Researchers have created an artificial tactile sensing system that mimics the way in which humans recognize objects in their surroundings via their sense of touch, reports Tech Xplore. This system uses sensors to capture data associated with the tactile properties of objects. Biological sensory systems convert tactile stimuli into action potentials through a process known as somatosensory transduction. Subsequently, they transmit these signals to the brain via afferent nerves. To emulate the human tactile system, the...
Cosmic dawn, when stars formed for the first time, occurred 250 million to 350 million years after the beginning of the universe, according to a new study led by researchers at University College London (UCL) and the University of Cambridge. The U.K.-led team examined six of the most distant known galaxies, whose light has taken most of the universe's lifetime to reach us, reports Phys.org. They found that the distance of these galaxies away from...
Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a technology that allows them to harvest water around the clock, with no energy input, even under the blazing sun, reports Tech Xplore. The new device consists of a coated glass pane, which reflects solar radiation and radiates away its own heat through the atmosphere to outer space. It thus cools itself to as much as 15 degrees Celsius below the ambient temperature. On the underside of this pane, water...
A team of researchers claims that making food from air would be far more efficient than growing crops in the traditional manner, reports Phys.org. In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, the University of Naples Federico II, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and the Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences describes its analysis and comparison of the efficiency...
Bitcoin has fallen below $30,000 for the first time in more than five months, hit by China's crackdown on the world's most popular cryptocurrency. The digital currency slipped to about $28,890 today, down from a high of $64,870 in April. China has told banks and payment platforms to stop supporting digital currency transactions, the BBC reports. It follows an order on Friday to stop Bitcoin mining in Sichuan province. On Monday, China's central bank said it had recently summoned several...
The U.S. intelligence community may finally reveal unidentified flying object (UFO) secrets to Congress this week when it delivers a mandatory report that will be available to the public, CNET reports. Here are some key things to know before the much-anticipated report drops. For years, pilots and other military personnel have been encountering strange things in the sky that have come to be called "unidentified aerial phenomena." The change from "UFO" to "UAP" is in part...
In 2016, North Korean hackers planned a $1-billion raid on Bangladesh's national bank and came within a hair of complete success. It was only by a fluke that all but $81 million of the transfers were halted, report Geoff White and Jean H Lee. It all started with a malfunctioning printer at Bangladesh Bank, which is responsible for overseeing the currency reserves of a country in which millions live in poverty, the BBC reports. The...
An early-season heat wave sending temperatures into triple digits in the western U.S. is a worrying sign for a region already in the grips of a historic drought. Now, as fire season ramps up, unprecedented water shortages are in the mix, raising anxieties among farmers and municipal water managers facing reductions or being cut off from water, CNET reports. As of June 15, over 26% of the western U.S. is experiencing exceptional drought, which is what...
Vigorous exercise on land gives amphibious fish a brain boost, researchers have found. "It's a fish out of water. It just seems so counterintuitive, but it's really helpful for these fish," biologist Giulia Rossi told CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald. Rossi put amphibious fish through a maze for 10 consecutive days, and found the fish that had been exercised, as well as the group that had been randomly exposed to air, performed significantly better than the...
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are adding tiny, Swiss-cheese-style holes to components to improve the harvesting of fusion energy from the sun, reports Tech Xplore. New computer simulations show that placing porous, sponge-like covers that cap reservoirs of liquid lithium around the inner walls of doughnut-shaped tokamak fusion facilities can absorb damaging excess heat inside the facilities. The heat can then be moved to generators to help produce electricity. Fusion...
