Show Notes 20 May 2022
Story 1: There’s a New Robot That Can Jump a Record-Breaking 100 Feet in the Air
Source: Smithsonian Magazine Story by Margaret Osborne
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvHXwTa5-DA
- Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have designed a robotic device that can leap more than 100 feet in the air—three times the current record for a jumping robot!
- Most jumping robotic systems are based on the body mechanics of extreme jumpers in the animal kingdom, such as the galago, an African squirrel-sized primate that can jump up to 10.5 feet high from a standstill.
- Instead of trying to mimic animal muscle mechanics for jumping, the UC Santa Barbara researchers took an entirely different approach, placing their 1-foot-tall bullet-shaped robot with its motor on top of four interconnected half circle bows.
- Here’s how it works:
- The robot’s small motor compresses [or squeezes] the four carbon-fiber compression bows which are linked together with large industrial strength rubber bands.
- When the robot releases the compressed springs, the huge amount of stored energy launches the robot into the air.
- With this simple design, the UC Santa Barbara robot can jump more than 100 times its own height, approximately the height of a 10-story building!
- Okay, nice stunt, or useful? The research team says this technology could be used to leap over tall obstacles on Earth and in space. Imagine one of these jumping over tall obstacles on Mars, for example.
Story 2: Scientists Discover a Gene that Could Be the Cure for Age-Related Hearing Loss
Source: The Daily Beast Story by Miriam Fauzia
Source: Northwestern Medicine website Story by Marla Paul
Link: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2022/05/new-tool-to-create-hearing-cells-lost-in-aging/
- First, we need a quick biology refresh to set the stage for this news.
- Inside your inner ear there is an organ called the cochlea.
- Inside the cochlea are thousands of tiny cells called “inner” and “outer” hair cells.
- These cells are not actually hair, but they look like hair under a microscope.
- The job of these so-called hair cells is to collect and relay sounds to the brain, with inner hair cells picking up sound vibrations and the outer hair cells amplifying sounds.
- As we age, hair cells get damaged or destroyed, leading to hearing loss.
- For years, scientists have been trying to figure out a way to reverse these effects.
- For example, to date, scientists could produce generic artificial ear hair cells, but could not make them specially into inner or outer hair cells.
- In a major breakthrough that could eventually set the stage for the development of a cure for age-related hearing loss, researchers at Northwestern University recently announced that they have uncovered a gene dubbed TBX2 that works as a genetic “master regulator” that can make inner and outer hair cells.
- While the research was conducted on mice, the Northwestern University scientists believe this genetic mechanism would be similar in humans and could someday be a gamechanger for reversing hearing loss.
- Okay, reality Check:
- The researchers noted that even if we can reprogram hair cells in humans, that’s not a definite cure.
- For inner and outer hair cells to work properly, they need to be in the correct positions in the cochlea and hooked up to the body’s nervous system.
- But this is a significant research step forward.
Story 3: French Scientists Say Your Urine Could Be a Key to Feeding the World
Source: The U.S. Sun Story by Charlotte Edwards
Link: https://www.the-sun.com/tech/5265611/your-urine-could-help-feed-the-world/
- Recently a group of researchers in France called the OCAPI who are dedicated to investigating food systems and human waste management recently advocated re-using human urine as our best option in the future for fertilizing farm fields in an environmentally friendly way that doesn’t waste water or contribute to climate change.
- A lot of man-made fertilizers using synthetic nitrogen can be harmful to the environment.
- The French scientists think human urine could provide a sustainable, climate friendly alternative source for the key nutrients in these man-made fertilizers, as our urine contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which plants need to grow.
- The group contends that using human urine would also be far less expensive than man-made fertilizers, making it more accessible for farmers worldwide.
- My take: This research certainly makes a strong case for supporting an aggressive expansion of the application of existing technologies we already have for the extraction of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from wastewater.
Story 4: Scientists will broadcast Earth’s location into deep space later this year with the hope of reaching aliens
Source: ArsTechnica.com Story by Chris Impey
Source 2: http://meti.org/mission
- For more than 70 years, astronomers with a program called SETI [which stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence] have been scanning for radio or optical signals searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.
- Most scientists are confident that life exists on many of the 300 million potentially habitable worlds in the Milky Way galaxy.
- But so far, no signals from another civilization have ever been detected, a mystery that is called “The Great Silence.”
- On October 4 of this year, an international team of scientists with METI [which stands for messaging extraterrestrial intelligence] will transmit powerful radio messages from the Goonhilly Earth Station located in Southern England to TRAPPIST-1, a star system known to be orbited by at least three potentially habitable planets.
- The messages will include music and scientific tutorials outlining the environmental threats facing our Earth.
- Reality check: as TRAPPIST-1 is 39 light-years away it will take 78 years for any reply to reach us!