Science X Newsletter Wed, Apr 17

Dear manoj dole,

Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for April 17, 2024:

Technology news

	A rimless wheel robot that can reliably overcome steps Robots with wheels could potentially navigate a variety of indoor and outdoor environments, traveling for longer distances and with fewer risks of losing balance. While some wheeled robots have achieved very promising results in recent years, most of them are unable to reliably overcome steps (i.e., surfaces that are raised above ground level).
	Researchers develop energy-efficient probabilistic computer by combining CMOS with stochastic nanomagnet Researchers at Tohoku University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, have unveiled a probabilistic computer prototype. Manufacturable with a near-future technology, the prototype combines a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuit with a limited number of stochastic nanomagnets, creating a heterogeneous probabilistic computer.
	New material for hydrogen storage confines this clean yet troublesome fuel Skoltech scientists and their colleagues from Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography of RAS and research centers in China, Japan, and Italy have discovered a material for chemical storage of hydrogen that can "soak up" four times as much of this hard-to-contain gas as the current top contenders.
	Retro-reflectors could help future cities keep their cool Engineers at Princeton University have quantified the cooling benefits of a simple solution for beating urban heat: reflecting solar radiation back from whence it came.
	Researchers use machine learning to create a fabric-based touch sensor A new study from NC State University combines three-dimensional embroidery techniques with machine learning to create a fabric-based sensor that can control electronic devices through touch. The paper is published in the journal Device.
	Clearing the air: Wind farms more land efficient than previously thought Wind power is a source of energy that is both affordable and renewable. However, decision-makers have been reluctant to invest in wind energy due to a perception that wind farms require a lot of land compared to electric power plants driven by fossil fuels. Research led by McGill University and based on the assessment of the land use of close to 320 wind farms in the U.S. (the largest study of its kind) paints a very different picture.
	How 3D printers can give robots a soft touch Soft skin coverings and touch sensors have emerged as a promising feature for robots that are both safer and more intuitive for human interaction, but they are expensive and difficult to make. A recent study demonstrates that soft skin pads doubling as sensors made from thermoplastic urethane can be efficiently manufactured using 3D printers.
	Student engineering team successfully builds and runs hydrogen-powered engine A team of engineering students at the University of Bath have achieved a world first by becoming the first undergraduates to build and successfully run a hydrogen-fueled engine.
	ASML shares dive on lower profits, orders Shares in Dutch tech giant ASML, which supplies chip-making machines to the semiconductor industry, slumped Wednesday after the firm reported a drop in net profits and orders amid a high-tech trade spat between China and the West.
	'GTA' video game publisher Take-Two cuts workforce Take-Two Interactive on Tuesday told US regulators it is trimming its workforce by five percent and eliminating some video games in production to cut costs.
	Tech venture capital titan Andreessen Horowitz raises $7.2 bn Silicon Valley venture capital star Andreessen Horowitz said Tuesday it had raised $7.2 billion to invest in startups behind games, apps, artificial intelligence and more.
	Novel method proposed to design high-efficiency guest components for ternary organic solar cells A research group led by Prof. Ge Ziyi at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has proposed a key strategy for optimizing guest components to minimize non-radiative voltage losses and thus achieve high-efficiency ternary organic solar cells (OSCs).
	AI is making smart devices easier to hack—here's how to stay safe From asking our smart speakers for the weather to receiving personalized advice from smartwatches, devices powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly streamlining our routines and decision making. The technology is seeping into our lives in subtle ways.
	Websites deceive users by deliberately hiding the extent of data collection and sharing Websites sometimes hide how widely they share our personal information, and can go to great lengths to pull the wool over our eyes. This deception is intended to prevent full disclosure to consumers, thus preventing informed choice and affecting privacy rights.
	Q&A: Legal implications of generative artificial intelligence Maura R. Grossman, JD, Ph.D., is a Research Professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, cross-appointed to the School of Public Health Sciences at Waterloo, an Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, and an affiliate faculty member of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. She is also a Principal at Maura Grossman Law, an eDiscovery law and consulting firm in Buffalo, New York.
	National roaming can increase resilience of Dutch mobile networks Within the Netherlands, your mobile phone only uses the masts of your own provider. Other providers' masts can only be used to reach emergency services. As soon as you cross the border, you can switch on roaming to use other masts. This way, roaming enables you to call and text or use the internet while abroad.
	Amazon removed Just Walk Out from many of its own stores but wants to sell the system to others Amazon wants the public and—especially other businesses—to know it's not giving up on its Just Walk Out technology.
	Meta shouldn't force users to pay for data protection: EU watchdog Facebook owner Meta and other online platforms must not force users to pay for the right to data protection enshrined in EU law when offering ad-free subscriptions, the European data regulator said Wednesday.
