Science and technology micro-summaries for July 20, 2019

IEEE Spectrum's weekly selection of awesome robot videos; Verizon 5G hotspot costs about $650 plus $85 per month; Google suspended work on China's censorship-enabled search engine; A superconducting material for higher-efficiency neural networks; Some mathematics involving infinite sequences and series

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Straight from my RSS feed:

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

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1. Video Friday: This 3D-Printed Micro-Robot Could One Day Walk Inside Your Body - This week's post includes a tiny 3D printed robot that uses vibration from actuators, ultrasound, or even stereo speakers to power motion and could eventually be used to repair injuries inside the human body; A drone that aims to combine the efficiency of fixed wing flight with the stability of multiple rotors; Another video from the robocup (see Science and technology micro-summaries for July 18, 2019 for more) - this one shows a robot doing household tasks like serving drinks and scrubbing a toilet; Obstacle avoidance by Centauro, a robot with wheels and legs; and several others.
   
   Here is the video of Centauro:
   

Verizon wants you to pay $650 plus $85 a month for a 5G hotspot - Accoring to the article, the $650 hot-spot device is discounted to $499 with a 2 year commitment, and can be payed off for about $28 per month. Verizon also has 5G phones available for $10 extra per month.

A Google VP Told The US Senate The Company Has “Terminated” The Chinese Search App Dragonfly - The first public mention of the claim was at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday (July 16). Google's VP, Karan Bhatia, added that the company has no plans to resurrect the project, but did not explicitly rule it out.h/t OS news

Superconducting neurons could match the power efficiency of the brain - Careful with words like "could" in the headline, which could also mean "might not". MIT's Emily Toomey has designed a superconducting material which she and her team say can theoretically match the efficiency of the brain, and it may act as a foundation for a new generation of superconducting neural networks. The material is comprised of superconducting nanowires that act like neurons by increasing resistance and beginning to pulse when the voltage reaches a certain threshold. Right now, the idea seems to be design-only, so the next step is a "proof-of-principle" demonstration. The article doesn't say anything about the cost or eventual ability to scale up for mass production.

STEEM Infinite Sequences and Series: The Integral Test and Estimate of Sums - This post by @mes contains a video and notes describing methods for finding whether or not an infinite series has a sum, and calculating the sum if it does. Concepts discussed include the Integral Test, convergent and divergent series, bounded or unbounded sequences, and continuous functions. (@mes will receive 5% of the rewards from this post.)

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