[Popular STEM] Curating the Internet: STEM digest for May 15, 2021
Disney spent three years stuffing a humanoid robot into a Groot suit; An archaeological discovery rewrites 2,400 year-old military history; Two decades worth of forest regeneration covers an area of land larger than France; An interspecies challenge has been issued for a game of Mind Pong; and an argument that modern digital technology is not causing the harms that people fear
Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.
pixabay license: source.
- How Disney Imagineering Crammed a Humanoid Robot Into a Groot Suit - Not much to say about this. Soon to be greeting visitors in Disney World, I suppose. In three years of work on Project Kiwi, the Disney roboticists built, "a dynamic untethered humanoid robot that’s an interactive character at the same time." The robot is about 0.75 meters (2 1/2 feet) tall and its motion is supported by 50 degrees of freedom, which is required for lifelike motion. Project lead, Scott Christopher LaValley confirms that they intend to make it available for interaction with guests, but there are safety considerations that remain to be addressed.
Here is the video:
- Teeth of fallen soldiers hold evidence that foreigners fought alongside ancient Greeks, challenging millennia of military history - A team of archaeologists recently examined the teeth from men who were buried in mass graves during the 5th century BC. It is believed that these men may have fought in the Battles of Himera, which were a pair of battles, about 70 years apart, between the Himerans and the Carthaginians. The battles were written about by ancient Greek historians and studied by other historians for two millennia. The ancient writings tell stories of grand alliances, intrigue, and bravery by the Greek cavlalry soldiers. By studying these teeth, the researchers were able to tell that many of the people in the first battle, around 480 BC, were not local to the region. The proportion of Stronium in their teeth suggests that their origins were diverse, ranging throughout the Mediterranean region and beyond. This suggests that previously unknown mercenaries may have participated in the battle. In contrast, participants in the second battle of 409 BC appear to be mostly local Himerans. This is consistent with the historical belief that the Himerans were overpowered in the second battle because they received little aid from allies. The article concludes as follows:
Not only does the discovery of foreign mercenary forces change the history of the first battle of Himera, it also transforms our understanding who had power and privilege in Sicily during the Classical period.
Related: We recently watched the series Ancient Assassins on Discovery Plus. I highly recommend the series. - Forests the size of France regrown since 2000, study suggests - using satellite data, the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) determined that forest regeneration since the year 2000 accounts for an area of land that is larger than the country of France. One of the biggest areas of progress includes Brazil, where a forest the size of the Netherlands has regrown. Other areas of growth include Mongolia, central Africa, and Canada's Boreal forests. Despite these encouraging signs for the environment, the researchers also express their concern that deforestation in other locations may outpace the rate of regeneration. -h/t Daniel Lemire
- A paralyzed man is challenging Neuralink’s monkey to a match of mind Pong - Nathan Copeland is a paralyzed man who received a chip implant six years ago that he regularly uses for video games. So, when Elon Musk's company, Neuralink showed off their monkey, Pager's ability to play Pong, Copeland immediately wondered if he could beat the simian. After issuing his challenge, Copeland began training with the Project:Pong application, playing his own first game of Mind Pong in the past week or two. Nothing is certain, but the game may eventually be viewable on Copeland's Twitch profile. Since Copeland's implant is a six year old technology, it is thought that the monkey may actually have the technological edge, so Copeland is uncertain whether he could win the match. On the other hand, it is believed that a human would have an advantage with understanding the geometry of the game. Here is a video of Pager playing Pong with his mind:
- The digital world won’t harm you - Citing a new study in Clinical Psychological Science (CPS), science author and editor, Tom Chivers argues that the dangers of social media are overblown, just like a series of other technologies going back as far as silent movies and the early video games. Chivers makes the case that every time a technology turns out to be harmless, the same concerns are raised over and over again about newer technologies, and he summarizes the CPS paper as follows:
The CPS paper tried to look at that. It looked at three technologies: social media, “digital device use” (so video games or other non-work-related use of screens), and TV. Then it looked at the correlation between the use of those technologies and various mental-health outcomes in adolescents: depression, suicidality, and behavioural and emotional problems. And they looked at whether that correlation has changed over time: is an hour of playing video games in 2018 linked to worse conduct problems than an hour in 2010? Or an hour of TV in 2018 and in 1995?
Chivers also quotes Oxford's Professor Andrew Przybylski, who raises concerns that regulators are currently in the process of restricting access to video games and other technologies, and this can be harmful if it's not based on the best available evidence. -h/t RealClear Science
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Follow on steem: remlaps-lite, remlaps
regards! It was fun to watch the videos, groots is my favorite, it is very cute but with character, every day I learn more with its publications, I hardly have to see these discoveries and through its writing I have learned about the advancement of technology.
many years ago I saw a movie called Robocop, and I thought in my youth that it would be impossible in real life for this to happen, and I was wrong. It is more real than we know.
