Backpack Ergonomics

Wirecutter: "You're Probably Wearing Your Backpack Wrong"

Robot Takeout

"I ordered robot takeout on two campuses with wildly different results"

Japanese Microapartments

"A 95-Square-Foot Tokyo Apartment: 'I Wouldn't Live Anywhere Else'"

Author Acceptance Bias

"Authors' names have 'astonishing' influence on peer reviewers: A Nobel prizewinner is six times more likely than someone less well known to get a thumbs-up for acceptance, finds study."

Wrinkling Math

"The New Math of Wrinkling"

High School Student And Nebula

High school student works out 3-D structure of "one of the most complex and least understood nebulae". 

Wins high school science competition, and subsequently is published in "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society".

Space Medicine

"'Space Medicine' Returns to Earth"

We Now Know How Many Brain Cells It Takes To Play Pong: 800,000

"Lab-grown brain cells play video game Pong":

Prof Karl Friston, of University College London, who is working with Dr Kagan, says: "The mini-brain learned without it being taught and so is more adaptable and flexible."

I can't wait to teach it how to play "Global Thermonuclear War"!

 

Signal And SMS

"Signal is 'starting to phase out SMS support' from its Android app"

Popular Websites By Country

"The Most Visited Website in Every Country (That Isn't A Search Engine)"

Fast Internet

"Fastest internet network in the world is upgraded to 46 Tb/s to support scientific research":

Scientists at the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) science network will hereon have access to the world's fastest internet. The DOE's Energy Science Network, ESnet, has now been upgraded to ESnet6, boasting a bandwidth of 46 Terabits per second (Tbps), enhancing the network's connectivity to new levels.

To put it into perspective, ESnet6 is 46,000 times faster than a comparatively high-speed connection of one Gbps. The current U.S. national average internet speed in 2022 is 119.03 Mbps, according to High Speed Internet.

That's a lot of cat videos per second! (Via H.R.)

Harvard Classics Free

"Download The Harvard Classics as Free eBooks: A 'Portable University' Created in 1909"

Moldable Ceramics Discovered By Accident

"A new ceramic material that can form tiny, intricate shapes could transform smartphones". (Via H.R.)

When ceramics are subjected to abrupt temperature changes and mechanical loading, they frequently shatter (or even explode) from thermal shock. However, their sample had distorted...

Its underlying microstructure enables the all-ceramic to transmit heat and flow during the molding process effectively. At room temperature, the ceramic can be formed into exquisite geometries and exhibits impressive mechanical strength and thermal conductivity.

“It’s unique: Thermoformable ceramics, from what we’ve seen and read, don’t really exist,” [graduate student Jason] Bice says. “So it’s a new frontier in materials.”

 

Neuroscience Of Tickling

"Neuroscientists unravel the mystery of why you can't tickle yourself". (Via H.R.)

Penguin Post Office

"Meet the Four Women Who Will Run Antarctica's 'Penguin Post Office'"

Silent Light Switches

"Why silent light switches are banned". It's the mercury.

Physics Paradoxees

"10 Brilliant Paradoxes in Physics and Philosophy"

Better Bionic Leg

"Utah Bionic Leg: The most advanced AI-powered prosthetics 'ever created'"

No AI Takeover Yet

Farhad Manjoo: "In the Battle With Robots, Human Workers Are Winning"

Maverick Vs. Star Wars

The parallels are quite striking! "Top Gun: Maverick Being Star Wars for Three Minutes Straight"

(Warning: Contains spoilers for both movies.)

Faster Matrix Multiplication With AI

"DeepMind unveils first AI to discover faster matrix multiplication algorithms"

Direct link to Nature article: "Discovering faster matrix multiplication algorithms with reinforcement learning".

Medicare Fraud

ProTip: Don't try to defraud Medicare by billing for non-existent radiology exams on deceased patients. 

The claims were for services that he did not provide and included approximately 151 x-ray services purportedly provided to patients on dates after the patients had died.

Mouse Neuron Data

"Huge new dataset pushes limits of neuroscience":

At the Allen Institute, a nonprofit research institute started by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, they used six Neuropixels probes to record simultaneously from eight different regions of the mouse visual system. In August, the institute released data from 81 mice—comprising the activity of around 300,000 neurons. The data is freely available to any researchers who might want to use it.

