<![CDATA[Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum - Gadgets & Technology]]> https://www.scivillage.com/ Thu, 14 May 2026 15:09:59 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[Brain-controlled hearing system proves itself in first human studies]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20410.html Mon, 11 May 2026 17:03:06 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20410.html https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1127026

INTRO: Scientists at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute have the first direct evidence from human studies that brain-controlled hearing technology can help people single out a voice in a crowd. These early findings suggest that researchers may one day develop a hearing augmentation device that can, among other feats, overcome the problems that conventional hearing aids have with noisy surroundings.

Their research was published online today in Nature Neuroscience.

“We have developed a system that acts as a neural extension of the user, leveraging the brain’s natural ability to filter through all the sounds in a complex environment to dynamically isolate the specific conversation they wish to hear,” said senior author Nima Mesgarani, PhD, a principal investigator at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute and an associate professor of electrical engineering at Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.

“This science empowers us to think beyond traditional hearing aids, which simply amplify sound, toward a future where technology can restore the sophisticated, selective hearing of the human brain," Dr. Mesgarani added... (MORE - no ads)]]> https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1127026

INTRO: Scientists at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute have the first direct evidence from human studies that brain-controlled hearing technology can help people single out a voice in a crowd. These early findings suggest that researchers may one day develop a hearing augmentation device that can, among other feats, overcome the problems that conventional hearing aids have with noisy surroundings.

Their research was published online today in Nature Neuroscience.

“We have developed a system that acts as a neural extension of the user, leveraging the brain’s natural ability to filter through all the sounds in a complex environment to dynamically isolate the specific conversation they wish to hear,” said senior author Nima Mesgarani, PhD, a principal investigator at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute and an associate professor of electrical engineering at Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.

“This science empowers us to think beyond traditional hearing aids, which simply amplify sound, toward a future where technology can restore the sophisticated, selective hearing of the human brain," Dr. Mesgarani added... (MORE - no ads)]]> <![CDATA[Invisible solar panels a gamechanger]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20357.html Mon, 04 May 2026 00:12:25 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20357.html
[Image: BQKS1Ul.jpg]
[Image: BQKS1Ul.jpg]

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[Image: BQKS1Ul.jpg]
[Image: BQKS1Ul.jpg]

]]> <![CDATA[This ‘living plastic’ activates and self-destructs on command]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20340.html Fri, 01 May 2026 16:41:10 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20340.html https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/...mmand.html

EXCERPTS: Zhuojun Dai, a corresponding author on the paper, explains that “the realization that traditional plastics persist for centuries, while many applications, like packaging, are short-lived, led us to ask: Could we build degradation directly into the material’s life cycle?”

Many microbes can break long polymeric chains into smaller pieces using enzymes. Because plastics are polymers, these enzymes or the microbes that make them could be incorporated into living plastics.

“By embedding these microbes, plastics could effectively ‘come alive’ and self-destruct on command, turning durability from a problem into a programmable feature,” explains Dai.

While previous attempts relied primarily on a single enzyme, Dai, Jin Geng, Dianpeng Qi and colleagues wanted to improve the destruction efficiency. So, they engineered Bacillus subtilis to produce two cooperative, polymer-degrading enzymes. One enzyme acts as a random chopper, snipping the long polymer chains into smaller pieces, while the other slowly chews these pieces into their monomer building units from each end.

[...] The cooperation between the enzymes was so efficient, it even prevented microplastic particles from being created during the degradation process. As a proof-of-concept, the researchers created a wearable plastic electrode out of their living plastic and found it performed as expected, degrading completely within two weeks... (MORE - missing details)]]> https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/...mmand.html

EXCERPTS: Zhuojun Dai, a corresponding author on the paper, explains that “the realization that traditional plastics persist for centuries, while many applications, like packaging, are short-lived, led us to ask: Could we build degradation directly into the material’s life cycle?”

