Science
Asteroid coming exceedingly close to Earth, but will miss
An asteroid the size of a delivery truck will whip past Earth on Thursday night, one of the closest such encounters ever recorded.
NASA insists it will be a near miss with no chance of the asteroid hitting Earth.
NASA said Wednesday that this newly discovered asteroid will zoom 2,200 miles (3,600 kilometers) above the southern tip of South America. That’s 10 times closer than the bevy of communication satellites circling overhead.
The closest approach will occur at 7:27 p.m. EST (9:27 p.m. local.)
Even if the space rock came a lot closer, scientists said most of it would burn up in the atmosphere, with some of the bigger pieces possibly falling as meteorites.
Read more: NASA spacecraft rams into asteroid in defence test
NASA’s impact hazard assessment system, called Scout, quickly ruled out a strike, said its developer, Davide Farnocchia, an engineer at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
“But despite the very few observations, it was nonetheless able to predict that the asteroid would make an extraordinarily close approach with Earth,” Farnocchia said in a statement. “In fact, this is one of the closest approaches by a known near-Earth object ever recorded.”
Discovered Saturday, the asteroid known as 2023 BU is believed to be between 11 feet (3.5 meters) and 28 feet (8.5 meters) feet across. It was first spotted by the same amateur astronomer in Crimea, Gennady Borisov, who discovered an interstellar comet in 2019. Within a few days, dozens of observations were made by astronomers around the world, allowing them to refine the asteroid’s orbit.
The asteroid’s path drastically will be altered by Earth’s gravity once it zips by. Instead of circling the sun every 359 days, it will move into an oval orbit lasting 425 days, according to NASA.
Promising gene therapy delivers treatment directly to brain
When Rylae-Ann Poulin was a year old, she didn’t crawl or babble like other kids her age. A rare genetic disorder kept her from even lifting her head. Her parents took turns holding her upright at night just so she could breathe comfortably and sleep.
Then, months later. doctors delivered gene therapy directly to her brain.
Now the 4-year-old is walking, running, swimming, reading and riding horses — “just doing so many amazing things that doctors once said were impossible,” said her mother, Judy Wei.
Rylae-Ann, who lives with her family in Bangkok, was among the first to benefit from a new way of delivering gene therapy — attacking diseases inside the brain — that experts believe holds great promise for treating a host of brain disorders.
Her treatment recently became the first brain-delivered gene therapy after its approval in Europe and the United Kingdom for AADC deficiency, a disorder that interferes with the way cells in the nervous system communicate. New Jersey drugmaker PTC Therapeutics plans to seek U.S. approval this year.
Meanwhile, about 30 U.S. studies testing gene therapy to the brain for various disorders are ongoing, according to the National Institutes of Health. One, led by Dr. Krystof Bankiewicz at Ohio State University, also targets AADC deficiency. Others test treatments for disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s.
Challenges remain, especially with diseases caused by more than a single gene. But scientists say the evidence supporting this approach is mounting — opening a new frontier in the fight against disorders afflicting our most complex and mysterious organ.
“There’s a lot of exciting times ahead of us,” said Bankiewicz, a neurosurgeon. “We’re seeing some breakthroughs.”
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The most dramatic of those breakthroughs involve Rylae-Ann’s disease, which is caused by mutations in a gene needed for an enzyme that helps make neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, the body’s chemical messengers. The one-time treatment delivers a working version of the gene.
At around 3 months old, Rylae-Ann began having spells her parents thought were seizures — her eyes would roll back and her muscles would tense. Fluid sometimes got into her lungs after feedings, sending her to the emergency room. Doctors thought she might have epilepsy or cerebral palsy.
Around that time, Wei's brother sent her a Facebook post about a child in Taiwan with AADC deficiency. The extremely rare disorder afflicts about 135 children worldwide, many in that country. Wei, who was born in Taiwan, and her husband, Richard Poulin III, sought out a doctor there who correctly diagnosed Rylae-Ann. They learned she could qualify for a gene therapy clinical trial in Taiwan.
