Mars Helicopters, Super Accurate Clocks, Robot Pants, With Ralph Bond!

For more about me, see: https://ralphbond.wixsite.com/aboutme

Story 1:  NASA is sending a helicopter to Mars. It’ll be the first aircraft to fly on another planet

 

Source:  CNN Story by Scottie Andrew

Link: https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/29/us/nasa-mars-rover-helicopter-scn-trnd/index.html

See the source image

See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzsYTqTl0v8

  • Engineers have attached a helicopter to the Mars 2020 rover ahead of its launch next summer. And if it flies successfully, it’ll be the first aircraft to fly on another planet, NASA said.
  • My first reaction – considering the thin Martian atmosphere, which is equivalent to about 1% of Earth’s atmosphere at sea level — it’s a big challenge for making a helicopter work on Mars 
  • The solar-powered Mars Helicopter will be safely stowed underneath the rover until it lands at the JEZ ROW Crater, where scientists believe water once flowed. 
  • The craft will detach from the rover and explore Mars from the air while the rover collects samples on the ground.
  • If all goes well, the autonomous HELICOPTER will snapshot aerial views of Martian cliffs, caves and craters that the land-bound rover can’t explore
  • NASA said it hopes the helicopter will eventually carry tools around the planet and guide astronauts when they arrive. 
  • The rover launches in July 2020, and it won’t arrive at the Jez-ROW Crater until February 18, 2021. 
  • But if the helicopter soars, it’ll provide never-before-seen views of the Red Planet.

Story 2:  This is the world’s most accurate clock — for now, anyways

National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado has developed the world’s most accurate clock. 

 

Source:  ABC News Story by Catherine Meyers

Link: https://preview.abcnews.go.com/Technology/worlds-accurate-clock-now/story?id=64877303

  • At its heart is a single positively charged aluminum ion, trapped in electromagnetic fields and cooled to near absolute zero, that sets the clock’s “tick-tock.” 
  • An ion is an atom or molecule with a net electric charge due to the loss or gain of one or more electrons
  • The ion for this clock has been shaped by nature to absorb a very specific frequency of ultraviolet light, and scientists use it to tune a laser to that same frequency
  • The steady ups and downs of the laser’s light wave — more than a quadrillion per second — mark the passage of time.
  • A quadrillion is a thousand trillion
  • With this development, scientists have reached a long-sought-after level of accuracy. It would take 33 billion years for the new timekeeper to gain or lose a mere second!
  • Okay, why this drive for super accuracy?  What’s the motivation?  These ultra-accurate clocks are used as:
  • primary standards for international time distribution services, 
  • to control the wave frequency of television broadcasts, 
  • and in global navigation satellite systems such as GPS

Story 3:  Scientists at Harvard University create gut gel ‘band-aid’ made from the body’s own bacteria

 

Source:  Engadget Story by Georgina Torbet

Link: https://www.engadget.com/2019/08/12/hydrogel-bacteria-gut-injuries/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000618

  • If you get a cut on your skin, you stick a band-aid on it. But what if you get a wound in your gut? 
  • When doctors treat injuries to the intestines, they can’t use patches or bandages because these materials don’t stick to the slippery intestinal walls
  • Now, a team from Harvard University has come up with a solution for this problem by using the body’s own bacteria in a gel form.
  • The hydrogel, as it is called, is made from nanofibers which can adhere to the walls of the gut, created by engineering E. coli bacteria that naturally exist in our digestive systems. 
  • WAIT, E. coli is bad, right? The scientists use the non-path-o-genic version of E. coli which won’t make you sick and actually helps to keep the gut healthy.
  • The engineered bacteria can be grown in a lab, and then added to syringes or sprays to be introduced to intestinal wounds and start their healing work.

Story 4:  Researchers at Harvard have developed robo-shorts — a true soft exoskeleton to help users walk and run

Source:  TechCrunch Story by Devin Coldewey

Link: https://tinyurl.com/y4ch8p8r

Be sure to check out the video embedded in the article. 

  • When someone says “robotic exoskeleton,” the power loaders from the movie Aliens are what come to mind for many people 
  • The latest such exoskeleton from Harvard is so low-profile you could wear it around the house
  • It is softer, smarter and used for much more ordinary tasks, such as helping with walking and running
  • Designed by researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute, the suit is a pair of shorts with a mechanism attached at the lower back — and cables going to straps on the legs
  • It is intended to simply assist the leg in its hip-extension movement, common to most forms of locomotion.
  • How it works: An onboard computer and neural network detects the movements of the wearer’s body and determines both the type of gait (walking or running) and what phase of that gait the leg is currently in.      It gives the leg making the movement a little boost, making it just that much easier to do it.
  • The device, shorts and all, weighs about 11 pounds. Most of that is in the little battery and motor pack stashed at the top of the shorts, near the body’s center of mass, helping it feel lighter than it is.
  • Possible uses: to help an elderly person stand up from a chair, or someone recovering from an accident walk farther without fatigue.
  • And our military is interested in this new exoskeleton solution, to help in the treatment of wounded soldiers.

