The Life Technology™ News Blog: 06/16/21

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Apple warns EU law 'risks destroying iPhone security'

The EU's proposed new rules to rein in tech giants risk undermining the security of the iPhone, Apple chief Tim Cook warned Wednesday.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-06-apple-eu-law-iphone.html

Self-driving car pioneer Waymo gets $2.5B to fuel ambitions

Waymo, the self-driving car pioneer spun off from Google, isn't allowing a recent wave of executive departures to detour its plans to expand its robotic taxi service.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-06-self-driving-car-waymo-25b-fuel.html

Socially distanced robots serve Mecca holy water ahead of Hajj

Robots began handing out bottles of sacred water in Mecca this week in preparation for a socially distanced Hajj pilgrimage in Islam's holiest city, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-06-socially-distanced-robots-mecca-holy.html

Dead 'murder hornet' near Seattle is 1st found in US in 2021

Scientists have found a dead Asian giant hornet north of Seattle, the first so-called murder hornet discovered in the country this year, federal and state investigators said Wednesday.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-06-dead-hornet-seattle-1st.html

Entomologists discover dozens of new beetle species—and name some after iconic sci-fi heroines

The original Star Trek television series took place in a future when space is the final frontier, but humanity hasn't reached that point quite yet.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-06-entomologists-dozens-beetle-speciesand-iconic.html

Google to open first retail store steps away from Apple in NYC

Google will open its first retail store in New York City, highlighting the internet giant's effort to promote its consumer hardware devices.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-06-google-retail-apple-nyc.html

Facebook AI can now use just one word to mimic text style from images

Facebook has announced their new AI project TextStyleBrush, a software capable of copying the style of handwritten or printed text in an image using only one word. Users can utilize this model to alter and replace text in photos.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-06-facebook-ai-word-mimic-text.html

Subterranean investigations: Researchers explore the shallow underground world with a burrowing soft robot

We've seen robots take to the air, dive beneath the waves and perform all sorts of maneuvers on land. Now, researchers at UC Santa Barbara and Georgia Institute of Technology are exploring a new frontier: The ground beneath our feet. Taking their cues from plants and animals that have evolved to navigate subterranean spaces, they've developed a fast, controllable soft robot that can burrow through sand. The technology not only enables new applications for fast, precise and minimally invasive movement underground, but also lays mechanical foundations for new types of robots.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-06-subterranean-explore-shallow-underground-world.html

How sex trafficking trauma affects the way its survivors parent

A study of young immigrant mothers who are survivors of sex trafficking found that the trauma affected how they parented: It made them overprotective parents in a world perceived to be unsafe, it fueled emotional withdrawal when struggling with stress and mental health symptoms, and was a barrier to building confidence as mothers. Yet, they coped with such challenges through finding meaning in the birth of their children and through social support and faith.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-06-sex-trafficking-trauma-affects-survivors.html

Study points to a seed black hole produced by a dark matter halo collapse

Supermassive black holes, or SMBHs, are black holes with masses that are several million to billion times the mass of our sun. The Milky Way hosts an SMBH with mass a few million times the solar mass. Surprisingly, astrophysical observations show that SMBHs already existed when the universe was very young. For example, a billion solar mass black holes are found when the universe was just 6% of its current age, 13.7 billion years. How do these SMBHs in the early universe originate?

source https://phys.org/news/2021-06-seed-black-hole-dark-halo.html

Researchers uncover unique properties of a promising new superconductor

An international team of physicists led by the University of Minnesota has discovered that a unique superconducting metal is more resilient when used as a very thin layer. The research is the first step toward a larger goal of understanding unconventional superconducting states in materials, which could possibly be used in quantum computing in the future.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-06-uncover-unique-properties-superconductor.html

Pioneering chemistry approach could lead to more robust soft electronics

A new approach to studying conjugated polymers has made it possible for an Army-funded research team to measure, for the first time, the individual molecules' mechanical and kinetic properties during polymerization reaction. The insights gained could lead to more flexible and robust soft electronic materials, such as health monitors and soft robotics.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-06-chemistry-approach-robust-soft-electronics.html

The give and take of mega-flares from stars

The long relationships between stars and the planets around them—including the Sun and the Earth—may be even more complex than previously thought. This is one conclusion of a new study involving thousands of stars using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-06-mega-flares-stars.html

Graphene 'camera' captures real-time electrical activity of beating heart

Bay Area scientists have captured the real-time electrical activity of a beating heart, using a sheet of graphene to record an optical image—almost like a video camera—of the faint electric fields generated by the rhythmic firing of the heart's muscle cells.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-06-graphene-camera-captures-real-time-electrical.html

Community pharmacy can play a 'key clinical role' in delivery of COVID-19 vaccinations

New research published in BMJ Open shows that community pharmacy could play a 'key clinical role' in the future role of COVID-19 vaccination programmes, according to a study led by Aston University in Birmingham, UK, in collaboration with UK and international researchers.