Your brain and the universe are more similar than previously thought
https://www.iflscience.com/brain/your-br...y-thought/
INTRO: Across vast distances, galaxies are organized in a structure of filaments, nodes, and voids collectively known as the cosmic web. Inside our brain, neurons are also organized in a network of filaments and nodes. This similarity has long spiked the curiosity of scientists, artists, and the general public. Now, new research published in Frontiers in Physics shows the two systems are a lot more similar than we thought.
Two Italian researchers, an astrophysicist and a neurosurgeon, set out to see if the visual similarities had a deeper connection. Neurons and galaxies are vastly different systems that self-organize into large structures, which the team’s research suggests are shaped by similar underlying principles. The work does not claim we have a universe in our skull or that the cosmos is a giant brain. Instead, it focuses on the properties of network dynamics... (MORE)
Robotic 'Monster Wolf' protects Japanese town from bears
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new...180976300/
EXCERPTS: The Japanese town of Takikawa, on the country’s northern island of Hokkaido, have installed robotic “monster” wolves in hopes of guarding the town from the growing scourge of marauding bears, Reuters reports. The shaggy, wolf-shaped robots are designed to scare bears and other nuisance animals back into the wild with glowing red eyes and speakers that play frightening sounds.
Beginning in September, Takikawa residents started reporting bears emerging from the surrounding forests to roam the town. [...] In response to this uptick in dangerous bear-human interactions, Takikawa purchased a pair of robotic wolves -- a product dubbed “Monster Wolf” -- from Japanese machinery maker Ohta Seiki, according to the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). If Monster Wolf’s motion sensor is tripped, its LED eyeballs glow red and its head swivels from side to side while a loudspeaker blares one of 60 noises ranging from howls to heavy machinery, per Reuters.
Since September, when Takikawa installed the robotic bear deterrents, there have been zero bear encounters, city officials tell Reuters. [...] In other locations, the robots’ primary are keeping deer and wild boars away from crops. Real wolves once roamed the forests of Japan’s central and northern islands, but have been absent for more than a hundred years after being hunted to extinction... (MORE - details)
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/cD1LhIjaMqQ
https://www.iflscience.com/brain/your-br...y-thought/
INTRO: Across vast distances, galaxies are organized in a structure of filaments, nodes, and voids collectively known as the cosmic web. Inside our brain, neurons are also organized in a network of filaments and nodes. This similarity has long spiked the curiosity of scientists, artists, and the general public. Now, new research published in Frontiers in Physics shows the two systems are a lot more similar than we thought.
Two Italian researchers, an astrophysicist and a neurosurgeon, set out to see if the visual similarities had a deeper connection. Neurons and galaxies are vastly different systems that self-organize into large structures, which the team’s research suggests are shaped by similar underlying principles. The work does not claim we have a universe in our skull or that the cosmos is a giant brain. Instead, it focuses on the properties of network dynamics... (MORE)
Robotic 'Monster Wolf' protects Japanese town from bears
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new...180976300/
EXCERPTS: The Japanese town of Takikawa, on the country’s northern island of Hokkaido, have installed robotic “monster” wolves in hopes of guarding the town from the growing scourge of marauding bears, Reuters reports. The shaggy, wolf-shaped robots are designed to scare bears and other nuisance animals back into the wild with glowing red eyes and speakers that play frightening sounds.
Beginning in September, Takikawa residents started reporting bears emerging from the surrounding forests to roam the town. [...] In response to this uptick in dangerous bear-human interactions, Takikawa purchased a pair of robotic wolves -- a product dubbed “Monster Wolf” -- from Japanese machinery maker Ohta Seiki, according to the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). If Monster Wolf’s motion sensor is tripped, its LED eyeballs glow red and its head swivels from side to side while a loudspeaker blares one of 60 noises ranging from howls to heavy machinery, per Reuters.
Since September, when Takikawa installed the robotic bear deterrents, there have been zero bear encounters, city officials tell Reuters. [...] In other locations, the robots’ primary are keeping deer and wild boars away from crops. Real wolves once roamed the forests of Japan’s central and northern islands, but have been absent for more than a hundred years after being hunted to extinction... (MORE - details)