Month: September 2018

This year’s iPhone event is done and dusted, and now we’re all sitting in the interregnum between the announcements and the reviews. I’ve been lucky enough to live blog these events for years, but the process of creating a live blog is weird. I was taking photos for the site during the keynote, and since I’m a “spray and pray” kind of photographer, I took upwards of 1,600 photos in just a couple of hours.

I point that out just to say that my attention was more focused on what Apple was doing than the reaction to it. I only had so much bandwidth, and most of it was taken up by the camera. So when I had a chance later to look at all the coverage (and Twitter jokes), it didn’t come as a huge surprise to see that there was a lot of shrugging…

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A research project from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands created the latest iteration of the DelFly robot called the Nimble. It’s a super agile robot with a quad-wing flapping system, and it’s capable of flying just as nimbly as a real winged insect.

Using its four wings, the DelFly can control three axes of flight, and it goes left or right by changing the way each one of its wings flap. It’s eerily similar to a real insect. Currently, the DelFly can fly around for more than five minutes on a full battery with a range of more than 1 kilometer (0.62 miles).

You might be asking yourself, “What can a flying robot be used for?” The DelFly’s project page states…

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Aquaphor, a Pentax K-1000, an inhaler, and more from one of the stars of Netflix’s American Vandal

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New research finds three alternative answers beyond errors in handler or dog training that can explain why dogs trained to identify scat for conservation purposes sometimes collect non-target scats.

Human herpesviruses such as HHV-6 can remain dormant in cells for many years without being noticed. When reactivated, they can cause serious clinical conditions. Researchers have now found a way of differentiating between active and inactive viruses.

Using the fossil record to accurately estimate the timing and pace of past mass extinctions is no easy task, and a new study highlights how fossil evidence can produce a misleading picture if not interpreted with care.

By analogy to linear polymers, which reptate with a random walk embedded in a 3D network, we show that star polymers relax by a random walk in a 5D network.

The computer industry thought cold boot hacks were solved 10 years ago. Researchers have proven that’s not the case.

Opinion: Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter argues for cooperation between tech workers and the DoD