Many microbes can break long polymeric chains into smaller pieces using enzymes. Because plastics are polymers, these enzymes or the microbes that make them could be incorporated into living plastics.

“By embedding these microbes, plastics could effectively ‘come alive’ and self-destruct on command, turning durability from a problem into a programmable feature,” explains Dai.

While previous attempts relied primarily on a single enzyme, Dai, Jin Geng, Dianpeng Qi and colleagues wanted to improve the destruction efficiency. So, they engineered Bacillus subtilis to produce two cooperative, polymer-degrading enzymes. One enzyme acts as a random chopper, snipping the long polymer chains into smaller pieces, while the other slowly chews these pieces into their monomer building units from each end.

[...] The cooperation between the enzymes was so efficient, it even prevented microplastic particles from being created during the degradation process. As a proof-of-concept, the researchers created a wearable plastic electrode out of their living plastic and found it performed as expected, degrading completely within two weeks... (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[Instant toddler nirvana!]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20295.html Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:56:09 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20295.html https://www.facebook.com/reel/1493305332...ingle_unit]]> https://www.facebook.com/reel/1493305332...ingle_unit]]> <![CDATA[Electrical nail clippers]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20292.html Sun, 26 Apr 2026 14:53:16 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20292.html
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XbdV6_26E4M]]>
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XbdV6_26E4M]]> <![CDATA[Russia now has functional anti-satellite weapons in orbit]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20271.html Fri, 24 Apr 2026 15:43:49 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20271.html https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/04/us...t-weapons/

INTRO: After several tests of unusual “nesting doll” satellites in low-Earth orbit, Russia is now fielding operational anti-satellite weapons with valuable US government satellites in their crosshairs, the four-star general leading US Space Command said this week.

Gen. Stephen Whiting didn’t name the system, but he was almost certainly referring to a Russian military program named Nivelir, which has launched four satellites shadowing US spy satellites owned by the National Reconnaissance Office in low-Earth orbit. After reaching orbit, the Nivelir satellites have released smaller ships to start their own maneuvers, and at least one of those lobbed a mystery object at high velocity during a test in 2020. US analysts concluded this was a projectile that could be fired at another satellite.

US officials have compared the Nivelir architecture to a Matryoshka doll, or a Russian nesting doll, with an outer shell concealing smaller, unknown figures inside.

The newest suspected Nivelir satellite was launched last May from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Its launch was precisely timed for the moment Earth’s rotation spun Plesetsk underneath the orbital plane of the NRO’s USA 338 Keyhole-class optical spy satellite. Civilian missions heading to the International Space Station launch with similarly precise timing, down to the second, to intersect with the space station’s orbital plane.

Ars has covered Russia’s testing of the Nivelir stalker satellites before. The first Nivelir test mission launched in 2013, and they began creeping near US spy satellites in 2019. US officials now believe the Nivelir system is operational... (MORE - details)]]> https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/04/us...t-weapons/

INTRO: After several tests of unusual “nesting doll” satellites in low-Earth orbit, Russia is now fielding operational anti-satellite weapons with valuable US government satellites in their crosshairs, the four-star general leading US Space Command said this week.

Gen. Stephen Whiting didn’t name the system, but he was almost certainly referring to a Russian military program named Nivelir, which has launched four satellites shadowing US spy satellites owned by the National Reconnaissance Office in low-Earth orbit. After reaching orbit, the Nivelir satellites have released smaller ships to start their own maneuvers, and at least one of those lobbed a mystery object at high velocity during a test in 2020. US analysts concluded this was a projectile that could be fired at another satellite.

US officials have compared the Nivelir architecture to a Matryoshka doll, or a Russian nesting doll, with an outer shell concealing smaller, unknown figures inside.

The newest suspected Nivelir satellite was launched last May from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Its launch was precisely timed for the moment Earth’s rotation spun Plesetsk underneath the orbital plane of the NRO’s USA 338 Keyhole-class optical spy satellite. Civilian missions heading to the International Space Station launch with similarly precise timing, down to the second, to intersect with the space station’s orbital plane.

