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Phoenix666 writes:

The brain is soft and electronics are stiff, which can make combining the two challenging, such as when neuroscientists implant electrodes to measure brain activity and perhaps deliver tiny jolts of electricity for pain relief or other purposes.

Chemical engineer Zhenan Bao is trying to change that. For more than a decade, her lab has been working to make electronics soft and flexible so that they feel and operate almost like a second skin. Along the way, the team has started to focus on making brittle plastics that can conduct electricity more elastic.

Now in Science Advances, Bao's team describes how they took one such brittle plastic and modified it chemically to make it as bendable as a rubber band, while slightly enhancing its electrical conductivity. The result is a soft, flexible electrode that is compatible with our supple and sensitive nerves.

"This flexible electrode opens up many new, exciting possibilities down the road for brain interfaces and other implantable electronics," said Bao, a professor of chemical engineering. "Here, we have a new material with uncompromised electrical performance and high stretchability."

The material is still a laboratory prototype, but the team hopes to develop it as part of their long-term focus on creating flexible materials that interface with the human body.

More information: Yue Wang et al. A highly stretchable, transparent, and conductive polymer, Science Advances (2017). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1602076

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Intel has muscled its way into the yet-to-be-profitable driverless car market with a $15.3 billion acquisition of a sensor-making company:

The likes of Google and Uber already have invested billions of dollars in their own technology, signing partnerships with automakers like Chrysler and Volvo and sending test vehicles onto the road in a bid to cement their place in the industry, which is estimated to be worth $25 billion annually by 2025, according to Bain & Company, the consultancy firm.

But by acquiring Mobileye, whose digital vision technology allows autonomous vehicles to safely navigate city streets, Intel aims to provide a complete package of digital services, looking to supply to automakers that want to offer autonomous driving, but which do not want to rely on the likes of Google for such services. "Scale is going to win in this market," Brian Krzanich, Intel's chief executive, told investors on Monday. "I don't believe that every carmaker can invest to do independent development into autonomous cars."

Bloomberg has this analysis:

To the non-tech crowd on Wall Street, a bet of this scale by an industry stalwart such as Intel serves to validate the growth strategy, even if the payoff is years down the road. But it's also a reminder that enthusiasm for self-driving cars is making chip companies go crazy. At this point, it's hard to gauge how big a movement autonomous cars will become, nor how it will affect companies that participate in the technology. Mobileye's automotive imaging technology, for example, is being tested by car makers such as BMW, but you can bet the tech superpowers developing driverless cars will cook up the key components on their own, as Google parent company Alphabet Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. are doing. The more the tech industry heavyweights rely on self-built components, the more that threatens to cut Mobileye out of the self-driving future -- or at least slash prices for Mobileye components. The self-driving auto unit of Alphabet claims to be pushing down the prices for the imaging technology that maps the surroundings of autonomous cars. That can't be good for Mobileye's ability to maintain its 75 percent gross profit margins.

Also at Reuters, AnandTech, and Nasdaq.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

SoftBank will reportedly sell a 25% stake in ARM ($8 billion) to the ~$100 billion investment fund it has jointly created with Saudi Arabia, Apple, and others. ARM Holdings was bought by SoftBank for around $32 billion last year.

SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son met with Saudi King Salman during the King's state visit to Japan. Son gave the King one of his company's humanoid robots. Saudi Arabia is seeking investors as it prepares to launch an initial public offering for Saudi Aramco. Toyota agreed to conduct a feasibility study into the idea of production in Saudi Arabia, the result of one of twenty memorandums of understanding signed by Japanese companies and institutions with Saudi Arabia.

Also at The Telegraph, and Arab News (extra).

Related: Softbank to Invest $50 Billion in the US

Original Submission

takyon writes:

SpaceX has been required to purchase $63 million of liability coverage for its next launch, up from $13 million:

A SpaceX rocket scheduled to boost a commercial satellite into orbit from Florida before dawn on Tuesday carries five times as much liability coverage for prelaunch operations as launches in previous years. The higher limit, mandated by federal officials, reflects heightened U.S. concerns about the potential extent of damage to nearby government property in the event of an accident before blastoff. But at this point it isn't clear what specifically prompted imposition of higher liability coverage on Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

On a related note, SpaceX's most recently scheduled launch has been delayed:

Targeting Thursday, March 16 for @EchoStar XXIII launch; window opens at 1:35am EDT and weather is 90% favorable.