Story 5:  Blood vessels built from people’s cells could help dialysis patients

 

Source:  Science News

Link: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bioengineered-blood-vessels-patient-cells-dialysis

  • Hundreds of thousands of people in the United States require blood vessel implants for dialysis.
  • The problem: Traditional blood vessel implants composed of synthetic polymers or donor tissue are liable to trigger inflammation or immune system rejection.
  • In clinical trials, lab-grown, bioengineered blood vessels created by medical research company Hum-a-cyte in Durham, N.C. were implanted into patients undergoing dialysis. And they successfully integrated into patients’ circulatory systems.
  • How they were made:
  • The team at Humacyte created each blood vessel by seeding a biodegradable polymer tube first with vascular cells from a deceased donor. 
  • Inside a bioreactor tank that supplied the vascular cells with nutrients, these cells multiplied and secreted proteins that formed an intercellular network.
  • After eight weeks, the polymer scaffold had broken down, and the researchers stripped the donor cells from the remaining protein tube, leaving no living material behind. 
  • The vessel, about 6 millimeters across, was then implanted into the patient, where the patient’s own cells gradually migrated into the tube.
  • The newly engineered blood vessels didn’t trigger any significant immune reactions in any of the patients.

Story 6:  Military working on self-destructing material that disappears in an instant to carry out covert missions without leaving any trace

 

Source:  Daily Mail Story by James Pero

Link: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7399407/Scientists-pioneer-material-disappears-use-make-covert-military-operations-stealthier.html

See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=A7QXerW77I4

  • A new polymer has been created that can vanish when in contact with sun light or by the push of a button 
  • A polymer is a substance that has a molecular structure consisting chiefly or entirely of a large number of similar units bonded together, for example, many synthetic organic materials used as plastics and resins
  • For covert military operations the polymer could be used as a delivery vessel and vanish rapidly afterward
  • This polymer disappears in an instant when you push a button to trigger an internal mechanism or the sun hits it.
  • Scientists say the material, made by researchers at the American Chemical Society for the Department of Defense, could be used to deploy electronic sensors and deliver military equipment covertly by dropping off packages and leaving no sign that the device was ever there.

Story 7:  The robot ship set to cross the Atlantic and change the world

 

Source:  The Daily Beast Story by Davie Axe

Link: https://www.thedailybeast.com/maxlimer-the-robot-ship-set-to-cross-the-atlantic-and-change-the-world

  • There’s a blocky, 36-foot-long, yellow- and white-striped vessel bobbing off the coast of the United Kingdom called the Max-li-mer.
  • And it just might be the most important ship in the world right now.
  • Why such a big deal?  Because Max-li-mer is totally robotic
  • And it’s poised to be the first unmanned surface vessel to cross the Atlantic sometime in 2020.
  • The journey could prove the case for a host of new oceangoing drones: crewless cargo ships; unmanned oil tankers; AND robotic work boats.
  • However, widespread adoption could take years or even decades.
  • Max-li-mer is a product of SEA-KIT, a maritime tech company based in southeast England. 
  • The implications are great – With no need to support a human crew, a robotic support ship could devote more space to equipment, including a flotilla of smaller drone boats and submarines that it can launch and retrieve. 
  • Since it doesn’t get hungry, tired, or sick, it could sail at a leisurely eight miles per hour until it runs out of fuel, potentially nine months at a stretch.

Story 8:  MIT’s new thread-like robots could travel through blood vessels in the brain for more effective surgery

 

Source:  TechCrunch Story by: Darrell Etherington

Link: https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/29/mits-new-thread-like-robots-could-travel-through-blood-vessels-in-the-brain-for-more-effective-surgery/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000618

MIT Robo Thread 0
  • MIT has developed a robotic thread that could potentially make it easier to treat brain blood vessel issues like blockages and lesions that can cause aneurysms and strokes.
  • The new development from MIT combines robotics with current en-do-vas-cular surgery techniques (which means within a blood vessel), reducing the risks associated with guiding incredibly thin wires through complicated brain blood vessel pathways.
  • Today, this type of procedure, which is much less invasive than past methods of brain surgery, nonetheless requires an incredibly skilled surgeon to guide the wire manually. 
  • These “robot-threads” developed by MIT expand on research done on so-called “hydrogels” – which are materials made mostly of water that work well within the human body. 
  • At the thread’s core is a material called “nitinol” that can bend, and is springy, meaning it has a natural tendency to spring back to its original shape when bent.
  • More geeky stuff on nitinol – its’ a para-magnetic alloy of nickel and titanium that, after heating and deformation, resumes its original shape when reheated.
  • The material is coated in an ink-like substance, which is then bonded with a hydrogel, thus CREATING a magnetically manipulable – OR STEERABLE – material that can still survive within the human body. 
  • Using a large magnet, the researchers have demonstrated how they can steer the thread through a complex obstacle course they built to show off how it could work in a DELICATE surgical situation.