As the largest data set of this kind ever collected—three times as big as the previous record holder—the release lets researchers observe enormous groups of neurons acting in concert. That unprecedented scale may unlock opportunities to understand parts of cognition that have previously evaded the scientific community’s grasp. “We want to understand how we think and see and make decisions,” says Shawn Olsen, an investigator at the Allen Institute who played a central role in the project. “And it just does not happen at the level of single neurons.”

The challenge now is figuring out just how to parse all that data...

 

Entanglement Nobel

"Quantum experiments with entangled photons win the 2022 Nobel Prize in physics"

Plant Machete

"Living plant controls a machete through an industrial robot arm":

David Bowen’s installation, ‘Plant Machete,’ enables a living plant to move a machete through an industrial robot‘s bionic-like arm. The installation implements a control system that measures electrical noises found in the living philodendron. This system uses an open source micro-controller connected to the plant, which reads varying resistance signals across the its leaves.

The machine’s movements are accomplished by using a custom technology that translates electrical signals from the plant into real-time motion. Embedded patch sensors pick up electric signals from the leaves and transmit them to the machine that contains several joints that determine how the machete swings, jabs, slices, and interacts in space.

(Via P.B.)

 

Future Supercontinent

"In 200 Million Years There Will Be Only The Supercontinent Of 'Amasia' On Earth, Supercomputer Simulation Concludes"

Bionic Pancreas Update

"A bionic pancreas could solve one of the biggest challenges of diabetes"

Hsieh Forbes Column: You Have The Right To Your Radiology Test Results

My latest Forbes column is now out: "You Have The Right To Your Radiology Test Results: What You Need To Know".

I discuss some changes in federal law that allow near-immediate access to radiology reports (and other test results), and how best to use these rights responsibly.

Mobile Phone Privacy

"How Mobile Phones Became a Privacy Battleground -- and How to Protect Yourself".

Related article: "16 Practical Privacy Tips for Your iPhone"

Luxury Watch Market

"Not Even the Rich Can Buy Fancy Watches"

New Non-Stick

"Scientists break down silk to invent extremely efficient non-stick material". (Via H.R.)

Light Posting Notice

Admin note: Posting may be very light this week, due to external obligations.

Stone Skipper

"Stone Skipping Is a Lost Art. Kurt Steiner Wants the World to Find It."

Video of the current world record 88 skip throw:

Dental Microrobots

"These shape-shifting microrobots can brush and floss your teeth". (Via H.R.)

Canadian Art Heist

"What Canada's Largest Art Heist Reveals about the Art World's Shady Side"

Gas Pump Mechanism

Video: "How a gas pump always stops before overfilling the tank". (Via H.R.)

$2 Paper Microscope

"He Invented a $2 Paper Microscope For Remote Lab Work So Scientists Don’t Have to Haul Heavy Equipment"

Timing Laughter

"Scientists try to teach robot to laugh at the right time"

Daring Fireball On iPhone 14 Pro

John Gruber offers extensive commentary on the new iPhone 14 Pro, and he really likes it.

Data Searches At US Border

WaPo: "Customs officials have copied Americans' phone data at massive scale".
 

Key excerpts of the first article:

[T]he revelation that thousands of agents have access to a searchable database without public oversight is a new development in what privacy advocates and some lawmakers warn could be an infringement of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.

In a 2018 filing, a CBP official said an officer could access any device, including in cases where they have no suspicion the traveler has done anything wrong, and look at anything that “would ordinarily be visible by scrolling through the phone manually,” including contact lists, calendar entries, messages, photos and videos.

If officers have a “reasonable suspicion” that the traveler is breaking the law or poses a “national security concern,” they can run an “advanced search,” connecting the phone to a device that copies its contents. That data is then stored in the Automated Targeting System database, which CBP officials can search at any time.

Here are some tips on how best to protect your data privacy at the border crossing.

 

iOS Features

"All the New Privacy and Security Features in Apple iOS 16"

What If? 2

"What If? 2 is here with even more serious answers to your weird questions".

Includes nice interview with author Randal Munroe.

Color Math

"Math error: A new study overturns 100-year-old understanding of color perception".

