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Categories: Engineering: Robotics Research, Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology

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Life on a faraway planet -- if it's out there -- might not look anything like life on Earth. But there are only so many chemical ingredients in the universe's pantry, and only so many ways to mix them. Scientists have now exploited those limitations to write a cookbook of hundreds of chemical recipes with the potential to give rise to life. Their ingredient list could focus the search for life elsewhere in the universe by pointing out the most likely conditions -- planetary versions of mixing techniques, oven temperatures and baking times -- for the recipes to come together.

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Researchers combined soft microactuators with high-energy-density chemical fuel to create an insect-scale quadrupedal robot that is powered by combustion and can outrace, outlift, outflex and outleap its electric-driven competitors.

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A new study shows the isolation and sequencing of more than a century-old RNA molecules from a Tasmanian tiger specimen preserved at room temperature in a museum collection. This resulted in the reconstruction of skin and skeletal muscle transcriptomes from an extinct species for the first time. The researchers note that their findings have relevant implications for international efforts to resurrect extinct species, including both the Tasmanian tiger and the woolly mammoth, as well as for studying pandemic RNA viruses.

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A research team has developed groundbreaking 'soft valve' technology -- an all-in-one solution that integrates sensors and control valves while maintaining complete softness.

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Researchers have developed small robotic devices that can change how they move through the air by 'snapping' into a folded position during their descent. Each device has an onboard battery-free actuator, a solar power-harvesting circuit and controller to trigger these shape changes in mid-air.

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More than 400 million years ago, an insect-like animal called the springtail developed a small protein that prevents its cells from freezing.

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Researchers who created a soft robot that could navigate simple mazes without human or computer direction have now built on that work, creating a 'brainless' soft robot that can navigate more complex and dynamic environments.

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From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, 'monstrous births' -- malformed or anomalous fetuses -- were, to Western medicine, an object of superstition. In 19th-century America, they became instead an object of the 'modern scientific study of monstrosity,' a field formalized by French scientist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. This clinical turn was positioned against the backdrop of social, political, and economic activity that codified laws governing slavery, citizenship, immigration, family, wealth, and access to resources.

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Right at the bottom of the deep sea, the first very simple forms of life on earth probably emerged a long time ago. Today, the deep sea is known for its bizarre fauna. Intensive research is being conducted into how the number of species living on the sea floor have changed in the meantime. Some theories say that the ecosystems of the deep sea have emerged again and again after multiple mass extinctions and oceanic upheavals. Today's life in the deep sea would thus be comparatively young in the history of the Earth. But there is increasing evidence that parts of this world are much older than previously thought.

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Researchers report that the flexible shoulders and elbows that allow us to throw a football or reach a high shelf may have evolved as a natural braking system that let our primate ancestors get out of trees without dying. The researchers used sports-analysis software to compare the climbing movements of chimpanzees and small monkeys called mangabeys. While the animals climb up trees similarly, the researchers found that the shallow, rounded shoulder joints and shortened elbow bones that chimps have -- similar to humans -- allow them to fully extend their arms above their heads when climbing down, holding onto branches like a person going down a ladder to support their greater weight. When early humans left forests for the grassy savanna, these versatile appendages would have been essential for gathering food and using tools for hunting and defense. The findings are among the first to identify the significance of 'downclimbing' in the evolution of apes and early humans.

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A team of scientists developed a new machine learning model for discovering critical-element-free permanent magnet materials based on the predicted Curie temperature of new material combinations.

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An artificial intelligence with the ability to look inward and fine tune its own neural network performs better when it chooses diversity over lack of diversity, a new study finds. The resulting diverse neural networks were particularly effective at solving complex tasks.

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The day when robots can cook dinner, clear the kitchen table and empty the dishwasher is still a long way off. First, robots need to be able to recognize the many items of different sizes, shapes and brands in our homes. A team has now made a significant advance toward that technology with a robotic system that uses artificial intelligence to help robots better identify and remember objects.

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A team of researchers has recreated one of the scents used in the mummification of an important Egyptian woman more than 3500 years ago.

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Research teams have detailed a pioneering breakthrough in medical device technology that could lead to intelligent, long-lasting, tailored treatment for patients, thanks to soft robotics and artificial intelligence.

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In a milestone for artificial intelligence (AI), the AI system 'Swift' has beaten the world champions in drone racing -- a result that seemed unattainable just a few years ago. The AI-piloted drone was trained in a simulated environment. Real-world applications include environmental monitoring or disaster response.

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Machine learning model provides quick method for determining the composition of solid chemical mixtures using only photographs of the sample.

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Even when humans see AI-based assistants purely as tools, they ascribe partial responsibility for decisions to them, as a new study shows.

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Imagine a robot that can wedge itself through the cracks in rubble to search for survivors trapped in the wreckage of a collapsed building. Engineers are working toward to that goal with CLARI, short for Compliant Legged Articulated Robotic Insect.

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A research team overcomes limitations of conventional strain sensors using computer vision integrated optical sensors.