Deborah Campbell, Author at Argyll Free Press

Study Reveals That Wasps Display Amazing Navigational Skills

February 14, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Once again making use of high speed cameras earns great results for researchers as a study reveals that wasps display amazing navigational skills. But it’s not all because the insects have a natural knack of figuring out where they are, but because of the way they scan surroundings and what they can see in order to map the ‘way back home’.

It has been known for a very long time that wasps have a tendency to display strange flight patterns, especially when they leave their nests. Scientists have been puzzled by the zig zagging motions a wasp slowly makes, in an expanding arc sort of fashion, especially immediately after leaving their nest. However, it had not yet been discovered why the wasps display this behavior or what they were looking at as they were doing it.

After 10 years of the unexplainable mystery, researchers were finally able to figure out the meaning of the widening arc flight patterns by employing high speed cameras and studying the body posture and head movements of the wasps as they commence their test trip.

Along with the high speed stereo cameras, researchers also used a panoramic imager to map a 3D model of the environment the wasps were flying in, in order to pinpoint every single point of interest the wasp may have been flying towards. Using those means, the scientists recreated a wasp’s eye view of the world, which in turn ended up elucidating the mystery.

It turns out that wasps fly in such a manner because that is the method they employ to map the environment where the next is located, by literally looking it from numerous angles. They change views during their test flights – literal surveys they make of the location of their nest, with no other purpose than that – and use the differences they experience in order to decide when they have to change direction and begin a new arc in their flight.

They have been also noticed to rely to ground features such as rocks, leaves or other larger formations in order to understand and remember their location and how to return to the nest.

This is an important discovery in the topic as it may help develop tools for ecological neuroscience. There are still plenty of steps of this study left to be taken: bees and ants also display peculiar navigational behavior that may help scientists understand how insects function as well as when and how these competences develop.

Ultimately, understanding how insects navigate may help mankind if they find methods of applying what they learn in future developments of flying robotics.

Image Source: 1

NASA Is Hiring Astronauts for the Mars Mission

February 13, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Applications are now open for anyone ambitious but qualified as NASA is hiring astronauts for the Mars mission – whenever that will happen. While original plans involved the year 2020 for the first manned mission to the surface of the red planet, it may not happen until several years later, depending on how well funding the mission from the public and federal resources goes.

Regardless, NASA has decided that a manned mission to the planet of promise is the next biggest step in human evolution and achievement. And because the organization came to the conclusion that it cannot afford to focus on both a potential Mars mission as well as another landing on the Moon, it seems to have, after all, chosen that Mars should be the next destination for mankind.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is therefore placing all their efforts in raising funds for the Mars mission and training its future team of astronauts to be. For the first time in four years, NASA is hiring the next generation of astronauts; however, only one of them could eventually actually go to the Red Planet.

The team of astronauts would be training at Johnson Space Center in Houston; and that’s no easy feat. Anyone hoping to leave in a space shuttle for another planet one day needs to have excellent physical condition to begin with, but also a hefty amount of specialized training. That includes things such as spending a long time underwater and performing tasks in what is very similar to a zero gravity scenario, understand and train in the harsh conditions of outer space as well as prepare for a real life, real scale shuttle launch.

But being an astronaut is not only about being physically and mentally fit for the trip. NASA is currently looking for individuals who have a bachelor’s degree in math, science or engineering, with experience or with a military background as the minimum requirements.

NASA also places a lot of emphasis on communication skills. A 2 years long mission on a space craft requires a high degree of communication skills and teamwork, especially if you take into account that the individuals who will be joining need to be able to work together comfortably in the tight confines of a space ship.

Even though the next class of astronauts is only looking for 8 to 14 people, more than 6,100 applicants have already shown their interest in the mission.

Image Source: 1

Short Snippet of Mars Is Now Available on YouTube

February 9, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Far from being a Sci-Fi 3D rendered imagining of it, but a real short snippet of Mars is now available on YouTube in 360 degree view video. This video has been pieced together from several images that were taken by the Curiosity Rover on Mars on December 18^th of 2015. The video was released by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and depicts the surface of the red planet as it is near the Namib Dune.

Cracked ground, sand dunes and Mount Sharp await the user to witness a scenery that is not so different from what you would expect on our own planet. With the only possible exception being that you would think that kind of scenery is the result of scorching temperatures, whereas Mars barely exceeds 70 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) during summertime at the equator.

The images that form the video were captured on what was Curiosity’s 1,197^th Martian day (sol – term used for solar days) on the planet and gives anyone the chance to experience the way Mars would look if you were mounted atop the rover.