Ars has covered Russia’s testing of the Nivelir stalker satellites before. The first Nivelir test mission launched in 2013, and they began creeping near US spy satellites in 2019. US officials now believe the Nivelir system is operational... (MORE - details)]]> <![CDATA[Editing genes in human embryos: New tech startups poised to throw caution to the wind]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20148.html Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:20:27 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20148.html https://undark.org/2026/04/08/genetics-a...heritance/

EXCERPT: It is a moment that the global science community has been anticipating, and publicly angsting over, for years. Since the emergence of the gene-editing tool Crispr-Cas9 more than a decade ago, scientists, bioethicists, legal scholars, faith leaders, and policy experts have wrestled with what it would mean to use the tool to tinker with the human gene pool — the fulfillment it could bring to prospective parents who want to bring healthy, flourishing offspring into the world; the socioeconomic inequalities it could deepen; the transformative effect it could have on what it means to be human.

Reports from professional organizations, national academies, and working groups have largely arrived at the same conclusion: The science is still too immature, and the social implications too uncertain, to deploy on humanity a tool that, once unleashed, could be difficult if not impossible to rein in. In many countries, including the U.S., it remains illegal to initiate a pregnancy with an edited embryo.

But gene-editing tools have continued to improve, and there are signs that startup companies — motivated potentially by altruism, but certainly by profit — could lead a charge to undo a key provision restricting embryo editing in the U.S., or perhaps skirt it altogether by offering their services in countries with laxer laws. With few international guardrails in place, there’s concern that a determined company might take it upon itself to decide when the technology is ready to release into the wild.

Aleksei Mikhalchenko, a biologist who previously conducted embryo editing research at Oregon Health & Science University, says he doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that so many startups are choosing this moment to test the waters on human embryo editing. “Something is out there,” said Mikhalchenko, who left OHSU last June to help launch the biotech company e184 Repro. “Maybe some people know more than scientists know in academic labs.”

“I’ve been working in this field for the last six years,” Mikhalchenko said, adding that there “was no indication that people want to pursue it and push it towards the clinic, but suddenly, in 2025, there are more than one.” (MORE - missing details)]]> https://undark.org/2026/04/08/genetics-a...heritance/

EXCERPT: It is a moment that the global science community has been anticipating, and publicly angsting over, for years. Since the emergence of the gene-editing tool Crispr-Cas9 more than a decade ago, scientists, bioethicists, legal scholars, faith leaders, and policy experts have wrestled with what it would mean to use the tool to tinker with the human gene pool — the fulfillment it could bring to prospective parents who want to bring healthy, flourishing offspring into the world; the socioeconomic inequalities it could deepen; the transformative effect it could have on what it means to be human.

Reports from professional organizations, national academies, and working groups have largely arrived at the same conclusion: The science is still too immature, and the social implications too uncertain, to deploy on humanity a tool that, once unleashed, could be difficult if not impossible to rein in. In many countries, including the U.S., it remains illegal to initiate a pregnancy with an edited embryo.

But gene-editing tools have continued to improve, and there are signs that startup companies — motivated potentially by altruism, but certainly by profit — could lead a charge to undo a key provision restricting embryo editing in the U.S., or perhaps skirt it altogether by offering their services in countries with laxer laws. With few international guardrails in place, there’s concern that a determined company might take it upon itself to decide when the technology is ready to release into the wild.

Aleksei Mikhalchenko, a biologist who previously conducted embryo editing research at Oregon Health & Science University, says he doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that so many startups are choosing this moment to test the waters on human embryo editing. “Something is out there,” said Mikhalchenko, who left OHSU last June to help launch the biotech company e184 Repro. “Maybe some people know more than scientists know in academic labs.”

