Month: August 2019
Reeti Its a robot but were not quite sure what it does
Reeti being made by Robopec, which is based in France. The oddity of its aesthetics aside, Reeti is a robot that is designed to act as a kind of media center helper. His main goal is to act as an interface between your PC and your TV. So, if you want to watch a movie in your iTunes library, without being limited to the small screen, a bot like Reeti could help you out. Then again, so could a simple cable, and the cable won’t set you back nearly as much cash. Reeti, when it goes on pre-order on an as yet undetermined date, will cost you about $7000, and that price could still go up. Other than this, no one is exactly sure what Reeti does. Some have speculated that Reeti is, for the time being, mostly a blank platform that developers will be able to write apps for, a kind of like a robot app store, but to be honestly, this business model usually only works on devices that people already want to own for a built in feature, such as cell phones. © 2010 PhysOrg.com This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. Citation: Reeti: It’s a robot, but we’re not quite sure what it does yet (w/ video) (2011, April 6) retrieved 18 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2011-04-reeti-robot-video.html A more stealthy robot may be hearing you soon Explore further More information: www.reeti.fr/en (PhysOrg.com) — Robots come in all shapes and sizes; from sets of blocks, to child sized humans, and then, there is this. At first, this reporter didn’t know exactly how to classify Reeti. It isn’t exactly human, but it isn’t exactly a non-human. The real problem is that face, because humans tend to want to see faces as being human. The ears kind of remind me of Shrek, while the face looks surprisingly like a Snork. I will say this for the little guy (or girl?), it is packing some decent hardware. Each of the robots eyes have a HD camera, so he can see in 3D and recognize objects. It also has a speech synthesizer, that can allow it to read text back to you.
Study finds dogs experience runners high similar to humans
Evolution may explain ‘Runner’s high,’ study says © 2013 Phys.org This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. More information: Wired to run: exercise-induced endocannabinoid signaling in humans and cursorial mammals with implications for the ‘runner’s high’ J Exp Biol 215, 1331-1336 jeb.biologists.org/content/215/8/1331.abstractAbstractHumans report a wide range of neurobiological rewards following moderate and intense aerobic activity, popularly referred to as the ‘runner’s high’, which may function to encourage habitual aerobic exercise. Endocannabinoids (eCBs) are endogenous neurotransmitters that appear to play a major role in generating these rewards by activating cannabinoid receptors in brain reward regions during and after exercise. Other species also regularly engage in endurance exercise (cursorial mammals), and as humans share many morphological traits with these taxa, it is possible that exercise-induced eCB signaling motivates habitual high-intensity locomotor behaviors in cursorial mammals. If true, then neurobiological rewards may explain variation in habitual locomotor activity and performance across mammals. We measured circulating eCBs in humans, dogs (a cursorial mammal) and ferrets (a non-cursorial mammal) before and after treadmill exercise to test the hypothesis that neurobiological rewards are linked to high-intensity exercise in cursorial mammals. We show that humans and dogs share significantly increased exercise-induced eCB signaling following high-intensity endurance running. eCB signaling does not significantly increase following low-intensity walking in these taxa, and eCB signaling does not significantly increase in the non-cursorial ferrets following exercise at any intensity. This study provides the first evidence that inter-specific variation in neurotransmitter signaling may explain differences in locomotor behavior among mammals. Thus, a neurobiological reward for endurance exercise may explain why humans and other cursorial mammals habitually engage in aerobic exercise despite the higher associated energy costs and injury risks, and why non-cursorial mammals avoid such locomotor behaviors. (Phys.org) —A team of researchers in the United States has found that dogs appear to gain a “high” from running, similar to the well known “runner’s high” experienced by people who run or jog frequently. In their paper published in The Journal of Experimental Biology, the group describes how they measured neurotransmitter levels in humans, dogs and ferrets as they moved on a treadmill to determine neurobiological reward levels. A yellow labrador retriver dog with pink nose. Credit: Wikipedia.
