System Bits: March 13
Robots for hire
Self-healing systems are nothing new. Memory has been rerouting traffic when cells go bad for decades. But generally this kind of technology is there when you buy it.
Researchers at Cornell are taking the idea of a self-repairing system one step further. They’re experimenting with robots that can fix things where it’s dangerous for people to go—like on the sides of skyscrapers or in space.
One of the prototype machines is a robot that can assemble and disassemble trusses—the supports in roofs and bridges—and which includes reflectivity sensors to identify where it is on a structure. The result is that it can maneuver without explicit commands from the person controlling the robot.
Why send a person to a dangerous place when you can send a machine? Real machines don’t eat quiche.
The darker side of matter
Neutrinos, those little particles that have been linked to everything from Einstein to dark matter, apparently come in different flavors. In fact, they blend together and morph, which UC Berkeley researchers believe explains why there isn’t an abundance of antimatter.
It appears that neutrinos and antineutrinos oscillate differently. Exactly how this will play out in the commercial world is unknown. Researchers aren’t even sure how it will evolve on the pure research side, because these little particles are so small and difficult to measure–their mass actually fluctuates–that we’re just now beginning to even detect them. But the more this progresses, the more interesting this whole field will become–and the more it will shed light on bigger particles that are in use commercially.
A cyclindrical antineutrino detector. Source: UC Berkeley.
–Ed Sperling
Tags: Cornell University, neutrinos, UC Berkeley