If you are in the area, and can hang around for another couple days, there's a Delta 4 launch scheduled for Friday shortly after sunset (2344 UTC).

Original Submission

Last time — with the help of the excellent Michal Necasek of the OS/2 Museum — we talked about mapping the damage within the existing Xenix 386 disks and successfully got the system to the end of installation.

For those new to the series, I recommend you catch up with the previous three articles:

1. Restoring Xenix 386 2.2.3c, Part 1
2. Xenix 2.2.3c Restoration: No Tools, No Problem (Part 2)
3. Xenix 2.2.3c Restoration: Damage Mapping (Part 3)

Unfortunately, at this point we had exhausted the data we could successfully recover from the TeleDisk images, so now it was time to think laterally in our quest to restore viable installation media. Back in Part 2, I posted the disk headers from each disk indicating what it was and where it was in the set:

./tmp/_lbl/prd=xos/typ=386AT/rel=2.2.3c/vol=N03
./tmp/_lbl/prd=xos/typ=n86/rel=2.2.2c/vol=B02
./tmp/_lbl/prd=xos/typ=n86/rel=2.2.2c/vol=X01

And also noted that there was a slight version mismatch (2.2.3 vs 2.2.2). What I didn’t point out was the type was different: n86, vs 386AT; Xenix speak for “generic x86” vs. “386 AT”. As Michal and I discussed it, I realized there was another place we could go to find sectors.

CoolHand writes:

Scientific American has a story on recent developments made by scientists in solar fueled vehicles.

Experts have long been experimenting with techniques to create solar fuels, which allow all the advantages of conventional fossil fuels along with the environmental benefits of renewable energy. However, this requires a "photoanode" — a sort of catalyst that can set the ball rolling — and researchers have had a tough time identifying them in the past.

Now, scientists from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology think they've found a better way. If their experiments bear fruit, the results could revolutionize the renewable energy landscape. [...] Photoanodes are key to this procedure.

"The job of the photoanode is to absorb sunlight and then use that energy to oxidize water — essentially splitting apart the H2O molecule and rearranging the atoms to form a fuel. And because this photoanode material needs to have the right sunlight absorption and catalytic properties, they're very rare," explained Gregoire.

In fact, photoanodes are so rare that in the last 40 years, scientists have only been able to find 16 of them.

[...] Gregoire and his colleagues have come up with a new way to hunt for the catalysts, however, and it's much more effective. In two years, the scientists have already pinpointed 12 new photoanodes.

takyon writes:

Researchers have demonstrated that an enzyme-free metabolic pathway using sulfate radicals can mirror the Krebs cycle:

A set of biochemical processes crucial to cellular life on Earth could have originated in chemical reactions taking place on the early Earth four billion years ago, believes a group of scientists from the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Cambridge. The researchers have demonstrated a network of chemical reactions in the lab which mimic the important Krebs cycle present in living organisms today. In a study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, they say it could explain an important step in how life developed on Earth.

[...] One central metabolic pathway learned by every A-level biology student is the Krebs cycle. But how did this essential set of chemical reactions, each step catalyzed by an enzyme, first arise? Each step in the cycle is not enough by itself. Life needs a sequence of these reactions, and it would have needed it before biological enzymes were around: Amino acids, the molecular components of enzymes, are made from products of the Krebs cycle.

The research group from the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Cambridge say their demonstration offers an answer. They have shown an enzyme-free metabolic pathway that mirrors the Krebs cycle. It is sparked by particles called sulphate radicals under conditions similar to those on Earth four billion years ago. Senior author Dr Markus Ralser of the Francis Crick Institute and University of Cambridge explains: "This non-enzymatic precursor of the Krebs cycle that we have demonstrated forms spontaneously, is biologically sensible and efficient. It could have helped ignite life four billion years ago."

Found at ScienceDaily.

Sulfate radicals enable a non-enzymatic Krebs cycle precursor (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0083) (DX)

Original Submission

Fnord666 writes in with a story by David Kravets that appeared in Ars Technica :

In a 53-14 vote that took place days ago, South Dakota's legislative House passed legislation that makes arrest booking photos public records. The measure, which cleared the state's Senate in January, will be signed by Governor Dennis Daugaard.

With that signature on Senate Bill 25, (PDF) South Dakota becomes the 49th state requiring mug shots to be public records. The only other state in the union where they're not public records is Louisiana.