Journal information: Journal of Experimental Biology Explore further Citation: Study finds dogs experience runner’s high similar to humans (2013, May 16) retrieved 18 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2013-05-dogs-runner-high-similar-humans.html Most people are aware of the pleasurable feeling known as “runner’s high” some people get from running, either by experiencing it themselves or hearing about it in others. Scientists have found that such sensations are due to the release of neurotransmitters into the bloodstream—one of these neurotransmitter groups, known as endocannabinoids (eCBs) have the same chemical structure as THC, the chemical responsible for the high people get from marijuana. In this new effort, the researchers wanted to know if other animals also experience a runner’s high.To find out, the team enlisted the assistance of some human volunteers, several dogs and some ferrets. Each was put on a treadmill set at a pace fast enough to simulate running. Afterwards blood samples were taken. In analyzing the results, the researchers found elevated levels of eCBs for both the humans and dogs, but not in the ferrets. In another test, the researchers slowed the pace of the treadmill to just a walk for the dogs and humans and found no change in eCB levels.The researchers note that both humans and dogs are part of a group known as cursorial animals—animals that have long legs meant for running. Ferrets on the other hand, are not cursorial, thus they don’t gain any pleasure from running long distances.The researchers theorize that neurobiological rewards are a part of the evolutionary history of animals with long legs meant for running and strong lungs—they helped keep them fit. Running, particularly when not necessary, they suggest, kept such animals in tip-top shape allowing them to escape predators and to hunt efficiently. They noted also that other studies have shown that the fitter a group of primates are, the bigger their brains grow.Based on their results, the researchers suggest, it’s likely other cursorial animals, such as cats, experience a runner’s high as well.
Pair of researchers suggest black holes at center of galaxies might instead
Back in 1974, space scientists discovered Sagittarius A* (SgrA ∗)—a bright source of radio waves emanating from what appeared to be near the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Subsequent study of the object led scientists to believe that it was (and is) a black hole—the behavior of stars nearby, for example, suggested it was something massive and extremely dense.What we’re able to see when we look at SgrA∗ are plasma gasses near the event horizon, not the object itself as light cannot escape. That should be true for wormholes too, of course, which have also been theorized to exist by the Theory of General Relativity. Einstein even noted the possibility of their existence. Unfortunately, no one has ever come close to proving the existence of wormholes, which are believed to be channels between different parts of the universe, or even between two universes in multi-universe theories. In their paper, Li and Bambi suggest that there is compelling evidence suggesting that many of the objects we believe to be black holes at the center of galaxies, may in fact be wormholes.Plasma gases orbiting a black hole versus a wormhole should look different to us, the pair suggest, because wormholes should be a lot smaller. Plus, the presence of wormholes would help explain how it is that even new galaxies have what are now believed to be black holes—such large black holes would presumably take a long time to become so large, so how can they exist in a new galaxy? They can’t Li and Bambi conclude, instead those objects are actually wormholes, which theory suggests could spring up in an instant, and would have, following the Big Bang.Making the two’s speculation more exciting is the soon to be installed piece of equipment known as GRAVITY—it will be added to the European Space Observatory in Chili, giving researchers there an unprecedented view of SgrA∗ (and other black holes). In just a couple of years, it should be possible to prove whether Li and Bambi’s idea is correct or not—the photon capture sphere of the wormhole should be much smaller than that for a black hole, they note—if that’s the case with SgrA ∗, space scientists will have to do some serious rethinking of wormholes and how they might fit in to current theories describing the universe. More information: Distinguishing black holes and wormholes with orbiting hot spots, arXiv:1405.1883 [gr-qc] arxiv.org/abs/1405.1883AbstractThe supermassive black hole candidates at the center of every normal galaxy might be wormholes created in the early Universe and connecting either two different regions of our Universe or two different universes in a Multiverse model. Indeed, the origin of these supermassive objects is not well understood, topological non-trivial structures like wormholes are allowed both in general relativity and in alternative theories of gravity, and current observations cannot rule out such a possibility. In a few years, the VLTI instrument GRAVITY will have the capability to image blobs of plasma orbiting near the innermost stable circular orbit of SgrA∗, the supermassive black hole candidate in the Milky Way. The secondary image of a hot spot orbiting around a wormhole is substantially different from the one of a hot spot around a black hole, because the photon capture sphere of the wormhole is much smaller, and its detection could thus test if the center of our Galaxy harbors a wormhole rather then a black hole. Physicist suggests some types of wormholes may stay open long enough to send a photon through © 2014 Phys.org Citation: Pair of researchers suggest black holes at center of galaxies might instead be wormholes (2014, May 30) retrieved 18 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2014-05-pair-black-holes-center-galaxies.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