Though they were nervous about the prospect of brain surgery, they realized she likely wouldn’t live past 4 years old without it.
Rylae-Ann had the treatment at 18 months old on November 13, 2019 — which her parents have dubbed her “reborn day.” Doctors delivered it during minimally invasive surgery, with a thin tube through a hole in the skull. A harmless virus carried in a functioning version of the gene.
“It gets put into the brain cells and then the brain cells make the (neurotransmitter) dopamine,” said Stuart Peltz, CEO of PTC Therapeutics.
Company officials said all patients in their clinical trials showed motor and cognitive improvements. Some of them, Peltz said, could eventually stand and walk, and continue getting better over time.
Bankiewicz said all 40 or so patients in his team’s NIH-funded study also saw significant improvements. His surgical approach is more involved and delivers the treatment to a different part of the brain. It targets relevant circuits in the brain, Bankiewicz said, like planting seeds that cause ivy to sprout and spread.
“It’s really amazing work,” said Jill Morris, a program director with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which helped pay for the research. “And he has seen a lot of consistency between patients.”
One is 8-year-old Rian Rodriguez-Pena, who lives with her family near Toronto. Rian got gene therapy in 2019, shortly before her 5th birthday. Two months later, she held her head up for the first time. She soon started using her hands and reaching for hugs. Seven months after surgery, she sat up on her own.
“When the world was crumbling around us with COVID, we were at our house celebrating like it was the biggest party of our lives because Rian was just crushing so many milestones that were impossible for so long,” said her mom, Shillann Rodriguez-Pena. “It’s a completely different life now.”
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Scientists say there are challenges to overcome before this approach becomes widespread for more common brain diseases.
For example, the timing of treatment is an issue. Generally, earlier in life is better because diseases can cause a cascade of problems over the years. Also, disorders with more complex causes — like Alzheimer's — are tougher to treat with gene therapy.
“When you’re correcting one gene, you know exactly where the target is,” said Morris.
Ryan Gilbert, a biomedical engineer at New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, said there can also be issues with the gene-carrying virus, which can potentially insert genetic information in an indiscriminate way. Gilbert and other researchers are working on other delivery methods, such as messenger RNA – the technology used in many COVID-19 vaccines – to deliver a genetic payload to the nucleus of cells.
Scientists are also exploring ways to deliver gene therapy to the brain without the dangers of brain surgery. But that requires getting around the blood-brain barrier, an inherent roadblock designed to keep viruses and other germs that may be circulating in the bloodstream out of the brain.
A more practical hurdle is cost. The price of gene therapies, borne mostly by insurers and governments, can run into the millions. The one-time PTC therapy, called Upstaza, costs more than $3 million in Europe, for example.
But drugmakers say they are committed to ensuring people get the treatments they need. And researchers are confident they can overcome the remaining scientific obstacles to this approach.
“So I would say gene therapy can be leveraged for many sorts of brain diseases and disorders,” Gilbert said. "In the future, you’re going to see more technology doing these kinds of things.”
The families of Rylae-Ann and Rian said they hope other families dealing with devastating genetic diseases will someday get to see the transformations they’ve seen. Both girls are continuing to improve. Rian is playing, eating all sorts of foods, learning to walk and working on language. Rylae-Ann is in preschool, has started a ballet class, and is reading at a kindergarten level.
When her dad picks her up, “she runs to me ... just gives me a hug and says, ‘I love you, Daddy.’ he said. “It’s like it’s a normal day, and that’s all we ever wanted as parents.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Russia will launch new capsule to return space station crew
Russia will send up a new capsule next month to bring back three space station crew members whose original ride home was damaged, officials said Wednesday.
The two Russians and one American will stay several extra months at the International Space Station as a result of the capsule switch, possibly pushing their mission to close to a year, NASA and Russian space officials told reporters.
Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, and astronaut Frank Rubio were supposed to return in March in the same Soyuz capsule that took them up last September. But that capsule was hit by a tiny meteoroid on Dec. 14, creating a small hole in the exterior radiator and sending coolant spewing into space.