	Q&A: Enhancing last-mile logistics with machine learning Across the country, hundreds of thousands of drivers deliver packages and parcels to customers and companies each day, with many click-to-door times averaging only a few days. Coordinating a supply chain feat of this magnitude in a predictable and timely way is a longstanding problem of operations research, where researchers have been working to optimize the last leg of delivery routes.
	New framework may solve mode collapse in generative adversarial network Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are widely used to synthesize intricate and realistic data by learning the distribution of authentic real samples. However, a significant challenge that GANs face is mode collapse, where the diversity of generated samples is notably lower than that of real samples. The complexity of GANs and their training process has made it difficult to reveal the underlying mechanism of mode collapse.
	Canada to start taxing tech giants in 2024 despite US complaints Canada will start applying a proposed tax on the world's biggest technology companies this year, despite threats from American lawmakers to carry out trade reprisals against a levy that will primarily hit U.S. firms.
	A magneto-pneumatic hybrid-driven soft actuator with bidirectional torsion The ability of the human wrist to rotate around the forearm axis in 2 directions is crucial for many daily activities. This rotation, limited to a range of approximately [-90°, 90°], restricts the wrist's capacity to execute complex operational tasks. For example, when we open or lock a door with a key, our wrist performs a large rotational movement. When we screw, the wrist needs to twist 180° several times.
	Apple CEO meets Indonesia leader to talk investments Apple chief executive Tim Cook met Indonesia's president on Wednesday, as the tech giant explores ways to invest in Southeast Asia's biggest economy and diversify supply chains away from China.
	Tennessee VW workers hold key unionization vote Volkswagen employees in Tennessee will begin casting ballots Wednesday in a vote that could make theirs the first foreign carmaker to unionize in the American South, expanding gains made by organized labor in the auto heartland of Detroit.
	Boeing safety in spotlight at US Senate hearing Boeing is expected to face a bruising once-over Wednesday as company critics testify at a US Senate hearing, including an employee who has characterized the top-selling 787 as prone to disaster.
	Tesla wants shareholders to reinstate $56 billion Musk pay package tossed by a Delaware judge Tesla will ask shareholders to reinstate a $56 billion compensation package for CEO Elon Musk that was rejected by a judge in Delaware this year, and to move the electric car maker's corporate home from Delaware to Texas.
	EU questions TikTok over new Lite app in France, Spain The EU gave TikTok 24 hours to provide a risk assessment on its new Lite app launched in France and Spain over concerns of its potential impact on children and users' mental health, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
	Dozens of Google employees protest use of company's tech for war in Gaza A group of disappointed and angry Google employees protested outside a company building on April 16 after it was reported that the search giant had deepened a contract with the Israeli government.
	How ideology is darkening the future of renewables in Alberta Those advocating for a green transition have, in recent years, had to contend with not just economic or political resistance, but ideological push back as well—specifically, from those adhering to the "ideology of fossil fuels."
	What the 'Fallout' show gets right about the post-apocalyptic video game series With superhero movies losing pop culture steam, the next big thing emerging on the horizon is video game flicks. Over the past few years, films and TV shows based on interactive entertainment have steadily gained traction, with the likes of "Sonic the Hedgehog," "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "The Last of Us."
	Tech layoffs jolt Bay Area economy with hundreds of new job cuts A high-profile aerospace and defense contractor and a semiconductor company are among the latest tech firms to chop jobs in the Bay Area, cutbacks that will erase more than 200 positions.
	Research proposes virtual-dimension increase of EMG signals for prosthetic hands gesture recognition The electromyographic (EMG) signal is the bioelectrical current generated during muscle contraction. It can be transmitted as an input signal to an intelligent bionic prosthetic hand to control hand movements. By increasing the number of signal acquisition channels, richer information about the intention of the action can be captured, thus improving the success rate of the recognition of the intention of the action. However, it is not better to have more acquisition channels.
	Going 'backwards'? Whistleblowers slam Boeing safety culture Witnesses at a US Senate hearing on Boeing drew a disturbing picture Wednesday of an aviation giant that blows off safety questions and sidelines critics as it chases faster production and bigger profits.
	Control of temperature dependent viscosity for manufacturing of Bi-doped active fiber A novel temperature-dependent viscosity-mediated strategy proposed by researchers at the South China University of Technology was able to suppress the deactivation of Bi dopants during the fiber drawing process.
	Environment recognition technologies for off-road self-driving with improved real-time processing performance Off-road environment recognition technologies for detecting extraneous substances such as dust, mud, snow, or rain during off-road autonomous driving of construction machinery, agricultural machines, and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and removing the sensor signals of these substances on a real-time basis, have been developed for the first time in Korea.

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