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A team of researchers says it has developed the first wearable camera system that, with the help of artificial intelligence, detects potential errors in medication delivery. In a test, the video system recognized and identified, with high proficiency, which medications were being drawn in busy clinical settings. The AI achieved 99.6% sensitivity and 98.8% specificity at detecting vial-swap errors. The system could become a critical safeguard, especially in operating rooms, intensive-care units and emergency-medicine settings.

In the race for solutions to unlock untapped sources, engineers have developed new technology enabling direct lithium extraction from extreme environments like the desert.

Researchers present the integration of a detector system and a polaritonic platform in the same 2D material, enabling for the first time the detection of 2D polaritonic nanoresonators with spectral resolution. The device is suitable for miniaturization and shows record levels of lateral confinement and high-quality factors simultaneously.

Researchers present the integration of a detector system and a polaritonic platform in the same 2D material, enabling for the first time the detection of 2D polaritonic nanoresonators with spectral resolution. The device is suitable for miniaturization and shows record levels of lateral confinement and high-quality factors simultaneously.

With ‘Thousand Sails,’ China joins the race to fill up Low Earth Orbit with mega-satellite constellations.

It’s getting crowded up there in Low Earth orbit (LEO). By now, flocks of Starlinks have become a familiar sight, and the bane of astrophotographers as the ‘vermin of the skies.’ Now, several new competitors have joined the fray, with more waiting in the wings.

Perhaps, you’ve seen one of these curious-looking ‘satellite trains,’ and wondered what they were. Certainly, the advent of satellite trains courtesy of Starlink have added to the annals of purported UFO videos shot via smartphone across YouTube. Now, more agencies worldwide are getting into the game in 2024, assuring that the next ‘star’ you wish on at dusk may, in fact, be an artificial satellite.

Approaching An Artificial Sky

Streaks and trails due to the increasing number of Starlinks in orbit have also become a standard feature in modern deep sky images. While techniques to remove these have been pioneered by astrophotographers, these will continue to impact deep sky astronomy. This impact extends to sky surveys soon set to come online such as the Vera Rubin Observatory, set to see first light early next year in 2025.

The first batch of Thousand Sails satellites in orbit, shortly after launch. Credit: Nick James.

SpaceX has implemented mitigation plans in response, including use of sun visors on first generation satellites, diffuse ‘dielectric mirror’ material on newer Version 2 (V2) platforms, and angling solar arrays. These have seen some success. Certainly, spotters have noted that the new Version 2’s have a bluer tint, and seem to shine at magnitude +7 once they’re boosted into their respective orbital slots. This is near the +7 magnitude threshold called for by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Radio noise from these new communications satellite constellations is also an issue that astronomers now have to contend with. LOFAR (The Netherlands Institute for Astronomy’s Low Frequency Array) notes that “new observations with the LOFAR radio telescope…have shown that the second generation ‘V2-mini’ Starlink satellites emit up to 32 brighter unintended radio waves than satellites from the previous generation.”

Enter China’s ‘Thousand Sails’ Initiative

China also recently joined the competition in LEO, with the launch of a Long March-6 rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center with 18 satellites for Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST). This is part of the company’s ‘Thousand Sails’ initiative.

The first batch of Thousand Sails satellites head to orbit. Credit: CNSA.

Dubbed China’s answer to Starlink, This will see an initial 1,296 satellites for the constellation placed in orbit by 2027. The company also has plans to expand the network to 12,000 satellites into the 2030s. This first batch went into a polar (sun-synchronous) orbit, and the resulting satellite train was spotted in orbit shortly after launch.

The Long March 6A booster fuel dump from the first Thousand Sails deployment, shortly after launch. Credit: Dan Bush/Missouri Skies.

And there’s more in store. China also launched a Long March 6 rocket on September 5th, with 10 new satellites for Geely Group Automotive. These are part of the company’s effort to build a communication network for autonomous vehicles.

An artist’s impression of Geely Group satellites in orbit. Credit: Geely Group.

As a follow-on this month, China also launched a Long March-6 rocket on October 15th with another batch of 18 satellites headed into a polar orbit. This group is also part of the Thousand Sails constellation. Satellite spotters have already tracked these in orbit, with an estimated brightness of up the +4th magnitude when near the zenith on a visible pass. Keep in mind, China isn’t beholden to any obligations to mitigate the impact that satellite constellations might have on the night sky…nor do any formal international standards exist.