Thanks for the reply. I remember Robocop! I think I was in high school or junior high when that was released. You are right, it seems much closer to reality now than it did back then. Of course, I was raised on "The Six Million Dollar Man", so Robocop didn't really seem like a huge stretch. ; -)
Lol
Nathan Copeland is a pioneering research subject for scientific experiments. In 2016, he regained a sense of touch after 10 years as scientists implanted a mind-controlled robotic hand. In breakthrough tests, Nathan Copeland was able to feel subtle pressure in his own fingers when the artificial ones are touched. That was the world first experiment which was an early step in the quest to create prosthetics that can feel. [News Link]
Very cool background for the story. Thank you very much!
As expected the entertainment giants are one step ahead in technology and in the creation of robots, it is incredible that Scott Christopher LaValley and his team have been perfecting Groot's movements for 3 years although Groot in miniature looks adorable, no wonder that within a couple of years the people who go to Disney will be served by robots.
Regarding the battle of Himera, it is not surprising that there were allies in the Greek troops, this battle was the typical David against Goliath where the cantagines had the advantage of having around 300 thousand men, although they are not exact figures, they were defeated by the small army of the city of Sicily. because the army won with less man? the answer is obvious remlaps was the surprise factor. However, these are still a great discovery for science and archeology.
I think that the deforestation of trees worldwide is inevitable since the world population is increasing and the demand is greater, although with the pandemic I do not know how the birth rate will be at the moment I imagine that we gave a small setback in this regard.
I think that Coperland should surpass the monkey even if he uses technology from 6 years ago, it is true that monkeys have intelligence and learn quickly but as you say, we human beings understand the geometry of the game, because Coperland has not demanded that they put the transplant Neurolink or is it waiting for the metaverse that the people of Sony are creating. :-)
Regarding the last point, I think that video games do not influence the behavior of children. When I was little, I liked to play resident evil 2 or silent hill on my play station 2, for being a 15-year-old girl, this type of game was not for me. style for being a girl, but I liked to play them now I wonder, did this type of video game make me a violent person after I am an adult? "Well no". I am a very calm person. I understand that there are parents who are exaggerated with the care of their children and if they do not want their child not to play that type of video game then do not buy a playstation or xbox or something similar since the temptation to play this type of game is latent.
Thank you for the reply. All good points.
On the issue of population and deforestation, I'm actually a big fan of seasteading to accommodate future population growth, although I'm sure that will bring its own environmental challenges along with it (cooling ocean temperatures in the areas that are shaded from the sun by human habitation, for example). Between the oceans and off-planet excursions, I think we might eventually have more room for growth than we anticipate now.
I tend to agree with you about Copeland and Pager because it's a 2 dimensional game. In the back of my mind, though, I'm thinking that because of the way they climb and swing in trees, monkey intuition must be good with angles and inertia - at least in 3 dimensions.
somewhat strange rotation and the magnetic poles are moving towards Siberia, if the earth leans more where previously there was ice, there will no longer be. and where there is no end there will surely be some coastlines around the world who will suffer for what happened.
Living in the sea sailing does not sound so crazy but the problem is the food if it runs out, or the only way that you always sail along the coast.
About the monkey pager you are right they are agile when it comes to climbing trees and eating bananas, now I wonder, what is the monkey seeing in the second dimension? to react to the game. It will be that it is being manipulated by means of a computer by the implant of the chip.
True, but they are actually working on ocean-based agricultural techniques so that seasteads can farm their own food locally and sustainably. And of course, land-based cities have that problem, too. Millions or probably billions of people already depend upon food shipping for our survival.
I understand, but where will they get the fresh water to water the plants since the salt water would surely kill the harvest, I will have to read the article you sent me in the first answer.
Because living in the ocean would be great but it also has its disadvantages since the sea is constantly threatened by storms and siphons, although on land we are also in danger of natural disasters that appear constantly.
And if we do not go to another planet, it will not kill solar radiation, frozen, or by consuming high carbon dioxide.
Hahaha I think I'm a bit optimistic.
It has been a while since I read about it, but if I recall about the agriculture correctly, there are three main techniques: they use solar-powered desalination for fresh water plants (and also for drinking water); they grow plants that thrive in salt water; and they use large cages to pen marine animals in and farm them.
You're right that there are challenges, though. I hope that the engineers who are working on it will be able to make it safe, but that remains to be seen.
I understand .. Desalination consumes a lot of energy if I remember correctly, I think that for drinking water they should use thermal desalination to evaporate the water to separate the salts and impurity from the salty water and to water the plants, reverse osmosis desalination could be used but this is more difficult since they should use a high pressure pump and pass through a series of filters.
Well the engineers will find a way to use high energy generators in the sea because otherwise desalination will not work.
Hi! How are you?
I come to tell you to be careful with new users who post in the popular stem community since many accounts are relatively new and do not have any presentation to know if they are single user or multi accounts.
Thanks. Yeah, I try to be careful, but it's not always easy to keep up with the number of posts that come in. Especially since the sources that people cite are often in Spanish - which I cannot read. Please feel free to let me know if you see anything that looks like inauthentic content.
Ok .. I'll keep you posted when I see something I suspect in the community, count on my help.
Спасибо за интересный пост!