The Curiosity is a car-sized rover that was originally launched off of the surface of the earth on November 26^th, 2011 and only reached the surface of Mars on Earth day August 6^th, 2012. Ever since, it has been travelling across the plains of the planet, studying various rock formations and climate conditions in order to prepare mankind for its own descent on the planet – whenever that will be.

The Curiosity rover is equipped with a multitude of cameras and instruments that allow it to do more than just feed images and video of the surface of Mars. Firstly, it uses a high resolution camera to look for features of interest, it has an inbuilt infrared laser that can examine the rock elemental composition and even transform it into an advanced study via a microscope and X-ray spectrometer.

Along with the multitude of navigational cams, environmental monitoring stations, hazard avoidance cameras and the mast camera, Curiosity also holds various in-depth study tools that can quickly determine the nature of elements found in the soil, determine potentially unsafe zones where radiation levels are higher as well as a robotic arm that can make use of 5 different devices.

The mission that was originally planned to only last for 687 days (668 sols) has been decided to be made indefinite. During the time that the rover will continue to function on the surface of Mars, it will continue to study the biological, geological and geochemical processes and occurrences on the planet. While there is a focus set on whether microbial life was ever existent on Mars, the rover also plays a vital role in determining the conditions of mankind’s first step on the planet’s surface in person.

Image Source: 1

Amit Singhal Is Retiring but He Leaves an Empire Behind

February 4, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Google Search Chief Amit Singhal is retiring but he leaves an empire behind, an empire that he helped Google build for the past 15 years. The Google search engine has become such a centric part of our lives that we wouldn’t even be able to consider what it would be like to not have access to it anymore. Google search is one of the largest methods the world wide web connects, unless you count the internet itself. Large enough to invent the entire ‘googling’ term altogether.

And at the head of it, for the past decade and a half has been a man that saw the transition from a telephone and television-driven world to one that is now mostly ruled by computers and the internet. Following in his steps and the next in line to take the reins is John Giannandrea, an iconic individual in Google’s artificial intelligence department. And most likely, the company could not have found a better fit as the new head of Google Search as the two are not that different.

Take the AI robots that Google (but not just Google) is building as your first example: what makes them intelligent is the fact that they learn. By employing complex deep neural networks, man-made hardware can actually end up mimicking the way the human brain works but at much higher speed and potential. They can learn from sounds, from images and from text at immense performances, usually helping them outperform their creators.

The recently build AlphaGo program that researchers from the Google AI Project Deep Mind situated in London has managed to defeat a professional Go! Human player in a full-sized game. That is one of the best examples in which the built product manages to exceed the builder.

Similarly to full-fledged AI, you get Google Search, a feature that relies on the same networks. The Google search engine has grown so much since its inception that these days it will very often surprise how well it can tell what you’re about to ask from it. That is also thanks to the expanded fields that it draws its information from. These days, Google has access to nearly every single thing you do while you’re on the internet – so it’ll know what you’re interested in and be even faster than before in giving you exactly what you’re looking for.

Image Source: 1

Whether You Are a Night Owl or Early Bird May Be Decided By Genes

February 3, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Whether you are a night owl or early bird may be decided by genes, recent study suggests. Although in previous decades, late sleepers would often just be considered lazy and ‘improper’, people could not have been more wrong than that. Even though once just another representative of the animal reign, who had to be out early to hunt and in early to keep safe from night predators, the human being has evolved and changed a huge amount.

It would appear that similarly to how human genes have developed in plenty of other aspects, they now carry a lot more information than one would believe – one of which would be the kind of sleeper you are. Even if you have a job that has you wake up at 7 AM every day doesn’t make you an early bird; however, the way you feel when waking up at different times will denote what kind of sleeper you are. And apparently the information is stored in your DNA.

A recent study performed on no less than 89,283 individuals of various backgrounds and traits was performed, where subjects submitted their DNA and sleeping pattern information in order for the scientists to be able to determine where there are any common elements between people whose circadian rhythms possess the same patterns.

According to the large scale study, researchers have found that there are no less than 15 versions of genes that play a role in making you either a late sleeper or a morning person. Out of the 15 genetic variants, seven seemed to play a direct role in the circadian rhythm, while the others were related to sensing light. While some, if not most of us have been living our lives thinking that whether we were late sleepers or morning people was just part of who we were, it would appear that there is a strong biological reason behind it too.

According to the study, most people over 60 deemed themselves morning people, while in the age range below that, the statistic showed that 48.4% of the women and only 39.7% of the men said they were early wakers. Thanks to this study, scientists can start looking into genetics as the reason behind a wide variety of conditions and diseases.

The study was conducted by consumer genetics company 23andMe.