The South Dakota measure is certain to provide fresh material for the online mug shot business racket. These questionable sites post mug shots, often in a bid to embarrass people in hopes of getting them to pay hundreds of dollars to have their photos removed. The exposé I did on this for Wired found that some mug shot site operators had a symbiotic relationship with reputation management firms that charge for mug shot removals.

[...] The law allows for the release of mug shots, even including those of minors, for those arrested for various felonies. The law also allows agencies to refuse to hand over booking photos that are more than six months old. Agencies are entitled to recover costs "to provide or reproduce" mug shots.

Original Submission

e_armadillo writes:

I have been getting calls that immediately start with, "Thank you for choosing Marriot Hotels!" for a couple years now. The message goes on to say how I am getting this great offer because I am a valued customer. On a couple occasions, I stayed on the line to get a human, they ask yes/no questions (are you over 28? do you have a valid credit card?). I just replied with questions of my own, and they immediately hung up. I can continue to ignore the calls, but they are always from a random local number and I get nearly twice as many of these calls than I get legitimate calls.

I did a search and found this has been around for a while and Marriot is aware:
http://news.marriott.com/2015/05/marriott-international-responds-to-continued-phone-scam-updated-oct-20-2015/

I have deliberated about posting, but I don't see the FCC [US Federal Communications Commission] as being able to act unless I can provide them something more than the spoofed phone number. Providing the number(s) probably won't help as they are spoofing the caller ID. I know that this is a long shot, but is there anything anyone can suggest beyond creating a spreadsheet of phone numbers, dates, and times to log these calls? Would that even be useful?

It seems that something is fundamentally broken with the current phone system, if this spoofing is even possible. But that is a side topic here, the real question is, what can I do, if anything, to get the data the FCC would need to shut this down?

Original Submission

mendax writes:

Wired recently published an article about the Beatles' one live album:

The Beatles' remarkable catalog includes just one official live album, and the group's immense popularity made it unlistenable. The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, recorded in 1964 and 1965 but not released until 1977, was always a frustrating listen. Try as you might, you simply cannot hear much music above the fan-belt squeal of 10,000 Beatlemaniacs.

You can't blame the Fab Four, nor their legendary producer George Martin. Martin did what he could with the three-track tapes, but the limitations of 1970s technology did little to elevate the music above the din. Boosting the high frequencies—the snap of Ringo Starr's hi-hat, the shimmer and chime of George Harrison's guitar—only made the racket made by all those fans even louder.

All of which makes the remastered version of Live at the Hollywood Bowl especially impressive. The do-over, which coincided with the August release of Ron Howard's documentary film Eight Days a Week, squeezes astonishing clarity out of the source tapes. You can finally hear an exceptionally tight band grinding out infectious blues-based rock propelled by a driving beat, wailing guitars, and raspy vocals. This album never sounded so lucid, present, or weighty.

What makes the article interesting to geeks is how the the sound engineers were able to eliminate all that spectator noise:

To get a sense of what the team at Abbey Road Studios did, imagine deconstructing a smoothie so you're left with whole strawberries, peeled bananas, and ice cubes, then mixing them again from scratch.

The process is a bit more complicated than that but the article detailed description is an interesting read.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Astronomers have observed a probable white dwarf orbiting a black hole at a distance of around a million kilometers:

The close-in stellar couple -- known as a binary -- is located in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, a dense cluster of stars in our galaxy about 14,800 light years away from Earth. While astronomers have observed this binary for many years, it wasn't until 2015 that radio observations revealed the pair likely contains a black hole pulling material from a companion star called a white dwarf, a low-mass star that has exhausted most or all of its nuclear fuel.

New Chandra data of this system, known as X9, show that it changes in X-ray brightness in the same manner every 28 minutes, which is likely the length of time it takes the companion star to make one complete orbit around the black hole. Chandra data also shows evidence for large amounts of oxygen in the system a characteristic of white dwarfs. A strong case can, therefore, be made that that the companion star is a white dwarf, which would then be orbiting the black hole at only about 2.5 times the separation between Earth and the moon.

"This white dwarf is so close to the black hole that material is being pulled away from the star and dumped onto a disk of matter around the black hole before falling in," said Arash Bahramian, lead author with the University of Alberta (Canada) and MSU. "Luckily for this star, we don't think it will follow this path into oblivion, but instead will stay in orbit."

Found at Michigan State University.

The ultracompact nature of the black hole candidate X-ray binary 47 Tuc X9 (open, DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stx166) (DX)

Considering the measured orbital period (with other evidence of a white dwarf donor), and the lack of transitional millisecond pulsar features in the X-ray light curve, we suggest that this could be the first ultracompact black hole X-ray binary identified in our Galaxy

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Japanese scientists show that lazy ant workers step in to replace fatigued workers, improving colony long-term persistence.

