Stiff, achy knees? Lab-made cartilage gel outperforms the real thing

[…] Writing in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, a Duke University-led team says they have created the first gel-based cartilage substitute that is even stronger and more durable than the real thing. Mechanical testing reveals that the Duke team’s hydrogel—a material made of water-absorbing polymers—can be pressed and pulled with more force than natural cartilage, Read more about Stiff, achy knees? Lab-made cartilage gel outperforms the real thing[…]

A new method boosts wind farms’ energy output, without new equipment

Virtually all wind turbines, which produce more than 5 percent of the world’s electricity, are controlled as if they were individual, free-standing units. In fact, the vast majority are part of larger wind farm installations involving dozens or even hundreds of turbines, whose wakes can affect each other. Now, engineers at MIT and elsewhere have Read more about A new method boosts wind farms’ energy output, without new equipment[…]

Hubble sees supergiant Betelgeuse slowly recovering after blowing its top

Following the titanic mass ejection of a large piece of its visible surface. The escaping material cooled to form a cloud of dust that temporarily made the star look dimmer, as seen from Earth. This unprecedented stellar convulsion disrupted the monster star’s 400-day-long oscillation period that astronomers had measured for more than 200 years. The Read more about Hubble sees supergiant Betelgeuse slowly recovering after blowing its top[…]

Researchers find way to shrink a 3D holographic VR headset down to normal glasses size using pancake lenses and a waveguide

Researchers from Stanford University and Nvidia have teamed up to help develop VR glasses that look a lot more like regular spectacles. Okay, they are rather silly looking due to the ribbons extended from either eye, but they’re much, much flatter and compact than your usual goggle-like virtual reality headsets today. “A major barrier to Read more about Researchers find way to shrink a 3D holographic VR headset down to normal glasses size using pancake lenses and a waveguide[…]

Open Cybersecurity Schema Framework released

The Open Cybersecurity Schema Framework is an open-source project, delivering an extensible framework for developing schemas, along with a vendor-agnostic core security schema. Vendors and other data producers can adopt and extend the schema for their specific domains. Data engineers can map differing schemas to help security teams simplify data ingestion and normalization, so that Read more about Open Cybersecurity Schema Framework released[…]

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

A new study corrects an important error in the 3D mathematical space developed by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrödinger and others, and used by scientists and industry for more than 100 years to describe how your eye distinguishes one color from another. The research has the potential to boost scientific data visualizations, improve TVs Read more about Math error: A new study overturns 100-year-old understanding of color perception[…]

AI ethics: we haven’t thought about including non-human animals

[…] The ethical implications of AI have sparked concern from governments, the public, and even companies.Footnote 1 According to some meta-studies on AI ethics guidelines, the most frequently discussed themes include fairness, privacy, accountability, transparency, and robustness [1,2,3]. Less commonly broached, but not entirely absent, are issues relating to the rights of potentially sentient or Read more about AI ethics: we haven’t thought about including non-human animals[…]