More Mega Satellite Constellations to Come

Not to be outdone, SpaceX is putting up more than just Starlink. Last month, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on September 12th, with the first five Bluebird satellites. These are ASTMobile’s follow-on to the BlueWalker-3 test satellite, still in orbit. With a phased-array antenna 10-meters across when deployed, BlueWalker-3 reaches magnitude 0. The company plans to put 110 of these potentially brilliant Bluebirds in orbit over the next few years.

A Bluewalker antenna unfolded on Earth. Credit: ASTMobile.

OneWeb is also still putting satellites in orbit. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine War has forced the company to forego Soyuz launches. Instead, OneWeb now relies on competitor SpaceX to get into orbit.

The OneWeb satellite constellation currently hosts 660 satellites in orbit, right around the initial target number set by the company Eutelsat-OneWeb for nominal operation. The company began offering services through residential providers last year, including Hughesnet, Viasat and ironically, Starlink.

Starlink’s current status is 7,125 satellites in orbit, with 23 more planned tonight with the launch of Starlink Group 6-61 from the Cape. 12,000 satellites in orbit are planned for in the coming years, and the constellation could extend to a total of 34,400 satellites in future years.

Not to be outdone, the Unites States’ Department of Defense is putting its own dedicated satellite constellation in space. Dubbed Starshield, the network already has 73 satellites in orbit, and a total of more than a 100 are planned. As expected, the DoD is already shaping up to be Starlink’s (and SpaceX’s) biggest customer.

Hunting Satellite Trains

Other bright reflectors are making themselves seen in the night sky as well. ACS-3 (the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System) was launched this past April on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket. The mission successfully unfurled this summer on August 29th. ACS-3 is the latest in a batch of satellites to attempt to test solar sail technologies in orbit. Mission planners could use this tech on future missions for maneuvering, propulsion or reentry disposal. Previous missions, including NanoSail-D2 and Planetary Society’s Light Sail have struggled with this tech, demonstrating just how difficult it’s turning out to be.

ACS-3 is definitely tumbling: we’ve seen it flare up to 0 magnitude (as bright as Vega) on a good pass. This seems to be very angle dependent.

You can track these missions and more on Heavens-Above. The leaders for the first two batches of respective Thousand Sail groups are 2024-140A and 2024-145A. Plus, Heavens-Above tracks Starlink batches (which are once again going up at a furious rate) on a dedicated page. We saw the most recently launched Starlink Group Batch 8-19 this past weekend… and that was from under the bright lights of downtown Bristol, Tennessee.

The Promise and Peril of Mega-Sat Constellations

To be sure, we’re a huge consumer of roaming WiFi. If we can continue our career and online exploits from a remote basecamp, then that’s a good thing… but there also needs to be oversight when it comes to what we’re collectively doing to our night sky as a resource.

Are we headed towards a future where artificial stars in the night sky outnumber real ones? Perhaps, the best thing that amateur satellite trackers can do now, is to chronicle what’s happening, as the Anthropocene era leaves its mark on a brave new night sky.

The post China’s ‘Thousand Sails’ Joins Starlink as the Latest Mega-Satellite Constellation in Orbit appeared first on Universe Today.

A type of mathematical problem that was previously impossible to solve can now be successfully analysed with artificial intelligence

New research into the moments between wakefulness and sleep could bring hope for insomniacs and even make us more creative problem-solvers

The combined impact of so-called 'forever chemicals' is more harmful to the environment than single chemicals in isolation, a new study shows.

The word “volatile” is commonly used in the space exploration community, but it has a different meaning than when used otherwise. In space exploration, volatiles are defined as the six most common elements in living organisms, plus water. Earth had enough volatiles for life to start here, but it might not have been that way. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London now think they have a reason why Earth received as many volatiles as it did – and thereby allowed it to develop life in the first place.

One characteristic of volatiles that makes them both difficult to deal with but easy to transport is that they vaporize at relatively low temperatures. Granted, a relatively low temperature could be 950°C for zinc, the volatile the researchers chose to look at. 

They chose zinc because it has a unique composition when captured in meteorites, allowing researchers to identify its source based on that composition. Previously, some of the same researchers had found that the zinc found on Earth had come from different parts of our solar system. About half had originated out past Jupiter, while half came from closer to home.

Dr. Marc Hirschmann discusses the importance of volatiles in planetesimals
Credit – Carnegie Earth & Planets Laboratory

Most originating sources were objects called “planetesimals” – essentially proto-planets that had not yet had time to form. Planetesimals were common in the early solar system but became less so as they began to form into what we think of today as the major planets. However, many of the ones that existed early in the solar system were subjected to something that younger ones weren’t – harsh radiation.