Read more: NASA Orion capsule safely blazes back from moon, aces test
Sergei Krikalev, head of human spaceflight for the Russian Space Agency, said barring an emergency at the space station, it would be too dangerous for the crew to use that capsule to return to Earth.
Although Russian engineers believe the capsule could survive reentry and land safely, the cabin temperature could reach the low 40s Celsius (over 100 degrees Fahrenheit) with high humidity because it couldn't shed heat generated by a computer and other electronics, noted Krikalev, a former cosmonaut.
The new Soyuz capsule will be launched from Kazakhstan on Feb. 20, a month earlier than planned. No one will be on board; the capsule will fly in automatic mode, Russian Space Agency chief Yuri Borisov announced earlier in the day. The original plan was to launch this new Soyuz in March with two Russians and one American, replacements for the three already up there. This new crew will now have to wait until late summer or fall to fly when another capsule is ready for them.
Russia will eventually bring back the damaged capsule with only science samples on board.
NASA took part in all the discussions and agreed with the plan.
“Right now, the crew is safe on board space station,” said NASA's space station program manager Joel Montalbano. “There’s no immediate need for the crew to come home today.”
Backup plans are in the works, according to Montalbano and Krikalev, in case an emergency forces the seven space station residents to flee before the new Soyuz can be launched — like a fire or decompression. NASA is looking at the possibility of adding extra crew to the SpaceX capsule currently docked at the station.
Read more: Boeing crew capsule launches to space station on test redo
Neither Krikalev nor Montalbano could recall a similar case in which a substitute spacecraft needed to be quickly launched.
Borisov said analysis confirmed the leak was caused by a micrometeoroid, not a piece of spacecraft debris or manufacturing defect. The resulting hole was about 1 millimeter in size or less than one-tenth of an inch.
Montalbano said the three crew members took the news in stride.
“I may have to find some more ice cream to reward them" on future cargo deliveries, he told reporters.
Besides Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio, the space station is home to NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada; Russian Anna Kikina and Japan's Koichi Wakata. The four rode up on a SpaceX capsule last October.
Forest lizards genetically morph to survive life in the city
(AP) — Lizards that once dwelled in forests but now slink around urban areas have genetically morphed to survive life in the city, researchers have found.
The Puerto Rican crested anole, a brown lizard with a bright orange throat fan, has sprouted special scales to better cling to smooth surfaces like walls and windows and grown larger limbs to sprint across open areas, scientists say.
“We are watching evolution as it’s unfolding,” said Kristin Winchell, a biology professor at NYU and main author of the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
As urbanization intensifies around the world, it’s important to understand how organisms adapt and humans can design cities in ways that support all species, Winchell said.
The study analyzed 96 Anolis cristatellus lizards, comparing the genetic makeup of forest-dwellers to those living in Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan, as well as the northern city of Arecibo and western city of Mayaguez. Scientists found that 33 genes within the lizard genome were repeatedly associated with urbanization.
“You can hardly get closer to a smoking gun!” said Wouter Halfwerk, an evolutionary ecologist and professor at Vrije University Amsterdam who was not involved in the study.
He said he was impressed that the scientists were able to detect such a clear genomic signature of adaptation: “The ultimate goal within the field of urban adaptive evolution is to find evidence for heritable traits and their genomic architecture.”
Winchell said the lizards’ physical differences appeared to be mirrored at the genomic level.
“If urban populations are evolving with parallel physical and genomic changes, we may even be able to predict how populations will respond to urbanization just by looking at genetic markers,” she said.
The changes in these lizards, whose lifespans are roughly 7 years, can occur very quickly, within 30 to 80 generations, enabling them to escape from predators and survive in urban areas, Winchell added. The larger limbs, for example, enable them to run more quickly across a hot parking lot, and the special scales to hold onto surfaces far more smooth than trees.
“They can’t dig their claws into it. ... (Or) squirrel around to the backside,” she noted.
The scientists chased after dozens of lizards for their study, catching them with their hands or using fishing poles with a tiny lasso to snag them.
“It takes some practice,” Winchell said.
