Science

SuperMemo & The Spacing Effect

This is an interesting piece by Wired on Piotr Wozniak, a Polish scientist, experimenter and founder of SuperMemo. The spacing effect is a phenomenon discovered by Hermann Ebbinghaus circa 1885 which results in dramatically improved learning by correctly spacing practice sessions.

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Concrete Crane Energy Storage

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A startup called Energy Vault is using a 120 meter crane to store potential energy in a tower of concrete blocks that weight 35 metric tons each. The tower can store 20 megawatt hours of power and has a round-trip energy efficiency rate of 85%.

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Cool Thing Of The Week: Printed Paper Actuator

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Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University's Morphing Matter Lab have created printed paper actuators. By coating paper with conductive thermoplastic, the paper can bend, fold or flatten in response to an electric current. The video demonstrates some interesting uses for this technology, as interface controllers and as a moving publishing medium. (H/T to Mikael for sharing this.)

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Wireless Communication Water Air Barrier

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Researchers at MIT have figured out how to break the water air barrier for wireless communication. The solution involves using a sonar transmitter to vibrate the surface of the water and an airborne receiver to detect and decode the vibrations. The system produced data rates at hundreds of bits per second in tests done in two MIT swimming pools.

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AI Proves Fibromyalgia Exists

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Researchers have used machine learning and AI to identify a brain signal model that characterises Fibromyalgia, despite the some doctors believing that Fibromyalgia does not exist. The signature model can be used for assessing therapeutic mechanisms and predicting treatment response at an individual patient level.

AI & ML

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Optical Neural Network

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Reseachers at UCLA have developed an all optical neural network system, which uses specially etched plates to diffract incoming light to perform calculations. A number of plates are layered together to create teh Diffractive Deep Neural Network (D2NN) which can perform calculations at the speed of light.

AI & ML

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Pleistocene Worms Revived

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40,000 year old worms found frozen in samples taken from the permafrost in Siberia have been revived. The worms were warmed gradually in a Petri dish full of enrichment culture and E. coli food for a few weeks. They are the first multi-cellular organisms to survive such a long cryobiosis.

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Entrepreneurial Parasite

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A parasite found on cats may make you more entrepreneurial. Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found that students infected with Toxoplasma Gondii were 1.4 times more likely to major in business and 1.7 times more likely to to pursue a management and entreprenurial pathway. It is thought that the parasite encourages risk taking behaviour in the host in an attempt to increase the chances of it spreading to other cats.

Business

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Cool Thing Of The Week: XY Cell Lif3

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A biology professor at Morehouse College offered students to have their grades curved if they made a music video about any topic they had covered in class. Student Julien Turner duely obliged!

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New Henge

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Founder of Mythical Ireland Anthony Murphy discovered a new henge close to the Newgrange henge site in Brú na Bóinne in County Meath. The discovery was made using a drone to survey the area during the prolonged hot weather which caused the cropmarks of the henge to become visible. The structure dates back to 3,000 BC.

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