“I’ve been working in this field for the last six years,” Mikhalchenko said, adding that there “was no indication that people want to pursue it and push it towards the clinic, but suddenly, in 2025, there are more than one.” (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[Technology in the age of technological ignorance]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20096.html Wed, 01 Apr 2026 20:10:27 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20096.html
"We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements - transportation, communications, and all other industries; agriculture, medicine, education, entertainment, protecting the environment; and even the key democratic institution of voting - profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces."
Carl Sagan ; The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark]]>
"We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements - transportation, communications, and all other industries; agriculture, medicine, education, entertainment, protecting the environment; and even the key democratic institution of voting - profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces."
Carl Sagan ; The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark]]> <![CDATA[On never owning a cellphone]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20085.html Tue, 31 Mar 2026 19:19:33 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20085.html
The reason I never owned a smartphone was its audacious and unbeckoned intrusion into our personal lives. To me it is being hyperconnected--so connected and dependent on a gadget that you hardly have time for yourself. I cherish my privacy and my solitude. And when I am physically somewhere, that's the only place I want to be. Not on the internet, or talking to someone on the phone, or texting. We have to have the freedom to say no to the next new technology, even when everyone else is thoughtlessly jumping on the bandwagon. And I gladly opted out.

Here's 16 celebrities who live without smartphones:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristenharris1/...NlScS-rr-g]]>
The reason I never owned a smartphone was its audacious and unbeckoned intrusion into our personal lives. To me it is being hyperconnected--so connected and dependent on a gadget that you hardly have time for yourself. I cherish my privacy and my solitude. And when I am physically somewhere, that's the only place I want to be. Not on the internet, or talking to someone on the phone, or texting. We have to have the freedom to say no to the next new technology, even when everyone else is thoughtlessly jumping on the bandwagon. And I gladly opted out.

Here's 16 celebrities who live without smartphones:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristenharris1/...NlScS-rr-g]]> <![CDATA[We’re closer than ever to bringing back life from cryogenic freezing]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20049.html Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:02:23 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20049.html https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/cryoge...ouse-brain

INTRO: Long-term cryosleep and reawakening may no longer be completely in the realm of science fiction thanks to the results of a new study published in the journal PNAS. Researchers from the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) and the University Hospital Erlangen succeeded in freezing brain tissue from mice and then restoring its function once thawed.

While only a small portion of brain tissue was revived, the neurons were able to share electrical signals and even maintained the complex processes required for memory and learning.

“Before doing the experiment, I was not convinced this would work,” lead author Dr Alexander German, a researcher in the Molecular Neurology Department at the University Hospital Erlangen, told BBC Science Focus. “The public takeaway should probably shift from ‘pure science fiction’ to ‘a serious long-term scientific and engineering problem.’” (MORE - details)]]> https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/cryoge...ouse-brain

INTRO: Long-term cryosleep and reawakening may no longer be completely in the realm of science fiction thanks to the results of a new study published in the journal PNAS. Researchers from the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) and the University Hospital Erlangen succeeded in freezing brain tissue from mice and then restoring its function once thawed.

While only a small portion of brain tissue was revived, the neurons were able to share electrical signals and even maintained the complex processes required for memory and learning.

“Before doing the experiment, I was not convinced this would work,” lead author Dr Alexander German, a researcher in the Molecular Neurology Department at the University Hospital Erlangen, told BBC Science Focus. “The public takeaway should probably shift from ‘pure science fiction’ to ‘a serious long-term scientific and engineering problem.’” (MORE - details)]]> <![CDATA[Ancient Roman machine gun-like weapon may have damaged Pompeii’s walls during siege]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20028.html Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:47:07 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20028.html https://www.discovermagazine.com/ancient...iege-48851

EXCERPTS: Before Pompeii was engulfed in volcanic ash, its walls may have been battered by an ancient "machine gun" while the city was under siege. With a third of Pompeii still buried beneath volcanic debris from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E., archaeologists continue to discover evidence of the city’s turbulent past, including battle damage on its walls.