On occasion, they had to ask permission to catch lizards off people’s homes.
Among Winchell’s favorite findings was a rare albino lizard. She also found a nearly 8-inch (20-centimeter) one, rather large for the species, that she nicknamed “Godzilla.”
The study focused on adult male lizards, so it’s unclear if females are changing in the same way or at the same rate as males, and at which point in a lizard’s life the changes are occurring.
Halfwerk, whose own research showed how one frog species changed its mating call in urban areas, said scientists should look next for possible constraints on the evolutionary response and how morphology relates to mating behavior.
“Ultimately, to cash in on adaptive traits for survival, they need to lead to higher reproduction,” he said.
Natural, manmade factors behind New Zealand’s hottest year
New Zealand had its hottest year on record in 2022, beating a mark set just a year earlier thanks to a combination of natural weather cycles and manmade global warming, the agency that monitors temperatures said Wednesday.
The nation’s top four hottest years have all been recorded since 2016, and scientists don’t see the trend reversing. Records are being broken around the globe, with Spain and Britain among other nations to also hit new highs in 2022.
And as well as being warm, 2022 was also one of New Zealand’s wettest years. August storms flooded rivers, triggered landslides and forced hundreds of residents to evacuate.
In October, two of the country’s largest ski areas were placed into a type of bankruptcy proceeding following a disastrous winter season with barely any snow.
Also Read: UK saw hottest-ever year in 2022 as Europe's climate warms
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, which has been recording temperatures since 1909, said the average temperature across the country in 2022 was 13.8 degrees Celsius (57 degrees Fahrenheit).
That was more than 1.2 degrees Celsius above the long-term average and beat the previous record by 0.2 degrees Celsius.
Chris Brandolino, a principal scientist with the agency, said the high temperatures were driven by a combination of weather cycles including the La Niña system, which brings cooler-than-normal ocean temperatures to the tropical Pacific and warmer air to New Zealand.
He said manmade factors also contributed.
“Climate change continues to influence New Zealand’s long-term temperature trend,” Brandolino told reporters.
He said the levels of carbon dioxide measured in the atmosphere near Wellington keep rising.
“Unfortunately you can see that trend, dating back to before 2014, continues to go upward and in the wrong direction,” he said.
Brandolino said there was no discernable effect on last year’s weather from the massive eruption of a volcano in Tonga.
He said he expects the first few months of 2023 to continue being warmer and wetter than normal, and for temperatures over time to keep rising.
“It’s hard to see us breaking from the trend that we are on,” Brandolino said.
Stephen Hawkings: 10 interesting facts about the great scientist
Stephen Hawking was a world-renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist known for his contributions to the study of black holes and the origin of the universe. Let's take a look at life, work, and surprising facts about Stephen Hawkings, one of the greatest scientists in the world.
At a Glance: Life and Work of Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England, to Frank and Isobel Eileen Hawking and showed an early aptitude for mathematics and science. Hawking attended University College, Oxford, and later received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics and theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge, specializing in general relativity and cosmology.
Despite being diagnosed with motor neuron disease (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) at the age of 21, Hawking remained active in his research and continued to make significant contributions to the field of physics. He developed a theory about the origin of the universe, known as the “Big Bang” theory, and made significant contributions to the black holes study and their properties.
Read More: Top 11 Major Medical Science Innovations in 2022
Hawking was also known for his work on quantum-theory research into the origin of the universe. He also made significant contributions to the study of quantum mechanics and the unification of physical laws.
In addition to his scientific work, Hawking was also a popular science communicator, writing numerous books on physics and cosmology that were aimed at a general audience. His book “A Brief History of Time” became a best-seller and helped to bring the concepts of physics to a wider audience.
Hawking received numerous accolades for his work, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, in 2009. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and held professorships at the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology. Hawking passed away on March 14, 2018, at the age of 76. Despite his physical limitations, he remained active in his research and continued to make important contributions to the field of physics until the end of his life.
Read More: Top 10 Most Exciting Innovations of 2022 in Technology.