Radiation was everywhere in the early solar system, and many planetesimals that formed during this period were subjected to it. Notably, the heat from these radiation sources caused the planetesimals’ volatiles to vaporize and be lost to space. So, the researchers at Cambridge and ICL thought they might be able to differentiate the age of the source of some of those volatiles – particularly zinc.

It turns out that they could. They measured the zinc concentration in many meteorites whose originating planetesimal was known. They then modeled where the Earth received its zinc from. Since zinc is one of the vital volatiles thought to be essential to the development of life, this model could help understand how life might (or might not) develop on other worlds.

Fraser discusses our best estimate as to how Earth got the materials needed to make life.

They found that the vast majority (about 90%) of the Earth’s zinc was contributed by planetesimals that weren’t subjected to the high radiation levels of the early solar system. In essence, they were the ones whose volatiles weren’t vaporized, allowing them to contribute more of these valuable, life-giving materials despite only contributing 30% of the Earth’s overall mass.

Additional work is needed to study whether similar heating effects affected the amount of other volatiles delivered to the early Earth. And even more work is required to model how that volatile delivery model might work for other planets, such as Mars, or even exoplanets further afield.

But for now, this is another piece of the puzzle that answers an important question about the early solar system. And, maybe more importantly, it shows how many things have to go right for life to develop in the first place.

Learn More:
University of Cambridge – How did the building blocks of life arrive on Earth?
Martins et al. – Primitive asteroids as a major source of terrestrial volatiles
UT – The Building Blocks of Earth Could Have Come From Farther out in the Solar System
UT – Citizen Scientists Find Fifteen “Active Asteroids”

Lead Image:
An iron meteorite from the core of a melted planetesimal (left) and a chondrite meteorite, derived from a ‘primitive’, unmelted planetesimal (right).
Credit: Rayssa Martins/Ross Findlay

The post Life on Earth Needed “Unmelted Asteroids” appeared first on Universe Today.

Eye care specialists could see artificial intelligence help in diagnosing infectious keratitis (IK), a leading cause of corneal blindness worldwide, as a new study finds that deep learning models showed similar levels of accuracy in identifying infection.

A world-first randomised controlled trial (RCT) of toddler screen time shows that removing screen time in the hour before bed improves the quality of toddler sleep.

You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to predict that last spring’s pro-Hamas (or “anti-Israel”) protests would continue into this academic year.  Despite Hamas being pretty well crushed, the entitled and enraged fans of Palestinian terrorism continue to cause trouble on campus.  The latest target is the elite Brown University. (Elite universities are the ones where protests are most vocal.)

Earlier in October, the University rejected a BDS proposal to divest from Israeli corporations, and also affirmed that such political moves were not in the University’s interest.

As The Algemeiner previously reported, Brown University earlier this month voted down a proposal — muscled onto the agenda of its annual meeting by an anti-Zionist group which attempted to hold the university hostage with threats of illegal demonstrations and other misconduct — to divest from 10 companies linked to Israel.

“The Corporation also discussed the broader issue of whether taking a stance on a geopolitical issue through divestment is consistent with Brown’s mission of education and scholarship. The Corporation reaffirmed that Brown’s mission is to discover, communicate, and preserve knowledge. It is not to adjudicate or resolve global conflicts,” university president Christina Paxson and Brown Corporation chancellor Brian Moynihan said in a letter commenting on the vote. “Whether you support, oppose, or have no opinion on the decision of the Corporation, we hope you will do so with a commitment to sustaining, nurturing, and strengthening the principles that have long been at the core of our teaching and learning community.”

In effect, Brown here is espousing institutional neutrality, refusing to make political statements through investing or divesting. (Brown does not appear on FIRE’s list of 22 colleges besides the University of Chicago that have adopted a Kalven-like institutional neutrality.)

Click below to read more from The Algemeiner:

The students didn’t get their way, so, like toddlers denied a cookie, they acted out, going after the trustees, impeding their movements, and calling them names. Some of that may be free speech, but it’s not clear whether any University rules were violated:

Brown University has launched investigations of anti-Israel groups and individual students following their riotous conduct during a protest of the Brown Corporation that was held on Friday.

