery collisions each time large asteroids or comets struck the planet. The energy from each impact melted and vaporized the rocky materials in the Earths crust, shooting them up in a giant plume. Small droplets of molten rock in that cloud would then condense and solidify, falling back to Earth as sand-sized particles that would settle back onto the Earths crust. These ancient markers are hard to find since they form layers in the rock that are usually only about an inch or so.

You basically just go on long hikes and you look at all the rocks you can find because the impact particles are so tiny, Drabon said. Theyre really easily missed.

Scientists, however, have caught breaks. Over the last couple of years, evidence for a number of additional impacts have been found that hadnt been recognized before, Drabon said.

These new spherule layers increased the total number of known impact events during the early Earth. This allowed the Southwest Research Institute team to update their bombardment models to find the collision rate had been underestimated.

Researchers then modeled how all these impacts would have influenced the atmosphere. They essentially found that the accumulated effects of meteorite impacts by objects larger than six miles probably created an oxygen sink that sucked most of the oxygen out of the atmosphere.

The findings align with the geological record, which shows that oxygen levels in the atmosphere varied but stayed relatively low in the early Archean eon. This was the case until around 2.4 billion years ago, during the tail end of the time period when the bombardment slowed down. The Earth then went through a major shift in surface chemistry triggered by the rise of oxygen levels known as the Great Oxidation Event.

As time went on, collisions become progressively less frequent and too small to be able to significantly alter post-GOE oxygen levels, Marchi said in a statement. The Earth was on its course to become the current planet.

Drabon said next steps in the project include putting their modeling work to the test to see what they can model in the rocks themselves.

Can we actually trace in the rock record how the oxygen was sucked out of the atmosphere? Drabon wondered.

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Asteroid, comet strikes stunted evolution of atmosphere - Harvard Gazette

Appearing at the recent DC FanDome event, The Batman star Zo Kravitz and director Matt Reeves have teased the evolution of the infamous villain-slash-accomplice-slash-love interest, Catwoman. Much like the Dark Knight himself, the noirish comic book movie outing will introduce an early-years version of the crusading cat burglar, building a foundation for the character before slowly allowing her to become a more familiar iteration.

"I obviously understand the gravity of a character like this and what she means to so many people," Zo Kravitz said during DC FanDome last weekend. "But what felt really important was to really focus on the story that we're telling in this moment, you know, and try and create a real human being. I don't want her to be an idea. You know, I want her to be a real human being in a real situation, in a real city, trying to survive and reacting to her own pain, and her history. So I really, really focused on this particular story in this particular moment in this woman's life."

Kravitz will star in The Batman as Selina Kyle, the alter ego of Catwoman, a nightclub worker and cat burglar who comes into contact with the Caped Crusader while searching for her missing friend. It was important for Kravitz to craft a three-dimensional character for herself, and thus avoid simply portraying an icon or coasting on the ideas created by past portrayals. Something which will certainly make the character more endearing as she evolves into the Catwoman we all know and love (and sometimes hate).

"Because this is the foundation that we're setting right now, right?" Kravitz continued. "As we move forward and see her become Catwoman, that heart and that humanity will always be there."

Giving Selina Kyle her own story outside of Batman was equally as important to director Matt Reeves who added, "I think it was about trying to find a way... to ground her so that she felt like she had an emotional journey that made sense for who she was that ended up being Selina Kyle, but was one that we hadn't seen before. And yet, in some ways, it does connect to the comics. I mean, that's the thing which would be fun to share with an audience is that there are very there are a lot of iconic Selina Kyle aspects to the story, but I don't think any version of any of the Batman stories that have done any Selina stuff have done it in this way."

Directed by War for the Planet of the Apes' Matt Reeves, who has written the screenplay alongside Peter Craig, The Batman will reboot the DC franchise, introducing audiences to the titular superhero in his second year of fighting crime. Batman uncovers corruption in Gotham City that connects to his own family while facing a serial killer known as the Riddler.

The Batman stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne AKA Batman, alongside Zo Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gil Colson, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, and Colin Farrell as Oswald "Oz" Cobblepot, also known as The Penguin. These comments were made during the recent DC FanDome event.

Topics: The Batman, Catwoman

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The Batman Star and Director Tease the Evolution of Catwoman - MovieWeb