India approves $2.3 billion to develop green hydrogen
The government has approved $2.3 billion to support production, use and exports of green hydrogen, aiming to make India a global hub for the nascent industry.
The funding, announced late Wednesday, i s a first step toward establishing the capacity to make at least 5 million metric tons of green hydrogen by the end of this decade.
Green hydrogen is hydrogen that is produced through the electrolysis of water, powered by electricity generated from renewable sources of energy. Most of the world’s hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels, especially natural gas.
The aim of the funding initiative is “to make green hydrogen affordable and bring down its cost over the next five years. It will also help India reduce its emissions and become a major exporter in the field,” said Anurag Thakur, India’s minister for information and broadcasting.
He said the financing would also help add about 125 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030. As of October, India had about 166 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity.
Other aims are to create more than a half million new jobs, attract more private investment into the sector, reduce fossil fuel imports and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 million metric tons.
Many of India’s leading renewable energy companies, including companies owned by the Adani Group, Reliance Industries and JSW Energy; public sector companies like Indian Oil and NTPC Limited; and renewable-only companies such as Renew power are investing in production of green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen now amounts to a small fraction of global hydrogen use, estimated to be about 70 million tons per year. Most commercially produced hydrogen is grey hydrogen, produced using fossil fuels, and blue hydrogen that is also made using fossil fuels but with the use of carbon capture systems to reduce emissions. The production of green hydrogen results in the emission of little to no greenhouse gases.
In providing policy incentives for green hydrogen production, India is following the lead of many other countries such as China, the European Union and the United States. Energy analysts expect manufacturing costs for green hydrogen to fall significantly in the next few years and estimate the green hydrogen market will grow 20-fold to $80 billion by the year 2030.
“A robust policy framework, requisite financial support and an enabling ecosystem for technology development are essential to displace the country’s conventional fuel mix with green hydrogen and enhance its industrial competitiveness in an increasingly decarbonizing world,” said Shreyans Jain, an India-based sustainable business strategy consultant who closely tracks developments in the green hydrogen industry.
Best of CES 2023: Wireless TV, delivery robots and in-car VR
Tech companies of all sizes are showing off their latest products at CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics show.
The show is getting back to normal after going completely virtual in 2021 and seeing a significant drop in 2022 attendance because of the pandemic.
On Wednesday, big names like LG and Samsung were showcasing their latest products for the media in Las Vegas. Smaller startups were due to exhibit at an event later Wednesday.
Here are some highlights:
NO MESSY WIRES
LG Electronics unveiled a 97-inch OLED TV with what it calls a Zero Connect Box that streams content wirelessly. The box, which still needs to be plugged in, just needs to be within 30 feet (nine meters) of the display.
Read more: Best of CES 2023: Electric skates, pet tech and AI for birds
But why would anyone want a wireless 4K television?
David M. Park, senior marketing manager at the South Korean tech company, says it means owners can place a TV in the center of the room without all the messy wires, or maybe mount it above a fireplace or perhaps on a hard-to-drill concrete wall.
LG says the 97-inch LG Signature OLED M (model M3) will be available in the second half of 2023. Pricing has not yet been announced.
ROBOT DELIVERIES
Picture yourself weaving through crowds at the airport on a busy holiday weekend, ignoring the rumble in your stomach as you speed past restaurants to make it to your gate on time.
Brooklyn-based Ottonomy.io is looking to ease that all-too-familiar travel anxiety with its fully autonomous delivery robots.
Read More: Top 10 Most Exciting Innovations of 2022 in Technology
If you’re traveling through airports in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh or Rome, for example, you might cross paths with one of these robots as they bring food directly to travelers at their gates.
Ottonomy unveiled its newest robot, the Yeti, on Wednesday at CES. It showed off its new self-dispensing feature, which eliminates the need for a human to be present to collect deliveries.
The company also provides outdoor curbside delivery services up to 4 miles (6.4 kilometers).
Ottonomy co-founder and CEO Ritukar Vijay said the price tag on its services varies depending on the number of robots a company wants to deploy and how many restaurants or retailers are included in the delivery footprint.