A quick glance at an ant foraging trail or beehive shows throngs of tireless workers feeding and protecting their colonies. A closer look reveals otherwise. In fact, many ant, bee and termite workers are slackers. In some cases, four-fifths of workers appear to just rest, eat, clean themselves or walk about. The remaining workers toil hard.

Scientists have spotted lazy workers in social insects since the 1980s. Yet insect societies, similar to humans, compete on efficiency and productivity. So what explains the existence of lazy workers?

One possible explanation is that lazy workers slack to ensure the colony's survival against a wipeout of active workers, says a study published in Scientific Reports. In this study, a group of scientists at Hokkaido University and Shizuoka University in Japan found that when active ants are disabled by a rare catastrophe, the inactive ants, rested and energetic, step in to keep the colony running.

They have so much to teach us, these humble ants.

Original Submission

CoolHand submitted this story from the BBC:

The yellow submarine named Boaty McBoatface is set to leave for Antarctica this week on its first science expedition.

The robot is going to map the movement of deep waters that play a critical role in regulating Earth's climate.

Boaty carries the name that a public poll had suggested be given to the UK's future £200m polar research vessel.

The government felt this would be inappropriate and directed the humorous moniker go on a submersible instead.

But what many people may not realise is that there is actually more than one Boaty. The name covers a trio of vehicles in the new Autosub Long Range class of underwater robots developed at Southampton's National Oceanography Centre (NOC).

These machines can all be configured slightly differently depending on the science tasks they are given.

The one that will initiate the "adventures of Boaty" will head out of Punta Arenas, Chile, on Friday aboard Britain's current polar ship, the RRS James Clark Ross.

The JCR will drop the sub into a narrow, jagged, 3,500m-deep gap in an underwater ridge that extends northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Referred to as the Orkney Passage, this is the gateway into the Atlantic for much of the "bottom-water" that is created as sea-ice grows on the margins of the White Continent.

[...] The Dynamics of the Orkney Passage Outflow (DynOPO) expedition is a collaboration between BAS, the University of Southampton and NOC.

[Ed note: Emphasis copied verbatim from the original source.]

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A new method for 3D printed surface smoothing wastes less material while achieving better accuracy:

Waseda University researchers have developed a process to dramatically improve the quality of 3D printed resin products. The process combines greatly improved surface texture and higher structural rigidity with lower cost, less complexity, safer use of solvent chemicals and elimination of troublesome waste dust.

[...] The Waseda researchers developed and tested a method called 3D Chemical Melting Finishing (3D-CMF), which uses a tool like a felt-tip pen to selectively apply solvent to particular parts of the printed piece which require smoothing. The new 3D-CMF method has major advantages over previous methods: removing less material to create less waste and achieve more accurate shaping; and using less solvent for better safety and lower cost. In addition, pen tips can be changed to further increase surface shaping accuracy. These improvements promise to move 3D printing into a much more attractive commercial position, as a realistic possibility for in-home consumer use.

Development of the Improving Process for the 3D Printed Structure (open, DOI: 10.1038/srep39852) (DX)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Google, NASA, and Universities Space Research Association (USRA) run a joint research lab called the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (QuAIL). That partnership has used a 512-qubit D-Wave Two quantum annealer, upgraded to the 1,152-qubit D-Wave 2x, and is now upgrading again to the company's latest D-Wave 2000Q system (2048 qubits):

Google, NASA, and the USRA are now buying the latest generation D-Wave quantum computer, as well, to further explore its potential. The new D-Wave 2000Q is not just up to 1,000 times faster than the previous generation, but it also has better controls, allowing QuAIL to tweak it for its algorithms. QuAIL is now looking at developing machine learning algorithms that can take advantage of D-Wave's latest quantum annealing computer.

[...] D-Wave also announced that it will help the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) establish a quantum computing research center for defense and intelligence purposes. D-Wave's role will be to aid the Virginia Tech staff in developing applications and software tools for its quantum annealing computers. [...] Because D-Wave is not a universal quantum computer, like what Google and IBM plan to build over the next few years, it is not expected to be useful in cracking encryption. Virginia Tech plans to also focus on developing machine learning algorithms for the D-Wave computers.

Previously: Trees Are the New Cats: D-Wave Used for Machine Vision

Original Submission