Direct link to academic abstract: "The non-Riemannian nature of perceptual color space"

Antarctica Internet

"SpaceX hits a milestone as Starlink arrives in Antarctica, high-speed internet now available on all seven continents". (Via H.R.)

DNA Jeopardy

"San Francisco sued by woman who says her rape-kit DNA was used to arrest her"

San Francisco has been sued by a sexual assault victim in a complaint that describes "the San Francisco Police Department's shocking practice of placing crime victims' DNA into a permanent database without the victims' knowledge or consent."

"Plaintiff Jane Doe, a sexual assault survivor, was re-victimized by this unconstitutional practice," alleged the lawsuit filed Monday in US District Court for the Northern District of California. "In 2016, she provided a DNA sample to the San Francisco Police Department as part of its investigation into her sexual assault. However, she never consented to it to be stored or used for any other purpose. Nevertheless, the Department maintained Plaintiff Doe's DNA in the database for more than six years."

According to the lawsuit, Jane Doe was arrested on burglary charges in 2021 after DNA from a crime scene apparently matched the DNA she provided five years earlier. The charges were eventually dropped...

 

Quantum-Resistant Algorithms

"What are quantum-resistant algorithms -- and why do we need them?"

Realistic Synthetic Embryos

"This startup wants to copy you into an embryo for organ harvesting; With plans to create realistic synthetic embryos, grown in jars, Renewal Bio is on a journey to the horizon of science and ethics."

New 3-D Gear

This is a cool video and a slick idea. I'm also amazed that the idea of inventing a new type of gear is still possible in the 21st century.

An innovative 3D #gear, invented by three Japanese researchers

This amazing concept gives a potential for many applications in health, robotics and many other mechanical fields

Active ball joint mechanism (ABENICS)#innovation #tech ##3D #science pic.twitter.com/3rBjfJS5qJ

— Pascal Bornet (@pascal_bornet) September 5, 2022

Cheaper Storage

"New optical disc tech could make $5 per TB possible". (Via H.R.)

Insulin Tablets?

"A revolutionary pill may soon replace insulin injections". (Via H.R.)

Pollution And Cancer

BBC: "Air pollution cancer breakthrough will rewrite the rules". (Via G.F.)

AI Art Wins Contest

"An AI-Generated Artwork Won First Place at a State Fair Fine Arts Competition, and Artists Are Pissed": 

A man came in first at the Colorado State Fair’s fine art competition using an AI generated artwork on Monday. “I won first place,” a user going by Sincarnate said in a Discord post above photos of the AI-generated canvases hanging at the fair.

 

AF all Snafu

"The Air Force Just Survived a Reply-All Apocalypse"

Producing Oxygen On Mars

"MIT's MOXIE takes a huge step toward human life on Mars with oxygen production". (Via H.R.)

LED Guide

Ars Technica: "LCD vs. LED vs. Mini LED vs. OLED: A quick guide"

Octopus Brains

Nautilus on octopus brains: "Another Path to Intelligence"

Light Posting Notice

Admin note: Posting may be lighter than usual for the next two weeks due to external obligations.

Open Access Update

"US government to make all research it funds open access on publication"

Hsieh Forbes Column: Small Steps Towards Health Deregulation

My latest Forbes column is out: "Small But Positive Steps Towards Health Deregulation"

Home Privacy For Students

"Scanning students' homes during remote testing is unconstitutional, judge says"

Keyboard Shortcuts

"The Easiest Ways to Learn All the Best Keyboard Shortcuts"

LED Light Pollution

"Several major cities have adopted LED streetlights to save energy and money. But in many cases, they worsen light pollution, which can harm humans and wildlife."

Fireproof Wood

"A fireproof wood achieves the highest class in burning test thanks to an invisible coating". (Via H.R.)

Space-Based 5G

"Space 5G Is On the Launchpad". (Via H.R.)

Metaverse Dating

"People Are Going on Dates in the Metaverse and It Sounds Very Strange"

Moore's Law Continues

"3D-Stacked CMOS Takes Moore's Law to New Heights". (Via H.R.)

Energy From Lightning Bolt?

TIL that lightning bolts don't generate that much energy. (Via Gus Van Horn.)

