detects

a laser that detects them and fries them

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A young Chinese engineer named Steven Cheng has built an amazing system to kill mosquitoes. Their project makes use of a laser emitter connected to a camera and a computer. By combining computer vision algorithms with deep learning, the system is able to detect and fry mosquitoes with surprising accuracy. This is indeed the “artisanal” version of a commercial product from a Chinese startup, but there is a whole story behind this unique laser weapon. From space missiles to lasers for mosquitoes. The idea of ​​using lasers against mosquitoes was probably born by Lowell Wood, an astrophysicist who was also the architect of Ronald Reagan’s anti-missile defense system. In a meeting with engineer and inventor Nathan Myhrvold—former CTO of Microsoft—the proposal arose to create a similar device to kill mosquitoes and thus fight malaria. failed attempt. Myhrvold got to work excited because mosquitoes weigh so little that a low-intensity laser was enough and could even be applied near (or on) humans and pets. Myhrvold’s company, Intellectual Ventures, created a prototype that showed in a TED talk in 2010but despite the attractiveness of the proposal, the idea and the product did not prosper. The commercial leap. A Chinese startup recently picked up the gauntlet and began offering a product that precisely applied that same idea with current technology. The startup Photon Matrix Lab already markets what they call “Mosquito Air Defense”, a portable system that is available on Indiegogo and that promises to eradicate mosquitoes through a detection system and a laser that fries these insects. On the official website the price is about 600 eurosand deliveries promised to begin this June for the nearly 4,000 people who have invested in the crowdfunding campaign. But there are those who cook it and put it together. Steve Cheng does not say what inspired him for the project, but he does sample in several tweets the videos in which you can see how your system has evolved. He also explains how for months he was collecting thousands of detailed images to feed his AI model. That, by the way, caused (always according to him) that he received various stings all over his body while he used high-resolution cameras to capture the insects in full feast. Anti-mosquito deep learning. The heart of their system is a deep learning algorithm that processes images in real time to identify static or flying mosquitoes. The system uses GPUs to analyze the environment and detect the mosquito, separating it from any visual background noise. To detect mosquitoes, it uses a digital SLR camera with a telephoto lens that allows zooming to identify mosquitoes from a greater distance. precision attack. The objective is to confirm that the target is indeed a mosquito before frying it with the laser. This engineer used a laser mounted on a gimbal capable of moving in milliseconds to act instantly. In the very striking video, you can see how the laser actually seems to kill the mosquitoes in a really satisfactory way. Many unknowns. The tweets and the existence of that business model are promising, but we have seen in the past how crowdfunding campaigns did not end well by delivering products that did not live up to the promise. The real effectiveness of these systems is unknown, but the idea is of course especially striking, especially when we are already beginning to suffer high temperatures: mosquitoes will not take long to plague us day and night, if they do not do so already, and there is still no 100% effective remedy against what Bill Gates described as the deadliest animals on earth. Image | Wolfgang Hasselmann | Steven Cheng In Xataka | Anti-mosquito repellents have been effective for 40 years. Now mosquitoes are learning to appreciate them

