Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - SPAM: Real-life T-1000' that can pass through metal bars invented by scientists

Submitted by Mogster
Mogster writes: Six years out from 2029 and scientists are continuing to aide Skynet in its efforts to eliminate humanity.
Scientists from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh took gallium, a metal that melts at room temperature, and enriched it with magnetic particles to create a shape-shifting robot that can also pass through metal bars to escape containment.
Link to Original Source

Comment '95 still DOS under the hood (Score 1) 77

Windows 95 still had DOS under the hood. In fact, you could boot directly into DOS from the boot menu MS-DOS 7.0 '95 was effectively a revamp of the Windows shell with 32bit capability added. But it was still largely DOS in the background. It wasn't until Win98 that DOS disappeared and became essentially a compatibility layer

Comment Re:Proudly in the 12 percent (Score 1) 71

by Mogster (#62882937) Attached to: The Eggplant Emoji Makes You Less Likable, According to New Report
I use emojis only because the bloody apps autoconvert the simple smiley face (semi)colon (dash) right bracket to them We've gone from hieroglyphs to runes to alphabets in the space of a few millennia - and we're now returning to hieroglyphs Who said history never repeats? The one time it is good that /. doesn't support Unicode :-)

Comment Re:You can in fact say that (Score 3, Insightful) 177

by Mogster (#62876029) Attached to: New Zealand Scraps Most Covid Rules as Virus Battle Winds Down

The effectiveness of the vaccines at "stopping COVID" are highly suspect, at best.

Sorry what?! Vaccines are not designed to 'stop' a virus. They are there to assist the body in fighting off the virus - e.g. instead of perhaps putting you on a respirator for 3mths you might spend a week with a cough and runny nose. And that in turn takes the pressure off the health system, which can then focus on hopefully fewer people that do get sicker. I was immunized against measles and rubella as a baby (pre MMR). Got both varieties as a kid, but only a minor fever and a rash. Given that measles can (and has) kill I'd say the vaccine did its job

Comment Re: Admitting defeat (Score 2) 177

by Mogster (#62875995) Attached to: New Zealand Scraps Most Covid Rules as Virus Battle Winds Down

The government ran the numbers

I think you are overly optimistic about the quality of the government's numbers, I also believe the "ran the numbers" and where saying at one point there should be new 50,000 daily cases when they where around a thousand, I might be wrong about the exact numbers but they where way off.

The reason I believe they changed it is they no longer believed it was politically expedient to do so. A significant portion of New Zealand have not really cared about mask use for a while now, the government is just catching up.

The 50,000 was a worst case scenario prediction based on the numbers. As usual the media picked it up and it got mis-represented. I won't say the government got it right all the time. However, they were generally looking for best/worse case scenarios and trying to find a middle ground that would keep the population as safe as possible without completely destroying the economy and pissing everybody off. I am somewhat disappointed in the Labour government in regards to other areas of policy. Yet in regards to the pandemic I think they did a pretty good job overall

Submission + - Scientists Create Cyborg Cockroaches Controlled by Solar-Powered Backpacks (cnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In a new study, published Monday in the journal npj Flexible Electronics, an international team of researchers revealed it has engineered a system to remotely control the legs of cockroaches from afar. The system, which is basically a cockroach backpack wired into the creature's nervous system, has a power output about 50 times higher than previous devices and is built with an ultrathin and flexible solar cell that doesn't hinder the roach's movement. Pressing a button sends a shock to the backpack that tricks the roach into moving a certain direction.

Cockroach cyborgs are not a new idea. Back in 2012, researchers at North Carolina State University were experimenting with Madagascar hissing cockroaches and wireless backpacks, showing the critters could be remotely controlled to walk along a track. The way scientists do this is by attaching the backpack and connecting wires to a cockroach's "cerci," two appendages at the end of the abdomen that are basically sensory nerves. One on the left, one on the right. Previous studies have shown electrical impulses to either side can stimulate the roach into moving in that direction, giving researchers some control over locomotion. But to send and receive signals, you need to power the backpack. You might be able to use a battery but, eventually, a battery will run out of power and the cyborg cockroach will be free to disappear into the leaf litter.

The team at Riken crafted the system to be solar-powered and rechargeable. They attached a battery and stimulation module to the cockroach's thorax (the upper segment of its body). That was the first step. The second step was to make sure the solar cell module would adhere to the cockroach's abdomen, the segmented lower section of its body. [T]he Riken team tested a number of thin electronic films, subjecting their roaches to a bunch of experiments and watching how the roaches moved depending on the thickness of the film. This helped them decide on a module about 17 times thinner than a human hair. It adhered to the abdomen without greatly limiting the degree of freedom the roaches had and also stuck around for about a month, greatly outlasting previous systems.

Slashdot Top Deals

The cost of feathers has risen, even down is up!

Close