A study recently published in Heritage proposes a compelling hypothesis to explain several peculiar impact marks along the northern stretch of Pompeii’s fortified walls: This damage potentially came from a barrage of metal-tipped projectiles launched by a polybolos, a repeating ballista that may have been used to slay Pompeii’s defenders during the city's siege in 89 B.C.E.

Most people see Pompeii as an iconic Roman city, but it wasn’t always inhabited by Romans. The Roman Republic took control of the city during the Social War of 91 to 88 B.C.E., when it fought to subdue its Italian allies (or socii) that wanted either full Roman citizenship or independence, according to EBSCO.

[...] The researchers behind the new study believe these marks may have come from a polybolos, which would have fired out a rapid succession of darts powered by torsion. ... The Roman army may have adopted the polybolos from innovations originating on the Greek island of Rhodes, where the engineer Dionysius of Alexandria is said to have invented the weapon several centuries prior to the siege of Pompeii. Not long before the siege, Sulla even served as governor of the province that included Rhodes, known as a hub of “engineering excellence” in ancient times, according to the study... (MORE - missing details)]]> https://www.discovermagazine.com/ancient...iege-48851

EXCERPTS: Before Pompeii was engulfed in volcanic ash, its walls may have been battered by an ancient "machine gun" while the city was under siege. With a third of Pompeii still buried beneath volcanic debris from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E., archaeologists continue to discover evidence of the city’s turbulent past, including battle damage on its walls.

A study recently published in Heritage proposes a compelling hypothesis to explain several peculiar impact marks along the northern stretch of Pompeii’s fortified walls: This damage potentially came from a barrage of metal-tipped projectiles launched by a polybolos, a repeating ballista that may have been used to slay Pompeii’s defenders during the city's siege in 89 B.C.E.

Most people see Pompeii as an iconic Roman city, but it wasn’t always inhabited by Romans. The Roman Republic took control of the city during the Social War of 91 to 88 B.C.E., when it fought to subdue its Italian allies (or socii) that wanted either full Roman citizenship or independence, according to EBSCO.

[...] The researchers behind the new study believe these marks may have come from a polybolos, which would have fired out a rapid succession of darts powered by torsion. ... The Roman army may have adopted the polybolos from innovations originating on the Greek island of Rhodes, where the engineer Dionysius of Alexandria is said to have invented the weapon several centuries prior to the siege of Pompeii. Not long before the siege, Sulla even served as governor of the province that included Rhodes, known as a hub of “engineering excellence” in ancient times, according to the study... (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[Crazy electricity prices in Europe]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19961.html Fri, 13 Mar 2026 17:37:13 +0000 confused2]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19961.html The green energy self-destruction of the German economy (Survival Lilly)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19856-...l#pid81998

Prices are Euro .. I've change the Euro thing to (very similar) $ to avoid the what's that? thing. Mostly taken from Pi AI.

Generators bid how much electricity they can supply and at what price (per MWh), for each hour of the day - usually a day ahead.
The grid operator stacks all bids from cheapest to most expensive and accepts them until demand is met.
The last (most expensive) generator needed sets the market clearing price — and all accepted generators get paid that price.
So even if wind bids $0 or negative, if gas is the last one in at $80, everyone gets $80.
This is called uniform pricing — it rewards being cheap [?], but pays everyone the same.

Onshore wind: $40–60/MWh
Solar PV (utility): $50–70/MWh
Nuclear: $90–130/MWh (high upfront, low fuel)
Coal: $70–100/MWh (varies with carbon costs)
Gas (CCGT): $60–90/MWh (highly dependent on gas prices)
Oil (diesel/gensets): $100–180/MWh (rarely used for grid power)

Contract for Difference (CfD) is a long-term agreement between a generator (like a nuclear or wind farm) and the government (or a state-backed counterparty).

