15 May

Posted at 13:48h in Scoop.it

From space, Venus is bright white because it is covered with clouds that reflect and scatter sunlight. At the surface, the rocks are different shades of grey, like rocks on Earth, but the thick atmosphere filters the sunlight so that everything would look orange if you were standing on Venus.

 

Venus has mountains, valleys, and tens of thousands of volcanoes. The highest mountain on Venus, Maxwell Montes, is 20,000 feet high (8.8 kilometers), similar to the highest mountain on Earth, Mount Everest. The landscape is dusty, and surface temperatures reach a scalding 880 degrees Fahrenheit (471 degrees Celsius). A 3D model of the surface of Venus (Download Options).

Sourced through Scoop.it from: solarsystem.nasa.gov

15 May

Posted at 13:46h in Scoop.it

A new "super steel" alloy shows increased strength under stressful conditions. The secret is in the molecular structure.

 

Researchers say they’ve made a new “super steel” that challenges conventional wisdom about new steel alloys. Instead of the usual fine-tuned balance of tradeoffs, scientists at the University of Hong Kong and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs say their super steel mitigates the catch-22s in many previous alloys. The secret is in how the molecular structure of the steel works to absorb and nullify stress damage.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.popularmechanics.com

08 May

Posted at 13:20h in Scoop.it

Forget light sabers. Researchers on Earth have invented something far flashier: a Star Wars–like 3D display that simultaneously projects video, sound, and even the sensation of touch. The new displays can’t create holograms as complex as Princess Leia’s famous distress call. But with further improvements, they could transform virtual reality, providing users a multi-sensory experience without headsets or other cumbersome gear.

 

 

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.sciencemag.org

03 May

Posted at 17:35h in Scoop.it

Thermal imaging wearables used in China to detect COVID-19 symptoms could soon be deployed in the U.S.

 

Hangzhou based AI startup Rokid is in talks with several companies to sell its T1 glasses in America, according to Rokid’s  U.S. Director Liang Guan.

 

Rokid  is among a wave of Chinese companies creating technology to address the coronavirus pandemic, which has dealt a blow to the country’s economy.  Per info Guan provided, Rokid’s T1 thermal glasses use an infrared sensor to detect the temperatures of up to 200 people within two minutes from as far as three meters. The devices carry a Qualcomm  CPU, 12 megapixel camera and offer augmented reality features — for hands free voice controls — to record live photos and videos.

 

The Chinese startup (with a San Francisco office) plans B2B sales of its wearable devices in the U.S. to assist businesses, hospitals and law enforcement with COVID-19 detection, according to Guan.

Rokid is also offering IoT and software solutions for facial recognition and data management, as part of its T1 packages.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: techcrunch.com

03 May

Posted at 17:33h in Scoop.it

Total deaths in seven states that have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic are nearly 50 percent higher than normal for the five weeks from March 8 through April 11 2020, according to new death statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is 9,000 more deaths than were reported as of April 11 in official counts of deaths from the coronavirus.

 

The new data is partial and most likely undercounts the recent death toll significantly. But it still illustrates how the coronavirus is causing a surge in deaths in the places it has struck, probably killing more people than the reported statistics capture. These increases belie arguments that the virus is only killing people who would have died anyway from other causes. Instead, the virus has brought a pattern of deaths unlike anything seen in recent years.

 

If you look at the provisional deaths from all causes, death counts in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland and Colorado have spiked far above their normal levels for the period. In New York City, the home of the biggest outbreak, the number of deaths over this period is more than three times the normal number. Recent data suggests it could have reached six times higher than normal.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.nytimes.com

01 May

Posted at 18:44h in Scoop.it

Researchers at Switzerland-based Empa, ETH Zurich and Zurich University Hospital have developed a sensor that has the potential to identify SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, in the air. The work is led by Jing Wang at Empa, who usually works on measuring and analyzing airborne pollutants.

 

The sensor has reliably shown the sensor can identify the first SARS-CoV virus that was responsible for the SARS pandemic in 2003. It has numerous similarities to SARS-CoV-2. “Tests showed that the sensor can clearly distinguish between the very similar RNA sequences of the two viruses,” Jing Wang said. And the results appear in minutes.

 

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.biospace.com