Image Source: 1

A New Method to Track Your Health

February 2, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

While wearable tech has been one of the largest sources of interest shown by modern society in the past few years, they haven’t done much to find a new method to track your health. Usual activity and fitness trackers will make use of GPS and accelerometers as sensors in order to keep track of the amount of steps you take in a day or how much sleep you’re getting. Occasionally also put in a heart monitor in to keep track of your heart’s activity and even manually fill in your daily diet – that is as far as activity trackers go.

However, a more recently developed tracker has been thought of by inventor Ali Javey – an electrical engineering and computer science professor at the University of California-Berkeley – promises to do a lot more than that. His device is able to measure sweat chemicals such as glucose, lactate, sodium and potassium. This would allow the device to track and alert the users of health issues such as dehydration, fatigue and even more.

This officially promises to be the first tracker of its kind for the mere reason that it is able to track multiple chemicals at the same time in a non-invasive manner. This is a great way to gain accurate results when trying to keep your health in check as individual types of tracking would not be able to become meaningful. As soon as the tracker is able to pick up on the chemicals in your sweat, it would immediately transmit data to the synced smartphone.

The way the new tracker is built allow a clear reading of the chemicals in your sweat by employing the help of five different sensors, placed on a flexible circuit board that will take your body temperature into account too. A flexible sensor array is added into the band to ensure continuous analysis and ensure that everything is done real time.

This type of device could turn out to be incredibly useful for individuals who have different types of ailments that affect the level of any of the chemicals that get released through swear. The device could pick up on the signal and notify the wearer to take medication or drink water. Furthermore, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California-Berkeley – George Brooks – also claims he hopes to see some application of this type of device as a replacement to regular blood tests to give a non-invasive alternative to patients.

Image Source: 1

First It Was the Apple Car, Now Apple VR

February 1, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Recently there has been a large amount of mystery surrounding the American tech giant Apple: first it was the Apple Car, now Apple VR – headsets or possibly something else. Because the company does such a great job of keeping most of its projects quiet and has yet to let the public know just what it is planning for the near future, the more it entices people to dig a little deeper into the giant’s secrets.

There have been rumors travelling around Apple’s name for the past month, and each suggests that the company is busying itself with more than just a couple of things. Albeit the headlines suggesting that Apple’s iPhone sales have been dwindling in Q4 of 2015 in favor of the wide variety of Android phones and even the Chinese newcomers, it turns out that Apple’s new direction is not related to its smartphone sector.

After a large uproar that started when Apple was leaked to have signed domains for an Apple Car, people started speculating that the company may be considering joining in on the automaker market. Together with the fact that Apple seems to have been closely communicating with the DMV on numerous occasions.

Then again, the public ended up completely disregarding the fact that it may very well be related to Apple attempting to integrate its CarPlay in vehicles that will start being put on sale in 2017, featuring ‘smart dashboards’.

Now, a new series of rumors seems to be travelling around the tech giant. Given the recent trend that involved Microsoft, Google and Facebook focusing on virtual reality and developing their own version of virtual reality headsets. It seems that the trend has not passed right by Apple as Tim Cook, the company’s chief executive, suggested that the company is starting its own VR initiative.

It would appear that the company has recently acquired an augmented reality start-up, named Flyby Media and hired Doug Bowman, namely a person who has researched related topics such as immersion in virtual environments. While Apple did not go out of its way confirm that they are indeed starting their own VR or AR division, it is very likely that this is the general direction. Once again, Apple does not seem to be very willing to openly discuss it at this point in time.

However, it is general knowledge that this is not the first acquisition of this nature that the company makes. According to CNBC, Apple has been building a team of experts over the past year.

Image Source: 1

Java Browser Plugin Is Finally Killed by Oracle

January 28, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

The Java browser plugin might not be as easily replaced as we thought.

We have just received the news that the Java browser plugin is finally killed by Oracle. The main reason behind this measure seems to be the fact that the feature was often used by attackers as it required many updates.

The announcement was made in a blog post by Oracle, together with several details about further plans. The whole process is expected to take one year, but we can be sure there will be remnants lingering some time after that. Apparently, this type of technology will disappear from both Oracle JRE and JDK in the next release of Java SE. However, by March 2017 all Internet browsers will refuse the Java plugin anyway. The corporation bought Sun Microsystems back in 2010, and along with it the Java feature. The plugin has been a security issue for Internet browsers since 1995 and thus sparked many controversies.

Oracle is not the first company to remove the ill-fated plugin. Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome have already gotten rid of it or are in the process of removing it. However, the problems that came with the Java plugin also included the annoying Ask Toolbar. This download came automatically with the Java package and users had the possibility of choosing between the Ask Shopping Toolbar or the Ask Search Toolbar.