The generator gets a "strike price" — a guaranteed price per MWh (e.g., $120/MWh for Hinkley Point C in the UK).
Every year, the average wholesale market price is calculated.
If the market price is below the strike price, the government pays the difference to the generator.
If the market price is above the strike price, the generator pays the difference back.

Nuclear typically bids $0 to be first in line to supply (they can't NOT supply).

Generators can bid a negative value - it can be cheaper to run plant at a loss than shut down and restart. In 2024 Germany had 438 hours (nearly three weeks) with negatively priced electricity .. folks got paid to use electricity .. at least in principle.

So the problem is a variable supply and a demand that doesn't respond to the supply. Consumers pay through the nose for the privilege of paying the same rate regardless of the actual cost of electricity. Given a typical (?) energy bill of (say) $2,000 .. a $200 gizmo might well save 30% annually (that would be $600) .. you don't want it? - that's on you - don't moan about it though.

Thanks to Pi AI.]]> The green energy self-destruction of the German economy (Survival Lilly)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19856-...l#pid81998

Prices are Euro .. I've change the Euro thing to (very similar) $ to avoid the what's that? thing. Mostly taken from Pi AI.

Generators bid how much electricity they can supply and at what price (per MWh), for each hour of the day - usually a day ahead.
The grid operator stacks all bids from cheapest to most expensive and accepts them until demand is met.
The last (most expensive) generator needed sets the market clearing price — and all accepted generators get paid that price.
So even if wind bids $0 or negative, if gas is the last one in at $80, everyone gets $80.
This is called uniform pricing — it rewards being cheap [?], but pays everyone the same.

Onshore wind: $40–60/MWh
Solar PV (utility): $50–70/MWh
Nuclear: $90–130/MWh (high upfront, low fuel)
Coal: $70–100/MWh (varies with carbon costs)
Gas (CCGT): $60–90/MWh (highly dependent on gas prices)
Oil (diesel/gensets): $100–180/MWh (rarely used for grid power)

Contract for Difference (CfD) is a long-term agreement between a generator (like a nuclear or wind farm) and the government (or a state-backed counterparty).

The generator gets a "strike price" — a guaranteed price per MWh (e.g., $120/MWh for Hinkley Point C in the UK).
Every year, the average wholesale market price is calculated.
If the market price is below the strike price, the government pays the difference to the generator.
If the market price is above the strike price, the generator pays the difference back.

Nuclear typically bids $0 to be first in line to supply (they can't NOT supply).

Generators can bid a negative value - it can be cheaper to run plant at a loss than shut down and restart. In 2024 Germany had 438 hours (nearly three weeks) with negatively priced electricity .. folks got paid to use electricity .. at least in principle.

So the problem is a variable supply and a demand that doesn't respond to the supply. Consumers pay through the nose for the privilege of paying the same rate regardless of the actual cost of electricity. Given a typical (?) energy bill of (say) $2,000 .. a $200 gizmo might well save 30% annually (that would be $600) .. you don't want it? - that's on you - don't moan about it though.

Thanks to Pi AI.]]> <![CDATA[AI robots demonstrated to perform human jobs in poultry processing plants]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19940.html Tue, 10 Mar 2026 21:18:30 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19940.html Poultry processing robotics advances with ChicGrasp
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1119477

INTRO: What started out as a response to labor shortages in poultry processing plants during the COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a robotics system that can learn by imitating human movements to handle chickens.

Using an advanced imitation learning algorithm and camera perceptions, researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station have developed ChicGrasp, a dual-jaw robotic gripper with pinchers that can grasp a chicken carcass by the legs, lift and hang it on a shackle conveyor to be moved on for further processing.

“Embodied AI is used to create intelligent, agent-like robotics to interact with a real-world environment,” said Dongyi Wang, leader of the project and an assistant professor in the departments of biological and agricultural engineering and food science.