Staged outside the Warren Alpert Medical School to inveigh against the Corporation’s recent rejection of a proposal to adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement — which aims to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination — the demonstration saw the Ivy League students engage in harassment and intimidation, according to a community notice first shared by the Brown Daily Herald and later obtained by The Algemeiner. The protesters repeatedly struck a bus transporting the Corporation’s trustees from the area, shouted expletives at them, and even lodged a “a racial epithet … toward a person of color.”

Other trustees were stalked to their destinations while some were obstructed from entering their bus, according to the missive by Russell Carey, Brown’s interim vice president for campus life and executive vice president of planning and policy. The official added that the students — many of whom are members of Students for Justice in Palestine, which has links to terrorist organizations, and its spin-off, Brown Divest Coalition (BDC) — harmed not only the trustees but also the university as an institution of higher learning.

“No member of the Brown community would want or expect to be treated in the manner some of our members experienced on Friday, and it was troubling to read in media reports the express intent of some organizers to provoke discomfort that ultimately targeted individuals,” Carey wrote. “Disciplinary sanctions will be imposed where violations of conduct codes are found.”

He added, “As we continue to navigate challenging times on campus and in the nation, our resolve and our principles as a compassionate learning community will continue to be tested. I am hopeful that members of the Brown community will engage in discussion with each other about these challenges and commit to treat each other with respect and dignity.”

Anyone who thinks that civil discussion will ensue between anti-Israel and pro-Israel (or neutral) groups, much less come to any agreement, is an arrant optimist.  Obstructing trustees from getting on their bus, as well as harassing individuals and striking their bus, is likely to be committing violations. And shouting a racial epithet, which of course is odious behavior, may well be “fighting words” prohibited by the First Amendment. (Brown, however, is a private university.)

This is just more evidence that the toddlers will continue their tantrums for an indefinite time.  But schools are getting tired of it, and, I hope, more of them will start punishing the protesters when they violate university regulations (my own school has been clearly reluctant to levy such punishments).  Without such sanctions, there is simply no deterrent to breaking the rules, leading to more and more (and more violent) demonstrations. Pomona College struck back last week:

Last week, Pomona College in Claremont, California levied severe disciplinary sanctions, ranging from expulsion to banishment, against 12 students who participated in illegally occupying and vandalizing the Carnegie Hall administrative building on the anniversary of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.

The news was first reported by an Instagram accounted operated by Pomona Divest from Apartheid (PDfA), the group which led the assault on the building. PDfA acknowledged that “property crimes” were perpetrated but maintained that the college lacked evidence to identify the offenders. Noting that PDfA members concealed their identities with masks, it charged that Pomona president G. Gabrielle Starr has resorted to “indiscriminately” punishing minority students, as well as depriving them of housing and food, for the sake of upholding fascism.

Starr, who is an African American woman, told a different story, however, accusing the group of “violation of our collective life on campus” in a statement which noted that the pro-Hamas student group was aided by non-student adults who managed to gain access to the campus.

“The destruction in Carnegie Hall was extensive, and the harm done to individuals and our mission was so great,” Starr wrote. “Starting this week, disciplinary letters are going out to students from Pomona and other Claremont Colleges who have been identified as taking part in the takeover of Carnegie Hall. Student groups affiliated with this incident are also under investigation.”

This, of course, is why the cowardly protesters wear masks, taking their actions out of the real of civil disobedience, which they also erode when demanding that, even when caught violating the rules, that they not be punished.

But on the other side we have P. Z. Myers, who has emerged as a full-blown demonizer of Israel.  Myers proclaims this about protests at a branch of his school (The University of Minnesota)  that just led to the arrest of students:

“Free Palestine. End the genocide. Divest now. Those are simple, clear ideas that won’t be answered by arresting people.”

The genocide to which Myers refers is committed by Hamas and Hezbollah, not Israel. And yes, free Palestine—but from Hamas. (Lebanon also needs to be freed from Hezbollah, but the UN apparently lacks the will.)

And of course the point of arresting people is to ensure that campus rules are followed, which are intended to produce a climate that doesn’t chill speech. And somehow Myers neglects to give details about what the protesters actually DID to warrant their arrest. But ABC News did:

A demonstration at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Monday led to 11 arrests after pro-Palestinian protesters barricaded an administrative hall on campus, locking staff members inside the building.

The protesters blocked the entrance and exit of Morrill Hall, which houses the offices of the university president, Rebecca Cunningham.

According to a statement from the university issued Monday night, the protest began with a peaceful assembly on a lawn in front of the campus’ Coffman Memorial Union at about 3 p.m. local time.