But even at 1 million joules, the typical lightning strike contains only about ¼ of a kilowatt-hour of power, which is not enough to make much difference on our electric bill. "We currently buy electricity at the cost of about 20 cents a kWh," [MIT electrical engineering professor James Kirtly] says. "The amount of energy from a lightning bolt would be worth only about a nickel."

Flying Car Update

"After months of trial and testing, Swedish company Jetson has conducted the first commuter flight of its Jetson ONE eVTOL." (Via H.R.

Signal Account Protection

"How a Third-Party SMS Service Was Used to Take Over Signal Accounts".

If you're a Signal user, they recommend you activate "Registration Lock" with a PIN. This will prevent others from registering a new phone with your account. 

Scoring Benefits to Eastward Travel in the NBA

"We find eastward travel increases scoring and point spread via three-pointers and field goals, with implications for point spread betting in sports gambling markets."

Fake Tutor Scam

I don't know if this is real or not. If it's real, it's both evil and almost brilliant. 

Another case of #MarketsInEverything pic.twitter.com/zxkly0axxQ

— Will Damron (@wagonweill) August 14, 2022

Snake With Legs

"Man Invents Robot Suit That Lets Snake Walk With Legs". (Via P.B.)

Cat Destruction Throughout History

"Here is a thread of cats destroying our stuff throughout history, because they've always done it and they always will and for some reason we will keep loving them for it."

Here is a thread of cats destroying our stuff throughout history, because they've always done it and they always will and for some reason we will keep loving them for it.

Two Young Women Wrapped in Yukata After a Bath. Kitagawa Utamaro, ca. 1796. https://t.co/TFnHLG7ohj pic.twitter.com/2Tbl8aHnNj

— Cats of Yore (@CatsOfYore) August 15, 2022

Fasting And Chemotherapy

"Intermittent Fasting Could Reduce Chemotherapy Side Effects".  If this result holds up in human clinical studies, it could be good for cancer patients.

Direct link to Nature article: "A nanoparticle probe for the imaging of autophagic flux in live mice via magnetic resonance and near-infrared fluorescence"

Centrifuge Launcher

"This space tech company spins rockets into space. Watch how it happens". (Via M.A.)

Polyester Comeback

Virginia Postrel: "How polyester bounced back" 

"Those two innovations -- base layer and fleece -- completely changed the world's opinion of polyester, not just the outdoor industry", says Harward. "It became seen as the high-end performance comfort fiber..."

Fake Disease Fooled Nazis

"How a deadly disease saved Jewish lives and fooled the Nazis during WWII"

Working jointly with anti-fascist activist Dr. Adriano Ossicini, Dr. Borromeo and others came up with an ingenious plan to conceal Jews in the hospital by claiming they had “Syndrome K,” a degenerative, disfiguring and highly contagious disease, which in fact did not exist.

Fearful of contracting the fatal illness, the Nazis largely steered clear of the hospital in general and the “K” ward in particular, though the patients were encouraged to cough their heads off if and when the Nazis were on the premises.

More Corneas

"Clinical Trial Restored Sight to 20 People With Corneas Made From An Unlikely Source". (Via H.R.)

Link to academic article in Nature: "Bioengineered corneal tissue for minimally invasive vision restoration in advanced keratoconus in two clinical cohorts"

Devereaux On Gold In History

Great Bret Devereaux Twitter thread on gold in history.

Let's have a fun topic and talk about GOLD(!) or more specifically why medieval and fantasy settings which use 'gold' as the main currency are pretty much bonkers.

And also what a more grounded currency system might look like! 1/

— Bret Devereaux (@BretDevereaux) August 10, 2022

No AI Inventors

"AI Can't Be an 'Inventor' Under the U.S. Patent Act"

This To That

Helpful website to help you find the right adhesive to fasten material A to material B. (Via Gus Van Horn.)

(Update: Link was broken, now fixed!)

Dance Moves

Video: "Best of Favorite Dance Moves". This will put a smile on your face! :-) 

Jet-Powered Bicycle

"Watch a YouTuber put a homemade jet engine on his bicycle". (Via H.R.)

The article also notes, "Do not try this at home!"

Crypto Aftermath

"The Crypto Collapse is 'Flooding the Market' with Rolex and Patek Philippe Watches"

Surprised Weatherman

This is a totally awesome video: "Weatherman finds out he has touch screen this whole time." 

