[Popular STEM] Curating the Internet: STEM digest for April 11, 2021

How many dimensions does the universe have?; More about Xenobots, novel organisms that blur the lines between life and robotics; A biped robot is using reinforcement learning to develop skills; Honeywell makes a big splash into the quantum computing space; and IEEE Spectrum's weekly selection of awesome robot videos

Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.

1. Does the Universe have Higher Dimensions? Part 1 - In this video and transcript, Sabine Hossenfelder discusses the idea that space might have more than three dimensions. In part I, posted on April 10, she discusses the history of the idea, beginning with the description of higher-dimension geometry in 1845, then moving on to researchers in the early and mid-20th centuries. She points out that Einstein's work gave us 3 dimensions of space plus a fourth dimension for time. Other researchers found that by adding additional dimensions, they could account for electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. This realm of theory is known as Kaluza-Klein Theory, and it predicts 11 dimensions, split as follows:
   • 3 - gravity
   • 1 - time
   • 1 - electromagnetic force
   • 2 - weak nuclear force
   • 4 - strong nuclear force
   Although this has never been confirmed experimentally, and it leads to some computational challenges in certain areas of physics, it is consistent with the maximum number of dimensions that are needed for supergravity. To learn what comes next, we'll have to wait for her to post Part II.
   
   

   Here is the video:

   
   


2. Cells Form Into ‘Xenobots’ on Their Own - I discussed Xenobots in my post last week, Life as a geometry problem: Are these the first manmade living organisms?. In short, these are tiny microorganisms that are constructed from frog cells, but designed to be capable of locomotion by an evolutionary algorithm in a supercomputer. Here's more about them from science writer, Philip Ball. This article is reporting on research that was published in Science Robotics on March 31, A cellular platform for the development of synthetic living machines. Summarizing the impact of the research, Ball says,

   The xenobots are turning some conventional views in developmental biology upside down. They suggest that the frog genome doesn’t uniquely instruct cells about how to proliferate, differentiate and arrange themselves into a frog body. Rather, that’s just one possible outcome of the process that the genomic programming permits.

   and

   The results seem to imply that individual cells have a kind of decision-making capacity that creates a palette of possible bodies they could build — constrained and guided by the genome but not defined by it.

   According to Ball, evolutionary biologist, Eva Jablonski suggests that these Xenobots represent a totally new type of creature that is defined by "what it does" instead of its biological and evolutionary history. This is extended by Richard Solé who says that the Xenobot experiments, "open a whole new window to interrogate development — and more generally, novel forms of complex life.". Key points from this article are that:
   1. Xenobots are built out of frog cells, but they are radically different from frogs.
   2. The cells demonstrate a sort of decision-making process while self-assembling.
   3. Cells communicate with each other electronically, without using nerve cells as intermediaries.
   4. The cells are driven by an inate desire to survive,

   In general, the article notes that Xenobots normally live for about a week, but with careful nutrition management, they can survive for as long as 90 days.



3. Forget Boston Dynamics. This robot taught itself to walk - Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot is famous for its dancing and other agility, but these abilities are highly choreographed. Having a biped robot move and balance without this labor-intensive choreography is still a difficult goal. To that end, Berkeley's Cassie represents a step forward. Cassie has used reinforcement learning to be able to do things like walk in a crouch and maintain its balance when loaded down, unexpectedly, with a heavy weight.

   Video here:

   
   


4. The CEO of Honeywell tells us how a company known for thermostats plans to crush IBM, Google, and other rivals in the quantum wars - Honeyewell CEO, Darius Adamczyk, discusses the company's quantum computing capability. Their architecture was recently published in the journal, Nature. According to Adamczyk, one of the biggest challenges to this line of business is the firm's reputation as a thermostat company. However, he expects their quantum computer to begin generating revenue this year and become profitable in a few years. According to their recent publication, Honeywell's quantum compute offering is more powerful than products from traditional firms like IBM and Google. This article amplifies that point, saying:

   Honeywell's computer has a quantum volume of 64, a metric that factors in the number of qubits and the complexity of the problem that the supercomputer must solve. That's double the amount the nearest competitor has disclosed publicly.
   

   And Honeywell expects that to grow tenfold each year for the next five years, well beyond the pace at which others are anticipating to scale.

   
   Related:
   - Honeywell releases details of its ion trap quantum computer - ars technica (#steemlinks)
   

5. Video Friday: Robotic Eyeball Camera - IEEE Spectrum's weekly selection of awesome robot videos include:
   
   • EyeCam a robotic eye webcam.
   • Education kits from Bionic Robots made by Bionics4Education
   • underwater soft robots from MIT CSAIL
   • A new collaborative robotic arm from Rainbow Robotics
   • and many more...

   Here is an "underwater manipulator robot from Sevastopol State.

   
   

   And here is a security guard robot from Halodi:
   

   
   



---

In order to help bring Steem's content to a new audience, if you think this post was informative, please consider sharing it through your other social media accounts.

---

And to help make Steem the go-to place for timely information on diverse topics, I invite you to discuss any of these links in the comments and/or your own response post.

Beneficiaries

• Experimental - penny4thoughts - 36%
• Public Steem API - justyy - 5%
• Public Steem API - steemit - 5%
• SteemWorld.Org Tools for Steemizens - steemchiller - 5%

---

Administrivia

First posted on the Steem blockchain: SteemIt.

Experimental: Please leave a relevant and substantive reply to this post in order to be considered for a gratuity from @penny4thoughts after the post pays out.

---

About this series

---

Sharing a link does not imply endorsement or agreement, and I receive no incentives for sharing from any of the content creators.



Follow on steem: remlaps-lite, remlaps

---