Read more: CES 2023: Russian exhibitors barred from tech show
VR FOR YOUR CAR
Holoride, based in Munich, Germany, wants to make car rides more fun and less dizzy. The company's VR headset allows passengers to play video games, watch Netflix or scroll through Instagram while they ride.
If the car is moving, you move in the virtual world, helping to prevent car sickness, according to co-founder Daniel Profendiner. Rather than seeing the road, you might be flying and fighting robots or swimming under the sea.
“The car industry is super-focused on the driver but with more autonomous driving on the horizon, the passenger gets more into the focus as well,” he said.
Read More: Top 11 Major Medical Science Innovations in 2022
Previously, holoride was only available for Audis with an in-system retrofit so the headset could recognize when the car was moving. On Wednesday at CES, the company announced a new product that can be used in any car.
The retrofit pack, which includes the VR headset, holoride retrofit, a safety strap and a one-year subscription to holoride, is $799.
Best of CES 2023: Electric skates, pet tech and AI for birds
Tech companies of all sizes are showing off their latest products at CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics show.
The show is getting back to normal after going completely virtual in 2021 and seeing a significant drop in 2022 attendance because of the pandemic.
Exhibitors range from big names including Sony and LG to tiny startups. You might see the next big thing or something that will never make it past the prototype stage.
On Tuesday night, the show kicked off with media previews from just some of the 3,000 companies signed up to attend. CES officially opens Thursday.
Read More: CES 2023: Russian exhibitors barred from tech show
Best Products of CES 2023
Here are some highlights:
POKEMON, BUT MAKE IT BIRDS
Bird Buddy showed off a smart bird feeder that takes snapshots of feathered friends as they fly in to eat some treats. The startup says its AI technology can recognize more than 1,000 species of birds, allowing users to share through a mobile app what kind of birds they’re feeding.
“We try to kind of gamify the collection so it’s a really fun game that you can play — almost like a real life Pokémon Go with real animals and wildlife in your backyard,” said Kyle Buzzard, the company’s co-founder and chief hardware officer.
The product has already sparked some interest from consumers who want to show the world what birds are coming into their backyards.
The company, which began as a Kickstarter project in 2020, says it started shipping its bird feeders in September and has already sold all 100,000 in its inventory. The price for the basic feeder is $199.
Read more: Top 5 Inventions of Scientist Isaac Newton
ELECTRIC SKATES
Journalists had fun zipping around the exhibit hall on remote-controlled, electric inline skates from French startup AtmosGear.
The battery lasts for 20 miles (32 kilometers), said founder Mohamed Soliman, who hopes people will see them as a viable way to commute, like electric bikes or scooters.
“My goal is for everyone to go skating again because it’s so much fun, every time you see people skating you see them with a big smile,” Soliman said.
A waist bag holds the battery and cables connected to the skates. They also can be used as regular skates when they need to be charged or skaters simply want to travel under their own power.
The $500 skates are available for pre-order. The company has taken orders for 150 pairs so far and is aiming for 200 orders to start production.
Read More: Top 10 Most Exciting Innovations of 2022 in Technology
DIGITAL TEMPORARY TATTOOS
A handheld device displayed by South Korean company Prinker allows you to quickly and easily apply temporary tattoos.
The device uses cosmetic-grade ink with a library of thousands of designs or the option to make your own with the company’s app. After picking a tattoo, you just wave the device over wherever you want it applied. The tattoos are waterproof but wash off with soap.
The flagship model is $279 and a smaller model is $229. Ink cartridges good for 1,000 tattoos are $119.
Read More: Best of CES 2023: Wireless TV, delivery robots and in-car VR
HELPING FIND YOUR WAY
Japan-based Loovic has created a device designed to solve the challenges of those who have difficulty navigating while they walk.
The device worn around the neck employs sounds and vibrations to guide users to destinations, enabling them to look at what’s around rather than focusing on a phone’s map app.
Loovic co-founder and CEO Toru Yamanaka said he was inspired to create the device for his son, who has a cognitive impairment making it difficult for him to navigate.