Treasure Finding Tech

"Sunken jewels, buried treasure uncovered in the Bahamas from iconic 17th century Spanish shipwreck". (Via H.R.)

Boom And United

"This Is What Your United Flight Could Look Like in the Near Future: Production for Boom Supersonic's Overture passenger jet is set to begin in 2024"

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by United Airlines (@united)

Sandman Review

NPR: "For fans and non-fans alike, Netflix's The Sandman is a dream come true"

Not A Star

"French scientist Etienne Klein apologises after 'James Webb Telescope' image revealed as slice of chorizo". As friend SDW quipped, "Goes well with a moon made of cheese.":

Etienne Klein, a director at France's Atomic Energy Commission, posted a picture purportedly showing Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun...

However, Professor Klein has now admitted that the glowing celestial body shown was in fact nothing more than a slice of Spanish chorizo sausage.

Photo de Proxima du Centaure, l’étoile la plus proche du Soleil, située à 4,2 année-lumière de nous.
Elle a été prise par le JWST.
Ce niveau de détails… Un nouveau monde se dévoile jour après jour. pic.twitter.com/88UBbHDQ7Z

— Etienne KLEIN (@EtienneKlein) July 31, 2022

TikTok Vigilantism?

NYT: "A Stranger Filmed Her on the Train. TikTok Users Decided She Had Monkeypox."

Summary: A woman with neurofibromatosis (a non-infectious disease than can cause skin lesions) is filmed by stranger while she is on NYC subway. The video is posted to TikTok with strong implication that she has monkey pox, and the woman receives many reactions including threats of physical violence.

This is one of the downsides of the widespread use of personal cameras. (There are many good aspects as well.)

The article correctly notes that the filming was legal, given that it was in a public setting with reduced "reasonable expectation of privacy."

Hazing And Solidarity

"Does hazing actually increase group solidarity? Re-examining a classic theory with a modern fraternity"

Using an American social fraternity, we report a longitudinal test of the relationship between hazing severity and group solidarity. We tracked six sets of fraternity inductees as they underwent the fraternity's months-long induction process. Our results provide little support for common models of solidarity and suggest that hazing may not be the social glue it has long been assumed to be.

AR Glasses For Hearing Impaired People

"New AR glasses allow deaf people to 'see' conversations by turning audio into subtitles"

Shorter Days?

"Earth Sets New Record for Shortest Day" 

If Earth's fast rotation continues, it could lead to the introduction of the first-ever negative leap second.

Not Dead Yet

Nature: "Pig organs partially revived in dead animals -- researchers are stunned"

Synthetic Embryos

"Synthetic mouse embryos created from stem cells -- without sperm, eggs, or a uterus". (Via G.F.)

Related: Academic paper in Cell.

Surgery In Space

"Astronauts will undergo surgeries aboard the ISS thanks to an autonomous robot". (Via H.R.)

In a previous experiment, retired NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson took the robot’s controls while at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, directing MIRA to perform surgery-like tasks in an operating room 900 miles away at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. 

Farritor and Rachael Wagner, an engineering graduate student, will write software, configure MIRA to fit inside a space station experiment locker and exhaustively test the device to make sure it’s robust enough to survive launch and its systems will perform as anticipated in space.

AI Protein Folding Update

"'The entire protein universe': AI predicts shape of nearly every known protein"

Apple Watch Guying Guide

"Apple Watch buying guide: Which wearable is best for you?"

Note: I own multiple watches, but do not own a "smart watch".

Necrobiotics

"In this work, an inanimate spider is repurposed as a ready-to-use actuator requiring only a single facile fabrication step, initiating the area of 'necrobotics' in which biotic materials are used as robotic components. (H/T: A.O.)

Related:

Rice University engineers repurposed deceased spiders as mechanical grippers [full paper: https://t.co/pBAVO5CzRn] pic.twitter.com/L8RJcKaBFQ

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 28, 2022

Feynman Physics Lectures Online

"Now, anyone with internet access and a web browser can enjoy reading a high quality up-to-date copy of Feynman's legendary lectures.

"This edition has been designed for ease of reading on devices of any size or shape; text, figures and equations can all be zoomed without degradation."

(This is an oldie-but-goodie reminder post.)