Explore further Journal information: arXiv (Phys.org) —Zilong Li and Cosimo Bambi with Fudan University in Shanghai have come up with a very novel idea—those black holes that are believed to exist at the center of a lot of galaxies, may instead by wormholes. They’ve written a paper, uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, describing their idea and how what they’ve imagined could be proved right (or wrong) by a new instrument soon to be added to an observatory in Chile. Credit: X-ray: NASA/UMass/D.Wang et al., IR: NASA/STScI
Natural material discovered that exhibits inplane hyperbolicity
Citation: Natural material discovered that exhibits in-plane hyperbolicity (2018, October 25) retrieved 18 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2018-10-natural-material-in-plane-hyperbolicity.html More information: Weiliang Ma et al. In-plane anisotropic and ultra-low-loss polaritons in a natural van der Waals crystal, Nature (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0618-9 Thomas G. Folland et al. Precise control of infrared polarization using crystal vibrations, Nature (2018). DOI: 10.1038/d41586-018-07087-5 An international team of researchers has discovered a natural material that exhibits in-plane hyperbolicity. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their work with molybdenum trioxide and what they found. Thomas Folland and Joshua Caldwell with Vanderbilt University offer a News and Views piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue. Journal information: Nature Researchers discover directional and long-lived nanolight in a 2-D material Explore further
a, Illustration of the orthorhombic lattice structure of layered α-MoO3 (red spheres, oxygen atoms). The orthorhombic structure is based on bilayers of distorted MoO6 octahedra stacked along the [010] direction via vdW interactions. The three possible positions of oxygen atoms are denoted O1–3, and the unit cell is shown dashed. b, Schematic of the unit cell of α-MoO3; the lattice constants are a = 0.396 nm, b = 1.385 nm and c = 0.369 nm. Blue spheres, molybdenum atoms. c, Optical image of α-MoO3 flakes. The α-MoO3 crystals typically appear to be rectangular owing to the anisotropic crystal structure. Labelled arrows indicate crystal directions. Scale bar, 20 µm. d, Raman spectrum taken in the area marked by a red dashed circle in c. Red frequency labels indicate the Raman peaks associated with the lattice vibrations producing the RBs of α-MoO3. Credit: (c) Nature (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0618-9 © 2018 Science X Network As Folland and Caldwell note, hyperbolic materials are those that are extremely reflective to light along one axis and have normal reflectance along another axis. In most such materials, the two axes are not on the same plane. But as Folland and Caldwell further note, a material in which they are in the same plane would be valuable because it could serve as a very thin waveplate—materials that alter the polarization of the light that strikes it. They point out that such a waveplate could allow researchers to manipulate wavelengths at a very small scale. In this new effort, the researchers report the discovery of just such a material—a natural one called molybdenum trioxide.Folland and Caldwell point out that there was a time in the not-too-distant past when it was believed that hyperbolicity only existed in man-made materials. But just four years ago, it was observed in hexagonal boron nitride. It was also determined that the reflective behavior of such materials came about due to vibrations in their crystal lattice, i.e. optical phonons. Such phonons were found to have long lifetimes, which served to prevent the absorption of light. Over the past few years, a number of natural hyperbolic materials have been found.Prior work had shown that molybdenum trioxide was hyperbolic for longwave infrared light. In this new effort, the researchers have shown that it also exhibits in-plane hyperbolicity. They used their finding to confine light in ways that were smaller than its wavelength using hyperbolic phonon polaritons. The lifetimes for the polaritons were found to be approximately 10 times longer than for hexagonal boron nitride.Folland and Caldwell suggest the unique properties of molybdenum trioxide could break new ground in developing nanophotonics. They also note that it has been theorized that hyperbolic materials could be used to create hyper-lenses or heterostructures. This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
The musical roar of joy