The prototype device is not yet available to the public.
Read more: Alzheimer’s drug approval ‘rife with irregularities’: Probe
A FITNESS TRACKER FOR YOUR DOG
If you wonder what your dog is doing while you’re not home, French startup Invoxia has a product for you. The company’s smart dog collar monitors your pet’s activity and sleep, sending the data to your phone.
The latest version unveiled at CES, which has a GPS tracker, includes more advanced heart health monitoring.
The collar is $149 in the U.S. while a monthly $8.25 subscription to the app monitors the data and shares it with your veterinarian.
METAVERSE FOR KIDS
The creators of Roybi, an educational AI robot that helps children learn about STEM topics and new languages, are venturing into the metaverse.
Read More: Top 11 Major Medical Science Innovations in 2022
The RoybiVerse is expected to offer stations where K-12 and higher education students can learn about a wide range of educational topics.
Users walking around the RoybiVerse will be able to visit an area where they’ll learn about dinosaurs or walk over to the virtual library where they can pick a book and read it.
The RoybiVerse, which is expected to launch by mid-2023, will be available in virtual reality headsets and on a website. No robot needed.
Top 5 Inventions of Scientist Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton was one of the the greatest scientist in the world. He did groundbreaking research and discoveries regarding the laws of motion, characteristics of light, gravitational force, calculus, orbital cannon, etc. Newton has numerous additional innovations that aid in the modernization of civilizations. Let's take a look at the 5 most remarkable inventions and discoveries of the great scientist Isaac Newton.
At a Glance: Life of Sir Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, on January 4, 1643. After his mother remarried, Newton spent the most of his early years with his maternal grandmother. His father had died three months before to his birth. A unsuccessful effort to make him become a farmer halted his schooling, and he attended the King's School in Grantham before enrolling in 1661 at the University of Cambridge's Trinity College.
Newton studied a classical curriculum at Cambridge, but he grew attracted by the writings of contemporary philosophers like as René Descartes. He even devoted a collection of notes titled "Questiones Quaedam Philosophicae" to his outside reads. In 1665, when the Great Plague wiped out Cambridge, Newton retreated to his farm and started developing his ideas on calculus, light, and color. On this farm, an apple is said to have fallen, inspiring his work on gravity.
Newton was also an avid student of history and theological concepts, and his posthumously released works on these topics were gathered into many volumes. Newton, who never married, spent his final years living with his niece in Cranbury Park, England, near Winchester. He passed away peacefully on March 31, 1727, and was interred in Westminster Abbey.
Read More: 10 Greatest Female Scientists of All Time.
Major inventions of Scientist Isaac Newton
Newton's many inventions, breakthroughs, and outlandish ideas reveal a famous intellect. Here are the most discussed ones:
Orbital Cannon
Isaac Newton enjoyed experimenting with the notion of universal gravity. In his speculations, he envisioned a mountain so tall that it would protrude into space. He believed that if such a mountain existed, a cannon could be placed on it to fire objects into space.
This was an explanation for how one item may circle another. He reasoned that if the cannonball were launched with the correct quantity of gunpowder, it might attain sufficient velocity to descend towards Earth at the same pace that the globe bent away from the sun. The projectile would continue to circle the globe in free fall.
Three Laws of Motion
There is no doubting Newton's influence on our contemporary knowledge of physics, notwithstanding the skepticism of certain historians about the stories of Newton's household pets. In 1687, he nailed the basic workings of gravity with his law of universal gravitation, and he nailed the fundamental workings of motion with his three laws of motion. Here is how they all compare:
Unless affected by an external force, an item will stay at rest or in a straight path of motion.
When an item is subjected to force, it will accelerate (force = mass times acceleration).
There is an equal and opposing response for every action.
Read More: How Can Artificial Intelligence Improve Healthcare?
Calculus
Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz are supposed to have independently devised calculus at the same time, despite each claiming that the other stole their work. Newton recognized that algebra and geometry were insufficient for the science he was pursuing, so he devised a new method of mathematics to correctly decipher the universe.