However, “A group of these individuals quickly moved north, up the Northrop Mall, and entered Morrill Hall,” according to the university.

“Once inside the building, protesters began spray painting, including covering lenses of all internal security cameras, breaking interior windows, and barricading the building’s entrance and exit points,” the statement said.

, , , , The university has said that “a number” of staff were present, and many were unable to exit the building “for an extended period of time.”

Police officers arrived on the scene and began to detain protestors around one hour after the first alert was issued, according to the university’s statement.

“With necessary support from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, UMPD entered the building at approximately 5:40 p.m. and arrested 11 people,” it said.

Barricading yourself inside buildings, vandalizing it and breaking windows, and preventing staff from leaving: those are not things that are going to win supporters to their “cause”.

A tweet-video of the protesting students at U. Minn.

Breaking: Hamas demonstrators at the University of Minnesota have taken over and barricaded themselves inside a building.

Every single one should immediately be expelled and face legal consequences. pic.twitter.com/W5yOVFniwl

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) October 21, 2024

 

Research of online victimization in the metaverse is sorely lacking. A new study explored harm in the metaverse and VR devices among a sample of 5,005 U.S. teens aged 13 to 17. Findings show a significant percentage of youth reported harm in these spaces, including hate speech, bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, grooming behaviors (predators building trust with minors), and unwanted exposure to violent or sexual content. The study also revealed notable gender differences in experiences, emphasizing the need for protective strategies in virtual environments.

Research of online victimization in the metaverse is sorely lacking. A new study explored harm in the metaverse and VR devices among a sample of 5,005 U.S. teens aged 13 to 17. Findings show a significant percentage of youth reported harm in these spaces, including hate speech, bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, grooming behaviors (predators building trust with minors), and unwanted exposure to violent or sexual content. The study also revealed notable gender differences in experiences, emphasizing the need for protective strategies in virtual environments.

While artificial intelligence (AI) systems, such as home assistants, search engines or large language models like ChatGPT, may seem nearly omniscient, their outputs are only as good as the data on which they are trained. However, ease of use often leads users to adopt AI systems without understanding what training data was used or who prepared the data, including potential biases in the data or held by trainers. A new study suggests that making this information available could shape appropriate expectations of AI systems and further help users make more informed decisions about whether and how to use these systems.

Animals that hibernate need a way to keep their blood flowing as their body temperature drops, and it seems that the mechanical properties of red blood cells may be key

Reader Chris Taylor send us part 5 of his series on the flora and fauna of Queensland (see the first four parts here).  You can enlarge Chris’s photos by clicking on them, and his captions are indented.

In this part I will show some of the butterflies of far north Queensland.  Many were photographed at Kuranda, but I was also able to get photos from other places too.  I also saw quite a number of the spectacular Ulysses butterfly, but on this trip, I wasn’t able to capture a photo.

My partner and I rode up from Cairns on the Kuranda Railway. This amazing piece of engineering was built to serve the gold and tin mines on the Tablelands.  From sea level it has to rise over 300 metres over a distance of 30 km. It snakes in and out of steep gorges, and at Stoney Creek it crosses a viaduct built in a very tight curve where the river pours down a set of waterfalls:

At the top of the climb, we pass the Barron Falls, where the Barron River plunges 265m in a number of cascades, descending into the gorge. In the Wet, there is often a huge volume of water falling here, making for a spectacular sight:

Here are the photos of the butterflies.

Orange Migrant, Catopsilia scylla. Wingspan 40mm:

Red Lacewing, Cethosia cydippe. Wingspan 80mm:

Large Grass-yellow, Eurema hecabe, wingspan 50mm.

Blue-Banded Eggfly, Hypolimnas alimena, male, 85mm:

Common Eggfly, Hypolimnas bolina, male, 80mm. The blue/violet colours on the wings does not come from a pigment, but from the refraction of light through the scales. This made it tricky to photograph as the colour kept shifting as the insect moved:

Common Eggfly, Hypolimnas bolina, female, 80mm. The female lacks the iridescence of the male, and instead is marked with patches of white and reddish brown.

Cruiser, Vindula arsinoe, male, Wingspan 80mm:

Cruiser, Vindula arsinoe, female, Wingspan 80mm. The female form of this butterfly lacks the bright orange of the male, but is beautifully marked with white and grey:

Lurcher, Yoma sabina, Wingspan 70mm:

The largest butterfly in Australia, and one of the most spectacular, is the Cairns Birdwing. This is the male of the species. The female is a little bigger, but lacks the iridescent colours of the male, instead being mostly black.

