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Published

Scientists spot more Milky Way-like galaxies in early universe      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists are peering into the past and uncovering new clues about the early universe. Since light takes a long time to travel through space, they are now able to see how galaxies looked billions of years ago. The astronomers have discovered that spiral galaxies were more common in the early universe than previously thought. The scientists found that nearly 30% of galaxies have a spiral structure about 2 billion years after the universe formed. The discovery provides a significant update to the universe's origin story as previously told using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

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Published

Researchers create realistic virtual rodent      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

To help probe the mystery of how brains control movement, scientists have created a virtual rat with an artificial brain that can move around just like a real rodent. The researchers found that activations in the virtual control network accurately predicted neural activity measured from the brains of real rats producing the same behaviors.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Trash-sorting robot mimics complex human sense of touch      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers are breaking through the difficulties of robotic recognition of various common, yet complex, items. Their layered sensor is equipped with material detection at the surface and pressure sensitivity at the bottom, with a porous middle layer sensitive to thermal changes. An efficient cascade classification algorithm rules out object types in order, from easy to hard, starting with simple categories like empty cartons before moving on to orange peels or scraps of cloth.

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How did a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way come to be?      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Crater 2, located approximately 380,000 light years from Earth, is one of the largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. Extremely cold and with slow-moving stars, Crater 2 has low surface brightness. How this galaxy originated remains unclear. A team of physicists now offers an explanation.

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Published

Lone Star State: Tracking a low-mass star as it speeds across the Milky Way      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Astronomers have discovered a rare hypervelocity L subdwarf star racing through the Milky Way. More remarkably, this star may be on a trajectory that causes it to leave the Milky Way altogether.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Four-legged, dog-like robot 'sniffs' hazardous gases in inaccessible environments      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Nightmare material or truly man's best friend? A team of researchers equipped a dog-like quadruped robot with a mechanized arm that takes air samples from potentially treacherous situations, such as an abandoned building or fire. The robot dog walks samples to a person who screens them for potentially hazardous compounds.

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Published

Hubble finds surprises around a star that erupted 40 years ago      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Astronomers have used new data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the retired SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) as well as archival data from other missions to revisit one of the strangest binary star systems in our galaxy -- 40 years after it burst onto the scene as a bright and long-lived nova. A nova is a star that suddenly increases its brightness tremendously and then fades away to its former obscurity, usually in a few months or years.

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Published

Webb telescope reveals asteroid collision in neighboring star system      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Astronomers have captured what appears to be a snapshot of a massive collision of giant asteroids in Beta Pictoris, a neighboring star system known for its early age and tumultuous planet-forming activity.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Researchers create skin-inspired sensory robots to provide medical treatment      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have created innovative soft robots equipped with electronic skins and artificial muscles, allowing them to sense their surroundings and adapt their movements in real-time.

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Published

Galactic bloodlines: Many nearby star clusters originate from only three 'families'      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Astronomers have deciphered the formation history of young star clusters, some of which we can see with the naked eye at night. The team reports that most nearby young star clusters belong to only three families, which originate from very massive star-forming regions. This research also provides new insights into the effects of supernovae (violent explosions at the end of the life of very massive stars) on the formation of giant gas structures in galaxies like our Milky Way.

Space: Astronomy Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Small, cool and sulfurous exoplanet may help write recipe for planetary formation      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Astronomers observing exoplanet GJ 3470 b saw evidence of water, carbon dioxide, methane and sulfur dioxide. Astronomers hope the discovery of this exoplanet's sulfurous atmosphere will advance our understanding of how planets forms.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Liquid metal-based electronic logic device that mimics intelligent prey-capture mechanism of Venus flytrap      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A research team has developed a liquid metal-based electronic logic device that mimics the intelligent prey-capture mechanism of Venus flytraps. Exhibiting memory and counting properties, the device can intelligently respond to various stimulus sequences without the need for additional electronic components. The intelligent strategies and logic mechanisms in the device provide a fresh perspective on understanding 'intelligence' in nature and offer inspiration for the development of 'embodied intelligence'.

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Published

Better farming through nanotechnology      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Advanced technologies enable the controlled release of medicine to specific cells in the body. Scientists argue these same technologies must be applied to agriculture if growers are to meet increasing global food demands.

Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

Researchers upend theory about the formation of the Milky Way Galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Research reveals a shocking discovery about the history of our universe: the Milky Way Galaxy's last major collision occurred billions of years later than previously thought.

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Published

Exotic black holes could be a byproduct of dark matter      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In the first quintillionth of a second, the universe may have sprouted microscopic black holes with enormous amounts of nuclear charge, MIT physicists propose. The gravitational pull from these tiny, invisible objects could potentially explain all the dark matter that we can't see today.

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Published

Planet-forming disks around very low-mass stars are different      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers studied the properties of a planet-forming disk around a young and very low-mass star. The results reveal the richest hydrocarbon composition seen to date in a protoplanetary disk, including the first extrasolar detection of ethane and a relatively low abundance of oxygen-bearing species. By including previous similar detections, this finding confirms a trend of disks around very low-mass stars to be chemically distinct from those around more massive stars like the Sun, influencing the atmospheres of planets forming there.

Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Scientists detect slowest-spinning radio emitting neutron star ever recorded      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have detected what they believe to be a neutron star spinning at an unprecedentedly slow rate -- slower than any of the more than 3,000 radio emitting neutron stars measured to date.

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'Weird' new planet retained atmosphere despite nearby star's relentless radiation      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A rare exoplanet that should have been stripped down to bare rock by its nearby host star's intense radiation somehow grew a puffy atmosphere instead -- the latest in a string of discoveries forcing scientists to rethink theories about how planets age and die in extreme environments. Nicknamed 'Phoenix' for its ability to survive its red giant star's radiant energy discovered planet illustrates the vast diversity of solar systems and the complexity of planetary evolution -- especially at the end of stars' lives.

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Published

A technique for more effective multipurpose robots      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

MIT researchers developed a technique to combine robotics training data across domains, modalities, and tasks using generative AI models. They create a combined strategy from several different datasets that enables a robot to learn to perform new tasks in unseen environments.