Anxious people get sick less because their brain detects risks before the rest

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There is a deeply rooted stereotype in our society: the anxious person, the one who worries about everything, the one who checks their symptoms on the internet at three in the morning, is condemned to live less. We tend to think that constant stress, that label of being the “pussy” or the “anxious” of the group, is a one-way ticket to physical and mental exhaustion. However, science has given a fascinating twist to this belief. What if living in a state of alert was not a factory defect, but a sophisticated survival mechanism? Psychology and medicine have begun to discover an extraordinary paradox: always being on alert has a hidden reward. Certain levels of anxiety and constant worry make people less sick from serious ailments, simply because their brain works as an anticipatory radar that detects risks long before the rest of us, allowing them to dodge bullets that the most “relaxed” do not even see coming. The dual nature of neuroticism For decades, the medical community has warned about the dangers of neuroticismdefining it as the general tendency of an individual to experience negative emotions such as worry, depression, irritability and emotional instability. Traditionally, it has been associated with a greater susceptibility to physical and mental disorders, a lower quality of life and, epidemiologically, with a higher risk of mortality. However, as explained in an article published in the scientific journal Science Bulletinwe were missing half the movie by ignoring the evolutionary perspective. From this point of view, having minimal reactions to threatening stimuli—that is, being an extremely relaxed person or with very low neuroticism—is generally not advantageous for survival. To mitigate risks and ensure survival, both animals and our human ancestors needed automatic responses to immediate and future threats. This biological need manifests itself through adaptive emotions such as fear and its anticipatory form: anxiety. The study even rescues an ancient Chinese proverb that perfectly summarizes this philosophy of survival: “Life springs from pain and calamity; death comes from ease and pleasure.” Thus, scientists propose that neuroticism is a paradox. It has evolved in different dimensions to adapt to ecological and cultural changes, influencing our lifestyle in very diverse ways. The claim of the worried We all know someone who is hypersensitive to environmental risks, or perhaps we ourselves suffer from that constant worry about health, the future or security. This new scientific approach offers gigantic emotional validation: that anxiety is not necessarily a weakness, but rather an ancient protective shield. Understanding this changes the rules of the game. It shows us that channeling this hypervigilance well translates into tangible benefits. That inner voice that forces you to go to the doctor when you notice a strange mole, the one that makes you put on your seat belt without thinking or the one that stops you from making a reckless decision, is the evolutionary legacy of your ancestors keeping you alive. But this is not just an abstract evolutionary theory; Clinical data are already demonstrating this. To understand how anxiety saves our lives, we have to look under the hood of personality. Recent large-scale research, such as the macro study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychologyhave shown after analyzing more than half a million people that our personality traits are a key driver that directly impacts our mortality risk. Going one step further to break down which parts of that personality protect us, an exhaustive meta-analysis published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research analyzed longitudinal data from six studies with 335,715 participants. Their conclusion was blunt: putting all anxiety and neuroticism in the same bag masks vital relationships between personality and health. Researchers found that neuroticism has different “facets,” and not all of them are bad. While traits such as pessimism or cynicism increase the risk of mortality, there are other dimensions that act as real life jackets. The survival mechanism has two aspects: The “Worried-Vulnerable” facet: Data revealed that people with high scores on this dimension have a reduced risk of dying from all causes, highlighting significant reductions in mortality from cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory diseases. As explained in the studyWorried people tend to be extremely vigilant about their health care. They become concerned at the slightest symptom and seek medical help much sooner, resulting in early diagnoses and life-saving treatments. The “Inadequacy” facet: Characterized by shyness and the feeling of incompetence in the face of adversity, surprisingly also reduces mortality. The key here is danger avoidance: these people are much more cautious and less likely to expose themselves to cumulative risks over time. On the contrary, the study confirm that the destructive facets are cynicism and pessimism, since these individuals tend to abandon themselves, smoke more and, above all, underuse health care services. The reward comes with age If youth and early adulthood are the battlefield where our “threat radar” (neuroticism) works overtime to keep us alive, old age is the time to reap the rewards. There is a false belief that older people become grumpy or rigid. However, the psychology has been demonstrating for decades that aging is, in reality, a process of psychological refinement. Based on the theory of the big five personality traits (Big Five), it has been observed that the passage of time sculpts us for the better. After the age of 60, an astonishing positive evolution occurs. Conscientiousness increases (we become more responsible and focused), kindness increases and, most importantly in this context, neuroticism drops dramatically. The emotional storms of youth and that constant hypervigilance that protected us from danger give way to profound emotional regulation and calm. The human brain appears to be programmed to prioritize stability and social cohesion as we age. Furthermore, current research shows a clear “advantage boomer“. Those born between 1946 and 1964 are aging better than their predecessors, maintaining high levels of extraversion, curiosity and personal agency. Reports like the Mental State of the World by Sapien Labs reflect a generation gap where those over 65 and 70 years old … Read more

A new search method detects dozens of possible planets with two suns that had gone unnoticed by us

