💻 Scientists turn bacteria into "living computers" 🦠

Researchers from Rice University (USA) have received a $1.99 million grant from the National Science Foundation to create biological computing systems based on genetically modified bacteria.

What's the point?

Individual bacterial cells are planned to be used as microscopic processors. Microorganisms naturally communicate with each other using chemical and electrical signals. By networking them and connecting them to electronics, scientists hope to create a powerful and adaptive computing system.

What's it good for?

Such a biocomputer would be able to:
- Learn
- Recognize complex patterns
- Process data about the chemical environment in ways that are not available to traditional silicon chips.

The main application of the technology is seen in the development of smart biosensors for medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring.

#science #technology

Did you know that Mars once had a powerful magnetic field, just like Earth? But then it disappeared. Why?

Chinese scientists have found the key to solving this mystery! 🔑

They have confirmed for the first time that Mars has a solid core hidden inside a liquid one.

Marsquake data recorded by NASA's InSight probe showed:

✅ The radius of the solid core is about 600 km.
✅ It is rich in sulphur, oxygen and carbon.

It was the composition and structure of the core that helped to understand why the Red Planet's magnetic "shield" weakened and disappeared billions of years ago.

#Discovery #Mars #InSight

🔥 HITTER humanoid robot from UC Berkeley scientists plays table tennis like a pro! 🏓

🤖 What can HITTER do?

— The robot's "brain" uses cameras to predict the trajectory of the ball and calculate the shot.

- The "body" performs precise movements trained on human data.

⚡ Reacts to balls with speeds up to 5 metres per second in a fraction of a second!

🎯 In tests, the robot played a series of 106 shots with a human and even played against another robot.

💡 It's not just a lab — HITTER handles the chaos of a real game!

#Robotics #Technology #TableTennis

🚀 NASA: traces of ancient life could be found on Mars!

The Mars rover Perseverance in the crater of Jezero has found something surprising in rock samples: microscopic structures enriched in iron phosphide and sulphide. These formations are associated with organic carbon and were probably formed in cold conditions after sedimentation.

Most importantly, traces of redox reactions were found. On Earth, such processes are often associated with the activity of microorganisms, such as in the oxygen-free lakes of Antarctica.

So far this is not proof of life, but a serious hint of a possible biosignature! Only research in Earth's laboratories will provide a definitive answer. Alas, the mission to bring the samples to Earth is still delayed due to technical and budgetary difficulties. 🔍🧪

#Mars #NASA #Science #Cosmos

🔭 October 2, 1608 — Johannes Lippershey applied for a patent for an "instrument for seeing at a distance," which is believed to have inspired Galileo himself. This application became the first known recorded mention of a telescope prototype.

According to legend, Lippershey got the idea from children playing with lenses in his shop. He overheard them discussing how, when looking through two lenses, the weather vane on a nearby roof appeared much closer, and he set out to invent his device. Other versions claim Lippershey simply heard rumors about similar instruments or even took credit for his assistant's work.

One way or another, in 1608, Lippershey assembled the first trial model. The instrument consisted either of two convex lenses (producing an inverted image) or a convex objective and a concave eyepiece (producing a normal image) – historians still aren’t entirely sure. Lippershey’s "telescope" provided threefold magnification, and during its first demonstration in September of the same year, it was used to observe ships from several kilometers away.

Lippershey received a substantial monetary reward from the Dutch government and an offer to manufacture binoculars with similar characteristics. However, the patent he requested was never granted, as several others, including Jacob Metius (who applied just two weeks after Lippershey) and Zacharias Janssen, another optician from Middelburg, were already working on similar devices. Moreover, the instrument was relatively easy to reproduce based on verbal descriptions.

According to one version, in 1609, the so-called Lippershey telescope caught the attention of Jacques Bovedère, a French assistant to Galileo Galilei. Jacques sent his mentor a letter describing it, and Galileo immediately began constructing his own version, despite never having seen the original. By the end of the year, he had developed a telescope with 20x magnification, and the Venetian Senate rewarded him with a lifelong lectureship at the University of Padua for this achievement. In Galileo’s telescope, it is known for certain that he used a convex objective and a concave eyepiece. Later, he managed to achieve a maximum magnification of over 30x.

After Galileo’s telescope appeared, the era of cosmic discoveries and the study of Earth’s surroundings began. Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, and other renowned scientists refined the device, and the distant descendants of Lippershey’s telescope (X-ray, space, and others) remain the primary tools of astronomers and astrophysicists today.

#history #science #telescope