Inside a microprocessor are tiny electronic switches that collectively do computations. These tiny switches are called transistors. Usually, transistors are made up with silicon. This microprocessor’s transistors, however, are different.

The transistors inside this microprocessor are not made with silicon. Rather, they are made with carbon nanotubes.

By devising techniques to overcome the nanoscale defects that often undermine individual nanotube transistors (SN: 7/19/17), researchers have created the first computer chip that uses thousands of these switches to run programs.

The prototype, described in the Aug. 29 Nature, is not yet as speedy or as small as commercial silicon devices. But carbon nanotube computer chips may ultimately give rise to a new generation of faster, more energy-efficient electronics.

This is “a very important milestone in the development of this technology,” says Qing Cao, a materials scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign not involved in the work.

Check this in more detail over at Science News.

(Image Credit: G. Hills et al/ Nature 2019)

Well, for ImageNet, the golden standard for image classification, this photo of severe flooding in the midwestern US is a toilet.

When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, Andrew Weinert and his colleagues, researchers from MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, attempted to assess the damage to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In their hands were a large amount of aerial shots (80,000) of the region taken by the Civil Air Patrol right after the disaster. There’s a problem, however.

...there were too many images to sort through manually, and commercial image recognition systems were failing to identify anything meaningful. In one particularly egregious example, ImageNet, the golden standard for image classification, recommended labeling an image of a major flooding zone as a toilet.

“There was this amazing information content, but it wasn’t accessible,” says Weinert.

They soon realized this problem isn’t unique. In any large-scale disaster scenario, teams of emergency responders like FEMA could save significant time and resources by reviewing details of on-the-ground conditions before their arrival. But most computer vision systems are trained on regular day-to-day imagery, so they can’t reliably pick out relevant details in disaster zones.

The realization compelled the team to compile and annotate a new set of photos and footage specific to emergency response scenarios. They released the data set along with a paper this week in the hopes that it will be used to train computer vision systems in the future. 

The data set includes over 620,000 images and 96.5 hours of video that encompass imagery from all 50 states of the US. Most of the media were sourced from government databases or Creative Commons videos on YouTube; a small fraction were also filmed by the Lincoln Lab staff themselves.

The AI could be a great help in disaster response, should the problem be fixed.

(Image Credit: MIT Lincoln Laboratory)

In a usual year, there can be over 200 sightings of great white sharks in False Bay near Cape Town, South Africa, which is one of the best-known predator hot spots in the world. However, this year has been baffling to scientists — the great white sharks were gone. The researchers state that the reason may be the orcas, who love to chow down shark liver, or it may be human activity.

Shark Spotters, a local charity that monitors the city’s beaches daily and warns swimmers if sharks are near, has not recorded a single confirmed white shark sighting this year—not even during the summer months, from January to April, when the fish usually come close to shore.

The boats that take tourists to watch sharks hunt seals at Seal Island, in the middle of False Bay, have not recorded sightings either. Sharks tagged along the South African coast have not “pinged” any of the receivers located in the bay since January 2017, and white shark bite marks have been missing from whale carcasses floating in the bay this year.

Find out more about this story over at Science Magazine.

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Our 3rd (and final) new candy cane flavor of the year: Pizza! We had to!https://t.co/wbSsFVNukI pic.twitter.com/7zW1bl2V3A

— Archie McPhee (@ArchieMcPhee) August 29, 2019

Summer will be over soon, and that means that the ol’ candy cane season will be here. But don’t you just settle for peppermint candy canes because there’s a new candy cane in town. That’s right, it’s pizza candy canes.

I’m honestly not sure what to make of Archie McPhee’s latest candy cane concoction, but I like pizza, and I like candy, so maybe I’ll like these? Who knows. At least each one has fewer calories and fat than an actual slice of pizza, so they’ve got that going for them.

The pizza-flavored candy canes will be an addition to Archie McPhee’s other peculiar flavors like bacon, kale, clam, pickle, and, last but not least, mac and cheese.

What are your thoughts on this one?

(Image Credit: Archie McPhee/ Twitter)

On August 26, a judge in Oklahoma handed down verdict in favor of the state, which had sued opioid-maker Johnson & Johnson for its role in the opioid crisis. The medical device company, therefore, has to pay $572 million to the state of Oklahoma to help offset the cost of the epidemic.

In the first such ruling to hold a pharmaceutical company responsible for the opioid crisis, the judge found that the company had falsely and dangerously marketed the powerful drugs, a deception that led to addiction and death for too many people…

The rise of opioids undoubtedly has helped people ease severe pain. But for many people, the drugs fueled a dangerous addiction. Public health officials have been scrambling to tally the destruction, particularly as the death toll has risen in recent years. Scientists have been scrambling, too, trying to mitigate the harm and search for drug alternatives that can ease pain without opioids’ ill effects.