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Nowadays, more than 6,000 planets are known which, like ours, revolve around a star. On the other hand, only 18 planets have been found that orbit a binary system, with two stars. For this reason, they are considered a rarity. They are so rare that the best known of them all is Tatooine and, far from existing, it belongs to Star Wars fiction. However, a team of scientists from the University of New South Wales has decided to change the method we use to search for planets. In doing so, they have suddenly found 27 candidates for planets with two suns. An underused method. The method that have used These scientists know as apsidal precession. It was already used in the past to characterize binary star systems. However, until now it had not been used to check if there is another object, such as a planet, within that same system. Broadly speaking, it consists of locating possible changes in the eclipse calendar of the two stars. If these changes cannot be explained with general relativity or stellar physics, there must be something disturbing their movements. This is how, thanks to the TESS telescope, 27 candidates for circumbinary planets (with two suns) have been located, although it will still be necessary to confirm which ones are really planets. Stars playing hide and seek. Eclipses occur when, from the position of the telescope observing them, one star interrupts the light of the other. In a known binary system, these eclipses are predictable. Therefore, if we see something that doesn’t add up, there could be a planet in the way. TESS typically relies on the transit method to detect exoplanets. It detects periodic disturbances in a star’s brightness, which could indicate that a planet is crossing between it and the telescope. However, if the planet has an irregular orbit that is not in the telescope’s line of sight, it may go unnoticed. However, with this new method that is not a problem, because you do not have to see the planet or the changes in the brightness of the star. It focuses rather on the gravitational effects that affect its two stars. It doesn’t matter that its orbit is not visible to us. It’s just the beginning. This team has detected 27 candidates for circumbinary planets in a total of 1,590 two-star systems analyzed. That means about 2% of these systems could host planets. If this is true, thousands more planets could soon be detected. For a long time, exoplanet detection would have been highly biased. Artist’s representation of a system with two stars A great variety. The smallest possible circumbinary planet that has been detected has a mass similar to that of Neptune, while the largest is 10 times more massive than Jupiter. The closest one is 650 light years away from us, while the furthest one is 18,000 light years away. There are candidates in the northern and southern skies. In short, there is a great variety. That also supports the hypothesis that there are a wide variety of planets out there that, until now, have been invisible to us. And now what? Now it will be necessary to check which of those 27 candidates are really planets. Some stars, such as brown dwarfs or white dwarfs, could also alter the eclipse calendar of the binary system. Even black holes could do it. Therefore, it must be ruled out that it is any of these phenomena. To resolve this question, another instrument will be used, the Anglo-Australian telescope from Coonabarabran. With it these other very massive objects could be detected. If no plausible explanation is found, it would be concluded that it is a planet. What we can learn. Having techniques to detect another totally different type of exoplanet gives us much more information on planetary formation. There could be planets similar to Earth, whose only difference is the existence of two suns. Some of them could even host life or have hosted it in the past. The range of possibilities would open up greatly. About half of the stars in the universe are found in binary or multi-star systems. And all of that is still unexplored. Image | Star Wars | NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle In Xataka | There is only one chance in 11,000 years to reach the planet Sedna. Some Italians want to use this nuclear engine