Unfortunately, the process of replacing the feature is not as easy as it might seem. The founder of Coverity, Andy Chou, stated that he does not know if it is possible for Oracle to transport Java into a more secure path. He added that in order to make such big changes, new processes must be laid down and this affects the entire process of software development. Such a big step will surely take much of the time and effort of numerous employees.

Developers are also taking into consideration another option: moving from the Java Applets to Java Web Start technology. This type of technology does not require any plugins whatsoever. Oracle also announced that users can now access the early release of JDK 9, as well as additional details and background information for migration options.

The Java browser plugin is finally killed by Oracle, but it seems many computers will continue to use either Java 6 or Java 7, especially the ones used in business environments. These two versions do not receive any more public security updates. The Java plugin will prove quite difficult to be replaced or rewritten.

Image Source: 1

New Virtual Reality Research Facility for Oculus Rift

January 21, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

A new virtual reality research facility for Oculus Rift has been purchased in Pittsburgh.

Facebook plans to improve its highest technology device yet by establishing a new virtual reality research facility for Oculus Rift. A Pennsylvania publication has revealed that the company has just bought a 20,000 square feet building in the city of Pittsburgh. The information has been confirmed by official representatives.

Oculus Rift was bought by Facebook two years ago in 2004 and has since hired numerous developers, computer vision technicians and post-doctoral scientists to work on the project. At the moment, the company is looking for new employees for the Pittsburgh location. And they will need quite a lot of people since the Oculus technology includes a constellation program to track the movements of the user. Furthermore, the device features several external visual indicators which can identify the LEDs located inside of it. These aspects might be soon joined by less movement trackers that are based on calculations for determining the position of the user, as well as a regular digicam.

However, this area of study can prove truly useful for other modern endeavours such as self-driving cars. As a result, Apple has also bought a location near the city in order to work on the Uber project.

As we come one step closer to making our dreams come as true as they can with virtual reality, it was only logical for Facebook to acquire a device that will surely prove very profitable in the future. The company paid over $2 billion for Oculus Rift: 23 million stock shares and $400 million cash. Mark Zuckerberg himself, Facebook CEO, is fascinated by the technology and thus determined to perfect it.

The project was started by its founder, Palmer Luckey, as a campaign on Kickstarter. After five years of hard work, Oculus Rift will finally be released in March. The device will come with two VR games and a remote that can be used to search for other experiences in online stores. Further software will be produced by partner app designers. On a more realistic note, Oculus will not come cheap: the device will cost $600.

By purchasing a new virtual reality research facility for Oculus Rift, Facebook is sure to soon advance with VR technology and thus get ahead of its competition, if it hasn’t done so already. The company has many future plans for Oculus, among which inside monitoring based on a camera installed on the device, and Hololens-type AR that uses a particular computer visuals programs in order to model external spaces.

Image Source: 1

New Trip Experiences Feature Will Be Launched by Uber

January 13, 2016 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

It seems traveling by car will become more pleasant as the new Trip Experiences feature will be launched by Uber. It all begun with the introduction of Uber API that has given access to all app developers to the Uber system. Thus, applications can now access trip history, display pickup times, transfer a destination to Uber, provide fare estimates and so on. Trip Experiences is set to allow developers to activate their services during the Uber ride.

More precisely, you will be able to use the time of your trip in a useful or entertaining way. Third-party developers will receive information when you are on a Uber trip, if you are waiting for your ride, how much time the trip will take, as well as track the location of the Uber car, and the pickup location and destination. For instance, if your trip takes ten minutes, you will have access to a ten minute playlist from Spotify of your preferred music genre. If you wish to find out the latest news in just five minutes, you will be provided with a five minute news update. Furthermore, if you are planning a night out, you will be given restaurant reviews, reminders to turn off the lights when you leave your house or turn on the heat when you return.

However, if you prefer a peaceful ride you can always turn off these notifications, since Uber does use permissions. Lastly, Uber users will earn virtual points for each trip they make, which can lead to real-life rewards. The new service is also a great opportunity for advertising, which might become annoying for users, but the company has already warned developers that they will not be able to distribute unwanted promotions or spam.

Uber is available in over three hundred cities and is valued at $6.2 billion. This is truly the biggest update for the company after the introduction of Ride Request last year. The change comes as Uber is trying to improve its services and transform into something more than just a car service, as well as attract more users. Its plans include package and food delivery, self-driving cars and partnering with third-party apps such as Facebook Messenger, OpenTable, United Airlines and StubHub.

There is currently no information on when the new Trip Experiences feature will be launched by Uber, but we can assume it will happen quite soon. Uber has to face a fierce competition, from both traditional taxi drivers and similar services like Lyft.

Image Source: 1

Categories