Find out more about the effects of opioids over at ScienceNews.

(Image Credit: qimono/ Pixabay)

Researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has revealed through their study the effects of stress of parenting in the brains of both mothers and children. Brain activity of 31 pairs of mother and child were analyzed by the researchers of the study.

They found that mothers who reported higher levels of parenting stress had less synchrony in brain activity with their child (all aged around 3 years old) than those who reported lower levels of parenting stress.

The specific brain region monitored for synchrony was the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with the ability to understand others' point of view.

In general, when the parent and child show highly similar brain activity in the same area(s) of the brain (i.e. greater synchrony), it suggests that both are highly tuned in to each other's emotional states.

Parenting stress occurs when the demands of parenting exceed the coping resources that a parent perceives they have available. Excessive parenting stress can block maternal sensitivity, lead to reactions that punish the child and negatively affect the parent-child relationship for the long term.

Head over at EurekAlert to know more about this study.

What are your thoughts on this one?

(Image Credit: NTU Singapore)

To test the capabilities of the spacesuit prototype, the MS1 Mars, scientists and explorers went inside a volcano, and then went out to “some remote stretches of Iceland”, which is one of the most Mars-like environments to be found here on Earth.

Led by the Iceland Space Agency (ISA), the team traveled into the Grímsvötn volcano and across the Vatnajökull ice cap to test the MS1 Mars analog suit. The suit, designed by Michael Lye, a senior critic and NASA coordinator at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), serves as a tool to test human capabilities on Mars. The suit is "not actually intended for use on Mars, but it's intended for use here on Earth where people are doing analog studies to see what it's like if you were to put people on the surface of Mars," Lye told Space.com.

"The idea is that anything you would do while exploring Mars ... any activity, whether it's science, or traveling or moving about, would be possible in this suit," he added. All seven members of the team got a chance to hop into the suit and test it out when they trekked out onto the frozen landscape for the mission, which lasted from July 26 to Aug. 5. 

More details over at the site.

(Image Credit: Dave Hodge/ Unexplored Media)

These are miniature brains created from stem cells. While they might be a million times smaller than human brains, these mini-brains are the first observed to create brain waves resembling those of preterm babies. This could greatly help scientists in understanding human brain development.

"The level of neural activity we are seeing is unprecedented in vitro," says Alysson Muotri, a biologist at the University of California, San Diego. "We are one step closer to have a model that can actually generate these early stages of a sophisticated neural network."

The pea-sized brains, called cerebral organoids, are derived from human pluripotent stem cells. By putting them in culture that mimics the environment of brain development, the stem cells differentiate into different types of brain cells and self-organize into a 3-D structure resembling the developing human brain.

More details of this study over at PHYS.org.

(Image Credit: Muotri Lab/ UCTV)

Apple has just sent invites for their next big event in press mailboxes. The invite has confirmed the rumored date, September 10. The event is set for Steve Jobs Theater, the auditorium on Apple’s corporate headquarters, Apple Park, which is found in Cupertino, California.

The invite features a swirling multi-color homage to the 80s Apple logo, albeit in a subtler pastel hue, which may point to colorful new hardware.

The centerpiece of the event will, of course, be the iPhone 11, which is rumored to arrive in three different flavors: The standard 11 (replacing the budget XR) and two 11 Pro models, set to replace the XS and XS Max, respectively. The scheme would mark a kind of new approach for the company, which has struggled to grapple with declining smartphone sales along with the rest of the industry.

[...]

A number of new features have been rumored for the new handsets, including a triple-camera array with an ultra-wide lens, a new A13 chip and wireless power sharing à la the Samsung Galaxy series, which would fit nicely alongside the latest AirPods. This being Apple’s last big hardware push before the holidays, there’s sure to be plenty more on the docket, as well.

Are you looking forward to iPhone 11? Why or why not?

(Image Credit: TechCrunch)

We now live in a time where we can talk to each other, almost instantly, no matter the distance. We can talk to our friends and family anywhere and anytime. Within the vastness of the Internet, we can find different messaging apps, such as Slack, Instagram, WhatsApp, Skype, and many more. However, we must also consider the security of the sites we use. We don’t know when an eavesdropper might try on eavesdropping on our conversations or try to peek at our message inbox.

With that in mind, which messaging apps are the safest? Find out on Engadget.

(Note: Each app has its own pros and cons.)

(Image Credit: TeroVesalainen/ Pixabay)

All of the Colonel’s @BeyondMeat Kentucky Fried Chicken has Kentucky Fried sold out. Yes, it is truly a Kentucky Fried Miracle. https://t.co/xvWRooeTjS pic.twitter.com/60g2YyaU9E

— KFC (@kfc) August 27, 2019

KFC has now proved that whether the chicken is real or not, their chicken will always be “finger lickin’ kickin’ good”. “Yes, it is truly a Kentucky Fried Miracle,” said KFC on their Twitter post.