that an F-35 not only detects the enemy, but also gets rid of it on its own

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In 1991, during the Gulf War, a good part of the air missions depended on uploaded threat maps before takeoff and analyzes that could take hours to update after each departure. In the following years, the digital revolution allowed the integration of sensors, data links and information fusion systems that forever changed situational awareness in the cockpit. But even the most advanced fighters continue to carry a legacy from the past: they react to what they already know better than to what has just appeared. Until now. From advanced sensor to autonomous hunter. For years, the F-35 has been presented as a platform able to see everything thanks to its fusion of sensors and to your powerful suite of electronic warfare, but was still dependent on pre-loaded threat libraries and updates that could take days or weeks. The appearance of unknown emissions or radars operating in unforeseen modes required identifying the signal, downloading the data after the mission and reprogramming the system before the next flight. That logic, although effective, left a dangerous margin in scenarios saturated with changing air defenses. With Project Overwatchthe United States has taken a decisive step to close that gap and transform the role of the F-35 on the battlefield. AI enters the cabin. Lockheed Martin has tried successfully in flight a model AI integrated into the system of the F-35 combat identification, one capable of resolving ambiguities between emitters and generating an independent identification that appears directly in the viewfinder of the pilot’s helmet. During testing at Nellis, the algorithm not only distinguished dubious signals, but allowed label new emissionsretrain the model in a matter of minutes and load the updated version within the same planning cycle. The information from the classic system and that from the new model coexisted on the screen, reducing latency in decision-making and relieving the pilot of part of the cognitive load in an environment where every second counts. The big problem. It happens that modern air defense systems they no longer broadcast always the same signature. They can alter radar modes, frequencies and patterns to confuse enemy electronic warfare, as seen with variants of the S-300/SA-20 that operated in unforeseen configurations and generated doubts in identification. Until now, the plane pointed out the anomaly, but the in-depth analysis depended on a subsequent human cycle. Plus: in an environment where the proliferation of AI also accelerates the evolution of defenses, that dependency could become a vulnerability. And this is where cognitive electronic warfare appears, which seeks precisely to break that bottleneck and react to unprecedented signals. without waiting to the next mission. The “holy grail” of aerial combat. If you like, Lockheed Martin has achieved the “holy grail” of combat in tests: that an F-35 not only detects the enemy, but also how to get rid of it on your own. The ultimate goal of cognitive electronic warfare is to the system is not limited not only register an unknown threat, but analyze it, determine the best response and adjust its own parameters in near real time, even in the middle of combat. This involves detecting a new release, characterizing it, deciding whether to avoid it, interfere with it, or exploit a weakness, and update the threat library without immediate external intervention. In this scenario, the plane stops being a simple executor with predefined software and becomes a platform that learns and adapts your survival on the go. Towards mid-flight updates. It will be the next step. Previous experience with rapid updates of the Aegis system on US ships and the effort to shorten F-35 reprogramming times from months to days, and eventually hours, point to an architecture where data flows almost in real time between platforms. They count at Lockheed Martin that the ambition is for the improvements derived from a mission to be quickly integrated into other aircraft or even into compatible naval systems, creating a defense ecosystem that evolves in a distributed manner. While the Block 4 package promises a new generation of electronic capabilities, Project Overwatch It already anticipates a deeper transition: that of the fighter that not only sees and shoots first, but also learns before anyone else and survives on its own. Image | RawPixel In Xataka | Europe has asked its military experts how to become independent from the US for the next war. The answer is déjà vu: the F-35 In Xataka | The Netherlands has just activated panic in Spain and the US allies: the F-35 can be “released” like an iPhone

The largest clinical trial confirms that it detects more and reduces the radiologist’s burden