It’s not a regular affair that one sits back and rejoices the weekend spent. Well, Saturday was one such weekend spent by the people who were present at the World Music Day celebration in the Capital. First, there was music. For us, that’s enough to make us love it! And second, there was ‘good’ music, with the World of Talents group beating their drums till we literally danced. That’s not all, the city – shy, restless, outspoken, quiet, however, danced with the largest flash mob to the tunes of London Thumakda, Kolaveri Di and so many more tracks! Wait, wait, that’s not it. There were then a line up of excellent bands for all. You can imagine the joy all the music gave to the people as they sat out in the open humid weather, clapping, cheering and hooting for the bands, Turkush, Spice Route and Zephyr. Also Read – ‘Playing Jojo was emotionally exhausting’The Education Tree hosted this spectacular evening of music and dance on the occasion of World Music Day. Aiming to foster and facilitate education, and change the preconceived notions that surround it. They try to promote its objectives by the use of various unique art forms like music, art, dance, theatre and more.The concept of World Music Day was originated in France with an objective to hold free concerts wherein both professional and amateur artists can come together at a common platform to exhibit their talent. Select Citywalk was created into an epicenter of music and gave Delhi its very own musical movement. Also Read – Leslie doing new comedy special with NetflixWhat people loved the most was the amazing interaction by Vivek Vaid, member of World of Talents and the scintillating performance by the band Turkush. Launching their track Kamli, they made the public roar with enjoyment and we all know how it would be when an amazing band plays the songs we listen to on our pods! Spice Route’s Chinmayi’s voice hit just the right chords with the people. By the end, we all hoped World Music Day gets celebrated each day!
Stern action if any link found says Abhishek
Kolkata: Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress MP and president of the party’s youth wing has categorically said that stern action will be taken against those involved in the murder of Trilochon Mahato in Purulia’s Balarampur if the BJP can prove his party’s involvement of any sort. Banerjee said that his party workers are not involved in the murder of Mahato. “He died due to infighting or it was the sequel to a family feud,” he maintained. Also Read – Heavy rain hits traffic, flightsA tweet of BJP’s national president Amit Shah said: “Deeply hurt by the brutal killing of our young karyakarta, Trilochan Mahato, in Balarampur, West Bengal. A young life full of possibilities was brutally taken under state’s patronage. He was hanged on a tree just because his ideology differed from that of state-sponsored goons.” The body of 18-year-old Mahato was found hanging from a tree a day after the Panchayat election was declared. There was a poster which was found near the tree that read because of his involvement with the BJP at such an early age, he had to pay the price. Trilochan’s father Panu Mahato is a BJP worker as well. Also Read – Speeding Jaguar crashes into Merc, 2 B’deshi bystanders killedIt may be mentioned that in a recent interview to a vernacular television channel, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee had said that 13 party workers had been killed by the Opposition. She had said as the Trinamool Congress was confident of its victory then why should the workers take recourse to violence. Abhishek said his party did not believe in violence. “BJP is creating trouble everywhere and then trying to put the blame on the Trinamool Congress.” The police is investing the matter. Partha Chatterjee, TMC secretary general, has also denied the involvement of his party workers in the murder. “We do not believe in the politics of hate and murder. Our workers had been killed but we have never retaliated to take revenge.”In Balarampur, the BJP has bagged two Zila Parishad seats. Out of 17 Gram Panchayat seats, BJP secured 17 while the TMC had got three seats. In Gram Panchayat, out of 92 seats BJP got 70 while the TMC got 22 seats.The Trinamool leaders said BJP had got only 22 seats in 822-member Zilla Parishad in Bengal where elections were held. It bagged 5,747 Gram Panchayat and 752 seats in Panchayat Samity. Under such a situation the BJP is no threat to the TMC and so there was no question of resorting to violence, the TMC leaders said.
Health dept sends notice to pvt hospital over expired registration
Kolkata: The state Health department has issued a notification to Namita Biswas Memorial Eye Hospital in Garia’s Middle Town area, after it failed to renew registration.It has been learnt that the Health department asked the private hospital authorities not to admit patients, after it found some infrastructural lapses in the hospital. The hospital authorities, however, claimed that the Health department has given them verbal consent to continue normal functioning. A senior official of the hospital said that they were asked to stop functioning for two days as the registration was not renewed with the Health department. The hospital authorities, however, urged the health authorities for a relaxation.According to sources, the private eye hospital was running without a valid registration for quite some time. No hospital can operate without a valid registration from the Health department.A question appears here on how a private health establishment could admit patients when it had no valid clearance from the state Health department.