KFC went plant-based on one of their restaurants in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday.

One Twitter user posted a photo of cars queuing around the Smyrna, GA, restaurant before it had even opened.

And other users reported that the product was more than worth the two- to four-hour wait.

Too bad I don’t live in Georgia. Hopefully, they will release it nationally, and perhaps internationally.

Are you looking forward to this one?

(Image Credit: KFC/ Twitter)

Well worth the wait!!! 🔥🔥🔥@beyondmeat x @kfc #KFC #BeyondFriedChicken https://t.co/KLVBXX98Qo pic.twitter.com/MNSb9CVei4

— Dep (@dadeputy) August 27, 2019

These kids might be in the same classroom. Their individual experiences, however, are different from each other, as this new study suggests. To see how the class would look like from the children’s perspective, the researchers had the children wear a video camera on their head for two hours a day.

In this study, published recently in PLOS ONE, the researchers were interested in the linguistic environment – how were children exposed to language in the class?

“We found that the duration and frequency of kids’ interactions with teachers and peers was very different among kids,” said Leydi Johana Chaparro-Moreno, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in educational psychology at The Ohio State University.

“Overall, children interacted more with the teacher than their peers, but for some kids their peers were an additional source of hearing language.”

According to Chapparo-Moreno, the findings could not be easily learned from traditional studies, as most studies before this focused on how teachers behaved in class, such as how they interacted with children.

“What was missing was the perspective of the kids. Especially in preschool classrooms, each child may not be listening to the teacher at the same time or interacting in the same way,” Chaparro-Moreno said.

Know more details about this study over at Ohio State News.

(Image Credit: Ohio State News)

The golfer, Steel Lafferty, who seemed to be too focused on hitting the golf ball, did not appear to mind the gator as it went along its merry way across the golf course. Amazingly, the gator did not seem to mind Lafferty as well — they both just minded their own business.

Steel Lafferty was at ChampionGate Country Club in Osceola County when the reptile tried to gatecrash his game on Wednesday.

The large alligator sneaked-up on the professional wake-boarder moments before he was about to hit the ball.

Despite being yards away, Laffety walked up and sent the ball flying over the creature who seemed relatively unfazed.

Lafferty told Fox35 that the alligator then walked around 100 yards before disappearing into a lake by the green.

What are your thoughts on this one?

(Image Credit: Steel Lafferty/ Daily Mail)

For quite some time, Realme has been teasing the world with its 64-megapixel camera. Now, the tech company finally unveils Realme XT, the world’s first 64 MP camera. The smartphone will also be coming with a 4,000 mAh battery, which means it will last long. The phone will be launched in India before Diwali.

Realme XT features a “3D glass hyperbola curve back design” with its rear cameras placed on the top left corner. Realme uses Samsung’s GW1 image sensor for its 64-megapixel rear camera. This image sensor is equipped to bring real-time HDR of up to 100-decibles. The sensor also promises brighter lowlight photos and crisper quality in daylight settings.

Realme XT features a dewdrop notch Super AMOLED display with 92.1% screen-to-body ratio. The smartphone also features an in-display fingerprint sensor. Realme says the phone will offer one of the fastest unlock speeds in the market.

[...]

Realme isn’t the only company launching a 64-megapixel camera phone. Xiaomi is also slated to launch its 64-megapixel camera phone, Redmi Note 8 Pro in China on August 29.

Do you think the phone would be worth buying? What are your thoughts?

(Image Credit: Realme)

Place of birth: unknown. Date of birth: unknown. Everyone just knew that Big Boy just appeared near some biology labs around 2005. He was probably left by a former staff member who cannot keep him as a pet any longer. For almost 15 years, the small courtyard of UC Santa Barbara became the home of Big Boy. He was “cared for by many, but owned by no one.”

Often, people find out about Big Boy through word of mouth, and so a network of fans and stewards has built steadily over the years. Katie Title, who works as an academic advisor in the College of Engineering, was told by a former coworker about a very friendly campus cat. Title started spending a few lunch breaks per week visiting the cat, and eventually decided to step up and become his primary human liaison.

“I was just a fan originally,” Title said, “but now I have become the central contact for him.” Last year, some concerned students took Big Boy to a local shelter, ASAP (the Animal Shelter Assistance Program). The shelter checked him out, determined he was not a stray and released him (after Title volunteered to be his official campus designate).

Know more about this heartwarming story over at The UCSB Current.

(Image Credit: Matt Perko/ The UCSB Current)