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With the arrival of artificial intelligence, one of the applications was undoubtedly medicinewhich could mark a authentic revolution. Although definitive proof was missing to tell us that it really had real use. And this one just arrived thanks to an article published in The Lancent which has pointed out how AI can help us detect more breast cancers and even reduces those that are much more dangerous. The screening. Unfortunately, in Spain we have in mind, because of how recent it was, the problems with screening programs in Andalusia. And despite this great controversy, this type of screening is very useful and significantly reduces the number of women who end up dying from breast cancer that was not detected in time. But now we want to go a little further with the integration of technology so that fewer tumors escape that to the human eye can escape due to their small size. Interval cancers. Without a doubt, it is the great enemy in radiodiagnosis when we refer to screening mammograms. This term refers to those tumors that are detected between one check-up and the next, and that have different reasons for their appearance. The first reason is that it is a tumor that grows very quickly (and that can be much more malignant) or that was missed in the previous control mammogram due to its small size. And this is a serious problem, since the basis of screening is to detect cancers in the earliest stages where they can respond better to more conservative treatments. The study. The MASAI trial (Mammography Screening with Artificial Intelligence) has shown that the use of AI reduces these cases drastically. And the figures are quite promising, since there was a 12% reduction in cancer rate interval in the two years after the woman was screened. In figures, it went from 1.76 cases per 1,000 women to 1.55 cases. A difference that may be very small in our eyes, but in public health and oncology it is a real success, since reducing by 12% the tumors that usually “escape” is a major clinical advance. Less work. Until now the standard method to analyze these tests focused on a double reading. This means that two radiologists reviewed each mammogram independently to ensure nothing was missed. A security method that is ideal, but that consumes an immense amount of human resources in health systems. That is why with this method a paradigm shift is proposed that is based on intelligent triage and that can be summarized in three different points: The AI ​​initially analyzes the mammogram image and assigns it a risk score from 1 to 10. In the event that it is categorized as low risk, the image is reviewed by a single radiologist to see if it agrees that the image is clean and closes the case. If the risk is high in the mammography, the image does pass the double reading system with AI marking the most suspicious areas where there may be injury. The result. With this new algorithm, the study has aimed at a 44% reduction in the reading letter for professionals, in order to make doctors now focus on the images that are much more doubtful. And no, working less did not mean working worse. On the contrary: the AI ​​arm of the study detected 29% more clinically relevant cancers without increasing the rate of false positives (the great fear of over-diagnosing healthy patients). Complement and not replace. This is something important that the study itself highlights, since they point out that AI has not arrived to fire radiologists. The MASAI method is only a “decision support”, since the AI ​​prioritizes, orders and signals, but the final clinical decision is always that of the doctor and therefore in human hands. With the publication of these final results in The Lancet, The validation cycle of one of the most important tests is closed of the decade in radiology. The next step is no longer asking whether AI works in breast cancer screening, but how long it will take for public health systems to implement it to give radiologists one more tool that allows them to be more precise and methodical. Images | National Cancer Institute In Xataka | A Spanish milestone against pancreatic cancer: we are one step closer to eradicating it but there is still a long way to go

1,800 years ago China had one of the most intriguing technologies. Now is the point of resuscitating the dragon that detects earthquakes

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Almost two thousand years ago, during the Han dynastythe Chinese scholar ZHANG HENG He designed a device that, according to historical chronicles, could detect distant earthquakes and even point out his address. That invention, called HouFeng Didong Yiit was a mechanical gadget that had the dragon as the main actor. Now China is about to resurrect what a legend was believed. A erased prodigy of time. We talk about a mechanical system (an ornate vessel surrounded by eight dragons with suspended bronze balls, oriented towards mouths of toads) that would have been able to register imperceptible earthquakes in Luoyang, the imperial capital, with a precision that “touched the divine”, according to THE BOOK OF THE Subsections. However, its sudden disappearance of historical records and the impossibility of replicating it exactly led to its total elimination of the Chinese educational curriculum in 2017, relegating it to the field of legend. Today, a team led by Professor Xu Guodongfrom the Hebei Disaster Prevention Institute, seeks to recover not only its operation, but also Your place in history of science. The rebirth of a prodigious machine. To the question: How the hell will they replicate it? The researchers They explain that from ancient literary fragments and principles of modern structural dynamics. Thus, Xu and his team have proposed a functional model of the earthquakescomposed of three key subsystems: structure of excitementtransmission and closure. In the heart of the device he was A “Capital Pilar” that should not be interpreted as an unstable column, but as a pendulum -like arm (a kind of gigantic stick anchored to the ground) that amplified the seismic vibrations. With just 1 mm of displacement at the base, the tip of the pendulum moved up to five times more, activating a “L” levers system that released a ball in the mouth of the toad corresponding to the direction of the epicenter. A blocking mechanism prevented other dragons from reacting, thus respecting the Original description of “a dragon who speaks and seven that shut up.” Mathematical Wisdom. Team simulations indicate that the system responded reliably to displacements just 0.5 mmwithout emitting false alarms. Although modern knowledge of propagation of seismic waves suggest that a single instrument cannot determine with total precision the direction of the epicenter, Xu argues that the Historical records coincide with optimal geological alignments. As proof, appointment The Longxi earthquake From the year 138 AD, when the instrument would have detected a tremor 850 kilometers away, without feeling in Luoyang. The initial skepticism of the officials vanished when messengers on horseback confirmed The shaking days later. Even more revealing, he explains, is the jump in the frequency of earthquakes registered in the capital after the implementation of the artifact: in the previous 8 years they were only documented three local earthquakes; In the 58 years later, there were 23, in a region considered low seismicity. Zhang HENG: astronomer and political victim. ZHANG HENG It was not any inventor. His appointment as a great imperial astrologer in 115 (a position equivalent to the director of a modern national observatory) and his creation of an armilar sphere Able to map the sky with precision, they prove their domain in mathematics, astronomy and mechanics. But his invention could have been politically uncomfortable. In a context where natural disasters were interpreted as signals from heaven and threats to the mandate of the emperor, an instrument that “predicts” earthquakes could have been seen as subversive. Some scholars suggest that HENG’s abrupt retirement in 138 and his death the following year They were not casual. Xu duck that the loss of the original earthquakes (along with its technical diagrams) could be due to wars, political chaos or even the greed of powerful aristocratic families that would have hidden its existence. Recovered legacy. In a gesture loaded with symbolism, xu He recalled that only two bronze objects have been defined in Chinese history: Nine cauldrons of the Xia dynasty and this earthquakes. Now, the objective is ambitious: rebuilding the instrument using only materials and technical Advanced knowledge reached in ancient China. Beyond the material restoration, the project aspires to reinsert this jewel of engineering in the global narrative of science, as proof that humanity had already tried, long before satellites or artificial intelligence, unravel the Mysteries of the tremor From Earth. Along the way, the Heng’s featerased for centuries of oblivion, it could be closer to recovering its place among the great milestones of human thought. Image | KowlooneseSSPL In Xataka | The most revolutionary and rare writing machine was lost in 1940. Until someone received a message In Xataka | Of the Wright brothers to Wu Zhongyuan, a homemade helicopter