Cairns Birdwing, Ornithoptera euphorion, male, wingspan 120mm:

The US Department of Homeland Security is trialling chemical sensors that detect the first whiff of smoke in the air and alert fire crews while a potential blaze is still smouldering

I am always sniffing around (pun intended) for new and interesting technology, especially anything that I think is currently flying under the radar of public awareness but has the potential to transform our world in some way. I think electronic nose technology fits into this category.

The idea is to use electronic sensors that can detect chemicals, specifically those that are abundant in the air, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Such technology has many potential uses, which I will get to below. The current state of the art is advancing quickly with the introduction of various nanomaterials, but at present these sensing arrays require multiple antenna coated with different materials. As a result they are difficult and expensive to manufacture and energy intensive to operate. They work, and often are able to detect specific VOCs with 95% or greater accuracy. But their utility is limited by cost and inconvenience.

A new advance, however, is able to reproduce and even improve upon current performance with a single antenna and single coating. The technology uses a single graphene oxide coated antenna which then uses ultrawide microwave band signals to detect specific VOCs. These molecules will reflect different wavelengths differently depending on their chemical structure. That is how they “sniff” the air. The results are impressive.

The authors report that a “classification accuracy of 96.7 % is attained for multiple VOC gases.” This is comparable to current technology, but again with a simpler, cheaper, and less energy hungry technology. Further, they actually has better results in terms of discriminating different isomers. Isomers are different configurations of the same molecular composition – same atoms in the same ratios and but arranged differently, so that the chemical properties may be different. This is a nice proof of concept advance in this technology.

Now the fun part – let’s speculate about how this technology might be used. The basic application for electronic noses is to automatically detect VOCs in the environment or associated with a specific item as a way of detecting something useful. For example, this could be used as a breath test to detect specific diseases. This could be a non-invasive bedside quick test that could reliably detect different infections, disease states, event things like cancer or Alzheimer’s disease. When disease alters the biochemistry of the body, it may be reflected in VOCs in the breath, or even the sweat, of a person.

VOC detection can also be used in manufacturing to monitor chemical processes for quality control or to warn about any problems. They could be used to detect fire, gas leaks, contraband, or explosives. People and things are often surrounded by a cloud of chemical information, a cloud that would be difficult to impossible to hide from sensitive sniffers.

So far this may seem fairly mundane, and just an incremental extrapolation of stuff we already can do. That’s because it is. The real innovation here is doing all this with a much cheaper, smaller, and less energy intensive design. As an analogy, think about the iPhone, a icon of disruptive technology. The iPhone could not really do anything that we didn’t already have a device or app for. We already had phones, texting devices, PDAs, digital cameras, flashlights, MP3 players, web browsers, handheld gaming platforms, and GPS devices. But the iPhone put all this into one device you could fit in your pocket, and carry around with you everywhere. Functionality then got added on with more apps and with motions sensors. But the main innovation that changed the world was the all-in-one portability and convenience. A digital camera, for example, is only useful when you have it on you, but are you really going to carry around a separate digital camera with you every day everywhere you go?

This new electronic nose technology has the potential to transform the utility of this tech for similar reasons – it’s potentially cheap enough to become ubiquitous and portable enough to carry with you. In fact, there is already talk about incorporating the technology into smartphones. That would be transformative. Imagine if you now also could carry with you everywhere at all times an electronic nose that could detect smoke, dangerous gas, that you or others might be ill, or that your food is spoiled and potentially dangerous.

Imagine that most people are carrying such devices, and that they are networked together. Now we have millions of sensors out there in the community able to detect all these things. This could add up to an incredible early warning system for all sorts of dangers. It’s one of those things that is challenging to just sit here and think of all the potential specific uses. Once such technology gets out there, there will be millions of people figuring out innovative uses. But even the immediately obvious ones would be incredibly useful. I can think of several people I know personally whose lives would have been saved if they had such a device on them.

As I often have to say, this is in the proof-of-concept stage and it remains to be seen if this technology can scale and be commercializable. But it seems promising. Even if it does not end up in every smartphone, having dedicated artificial nose devices in the hospital, in industry, and in the home can be extremely useful.

The post Electronic Noses first appeared on NeuroLogica Blog.

The largest prime number is now 16 million digits longer than the previous record found in 2018, thanks to an amateur hunter and his large collection of high-power graphics cards