Story 9:  Nanoparticles Will Give You Superhuman Night Vision

 

Source:  Popular Mechanics Story by Courtney Linder

Link: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/design/a28831284/nanoparticles-night-vision/

See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VJGdj1YiNI

  • Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School have discovered a way to give mice the ability to see infrared light, a part of the visible spectrum that we humans simply cannot see, although it’s there.
  • Infrared light has longer wavelengths than the visible spectrum, so it’s invisible to the human eye
  • The scientists developed what they call – GET READY FOR THIS MOUTHFUL “ocular injectable photoreceptor-binding upconversion nanoparticles,” to anchor them onto retinal photo-receptors in the eyes of mice.
  • Those nanoparticles injected into the eyes of the mice contain two rare-earth elements which help convert the infrared light into a higher energy green light that mammal eyes can detect.
  • Note: the injection into the eyes of mice is the same PROCEDURE as an intra-vit-real injection – in which a doctor delivers a shot of medicine into a human’s eye. 
  • After just one injection into the mice’s eyes, the effects last at least 10 weeks
  • To avoid injections  – For humans, the researchers said the team has tried to create a contact lens version

Story 10:  Cool New Robot Can Grab Squishy Fish Without Hurting Them

 

Source:  Popular Mechanics Story by Jennifer Leman

Link: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a28844093/jellyfish-grabbing-robot/

  • Deep-sea jellyfish have inspired the design of robots – robots that can move like a jellyfish without disturbing other sea life – but here we’re talking about a robot designed to gently capture Jellyfish
  • The challenge: jellyfish are difficult to study because they easily out-maneuver the scientists trying to capture them.
  • The solution: In a new paper published in Science Robotics, mechanical materials engineer Nina Sinatra of Harvard University and her colleagues have developed a new robot with finger-like tentacles soft enough to snag the slippery sea creatures without hurting them.
  • Sinatra’s robot has six finger-like appendages that stretch out and then delicately close around the fish. 
  • An air channel inside each finger can be pressurized, forcing the appendages to curl inward, and the soft exterior silicone coating of each finger is laced with a web of nanofibers that help direct which way they move.
  • In order to keep the animals safe during capture, the robot needs to apply just the right amount of pressure.  GREAT VIDEO IN THE ARTICLE

Story 11:  Google details AI work behind Project Euphonia’s more inclusive speech recognition

 

Source:  Tech Crunch Story by Devin Coldeway

Link: https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/13/google-details-ai-work-behind-project-euphonias-more-inclusive-speech-recognition/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000618

See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtKGWSpppz4

  • Google announced Project Euphonia in May: It’s a research effort to make speech recognition capable of understanding people with speaking impediments
  • The problem today is the speaking voices of those with motor impairments, such as those produced by degenerative diseases like am-y[I]-o-tro-phic lateral sclerosis (ALS), simply are not understood by existing natural language processing systems —  Such as an Amazon Alexa controlled device – or a Google device that responds to “Hey Google” 
  • So, Google’s researchers collected dozens of hours of spoken audio from people with ALS to train a special artificial intelligence system to better understand the speaker
  • For example, perhaps the ALS speaker says, “I’m going back inside the house.”  But a standard voice recognition system thinks he/she said “I’m going tack inside the mouse.”
  • The solution or goal is to have the AI system use what it knows of human language — and of the voice and speaking patterns of the ALS user — combined with the context in which you’re speaking — to fill in the gaps intelligently, and more accurately.
  • My take on this…Is it perfect?  No, but in my opinion, a noble research effort to help special needs users enjoy the benefits of voice-controlled technology. 

Story 12:  Optimus Ride Launches New York State’s First Commercial Self-Driving Vehicle System at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

 

Source:  

Link: https://www.optimusride.com/press/optimus-ride-launches-new-york-states-first-commercial-self-driving-vehicle-system-at-the-brooklyn-navy-yard

  • Key Question: Would you ride on an autonomous vehicle in a city environment?  The folks at Optimus Ride are hoping the answer is “yes”
  • Beginning August 7 six autonomous vehicles [about the size of a large minivan] will transport passengers within the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
  • The Brooklyn Navy Yard is a 300-acre industrial park with more than 400 manufacturing businesses and 10,000 employees onsite. 
  • Each autonomous van seats 6 passengers, with exterior doors on both sides for each row. 
  • The goal: According to the Optimus Ride announcement, the system will provide access to and experience with autonomous vehicles for thousands of people, helping to increase acceptance and confidence of this new technology
  • The Optimus Ride autonomous vehicles will transport an expected 500 passengers per day and more than 16,000 passengers per month. 
  • Initially, there will be a safety driver and software operator in the vehicle while in operation. 
  • This is not the company’s first effort: They have deployed their vehicles in several Boston-area locations and successfully completed over 20,000 trips since the company’s launch in 2015