Some scientists have created a camera that detects faces at 100 km

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China continues to progress without technology brakes. Although many innovations focus on the civil sphere, others reinforce their military and intelligence power. Proof of this is an experimental system that promises to analyze objects kilometers away. We are talking about a technology that could promote an important leap in its espionage capabilities. The information comes of South China Morning Postwhich details how a team from the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has achieved successful observations with an innovative laser system. This operates in optical wavelengths and helps obtain huge distance images, if certain conditions are met. A new observation system As we can see in the visual representation, the researchers displayed the system on a shore of the Qinghai lake, an immense Alpine lake in the remote northwest of China. On the other side, to 101.8 km awayThey installed a set of reflective rhymes. The impressive thing is that, despite the huge distance, the system managed to distinguish details of just 1.7 mm wide. The laser makes the difference. They say that it reaches an accuracy of 15.6 mm when measuring distances, which theoretically leaves the spy and telescope chambers with lenses, surpassing them by a factor of 100. Now, the observations must be made with optimal climatic conditions, stable wind, low cloudiness and, in observations of the orbit, clear skies. Although the tests have been performed on land, the Hongkonés newspaper points out that this technology could be used for espionage from space. Its unprecedented capacity to capture details would allow Identify faces from orbit Or, in reverse, analyze satellites from adversary countries with great precision from the surface of our planet. If the question is how they have achieved it, the answer is in a combination of innovations. To begin with, the researchers divided the laser beam into a 4×4 microlent matrix, which allowed to expand the optical opening of the 7.2 mm system (0.68 inches) to 68.8 mm (2.71 inches). With this approach, they managed to overcome the usual limitation between the size of the opening and the field of vision. In addition, they incorporated a specialized laser module capable of emitting signals with frequencies higher than 10 gigahecks. Thanks to this, the system reached an extremely fine range resolution, allowing distance measurements with great precision. At the same time, a narrow color spectrum was maintained to improve the resolution of the azimuththus optimizing detail detection. Images | Chinese Academy of Sciences | Bernard Hermant | POT In Xataka | Anuuu is thrown over another problem: China prepares to lead the manufacture of chips for advanced weapons

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