“It’s a physical art that has just developed in the past couple of years, which you see in things like full self-driving cars,” he said. “We are trying to do similar things using that imitation learning idea, but in chicken processing.”

The work has been supported by a $1 million grant from a joint program between the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the National Science Foundation. Wang is a faculty member in the College of Engineering and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas. The experiment station is the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Results of the study behind the development of ChicGrasp were published in Advanced Robotics Research. All computer-aided design files, code and datasets from the project were released as open source, providing what the team describes as a reproducible benchmark for agricultural robotics and robot learning... (MORE - details, no ads)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IURYkUaIiIM

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/IURYkUaIiIM]]> Poultry processing robotics advances with ChicGrasp
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1119477

INTRO: What started out as a response to labor shortages in poultry processing plants during the COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a robotics system that can learn by imitating human movements to handle chickens.

Using an advanced imitation learning algorithm and camera perceptions, researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station have developed ChicGrasp, a dual-jaw robotic gripper with pinchers that can grasp a chicken carcass by the legs, lift and hang it on a shackle conveyor to be moved on for further processing.

“Embodied AI is used to create intelligent, agent-like robotics to interact with a real-world environment,” said Dongyi Wang, leader of the project and an assistant professor in the departments of biological and agricultural engineering and food science.

“It’s a physical art that has just developed in the past couple of years, which you see in things like full self-driving cars,” he said. “We are trying to do similar things using that imitation learning idea, but in chicken processing.”

The work has been supported by a $1 million grant from a joint program between the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the National Science Foundation. Wang is a faculty member in the College of Engineering and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas. The experiment station is the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Results of the study behind the development of ChicGrasp were published in Advanced Robotics Research. All computer-aided design files, code and datasets from the project were released as open source, providing what the team describes as a reproducible benchmark for agricultural robotics and robot learning... (MORE - details, no ads)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IURYkUaIiIM

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/IURYkUaIiIM]]> <![CDATA[Field Microscopes]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19891.html Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:10:07 +0000 Zinjanthropos]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19891.html <![CDATA[Injectable “satellite livers” could offer an alternative to liver transplantation]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19888.html Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:48:24 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19888.html https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1118561

INTRO: More than 10,000 Americans who suffer from chronic liver disease are on a waitlist for a liver transplant, but there are not enough donated organs for all of those patients. Additionally, many people with liver failure aren’t eligible for a transplant if they are not healthy enough to tolerate the surgery.

To help those patients, MIT engineers have developed “mini livers” that could be injected into the body and take over the functions of the failing liver.

In a new study in mice, the researchers showed that these injected liver cells could remain viable in the body for at least two months, and they were able to generate many of the enzymes and other proteins that the liver produces.

“We think of these as satellite livers. If we could deliver these cells into the body, while leaving the sick organ in place, that would provide booster function,” says Sangeeta Bhatia, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES).

Bhatia is the senior author of the new study, which appears today in the journal Cell Biomaterials. MIT postdoc Vardhman Kumar is the paper’s lead author... (MORE - details, no ads)]]> https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1118561

INTRO: More than 10,000 Americans who suffer from chronic liver disease are on a waitlist for a liver transplant, but there are not enough donated organs for all of those patients. Additionally, many people with liver failure aren’t eligible for a transplant if they are not healthy enough to tolerate the surgery.

To help those patients, MIT engineers have developed “mini livers” that could be injected into the body and take over the functions of the failing liver.

In a new study in mice, the researchers showed that these injected liver cells could remain viable in the body for at least two months, and they were able to generate many of the enzymes and other proteins that the liver produces.

“We think of these as satellite livers. If we could deliver these cells into the body, while leaving the sick organ in place, that would provide booster function,” says Sangeeta Bhatia, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES).

Bhatia is the senior author of the new study, which appears today in the journal Cell Biomaterials. MIT postdoc Vardhman Kumar is the paper’s lead author... (MORE - details, no ads)]]>